The Dale Jr. Download - 159 - For Better or Worse, A Season To Remember

Episode Date: November 21, 2016

Dale Earnhardt Jr. recaps a historic weekend at Homestead-Miami, in which JR Motorsports narrowly missed a championship but Jimmie Johnson won his seventh; Junior shares off-season plans but admits he’s already looking forward to 2017. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is Dale Jr., and you're listening to Dirty Moe Radio. Hey, everybody is Jr. This is the morning after Homestead. The season's over. In my imagination, I see it like everybody runs out of school at the end of Greece. Everybody's pretty excited and have some time off. Whole industry, you know, not talking about drivers. But sorry for my voice.

I've got, had a sinus infection for, several days and it gives you this awesome voice. So anyhow, it gives me the opportunity to do this joke. Man, I used to watch NASCAR all the time, but when Winston left, I just couldn't watch it anymore. So there you go. It was, you know, pretty exciting race weekend, crossed the board for all three series. I think that fans got their money's worth. The chase was pretty exciting,

and that's what NASCAR wanted to create. It got a lot of drama. I was pretty happy for Jimmy. Obviously, got up there to congratulate him and got roped into doing an interview, which I don't mind talking good about Jimmy. I just didn't want to take away from his moment, so that was a little uncomfortable for me.

But I was happy to praise him And he deserves it. So he's a seven-time champion. There's only two other guys that ever did that. Obviously, my dad and the king. And I think Jimmy did it under really difficult circumstances because of the competition and the chase. I mean, they changed the rules to this thing every year.

And Jimmy, you know, would find ways and his team would find ways to still be the best. So you've got to say he earned it Just about every time driving like a madman So pretty awesome I've been out on a track with him Seeing his talent Seeing his ability and I'm you know

Seen at first hand from a perspective A lot of folks haven't And certainly know he's a happy man today I've had opportunity to talk to him about his Quest for seven And what that was? mean to him, so I understand where he is mentally about it and know he's somewhere enjoying himself. So it'll be fun this off-season watching him celebrate. But more importantly, I think it would

be fun to watch the sports celebrate it. I know that there'll be a lot of references to my father, which always makes me happy. Our off-season will be littered with references and mentions of my dad's accomplishments so after all these years it's still awesome to see see that even when he's compared to another driver like Jimmy or Richard I love the fact that people still recall what he did and something like this Jimmy has done brings that back to the surface yeah we were pretty pretty happy about how things turned out for junior motorsports I know I had a lot of people come up to me Sunday and say that they were, you know, sorry for how things turned out,

but I wasn't sorry at all. I know that, you know, obviously we would have loved to have won a championship, but I was thinking and there sitting on pit wall before that race started. And when the season began, it was the Gibbs show. They were three-tenths quicker than everybody at every racetrack. And every poll, they won, what, 12 in a row. They would win, like, win, like, Lots of races.

They were just very competitive. I give them all the credit in the world because they certainly have an awesome operation. It starts from the top with Joe and J.D. and everybody. And what they've built. So anyways, I was sitting on pit wall thinking, man, we have closed the gap. Here we are sitting at homestead with two cars in the chase. And we've been giving them a run for their money over the last month or two. And dang if we didn't do that in that race, we were right on their heels.

Suarez was great, and he's been fast all season. The 20 was just a little bit off, but at least off of what I expected out of that guy. Our guys were right on their heels, man, and I was so proud of that. I was so proud that we put up such a good effort. if we didn't come close. So it's, it's, I just can't really get upset or down about not make, not getting the ultimate prize because I know how hard it is to just be relevant and competitive. And I take a lot of pride in that result that we, we had this year.

Our guys are excited about next year. Morale and attitude inside the company is critical to, our success and our health and our guys are looking forward to next year. We've had a lot of fun this year and we've got plans in place to have four full-time cars. Everything, you know, as far as that junior merchant sports goes, couldn't be looking better. So real happy about that and looking forward to next season. I'll touch basically on where we are for getting back on the track.

First off, I appreciate everybody's support. Going to the racetrack and hearing everybody's support has inspired me. And I appreciate what the fans that, you know, there's a lot of fans and they say a lot of different things. Some of them will say, just be, you know, do what's best for your health, whatever that is. They support you whether you can, you know, get healthy enough to return or not. A lot of folks will tell you they really miss you out there.

And there's just so many great comments that. inspire you, man. It's just so awesome. So I don't, I feel like that that's such a blessing to get so much support. So really, really has done a lot of good for me. So I want to thank everybody for that. Going through this process, been real hard. And the support from all the fans out there has meant the world to me. We're going to go testing this offseason. Obviously, I need to get in a race car. I'd love to get in a car and go run a little bit. somewhere just to shake the rust off and get some confidence in myself that I can do the basics before we ever go to Daytona.

So we'll go do that sometime this summer or this offseason. I mean, I'm sorry. And, you know, we got to squeeze it in there somewhere because I'm getting married and had my honeymoon and I got it to certainly devote proper time to Amy. But it'll be a it'll be a little. no problem. We'll be very busy with productions and everything else. So we'll keep you guys up to date on all we're doing throughout the all season. So everybody's aware of what direction we're going in. But all signs point to us being in the car in Daytona. And I can't, I don't

know if anybody had any doubt out there. But if you did, there looks like everything's going in the great direction for that to happen. So there's a couple small, you know, boxes to check and we'll let everybody know how that goes. But looking forward to a very important offseason for me personally. And I'll certainly keep everybody plugged in what's going on. Enjoy the download and we'll talk to you soon. All right, my man, there he is. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., telling us what's happening with himself,

how excited he is for his friend Jimmy Johnson. and how proud he is as well of Junior Motorsports. The Dale Jr. download presented by Spy, the official sunglasses of Dale and R. Jr. Now features the official camouflage of Dale Jr., true timber camo. You can find that and much more from Dale Jr.'s signature 88 collection at spyoptic.com. We are in the Exaltos studio, Kelsey Tucker, Mike Davis, Taylor, Zarzer. Seven-time, MD. How about that? Seven-time champion.

Jimmy Johnson. Boy, I tell you what, he had to earn it. It wasn't easy, was it? What a race. What a weekend. And by the way, you're talking about all the updates that Dale Jr. just gave. Don't forget, he also had a joke. Yeah.

He gave us a joke in there. He did. I think it was a smoker's joke, huh? Yeah. Is that what it was? He sounds like a smoker right now. Yeah, I think that's where we're going with that. Anyways, no, man, what a weekend.

And Jimmy Johnson, that race just was incredible. The end of the race, especially. Everybody just left it all in line. I felt the same way after the Xfinity race. And to be honest with you, the truck race, too. When the competitors put everything out there and they leave nothing in the tank, they empty the tanks, everything they have. You know, you just got to appreciate it.

I felt the same way after the race last weekend. And this weekend, all three series delivered. And the champions need to be congratulated and the people in the championship hunt need to be commended for the way they've raced. And man, what did you think, Taylor? I mean, aside from the fact that you predicted the champion about eight or nine weeks ago, Jimmy Johnson wins this thing. He is now on the pedestal with Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty.

What are your thoughts to that? I think he belongs there. And I know that there are people listening that might cringe or disagree with that statement because of the importance of Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty to the sport. And I don't want to take anything away from Jimmy Johnson because I like him a lot personally. I think that he has been wonderful to watch race. I think he is one of the greatest racers in the history of the sport. And if we're having a conversation about the greatest ever, he must be in that conversation.

Having said that, with all due respect to him, I don't think he means as much. I don't think he is as significant to the sport. as Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty are. I think it's almost impossible to do that because their personalities and the amount of fans that they attracted to me put them in their own class. And I'll stand by that. I don't mean that as a criticism to Jimmy Johnson.

I don't. But I do think that no matter how many championships Jimmy Johnson wins, they're, to me, at the very top. Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty, if you consider how great of a driver's they were and the significance that they had to their respective sport. Really, we have this podcast right now,

in part because of their significance to the sport. Jimmy Johnson, though, as a driver, in my opinion, Mike, measures up. And I think the most important thing that Junior just said was how they've changed the format all the time on this guy. Yeah. And he still wins. Because of him. That says a lot.

Yeah, exactly. They change the format. They try to get other people to win instead of him because he doesn't move the needle. He's not as charismatic. He is really he isn't as publicly charismatic because he's so confident and at peace with who he is. He doesn't need to do those things. But they do. They've changed the format on him numerous times and he still wins.

It just speaks to the kind of unbelievable talent that he is. That race was crazy because. before, I guess, two cautions before it ended, I didn't think he had a prayer. He didn't have a prayer. Right, right. You know, it's, it's, out of the four, he was in fourth. I mean, and he was running about, you know, seventh, eighth, ninth. I mean, he was not up there with Joe Ligano, Kyle Bush.

You're right. I was preparing myself for Joey Lugano to win the championship, and that's a hard thing to do. I was preparing myself for Kyle Bush to win back-to-back championships. and that's a really hard thing to do. Now, I know that there are a lot of people listening that aren't big Carl Edwards fans. I do, he's always been really good to me and I've appreciated his place in the sport

and I did feel for him five years ago because I thought that was the most painful way to lose a championship and I was wrong because the way he lost the championship yesterday was more painful than that. Mike, if he doesn't, get collected and it's he he took some responsibility for it blocking joey legano if he doesn't get collected i think he would have won the championship i he was ahead of joey lagano he's ahead of jimmy

johnson he's ahead of kyle bush and he had quite possibly the best car on the track either larsson or him had the best car on the track and i was preparing myself for that and i do we have friends that are on that team you have a lot of friends that are connected to that team uh but i i hated it for amanda Wolfmeier and for her husband Kip because Amanda of course used to work with us and I know that they are man that is gut-wrenching I really believe that Mike I think that the way they lost yesterday was worse harder more painful than the way they lost five years ago yeah all right so there were several things that stood out to me in this race there were a lot of storylines and we could get to all those you know Tony Stewart's last race sprint but there was just there were several that just stood out to me

And that is one of them. One is in five minutes, Taylor, my whole feelings of Carl Edwards did a 180. You know what? I forgave him for Atlanta in 2004. I forgave him for Michigan in 2006 when he about decapitated Dale Jr. on his victory lap and then came into victory lane.

I forgave him for Charlotte in 215. I honestly, how he handled himself after that gut-wrenching finished for him. And by the way, a very hard hit, a very hard hit. Several of them took very hard hits. He took it like a man. I couldn't have done it.

He took it like a man, Taylor. And I'm going to tell you something. Not going to go into names, but we know who they are. There's a lot of people out there. Well, I said there's several of them that wouldn't have even done the interview. They would have pouted. They would have gone into the garage. They would have gone into their holler.

They would have made it exit. Not only did Carl do the interview, but he went up on that pit box at the 22. and he shook their hands, and he told them, go get this championship, even though one of them was his teammate that they were competing against. That's a man right there. Carl Edwards, I did a 180 with you, buddy. Five minutes, taking it like a man, acting like a mature adult, and also a competitor that has a fan base that looks up to him.

I saw a couple tweets. It was like, you know, I want my kids to see what Carl Edwards just did. And that is a – I couldn't say it better than myself, right? right there. I can't say it better than that. I want my kids to see what a sportsman that is and how hard it would be. And it's gut-wrenching. All right. So that was the first thing. The second thing is on the topic of whoever, who is the greatest, I will tell you, Taylor, that Dale Earnhardt will always be on that iron throne in my mind and my mind and my heart. I mean, and there will never be anybody to replace him because I have that personal connection with him, not just because

of who I work for now, but because that's who I watched growing up. So that cannot be replaced. Even if Jimmy wins eight or nine or ten championships, in my mind, Dale Earnhardt will never be replaced. And here's the thing, because I know that, then I can praise Jimmy with 100% of my fiber and being and give him all the kudos he deserves because he is on that Mount Rushmore of the greatest of all time.

He is up there, and I don't have to try to replace. I don't have to try to define who is the best of all time because the fact is it's subjective and there's no way for us to know. So I don't even need to try. I can appreciate Dale Earnhardt for where he is. I can appreciate Jimmy for what he's done and I've been able to witness it firsthand. I can appreciate Richard Petty for all the stories that I've heard because I didn't really get to, I wasn't a race fan when he was at his prime.

And what's more to that, Taylor, is that you could really do a race right now, or if you could do a race right now, where you had all three of those guys in their prime and you line them up in a field of 40 of the best drivers, none of the three may win that race. It could be somebody like a Roy Hall, who we don't even think about, or it could be like a Red Byron or a Dave.

Right, anybody could win that race. So let's not even try. Let's just appreciate what Jimmy Johnson, now your seven-time champion is, and that's where I am with that. And the third thing, Taylor, let me just say this. are still people, even on a championship race Sunday, that want to get about halfway through the race and then start calling it boring. Or they want to start labeling the race what they think it is before you even get to halfway.

Can I just say once and for all for those people just to leave? Just get rid of yourself. Don't be around us anymore because honestly, it's, first of all, we know better. All right? So you're not changing anyone's opinion. You're really just kind of bringing some negativity to anything. I don't got any place for that. But second of all, we know that in a championship race when you've got the contenders racing up at the front,

that it's going to be an exciting finish and that everything you said, one, you're not going to apologize for it. But you're just wrong. And so I want to say once and for all that people that want to get on social media and spit this negativity and really this entitlement that the race is boring, just leave. Get rid of yourself. Leave us alone. because there's some of us that appreciate what's going on.

Some of us are fans of it. And the fact is, we know that the finish is going to far exceed our expectations in this sport. There's way too many good things about it. So just leave. And that's all I've got to say about that. Anyways, those are the three things, Taylor. And I'm a little fired up now. Yeah, well, there's a couple.

I'm glad you are. That's why I love you, man. I'm glad you said that about Dale Earnhardt because it goes hand in hand with what. I was trying to convey to you, Mike. I don't take anything away from Jimmy Johnson, and I'm a huge fan of his, only behind Dale Jr. And always have been and always will be. And so I was happy for him and happy he won the championship. But there's just no way he could ever be as significant as Dale Earnhardt or Richard Petty because of what he did for so many people listening. And he brought those people, those two guys, in my opinion, brought so many listening to this

podcast to this sport and everyone that became a fan of the sport owes them a debt of gratitude. You know, so I just, I think that they carry a significance. And you could argue Dale Earnhardt alone carries the significance that Jimmy Johnson could never reach, no matter how many championships he wins. And again, that's not a criticism of him, but like you said, you can just enjoy what he does because he is an all-time racer, no question. There's so many things to mention here. You know, I will say, you're right.

The drama at the end of the season was great. Now, we're all 36 races filled with that kind of drama. You know, we could have a good debate about that. And a lot of you listening right now, I'm sure have some thoughts on Brian France in his press conference yesterday and what's best for the sport and the future of the sport with Sprint. But, you know, I got to tell you, I'm not trying to dodge that topic, Mike. I don't feel like I'm the best qualified to answer those questions in terms of what's

right for the sport or sponsorship moving forward. or all the concern that people have out there. Here's what I know. I know that what you just said about the last few races is absolutely true. Talladega, Martinsville, Texas, Phoenix, Homestead. Man, there was a lot of drama associated with those races. And the way those races, where they were and the way that they went, is a big reason why I love the sport and will continue to.

I'm glad you said that. You know, the fact of the matter is, I did not catch Brian Francis press conference. I caught a few of his comments. And if what I caught was indicative of the entire press conference, it sounded like he's not worried. He thinks the sports in a good place. He thinks that it has not lost fans,

but the fans are now consuming races in a different way, which I definitely agree with that. So that's really all I caught. I will say this, you're right. who are we to say what's best for the sport? Who is anybody really? I don't know what's best for Dirty Moe Radio. I don't know what's always best for my marriage or my family.

I go with my gut and I think, okay, I think this is. But you don't know what the future holds. You don't know how things go. There's a lot of things that we think are in control of and we're not. And we think we have the best ideas, but really we don't. What we can do is be passionate about it. and support it and hope for the best and do our parts and not try to, you know, step on other people's territory.

Listen, whether Brian France is a great leader, I've not even qualified to be able to have an opinion on that. I don't know. I don't know. Because, you know what, there's a lot of stuff that they don't tell me and good for them because I don't need to know. But you know what? I sure did like the product I saw yesterday.

And I liked it the week before. and I sure do like when Dale Jr. is on that racetrack. And I sure do like this 88 team. And I like, so there's a lot of things I do like about it. So what am I going to do about that? Let's focus on that because honestly, I enjoy watching it. I like it when it takes up my son. And I like the nerves.

I like when we're competitive. I like it. And I don't want that to ever change. Yeah, I don't either. And the fact that Dale Jr. is getting back in the car gives us a lot. This is going to be an offseason, I think, that we have. more excitement about than normal, right? Because a lot of times it's such a grind and junior said, you know,

schools out for summer kind of thing. This offseason, though, I think the enthusiasm from Junior Nation is much higher than it typically is. Typically you need a break. Well, this offseason, like Junior just said about testing, I think that we're going to all be really interested in that. Man, I hope all the practice time he gets goes well. Golly, I can't wait to see him in a car when he gets to Daytona.

and there is, there's going to be a lot of enthusiasm that follows him around this offseason because you can tell he's itching. He really, really wants to get back into the race car. So I can't wait for Daytona in February. I'm already excited about it. Typically, I'll admit, man, I need a break. Not this year. What happens when Dale Jr. goes off and wins that Unlimited, the shootout, whatever it's going to be called next year.

There's a good chance he's going to. What happens when he goes out and wins that Gatorade 150? I mean, can you imagine, like the story, like, it is going to, we were going to, going to be born again. We are going to be reinvigorated. The next race can't come soon enough when Dale Jr. gets back out there. And now we can, and now we can appreciate it. We won't take it for granted, will we? No, we won't. And I'm pumped about that. With that being said, congrats to Jeff Gordon, to Alex Bowman, the entire 88 team for what they did these last couple of months. They were really competitive and impressive. And Bowman obviously came so close to getting a win.

I know that Sunday didn't go the way he or the 88 team wanted. Ended up finishing 16th, by the way, which is not that bad, given all the issues that they had on Sunday. But that guy's a racer. And I hope he gets a shot at the cup level. I don't know how that's possible, but he certainly proved he deserves one. Well, yeah, he certainly does. Kelsey can even weigh in because she works with Alex on this 88 exfini ride, which he's been in a handful of times this year, and he was over this weekend.

But, you know, that whole race for the 88 this weekend came down to one pit stop where there was contact with, I think, Truex. But they got bottled up when he was coming into his pit stall, and there was pretty big damage, a lot more than what you thought, because it required multiple pit stops over multiple caution periods to kind of fix it. So that was that. They fell two laps down and never really could get back on the lead lap. I don't know if they actually finished with one lap down or if they got one of those. I think they got one of those laps back by taking a wave around. So they finished a lap down.

So yeah, I mean, much of Alex's race was in like 32nd position. He would get up into the high 20s, mid-20s, and then, you know, maybe kind of crack. He was on a different pit cycle because of the time he'd spent on pit road. So he would, you know, climb up a little bit during. in pit sequencing, but for the most part, they really were never in contention because of that one pit stop where they sustained damage. But the 88, as Dale Jr. has been saying the last couple of months, they've become a much better team at the end of the year than they were earlier in the year. And that gives him a lot of

enthusiasm, I know, getting in the car in February is, you know, it was a very competitive team when Dale Jr. was in the car. But, man, I was really impressed with how they held it together and handled adversity and found, as, as Junior said, they found so much more speed. The whole organization did. Mr. H wins a 12th championship, which is amazing. But there's no doubt the entire team, the entire organization got better, Mike, as the year went on. But that's it. That's exactly it.

I mean, like, we are quick to jump on Greg Ives or, you know, the team when we have a bad race. But the fact of the matter is, if you look at the whole body of work, the entire organization was down and when the entire organization found speed the 88 team was right up there in the front with them. I mean, that's it. It wasn't a Greg Ives thing and it wasn't a driver thing. Dale Jr., the fact is, if we're looking statistically, Jeff Gordon and Alex Bowman

ran right where Dale Jr. would run. They didn't do any better or worse. It was just a product of the entire organization going through this spell where they were down on speed, Gibbs had clicking on all cylinders, and it was that. much more obvious to everyone because most people don't really care for Gibbs. And so it was even worse than what it was. And yet when they found speed, there was the 5, the 24, the 48, and the 88 all up in front. All of them could have won races.

You know, Mike, we're going to talk. We'll get to reaction theater and radio chatter here in just a minute and talk about what's next for junior motorsports. But I know that you were disappointed and everybody associated with junior motorsports. is disappointed that the organization did not win a championship, but I thought Dale Jr. captured the feeling that everyone should have inside that entire building. Sadler finishes second in the points. Allgaier finished third. Sadler finished third in the race on Saturday without his crew chief, and Suarez wins the championship.

But how competitive junior motorsports was this year? I mean, you've obviously lived it every day, but this is without any question, a championship level organization. And did I hear junior say that there are going to be four full-time teams next year? Did I hear that? Right, yeah, we've got four full-time teams. Does that mean Mike Davis is going to be even busier in 2017? I think we all will be. In fact, we're having to build on a building.

We don't have room for four teams. I could argue that we don't have room for three teams, and yet we're somehow managed to stack enough on top of each other that we make that work. But yeah, we're running next year. We've got William Byron. We've got Elliott Sadler. We've got Justin Algar and we've got Michael Annette that's going to be in the five car. I'm looking at Kelsey to make sure I'm not wrong.

It's the five car. So those are four full-time teams and drivers all gunning for a championship. It will be interesting for us. But yeah, okay, so let's go back to the weekend, though, real quick. Kelsey was there. By the way, right before we started taping, Kelsey told me about the drama they had with the airplane coming back. Yeah. Taylor, they took off, the team took off in their charter, and then they made an announcement of the air that they had to turn back around because they have a light that's suggesting that there's an error and it's with the landing gear.

And so they turned around and went back to Miami. So that was some drama that we didn't really know about. Gracious, Kelsey. Yeah, it was fun. You okay, Kelsey? I'm good. Oh, yeah, I'm good. The race, again, I just had to tip my cap to all four of those competitors.

I mean, they all left it out there. Daniel Suarez, I made the comment during a live stream broadcast. I was watching the race with Tony Mayhoff, and I was like, you know, when I still think of Daniel Swarres, I think about that Daytona race when it was his first, I think it was his first Xfinity race. I may be wrong about that. But it was the first one I noticed him, and he hit everything.

He hit everything. He wrecked everybody. Qualifying. That was qualifying when they did group qualifying. That's right. Group qualifying. And the car I was on was totaled to the graveyard. So thanks to Daniel Soros.

Yes. So let's just say he's gotten a lot better. Yes. Because on Saturday, he dominated. The fact is he dominated. The guy that won the championship earned it. That wasn't gimmie. I think that my heart broke for Elliot Sadler.

My heart broke for Justin Algar because I think that was the best race Algar's put together. Algar was making me look smart as a matter of fact because I said this is going to be that race where Algar, who's on nobody's radar kind of comes in here and puts it all together. And I'm going to tell you something, that race, Kelsey, with Justin Algar and Eric Jones with about 30 or 40 to go. And it went on for about 20 laps. It was one of the best car-to-car races I have ever seen. Those guys were trading it back and forth, doing it clean, but man, what a race. And this was all, they were in second and third or third and fourth, and they were gunning for it.

Elliot Sadler takes the two-tire call. He had that misfortune earlier. He comes in, takes two tires, now he finds himself in the lead of the race, which then put the whole scenario in play. and that was that Colwitt stayed out. And I want to know what your opinion is, Taylor. Colwit stays out, has no new tires, where the rest of the folks have brand new tires. There's what, six laps to go, Kelsey?

How many laps left in that? I think it was six. Six or seven. And he's got all of the championship contenders right around him. What do you do? Did you stay out? Do you have a problem with him staying out and affecting the actual championship.

Yes. I've got an opinion on it. I want to hear what yours is first. Well, first I loved. I laughed pretty hard when Junior tweeted about it. Does anyone have the Colwood strategy? Can you imagine if that would have happened in the cup race on Sunday? I mean, it could have happened in the cup race.

Sure. Yeah, there's plenty of back markets. Yeah. I think it's a bad idea. I really do. And I understand, you know, you're trying to win races. This is your opportunity. maybe some would disagree with this.

You're here for yourself. You know, it's kind of the Ricky Bobby put me on the hood of your car kind of deal. And I understand that Witt and many of those guys, no matter what level they're at, they're fighting for their future and fighting for a chance to stay relevant moving forward. But I think you also have to be mindful of the big picture. And you don't want to compromise a championship like that. Listen, Carl Edwards and Joey Lugano got into each other on Sunday and definitely influenced a championship, but at least those guys are in the championship hunt.

I just don't want to see some other guy that has no chance of winning a championship influence what people have been working for 36 races for. Okay. Does that include like Kyle Larson who led a ton of laps or Kevin Harvick, who also was up in the front. No, because, no, because those guys race their own race. They weren't, they didn't, they did exact, they raced clean, cleanly and exactly the way you should. Kyle Bush and Carl Edwards raced each other cleanly and exactly the way you should. And Edwards pass Kyle Busch as both are trying to win a championship. No, I don't have any problem with the way that Harvick raced

anyone on Sunday or Kyle Larson. I don't have a problem with you trying to win the race. I have a problem when your equipment isn't nearly as good as anyone else is. You're not going to win the race. Right. Right. And you're going to influence the result because you're trying to get a better finish. I have a little bit of an issue with that because you're asking for trouble. Yeah, Colwick finished 18th.

I would have loved to know, and I don't know, I would love to know where he would have been had he pitted. I know he didn't have tires. So there really was no reason for Colwick to pit. The question that comes is, do you? just step out of line and let them race. And you know what? My feeling on that, Taylor, is no, you don't. I mean, like, Colwitt has every right to do that.

My biggest problem of that whole scenario was the fact that when we sent Eric McClero down to the pit, down to that pit, I don't remember what number Colette is. What number was it? 14. 14, okay. So try Star Car. So he goes down there. Is that your old place?

Oh. And that's Eric McClero's a little place, too. Okay. So Eric McClero goes down there and he climbs up on the pit box to top. talk to the crew chief just to beg him to take the the bottom line. I get that you're going to be up there. Just don't take the outside line. Take the bottom line.

And the crew chief didn't even acknowledge him. Completely ignored. Completely ignored the conversation, at least on TV. Now, if they had one, I didn't see it. But I'm going to see that. They zoned in on that conversation for at least 10, 15 seconds. And that crew chief never even looked up. He didn't.

And so that I had a problem with. It's like, look, we get, you have every right to be up there. And nobody's even telling you to leave. You could, but nobody's asking you that. But don't take the preferred line because, you know, we have a chance here. I would even make the argument that Colwitt being up there really gave Elliott Sadler his best chance to win a championship. And Elliot says that himself that it was his, you know, his bad restart that really let swore. Morris be able to pass him.

Of course, his bad restart had everything to do with the fact that Cole Witt, when they waved the green flag, he didn't go. And so Elliott Sadler's thinking back from India a couple years ago when he got a win taken away from him because they said he jumped to restart on a leader. And that's going in his mind, which is another whole topic. But it's like his failure to be able to go is like, can I pass this guy or not? Well, Colwitt wasn't going. So all that played in, but they wouldn't even have a conversation with our guy.

And that sort of bugs me. It still bugs me a couple days later. And you know what? I can understand that, especially since, you know, you need to communicate with Cole. He might not be able to see over the steering wheel. Oh, see, I don't even blame Cole Whit. I don't. I'm talking about...

Just kidding. No, no, no, he's short. Yeah. Like, he makes... He is real short. He likes... T.J. Majors looks like Hakeem Elijah won next to Cole with. But...

My dog buddy's barking right now. He doesn't like this conversation. He doesn't like this conversation. But I don't even blame Cole Whit because I don't think Cole Whit had a say-so in that. I think he's either told to come in or stay out or do this or do that. Could Cole have picked the line that he, like if he wanted outside or inside? Possibly. Keep in mind, Cole Whit's only been racing for this team for a couple weeks.

Yeah. There's not like this, you know, big familiarity with each other. It's not like he's like. Well, Cole used to race that TriStar. But he hasn't been racing for TriStar all year. No, no. That car's had a bunch of different drivers. So anyways.

You know what? It's a fun debate. It's unfortunate because we didn't win the championship. I hated it. Elliot Sadler almost thought was going to be in tears after that race. Because, you know, when you can taste it. How many more chances do you have? Yeah, how many more chances?

But he could taste it. He was sitting there, you know, restarting on the front row, had those guys behind him, needed everything to go perfect to be able to really pull it off. I hated it for Justin Algar. My heart broke for the guy. The guy did everything he possibly could. He was a victim of the Colette thing more than Elliott. Sadler was because he was in Colwitz row and he got bottled up.

There was nothing he could do. Well, the fact that you have two drivers that are in that position is all you could ever ask for. It's a hell of a year, man, for Junior Motorsports. And I have every belief that that's going to continue for many, many years to come. Commitment from Junior and Kelly and from everyone there is so high and so impressive. So a lot of champagne beer toasts in the future, I believe, and maybe one magnificent. champion beer toast, if I can say that, is coming your way and years to come, Mike, at the end of the season.

So here's to that day. Here's to that day. Radio chatter is presented by Nationwide. Alex Bowman had an up-and-down day on Sunday in the Exalta Chevrolet. Let's take a listen to the team's radio chatter from yesterday's race presented by Nationwide. Five away. Ready. Go, go, go, go, go, go.

Got a wreck up here, big wreck up here. Keep coming. Causters out. Causton's out. Big wreck. 19's in it. Pretty big wreck. We got fire up here.

Pick your way through it. Go high. Go high. The 19 rammed. Yeah, we're going to punt days going. It's pretty crazy. So we're going to pit. Yeah, I mean, everybody got out, you know.

Obviously, the 78 was pretty scary. The two-car hit a ton. You know, so I think everybody was okay getting out of the car. 19 out now. 19's front clip, rear clip. he's out of it. So, you know, when we go back green here, you know, like I said, we're racing the 13 and 16 trying to get that lucky dog position, but, you know, there's going to be six to go and it's going to be fun to watch them in here, that's for sure.

Okay, when they take the green, I think there's going to be two to go, so we'll be far here. The 48 look right now, or 22 is third. I pace cars in. Ready. Good in front of you there. Jimmy's lead by three up here. Two inside. Two inside, two inside. It is a final race now. Jimmy's leading by four. You're clear.

You're clear. Really good in front of you. 48 won the race. Checker flag this time. Great job. Good job, guys. Congrats to the 48, guys. That's awesome.

It's fun working with you, Alex. Thank you, ma'am. So that's radio chatter for the final time this season, presented by Nationwide. Hey, Junior Nation, be sure to follow at Nationwide 88 on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. They have some exciting stuff coming up in the near future, and you don't. Don't want to miss it. It's time now for reaction theater. Just hit it.

All right. Here we go. Taylor, yeah. Way to go, Taylor. You called Jimmy to win that championship. You lucky, son of a bitch. I am so fucking pumped up for Taylor. Never mind Jimmy.

I mean, Jimmy's shirt. With seven championships, what to do? He tied Dale and Richard Petty. But Taylor's ours are called in right from the get-go. Way to go, guys. The shame that Cole Witt had screwed everything up for Elliot Sallor and Justin Allgaier and all that. It's always next year, and I want to give a big shout out to Alex and Jeff Gordon for the job they did this year in the 88 car. So 2017, Daytona 500 champion for Dale, Earnhardt Jr.

Dale, yeah. Dale, yeah. Taylor, yeah. Just doesn't roll off the tongue the same way for some reason. No, it doesn't, but I guess you deserve it. I mean, the guy, we were right out of the gate, people are remembering that you called this one. So wait, I finally got a prediction, right? Like, I finally was pretty good at making a prediction because this, I've had a hard time with these.

Yeah, now you're only several hundred in the hole. Well, just to get things back online, on Friday on my college football show with Greg McElroy. Oh, I heard about this. I saw the tweet. No way will Florida beat LSU. No chance will Florida beat LSU. So just to make sure that everybody understands, I'm terrible in predictions. I saw that sub-tweet that you put out there,

which you basically just had to take it, didn't you? You just like, all right, you're right. I did. Totally. Golly. How about that? Who's next? Kevin Harvick, 2014.

He goes in four wins, comes out five wins and champions. Same for Kyle Bush and now Jimmy Johnson. What happened? I think he was, I think he'd been drinking, and I don't think he hung up the phone. And so we got the conversation that he was having with his, with his wife or somebody else. Hey, listen.

If you ever want to just have a conversation with your significant other and just want us to, like, listen in, I mean, we're good with that. That's a good idea. Who's next? Hey, everyone. Brandy here calling from Elkhome, California, JJ's hometown. First, I just want to say that my husband and I have been Jimmy and junior fans for many years, and we couldn't be beyond excited for Jimmy Johnson tonight. This season has been, so with so many ups and downs and this race was no accession. I swear I was cheering and screaming and yelling.

I bet you could hear me all the way from California. So proud of Jimmy. I want to let all the haters out there know that the good guys do come in first, not only in races but in life. Congratulations, Jimmy. And Dale 2017 is yours to win, buddy. See y'all in Vegas next week to celebrate. Dale yeah.

It's really cool. Dale yeah, and I love what she said there. Good people do come out. The natives are calling. The Jimmy Johnson hometowners. By the way, you know what I noticed is that I didn't get a sense that there were a whole lot of haters in the grandstands. Like I think everybody was... Did you see everyone swarm the stage?

Oh, yeah. By the way, that was... It's thousands of people. Right. But the fact is that I think for the most part, people respected what he accomplished. Yeah. I think that's true. And I think given the choices that they had...

Oh, yeah. That probably had something to do with it. You're right. that had something to do with it. By the way, I live like maybe four minutes from Jimmy. I did not have anything to do with rolling his house. I don't know if you saw the tweets. Yeah, he just tweeted that. Oh, no, I didn't. They toilet paper to his house. Yeah. I don't live far from him. But he did have a lot of neighbors that rolled his house. But he is. He's a super good dude. He's a, my family and I like to go to Mellow Mushroom.

We like to sit, we've talked about this, Mike. We like to sit inside the school bus, which is inside Mellow Mushroom. Right. And we'll look down a few rows, and there's Jimmy and his family doing the same thing. Yeah. Just eating pizza inside the school bus at Mellow Mushroom. Good dude. Who's next?

Well, I got to say that was probably the best championship battle I've ever seen at Homestead. That was a fantastic race. I hate that Carl ended up in the fence. I never thought I'd root for the 48 so hard in my life, But man, after a year of change and new presidents and, you know, the guerrilla and all this other. You know, Jimmy Johnson is still the greatest driver there is in NASCAR, and that's really exciting. Congrats to him. 98 days till Daytona 500, so 98 days till Junior Nation is back, baby.

Have a great offseason, guys. Thank you. This is the Delia Kid, signing out. The Delia Kid from Pocono. I guess it's now 97 days, huh? Yeah. So I like this, the countdown clock. I really like that a lot.

If it was any other year, I despise the countdown. Right. Yeah. Like when you just finish the season, I don't want to know when Daytona is coming around the corner. But in this case, being the fact that Dale hasn't been in the car. Yeah. Since the middle of July. I like the countdown clock now.

I like the countdown clock. Yeah, it's been four months, man. We've had an offseason. Yeah, we've had the countdown clock. Yeah. Let's go. Let's race. All right, go ahead.

Holy cow. How old got everybody. Harry Carey here. If you had told me back in July that Jimmy Johnson would be a seven-time champion, I would have said you were crazy. But here we are, and Jimmy has done it. Chase Elliott is one rookie of the year. It turned out to be a great year for Hendrick Motorsport.

Harry Carrey. I was waiting for more. Yeah, it did. The amount of editing I had to do on all these. People were very long-winded last night. Very long-winded. does. Kelsey did her best so we could include as many people as possible.

Because if you just let them roll with their full calls, you may have two, maybe three. Yeah. And we're trying to get as many people in here as possible. So yeah, Harry Carey, we had to cut you off. Yeah. Cubs win. Who's next? This has definitely been an interesting year, a year of ups and downs.

You know, at the end of the day, I think this whole the Stale Junior Concussion thing, taught Junior Nation to come together to put aside our differences. It doesn't matter who's Junior Nation president. It's the fact that we all came together as won. I nodded around our driver when he wasn't feeling well. Congratulations, Jimmy Johnson. Dale Jr. I'm looking forward to seeing you back at Daytona in 2017,

and let's go get a Daytona 500 victory. Dale, yeah. Dale, yeah. I like it. That's the attitude to have. A lot of people share those feelings, even though we got months to go before they're back on the track. I've got to carry this momentum, Mike Davis, all the way to February.

Can you do it? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got that covered. Do you have to worry about us? Kelsey, you're good? You're ready? Oh, I'm perfect.

Kelsey, you're good? I'm excited. Just don't put her on an airplane. Not the one that she has a field for you. That's my family and I were flying from Vegas to Atlanta, and that happened where they said, well, we have some engine trouble. We have to turn around. Oh, yeah, that's a good idea.

Let's do that. and flew back to Las Vegas and got on another plane. I got one for you, Taylor, that I'll take really quick. It'll take quick. Back when we had the Navy sponsorship, you remember that back in 2007, 8, whatever. Dale Jr. and I and I think Kozlowski and a couple of PR people, we all went on this appearance, and it was to a battleship or to an aircraft carrier. So we had to get on a helicopter to go to the aircraft carrier or to the ship.

I can't remember which one it was. and we're in the so it's one of those big helicopters those military helicopters that you know they of course they don't have the doors on the side of them so you're like over the ocean and all of a sudden they encounter some situation some problems so they do a quick 180 and they come back to the shore they land a guy hops out gets a sledgehammer and goes boom boom boom boom boom boom and then he gives the thumbs up like he fixed it and he hops back in and we were like whoa no no no no I need more I need a little bit more from you guys on what exactly just happened. happen here. I need more of a repair. Like, where's the repair crew? I don't need a guy hopping out of the helicopter with a hammer. That's how I fix things. Oh, that's scary. We're good now. We're good. And then we took off and went on our way. All right. Who's next? 14.2 second pit stops. Kyle Busch, you suck. Cowbush sucks. He did have a pretty tough pit stop there. He did. What happened on that? Did somebody slip? I think the right rear had an issue coming off.

The changer had an issue coming off. So then he tried to hurry to the other side and fell coming to the other side. He lost three or four positions. Yeah. Still had a chance, though. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Who's next? Today, Carl had the best car. And I was invested in Carl. I mean, I wanted the guy to win. I wanted to see his mom. in Victory Lane. You know, I don't care how cute Luigi is. Joey sucks, okay?

He just sucks. Luigi's his dog. Whose dog? Joeys. Yeah, all right. I don't need to see anybody's dogs at this point of point ever, okay? You lose your man car. Listen, I like dogs.

I'm cool with dogs, but don't it, when you start bringing your pets, like I'm almost done with bringing the babies and the kids to Victory Lane. That just got, see, am I wrong? Did that not get a little obnoxious this year? The first person that did that was Jeremy Mayfield. He used to bring his dogs and talk about his dogs all the time, bring him to Victory Lane. Yeah.

You know, it was a little weird, I have to say. Yeah. I don't like that. I can't get behind that. No. I can't get behind Joey Legano, and I never will be able to. I just want to make that clear. I can't envision a scenario where I ever say,

like what you said about Carl Edwards earlier, where I've done a 180 on Joey Legano, that seems impossible. Okay. I do have to say this, though. Go ahead. I appreciated him coming, being one of the first people to come up there when the championship was presented in the middle of the interviews and come up and shake Jimmy's hand. How about this? How about this, though?

We didn't even talk about this. How about their call to take four tires? Yeah. And did that restart that he had there at the end? The restart right before, I think he restarted eighth and he was in third in no time. It was amazing. He did have a fast car. There's no doubt.

He's a great driver. I just never, ever, ever, ever pull for him. Who's next? Hey, this is Hank. All the, just watch a lot of fighting the bus. And our Hendrick team won his seven title. I'm on my seven. Hell yeah.

From Puerto Rico. I'm glad. That might have actually been Dado, but who cares? I'm going to say that that's for Puerto Rico. Yeah. Liked it. Who's next? Jimmy won.

That's cool. Hell yeah. Later. Yeah, I think there's some people that probably feel that way. But imagine how you would have felt if Ligano would have won or if Kyle Bush would have won a second consecutive championship. What would you, of those two right there that you just mentioned, if one of them had to happen, Taylor Zarser.

If I had to pull for one or the one that would have. If one of those had to be the outcome. Right. Joey Ligano wins his first or Kyle Busch wins his second. I would have taken Kyle Busch winning his second because I would have taken Kyle Busch winning a second because I've already experienced it. So I'm a little bit more immune or prepared for it. I don't think I could ever handle Joey Logano winning a championship.

If Kyle Busch wins seven, is he as great as? No, no. Don't do that to me. Come on, no. Those are fighting words right there. Who's next? Glad and Jimmy got number seven. That's awesome for history.

Cubs won World Series. Trump gets to be president. and Jimmy wins NASCAR championships. It's great to be an American. Peace out. Good Lord. Thanks for bringing politics into this. I'm sure that will rub nobody. Believe it or not, there were more than just that call that included the presidential election.

Yeah. There was one guy that. Alabama's number one in the country. There you go. I can get behind that. You like that halftime interview Saban did on the Saturday? I cracked up, Taylor. It was so funny.

I mean, and I hate it for that. poor girl. Do you know the girl? I don't know. I sure do. Okay. She did a great job, but man, that was funny to me. Was it funny to you? I know you were in Auburn. In fact, I switched over to the Auburn, Alabama A&M game just for a second because my wife was sitting in there and we put it on the game and I said, do you know who that voice is? And she said, Taylor Zarzer. And I'm like, I just wanted to make sure you knew. That's my girl, Sarah. That's right. You were doing it. You were calling a carry-on sweep of some kind. Carry-on Johnson. Yep. Carry-on Johnson. So, yeah. It's a great game, too. 55-0-0. I did make the entire truck that was producing the game laugh.

I said, it's Auburn in Alabama. Hey. That's funny. All right, who's next? Un-frile. That's all I got. Dale, yeah. See, Kelsey, I like how you find value in the short calls, regardless of what they actually say.

And there's so many, there were so many short ones this week. Good. There was one that was two seconds. Listen, the short ones are my favorite call. I know. Sometimes they're most effective. I know. Those are the ones.

I couldn't believe that wreck. I really, I was screaming on Sunday. We're going out of town for Thanksgiving, going down to New Orleans with my sister-in-law's family. Very excited about that. But my wife said, we're having Thanksgiving on Sunday night, just the four of us that live in this house. My wife and two children, we're just going to have our own Thanksgiving because we're all. all going to be traveling a lot this week. So she's cooking up a storm and I went, oh my God, and went crazy when the Edwards Lugano wreck happened. And she runs in there like somebody got injured.

And I was like, look at what happened. And she rolls her eyes at me and goes back to the kitchen. But I just couldn't believe that. I really couldn't that he comes down the entire season. Edwards especially, he's worked this hard for something. Five years later, here's his chance. and he can taste it, Mike. And that happened. Yeah. That was crazy. Yeah.

No, I did the same thing. I mean, I let out this audible yell, and I don't even remember what I said, but I could not believe. Cannot believe that that's what happened. Mm, yeah. Who's next? Hello, Junior Nation. Submarine Mike here. In honor of Thanksgiving, I thought it appropriate to share some thank you notes with you.

Alan Kelly, for allowing the fans this outlet on the Dale Jr. download. Thank you. the entire staff of Dirty Moe Radio for putting up with my crazy shenanigans. Thank you, Mike Davis, for being the brainchild of Dirty Moe Radio and having the conviction to keep it free. Thank you, Taylor, for taking my shots like a champ and knowing was all for comedy's sake. Thank you, Dato, for being an all-round great guy, looking forward to hanging out with him at Daytona. And finally, thank you to the soulless Ginger for fucking up an otherwise outstanding Exfinity Championship fight. It's not surprising he and his crew chief only share half a brain to put him in that position hashtag dale yeah hashtag junior in

2017 his was really long too there you go now uh so did was there anybody else that he thanked or no these are just yeah we just yep we caught all the well thank you submarine mike for being one of the greatest fans in junior nation you make the dale junior junior download podcast, more fun, and all the different periscopes that you're associated with are also hilarious, especially when you're on sloppy yellow's rancopes. But we do. We love you, Submarine, Mike, and we appreciate you. Thank you to you, and we're certainly hoping you have a great Thanksgiving.

I can't be about that, yeah. Mike Davis, I believe, do we have one more? We have sloppy yellow. There we go. Let's hear him. He got a little winded, so just. No. Here's a condensed version of softiella.

This is a condensed version, but it's still over a minute long. It was five minutes. What? Five minutes. Five minutes. That's my boy. So we had a lot of a cutting to do on this one, so just be patient. All right.

All right. This has been one crazy damn year. I'm going to say that right now. I wrote down a few things. Number one, Dale Jr. drove a rainbow sherbet-looking car for all of a sudden. Hendra Motorsports couldn't catch Toyota save their life. I'm like, what the hell's happening here?

And then right after that, Stuart Hart's racing, an ally of Hender Motorsport, an ally Chevy says, you know what? We'll go on the Ford in 2017. I'm like, holy shit, this season couldn't get any more wacky if it tried. And then Dale Jr. missed his 18 races. And I see somebody else driving the 88. And then, lo and behold, hell, I become friends with that asshole submarine Mike. Who saw that coming?

Good God. There's nothing that could be crazier than that, right? Long, Sunday night after Carl Edward gets wrecked out of the race, he talks and delivers probably the most coordinate speech about fellowship, sportsmanship, and competitor that I've ever heard in my life. I have disliked that guy since the day he's fake-punched Matt Kenseth. And I'll tell you something, he made a fan out of me Sunday. But you know what? That ain't even the weirdest thing that happened this year. The thing that I would have never thought would happen under any circumstance, I cheered.

When he pulled in the second place at Bristol Motor Speedway, I used to boo that song of the and then all of a sudden I cheered Jeff Gordon. And there's one last thing I'd like to leave you with. This Thanksgiving season, I hope everybody gets to spend time with their family. But every year I hear people complain about drive hurt. And it keeps it nice and more. What is that, Kelsey has to what? Spatchcock.

So I googled it on my work computer, not knowing what was going to come up. I hope our firewall didn't let you go any further. No, so I was really nervous about it, but it's butterflying a turkey. Okay. Did you know that, Tyler? I have heard that term, yes, spatchcocking a turkey, and you have to be careful she's right when you look this up, but you have to make sure it's all one word, okay? Spatchcock is one word.

Okay. There's a T and a C and an H in there before you get to the next part of the word. But Spatchcock turkey, that's a good idea. I'm going to have a Cajun fried turkey for Thanksgiving this year. Hey, can we just say something to Tatto? Can we thank him for doing his last call of the season from what sounds like a gas station bathroom? It did sound really digital. What is going on there?

I don't know why it sounded so digital. Was he in sloppy yellow or something? I mean, like the acoustics of that place could be better. Yeah. I'm not sure. We're grateful to everybody, him especially for reaction theater calls all year. Special thanks to spy for bringing. of the Dale Jr. download this season.

If you love Dirty Moe or are looking to gift a pair of signature spy, Dirty Mo, and Degas sunglasses to your favorite Dale Jr. fan this holiday season, then head over to spyoptic.com and enter code, Dale, yeah. To receive 20% off of your purchase. That's no joke. Listen, I don't want to escape past that. For the holidays, folks, SpyOptic is giving you 20% freaking off of the spy sunglasses. Intercode, Dale, yeah.

That's all you got to do. 20% off. I mean, come on. Spyoptic.com. It's a perfect stocking stiffer. Absolutely. I think it's perfect present. Man, I don't know what you put in your stocking.

My God. Pencils for me. Let's throw for the final time in 2016, the white flag. White flag right there. White flag. It's Thanksgiving week. Taylor, you had to go out and do your Thanksgiving thing for Sirius X-M. Then you got Submarine Mike who gives what he's thankful for.

I feel inclined to do the same thing for White Flag because honestly, honestly, there ain't much on Dale's schedule this week. I mean, dude's going to take her easy. So, you know, and I want some music to this, Kelsey. I feel like if Submarine Mike has music. I mean, if he had music, I want my own music. I want, because I want my thank yous to mean something. I want people to understand how thankful I am. So yeah, give me some music.

Okay. Do I like this? This is good. You like this, Taylor? Yeah, it works. All right, here we go. First, I'm thankful for Exalta. Exalta saw what we were doing here at DirtyMov Radio,

and they said, I want to be a part of that. They also created fantastic social media handles that you can follow at Exaltor Racing on Twitter and Facebook. And they also created ExaltorRacing.com, which is fantastic. Oh, now this is really kicking up this music. I like where we're going with this. Kelsey, nice job. I'm thankful for Nationwide. I'm not going to lie. The people that Nationwide are like Family to U.S.,

us and you know what else? They're on your side, damn it. Yeah. Taylor, I've been trying to tell you for years. You can ensure. He's been telling us for years. Nationwide is on your side. That's right. He has told you for years.

You can insure your ass off with these people. Their competitors, listen, their competitors are straight garbage. They lie to you. They don't like pets. Oh, wow. They don't like seniors. They just as soon you work your whole life and never take a break. that's the competitors.

Nationwide loves pets. They love seniors. They want you to enjoy your life. In fact, whatever you're doing right now, everybody listening, just stop and take a break and relax right now. That's thanks to Nationwide. Nationwide sponsors your break right now. That's like the Sims character in Ten Cup.

Doesn't like old people. He doesn't like children and dogs. Don't forget about that. That's right. That's right. He doesn't like dogs either. I'm also thankful for Spy Optic, which is not only because,

they're finishing their third year as the presenting sponsor of the Dale Jr. Download, but they also keep the sun's harmful rays out of your eyes. You know, right, Kelsey? And they make you happy. I'm also thankful for SpyOptic, which is not only finishing its third year as the presenting sponsor, the Dell Jr. download, but they also keep the sun's harmful rays out of your eyes, and they make you happy, Kelsey. You can be a little happier.

And you know what else? Their competitors are garbage, too. True. Trust me on this. I see the other sunglasses. Like, you know, when Kyle Bush doesn't enter, interview. I see. They break. They scratch easily. They do not keep the suns out of your eyes. You do better. Yeah. You do better just lighting. Well, there are another planets. No. I guess

there's other moons. No. No, just one sun. Okay. So you do better lighting your eyelids on fire with a cigarette lighter than wear those cheap sunglasses. But thank God for spy because they know how to build a quality product that will protect your eyes. They make you happy. They make you happy too. And they make you look good and I'm going to be honest with you. Some of y'all could use a little help in that area. Wow. Wow. I'm thankful for Taylor Zarzer.

Yeah. Who is now everywhere you turn, by the way, on the radio and TV dial. But you know what? To me, Taylor Zarser will always be the dude who ripped his shirt off in the studio here to reveal that he had a sleeveless Del Jr. Wrangler's shirt on underneath. That's the Taylor Zarser I know. So, Taylor, I'm thankful for you. I'm also thankful for Junior Nation.

We can get on that right. It ain't just that you put your passion and energy into love and Dale Jr. But you also put your passion and energy into hating everybody else. That's what makes me love you, Junior Nation. You have that ability to tip your cat to Jimmy Johnson. Not your cat. You can actually tip your cap. You have the unique ability to tip your cap to Jimmy Johnson and still not give two shits about him.

You have to beat that one there, Kelsey. Okay. I'm thankful for first name. And screw Kyle Bush Nation, by the way. Forget them. Y'all are ugly. You're no good. And Junior Nation rocks.

That's right. See, that's equal. I thought we were on a theme there of talking crap about competitors. And that's what makes you special because if you can talk about somebody, then you've got a place in my heart. Yeah. And I don't even care if you have a reason. Right. All right.

Moving on. I was thankful for First Name Davis until he made Taylor go to work during the middle of our podcast. Exactly. He did do that. He did during this actual podcast. Now that he works for Sirius XM, he made me force me against my will to leave the Dale Jr. download today. What my script says is I'm thankful for First Name Davis,

who put his heart and soul into this podcast all the way up until the time when he said, to hell with y'all, I'm out of here. So forget, first name Davis. So I guess I should thank you, Kelsey Tucker, who took over and is now favored to be the next person to say. To hell with y'all, I'm out of here. That's right. I'm thankful for Natalie Sather and Dustin Lee.

They always are working to make Dirty Moe Radio what it is. I'm thankful for the host and producers of Dirty Moot Radio podcast, which I guess I should just admit that that also includes T.J. Majors, right? That does. I know. Can you believe it? See, Carl Edwards and T.J. majors both took a turn today. Thank you.

What about Martin Friedrich? Is he still? He's not getting any crap. I don't really have anything to be thankful for. Our Wi-Fi is kind of back. in here. It's bad. I know. Thank you to the ambassadors of Dirty Moe Radio, not just listeners, but ambassadors. You know what that is. I mean, it's like you don't just listen to an occasional podcast. You listen to all of them. The download, door bumper clear, fast lane family, Earnhardt Outdoors,

Junior Motorsports up front, which is Kelsey's regular program there. Historically speaking, said Junior Motor Mouts, you follow us on Twitter and Facebook. You remind us when we suck. You tell your friends about us. You identify with you. You wear the shirts and hats. You drink out of the coosies. We have all that stuff right now. Good Christmas presents, by the way. You put decals in public places that could get you in trouble. You support our sponsors, which really is the most important thing to us that helps us keep this going. So thank you to all of you guys. I can think of a bunch right now. I don't want to call out by name these people because I will leave somebody out, but we know them because we talk to them, engage them every week. And they talk to us. And so these

people are big supporters. They're ambassadors for Dirty Moor Radio. That's what's important for us moving forward as we grow this thing. And lastly, I want to just say thank you for Dale Jr. For letting us do this. And I will end on this. All right. Just this. Dale Jr., looking forward to what you're bringing,

Dirty Moe Radio next season. Leaving you with that little thing. All right? Taylor, what you got? Well, you hit it on just about everything, man. Thankful for you, thankful for this opportunity. thankful to be part of the Dale Jr. Download family the last four years. It's been really special. And I'm certainly thankful for all the great things that are happening for my family and personally and professionally.

So I look forward to many, many years to come of cheering on Dale and Art Jr. But I have to tell you that moving forward, Mike Davis, I might exclusively take my comments to sloppy Yellow's Rantzcoat. really? I'm not kidding. That's big. I might, I'm not, this is no joke. I'm being completely serious when I say this. I might only be willing to share my commentary when as it pertains to Junior Nation on sloppy yellow's platforms. Do you know what sloppy yellow was sitting in when he made this reaction theater call?

I do not. I'm really worried. I'm really worried about it. Have you checked with the accommodations? We are going to, whether we're running together or I might have to slow down some for that, but if we're running. Whether we're in a bus, whether we're in a bathroom or wherever Sloppy Yellow likes to do his Rant Scopes, that's where I might exclusively be giving my Junior Nation commentary. If you and Sloppy Yellow do Rant Scopes from a bathroom,

That's gross. Yeah. But I still watch. I promise I will. Well, I want you to know that I'm going to Texas in a few weeks. Why? Well, you're going to have to stay tuned to sloppy yellow's rancow to find out. Oh, goodness.

Man, cliffhangers. I thought the Dale Jr. part was a cliffhanger. Now I'm more interested in what Taylor is doing in Texas. But I promise you this. Are you replacing Charlie Strong? Whatever happens next, I promise you I'll always be part of the Junior Nation family and certainly your friend and grateful for all the years we've been doing this. But I might seriously be only giving my commentary on rant scopes that Slappy Yellow has, which certainly in a roundabout way is part of your family. If Submarine Mike does a Rant Scope, you want to consider doing that or no?

That's up to Slappy Yellow. He's in control of the Junior Nation. He controls the contract. Oh, I got you. He does. I don't even want to ask what he's paying. He's become the Ted DiBiase of this situation. I like it. Nice old school wrestling drop there.

I like that. It's been a great year, my man. You know, we've been through a lot, adversity-wise, and I can't wait until 2017 to see what Dale Jr. has next for us, so that'll be a lot of fun. We appreciate him. Lots of wins. I appreciate you, my man. Appreciate you.

Kelsey, and thanks to everybody for their participation with the Dale Jr. Download. I'm Taylor Zarser. You've been listening to The Download presented by Spy. Thanks for listening to Dirty Mo Radio.