The Dale Jr. Download - 170 - So Much Change: Change, Change, Change!

Episode Date: April 18, 2017

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his wife, Amy, recap a fun Easter weekend with family and discuss recent news regarding changes to the NASCAR All-Star Race and whether or not drivers should be getting back to grassroots racing. Junior also shares stories from his own Bristol win, as well as memories of his father racing at the historic half-mile track Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, Junior Nation, Exalta has you covered this weekend at Bristol. For updates all weekend on the number 88, follow at Exaltar Racing on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. This is Dale Jr., and you're listening to Dirty Mo Radio. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. Another episode of the Dale Jr. download is on deck. As similar to last week, my co-host is Amy. Hello, guys. Yep, thank you, honey.

And Tyler Overstreet is back in North Carolina. He will edit and he has produced this show. So thank you, Tyler. Let's get to it. All right, so this is an off weekend, no racing to talk about. There are some racing topics coming up, but we will not have a race itself to discuss the upcoming Bristol race this weekend. I'm very excited about. But we also spent this past weekend enjoying Easter with our family, with your family, correct?

Well, it's now our family. Our family, yeah. So Texas is a great race weekend. We enjoy racing at Texas. It's a great track for us. But it also means that we get to spend time in Amy's neck of the woods. Yeah. So we were in Dallas after the race.

We went and spent some time with some friends there. Billy and Kayla, they're two twin girls and Gray at years old, right? Gray's the oldest. And they have a set of twins, 80. We had a Instagram of Bouncy House on Sunday night. That explains that, right? That's where we were. there are some other pictures of them on your Instagram

of us enjoying Easter with them the entire week it was a lot of fun we also went to they're super sweet little girls they are and Gray actually thinks that you're her hero she told her dad that is that right and I ask him I said well why does she say that and he said he didn't she didn't have a clear answer but she just loves Dill Jr.

Oh that's cool well they are great little girls and we enjoyed spending the we spent the whole weekend really with these these kids and it was a lot of fun. We traveled in the plane, so we had three girls plus your sister's daughter. Well, that was really... My sister and her husband and their infant, yes, they were all with us. So we spent the weekend family style versus pirate style like we typically do.

Exactly. So we were in Dallas on Saturday, Sunday night after the race. Then we went to Bull Verdi. All right. I have to really... He has to really have... If you really try hard to... His concentration hat on when he says that word, Polverty.

That's a tough word to say. It's a small, small, small town. It's literally a one-stoplight intersection. Yeah, just north of San Antonio. It's cool. It's very middle Texas, and you got to experience the hills of Texas on your bike. I know. I thought Texas was flat.

No. Well, there's certain areas are. It's a giant state, honey. I went and rode 60 miles on Monday and Tuesday. Or was it Tuesday and Wednesday? I don't know. It doesn't matter. Yeah.

You rode a lot on that bike. You rode more than you needed to. Yeah. And that was a lot of fun. Jimmy didn't ride at all, did he? Jimmy did not do. So we have, we've talked about our. Sorry, Jimmy, but throwing you way under the bus there, but Dale's so proud of himself.

We've talked about our workout routine at HMS, and we get a, every week we get a report emailed to us about what everyone did. Yeah. A major chart. It's not even... It's a chart. Yeah, big chart. I did quite a bit of cycling. Basically, let's see, four hours of cycling, 60 miles.

And I'm like, yes, this is going to be awesome for the report. But I didn't do any strength, so I got a big zero on the strength. But I got the report in. I did the most. You know what I think is funny about that chart? I did the most. And Jimmy Johnson, the workout. beast that he is.

I know, but do you know what's funny about this chart? He did nothing. He did nothing. When you do nothing, you get a pink. Yeah. A pink slot. It's very, very emasculating. It's kind of red, but yes, pink.

No, it's pink. Okay. So if you don't hit the quota, your number is pink. If you hit the quota, it's green. We did really good in the cycling with the cardio. You introduce some cycling safety into my life. How does that? How did I do it?

You asked me to share my location. find my friends on your iPhone. So while I'm riding around, you can ping me. That's right. That came in handy. Yeah. So somebody, you know, people in the cycling world said that it's good to definitely share your location while you're out riding around. Yeah.

With someone. So, but I shared my location with you as I was riding my 60 miles in Bolverdi. Did you ping me? See where I was at? I did. And the reason why not only. only because I was wondering where you were riding, but it started a thunderstorm, and I was worried about your safety. So my sister was able to go and grab you two miles away from the house.

We didn't get you. Come on, you got to say I was a little farther than two miles away. People were going to think I'm not riding. No, you rode through the rain. We just waited a long time to find you. We're like, okay, maybe it's thundering now. Maybe we should go get him. So she gets her big car out and goes, and it scoops him up. And you were only two miles. away from the house at that point. You had already done your ride. I was so good way. But it does work. And honestly, it makes me feel better knowing where you are. Yeah. I like the fact that you're... I can see when you stop to take pictures too because the thing stops.

I like the fact that you can watch me ride my ride if you can't be there. At least you're, you're kind of cheering me on. I'm just scared. I don't want to get hurt. So, yeah, we were in Boverty for a couple days and then we got the whole gang together and we flew to Key West. We like to spend some time down in Florida when we Ken. So we had four children on the plane, which was like this, we did a family trip. Yeah. That's a first time thing for us, actually.

We've done family trips, but never flown together like that. Yeah, that was a wake-up call. Still want to have kids. Yes. Did not deter me. No. They're really, really sweet. They were.

And while we were here, like, they really enjoy the simple things, are the, We overlooked the things they enjoyed. Yeah. We're always looking for things to do outside of the house, and they had fun just exploring the backyard and playing in the pool. Hiding Easter eggs. Yeah, we had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. It was so much fun to spend Easter and Key West.

The weather was off and on, but it didn't matter. Yeah. The entire weekend was so great. Yeah, it was a lot of fun, a lot of candy. We still have a whole bowl of candy. Yeah, they left some candy. which was nice. Steering at it.

When they left. So, also on, one of the cool things that I saw on Twitter that made, probably made my Twitter day, or made it better, was that David Reagan and his wife, Jacqueline, they live in Canapolis. And while they were out eating for Easter, they happened to go by the statue and took a great little picture of their daughter hugging on the Dale Earnhardt statue. Such a cool picture. So why do you say Dale Earnhardt versus my daddy or a dad? I don't know. What do you say dad or daddy? Dad.

Did you? Yeah, I say dad. My dad. Yeah, I say my dad. But I think that was great that he sent you that photo. It was really sweet. Well, I saw it on Twitter. Yeah.

Oh, he didn't send it to you? No, his wife tweeted it. And I was like, oh, man, that's so cool. I got you. You know, I kind of have to be reminded, I guess, that there's a statue there and that people actually go see it. I should go see it. you have, I'll need to take you to see it. I've never seen this statue in person. I've only seen

the one at Daytona. Yeah, for folks who haven't seen it, there's a Dellerin Hart Tribute Plaza, and it's on the corner of South Main Street and B Street in Canapolis. So if you want to go out there and check out the statue, by all means. Does a weekend off like this provide a good reset button? What do you think? I mean, you've been around me for a long time. I think there's two answers to this. question. Race-wise, I think it does for you, and it doesn't, because you get to have the time away from the team, so it's like anything else.

You miss something you're not around. Yeah. But when you're not involved in it, you're always thinking about that thing, so you're not really resting. I've heard you talk about Bristol a few times over the course of this last week. And you love racing there. Yeah. So it's, I don't know, is that resetting?

I don't think it's resetting. Yeah, okay. Well, well, you got through speed weeks in the West Coast swing. And even though it's only seven races in, it feels like that it's been much more. 20, yeah. Yeah. Well. And imagine, you know, and I hate to complain or sound like I'm complaining to anyone.

It's just a grind. Imagine being one of the road gas. Right, right. So I think, yeah. For them, it is a reset. For them, it probably is reset. They get to go home. All right.

So Easter was great. I hope everybody else enjoyed their Easter weekend. And, yeah, it's back to work. So we're going to talk about a few other topics. The changes to the All-Star Race. So I'm eligible as a past All-Star Race winner for 2000. How do you feel about the rules? I don't really have a problem with the new.

They got four-staffirmed. stages, 20 laps, 20 laps, and then 10 laps, okay? Only 10 cars will advance into the final stage. They'll take the stage winners and the best average finish of the other three stages. So it's all a bunch of... You say it was such... It's freaking confusing. And they change the freaking rules every year.

Freaking rules. So he doesn't like the rules. I don't mind the rules. Surprise and Earnhardt doesn't want to have rules. I do not mind the rules. It's just so... much change, change, change, change, change, change. That I get.

There is something to be said about, you know, tradition. And I know that some traditions have to evolve and can't stay the same all the time. But how does this race, much like the clash. Well, that's an oxymoron. Traditions don't evolve. I mean, it has, I know things can't stay the same forever. I'm okay. I understand that.

But damn. I mean, how does that? How does something... It's hard for the fans to even keep up. How does something become so great? If it's continuously manipulated and adjusted and it just isn't recognizable. I think I do like the idea of seeing what a softer tire compound does or have an option to use a different tire compound.

That's going to be fun to watch. I do think it's cool that they're putting those guys behind the other competitors when they run the softer tires in the 10-lap stage. So you could actually run the soft tire to try and attempt a win of another stage to make sure you're in the 10 lap stage because only 10 cars advanced in the final stage. That's cool. It is. Yeah, so this ought to be pretty good. We'll see how it works out.

I have a random question. If you got to have your choice of where the All-Star Race would be ran, where would it be? If it's not Charlotte. It definitely be Bristol or Martinsville. Okay. I really like those two tracks, short tracks. All-Star Race a million dollars or whatever it pays. I don't even know what the hell the race pays.

It would be pretty neat to see it at a short track. You're going to get some fireworks if you run up there. Let's move on. Drivers need to reconnect with the grassroots race fans per Kyle Larson. He recently said, I feel like everybody needs to encourage me and others to go race at your local short tracks. And all that, because I feel like we've lost touch with our grassroots fans. So Kyle basically just feels like there is a disconnect from those local short tracks and the fan base.

Is that what you're saying? Kyle says that drivers need to reconnect with grassroots fans, the fans that are at the local tracks. So he wants him and other drivers in the Cup series. to connect to the fans that are at the local tracks. Okay. Are there a lot of local tracks around the big tracks still? Yes. Do they still run?

Yes. Yes, there are a lot of local tracks around the big tracks. So why can't that happen? We should go watch one. What? We should go watch one. Yes. You want to go to Hickory?

I've been to Hickory. Do you want to go back? Sure. Okay. I mean like in Pococon. or in Bristol where we are traveling. I know where the short tracks are around our house. We've watched our nieces run.

At Millbridge. Yeah. And we've watched your team, your late model team, win over and over again at Hickory. Yeah. I agree with Larson that it's great for drivers like him, Casey Kane and Kyle Bush to go back to, or to go to local tracks,

the local fans love seeing the big cup stars come to their racetrack and duke it out with the local hero, the track champion. They love that. So I agree with that. Why is it not more common for drivers to race smaller events these days? It probably is... Why isn't it common? Do you not...

I know why this is... I know I can answer this for you. You don't have the time. That's part of it. The money, time. safety, you know, concerns about what kind of car you're going to get in. There's a million reasons, and probably everyone has a different one. Right.

But, yeah, time is probably the biggest problem for everybody in the sport. The sport really gobbles it up. Is it something that we're interested in doing with the Junior Motorsports late models? While I'm still racing in cup, or maybe I'll, you know, is this something? that you think that you see me doing? Yeah, you've talked about, you've always talked about wanting to go back to your days of late model racing at the beach. I absolutely can see that happening.

Maybe not immediately, but later in life, absolutely. Yeah. I think if I still have late models, once I am done racing in the Cubs series, I think if I still have late models, it'll be too enticing to not try it. Yeah, you don't want to do it.

Yeah. And there's two, there's another reason to this. LW experienced this with Wyatt. He wanted his son to see that he was a race car driver. If we have kids, girl or a boy, they're not going to have any idea because by the time they get old enough, sorry, Papal, but you're not going to be racing cars. They just won't have that vision of you and you're going to want to show them what you can do. That's great.

Great point. Yeah. So I think if I don't see myself really going and running anything while I'm driving a couple of car. But yeah, I think I probably would. Yeah, it would be neat. Even for me to see that. Myrtle Beach.

Yeah, so that was something dad and those guys did all the time back in the day. So, and I see this, I see that is very comparable to what Kyle and Casey and Kyle Busch do. It's, you know, they just love to race and love to go and duke it out with those local, local drivers. and the local drivers probably love when they come into town. Yeah. You know, it's an opportunity to sort of measure yourself against somebody that you see racing on Sunday. Because every driver at every local track, you know, they feel like that they can get it done.

Man, I'd love to get out there and race Kyle Bush or Casey Kane. I can beat them. Wasn't that the neatest part? And this is their chance when they come visit their track. But their gusto is the coolest part. Yeah. I think that you lose that. Well, let's move on and talk about Bristol.

Bristol's coming up this weekend. And it's one of my most favorite race tracks, especially as a kid. Yeah. My favorite race to go to as a kid was the Bristol Night Race. Why is that? Well, back in the old days when I was a kid, the infield used to be grass in the corners, and we would park our vans. The family vans.

Yeah, in the corners there was grass. We would park our family vans in the corners, and we would climb up on the back of the van and sit and watch the race, and we were literally 20 yards, 30 yards from the car. And they might spin and wreck in the corners and slide down onto the apron, and you could feel the heat and smell the smoke, and it was so... That's crazy. It's hard to imagine.

Yeah. It was such a great experience. And, you know, you're there with your pals sitting up on. on this van pointing at this and pointing at that and, you know, just something happening. That place is, there's action all the time. Sure. And it's so loud at Bristol. It is.

It is the, and it's so, it blows my mind that nobody's tried to recreate this racetrack anywhere else or anything like it. You know, we went through this long period of time where everybody thought you had to build a mile and a half racetrack, cookie cutter, dog leg mile and a half. You have a lot of those on the circuit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And nobody in Bristol. for a long time was a sellout and nobody tried to recreate it. And it's a small venue,

but also it has... Very tall. So many, you know, seats. Right. You would think that it'd be easier to build than a big mile and a half facility somewhere. It probably is. Right. Yeah. I don't know why nobody's ever tried to build another one. Why don't you build one? Well, I don't have that kind of money. Well... I don't think you would let me write that check anyways. Hopefully you wouldn't. We won the race in 2004. We actually swept the weekend with the Xfinity race and the Cup race. Did you rack it all?

What did your car look like when you got done with that race? Because there's a lot of bumping at Bristol. Not for me. In that race, we lapped all the way up to sixth place. Really? Yes. We had a green flag pit stop during that race. So that's unheard of at Bristol because, like you say, there's so much bumping.

Yeah, nobody's car comes out clean. No. I mean, there might have been a scratch or two on it, but that race, I remember that race because I had been burned in the Corvette that year. And so I had this big open wound on my leg. Yeah. And I was having to wrap it every day, about twice a day, probably. And at one point on that weekend, it was like Friday or Saturday,

I was getting in the car for practice. and I was trying to get my seatbelt tight and one of the crew members came in there to help me and accidentally punched me in my leg. And my, oh my God, did that hurt? I'm hurting for you now. That's awful. It started to just bleed so bad.

And then, so I had it, I had the, to not get too gross here, but I had the wound doing really well. And that set me back, right? I had the wound doing really good. Over the last several, over the weeks before that, I had the wing doing pretty good. Well, that busted it open and it was bleeding like crazy. So I'm changing it out, but it's sore and hurting.

We win the race, and champagne got down inside there in Victory Lane. Burn. Yeah, so I'm standing in Victory Lane during all those pictures, and my leg is on fire because of the champagne going into that. That sounds like a misery. It's a bittersweet moment. It was so bad. But there's something exciting about winning at Bristol, and that's the fact that you drive up on top of a building for the victory lane. Yeah.

They have nowhere else to put you at this point. You need to get up on something. It's a cool victory lane because of that. It is neat. A lot of drivers like to do the little burnouts going up the hill. Anyways, it's an incredible track. My dad won his first race there in 1979. Yes, April 1st, 1979.

He won it on April Fool's Day? Yeah. That was his April Fool's. I don't know why that's funny to me, but it is. That's cool. I was only four at the time. I wasn't, I don't think I was there. Are you sure?

What is the picture that black and white I see of you sit down? That is 19801. Okay, so you're five. That was six. So if I was four, if I was four in 1979. I was born and 82, so you were about. Seven and six. Six or seven.

Yeah. Dad won there nine times. One of the races that I remember most about my father racing at Bristol, I think it was in 1985. He ran the whole race pretty much with no power steering. His power steering pump broke. I don't even know what to ask about that. Yeah, I can tell you you're not impressed.

Well, listen, I've seen you drive a race car without a freaking steering wheel. Well, just for a few seconds. He ran literally 440. lapse of the 500 laps at Bristol with no power steering. And basically, okay, I'll give you an example. You remember we had the golf cart? The golf cart we have is ridiculously hard to drive because... Well, you have to give it a lot of gas to get it to turn.

The steering, though, is real hard? Yes. That's no power steering. Right. Okay. So imagine a 31 or 3,400 pound race car that difficult to drive and you're going fast. Yeah. He was war slam out at the end of that race.

And, you know, he had a lot of moments in his career where he lived up to his reputation as an intimidatingator and a tough guy, and that was one of those races where he checked that box pretty good. What was your first trip to Bristol? You remember? I don't remember my first trip. I don't remember my first trip to a lot of the racetracks, I'll be honest. I remember my first Daytona race, but I don't remember my first Bristol race. But I do remember going there and feeling super overwhelmed by not only the amount of people that come to Bristol, because that's really overwhelming, but how on top of everyone, you almost feel like you are.

Everyone's right on you. And it's because that track is so small. And the way the stands are built up, it almost feels like you're in a football stadium, but way larger. And Lee Greenwood was there. And who doesn't love Lee Greenwood? Yeah, he's there. I think every. And so the whole thing was just, it felt very American.

The entire experience was super cool for me. I think I may have cried when Lee Greenwood played. Yeah. Well, it's a convenient 20-minute flight up on race day. Yeah. Very quick. I do enjoy the drive there, which I don't know if you've ever drove. I've never driven to Bristol, but I typically just go on race day because it is so close.

I have to drive there one day just so you can experience the windy roads. Well, honey, we need a lot of road trips. There's a lot of fun road trips we need to do, and that's probably... We'll drive the Bristol this year. At the top of the list. Okay. All right. We'll drive up there and then make TJ drive it home.

How about that? All right, so let's move on to our favorite part of the podcast, the Ask Junior Questions. All the fans, thanks for sending in all your questions for this week. We really enjoyed these last week, and these are going to be a lot of fun as well. All right, I want to ask you the first one. Hold on. We compiled these from Twitter using the hashtag Ask Junior. So, as always, send in your questions throughout the week, and we'll get to them.

But go ahead. All right. So I'm going to ask Dale his questions. Dale, at Skel, Texas. She wants to know, should NASCAR consider running a cup race at Eldora? I think it would be great. I do. Eldora is a dirt track that they run the truck race on.

It's been very exciting. to watch the trucks run there. One of the fun things about it is some of the real, real good dirt racers around the country get an opportunity to jump in a truck and compete against stock car drivers, but on their turf. So it's kind of like what Kyle Larson wants. It's kind of like that. Yeah. So I love this.

So I love this. Yes, I love this. Let's go. Let's go race cup. The car probably wouldn't get around there too well, but we'd figure it out. It'd be fun. All right, so the next question is, what is a band? And this is a bad question because this is easy to answer,

and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. But what is a band that Dale likes, but Amy detests, and vice versa? What band do you play all the time that I just... Well, they're ever... No, no, no. Just choose another one, honey. You got a couple that you play over and over and over again, and it's not because I hate the band.

I just... Okay, okay. Who's the band that I play all the time that you don't like? Man. You play a lot of the Hansen brothers. I do not. Yes, you do. I hear oombop coming out of the bathroom all the time.

You're making lies. Stop it. That is not true. No, it is not true. Don't tell people that. Now you got me singing that crap. What about, you like angels and airwaves. I play them a lot.

I love angels. Listen, we all have our. moments of detest, but it's only because somebody plays something over and over. Too much. We like a lot of the same music. Dale, this one's for you again. Can I ask it? Yeah, sure.

Okay. If you could listen to music in the race car, what would you listen to? Well, just recently, we're going to feature a song from this band later in the podcast, The Dangerous Summer. I've been listening to them a lot. Right. We got to meet AJ and Fontana. Yes, AJ came to Fontana. We talked about that a couple podcasts ago, but I would probably listen to the Dangerous Summer Pandora station.

And one of the bands that I hear a lot on that station that I've actually also really got to like is the Wonder Years. Right. They have a song called There, There. It's so freaking good. So that's what I listen to. Okay. And that's some charged up rock. You know, that's kind of what you need to be doing.

But it's chill charged. It's not anything that's going to make you spike. No. Not ever do it. Right. Okay. So I'm going to ask, this is for Amy Lee. Lee Ann, 23.

She wants to know where you're still doing interior design. Only in my mind. I miss interior design. I do a lot of projects of things that we were doing around. our vacation homes and things like that. But professionally, no, I was asked by my husband years ago to come on the road and not work because he needed me. So that's the reason I'm not working. She did.

You did work. I did a lot of things residentially for some drivers. But that was only because it was convenient. It was hard to convince you to give up working. Well, I was working in commercial design. So that's totally different. I wasn't a decorator. I was working, doing construction drawings and really, really cool, fun stuff. So I miss it and he needed me, so that's why I'm not working at the moment.

So Antiques I Love asks, Dale, what was your first impression of Amy and Amy? What was your first impression of Dale? So my first impression was that I was looking at the most beautiful one ever seen in my life. I can say that with all sincerity because as soon as I saw it. you, I was like, holy cow, who is this? When I first met Dale, it was in a meeting, ironically, about his home, which I was part of the design group, and we had a meeting at JR Motorsports, and I was on the floor underneath his dog killer, who was loving all over me, and Dale actually had to pull the dog off of me to pull me up off the floor to say hello and introduce himself.

So my first impression of Dale was he's a gentleman and wow, your hair is not as red as I thought I was going to make. Is that it? Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I always get you're shorter than I thought. Yeah. I get that too. It's really interesting to meet celebrities in general because of what you think they might look like based on what you see on TV.

Yeah. It's cool. Yeah, you are shorter. Oh, gosh. Diane. Diana. Journal? Jernel.

Jernel. She wants to know what was your favorite or most relaxing thing to do when you're at home for us. What is our favorite and or most relaxing thing we like to do? When we're at home. I mean the couch. Yeah, we're couch potatoes. We are. I like to cook.

I really like to be in the kitchen. And mostly it's because I like to eat well. Yeah. We record a lot of shows. We do record a lot of shows. So when we get home, we sit and go through our list of shows, but we... What are some of those? Oh, um...

We watch a lot of Bravo. Everyone knows that. Yep. Southern Charm. Vanderpuff Rules. All of the housewife shows. Well, I only liked Atlanta. I like them all.

I watch all of them. He sometimes will fall asleep in my lap while I'm watching some of my shows. But we cook and we nap and we work out. I feel like I'm pretty boring people. Oh, below deck. Yeah. We haven't watched that in a while. That one's coming out soon, I think.

Yeah, we're boring. We sit on the couch and we eat just like everybody else. What's the next question? All right, for this for you, Amy. Ant Carfan 88 wants to know what is the most annoying thing that Dale does. I think I know what it is. Okay, then you answer. Leaves the toilet seat up when he flushes the toilet.

Yeah. Is that it? Yeah. Well, no. There's nothing more annoying than that. No, there's something more annoying. What? You never, ever put your cat back on a bottle of water.

Oh, my gosh. If something gets spilled, it's because it's... Stales drink. And we have dogs that jump all over our couches where those people, our dogs are in your face on the couch. So you're just like a lid person. Like it's caps and tall-and-seats. Toil-s drink is whose. Tollet lids, bottle caps.

Oh, yeah. You're just, you like things contained. You like things shut and contained. Yes. Okay. Man, you just totally read me. So barbecue dock, O-24. He's asking me if someone recognized you in Polaro,

how do you want them to act? Is it cool for them to come over and say hello? This is a great question. Yeah. Because it depends on the situation, so that's real hard for a fan. But please. I love for people to say, hey. And I like for people to say, you know, if this is all true, you know, good job or good luck. Been a big fan, big fan of your dads, hear that a lot. That always makes you feel good. Is it ever awkward for you when someone comes up and says, my grandmother was a giant fan? Can I have your photo? I don't, I think about the grandmother. And I'm like, yeah, because this is going to make grandma happy.

Right. You know, so my mind goes to. Straight to grandma. Yeah. So I'm like, sure, great. This is going to trip grandma out. Yeah, I think it's. I always think that's funny.

Yeah. I like it. I don't shy away from it or. Or, you know, when we go out to eat or whatever, we don't hide me. Is it weird though when someone stares at you? Uh, yeah. Like, any, I don't think anyone likes to be stared at. I know why people do this.

It can be creepy. Well, there's no one is doing that to try to be creepy. They're just too intimidated or scared or like, you shouldn't bother them. Should I bother him? Should I bother him. And then they get the courage up. And you're like, you could have done that 20 minutes ago. So people just come over and say hello.

Yeah. That's what Doe likes. I like it. All right. There's, we got two more. So you can go, you can go ask that to. All right, okay, these are all for Dale. Can you explain how you came up with the name Hammerhead?

The Hammerhead Entertainment. Yes. So this is the name of my production company that we own, Hammerhead Entertainment. And my dad's nickname when he raced was Ironhead. and he got that nickname, I believe, from his family or his father. Ralph? Yep. He got it because he was hardheaded like an animal.

So, Ironhead, right? When I was a little kid, his buddies would joke that Dad's Hammerhead or Dad's Ironhead, and I'm Hammerhead. Because you were equally hardheaded. Right. So Hammerhead is just a term when Dad would call me Hammerhead, like quit being a hammerhead. Hammerhead rolls off the tongue pretty easily. Yeah.

If I would do something, like if I was being... facetious. No, if I was being, you know, if I was like, oh, I'll show you or no, I'm not doing that. He'd go, all right, hammerhead. And so I really love the fact that he had a nickname for me. You know, every father... It was almost a term of endearment for you that he called you hammered because he was Ironhead. Yep.

I felt connected to him in some way. So that's why we use that name, Hammerhead Entertainment. If you see the logo, that's me. That is his little cute face. That's me. It is about a four or five-year-old. So we got one last question. This one's from Paul Songus.

Sorry, Paul. Songus. He just murdered your last name. My gosh. Song as. Maybe it's not its last name. Maybe it isn't. So does it bother you that the number eight has been unused in the Cuppar Xfinity for so many years?

I mean, thought about it. I wish that I could still be number eight. I have really enjoyed racing the 88. It was an honor for me to be able to use that number, considering the history that that number has. If I could have taken the eight with me, I certainly would have liked to have done that. There's a lot of tattoos that wanted you to take that with you.

It stayed at DEI, and, yeah, unfortunately, it's not being used right now. Maybe our son could use it. Uh, yeah. Maybe at that point in light, we can take it back. We're not going to encourage. Well. You know, hopefully he becomes a lawyer or a dentist or a doctor. That would be great.

Going back to that Goodyear commercial, which you're born with is what you're born to do, right? Yeah. That's funny. All right. So that's our asked junior questions. Thank you, everybody, for writing in. That's so much fun, especially with Amy.

Not as fun with Tyler, but. So let's do our looking ahead. All right, we're getting ready to go back to work. So I got a few more days off. But Thursday, we got a Mountain Dew production. I'm assuming that's going to be over a little hammerhead entertainment. It will. We also have a Mother's Day project for ESPN that's going to be a lot of fun to do.

Does Brenda get to do that with you? It's actually a surprise to Brenda what I'm doing. Sorry. That's fine. I mean, obviously it's for- No, you didn't ruin a surprise. It's for Mother's Day. so mom knows that it's going to be for her,

but what I'm doing, I can't tell. Okay. Friday, I'm going to an elementary school in Tennessee, on behalf of Unilever and Dollar General, to read to elementary students. I did this in Talladega, that movie town. That movie town. It should be a movie town.

I did that in Talladega last year and had a blast. Are you going to go with me? Yeah, I would love to go. All right. You are very, very good at reading a loud. He's done that to me. He's actually read books aloud for me in the bus. This is what we do sometimes.

Yeah. I read aloud. He reads aloud to me. Yeah. I do like reading to you. So that's going to be a lot of fun. So thank you Unilever and Dollar General. I enjoy going to the schools and promoting reading to the kids.

We also have practice at Bristol on Friday and qualifying as well. It's at 445 Eastern on Fox Sports One. Saturday we have two practices. The Xfinity race is at 1 p.m. Eastern on Fox Sports 1. It's a dash for cash race. Justin Algar won the first dash for cash race at Phoenix. He sure did. That's a big deal for these.

That was super cool. And Justin's such a cool guy. Yeah, he and his wife both are so sweet. He realizes how critical that dash for cash is to the team. That's a huge bonus for us as a company. Not only is he a team player. He's a really, really, really important guy to J.R. Motors, because of how he feels not only about his team, but his family and the sponsorship relationship

he has. Yeah, it's great. So pretty awesome. Hopefully one of our guys can grab that dash for cash. Speaking of Xfinity, we just announced the details regarding Junior Motorsports fan day at our shop in Mooresville, North Carolina for May 26th. That's fun. Yep.

They'll be signing. We'll be signing at 11 a.m. that day with Michael Annette, our late model driver's Josh Barry and Anthony Alf. Fredo. Our other extended drivers, Elliot Sattler, Justin Algar, and William Byron will be signing the same day as well. So fans, go to junior or go to jrmracing.com slash fan day. JRM racing.R.M.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.R.S.com slash fan day for more info. And to sign up for a wristband for the autograph session. So we have so many folks come out that we have to kind of.

That's cool. So you do a random lottery then. Yeah. We'd love to get to everybody. But it is, we do have a lot of stuff. Yeah, we do a random lottery to choose the wristbands. That way fans, you know. Nobody has to camp out. Yeah, they don't have to camp out anything like that. I gotcha. But there's a ton of stuff that actually goes on at Fanday.

There's a lot of things out in the parking lot. A lot of our partners come out and set up. There's food trucks and all kinds of fun stuff. Spies there. Everybody sets up little kiosks. Yeah, it's really fun. It's almost like a mini festival. It's like a mini-racing festival.

is what it's like. And it's gotten bigger and bigger every year. Yeah. If you don't get a wristband, still come out. There'll be a lot of stuff for the fans to check out. I'm also trying to talk Tyler into doing a live podcast. That would be so fun. Yeah.

I think it'd be great. I'm going to set that up. So the fans that, you know, again, the fans that don't have a wristband or the ones that are standing in line waiting for their autograph for whatever driver. That would be super cool. You can actually watch a live. You need to do that. You need to do that.

I think it would be fun. We get some fans, questions out there and do all kinds of fun things with that. Can I bring Gus? Of course. Yeah. I'll bring the dogs.

Bring the dogs. Then Sunday, can't forget about that. We've got a race, and it starts at 2 p.m. Eastern on Fox, not on Fox Sports One on the Big Fox. Before that, though,

we got a Mountain Dew pre-raced tailgate Q&A appearance. That's at 1130 a.m. For info on how to attend that, visit bristol motors speedway.com. It's a Mountain Dew pre-raced tailgate Q&A appearance. So coming out, side of the racetrack, 1130, going to do a Q&A.

Come on out there, right before the race. So that's the show. So what you think? Did you like hosting? I loved hosting. You talked a little bit about maybe having your own podcast. I am hoping to do that with one of my girlfriends. We have a lot of ideas.

and just trying to lock down a name, and we have a producer and everything, so we really are... Really? You're moving along on this. So what's your podcast potentially going to be? It's going to be more geared towards just things girls talk about over brunch or lunch or whatever we do.

Yeah. And for the most part, it will be just funny stories. Girls, when we get together, that's what we talk about, all the funny things that happen. Just like a conversation y'all have at brunch. Pretty much. Okay.

And do you have a name? I do have a name. Oh, you don't want to say? I don't know if I can. Okay. I don't know if my partner would want me to do that. Why? Who's your partner?

My partner's Sarah Bundy. Gosh. I mean, in her name, just fun to say. Sarah is an amazing friend. She... Spilling it all. You're telling tales. Is going to be a really funny co-host,

and I hope everybody enjoys our... But we are not going to be PG. We are not going to worry about what we say. Okay. Well, I hope you get that going. The Dale Jr. download and all DirtyMoe Radio podcast are made possible by Exaltza. You can subscribe to all eight podcasts programs on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, and all major podcasting outlets. As always, you can listen to DirtyMoe Radio podcast on Dell Jr.com.

Find us all on social media at Dale. Jr. Overstreet Tyler, Amy Earnhardt, and Dirty Moe Radio on Twitter. Also check out the Dirty Mo Radio Facebook page. Thanks to my co-hosts this week, Amy, Tyler Overstreet, is the producer of this program. Today's theme song, Miles Apart, is by the Dangerous Summer, courtesy of Hopeless Records. Thanks for listening to Dirty Moe Radio.