The Dale Jr. Download - 175 - Hitting the Reset Button

Episode Date: May 23, 2017

After a disappointing run in the All-Star Race, Dale Jr. discusses the No. 88 team's next move as they return to Charlotte Motor Speedway for the World 600. Junior also talks about how he and Kyle Busch have gone from on-track enemies to friends. 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.

Before we start the show, I just want to take a moment to remember a friend of the motorsports community, Nikki Hayden. He died this week at the age of 35. He was born on July 30, 1981, and was a very successful motorcycle racer and just an all-around incredible guy. He'll be missed, and our thoughts go out to the Hayden family, and all Nikki's friends that he made all across the globe. This is Dale Jr., and you're listening to Dirty Moe Radio. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back for another episode of the Dale Jr. download with me always is my co-host and editor and producer.

And decent friend. Decent. Yeah, I can't give you all the credit. Okay, well, that was enough. Tyler Overstreet. Hello. So, we got a good show today? Yeah.

I see your show. We've got a heck of a crowd. Yeah, there's lots of folks out here. Appreciate everybody for showing up. It's Charlotte Week, so everybody's in town to see the races over the next couple of weeks, and we get quite a bit of traffic here at the gift shop over at Junior Motorsports. It was great to see everybody this morning. So let's get the show started.

All right, so we do the post-race periscopes every week. If you don't know what Periscope is, you can download it if you have a Twitter account. Do you have a Twitter account? You do it, right? Yeah. Well, Periscope basically is something we've been doing post-race. We talked a lot about, it's a great way, I think, for us to talk to the fans after the races and kind of let them know exactly what we're thinking right after the finish.

Right. It's kind of like a podcast because you're controlling your message. Good point. And putting it out there. So we talked a little bit about the All-Star Race in our Periscope. Once we got to the house, it was not a very good night for us. We finished 18th. We didn't use our green tires.

Yeah. Were you surprised or would it have mattered? It might not have mattered. I don't think it mattered. Our car wasn't very good. We unloaded on Friday. And the first thing out of Greg's mouth was, we're four-tenths off the pace. So what's going on what we need to work on?

The car was really, really uncomfortable. And, you know, we tried to work on it. We had one particular run in practice that actually was pretty good speed-wise. but and that surprised me because I thought that that was going to be, you know, how the car drove in the race. But it didn't drive very good in the race. We struggled all night. There wasn't a middle or top groove for anyone to try or work on. They had, this is something that I don't think a lot of people know.

They put some, that THC. VHT. VHT, sorry. Like Bristol. Yeah. That sticky stuff, they put it on the bottom groove at Charlotte. But I noticed when I noticed when I was out there on a racetrack that there was some stain, there was some stain around turn one and two.

And then, so this stain mark around the bottom of the track, when you got off a turn two, the stain mark actually turned around and came back the other way. And it was like somebody was driving this pattern over and over and over and over and over. And I'm thinking they've put something on this racetrack. that's the only explanation for it. In both ends though, right? I couldn't see the stain in three and four,

but I talked to some Charlotte Merchbyway officials, and they confirmed to me that they did put that down on the racetrack in the bottom groove, and that's why that track was a one-grew racetrack. Did they say what the logic was? They did not. Oh, maybe they didn't know. They're like, hey, this worked at Bristol. Right.

I mean, that's what I think I'm very confused about is, and this is no excuse for how he ran. Right, yeah. Actually, the race was described as kind of boring. Yeah. It was definitely one groove. There was no middle or high side for anybody to use. Well, especially the All-Star race, not the open was okay.

Yeah, was it? Yeah, it was pretty good. They had a couple good moments in there. Yeah. And I've always talked about how this track race is better during the day when the sun's up. And I think that's going to be the case when we go back there. in the fall because we do run that race during the afternoon, the Charlotte race, the cup race.

So anyhow, we've struggled with this racetrack at night being a single groove track, the bottom groove, the temperature of the track, surface actually goes down. That increases grip. The grip's going to be better when the track's cooler. And so everybody goes to the bottom. That's the fastest way around the track. A guy can't, you know, your guy just can't make the time up on the top side. In the daytime, when the track's really, really slick and hot,

the guy can use the top and actually be a little faster than the guy's running the bottom, particularly as the run goes on, his tires wear. So I don't know why. I don't know whose idea it was to put this sticky substance on the bottom groove that's already going to be dominant. It just really blew my mind. So what if they would have put it maybe in like the upper third? Well, that's a good point you bring up because yesterday,

after, I guess, hearing from drivers or people like myself, they began to apply this to the top groove. Oh. Yeah. So now, not only is it on the bottom or whatever's left of it from the race, they're also going to put it on the top. But the top will be a fresher coat. Yeah. So we'll see how that works out. I don't expect it to, I would love for it to improve the top groove and make that really an opportunity.

you know in the race because I like to run up there anyways it just suits suits my style pretty much at any racetrack that has a high groove I like to go up there and see if I can get it to work but I was I mean I was so confused but anyways that's really no excuse for how bad we ran we had a terrible night I don't want to you know it's not a lot of fun to talk about we talked about it quite a bit after the periscope on the periscope after the race lane and and I guess people want to know, I guess if as a fan, people want to know, what are we going to do? What's going to be different going back, right?

We don't take the same car back. Obviously, you know, we're sponsored by Exhaughton, All-Star Race, sponsored by Nationwide and the 600. So they already have the other car ready and going across the setup plate and prepared for the 600. And so we go out there and we run like we did. Jimmy ran really good. So our setups are actually quite different, a lot different. From the front of the car to the back, it's a little bit different. Greg says it's mainly a lot of stuff on the front end of the car is quite a bit different.

So we'll, after the race, after the All-Star race, I talked to Greg Sunday morning, We talked quite a bit. We're basically going to take our 600 car, put it back on a set-up plate, go all the way through it, put it just like Jimmy ran in the All-Star Race, and start from there. Now, this is a bit, this is not uncommon. I mean, it's kind of tough to sort of go away from what you want to do and what your ideas are to do something exactly, you know, just sort of be a carbon copy of your teammate. But when your teammate runs really well, that's what they're for, you know, that's what your teammates are there for to use that information. So Greg's not too proud, neither am I, to see something that's working and try it. We're going to start just like Jimmy ran in the All-Star race.

I'm sure Jimmy and No and Chad, they've already made a few changes beyond that to their car. Right, yeah. They're always, you know, trying to improve. So he's not going to go exactly like he was Saturday night because he didn't win the race. He's going to make a few adjustments there. So the great thing about having your teammates, them being so transparent that we know everything they're doing and they know everything we're doing is that if we go to the racetrack pretty similar at least, if not the same, then the drivers can communicate throughout the weekend. I can go to Jimmy. I'll talk to him this week and I'll say, what are the sensations you're feeling?

I feel this. What did y'all do to try to fix that? and since our setups are really going to be similar, and this is something we've done in the past, and you try to do, we'll be able to really lean on them more. If our setups are completely different, then a lot of things that I want to try on my car aren't going to work.

A lot of things he's trying on his car aren't going to work on my car and so forth because the setups are completely different theories. So this will really... So it's a bit of a reset. It's basically, yeah, it's big time. reset. Mashing the reset button. I'm a bit more, I'm a bit more positive about the potential to run well this weekend than I was post-race Saturday night. I was pretty disappointed and not sure exactly what, you know, what to be excited about as far as going back. But after talking

to Greg and talking to Jimmy a little bit and we'll talk more this week. we're going to have a lot of practice, a lot of opportunity to really work on the car. For the All-Star race, we unloaded out in left field, and you only got an hour, hour and a half to fix it. So we ran out of time. We didn't get our car. We didn't have enough practice for us to really understand how to fix our car, and that showed up in the race. For this weekend, we'll have many hours of practice and opportunities to, breaks in between to really sort of go over the data and try to make some improvement.

so oh man it's going to be a long race if we don't run any better than we did this past weekend but I'm anticipating it to be a little bit better hopefully we can get up in there mix it up and that's that's about all I can tell you as far as trying to give the fans an idea of how things are going to be different Charlotte's always been a very tough track for us especially since the repave Greg's look back you know we were talking about the last four or five years we really don't have any of those races really don't stand out as events where we ran great. And so it's not like, you know, we ran awesome at Texas. We had a very real fast car at Kansas. Those are mile and a halfs. But Charlotte, the things that work at all the other mile and a half

don't seem to work at Charlotte. Charlotte's a really, really rough racetrack. And it's a bit of a, it's kind of a bit of anomaly. You know, you almost got to treat a railroad course, you know, like it's going to have, you're going to do things to the car at Charlotte that you won't do at Texas or that you won't work at Kansas. And some of the things that work there

don't work at Charlotte. So we sort of got to get out of our mind frame of what we typically do at the mile and a half to get our car to work at Charlotte because the things that we're trying that worked everywhere else are not working. So you kind of got to treat treat this racetrack like it's completely different than the other mile and a halfs,

and hopefully that approach is going to help us this weekend. So let's talk about, you know, the All-Star race, people were underwhelmed about it. It complained about clean air. The drivers complained a lot about clean air. A lot of the guys talked about moving the race to a different track. There's tons of debate. Some people say, you know, it's a short track format. Go to short tracks and race there.

Jeff Burton says we ought to go to South Boston and race it. South Boston. Well, he's a big South Boston fan. Oh, he's from South Boston. Yeah, that's where he started his career. No doubt it would be an exciting race if you took it to any short track. Yeah. I know it would be pretty awesome to see the All-Star event.

For a million bucks at Bristol, you're going to see some action. I'd probably pay to go see that, actually. Don't be surprised if they move it. Don't be surprised. Like next year? Don't be surprised. I don't know when. I'm just saying don't say.

Bruton and Marcus on Bristol Motor Speedway. That would probably be the track that's top of the list of everybody that wants to move the event. Bristol as well needs a bit of a shot in the arm as far as attendance goes. So don't be surprised if they move it there. I haven't heard anything, but... That would be cool. It would be cool. One thing, though, that does not fix the issues of Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The races there have been overwhelming. It doesn't help when you make the bottom groove even stickier. So they shot themselves in the foot a little bit there. And they can't repave that racetrack. I mean, that's just too much of an undertaking. If anything, they need to try to figure out a way to accelerate the aging process of the asphalt, especially around the bottom of the racetrack. If you look at this racetrack, it was repaved in 2004, 2006.

All right, look at that track. When was Kansas repaved? 2012. Look at the difference in the color of the asphalt, Kansas and Charlotte. Charlotte looks like it's brand new. It's still dark and it's not aging. Kansas, on the other hand, is very, very light gray. It's aged very well.

We run from the top to the bottom of the racetrack. That is sort of the standard of what you want in your racetrack surface as it ages and improves, and the racing improves. Charlotte's surface will not age. And the reason why is it was the first racetrack they repaved with rubber polymers in the mix. So instead of crushed she shell or rocks, they used rubber to create this asphalt, and that's the first racetrack they repaved with that type of technology. Is it the only?

No, they've done every track ever since. Oh. But maybe they, apparently, it's obvious that they've learned to. back that ratio out a little bit, not so much rubber polymers in there. But whatever it is they did to Charlotte, it is too good. And I really don't know, you know, I'm not an expert in asphalt, but they need to make a, they need to make some changes somehow, some way to get that track to race a little better. I think racing it during a day is a good, is a good move in the right direction. Does that check every box?

Probably not, because, you know, the surface is just too, too grippy. But it is getting rough. It's very rough, which is a good thing. You want that kind of character in the racetrack. So we are running the race in the fall during the day, as I said earlier. So we'll see how that turns out. Seems like the day races do look a little bit better. Kyle Busch wins the All-Star race.

Yeah, and after we were driving home and we read the tweet where apparently his crew chief said, Donuts to the right. Yes, donuts to the right. That is not like Krispy Cream or Duncan. No. And Donuts to the right basically means that he wants his guy to, obviously, you know, when he celebrates,

to celebrate in a particular direction so that if needed, it sort of resets the car to where it will roll through the LIS machine. Yeah. And this does not mean that they're cheating. Right. Everybody knows how inconsistent the LIS machine is. All his crew chief may be doing is say,

if you're going to do any burnouts, do it this way. Right. So that LIS machine doesn't screw us over. Right. Or they could be. They could have some things in the rear end that are moving around that he wants to make sure are set to where, when it passes, when it goes to the LIS machine, it passes.

Another thing people were complaining about on Twitter was there was a picture of his car in Victory Lane, and you could see that one of the lug nuts was distinctly loose. Yeah. Where, like, they did the pit stops, then made everybody come back down pit road for a lug nut check. So people are like, well, how is that lug nut loose? And you didn't say anything. But then I also read that for the All Star Race, you only had to have three tight. So it's like a different rule every week because usually you have to have five tight or you get.

in trouble. But obviously you're not going to suspend somebody for or find them for a lug nut violation in the All-Star race, I would assume. Why not? I don't know. I mean, it's not for points. They should just have to have it if they're not all tight, put them to the back. That's what I think.

I don't think you should find them for the All-Star Race. Why not? The race is gimmicky enough. I mean, rules are rules. I think they should be straight across the board, enforced. consistently. That's real frustrating. From my point of view,

I'm sure it's frustrating from anyone else's point of view to learn really after the fact that there's different rules for different races. Right, which I read that on Twitter. You would just assume that the rules are the same all the time.

In particular, those type of rules. You know, that's really on NASCAR to be consistent. To be more consistent. consist. I mean, it's pretty, pretty... I mean, it was pretty obvious that it was loose, but it is what it is. Yeah.

He still made the pass to win the race. It wasn't like... He did not win because of that. I know that, but let's not minimize the rule in the violation. Take Kyle out of it. I'm just saying, this is a rule. Yeah. It's been a rule. Yeah. They should, if you're going to enforce it, just enforce the damn rule. Yeah. What the hell?

I don't like how, you know, they decide. win and where and how severe it seems like on a limb. I don't like the precedent stuff like that sets. Because then you can be like, oh, well, last time you didn't say anything. Yeah. Well. Speaking of Kyle Bush, you posted on Instagram the picture of you and him Friday in your bus after he delivered you some new caramel M&Ms, which are phenomenal.

Yeah. And people lost their damn minds. So people lost their minds that we hang out. Yeah, they're friends. Why are you friends with Kyle? Yeah. Well, one time, me and Kyle were actually, there's been a couple instances where we just like to do things to mess with people.

One time we almost, we talked about swapping spots during driver's intros one time. I remember that. He at least got to the door, but then he came back. Pretended like he was going to go out there. Yeah. There's been, yeah, and there's been a couple times where we've had some good long conversations about our companies, him running the truck series, us running an Xfinity series. We face some of the same challenges, and we're actually only about a mile and a half from each other. Our shops are.

We talk a lot about, you know, kind of the things we're doing to, you know, to stay alive and to survive in the sport. So we've, in those conversations, you know, Kyle, he'll come, I'm a big fan of M&Ms. Who isn't? Yeah. So, you know, there's been times when he's, you know, I've leaned on him to get me some M&Ms. And the caramails came out. So I saw they were doing something on social media and I said, hey, man, send me a case of those if you can. Being the guy he is, like, no problem.

He brings them over to the bus, sets down on the couch. We's talking a little bit, having fun. He's telling me about his truck series stuff and how fast they were that weekend. And then this video of Shaq playing basketball in a pickup game, I guess, against some smaller guys, much smaller guys.

Obviously, everybody's smaller in Shaq. And Shaq's pushing them around, throwing them across the floor and dunking on them. And me and Kyle decided to take a video of that and if Kyle won the truck race that I was going to post that that this is what Kyle looks like in the truck series picking on the little guys and so we have we kind of have fun with that and my what I like the most about it is that nobody can read Kyle's comments none of my fans can read Kyle's comments because he's blocked them all

and a lot of people a lot of his fans might not be able to read my comments because maybe got a block a few of them. So me and him will start talking about things, you know, and get a couple, get a little bit of a thread going on Twitter. And the comments from the fans are, can anybody read Kyle's comments? I can't read Kyle's comments. I think Kyle has me blocked, and it's just a bunch of that, which is pretty funny. You know, we used to, yeah, we used to hate each other.

No doubt about it. It was, I think Kyle thought when we came over to Hendrick that we pushed him out or we We were taking over his ride. One of the things, you know, I told Rick when I came over there to drive at HMS that he should keep Kyle. Between Casey Mears and Kyle, I said, you know, looking at the numbers and the statistics, that I think you should keep Kyle. So we, you know, but I don't think Kyle knows that, that I was sort of in his corner to stay at the team. I think Kyle thinks I came in there. A couple of other things happened.

Obviously the Richmond wreck. Well, way before that. If you look back before that, I wrecked him off a turn two at Kansas in the season, his last season. And then me and him got in it. And that was after y'all had wrecked at Texas and you got in his car. Yeah. So, yeah, I ran into vacuum off a turn to it, Texas. We got into it at Homestead in the final race of the season.

We had a little incident coming on the pit road that he thought was my fault. And so we was chasing each other around the racetrack at Homestead with our crew chiefs begging both of us to quit being idiots. And it was just, it culminated. in us really kind of hating each other for several years. But I think getting married and him having kids has certainly changed him a bit. He's a lot more pleasant guy to be around. Yeah, he always seems very nice. He is super nice.

So anyways, yeah, we get along pretty good. And I think that's fun to play off of because our fans definitely do not like, you know, his fans don't like me. My fans don't like him. And so we have a little fun with that from time to time. Now, moving forward to the 600 this week, obviously it was your very first start. You've had several close misses as far as winning that race.

Close misses. Close misses. Yeah. Is there one that sticks out? I mean, obviously the one where you ran out of gas. You know, that's another thing is not fun to talk about. Close misses. Close calls.

Close misses. I don't, you know, it's those ones, it's those races that got away. Yeah, we've had some opportunities to win races there. It just doesn't work out. Probably the one where we were leading, going into turn three and ran out of gas in 2011 with Steve. That was going to be an incredible win had we got there so close. Flat tire while leading in 2008, running into top, so it didn't really hurt the car too bad. But then Yaley in the 96 ran in the back of us in just.

destroyed the back of the car. We stayed out in one, finished fifth on fuel mileage that race, which is a great strategy by Tony Uri, Jr. In 2000, as a rookie, we won the pole. Yeah. Set the track record.

We led 175 laps. Kansas won the race. After a lengthy rain delay, we ended up fourth. That was a fast car. That was the week after we won the All-Star race. So, we finished third in 2015.

We stretched a fuel run to the finish. Yeah, that was the one where you'd ran like fourth or fifth, and then something happened, and you got shuffled out, and then y'all pitted again, and then somehow Biffel and Edwards got ahead of you, and then it just went like 70 laps green, and we couldn't get back by them. The 600 is an incredible event unique because of the mileage.

There's no other race that I know of in stock car racing that's beyond 500 miles. It's at Charlotte where we grew up. We're going to this racetrack ever since we were a little kid. So this is a very special race for me and would love to take a trophy home from Charlotte. So we have a lot of things going on, obviously, with the Charlotte weekend.

We have, you know, the fans are in town. Everybody's here to see the race. We have a big day coming up. at Junior Motorsports. Friday. Friday. Fan Day. So fan day, try to explain to people what fan day is.

Like if you're going to try to tell a guy why he needs to come out to fan day, what is he going to see? What's going to be at the shop here? All of our podcasts will be recording. There will be two autograph sessions. Wait a podcast are going to be recording. What does that look like? There's going to be a stage out front.

Right now the weather looks good for Friday. So there's going to be a stage out front. Kelly's show will be out there. there. Door bumper clear will be out there. These people can watch this live. Yep, you can come out. It'll be in the cul-de-sac right out front. There'll be a bunch of sponsor displays. We're going to be out there.

What are sponsor displays? Like what is this? Like Hunt Brothers Pizza has this van and they make pizza. I don't know if they're coming this year, but you get free pizza. Okay. Nationwide will bring a show car. They usually have a simulator car that kids can race, adults can race if you want them to race that. So all the sponsors will have like little kiosks out there and the fans can be doing

giveaways and educating people on what their products are. Some free stuff? Yes, free stuff. You want some free stuff? I think fans might. Yeah. So there's also an autograph session or a couple different autograph sessions, right? Yep.

The first one is you, Michael Annette, Anthony Alfredo, and Josh Berry, our late model guys. The second one is our other three Xfinity guys, William Beyer and Elliott Sadd or Justin Algar. We did the lottery for those, though. Right. That's already chosen. Yeah, just to make it fair. because that way you don't have people needing to camp out for two days, which happened whenever we had Danica that camped out for two days,

and that was rough. Yeah. So we'll have the autograph sessions. We're going to have all the podcasts, like we said. Sirius XM Radio will be out here all day, Chocolate Myers and I think Jim Noble, I'm not sure. So there will be a lot of stuff going on. Me and you will be out there on that stage doing our podcast.

We're going to make a little announcement, too. It's actually not a little announcement. It's a big announcement. So that'll be cool. And then we're going to have all the JRM guys on our show. So it'll be fun. Great. Are you prepared?

Yeah. What do you mean? Am I prepared? For the show? Yeah. You got questions dialed up? It's not Friday yet. Oh, God.

I've got some time, man. Okay. Today is Tuesday. I know. Tyler, the 23rd. We got a few days to get ready. So. Also, did you know, there's a story?

discount? Yeah, I was going to ask you if you were going to talk about this. I will talk about it. Okay. If you go up to the front counter here at the Junior Nation retail store and mention the code DMR 15, you will get 15% off your purchase. That is now through May 28th. So the code is DMR 15 and you get 15% off your purchase. 15%. 15. D.R. D.M.R. 15. D.M.R. 15.m. Radio 15.

Yeah. All right, man. Well, that sounds pretty cool. Fifteen percent off your purchase. If they come to the recording of the podcast any Tuesday, they also get that discount, no? Yes. Right. Unless Kathy tells them no. But it says this applies now through May 28th. Yeah. That's next week. or that's Sunday. But if they come any Tuesday, so it's going to apply beyond May 20th.

There's usually a Dale Jr. Download Tuesday discount. Ah, that's because it must be different. Yeah. It may be. It might just be a different code. Maybe it's DJD 15. I don't know.

Make up your own code. Yeah. Just say I have a code. If they say DMR 20, does that get them a 20% discount? That does not. It does not. It's just DMR 15. They were not happy with you last week.

50. No, DMR 15. Oh. 1 5.15%. All right. So come check us out Friday. There'll be stuff going on all day. I'm going to be here for a good little chunk of time from 11 until about three, right?

We're doing the autograph session and then our little podcast recording out front, which is going to be fun, fun, fun. It's going to be fun. Bring your sunscreen, though. I'm in the shade. You said we're at the cul-de-sac under the tree. Well, I might want to be under the tree. Mike Davis is looking at me like, wait.

I put a little bit of sunblock on. Oh, Mike says now we're not under the shade. We're not? They must have changed the map. It's going to be so hot. Mike. Oh, Mike can't talk. Mike.

There's no shade? There is shade. I don't know where the cul-de-sac under the tree thing happened. Well, where did that come from? Shops at a cul-de-sac, and there's a tree right on. We're not under a tree. There is a tree. There's a big tree right there.

You're not going to be under a tree. Why not? That's a perfect place for the stage. You just want to be sitting under a tree. The stage is going to be right out front right here. It is in the cul-de-sac. It's not backed up to that tree? It is backed up.

Not to a tree. There's a tree. I'm glad there's a tree. I'm not disagreeing that there's a tree. I've seen it. There's trees other. You're not going to be backed up to the tree. Damn, we need to move that.

There's going to be shade. I saw a map. My vision had us at the tree. Did yours not? Yeah. And I saw a map, and it was like a square, and it was like, this is where you are going to be. We're going to put you right by the tree. Oh, you saw a map?

Yeah. Maybe that map has changed. Well, this just got awkward for me. That's funny. Maybe we're backed up against a tree. That's funny. Yeah. Now, we're talking. Yeah. If not, then we know where the tree's at. We do know where the tree's at. Yeah. All right, guys, we're going to get to our Ask Junior questions. As always, we take questions on Twitter using the hashtag Ask Junior. We're joined by Mike Davis, who,

will be our moderator and fire off questions to me and Dale, or Dale and me. Which is correct. Me and Dale. Okay. I got a question for you guys. So if I'm not here, it's Dale and I. Nope. No, I mean, when do you use I and when you use me?

It's like in a sentence, if you would say I normally, then you say Dale and I. But if you would say... No, I thought it had something to do with the person either being present or not present. No. I don't think so. But I am definitely willing to devote this entire segment to figuring this part out. To grammar. To grammar, because this is important to me. Has somebody asked a question yet? I've got a question. And then, yes, there's some questions coming in. So everybody, you know, send us your questions. We're going to try to get to as many as possible here on the Ask Junior segment. Are you guys sore at all? We had a DMBL basketball game. Have you talked about this on your podcast yet? I'm a little sore. From basketball?

There's other people that are sore. Yeah. Did it get physical last night? We just didn't know it. We won. That's true. We dominated, actually. We won by 20. We're all on the same team, so we don't have a problem talking about this, do we? It was a stellar performance.

By the convicts. Okay. Well, that was the first to ask you your question. It was for me. Here you go. T.L. Star 2014 says, what do you think the young drivers need to do to get more fans in the sport or to win over the older fans? I like the second part of that.

How do you win over the older fans? Well, there's a lot of things, I'm sure, a lot of ideas that we We won't come up with in here. To win over the older fans, I think that if you show appreciation for the history of the sport, if you show knowledge for the history of the sport, if you know and recognize the guys that came before, the older drivers, that helps a lot. People appreciate young drivers that certainly have respect for the past, you know, that know about the past and know about the history of the sport.

So I think that that helps a lot to at least add some credibility to yourself or to the job. The young guys are going to get new fans with their activities on social media. Fans consume content completely different. They don't sit on the couch and watch the races anymore. They're on a laptop or a tablet. there's instant communication throughout the week on social media and the drivers that activate that most often are going to be the ones that make the most connections and interactions with fans,

especially new fans. I hate to say this, but just a couple weeks ago, they took Larson, Blaney, Chase Elliott, and maybe Suarez to New York City and sort of It was Eric Jones and they put them on a media parade where they just had them doing different things

morning shows, all kinds of different things throughout the day maybe Dan Patrick, whatever those guys I hated doing that when I was young I didn't want to go anywhere, I wanted to be home I wanted the day off I wanted to drive my race car and then goof off with my friends

but the guys the young guys that are coming in are going to have to be open to going and doing those things, getting outside of their comfort zone, doing these TV shows, especially TV shows that are sort of outside the racing bubble. Those are where the fans are, those are where the people are

that don't know about the sport or don't know about these particular drivers. They need to put themselves in front of those guys, in front of those eyeballs. And so they've got to be open to doing that kind of thing and traveling. There's some drivers that are really, like, yeah, I'll go do whatever you want to do.

Blaney and Bubba would go any. Blaney and Bubba would go anywhere. Yeah. And, you know, and that's the kind of, not everybody's going to be like that, but that's the way some of them drivers, those drivers need to be open to that type of marketing. I was always really shy about it. Didn't feel like, you know, when I'd get invited to do a late night show like Leno or something,

I would always say, well, I don't want to do it unless I've won. You know, I don't know why I'm going on there if I didn't win last week, or I didn't feel like worthy, I guess. of being in that arena. But those drivers have to have the confidence that they belong there and they need to go do those things and need to try to look at it

as you're representing the sport, promoting the sport, not yourself. And so I think that we have a lot of young guys that are definitely anxious to be active that way. What are some other great ideas you think, particularly to get, you know, the current fans that we have,

the older demographic of fans. I think it's going to take them having on-track success. Especially for the fan that is already there. We're going to assume they're going to have on-track success. What do they need to do beyond that? They need to be able to go out and interact with the fans. Whereas, like, for instance, we're at Kansas on the red carpet, and there will be guys just blazing down there.

There will be fans screaming, hey, hey, hey, sign this, sign that. and you're like taking time to sign for a bunch of that crowd and you got guys just burning through there not even acknowledging them as though they're too good and that if i go to a panther's game and cam newton does that i'm like well he didn't give it damn about me yeah so if i'm that fan and i'm like a lot of those guys aren't every fan isn't yelling at them so it's not like they're overwhelmed and like, oh, I don't want, I would have to sign for 100. There's maybe five that want your autograph, this guy's autograph. Like, just take the time. Yeah. Why are you so busy? So go above and beyond.

Because I know your schedule and I see the time you take out. So go above and beyond when you have the opportunity to have a one-on-one interaction with a fan. Right. Like, you don't need to go and sit down. Particularly at the tracks. Yes. Right. I don't think you need to have like a five-minute conversation.

That's not logical. But at least stop and say hello. sign their autograph, take a picture real quick. It's going to take you 10, 15 seconds, max. People are saying on Facebook Live just be approachable and that you're approachable, and that's a thing. I think that's pretty key right there. Right.

Be somebody that is inviting to come up to, you know, just approachable. The other challenge on that, I'll say this, is, you know, taking these drivers to New York and doing those media runs is one thing. But there's also a challenge to get the media in New York to kill. care and to want them on the shows because NASCAR has to go pitch those late night shows and say, hey, will you take a Ryan Blaney, will you take a Chase Elliott, or you take a Kyle Larson? And they just as easily can say, no, we're not interested. We want, you know, X, Y, Z and these big name stars.

And that's a challenge as well. So even more reason they've got to sort of set themselves apart at the tracks and be approachable and also find that thing that really makes them interesting so that the national mainstream media starts to know who they are. That's a challenge. Remember when Ward Burton won the 2002 Daytona 500? Yeah. And so he went on that Daytona 500 run.

Nobody wanted him. Like that was a – you know, David Letterman didn't want to Ward Burton. And so that's also a challenge that needs to have – you know, got to beat that. All right, here we go. Let's see. Next question. Carrie Taylor asked, wife and I are going to Key West for the first time in a few weeks. Any suggestions on sites or bars we can check out?

Oh, Key West. So a lot of people say Key West. and they just they mean like some people think Key West is like all the Keys which is about a you know one hour, it's about an hour drive

or some, you know, Key West in my mind is the four mile square island of Key West. Some people then they say I'm going to Key West they mean they might be in Key Largo or you know what I'm saying?

Does this make any sense to you? It does. I mean Key Largo is not how far is key Largo from Key West. Two and a half hours. Yeah. If you're in Key Largo and you think you're in Key West, there's bigger problems. Some people think Key West is anything south of Homestead.

Yeah. Anything. The keys. It's not. I'm going to Key West, man. Well, you're actually an hour from Key West, so I can't really, I don't know anything up in that area. There's a bunch of different keys. But if these people, if these people are going to Key West, down there on the very, very end,

I have like a list of places. Me and Amy keep a list of places because people ask us all the time. Where to go? Where to go? So we keep a little list. And there's a bunch of great places to eat. There's a bunch of great bars. There's a fun old bar called Viva that's on Deval Street.

That's the one that's haunted, right? It's supposed to be haunted, and you can go upstairs into the room where this death took place. And you probably, this sounds very creepy right now, but after a few beers, you're like, hell yeah, let's go up there and see it. So you can go to Viva. It's an old, old style, kind of a step back 50 years into what Key West was like many, many years ago. and it's an open air kind of place. We kind of sit right up at the windows on the sidewalk and watch people walk by.

It's great people watching. Take a quarter. And when somebody walks by, drop it on the concrete outside and tell them they drop to change and mess with people. That's the one where you'll sit in the window and yell across the street

at, like, try to guess people's names. So if you see a guy walking across street, holler, Billy, Billy. Never Billy. No, that looked like Billy. and so you can play little fun games with people. Viva, that was one of our, one of, and they got, Viva has this really, really good buffalo chicken wrap.

That's bred in Panko crumbs, pretty good. So obviously down on the, down on one end of the DeVos, there's a cluster of bars that are, they're easy to find and pretty much, you know, anybody that's taking a trip down there, tourists and so forth, are going to be in and around that area. But some of the tucked away places, like in less sort of crowded places like Viva is where I like to go.

There's another place called Shots and Giggles. It's a real small bar. It's in a house, a very small house. Very cool. Shots and Giggles is great. Great service there. Great staff. I like Grunts.

Grunts is another freaking awesome place, and it's hard to find. Grunts is about a half a block or block off of DeValle. And they have the number one rated food truck in the state of Florida in the back of grunts. And they've got frosty mugs. And they serve their beer in frosty mugs. They set them on oven mitts on the bar. And literally they're covered in ice.

Very good. The food truck obviously is amazing. The guy's upgraded now. It's a food airstream. Oh. Yeah. I remember the first time I went there

and you're like, oh, you got to get this wrap or something and I get up there. I was like, man, that burger is looking good. And so I got the burger.

And it was phenomenal. They have a Japanese beef wrap or something that's really good and he gets the cheeseburger. And so I think we went back a second. We went back another trip and instead of getting this

Japanese beef wrap, he gets the burger again. Tyler's menu His menu of life isn't that complex I know there's like four options on this menu And Tyler everything on here is phenomenal And you know why you got the cheeseburger? Keeps getting the burger

Because they didn't have pizza Yeah, probably Am I wrong? No If there's pizza he's gonna order it He yelled at me last week We went to a Japanese place And I was like, oh yeah

I bet they got a good spicy tuna there Well you get out every time He gets a spicy tuna roll You know, if you go to a sushi joint, there's like a million rolls, and he gets the spicy tuna roll every time because he doesn't know nothing about sushi. He knows nothing. He's like, I don't know what these other things are. I know that I like that one. That's the probably the, he even ordered it for me.

How embarrassing was that? What's going on? How involved are you in what he orders? That's in itself a story here. Like on a scale of 1 to 10, how much does it annoy you what he orders when you're out with him? Thien. Man, is anybody else have that effect on you? Do you care what Amy orders?

I don't know because she gets a variety. She doesn't get the same thing every time. Amy's a person that will read the menu and go, that looks really complex and I have to see what that is. Give me that. And she won't get the same role twice. But I don't want to be disappointed. I know the one is going to be good.

There's another meal. around the corner. Okay, so he gets just the spicy tuna roll, so it's really not enough. You could just get two rolls and just try something obscure, and if you don't like it, you don't have to eat it. Maybe next time. And sushi's a kind of meal that you can actually pass to someone next to you at the table, and they can eat it.

Yeah, that's true. He did share the edamame with me, though. Edombe, well, that's really branching out there. I didn't share it. It got to the table. and he began to eat it. If they ever have a cheeseburger roll, you'll jump into the sushi.

There's this one in Daytona. It's called a Kentucky roll. It's like fried chicken and mayonnaise. There you go. It's hard to screw that up. All right. There are people asking, would you ever start the whiskey river in Key West?

But we've spent a lot of time on Key West already. I think we should be paid from the tourism department there. Answer that one quickly. You know, our, our, our, our, our, focus right now is airport terminals we're opening whiskey river and and we're talking about opportunities to open whiskey rivers in more airports we had a lot of success at Charlotte Douglas with our whiskey river there we'd love to open up a second location at Charlotte's a big enough airport and we opened one in Fort Lauderdale as well at the

airport there and so Riley yep so we're talking to several other hubs and there's a great potential with that business. That's been a very good fit for us. The standalone locations like we have in downtown Charlotte create a lot of obstacles, I think, and a lot of challenges. We obviously, you know, we kind of see where we belong and that airport hub has been pretty exciting for us.

So still growing that business. And, like I say, we'd love to have about a dozen or more around the country in different airports. Here's a good Charlotte Race Week question. Darth Hendrick, I'm going to ask. He's going to love the fact that you ask this question. Yeah, I know. Can I visit the race car graveyard without getting arrested? That's probably a 50-50 chance.

I'd say no, I'd say it's better that you'll get arrested. I'll put it this way. Yeah, people that have tried, they didn't succeed. You don't want to cross Sunny Lunsford. I'm going to tell you that right now. Don't get on his bad side. It'll end up worse than being arrested. You'll wish you were just arrested.

Let's see here. C.J. Cornell 11, what's the best way to meet you at a race? Been watching since 1999 and never had the chance to meet you. A lot of times, you know, it's just kind of by happenstance, I think, in and around the garage, going from the bus to the car, from the hauler to the car. from the hauler to the car back and forth, from the hauler to the media center when we do media availability out on pit road for qualifying, we're out and about.

Anytime there's track activity or just before track activity or just after it, we're going to be in and around the garage area, signing autographs for anybody who walks up. That's a great opportunity at the race. Yeah. But once you get on the other side of the pit wall or you get into the garage stall, just stop because then it's time to focus on the car. Fatty Mills asks, are you taught or instructed on how to hold a Mountain Dew bottle during interviews? Obviously, I was taught a long time ago working with Budweiser that label out is the way you hold the kin.

When I first started working with Budweiser, they put me in a truck and I rode around. for a day helping one of the drivers, you know, take Budweiser to a gas station and put it up in, put it up in the rack or to the grocery store or what have you. And so he was telling me about his job and how important to label out is and, you know, the competition amongst all the brands on the aisle, having your stuff look the best is important. And trying to turn everybody else's bottles around is real important. Wait, they do that? I, that guy was.

Damn. Yeah. Overachiever. No, I'm just, so label out's important. I mean, people need to read the label. So ever since I worked with Bud, way, way back, that's been something that I'm aware of, and it's just something you do on instinct. But I don't know if it's that important.

But Mountain Dews sure appreciates it. I think that is important then. Yeah. One of the funniest things, I'm going to tell a quick story. I don't know if you remember this. When we went to AMP as a primary sponsor in 2008, they tried to get Dale Jr. to drink AMP right after the race. But after a long race, you know, a carbonated beverage is probably not what he wants.

It's hot. He probably wants water. So what they did is they started giving him the water bottle that had AMP on it, and they put water in it. Only, I don't think either myself or Amy Walsh told him that it would be water this week. He was expecting AMP. So when he takes the sip with interviews, when cameras going on, when he takes the sip, he was expecting AMP and it was watered.

Now, just not that water tastes bad, but when you're expecting a carbonated beverage, all of a sudden he spits it out. Like, it looked like old faithful guys are just going out everywhere, live on camera. So we're like, okay, I think we should have probably told him that there's water in that this week. But the label was out. That was good news. But spitting it out actually becomes counterproductive if the label's out.

Let's see here. Jay Coker, he had a good question here. Any hesitation about going to Taco Bell in Indianapolis? Would you even go to Taco Bell in Indianapolis? We know Tyler wouldn't, but if you were going out, do you have any hesitation now? You know, because of the robbery? Yeah. Taco Bell is pretty good.

I like my chances. I talked to Dario. He said it was pretty scary. You did? Yeah. I texted him. Hey, I'm glad you guys are okay. Wow.

But he had, me and Dario became friends through our history with concussions. So we had a lot of conversations over the years. But talk to him and he said he was, he had a few jokes that I won't tell. Good. But, and he said Gannasi was quite colorful with them afterwards. And I don't, you know, I'm just glad they're safe. but I like Taco Bell. Amy's a big Taco Bell fan.

And so, yes, this is not deter me from going to Taco Bell. But that particular one? I wouldn't know it. I mean, I don't know where it's at. I don't know where it's at, and I don't want to know. So if I happen to go to it, I'm not deterred. I want my Taco Bell. It's going to be a big disappointment to whoever tries to hold him up

when they realize he doesn't carry his wallet in. I know. I did that the other day. I went to Lowe's to buy something. I got all the way up there and I was like, damn. See? They don't have Apple pay. Not just me.

Had to leave. Yeah, he did by accident. Yeah, it was awkward. I don't do it on purpose. I remember today. You did? I have it. There you go.

Wow. If you're going to hold him up, today's the day. Tommy V17 asks, do multiple tire compounds have a place in NASCAR like in other racing series? Okay. I don't think so because we're oval racing. And I, you know, when you have multiple compounds, typically it's just on the road courses. And that's where I think it works really well. I think, yeah, it would work at our road course races.

But for ovals, and we saw this in practice, the guys would put that soft compound on and only be fast for a couple laps. And then they would actually go slower. Actually, it's slower on the back end of the run. So where's the advantage? I mean, yeah, it's a little quicker for a couple laps, but it didn't make it passing. Didn't make passing any easier for those guys, did you think? No, I mean, from where I was sitting,

it didn't look like those guys were just kind of moving through the field with these. And then the advantage is gone in a few laps, and then they're kind of sitting ducks, or they really, you know, they really don't stand out. Yeah, they weren't moving forward, but they weren't really falling back. It just doesn't, yeah, I just don't think it's a, I don't think. it's something that is going to be it would be cool to see it like at a walkins glen yeah i don't think it's going to work at ovals um yeah where you see it mostly is it in all the road racing

uh disciplines in uh motorsports not only in america but abroad you want to end on this question i i mean i think we've got time for one more right yep yep i'm telling you a lot of people are asking and since it's fan day this week a lot of people are going to be here they're asking where to here in Canapolis, I'm not here in Mooresville, Charlotte, Canapolis area, go to eat, go to hang out, what would we tell them? Okay. Whiskey River, one. Yeah, Whiskey River, Charlotte.

You can go down there. There's always going to be great food, great place to drink some beer late in the evening if you want. Yeah, Epic Chop House in Moorsville is always a place I like to mention because the food's really awesome. We, Morrisville is a real small town without a lot of, you know, I would call, I guess, high end. It wouldn't be able to be the name for it, but upscale, nice place to go besides this fast food restaurant. Lancaster's would be good for a race fan coming in. Lancaster's has lots of sheet metal. Yeah, like in the 90s.

Racing memorabilia. Yeah. That's a good point. Lancaster's barbecue in Morrisville. Epic Chop House if you want to go a little bit more upscale, nice dining. Blue Star Grill. Blue Star is awesome. Yeah, that's here in Morrisville.

That's a mom and pop's family run place. Pisces is the best. The best sushi in Moresville, does you think? Yep. Me and Tyler go to Pisces probably twice, two or three times a week. No, wait a second. Every time we have a production, that's what we get for lunch. So he is?

No, I get the same thing every time. Oh. All right. So you don't really broaden yourself. You do go to Pisces, you get sushi. They don't have cheeseburgers on the menu. No. You do have to.

Yeah, but think about it, man, going with him three times a week and he gets the same freaking thing every time. No, I have no doubt. Always. At Pisces, they got three or four that I like. Plus they got habachi. Yeah. So there's like eight options there. So, yeah, there's some suggestions.

I hope everybody comes to fan day. We're expecting a big crowd. Yeah. It's supposed to be a nice day, too. Is it? Weather-wise, yeah. Yeah. Well, it doesn't matter.

You're under a shade tree. Backed up in the cul-de-sac. Well, the shade tree won't help us if it's raining. But it's not supposed to rain. So all right. Well, I think that's it. Good questions today. Unask Jr. We'll keep doing this. Appreciate everyone asking. Any closing thoughts, guys? I just appreciate everybody, you know, coming on and presenting some questions. Looking forward to next week doing it again. All right. Cool.

If you love Dale Jr., then Exaltor Racing is your go-to social media account on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It brings you Insiders info all weekend long on the 88 team. It's at Exaltor Racing, a must follow, for any Dale Junior fan. All right, looking ahead, Tuesday, today we're going to do some work for the home renovation show. This will be the first little bit of work for that, so I'm excited. Wednesday, Junior Motorsports Partner Summit. What is that?

We're having a bunch of our sponsor folks come in, and we're going to do a whole day talking about what we do, kind of help them understand the value of the relationship, and how we can maximize their partnership. and then that way it'll allow them to meet each other as well. So that'll be a cool day. And then we're going to the Speedway Children's Charities Gala in Charlotte downtown for the evening. Thursday we have practice and qualifying. Qualifies at 7.15 p.m. Eastern time on Fox Sports 1.

Friday opening the Earnhardt Family Playground at Ryan Newman's Rescue Ranch. What time is that? 9.30. 9.30. We also have the Junior Motor Sports fan. autograph session and podcast recording you guys come on out when does that open when when can people be here for the fan day what time when does it start nine nine in the morning that's the first activity yeah that's when all the boots and everything will

start yeah the first autograph session is at 11 but Saturday we got two practices and then the Xfinity race at 1 p.m. Eastern on Fox Sports 1 who's in the Xfinity race our normal four guys okay Sunday World 600 I like that you put that on there. Yeah. World 600 at 6 p.m. Eastern on Fox. We're running a special patriotic nationwide paint scheme.

This is very cool. All the drivers are doing this, right? Yep. They have a name across the windshield. We're honoring private first class James McLemrock. Maclamrock. Maclamrock. McClamrock.

So James of McClamrock. James lost his life in Iraq in 2010. He is from Huntersville, North Carolina. His family will be attending the race, so we'll get to meet them on Sunday as well. We have a little nationwide meet and greet before the race that we always do, and we'll see those guys there, right? Yep. Pretty awesome.

Yeah, they're going to have a good weekend. It'll be fun. Okay. So all the teams, for fans that don't really know this, James' name will be on the windshield of the car. All the other drivers and all the other cars have names as well. Yep. And you can find out through their social media platforms and so forth as to the stories behind these folks.

Yep. I really like this particular, you know, I really like the way that we're able to kind of bring a little more of a human aspect to this because typically when we honor the military or especially honor people that have lost their lives and so forth, you don't really get to know these people individually. So I like how, and this is sort of an all weekend kind of thing. This is a celebration of this individual over the apparel period of the weekend. It really brings an opportunity for their family to see them be honored. What I know that it's important to the family is that we know who James is. Yep, right? And this gives us an opportunity to get to know James.

Whereas in most other opportunities when we acknowledge the military, it's more of an encompassing global thing. So this is really cool. We get to pick one individual, and I know it's important to his family that we know who he is. So we'll get to know James this weekend, as well as all the other individuals on the other cars.

You'll hear stories, and that'll be a lot of fun. That's actually very touching, very emotional. Charlotte's always been a race, particularly with this race weekend, that's done a great job on. and remembering the military. This is probably my favorite thing we do during the season

just because of the human, I don't know the human connection that you have with that individual. So looking forward to that, and that's going to be our weekend. We're excited to get to the race track, get on the racetrack, start to run, see how fast we are, and get back to work. Cool.

All right. We'll get to it. it. All right, guys, that's the show. I hope you all enjoyed it. Thanks, everybody, for coming out and listening. Are we going to be back here next Tuesday? No. No. Where are we next Tuesday? You're gone. I'm gone.

You're gone. Oh, yeah, I'm out of town. So I'm doing the show. On the road. On the road. All right. So don't come out here next Tuesday if you're looking to... If you do, you may be disappointed. Unless you want to buy a t-shirt or a diecast, by all means.

the store will be open. Heaven forbid they come to the store. But I'm just saying, well, you had 18 people show up the other day, and we weren't here. And they were very mad. I was here. Oh, you were here. But they were upset. They were pissed.

So we just want people to be sure that we're not going to be here next weekend. We will not be here on the 30th. And then will we be back the next week? Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. We will be. Yes. Okay, good. All right, thanks.

Thanks. You hear me play I know that I You know I lost a lot I will let this die You know God Another reason not to fear the sky No not tonight

Can I pull out in this town I want to make you proud But really don't know how I know it's not helping to hear me say I wish it was me in the car that day You know I messed a lot But I was just a kid The Dell Jr. download and all Dirty Mo Radio podcast are made possible by our friends at Exalt.

You can subscribe to all eight programs on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, and all other major podcasting outlets. As always, you can listen to Dirtymo Radio podcast on Dell Jr.com. Follow us on Twitter at Dell Jr. at Overstreet Tyler and at DirtyMoh Radio. Also check out the Dirty Mo Radio Facebook page. Today's theme song, The Permanent Rain, is by the Dangerous Summer, courtesy of Hopeless Records. Thanks for listening to Dirtymoe Radio.