The Dale Jr. Download - 179 - You Don't Want to be 'That Guy'

Episode Date: June 13, 2017

A pair of errant shifts left Dale Jr. with two blown motors and a DNF in Pocono. He discusses the race, the first career victory for his friend Ryan Blaney, the all-driver broadcast and whether or not signing autographs are part of a driver's job. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is Dale Jr. And you're listening to Dirty Moe Radio. Hey everybody. It's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the download with my co-host Tyler Overstreet. Hello. That is the dangerous summer with their song, Never Feel Alone. That's the theme song today.

Thanks to Hopeless Records for that. We got a lot to talk about. And none of it, I really, some of it I really don't care to relive, but let's get to it. We'll get ready to start talking about the Pokerlo race. We started the weekend off with a little bit of trouble. Second run of practice, had a bad shift, broke the motor. Have done that before, but I can't remember the last time.

It doesn't really happen that often. Sometimes on restarts, but you just kind of don't get the car all the way in gear and you just kind of read the motor up you know it's a kind of a relatively non-event but in this particular instance we actually got the car in the wrong gear the motor's designed to turn really no more than 9500 r pms and it went well over that and so they changed the motor in the transmission that means we'd have to go to the back of the pack that was brought up a scenario for qualifying that was pretty interesting where we have to start in the back of the pack. At some race tracks, you'd still

probably put up a qualifying effort just to get the pit selection. Pocono the pits are really big, so if pit selection wasn't that critical, so it was probably a better idea not to put as many laps on the tires, no more than we had to. Some guys have been in his position before this year, not even made an attempt to qualify, but that angered NASCAR. Right, especially because they had like the promotion where if you brought a can, you got a free admission, and they were blowing that up. So they don't want the big guy to not be qualifying. Well, I don't know if that was why they were upset.

But anyways, you know, we made an attempt to qualify, and we thought that we would make that attempt in race trim without any tape on the grill. So it would give us our car, we were kind of wanting to make some major changes to it. So we would put the setup in there. and it'd give us a lap to understand if that was a good direction for Saturday. So that's what we did. I actually ran a really good lap. Ended up 28th overall, beat some guys that were in full-course trim.

I was joking with my nephew Jeffrey that better not out-qualify him in my race trim. And ended up doing that. Anyhow, we ended up practicing on Saturday and didn't really like to set up, So we made a lot of changes that night. Started the race, and the car was really, really good. Passed on a lot of cars moving up through the field. We were catching Denny Hamlin and the 19 Sourrez, and we were about half a second faster than they were,

running them down for a 13th or 14th position. So had a lot of speed, top five car. We got a restart after this first stage. Pretty active little restart there, shuffling around. Got loose underneath my teammate, Casey's K. Kane in a tunnel turn about wrecked him. Start to get things kind of squared away. Come down a frustrated way.

Shifted into, from third gear to fourth and went back and went into second again. So broke the motor again. Same exact thing that we did Friday. So I'm trying to think like why, why does this, why does a natural motion for me that has put me in fourth gear time and time again, millions and millions of times? Why is that motion now wrong? A lot of things can be possible, like the location of the shifter handle. Have they changed something on the tailhousing of the transmission that relocated the shifter?

Is the shifter handle different? Taller, whatever, shorter. Has the pattern in the shifter handle changed to each pattern? None of that has changed from what the team has told me, and I believe them. I mean, it doesn't make sense why they would change it and not say anything to me. So, I mean, that leaves me with no answers. That really, you know, it just leaves me with no answers on why this keeps happening. It's really embarrassing because racing is a team sport.

You don't want to be that guy. You don't want to go out there, work hard all day, and be the guy that costs everybody the game, right? And if you're in a team sport, there's days where you're going to be that guy. So you've got to be able to deal with it, but it's really not a lot of fun. So I just told a team that is on me. We'll work hard to figure out what we can do to make sure this doesn't happen when we come back. They had a great pit stop. We gained a couple spots.

They've been working really good. They had great pit stops at Charlotte. And over the last couple weeks, the cars have been pretty good. the car Sunday was, I mean, I was pretty confident we were going to finish in the top 10 real easy, if not get up in the top five and maybe battle at the end. So it was really... On the shifting thing, at one point they said Harvick did, it sounded like he did the same thing, but his didn't break?

Is it like how quick you catch it? I doubt he went from third to second and didn't blow the motor. I think he probably tried to get into fourth gear from third to fourth. and just didn't get into gear. Pop the revs real high, probably hit the limiter, probably ran a motor a couple hundred RPMs over the limiter

and then went to gear. Something like a missed shift on a restart. Right. Not a full-fledged, get it in the wrong second gear. Right. Yeah.

Then there was also HMS as a whole seemed to have some breaking issues. And we talked about this on the drive to the airport. That's probably due to the smaller spoiler. Yeah. So the less down force is causing you guys to need the brakes more.

Obviously, you and Chase both reported it in the first stage, then Jimmy had his problem. Have you ever had that situation that Jimmy had going down the front straightaway and you get to the corner and it's like, oh, damn, I got to figure out what to do? Yeah, I don't think I've ever had any problem like that where, well, I had that happen to me actually in a late molecule. car at Martinsville both front both front brake calipers came off the car at the same time yeah and there's no brakes I mean your pedal goes to the floor and there's not much else he can try to do to avoid crashing and that happens you know that had you're right about the spoiler being shorter there's less drag on the car so you wouldn't think that that much spoiler would make that much of a difference or that the spoiler actually is slowing the car down that much on

into the corner, but it does. So without that downforce or without that spoiler we had last year, we actually have to use more brake to slow the car down. And a lot of drivers are learning, I guess, I'm learning, that a lot of these racetracks where we used to lift is a little bit too deep into the corner now. And you have to back the whole corner up. You have to lift sooner. Or, yeah, you're going to burn the brakes up.

Over, we push everything on the corner. cars to the limit. We run the motors as hot as we can possibly run them without breaking them. So we can run as much grill tape as we can get down for us. We run a little, we run the least amount of braking cooling that we need is to keep the brakes from failing. Or that you anticipate you need. So that we, we've learned over the years, this is how hard we can push the brakes. This is all, this is the minimal amount of cooling that we need to keep these ducts taped up on the front for additional downforce as well. So I looked at the front of my car after I got out of it, and part of the brake ducts are

closed off with duct tape to increase down force. So we've learned that we can push the brakes over the front brakes to a certain degree and the rear brakes to a certain temperature. And I think with this, with the new change in the down force and the drag, we are getting into the race and pushing the brakes to places that the brakes can't handle. So the initial issue that you feel really is the brake pedal itself just gets soft. You get softer and further. You have to mash the pedal further to get the car to stop.

That means the temperature of the fluid is boiling. The fluids reach to a boiling point. And eventually, after a few laps of that, you get to wear mashing the pedal the pedal ends up going all the way to floor and does not slow the car down. You can pump it up down the straightaway and bring the pedal back. But that too will only last for a little while

before you just run out of brakes entirely. Or the caliper, or the rotor will explode. Is that what happened to Jimmy? More than likely. I'm not entirely sure, but it looked like he had a failure of the caliper and the one car ran over some of that debris getting into the corner also and hit the wall right so there i felt the pedal falling and getting deeper the pedal getting longer

so i started to chill out not run hard even that even running like that were still top five car the case the or chase had the same issue and he backed backed his car up too and chilled out just trying not to run hard the only problem of that is that's not that's not you You know, that's not an answer to cure the rest of the race. Temporary, yeah. It's temporary while you're out there on the track. So the guys were pulling a little bit of tape under caution to get a little more temperature into the ducts. Because when you're in a pack or you're following a car trying to pass them,

that really is going to cut down on the ability for air to get into the ducks if you're up somebody's butt, you know. So I had my brake failure as I was trying to pass a car. I had pressure to a car for about five laps and the brakes started, you know, fading on the car. So if you're going to be able to race people all day long, especially late in the race, you're going to have to open them ducks up quite a bit more. So that was probably going to continue to be an issue for us as the race went on, but I believe we would have been able to deal with it. And Jimmy said he had no issues with brake fade or the pedal fading.

It was a, they worked great all day until that moment. Sudden. Yeah. Yep. So let's move on to happier stuff. Ryan Blaney, your good friend, got his first win. Driving for the Wood Brothers, it was their first win since, what, the 2012, Daytona 500, 2011 with Trevor Bain. And you guys, you Instagrammed a video where y'all loaded up some pretty hefty coolers and had it waiting on him.

So how was the celebration? I imagine he was on cloud nine last night. Yeah, that's a good assessment. You know, I was pretty good friends with his father. We raced against each other in Xfinity Series. I knew he was a big-time sprint car racer. And he had already accomplished quite a bit before he ever got to Xfinity Series. He ran the Emiko car, which I thought was a really cool paint scheme.

I liked it when it was white on the front and had like, the neon red numbers. I know he had one that was black and gold with gold numbers, but yeah. Well, we used to run Amico. In the late model series, when I ran late models, the fuel you supposedly needed to run was Amico White, which was apparently produced a little bit more horsepower than, and it was just the standard stuff you get down at the pump.

You go drive to the gas station and get it. So I don't know. I thought that that was a cool sponsor. and liked his car. We actually raced against each other quite a bit. He's very competitive in the Xfinity Series back then. So I always liked Dave and took notice when Ryan ran one of his first races with Tommy Baldwin at Richmond in Xfinity Series. Yeah, I remember looking up and being like, holy crap, who's this guy?

Because that car wasn't nearly as good equipment as what we have here, but he was kicking. our guy's butts that night. He ran in a top 10. Yeah. So I think he surprised a lot of people. Probably, you know, Tommy Baldwin's probably like, that's where my car's going to run a top 10. I don't know why everybody's so surprised.

Right. But knowing Tommy. So that was pretty cool. And I think we've all, since that moment, watched his career continue to rise and watched him win truck races and Xfinity races. And another thing I like about Ryan, and we talked about this last week on the podcast is his ability to interact with the fans on social media, his willingness to go represent and promote the sport outside of the NASCAR bubble even on TV shows and so forth.

You have to have guys like that. That's not the most important part of the job. The fact that he's talented and good inside the car is great. That's the most important part. but he goes outside he goes out of his way really to to market the sport in himself and um so i think you can you're starting to see like the results of that too because he's developing a nice little following um just looking through the responses last week from our poll or our list him and chase elliott were the top two guys that people seem to like um jeff gluck tweeted a picture after the

race yesterday and there was like flocks of people at his merch trailer so people were loading up and i watched the video like him doing his uh polish victory lap and there was a lot of uh arms waving and cheering so he's developing a nice little following already which is cool yeah i agree he's um he's a good guy uh easy to like has a great story uh driving with the wood brothers you know i think anybody anytime the Wood Brothers win, that's going to be a popular win, but you tie Ryan Blaney into that. That kind of makes him a bit of a hero for a lot of folks that the new fan and the old school core fan

can kind of grasp onto that. So awesome, we had a lot of fun. We did go over to his house, and he was texting me like, man, what should we do? I got to figure out something to do with my guys. I said, man, you should just have it at your house. Have them over there at your place. we've got a lot of beer and coolers we'll fill it up and bring it over there he was they were they got

home kind of late around midnight so we took over the three coolers of beer and left it on the back porch and then we came back over there when he got home and had a few beers with him danica and sthenhouse were there and bubba was there it's a lot of fun so he's you know his whole team was there, got to talk to all those guys. A couple of those guys I've actually worked with in my career. That's cool. Yeah. And a lot of those guys have been on that team

for a real long time. Had some great stories. So we had a lot of fun. I talked to him this morning. I think he's still in, he's in good shape. So good deal. Good for Ryan. That puts him into the chase.

He'll be a popular choice for fans to root for throughout the playoffs. And those spots are getting eaten up pretty quickly, so we better get on our butts if we're going to try to get in that chase. Yeah, there's three first-time winners already this season. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. I mean, that's just the cycle of youth coming into the sport. This is a new generation of drivers.

It's their time. It's the beginning of their careers. So it's just like when we saw Jeff Gordon come to the sport win his first race or Jeff Burton, those kind of guys, you're seeing some new talent, new guys coming in and staked our claim. We saw something that was pretty unique on Saturday during Xfinity race.

A driver's only broadcast. You know, I was a little disappointed because they kind of got a little bit of a helping hand getting going with the usual talent couldn't stand, not at least being a little part of the show. But eventually, you know, these guys carried the rest of the show. the word on the street is it was incredibly entertaining harvick's got a lot of experience in the booth

um joey's been up there quite a bit as has clint yeah so they felt really comfortable up there i'm sure i actually um didn't get to watch any of the broadcast because our car wasn't very good saturday so i sat in the holler with gregg until five o'clock or after extended he races over with i guess working on our car trying to go through changes but the reaction on social media. I actually watched it, but we weren't listening to it, so we were communicating about our car. But that reaction on social media was phenomenal for this driver's only broadcast. I think it was too good. Too good. Well, I think for some of the guys that do this for a living, it might have been a little too good. Oh, yeah. Yeah, because they're professionals. Yeah, my favorite response was Matt Kenseth at that hospitality thing.

yesterday when they asked him if he watched it. And he's like, yeah, but I watched it on mute. Yeah. But I watched, the only thing I didn't like was the pre-race show. Yeah. Because the pre-race show was more about the cup guys being the broadcasters than the actual Xfinity race. It's self.

Yeah. So that was a little disappointing. But once the race got going, it was cool. I hung out in the seven pit. And then Justin was leading there with 30 to go. And they were trying to figure out what their strategy was. And so they sent Stenhouse up on top of the ball. box to ask our crew chief Jason Burdett.

And then he went up one time and like tapped him on the shoulder, talked to him for a while. Then he went back down the ladder. And then they're like, okay, now you've got to actually go interview him. And I don't know if they actually, they ever did do the interview because there was a caution right then. But they were, they were doing a good job. They were all over it.

And I guess Blaney interviewed Brad in Victory Lane. And then yesterday, Brad ran to Victory Lane and interviewed Blaney, which is kind of cool. Yeah. So they did a great job. Eric Jones, we were talking about him last week as one of the drivers that fans might want to look at as far as someone to cheer for going forward. You got to see a little bit of his personality in the broadcasts. You know, word on the street is he was doing really well. I was watching him, but I'm not listening to him.

But if he was talking, he was showing his personality. What did you think? I thought he did very well. He did open up more than I've ever seen him. He doesn't seem very. jovial in his racing interviews, but like doing that, he seemed to have fun. So, I mean, I'll be interested to see if he's one of the guys that wants to go up to the booth and do that stuff. Yeah.

Because I know Fox has got plenty of race options if he wants to do it. Yeah, I talked to Blaney after, I talked to Blaney at Driver's Intros, and he said he thought the drivers only broadcast would be a good idea to do maybe two or three times a year, not too much more than that. Yeah, because you don't want to, those folks that do it every week, there's a reason they do it. Yeah. They are trained professionals. They put in the time studying notes. Yeah, I know. But, I mean, it's a good mix-up, yeah.

I think the fans, it's really what the fans liked and enjoyed, and I think they liked that. I think they liked the, I don't know, reading comments on social media, it seemed like people were like the way that, I guess Harvick, Joey, and Clint went up there without any, no agenda, and they just kind of talk like a couple buddies in the bar watching the race on TV.

A little more casual. Yeah, I guess. But that was pretty interesting. Let's talk about this other thing that was also interesting over the weekend. Danica's reaction to fans asking for her autograph, I guess somebody was shooting a Facebook live video. Yes. All right.

Well, tell us about that video. So after qualifying, everybody pretty much funnels back through this main. alleyway back to the garage to the bus lot. And there's fans lined up along the left side. There will be some bike racks, and then at one point there's a fence. There's a lot of the autograph photos you see are actually from there. There's a fence, and there's like a little ledge so you can sit your die-cast car or whatever you have to get signed.

And a lot of drivers will stop. And Danica was just, she, instead of going up against where the fans were on the left, She walked all the way to the right, and some fans started booing her for not signing autographs. And so she stopped real quick and walked back to the fans and started lecturing them on why she did not like, did not appreciate the booze, which I can understand. You don't want people to be hating on you. And she was explaining why it wasn't part of her job to sign autographs because she was talking to her crew chief. said. No, no, no, no. She said, I read, I watched the damn video. I watched it three times. She said, okay, she said, my job is to drive the car and talk to my crew chief.

So she said her job, basically said her job is not to sign autographs. She said she, she didn't say she wasn't going to sign for them because she was doing, talking about her chair. She just said, my job is not to sign autographs, just to drive the car, talk to my crew chief and do that. Yeah, because that's what helps drive the car. Yeah. Yeah. And so she got a little grief for this. A little, yeah, a lot of grief.

And then Brad Keselowski, somebody, it was the Save a Click NASCAR Twitter account, which if you ever, if you follow that, it's hysterical just because of all the clickbait articles nowadays. But the question was, is it part of a driver's job to sign autographs? Yep. So Keselowski reached, you know, got into the comments. conversation and ask fans if it's, you know, if they feel like it's the driver's job to sign autographs, if that's part of it. How does the fan respond or feel? Got a lot of comments that they, you know, they really don't care. They don't, they don't feel like it's your job, but they appreciate the interaction. And, you know, I, I, what do you think? Well, okay, so when I meet a famous person, I just want to walk away feeling like, you know, man, I'm glad I pull for that guy.

Yeah. Man, it's cool to meet him. And I hate to say it this way, but because it puts a little, I think it puts a little unnecessary pressure on that celebrity, but you just don't want to be disappointed. Right. By the way they act, how they interact with you. And it can be quick and small. I don't need, you know, I don't think people or myself have to have five minutes or an hour of your time.

But just don't be an asshole. or disappoint. Right. You don't have to, you know, I like to take pictures. If I see, even today, I mean,

if I see a celebrity, I really kind of want a picture with them. Right. So I could post it on my social media. Right. I think that goes further than the autograph. Well, that's just what I like to do.

Yeah. Well, because. But I'm just, it's whatever you want. You can have, if you want a die-cast sign, if that's what you want in that moment, that's fine.

I just think you don't want to be disappointed. That's all. Yeah. And I mean, so everybody has bad days, bad moments. I think that that part would be hard. So like Saturday, you didn't have a good practice. Yeah. You could have been like, nope.

See, the thing is, is that I have found that what makes me feel better is actually going and signing autographs because the fans talk to you and go, you know, I saw you're qualifying. I saw it wasn't very good. No problem. you're going to get them tomorrow. That's all you really want to hear from whoever's going to tell you that. You're feeling like crap.

You're disappointed. She's had a tough year. She's under tons of pressure. Absolutely. She's under a lot of pressure. I can completely relate to where she is mentally. But for me, going and actually talking to the fans and kind of hearing their reinforcement, their positive reinforcement, is good for me.

So I do, I kind of seek that out in those more. moments because I know once I'm once I kind of go through that process of sign of some autographs talking and interacting you kind of get your priorities read or adjusted what's important you know they tell you what you need to hear get over this and get you know tomorrow's another day because I'll dwell on things and make them the you know make an ant hill mountain and make a problem much worse than it really is in my head you know so for me it's good good I think to to interact.

So some people just, they just want to be mad for a little bit. I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know, you know, I don't know what, I don't know really what's going through Denick's mind in that moment other than that she's just had, she just didn't qualify the way she wanted. Right. And she's frustrated. Yeah.

Yeah. She's frustrated. I think that you kind of, you got to, in those moments at the track when they're, when you're, when you're working. I don't know if you get a pass, but you certainly don't get that kind of a pass if that's happening at a dinner or in a grocery store or out during a week. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? I mean, I think that because the fans are what drives the sport anyways. I mean, anyone will tell you that. So I think within reason, you can't just stand there for 45 minutes and sign autographs. Well, the funny thing is, is everybody was saying that she,

in the time she sat there took the lecture everybody, she could have signed all their autographs. Yeah, and yeah, she didn't even sign them. She just liked her to walk off. Yeah. Yeah. But, I mean, there are scenarios where I don't, I think that you should be left alone. Like, whenever you're coming out of the care center, I think that, like, that's the time

when it's just like, okay, just step back. Yesterday, you blew the motor. And I'm like, man, he's really disappointed. Everybody on the team's disappointed. And then we walk, we're walking at the hauler. And it's like, hey, sign my diecast. and I was just like because I would

I mean you're better than I am about it I would probably be if rolls were reversed I would probably be a jerk about it at that time because I mean you had a good car yesterday then you had trouble and then you just kind of want to get back to the hauler

get the hell out of Pocono and people are like oh sign this sign that take a picture well you're okay so you're feeling embarrassed about blowing the motor you've done it twice in the same weekend do you want to add damn i was a real asshole to your conscience yeah on top of that yeah you know when you leave the tracking like god you know i added more you know more fuel to the fire by being being rude um and like i say in that moment

you're having maybe the you're having maybe in your mind the worst weekend of the year but there's certainly worse things right there is but in their most mind you're having the worst moment of the season and somebody still wants an autograph. You know, so that chips away at that, at that, at that mountain that you've created in your head. It's really just an antheel. Right. So if you, you know, so when someone comes up, it's a little, especially a kid. Kids are awesome.

Golly, man. That knocks that mountain right off the map. Yeah. Um, so if you get, uh, you know, when people still value your, value your, you know, the, value the interaction and still, you know, appreciate you. I look at that guy that wants that other graph in the, in, in the garage that you were like, hey, this is not a good time. I look at that guy's, he, somebody here appreciates me even after the crappy things I've done

this weekend. And so it, it, it. It's good therapy for me. For the record, you just signed for them. Yeah. Well, you know, it's an interesting debate. It's going to go on and on. I hate it for Danica because it's that paints her in a bad light,

but she brought it on herself. And you, you know, like you were telling me after we were watching the video on Saturday, you know, you never know when the camera's rolling. Yeah. He's watching. And that's certainly true in that case. Yeah, I hate it for Danica. I mean, she's just super frustrated, having a terrible year.

Things like that certainly don't help her. It's not a pass, but it's understandable. It doesn't help, though, sort of get her on down the road. 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 Exaltar Racing, a must follow for any Dale Jr. fan. All right, guys, we're going to start our Ask Junior segment. As always, we compiled these questions using the hashtag Ask Junior on Twitter.

And we'll get right to it. At Z. Gilbreath 1388S. Returning to Michigan this weekend, what memory at that track is your favorite? Your first win with HMS, snapping the winless streak in 2012, the IROC race with your dad, or something else? Yeah, the I Rock race with that was fun because I almost, you know, it's kind of a one-on-one race between me and him. We ran first and second in the whole race, pretty much, and then it came down to side-by-side battle for the win. That meant a lot to me. And we beat Jeff Gordon in Xfinity race there.

I think he's driving a Pepsi car. Oh, yeah. You were at the A.C. Delco. Yeah. In 99. So, yeah, and the wins. I don't know. what my main memory is from MIS.

Hopefully we're going to make one this weekend. That'd be cool. Yeah, I mean, I like the track and don't see why we shouldn't run pretty good. At Motley Fan asked, does Blaney have to walk home if you leave the track early? I don't understand what that means. Because he's been known to fly with us. He's flew with us twice, right? Well, if you put it on Periscope, people think he flies with us every week.

Yeah, he doesn't really ride home with us every week. He just a couple times he's kind of barred the... barred an extra seat um yeah i mean he finds another ride he finds another plane i guess just hitching rides at eddie mac three asked what type and model of trek bike are you riding um orange yeah it's the latest and greatest uh jimmy actually lined me up with trek through his uh connection with them and um i built a built a built the bike on the internet and send it into the cool breeze guys here in morseville the trek store you do what like you design it you can design it's called project one by trek and you design the bike online

and then i give that to the trek dealer here called cool breeze cycling and they order the bike so like what parts are customizable like could you get like a paint job the main yeah well you obviously could choose to color the bike they thought that i'd chosen incorrectly because they're like I think he wants red. This is orange. Maybe you thought it was red. They're like, nah, he likes orange.

That's weird. So I guess they don't give me any orange requests. Yeah. If you see an orange bike, that's you. So, yeah, they're pretty expensive. Somebody I was on here saying

they can almost be 20 grand. 20 grand? Yeah. The bike I have is 15 grand. It's crazy. Yeah. What makes it? The components are the parts that are expensive.

The shifter, the gear sets and all that. It's all electronic. So it's, you know, I'm learning all about it. Pretty high-end hobby. Yeah, yeah. They don't even let you in the store without paying a cover charge. Oh, really? Yeah.

It's a pretty expensive hobby. And for some stupid reason, I'm trying to get Amy into it. Man. Because we haven't spent enough money already. Yeah, might as well keep going. At the Jeremy Reader asked, do you want HMS to keep the number 88, or would you like them to go back to the 25, or do you care?

You know, I would be fine with whatever Rick wanted if he wants to bring the 25 back. But I think they'll keep the 88, because the 88 has some value to the partner. A lot of value. A lot of value to the nationwide partner, and I think that has value also. for our HMS.

The 88 car maybe has become valuable. It's an iconic car like the 24 and... I wasn't wanting to say that because I'm... It is. Okay. It's good to hear. Yeah. I know. I see it. I see it every week. I know.

Well, all right. Well, there you have it. So Tyler feels like the car has too much value. To go back. To go back. At Ty Dissle asked. Strange question. which is a great way to start a question. But who owns the fire suits and how many do you have at home? So we get about what you know all this, so we answer this.

So you get probably half of them. No way. How many fire suits? Okay, so you get four nationwide for the first half of the year, three Exalta for the first half of the year. And then halfway through the year. You get a new set. Get a whole new set.

So through the season we have eight nationwide. So this week it's Mountain Dew. You're going to get three firestals. suits Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Yep. Which you typically wear one on Friday, or you wear the same one pretty much Friday, Saturday, and then a new one on Sunday. Yep.

And then at the end, you get about half of them back. I think you get all the shoes, you get like half the helmets, somewhere in that range, and we archive it here at Junior Motorsports. So somebody here has got basically every fire suit that you've worn during your J.R.M. and Hendrick days. But you keep a lot of them at your house and at the Dirty Dome, which is the one at the Dirty Dome where we play basketball on Monday nights, it's cool because you've got the sun drop fire suit,

you've got the A.C. Delco. And, I mean, it's not cool, the reason that it's interesting, but you have that copier fire suit from the Corvette fire, which I always think that's interesting. Like when we go in there, I'll be like, oh yeah, that's the fire suit he wore. Yeah. Is there one in particular that you are like, oh, that's cool to have still, or do you care?

Yeah. I mean, what's your favorite one? Well, I won't all my fire suits. I, you know, I don't know what my favorite one is. I just have a late model one. I don't know. It's hard to pick a favorite one. I want them all, though.

We kind of archive them and we might give them a way to, give a few away, not most of them you keep. We might give one or two away a season to some charities. They're great for, you know, like charitable golf tournament deals or auctions. And a lot of drivers have their own charities and auctions. And so we, some of them end up there quite a bit.

All right. At Corvette Cheryl asked, will you race more Daytona and Talladega Xfendi races to continue your legacy at those tracks once you're done cup racing? I can answer that one. No. Yeah, I don't know. You know, I don't think Daytona Tal de lauday

going to be at the top of the list. What's going to be at the top of the list? Short tracks. Yeah, short track's probably going to be at top of list. Richmond, Bristol. Okay. Yeah. At Hefe underscore TXS,

any conversations yet about filming retirement commercials with Peyton Manning? I don't know I don't get to decide that It's not like I can go You know what Would it be cool? Yeah, it'd be cool

Of course I think two years ago We were supposed to film something with him And then decided not to At Improv Q asked Why did Pocono Raceway have so much trash Blowing around Sunday? Yeah, I don't know

They're just Pocono is going to You know There's a lot of race tracks that for some reason have a lot of debris floating around and I guess it doesn't find the trash can. I don't know how to explain it. Yesterday it was pretty sizable debris. Big bags and stuff.

Yeah, I saw them. All over everyone's grill. Yeah. That just, you know, I mean, it happens. It's pretty obvious. Plus it was windy. Yes. That made it a little more.

Got to get that trash to the can. Come on, folks. Throw your trash out in the Pocono infield. Yep. At Zoom underscore Buck underscore 80 asks, when you won your first cup race, how was your party and who was there? Oh man. I can't even remember back then. We drove home from Texas?

No, I mean, we drove home from the airport. I was riding with my dad. We were driving up to my trailer. I lived in a double-wide trailer. And my friend. friends had hung sheets in the trees and painted on them. One said, Dale Jr. lost his virginity in Texas. My buddy Josh Snyder did all that.

Yeah, makes sense. Yeah. So I was a little nervous because Dad had been known to break up some parties, not really drive me to them. And so I was a little worried he's going to be angry that all my friends were already there. and they were, you know, he was drinking and making a mess. And he was like, have fun. Oh, that's cool.

Yeah. He didn't stop being at the party? No. No, no. He probably showed up the next morning because we're all just trying to sleep in and he'll come in there stomping and hollering. How is, like, the entrance, if they're all, like, partying and then you finally get there? Is it like an amazing entrance?

Like, hey! Yeah, like, maybe like, you know, it would be for a birthday party or something. Yeah. Yeah. Surprise. We're having a party at your house. They certainly acknowledged you. Right.

Wouldn't you imagine? Yeah, but do they like hoists you up on their shoulders and stuff like that? Oh, no, no. No. No, just a bunch of everybody, they were just happy. They'd watch the race, waiting on you to get home. Oh. At Ryan, this is the last question.

At Ryan underscore Goodrum. We see the attention the young drivers are getting, but are there any young crew chiefs who have got your attention? I think we've got one, we've got a couple here. Yeah, I was going to say, we, you know, we, we feel like we have the best, you know, new crop. Jason Bredead and Meander and our guys, they, to me, are, you know, the best of the best of the best that are going to get the next cup job. Yeah. Yeah.

So, and we like to keep them as long as we can. that's a tough part about junior motorsports and running our team is that, you know, we're sort of a catalyst to the Cup series. So like Greg Isles was here two years, Chase was here two years. Same thing with the crew chiefs. So it's hard to keep good people because, well, that's the goal. So move them out of here. Right.

The point of them being here is to show what they can do and then take off. Yeah. So it's tough to, you got to be on top of your game to find the guys that can. and replace them. To keep the company going, to keep the strength of the company going, to keep the cars running good. Yeah.

I think the good, I guess he's young in Cup is that Colpern, Truex is crew chief. He's, he seems really, really smart. He does. That car is always fast.

But, all right, that's it for this week's Ask Junior questions. As always, thank you fans for sending those in, using the hashtag Ask Junior. All right, looking ahead, have tomorrow

simulator prep for Michigan what time am I going 7.30? 7.30 a.m. 212 12? Yeah, 12.30. Or if you all leave early to go to the competition meeting. That's a lot of hours.

That is a lot of... How many laps do you think you'll run? I don't know, but three hours. We did three hours last week, and that seemed like a lot. So this is going to be more. Plus, it's driving on 77 to get there, so I got to leave early.

Yeah, you're going to have to leave by 630. Because traffic on 77's tall. awful. Wednesday, Thursday, wide open. Me and Amy might go ride our

bike somewhere. Friday, practice and qualifying at 415 Eastern on Fox Sports 1. Saturday, we got two practices.

Xfinity races at 1.30 p.m. Eastern on Fox Sports 1. Sunday. The Chevy stage Q&A appearance is at 1230. That's right outside

the main grandstand. Come out there here, Dale. talk about stuff. Chevys. Shevys. How awesome Chevys are. That's actually a pretty fun appearance.

The race is at three. That's late. The races at three Eastern at Fox Sports 1. So 3 p.m. starts the rest of the season pretty much. Yeah. So last week I said I made a comment that people might not get home until midnight. And then my fiance Morgan literally did not get home until midnight. Yeah.

Because they did the race winner. Yeah. They sat on the top. Carmack for like an hour and a half in Wilkesbury, Scranton airport. But, yeah, I've asked the, you know, the three o'clock starts are because the networks think that they get better ratings because the rest of the world, the rest of the country on the, oh, so it's like a 12 o'clock start. It's like a 12 o'clock start on California time.

So they think they, you know, they think they get better ratings. I guess they do. I don't know. They're fantastic. Yeah. Love them. So, you know, a funny thing is, is they did this long time ago, like in 2000 or some, 2010 or 10 years ago or something. They went to 3 o'clock starts because they said they get better ratings, and then we went back.

So we are doomed in NASCAR to repeat our mistakes. Yeah. Do you think it's going to take, like, two or three rainouts to be like, oh? No, it would just be, you know, enough. If you get like one. If there's enough complaining. If you get like one shower in Pocono I don't

Yeah I don't That's not what's gonna They're not gonna They're not gonna say Oh well we can't have three o'clock starts Because of this This rain out It's gonna take people complaining

Me and you And fans if they don't like it Mostly you they don't care what I say Fans Oh okay Fans are probably the ones That can meet the needle Fans

Tell them If you I always thought it was cool That you had to race home from church Yeah and get home and catch the start of the race. Maybe we could give fans to tweet us at hashtag DJD. Do they like the 3 o'clock starts?

Or would they prefer? We can just put up a poll. I told you last week we should do more polls. We're going to do a poll today. We keep on asking everybody to hashtag us and tweet us and tell us. Let's make it a little easier. Here's a poll. Life ain't supposed to be easy.

Here's a poll. Just vote. Click this. Oh, speaking of votes, you did the vote on the red, white, nationwide car and we're not going to be able to run it. Yeah, so we talked about running the memorial car at the end of July race because we have we have not run a patriotic paint scheme on the July Daytona race and there was outrage. Yeah, well, we're not running it.

We ran one two years ago. We have not ran one before and there was outrage. Oh, okay, I know what you're saying. Okay, so I was trying to preemptively, you know, avoid outrage. We had a great looking Memorial Day car for Charlotte, and I said, why don't we run this in Daytona? Makes perfect sense. And so fans said, yes, that's a great idea.

By time, it went all the way up to flagpole. Our car, and it got to the right people that make that decision, and they thought, yeah, that's a good idea. Well, the Daytona cars are already in the paint booth getting painted with our original paint scheme. So it's too late. I think we're about a day or two late. This is the reason why, and people are like, well, well, just paint it.

Just paint the other color. Well, the Daytona car and the Tallade car get like 10 coats of paint. It's not like a traditional car. They get lots and lots of clear coat because they actually paint over the decals. So they put the decals on, then they clear coat like 10 coats of the clear coat on top of the decal to take all of the edge that the decal adds to, you know, they take all that edge off. So the car feels smooth as glass. Isn't that cool? It is cool.

That's too bad that we were a little late, but it's okay. The normal call is awesome. It's freaking disappointed. Yeah. I had to be the one to break that news to you, but it's okay. It ran well at Charlotte. It had a good life. And we will go to Daytona with the normal nationwide.

If you got, you know, I guess just don't be beat up on me too bad or Tyler for not having a patriotic race game. Or nationwide. Nationwide. It was just... You got to cover nationwide here? Yeah, I saw somebody tweeted them a little angry, and I was like, no... I'm angry. Well, it wasn't their fault.

It wasn't their fault. Whose fault? Who should I be angry at? Um... I don't know. Mike Davis? No. We just didn't...

Maybe it's our... It's a combo of us. Is it our fault? Yeah, we just didn't... Why are we taking the fall? We just didn't raise enough hell. All right. We should have been in the streets with signs, tweeting every day.

Just reminders. here's hate nationwide. So, all right, I think this is all we got for the today's show. All right, well, that's the show. Hope you guys enjoyed it. me when I touch you. Do I really like the skills to turn you off? It's what you do to me.

Am I wrong? Or is it really what you want to happen? When all I want to do is have this. I'm not strong enough to breathe. Am I wrong? But is it's really what you want to happen? When all I want to do is have this, Not strong enough to breathe

Because I'm caught in every single word And I know that you want something else Reach my point My very best To let you know That you in my head When I drive out So I'll become

But it's really what you want to happen The Dale Jr. Download and all Dirtymo Radio Podcasts are made possible by Exaltah. You can subscribe to all eight programs on iTunes Stitcher, SoundCloud, and all major podcasting outlets. As always, you can listen to Dirtymo Radio podcast on Dale Jr.com.

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