The Dale Jr. Download - 181 - Successful Sonoma, Daytona Memories, and Some #Appreci88ion

Episode Date: June 27, 2017

Dale Jr. and his wife Amy discuss their visit to Sonoma this past weekend, as well as Junior's success at Daytona and the recently announced JR Nation #Appreci88ion Tour. 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.

My racing career isn't just about me. It's about the team, the fans, the sponsors, the families, the tracks, the whole sport. Join us over the next five months on the Junior Nation Appreciation Tour, where we show appreciation to where it's owed. This is Dale Jr., and you're listening to Dirty Mo Radio. Hey everybody, this is Dale Jr. back again with the Dale Jr. download. We're recording this off the site, so we're not in the studio. and I have with me my wife, Amy. Hello.

Thanks to Hopeless Records for providing today's theme song, Northern Lights, by the Dangerous Summer. We had our buddies out at the track in Sonoma this weekend. Yeah, AJ came out, a couple of his friends. Lead singer from the band. So Sonoma, we finished sixth. It's our fourth consecutive finish of 11th or better at Sonoma. I think we still have the best average finish of VIII. any driver over the last four years.

At Sonoma. That's crazy, isn't it? Yeah. Considering it's not your most favorite track. Exactly. The car was great off the truck. I thought we should have qualified a little bit better, but we could end up qualifying 10th.

Car might have had a little more speed than that. Started off, the race wasn't very good. Did you, you were watching? Yeah, I went around and watched it in the Exalta suite, which was on the backside of the racetrack. Yeah. And I had never been back there before, so the racetrack, it's is just super neat and the atmosphere and the people back there having a lot of fun it's a

really cool place to watch but I thought that you I thought you car looked pretty fast yeah you look like you were having a really good time yeah it was a good time we had a little rut dust up with Danica early in the race we got into the corner and spun out got on the the brakes and lost the car I was probably trying a little bit too hard there obviously And then we got in another little crash over in turn four where Larson went three wide and sandwiched me into Danica. And Danica ended up knocking Ricky out of the race when he hit her. Oh, that was a weird plane ride home for them. Yeah.

I'm sure they got over it pretty quickly. But pretty eventful beginning of the race. And then we sort of settled in and started moving forward and working on our strategy. The strategy was real confusing. Throughout the race, we had, we drove from 25th to 6th to end the second stage. A lot of guys had pitted. We passed a lot of cars. We started second at the final stage.

Yeah. Ran on Denny's bumper for a few laps, and then he started to pull away. We started losing forward drive, so when I'd match the gas, the tires started spending pretty bad. We pitted on lap 68, and then again on lap 95, and we drove back up to 6 again. there's a lot of tire fall off. So the guys that tried to stay out were banking on a caution to happen. It didn't happen. That didn't happen, right.

So all those guys are kind of stuck out there on the old tires. Without, with the low down force, the cars really did slow down quite a bit, which was great. You had a lot of guys that handled really well on the end of the runs and some guys get new tires and come out there and drive up through the field, which was what we did. So the race ran green for the final 56 laps. and what's interesting about that is that last the week before I guess me and Tony Stewart were the more vocal ones but I think a lot of people complain fans included about the late debris yellows yeah right at Michigan and I believe to prove a point NASCAR did not throw any yellows they had a lot of opportunities to throw yellows at the end of the race they had some cars spent out right in I don't know what corner I was in yeah there's a corner what turn I was in, but a lot of people were spending out in our area. And they let it run out, which I think that's how racing should be. You know, if there's not a necessary reason to throw a yellow, then the purpose is there to run a race, to race.

So let the race happen. So kudos to NASCAR. So one week, we're upset. Next week, they do a good job. So your thoughts on Sonoma? Well, you know I love going to Sonoma just because it's wine country and it's so pretty. And the atmosphere is just great. I took a girlfriend out with me this weekend.

And we ran around and had some fun. Yep. So that's what's unique about Sonoma is that you, there's a lot to do. There's a lot of smaller little towns around too. Pelham is one of our favorite places to go. We go to Brick's Pizza. We took the team to a different. team dinner.

Yeah, Thursday night. We always go down there at least one night to eat at the bricks. We stumbled upon that place. Years ago, we were just walking around through Petaluma and actually smelled it. And it's back through this little alleyway. And we've followed our nose to this really cute little pizza joint. Yeah. So we try to go back there every year.

Somebody's rocking out, as you can hear probably in the background. If you're wondering what that is, it's Rolling Stones. At least they're playing some good music. Oh, it just turned off. Nope, it's back. Yeah, that's the one thing about Sonoma that's interesting because, I mean, not to say that the other tracks and other areas don't provide a lot of activity outside the racetrack and places for us to go and enjoy. But Sonoma seems to be, Sonoma for me, has become a trip that I really have got to like. You know, I really didn't like it at first.

I think the first time you went with me, we sat in a hotel room and ate McDonald's every day. We did. We didn't go anywhere. We just sat in the room. And it was, we didn't have a rental. car either only tj had one so if we wanted to go anywhere we couldn't right it was bad so now you know we're all over the place we're going around and yeah doing stuff they have a great candy shop in pedalum that we always go well i always go pile up on candy i took the guys over there anticipating them to have the same

excitement but they just got ice cream yeah a couple of them bought some candy but i filled up a bag they they bought it for their kids though yeah you bought it for yourself i got um some everlasting gobstoppers which i like sprees which i like and of course i like a lot of course i like a because I bought it, but um, blue pops. And then those other, um, what are those other suckers that you were like talking about? The big ones that you got. Oh, they look like a sweet tart on the end. Yeah, it's like a big giant sweet tart, bonus sucker.

And you kind of got a gnaw on it. Yeah. So I got some of them. They're all, that's all waiting on us back home. Um, so yes, and almost one of our favorite trips we even talked about after, after the race, uh, about going back there next year just to watch. Just to go. Yeah.

Yeah, just to hang out on Exaltas suite and spend the weekend there. So we might go to Sonoma just to see the race. Another thing happened over the weekend. Speaking of Exaltzata, we were at the Exalted dinner on Saturday night, and news broke on social media that William Byron had won his first career race in Xfinity series driving Virginia Motorsports. Yeah, the timing of that couldn't have been more perfect. So he's sponsored by Exalta throughout the majority of the races this year,

as well as Liberty University. And we were having dinner with Exaltas. So that, you know, it's fun to watch. It's fun to watch their reaction and their excitement. Yeah. So we were at the dinner and it was, that's what I was, that's what I found really interesting was how the sponsor responds to a win because we really never get to see it.

Right. From that point of view. So that was a lot of fun. Great for William. Sadler, Algar, William. And Annette all ran great, finishing the top 10. We're 1, 2, 3, and the points. Annette is 10th.

That's pretty incredible. Yeah, another interesting stat from that race. We really didn't get to see how this played out, but the top five finishers either tied or set their career best finishes. Oh. Yeah, all of the guys in the top five. So good job by William and the Junior Motorsports crew. We're going to have a beer toast.

I don't know if we'll, you know, William can't. Yeah, you can't drink beer. Um, so maybe we'll have a milk toast, chocolate milk toast. That would be fun. I'm not sure exactly what we'll do, but we always, I'm sure the guys won't mind skipping the beer toast and having something else. So one thing that was, um, announced today is, uh, the appreciation tour. Yes.

So the appreciation tour, um, is basically our way of showing, the fans, all the folks that I've ever worked with, raced with, the industry, the media, basically showing everyone how much we really appreciate them. And we, I was really, I really wasn't interested in having a lot of farewell parties and, yeah, and just a lot of celebration. About you, right. On me. Yep. So this is a great idea to really deflect that toward the fans and the people that... Deflect it. Well, the people that deserve it.

Right. Because these are the career wouldn't have been any fun at all without all that involvement. So that's something we kicked off today. Appreciation, you'll see that hashtag quite a bit in our social media timeline for the rest of the season. We'll be doing everything we can as we go from track to track to, you know, to to actively show our appreciation and how much we are, you know, thrilled to, you know, see these fans come out to see these last few races before the season ends. I see a lot of that on my timeline about fans buying tickets to races.

Yeah, to see us race for one more time. Yeah. Those are typically followed with tearful emoji gifts and things. Yeah. So a lot of people are going to wonder why are. an appreciation tour and not a retirement tour. This is not a retirement tour. It's because I'm not retiring from driving cars.

Basically, this career was influenced by a lot of folks, and we want to make sure that they're recognized. We want to make sure that the fans are recognized. And we want to make sure this guy on this Harley is recognized. He's making sure he's recognized already by himself. Very nice. So the Junior Nation Appreciation Tour is a, about the fans, friends, our families and team members and tracks, crews, industry workers,

cities that host races, the entire sport. They make up all the folks that we want to include in this tour. Yeah. Say thank you. And so it's not just Junior Nation and not necessarily just the fans. It's anybody who supported me along the way. And we're encouraging people. Yeah. We're encouraging people to use the hashtag, appreciation

APP-R-E-C-I-8 I-O-N when they tweet memories, pictures or whatever you want to sort of do. Yeah, we're really excited about this. I'm curious, really, how this is all going to go down the rest of the season. I don't really have any emotions just yet

going to these last few races. I've noticed that. You don't really seem to go out on race to going, hmm, this is the last time I'm going to run here. I don't know if it's, sunk in or what? I don't think it has. Maybe not. But I'm sure it will come to a head in a homestead. Yeah. A lot of emotions. As we start to climb into the car for that race, I remember how motion on LaTartre was, and I certainly can sense that, that, you know,

be in the situation for me. But anyhow, we want the fans to hear us for the remainder of the season. and this is our way of doing that. So we're going to Daytona this weekend. There are a lot of great memories at that racetrack. This is a place where we've got four wins and points races. July 2001 race, February 2004, February 2014, and then July and 2015 again. We've got two clash wins, five dual wins, six Xfinity wins at this racetrack. So I've had a lot of great success there.

My father's won something around 34 or 305. 36 races there. So between me and him, we have quite a few. Right. And this is a great opportunity for us to get a win. We're sort of in a situation where we are not going to be able to finish well enough to get enough points to get into the top 11 or so to make the chase. So we need to win.

A win is what we need. This is a great chance for us to get it. I know the fans are really excited. I'm reading their comments on social media about how they're looking forward to this particular race because they think that we have a great shot. I think this one's yours. Well, I hope it is, honey. I know.

I'm looking forward to it. Let's go to the Ask Junior portion of the show. We have a lot of questions here for you, Amy. You know what I mean? Yeah, see them. Do you want me to read the one? No, uh-uh. I'll ask them.

Okay. I'll just mess with me. All right, Amy. This is from Ampcar Fan 88. They want to know if, do you enjoy cycling? I do enjoy cycling. I've always been pretty consistent at working out, but I just recently,

got into cycling so that you and I could go and see things together. And I have an e-bite that I've been demoing, which means I'm borrowing it. And that's the only way I can really keep up with you because they're that much stronger than I am at this point. But it's a lot of fun. Of course, I don't mind the spandex because yoga pants are super comfortable. And I wear them usually when I'm just running around. So how important is the padding?

It's vital and very weird. but you get used to it. Yeah. It almost feels like you're wearing a diaper or something. It does, don't it? Yeah. Yeah. What other outdoor activities do you and Dale enjoy?

So we have any others? Just playing with us and gym back. Yeah, we go outside and play the dogs. We haven't really been camping lately lately. We like to go out on the lake, but we haven't done that lately either. We usually get out maybe once a summer, which is kind of sad. I don't know. I know, we really don't have much going on in our lives outdoors.

We're sitting outdoors now. Yeah, we are. We like the couch. All right, so Scott Glover 4 asks, what will you miss about traveling from the track, from track to track after the year? Like, what, you know, what are you going to be from? I've gotten to where I like to get in the rental car and just go see where I'm at

and find places to entertain myself just instead of sitting in the bus. So I'm going to miss that, you know, the ability to be able to see as many areas of the country as I do now. But I'll go ahead and say I won't miss being in the bus every weekend. You hate the bus. I love our bus. It's just it can get quite boring. Cabin fever. You get really.

Cooped up in there. Yeah. And there's really, yeah, okay. Especially with the dogs. I've gotten to where I don't even want to go with the dogs. We're like three-caged animals. If it's raining or something. I know, but if it's rain.

training and we can't go outside and play. You don't like the dogs and the bus. This is terrible. This is not going on. This is not what I was talking about. Folks, I'm just finding this out. This is terrible. Let's stop this. I love our dogs. This Q&A session. I hate it. Get out of here. All right. BBQ. Doc O24 asks, what is the best prank you have pulled on Dell. We were having it. We put up this poll. Right. So we completely disagree on what an actual prank is, what qualifies as a prank. Yep. I haven't checked the poll today. I haven't either. But we put the poll up on Dirtymoor Radio's Twitter handle about whether just jumping out and scaring your wife or girlfriend at random times in the house. Qualified as a prank.

It's a prank. Which I think it does and you think it doesn't. I don't think. I think it's, you know, boo is not a prank. Boo is not a prank. It needs to be a little bit more thought out than that. All right. So what's the best prank I've pulled on you? It's asking if I've ever pulled one on you. Oh.

And I don't pull pranks on you because I, that's a slippery slope to getting. a prank pulled back on you. I wanted you to say something cool about my pranks. Well, this is where I'm going with this. This is why I don't pull pranks on you. I've heard stories of these boys pulling pranks on each other back in the day. It was a group of three or four of you guys. Yeah, we kind of got into it. One of them got crickets put in their bedroom, like thousands of crickets. Another guy got flour. Who had the flour? Tofer? Basically, we were having a few drinks, and we thought it'd be funny to go, and I had to, I just grabbed the flour out of the cupboard and a bucket. And he was in bed already?

Yeah, they were in, we went to Christopher's house and got him. We went to Brawley's house and got him. T.J. locked the door by the time we got to his house, I think. But we dump a, we throw water on the bed. I don't remember what we did. a flower paste on this poor person. We throw, I can't remember which one we threw on them first, but we'd throw flour and then water on them. Yeah.

In the bed while they're sleeping and just ruin it. Well, Josh got crickets. So Josh was helping me do this. So they put crickets in his bedroom, like 2,000 crickets. So you had to listen to those for a while. I remember him telling the story is even better, but he said he thought he had gotten them all out. And, like, in the middle of the night, two or three days later, he'd hear these random chirps when he was sleeping. So they were everywhere.

And then, they got you back for you. They got me terribly good, which I was. And your ex-girlfriend was in on it because she had to play along. So I was, I came home from whatever I was doing. My ex-girlfriend sitting on the couch. I go upstairs, there's a pregnancy test on the counter of the bathroom, and it says positive. I come downstairs, and I go, why could, I go, what the hell is this? I said, why can't you just tell me?

Why do I got to find this test on the freaking counter? her. This is not how you do this. And she goes, I don't know what you're talking about. That's not mine. She just... And you were just mad at her? Did you believe her? Well, I was, I believe that. I wanted to, you know... Yeah, okay. I got what you're saying. Yeah. I was like freaking out. Yeah, sure. This is initial shock. They got me good. So... She's like your friends did it, you dummy.

Apparently my friend had a buddy's wife who was pregnant. He got the test from her and left it in my house. See, that's scheming. Now, that's a prank. That is a good, good prank. Okay, let's move on. I'm just sweating thinking about that one. Okay, so...

The rest are for you. You want me to ask these? Sure. All right. 88 Coconut wants to know. Why don't you share your Instagram picks on Twitter? That's good question. So Instagram and Twitter are owned by different companies.

Yeah. And I used to do that, and Twitter does not like that. Twitter does not like you. Sharing directly from Instagram. Yeah, Twitter is not like you promoting Instagram and vice versa, which I understand. They're not under the same umbrella. Yeah, competitors, sure. So also, there's another reason.

That's probably not even the one number one reason, but I think that Instagram and Twitter kind of serve two purposes, two different purposes. They're not really the same thing. Instagram obviously is great for photos, videos, stories, that kind of stuff. Visual. Right. Whereas I see Twitter more as a place to comment, like a message board. Right.

Like just being a conversation. And there are times and places to share photos on Twitter, and there are some great people that do that I follow. A lot of people that share a lot of old racing picks and stuff. Right. I like photos on Twitter. But I totally agree with what you're saying as far as posting things. I tend to post photos on Instagram also.

Maybe so I can just go back and see them myself. It's almost like a little story book of your life, you know. Absolutely. So that's a little bit why I don't do that, but I don't think that they like to work together. Right. All right. The next question. Oz the Wizard 33 wants to know.

Where did the number seven come from on your J.R.M. team and why not number eight? We got, I don't know, what the hell? Did you get the seven? Somebody must have had number eight. God, I got to go. I should know this. Oh, goodness. You should know this.

What the hell? I don't know where seven came from. Was that, I mean, I think we first had seven when Danica came. Did you not get seven with Danica? Yeah. Was she already, was she number seven in the car or something? I'm unaware of why seven and not eight. All right, we're going to have to get back to you.

We could probably do eight. Let's do eight one year. That's a good question. You've stumped him. Rick is the owner of the number five, and Kelly is listed as the owner of the number seven. I'm listed as the owner of the number one and number nine. Isn't that interesting? Hmm.

I really don't know where the seven came from. Yeah, we just got it when it's, my notes are telling me that we got it when Danik was here and we've just kept it. Gotcha. I think we should change, though. Number eight. What four? Because eight school Oh

Maybe I can be eight next year In that Xfinity races Oh Lord Going back to the original We might put up a pole See what people think Oh I'm pretty sure that we'll win with a landslide Have you ever considered the possibility of working for NASCAR

You could do well in the rules arena Returning some past to now Is that a real question? I don't get it that last part Well Tyler typed out this show sheet So maybe he Thanks Tyler He did a poor job job

With this particular question, I would consider working for NASCAR. Oh, really? Yeah. In what position? What would you want to do? I'm interested in being as important to the sport outside the car as I am as I guess I was in. I want to give to the sport that's gave to me. I want to be a part of its success.

If that's where... Yeah, if that's working with NASCAR, then great. But I don't know, you know, that I'll ever get that opportunity or that will ever happen. What do you think about that? I don't really know how I feel about that. Seems like a really stressful job. It does. I thought we were trying to cut some of the stress out of our life.

Yeah, they do. They have a hard job. Okay. Last question. Okay. Do you think adding more manufacturers to NASCAR would be good for the sport? Why or why not? I do think that adding more manufacturing.

your fractures to NASCAR will be great for the sport because any kind of involvement from corporate America is going to improve the help of the sport. It would be great to see Dodge or someone get involved and bring some more parity and opportunities for other drivers and teams, more money for other drivers and teams. There's always a need for funding and factory back. and just some diversity in general sure so that would be great if you love dale junior then exalted 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 exalta racing a must follow for any dale junior fan we're going to look ahead our looking ahead segment this is um where we talk about what we're doing

in the next few days what are we doing the next few days all right so thursday we have two practices we have two practices, 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern time. Friday, we have qualifying at 4.10 Eastern. This is all on NBC Sports. So NBC starts this weekend. And they have the rest of the year. The race is Saturday at 7.30 p.m. on NBC. I'm excited to see Steve back at the racetrack. Yeah. Littart. Yeah. You don't like anybody else with NBC. Just Steve. Well, I mean, he's, he almost feels like a brother. I know Rick Allen. He's going to be hurt. His feelings are going to be hurt. And Mr. Burton. Well, we've always hung out with Steve. So I'm excited that they're going to be back at the racetrack.

It looked like he and his wife and the kids were already at the beach and joined Daytona. So I'm excited to see them. Yeah. Well, I am too. I think that's the show. Good job, Amy. Thanks for being on. Thanks for having me, honey.

There were a lot of people at the store today. There were 50 folks waiting outside when they opened the store, the gift shop at 8 o'clock. They were disappointed. Yeah, they were disappointed. We weren't there. We tried to tell people on social media that we're going to be there or we're not going to be there. but there's always a few that show up. Well, you won't be there next week either, right?

Yeah. We won't be there next week, so do not come. Unless you just want to buy something. Don't come looking for Ralph because he's not going to be there. Well, we had fans come from Minnesota, Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, one from London, England on their way to Daytona. Georgia, Iowa, Washington State, California, Wisconsin. Also, another family on their way to Daytona. All came by the shop today.

That's pretty cool. Yeah. Each week it's getting a little more popular for folks showing up to see the podcast to be recorded. You guys are going to need a bigger studio. Yeah. Interesting. All right. Well, you guys take it easy.

I hope everybody has a good week and we'll see you guys in Daytona. Thanks a lot. Dell Jr. download and all Dirtymo Radio podcasts are made possible by Exaltta. You can subscribe to all eight programs on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, and all major podcasting outlets. As always, you can listen to Dirtymoor radio podcast on Dale Jr.com. Follow us on Twitter at Dale Jr., at Overstreet Tyler, and at Dirtymoh Radio. Also, check out the Dirty Mo Radio Facebook page. Thanks for listening to Dirty Mo Radio.

Thank you.