The Dale Jr. Download - 184 - The Car That Launched My Career

Episode Date: July 18, 2017

Dale Earnhardt Jr. tells why he chose his Darlington Throwback paint scheme and the role that car played in his career. He also discusses the Loudon race, the PJ1 on the track, and voices his opinion on the start times of this year's races. 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. Thanks to Hopeless Records for providing today's theme song, Where I Want to Be by The Dangerous Summer. It's a great song, ain't it? You like that one? I like all these songs.

Okay, good, because they're coming back, you know. I know we're on the second round. No, no, no. Oh, Danger Summer has just announced that they're back in the studio. I did see that, yes. And making music. I did see that. So all their fans are going crazy.

Yes. And that's pretty awesome. You being one of them. Yeah. AJ and all the guys in the band are back in the studio going to make a new record. I think this is their fourth album. And they haven't made one in four years. So we're going to have new songs.

songs to play at the start of this podcast. That's right, man. So anyhow, Loudden Race Weekend, we had an up and down race. You were out of town. Where were you at? I was at Myrtle Beach. Actually, North Myrtle Beach. Myrtle's kind of dirty nowadays.

Wow, you're just going to throw Myrtle under the bus right out of the gate. Hey. So there's a big difference between North Myrtle and regular Myrtle? Yes. I mean, I should go down there, but I just cut it all. I just thought it was all. No, there's a divide. There's a divide.

Yeah. All right. I didn't even go to Myrtle. Gotcha. Yeah. Did you check out of the racing over to Myrtle Beach Speedway? No, I have before. I went down there Monday and came back Saturday morning so they had not raced while I was down there.

Gotcha. I have gone there before. Yeah. Whenever Trevor Bain was in Hooters Pro Cup. Yeah. I saw him race. He raced a McDonald's car there. Okay.

He did not win. He didn't win. The 88 champion Sparks Blugs car. or did not win either. Oh, yeah, we had a car in that race too. Shane Huffman. With Trevor Bain won something this weekend. What do you win?

Well, I don't know if they covered it on the race, but there was a pretty interesting battle between him and A.J. Armandinger? No? At the end of the race, no? No. Okay, so toward the end of the race, I think, I don't really know how it started,

but I was behind these guys, and I think A.J. I think AJ moved Trevor out of the way for a spot and then Trevor moved AJ out of the way for a spot and they decided to kind of beat bang on each other for the last several laps and then after the race we pulled into the pit road and they had a little shoving match

Oh did they? Because see I saw a picture of you and everybody on the team looking a certain direction and I was like what's going on over there and so I was scrolling through Twitter and I didn't see anything Yeah so he um AJ all I saw I saw I saw AJ shove Trevor, but Trevor, Trevor had a long conversation with AJ right there at the car. Before or after the shove?

After? Oh. Yeah. AJ's a little feisty guy. Yeah. But Trevor is in your biking crew, so. Yeah, he's probably pretty good shape too. Yeah, he has a high advantage, probably maybe a reach advantage as well.

Interesting. AJ would have to try to get inside. Did you just break that news of their post race? I assumed it was on Tuesday. TV. I didn't see it. I watched it. I watched the race and yeah, they missed it. Dog. All right. Well, let's get to talking about the race a little bit. We ran around 10th all day long. We had a, you know, I think all our teammates were kind of the same. Eighth, ninth, tenth, tenth. We had an actual battle there for a while for eighth, ninth and tenth place between me and Chase and Jimmy. Casey was fast, but had strategy bid him a little bit. But anyhow, I don't, you know, a lot of fans are sort of, I don't know, up in there as far as their opinion on what we did at the end of the race, as far as staying out on old tires. We didn't really have a prayer.

Yeah. And, but, you know, running 10th wasn't going to do anything for us either. So, yeah, because you're not going to drive from 10th to first. No, I mean, no, no, no. You're not going to, yeah. I didn't even thought about that, but finishing 10th. is what I meant. Finishing 10th wasn't going to do anything for us.

Yeah. So trying to stay out on all tires and, I don't know. That was the only shot we had. I understood it. I had very low expectations for the move. Yeah. Considering everyone pitted. Is it bad that I had low expectations as well?

I mean, I was in the car. I was supposed to have this great attitude and maybe, I mean, the realistic expectations. Yeah, my realistic expectations were low. Is that okay? Yeah. I mean, especially if like six guys had stayed out, maybe. Yeah. But literally everybody else pitted.

Even the people that were on our strategy. Like the two car and the three car and a couple other people, I think, had stayed out and we're in the position we were in. And I thought maybe the two at least would try to stay out. But he knew that was a lost cause. Yeah. And like, so everybody pitted and only one guy took two tires. Yeah. So that was kind of.

And he was one of the fast guys too. Yeah, he was actually leading. Yeah, I saw Matt Kenseth at the race. He said, you know, I thought that the decision to take two tires was bad until I saw you restarting on the front row. That was a terrible decision, which I thought it was pretty funny. He's very, he's being, he wasn't trying to be an asshole. But, I mean, you got to make that move.

Yeah, I know. So a lot of people are up in there. So I guess the question is, is as a fan, are you willing to, give away a 10th place finish, a better finish, for a real shot in the dark. We're going to have to take these gambles every week. I guess I'm trying to prepare the fans to be ready for this to happen. The situation that we're in right now, a 10th place is as good as a 25th place. Yeah, 19th, 18th, whatever. Wherever we finished. 19th. So you've got to try. I mean, like we said, You weren't going to come out 10th and drive your way up through there.

Nobody really made progress. I mean, Larson made a lot of progress at the start of the race, but otherwise... Larson was three-tenths faster than the field the entire weekend. That's why he made so much progress. Yeah, so you're not going to take a 10th place car, and then all of a sudden, this little adjustment's going to make that big a difference. So it was a failed attempt, but at least you're trying... Yeah.

You've got to put yourself out there. I mean, it's like anything in life. if you've got to try or you're not going to succeed. Yeah. It was an uncomfortable position to be in, unfavorable, and unfavorable position to be in, be that even 12-lap tires there. When you're in that spot, though,

and you know the tires you have versus what the other guys have? I mean, we were two-tenths off of top five with the same tires. Yeah, much less 12-lap tires. So is your concern more so, like, I don't want to make a mistake right here, in front of the whole field. I wasn't going to make a mistake. Well, it could happen.

Like what? Like what happens if you get a little loose off two, smash into the 18, 11? I mean, I can control my car. I know, but it gets... Man, you are dark. You're dark. One time...

You're morbid. No, I'm saying what happened? You were right behind Jimmy the time that he was racing. I think it was the 14 off of 4, and he got loose, and it shot him down like a groove and a half. What happened? What if that would have?

happened to you in front of the pack. Does that make you nervous? I've never raised. No, I never, I don't, I don't, I don't have these, I don't, I don't have these dark, that's a pessimistic, pessimistic thoughts right before restart. Like, oh my God, what if I crashed the whole field? I mean, that's no way to think. I used to maybe have those thoughts whenever I was doing online racing.

Yeah. And I didn't want to be that guy. Is that how you, so that's probably where you're, why you weren't so great at online racing. Yeah. hopefully when you're playing basketball with us, since you're on my team, that you don't have those thoughts when you're shooting. I don't know.

Like, oh, this is going to crash off the rim and hit somebody in the forehead and bust somebody's face open. That's sort of where you were going with our restart. But so would you say, because in past years, tires weren't such a big deal at Loudon, but this year, in both races, it was huge.

Yeah, we went there, I went testing the tire. I don't know, a year or two ago. And it's a great tire. And that's why I think we picked this tire is because it does have some fall off, and it is important to come in. And, you know, it used to be pointless to pit for tires there. You didn't need them.

But now the tire that we have now, it allows guys to drive through the field. If they do get tires, they're not stuck. back in 10th place and can't go anywhere. So tires do make a difference in that that creates some strategy. So I like the tire. And yeah, you're right. Tires are are much more important than they have been at that racetrack traditionally over the last decade.

But anyhow, you know, it's what's done is done. I think people need to get ready for some more gambling. Whether we've got a shot at it or not, we're going to take that gamble. I think we make the same choice. Yeah. Even after a day or two thinking on it. The other big story of the weekend was the P.J.1. Yeah.

They changed the name of it. Yeah, what's the difference? Well, I guess some company must have bought this stuff and now has re-branded it. I'm not sure. Does anybody know what P.J stands for? No. No. They sprayed this stuff on the racetrack.

initially they put a little bit down and the inside of the turn they put a lot down just outside the typical groove I applaud them for doing it I thought it was the best usage of this this goop this sticky stuff

that we've we've been using it a couple tracks and I think this was the best application of it because it it created new lanes they put it where we weren't running which created new alternate lanes and different ways of getting around the corner you saw guys running right on the bottom you saw guys running in the higher lane you see all guys using both

lanes crossing across the racetrack you had options you know and i think that created opportunities for passing created guy you know it gives you somewhere else to go that's still got some speed you know some of these other lanes so i thought it was a good job hopefully they'll you know apply it again. One thing that I would adjust, if I could, is to actually put it even higher, even wider in the top groove. They could go a little farther, I think, with it, because we would get above the PJ one, and we need a little, you know, we want to run higher to get even a more aggressive run off the corner to beat those guys that are trying to run the bottom. So I think they put it like 10 feet wide, maybe they could go to 15.

Yeah, I think they could at least almost double the outside groove width to even create an even more dramatic and exciting. It seemed like Brad Kozlowski on Twitter after the race and his spotter Joey Meyer during the race tweeted, they thought that the PJ1 was contributing to pulling up the asphalt. until you had that red flag. Do you think that, is that like a concern? Oh, I'm going forward. No, I'm not concerned about it. I don't have to pay for the asphalt destroying itself.

I'm not worried about it. That track is really close to needing to repave. If you go out there and actually get to ride around the track or walk the track, the cracks that are in that track, they're like three to four inches wide where this concrete has shrunk and stretch through the winters up there in the summers. This ice fault, I mean, is really beaten up, taking a toll. The winter's, harsh winters up there, and the hot summers are taking a toll on this surface. And so what they were trying to, what they were pulling out of the racetrack was actually this

tar that they pour into those cracks to try to hold the track together and allow it to, I got to. Allow it to sort of have that ability to contract and so forth. but it's it's close to needing to repave and it'll be interesting to see exactly, you know, how they go about doing that because maybe they don't pave all the lanes. Remember that grip strip we had at Pocono in turn three? I think if they just repave that groove that they're having trouble with, which is the third groove at the racetrack, just pave that one.

You're really going to have a pretty awesome looking race, I believe. That's just for my two cents. Another. I wouldn't repave the whole thing. I just paved the strips that need it. What about the after the race? So there was some talk about that during the race and leading up to the race. After the race, people were back to talking about the start times.

Yeah, start times. That's been a topic of conversation all day. Yeah. So obviously, I didn't go to the race yesterday. Watching at home, it's not ideal, but watching at home, it isn't as bad as being there. because you can do whatever you got to do in the morning. You watch the race from three to six. You're not going out after the race.

That's the East Coast guy. East Coast guy, yes. Now, West Coast guy, I've been looking on Twitter. Obviously, there's a lot, you know, there's a lot of different opinions here. There's not really one argument that's winning. There's going to be a lot of people that, like, oh, I like it. I like the start times where they are being at 3 o'clock. But there are a lot of people that like the, a lot of people that lived on the West Coast that liked the races starting early because they could get up in the morning, get their coffee, start watching the race, and then have the rest of the day to do something.

Yeah. I've seen a lot of people have that comment. It's interesting because it's a, it's really a split debate. Yeah. So, like, being an East Coast guy, I can see it both ways. Being someone who goes to most of the races, I don't like it. Yeah. I don't think anybody in the industry likes it, not even, you know, exclude the drivers.

We have jets, we jump around, go where we want to go. Look at all the, you know, if you're thinking about all the industry folks, you have to have a little more labor in their travel, these folks are getting home much later. The fans included, they're going to this race, and they're getting home much later as well. So I think as far as attending the race, it's more difficult for the tracks. Maybe the tracks might not be in favor of it. Which the fan aspect, like obviously we see it from our perspective, oh, poor, poor, pitiful me, whatever.

But the fan perspective, they're not flying or they're driving three and four hours after the race, so they're not getting home till really late. That part is probably a little, that's not good for the fan, but then you weigh the fan at home, the fan at the track. Yeah. What about the fans overseas? Geez, this is terrible timing for them. Terrible.

Yeah, just awful. We need to reiterate, because I saw some people on Twitter who were confused, they're not considering the Russian. Oh, they thought that was serious. That was a joke. I need to use more emojis in my tweets to make sure people know that there is sarcasm involved. Yeah, because I saw a few people. They were seriously taking that.

Oh, my bad. I really didn't think people would take that seriously. We could hook up a 5 a.m. start somewhere. Where or what? Like, I have not, to be honest, I have not seen any tweets from Moscow complaining about the start times. Yeah. But, um.

They're not complaining about anything, though. So. I think, uh, you know, I don't like it. I'll be honest with you. The 3 p.m. start times are, I, in my opinion, a bit of a desperate reach that don't accomplish their goal. It doesn't, it doesn't accomplish the goal. That's it.

I liked the 1 o'clock. Start times, 7.30 for night races, 3.30 when it's a West Coast race. Because I'm a football fan, and I know that there's going to be a game Sundays at 1 o'clock, 4 o'clock, and 8 o'clock. There's consistency. You can plan around it. But like, yesterday started at 3. Next week starts at 2.30. The next one, Lord knows, it probably starts at 4. Who knows? I think it starts at 3. Yeah, I agree. But still. I think the consistency that you see and maybe the NFL is a great model. I as well understand that there's 1 o'clock, 4 o'clock, and that's the model.

And it works really well. It's easy to plan around. It's easy to understand where you need to be. I think that these start times, especially when they kind of do jump around every half hour or so. Or they start, you know, one network begins to race at the normal hour, which I call normal 1 o'clock or, you know, you got all kinds of start times throughout the season. It's just super confusing. We have these Saturday night races, and even as a driver, I couldn't tell you when any of these races start.

I have to literally look at the time every of the day of the race. I have to look at the time for driver's intros. I need to look, you know, this isn't stuff that is consistent enough for me to know when it's going to be. Yeah, because it could be like a one o'clock start time, driver intro is 1230. Your driver's meeting is probably 11 o'clock. If that was the same every week, it would build more. I think that would help. And gain momentum.

Yeah. I mean, as a fan, that's what you want. Is consistency and something easy to understand. It's going to hit some debate. And another thing, too, about this start time thing. And like I said, we understand that there's no real clear winner in this argument, but we have been down this road before. We went down this road many more.

many years ago changing the start times to later it wasn't even that long ago and they wrote exciting articles promoting this as a great change and then they wrote exciting articles promoting it as a great change when they changed it back yeah and then to starting at one o'clock so here we are again we've been through this before we've been through this cycle I expect that in inside of two years we'll be back to one o'clock start times hopefully about that. It's going to be exciting news. Yeah, and that'll be exciting news. They'll write some great articles about it.

So we did some cycling this weekend. One particular story that, and the reason, you know, cycling isn't all that exciting, so we're not going to talk about it every week. But this particular weekend, something funny happened. I was in the garage area, and this guy walks up, and he's running this podcast. He's got his phone and his microphone, and he's doing a live podcast. His name is Brian. bell and he runs a uh he does a podcast up north so he walks up and says hey man you know he asked me

some questions about racing he's like you're on a podcast this is live you might if i ask you a few questions no problem uh so we ran through a few questions real quick kind of goofy having fun and he says y'all y'all gonna ride today cycles cycling i'm like yeah we probably are actually because i'm a ride with you and i thought of course you are right and uh he said what time i said probably around through 345 we're going to exit the tunnel and he goes all right i'll be ready and i'm thinking yeah whatever you're not serious this is all you know fun and games we get on the bikes around 345 it's me jane mary and uh Trevor bane casey cane and we're going out the racetrack and he uh he comes riding up this guy with geared up and

everything? Geared up. Yeah, he's in cycling gear on a bike, and he rides up. He says, hey, remember me? I said, yep. He said, you might have I ride? I'm like, course not. You know, this is a cycling is very social.

It's not uncommon to be riding down the road and, and, you know, see someone and ride with them or what have you. So, you know, safety in numbers, all that stuff. So we go riding. And we, you know, he's telling me, he's like, you know, I ride a little bit. I got this charity. I'm riding. in.

So I'm like, okay, so this guy really does ride, and it's not some kind of, he's not doing some kind of gimmicky thing for a story, but he did write a story, which I read, which was very nice. So this guy rides with us for like eight or ten miles, okay? Is this interesting to you? Well, yeah. What happened after eight to ten miles? All right.

So as we're riding, Jamie's explaining to me, McMurray, he's like, hey, they got these tubes in the trees in the woods, these rubber tubes running through the woods. If you've seen them, I'm like, no, I haven't seen them. I'm trying to think of my head, what would there be tubes in the woods? He's like, well, this is how to get the maple out of the trees for maple syrup. So we're riding along, and we stop, and Jamie's like, there's the, there's the tubes. Look out in the woods there, and I look out, and there's these rubber tubes running everywhere all through the woods. He's like, that's how to get the maple out. This guy, this guy, Brian, that's riding with us, goes, well, the maple's not running right now.

Not this time of year, but it will be soon. So Jamie goes, well, those must be mebel trees. And the guy says they're not selling pine syrup, which I thought was a very funny joke. Yeah. Yeah. Geez. Did Jamie feel like an idiot? Yeah, he did.

Poor Jamie. Yeah. Is this where this guy's ride ended? Yeah. Well, not really. He didn't just tell a joke and then pull off. But it was funny. Yeah, it was funny because Jamie was the one like, look, you got to see these two.

They pull the maple out of the trees, and he's telling this whole story, and we get up and stop and he, and the guy says, well, the maple's not running right now, but it will be, and Jamie's like, so those must be maple trees. It really floored all of us. We were surprised that Jamie said that. Poor Jamie. I think he wouldn't know that maple comes from maple trees. We went another two miles, and we lost Brian. He didn't finish the loop, which was about a 22-mile loop. I saw him the next day after the race, I believe.

and he said thanks for riding i said sorry we lost you he said no problem it was a blast you lost him he just fell off the pack he just was a little slow up the hill and and you know you lose them maybe i think i mean we started as a group of five and and we ended in three different groups oh yeah so it broke up i was going to ask because i saw that you rode with kisi and trevor yeah and they wrecked each other the week prior did is that awkward i didn't know that oh so there was no like awkward tension. They must not covered that. Oh.

They did. Remember Casey was angry tweeting after Kentucky. Ah. But clearly they got over it. Didn't care. Yeah. Must not been a big story during the week. What about your flat tire?

Must not been too big a story. Yeah. Clearly. Yeah. Well, maybe they'll cover AJ and Trevor this week. That was interesting. Yeah. Maybe now they will.

Yeah. We're going to dig this up. Yeah. We're telling them what to cover. Guys, there's a lot of good stuff to cover. Yeah, I had a flat Friday. I was a mile from the track, so I was almost finished. But Jimmy was taking us down all these dirt roads.

I got this. No way to ride a road bike. Yeah, I got my bike ain't made for that. And neither was my tire. Thanks, Jimmy. Yeah, Jimmy. He was taking a same, JJ. He's like, hey, this is New Hampshire, you know, half the roads are dirt.

This is just way it is. So that, night, I'm like, I'm going to ride again on Saturday. So that Friday night, I made my own, I mapped my own loop, stayed strictly on the pavement. And that's what we rode on Saturday. And you did not invite Jimmy? With podcast, Brian. Well, I asked Jimmy if he wanted to go riding Saturday and he said, no, I'm going to go with the fast guys, which that's, he didn't sugarcoat it. That was rude. It was a little rude. It hurt my feelings. But, so, yeah, Jimmy went with, let's see he

rode with Kinseth a few other guys Paul Wolf it's Paul Wolf a fast guy Super fast oh yeah yeah they've been riding a long time I didn't have him pegged as a cyclist he rides the hell I have a bike

so Saturday night you did the trackside live experience yeah oh yeah how was that that was pretty fun you know they used to have this trackside live stage trackside live stage they used to have that all the time at the racetracks Marcus Smith is trying to bring it back.

It's attempting to do this. A lot of racetracks throughout the rest of the season. It's great for the fans. They have somewhere to go with something to do on Saturday night. They do a lot of concerts and stuff like Tim Dugger comes and plays and stuff like that. But this will be great. The drivers are going to have to – the drivers are going to have to come out there on their own free wheel, though.

Oh, okay. It's not – yeah, no contractual. No. So if you get asked to do it, it. I mean, you're going to have to offer up your time to go do it. Marcus asked me to come this weekend, so we went. Clint Boyer was there, Austin Dillon, Blaney. A lot of fun sitting up there, joking.

It's kind of a, it's definitely unscripted, and they do play it on NASCAR.com, but we really don't pay attention to that, and you're going to hear some stuff that's pretty vulgar. Not vulgar, I wouldn't say as a word, but it's just not PG. Yeah, it's not PG. Yeah, it's just you're going to hear the real stuff. That's cool. Yeah, the real conversation. The first thing happened was we got up there backstage and I tooted and didn't tell anybody.

And then Clint smelled it. And then we walked down on stage and he continued to complain about this. I can believe it. And so we had to tell everybody what was going on. I've been a victim of one of these before. The thing's silent but deadly. They linger a long time. So those are the type of things unfiltered.

Oh, okay. I guess is the way. That's a good word, yeah. Yeah. So we, and we talked about beer a lot. Dang. Which was, yeah, I mean, we could just couldn't. Everywhere the conversation went, we were running into beer conversation.

I heard that you guys were supposed to. I heard you were supposed to toss some lobsters and you opted not to do that. Well, when they asked me to go up there and when they asked me, when they text me and said, hey, will you come talk on the stage for this trackside live? I said, yeah, and they said, we promise it won't be any gimmicks. I'm like, you know, I don't like gimmicks. I'm doing no silly crap. So I'll come up there and do some Q&A, and that'll be fun.

And right before we're getting ready to go up there, they said, oh, we're going to do this lobster toss game. I'm like, no, no gimmicks. Nope, we ain't. Nope, not doing it. So I text to Marcus Smith. I said, look, man, not doing no gimmicks. And he said, that's okay.

I'm allergic to lobster. And I said, well, I'm allergic to BS and gimmicks. So not doing it. Glad we're not. So do you have a lobster phobia? Did you see that about Denny Hamilton? I don't have a lobster phobia. Yeah, I saw him chasing Denny around.

I thought that was a joke, but he really did. Frameding by this. Yeah. That big lobster. I'd hold that thing up. Did he hold it up for the picture? I think he had to, yeah. But it wasn't very long.

I'm sure. Snap them pictures quick. By the time this airs, we will have unveiled the Darlington throwback. Long awaited, yes. Fans really been asking for a long time when this thing's going to come out. So for those who haven't seen it, tell them which car it is, why we picked that. So we are running the A.C. Delco paint scheme that I ran in 1998, 1998, 1999 in the Xfinity Series. Won two championships with it.

One of my favorite cars. Is it one of your favorites? Yes. When I became a Dale Earnhardt Jr. You were a Dale Earnhardt, a supporter? Yeah. Really? I have that picture that I posted on Instagram a long time ago.

And how disappointed are you now? To know the real Dale Jr. Boom. Yeah. But this is a car. Well, I'm very excited about this because, you know, typically, obviously the throwbacks, we acknowledge a car that are a driver or some era from the past. rarely do you see guys actually do their own cars. Now, Jeff Gordon's done his rainbow car a few times in different races.

So this is kind of rare. I hope the fans will accept that and be receptive to me running one of my cars. I anticipate they'll love it. I do too. But I guess hopefully the rest of the sport's okay with it. I really – this is the car that launched my career. career. Right.

This, I mean, this is the car that was the catalyst to everything else. And I had not had, I had not had really any true success. I had not done enough or really anything in a car to warrant, you know, any real look from an owner or from anybody to, you know, it just, it was the car, man, that really sent me into the stratosphere. Is that way we put it? Yeah, I think this was before the bud car. Yeah, this is the car that got you to the bud car. Exactly. We were very successful.

I think we won 13 races in those two years, two championships, just to have the time of our lives with Tony Senior and Tony Jr. And that whole crew, a lot of family on that team. Just a really, really fun time. Couldn't do anything. I mean, that car drove so good every week. Do you think that Matt Kenseth will be disappointed to see this car come back because you beat him for the championship both years?

I don't think that that's the Matt Kinsis feelings, yeah. Oh, okay. Maybe he'll like seeing it come back. Here comes morbid Tyler. Morbett. This is funny, Tyler, I think. What are the chances? I was thinking you were going to say,

do you think Matt Kenseth would be jealous that he didn't think of bringing back his old DeWalt car? I was thinking. So he could have like, hey, man, why didn't you call me? I could bring my car back and we could have matching extended cars. Well, last week you said something about, I thought that's what you were going to say. You said you gave Matt an idea.

and me knowing what yours was, I was like, oh, cool, maybe he told Matt. No, no. He told me what his sponsor was and the colors he was working with, and we dug into his history and his family history, and I pointed him in a direction. I will see if he took it or not. I got you. See, I thought, I was like, oh, he's got DeWalt again.

He could. He doesn't have DeWald in that race. Okay. Well, that won't happen. But what are the chances, I took this question off of your sheet, what are the chances that you will go clean-shaven and bring back the frosted tips? I won't bring back the frosted tips. I know that much.

I don't think I'll be clean-shaven either. Why? Because you've got to go all in on the throwback. God, amen. Because that stuff will be there the next week and the week after. It'll grow back. You should at least do the clean-shaven. I don't think I had frosted tips when I ran this.

You did. At some point you did. Man, I'm not sure. Maybe the back half of 1999. If Amy approves of the frosted tips, could we get those for one weekend? No. Okay. Because they got, you know, they don't, you don't wear a hat.

The rest of the season? No, until it grows out. You can just dye it back. It stays. No, I'm not doing all that. I know now fans are going to want that. Not doing it. No.

Fans, please. I don't want to shave my beard, man. It's hunting season. It's not. It is. It's going to be Labor Day in South Carolina. It's going to be hot. It's going to be near hunting season.

It's not. That's November. You'll have two months to grow up back. Nope. But either way, we're looking forward to the AC Delco paint scheme on the nationwide car. I'm looking forward to that too. So it'll be fun. You're going to have the fire suit, the red shoes, everything. Yeah, I had red shoes, so that's going to be fun.

Also, we put this back in here because... I want to know why you put this back in here. We talked about this last week. Because Mike said that you guys talked for two hours, and he had to cut it out. Oh, so we didn't get this in the show last week. No. Yeah, so the NBA finds Joe, Joel, how do you say his last name? Embed.

Embed. Joel Embed got fined $10,000 for using inappropriate language on social media. He said the F word in an Instagram post. Like verbally said it or he typed it out? typed it out. Oh. Oh. Find $10,000.

Yeah. I don't agree with that. I wanted to bring that up because I think that sort of crosses a line of where really the NBA can have that kind of control or anything. governing body. I think if Joel wants to use the F word, he should be able to use the F word. I think he, yes, I agree.

As long as he's not like F the NBA, F the refs, F this guy. F the refs, that's a fine. The context in which he used it was semi-joking from what I read. So, yeah, I agree. I think that's a little bit,

we've got to be careful about how much you know, let these guys have their personality. Just like any other sport, athlete, celebrity, musician, you want the real, I mean, it's going to offend somebody, but people are offended about everything. We're already having a problem where I think that, you know, that there's a little bit of personalities being stifled in all forms of sport. And when the NBA does this, that opens the door for other sporting organizations to go in that direction as well. You know, and well, the NBA did it. And I think, you know, maybe we should be doing that.

We don't want our guys, you know, saying the F word or using foul language. So we're going to do that as well. We're going to start, you know, it's a lot of copycat going on. And that's part of the beauty of social media is you get authentic. Yeah. I don't want, yeah, I agree. I think, you know, there are some very dark areas of social media. But, um,

This wasn't one of them. This wasn't one of them. I think that it, I think it steps over the line a little bit. It would be interesting to hear what the fans think about that. I mean, there's people out there don't care to read that language. Right. I'm sure. But, and don't follow that guy.

My feeling is, if this is bad for Joel, then he's going to get his penalty in the court of public opinion. The NBA doesn't have, isn't necessary for the NBA to step in there. Right. Speaking of guys saying the F word, what was your thoughts on the Mayweather McGregor media tour last week? What a mess. Oh, my gosh. Man, I mean, does that make you? It's all stage.

I think it will, yeah, I do too. It's such a stage, man. This isn't real life. This is all BS. There was one rumor where they flew together, but then I think they came back and said they know they flew on identical jets, but they were separate. But yeah, it seems very fake. It's funny.

Yeah, it is funny. It is hard not to keep a close eye on it. And it's a spectacle. I've never seen anything like it. It's a spectacle. Four days going from L.A. to Toronto to Brooklyn to London. Well, this is most likely, you know, the obviously biggest pay-per-view opportunity for these guys in boxing. They're going to, you know, they're going to break the records.

And they're just, so the tour itself makes sense because they want to go around the world and get the whole world globally interested in this fight. But the way they've been reacting and acting together during the media scrum is, it's crazy. It's hard to believe. I like McGregor, but like from his side, I can see it. But Mayweather is a 49. know champ, I don't know why. He doesn't need to be acting like a fool like they're doing. So that's a little confusing me.

It's a bit too reality TV-ish or fake. That's what people like these days. I mean, I don't know if that's a good reference, but it's a bit fake, man. It just doesn't seem like these guys are really. There's no, they don't have a history. Right. To where they should be acting this way. Yeah.

With each other. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, McGregor came up through a totally different discipline than Mayweather, and they didn't, they never were just to intersect. Yeah. There was no, you know, man, in 20 years, I'm going to fight this guy. Or, you know, I've been fighting for 10 years and he's the guy I want to knock off. I've been looking for this fight for forever. Right.

This is just two guys going in for massive money grab. Don't blame them. A lot of freaking money. So, yeah, but I don't know whether they expect people to really believe this back and forth. Yeah, because then it just happened. What's your plan on the fight? Like, how are you going to see the fight? How am I going to see it?

Yeah. I'm going to try to find someone who is buying it and go over to their TV. I, yeah, I'm going to be at the beach again because that'll be on our off weekend. Yeah. And I'm going to try to find a bar that's showing it. Okay. Whenever Mayweather fought Packy, I watched it on. Periscope.

Man, I should have did that. It's very sketchy. I know, but I should have did that. I bought that fight, and that's why, and I regrettably, I regret buying that one, and that's why that I will not buy this fight. I'll be watching it on someone else's TV who bought that fight. But we will be buying Triple G, Canella. Yeah, the fight I'm excited for is Triple G and Canella.

Those guys, in my opinion, I think that those guys legitimately are, they've been waiting for years to fight. They've been trying to get this going, and there's really something critical on the line aside from millions of dollars. Right. You know, they both are giving up their records. I know that Canello has had loss on his record to Mayweather, but basically the guy that comes out of this as the victor is the best pound for pound. I don't think that even though Mayweather is unretiring, the fact that he's fighting McGregor, I don't think – He's not fighting anybody else.

I don't think that puts him back into the ranking of pound for pound greatest. Right. Do you? No. He needs to fight a boxer. Yeah. To be back in that conversation. Because in my opinion, he's still retired.

Yeah. He's just doing this for the money. I don't even know if you've got to put an asterisk beside his 50-0 record if he wins his fight. Really? Yeah. I mean, it's a commissioned fight. Well, I know, but I think that he's going to outmatch McGregor so terribly that it's not. A lot of people may argue that should this fight actually.

count on his record. By the end of the match, maybe going in, you might all feel like this is a legitimate fight. But if he goes in there and just flattens McGregor and McGregor,

I don't have a chance in hell, do you count the win? Dana White said if McGregor hits him once, it's over. Well, I bet there's a lot of people hoping for that. One and done? Yeah.

No, that McGregor can get in there and connect and make it a fight. I would be one of those people. I don't think that McGregor hits that hard. I mean, he hit Diaz plenty of times and did knock him flat on the ground. He knocked him down. Not out.

Not out. Not over, buddy. Yeah, they didn't have the gloves on like that. He got up, slapped him. Yeah. Said, how dare you knock me down? Yeah. All right, so let's move on to ask junior questions.

All right. Let's at Water Cooler Dale asked, what are your thoughts on Richmond, Raceways, upgrades, and other tracks, Phoenix currently adding to their infield experience. I'm really ticked off about this Richmond upgrade because it's coming in so late. This should have happened a long time ago. Yeah.

Looks great. They're going to do an amazing job. It's going to, you know, it's going to, it's going to, it's, it's, it's what Richmond needs to do, I think, to stay relevant. And, you know, again, it's about time. We've been kind of packing. in those garages for a long time. Yeah, the Richmond one right now is not ideal.

You're crammed right up against the track. Hard to get in and out of. Exfendi is just a big old parking lot. Yeah. This is going to be great. It looks awesome. What do you think about them renaming the track? They dropped international.

So what is it? It's just Richmond Raceway now. Fine with me. It's not RIR. They got a new Twitter handle. Richmond Raceway. Yeah. I like it.

We're going to have some news coming about you and Richmond Raceway within the next week or so. Yeah, I got the, uh, I'm doing the winter circle up there. Yes. So yeah, I'm excited about that if it all works out. I, what I heard today is it's about 99% works out. You're going to love this. So we'll be, uh, we'll be telling you about that soon. All right. At Adam King 883 asked, why are the same cars 42, 7818 fast every week, regardless of the track type. In the 2000, it seemed like it was different from week to week or at least based on the style of track. Well, basically with the way the cars work today, if you can find a gimmick or something that works that the other teams don't have, don't understand, an advantage, then you'll set yourself apart from the rest of the

field no matter the track, no matter of configuration. Whether it's something in the suspension, something in the downforce, and it doesn't have to be illegal. It can be a legal piece that, you know, it's just something you've engineered. that you've kept to yourself and that the other teams don't know about. Obviously, anytime you see a car go fast repeatedly week after week after week, you know, everybody in the garage is going to be looking at that car trying to figure out what is he doing. What looks different? What is different on that car that is something I've never seen or something I'm not doing to my car?

And so that's it. I mean, and it's not something, it's not new. we've seen this in the past. We've seen this with other teams in the past. Yeah, I mean, one year it was the four, then it was the Toyota's. Before that, it was. Yeah, there for a while,

Harvick was so fast every week in every practice, one of the best in every race. It's sort of, you know, and why do those guys not hang on? Why does it sort of cycle in and out from different teams? I mean, NASCAR changes a rule or, you know, takes away something, or there's a,

of changing the arrow package or something that may affect your advantage. So I would expect the 42, 78, 18, those guys to continue to be fast the rest of the year. Hopefully, though, you know, HMS and, you know, figures out this advantage. You know, that's what you hope. The season HMS has had this year is pretty similar to last year, and then they found something. I said that very thing to Greg as soon as I got out of the car and leaned up against the wall at New Hampshire this weekend. I said, Greg, I said we're pretty much in the same spot we were last year at this time. We're just not fast enough as a company.

And you don't, you know, it's not time to panic or freak out. Last year, we worked hard during this span of time where we struggled in the summer. And by the time the chase rolled around, we were all strong. The 88 was strong. all the HMS cars are strong. Jimmy ends up winning a championship. So you're, you know, you don't, one thing you do not do is you don't run into the NASCAR hauler or go up to the officials and complain.

This guy I think he's doing X or I think he's doing Y. You need to take a look at his car. It's not right. You don't do that. All everybody does is work harder. You get in there and you work harder and you try to figure out exactly what you think that advantage is. or find your own advantage. Yeah, or create an advantage.

You know, we have engineers that are not even traveling to the racetrack that are back at the shop that are trying to find that advantage. And they're looking everywhere all over the car, trying to figure out how to re-engineer pieces and parts and stuff to take advantage of grip and arrow mechanical and mechanical grip and all kinds of things. So we're banging away at it all the time. And hopefully when the chase comes,

we'll figure out something that can help us as a company win the championship. At Rye underscore 24 asks, why don't you play in Denny Hamlin's basketball league? Well, you've got to get an invite. You haven't been invited? I don't think so. Oh, I haven't. But I really don't have time for two leagues. It's weird.

The Dirty Mo basketball league is the original. Well, let's not get in a competition because Denial certainly outspend us. I do think that Denny needs to step his jersey game up. Oh. You know, we got shorts, shirts, and we do our own, we do our, we do in-house dry cleaning. So you just, you know, you wear your jersey, you throw it in a corner, I take you to dry cleaner, come back. Next game, you got a brand new dry clean jersey. So, but you have to wear, you know, you're not just wearing a shirt.

Yeah. And wearing whatever shorts you won't. Oh, is that what they do? Yeah. Have you not seen the pictures? No. So they just have a jersey. Oh, yeah.

They don't have shorts. They don't have the whole thing. So I think they step that up. I don't anticipate him taking too long before he steps up the jersey game. He runs full court, five on five. We're three on three half court. Yeah. So we're kind of like the big three.

Yeah. And he's the NBA. Ice Cube made a league. And he has legitimate players in his league. Like not college guys or, but he has big guys that actually play ball. And Denny's really good at ball. Yeah. Our league is a league for people that aren't good at ball.

Yeah. We have a couple guys that are not-down shooters. Yeah. We do have a couple guys that are knocked-down shooters, and I think we could put a team together that would do very well in Denny's League. But our league, if you play too good or you get kicked out. Yeah, Austin Dillon. Austin Dillon plays in Denny's League.

Kicked out's a strong word, but he, you know, was not invited back after his first season because he was too good. Yeah, yeah. He hustled a lot. And I'm not fixing the league so I can win. No. That is not what I'm doing. You're on my team.

We're losing. But we just got to keep the play. It's three on three. We don't play real tight defense. We don't, you know, we have a ref and a foul limit. Yeah, we have a lot of rules and refs and all that stuff. We try to play pretty, it's fun. It's just for fun.

We drink a lot of beer. It's really. about just hanging out with your friends. There's 35 guys in our league. It's about all these guys getting to know each other, having a lot of fun. And if you are good, kind of play down a little bit. Keep it realistic.

Right. No blowout wins. One time, when I go out of town, you guys, you don't play, you don't... Shit hits the fan. Yeah, so when I'm here, everything's good. When I go out of town, they fight. Somebody scores 100.

Everybody's pissed. I was on that team last year. I was so upset. You went to Germany. You guys did not honor the code, the ethics code. Hey, whatever. Now I'm on your team. At J. underscore Krutzinger 22, what's the chances that you race at Iowa next year in Xfinity?

Lots of your fans around here, and there's obviously not a cup race. I might do it. I'm going to have some time to go race. I think I was right in the middle of the season, right? There's one in June and one in July. Oh, really? Yeah, so there's two opportunities. Yeah, I may do it.

That's a cool track. I know. I've never raced there. I've tested there one time. Let's go. Let me see if any of my sponsors are interested. Me and T.J. tried to sell this because their airport is right within walking distance to the track.

That's a good reason. We can make that happen. Fly right in and get to racing. All right. This is at Sean underscore Gebian, I guess, asked what's the protocol for taking a photo with a dude when it comes to your arm placement. Arm around the waist or shoulders or down to the side. Certainly not around the waist. Yeah, I'm not an arm around a waist guy. On the shoulders cool. Like we've known each other while. We're buds and going to have a beer. You just bought me a

beer or we just drank some beer. Why does everything come down to beer? Yeah, see? I don't know what that Amy does not like. You have a beer right now. Amy does. Yeah. Amy says I talk about beer too much. It's okay. Beer is good. to me now. She's right. All right. At Joe Du Bois asked, besides your dad, who is your favorite driver of all time? Well, I like Jimmy Means. I was a big fan of the underdog. Jimmy was definitely an underdog. Kale Yarborough. Kale Yarbrough. Top the list, Kale Yarbril. You got the first throwback car you ran was Kail Yarbrough. Yeah. Valvaline. At J. Kiezer asked, what are your thoughts on more tracks?

using the VHT like we've seen, do you think that we should see that? Or are there any tracks where you think that would be a good idea? I haven't really thought about it. I think we need to go from, I don't really want to use that stuff. Maybe at Richmond, I think they could put it in a second and third groove up against the fence. But don't definitely do not put it in the bottom groove. Richmond would be good to place to throw it down. at Mike Stark 88888.

Do you get excited to watch the truck race at Eldora? And would you have interest in running that yourself? I have no interest in running that race. I don't have any real dirt experience. So I wouldn't really want to put all that effort in to just go run one race. But, and I'm not going to get to watch it. Me and you have an appearance. Yes, Vegas.

In Vegas for Exaltus. So we're not going to get an opportunity to see that race. but I do like to watch it. It's an awesome race. Maybe you can record it. Yeah. I don't like to record things because I watch them on... You already hear about it.

Yeah, it's kind of... Yeah. Somebody... Yeah. So just... We'll not see it this year. I'm assuming that Christopher Bell is going to win. I look forward to seeing it next season.

Yeah. Be able to watch it. Who you think's going to win? Christopher Bell? Sure, I'll take Christopher Bell. Or Rico A. Brew. Christopher Bell. I don't think Rico's got enough truck.

Oh. at Smileslot asked, I think Blaney or Stenhouse said you have the best music and have a lot of musical knowledge. Any chance that you would release your playlist. Wow, they really said that. I think Lange said that, yeah. I have a playlist on Spotify. What's it called? Let me see.

So, I mean, I've tried to share it. I tweeted about my playlist on Spotify. The playlist is called a song or two. The number two. A song or two, folks. Yeah. It's called a song or two. How many songs are on it?

Right now, 115. There you go. That'll keep you busy for a day. That's all the questions we got this week. As always, thank you for sending in questions using the hashtag Ask Ask Jr. That's hashtag AskJR. We'll get some more fan questions next week.

If you love Dale Jr., then Exaltor Racing is your go-to social media account on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It brings you insider. info all weekend long on the 88 team. It's at Exalta Racing, a must follow for any Dale Jr. fan. So looking ahead, as we said in the Q&A S. Junior session, Wednesday, we're in Las Vegas for Exaltah. Some signing autographs and taking pictures.

Yep. In a booth? Yep. Is it some kind of expo? Yep. The convention center. Convention center. Friday, we have the TMC transportation appearance in Indianapolis.

Yep. So Michael Annette, part of his partnership. What's happening there? You know what we've got going on? Photos and autographs again. All right. Meet and greet with some of their executives. It's Friday evening.

They just opened this new facility, so it's kind of the grand opening event. Saturday, we've got two practices. The Xfinity race is at 3.30 Eastern on NBC Sports Network. Qualifying will be at 615 after the Xfinity race on the same network. Sunday, doing the Chevy stage. appearance at 12 noon. I think I heard Casey Kane and Jimmy Johnson might be doing it at the same time

as you. That's great. That should be fun. Yeah. I like doing the Chevy stage. It's a lot of fun. The race is at 2.30. So don't forget at 2.30. It's not three. Not three. So what do you think? Is that a good show? I think it was okay. All right. We're very informational. I know. And a lot going on.

We'll try to keep you guys up to date. Again, if you've got questions for this show, send them in at hashtag Ask Junior. All right. See y'all. you guys. The Dale Jr. download and all Dirty Mo Radio podcasts are made possible by Exalta. 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. Follow us on Twitter at Dale Jr., at Overstreet

Tyler, and at DirtyMoh Radio. Also, check out out the Dirty Mo Radio Facebook page. Thanks for listening to Dirty Mo Radio.