The Dale Jr. Download - 188 - Dialin' Up The Dentist

Episode Date: August 15, 2017

Dale Jr. breaks down the weekend in Michigan. Plus, a fan listening while at the dentist for a root canal spurs a lighthearted debate over whether or not Dale receives preferential treatment from his personal dentist. 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, Everyone Left, by the Dangerous Summer. You like that one, too, imagine. Yeah, is it everyone left? Like everyone's still here or everyone left?

Like, they're gone. That's a good question for AJ. He listens to this show, so maybe he'll tell us. Yeah, tell us, AJ. It's been a pretty interesting week. Very interesting. Yeah, it has. A lot going on.

We did have a lot going on. Let's talk about Richmond. We had a... Michigan. Or, I mean, yeah, Michigan. Let's talk about Michigan. Well, you don't want to talk about Richmond? We did that last week.

Okay. Unless you want to keep talking about it. Well, it was a highlight of your life, I know. Yeah, it was. We talked about that last week. Yeah, remember we recorded right after that. That's right. I didn't think, I forgot.

Well, I was so excited about it. Going to the Redskins camp. Yeah, I'm still sort of. You did not help their performance. They had a terrible preseason game. Yeah, that was awful. Can't win them all. But preseason doesn't matter, so who cares?

As long as you don't get hurt. It's, you don't say, everybody says it's preseason doesn't matter until you lose 28 to 3 and only, you know, and don't only get about 115 yards of offense. I mean, my panthers won handily. Yeah. So I'm going to be modest, but. Yeah, so preseason doesn't matter. Right. It's easy for you to say.

Yeah. You're nervous. I'm a little nervous. Okay. A little alarmed that we couldn't be a little more productive. I know the Ravens defense is pretty tough. And they just hit blitzing. just sending guys every play,

you know, blowing up the offensive line and just no chance at really us getting any kind of in any rhythm, but... You'll be okay. That's what they're going to face. Three more to work out. That's what they're going to face in the regular season. All right, let's move on, Michigan.

Strong in practice, not strong in the race. That's pretty much the theme of the weekend. Yeah, the thing of the weekend. I was really excited. You know, Friday, we didn't qualify well, about 19th, but the car drove really, really good. The Fords and the Toyotas had us beaten by about a half a second qualifying, but my car drove great. We got into practice on Saturday. We were sixth in both practices.

Our lap times were good. Car drives good. Really kind of thinking maybe this is a weekend where we have something, something to cheer for, something to be excited about. The race starts. The car actually was pretty decent for the first run, and we were kind of motoring in there. I thought we were better than the guys we were around.

I know we were racing around Kurt Busch and a couple other guys. I thought we were a little bit quicker than them. I know everybody's on their qualifiers. So when you start on your qualifying tires, the car is going to drive a little bit different, maybe better, maybe worse, but whatever. Once you get those off and put on stickers, that's how your car is going to be the rest of the race.

So I was a little worried about what the car was going to do once we got the stickers on, but it shouldn't have been too big of a deal. But during that first run, car's good. It started to get really, really loose toward the end of that run. So we usually move the track bar, maybe an inch. That's a pretty good adjustment. at pretty much any racetrack.

And we ended up with the track bar down three inches at the end of that run, which is a significant adjustment major. So I was a little surprised, I guess, how the balance of the car swung so wildly from the start of a run to the end of a run, and that's the way it was all day. We'd come in, put tires on,

we'd move, as I'm on pit road, get my tires put on my car during the next pit stop, I run the track bar back all the way up to zero. And sometimes I would start at even an inch high or two inches high. So when it's level or wherever we start the race at, it's zero on my dash. That's my reading. And so for restarts, I'd put it up an inch or two inches up. And then as the run would go on, I'd keep dropping it and keep dropping it as the car got looser and looser.

And by time it was ready for the next pit stop, we'd be down about two, three inches again. So we were swinging like four to five inches with the track bar throughout a run. That's a major balance shift. The car was good on some runs, not so good on others. We weren't doing ourselves a ton of favors on track position with a pit strategy, but we were trying to work on the car,

trying to get every opportunity we could to get on pit road to get the car, tuned up. And we did restart on the inside line. So we beat the 31 all day long, right? He finishes fourth. Fourth, yeah. He got to restart on the outside on the last couple restarts.

We were sort of on the same strategy he was. But we had to start on the inside. And basically, on one of those particular restarts, we're behind the three car. We go down into turn one. I get under him. so we're three wide on the bottom. We come off a turn two, and me and him are side by side,

and the whole outside line is just flying by him. We lost like five spots right there, because really you want to be in that outside line. There's all the momentum off the corner, yeah. And I'm sitting there, me and the three are sitting there side-draffing each other, just killing each other. And I'm as guilty as he was. So we lost a lot of spots there.

And then the final restart, we're on the inside again. But that particular time, TJ and I talked on the radio before the restart, and he's like, man, why don't you think about faking low on McMurray, and he'll go low, and then you can jump in the middle. And at least you're in the middle and not the very bottom. So we did that. We come off a turn two. It was like four wide for three rows.

There's a lot of craziness going on. I can't believe that there wasn't a wreck. I know the 20 car, I think, had a flat or something, and he was in the outside wall a little bit. I had restarted third maybe. Yeah. So that was something that I thought was really impressive that all those guys got down the back straight away without anybody running in each other or wrecking.

I mean, y'all ran almost three and four wide for those last two laps. Yeah. Because I know y'all came out four and I was like, oh, God. Yeah. So we did okay sort of on that last restart to maintain and not lose any more spots starting on the inside. The inside is just terrible there. and you sort of have to force your way into that outside groove in the middle of turn one and two

and run somebody, you know, run somebody up off the racetrack up high into the outside groove and try to take that lane. You just got to get in that lane, whatever you got to do. So we tried our best, but if we had to start on the outside, maybe we'd have had a top 10 or top 5 finish like the 31, because I thought we were kind of comparable to him all day, if not a little bit better. Yeah, and I mean in the spring race there, we did get that outside because you restarted like 24th and finished 9th. So you gain 15 spots on like two or three late restart.

So that's just a roll of the dice. Yeah. But the car, you know, again, we had a really good car I thought on Saturday. When the race come around, not quite as good. The car didn't have the same characteristics and balance that we had experienced and enjoyed on Saturday. Same guys are really up front. A lot of Toyota's up front. The Ford's picked up a little speed there.

Something interesting about the Ford's. Did you notice that they all got tire rubs? You know, the 22 and the 22 had a flat? I heard that the 21, like... The 21 had a flat. Yeah, I heard he was going down the straightaway and something like buckled, but I didn't see that. So the four side drafted him.

Oh, and that restart, yeah. Yeah. And never touched him, and they got a tire up. That's crazy. Some tricky business. That is some shady business. Hey. So, you know, the guy, the truth behind that is, is these guys, okay, so all of us out there

want our cars, one our doors to kind of buckle in. We got to go through the LIS machine and everything's got to fit. But once you're out on the racetrack, you sort of want things to cave in. and create down force and you'll be out there racing around people. I can't see my doors, so I don't know what they look like, but you'll be out there racing around people like, wow, that's a good-looking door. Man, those guys have really done some good work.

Whatever, you know, there's some impressive stuff going on out there. And so they make these sides so thin and flexible and, you know, with the ability to hope they buckle in the right way. And so when the four went by him, side-drafting him, it disturbed. It messed something up. I'm curious, how do you make a door buckle? It's got to be very thin, and it just...

Do you have some sort of hole that catches air? No, no, no. I mean, it's just got to be really thin, paper thin. I'm no engineer, so I just... You know, that's not my expertise either, but... It's very interesting because you can visibly see it, and obviously that happened to those guys. but there's some smart people in the garage.

There are some super smart people. I'm sometimes, so you get envious. You see those guys out there running around. You're like, man, that guy's door looks great. They've done a really good job trying to figure out how to get their car down to maximize the downforce out on the racetrack. Or a guy's faster than you down a straightaway. You know, wow, you kind of marvel at his power.

Yeah. So I'm, but I'm, you know, there's been. been a lot of conversation this week about the Fords and the Toyotas, them talking back and forth to each other. Specifically, Brad. Yeah. So Brad, he says that the Toyotas were holding back. Yeah, because the last couple years, Michigan has been a track where NASCAR would take

like the top Chevy, top Ford, top Toyota. Yep. Well, they said, they had this rumor that were they going to take a lot of cars after this race track, after this race, right? They had a rumor. NASCAR put the rumor out, right? with me? Yeah.

How does that rumor, does like an official say, hey? I don't really know, but I, so they put this rumor out. They were going to take a lot of cars, and they didn't take any cars. So Brad thought, yeah, well, they brought, they didn't bring their best stuff here. They're not really pushing the envelope. What do you think about that? Do you think that was the case? No.

I mean, I wouldn't know what, I wouldn't even be able to, I couldn't tell because they were still very strong. I think he should have just gave credit to his own team. I mean, 18 to 78, they were great. I think they should have just taken credit for the Penske Cars qualified one too. Yeah. Just, you guys brought good cars.

I know. It's not because somebody else didn't bring. But I think Truex qualified 13th. Yeah, so I would, I would, maybe your guys just brought something better than they've been bringing. So, yeah, and then, uh, there was some conversation on Twitter, uh, some emojis. and then Kyle Bush gets vocal. Yeah, after the truck race, he had to go to the media center.

He goes to the media center. And he... He said he was a moron. There was an expletive before it. Oh. What do you think the expletive was? The F-bomb. Yeah.

So that was interesting. They should talk this out. Really? I don't know. I kind of enjoyed how... I know, but Brad and Kyle, they clearly don't like each other. but they'll like do it through the media. Yeah.

And I bet they haven't spoke in a long time, like face to face. Yeah, they probably run into, they probably have had some. Plus they had ran into each other. They probably had some pleasantries on the driver's intro stage. We can't, you know, we kind of, you walk up on that stage and you sort of walk, you know, you run into each other. You have to say, hey. You don't have to say hey. I think if I was, if I was mad at you and you walked by me, I'd probably look the other

way. Really? Yeah. For how long would you do this? I don't know. Like, week after week after week of running into me on the interest, age, you're going to just... Yeah, that way you really convey the point that... I don't like that guy.

That's messed up. Hey, that's what NASCAR needs. They need rivalries. They don't need dickheads on it. All right. It's not like you're going up and punch him in the nuts. Week after week after week, though. You're just going to ignore the guy?

Maybe. I think it takes the bigger man to be like, hey, how's it going? But you walk up there. Does that mean you got to say hey to everybody you see? Like you, I'm making you talk to me. Hey, how are you doing? Oh. You're trying to make it awkward.

No. Oh. You're trying to work through your... I know by what you said that you don't want to talk to me. Yeah. So I'm going to go up to you and talk to you. Oh. And you're like, hey, how's it going on, man?

I just don't foresee Brad and Kyle doing that. I'm going to force you to have a conversation. Yeah. What happens like, I guess if you like walk up on a conversation, maybe they have a mutual friend. Maybe they have to. Oh, there's always that third guy there. like a Clint Boyer or a Menard that's totally awkward. He's very uncomfortable because he knows there's a riff.

Yeah. Yep. But hey, they'll work through it. Yeah. It's just so much content to talk about this week. I don't think this is over, though. I don't either. The great thing about it is it doesn't involve the Chevy guys.

So we can fly under the radar, hopefully find the speed we need as a manufacturer to be able to go up there and compete with these guys. Obviously, you know, Larson wins the race in a Chevy, but aside from Larson, you know, we really didn't have, didn't have too many cars running up front. We just unveiled this new Camaro. Everybody's excited about that. That car, looking at it visually, it does have some things that we like and think we can, that'll help us in performance, but that's not until next year. So we got to work with what we have until that, you know, throughout the rest of the season. And I think that we all, all the Chevy teams need to grind a little bit.

I'm sure we are, you know, trying to figure out what we can. We can't look at the results and say, well, you know. We won that race. Yeah, because the Toyota's definitely had more speed. The Ford's had more speed. But the Ford's. Man. We got to figure out about, we got to figure out how, you know, how to get our cars to almost have tire rubs.

Because whatever's going on there is some speed. Yeah. Yeah. Smart people, man. Yep. But speaking about Larson, did you watch the replay and see his move to win the race from fourth? I did. That was pretty impressive.

It was. So he pushes True X. True X rode home with us, said he spun his tires real bad. Didn't get a good restart. Larson jumps into the inside, which then becomes the middle as the 20 cars got a great run from wherever he restarted. And the 77, they were almost like four-wides. 77 got put in the middle. Yeah, there was pandemonium right there.

And the 20 was down low. The 20 actually tapped the 42 going into turn one, but I doubt the 42 knew it. Yeah, he don't care. But again, Larson, he's a great race car driver. I think that he was saying before the race throughout the weekend that he had, you know, he'd won there. The last couple of times because of the restarts, he'd done some, you know, done really good work on his restart. So he knows how important that is again this weekend.

He gets the job done. He has a, you know, I can't wait to see what this guy can accomplish over the next 10, 15, 20 years. It's crazy to me that he went from, so he ran that sprint car all week in Knoxville. He comes to Michigan. He practices and qualifies his car, cup car. Then he goes back to Knoxville, finished second in what's the first. biggest race of the year, then flies back to Michigan and wins that race. Yeah, I mean, the guy just loves to race.

He's good. The crowd was crazy for him after the race. Really? It was loud. Yeah. It was very impressive. That's good. That's good.

I was like, wow, that's a good sign. I mean, the guys that are, you know, he's going to gain so many fans over the next couple months, particularly if he keeps winning, particularly if he's in the battle for the championship in the homestead. This is a great opportunity for any of these guys. guys really over the next couple of months to sort of solidify themselves as a contender going forward. Larson is definitely doing that. And another guy that was popular over the weekend that also won Bubba Wallace. Yeah. That was a very popular victory. That was a popular victory. And then that

sparks. It's a great weekend for NASCAR as far as that goes. Yeah. Got Bubba Wallace winning, the truck race. Yep. And then Larson. The only thing about Larson is is if there, you know, there's also on the backside of this win, targets leaving. They're in the middle of conversations per Chip Canassi with companies about being sponsors for that car next year. But that's going to be something that people are going to have to keep their attention to going to forward. I think that's why Chip was so excited at the end of that race

is because this is exactly what that team needs to be able to be in those conversations with potential partners. They need to win races. They need to be the most eligible. Yeah, Chip popped him in the face. Yeah, he did. He was really excited. What if Mr. H popped you in the face like that?

Your adrenaline's probably rushing to where you don't notice. I would be surprised if it came from Rick, but Chip, I know Chip. He's a feisty guy. He's kind of feisty, yeah. So that's going to be interesting going forward, seeing what they can put together for next year, because that team has so much momentum. You don't want to see them lose that momentum, struggling to find partnership. And potential moving forward for 10 years.

For the company. Yeah. For Gannasi themselves. Yeah. So that'll be critical for those guys. If they can keep winning, that's going to help that. And then, so that was Sunday. And we came home.

Last night was the coveted championship game. For the DMBL. The DMBL does Dirty Moab Basketball League. Yep. So this has five teams. There's seven players on each team. Yep. Who are the people that encompassed the league?

How would you describe that? There's some of just our. friends there's guys from the 88 team there's guys from junior motor sports lots of people yeah i mean it's it's just a group of and a lot of those three really this is our seventh season yes and we've had a lot of these guys that played with us in this league we've we've basically done one league a year so this has been going for seven years yep and our one season a year typically the season starts in the middle of the summer no or may spring yeah spring april may so it started the summer and it runs till, you know, whenever we finish.

We play about eight regular season games or so, and then we have playoffs. Everybody goes to playoffs. There's a play-in game between the fourth and fifth seed. And then the second-third, or the first, second, third, and fourth-seed play to go into the championship, right? So we had the championship game last night.

We put a lot of that on my Instagram story. And that was the... So we came up with our own team names, which they're cool. There's a Statesville steamers. Staple steamers and the Corniest Cougars. Yeah, so like we said, it's guys from around here. On that team, he didn't show up.

Ryan Blaney. He was testing in Chicago. Yeah, so he had to fly up there. And then Travis Peterson, who's one of the engineers on the 88 car. He was in Chicago. And Tony Mayhoff, who was on the show at one point. He works on our brand team. And then Regan Smith is the captain.

He was the captain. Which the captains this year, we picked five of our, five bottom feeder players. Thanks. I'm a captain. That was your idea. I know, but what's up with this bottom feeder stuff? What would you call them?

I'll just say, you know, okay, so the... Lesser talented? No. Well, that's true. I don't think you have to go there, but I think that the guys that are very good are going to have fun because they go, no, the score points, right? So, letting some of the, so if there's seven players on the team, letting some of the sixth or seventh round,

You know, picks, B captains allows them to have some sort of involvement. Yeah. You know, they don't get to. Everybody gets to play about the same amount of minutes. But I only average about six to eight points a game. You became a three-point shooter in the last couple games. I know. Well, I did so much basketball during my rehab from the concussion last year.

So, like, playing basketball, dribbling, all that stuff was really good from my rehab. And so it improved my shot tremendously. Yeah. And if you line up in the left corner, it's money. Yeah. I like that spot. Everybody has their spot on the court. Yeah.

But anyways, yeah, Regan was a captain. The captain for the Cougars was... Jordan Erickson. He does all the designs for our Xfinity cars. Yeah. He's a graphics guy here, works at the IT department. He designs a lot of the race cars that you see our junior motorsports company run on the racetrack. Other players on that team of Greg Ives,

Travis Mack, my car chief, Adam Jordan, an interior guy for the 88 team on the Cupside, Danny O'Hart Jr., who works here at Junior Motor Sports. They ended up winning the game, and 49, 43, the Seemers were behind 14 at one point. But all this is on the Instagram story, which we had a lot of fun doing that. I think the biggest part of this game was that we were the refs. Yeah, me and you got to ref the game. We usually have a ref. Yeah.

And he's a local guy, Sean, that refs some of the. He works at one of the local high schools. Yeah, and he, so he knows a little bit about it. He does a pretty good job. He knows more than we knew. He does. I was too busy doing my Instagram stories to ref, even though I had a whistle. Yeah.

He did a good job. Then every time I would call something, they would get mad, but if you don't call it, didn't they get mad? It was, it's a no-win situation. I know. But we did have our buddy Blaine Sellers. He apparently caught a hand or a finger, maybe it, elbow to the eye. He's got a black eye, courtesy of Greg Ives. Greg is elbowing. Wow. It was not intentional. Greg's played out last night. He had a lot of points. Yeah. And then speaking of

Greg, this is a little shady. So Travis Peterson, who's the engineer on your car, he goes, Greg sent him to the test in Chicago. So Travis is probably six four. He's a big guy. So he's one of their better players. Greg sends him to the test in Chicago. And so he can't play the game. But then Greg plays the game and magically Greg's team won. Yeah. But hey, you got to do what you got to do to win. That's true. So the DMBL's season is over.

We're going to start a new one, I think, in January. Yeah, and we're getting new jerseys, according to you. We talked about that. We've got to see if it's in the budget. Oh. Yeah. I don't even think we have a league budget. Then there's no new jerseys.

Oh. This is news to the players. The players are going to be very upset. Well, they got T-shirts this year. They did. They're very nice T-shirts. Yeah. So the reason why I want to get new jerseys is because the numbers are starting to come off of some of the team's jerseys.

Yeah. Mid-game, there will be guys running around with the jersey flapping. Yeah. That's cool. We've had them for seven years. How many, I mean. They've been washed a few times. Yeah, we do all the, we wash all the jerseys and clean all the jerseys every week.

So it's like 15 games for seven years. That's how many times they've been dry clean. Yeah, that's not good. Yeah. But Thursday, we're going to Bristol. Yeah, Thursday. Final Cup race at Bristol. We're going to run the Xfinity race too.

Yep. That's why we're going Thursday to do Xfinity practices. It's going to be a busy weekend. Friday's going to be busy. Yeah, Thursday is not going to be too bad. We've got two practices Thursday and the Xfinity deal. We're going to do our media session that day. Yep.

And then that evening's pretty wide open, right? Yeah. What's going on Friday? Two cup practices, the Hendrick team meeting. Yeah. Then Xfinity qualifying. Yep. And for some reason, Xfinity driver's meeting is outside the racetrack.

So we've got to qualify, go outside the track, then come right back in to qualify, then you'll have to change fire suits, then next genitie race, 300 laps, and we'll be done. Saturday's pretty busy too, but... Yeah. But it starts in... It doesn't start to like four, so...

Yeah, so we'll get a bit of chill Saturday afternoon. Yeah. Yes, I'm looking forward to the Bristol race. I love that track. I mean, I used to go there all the time when I was a kid. The night race at Bristol to me was probably the... probably the best race to go to as a kid. I don't know how people feel about it today

compared to maybe the Daytona 500, but when I was a kid, that was the best race weekend. This is a really small racetrack, so we could run all over the place. We had free reign of wherever we wanted to go, climbing all over race cars. We were watching the races down in the grass,

In the corners, it was grass back then. And we would be literally like 20 feet from the apron. You know, and you could really see the guys inside the cars driving and working and see how the cars were handling and see them bumping and carrying on. I always love going to that race more than any other. We used to go to that when I was a kid, too. Yeah. Just a great facility.

And I don't know why. I always say this, but I don't know why I haven't built more like it. You know, they went on this run where they had mile and a halfs and building all these new mile and a halfs. Seems like it had been a little cheaper to build this kind of a racetrack. Plus, there's probably more seats in Bristol. If not the same amount. Yeah. Yeah, it surprised me that there's not more short tracks built.

But maybe there's going to be a run of short tracks here shortly. That'd be cool. Does it seem like this, so your first race in any series at Bristol was 20 years ago? Does it feel like that? Yeah. My first race at Bristol was what year? It was 97. Yeah.

I was testing you. Yeah, no, I watched a highlight of it. That was the one where Rayna LaJoy dumped Buckshot Jones, the Buckshot went after him. Yeah. I led the first 20-some laps. In the number seven card? Yeah.

What happened? I was trying to lap Chris Diamond. Who? Trying to lap Chris Diamond in this purple card. I guess his name. And he kind of squeezed me in the apron, and I hit the apron in him at the same time, and it spun me out.

Yeah, you finished like 20 second or something. Yeah, I was way, I was in over my head. It's okay. That was too much, too fast. What does it like the first time you go on Bristol? Because I'm assuming that the late model short tracks don't race quite like Bristol. No, they don't. I mean, the first, every time, even today, every time you go to Bristol, it takes like,

it takes several laps for it to sort of slow down and make sense. Like when you go out there and you're running and it's happening so fast that you're not, You just can't process it, what you're seeing visually. And it takes a while for it to sort of, you know, it takes a while for you to get into sync with the track and the car. So is running the Xfinity race somewhat of an advantage? It only takes a couple laps. This week?

It only takes a couple laps. A couple laps. I think running the Xfinity race any week is an advantage. It's just a ton of work. Like you said, it's going to be an incredibly busy Friday. And some guys are, Yeah, some guys are okay with taking all that on and some guys. The back and forth is a lot.

It's not fun. Climbing out of one car or any of the other. You don't get a lot of time to talk to your crew chief. I won't have a lot of time to talk to the Xfinity crew chief versus the Cup crew chief. You know, there's not usually when we race the cup car, we go to the hauler and we sit there and debrief and talk and talk and talk for hours about the car. Not going to be able to do that this weekend. I have to find other opportunities to be able to converse with Greg about the cup car. and talk to the crew chief about the Xfinity car,

just a lot. I don't really enjoy that. But, you know, that particular part of it. But for twice, two times a year, it's okay. Yeah, I like driving the car. Yeah. But it just takes a little bit away from, takes a little bit away from one, you know,

to be able to do the other. Yeah. What about this? So I saw that you tweeted this picture of you flipping off what Robbie Gordon. I did not tweet that. Someone else tweeted that. You responded, you quote retweeted it, sorry. Yeah.

What happened there? Why were you pissed at this guy? I said in the tweet. I know, but what caused that? Like, did y'all crash each other? We bumped into each other on track. Just casually. Typical Bristol.

I mean, you bump into people nowadays, and you've never flipped anybody off in my time. Well, no, this. So, I didn't know he's going to bring this up. My gosh. If you read the show sheet, you would have. Well, I thought I spelled it out on Twitter. There's only so many characters.

Yeah. So me and Robbie Gordon were banging around each other quite a bit on the racetrack, right? He's a lap down. I'm running eighth or ninth or something like that. There's a 10 laps to go, and he's in the way, in my mind. And I'm like, get out of the way. I'm trying to pass. I want to pass some more people.

And I bumped him out of the way. After the race, he's, you know, we're kind of running each other coming into pit road. kind of running into each other stuff post race yeah oh and i think that he knocked a radiator at his car running in the back of mine and uh so his crew comes down his crew's like coming toward our car and all that that bird was for one of the crew guys not rob rob robbie never came oh robbie didn't even no robbie wasn't around um but they're his you know the crew guys get in it you know they're gonna get into that they're um

typically normally really big. Is that the only time you've ever had, like, a situation where the crew came? I don't know. I mean, damn, I've been racing a long time, bud. That would stick out. I mean, it's not like it happens every week, so it seems like... I didn't think it was that big of a deal. I mean, I've had dust up some run-ins with guys so many times.

It happens a lot more at the late mile ranks. Oh, yeah. So that was just... That was one of the many birds... The many birds... That actually got caught on camera. Oh, so you was just, back in the day, you were just flipping people off? It was common.

Oh. To flip people off. Nowadays, you know, it's funny. You used to flip people off all the time. Everybody did. Like, if you got held up just a little bit by a lap car, there was going to be a bird, right? Now, it's kind of changed to where guys don't like that. Everybody understands nobody likes that.

It's not become more common. It's become less common for people to flip people off on the racetrack. So you guys are much more courteous nowadays. I think it's more offensive today than it used to be. So if somebody flipped you off, what would be your, would you like hit them? You can't always hit them. Like if you had the opportunity to. No.

Oh. I'd probably go talk to them and say, don't flip me off. At intros whenever you're meeting with all your friends? Okay. The last time I got flipped off, I went to the driver. Who was it? I went up in his holler and asked him not to do that. It was Cobbush.

Oh, that was a long time ago, though. So that's what you do. Do not flip me off. All right, guys, we're going to get to our Ask Junior questions. As always, we take the questions on Twitter using the hashtag Ask Junior. Mike Davis has joined us to moderate as always. What's up, gentlemen? What's up?

How are you doing? By the way, shout out to Tom Myers. As I started this Facebook live, there's a fellow named Tom Myers out there who is currently getting a root canal in the dentist's chair right now watching this. Facebook Live. So, Tom, this one's for you, buddy. If you are getting a root canal and watching this, you deserve a shout-out. You know, listening to this may seem like you're getting a root canal. Root canals aren't what they used to be.

What do you mean by that? I mean, they're not as bad. I just had one. How many of you had? I've had two. I just had one. Is that the one where you bet the dentist or something? Yeah, you bet the dentist.

I had one a long time ago, like 2005, and then I had one just recently. I had chipped a tooth, and I took, my dentist was on. vacation. And he's like, come on in, we'll fix it. I know the tooth. It's going to be fine. I was like, I've seen it.

I mean, he just, he's a dentist, man. Dennis are good like that. And I was like, this is going to be root canal. He's like, no, no, no. And I was like, I bet you 20 bucks. And I was right. He actually recommended me to his dentist, but I didn't end up going there.

What the hell? You did? What the hell that I didn't go? Where did you go? I still go to the same one in Concord, but yeah. I remember you gave me the recommendation card and it said you would get like a $50 gift card to somewhere if I went there

I'll let you have the 50... That's not why I didn't go. You're up. Y'all are missing the point. There's a bigger point here. You know how annoying it is that he can just call his dentist up and go to the dentist? Right.

Like doesn't even need to make an appointment? That isn't annoying. Yes, it is. No, wait. That is because it's hard to get an appointment. Yes, it is. No, this is my, that's how my dentist is. He's everybody calls him.

This is an emergency situation. If you went to my dentist, that's why I referred the damn guy to you. Because, listen, if you need something, you can call him any time of day. That's how he is. Y'all's dentist ain't like that. He ain't like that with just me. Are you sure? Yes.

How do you know? Yeah, how do you know? I've asked him. What is he going to tell you? No, I've asked him, like, is this common that people call you at all hours of the day? He's like, yeah. He's like, man, my, you know. Twitter poll.

Who believes that? Twitter poll. I'll get his ass in here. Get his ass in here. Let's call him now. Call him now. See if he answers. I went to.

He will. Let me call it. Let me ask you this. If you're going to get married, would you invite your dentist to your wedding? No. I did. Why? Did he come?

The two most important people in my life are my dentist and my therapist. You got some teeth problems in, don't you? No. But damn, man. Did he come to the wedding? What is the... Did he come to the wedding? Yes!

Oh. Was he in your wedding? Is T.J. your dentist? Who is this dentist? That's what T.J. does during the week. When you leave the dentist office, aren't you like, don't you like shake their hand and go, thank you so much? No.

I appreciate that. I've got to the same dentist since I was like 10 years old. That's why y'all need to go to my dentist. He's awesome. This is obvious to me that you guys have shitty dentists. I can't believe what I love that Dennis is awesome you guys got to try him out all right well maybe I'll try him out but I'm going to tell you something I'm going to call the guy and if he if he doesn't give me an appointment right then

then not only is he fake but you're fake what you're going to call him cold call him and say I need it's what you said he can I can do no if you're a patient like if I say hey man uh if you go over there and you're like I want to start coming here and you get your teeth cleaned a couple times. So that's going to take at least two years. Two years. Because you go every six months. I go every four months.

You go get your teeth cleaned every four months? I want them clean. Golly. Why do you have root canals in? There's something to be said about their cleaning. No. That's my fault. Their methods.

I am taking full responsibility for that. And that's your ass junior segment. It was real good, wasn't it? Maybe it's important to consider going soon. going more often as you get older. I think about that. I can't believe you guys. I don't have like this personal relationship with my dentist.

I don't. That's good, I guess. So let me ask you this. You've never had, you don't have like, say 10% of your nightmares aren't about your teeth. I've never had a nightmare about my teeth. Really? And I know what you're about. No, no, no, I'm not going down this road because this is setting me up for a teeth joke.

No, it's not. He calls me Smarty Jones because I got two big teeth. You told the joke, not me. No, no, I'm getting in front of it. I'm going to ruin the punchline. It's a teeth joke. I know where we're going with this. Every year after the Kentucky Derby, I ask you if he had anybody in the race he was related to.

Jam anybody in the race? A family in the race this week. I've got, you know what, see, every time he does see, I've got in my arsenal, there's this picture of Dugie Houser and Dale Jr. And they look exactly alike. Your opinion. No, no, no. I'm telling you, I've got it. And I just kind of keep it in my pocket anytime I need it.

But this Dugie Houser, what's his name? Neil Patrick Harris. And Dale Jr. And it was back in the day. He doesn't look like Dugie now. But, man, there's a picture. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. this is it is unreal how similar they look

Is that why you keep the beard to avoid this resimmose? Which I'm a little nervous today going over and doing this unit lever thing They're going to try to knock it off They're not It's pretty nasty right now Pretty gnarly It'd be okay What will happen if they ask you to trim your beard

Will you do it or will you get Tyler to say no What will have it? Tony's going to be there I'm going to watch this podcast I just Oh, that'd almost be funny. I just start wiggling. And they come around with that thing. Yeah, but then they're going to like, they'll chunk it.

No. You start wiggling. That's the answer. I'm like, hey. Okay. And then they stop. That'll get things off to a great start. Yeah.

And make your beard look good, too. All right. Let's see here. We've got some questions here. I'm going to start off with the high heat. Eric in Western Michigan has a problem, Del. He says, my wife says I can have new wheels and tires on my silver auto. If I give her a baby.

Should I do it? Man, I mean, that's a real heavy question. That's what I said, yeah. This is a dilemma. Tires and wheels on the Silverado. Yeah, for a new baby. Yeah, I mean, why not? Why not, right?

I'd say yes. Give her a baby. Yeah. Do it. Everybody that I've ever met that has had a child says it's the greatest thing that's ever happened to them. So, sounds like a win-win. All right. Anything you want to say to that time?

I've heard the same thing. Yeah, Tyler is not having any. children. You're the one with children in here. Yeah. You'd have to confirm that for us. I've got two. So yeah, I would actually expect more than just tires and wheels. I would need a whole new Silverado. Oh, wow. Wow. I mean, yeah, how many children does this guy have? Well, I don't know. It sounds like, you know what, the fact that he had the nerve to ask the question, suggest that he has zero children right now. Or three or four. I don't know. He's either got none or a bunch. Yeah. Yeah. If he's got three or four,

he can't afford a Silverado. So, all right, Eric and Western Michigan, good luck to you. Next question is Kimmy 269. Do you have any idea why NASCAR popped the hoods on the cars post-race? Yeah, what the hell are they doing? Tapered spacers? Yeah, they're taking spacers or something. They're doing something underneath the hood for the engines.

Damn it, I should know this. Yeah, there's something that they have to do on pit road for the tech that they won't allow the teams to go back. They do that every week, too. Yeah. And I kind of like it. All the guys pulling up and parking and drivers climbing out and everybody's there together. Yeah.

All right. I don't even know what you're talking about. I like it a lot because when... After the race, they make them stop on pit road and... Everybody. You stop on pit road and you get out. Yeah. I knew that.

I just didn't know that they were popping the hoods. Yeah, they pop the hoods and take off something. I don't know. Okay. But I like it because before I drive to the... hauler and get out and there's one or two team guys around but now all the team guys are at the car so i get to go around and say hey i see you guys later so this is interesting because when i was with you in loud a couple weeks ago yeah i noticed the difference that they're now stopping everybody

on pit road but i didn't think of why they did that because that's instantly when Trevor bain and almondinger started getting in their little dust up and so we just kind of sat and watched that i didn't even pay attention to what they were doing to the hood plus that presents the opportunity for all the drivers to get out. If they're mad at each other, they can handle it right there where the lighters are. That's what he was just talking about.

I know. Yeah. So that, I know, but they're now setting this up like a wrestling ring almost. No. We're fist to cuff. This is a,

this is a W.W.E. fan over here talking. He just can't. You tweeted yesterday that you were like a wrestling. He can't. What? I was talking about Rick Flair. I know.

That's actually a question on here. Yeah, I was going to say, I saw this. Yeah. Uncle Jake 10 says, saw your tweet about Rick Flair wondering who your favorite wrestlers back in the day were.

Dusty Rhodes was one, Magnum T.A. I wasn't a fan of the Four Horsemen. They were kind of the bad guys. Right. But I did like Oly Anderson, which he was one of the Four Horsemen, but he was kind of the nice one. The nice bad guy? Yeah. He wasn't really as gnarly as like Tully Blanchard and Arne Anderson, his brother.

And obviously, I mean, Flair was awesome because. his interviews. They were almost better than the matches sometimes. Are you surprised how much Rick Flair is still out there? Active? Yes. I mean, we went to that NBA finals game, and Rick Flair's doing his woo thing right there in the NBA finals in Cleveland.

Yeah, it's kind of like that he's sort of increased. Yeah, I'd say so. Yeah, and now his daughter is in it every week. Yeah. And what? She's in WW. She is? Yeah.

Wow. So, yeah, and he's in the hospital. He's in a medically in his coma. Yeah. He is? Yes. He had a heart attack or something. He had some.

Something was Saturday, yeah. Yeah, something happened this most recently, so we're going to be thinking about him and his family. Absolutely. He's kind of a friend of the sport, if you will, been around, I mean, obviously being a North Carolina guy. Yeah, he's, I mean, he's a big deal around Charlotte. Yeah, he sure is. So, thinking about him and his family. Yep.

Rick Bishop 88 asked, what do you think about? former junior motorsports drivers Shane Huffman and Mark McFarland becoming crew chiefs these days. Shane was Bubba Wallace's crew chief Saturday in the truck race. Yeah, you'll be surprised at who's in this sport and their stories. So there's a lot of that. I am always kind of interested to see where a lot of guys that we worked with that have come through this building end up. And it surprised you.

It surprised you some of these guys like McFarland, like Huffman, that have you know that have been drivers and had different jobs there's some guys Boswell like Boswell crew chiefs over at

Stuart Haas for that double now he does Harvich's car so and Boswell used to race our Pro Cup car here that Champion Spark Plug's car that we ran in a Pro Cup series and he ran a lot of late models for us too for many many years So, yeah.

So could you go to be a crew chief? Do you think that you could do that? No. Oh. I don't think so. I don't think I'd be a good crew chief. I don't have the, I don't know. I guess I don't think so.

You were right the first time. The temperament. Yeah, but you've underestimated me your whole life. That's not true. Yes, you have. I've got two problems with you. You being a crew chiefing the deal with your dentist. I don't know what's up with that.

I still have to empty my tank on the dentist conversation. We're going to be continued. I hear you. We need that guy to come in here. I'll get him in here. Brad Haynes is his name. Although I don't know, maybe we don't need to do that because then he's more likely to help you. Help me what?

Oh, like. Then that would ruin the test. Agree with me? That would be horrific. That would ruin the test of Mike calling him up. You would hate for me. And seeing if he could just come right in. Anything to keep me from proving my point.

or being right. Lock the door. I just don't feel like it's going to be the same for everyone. Lock the door for somebody comes in here and agrees with me. Exactly. You can't have that. Heaven forbid. Q Loder asked.

On your first big payday, what was your first superfluous purchase? Cue Loder, what are you busting out superfluous on us for? I remember this like it was yesterday. Oh, you do? Oh, yeah. All right, what was your first superfluous purchase? Okay, so I was living in a trailer with, and I had a roommate, Josh Schneider. He works for the, he works for Newell that builds motor coaches.

He just moved to Oklahoma. But Josh and me have been great friends for a real long time. We lived in this trailer, and we had a old TV that was given to us, and it kept busting, and we kept having to send it off to get it fixed. So when I got some money, me and him actually went to the Duke Power to pay our power bill. Instead of mailing it in, we'd drive over to the store in the strip mall and pay it. And we're standing there, about to pay our power bill, and turn around, and there's this nice entertainment system sitting in the corner.

And I was like, Josh, look at that, man. And so we bought it and took it home, put it together. That was my first real big purchase. Listen, I agree. I'm with you on that one. I don't have anything to dispute about that. That's a good purchase. Yeah.

I understand that. We were pumped. Yeah, I bet. Snyder. Can't you see Snyder even now? I mean, you know, getting the first big, you know, got the TV, the whole system. Yeah, that would have made Snyder's Day. And when was that?

Like, 97, probably. 98. Wow. That's good. 98, right? Yeah, probably. Yeah. Let's see here.

Drew. ask a very good question. I've wondered this myself. Do you ever talk to yourself or yell at other drivers without the mic? All the time. Really? Oh, yeah. Let's talk about this.

So, yeah. Basically, back in, back when we first started racing, they, there weren't, you know, some people had scanners, but they'd have to bring it themselves. A lot of, you know, so there wasn't, there wasn't common knowledge from my point of view that everybody was listening. and you know you'd you would have some of the you would have some of the worst conversations with your crew chief you would just be complete jerks to each other right but i mean really bring out the worst in you and so as as it became more common for the for the broadcast and the fans to hear what we were

saying and it to be used not only in the brace broadcast but throughout the week you know they have radio sweetheart and all that stuff. So if you said something really bad or stupid, you'd hear it. And people would be like, God, like, and people form, you know, without a lot of context. I mean, people form their opinion about you as a person as your character from how you act on the radio, you know. And that can be the worst of you. But so I've gotten much, much better at still. being a jerk, but just not letting everybody hear it.

Wow. Yeah. And it works. I mean, I, and Amy's, you know, Amy's probably the first person to speak up when I'm not very nice on the radio. She'll be like, oh, you're, you're being really extramality today. So I, I've gotten a lot better at, you know, just if I'll be on, you know, I'll cuss at the drivers around me and. So is, do you like? yell or do you just talk about it?

I can't hear because of the motor and I got earplugs in and all that. I know, but I would know how loud I'm talking. No, I can say, I mean, he probably just says it. I mean, I don't think he's trying to. Sometimes, maybe I don't even say it and I just run it through my head. Yeah. Yeah, you're just thinking it. That's interesting though, isn't it?

It would be cool if we could get a feed just for like the stuff that's not being said on the radio, but just. We need you to wear a live mic next race. Yeah, that'll work. You know, the first time I remember this, you have a great point. The first time I realized that this radio chatter stuff will really come back to bite you is not with those TV segments and that kind of thing, but years ago, NASCAR did a big advertisement, like a big banner. And I remember seeing it Media Day. We show up at the year, and they were trying to advertise their whatever they called it, the track pass service that they have. And they used Dale Jr.

and they had it in big quotes. And it was one of those snarky, funny, but heat of the moment, snarky quotes with his driver. And they're like, you know, only on NASCAR.com. Can you hear what the drivers are saying or something like that? And I'm like, wow, that was, I remember that was a big moment. And he was mad. And now it's in an advertisement from NASCAR.

Darren Kessling asked. How badass was that 2018 Camero? Are you sure you don't want to race one more year? It's a great looking race car. It is. I'm really excited about seeing what it can achieve on the racetrack, and I think it will be a lot better than what we have now. Just looking at it visually, there's a lot of things that you see that you like.

You know, knowing what we know about aerodynamics, side force, down force. When you look at the car, you see improvements right away that the car we have currently doesn't have. So that's going to be good, you know. I mean, we look, let's be, I'll be totally honest. So I look at the, when I went to Phoenix this year for one of our first tests before the season started and saw the Toyota, the new Toyota, I was really impressed. They made some great changes to that car. It took a while for them to, for that to really kind of show up on the racetrack, but you see where they are now. I mean, I don't know if it took a while for Truex.

He was fast out of the gate, but, you know, now all the Toyotas are very strong. I see a lot of the same things in this Chevrolet that I like about it aerodynamically. So very good car. I think it has a lot of brand identity being a Camaro. The front of the car is recognizable. Yeah, it's going to be interesting. I see this. I think it's like part of the conversation that we're not having is that this is a major

philosophy shift for Chevy. Okay, how so? Well, they've never ran the Camaro. They've never had a muscle car. No, no, yeah, for sure, for sure. You know, the Camero ran in Cup in like 68, 69, but only because of car counts and so forth. I mean, the rules changed when it became the Winston Cup series in 71,

and they got really strict on the actual car you can bring. Like, there were only a few Chevys that were allowed and a few, you know, a few different models of each manufacturer. This Camaro is, that's a big deal. I mean, I think it's not quite as a biggest story because the Camaro has been in the Xfinity series for a couple years. But bringing the Camero to the Cup series

is a big change in philosophy for the manufacturer. They've always raced the four-door family car. You know, this is different. This is different. So what does that mean for, you know, what does that mean for the other guys? Ford, Toyota, are they going to be? be looking to, you know, bring in their Mustangs and so forth trying to compete.

Is it going to be, you know, becoming a little bit of competition on that front? I like the Camaro, though. I do too. What did you like? I liked it. Did you? Yeah, it looked very cool. Cool.

Let's see here. We've got Agent Smith said, do you think that they should ever bring back IROC racing? Should they bring it back? Maybe just in the concept of IROC racing, where you got, you know, the best. of every series. Yeah, I love the concept. The concept was great. The only thing was

is that I was only in the series for a couple of years, and so I don't know that I can speak, I don't know whether this is true or not, but I thought it was, it was a real, real challenge for them to prepare that many equal cars. like perfectly equal.

It was usually what, like 15, 10, 12, for them to get out of, you know, for Dave Marcus and Jim Sauter were the two guys that were in charge of testing each car, making sure they were really comparable. And it was hard not to have one that might be a little bit better

than the other. It's impossible to really make all those cars equal. But they tried their best and get them as close as they can. I think that there is a, there is probably a format or a type of vehicle that you could they do that race of champions every year but that's kind of they race in these

little you know what I'm talking about no they do it into stadiums and the football and the baseball field like a rally car like a rally yeah it's like road course racing stuff I liked I like the idea I love that you could get you know you can race against IndyCar guys and other different people you got to meet and talk with these guys It was really cool to be a part of it. But, man, I'd love to be able to do it all over again. You had some really cool name.

Like, you had Alla Hunter. You know, I mean, I don't know. I always loved it. I just as a fan, just watching it. It would be cool, yeah. It would be cool to bring back in some form. Yeah. Last question.

We'll ask from, see who is this? I don't know how to pronounce their name, but they said, are you still collecting vintage race shirts on eBay? If so, what's the latest one you've purchased? Oh, man. I just bought a vintage Gatorade Racing Team Issued jacket. Is it orange?

It's green, and it has the orange stripe bolt down, yeah. And then it has Gatorade Racing. It's probably no earlier, it's no, it's probably no, it's probably no, it's probably no older than 78, no newer than 82. How much you pay for it? 127 bucks 49 cents. You going to wear this thing? Nope.

I put it in a collection bin, storage bin. I got you. I have a bunch of old stuff like that. There you go. 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.

So looking ahead, Tuesday, we got a Union Leaver production. It's today. Yeah. Yeah. So what are we doing Wednesday? Nothing. Oh, tonight, you didn't put this on there. Tonight, we have a fantasy football dinner. And also tonight is the third night of the cars that made America. That's right. 8 o'clock on History Channel. Yeah. This is the final. Yep. The third and a three-part. series during Cars Week on history. So that'll be cool. 8 o'clock.

Reading social media, the feedback's been really good. Yeah, I loved it. I thought the show was done really well. I want to be an actor in it next time. There you go. I don't know why I did. Mike just gave you a look as though I don't know that you wanted to. I don't want to be an actor?

I thought it looked cool. I want to be Louis Chevrolet. Louis Chevrolet? Okay. I don't think that you fit the portrayal that... Man, they could fix this. They could do this up and fix this Make me look like I'm from the 20s

Okay, well Maybe we'll work that into the next year Give me a little curly mustache and all that You'd do that? Yes Okay Man Everybody wants to try to be a movie star, right?

It'd be cool to see what You know, kind of pretend Yeah All right, so yeah We have our fantasy football dinner tonight We have a basement league This is basically the Friends League Yeah, you're in it

And so we'll meet tonight have chicken wings and beer. We're not drafting. Nope. We're just going to talk about any kind of rule changes and whatever, make sure everybody's ready. Just a really good excuse for us to get together with chicken wings and beer. Yeah. And then, yeah, the Cars that Made America Show, the final is on the night at 8 p.m. Eastern on the history channel.

So watch that. Wednesday, there's nothing going on. Everybody can chill. Thursday, two Xfinity practices. We're going to do a media session in between those. Yep. So there'll be some media. media availability basically i go to the media center we have we promise all i think we have to explain

this to people because some people don't seem to understand it but we get we go to the media center every week right yeah and we sit there and we let the media ask us questions yeah and they can ask us any question they want about anything even driver salaries and so we answer those questions Friday we have two cup practices Exfinity qualifying at 3.40 p.m. Cup qualifying at 5.45. And then we have the Xfinity race at 7.30 on NBC Sports Network. We're driving the number 88 goodies mixed fruit blast paint scheme.

Yep. It's blue and purple. Yep. And then Saturday we have a Q&A at the Mountain Dew True Timber display outside the front stretch at the front stretch grandstands at 4 p.m. The races at 7.30 p.m. on NBC. We'll be driving... Oh, here it is. We're driving the number 88 exalted ducks unlimited paint scheme.

Holy! Look at the notes. So Mountain Dew has a display? Yeah, they're teamed up with... They're doing the outdoors, so they're doing packaging. Yeah. That's going to have camo. Don't they have cans? Yeah.

With camo on them? Yeah. That's pretty cool. Cans, bottles. They're going to have some apparel that you can get at the... That makes that Mountain Dew tastes better. I think it does. I mean, it's a cool looking can. And it came out yesterday.

Mountain Dew out of a camo can is better than just regular can. I think so. It's okay. I like a Mountain Dew regardless. But that's in stores as of yesterday, so you can find that. This has been a good show, though, right? Pretty good show. Good job.

I hope there was something in there worth listening to. Yep. We'll be back next week. Actually, we won't be back. You'll be on vacation, so you're going to take this show on the road again. Amma? Yeah. All right. See ya. Sounds good.

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 DirtyMoe Radio. Also, check out the DirtyMoe Radio Facebook page. Thanks for listening to Dirty Moe Radio.