The Dale Jr. Download - 189 - Breaking Down A Scorcher in Bristol

Episode Date: August 22, 2017

Dale Jr. discusses his double duty weekend at Bristol and problems he faced with the car and the heat. He also offers his opinion on Kyle Busch's place as one of the best drivers of all time. 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, Never Feel Alone by the Dangerous Summer. Never feel alone, Tyler. Never feel alone.

Yeah, ever. So it's Dale Jr. and Tyler Overstreet for another recording of the Dale Jr. Download podcast for Dirtymoe Radio presented by Exaltza. So, Bristol. We had the Xfinity race and the cup race. My God, was it hot? It was hot and humid. Yeah. And some rain didn't help.

Have you felt like that, like it's getting, I mean, you know, obviously. Obviously, it's getting warmer every year. Have you noticed that, like, since your childhood? Like, it never snows anymore. Are you trying to go down the path of global warming? I don't, I'm not, what do you mean, go down the path of global warming? I know, this would be like global warming. It keeps getting hotter and hotter.

I know. I wish you would snow, though. I'm just asking you, have you noticed that it doesn't snow as much? Yeah. And that it seems like it's hotter. It seems. I'm glad. That's one thing that I won't miss is practicing in the middle of the day when it's 85 or warmer.

Yeah, it was miserable. I don't remember Bristol being that hot. Right. See? Every year. Seems like it's getting hotter. More miserable. Some of the drivers are starting to wear cool suits again.

I heard about that. You got this gel suit or this top. Michael Annette says it's awesome. Jimmy Johnson wears one. I might try it just to try it just so I know what I'm. You know, if I can talk about it next year, while I'm in a booth, I'll at least have had some experience with it. You should try that at Darlington, because I'm sure it's going to be hot as hell there. Yeah, Donington be tough.

Let's do it. Let's try it at Darlington. Anyways, Bristol, we had the Xfinity race, so we were there on Thursday practicing for a couple hours. It was miserable. One thing I've noticed that's new is that when I'm getting all hot and sweaty, I'm sweating in my legs now. Like my pants are getting wet. Yeah. Not just my arms, armpits, you know, the typical stuff.

Like after practice for Xfinity Race, my suit was soaked below the waist. Yeah. It's a good thing we had multiple suits. Yeah, that's new. And I just started doing that too when I'm out there working on that DIY show for the home renovation. It's like 95, 95 degrees down in Key West during the summer. I'm sweating through a pair of pants by lunch, and I have to change clothes. Is it because you're so hydrated?

I don't know. I've never sweated below the waist. You know, not visibly. Yeah, that's gross. So that is gross. I know. I'm trying not to be gross, but I'm a little concerned. That's a lot of sweating.

Maybe you should get some cool pants to go through a cool shirt. Yeah, maybe they have a cool, cool pants. Like the whole gear. Yep. The jail, cool pants. Maybe we should invent that. Shark tank right there. Yep.

So we had practice on Thursday, very hot and sweaty, went through a fire suit. Friday we were in a fire suit all day we were in the Xfinity car practicing in the cup car or in infinity car qualifying we're in the cup car practicing that was miserable feeling icky gross all day wanting to shower so bad you always kind of walk around wondering where you stink where the people can smell you imagine that yeah yeah but there's so much going on at the racetrack did you smell me that's no okay so like There's just so many weird smells. Okay.

Well, I was curious if I was stinking up the holler. No, I would let you know. No, you wouldn't. Yes, because I have to be around you. Probably just talk about it behind my back. Yes. Man, did you smell, Dale? Have you smelled?

Yeah, you're, see, I'm in the front of the holler with Greg and the guys, and you're down at the back door with Tiff, and y'all would probably be talking about me. Very gossipy back there. Talking about people that stink. I can only assume that's what's happening. Yes. That's an accurate statement on your part. Oh, all right.

So Friday was a busy day. And then we ran the Xfinity race, which was a lot of fun. I had fun in the car. I like racing in the Xfinity series. And I'll tell you something that happened that was interesting. I went to driver's intros, and I had these guys that are starting in that race coming up to me and shaking my hand. Do you see that? I saw him where Blake Cook, you took a picture with him and his son.

That's another thing. All right. So you're, you're, we walk over there, right? You're like, all right, let's go over here. Let's do this. As soon as I get there, I turn around, you're gone. I get handed this license plate from the State Department of Transportation or something from Virginia. I mean, very nice, framed license plate.

I'm like, may, this will be great to hang in my bar. I turn around. I'm like, I got nobody to give this to. I guess I'm going to carry this in the race car. Where is Tyler? Where did you go? So what happens is there's a lot of people down there. And I just, once you get inside the confined area of the driver intros, I'm like, okay, my work is done here.

I'll meet you at the car. Oh, so you go to the car? Especially Bristol. Where did you go? Did you go to the car? Because the car, for some reason, they had them staged on the back stretch, even though intros were on the front stretch. I didn't come up with that layout myself. Yeah.

But I figure he doesn't need me here. Damon, I needed you. Last week we talked about. A license plate was really cool. I wanted to make sure that this thing gets in good hands, that we get it home. I had to give it to Justin Algar's wife who gladly gave it to Tony, who gave it to me. And I just brought it to your house. I know this thing could have not made it home.

I just brought it to your house to record this podcast. I'd have been upset. So then, as I'm after the license plate deal, a couple of the drivers that are in the field are coming up to me. I've never met these guys. don't know really who they were, but you don't know their names? No, I mean, there's a hat on half the field in the Xfinity race.

So, you know, that's no knock on those guys. I just don't. There's a lot of guys, yeah. There's a lot of new faces every week. But they came up to me and they're like, man, I'm so glad decided to be starting this race with you and talked about how they had been fans of mine growing up. And, God, that's something that you don't anticipate.

Obviously, you're not like. Yeah, you're not sitting there waiting on people to like, I'm going to go to this driver's meeting, and I can't wait to people come up and shake my head and tell me how much they love me. But it was weird. That was cool. Oh, it was cool.

It was cool. Yes. I liked it, man. I was like, damn, this is neat. This must be what it feels like to be a retiring veteran. Oh, my God. What? But you're not retiring.

I know. You're running Xfinity races next year. I know. And I'm working. I'm probably going to be working more. Yeah. I've been thinking about that earlier today. People will keep telling me happy retirement, enjoy your retirement.

you know, why are you retiring? What are you going to do when you retire? I'm not really retiring, you know, I'm just going to do another job. Yeah, yeah. It's hard for people to believe. I know, I just hear retirement. I'm like, man, I'm too, I'm too young. Old people retire. Yeah, yeah. Like, retirement is 65. 65. Yeah, so I'm not even, I've got 20 years. And then people, I understand what they're saying, but whenever they go, oh, we'll miss you. And I'm like, well, he's coming back next year. I have to think about that and go, you know, I think to myself, like if your favorite football player is retiring, say your favorite panther is retiring, you know, you would still, you would probably say I'll miss you. Yeah. Even though you know, he'll bit the

games and you'll see him around and he's still going to be alive. Yeah. Maybe it's like I'll miss you watching you. Yeah. I think I have to run that through my mind and go, because I want to say the same thing. I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here next year. I'll see you. Yeah. Come to the track and we'll meet. anyhow let's get back to the topic um so we run the exfinity race a lot of fun uh car was okay but we had the same issue with both cars so cars would fire off really good run real quick for 10 or 15 laps and then get very very tight um i don't know if the two cars were similar and set up but definitely fought the same thing both evenings uh we ran the hicks uh the cup race man the car you know we drove from 31st up to like 19th and you know just first handful of laps passing past the four car

a couple guys that I knew were going to run well finish well I thought harvick might have had the best car from what Iber was racing around so you know we had speed with those guys and we had that kind of speed every time we put tires on but man after 20 laps it just dropped off like a rock it started pushing so bad left front tire would quit working and you know you got to have the left front tire to work to get around the corner. We made matters worse. You know, the race was, you know, not a complete loss, but we made matters worse by not pitting with 80 laps to go. There's a caution 80 laps to go. There's two guys I'm fighting on the lap down with me, and that's the 47 and the 78. They pitted and got tires. And we, you know, our idea was that

we're going to save that last set because we're going to get a caution inside. of 15, 40 to go, 50 or 40 to go. And then we're going to be sitting there with a set of tires and a real good opportunity to get a lot of spots once we get that lucky dog and get back on the lead lap. We just had it all planned out and it just didn't work that way. We didn't expect that race to go green flag from the last 80 laps. When, who would, everyone would lose that bet. Right, because, I mean, everyone would lose that bet if you said, you know what, put your money

down, is there going to be a caution in the last 80 laps? Right. All right. Like the Crucives, during the week, they're watching the last, like, two or three Bristol races to study the trends. And Bristol being a short track known for beating and banging, you think, oh, there's going to be a caution, bunch of field up, caution, like, multiple cautions, really. I think we could have had opportunity to finish inside the top 15, had the cautions fell for us, and we had got that opportunity, but we didn't. Kyle Busch sweeps the weekend, wins the Trucks at Infinity in a cup race. That's the second time he swept the Bristol weekend.

The first time, did he win all three? No. Yeah, yeah. Oh, he did? Back in 2010. So he's done this before. Yeah. He's the only one that's ever swept at any track, swept all three.

Right. That, I know a lot of folks are, you know, you're either for Kyle Busch or you're against him, but you've got to give a guy a lot of credit. And I'm telling you, man, he's honestly, personality-wise, come a long way. Yeah. Did you see his, him when he got out of the car the other night? He was eating it up and taunting the fans. It's pretty funny. He's sort of embracing.

the haters. Right. And I think he's trying to, you know, show those guys that, you know, they're not, you know, as long as he's winning, he don't care. Right. Right. But I think that, you know, that's, regardless of whether you're like him or not, just like Jimmy Johnson's championships, five in a row, whatever, anything, anybody, you know,

I'm not comparing Jimmy to Kyle, but just regardless of whether you like a driver or not, when they do something amazing and historic, you have to tip a cap. Kyle's an excellent racer. Kyle Larson said he thinks Kyle Bush is the most all-around talented driver that he'll ever witness in his lifetime. So that's above Jimmy, above anybody. Wow. What do you think about that?

You know, I think that Kyle Busch would be considered by many people to be the greatest race car driver in the history of the sport if and when he wins a few more championships. I think that's the only thing that's not allowed him to creep into that conversation yet for a lot of people. Let's say just say the media. Maybe the media thinks that, you know, Jimmy, my dad,

there's a lot of people, you know, that would say David Pearson might have been the best race car driver ever. Kyle's definitely getting in this conversation, particularly with weekends like this. If he goes on and wins a championship or two or three more championships before he hangs it up, which he's going to be in that. He very well may win this year. Yeah.

I mean, he's going to be a contender for the championship, I perceive, for the next several years, right? Right. Because he's still, what, 32, 33? He's still young. Yeah. And he could be one of those guys that sort of, excels beyond 42, which is the age that most drivers sort of knows off. He's one of those guys, I think that as much as he races, he's racing superlates and trucks and

Xfinity. He's all over the place trying to compete. Like Kyle Larson, he's a guy that wants to race all the time, enjoys being inside the car. And he could be a guy that races beyond, you know, that milestone where most guys sort of trend off or retire. I see him as a guy that might race much longer than that. Particularly if he's losing money on his truck team, as Brad Keselowski contested or alluded to, Kyle will need to race for quite a while to continue to. So how many, do you think he needs to get to seven championships? No, no, no, no.

I don't think he has to get to seven championships. I was just thinking that what else is it that's not, you know, when people talk about greatest race car drivers in the sport, they don't, you often hear Kyle's name. What's the one thing that would put him in that conversation? Probably another championship. Right. I think he's obviously won enough races to be in that conversation. Right. So that's something that's, I think, will happen over the next couple of years.

We're going to see Kyle Bush probably win another championship or two. Do you think Jimmy will get an eighth championship? You know, he's going to probably race for three, four more years? Do I think you will? I know that it's hard to, you know, hard to make an argument for that because of the speed of the teams right now. You know, HMS is looking for more speed. The Toyotas and Ford's are really good and looking strong going into this playoff. I mean, I think he's going to have the potential.

I mean, Hendricks still, even in a down year. I mean, this would essentially be a down year for Hendrick and he's won three races. Yep. There's some new guys up there, though, that are. contending for these championships. Obviously, Truex has built up an incredible amount of playoff points. He's going to be a guy that I think will see all the way to Homestead. Right. And like Kyle Larson, see, my thing is, I think Homestead is Kyle Larson's best track. Maybe. And, I mean, he hasn't won there yet, but the last two or three years...

The groove certainly suits him. So if he can just make his way to survive the chase. Yeah. Kyle Larson may tell you that that track might be... mostly resembles his discipline of dirt track racing. Right. You know, with the way the grooves are there. Right. So if he can just survive the playoff, I think he would probably be the favorite to win. Although, I mean, but then again, the Toyotas are stupid fast right now.

So it's going to be interesting to see. But then if Jimmy can survive the playoffs, I wouldn't bet against him either. No. Because, like, last year. Just because he's Jimmy. Yeah, he's probably like the fourth best guy out of those four in the championship. Right. I mean, the whole race, he really wasn't even in position to win.

It just, you know, worked out late in those last few restarts. Right. And, like, I don't know that he had led that whole race. No, no. He was running like fifth to tenth all night. And then he got to line up on the front row, and then he wins the race. Then he had that crash and cycled him toward the front. All right.

Another thing coming out of Bristol was the guys playing games on Pitt Road trying to get a different spot on the restarts because I guess Denny Hamlin wanted to restart in the top so he would roll out there and then if he was I think one time he was side by side with Chase so he just essentially came to a halt chase past him and he got the lane he wanted so Scott Miller from NASCAR was talking about they're going to look at it and there was some talk maybe they would go to consider going to the cone rule to where you choose your lane yeah which I hope they wouldn't if they're going to make a decision like that they'd need to wait till the between seasons I would hope that's not something they would implement during

oh they yeah I don't think they would bring that in that would be a ridiculous thing to do but the comb rule would be exciting yeah I know you know I know that it's it's it's a neat thing to see at the short tracks the local short tracks and you know at a track where lane choice is so critical on restarts you're getting penalized sometimes for being good. And you can get in that wrong line. You get a couple cautions late in the race. Say you're running in the top five all night.

You get a couple yellows late in the race. And if you line up in the wrong line on both of those yellows, you could lose an opportunity even at a top 10 finish. Right. After running great all night. If you line up third, you're going to fall to at least fourth or fifth. Yep. And then it could continue to happen.

And that sucks. And it ain't, you know, there's no argument outside the driver's seat that you're going to win with a driver over, well, you know, it's just where it is, whatever. Drivers don't like that. Drivers don't like having to, you know, run well and then getting screwed on the lane choice. So I think the cone rule would be a great rule to implement for 2018. Let's do it, NASCAR. Also, from the weekend, there was a lot of the appreciation tour. stuff that got kicked off Thursday with the Dale Earnhardt Jr. Scholarship. Yeah, this was very

cool. So some of the racetracks obviously are coming up with ways to honor us and our career. One of the greatest, most, one of my favorite things is when they do something that's going to help their community. The track definitely took, took that notice and went in that direction. they announced a new annual Dellenhart Jr. Scholarship annual, so it's going to happen every year that will help a Sullivan County student interested in pursuing a career in the automotive industry. I worked into dealership. I own a couple of dealerships. This is an opportunity to help somebody in that community achieve their goals, if that's what they want to do, want to pursue that career. So I'm excited about that. I thought that was a really creative way for the track to honor our career. also help the community. And it's very, it's a reasonably inexpensive notion. So I loved it. It doesn't require a ton of legwork, but it's very creative, very thoughtful. And then also another

thing, I don't know if you saw it whenever they did the card stunt. It said, thank you, Dale Jr. That was pretty cool. I think it was during the pace laps. Oh, but I didn't see it. Yeah. I didn't see it. Yeah, I didn't see it until afterwards. Yeah, but it was cool. That was the first time I've seen that. And they do card stunts at Bristol all the time because it's perfectly structured for that kind of thing. It's like a college stadium.

And we had enough race fans in the seats to actually do a card stunt. That was a good turnout on Saturday. There was an awesome crowd. Yeah, that hasn't got as much attention and credit as I think it deserves. There was a great turnout. Very good.

A lot of traffic leaving the race, which is fine. Yeah. But yeah, so kudos to Bristol. That was a good weekend. Yeah, this weekend was a lot of fun as far as the appreciation tour. Again, though, I think it's important to remind everybody that our initiative in our appreciation, Junior Nation tour is to show appreciation to the fans. So that's our direction, our goal, our target.

But, yeah, a lot of the cool things did happen this weekend. that made me feel very good. We had an incredible turnout at the Mountain Dew, True Timber appearance Saturday before the race. It was a rock as cloud. Yeah. I mean, you couldn't see really the back of the crowd. I mean, it was just going on and on forever.

We had somebody actually pass out. It was really hot, but it was a great opportunity. Unfortunately, it presented an opportunity to remind everybody to be hydrated. Which is something that you learned on Friday night yourself. That's right. So we run the race Friday in the Xfinity car. That car doesn't have all the bells and whistles as far as interior comfort, which is fine. It's only 300 laps.

But we'd sweated so much Thursday. I probably didn't do a great enough job rehydrating that evening. And then in the suit all day, sweating all day and then going to go run a 300-lap race to continue to sweat some more. So after that race, my hands were cramping up and I thought, you know, I'm going to go straight to the infill care center, sit down. they're going to hook me up to a couple bags of IVs. And we got some fluids in us, went back to the bus, ate some food, drank a bunch of water, stayed up pretty late. So if I'm going to have a Saturday night race, I stay up pretty late the night before. So I sort of cycle my energy.

So you're sleeping later. Right. So I'm kind of awake for the race. You know, I'm not tired. So I got all the fluids back in me, so I was ready to go for Saturday. But yeah, it was hot. And I remember when we used to, when we was in military school, we used to have to go out in March. Kids were passing out right and left.

We had to go out and march and stand in attention in this field for a couple of hours. And you had to remind yourself not to lock your knees. Oh, that's what they say when you get married too. Yeah, exactly. I was not, I was thinking while I was up there getting married with Amy not to lock, I was reminding myself not to lock my knees. Don't, because you're up there nervous. This is the deal.

You're a shaker, so I can't wait to see this. You're going to be shaking like crazy. I think this will be the most you ever shook. You think so? Yeah, probably. See, what will happen? You're going to have to put that ring on my finger, and I bet it's going to be hard. Yeah, she'll probably laugh.

But what will happen is I will shake and then my voice will shake because when I'm nervous and I have to do like a public. How do you think you're going to sound? Um, very wavery. Oh, gosh. Can't wait. Yeah. It's going to be an interesting.

Oh, yeah. I'm going to develop a distinct stutter, I'm sure. Oh, my gosh. But it'll be fun. Yeah. So don't lock the knees. Don't. When you're up there getting married, you're nervous and you feel faint.

You know, you kind of feel this feeling of, I don't know, being a little bit weak. And, but you don't want to bend your knees too much because then you'll look like a weirdo. Well, that's the thing. You're wearing slacks. You can bend your knees and your pants. without really people noticing that they're bent. Oh. Yeah.

These are the things that run through my head while I'm getting married. Yeah, we signed a lot of autographs. That was a lot of fun. Good weekend, as far as everything off the track, not very good on the track. We've got an off weekend coming up. Hope everybody enjoys watching some Xfinity racing. They were at Road America.

Yeah, not my favorite track. No? No, I went there once. It wasn't fine. I went there one time during a Saturday to watch a little practice. I thought was pretty cool. I like how big the track is. I like going there as a fan maybe,

and there's lots of opportunities to... It reminded me more of a golf course. Yeah. Because you have to, like, check in at this little house and they give you a wristband. Okay. And then it's so big to where it's like a golf course where it's spread out.

Cool. All right. Yeah. Well, we got the weekend off. Then we're going to go to Darlington. We're already preparing for Darlington, me and the team. We're already scrambling through emails of our setup history

and trying to find some common, themes within that. Didn't think they ran very well last year with Gordon looking at the post-race notes and everything. They sort of ran mid-pack from 15th to 25th all night. Got lapped at one point.

Lucky enough they got the lucky dog and got back on the lead lap and ended up finishing 14th, I believe. Wasn't very good on restarts. Just looking at all the comments, I think we're going to go a little further back in our notes to try to find some speed

and comfort. We did test there in the winter, and I thought the car drove great. Remember when we tested there in December? And I thought the car drove great. But it was really cold so late. I know. Is it essentially like going to a completely different track?

Yeah, there's, yeah. But I mean, you know, we can look at that. That's set up a little different than what we raced. Or what Jeff raced. So I'm excited, though, to be in my throwback car. Yes. You know, last year we missed the opportunity. We had this great program, great looking race car,

the gray ghost and didn't get to drive it. So this year we get to race in our throwback. So that's exciting. Also, another thing that me and you are big fans of, I don't know how many of our listeners play games on their phones or iPads, but me and you play Madden Mobile. Yeah. New season just started. So I'm spending roughly half of my waking hours on Madden Mobile. Wow. Yeah, I know. It's excessive and Amy's not very happy. I had a user error and I messed up my account and I'm waiting on EA Sports. So if EA Sports listens to the Dale Jr. download, please help. Yeah, Tyler has unlinked his account.

Needs help to link it back. Yeah. So he can continue to play. But boy, am I having fun. You're not, though. You're not having fun. Whenever I get back on the horse, I'll be having fun. So if you play a game, people ask us what music we listen to, people ask us all kinds of questions.

Our favorite mobile app, mobile game. Mad and mobile. It's free, right? It is free. We're in a league. Got a bunch of guys in there. Half of them don't know who we are. Don't know who I am.

Yeah. That's probably best. It is. You know a very distinct username, so it doesn't say like, hey. You would not know. It's not like Dale Jr. 88 or anything. If you see Dale Jr. 88, it's not him. So let's go to the Ask Junior part of the show.

You want to just start rambling off on these. I will read the questions. Okay, you read the questions there. At Sean Understore Gebby asked. Did the guy using a big word during Ask Jr. last week superfluous make you want to study big words or something? This is in reference to your Friday tweet that racing at Bristol can be capricious. Yeah. No, I was just, I was in the media center talking about how much I love Bristol.

And I went and got in my car and I was not having a lot of fun and practice. so I got mad at Bristol and I was trying to say that practice can be frustrating and that sometimes this track is a bit of a love-hate relationship But I didn't want to contradict myself completely with what I just said 15 minutes ago in the media center That's understandable. I always look forward to going to Bristol and there are parts of Bristol that I really like But then there are parts that I'm like what are the parts that you don't like? Because I'm getting ready to get out of the car and still I still think man bristol's great as a spectator. This is awesome them. I want to go. But what are the parts since you're not driving in a car? What are the parts that you don't like?

I don't like the tunnel. But I mean, these are things that they can't get around. Like, it's a hike uphill. Get out of the track. Yeah. That's a little fresh. But, I mean, it's a half mile track and there's nothing else they can do. It's a fine tunnel. It's just a lot of...

Would you like it if they put an escalator in the tunnel? An escalator? No, because then it would break. I think Kentucky has one. But it might be. If you broke, you could still use it. it just becomes stairs at that point. Yeah, that would be okay. Like the Panthers Stadium has an escalator and it works nice. Right.

That would be like the underground subway, you know, you're going in and out. That'd be kind of cool. I don't want to seem lazy, but I mean, if you're going in and out. It's a height, it's a height, buddy. When you're doing this, we're going in and out of that racetrack a half a dozen times a day. Yeah. It's a half mile walk from. Right.

And it's hot. Yeah. And then you're walking through a tunnel, so it's hotter. Yep. That's a little. A lot of hot, sweaty people in there. with hot breath. Yeah.

Gross. A lot of drivers in sweaty fire suits that stink. Gross, yep. Stinky drivers. All right. At D. Kessling-O-3 asks, how much say do you have over which Xfinity races you drive in and have you had to say no to a certain race before?

Well, I've definitely have some control over where we go. But the sponsors are sometimes regional or they want to make an impact in a certain region. So they'll want you to race in an area that helps them. promote their product. For example, Helmans usually wants Southeast. Right. So there you go. So they'll narrow it down to southeast.

So your choices are going to be like in Atlanta, Daytona, Charlotte, Bristol, Richmond. That one year we ran Kentucky, that's the farthest north part of the southeast, I guess. Yep. But yeah, so that's how that works. Otherwise, you know, it's like, hey, let's, you know, I'll throw a couple ideas out there and see if they like any of those. At Holly K. Begley asked,

since you married into Big Blue Nation, would you ever consider going to a game during March Madness to support Kentucky? That would be a lot of commitment. I would be, that would be full commitment. Wouldn't you say? I know. Amy would probably expect that type of commitment.

So let's say for hypothetically. So I'm going to say that I would probably do that. hypothetically. I would probably do that, but not comfortably. Would you wear a Kentucky hat and t-shirt? Yeah, I mean, I told Amy that when we got married, if she would be a Redskins fan, I would be a Wildcats fan, on the hard court, basketball alone.

So I still pull for Carolina, and they're my favorite college team. I used to be a big South Carolina fan, but I think I'm a more of a Tar Hill fan these days. Once Spurrier left, it was difficult for me as a Gamecox fan. But back to your question, I think that, yeah, I mean, if I'm going to be that fan, if I'm going to expect her to wear the Redskins gear, go with me to the games, be in the moment. Because she's from Texas, and she's got some family and friends that are probably Cowboy fans. Right. If I'm going to ask her to commit 100% to the Redskins,

I'm definitely going to have to do my job on the Wildcats' side of the deal. Sure. I'd be very disappointed, though. I'm sorry, buddy. You would have went to the Kentucky North Carolina game? Yikes. You know, that's so difficult for me. See?

Yep. That'd be weird. At Lane Webb asked, how do you and T.J. determine the language and verbiage you all use during the race? We don't. I just let T.J. say what he wants,

and I'll tell him if I don't like something he's saying. I think that we started together, when you start together, When you work with a spotter for the first time, you just let them go, do whatever they want to do. And then after each race, you might sit down and say, you know what, I didn't like that, or don't waste so much time talking about this, or that's not important to me. I don't need to hear that. So they can trim some of the fat from their information and only give you exactly what you want.

But me and TJ worked together so long that we no longer need really any conversations. And it works really well. think he's one of the best spotters. And I'm excited to see how his career goes after we're done working together and how what it's like for him. You know, he's been working with me. We're like brothers for a long, long time and had that kind of comfort and security. And it'll be interesting to see what, you know, how he does outside of that.

I'm excited for him. At Weslyn Fugate asked if you could swap places with a character in any TV show or movie. Who would you choose and why? Well, Superman would be awesome. Oh, yeah, Superman. Dang, this is a tough question. So any person in a movie or a TV show, well, I don't know.

You know what I mean? I always thought the office was great. And I'm like, man, I wish I was friends with all those people. That'd be funny. Like if it was a real life show. Yeah. not a real life show, but if it was real life. But damn, that'd be a sucky job.

Selling paper. Yeah. So working at Dundar, Mifflin, probably isn't as rosy as it seems, and having those friendships, though, would be pretty cool. So maybe I don't think I'd want Michael Scott's job. You'd want to work with Michael Scott. Yeah. At M.H. Racevan asked,

what do you think about Brad Kozlowski dropping his truck program for next year? Yeah, that was a... a sad thing for me to see any team have to shut its doors is a it's hard to see it just reminds you how hard it is to um it just remind you how hard the business model is in this sport for owners and it certainly makes you aware that as much as we do racing for the love in front of it it is a business right and it can get scary at times and very difficult and there's a lot of things there's a lot of hard decisions that get made that affect people's lives you know and it um it i imagine that brad did that very very reluctantly with heavy heart um having to really uh you know having

he has all those people's lives impacted by whether he can continue to race or not and and I'm sure that he wanted to continue. But if you do not have sponsorship money, you cannot go to the racetrack. Right. And I can understand exactly the situation that he's in. So I know that was hard for him. Certainly hard for the folks that are employed there. Something that I saw one of the folks in the industry say on social media was that good mechanics will find jobs.

Right. Good workers, good people, they'll find jobs. To find an opportunity. It's very, it's sad, like you said, but I like that he said it in August. So these people have an opportunity. That's true. Like, I know before, if you shut your team down the day after Homestead, then people are like, well, damn.

Yeah, they got some notice. Yeah. So at least he. They can prepare. Right. That's true. At Aaron John 102 asked. Does NBC have a group.

P-Rimming policy. I hope they don't make you shave the beard. That's a good question. I'm sure I trimmed it up. So I cleaned up the beard a little bit. I don't know if you'll notice, but I would like to keep it, but they may want me to not let it just go bonkers like I've done over the last couple months.

Yeah, especially in the fall. Yeah. Hunting season. Good luck. At F. Stuchel asked, I love the cars that made America documentary. Are you going to do more of this type of? of stuff once you retire? I plan on doing more of these type of things once I retire. Once I retire, I'm gonna go back to work immediately on these

doc you know these type of documentaries. Yeah, this is the kind of stuff that I enjoy doing and would certainly be very interested in working on other projects with several, you know, with several networks and you know, being working with NBC is gonna present opportunity like that I think so. It'd be fun to see what we can get ourselves involved in. Just like the DIY show, I think that that surprised a lot of people, nobody, myself included, expected me to be in a home renovation show. Four or five, you know, if you asked me two, three, four, or five years ago,

I'll tell you you no. How would I end up there? Right. And here you are. Yep. At Welderduderdood O4 asked, can you take any info from the Xfinity car to the cup car when you run both? Well, I took some concerns. I'll say that.

We didn't, we had a lot of issues with our Exfifinity. car on a long run. I was really worried that the cup car was going to suffer the same problems, which it did. Greg got a headset and watched the Xfinity race. We can learn a lot about air pressures, what helps and doesn't help the tire, how the car is affected by taking wedge out, moving the track bar. Those things should transfer over relatively similarly to the cup car. So I liked some adjustments in the Xfinity car and didn't like some others, so we will lean toward the ones we liked when we go into the cup car. It's very helpful, I think, for a driver

to run both races each weekend. It's a ton of work, though. Like I said, we were in the hauler or in the car in a driver's suit all day, Saturday. Even before the race started, I was ready to, you know, go to the bus and chill. So it's a lot of work and a lot of commitment, but definitely helpful.

Yeah, just get ready because Richmond's a longer day than Bristol was. Golly. I got an 8 a.m. practice on Friday morning instead of Thursday practice. Cool. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Well, so at least, you know, won't be doing it. But at least you'll be prepared this time. Thursday.

We'll be open. Thursday's wide open. DIY. DIY show. Cool. Yeah. Okay. At Bloody kills.

This guy must play like first person. Yeah, you must play like first person shooter games. Asked, how will you manage junior motorsports while being an NBC announcer? Nothing really is. going to change. I don't really hands-on manage junior motorsports. My sister runs the business below her. We have an incredible, very talented and thorough group of folks that allows me really to go and do outside interests and not have to worry or even be concerned about the direction of the team or the company. If anything really serious needs my attention, Kelly, and I get right

on top of it, but otherwise, I trust her and everyone around at that company to make the proper decisions. We have a lot of great people there that understand where we need to, how we need to stay within our budget, how we operate to work in that budget, and it's been productive for us. I'll say it again, I've said in many times we don't really have much profit, if any. Some years we lose a little money, but any money we do make goes into a, a protective. account that is that is there for us to fall back on when we have years that we don't make money or we lose money so we're you know it's working but I won't have I won't I can I think I'll have more involvement I'll have more time maybe to be more involved and physically there you know

at the office do you envision your vision me being in the office helping you know this podcast better no way I'm going to help you in my office so So folks, next year, you're going to see a marketed improvement in the production and editing of the... I bet. Am I going to get a better office? Right now I'm in like a... Have you seen everyone else's office? I know.

It's pretty shitty. Mike Davis has a window. Yeah. I used to have that office. His window is into the shop, though. It's not really... I know, but you get to see something. Yeah.

At T.L. Star 2014 asked, what's been the worst part of the renovation project? I think you answered that earlier. The heat. Yeah. Yeah, just the heat. 95 degrees and then you pack on top of that, you're in this nasty old house. There's bugs and spiders and dead animals and rot and mildew. It's just, you know, awful.

Right now it is. Yeah. By the end of this show, it's going to be awesome. Yeah, it'll improve. I can't wait until we install the air conditioner. When's that coming? It's gone long ways off. At Simon 88 underscore Jr. asked if you were chosen to start a historic series of NASCAR,

which tracks and which years of cars would you choose to use? I'd love to run anything mainly from the 70s, all the muscle cars, like the charger, the Laguna, all of those cars to me in the mid, from like 75 to 80, loved all those cars. The 442 Holesmobile. If I could go back in time and race in a different time, that would be it. Like what tracks, though? Any other? old Atlanta

Oval Atlanta yeah I just keep running there every day All right just run there every week Every week over and over and over yeah okay loved Atlanta You never got to race on it The oval plus their airport is right beside the track So you can fly down there would be very convenient Oh okay

Always thinking You're always thinking Of the convenience of the convenience yep All right that's all the Ask Junior questions for this week As always you can send us the questions Using hashtag Ask Junior on Twitter And we'll get the best of them them so send us good stuff.

Yep. If you love Dale Jr., then Exaltor Racing is your go-to-social media account on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It brings you Insiders info all weekend long on the 88 team. It's at Exaltor Racing, a must follow for any Dale Jr. fan. Looking ahead, we have the off weekend. We talked about Saturday, the McGregor and Mayweather fight. Are you watching?

I think I am. I might find a bar or somebody that's playing it. Do they play it in bars? Is it, you know? Yeah, I don't. I'm hoping. Because we're going back to Myrtle Beach. I'm not going to buy it.

You're not? No. I'll just either follow on social media or. I know it on social media you won't be able to watch. I don't need to watch. There's not going to be anything worth watching. You think, how long, you think it's going to go 12 rounds? I, I think it will.

I don't think that Mayweather, you know, Mayweather doesn't have a really high knockout percentage. I don't see him getting a TKO or a K.O. or a KO from McGregor. Neither one of them is going to probably cut. Do you think McGregor wins around? I think McGregor might win around for sure. Yeah. I think that, I don't think, you know,

Mayweather's been more about, obviously, I mean, this is nothing, I'm not telling anybody, anything that they don't already know. Mayweather is in there getting points. He's a, he has impeccable defense. I don't think McGregor's going to get in there and get an opportunity to get to touch him. You know, he might have a shot or two or get a couple of, you know,

he might touch him a little bit, but he's not going to do anything effective. Mayweather's going to do just enough to win. I mean, when's the last time you've seen a Mayweather fight that you've enjoyed, like you walked away going, wow, what a fight of year. The only way this fight is going to be as exciting

is if McGregor does something. The last time I think Mayweather actually was in any kind of a competitive fight was against Koto, and that was so long ago. I think McGregor's going to win. Upset. You're crazy. All right, Sunday, the Xfinity races at Road America. I'm sorry, but that's just nonsense.

You think he's going to win? Yeah. Okay. I like McGregor, though. I know you do. I like Diaz. I'd like to see Diaz and McGregor go back at it. Yeah.

I'd love to watch that. fight in person again because we went to the first one yep that's entertainment um i'm actually looking at yeah man twitter pals yeah so i'm more excited about triple g fight canello and triple g come what's that in like a month yeah okay that's a those guys that's for the best that's basically going to be a fight for the best pound for pound in the in the sport uh both those guys have incredible records. Canello's probably fought better opposition, but we met, we became, I became a big fan of Triple G, watching him. He follows me on Twitter. Does he? So you're, you're, super nice guy. Yeah, cool guy. And we got to meet him in Fontaine. He came out to the racetrack. Very nice. So that's our,

we're in, we're in the Triple G corner for this fight. Sunday this, uh, weekend we got the Xfinity race at Road America. It's at 3 p.m. on NBC. They're planning on NBC. Yeah. I was talking to our Xfinity. That's big for Xfinity. I know. Honestly. Sunday afternoon, no cup race. I was talking to our Xfinity PR ups today, and I was like, enjoy you at 3 o'clock Sunday start time. Oh, God. Let me know how you like that.

Three o'clock. It'll be fun. NBC loves than 3 o'clock starts. It's cool. All right. I'll watch it. Do you think they'll have 3 o'clock starts next year? After all the complaints?

Yeah. Everyone's complaining. I think they're going to have them. I'd like to see how, I'd like them, I'd like someone to prove to me that it's better for, viewership. Yeah. I'd like to see the numbers.

Yeah. But I know, but then you'd run into like a situation, like a rain delay or... No, I'm just saying. I want to prove to me that these three o'clock stars are better. Yeah. Tell me why. Yeah. They say they get more viewers.

Yeah. On TV? They should break it down by... I need to see this number. I need to see these numbers. Yeah. All right. Well, that's the show.

Do you like the show? It was okay. Yeah. It wasn't our worst show. It wasn't the worst show. All right. Thanks for listening. Have a good week.

We guys, we will be back next week. I think Amy's doing it next week. He's going to do it with me next weekend. All right. See ya. We'll see. The Dale Jr. download and all Dirtymo 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 Dirtymo Radio. Also check out the Dirtymo Radio Facebook page. Thanks for listening to dirty moor radio Thanks for listening to dirty mo radio