The Dale Jr. Download - 192 - Richmond Rewind and Calling Up AJ Perdomo

Episode Date: September 12, 2017

Despite a strong race at Richmond, Dale Jr. missed the 2017 Playoffs. He discusses his outlook for the final 10 races on the outside looking in. Plus, Junior calls up AJ Perdomo from the Dangerous Summer and answers fan questions. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

My racing career isn't just about me. It's about the team, the fans, the sponsors, the families, the tracks, the whole sport. Join us over the next five months on the Junior Nation Appreciation Tour, where we show appreciation to where it's owed. This is Dale Jr., and you're listening to Dirty Mo Radio. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. another episode of the Dale Jr. Down Low with Tyler Overs Street. Thanks to Hopeless Records for providing today's theme song, that's Catholic Girls, by the Dangerous Summer. I got to see those guys in concert Sunday.

That was the first song they played. Was it? Yeah. Huh. Yeah, you had the music way loud. Because I like to rock. Yeah, you need to work on that. Now I can hear you.

So Richmond, let's get right to it. I had a great car. Probably the best, would you say it was the best car we had all year? It was a strong car, Texas car. But the Texas car, it was, we got track position. kind of through pit strategy, this car the other night, you legitimately drove by all those guys to get up to, I think, you, I mean, you led a few laps, but that was through a cycle of pit stops, but you peaked at fifth, and you were passing guys, catching guys, so it was a very good car.

Yeah, I thought it was great. You know, we talked about going into the weekend with Greg suspended because of the lug nuts at Darlington. We talked all week about trying to how we were going to manage this situation, what we were going to do if they wanted to put somebody else on the box or whatever. Hendrick has a lot of talented guys with a lot of experiences, crew chiefs that could have came in there, Daring Grubb, and Kenny Francis or anybody could have sat on the box

or basically ran the weekend for us. but we wanted to do it ourselves. I thought we had good talent with T-Mac and Tim, our lead engineer, all those guys, everybody was going to step up a little bit, and we thought we could handle it. So Hendrik let us sort of go that route. They did send Kenny Francis to sort of watch over our shoulders, which is great. And I've been great friends with Kenny.

We used to race late models together at the beach, and so I've known him a long time. So it was great to have him around just in case we needed him. but T-Mac and everybody stepped up a little bit. The car, I don't really know how great the car was off the truck. Hard to tell there, but we worked on it and tried to make it drive better and more comfortable. We made some good changes, I thought, in practice.

Everybody was real vocal. There was a lot of great communication throughout the weekend. This situation kind of made everybody had to step up a little bit. And, you know, it was great to run good. felt good to run up front but I think we learned a lot about our team going forward and these guys can carry that even beyond this season.

So it was a good weekend. It could have been better. You know, the car could have been a little faster, fast enough to drive all the way to lead. We just lacked a little bit of speed compared to maybe the 78. There were times in the race the car

was the fastest car on the track and had we gotten that caution that we needed at the end. We stayed out really long, and that was the only way I think we were going to win the race. That was our gamble. Everybody started short pitting for that last run. Say the last run was 120 laps.

Everybody pitted around lap 60 to cut it in half. We stayed out really long, hoping to catch a caution, so we basically could grab and steal that track position. That might have given us an opportunity to win the race, but we didn't get the yellow that we needed. Once we pitted, we came back out around 22nd. I think we were running about 6th, 7th when that cycle started. Yeah, I think...

Fifth or 6th. Yeah, and then we drove back up to finish 13th. So salvaged a decent finish, and it seemed like everybody on social media, for the most part, the fans were happy just to see the car run well and have us running up toward the front. And for the most part, this is the same group that you've had for several years.

So it's not like they didn't forget how to race. No. So, I mean, it's just a good reminder to show everybody. This is still a damn good team. Yeah. I mean, Hendrick Motorsports is a great company. We are struggling a little bit as a group. I think Chevrolet as a group is struggling.

There's only one Chevrolet that's been running good all year, and that's Larsson. Right. And so I think, I know everybody's excited about the car next year and thinking that that's to bring performance back to the Chevy teams. But Larson is that example of what we can accomplish this year if we figure out what we need in the car. Right. And we were able to do that this weekend.

And there's a little bit of hope for Hendrik Motorsports going forward into the chase with how, you know, we were able to get our car competitive this weekend. One of the big stories from the night was that NASCAR race control. Yeah. They, and they admitted this yesterday that they had a rough night. Early in the race, they called a caution because Matt Kenseth locked up his tire or his brakes going in turn three. And so it shot some smoke, and he kind of shot up the racetrack. And they were like, oh, caution.

And which I was walking out of the tunnel at that time. And I saw it happen. I had to take my bag out to the bus. See, during the race, I have to prepare for our departure. Oh, I got you. And then the biggest issue of the night was the ambulance coming on to Pit Road, which ended Matt Kinsis race because everybody stacked up and he piled in somebody. You got a little damage there and you almost got a ton of damage if Kyle Bush would have, wouldn't have made such an evasive move at the last second. So whenever you come around the corner and you see an ambulance sitting there, what goes through your mind?

uh well just uh I think the first thing that goes to your mind is why it's pit road open you know why that's the first thing I thought is why is pit road open um and I understand that there was

miscommunication between the ambulance and NASCAR control um so they open pit road with the anticipation thinking that the ambulance would not be there, but it drove around there and got in the way. You know, those kind of, it's a human element that's involved in this sport and it's going to,

you're going to have mistakes. I think that it sucks that it happened in this moment. If it happens in the middle of the season, it's not that big deal, but this is a race, you know, this is the defining race for the season, all these people trying to race into the chase and all that, the playoffs and so forth. So a little more, a little more attention brought to it. Fortunately, it did not knock Matt out of the chase. Yeah.

That would have been big. It got a little more attention than it probably deserved, but it was a mistake. Nonetheless, I'm sure that they'll try not to repeat it going forward. One of the things that I think that the amulance issue puts a veil over something a little more serious. Throwing the yellow for Matt, locking up his brakes. Throwing the yellow for Derek Cope barely scraping the wall. They're just, when NASCAR sort of finds itself in these, NASCAR looks at the Richmond race as an opportunity that there's a lot of people paying attention right then.

There's a lot of people watching NASCAR because it's the last race and there's all these people trying to get into the playoffs. So NASCAR knows that there's a lot of people watching and they know that they need to have some excitement, some drama. And I think that they get a little trigger happy with the cautions. and some of those races do, you know, we're sitting there running long green flag runs. We saw how the Xfinity race ended the night before. So there's, we're not creating cautions out there. So NASCAR's looking for opportunities to throw the yellow.

I think that they're getting, you know, in those situations, they just kind of get a little trigger happy. That's something that kind of rubs me the wrong way a little bit. But I've complained about, you know, the cautions. for a long, long time. I know, and it seemed like everybody... The conspiracy theorists thought that we were going to get a caution. Yeah.

Because we, like, our strategy was, hey, hopefully we get a caution, and all the conspiracy theorists were like, oh, here it comes, here it comes. And they didn't do it, but then they did it with three laps to go to make a dramatic finish. And essentially, cost Martin... I mean, obviously, they lost the lead on Pit Road to the 42, but he was going to win that race. Sure. So that could turn out to be, that was a little, like a 10-point swing plus five for Larson

and five less than Truex was going to have. So that could, I don't think it's going to play out like that because I think Truex is going to be fine to get to Homestead, but you never know. Yeah. Well, he could have used those points. Right. It's just a little too obvious sometimes, those late yellows. I mean, you just know they're coming.

But it would not be quite so obvious, I guess, if they would throw it. with 20 or 10 to go, but not like set up a obvious green light checkered. Overtime! Guess what? So it's a little frustrating, especially, I mean, I'm frustrated with it running 13th. Imagine how Truex feels. Yeah, he was pretty pissed. Or really anybody who maybe was in the, you know, even Truex, but someone else who was running

second, third, fourth all night that ends up running, you know, losing a few spots late in the race. It's just real frustrating. You run 400 laps. Your tongue hanging out. Just going as hard as you can all night long. What if that would have set up a situation and Boyer or Lugano would have won the race and knock somebody else out of the chase,

then over like a questionable caution there? Yeah, it's definitely questionable. I think that you might not see much of that going forward until Homestead. Yeah. Homestead. They have been doing such a good job, but then it's like, you get to that one big race. I know. It's in these big races. It's like they know they have so many people paying attention. This is an opportunity to really, they need, they just feel like they need

this, they need a moment. They need to have a moment or. They love moments. Yeah. But they're going to get plenty of, they need to happen authentically and naturally. Right. Yeah. They're going to get plenty of moments because the playoffs start this week. Obviously, we're not in them, but you're still in the race. Yeah. Does that, like, obviously, I've never been in the situation. Do you, how do you approach a race as a guy that's not in the playoffs? Like, are you super cognizant of them?

Or are you like, screw it, I race it the same as I always do? No, you're very aware of who's in the chase and who's not. You're very, especially your teammates, to be honest with you, it's not a ton of. of fun. If you're not, if you don't make the playoffs or you get knocked out as you go into the rounds, especially at Homestead. Like if at Homestead last year, Jimmy, Jimmy is in the playoffs and you're not. Anytime you might have a restart around him, that's no fun.

You don't, you know, you, because, okay, so typically on a restart, you're just going to go. You're like trying to pass everybody you can pass. This is an opportunity to do everything you can do while everybody's kind of together. and if you're restarting around a teammate that's trying to win the championship, then your whole mindset changes. You don't want to do anything that's going to screw him up. You've got 500 employees going to be pissed off at you when you go back to work on Monday. So you have, you know, and I know the fans will be like,

no, don't worry about that, just run your race, but you can't do it that way. You got a boss and all the employees and everybody wanting to win that championship. and they expect, you know, you're part of the company, they expect you to do what the company needs done. So you have to check some of your priorities a little bit, and it sucks to have to race that way. There's a couple scenarios that will play out throughout the, throughout the playoffs, maybe at Talladega.

You know, there might be a race or two as you get through these rounds where, all right, you know what your teammates need to do. This guy's got to finish here. guy's got to do this, do that. And you might, you know, we were in a situation a couple years ago where I was trying, I needed to win Talladega to get into the next round. And so we talked all weekend about what the teammates could do to help me. And so the teammates sort of have to change the way they race.

And it's not a lot of fun because you want to go out there and try to win a race, you know. And we want to win a race badly. But there may be some situations where we have to. sort of put that on the back burner for the company. And that's not a ton of fun, but, you know, you definitely don't want to be a guy that screws up somebody else's chance to win a championship, especially, you know, early in this chase. I mean, it's just not a lot of fun being the guy that ruined it for somebody else.

Right. So that's kind of a product of this system. And, you know, it's just a way it is. but we're still, hopefully, you know, if you run up front and you're leading, you're not in that situation. Right. You just let them deal with it behind me. Yeah, they're behind you dealing with it.

But if you're stuck around, you know, if you're stuck in the middle of the thick of it, you have to be cognizant of it. You have to be aware. Yeah, yeah, it's not fun. I think that it's hard to tell who the favorite is. I know that, you know, I think you've got to look at the playoff points that everybody has. And Truax has a 20-point gap on everybody. Right.

That's going to help carry him, I think, through Homestead. That should unless they have just a, you know, if they had a motor failure last year at Talladega, they hurt him pretty bad. I think it would probably take two, though. Right. Because I think one would settle back to the field, so it would probably take, you'd have to mess up two out of three races. And this is each round he's going to have this advantage. So, and as fast as they are, I mean, it's like they just hang out, hang out, hang out, hang out, And then they'll just win a stage like nothing.

Yep. So it's going to be tough to beat them, I think. But I think last year, everybody thought the 48 and the Hendrit cars were out of it, and they showed up at Chicago, which Jimmy tested Chicago. So I still wouldn't count Jimmy out. Oh, no. 42 is going to be good. 18 is going to be good.

Yeah. You can't count anybody out, even though, you know, like you talked about Jimmy, you can't count those guys out because we've seen it. time and time again year after year where teams come out of nowhere, teams that haven't been competitive throughout the season, come out of nowhere and race for the championship. Look at Tony Stewart's last championship where he was like 12th or 11th in the points going into the system, going into the playoffs, and ends up winning four or five races in the championship. Yeah.

And then like the year Harvick won, Newman didn't win a race all year, but then finished second. Yeah, and he, I think he was second or third in that race. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, that's what makes it exciting. Yeah. What makes it exciting is the lottery feel of it or the unknown? I don't think it's a lottery feel. I mean, it's no different.

Do you think the NCAA basketball tournament's a lottery feel? Well, no, not really, I guess. So, I mean, like, it seems like the best usually, there could be some upsets in here. But the lot, but the, the, the, yeah. Yeah. Like I would say the year that Jimmy, obviously not last year, but two years ago, I think they had a part failure at Dover. Yeah. And they got knocked out of the first round.

I would say that's like a top two seed in the NCAA bracket getting upset. Right. So it's kind of similar feel. That's a good comparison. That's a good argument for all the people that say that, you know, they don't like the one race win at all championship field. That's a, I like it. Put up a good argument. I like it because I remember as a fan growing up.

up, you would come in and you would pretty much know who was going to win. It'd be the scenario of this guy's got to finish 25th, which obviously they earned it over the whole season, but I think to me it's more exciting the one and done. Although what if you're, what if your intermediate program isn't the best and you have to decide it on an intermediate track? Yeah. Well, Homestead is a unique place and it's gotten harder and harder to pass there. Everybody's figured out how to run the wall. Yeah. And if Larson, I think if Larson makes it to Homestead, he wins.

Yeah. Because he's going to be the best at rolling that fence. He can roll the fence as good as anybody. I would agree with that. I think he could beat Truex even on Truex's best day at Homestead. Really? Yeah. I wouldn't agree.

I wouldn't disagree with that. The thing about it is, is you can be fast at Homestead, but you got to run, like, right on the wall. And we saw it with the Xfinity race last year, Al-Gyre and all those guys. I mean, they hit the wall four or five times in the race. Now, if you do that with a cup car, it's not going to drive as well each time you hit the wall. It's not like you can just keep on digging. Right.

And, you know, you're going to have to run on that fence all night. I think Larson can do it without fail. We've seen him actually running the fence quite a bit. But now he knows where it's at. I think he can do it all night without really getting into it too much. Whereas those other guys. It's going to be a pressure cooker, man. It's going to be a tough situation trying to run all night

and don't stay without fail and without mistake. I put my money on Larson. I'm pulling for my teammates. Behind my teammates, I hope that Truex is up in there getting it done, being good friends with him. Is there a dark horse that you think? Yeah, I was trying to think of who could kind of come out of nowhere. And the one based on the last two weeks might be Kurt Bush.

Yeah. He's run real well the last two races. They have picked up their performance last couple weeks. So maybe that would be a dark horse. Yeah. But I don't expect anybody else. Do you think that Matt Kenseth is a dark horse? No, I would say if you're driving a Toyota that you're favorite.

I know that he barely got in. Yeah. He hasn't won a race all year. Yeah. But I think if you look at... All the Toyotas, I would consider him probably the Dark Horse of the Toyota bunch. of the Toyota bunch yeah but if you probably

I don't know this for fact but if you look at the first 13 races and the last 13 races he's probably pretty high in points for that second half of the regular season Matt was you guessing yeah well because he had a terrible start he was way back there in points

and he ran up through there because not that many guys made it on points I think it was Matt Chase and Jamie McMurray so 10-4 all right well it's going to be exciting it is all right folks this is going to be uh let our second call in second yes so this is our second now jimmy johnson was our first so we've had dangerous summer playing as our theme music for a long time now it's a group that we're very big fans of and also become quite good friends with we're going to call a j padomo the lead

singer of the band right now. So give him a call. He's in LA, so it's 6 o'clock. He said to call him, though. Hello? Hey, AJ. Yo, FaceTime audio. Yes, sir. Why not the real thing? They say that this is CRISPR audio. That's what our people tell us. Excellent choice, my friends. Yes, sir. I like it. So, we're not live, are we? Yeah, we're live. Oh my God, that's awesome. You can hear me, though? I can hear you great.

Nice, cool. How are you guys doing? We're doing good. How are you? Dude, doing good, feeling good. Yep. So this past Sunday, we got together for a concert, the four-cord music festival in Pittsburgh. You guys just got back together.

You're playing new shows, and you got a new record. coming out. When's the record coming out? January. We're doing January. And so how you guys been on break for like four years, right? Yeah, four years. Yeah, four years. So how's that all feel to be back together? Playing music got a new record coming out. You guys got to be pretty excited. Dude, it feels better than ever. You know, we went in there.

February, we decided to get back together. And I called up the boys and you know it never felt more right you know we're we're all on the same page and we all felt the same way about the way everything was going it's like the universe is telling us to come back you know so we wrote so how's that work like so you legitimately got the band back together but yeah do you just sit there like man i feel like making another record pretty much yeah it's like you really start to feel like this missing thing in your life, you know, like it was all coming back and we just saw all these fans talking about us and talking about us. And finally, the momentum hit and we had to really pour it

out. You know, we finally decided to get in a room together. And honestly, like, the first day we got together, we wrote the first song on the album. And it's actually going to be the first track on the album. And yeah, we went in to record in July. And yeah, I saw you out there as well, good fucking times. And am I allowed to say that? Yeah, yeah, you can say that. I can believe it. All right, cool, cool. Uh, yeah, so we went out and made that album and it just felt so right, you know. Yeah. And it feels like the dangerous summer still. It doesn't feel like anything's ever change. Yeah.

Even though it's four years, they don't feel like four years. Like, we got back together and it feels like a couple months ago we used to play together and hang out. And it's just nothing's ever changed, man. Yeah. Well, I've had the good fortune to be able to hear some of the new material. And I think that the, I think the fans are going to really be excited. It's got, it does feel like the dangerous summer.

It's very, but it's a little more mature. and, you know, obviously I'm excited about that. Dude, thank you, my man. And you say some of it. I mean, you heard it all. Yeah, I know. I just, it's great. You know, I'm really excited about the new record.

I just wonder, you know, how much have you been back long enough to understand what the scenes like today versus where it was when you guys took a break has much changed? has much changed and do you, did you kind of come back in seamlessly? It is like such a different thing. Four years ago, like when we broke up, we, the whole, the whole like kind of,

I guess people call it pop punk or email or whatnot. It was a whole different thing. You know, there's been a revival in the past four years and things like Emo Night are coming out and all these bands, from our generation and the bands we grew up with are all just seen this flare up of fans and attention to our music scene. I think it took a while for bands like us to rise up out of our

little pocket that we were in. And we can really see just, I mean, you were there this weekend. Like, I've never played that many people before, you know, and we played on Friday like 3,000 people and I can't even imagine you know and booking tours that are just way different than they would have been four and five years ago and I just it feels good to see so much attention being showing on our type of music and all of our friends music and I just think the scene is finally growing and getting a good spotlight that it needs yeah well so uh I became a big fan of you guys and started listening to a lot of y'all's music, and then we struck up a conversation online

and started chatting quite a bit. You actually came out to Fontana at the start of the year. You also came to the Sonoma race, having never really been around racing. What did you think about all that experience? And I know you're bringing a couple of your buddies with you to those two events. And this weekend, the band's talking about

even coming to Talladega and seeing that race. So are you guys? becoming rig race fans what do you think about NASCAR oh my god i love it man as soon as i started like uh you know talking to you and whatnot i started turning on the races i remember you told me you're like hey check out Daytona that's like our super bowl and i was like oh okay cool like because i i literally have no clue before uh how everything worked and yeah when i went into fontana man it's just loud and freaking big and there's so many people.

Like you guys, it's like this whole other world that you don't really see, which is, it's so crazy because you think of NASCAR is very mainstream, but like people don't even realize how big it is,

at least from, you know, my side of the world, all my friends, you know, we look into it now and it's just like, it's so unreal and it's such a big event. And the community is such a community when you walk in there. And, you know, Everyone's got their RVs and those flags, man.

It's like something out of Mad Max. It's crazy. So, dude, it was awesome and love watching the race and love watching you kill it, man. Thanks, man. So you talked about a new record coming out in January. What do you guys got going on and what do you do as a band leading up to the release of that? And as soon as it's released, what happens? Like, what's the process for you guys?

Yeah, so it's kind of crazy waiting until, January. That's like the hardest part is the waiting game. The record's pretty much finished, right? Yeah, so the record's done. We're still mixing a mass, and you know, tweaking little knobs here and there trying to make it sound as good as possible, still working on artwork and whatnot. So it takes a little

while after you're done recording. They do some marketing lead-ups, so they want 12 weeks to lead up to January. So once, you know, we play these three shows. We might do small things here and there, but we're really holding everything for

we're holding everything back for when the album comes out and we're going to tour. We're just going to really lay it all on the line then. Once people can hear the new music, we're going to just drive home with it. You're going to tour all over America. We just

booked a UK tour and hoping to hit Australia soon after that. And then we'll just keep going, you know, keep going until we build up the fan base again and we feel comfortable. And yeah, it's going to be awesome, man. Well, good deal, man. Well, I'm excited for you.

And I'm excited for all the fans to hear the new stuff. It's going to be awesome to see the reaction. Dude, thank you so much, man. Yeah. Well, looking forward to it, man. I appreciate you, I'll call you up. but thanks for letting us, hey, thanks for letting us showcase all these songs all year long on this, on this radio show, man.

You made it a lot better. Hey, man, I really appreciate it, man. And I see every day your fans, you know, hitting me up online and coming up to me at shows. And it's awesome, man. It's a great, you know, the things you and I do, they're not that much different, you know. It's good to cross the streams, if you will. Yeah, I agree. All right, bud. Take care, man. Rest up.

All right, my friend. Have a good one. We'll see you. All right, see you. Bye. 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. All right, now we're going to get to our Ask Junior questions. As always, we take these questions on Twitter using the hashtag Ask Junior.

The first question is from at Tolney J54. He asked, which card do you want to drive at Martinsville in Nationwide's fan vote? The Grey Ghost or your 2015 patriotic scheme? I would like to drive the Grey Ghost because I didn't get to run it at Darlington. Oh, this will sway the vote. Certainly will. They are like neck and neck right now.

Are they? Yeah. But is it the Grey Ghosts orange, right? It's last year's Darnington scheme. Yeah. So they're able to vote. any of the nationwide cars you're going. Well, I would go Grey Ghost because I wanted to run it.

I didn't get to race it. And it meant a lot to me as my favorite paint scheme from the history of the sport. There you go. It's a sure thing now. And if you haven't already, you can go to pick the88Paintscheme.com and vote. That's up for about another two weeks. Pick the 88Paintscheme.com. So help with the gray ghost vote, I guess.

Yep. At Holly Stuller asked, I know that the people of Key West are most important, but have you received any updates on the status of your rebuild house since the hurricane passed? No, we haven't. Power and phones are still down, so there's no cell service there. There's a bunch of telephone poles down. A lot of time before power will be restored. You know, we've just kind of been getting a little updates.

Same thing everybody else is getting on Twitter about, you know, the progress. down there so apparently it's quite a bit of property damage and um you know we'll just have to keep we're just you know have to keep our fingers crossed uh that everybody's okay and um yeah i don't really uh i mean the property is awesome and hope it's not too much damage but whatever the you know whatever's tore up will fix and hoping hoping all our friends are safe at uh zach d p henderson asked I saw that William Byron was watching the cup race from turn two and on top of the 88 pit box. What can you pick up from simply watching a race in person like that? Well, when you're up in the corner, you can see how the cars are working and what the drivers may be fighting.

You can also see guys making mistakes. And that kind of teaches you some of the things that you can find yourself getting into. See you guys overdrive the corner or see somebody taking a real nice, clean line through there. You can learn a lot about that. The cup cars drive different than the Xfinity cars, and they're going to have a little different power. And you can really see that at a track like Richmond, where it's real easy to miss the corner and make mistakes and stuff like that. So you can pick up on quite a bit just by being down in the corner real close. Now sitting from the pit box, you can't really see that.

Is that more like just the communication? I mean, I guess being on the pit box is kind of you get a good feel or sense of what the team's dealing with. with and what they're working on and the adjustments they're trying to make to the car. But to really get an understanding of what to really learn and watch and see, you need to be within very close proximity of the cars in the corner. At Jenny Harms asked, you have several names and nicknames. What do you prefer to be called? Junior, Dale, Ralph, Little E, jubbug, or something else?

Junior's fine. I think that, you know, Amy calls me Ralph. Junior's fine. Dale is not something I'm used to people calling me, so I don't know. I look in that, you know, it's kind of weird when you hear Dale. There's a commercial on TV where there's a guy named Dale and it's annoying. Is it?

Yeah. What commercial is that? I don't remember, but when it comes on, you're like, I call you Dale. I know you do. So you want me to call you junior? You say junior sometimes. Sometimes.

Well, my dad told me that not, don't. to worry about it as long as they're calling. Oh. Yeah. What if they call you a bad name? So when they're not calling your name, you need to worry. At Webby SWB13 asked, with the playoff field set, will there be less pressure on you so that you can enjoy the last 10 races a little more?

You know, I don't know that that's a, you definitely aren't, no, I mean, there's, there's a, there's a, there's kind of this, bummer in the back of your mind all the time that you're not in the playoffs. There is less pressure, but you kind of, this is a moment where you, this is a part of the pressure that you want. You know, this is a part of the responsibility. You sign up for the pressure.

Yeah, this is a part of the responsibility that you look forward to. So to not be in the playoffs is like not being invited to the party. You know, it's like not being in the fraternity. So it's not quite as enjoyable. There is some pressure off, but that also can let people lean toward, you know, the team, you got to, you know, you could be concerned maybe that the team might not take. Like you checking out kind of deal?

You could be, you know, if I, I would have to be concerned about me or any of the guys on the team maybe checking out or not thinking it is that, not thinking it is as serious as it is because you're not in the playoffs. So I think it's key to reiterate to yourself to your team and everybody else that is, you know, it's business as usual and you need to keep working hard and you want to try to win these races. Because when you are knocked out of the playoffs, we got knocked out of one of the rounds and won Martinsville. And that, you know, we got knocked out. We're sad. We're pissed off. Damn it. You know, the seasons come to an end early.

And then we go and win Martinsville and it became like almost the highlight of the year for us. and was a huge, you know, huge part of the season. So that's what you want to happen if you're not in the playoffs. You want to go out there and win a race. In both 14 and 15, you won pretty quickly after getting eliminated from the playoffs. Right. So maybe that is a good omen for this year. Maybe so.

I mean, we're not going to win the championship, but we can still win a race or two. That's what you want. At Racing Chef 88S, if a team doesn't use all of the tires they're given for a race, Are they allowed to carry those over to the next race? No, they're not. And that's the frustrating part is you can't, you know, there's nothing good about having sticker tires left in the pits after the race. Obviously, you didn't use your strategy properly to use all your tires

because you want to use them all. But you can't take them to a test. You can't take them to a test. You can't take them, you know, NASCAR takes them all back. But do you get your money back? I don't know. You might. Because they say they're very expensive.

They're very expensive. So, yeah. Thousands of them. dollars a set. We had two sets still in the pits at the end of Xfinity race, and they only give you like four or five for a race. As an owner, maybe you'll get that one. That was a terrible strategic error. Yeah.

Well, there was no caution in the final stage. Yeah. At Space Ace 3 asked, do you think NASCAR will ever go back to Japan and do an off-season race like they did in the late 90s? You know, I don't think you ever say, you know, you never say never. It was the long trip for very little reward, I guess. As somebody that does the traveling, I would hate it. Yeah.

Because you work all year and it's like you want your two and a half months to live a normal. The weather was miserable. Even when it wasn't raining, it was cold as heck in the mornings. Just died a lot of fun. I mean, it just really, it was a great experience when I went. But to do it once was fun to go back again. I don't know if I'd be that excited about it. At Mike Mosher 14 asks, have you ever been wrecked on purpose?

If so, how did you respond? I'm sure I have. Usually you just put it in the back of your mind, and next time you get the opportunity to wreck that guy, you most of the time you wreck them. I mean, it's probably not the best decision to make them. make, and it's hard to admit, but a lot of times you, race car drivers have awful big egos. And when you get wrecked, you feel like that you've been, you know, embarrassed in front of not only your team,

but all the people, all the fans of the track and everybody watching on TV. And so a lot of times your reaction is much worse or much bigger than it needs to be. and we all feel like, you know, if you hit me, I'm going to hit you. If you spin me out, I'm going to spin you out. It's eye for an eye kind of mentality. Like, if you ruin my race, I need to ruin your race some time. I'm going to, yeah, really? Because that's how drivers feel.

Like, if you ruin my race, I'm going to make sure that you know how that feels. You know, I'm going to give you exactly what you gave me. And it might not happen that race. you typically don't want to do it that race or the next race because NASCAR you might get a more severe penalty if you do it so quickly because they know that it was intentional but if you wait a month, two months down the line and do it

then they don't know whether you meant to or not so you don't like just get over it over it hell no just get just forget about it no you never forget about it I still remember getting spun out in 1996 at Myrtle Beach in my first Xfinity race. Jason Keller got booted out of the way by my teammate, Jeff Green,

and Jason came down the track to try to get either get Jeff Green back or to just get back in line, and I was there. And he ran into the right front. corner my car and spun me out and he came down a track so hard um it just knocked me around did you ever get he wasn't no i never got him back but it wasn't intentional but i never forgot it and i never got over it so if you and jason keller were in a late model race and you had the opportunity push him out of way yeah he'd be like this is my time yeah dang at may if he was sitting right here i would have to

i'd have to ask him about it we've never talked about it and i don't know that he thought anything of But I mean, do you think he even remembers that he did it? Probably not. Because you remember the people that hit you, but you probably don't remember everybody that you've hit. Exactly. Yep. At May Moss 53 asked, you and your mom talk about her not attending many races. Has it always been this way, or did it evolve into that once you started racing so much?

Mom loves the racing. She is probably the biggest fan that Junior Motors has. She texts me every Saturday as the racing. as the racing is going on and at the finish of every Xfinity race with her opinion about how he did and what's going on. She's super into it. She also sends me a text before every race and after every race that I run. She doesn't like going.

She doesn't like the crowd and the hustle and bustle and travel to get there and all that stuff. She'd just rather sit at home and enjoy. She's always, her excuses are dogs. I can't go anywhere with dogs. You know, she can't. You know, she can't do anything outside of going to lunch because of her dogs. So, yeah.

She don't want to leave her dogs. I'm like, yeah. So you think she'll come to homestead? She's going to homestead. She is coming to homestead. Yeah, I'm going to make sure of that. At Mike Belcher, 85, asked if you could be teammates with one driver from the past, who would it be and why?

I think it'd be cool to be teammates with my dad, of course. Or maybe Kell Yarborough was always a guy that I pulled for and thought a lot of He's the guy that I probably respect the most, aside from my father behind the wheel. So, Kelly Arbor, Dale Jarrett, I think he'd be awesome to be teammates with him. He's been a very big-time supporter of me and helped me through a lot of things on and off the track. He's still there today if you won't call him up, you need anything. He's the kind of guy that can go to lunch, sit down, talk things out, figure out what's the best path? If your teammates with your dad, would you have wanted to,

it to be on a team that he owns or like for rCR that somebody else probably a team he owns okay he was a vicious teammate like he didn't like having a teammate uh so this just may be a strong word but when when skinner came dad wasn't really accepting of having a teammate didn't think he wanted a teammate needed a teammate didn't like the competition that creates in the shop of having who gets the best motor who gets who you know who's getting the most uh attention and they're you know who's got the better car going in the racetrack when he got outrun or out qualified he didn't like that so i don't know if i'd want to be his teammate on another team because i don't know that he was quite grasping the teammate idea of working together and leaning on each other to make each other better yeah what do you

think you would have thought about like four car teams and having to deal with all that well i mean he had a three car team so oh yeah he owned right he owned a three car team and a two car team but um So I think he understood how that works financially and why you want it that way. But I don't know that he would have enjoyed the competition side of it as a driver. At MSM-118S, if you could have music playing in your car during the race, what would you listen to and would the music differ based on the type of track? No, it'd probably be the same. I've been listening to a lot of rock and punk rock,

and that would probably be the tempo that I would want in the car. to keep, you know, because music changes my mood, and I think much like most people that listen to music. So you'd want something that gave you energy, right? You'd want something that fired you up

and get your heart going. Would you... I would think you would want something a little slower for like a road course, like a Sonoma. No. Because it seems like if you were like,

and then you'd be... That's the way you need to be in the car all the time. Attack, attack, attack, attack. You'd be inclined to just burn the tires off. Yeah. That shows how much I know about driving.

All right, that's all the Ask Junior questions we have this week. As always, you can send us questions using the hashtag Ask Junior on Twitter. Make the questions good. These are great. These are good set. We'll answer some more next week. All right, man, looking ahead Thursday, we got a True Timber production. True Timber is the chemo company that we are involved in, have ownership in.

It's about time for hunting season, folks. So, Tyler. I don't hunt. You don't hunt, okay. No. So you're not that excited about this production? Oh, I'm excited about it. I like the True Timber stuff, and they're doing some stuff with Mountain Dew now.

But I always talk to LW about hunting because he makes fun of me. The one time I went with you guys to the hunting property, which y'all weren't hunting. Yeah. But it was an experience. He didn't like it. It was interesting. Friday we have practice and qualifying. Qualifying. Qualifines at 645 Eastern on the NBC Sports Network.

Saturday. We have another practice at 1130 and then another one at 2. So quite a bit of practice this weekend. The Xfinity race is at 3.30 and that's also on the NBC Sports Network. It's their last race of the regular season. That's right. It's hard to remember that because you think, you know, it all should, you're just mentally thinking, man, this is.

Yeah. I think they should take the trucks to Shik, or they should take the trucks to Richmond and then just make Richmond the cutoff for everybody. Everybody. Yeah. I agree. Yeah.

Sunday, the race is at 3 o'clock. Another 3 o'clock start for us. Well, it's 2 o'clock in the central time zone. Okay. It's the silver lining. No. That's also on the NBC Sports Network. How's the weather look?

It'll be fine. All right. It's supposed to be a little warm up there. So Chicago is a track that Jimmy tested at. It's got this nasty bump in turn 3 and 4, but you can go around it if you move up. into the middle groove in the top. There is also a bump going into turn one.

It's kind of like driving off a set of stairs. You know what's kind of sad about this weekend? Why? It's the last run for the neon yellow exalt the paint scheme. Really? Yeah. I didn't know that. Because you're running exalt the bud paint scheme.

In Homestead. At Homestead. And we're nationwide all the way through. Nationwide and then Mountain Dew at Talladega. Huh. So this will be the last run for the old neon yellow and orange car. Interesting. Yeah.

That's a good looking car. I like it. I'll miss it. Yep. Me too. It's probably one of my top top three favorite cards of paint schemes that I've had in my career. That's cool. It's a good one.

10-4. All right, guys. Thank you. Good show. I appreciate it. 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 Dirtymoor radio

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