The Dale Jr. Download - 195 - I'm not afraid to get my ass whooped

Episode Date: October 3, 2017

Dale Jr. recaps a strong weekend at Dover for him and his Hendrick Motorsports teammates. He also answers a barrage of fan questions during an extended Ask Jr. segment. 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.

This is Dale Jr. And you're listening to Dirty Moe Radio. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. And I have my co-host with me, Tyler Rovers Street. Hello.

How are you today? I'm pretty good. Tyler. How about yourself? Doing good. It's a nice Tuesday. And we're ready to rock and roll. Yep.

That's our theme song of confidence by the Dangerous Summer. Thanks to Hopeless Records for providing that. We got a couple of, uh, A couple sad things to talk about. Robert Yates passed away. He's been battling ill in us for a couple of years. And just a really cool guy. Been around the sport a really, really long time.

Had a lot of success with a lot of different teams. One of a championship or two as an engine builder and as a car owner. and obviously brought along the career of Davy Allison and also helped Bill Jarrett realize his potential. His son Doug is a respected engine builder in the sport, and I know those guys are hurting today and our thoughts and hearts are with them, with the Yates family. So it's a very difficult time.

Everybody's been pulling for Robert, to fight through this over the last couple years. So we'll be thinking about them. I'm sure there'll be a lot of support from the community over the industry and so forth over the next week or so. And look forward to seeing some of those those kind of decals on cars and things like that sort of stir up great memories. And there'll be a lot of stories and different things going on to celebrate Robert's life.

When I was a kid, my dad, the company he worked for, he always did business with Texaco Havelin. So the first races, whenever I was five, ten years old, we would go as guests of Texaco Havelin, so we'd always be with that 28 car. Yeah. And then my parents have had a Davy Allison, like 19888 hood in their garage since I was probably five or six years old. So.

88. Dale Jarrett. Yeah. So that's difficult for everybody involved. Also, Tom Petty passed away. Yes. A lot of fans. A lot of conversation on social media yesterday.

Everybody recalling their favorite songs and discussing the life of and accomplishments of Tom Petty. So that was difficult news. Also, the shooting in Vegas, just unimaginable. Yeah. I mean, we go to Vegas several times a year. So it's... Well, I mean, I think it's just a destination for a lot of folks.

But, yeah, we spend a lot of time in Vegas. Just senseless and still really hard to register and understand the full scope of how that's impacted lives. Yeah, it's very sad because, I mean, it's just a music festival. You go there, you go to Vegas to have fun. I mean, these people were just there at a music festival, having a good time. trying to enjoy themselves. So, yeah, that's very, very sad. Yeah, it is.

So all our thoughts and hearts are with those folks as well. It's been a difficult few days for the country and for the NASCAR industry with all that going on in the passing of Robert Yates. We'll move on to the show. It's had a pretty decent weekend this past weekend at Dover. Hadn't really ran that well in a while. we've had some fast cars, but not that we've just not been great, but we had a good car at Richmond, and I thought we learned something at Darlington that that carried over to. So there's been a couple of races in the past probably six weeks where I saw this kind of performance building.

Obviously, I wasn't at the track this weekend, but I was watching practice, and it was like as soon as you hit the track Friday for first practice, then qualifying. and then the Saturday practices. So it was essentially putting together a whole weekend, which hasn't happened in a while. So, yeah. Good to see. Yeah, it was. We ran well all weekend.

Car came off the truck good. Practice on Friday was nice and easy. Saturday was a bit of a struggle. We got, we had some trouble. The last two weeks getting through tech inspection, which is common. team sort of struggles and and and trying they're trying to push as hard as they can with the with the parameters that NASCAR has so we we had 30 a 30 minute hold in happy hour so we

didn't get to practice half of a time in the final practice I think that that was a disadvantage to us it's a good deterrent it's a stiff penalty it's a it's a it definitely challenges a team when they miss that that that that that practice because I think it's important for the fans to understand and people listening that the final practice before the race is the most important practice. This is the closest the racetrack will be to the conditions of the race. And so that time and opportunity to be on the track and working during that entire practice is really paramount to being able to get your car ready for the event. The other practices are important as well, but the track's green doesn't have a lot of

a rubber on it. The track's going to be a little faster, have a little more grip. So you can, you really want to be out there in that final practice understanding how the track is changing. So it's a good disadvantage, good, good penalty. But it got us, it got us sort of hustling in that final practice over the last 30 minutes. And, you know, but we remained confident in the car and didn't really get too crazy about the changes we were making in that final practice, and we put a good car on the racetrack for the race. When the race started, we drove up in there and then the top five and had some really great lap times. The difference, I think the difference maker for us was, or the, what, the issue we really could never overcome in the race was once

the track took a lot of rubber, as you saw the track get darker and darker. Our car started getting tighter and we lost some of our competitiveness. What set us apart from a majority of the field was sort of gone. And we became, instead of like a third place or even a race-winning car, we became about a fifth place car for the rest of the event. We just couldn't really hit the button on exactly what to change and exactly what we needed to make the car competitive when the track got a lot of rubber on it. But we worked really, we worked under caution. making a lot of adjustments and changes that just really never really developed into speed. But we still had a good finish.

It's a strong day for Hendonk Motorsports across the board. You know, you saw Jimmy run well. Chase led a lot of laps, almost won the race. I thought the five car had speed. Maybe they just struggled with track position all day. I don't really know exactly why he had difficulty because sort of getting himself up in the top 10 or the top five. But I thought they showed speed in the, you know,

and practice. Did everybody unload fast or did, like, were you, did people go towards your setup or did you, was it just the whole group or was somebody specifically and then everybody else followed? We ran good off the truck and I really, you know, it's hard to pay attention to your teammates too much in the middle of the, you know, the, the hectic practice on Friday. but I thought that we didn't leave our setup really too much. We didn't change a whole lot or we really didn't do a lot of things the teammates were doing because we liked our car and a speed we had in our car.

A lot of times we do stare and study the teammates' setups and the changes they're making and incorporate some of that stuff to our car when we're looking for some more speed out of our own. We didn't do that this weekend and I can't speak for the 24 to 48. of the five, but I think that they did come, you know, they did do a few things that we liked in our car, and it seemed to help their cars, and they progressed and got better throughout the weekend. I thought the 24 had speed at many times throughout the weekend, particularly, you know, on final practice, and then in the race it carried over into the race. He had a great car. Probably he had a little bit better car than us, but we matched him for most of the event.

But it was good to see the company improve, and, you know, people say, hey, what can you take from Dover to go to the other racetracks. And some tracks, you know, like Dover, there's not really another racetrack like Dover on the circuit. It's concrete, one mile high banked, not many tracks like that. But you can, oddly enough, stuff that works at Dover seems to work at Charlotte. So this next weekend, hopefully some of the things that gave us speed at Dover were going to carry over. I read where Jimmy said that traditionally when he runs well at Dover, it carries immediately right to Charlotte. Yeah, I know people probably would not believe that the two tracks, you know, setup-wise, relate to each other.

But they do. The way you get off into the corner and land into the banking, all those things, the compression the car sees and the loads that the car sees are quite, it's quite comparable to how the car gets in the corner at Charlotte, same thing. So we actually sit in the Sim on Monday, ran about three hours on the Charlotte setup. Basically, what we'll do in the Sim is we'll start with our Sharlet. set up that we ran the last time and then we'll incorporate these new ideas that we have had it over and i think that they do help the car at least in the sim so all this stuff is uh showing some positive signs and i'm looking forward to getting to the racetrack and seeing what kind of speed we do have charlotte's been a track where we haven't ran that great over the last several

trips and uh being our home track and and the fact that we've never won a points race there it would be important to me to run well. So anyways, moving on, we had a little bit of altercation. I don't know if you can call it altercation, but it just miscommunication. Yes. After the race between Jeff Gordon and Ryan Newman. Yep. So Jeff walks by Ryan, jokingly says, thanks for the help.

For those you didn't see the race, Chase was behind Ryan. Ryan Newman, who was trying to lap, about five to ten car links behind him for the last 20 to 30 laps, and it's very hard to pass on old tires there, and guys can make it difficult. One of them are notoriously hard to pass people in the sport is Ryan Newman. I think that he carries that as a badge of honor, and he should, but no need to change this late in the game. Right. But it allowed Kyle Bush to run down chase, and Kyle was running a different line.

He was running on the high side, clean air. You know, getting the most clean air he possibly can. It allowed Kyle to close in time to be able to make the pass and win the race. So I think that Jeff was just kind of jokingly, you know, going back at Newman, and Newman did not like that. Plus, Newman had just been eliminated from the playoffs. Well, he wasn't eliminated yet. I mean, after the race. Yeah, but like, so this is the point that Newman's argument is that, hey, if the cops,

comes out before the white flag and I'm on the lead left. He lost by two points, got kicked out by two points. If he can get a, you know, a couple spots come in, get tires, get a couple spots on that restart. He's back in the round 12. So he would, he would, I would have done the same thing if I was Newman. Right. You have to. But from Chase's standpoint, are you like, damn, I wish this guy would have got out of the way?

Heck yeah I mean But he So I watched the race He never got Close enough Yeah Yeah

So it was a little bit Like I understand That was probably Taking the air off his nose Yeah But he never When you get with him Five or ten car links

It is a Terrible effect On your car's Performance on old tires Especially particularly There's You're dying for grip But he was passing other guys

Yeah I mean Ryan's just a tougher Harder car to pass He always has been His whole career Do you think that Chase

probably could or should have moved up the track? I don't, you know, I'd have to watch those last 20 or 30 laps again with inside of Chase's car. I don't know if he even, I don't know if he did try to move around. Having drove his car all day long, he would know. Right. That, I mean, he was stuck to the bottom. Well, had he, I know, but having drove his car, you know, having drove his car all day long, he knows whether the middle or the top would have been an option for him.

He had probably tried that several times in the race with little success. And that's why he was committed to. to the bottom. And I'm sure he's probably running that scenario back in his head a thousand times trying to figure out what he could have done different. But those, you know, those are the way, that's the way it goes in this sport. Everybody always used to tell me you got to lose a few before you can win a few. And by losing, by losing a few, you got to lose a few close ones. Right. You know. Yeah, he's lost, like obviously lost this one. He's lost a couple on like late restarts at Michigan last year.

Yeah. But no different than a guy like Larson. I mean, Larson's been through the same situation. I think as young guys, you tend to have a couple races that happen like this before you, you know, break through. I think we all know that Chase is going to have a long-storied career. And it's just a matter of time before we finally gets that checker flag. And that could happen this, you know, that could happen this week.

I mean, he's, you know, led a hundred ninety, 138 laps. Yeah, it was a career. guy in lap sled in a single race. At Dover, which is a difficult track. So we go on and move on in the playoffs into the second round. Austin, Dylan, Ryan Newman, and Kurt Busch, and Casey were eliminated. Any surprises out of that group? I thought Kurt Busch was a surprise because he had three top fives in the last three regular season races.

So I wasn't expecting him to be knocked out. Yeah, I would say that Kurt's probably the surprise for me as well. the 18 and the 78 combined to win all three races in the first round. I think that that doesn't surprise anybody. Yeah, all three races and all three polls. Actually, to be honest with you, when I, I didn't know who had won the race, I had assumed that Chase won the race. And as we're coming around after the checkered flag,

slowing down for the lugnut check on pit road, I looked at the pylon and saw the 18 up there. And I was surprised because we had been faster. We had been faster than the 18. Yeah. most of the day. So I thought, I don't know, I don't know how he had drove up there to get the leave from Chase because Chase was way out there at one point. He ran him down from about four seconds back. So he also, one thing I was wondering, I think Kyle pitted maybe like four or five

lap. No, he pitted later. So was, is that much pressure tires, that big a deal? No. Okay. I mean, you know, I don't think so. I don't think that it, have a, have a, that big of an effect on. Yeah. It just, you know, just Chase didn't have quite the car, I guess, that he'd had the run before and over the majority of the race. But the 18 found speed as the race went on, they got better and better and better. They started, I was watching Kyle in practice and he wasn't, you know, his usual self

or dominant self in practice. And then when the race started, they were a bit off. But they improve their car and, you know, continue to improve it as a race went on. So, but I was surprised, you know, but I still think, you know, Truex with his playoff points. And, yeah, I think he has, even with Kyle now having four wins, I think Truex is still up by like 15 points. Yeah. But Kyle's closing that gap on playoff points. Yep.

So to start the rounds. Yeah. Which is going to make it interesting. as we go forward. Also this weekend, I got a gift from this friend of mine named Andy. Andy is the tour manager for the Danger Summer. A Redskins helmet, signed by John Riggins. Very cool.

Yep. I was freaking pumped. And for you fans of the Danger Summer, the new record, I've heard it. It's finished. But it doesn't come out until January. I don't know why they wait so long. To build the suspense. Yeah, boy, it's building.

Now, he texted me. on like Thursday or Friday. It's like, who's Dale's favorite Redskins player? I was like, think John Riggins. Yeah. And then a helmet I saw on your Instagram story. I was freaking awesome.

Wearing it. I was, yeah. Well, I didn't want to carry it. So I had all kinds of bags for the race track. So I just wore the helmet out of the track. But it was easier in having to carry it. Also, another interesting part of my weekend. We rode 50 miles and over 20 on Friday and 30 on Saturday on the bike.

Saturday, I rode 30 miles with this guy named Josh that I became friends with on Strava. Strava is the social app that you use to log your ride activities. I'm on Strava. Right. So he and I struck up conversation when I started biking, and he was supportive and talking about, you know, a lot of advice and things like that. And so his father and him had been coming to Dover races for the last four or five years. we met up and rode for 30 miles. Cool kid. That's cool.

Yeah, it was fun. All right, now we're going to ask junior questions. We got any good questions today? We got a lot of questions. Any good questions. Tyler did good. They're okay questions. Yeah.

Tyler, Tyler gives it a C. How do you want to set this up? I ended up talking and you told me to shut up last week because you had not set it up right. So go ahead and do what you want to do. Oh, I thought he had just set it up. Good. I mean, I felt like you had, but I just didn't want to step on your pose.

That was a good setup by. If I deal. There's a lot of good questions here. Let's get right to it. Let's start at the top. A.R. Sox 13. What were your thoughts on Blaney's Exfinity Celebration at Dover? There was no burnout.

And then he also did what he did with the checker flat. You know, this is something that one of the things that brings, that I think about, that gets, I'm kind of annoyed by this, is that I've seen this on, in conversation or debate by some, people in the industry on radio stations and so forth where they're saying they're asking fans should NASCAR outlaw the burnouts the conversation was never about the burnouts it was about the burnouts it was about the blowing the tires so I just want to get that straight because I've seen that in the industry conversation should burnouts be you're seeing that by industry media yes Well, that's disappointing.

I know it. I mean, come on. There's a difference. I might end up getting on a soapbox here, but you know what? There is a responsibility by industry media and by industry fans to not be idiots. I'm serious. I mean, it's like, look, you can't expect you to go into media availability and spell this out to look at what we're doing, guys. Like, holding it.

Obviously, it's not about the burnout. disappoints me. Now, I'm assuming you are telling me this right, that you have the responsibility of telling me the truth that somebody actually said that this was about victory burnout. Yeah, I would, well, yeah, so I was seeing

social media posts from Sirius NASCAR saying, all right, fans, tune in, we're going to discuss and also should burn, you know, we're going to discuss should burnouts be outlawed. I'm like, it's not the burnouts. Like, you can do burnout.

Burnouts. Burnouts are cool. Yeah. That puts you in such an awkward box because if that were to ever happen, not only would they have got the point wrong, but then they make you the reason why it sort of went that way. Yeah. Yeah, you're right. I didn't think about that.

Now I'm even more angry. Yeah, you ought to be. Yeah. Burn them down. Burn them. Yeah. Have burnout. Don't burn them all the way down.

Yeah. Well, listen, you know, he's not even saying don't do that. He's saying that if you do that, at least that. That should affect how you go through post-raised tech or whatever. I mean, it's like, look, if you go burn them down, that's how you go through tech. Yeah, Cobbush has proved the last couple of weeks. You can do a nice burnout without blowing the tires. Getting back to your question, he gave the checker flag to a young fan, awesome gesture, proud of Blaney, spontaneity, those kind of genuine

actions, I think, speak about his character. Also, you know, he's made a new fan. Do you think giving away the flag is going to be Blaney's new trademark? As long as NASCAR doesn't mind him giving away flags, I guess that's no big deal. I mean, they give it to you anyways. It's good. I think drivers having a particular celebration that's their own. Like a signature, yeah.

A signature celebration is cool. You know, Carl had the backflips. Kyle does the bow. Yeah, Kyle does his thing. I think that that's, yeah, I like to see that from drivers. That's self-expression. You know, it's kind of like the NFL players being allowed to celebrate their touchdowns this year. You're seeing a lot of creativity, and that was fun.

Remember when that used to happen years ago? And so I like to see that from the drivers. So maybe that's Blaney's thing. So very cool. All right. Let's go on to the next one here. May Moss 53. Do you have a favorite fire suit?

If so, why would that be your favorite? Race win, cool design, cool program, et cetera? Man, tough. This is tough. I'm assuming she means favorite fire suit of his. Yeah, I mean, because I'm going to say he's probably got favorite fire suits that actually weren't his. But anyways, let's just go with your favorite that you've worn. The Diet Mountain Dew fire suits, I thought, were pretty cool.

had different colors down the legs and stuff and it was all screen print oh the neon green fire suit no it was white but it had different colors down the legs yep that was a diet do now we're a regular do now a regular do

the regular do is green very green yeah what's your favorite Tyler um I liked the dumb and dumber fire suit that bowman had to wear a long time ago you thought that was great I thought it was funny

funny yeah you're looking for humor out of your fire suits. Yeah. Yeah. I thought it was hideous. I mean, I don't... Forget whether they keep the fire off of you, but as long as they're funny...

It looked like a very fire-returnant fire suit. Did it? Yeah. I like the Wrangler fire suit, 2010. Oh, yeah, that was a good fire suit. Yeah. I'm telling you, I remember when you first put it on, we're like, that's a winner right there. Yeah.

The shoes and all, the blue and yellow shoes? The Darnington fire suit from this year, like, was, like, an AC Delco throwback fire suit. I thought that was cool. That was cool. Yeah, all this throwback fire suits really across the board are real cool. Yeah, they are cool. Moving on here.

Big bald fat guy 87. He asked, what does it mean when the team tells you right hand on two? Right hand on two during the race. Yeah, right hand on two. So let me see if I can explain this properly. So when we're coming down, when we're about to run out of gas, I can flip to this one particular switch and it'll go to this one particular pickup in the fuel cell

and it'll allow me to run the fuel cell, run almost all the gas out of the fuel cell. It'll sputter. Once it sputters, I can come to Pit Road. If I can flip the switch from two to one and I got enough gas to get back to Pit Road, on pit road, change tires, fill it back up

and back on the racetrack without the motor becoming bone dry of fuel. So this is a system that allows, in the past without this system, you ran out of gas. The challenge was the car would be bone dry. You could run out of gas coming off a turn 4 before you get to pit road and have to coast all the way around. That's going to lose you a lot of time. You come to pit road, you've got to get the car fired back up. You've got to pour ether into the carburetor and all those things to try to get it to come back to life. You've got to get fuel down the line from the fuel cell to the motor.

All these things are happening. You could lose as many as two, three laps trying to get this car back, fired up and back on the racetrack. So with this system, we can run the car out of fuel, but not entirely ruin the race. I got a question. Why does somebody need to tell you to put your hand on the switch? When you're the driver, you know when it's sputtering.

Wouldn't that be all the heads up you need? to know to flip the switch? No, like, we run on one. He'll say, look, we're going to run this car out of gas, so flip it to two. Oh, I got you. I got you. I got you.

I got you. I got you laps before. Yeah, so I'll flip it to two. I'll run it until it sputters. Once it sputters, that's, hey, get your butt to pit road. I flip it back to one. Come down pit road. All right.

Fill it up. I'm tracking me. But that keeps, that allows us to run the car nearly out of fuel to be able to get us, because our strategy might be to be to stay. out on the track as long as possible. Sure. And so it allows you to run the car out of fuel without starving the entire system

and causing, you know, potentially giving yourself a couple laps lost on pit road trying to fill the system back up, prime the system and get the car going again. I'm assuming everybody's like that now. I don't think it started out that way, but... Yeah, I'm sure everybody has this. Julesake 01 asks,

will you be at the races next season with Alex Bowman and the 88 team, besides when you're in the NBC booth? That's a good question. We don't know. I think I'm going to go to Daytona race. I'm going to go to the 500. I'll probably definitely be going to about four or five races leading up to the NBC booth

so I can be in and around the industry and understand what's going on. I think I need to be at a few other events in between. But not everyone. Probably won't go to every single race. I'm just going to really take the lead of my boss, Sam Flood and, you know, Steve LaTard and those guys listening to my teammates. Here's one for you. On this note, would you be, if you were there, would you sit on the pit box?

And if you were on the pit box and Ryan Newman blocked your driver, Alex Coleman, would you go to him on pit road afterwards and say, wait to hold him up, buddy? Yeah, no, I definitely would be on the pit box. If I come to the race, I'm definitely going to want to be around 88 team and seeing how they're doing and all that good stuff. But, yeah, I won't be. Approach. Step into Newman? I won't be getting in the middle of those conversations.

I don't know that Jeff thought he was going to do that either. Yeah. I think Jeff. But Newman might need a ride home, so. Yeah. I don't think that stops Newman from making the decisions that he makes, though, does it? That might get him left. So be it.

He's angry. Yeah. Well, we ran into him twice in two weeks. Yeah, the first week, he didn't seem very happy. No. Because he flew home from Chicago. He didn't say much the whole time. Yeah.

We hit him at Chicago, almost wrecked him. And then where were we? New Hampshire, we hit him. And then so I saw him at driver's intro, or saw him at the driver's meeting for Dover, and he asked me if he was going to hit him at day, and I saw him, I hope not. Is Newman the most intimidating driver out there?

No. But he's hard to pass. That's it. He's just really hard to get around, and I don't know. You know, he just makes it hard to pass him. but I don't know who's the most intimidating. I don't think that there is a driver out there that's intimidating.

How likely do you think Newman is to actually get in a fight? Because I've seen, he's bowed up on people several times, but never... I think he's likely. I mean, he's definitely never, you know, he's never not stood his ground in an altercation like that. But I haven't seen a lot of drivers, not a lot of drivers. I'm not stepping to Newman. Well, just because he's big.

Yeah. I mean, but what I'm saying is he, I've never not known him. Yeah. I'm not trying to say. Yeah. I'm going to mess this up. That time he got into. I've never known to not stand his ground. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm not afraid to get my ass whoops. Do not? Yeah. So I'd probably step to him. You got a, you can't, you can't not step to him. Not going to run from him. No. Yeah. I'm a guy, I want to talk about this more now.

Like, now I got all the ask junior questions. Yeah. It's like being the guy in the bar that you're in front of everybody and somebody, you know, this guy's bigger than you. Probably, you know, he has the odds. Yeah. He's his favor. Yeah. Yeah. But you're in front of all your friends. Right. What are you going to do? What are you going to do? So you got to be willing to take a asswhip every once in a while. Well, do you expect, if you get into a fight, do you expect your PR rep, whoever it is, whether it's Tyler or Tiffany. What do you expect of them?

Is it to let you fight or to break you up? Or it's never even let you get into the fight? Well, I mean, if I think that as, I think that once you've made that decision, like, all right, I'm going in. You want to be allowed to go. Yeah. Like you've made that commitment in your head.

I always assume, I'm going to do this. I always assume that I stay. You don't want anybody like hold. I know you say that, but see, I have thought, I will admit this, I've thought a couple times when Kyle Bush has got into his altercations, it appeared to me that the altercations looked like he anticipated somebody to prevent him from getting to ground zero before he actually got there. I always figured if I stepped in front of Dale and he wanted to get in a fight,

that then the fight would be me and Dale. I was like, man, maybe I don't need to do this. Is Tyler intimidating? No. All right, here we go. Moving on. Moving on from the fights, because I know that we've just created the headlines for the week. Dale Jr., ready to fight.

Tom 2S.L. Ask, what do you do with all the hats that you get? Are there any that you've kept for any specific reason? Oh. What do you mean? Yeah, I don't know. What does this mean? Is this like Victory Lane hats?

Is this like just your weak? weekday hats? Well, we have no Victory Lane hats this year. No, no, but you listen, when you win a race,

you end up with a lot of hats and you do like to keep them. Tyler, it wasn't there. Tyler brings me, Tyler's responsible for supplying hats for us.

So my motor coach is filling up with hats as the season goes, right? We've got hats from all our sponsors at Junior Motorsports and there's dozens.

We've got hats for nationwide. Several different colors. We've got Exhaughtta hats and all the hats you can imagine. They're in there. This guy is not short on hats. They're piling up in there. So this weekend, while Tyler was taking the weekend off,

and we had Tony May off in his position, I got a lot of hats, not all of them. I'm going to do this again this weekend, but I got a lot of the hats out of my bus and signed them, probably about 30 hats, the new arrows, and took them in a bag, to intros and gave them to fans around the intro stage. You did?

Yeah. I mean, I have been giving away my hat off my head after every race to somebody. Usually try to find a kid to give it to. Am I right? Yeah. And so I was thinking about Tyler because he's the one that brings these hats. And sometimes he'll bring hats and I'll just give them right away. And I can tell it kind of bothers him a little bit because he has to just bring more hats.

Tyler. Well, eventually he's going to. He's going to walk out and be like, you got any nationwide hats for me? And I'm going to be like, no, but that kid in Kansas probably does. We gave away like 30 freaking hats on Sunday morning. All of the nationwide, I mean, all of the Junior Motorsports hats sponsored. Like I had a Goodyear hat, Dirtymoor Radio hat, Spy, Wrangler, all kinds of hats that have been just sitting in the bus all year that I'm never going to wear. I know.

The most important ones are the junior sports like primaries for in case they win the championship. That way you have a sponsor. Yeah, I kept one of those. I mean, I'm not giving away every single head. I'm keeping the ones that I know I'm probably going to need. Yeah. I got a whole other batch to give away this. Oh, boy.

There's just piled in these little compartments in the bus and the interior. So you're going to do that at Charlotte this week? Yeah. Yeah, we're almost to the end of the season. as well just start giving hats out cleaning house yeah i i hope though that he needs one that he gives away just just so that conversation can happen with you did you give away the pink ones no but i will at the end of the month okay and amy says they're red not pink enough we got yeah they're bright pink no they're not i didn't okay you haven't seen them i yeah i have a box open in my office cool

so you have more so i just probably will give them away then Sounds like you've got a box of red hats in your office is what I do say. All right. Y2J Jessica asked, would you drive the pace car for any 2018 races like Jeff Gordon did after he retired? Why not? Yeah, I think it'd be fun. When I was out of the car last year, it was fun to sort of do a lot of things. You never get a chance to do at the track.

Y'all know at Talladega where, and Tyler, I think you went with me. At Talladega where the 18-wheeler tractor drives. The Talladega flyby. Yeah. It drives the American flag around the racetrack for the anthem. I got to actually ride in that for the first time. Last Talladega race, which was fun. We wouldn't do those things being in the race car and being a driver.

You just get out to the car and you don't want to do all that crap. Being outside of the car, it was like, hey, we can go do that. So, sure, I would drive the pace car if they'd give me the chance. I would hope that I get an opportunity one day. Kelly did, yeah. late model race to martinsville kelly drove the pace car to martinsville the 300 lapper big race of the season for all the late model guys all right scott glover four asked did you ever meet hugh hefner or get invited to any parties at the playboy mansion i think we might have got invited once but we never got to meet hugh huffner i don't think that article that you did for playboy was like a huge deal well the first one right i don't know which one you're talking about i don't know i thought it was oh one one maybe. Yeah, I mean, there were several.

There was also the deal with the Dom's, the Dom's sisters. Triplets. Triplets. But I was going to say. I've never had a chance to meet. I don't think he's, I mean, if I made him, it was at a racetrack, which I don't think he's ever came. No.

Yeah, I doubt he's hanging out at racetracks. No. Yeah. You can't wear your robe to the racetrack, I don't think. Yeah. You can. Z. Gilbre, I guess he could. Z. Gilbreth 1388.

ask with Charlotte being a home track this, sorry, I've butchered this one. He asked, with Charlotte being a home race this week, who benefits most from a home weekend? Is it the drivers, the crew members, or shop guys? Oh, the crew members. Absolutely. Yeah. They're not even a close. Yeah.

The drivers haven't made every week. They're fine. The crew guys, the guys actually a road crew that travel on Thursdays. They travel Thursdays every week, and they're, the last guys to get home in the entire industry on Sunday. They fly on these big planes. They share the plane with other teams. And so say Jimmy wins the race.

So the 48 teams there for celebration and for post-race tear down. Whatever teams also on that plane, whether it's 88, 24, they have to wait. They have to wait. At the airport for hours. No man left behind. It's not fun. Yeah. If you're not the one that wins,

it's not fun to sit there and wait. It is not convenient. And even when... It's more convenient than going commercial. Is it? Yeah, it is. Because commercial, like, we know people that don't fly back until Monday morning. Yeah.

But it's still, it's not fun, especially if you have a rough day and then your teammate wins, and then it just drags out. Yeah. Don't tell this to anybody who was in the sport in the 70s and 80s when they were driving 15 past your vans to every racetrack. Right, they don't want to hear it. No. They ain't got no room for that. Daniel Burt Jr.

asked this late in the season, do you notice any difference in how you feel in the car with the new fitness program this year? I haven't, actually. I was anticipating the fitness stuff making me feel better or feel not quite as tired of war out after the races. This race this weekend was pretty tough,

but we've been 160 laps green. to the end, if I remember correctly. And yeah, I didn't, I was gassed at the end of the race. But I have noticed my, you know, it's easier with the cycling. It's easier to control my weight. But yeah, I haven't noticed like a big gain in how I feel inside the car. One thing that I started using in the last couple weeks that Jimmy showed me is this cool shirt.

And so it pumps this gel all through this shirt. And you plug in, it's got this cable. And so you get in the car and you plug it in. It takes seven amps of power, which is not much at all. And I think that everybody will be wearing these in the next couple years. One more thing, Cal Yarbrough don't want to hear. Yeah, that's true. Did Cal Yarbrough ever wear cool shirts?

The pump gel into... This isn't a knock on Jimmy, but I, he's usually I wouldn't be doing it if he hadn't been doing it. So being in the same shop with him, you get to look at it. Me and him sort of as a driver, so you're, you know, you get to see behind the scenes when you're, when you're around your teammates. You see what their cars look like. You can climb in their cars.

You can talk to their interior guys. What are they complaining about? What are they talking about? What did you just change? What's the last thing you changed? What's the improvements you're making? So we all incorporate those into each other's cars. And so I watched Jimmy pretty closely because he's pretty much on the cutting edge of some of the new technology

and when things are coming out like this cool shirt. And so what we used to do is I walk by Jimmy at Kentucky Motor Speedway two or three years ago. It was blistering hot, hot, hot, hot. And when you're a driver and it's real hot out and you're getting ready to. race, you're freaking out a little bit. You're kind of worried about how uncomfortable this is going to be. The interior of the car is going to be super hot. And I walked by Jimmy's bus, we're side by side in a lot there,

and he's covering his shirt soaking it in water, just plain water. I'm like, what are you doing? He's like, oh, this is the ticket, man. You've got to try this. He was like, soak your whole uniform down on these hot days. And his explanation was, well, your body sweats to cool. itself off. That's its natural reaction. And so if you're already wet, your temperature, your body temperature isn't quite as high, you don't sweat as much,

so you stay a little more hydrated. And you said, plus when you get into the car and you start moving, it's cold, it's cool, it feels good, which is true. So from that race on, I would always soak my uniform down and my interior guy, Adam would have two water bottles with a pinhole in the top at the car so when I got to the car after intros I would just start squirting this water all over the uniform and soak the whole thing down unzipped uniforms shoot all that water all in there and soak it soak down my undershirt and whatever so when I got in the car I was completely wet from head to toe and as soon as you can start moving it's nice it's real comfortable and then I saw

Jimmy have this cable coming out of his uniform about four or five weeks ago and he explained to me about this shirt that has this jail, and it's 50 degrees cooler than... 50? Yep. It is freaking cool. So I've been wearing it, particularly in some of the warmer races at Darlington,

Richmond, where it's kind of mugging hot. And you don't really feel, you kind of forget you got it on while you're racing, but when the caution comes out, it's cold. and it's really cold. So it's pretty impressive what this little unit does. Jimmy wears it in practice all weekend. And I only been wearing it in the race.

The funny thing that happened this weekend, I was getting ready to go outside for intros on Sunday morning, and I didn't think it was that hot, so I decided I wasn't going to wear it. I got to the car and the sun come out, I started sweating just a little bit, and I was like, dang, I kind of wish I had that thing on. Jimmy's got his own. I saw him in intros, and I said, dang, man, I wasn't going to wear mine because it's only 70 degrees, but with that sun out, it kind of feels hotter.

And then I got thinking about the interior of the car, I was like, kind of wish I had it on now. I didn't want to be the only guy wearing it, though. So you're in securities or whatever. And I guess you just can't run to get somebody. That's exactly what happened. Tony. Oh, you sent Tony. Yeah.

And this is where I wished it was Tyler, because I like to send him. Tyler on these last minute hurry-ups. So Tony had to run to the car, and we all had this conversation about you at the car that we were wishing it was you. I'm glad that you knew I wasn't there. More on that in a second. The whole team. The whole team was like, man, I wish this is Tyler having to run and get this thing.

Seconds left before Adele gets in the car. So I put it on right there at the race car, and I'm glad I did because it was really nice. So I guess I'm going to wear it every race no matter of the team. temperature. Greg says that I sound better and look better after the races when I do wear that. So it affects the way you sound and look? He means like I'm not as angry. Burned out. Oh, okay. Not hot. Not tired, hot, tempered. No, well, that too probably. The cars have just been handling better. That's who. Yeah, that's probably what it is. It all I think has a... Maybe that has something to do with the course. I know. Yeah. I think it all,

it all connects, man. A comfortable driver is a nice and kind driver on the radio. Yeah, I believe it. Hot, muggy, miserable driver is going to be saying a lot of customers. How was this a knock on Jimmy? You said I don't want to knock on Jimmy. How would that be a knock on Jimmy? Because he's too comfortable.

Did you look at his car and it's like a lazy boy recliner in the seat or something? I don't want people to think Jimmy's soft. Wait, we've got a few championships to speak toward it. Yeah. That's my point. Call me soft all you want. Dude, that's my point. So when he does something, if he's wearing this cool shirt, I'm not going to be like,

I don't need that. I'm like, oh, Jimmy's wearing a cool shirt. I'm going to wear a cool shirt. It is a little salt. Yeah. It is a little salt. No. It's nice.

It squirts gel on you. It does a squirt gel on you. It runs through this piping. It lachers it on you. It squirts jail on you. Now you are. This is straight up spa stuff. Yeah.

It runs. You get a mud bath or something in the car. It runs through the shirt. Does it have high? lot stones in the winter. Jesus. It sounds like something you'd have a coupon for. You give your wife for on Christmas,

like a $25 cool shirt. Yes, it was purchased on an infomercial, I'm sure. All right, you're right. It is a little easy to go there. Yeah. So no knock on Jimmy. But yeah. But yeah.

Well, good questions, guys. Tyler, nice job picking those. I appreciate anybody that sends in their hashtag ask junior questions. We enjoy reading them. answering them, we'll do it again next week. All right, cool. If you love Dale Jr., then Exaltor Racing is your go-to social media account on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

It brings you Insiders Info all weekend long on the 88 team. It's at Exaltar Racing, a must follow for any Dale Jr. fan. All right, looking ahead, we got a busy week. Charlotte Week. Every freaking week is so busy. Tuesday, we're doing the Foundation ride-alongs. That's today. Tonight.

So we got 14. ride-alongs where we take people in the race car around the racetrack. And these are people who have donated to the foundation. Yeah, we sold those off for the foundation. So a lot of the sponsors will buy them, and then they'll use them for sweepstakes and whatnot. So if you see a ride with Dale Jr. sweepstakes pop up during the year, that's what this is. Wednesday, we got a Mountain Dew production. It's going to be awesome, but we can't say anything else.

Yeah, I'm really excited for folks to find out about what this production is. Yep. And then Thursday, Hendrick Motorsports 2018 car unveil event. So they're unveiling all four cars. For the Daytona 500. So it'll be interesting. For the Daytona 500? Yeah.

Or you mean for the season? For the Daytona 5th. These are, because William Byron has a Liberty car also, but they're only unveiling the Exalted car. Oh. Oh. So it's the cars that were racing in Daytona. Okay. And other races.

And other races. Well, I mean, you make it sound like it's just one race. Yeah. No. Yeah. Okay. Friday, practice and qualifying. Qualifying is at 720.

You know, that's one day. That's one long day. Yeah. I mean, Charlotte always does that. There's like a, I don't know, what is the break in between that practice and qualifying? It's like five hours? No, it's not because they just make your practice. Your practice will be like 1.30 to 3 or something like that.

I got you. So we'll be setting around the racetrack all day Friday. 720 qualifying on NBC Sports Network Friday. Two practices Saturday. We've got the Xfinity race at 3 p.m. That's it. That's also an NBC Sports Network. The last race of their first round.

Okay. So this is a, yeah. Cut-off race for the Xfinity guys. Then Saturday night there's the Junior Nation Appreciation Concert. Brad Paisley's going to be playing that. Tim Dugger's going to be open. up for Brad Paisley. This is a concert to honor the fans, Junior Nation.

Not to honor me, to honor the fans. Right. Yeah. This is at the Z-Max Dragway. If you have a ticket to the cup race, you get in. So I'm excited about that. That's been our, this is funny because when the track was trying to put this concert together, their language was in honor of Dale Jr.

and I was like, guys, the appreciation tour is for Junior Nation. Yeah. So we had to straighten that out. Yeah, if it's a concert to honor you, then like... And I hadn't planned to go. But yeah, but now we're going. But now we're going. Yeah, there's a little bit of the trackside live thing.

Yeah. So you'll be on stage before Brad goes on. So, yeah. So I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, it'd be cool. And I hope the fans enjoy it. Then Sunday, we got the race. The race is it 2 o'clock?

Yeah. This is a day race. race is Charlotte. Yeah, I know. Yes. I wish it was Saturday. I wish it was Saturday night. Well, I know, but this is a positive step in the right direction.

I've been talking about Charlotte Motor Speedway, if people can remember, has been notoriously bad like the races. Yeah, because they've all been at night. Yep, they're at night. The track's got a lot of grip. The cars run the bottom. They get stretched out. It's boring. Yeah.

I've been talking to, and this isn't, I'm not taking credit for all this, but I've been telling Marcus Smith with the owner of the track that the race should be run during the day when the track's hot and slick. I would take credit for it. Well, I'm excited about this because I think this will provide a better race. I think the fans are going to see one of the better races at Charlotte. You're going to see guys not just pinned to the bottom of the racetrack flying around there in full throttle.

you're going to see guys sliding around, lifting, running different grooves, chasing their cars around. That's going to create passing. And hopefully a better race. I think it's supposed to be pretty warm Sunday, too. Really? It's supposed to be like 80. Yeah, it was weird. I walked out of the house today, and I had turned back around going to get a jacket.

And that was the jacket you chose? That was the first time I've done that in a long time. That was the jacket you chose? Yeah. So I'm wearing a jeans jacket made by Wrangler. This is the exact model jacket that my dad was. war all the time every day. That's why I'm wearing this.

Oh, that's cool. A little throwback, nostalgia. He used to wear jean jackets all the time to the farm, you know, on his tractor and ride around. Makes sense. Push trees over. That's cool. And it's comfortable.

It's very comfortable. Wrangler. Real comfortable jeans. Flannel interior. Very nice. Corderroy collar. Dang. Yeah, so I'm excited about that race on Sunday.

I'm glad we're running during the daytime because it tracks much funner to race on. At night, it's just so, it's grip city. I know, but Sunday, Sunday. Sunday is going to be at the racetrack, Tyler. Cheer up. 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.

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