The Dale Jr. Download - 198 - Looking Back on Kansas, A Road Trip to Buffalo, and More

Episode Date: October 24, 2017

Dale Jr. recaps his final race at Kansas and a heated exchange he had with his spotter TJ Majors. On that same note, Earnhardt recalls the road trip he took to Buffalo, NY back in 2001 to move TJ to North Carolina. 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 Mo Radio. Hey, I can listen to that whole song. Thanks to Hopeless Records for providing today's theme song. Never Feel Alone by the Dangerous Summer. This is Dellenhart Jr. With our final in-studio edition. Of the regular season.

Of the playoffs. Yes. You teased that we might do it in December. Well, we're going to keep doing the podcast through the off-season, no? Are we? Yes. Oh, of course. Why not?

I don't know. We never talked about that. Yeah, I'm down. Cool. We just got to have stuff to talk about. We will. We're going to have weekly baby updates. We'll have stuff to talk about.

Yes. You know, people don't have to listen if it's not entertained. If it's not. Yeah, they'll let us know. Yeah. So, yeah, this is Dale Jr., Dale Jr. Download, and that's Tyler Overstreet that you hear. How you doing, Tyler?

Excellent, excellent. So you had a great race weekend at Kansas. We finished seventh. This is the third time in the past four races we run in the top ten finished seven. And the other time you finished 12th, so. So it's been a good run. Improving.

Yeah. So, yeah, we had some really good cars at the start of the season talking to Greg. We sort of went in a different direction on our setups trying to find more speed and become, you know, go from a seventh or fifth place car to a winning car. And obviously we didn't find that speed. We sort of, you know, got a little loss there in the summer. but we went back to some of the things that we have had in the car earlier this year, and they seemed to be really improving the performance. I like the car off the truck.

I thought we were going to qualify well. We were pretty good in the first round, and I liked the mock runs that we made in practice, but we didn't free the car up enough in the second round, and it's like just a couple hundredths of a thousandths is the difference between 20th or 19th and getting in the third round. So it's very tight, very close. The car, you know, the car was good.

We made a lot of the same adjustments during the race. We took wedge out, put wedge in, we move air pressure and put it back, and just couldn't never really figure out exactly what the car needed to make it run a little bit better and be as good as some of those guys up front. Maybe it was just track position. I don't know, but really enjoyed it. I love going to Kansas. We talked about it all weekend.

The track is fun to drive. if you see us get up against the fence and around the wall. That is a really good time. They have great barbecue out there. A lot of, I think it's a barbecue capital of the United States. My cousin, Danny Hart Jr., thinks that North Carolina barbecue is better. No. I mean, I've grown up here, and I would agree with your assessment.

Yeah, I think Danny Jr. needs to go check out. Yeah. But I think Kansas is one of those places that if you've never been there, you've never been to the race, never been to the town, You just be like, it's another mile and a half. It's just another stop. Yeah. But once you go there, there's a lot of stuff to do.

Like the barbecue, the track facility is really nice. They got that casino. Yeah, I would recommend it as a, it's probably in my top five places that we go on the circuit. I would agree with you there. I know not everybody cares, but with cycling, they're, you know, we go out and we ride these roads. Before this year, I never left the racetrack. I mean, we'd be lying to a restaurant back, but never really. really pay much attention what was outside the track.

So on these cycling rides, we go 30 miles, you know, out and back 15 miles. So you see quite a bit. Right. You see more than you used to. There's this really awesome lake, about two miles from the track. It's got a 6.8 mile loop around it that a lot of people cycle and so forth. If that gives you an idea of the size of this thing. and we take the

last time we were in Kansas earlier this year we took the dogs out there and sat around all day it was really nice I've heard you talk about this six mile loop and it's only two miles from the track and I'm like man he's going to talk about this so much that people are going to start like hanging out there

and waiting for you well I mean it wouldn't bother me it's a nice place yeah and we you know there's a lot of people out there when we go ride but I don't know that a lot of tracks have those types of of things to go do. So I told Amy, I said, I don't know how many races she's going to go to next year.

She probably won't go to every one of them that I'm going to be at as we're broadcasting. But I told her, so that's one I would say go to because there's things for us to do together. She don't want to go just to sit in a bus. Anyhow, back to the race. It was great. Enjoyed it. We missed another crazy wreck. We just skipped over one of our topics.

Oh, wait. Early in the race. You can come back to it. No, I want to start with this. We can. Early in the race, you were being mean to your friend, TJ. Oh, yeah, let's skip that. And people on Twitter were actually taking TJ's side on this.

I figured that. Got a little feisty. That would make you happy. Somebody took TJ side. It's almost you're living vicariously through TJ in this conversation. No. Yeah. But it was funny because I can hear Channel 2 that you can't hear.

So whenever they're like trying to. to get it figured out and then he tries to like hey can you hear me on this and then you get snappy i'm like oh no but you can't hear what they're saying on the other channel and i don't nor what i want to hear it um the let me give you a little bit of structure here so i just went to the top i'm passing cars we just went by a couple guys and i ran down ryan newman who was running the bottom and right when tj's asking me these questions i'm just trying to get to the outside of Newman before he understands what's happening and takes my line and moves up there, which he did.

I mean, Ryan's one of the hardest guys to pass. Everybody knows that. I think he wears that on his sleeve. And right when T.J. asked me that question, Newman moved up into the top lane and said, oh, we'll try this out, make sure, you know, if Ford Dale gets by me, I'm going to get up here and get this speed. and man, it upset me. So you were frustrated.

I was so frustrated because I'm trying to, he sees me on the track doing this, trying to pass. And he's like, can you hear me now? How about right now? I'm like, God dang, TJ, shut up. I'm trying to make this pass. It's now or never to get this pass done.

Because as soon as Brian gets up there, if I don't get by him in the next lap or two, I'm stuck behind him, you know, in dirty air. So all that was kind of happening at the same time. and I'll tell you I don't know if I don't know if you have a reference like this

or any kind of moment like this in life but I don't know what it is about the race car but as soon as you get in the race car you are a you just are a different person it brings the worst out in you and I'm not like that

any other time that I know of I mean would you say no so like when I get into the car I can't not I can't hold it back I can't stop it. I don't know why, but my mouth runs and I am angry. And the part of it is like, because you're in a loud car so that you're having to yell. Yeah, that too.

But there's something about being in the car and everything that's happening in the concentration and the focus and the commitment to be, you know, to doing everything that's happening. It brings the worst out in it. It's like the last, it's when you're in that car, you just hate being interrupted, you know. or you don't want to conversation or talk to people. You know, it's just like talking to somebody in their back swing.

It's just like that. It's like trying to have a conversation with a pitcher on the mound during the game. You know, you're going to get that same kind of response from that guy, you know, and so. Because you get out of the car

and you're, you're fine. Yes. And then you laugh and people are like, oh, this guy. I'm like, this awkward. Yeah. Well. But you and T.J.

on the ride home, everything's fine. Yeah. Because he understands. He's worked with you for 10 years. I mean, if he's still there, he's fine with it. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I don't know how to, I've never learned really how to control my emotions in the car.

And I hear other drivers do the same damn thing. It's not worse. There's only four races left. You might as well not try to let that. No, I don't want that to be like the defined. Homestead, just go all out. No, I'm not. I'm going to be super nice.

Yeah, but back to the crash. We missed another wreck. I think people think that's cool. Reading on Twitter, everybody's like, wow, awesome job. The last couple weeks we've gotten through some really massive crashes. I'd like to say that I had something to do with that, but it's really just look. It's the fact that I was in the right place in those moments. Nothing I really had in control of.

Because you can't really think. I mean, when you... You just do. Yeah, you just kind of see stuff flying and try to miss it and hope nothing hits you. And we've been lucky. Yeah, but everybody's like, oh, yeah, you guys are basically living a charmed life the last two weeks missing these wrecks. But I'm like, well, what about Martinsville? And what about the Daytona race?

Rex we didn't miss, yeah. That's right. Our karma is catching up to us, I think. Well, hopefully it lasts the next several races for the end of the season. Speaking of missing that wreck, did you see how close Jimmy was? he barely missed it and at that point he was running behind Kinseth

and so he was going to be out and Kinseth was going to be in and that was like right after Jimmy had spun out twice so he was in bad shape and that altered his race so good for Jimmy great for Jimmy

Martin Trix Jr. wins his seventh race of the season. He had six wins in his career before this year? I think so. This is his sixth win on a mile and a half just this year, which set a record.

And that, you know, we got Texas and Homestead. I mean, you know they're going to be good. And I think he's, you know, he's got, what, 58? 52 on 5th. Yeah. On 5th. So, yeah, the cutoff. Yeah.

So I think that he's just, he's checked the box to go to Homestead. Well, I think that, but then Cowbush in this round had two bad races and he was right on the line. That's right. I mean, Kyle didn't have. Yeah, I think that. Martin's probably the one lone lottery race where you can get yourself in trouble. Anybody can find themselves in bad trouble there. Texas and Phoenix, I mean, if you don't have a part failure or mechanical issue,

those tracks and those races are places where you can stay pretty clean. And there's not a lot of bullets to dodge those particular races. So I think if he gets through Martinsville, he's pretty damn good shape. Yeah. Yep. Because there's no way that he doesn't run top five at Texas. Yep. Me and Martin had a conversation last night during the Eagles game

where the Eagles beat the Redskins. Yeah, it wasn't a lot of fun for me. He's a big Eagles fan, so that was miserable. We talked about him blowing his tires. Did you? Yeah. What did he say? He said, I didn't blow him at Charlotte.

I'm like, yeah, but you did this weekend? He's like, well, I wanted to. Oh, he admitted. he wanted to. Yeah, he did an amazing burnout. He was doing donuts, donuts, donuts. Then he came to a stop and they started doing it again and then finally, because I was like, I was watching. I was like, I'm going to tell Dale if he does it. I'm going to tell him. And he goes, he texts me, he said, it's real easy to blow the tires. It's real easy to stop your celebration a little shorter. I've never won it. I know that.

Yeah, I'll, me and him will, that'll be our go-to text conversation every time he wins now. Imagine what he'll do if he wins Homestead. that he'll be lucky to have a whole rear end on that car i don't know matt kenseth was part for having too many men over the wall this is a second time that this has happened in the last two races right didn't somebody got parked at jimmy got parked at talladega uh they said it was a miscommunication with carriers and chain tire guys and all that there's a lot of things happening in that moment and everybody wants to help yeah so the rule is you can have six over the wall like a normal pit stop as soon as you get

that seventh, they park you. Yeah, and I wouldn't be too critical of the team. I mean, it's not like they're trying, this is all kind of new territory for everybody. They're being really picky about this, NASCAR, in my opinion. As far as when the red flag comes out and when it, when the race goes back to caution and when guys can start working, not work, how many guys can work. You know, when that car comes down pit road and it's got all kinds of stuff wrong with it, There's a pit stall full of people that want to help, want to jump in.

Everybody wants to go over there and work on the car. It's hard to get organized in that moment. It's a lot of chaos for the team. A lot of guys probably talking on top of each other on the radio. All those things are happening at once. Because that was a cutoff race, and they're right on the line of being that cutoff driver. So they're just thinking...

I personally don't like how picky this little rule is. I think that if NASCAR just said, hey, stop. you know, get this one guy off the car, now carry on, you know, with your six guys. I don't think it's parking them, making them, you know, making them head to park the car, it's kind of. On NASCAR America last night, Kyle Petty was of a similar deal. He compared it to if you have 12 men in the huddle on a football field,

okay, it's a penalty, it's a five-yard penalty. It's not a, you got to quit the game. Game's over. Yeah. I agree with that. I think that they should just say, but look, man, stop. Or it's a lot, penalizing a lap, whatever, you know. They could penalize him a lap for every person over six.

Sure. So if you put nine guys out there, your three laps down. That's right. I don't know that Matt was going to, his car was pushing a lot of water there and was banged up. So I don't know that he was going to make the chase. But, I mean, that... Yeah, but you want to finish the race. You have to end your race and not even have that opportunity seems a little rough.

It's the rule, though. It's been that way all year. I know. I think that should change it in the season. Yeah. Kyle Larson blows a motor early in the race. Yeah. That was a difficult to see.

Kyle's had such a great season. Yep. He was third in the playoffs at that... Coming into that race. He had four wins this year. So him and Jamie are now eliminated out of the playoffs. Jamie had a rough round. He wrecked two out of the three races,

and he wrecked pretty big in those races. Yeah. Sunday was nothing he could do about it. Kyle, man, he's had such a great year. And I think that he's, you know, a lot of people are pulling for Kyle because he is, he's a, you know, he's a racer. People appreciate his, his attitude and his approach to his job. And he's fun and young and new and all those things, exciting. He's going to have a great career.

And I know people are wanting to see him, at least be in the mix at Homestead after the year he's had. It would have been awesome to see him at Homestead. It's still going to be awesome to see him at Homestead. but knowing, you know, because he, I think I know what you're saying here because he runs that wall so well. Yeah. And that's a track that's built for running the fence. Right.

And I think that little extra motivation would have been pretty wild to see. I mean, I'm sure he'll still go down there and be in the top five for the win, but to not be able to run for the championship. It's disappointing for him, I'm sure. Yep. And the question is, how, you know, how hard will he race in Homestead? because you know that other guys in that top five are going to have the green spoilers. I don't think he cares.

You remember that one year? I think he was running like part-time trucks. He maybe wrecked Ty Dillon in the truck race. Ty was going for the championship. So I don't know that he cares. He's not going to wreck them on purpose, but he's going to try to win the race. He himself and his team. Yeah, it'll be fun to see.

Homestead. I'm looking forward to that. I like running that fence, and I know Kyle does too. The playoffs are down to the final eight, True X, with that 50s. two-point lead we talked about. Kyle Bush, Bragg has Alaska, Kevin Harvick. I think Kevin's showed really what his team's capable of this Sunday. He was super fast.

Yeah, they're really fast on the mile and a halfs. They're right there with the Toyota's. I think if he gets to Homestead, I think he's got a shot at winning. Yep. Jimmy Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Blaney, and Chase Elliott. A lot of people aren't talking about Chase. I mean, I know they're not talking about, I don't expect them to talk about him as a championship title contender. but I think that what he's done to make it this far, him and Blaney, obviously,

it's pretty impressive. Which you're talking about you guys kind of reverting back to your setups and stuff from the start of the year. It seems like Chase is doing the same thing because he's picked up a lot of speed in the playoffs. Him and Blaney, man, to get this far into the playoffs is really impressive. They both put together quiet, consistent seasons. I think Chase ran top five at Martinsville. He was strong a Sunday.

He's a little short track racer. So I wouldn't be surprised if he went to Martinsville and could win that race. Yeah. And he ran good at that truck there. Yeah. I mean, he won the truck race this spring. A couple years ago. I think, yeah.

I think whoever wins Martinsville is going to be the, obviously going to advance to the championship. But that's going to be who goes against Kyle Bush, True X, and probably Harvard. We tweeted out after the race that we had our predictions. I said 78, 18, 4, and 48, if I was. to put a money bet down. I would like to see 7824-48-21. What are your predictions? True, X, Kyle Busch, Harvick, and then...

You don't know about that fourth. I want to say... See, it's dumb for me to say, and now I look like flip-flopping, because earlier I said, oh, maybe Hamlin would be the guy that gets knocked out, but Martinsville is such a good track for him. Yeah.

I just think whoever wins this week is going to be that fourth guy, because I don't know that Kyle Bush or True. I don't know what the other three will win Martinsville. I hear you. All right, well. So this will be the spoiler. Oh, man. A lot of things to think about there.

Martinsville is going to be fun. It's a two-day schedule. Saturday, Sunday. We're going to qualify on Sunday. Yeah. I don't know about those. Qualifying. You don't like having a Friday off?

We really don't get Friday off. We're actually going to work. Yeah, we're working Friday, so it don't matter to me. We're doing a production. Yeah. So I just don't like logistically. So we've got to, obviously, you start outside the track, then you go inside to qualify, then the driver's meeting's outside the track, then you go back inside the track.

So it's a lot of back and forth. That kind of stuff is logistically annoying. Oh, sounds tough. But it'll be fine. It's supposed to be cold. Yeah. And there's a decent chance of rain. Yikes.

So maybe they'll get to use those lights. Yeah. All right, now we're going to get to our Ask Junior questions. As always, we can get these questions on Twitter using the hashtag Ask Junior. Mike Davis has joined us as usual. What's up? Let's get to it. I was a little late.

Sorry, guys. I'm slowing you down, but I'm ready. You ready? Yep. All right. A lot of TJ Majors talk this week. Okay. First question.

I'm getting roasted on this. Roasted? Well, Tyler's really enjoying the fact that I got, you know, the Twitter. Everyone on Twitter was upset or not upset, I guess, or thought that I was in the wrong, T.J. was in the right. It's very rare. Don't put me in that bucket. I think you were right.

Whoa. Oh, let's hear it. Let's hear it. Can we hear that? Yeah. Yeah, you'd like to know. Yes. Anytime you'd make a go at T.J., I think you're right.

Anytime it does it. T.J's never right. TJ's a spotter. T.J. needs to know when to shut up and when to talk. And T. And T. And T. gets a little moody from time to time.

It's okay. Tensions are high, too. I'm not saying if you guys weren't in your living room, he would be wrong. But I'm saying they're in a race, a lot of stuff going on. You've got a lot going on. Tensions are high, too, because he just announced his job next year, and so everybody's sort of digging at him about it. What did he expect?

I don't know. He was worried to death that everybody was going to just hate it, you know, all the supporters of the 88 team are just going to be like, what the hell? Why are you leaving? A lot of them did. And they have, right. It's exactly what he expected. No, he's going to work with Joey Lugano next year.

And he's like, yeah, somebody tweeted and is like, I hate you now. And he told Joey that. And Joey's like, yeah, you'll get used to it. I like what our friends at the Junior Nation Undam Restricted podcast had to say. They're like, TJ, we appreciate it. But we don't have a favorite spotter. We have a favorite driver who has a spotter. And so therefore, good luck to you.

Don't let the door hit you in the ass. Damn. That's funny. But that's why it is. All right. So I guess I should get to the question. How long have you and T.J. Majors known each other, and how long does he stay mad at you after a particularly Mowdy race?

Yeah, he stays, he doesn't, I mean, obviously it probably sticks in the back of his head for a couple of days. I don't know. I think he's fine once he gets home and gets around his. kids and starts reprioritizing his life. Because when he goes to the races, you know, priorities change. Then he comes back home.

He's like, ah, you know, it's not that big of a deal. We all kind of do that. We've known each other a really long time. I can't even remember what year it was when we went and picked him up in Buffalo and moved him down here. 2000? Sure, it was a long time ago. Oh, it was 9-11.

Yeah, it's 2001, because, 9-11 had just happened that year. And because we went by the Pentagon. So we're going through Washington at 2 o'clock in the morning. And we got the windows down because we were trying to, you know, we're just looking around and seeing all the monuments. We took that big beltway. And so we wanted to go by the Pentagon.

9-11 had just happened earlier a couple months ago. and so we got off that beltway and we're driving down the road. There's no traffic. We're like, man, there's no cars here. So weird. Well, that was because we had somehow gotten into a area that was blocked off still. And so here comes these, this police cars hustling to chase us down and pull us over. Lights blaring and everything.

And he walks up real slow. You know, we're sitting in there with boggings on and driving a dully. and we look pretty suspect, I imagine, like we was up to no good. We were in a restricted area we weren't supposed to be in. And once he found out, he's like, once he realized who I was, and he's like, what are y'all doing here? Like, how are you in Washington, D.C. at 2 o'clock in the morning, day after Christmas.

I'm like, well, it would be honest, we were driving to Buffalo, which doesn't make any sense. To pick up a guy I've met online. To pick up a guy that we became friends with to move. him down to North Carolina. As you do. Yeah. That's just something you do in the winter. It's a very suspicious story.

It was so suspicious and it felt like a lie when I was telling it. And so he's like, hey, just follow me. I'll get you back out of here because we were completely lost. The funny thing about it is we got on the interstate in North Carolina and we ran, we drove about 10 miles and I looked around. I said, this is going to suck. This is a terrible idea. We got to drive all the way to Buffalo.

Why don't we just get off the interstate, not even look at a map. We're going to follow the compass on the mirror and just keep going north. And so, T.J. is following us online. We're telling him where we're at. And he's like, man, you guys are going the wrong way. Why are y'all on that road? Get on the interstate. And I'm like, no, that's boring.

We're going to drive two lane roads all the way there. So we drove two lane roads, not one freaking interstate until we got to D.C., obviously we had to get on that beltway. In the winter. We're driving by Duke University and going by, you know, we're way off, not even going the right direction. We went to Gettysburg. We saw a sign like, hey, go this way for the Gettysburg. Y'all was like, y'all ever see Gettysburg?

Let's go. It's like 4 o'clock in the morning. Feels right. So we drove to Gettysburg. We stopped and got a picture with the Eternal Flame. They have an eternal flame on a pole out there. And it's, I mean, not like, the picture is just. just us in a flame in the sky.

And it's black. It's 4 o'clock in the morning. But we're driving down the road, and we're starting to see these little cannons and stuff on the side of the road. And we're like, man, I wish we could see this in the daytime. So, and then we got stuck in the mountains because it started snowing in Pennsylvania.

And we got stuck on a hill. Duly. Because you decided to go two-lane roads. So you're going to two-lane roads in Pennsylvania. Yep. We're driving through the mountains, and it started snowing, and we had to back down this hill

because we couldn't get up it. So we had to back down. down the hill and go a different route. I mean, it took, it took us 22 hours to get to Buffalo. Yeah. And did any, at any point, did it feel like TJ Majors is not worth it? Ten minutes in. It's out of it.

I drove 18, the first 18 hours. And then I passed out. I was like, I can't go any further. We were drinking Mountain Dews. We stop at the store just about every hour and get a mountain dew and a slim gym. I just wonder, what if Mike or. somebody just me what if we would have gotten into that restricted area would they and they didn't know who we were what would they have said i think you'd probably have been there overnight right

i was which which giving and now that i know how this story unfolds staying in jail overnight might have been the best option right in dc yeah like a free place to stay yeah okay on the way home we kind of did the same thing we didn't follow a map and we ended up in ohio it had to spend the night We had to sort of tap out and say, all right, we got regroup. Spend a night. We went to a bar and got in a big old fight. Yeah. The whole bar in Ohio.

On the way home. Let me guess. TJ started running his mouth. I don't know. This is when we first found out that TJ is a mouthy little. No, I do remember. So we were in this bar and these two guys were arguing. And in like 10 minutes, the whole bar became like,

half of the people were on this guy's side, the other half were on this guy's side, and we instigated it into a fight. We're like, you get them! And so the whole bar began to fight. But you guys did? No, we watched. You left.

You watched, I got it. We actually got a ride back to the hotel that night in a police car. But you weren't arrested. And then we race... I'm not going to tell the whole story, but... Why?

Because these little things keep popping in my head. I remember at one point in the night, The police officer was, me and the police officer were racing luggage carts down the hallway of the hotel. That happened. It sounds like a movie. Yeah. It does. I mean, it sounds like a movie I've already watched.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think they made this movie. Yep. The story of T.J. majors. It's a good trip. I guess so. We made it.

We made that trip. You made it. And you brought T.J. back. Yeah, we brought T.J. into everyone's lives down here. That's right. You're worried. Welcome, everybody. All right.

Good stuff. Tommy Lacksen asked, this is in reference to your interview with Willie Geist. How fast did you go in that Corvette at Talladega during the Today Show interview? 180 mile an hour. So the Corvette has 220 on the dash. And we were in, it was automatic, so it wasn't like we were in sixth gear, but we were, full throttle on the mat and I think with the aerodynamic ground effects, swings and all that stuff, it's just limited.

Right, it's not going to go full. And we would look to every bit of when he was flying. You got to think that's only like 10, that's only like 7 mile an hour slower than we qualify there, you know, or 10 mile an hour slower than we qualify. So it's really close to how fast the cup car goes around there. we would get up to 180 and then going through the corner would slow it down to 175 just just the loads and everything g forces are going around the corner so i think if we could continue in a straight line like racing you know on the salt flats somewhere you could probably see 220 eventually i was a little nervous about that i it didn't look i'm watching the interview just like everybody else and from the in-car camera you know you can't tell how fast it's going but when you said 180 to willie i'm like oh my that's That's fast.

That's super fast. And all you have is a seatbelt. Oh, yeah. And so it's like, look, I trust you and your abilities to drive around Talladega for sure. But I don't know. That one little piece of debris that's on the track that you didn't know about or something is like all they got is that little seatbelt. Maybe an airbag. I don't know.

I mean, I don't know what Corvettes come equipped with. But I don't know. I had to block it out, man. It was for the Today Show. So, okay. But did you actually, you would think about that too? So I'm not completely off my rock. I was super nervous.

Okay. It's 180 mile an hour. Right. All right. Thank you. Now I don't feel so weird. I was very nervous. That was the fastest I've been in a street car ever.

I mean, by far. These people, these producers thinking like, oh, I mean, he's got a race car. This is nothing. This is easy. There's no danger here. And I'm like, that's kind of dangerous. That's not what Willie was thinking. No, it wasn't.

How nervous do you think the guy that loaned him that car was? He was fine. I talked to him. Oh, because he was just chilling on pit road. I was like, one thing they didn't show. was somehow or another we triggered some alarm in the car. We took off pit road and I was really hammering it. And I got the 150 mile an hour and the engine shut off.

The engine was running, idling, but the throttle quit. So you couldn't, you could, you match the gas and it wouldn't do anything to the motor. Somehow or another, it's just cut off a line of communication there. So I coasted back into the pits and I'm like, I don't know what the hell just had in this car. but I have somehow or another triggered some alarm or something, some safety thing. Even the car was nervous. It was a blessing in disguise because they had, I think, forgot to turn on the audio equipment in the car. And so they were like, oh, God, we got to get them to come back in.

But nobody has communication with them. And there's nobody in the flag stand to tell them to come in. So they were like panicking. And then you had to come in anyways. Yes, I come in, shut the car off, let it sit a second, fired it back up. And luckily it works. I took it a little easier working back up to speed. But I was pretty nervous, but I thought I was really curious, too,

as to how fast this car would actually go. We can't show these NBC folks that we're willing to go the extra. Right. The pressure of our next career. The Hardhead 3 asks, when do you start your commentator job with NBC? Do you have to go to training first? Yeah. I mean, I think that at the beginning of the new year, I'm all there,

so they'll tell me whatever they need me to do. and I'm going to be in communication constantly with Sam Flebba boss and my coworkers to try to fast track that learning and studying and all that. So I'll be pretty busy throughout the whole year trying to get ready for the booth. Good stuff, Racing Chef 88. Ask why was Truex penalized for dropping below the white line on the restart early in the race, but not the guys behind him? I don't know, you know, that's interesting because we watched some tape of the race earlier,

this year. He did the same thing on a restart then in that race with like the second or third to last restart he dropped below the line and the field followed him. It's a nice move because really if you stay on the banking, no matter how will you take off the guy on the other lane the outside line will probably be able to quarter panel and side draft you and challenge you into turn one. If you drop below that line, you're changing your lane, which you're not supposed to do, but it gets you away from that side draft. So as you accelerate and you get away from that outside lane, you continue and probably

clear the guy before you get into turn one, which is great, really smart. They seemed to be a, you know, they got away with it. Somebody probably brought that to NASCAR's attention after the first race there, and NASCAR was watching. They say they said it in the... the driver's meeting. I don't, I don't pay attention in the driver's meeting,

so I don't know if they said that. If I could, I'd have my phone out. I'd be texting people. There's only four more races, so. Yeah. I like to text Mike Helton and Steve O'Donnell during the driver's meeting. Do they respond?

Yes. Or they'll look at me. I just like to text them and see them getting their phone out of the pocket. I don't know. Just texting them like random stuff. Yeah. Hi.

An emoji. The video is a little loud. The intro song is always too loud. Golly, it's super loud. You know why they told me that they leave it that loud because it gets everybody's attention and makes everybody sit down so they can start the meeting. That makes sense.

It is piercing. It is so piercing loud. Yeah, imagine if you're one of the fans that's sitting right beside the speaker. Terrible. Let's see here. 88 speed freakass with only three Xfinity Series. races left and JRM drivers 1, 2, 3 in points.

How does that make you feel as the team on? Nervous. You know, I mean, I don't care if it's three cars or one car heading toward homestead. It's such a nervous time for us, especially as an owner. You know, how we perform and how we do over these next couple weeks can completely change the morale and the shop and the building. It's tough in it. I mean, you guys are here.

You guys live it, too. So you have to agree, like, everybody's sort of nervous because we all want good things for us. And you know how it affects all these people in the building. And you don't want to see them disappointed. So that's really where the nerves come from. You know what else it is? The constant sponsorship wheel never stops turning. And especially in the Xfinity series and the way you're always trying to get and secure the funding.

Like Joe Mattis is always working. and he never turn off. Every day. And so you're looking and you're pulling for any little thing that can give you an advantage or something that you can just add in that deck, and nothing beats a championship. I mean, if you can say you are a champion in your sport,

there's no better sales tool than that. And you got this one shot, you know, the way they do these playoffs now, it's like it's sort of like, it's not a crapshoot, but you go into these races knowing you could have put a whole season together and that one little tool that could carry your entire year

for the following, after Chase Elliott won the championship, that was a huge deal for us. We put that in the front page of those sales decks. We put it on the, you know, we put it everywhere we could put it. We're a champion. Yep. And that's also why it was very disappointing last year, you know, when Sforres won, because we had a shot and you know that this could really carry your entire year.

Yeah. It, I think, you know, it adds to the health of the company and the longevity of the company. You know, you're seeing a lot of teams shut down, Brad, shut down. down his program. A championship can prolong the history and the longevity of the company and the health of it, too, just like you said. So that's a good point. I love this question.

Ryan J. Barrow asked, given the announcement about T.J.'s future. Hold on. Let me pan out and make sure Tyler's in on this. Given the announcement about T.J.'s future, will Tyler stay on and be Bowman's road manager or continue to manage the new road for you? New road. The new road. I work for Dale.

I don't work for the 88 car. I have to remind him sometimes. Wow. Unbelievable. No, I work for Dale, so I'm doing whatever Dale does. We're already booking appearances and all kinds of stuff. I'm like, man, I don't want to do this. He's like, they're going to be upset.

I'm like, you don't work for them. I don't, but I'm keeping everyone in mind and what's best for everyone involved. Sometimes I think that he just does whatever keeps the heat off him, whatever is easy for him. I'm messing. I'm kidding. That's not true. I mean, it's not entirely true. Well, yeah, I don't want anybody on my back, but.

Yeah, we got a lot of good stuff happening in the Dale Junior Brand team for next year. Right. I mean, we're going to be busy. It's just not going to be racing cars every week. That's right. Mille 09 asks, give your competitors. Who are you going to miss racing against the most? You know, I think it's the newer guys.

I've raced most of the people in the series a lot. But the Blaney, Chase, Eric Jones, getting to race those guys gives you the opportunity to get to know them. And when you're a driver, when you're a driver around other drivers, you kind of let each other in on what's going on in each other's lives. You're a little more honest and open and trusting, I guess, and you live in that bus slot together. I think once you're not, I'm wondering once you're out of the seat,

whether you still kind of have that same access to these guys. And are you still able to get to know them and do you look at each other as equals and colleagues? That's something I think, you know, that's something I'm probably going to miss. I won't be able to get to know the younger guys as well as I do Brad Keselowski-Truex and all the people that have been around for so many years

and racing with so many years. Yeah. Good answer. I think we'll end on this one. on that one or this one? No, this one coming up. And Credit Cast asked what moment of the 2017 season has been your favorite so far. Tyler, we'll get your favorite moment too, but go ahead. What moment this year?

This year of the 2017 season. It's my favorite moment. Yeah. Probably the day I found out that Amy was pregnant. Good answer. Good answer. Did you know? Okay.

So a lot of people don't know this. the day that I went to the Redskins luncheon. I saw this tweet, by the way. Yeah. So I was asked, would you call that being asked to be the keynote speaker? Is that a keynote? Or was that my first real speaking? I wouldn't count that.

No, because that was more of a Q&A kind of deal. Anyhow, I go to this Redskins luncheon. Freaking having a blast, right? Hanging out with the whole team and all the execs and everybody. just incredible to be able to be there, fanboying like crazy, thinking that what a great day, come home, excited, telling Amy all about it, and then she tells me that she's pregnant. It was a lot.

And did you say, but did you hear what I said? I was around all the Redskins. I came home, just like that tweet that the guy said, I came home like, this is the greatest day ever, Amy. She's like, well, let me tell you. I tell you. So that's got to be it, that day. Do you mean racing?

I'm going to assume that in Credit Cask was talking about on track with the team. I think getting the polls at Daytona and Talladega, I mean, you know, we don't have a win to brag about or, you know, we usually have a win at this point that sticks out. So I will say getting those two poles, I mean, when's the last time we won a poll, much less two poles in the same season? When was the last poll? I only got like 11 poles. 13, maybe? What? It's like 2013 maybe.

We got a pole? You got two poles that year. Really? One at Dover and I forgot where the other one was. But yeah. I looked that up because I knew it had been a lot. It might have been Daytona. Did we get Daytona 5?

You did. You did. That was one year. Oh, the year that you got wrecked in practice. Yeah. I remember that. Yeah. That's a.

Oh, we're on an end on a downer. Good going, Tyler. Well, you know. My favorite moment of the year. was really it was two days. It was the first two days we got to go back, like Daytona 500 practice day, just because of all that you went through in the fall.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then just the, like, excitement. And then, like, we weren't there the first day because they were doing shootout practice or whatever. So it was like, we made, like, a grand entrance, and it was just cool to be back in the garage after going through that whole process. Yeah.

I thought that was fun. Maybe not fun. Maybe it was just. It was a cool moment. Yeah. Yeah. For sure, for sure. All right, those are good moments.

Awesome. Good questions. Enjoyed this one. Appreciate it. Cool. Tell them how to send them questions in again. Yeah, so Dale's going to be recording this on the road the next few weeks. So send us your questions using the hashtag Ask Jr.

Make them good. Don't make them yes or no questions, too. For real. I mean, you're saying that I'm serious. I mean, if you're going to send us a question for us to look at, make sure it doesn't suck. Yeah, make them good. Right? If you love Dale Jr., then Exaltor Racing is your go-to social media account on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

It brings you Insiders info all weekend long on the 88 team. It's at Exaltor Racing, a must follow for any Dale Jr. fan. Looking ahead, we have a Friday production. Good year. That'll be fun. It's going to be early, though. Oh, no. Can we tell what we're doing? Yeah, sure. Go ahead. We're going to the local NBC station, and you will be.

be helping with the weather. I'm going to do the weather. Yeah. During the 6 o'clock hour. With Larry Sprinkle. Well, with Larry Sprinkle. Yeah. Larry Sprinkle.

People think that's a joke, but that's really his name. Yeah, he's done it for years. Yeah. As long as I've been around. And then there will also be a Facebook Live that day, that morning. And then after that, we're going to do a goodies deal. I don't think we're supposed to say what that is because there's a surprise element. So we got two productions Friday.

Saturday, the two practices, one before the truck race, and then one after. that most of the time on Saturdays our practices are before lunch and then they have the Xfinity race well we're going to have a practice after the truck race so the track's going to be really rubbered in it'll be really similar the closest it'll be to what it's going to be like in the race this is how they used to do it back in the 80s and 90s used to practice used to have happy hour after the Xfinity race I think this might be a direction that they're going next year because they say they're going to be a lot more two-day shows so I like being able to practice on the track.

All rubbered up after the extended your truck race. It makes perfect sense. So that's going to be good. Sunday, we qualify at noon, and then the race is at

3 o'clock on NBC Sports Network. So if it starts at 3, it probably won't end until... Yeah, they're going to turn lights on. They're going to turn the lights on. And it's like instant. Yeah, those are nice.

Maybe they'll do like the flashing lights. Did you see the late model race? Yeah, like the club. Amy's driving the pace car. That's right. That's right. That will be exciting. Yeah, Amy's going to be driving a pace car, leading us to the green flag.

That's going to be. I wish I could be in the car with her to see her reaction to all that. That would be frowned upon if you were in that car and not your race car. Maybe I'll do it and I'll video it for you. You should. I've seen other people drive the pace car and they usually get to pick who's in the car with them, like their friends, whatever. Oh, really? Yeah.

So maybe you should volunteer to ride and video and whatever. Well, NASCAR talked about putting some GoPro in there. So they will. And they'll give us some footage. Yep. But that'll be fun. It will. She's got to get up early.

She doesn't. Did you tell her? I did tell her. All right. She's got to get it super early because they give her like a training session. Originally it was 7.30, but I talked to our friend Johnny Mac yesterday and he got to move back to 845. What did she say when you told her how early she had to be there for that?

She didn't. She didn't oppose to it. She just said I'll come up there Saturday. Yeah. I was like 730. That means I would have to wake up at like 530. just to get to the track. But it'll be fun.

It'll be an awesome experience. That's right. All right. Good show. Good show. Best up who deep gets hard. They down on the couch and let me show you. Why I need you.

It's really what you want to happen. When all I want to do is have this, I'm not strong enough to breathe. Am I wrong? Is it really what you want to happen? When all I want to do is have this I'm not strong enough to breathe So here's the thing with my head I'm unstable

I'm feeling honesty come out But really I'm just gone So now's the part where I get closer to you Do you feel me when I touch you Do I really like the skills to turn you off It's what you do to me Am I wrong? The Dallon is really what you want to happen.

When all I want to do is have this. I'm not strong enough to breathe. The Dale Jr. download and all Dirtymo Radio podcasts are made possible by Exaltta. You can subscribe to all eight programs on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, and all major podcasting outlets. As always, you can listen to Dirty Mo Radio podcast on Dale Jr.com. Follow us on Twitter at Dale Jr., at Overstreet Tyler, and at DirtyMoe Radio. Also, check out the Dirty Mo Radio Facebook page. Thanks for listening to DirtyMoe Radio.