The Dale Jr. Download - 201 - Heading to Homestead

Episode Date: November 14, 2017

Dale Jr. looks back on the Phoenix race, Matt Kenseth's win, and the Chase Elliott/Denny Hamlin rivalry. He also discusses his final race and the JR Motorsports' teams pursuit of the Xfinity Series championship this weekend in Homestead. 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. That's I should leave right now by the Dangerous Summer. Thanks to Hopeless Records for providing today's theme song. This is Dellenhart Jr. for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download with co-host Tyler O'estreet. How's it going, Tyler? It's going good. It's a big week. It is a big week.

Obviously, just to come home from Phoenix. And surprisingly, ended up finishing 10th in that race when we, I don't know, Where did we run most of the race? About 15th. Right. Yeah. So how did we finish 10th? Let's talk about that.

A lot of guys, you know, if you run really well in that race, it's hard to pit and give up that track position because it's so hard to pass. So what happened at the end of the race was a lot of guys chose to stay out when they were given an opportunity to pit. and then the guys like myself that had been running 15th all day got to come in and get tires. And so you saw me, Stenhouse, Eric Amarolans, a couple of the guys sneak in there and get a top 10 finish because of those new tires on that last run. There was a bit of a shakeup on the restart that cost a lot of guys some positions, and we were able to come out on the good end of that where Brad Kislauski and a few other guys got together went in their separate ways down in turn one.

I'm not sure exactly what happened there, but we gained a ton of spots right there at that restart. I think we'd gotten ourselves to as high as eighth or ninth and then caught Ryan Blaney and had a little hard time getting around him. I didn't set that pass up very well, so I lost a few spots to some guys trying to get by Ryan. But overall, a great finish considering how we fought all day long. The car when the race started was not good. We were about a 20th place car. Greg made some really good changes around midway through the race.

I was dropping the track bar inside the car to give the car rear grip on entry and on throttle on exit of the corner. Greg was taking a lot of wedge out under the pit stops and also dropping air pressure on the right side, which really was helping our car. We were really high and thought that's where we needed to be. As we came down on the right side air pressure, it really helped our car. We had plenty of speed on the beginning of the sticker runs, which tells me that we could afford to come off the air pressure a little bit if we have great takeoff speed. But no long run speed, the tires typically can be over inflating on the long run. So made some great adjustments, got the car driving pretty good, and ended up with a decent finish. Had a lot of things going on in this race for the entire field.

Matt Kenseth picks up an emotional win. I think everybody there was happy to see Matt win. I know a lot of people were pulled for Chase to get it done. I don't think anybody would have been disappointed with either of those guys winning the race, especially after what's happened in the last several weeks between Chase and Denny Hamlin. And we had another episode of that this particular weekend where Chase and Denny got together and it cost Denny to get into the fence with a flat left front tire. You got a pretty good view of that one.

that was interesting i didn't anticipate chase um i didn't think chase was going to get him back honestly um but more power to chase he um that's what he felt like he needed to do and i think he got his point across that he was not happy and did not forget martinsville yeah from what i saw in the replay of the 11 car and the 24 in the race it didn't look like it was an intentional all thing. You thought it was. You don't think he bumped him in the middle of three and four and then squeezed him high on purpose? Well, he did bump him maybe in the middle of three and four, but if he wanted to wreck him,

he would have wrecked him right then. Just turned him around? Yeah. If he wanted to really go after him and wreck him, he would have wrecked him when he first hit him. Yeah. I mean, I don't know that he intended, like, I don't know. I don't think anybody's smart enough to be like, oh, if I, like, brush this guy up against the wall, his tire's going to go flat in...

five laps. Yeah, Denny didn't brush the fence. There was a little bit of room. It was tight. The 24 got into his left front fender and it did cut the tire. I don't know that I definitely know Chase wasn't giving him a lot of room and was racing him really hard. But I think Chase really wanted to dump him. He would have dumped him when he got to his bumper.

Nobody, I don't think, is that clever to slice his tire. You know, it's not like... Yeah, you're not like the little rascals where in the main race. They've got the tire daggers coming out the side. You could just stab their tire, yeah. They had that car in Greece when they were racing in the aqueduct. Right. And hit a button and it had little razors come out and cut up the whole door of the car.

I think he was trying to get his point across. It was unfortunate that Denny ended up blowing that tire. I mean, I don't know. I'm sure Chase doesn't feel bad about it, but I don't know that that was his intent. Yeah. Anyhow, regardless of how that all worked out, do you think that carries over or do you think they're done? I don't think it's over. I mean, I don't think either one of them wants to be on the wrong end of it anymore.

Right. I think they're tired of that part, but I don't think they're going to do anything, do each other any favors either. It's just really, you know, if it carries on, if it carries on, it'll probably just carry on for one more race and then they'll get over to an offseason. Neither one of them made it to the playoffs. We have our championship four,

or neither one of them made it to the championship round and homestead. We have our championship four, Martin Trex Jr., Kyle Bush, Kevin Harvick, and Bragg Hislowski. So let's talk about who the favorites are of those four drivers. I don't know if it's easy to pick a favorite. I think Trux has to be the favorite.

He had a quiet round and in this last round? Why do you think his round? How do you make him the favorite if he's had a quiet round? No, no. So this is what I'm going to say. He had, for him, a quiet round in the round of eight with finishes of second, second, and third. But you can't run second, second, and third and win the championship.

He's going to be fine. Okay. He's so fast on the mile and a halfs. All right. You don't think so? Well, if you're just looking at the most recent performance, I think you've got to say, or Kevin Harvick are now the favorites. And that's probably just fine with Martin Trex Jr.

I don't think that they want to go in there with a target on their back. Nobody's talking about Brad Keselowski. They haven't been that fast. I've watched them over the last several weeks, and they've had some uncharacteristic struggles throughout practice, throughout race weekends, throughout race events. But, you know, they'll be bringing their A game.

We'll see if they got what it takes. But I think Kevin Harvick is the, guy that kind of stands out to me as the guy that has the most momentum right now. And he's ran well at Homestead. Kyle Busch will be running in the top three all night long. You can guarantee that. Martin is going to have his workout. You know, it was probably a lot of people thought maybe Martin's championship to lose several

weeks ago, but I don't think so anymore. I think Kyle Busch and Harvick have. performance-wise looked a little bit better over the last several weeks. If they line up one, two, three, four for an overtime restart, who would you take? The guy that's controlling the restart? You would just take, okay. I would take the guy who controls the restart the leader. Of those three cars, they're so competitive.

They're probably going to run about the same speed over the next, you know, couple laps. I mean, if Harvick, Harvick's probably maybe the one that can get it done if he's not the control car. He's a He's aggressive enough and smart enough and clever enough That I think that he might could win With a lesser car Rest not controlling the restart I got you is what I mean

The guy that controls the restart has a huge advantage on that last restart Especially a track like Homestead which is kind of wore out You're gonna spin your tires It's gonna be important to get great traction on that restart I think Harvick is the guy that if they you know And if you line any of them up side by side and have them run two laps. I give it to Harvick every time. But I think Kyle Busch is probably going to be the one that shows the most speed throughout the weekend. But you think Harvick's going to find a way to get it done?

Yep. If it comes down, if it's close at all, I think Harvick is the one that can edge it out. And I don't know, I just don't know how to feel about tricks over the last couple weeks. I don't know whether they dialed it back a little bit. They've been a little conservative with their cars, trying not to get in the doghouse with NASCAR. And maybe they'll, you know, maybe they have a little bit more on the shelf that they just haven't shown or haven't needed to show over the last couple of weeks. I'm still going True X. All right. You're going True X. I want, I mean, I'm pulling obviously, yeah. Yeah, people, there's two different ways to look at it. Where your heart is and where your brain is. And my heart's with Martin, my brain's with Harvick. But Kyle Busch, I think we'll

have the most speed all weekend. Kyle Busch will be the fastest of the four. So he's going to be the wild card. I just don't know, you know, Kyle seems to have bad luck sometimes. You know, at the oddest times. Yeah. But him and Harvick have both won the championship by winning the race at Homestead in this format. So they both have proved they can do it. Truex was in the finals two years ago and obviously Brad's a former champion. So it's going to be a really, really exciting Final Four. I know. I know it would have been cool if Jimmy could have made it to go for eight, but I think this final four is really good. Yeah, Jimmy will go, Jimmy will be back with an opportunity next season.

Also this weekend, we got some big things happening for Junior Motorsports. Big, big things, yes. Yeah, the Xenity Series is wrapping up their championship as well. HMS, JRM pit crews were stuck in Arkansas after having to make an emergency landing with an electrical issue and we had to get some backup pit crews. We still ended up winning the race. Those guys did an awesome job. kudos to those guys, right?

Right. I mean, those guys woke up that morning thinking, I'm going to pit X car. And then all of a sudden, two hours before the race, they're like, you've got to pit these cars that are going for the championship. So that cannot be easy. But kudos and thank you to those guys who stepped in. Absolutely. I mean, you've got to have everybody chip in to win these championships,

and those guys are going to be a player if we're going to have got this done. so yeah William Byron wins William Byron wins another race for junior motorsports that puts Byron Sadler and Algeier in the championship four going up against Daniel Hemrick for RCR all Chevys

all Chevy so talk about this going into Homestead who's driving for RCR this weekend um Ben Kennedy is in the two I think I think Scott Legacy's in the three and then they're normal guys Brandon Jones and Brinanagan.

Right. So how does that, how about that's like a new rule where like Austin Dillon can't race or tie can't race in this final event. I think that if Austin, you know, that if Austin were racing or if tire racing, that would give RCR a bit of an advantage because those two guys are really, you know, talented. They'll be able to understand their cars and prove their cars, help. help Hemrick understand his car and improve his car. But that's an interesting new twist on the Xfinity series going into Homestead, is there are no cup drivers racing in those cars. So obviously Justin's going to be without Jason Burdett

because they had a penalty after Phoenix. So that may put the seven at a disadvantage. But I think Justin ran so well there last year. Yep. To where, and I know he felt like he maybe gave something up, He obviously brushed the wall a couple times, but he was going for it last year. So I wouldn't count him out just because he's not going to have Burdette. I wouldn't either.

I think that that team will be a – Burdette will do a great job this week of preparing that team. I think that he will get a qualified individual to fill in on that box for him. Absolutely. And I don't think that they're going to miss a beat. I feel just as confident about our guy in this championship with or without Jason. And that's because I know how good Jason is and how well he'll prepare this team. So we got three guys going against Hemrick. It's, you know, hopeful.

We got a great shot at it. We got them outnumbered. And hopefully one of our guys are going to pull it off for Junior Motorsports to get us another championship. Moving on to Homestead this weekend, this is a, you know, honestly, there's not a lot going on for me personally this week. I bet people are wondering, you know, what we're up to. we're actually working on our DIY show a little bit this week and then we're going to go up to Homestead on Thursday evening

so I'm not really doing anything abnormal or out of the ordinary leading up into this last event. I haven't really had a chance to look at my schedule for Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. We'll see how that goes. I'm sure it's going to fill up. We're going to be doing a lot of fun things. We're going to try. I'm going to try to get Tyler to do a really good job of covering all this on social

media. You're going to try. Yeah. I'm going to say, hey, Tyler, hold my phone and record this and put it on Instagram. We'll do it. So I'm going to try real hard to get Tyler to do that for myself, for everyone else, so everybody can see what we got going on because we'll be busy every day. Also, we want to talk about something going on in Vegas.

Yes. Yeah, so how many tickets do we have left for this thing? Are they out sold yet? It's down to under 200, so. Gosh. So this is a really cool event. I want everybody to hear me about this. It's the appreciation event.

It's kind of like the final... It's like the end of the appreciation tour, really. It is the end. It's the final event for the appreciation tour. We've been thinking about what we can do for the fans. It's November the 28th in Vegas. You can buy tickets on NASCAR.com. Also checked out our pin tweets on Facebook and Instagram.

but basically I'm going to host it like we thought about getting this special host but who cares I'm going to do it Mike Davis is going to co-host it with me because I think Mike's pretty funny and he knows he really well Mike and I guess you

and a few other people have picked the guest that will be there so we're going to bring people out and talk about my career their impact on it I don't know who these people are all these guests are going to be a big surprise and so I don't know anything else about the show. So it's going to be kind of difficult hosting it.

But let's go have some fun on November 28th. We'll have a few beers. We're going to tell some great stories and shed a few tears. Have a few beers and shed a few beers. That should have been the slogan the whole time. Yeah, no kidding. I'm really, really looking forward to this event. And the great thing about it is, so I'm going to tell the truth.

Mike and NASCAR and everybody was coming at us about doing something in Vegas and I said, I don't want to do anything that's going to be making anyone a profit or trying to do anything that's going to sell tickets to profit. So we're every dime, 100% of the proceeds will go to the nationwide children's hospital. So, I mean, every single dime. So nobody gets a dime of this money. know that you're, you know, the money you're paying for your ticket is going directly to the hospital.

You're going to be doing something great. You're going to go and have a lot of fun. And you're in Vegas. I mean, that's awesome. Right. Vegas is awesome. Yeah. So I'm looking forward.

This is like the one championship week that I'm actually really looking forward to. Aside from, you know, sometimes those banquets. You remember how long the banquets are? Yeah. I sat in it last year and it was painfully long. It was like four or five hours. I think it was. the banquet though is only an hour and a half.

Yeah, there's no like formal dinner portion. So you can just get in there, do your awards, and then bam. Hell yeah. That's what I'm talking about. So we're going to have fun time in Vegas. We got a lot of things going on there. We've got a lot of things going on other than the appreciation event that I'm excited about. That appreciation event is sort of the marquee event for us, the reason why we're going.

So check it out on NASCAR.com. Again, check out the pin tweets. on my Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Get a ticket. Come out there. Let's have some fun. All right. Now we're getting to our Ask Junior questions. As always, we get these on Twitter using the hashtag Ask Junior. First question, at Carl D. Edward 99 asked, what is your favorite memory with Matt Kinseth over the years? Well, man, it's tough to say. We've had a lot of good fun races on the racetrack,

but I enjoy riding bikes with Matt. We cycle together. So that's probably one of the things that I love the most, and I hope that I'll be able to continue to do as we broadcast the races next year. I hope that I'll still be able to go on rides with those guys, because there's several drivers out on these rides, and it's just a lot of fun because that's really the only time that we get to sit down and talk. and see what's going on with each other. When you first met, Matt, did you ever anticipate that you guys would be cycling together?

No, much less friends. I, you know, I wasn't sure how to interact with my competitors, and I looked at every competitor as like an enemy and didn't want to be friends with them, didn't know how to be friends with them. So, you know, I didn't know that we would become as good of pals as we've been over the years. And, and, you know, I didn't know. I didn't know that we would become as good pals as we'd been over the years. And, and, It's a friendship that I really appreciate and value. So we've had a lot of good races together, and it's going to be interesting to see how he handles this last one. I know that he was emotional after his win, which he, you know, rightly so. I guess we'll both be going through those emotions this weekend together. So hopefully we get some time to spend this weekend talking about it

and enjoying this together, you know. I would love to share. this last race and these last few moments with Matt for sure. They just unveiled his car for the weekend. He'll be running his rookie car as you'll be running your rookie car. That's right. Yep. Me and Matt talked earlier.

I knew about him unveiling his, I knew about him being able to run this rookie car several weeks ago, and he asked me if he thought we should take a picture. So me and him are going to get a photo made sometime during the weekend with our two cars and ourselves, which should be something me and him will really. appreciate having down the road. At Real 130 asked, did you have any luck on your hunt last week?

No. Did you shoot anything? Good question. Real. Boom. Hey, you're the one that, you're the one that picked that question. I know.

I was giving you the opportunity to say no that you... You knew I didn't have anything. You knew I didn't harvest a deer. I know. All right. I haven't pulled a bow on a deer in like three or four years. I'm getting

a little annoyed. But there is promise. My brother-in-law LW. and my uncle, Robert Jr., both missed big boys during the same week

while I was hunting with him. So the deer are out there. We just got to sit in the right stand and be there at the right time. I'm looking forward to maybe going after Thanksgiving another time with some friends and maybe my nephew Jeffrey and maybe again in uh sometime in January uh with muzzleloader so we'll see all right at chumpy d asked with your dirty mow radio show undam restricted finishing up

its first year what are your thoughts about that show you know i've really become a fan i wasn't real sure about how it was going to be perceived or how whether it would be appreciated and what it would accomplish but i think that it's a lot of fun to listen to. Dad is a cool, cool guy. He's kind of the right guy for doing that type of show. He's got a great personality, great delivery. He's just fun to listen to. And I like, even if you don't agree with what he's saying, it's fun to hear him say it. He's very opinionated, which is great. So you can get on there and listen and agree or disagree. He's very, you know, it's very fun. So I'm pretty proud of the show. It's actually, I can't take any credit for it.

Mike Davis and Datto put it together. It's their idea. So I can't sit here and take much credit for it. But it's great. I hope they continue to, you know, have a great show. Without me on the racetrack, you know, the show probably is going to evolve a little bit. But it should still be a great show geared toward the fans, by the fans, for the fans. It's going to be hopefully a long-running show for us for a while.

It's also been fun to get to know Datto and the guys on that show. they're super nice and they could not be cooler they've come to a lot of races this year i agree at d e 88 underscore rocks asked how many takes did it take to shoot the mountain do commercials with dewy rider danny mcbride they are hilarious yeah danny mcbride is a professional actor man so we didn't have to have too many takes and the great thing about him is is i didn't I had to play myself. That's pretty easy. Just be you.

He had to be a character. And he just ad-lids. Like, we would, we would do several different takes, but he would say something different every time. And they would just file all that information and file all those takes away and then edit it together and use the ones they like the best. But we shot all day long. He shot a lot. Even after I was done, he was still shooting and going. into the wee hours of the evening or the morning.

But he put in a lot of work. You know, it looks like a lot of fun. It's really funny. And they did a great job producing and editing it. But Danny is a professional and put in a lot of work to make that as good as it possibly could be. He doesn't do commercials, you know. He's a movie star. So I felt a little bit as if it was a big favor for him to be a part of that.

At Matt Action asked, do you have to move out of the driver-owner motor coach lot next year because you won't be driving? Man, that's a good question. There's a couple different lots, but I think I'll be able to stay in the driver-owner motor coach lot during the weekends when I'm broadcasting. Otherwise, you can have to be camping with everybody else. We'll see how it goes. I'm going to make a few phone calls and we'll see. at W. Rip 1937 asked how many people are on your guest list for Homestead? You probably know this answer.

There's like 15. So your mom and stepdad Willie will be there. Obviously Kelly LW. Carson will be there. The pilots are actually coming to the race. Yeah, the pilot is coming. Jeff, the lead pilot, he said he's never been to the racetrack and actually gone out to the race part. So that'll be interesting. Big tone will be there.

Big tone will be there. Mike Davis will be there. It's Sonny Lunsford and his wife and my cousin, Stacey. Yeah, so there's about 15 people. It'll be fun, but you're not going overboard and inviting everybody you know. No, we didn't do that. We just kind of invited an inner circle. Obviously, anybody's welcome to come.

If any of my friends want to go to the race, we can get them a ticket. but we just we only had a limited amount of seats in in our motor transportation and we filled them up all right that's all the ask junior questions for this week as always you can send us to questions using hashtag ask junior and we'll pick those off of twitter if you love dale junior then exalta 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 exalta racing a must follow for any Dale Jr. fan.

Looking ahead, Friday, we got practice and qualifying. Qualifies at 6 p.m. Eastern on NBC Sports Network. Saturday, we got two practices. We have the Expendity race at 3.30 in the afternoon. Yes, it's going to go into the twilight. It'll go into the night. That's at Eastern time on NBC Sports Network. And then the race is at 2.30, Eastern, on NBC.

seat the big network. Yep. You'll be on the pre-race show. You've got to interview, a sit-down interview with Bob Costas that will air live during the pre-race for that. I got you. I thought we were also doing something with some else.

Friday morning, you're going to do an interview with Michael Strahan that will air on Good Morning America on Monday. These are the things that I'm talking about where I'm going to hang you my phone and say, put this in my Insta story. Insta story. Everybody go on my Instagram. I'll be putting stuff on my Insta story.

At Dale Jr. At D-A-L-E-J-R. That's right. That's you. Everybody have a good week. I'm going back to work on the DIY project, and we'll see you in Homestead. See ya. The Dale Jr. download and all Dirtymo Radio podcasts are made possible by Exalta.

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