The Dale Jr. Download - 202 - You Gotta Grow Up Sometime

Episode Date: November 21, 2017

His final NASCAR Cup Series race is complete and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is talking about the Homestead weekend, his helmet/car trade with Mr. Hendrick, and championships for his good friend Martin Truex Jr. and JR Motorsports. 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. It's just a feeling till you let it get the best of who you are. Hey everybody. It's Dale Jr. Back again. Another episode of the Dale Jr. Download with my co-host, Tyler O'Street.

How you doing, Tyler? I'm doing good. How are you? Pretty good, man. It's over. Yeah. That was the dangerous summer. Never feel alone was that song.

So you said it's over. You're obviously talking about the Dallas Cowboys playoffs. Yes. And it was amazing. I didn't even get to see it, but I saw the score and I left. Yeah. That is not what we were talking about being over. Oh, it's not?

No. Oh. We were talking about the Panthers by week being over. Panthers by week is over. Yes. And now you're excited about that. So you get to watch the football you actually care about. Yes.

So anyways, we're home from Homestead. What a crazy weekend that will. was I had a lot of fun. You know, Sunday was fun. Compared, so everybody was like, you know, you're dreadn it. I got a couple questions in the media center Friday. Like, are you dreaded this weekend? I'm like, why would I be dreading it?

I think it, you know, kind of, I don't know what to expect or what's going to happen, but no, I'm not dreading it. And, but I will say that Sunday was, I woke up in a better mood Sunday than I thought I would. Did you anticipate being in a bad mood? Well, race days always wake up in a bad mood on race day. So I don't know if it's a confession or not, but I hated everything leading up to climbing into the car.

Hate is a strong word. But I did not, everything that I had to do was an obstacle to what I wanted to do that day, right? Yep. I wanted to just get up, go get in the car, and race. Because not that I didn't enjoy what I did, the meet and greed, or the driver's meeting and all that stuff, it just you want to race, you're there to race.

The race is what you want to do. You don't want to, you know, anything in the way is a bit of an annoyance. Yeah, it's almost like you have a long checklist of things you have to do just before. It's like, yeah, here's your chores, then you can go hang out with your friends. Yeah. That kind of thing. So, but I woke up in a great mood and everybody kept telling me like, hey, man, just enjoy it, have fun. Really generic advice about how to, you know, how to take in the day.

So I woke up in a great mood and I, you know, just had fun. We signed a lot autographs for all the fans at the driver's meeting like we always do. We went in a little bit early to do that. we signed afterwards and had fun interacting with the fans. That was fun. Intros were fun. Unintentionally kind of stood in a spot up on that stage. They had a different stage than we usually used.

Oh, yeah, it was like three times as big. Right. So there was really no, the original, the usual stage that they have caters to the drivers a little bit with places to sit. and, you know, it's a little more convenient. This stage was more for the production, and there was nowhere for the drivers to really be. So I kind of got in this one corner out of the way,

and it happened to be right where a lot of them were walking by. So I got to shake hands of a lot of the drivers and tell them how much I appreciate racing with them. I had a lot of great conversations, interactions. That was fun for me to be able to talk to a lot of the drivers. And let's see. And then we went, going to the car, being at the car and taking those photos, it's super hot, right?

Yeah, it was so hot. It was really hot. And we're right down there in the middle of the, like right on the race. The surface of the track is hot. Everything is hot to the touch. There's pretty much like, hey, sun, just bake us. A lot of people around, so wasn't much of a breeze. But, yeah, that was kind of tough.

as far as the heat before you get in the car. We were in the driver's suit and sweating like crazy and hosing ourselves down with bottled water trying to stay cool so you didn't dehydrate, but took a lot of pictures. Really didn't get seriously emotional. Only when I talked to Rick. You know, trying to talk to Rick and tell Rick.

It was easy. It's easy to thank him for hiring me. It's easy for me to say, hey man, appreciate you. me thank you for giving me everything you gave me professionally but when you when I think about what he did for me personally it's hard for me to thank him I don't know why but for some reason when I try to do that it just brings up all the fields but for people that don't know Rick and I've known each other a really really long time my grandfather Robert G on my mom's side worked at Rick's as

a body man doing bodies for Schrader and was there for years. My grandfather, even beyond his ability to work, Rick kept him on the payroll. And they said, it's not really a joke, more of a compliment, that they kept him around for morale. He was just a funny guy and a great guy to have around. They had a connection back where Rick grew up in Virginia. My granddaddy, Robert G., worked up there and had a, I think he had a service station or something,

and Rick would go there with his car and get it worked on or work on it. And they knew each other when Rick was a teenager. So Rick's had this connection to my family a really long time outside of racing and in racing. But also my uncle, Jimmy G., Robert's son, worked at Hendrick as well. for a number of years doing bodies as well for for Schrader's car and when I was my first interaction with Rick was when I was probably 16 years old I met him he came up to me at a racetrack and my dad was my dad and Trader were racing an Arker race at Topeka, Kansas on an off weekend from the Cup series Darrell Walter was also running in the race

And Rick was running in the race. Rick would race every once in a while periodically. So I was hanging around with Trader and his group all week, and then I was going to go home with Dad once Dad came to the racetrack. So I'm hanging around this motor home that Trader had, and Rick comes up and says, hey, I'm Rick. I want to sign you to a contract jokingly. We write out this contract on a napkin, and he signs it and I sign it,

and he takes it and shows it my dad just kind of joking or joking or. around my dad like hey I signed your son he's my driver if he makes it if he makes it racing do you think Rick still has that no we talk about it all time wishing we still had it yeah that would be hilarious incredible keepsake it would and we talk we talk about that story and laugh about it all the time and Rick likes to tell it so I've known him a really really long time and when I went to when I went to race for him you know we talked We talked and we were asked about, and there was a bit of a conversation that maybe we feel a void for each other. He lost his son, and I lost my dad, and maybe we kind of looked at each other to feel that void somewhat.

And as time went on, that's what happened. And at least for me, I can't speak for Rick, but for me, that's definitely what happened. He's helped me in my relationship with Amy. He's advised me there. He's advised me with my businesses outside of driving for him. Like he's advised me here at Junior Motorsports. He's just really always cared enough to try to give you. He knows enough about my life and everything that's going on in it.

And he cares enough to take the time to give me the advice that's going to help me in those situations. And there's not a lot of people in your life that do that. And so it's just hard for me to tell, to explain to him how much that, you know, he's meant to me. Man, he gave me like a second, you know, he gave me such a second chance, even a third chance, you know, but professionally. By hiring me in the first place, you know, I was, I felt like that I was going to go down with a ship at DEI if I stayed there. you know, for him to hire me and give me an opportunity to go to his place, which was healthy.

And one of the – considerate one of the best teams in the business was the first time, you know, he sort of saved my career. And then when we had our struggles in 2009, 2010 or whatever, those years where we weren't winning, any other driver would have been let go. He hung on to me, told me over and over and over that we would get right, that he believed in me and that when we got to – the right combination of people and that it would work. And, you know, I know just as well as anybody else that any other driver would have got let go in that situation. So, you know, but he eventually, stroke with luck, I got partnered with Lattard. And that was the magic switch, you know, that helped us get going, helped me get going.

And so that was the third. time he saved my career. Yeah, that was everything else that happened during the race weekend was relatively easy to handle but trying to I know he's sad about us, you know, me not driving anymore

and us not doing that together. A lot of people don't understand I think that how much we enjoy doing that together. Win or lose. I don't think a lot of people know that. So it's hard for maybe both of us to see it. in.

And we both, and he does this, he has done this over the last several months. We both talk a lot about what we're going to do together. I don't know what that is. We obviously have a dealership down to Florida that we got a Chevy store and a Cadillac GMC store that, two stores, really, they're about five miles apart, that we own together. Basically, it's half and half partnership. So we'll be partners. in selling cars for a long time.

And Junior Motorsports. Yeah, I was just going down the list. Okay. I'm helping you down the list, man. Obviously, yeah, he's an owner at Junior Motorsports as well. He says that he's committed there for the next several years. But he wants to figure out what we can do together at Hendrik as far as the motorsports program.

So however I can be involved there, however I can help. I want to do that. I love the place. I want it to succeed. So we'll see what happens. But that was probably the hardest part of the race weekend. Yeah, I don't think it seemed like everybody else, everybody was holding it together until that moment.

And then I think that maybe that hit home for everyone as far as like, okay, this is really it, it's really happening. And then everybody else from there on was sad. Or not sad, emotional. Yeah. we'll touch on the race a little bit. You know, the car, we didn't really like the car that much in practice. We would put up a fast time all in every practice.

But I told Greg, I said, man, it's thing just after three laps. It does not drive good. And the track was super, super slick. I didn't run there last year, so I haven't, you know, this track is really quickly losing grip over time. Did it seem like it was bumpier than... Yeah, around the top of turn 3 and 4, it's getting these bumps that are a little bit annoying.

But not so much on the bottom groove or the top of 1 and 2. But there's some chattery bumps around the top of 3 and 4, right where the right side tire goes, right where you want to be against the fence that are a bit annoying. But I kept telling Greg, I said, man, we've got to fix this thing. I don't, you know, you fall in love with that fast lap on the chart and you don't, you know, you kind of get a little, you maybe not some, you know, the urgency goes away about, you know, the car being really good on the long run.

So I kept telling him, you know, we got to work on, we got to work on it. Finally, we changed everything. All we kept on changing, kept on changing, kept on changing. I mean, big ticket items. And the guys are working a lot. It's hot, miserable. Finally, the last practice, right in the middle of the last practice, we made some great changes. We put a little nose weight in it.

was a awesome change we hadn't tried that all weekend we had as much or more than our teammates usually we look at the other three guys and we say all right well should we add nose weight do they have more do we you know if if if we have the most and you know it's kind of hard to add more because you don't you feel like it might be going the wrong way right but we added some nose weight that was a great change really helped the car we ran some great laps on that last set of stickers and I was happy I thought we got some to work with this is a top ten you know car, it'll run a fast lap, and it'll stay there.

When the race started, it wasn't good again. It had the same old characteristics that we had when we got there. And I just stayed calm and thought, you know, as soon as the sun goes down, this thing will lock up and go. And so we hung around, we hung around long enough. We didn't get too far behind. And right when the sun went down, it started hauling ass. You know, we started toward the back on this one restart.

and I think there were like five or six cars on our lap, all one lap down, right? So we're trying to pass, like, all these guys to get the Lucky Dog, and we did. We drove all the way up there. We called Eric Jones and we raced him for the Lucky Dog, and we were quicker, and then we cycled through a green flag pit stop, and we got by him, and so we were in position there to get ourselves back on a lead lap, and eventually, you know, just ran out of time. We also had a flat tire there to end.

I got in the fence running a little too hard, but, you can't hit the fence anymore with these things, I'll tell you that. We used to hit the fence all the time, but now you just barely brush it and you get a flat tire. Jimmy had a couple of problems with that, too. It does seem like, yeah. I don't like that. Yeah, cars being a little too delicate. But, you know, if you're going to run an inch off the fence all night, you're going to hit it.

You are. I mean, it's like racing at Darlington, get a Darlington stripe. That used to be no big deal. Is that because they took away, like they tried to make that side lighter? I don't know. I think that the wheel wells are too tight. Oh, because you're trying to suck it down? Well, I mean, they just are.

They're just shaped too close to the wheel. We get the cars. So over the years, they got rid of the ride height rules, so now the cars are on the ground. That puts the tire up in the wheel well further. That gets the fender, the top of the fender, especially closer to the tire. If you push that in, it lays on the tire going to cut it.

So that's frustrating. I think, you know, it's annoying that you can't get in a fence anymore. to put four by four wood blocks in the right side door to rub the wall at Darlington. You used to build a big old... Because you knew it was going to inevitably happen. Yeah, yeah. Yep, right off the doorbars, this was only 10 years ago. Right off the doorbars, we'd build this apparatus that would hold a four by four beam

of wood, and you'd get up there and hit the wall, and the tire would never touch the wall. because it just hit that wood and ride that wood and you'd smell a little burn wood but you wouldn't rubbing the tires or worried about, you know, pushing your fender in on the tire or anything like that. I think they outlawed that for some reason. That's what I was going to ask, is that outlawed with,

because they have that foam in the right side? I don't know. That got outlawed before the foam got there. But that was a great way to keep the car. You know, you could ride the fence if you got in the wall, no big deal. Now you can't touch it. Come on, NASCAR.

Yeah, man. So anyways, the car finished in one piece. That's key, all right, because last year when Gordon retired, Rick said I want the helmet and I'll give you the car. So in Rick's mind, I don't know why. That's a fair trade. But I heard about that and I said, hey, Rick said, Rick asked me about the, he saw the helmet.

The helmet was designed just like my helmet that I ran at Charlotte in 1999. And he saw it and he said, how many helmets are there? I won't, the one you're going to race. I said, well, I think there's just one. So, but you can have it. I heard you gave Jeff the car last year for the helmet. So can I have the car? He said, sure, you can have the car.

So, I mean. What do you can do with the car? Well, I don't know. I don't have a use for it right now, but I'd think it's one of it. Yeah, I can put it over here in Junior Motorsports. Fans here think they'd be fun to look at. Yeah, the Wrangler car is awesome, but it's been here for a while. I know.

It may be time. Yep, it might be time. Well, I don't, it's like I learned over time that, and I'm trying to preach this to these kids that come in the sport today, you might not think you want this stuff, but you will down the road. Like, I don't know what I'm going to do with this car today, but in 20 years I'm going to be damn glad I got it. Yeah. And today, like I'm running around trying to get these doors and crap off my late models and doors from the first couple bush races I ran, hoods, stuff you find on eBay. I'm trying to gather all that stuff up best I can now because I should have kept it when I had it.

Right. You know, now I've got to go find it, gather it up and track it down and try to get that history that I wish I had. So you've got everything else except for the helmet. Like the fire suit is here. Yes, the fire suits here, the shoes. that's all you you kept track all that stuff all weekend yeah me well me and Kenny the bus driver he brought it to us yesterday so we made sure

that you've got everything except for the helmet do you think that they're gonna it's mr. h going to get to keep the helmet cam I don't know it came it goes they probably want that back I was like I don't know how much that thing costs yeah I don't either but hey

and and uh which I watched a little bit of Hamlet Cam Martinsville last night pretty neat oh really they just sent you the file I have the have it on a little stick memory stick. So I was watching that. I think when I'm watching it, I'm like, man,

it's to be cool to show my girl one day. That'll be really cool to have the homestead video. Yeah, it will. I guess. I think Martinsville one's more entertaining because you're always trying to chase and pass somebody. The homestead ones might get kind of boring. But you're moving around, you're up by the wall.

That's a good point. So anyhow, the car and the helmet swap happened, so I'm glad that car finished in one piece, because if it didn't finish in one piece, I probably wouldn't want it. But, and then I'm still going to lose a helmet to Rick because he's the boss. Right, yeah.

We also, the other, that's a great thing about finishing the race and finishing one a piece was we got to pull down pit road, which led up to the plan that we were going to have some beers with the guys at the end of the race on pit road at the car. Yeah. I told them months ago, I said, I don't care what happens all race weekend. The one thing I want to happen, the one, the only request I have is that me and my guys get a moment together to have a beer toast and drink a couple beers before, you know, at some point after the end of the race, preferably right at the end of the race.

It went from a moment to, I think somebody said like 50 minutes. Right. Well, I mean, it takes a while to drink a couple beers. Oh, yeah, I drank three. It was amazing. Yeah. So there were a lot of people. Yeah.

Those red coats, the Budweiser reds, go down a little bit slower than their bud lights. Hey. But I, that was. If you're thirsty enough, they all go down the same. so cold. Apparently they've been on ice in a Yeti since Friday, so the damn thing's almost frozen. But that was great.

And it was everything that I hoped it would be, and I think it was too for the team. I think they really enjoyed that. I liked somebody, I think it was Jim Utter, it was like, yeah, there's a celebration on the front stretch, but there's a party at the ADA. That's right. That's what we want. And anybody

that was there sort of got to take that all in. I mean, you know, it wasn't just it wasn't just the team. There was a lot of industry folks coming by and a lot of fans around. It was an incredible thing to be a part of that I'm sure nobody on that team, and I'm assuming none of those fans are ever going to forget. So it was really cool. And then after that, we were finally going to go home.

So we ride on around in the golf cart onto the front straightaway, and we go up on stage to congratulate our buddy Martin Trix Jr. I'm winning the championship. I think that we all were pulling for him going into that race weekend. I got to, with the flat tire, when I come out on a racetrack, I come out behind them, and I had, you know, new tires. So I'm like, I'm just going to sit here and ride and watch this. And, man, what if I saw Kyle a couple times, you know, could Kyle had a little bit more speed.

Yeah. But Martin had the preferred groove. And so Kyle had, you know, the options that Kyle had to try to get. around Martin were going to be very very difficult yeah I think Kyle restarted maybe third and he kind of fell back and then he ran him down pretty quick and I was like man Kyle's just gonna blow by him and he got to right there and it's so hard to pass it's so slick but I mean Martin was the fastest car all year yep they 110 percent deserve to win that oh yeah yeah but

we're thrilled for him I'm I'm looking forward to the banquet more now oh yeah you know that Martin's going to be the champion he'll be on stage. Martin has fun at the banquet regardless of what happens. So as the champion, he's probably have a really, really fun week. Yeah. So, I mean, I've enjoyed the banquet over the years, but this one's going to be pretty cool. And plus there's no sit-down dinner.

It's a little quicker. I'm very... That's going to be exciting. I'm very sad for Martin's owner. He just had... Barney Visser. Yeah, Barney just had surgery. He's had some heart issues, so he's not well enough to go to this celebration.

Isn't it? Oh, he can't go to Vegas either? I don't think he can go to Vegas. Yeah, that's disappointing because he came, they brought in that car. If anybody deserves to be there, it's him. Yeah, remember their first car? It was that maroon and white and like a must, like, gross looking paint scheme. They had Kenny Wallace.

Yeah. And they put up, like, they qualified fifth, but then something would happen in the race. and then they went to Regan and Kurt Bush, and then the way Truex went there because leaving Michael Walter, it's crazy to see how that team has... And Barney has... I won't say self-funded,

but he is invested in this team. His own businesses, his own money. He's really self-made owner and created this opportunity in this championship himself. So that's really frustrating. and sad that he won't have the opportunity to thoroughly enjoy the celebration. I'm sure that Martin and Cole and the entire program will do their best to include him

and probably celebrate with him when he's well. You know, I also saw on social media there was a video of like a bar in Denver, and it's like a 78-car bar. That's awesome. It's like a football team. Everybody's in there, like a lot of Broncos jerseys and stuff, But they're all just hooting and holler and whenever he won the race. So that was cool to see because, I mean, racing, it's like you have so many different cars.

The nucleus is here. Right. There's not many teams outside of this little bubble here in Charlotte. It's cool to see that Denver embraces them like that. That is cool. We just want Barty to know how much we respect and appreciate and want to celebrate his championship. Junior Motorsports won the Xfinity Series championship of William Byron. What a weird, weird experience.

that was. You had, yeah. So, you know, obviously great problem to have, but you have three drivers racing for the championship. It comes down to the end of the race

of 20 laps to go, and you got both, both your, two of your three guys battling it out, swapping positions back and forth. And you know that the fourth guy can't win.

Yeah. Because he was like 10 laps down, so. But yeah, do you mean the... Hemrick? Hemrick, yeah. So,

basically you're sitting there watching a race knowing, okay, one of these guys is going to lose, which will suck, and then one's going to win, which is going to be great. So you didn't know whether you're kind of smiling and happy and sad at the same time at the end of it.

It was really weird. It was just strange. Yeah, it felt, this championship felt a lot different than the Chase Championship, which maybe it's because of the new points format. Yeah. But watching them race each other, it's like awesome. He passed him, but then he got passed back. That's awesome.

Yeah, I know. I'm like, I don't know who I want. to win. I couldn't, I couldn't figure it out either. It was really confusing, really weird. Like, we know all of the guys.

Like, we know the drivers. We know all the team guys. So it's like, I know both teams and the seven team also, like, they work their guts out. So it's not like, oh, go William, go Elliot. It was like watching the Redskins play the Redskins.

Yeah. It was weird. Yes. But, hey, it's an amazing problem to have. Oh, yeah. But, so. But, hey, we won. We did.

Yeah. So William wins. Williams got this, you know, amazing opportunity going forward to drive for Rick. He's got a, you know, we're sending him off as a champion. Good job. He's came through the whole system. Drove for us in the late models, cobblishing the trucks. Back to us in the Xfinity series.

He's graduating. That's our end goal as a company Junior Motorsports, right? It's to send guys on up to the next level. All right. About William Byron. So I met his dad. had probably January of 2013 before he started racing late models. And it's super nice guy, Bill Byron.

But he told us, he's like, yeah, I've got a five-year plan for my son. And it was like, he's going to run that late model. Then he's running K&N. There's run trucks, Exfinity, and he'd be in Cup in five years. I looked at that guy, and I was like, okay. Yeah. And sure enough, made it happen. Yeah, I don't know that his rise through the ranks

is ever going to be duplicated that quickly. that much success. It'll happen. It has happened, but like you say, without the success. He's earned it. He's earned his opportunities. Right. I mean, he should have won that truck championship last year.

And he won the K&N championship. So he basically wins every single place he goes. On the other side of the coin, you got Elliot Sadler, great friend, long-time friend, known him for 20 years, racing together as buddies. He's come so close the last two years. to have an opportunity to win a championship. Heartbreak both times.

This time probably more devastating to him personally. And so we chatted. We talked Sunday morning. When I got up, I was on the phone texting with him for half hour. Talking about how do we regroup. We can come back. be here again, we can have this opportunity again. Yeah.

And he sees that, he knows that, and it's going to, you know, it's going to be difficult for him as would anybody to put this behind him. But once he does, we'll regroup and rebound and be back again. I mean, I'm just glad we're going to have another shot at it. I'm glad that that wasn't his, you know, his final opportunity. Yep. I mean, one main is coming back next year. The Kevin Mendering is still the crew chief.

So it's going to be. Yeah. We're going to have our hands full with Christopher Bell. And Cole Custer. I mean, he spanked them Saturday. So it's going to be tough, but we've got good teams here. And so, yeah, I mean, we get to celebrate that. I talk to Kelly a little bit.

I think she's going to get on stage representing myself, herself, and Rick Hendrick is the owners for Williams' championship banquet. Because you did it for chases, so it's fair to rotate. I mean, I like to acknowledge Kelly's position here. Not only is the general manager, a lot of people know her as the sort of, quote-unquote, official boss, but she does have equal part ownership in the team as well as me and Rick. So I'm kind of like to showcase that, and that's the opportunity for her to get up there and do that. This means a lot for the company. We talk about morale and all that good stuff when you win.

Yeah, yeah, it's awesome and it's fun. But an Xfinity team really lives year to year, where a Cup team has, you know, three to five year plans on their sponsorships, their driver contracts, they have a better, you know, long-term vision and security even. Right. Where Xfinity teams, a lot of us,

I think most Xfinity teams run year to year. We, in this environment today, where the economy is doing so well. Some of our partnerships are two-year deals. And some of them do get done early enough in the season to feel like there's a longer-term vision. But what does this do? A win like this raises our profile as a team.

You know, other companies are going, hey. Especially they have three guys in the final floor. Other companies are looking at us and going, maybe we need to be over here. We get calls, we get more phone calls from drivers, talented drivers, that are looking for opportunity,

that may have partnerships as well that they've already, you know, cultivated. So it really, the phone starts ringing, and that's what you want as an owner in the series in any series, is the phone to be ringing and people be interested in being a part of this program.

So that's what that does for the company as a whole. I mean, obviously all the employees, you know, they enjoy that success as well. And everybody's excited and, you know, because it's a, you know, I don't know how else the word, being in the Xfinity series as well as in the truck series, it is a dicey environment. Yeah. You know, as a mechanic or a fabricator, it's difficult to have, it's difficult to feel the kind of security that you like to have, you know, as an employee. And there are a ton of people at Junior Motorsports that have been here a long time. And wins like this, championships like this, give them that security.

Right. So. And validate why they are here, why they stay here. because everybody wants to move on to the next thing, this, that, whatever, but there are so many people that are committed to junior motor sports, which is very rare in this day and age. And a lot of people, you know, would wonder, you know, what factors in there are decisions that we make,

the drivers we hire, the companies we work with, it's all these employees here. They're the first thing you think about when you make a decision with the team. The first thing Kelly's got to be. to think about is the employees. How does this affect our company and the health of our company? So this championship is a huge boost for us and gives us that opportunity to continue to churn and go back into next season with an opportunity to do it again.

So that's very exciting. All right, now we're going to get to our Ask June. your questions. First question is from at Ampcar Fan 88. Sunday was an amazing tribute to your career. What were your thoughts when you were finally downstairs alone having a beer? That my first thought was while I'm, you know, we, my first thought was I couldn't believe there's still half of a quarter. It was only halfway through the third quarter. So I was going to get to see a lot of football. Usually we get home pretty late from these three o'clock starts. don't get to watch my Sunday night football.

But I, you know, it really has, it really, it's, Amy's upstairs catching up on her shows. She watches scandal and, oh, see, she housewives and a couple of other things. She's catching up on all that. I had a couple, my buddy Sean and Sunny that everybody saw in the nationwide commercials, they came over and we talked about, we're going hunting together in a couple days. So we talked about that. and then we

you know it didn't stay up too late I was actually really tired I kept waking up at 5 o'clock in the morning Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and I'd wake up, get up, eat a sandwich, P.B. and J. And then go back to sleep for like an hour

and wake back up and I just been you know not getting enough sleep. So I got pretty tired pretty quick Sunday night and ended up going to bed around 3 o'clock in the morning. You got tired? it's a bed at 3 o'clock. Yeah, it's pretty early. No.

Well, I mean, I was in bed at 12. I, um, it was fun. We, you know, we just, you know, talked and watch TV, listening to music. We didn't, you know, with Amy, you know, keep it kind of calm and cool. And, um, we got plans to, you know, we got a little retirement thing happening in a couple days. So we'll celebrate that. at b underscore verba asked now that you're done racing full time do you have any plans to go back to germany you know germany is a long trip uh you know you got to block off if you're going to go somewhere

overseas you want to go for a couple weeks you know because the flights suck you lose a day going out yeah they coming back right so if you fly all that way you want to be there a while trust me if you fly there for a couple you know a long weekend or something it's just a lot of you know The one thing you're going to remember the most is the flight. So you've got to block off a couple weeks. I don't really have, I don't know what, I don't really know what my job looks like yet. I don't know exactly how much time this is going to need.

Plus Amy's not going to want to travel. Amy can't travel. She's not going to want me to go anywhere. I'm lucky I'm going to get to go hunting. Yeah, I don't think I'm going to Germany this year. We went back-to-back years. And sort of that second trip, although fun, was sort of enough. I think if we wanted to go anywhere and go that far away,

we definitely tried to see another part of the world. Kind of mix it up. Yeah. At Zach 1H, do you have any good stories of Truex from the Chance 2 Motorsports Days? Oh, man. Or didn't he live on your property? Yeah. When Martin first came here, he actually moved into my house

and lived in a room just down the hall from my bedroom. I had three bedrooms. And he lived there for six months. And then I had a house about 100 yards down the hill from mine and had some friends living in there. He eventually moved into that and ruined with Sean. Okay. And they lived in there together for a while, a couple years.

And then once Martin and Sherry got serious, they moved in together into Sherry's house, I guess. But which, we just, you know, Martin was racing on Saturdays. I was racing on Sundays. When I come home, they were hanging out on the back porch and go down there and have a beer and hang out a little bit. but Martin is, he was never a wild guy. He was never the life of the party. He's just a great person to be around. He's that you can depend on him to be there.

You can depend on him to be that guy that will have a beer with you when you want to have a cold beer. But he's quiet and reserved. and he likes to see everybody else to be the goofball or, you know, he's kind of, you know, he kind of the guy just kind of sitting in the corner checking it all out. But so I don't have any crazy stories about Martin. He's a guy that's, loves to hunt.

We spend a lot of time today, these days, hunting. We bought property together a lot. Me and him made a big investment a couple years ago together. uh... in a piece of property and our intentions is that this is our property forever you know and we're gonna great we're gonna we're gonna uh... you know sort of build this property up and and uh... this will be a place where

my kids will go and and his family will go and well he'll enjoy the rest of his life and we'll share that you know and that's what's great is knowing that we have something that's not work related uh... that we can enjoy together for a long time you know you that means a lot to me that me and him will remain friends. It's one thing to say, hey, man, we're pals. But do you spend time with that person?

Do you go, do you take time to be with them and do things and enjoy things together? And so this property is that link for us. And, man, it's fun to be. Martin's such a great hunter. He has, he builds his arrows on the weekends. in his bus in between practices and in the evenings. I remember that one time he flew with us somewhere and he got on the plane. He had all his arrows ready to go.

Right. So he'd been building arrows all weekend in his bus. He's a serious hunter. And I'm not. I'm just kind of, I'm a hobbyist with it. My bow comes out of the case when the season opens. I don't shoot it during the, you know, all season. He does.

He shoots every day. And so I look. You know, it's great to have him to be able to learn from him and hunt with him and learn how to, you know, develop this property the way we need to and understand what the deer doing, why they do it, why they do what they do. And it's just really cool. So I'm going to enjoy that for a long, long time. But, yeah, I mean, there's really no crazy Martin story. I remember, oh, well, I'll tell you this. We went to, I remember the, I remember the day Martin moved out of just.

Josh's, or not Josh's, but Sean and him's house that they were sharing. So me and Martin went to Cabo for a week during offseason. And Martin stayed up for two days at the end of the trip. Didn't sleep. And everybody's going to their rooms to go to bed, and he's banging on everybody's going to their rooms to go to bed. And he's banging on everybody's door. What are you doing?

We got one more day. Get up. get up, all night long, trying to get everybody to get up. And he was just uncharacteristic for him because he usually doesn't have that kind of energy. But he stayed up for two solid days, ran himself into the ground, felt like crap all the way home. And when he got home, he must have been talking to Sherry because he packed all his stuff up. And the next day, Sean comes home from work and Martin standing on the front porch walking out the door, got his truck loaded up with all this crap. and and uh

Sean said what the heck man where are you going he goes you gotta grow up sometime that was his quote to Sean because apparently um he felt like that that trip was his last hurrah before he even though he was the right yeah maybe that's when it hit him when he felt so bad I think he had an epiphany

um on his ride on his plane ride home from Cabo that if you feel bad enough you'll grow up yeah he needed to move in with Sherry but uh I don't know I'm trying to think. Should have prepared for that answer a little bit better, but... We can go on. Martin was a saint.

Love Mark. I'll tell you one thing. His favorite drink is Captain and Coke. Oh, really? Well, he drinks it with Dr. Pepper a lot, too. At T.J. Mingo 22 asks... He has a Captain Morgan statue in his garage. Does he really?

Yeah, I tried to buy it from a couple times. At T.J. Mingo 22 asks, do you think that the championship race should be held at different tracks each year like the Super Bowl is? You know, I think that, yeah, I don't know why not. You know, why not? That would be... Especially now that it's a championship race. Yeah.

Yeah, I think that that would... Why couldn't they shuffle the final ten, you know? Just don't have the final race be a road course. Why not? No. No? Because... Man, that would be drama.

I know, but, like... That would be some drama. Say I'm a fan of yours and you make the final four. Are you about to talk crap about my road course racing? I feel like that this is about to piss me off. So what if you're in the final four at a road course? Well, the next year maybe it's Talladega. I know, but what if you don't make it the next year?

This is all so hypothetical. I know, but I'm just saying it could happen. Anything is possible. Well, all right, if you want to look at it from terms of your favorite driver, then you want it to be the same track every year. Talladega. Okay. But if your favorite driver is, you know.

AJ Almondinger. AJ Amundinger, then you'd want it to be a road course every year. If you want it to alternate it, it has to go to every type of track. It can't just be, well, we're alternator, but no road courses. Yeah. That's not fair. Yeah. Maybe it just intermediates.

Why? Those are the most freaking boring races we have. Bristol. What are you trying to do? Kill us for it. Martinsville. Put it at Martinsville. All right. That would be paying a moment. Martin'sville, it is. I mean, we saw what happened there last time.

I know. They would be fighting if that happened in a championship. Those rivalries and upset feelings would still be there in Daytona come February. At Jay Keiser asked, when will you decide which Xfinity races you're going to run? Is there a chance that number increases based on sponsorship? Yes. So I've explained this before. I'll do it again. And the reason why I run any Xfinity race is because of sponsors called us and they say we want to be a part of Junior Motorsports.

We'll offer them a package. All right. So that package will say you can use Dale and you can use me and my likeness in your marketing. I'll run a race for you in any market that you want to concentrate on. so they get to kind of choose the race market and we'll say all right and with that we're going to put you on the seven

the one the nine whatever for eight ten races and that's how we try to sell we're trying really the goal for us is to get those eight or ten races on the other cars that's what we want two and three race packages are good but we need like the bigger deals I won't do it if it's just one race for me.

That does nothing for junior motorsports but probably costs us money. We don't make money. And it pulls away from the other teams. We don't make money if I just go one race somewhere. So what we're trying to do is get sponsorship for all our cars. Just because some of those cars, like the seven car, might have ten races open. So we're trying to feel those ten races. and that's why I run a race when I do.

So anyways, how do we decide? You know, usually the sponsor decides what market they want to focus on, but I can have some influence there as well. I'd love to run Homestead next year. That would be your top of the list? That'd be toward the top. That'd be top three. Okay.

Yeah. I'd like to be the other two. I think, you know, I'd love to do those races in the second half season since tomorrow we're going to be in the track. That keeps my weekends open in the first half the year to be able to do whatever it is I'm going to need to be doing because I don't know what I'm going to be doing or what they want me to do. That leads right into at B. Jones 2-3199's question.

They asked, do you think you'll come to the track some during the first half of the season before NBC takes over? Yeah, I will. I want to go to Daytona 500. I want to be there for that race. I think it's important. Race for our sport. If I care about sport, like I say, I do, I would, you know, I'll be there. I also think I need to go to a handful of races maybe four or five leading into the booth.

so I'm boots on the ground, understanding what's going on in sport, down in the garage, talking to guys, learning everything, you know, trying to stay current. I think that as a broadcaster coming right out of the driver's seat, you can probably get away with not preparing quite as much because everything's so fresh,

but as the years go by, the technology changes and the terminology and everything that's happening in a sport revolve so quickly, you've got to be in the garage, talking to the drivers, talking to the crew chiefs, trying to understand and stay in current, with everything that's happening, so you can talk about it intelligently in the booth.

If you don't, trust me, being a driver, the drivers will call you out. They might not speak about it publicly, but the drivers have broadcasters they appreciate, and broadcasters they don't. And so, you know, I want to be one that the guys appreciate that thinks, you know, drivers like broadcasters that are down in the garage asking questions.

Yeah. Right. They don't like broadcasters that show up and go right to the booth, and that's all they're up there talking about the sport, but they're never in the garage. You know, drivers appreciate that. And you need that line of communication to all the drivers. You need to be able to text them at a moment's notice

and say, hey, I got a question about X, Y, Z, why does this happen? Why did y'all say this? What's going on over here? You had to have that same communication with all the crew chiefs. I'm going to have all kinds of new crew chiefs, phone numbers in my phone. you've got to be able to talk to, you know, O'Donel and all those guys and have their,

you know, so you've got to maintain their relationship. So I'll be at the racetrack. A handful of races leading up is probably me and the Tart and Burton. We'll just go and stay current. But in between Daytona and that, I don't really know. I'll just kind of take, take. Probably not going to be going in April and May around the last month there. Yeah, May I asked, I talked to Sam Flood, my boss, and asked him if I could have May off,

and he said no problem for when the little girl comes. It'll be exciting. I'm not going to want to go anywhere and do nothing. Exactly. Yeah. All right, that's all the Ask Junior questions. As always, you can send us these questions on Twitter using the hashtag Ask Junior. Thanks for all the questions that people have seen this year.

Absolutely. I mean, it's appreciated. They've been great. The question's been great. And, yeah, the fan questions have sparked better conversation than my topic. anyway. That's funny. If you love Dale Jr., then Exaltor Racing is your go-to social media account on Facebook,

Instagram, and Twitter. It brings you Insiders info all weekend long on the 88 team. It's at Exaltor Racing, a must follow for any Dale Jr. fan. All right, we're looking ahead. Happy Thanksgiving. Thursday's Thanksgiving. That's looking ahead. Yeah, I mean, the season is over.

We're not doing much anymore. All right. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. I'm going hunting. I don't know what everybody that's doing on Thanksgiving, but I'm going to go hunting. Actually, on Thanksgiving Day, I'm going to spend that with mom. Amy and I are going up to moms.

Kelly moved. We all used to live on the property together, right? Kelly was there, mom was there. Well, Kelly moved. And so I put mom in Kelly's house because it's got pool. And so we're going up to moms. She just moved in like a week ago. She's thrilled.

And so we're going to go up there and enjoy that. And then after Thanksgiving, I'm going hunting with Sean and Sonny. And maybe Jeffrey. He still hasn't told me whether he's going or not. Come on, Jeffrey. While he's dragging his feet. Yeah. Come on.

He's got the beard for it and everything. He's ready. He loves to hunt. What the hell? I've invited him on a hunt, and he didn't jump up down excited. I'm a little concerned. But I'm kind of frustrated about that. Oh, hopefully he doesn't listen to this podcast and hear your frustration.

Why? He needs to be calling me and saying. I'm excited to go hunting with you and I'm there. Yes. I'll be the first one in the truck. Next week, in appreciation, this is important. All right, so, and I know a lot of people probably seen this on social media and so forth,

but this is something I'm excited for everybody to consider coming to. It's called Inappreciation. It's an evening with me in Las Vegas. Tickets are still available at championsweek. NASCAR.com. Championsweek.nascar.com. We just opened up some new price ranges, if folks are interested in checking that out.

Basically, here's what we're going to do. All right, so my brand team, Mike Davis, you, NASCAR came to me and said, I want to, we want you to do something. We want to do something during Champions Week. And I'm like, it's kind of weird for me. I'm not uncomfortable with that. It's supposed to celebrate the champion.

to take anything away from that. And plus, I'm not doing anything that's going to make anybody any money. I don't want to sell tickets to race fans and profit NASCAR or profit anybody, myself included. So they said, okay, we'll run all that by NASCAR and see what they think. So they came back and agreed that all the proceeds, every dime, every cent, goes to the nationwide children's hospital. No dime, no penny, goes to NASCAR.

Nothing comes to me or anyone else. So we're going to, we thought about getting a host. I said, Mike, let's me and you host it. So me and Mike Davis are going to host it. That's going to be fun. We're going to screw up. People are going to laugh. And I don't want to know who the guests are.

So Mike's going to get the guests and bring them out, and I won't know who it is until they're coming on to the stage. And we're going to sit down. And it's going to be people that I assume that have been impactful in my career. But that's going to be a big surprise and fun. That'll, you know, there'll be a lot of fun conversation and storytelling. So I'm going to interview these people, but I don't know who they are. That sounds like a disaster.

Right. Don't you, but you want to watch, right? Yes. So anyways, go to championsweek. NASCAR.com, check it out. New price ranges. Tickets still available. Going fast.

I hope people will come on out. Even if you don't stay for the whole Championships Week. Tuesday night, it's going to be good and it's for a great cost. Absolutely. Every penny goes to the nationwide children's hospital.

And that's it, folks. That was a great show, Tyler. Is this 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 this 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 going to be. 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?

Or is it feeling what you want to happen? But all I want to do is have it. I'm not strong enough to breathe. Am I wrong? Or is it feeling what you want to happen? to happen. The Dale Jr. Download and all Dirtymo Radio Podcasts are made possible by Exaltah.

You can subscribe to all eight programs on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, and all major podcasting outlets. As always, you can listen to all eight programs. to Dirty Mo Radio podcast on Dale Jr.com. Follow us on Twitter at Dale Jr. At Overstreet Tyler and at Dirty Mo Radio. Also, check out the Dirty Mo Radio Facebook page. Thanks for listening to Dirty Moe Radio.