The Dale Jr. Download - 204 - Hey Fallon, Bless My Baby!

Episode Date: February 6, 2018

Dale Earnhardt Jr. breaks down his Super Bowl experience, his new life as a broadcaster, Jimmy Fallon blessing his baby and the great iRacing debate of 2018. 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.

All right. Are you ready? This is Dale Jr. And you're listening to Dirty Moe Radio. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. And you are listening to the first Dale Jr. download of 2018. And this year's a little different.

We have a new co-host. Mike Davis is back. What's up? Was that a new Dangerous Summer song that we just listened to? No, that's not a new Dangerous Summer. But you will hear some Danger Summer in the show. They have a new record out, so you'll hear some of that as we go further into the show. So what are we going to talk about today, Mike?

Well, listen, I mean, you just got back from Minnesota. You look like you've thought out. You look cold on the TV. Yes. I got a lot of questions. You and I have not talked about your time as an NBC broadcaster, so I'm eager to ask you questions about that. I want to hear all about the Super Bowl.

I want to hear about people you met. I think we got to talk about the off-season. There seems to be a lot of grumpiness, a lot of crabby drivers. You're not one of them anymore, so I'm sure you've got something to say about that. I'm going to hit you with all of it because we've got a whole off-season to catch up on new show new co-hosts new producer Matthew Dillner that's all next on the delgroom download Dale Jr., seriously the experience of being a broadcaster you know thank you NBC for not even sending you to an orientation you basically got thrown

into the deep end my friend what was it like yeah it was a lot of fun we had really no idea what we were going to get ourselves into at the Super Bowl still even to day, no clue what's going to happen in South Korea for the Olympics. People were asking, hey, you know, what are you going to be doing? I really don't know. I think when I get out there, they'll have a good idea where maybe I'll fit and work me into some pieces. But we showed up basically going completely blind on Thursday right into creating a skit that we

all saw, the produce skit of me and Rutledge Wood, who is an incredibly nice guy, really talented. We got to know each other quite well through this whole weekend. And so I'm excited about working with him in the future. But I had no idea when I got there what we were doing. So the first whole day we spent making that little skit doing all those activities. And honestly, when it started out, we were out on that lake at 7 o'clock in the morning ice fishing. And it was freaking way cold. It was 8 degrees, something like that. Wind blowing across that lake. Nothing really blocking that, you know, that wind.

So it just your face was, your face hurts so bad. It looked it. Yeah. And, you know, half the people there are like, oh, man, you know, that's nothing. It gets way colder. You guys aren't, you know, seeing none of the hard stuff. And then half the people are like, yeah, this is not good. This is very, this is not normal.

So, you know, we didn't feel too bad for, for being very chilly. Because it was pretty cold. But one of the funny things was we drove out onto this ice in cars, right? You know, big suburbans and so forth. The ice is frozen two feet thick. At least that was what we were told. But all these cars, there were probably eight or ten cars kind of converged on this one area

where we're going to drill this hole and me and Rut were going to film this little skit. And I'm thinking, is it safe for all these cars to be sort of parallel parked in this one confined space? Right. And I'm trying to talk to our driver that we had all weekend. I'm like, can you kind of pull maybe like 50 or 100 yards over to the left in case this thing starts to crack? But the ice held, it's incredibly thick. Ice fishing, I feel comfortable saying, was not fun. We didn't catch anything.

We weren't in a hut. Anyone that goes out there for the most part gets in a tent. There's heaters, usually beer. we saw some people that had the shacks. We saw trucks. Guys have these like miniature, it's like a UPS-style van or truck, and they're on airbags,

and they'll drive them out, and then they'll deflate the airbags, and it sits down and the seals off into the ice, and they sit in the truck with TV and radio and whatever, and ice fish. And that sounds like a lot of fun. I'd do that all the time if I was, you know, living up in Minnesota.

But sitting out there on a barrel, on a five-gallon bucket was not fun. And so we did that for about 45 minutes. We got out of there, rode the snowmobiles. That was pretty good. Still, though, it was about 10 degrees. So 80-mile-hour in a snowmobile at 10 degrees is very cold. But it's fun to be moving and doing something fast. Then we went and did the broom ball.

Now, I talked about the broomball being my favorite, and it really was. We were behind this kind of bar restaurant. So at any moment, if you wanted to stop playing broomball and walk in and get a beer and warm up, that was there. So being able to play broomball, the hockey rink is like a half size or maybe even smaller, maybe a quarter size of a real hockey rink. And it's handmade with plywood, and it's on the lake. So it's on this two-foot frozen ice. the fact that it's not perfect makes it fun.

And it's a community activity. People were coming from down the street with their broomball sticks. And husbands and wives were literally out there playing against each other. And they have leagues. It really reminded me of our company softball league. And so everybody's out there playing, laughing. Nobody's a pro. And the ice sort of levels the playing field a little bit against the guys and girls.

So you're wearing these big shoes. So you can't, you can run, but you're risking busting your butt. Yeah. So everybody kind of shuffles around. And you just try to find a gap in the defense, and they'll try to pass the ball to you. And it's so much fun. And trying to swing and hit this little volleyball with this stick and get it to go the right way. It's really difficult.

But I could see a dirty moh brun ball league. I mean, I totally could. They have a broomball league down at Charlotte Checkers Arena. And they play, they have a, I just saw on their Instagram. they have a season coming up. Because you've been Googling this. Well, they tagged me in their post, so I got to see that. Which makes me excited because I thought the next time I'd play Broomball would be the next trip to Minnesota or up north.

But apparently if I want to play it, I can, there's pickup games. Who knew? Now at this arena. So that was really, really fun. And I think the scojoring was equally as fun as the Broom ball, but it's a little more singular or something. you do by yourself. You're with the dogs, which was great. The dogs were super nice. The dogs were affectionate. You know, you think a dog like that that's sort of trained and has the mentality to pull someone up a hill is not going to be a dog that's going to lean up

against you and want to be pet, but they were great dogs. So working with them, that made working with them a lot of fun. How do you stop yourself, though? I mean, you're really, you say, whoa. So they're that trained. Yeah. You say, as you saw me coming by in the, skid, I'm hike, hike, hike, hike, I mean, you have to continue to say hike, that's go. And you have to continue to say it. They'll wonder why you're not saying it. And they'll look around and go, what are we done? But I would have to think somewhere in scojuring history, there is that one dog that didn't go woe.

Oh, I'm sure there's, I'm sure there's possible. I mean, as you start to sort of scissor your skis and pull, put a little pressure and you can pull that rope, that's, they're going to, they're going to, to turn and go, what's going on? Have you fallen? You know, the dogs, well, any time we fell, which I fell a ton, they didn't show that. We only showed rut falling. Where did we get that footage? I fell a lot.

I was the first one to fall. Really, I don't even think we were moving and I had fallen. Were you self-conscious about that or did you not really care at that point? I mean, did you want to be the first one to fall? I mean, you got Rutledge out there. He don't look like the biggest athlete. Of course you don't. Nobody wants to fall at all.

Rutledge looks like he could be, you know, a good candidate to fall. Yeah. he did he fell just he probably fell as much as me but I eventually having learned a ski just this new years I had I had this uh competitive juice flowing and I was like man I'm gonna figure this out you know and I went and went until I figured it out I think Rutt was more like let's just capture the footage we need and let's get out of here right but you have to put on these special shoes and get into the ski there's a little effort there and you're like I'm just going to head and figure this out and do it for I have to because I put all this effort into getting ready for it and getting this

harness on and tied to this dog. There was a funny shot in that skit, though. I mean, like, I audibly laughed out loud, and it was where Rutledge I think was fallen, and then you just... Come back by. Yeah, you just kind of go in shot, out shot. Just, dogs just...

The funny thing... Digging. Yeah, the funny thing about that is that we didn't set up, we never staged any of those shots. Like, okay, we're going to have rut falling, Dale's going to come by, we never did it like that. The scojoring course for me was about 500 yards long and I would just go from one end to the other back and forth, back and forth,

back and forth. And we just happened to capture that. That's just actually how it happened. Sure. It would appear as we may have staged, you know, okay, let's get Dale coming by, almost hit him. Or, you know, we got to put rut fall in here. But no, that's really how it played out.

We played a lot, we played a lot of broom ball that didn't get shown. We had so much fun doing it that we didn't really want to quit playing and go to the next thing. But there was a lot of broom ball that didn't get. didn't make the show. So that was just Thursday. We were out all day long, hours doing that. Friday and Saturday were rehearsals,

which I didn't know were as thorough as they are. So this is the biggest sporting event and TV event in the year, right? And there's a five-hour pregame show, which you wouldn't even think about it as a fan watching at home. You wouldn't even add up the time. and go, man, that's a lot of, you know, it's five hours. You just go, okay, the pregame show on and watch it. And you stand around with your friends and you joke and you're in the, you know,

you're in the kitchen one minute and you're in the living room next. You don't even think about how long these guys are actually on the TV doing this pregame show. And they rehearsed the pregame show on Saturday from start to finish in real time. The whole show. That's five hours. So when Dan, so we started at 9 o'clock in the morning, and Dan Patrick and those guys were still going at 4 p.m. Wow. on rehearsals.

And I was just so, so impressed with that work and the effort they put into it, what it takes for Dan Patrick and those guys to sort of be turned on. And they got to be turned on all week. There are so much preparation for those guys. And they, you know, they sort of hone their segments. There's so much there. It's just there's so many moving parts. I was in the production meetings for the first time.

I walked out of the production meeting ready to, ready to tackle somebody, you know. I felt like, you know, I'm thinking, man, production meeting is probably pretty busy, but at the same time boring. We go in there and we sit down. We're watching, you know, they go over the whole show, one piece after the other,

and Sam Flood, our boss is sort of telling everybody, all right, this is what I expect here, this is what I expect there. And by the end of this whole meeting, you're like, I'm just, let's, this is going to kill. We're going to, we're going to dominate this, you know? And I would have never imagined dealing that way. The production meeting in itself has how many people in it?

There's probably about 40 people in the room. So we're talking about all the on-camera people that were in that pregame show, which is a lot of people. Tony Dungy and John Harbaal. You know, Dan was in there, Rutledge Me. And then you have all the producers. And it was just Sam sort of orchestrating the whole thing. And that's who you hear in your ear all day long.

He's sort of in everyone's ear saying, all right, this is next get ready. You know, it's really hard to explain, but it's a very, very impressive thing to be a part of. So that was basically, you know, Friday and Saturday were rehearsals. We went to Dan Patrick's radio show just to watch because me and Rutledge are huge fans of his. And he, to me, he's like the Yoda of broadcasting. He's the best interviewer that I've ever met. And so I want any opportunity to sit and watch him is good. good for me and a lot of fun.

Got to watch him and Al Michaels talk, which was really amazing. I didn't, he drug me on the show for a few seconds, which was cool. I didn't, didn't ask for that, didn't expect that. He's sponsored by Trager Grills, which they had, so they had some smoked barbecue with ribs there, which was awesome. So that made me want to be on the show every day. You know what else about him? He's so kind.

He's like, like, and I don't use that loosely because I'm just saying the dealings I've had with Dan Patrick. Look, I'm not somebody he needs to just go be overly kind to, right? Like, he didn't have to do that. But he is a generally, like, nice person who cares about people around him. And he cares about you. I know this because I was talking to him. We were trying to get him for the appreciation event in Las Vegas. I don't know if I've even told you that. And he told me to call it, called his home phone, right? I mean, Dan Patrick. And so Dan and I had these conversations about him trying to make it out to Las Vegas to be a part of this event. And I'm blown away about how much of a people person he is.

Yeah, I was talking to Sam Flood about how nice everybody has been and how just these are really good people. And he told me he's like, we don't, that's what we hire. We have good people, we have winners. And that's really comforting for me because I'm a fish out of water, particularly at the Super Bowl and the Olympics. It's going to be an intimidating, situation going into this for my for my first few jobs but everybody from Dan on down to I'm we

I got you know it's funny I got a chance so when I go to major sporting events or anywhere for that matter you you don't want to be in the way right you kind of stand where you feel the most comfortable wherever that is and being a employee for NBC once I learned where the NBC offices were in the stadium and where the big truck compound was, I felt that was my comfort zone, you know, and I could go in there, and I'm standing there looking at Dan Patrick and all those guys prepare and get ready and there's Sam Flood's office. And I felt it was just so surreal to be in that area, you know. People don't even know this exists in the stadium. It's basically the same truck compound we have at the NASCAR races. And it's a really impressive

circus that sort of travels from track to track. I was really, I was intimidated, but as I got to know, the family and the NBC folks and everybody involved, I got more and more comfortable and felt like, man, this is, everybody here just wants to succeed and everybody's supportive. Tony Dungey, incredible nice guy. I got a chance to sit and talk to John Harbaugh just in the green room. They had this little green room beside that hill we were on doing most of our spots. So I spent quite a bit of time in this green room just sitting, waiting on our opportunity to go on TV with John.

And what an approachable, conversational, he is really down to earth. But it was a, so anyways, you know, we got through rehearsals and then it came Sunday and it was time to do the real thing. By that point, I had been prepared and put it in a position to succeed. That's cool, because I was going to ask you, how nervous were you? Yeah, I was. You made an entrance. They gave you with this, I don't know, what was? What was that?

We call it snow cat. There was another name for it. I forget what it was, but it was very complex. But me and Rut decided just to go with Snowcat. That was very simple and easy remember. You and Rut defining things on the way you want them. It was really literally this thing was only about 25, 30 feet down this hill. And I just had to turn the break off, mash the gas, and go.

And Rut jumps off and he introduced me and I pop out. And I've talked to Dan so many times. and Dan has made me feel so uncomfortable with him on his radio show. And the funny thing about Dan is that when you get done answering questions to him on his radio show, he says, all right, thank you, Dale, for coming on, whatever. The next thing he does is compliment you. He'll go, Dale Jr., so good to have him on, this is why I like having him on. And I always hang on to the phone to hear that, you know, because it's like, yeah, you know,

it's so great to hear that from Dan. So I know how Dan feels about me, and I know how I feel about him. And so talking to him was easy. And we've done that so many times on his radio show that I wasn't nervous at all in that moment. And they're so. In the snow cap, you were not nervous. Not at all. I was more like.

When it was game time. Yeah. When you know you're going to be live on the free game Super Bowl, you were not nervous at all. I was nervous. I was more. I was, you know what I was? I was more like jumping up and down, like, let's get the game started. Oh, my God.

I was nervous for you. I'm like, God, if he falls, if he slips on ice, this is the YouTube video the day. And I'm like, not even that. I'm going to have to tweet it because that's something I would tweet. I mean, like, I was nervous for you. I was nervous in the rehearsals doing it the first time. But damn, by the third or fourth time, you jump out of that thing. And you stop at the first couple times that you jump off and you start talking to Dan,

the first couple times you're really and I'm not saying that I was great Sunday I got a lot I wanted to get better and I know I can You didn't go viral in a bad way That's less success for me The first few times you jump off there Start talking to Dan, you're real robotic And the great thing about being able to rehearse

Is you kind of can shake some of that out And by Sunday Everybody was the whole team The team NBC I mean Sam Sam's in your ear going All right, guys, we're going to kick some ass. Let's make some TV magic guys.

This is it. Wow. You know, he's in your ear, like pumping you up. He's a tarting you. Yeah. Gotcha. He's doing that a whole day. He's doing that in the production meeting.

I mean, he's got a real great, I mean, he's serious, and he's a no-nonsense kind of guy, but he's also, he's supportive, you know, and he holds everybody up and prepares them for the takeoff, you know. So it was really, you know. You're sitting there like, you know, heck yeah, here we go. You know, this is for real, you know. That's the, it is so exciting. That's the way the booth felt when I got in the booth in 2016. I got in there and you're like, yay, we're finally going to get to do this, you know, talk some racing.

And when it's over, you're like, I don't want to leave, you know, I don't want to have to go. I want to stay in here. Look, you're having, listen, if you leave this experience and you're like, I did not feel like it was work, it was having fun. Yeah. then we've made the right decisions in life. I mean, am I wrong? Oh, yeah. Because I didn't know what you would come back with.

I hadn't talked to you. You texted me when you were done. You're like, how did that look? And I'm just like, I was still trying to kind of like process everything because you had done two live spots and that Thursday segment that you guys had taped. I didn't even expect that much. No, I didn't expect that much. Once I got, I mean, it was fun.

Once I got done, though, I still, I got this craving news. get into the racing. You know, there's doing that. The fish out of water is kind of what we keep calling it. I'm going to do that at the Olympics. It's exciting. It's a thrill. It's kind of like the dessert to the real thing.

I mean, the dinner. The dinner's going to be the cup season, but I'm kind of like eating my dessert first. Nothing wrong with that. I know. But I cannot. As fun as this weekend was, is exciting. and I feel if I ever, ever, ever get a chance to do the Super Bowl again,

what a great experience. That's your first? That's my first Super Bowl. We've had more opportunities to go to Super Bowl. I mean, we've had opportunities probably to go to every Super Bowl if I really think on it. And Dale Jr. has never been interested in going. He would come up with some of the lamest excuses. Like, because the skins weren't in it?

No, no. Racing. No, I promise you he never planned on that. Even though we're not in the race season. This is hard to explain, and this is totally off topic. But until I, like when I drove cars for a living, I didn't want to do nothing else. Even in the middle of the off season, I'm like, I ain't going nowhere. I ain't got it a couple days to be in the off season.

I ain't going to waste it at the Super Bowl. The skins ain't there. You know, if the skins were there, maybe I'd go. Probably I'd go. When you're a race car driver, man, it can make you a grumpy, miserable. person and you carry you're this competitive grumpy uh soul year round and as soon as i was out of the car in 2016 and had this long break and i got free of that in my you know that thing whatever that was i got out in my shadow man was it nice if i was asked to be in the be in the light be in the

pregame for the super bowl two five 10 15 years ago i would have done anything thing possible to get out of it. No doubt about it. Get out of the race cars and retire from race car driving. Get asked to do that. Hell yes. Put me in, coach. But hold on.

This sounds great. I don't, you know, what am I doing? They don't know. Okay, I don't care. Let's just go. But you and I went to a driver development seminar and we implored those young guys. And our motivation came from a meeting the week before where we found out there were some drivers that had been invited to go to the Super Bowl because NBC is trying to help

promote NASCAR. I mean, they don't even have their races until the second half of the season, and yet they're promoting the Daytona 500, trying to get people, and there were drivers that turned that down, and you actually got mad about that. Did you not? Well, see, because I did get mad about it because of the way I feel today. I was that guy when I started my career,

and through most of my career, I would turn it down. I don't, you know, it wasn't important to me to be famous or it wasn't important to me to help grow the sport, or I didn't look at those things as opportunities to grow the sport. I didn't look at those things as opportunities to grow my fan base. I just looked at them as a pain in the butt. Didn't want to do it. And as I got toward the last two to four years of my career,

I started to realize, man, all those things, as I start to wind my career down and reflect on my career, I think, man, yeah, that did really, you know, that Rolling Stone article did really bring a bunch of new fans in the sport. that did introduce me to a ton of people that didn't know NASCAR that still followed me today. And I'm like, okay, that is important. That is, that's what these, okay, we got this great crop of new guys coming in. They need to be doing these things.

I have learned some mistakes. I mean, we've made that. I'm sure. Yeah, I mean, you got to remember, Dale Jr. was in Super Bowl commercials for the first eight or nine years of his career. I mean, with Budweiser, he was in them every year. Feels like me is only in there about two or three times. Yeah, that's not right, though.

No, no, it was. I remember the designated driver spot. With Ed Helms? Yeah. Did you know that Ed Helms was in that spot with me? Ed Helms is the designated driver. Or no, he's the guy I'm taking home. He's a drunk.

Ed Helms was... Yeah, you're the race. So I'm... Yeah, so this was like 2001, 2001, 2002. Ed Helms was a stand-up comic. And being him set in this car on a trailer for about six hours in the middle of the night in L.A., filming this commercial for the Budweiser, designated driver commercial. I'm driving at Helms home, and I asked him about what he was doing.

He's like, I'm a stand-up comic trying to make it. Yeah, he was a no name. He was a no name, right? I mean, but look, anyways, I got to ask you one more thing about the Super Bowl. We're name dropping this a little bit. Well, I mean, might as well. It's okay when the name dropping the non-famous version. Well, look, all right.

Well, let's name drop Truex, Philly fan. I was glad that Truex was not on some light pole yesterday. Did he survive? I guess. I asked him if he got into anything last night. He said just a little bit, but he's on his way. Which means he got into a lot. Did he stay there?

Yeah, he spent the night. Good. All right, well, now I'm really glad that I didn't see him on there. Because I saw some pictures. I mean, did you look at all the Philly fans last night? Is it true that, um, uh, Philophane ate some more shit? You want to see it? Literally ate crap.

Of course I don't. No, you don't want to watch that. Of course you do. No, you don't, but I'm telling you. But you do wink. I've got, no, no. That makes me so nauseous. It is horrible.

It's Philadelphia, man. Let's just be honest. I saw him turn. You don't surprise. Yeah, I saw them turn. I saw fires and sometimes I was watching this one video and you're like, man, it's this staged footage from some. No.

Apocalyptic. They were planning. I was listening to the Philadelphia Police scanner. Yeah. And they were like, here they come. What do you do? Where do you go to listen to the Philadelphia police scanner? They're like, dude, it's everywhere.

Are you in a bunker? Online. You don't ever listen to the, but there's apps. You don't listen to that? Well, I got the Arredale County. police scam. I'm sure that's interesting on a Friday night. Ardell County.

Well, there's a lot more going on than you know about. Oh, come on. You need to follow their Twitter handle. There's fires and accidents and all kinds of things happening every day. Sounds exciting. I know. Why would you, like, I just don't understand.

Why are we debating? You win a race, okay, and you celebrate, right? You win a football game. I'm a fan of all sports. Why do you burn your town down? Why are you, like, flipping over cars and stuff? never get it. I don't get it.

I don't get it either. They don't apologize for it. No, they don't. And even... Philadelphia, man. They throw batteries at, like, players, you know? There was just naked people right up in the streets and nobody... And nobody even thought anything of it.

They thought, well, this was normal. It's normal to Philadelphia. Yeah. Did you see the video? Like, there's 20 or 30 people on an, like, on an awning. And it just collapsed. Well, that's probably one, you know, awnings. Right.

Aonings weren't designed for 20 people. Yeah. Oh, well. Look. I'm glad Truex is happy today. He wasn't on a nodding. We're good. We don't think.

We don't think. He may still be out there. You check his breath when you see him, all right? He's not. He's on his, he's out. He's safe. He's out of Minnesota. Make sure he didn't eat anything.

Yes. Yeah. I checked on him. Blaney, who was working with us during the pregame, had the flu. I heard he had the plague. He did. He had the flu and still got up on that hill in 8, 10, 8, 10 degrees temperature. temperatures and won the two race.

It's impressive. We rode home on the, he flew home with us, so we all, uh-oh, we all bought those surgical masks and bore those all the way home. I knew when the pilots wanted to wear them that I was going to wear it. Yeah. I was like, all right, I feel kind of stupid. Oh, okay, the pilots were putting them on when I'm wearing mine. And we got him, we got old Blaney home.

I checked on him today. He says it's feeling a little bit better today. But appreciate him being a trooper. All right. let's ask you about this. You mentioned that drivers tend to get crabby. Yeah. The off season.

Just your steady crabby. I know it's not. Steady crabby. Except the young guys seem to be. What do you mean? What do you mean steady crabby? You're just all, there's just funk in you that you're like, you're just this like moody. Anything can just like, you're okay most of the time, but anything can just put you in the worst mood.

Young drivers aren't affected. You know, they're coming in, they're happy, they're thrilled to be around, they're loving at it, just seeing everything for the first time. But after a couple years of, you know, satellite media tours and all those things, you know, you just get, you get spoiled. Sure you do. Yeah. All right.

So when you saw, I know this is old news, but when you saw what Kyle Bush said about the way NASCAR is marketing, the young drivers, did you laugh? Of course. I laughed. Did you get more satisfaction that you're not at Media Day? Okay. Let me tell you. All right, so the first thing I thought of was, I'm glad I'm not at media day because I know Kyle is pissed off.

It's early in the morning. He just got the media day. This is like the first probably one of the first five questions he got that morning. And he's like, you know, what Kyle's thinking, at least this is me. What I would be thinking in that situation is this day is not going to be any fun. I don't want to be here. And I'm in a bad mood. It's early.

If he would have been asked that question at 4 o'clock in afternoon on his way out, he'd have have given a totally different answer. No, come on. Because he would have been in a better bit. I hear you. He'd been like, oh, yeah, I love it. See you later. I'm headed home.

Love the young guy. Love the young guy. Love the young guys. More of that. More of that marketing those young guys. Yeah, love these young guys. They're great. I'm going home.

See you guys later. But he had just got there. He's pissy. Everybody's sort of that way. Except for the young guys. They're thrilled. Media day. This is my first media day.

I'm so happy. But as the day went on and we saw more comments from other drivers. We saw what the whole story is. So Kyle thinks that Kyle feels like, you know, well, I wasn't marketed that way when I was young. He's right. He feels like that he wasn't marketed that way, and they should focus, you know, obviously

they should focus more on the veterans that have won. The NASCAR comes back and says, well, that's true. You weren't marketed that way because back when he came into the sport, the sponsors put a lot more money behind the marketing of the driver. A great example, obviously, would be my career with Budweiser. The countdown to E-Day, you know, was everybody knew what the hell was going on. Budweiser had a massive push there. NASCAR is shouldered with that responsibility now to do that marketing for themselves and for the sport and for the drivers.

And so now they are marketing not only the veterans, but a lot of the young guys. And that irked Kyle. And so Kyle said, you know, I don't like it and I think they should market. some of the winners, some of the champions, some of the established guys. Blaney comes in and I think a couple of the guys said, well, we're the ones getting marketed because we're the ones that are saying yes. And that is also true. It is.

So if NASCAR says, I need a guy that will go to New York tomorrow and do eight hours of media, who are they going to call? Are they going to text Kyle Bush first? Because they probably know he's going to say no. Hell no. Well, I mean, you don't want to go through the four layers of insulation. too. You probably not, yeah, they're not going to text, Kyle.

They're going to have to text who. You know, whoever's, yeah, whoever's. Janet's or, you know, you know, probably have to get somebody with, you know, the sponsor involved because now they're going to want him branded. And the next thing you know, he's like, oh, my goodness. Well, Blaney is a great, and we'll just use Blaney's example because he's the easiest example to use. They got a direct line to Ryan.

And they can call Ryan and he's going to probably say yes unless there's something in his way. There's not a lot of that in the sport. All right, so then the next time, I need a guy to go to L.A. tomorrow or next week, short notice. I'll just call Ryan. You know, he's always been good to do it. And so that's kind of how that habit forms. The young guys are always open to it. They know that they need to try to get a little traction, get a little piece of the pie, get their roots dug into the sport.

And that's why they're so willing to do it. And a lot of them don't know, too, that they can say no. Or, you know, they don't, maybe not can say no. A lot of the young guys don't feel like they can say no. William Byron doesn't feel like he can say no. William Byron is going to say, man, I got to do this. I'm supposed to do this. I can't tell O'Donnell no.

Kyle Busch or myself, we feel like that we could do, you know, we could probably do without it and get by. Yeah. You know, not have any repercussion for not doing it. I was just like, I didn't want to do any of that stuff up until the last couple years of my career. I didn't want to go to New York. I hated going to L.A.

Avoided L.A., avoided New York. You didn't like going to New York. No. Yeah. Hated it. Well, okay, so you had Kyle Bush saying that. You had Newman who basically got into talking down on basically everything that you would. It felt like mid-season form for Newman, and we haven't even started yet.

O'Donnell gets in, takes it personal. Yep. Harvick had something to say about Kyle Bush, and I'm like, we haven't even started the season yet. And then Kurt, Kurt tried to stick up for Kyle. Kurt kind of explained his situation. Doing so, I think, Doug a double down on the Kurt Bush, the Bush brothers media blitz. And doing so called Chase Elliott overrated. Which I don't know if Chase Elliott probably doesn't even know.

I mean, but, you know, I'm like, wow, this is so funny. Is this how it is? All right. The whirlpool got stirred. When you were asking me whether I was glad I wasn't at Media Day. Now you are. All day long, while all that stuff's going on, I'm thinking, God, man, I'm glad I'm not in the middle of this.

anytime you ever go to media day or do a press conference or any kind of media at the racetrack the only thought in your head is let's not try to make a mess here let's not try to do anything it's going to cause any shit then you get caught up in other people's mess because they're going to ask you about it well during all this talking jennifer i brought up um you know how hard it is to find some of the drivers at the racetrack and be able to even get to get to them and she she remembered back when we used to have the top 12 drivers in the points doing media every weekend behind their haulers. When we did that, the shit was always stirred every week because one driver would say something about another driver, and they could literally go five minutes down to the next hauler and say, hey, this guy said something about you, man,

what you think about that? That's right. And boy, it just went on and on and on. Good and bad, though. I love it now. It's awesome. Hated it when I was in the middle of it. Loved it now. Complained about it when I was in the middle of it.

I, yeah. I mean, seeing the sport from this lens from the media side and understanding how that stuff sort of affects the ebb and flow of popularity and people watching and tuning in, the more of that, the better. Oh, so you feel good. I feel good with it. Listen, no, no, real. He's like, not my problem. On the outside looking in, how do you feel about where our sport is based off of the personalities that you've got? in there. I love it.

The mix of old and young drivers. I was talking to O'Donnell the other day, and I was like, I was like, man, I'm so, I've never been more excited about a season than I am this year. That stuff during me today, even though it was kind of, even though it might have left a little bad taste in a few people's mouths and some of the drivers, you know, whatever, I thought it was great. Any kind of conversation where you can get all the drivers weighing in, boy, that is awesome. And when they're not, you know, when it's one driver saying something and everyone else is quiet,

that's when it's not really a lot of fun. I am so excited about this season. We do have some incredibly talented veterans in our sports still wheeling it, still, you know, still getting it done and great equipment. We got so many young guys coming in. This is like a, there's going to be a clash, man. This whole season is going to be a mix of old and new. and we've seen a little, you know, we've seen Larson and Chase and some new guys coming in over the last couple years,

but I think that there's, it's a real 50-50 split in my mind. Everybody's curious about what Byron's going to be capable of. Can he sustain this steady climb? He's one year after year in every level. Will he continue that? How is Alex Baldwin going to do in the 88? Yeah, that's a wild card. How is, I mean, even the curiosity behind how is Casey Kane and the 95 going to do?

They got Team Mac as the crew chief. I mean, that team has made some major changes to try to improve. Are they the next furniture row? You don't know. I mean, this is, what, can Furniture Row even do more than they did? Losing a team, too. Yeah, they were dominant. Can they even become more dominant?

Will they continue that success? How will the relationship, you know, how will, you know, how will. will their relationship continue going forward with Gibbs as dominant as they are? Right. Well, that stay in harmony. Yeah, this isn't what Gibbs signed up for when they did the partnership. You got that Jones boy. Yeah.

You know, Lugano goes to Cup and it's in the 20. I know Jones got a year of experience in the 77, but that's a wild car too. You don't know what's going to happen there. There's a team that's been together for so long. There's just so much information and so much to learn this year, so much new. I really haven't been excited about racing like this in a long time. So I think that this year is going to be great. I think that we're going to find out that the fans are going to tune in

and we're going to see some growth in our viewership and attendance at the racetrack. We might not notice it immediately overnight, but I think as this season goes with the stars and the personalities that we have in the sport, it's going to be incredible. Everybody, you know, we got Jimmy Johnson, kind of the Tom Brady of NASCAR. What has he got left in the tank?

Signed up for another three years. Can he get one more? There's so many great stories. Well, I tell you what, you ready to answer some fan questions? You know, last year when Tyler Overstreet was here, I would come in and ask the Massachusetts Junior questions from time to time. But now we got the man, Matthew Dillner, producing our show. I don't know about the man. I paid him 20 bucks to say that.

Tyler's not listening. Sorry, Tyler. I want you to give us the best. This is your first run of Ask Junior. Is that pressure because it's after Tyler? This is why we hired you. This is why we hired you for this. It's your time to shine.

All right, man. Did you get any good questions? Of course we got some good questions. Anytime you put Ask Junior hashtag up there and try to get the fans involved, they always get involved. Some questions or whatever, but there's always some gems out of there. And we'll hit them real quick here. We got about five of them for you. Dylan wanted to know, what did you do with your Daytona 500?

championship rings. Dylan wants to know that? Yeah? I just put it, I put them in a safe. So I'm not a ring. You don't bring them out and stuff? No, I'm not a ring wear.

But I do wear my Klo wedding ring. When Kalo has a fitting for the Daytona 500 ring. He'll wear it. Until they board it. Casual ring.

Because they have a color option for Daytona 500 rings. He ain't going to wear it. I just don't want to, it's a big old ring. You know, all right, so the They're a little big and obnoxious. They're huge.

You're giving the judge. You're not a bling guy. It's not practical. Yeah, it's not something you'd wear. You're sitting here in a t-shirt. You're not sitting here like, you know, in a zoot-to. I was probably only wear it if we had like if they invited me to a function where there were other Daytona 500 winners there. All right.

Would you wear both like one? How would you wear them? Well, I don't know. They'd clunk together probably. I know, but what finger would you put them on? I'd go opposite hands. Okay. So they don't flunk together.

Is the hands, Mike? You've got two? Yeah. Of course you would. You would? Of course you would. Unless I'm in a fight. You wouldn't have one.

If I'm going to fight, I'm putting it all on one hand. Well, that gives you good, you know, balance in your left jab and right. I was actually genuinely. So you wouldn't. I'm generally saying every other finger. No. No. Are you going to walk around with your head?

It isn't that head. It's not like you clap. It's not like carrying a leg. Again, I'm trying to be serious. I'm not. I'm being serious. I'm telling you I would put it on two different hands. Okay.

Then when you clap, it'll be like, cling, dang, They'd hear you when they clap, so you better clap. All right, Darrell 43, this is something that I want to know, too, because I heard a good pregnancy story coming out of the Super Bowl. Oh, yeah. Okay, and he wants to know any good pregnancy stories to update us on. Are you talking about the fallout? Yeah, dude, because you did a similar thing to my wife and stare the piss out of her.

Your wife and the baby? No, the baby was fine, but, yeah. So this is hilarious this story. Yeah, I've got more questions about that incident than I did the Fallon incident. We were in the NBC suite watching the game. Everything's great. Hanging out with Bode Miller and his wife, super nice folks. And they're expecting, and Amy's six months pregnant.

Well, Jimmy Fallon come in there, and he sat down for a quarter and watched the game. And he must know the family really well in NBC folks. So we're sitting there watching the game. He's getting ready to leave. Jimmy Fallon, he's got to go, I guess, do his show back in New York. And on his way, he was kind of walking out, and one of the ladies in there said, would you like to say hello to him before he leaves? I said, of course, yeah. So he comes over and said, hey, how you doing?

He goes, oh, man, so good to see you. I said, man, you know, I'm thinking to myself, I don't know. I was like, you know, what are you going to do if you meet Jimmy Fallon? This could have been anybody, but it was Jimmy Fallon. And I'm thinking, Jimmy, Amy's pregnant. Will you bless our baby? Wait, you asked him to bless? Yeah.

I didn't hear about this part. Is he a priest? Yeah. I don't know what that means. I don't know. So he leaned down and he said, hey, you are at the Super Bowl. I can't wait to meet you. I thought that must have been an inside joke or something.

So you just asked him to bless the baby. Do you think he thought that might have been a weird question? Yeah. But assuming he lives in a weird mind. I'll never meet him again. I'll never see him again. You're in the same company now. You'll see him.

All right. Whatever. He blessed the baby. baby. She's going to be awesome. I want to know how Amy's reaction was to it. That's the thing. So this is how this happens. She's like my husband. She's so weird. All right, right, right. You know,

and this is okay because there's a lot of people listening that haven't never had kids before or they haven't had kids in a long time. But when your wife's pregnant and you're standing there and we literally do this all day long, we're like, hey, she's at her first concert today.

Does she think she knows she's at the Super Bowl? Can't wait to tell she went to the Super Bowl, you know, all day long, you're doing this stuff. You're like, man, she has no idea all these cool places she's at and the things she's doing. And so I thought, all right, Jimmy Fallon's here, never probably going to see this guy again. I'm definitely going to get him blessed by baby. And that just was what came to my mind. All right, yeah, that's probably one of the best stories I've heard for a while. Because you did that at your goodbye party.

My wife and I are, I think, you know, the retirement party at Whiskey River. And we come up there, a bunch of us probably had a few, too many beverages, and we're like, say good night to you. And you came in and you, like, swooped in and you grabbed my wife's belly. And you're like, hey, like this. And it's hilarious. Some women are just like, all right. 80% of women are like, wow, what are you doing, touching my belly? And I was the one watching it.

And if I had a drink in my mouth, I would have spit it across the room. I was laughing so hard. Just at my wife's reaction. I love it. At my own expense or whatever, whatever this has done to my reputation, it'll be great, it'll be a great story to tell my daughter. I think we need to teach you the ethics around being around pregnant people. No.

You do what you do. You do you. Yeah. You know, let the wives worry about it. My wife thought it was fine. Yeah. She thought it was funny. She would tell you if she didn't.

Exactly. She would. All right, Judy B 88. I love this. This is the best question today. I should have saved it last, but it's so darn cool I want to go. I promised I had not had one drink that day. Not that Jimmy Fallon thinks so, though.

No, I guarantee you he's... Not the retirement party, but the Jimmy, the Super Bowl, no. That was so good. You're working, man. No, I mean, I actually wasn't. Why didn't you have a drink at the Super Bowl? I don't know. Why do I got to drink all the time?

It's a Super Bowl. It just feels like you kind of at least have a beer. I don't you like beer. I mean, who does? I'm with my pregnant wife. She can't drink. I've seen you drink beer around your pregnant wife before. Where?

Retirement party. There you go. All right. Keep going. Judy B. I feel like I'm standing at the Golden Corral. Seems like Dale Jr. is on everything.

So what has been the most enjoyable? I just love that. She references Golden Corral. I'm like, I'm going to pick that question. What's the most enjoyable activity in your transition away from full-time racing? Sitting around in your underwear, it doesn't count. Geez. Thanks for ruling that one out.

She made that clear. Oh, she did. She did. Not me. What's my funest activity? What's the most fun activity you've done in that transition? Golly. There's so many.

We've had so much fun. You got a couple? I know this one. Okay. During the holidays, he facetimes me about this new thing that he's discovered because of Jimmy Johnson. And it is called skiing. Oh, boy. And now he's like, he says to me, he goes, do you think that Sam Flood will let us go skiing in South Korea?

And I was like, no, you ain't going to let you go skiing in South Korea. He's like, why not? Because it's the freaking Olympics, that's why. It's for other people to ski it. Not us. Not the workers. And then 30 minutes later, he facetimes him back, and he goes, we've got like two or three ski trips, and Sam's going with us.

All booked. And so, like, he was so excited. And I have now since picked up skiing. I would say that has to be number one, right? Yeah. I would say skiing definitely is probably top. Jimmy Fallon blessing the baby was. Oh, geez, probably number two.

I mean, it is pretty cool. That is a golden corall-esque thing. He did bless. He also. The chocolate fountain of question. He also. He also. blessed Bode Miller's wife, baby.

Maybe he needs a job as like a pastor or something. After hours, he was like, I have to, you know. Bodies. He can thank you for that profession. Well, don't bring it up around Mike Davis ever again. He thinks it's a terrible idea. All right, moving out. Angela wants to know.

This is actually a pretty cool question. What song would you choose to represent your career? My gosh. Have you ever thought of that? It's kind of like a movie, man. What would the song be to be like the, the signature Dale Jr. I got a name was a good one.

I got a name. Who's that by? Jim Croce. Croce. Jim Cochie? I never really did understand how to pronounce his last name. What's the song about?

Like, you know what I mean? His name, he has a name, and it's like his father's. Have you ever watched Last American Hero? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's in that movie. Oh, it is? Yes.

No way. It's playing at the very beginning as he's driving up to his house. Okay. I didn't realize that. That would be a good one. Like the pine trees winding the winding road? I know it now. Thank God Jim Crochet's thinking.

Why don't you try to say that? It's really harder than us all. Say it. Like the pine trees winding the windy road. I don't want to. Lining the windy road. See, he can't even take three. All right.

For your sake, let's go to the last question. So you don't screw it up a fourth time, man. Adam 88. We've got to give him a shout out, man. How come you didn't post a picture of that buck that you got? in deer season. I try not to post a whole lot about hunting on social media

just out of appreciation for some people's opinions about it. Oh, you catch my crap. I mean, I don't mind saying, hey, I'm going hunting. Hey, I have, you know, we hunt together. I do this. I don't mind talking about it

and sharing that I enjoy it. But, you know, just a lot of people have different opinions and strong opinions about hunting animals and so forth. So there's a line. in the sand that I'm not real in the cross when it comes to sharing on social media

with that particular hobby. All right, so we've got a new segment for the show this week and for every week after this, and I think this is one I'm going to really, really like. It's called, Did you see that? Did you see it? And basically it's going to be crazy cool on Twitter or Instagram. Anything weird on Twitter, anything that stood out to us?

What you got? There was an argument that Jeff Gluck got himself in the middle of talking about sim racing. And basically, we're going to talk specifically the eye... I can talk two hours on this, man. Specifically, the ira-racing format. So I was a beta tester for ira-racing when it started in 2002-ish and worked with them for two years, steadily developing the product.

And I raced on there religiously hours and hours and chunks and chunks of time up until around 2010, 2011, 2012, maybe. Anyways, so I've been on part of that service for a really, really long time, and I'm still getting there every once in a while just to see where they are as a product and see what new things they have. And anyways, Jeff Gluck got in the middle of a conversation with people about whether the eye racing platform is a legitimate stepping stone or proving ground for racing. And before you guys get going, I know you both are very opinionated about this as well,

which you should be, because it's a great conversation. My feeling has always been that it is a proving ground for talent. They can rank the best drivers on eye racing. And if you went and got the top 50 guys, would they all transfer to success in a late model stock car? No, absolutely not. And we've tried it. I've tried it.

It hasn't worked. But I've done that with the, I've taken guys out of dirt cars and they haven't transferred into late model cars. They just don't, you know, it just doesn't work. work dirt to asphalt. That doesn't always work. And there have been guys that have came out of our racing with little to no real world experience and became race car drivers at many different levels. Josh Barry is one that works for us. He ran a very short period of time in Legends cars against two or three cars at a time in a race. No real genuine experience. And I never watched

any of his Legends car races. I picked him to drive our cars because of what I experienced working with him on iraicing. I'm not saying that if, oh man, if you go watch a guy and he just runs a fast lap, he's good. When you go on eye racing and you race a guy for an entire season, entire year of eye racing, you run around him enough to watch him make decisions, and you run around him enough to see the way he approaches a race and the way he approaches a pass and the way he approaches every problem and how he consistently does things. his consistent choices behind the wheel of a car.

That stuff is what translates into the real world. So I feel like that, and I hope with e-sports becoming more and more popular, I hope that one day, they guys are consistently being plucked out of the eye racing platform and given opportunities in low-level racing, and low-level being late-model stock cars, not Xfinity Series. We're not pulling, I'm not, I would never pull a guy out of a, out of a simulation like I racing and expect him to go race at Daytona in a truck.

That ain't happening. I don't care how many truck races at Daytona, he's won online. I'm not going to put him, that's craziness. But could you take a guy with no real world experience from ir racing and get him in a late model and win? I think so. I've seen it happen. I just think Gluck got kind of sandwiched there, you know. He did.

He got beat up a little bit on that. Because, I mean, I look at it, you know, eye racing is an incredible tool, too. You guys use it as a tool. You know, not just fun. It's not just video games. But there is nothing, nothing that can replace what you feel in your butt in a seat. What you feel with the tires in the ground, what you feel in your nerves, what you feel in your gut. Just because you're a good iraser doesn't mean you're going to be a great racer.

So, and I think that's the thing where, you know, there's a variable there. People get mad. People in the irasing world, it's a community. Yes. So when Gluck says it's a video game, see, it's not. All right, it's not like a video game you go buy off the shelf. People have to pay money to subscribe to this monthly, and it's a community. And they practice.

He knows that. No, he doesn't. Yes, he does. He doesn't. He doesn't know that it's a community, and it's an association like NASCAR is a family. It's not call a duty over here with everybody firing guns and chasing after each other. These are guys really honing their skills and trying to become better sim racers. The setups online for sim racing are intricate.

Like, they are technical, this isn't like a plug-and-play, hop on and just go over there. It's not a NASCAR challenge wearing out your left phone tapping. It's not Xbox and PlayStation. And I think that his wordage anyways in his tweets made him appear totally uneducated. you guys have you all have not even hit the point that started this whole conversation the very thing that started this conversation

the point that got this whole thing started was Scott Speed the Deadspin wrote an article about Scott Speed being banned from eye racing for wrecking people on purpose and Jeff Gluck made a comment saying why would Deadspin write an article

about this it's not real racing It's not real racing And you know exactly what I mean When he says that And he's right He's right Because it's freaking hilarious

Okay so maybe then it's a comedic bit But they didn't write it like it was comedic bit They didn't? No I mean unless Dead Spins a comedy central now I've seen them write articles It's satire Unless it's satire

But that's not what they were I've seen Deadspin right articles So in doing this The response to Jeff Gluck's Point on that Which he's not wrong Was no It's real racing.

And then, of course, he's got to be like, but it's not. Oh, yes, it is. How do you justify William Byron? And he goes, because it's not the same. And people were literally making the argument that it was the same. And William Byron was the example. And that's not true. It's not true.

Just because William Byron and Josh Berry or Scott Speed or anybody happen to race cars and they are into eye racing, it's no different. It's not the same. That's his only point. Yeah. To me, it is real racing. in a virtual world. It's real racing. To me it is.

Sure. The same way that, you know, me and a buddy used to see who can complete Mario Brothers faster. See, that's a video game. That's a video game. It is totally different. No, I agree. I'm racing is real racing.

I agree that it does not always transfer. I mean, that's the argument. That's the variable right there. Like they have a season, a championship. They crown a champion. There's thousands and thousands of dollars on the line. You got to be good to do that. There's sponsorship.

There's crew chiefs and spoters. That's the part that I think is nuts, man. It is. It's stupid. Do you know? There's people that announced the races? Because somebody asked to announce one one one time. Like, how?

If you're racing, if you're racing for thousands of dollars in an event, do you feel like you want to be sitting there, you know, screwing around with the keys trying to set whether you want to take two tires or not and change the air pressure in the right rear tire, a couple of tents, and decide whether you want to sit there and do your own fuel mileage and short pit and take less fuel? Do you want to be doing all this stuff while you're trying to drive at the same time under green flag conditions? No, you need a crew chief. You got to have a crew chief. Okay, but listen, you know, my example on this, and I'll end on this, is that, do you remember years ago when you and I were at Michigan and we went to, I believe, Road America to watch this guy that was an ir racing champion? And he went over, we were going to go, like a Volkswagen series or something like that. And there was probably 30, 35 cars in the thing. And do you remember where he finished?

They're back. But they could last. That's where he finished. So that's your one and done. Just like you can't. He didn't even try to pass for that. I'm glad you weren't around to disallow the opportunity for William Byron, Josh Barry, or anybody else. Eye racing never came up in the William Byron hire.

I just want to say. It never did. If you're going to say because of that, nobody can come out of that experience. No, that's not what I'm saying. Not what I'm saying. No, I'm not saying it can't happen. I'm saying it has nothing to do with eye racing. It does.

No, it doesn't. Are you crazy? It has nothing to do with irising. It has everything to do with eye racing. We never talked about ir racing when we hired William Byron. We didn't have to, but that's how he got to where he is. Byron's an anomaly anyway. You know, the guy steps in a race car first time in his life.

Within the first year, he's winning lens cars races. He is a... You can't judge anything by that dude. So has anybody ever been hired based off their ira racing in a real race car? Well, yeah. You hired him based off irasing alone. Didn't you, didn't TJ majors... I've never seen him drive anything.

Didn't you, didn't you, didn't you, uh, didn't you and you and, TJ hook up that way? Me and TJ hooked that way. No, that's where you met. Yeah. Yeah, but I offered him to drive the late model in the street stock. Based off of how he was on. Simulation.

And look where he is today. He was not driving. Successful career. Now he didn't. He won a lot of races in our late model. He's hosted a podcast. I basically am a champion in I racing. Look where I am.

He's claimed to fame. He actually beat Danny Hamlin in a big late model race. You don't even remember how good TJ was. He was a great race car driver. Hold on. Let's just say good. He was a good driver. He was a good driver.

He was great. He was great. He was great at late models. He would have been where he would have been as successful and respected as Josh Barry is today. If he had been able to his button that mouth. That I agree with. I respect your opinion. I respect your opinion about it.

I have mine. I'm a believer. And as long as there's a couple of us around, there'll be guys that would be able to come out of our racing and have some success. Well, listen. Hey, everybody. boat up on him. Jeff Gluck's like I'm stepping away from Twitter. I'm going to my own little corner and that was that. All right.

It's back. I am brought back the white flag segment, Dale. All right. I hope you're happy with that. I didn't ask for I'll find out. I'll let you know at the end of the segment. The longtime listeners of the Dale Jr. Download know all about the white flag segment. This week's white flag is brought to you by Valvilline lubricant. That's because they are the preferred lubricants.

So the light poles and the city lights and all the things that are important to Philadelphia, the government buildings. Did you see where they were oil in? They're oiling the poles. They're rolling them up. This week, Dale Jr.'s got some production work to satisfy with Nationwide and Alex Bowman. That is, of course, if Bowman isn't sick, this has been the most rescheduled interview ever.

This is the third scheduling of this interview because he had the flu twice. He's been sick twice. You just need those masks. Yeah, but that really kind of, yeah, you could, I guess, do an interview with a mask on. We're going to knock it out this time. All right. Is he better? Have you checked on?

He's fine. He's ready to go. All right. Lastly, if you liked what you heard, we're going to go back to you and ask you you to rate and review us. This is a podcast. We need your rating. Special thanks to Matthew Dillner.

First show. Appreciate. I mean, really happy to have you here, Matthew. I'm glad that you have the first show on my birthday, too. Is this your birthday? Darrell Waltrop and I share a great common bond, and it's definitely not talent. This is Darryl's birthday, too.

Wow, who knew? All right. Well, listen, thank you for, I also want to thank Natalie Sayther and Dustin Lee on the Dirtymoe Media team. Thanks for the fans who've been waiting for us, and Dale's been eager to start our podcast. and also we want to thank the Dangerous Summer. Yep. The songs you heard on the podcast today are courtesy of Dangerous Summer

and Hopeless Records. Guys, it has been a pleasure. I've been begging Mike to get this thing started. Matthew, I'm glad you're here. We're going to have a lot of fun this year, folks. This is our first of many, many great podcast in 2018. We'll see you later. Bless the baby.

Bless it.