The Dale Jr. Download - 205 - The Bottom Line and Booth Farts

Episode Date: February 13, 2018

Dale Earnhardt Jr. explains his tweets following The Clash and tells you what to look for while watching this week’s races, including potential dark horses for the Daytona 500. 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.

Race fans, don't just watch the Daytona 500 this week. Be a part of it with Draft Kings. There are a lot of fantasy games to choose from, including the free $10,000 NASCAR contest. There, you draft six drivers for the Daytona 500, you earn points for fast laps, laps lead, finishing position, and more. Are you new to Draft Kings? It's okay.

Go to DraftKings.com and enter the promo code Dale at signup. That's promo code D-A-L-E. Draft Kings, today's presenting sponsor for the Dale Jr. download. From the Exaltah Studio, it's the Dale Jr. Download. Man, Matthew is bringing the heat on the intro music. It's Dellenhart Jr. DJ Matt D. Yeah, another episode of the Dale Jr. Download is coming at you.

Mike Davis is my co-host. How's it going, Mike? It's going well. Was that a dangerous summer song? What was that? No, that's just some really good intro music. Did he have a spinning table up there? I don't know.

That was pretty cool. We've never had that. We asked him to step our game. game up, seems like it's working. He did. I wish you could have seen our faces in here. So what do we got for this week? Well, it looks like somebody got a little

lippy on the Twitter this weekend. Who are we talking about? I don't know. Who could we be talking about? I don't know. We've got to talk about Daytona. We've had a poll winning run by Alex Bowman and the 88 team. We've got a clash to talk about. Dale Jr. had a little bit

to say about that after the race, which cracked me up in a way because we didn't even make it to the start. of the season before retirement Dale got going. You and I leave for South Korea next Monday, so we've got to talk about that. Also, we have a sponsor this week. That is Draft Kings, which is interesting to me because you've always been sort of a lead proponent of getting NASCAR in fantasy sports.

You've always felt like that is a key to a new audience, and I want to talk to you about that. That sounds great to me. Let's get to it. That's all next on the Dale Jr. download. So we got the clash on Sunday. The clash is the season opening exhibition race at Daytona, and it did take place on Sunday. Brackazowski took the win, but the race was not without some controversy. If you didn't know that about watching the race, you certainly figured it out with Dale Jr.

on Twitter after the race. But before we dive in, Dale, I want to sort of set the table and explain to everybody in case you missed it what exactly happened. First of all, NASCAR has a rule at its two. biggest super speedways. Daytona and Talladega that discourages drivers from driving below a yellow line. A well-marked yellow line, Dale, right? It's visible to advance their position or make a pass, however you want to define that. So NASCAR's motivation behind this rule is safety. You know, keep the race on the racetrack. So if you drive your car below that line, it is okay as long as you don't advance your position. If you do advance your position, you actually have an obligation to

give it back, which is something that we need to talk about. But if you don't, then NASCAR is going to bring you in for a penalty. So what happened on Sunday in the clash, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had a big run and went to pass Kyle Busch. Kyle steered left a block. Definitely affected Stenhouse's lines. Stenhouse duck below the yellow line to avoid contact with Kyle. And NASCAR made the call to penalize Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Why? Because he drove below the yellow line and he did advance his position. there was a defensive reaction there. So far, everything I said is indisputable. Did he go below the yellow line? Yes. Did he advance a spot? Yes.

Was he forced down by the 18? Yes. So Dale Jr., why did you take exception to what happened in the clash on Twitter when you started tweeting with NASCAR vice president of competition, Steve O'Donnell? Well, I saw that Steve made it pretty clear that in their mind, if you go down there and you're forced, even if you're forced below the line, if you advance your position and don't make an effort to give that position back, you're going to get penalized. In my experience as a race car driver, over the last 20 years, I interpreted the rule differently.

And my feelings as a driver were that if I was forced below the line, I wasn't responsible for any changes of position. if I went down there to advance my position on my own, then yes, that was illegal and I would be penalized. But if I was in the act of passing and was forced or blocked below that line, then I was no longer a guilty party. And that the person that was actually blocking me could be subject to being penalized. And I'd heard this being said in driver's meetings and in the past that if you were forced or blocked below the line, then the penalty could actually be given to the driver who threw the block. I have seen instances on the racetrack in races that I've been in or truck races and Xfinity

races that I was watching where a guy had been blocked below the line and not penalized. I myself have been blocked below the line and not penalized. Actually won a race in 2003 at Caledega. After I went below the line making a pass for the lead, I was forced down there and they deemed it a clean pass. Matt Kenseth. Yeah. Yeah, past Mike Kenseth.

And so that was. where I was confused and wondering, you know, wondering to myself and just being inquisitive to O'Donnell on social media because he is known as one of the guys that will interact with the fans. And I'm an observer, a fan of the race at this moment. And so, like other people that reach out to him and talk to him on social media, I was just being inquisitive and created it. He was quote tweeting me, so I quote tweeted him and allowing other people to say, the conversation easier. And basically, I was just asking him, like, when did this, when, when was the

rule, when did this rule change or has this rule changed or did I just interpret it the wrong way? I actually got a chance to talk to Steve today on the phone. The rule today going forward is if you advance your position below the line, no matter if you're blocked or not, you're going to get penalized. So this next conversation, the next question I have for Steve O'Donnell today on the phone is, all right, if I'm Stenhouse, how do I rectify this situation? What should I do? Do I have to get behind the 18 car, which is the one I was passing? Because he fell back six or eight spots in turn of three and four.

I mean, that's a hell of a thing to ask somebody to do. Very hard. So the next question that I have for Steve is, what would I need to do in this situation to make it right? And because drivers want to know what's the least amount I can do before I can get back to racing. I don't want to have to do too much. But I want to do enough in NASCAR's eyes that I've rectified the situation and made it right. He said if Stenhouse just lifts off the gas a little bit, gives back one position,

or makes an attempt to write the situation right to wrong that he's done, then they're going to be okay and not penalizing. That's all he had to do. I know that's a difficult thing for a driver to try to figure out, how to do all in that situation. Oh, yeah. Right? But so I misunderstood the rule, interpreted it wrong.

It is the, this is the way it is today. We won't argue over what it was years ago. It obviously seemed like it was a different rule to everybody. A lot of fans on social media, myself, O'Donnell, everybody had a different opinion about what the rule is. Well, this is it. Regardless, we won't argue about the past and what happened 15, 20 years ago. So today, the rule as it stands, this is the precedent going forward.

If you're forced below the line, you will be penalized if you don't make an attempt to write the situation. There will be no gray area where a guy can be forced below the line, advance his position, and not be penalized. They just won't be that situation anymore. Can I ask you as a driver then, what's to prevent you from just running anybody that tries to pass you down to that yellow line? You know, I think that as a driver, sometimes there's some guys are going to throw that block and some guys aren't.

And you're not always like Kyle's move down to block there. I don't, you know, he might not make that same move every time. It's really instinctual. And, you know, there will be times when you may actually move away from the guy, get to the wall, get to the outside of the track and try to get away from this person's side draft. I mean, it's just really going to be instinctual. I don't think you're going to just see guys pinching and cutting and forcing guys below the line over and over and over. I don't think we're going to see this new trend. If Stenhouse is in the situation again, you know, what stops him from holding his line and turning Kyle Busch or, you know, creating a difficult situation for everybody by, I mean, that's really the box that he's kind of being put in now.

I think, though, still, he moves his car. I mean, if he sees a guy coming across the racetrack, he moves his car. He does not want to make contact. Instinctually, that just happens. Yep. So he's going to move his car. And I think next time, it's clearly, obviously clear to me now that I won't have any other option than to give the spot back. I can't leave it up to NASCAR or anybody else to make a rule or make a decision on this.

It is black and white going forward. I'm glad that I didn't have to find this out the hard way Because that Basically that you know that was the indistent house's race When he was black flagged Because he lost the draft You've done It's actually happened to you in 2009

With you and Vickers And you caused a big old wreck at Daytona And the Daytona 500 Where you were forced to the yellow line And you're like, yep, can't be here You gotta get back And you got back And you turned him

And all hell broke loose. Yeah. I mean, that's the worst case scenario for a situation like that is a driver. I mean, if you get, drivers get tired of getting blocked, that's no excuse for what I did in 2009 at the Daytona 500. But if a driver does hold his ground or forces his way back up the racetrack, you get pushed below that yellow line. And your instincts is to get back above it as soon as possible. You're out of bounds. You know, you don't want to be there no longer than you have to be because of the risk.

being penalized. And so the most aggressive thing you can do is what I did in 2009 is drive back up the racetrack without any regard to where everybody else is on the racetrack. And that did cause a hell of a wreck. I think that Stenhouse's tweet the other day after the race was that is the situation I would be in if I didn't avoid the wreck. This is what's going to happen. We're going to have a crash. But I think that he has to, him and anyone else going in this situation going forward has to try to appease NASCAR by lifting and giving up a spot, whatever that means. And talking to Steve, I was glad to hear him say that he didn't have to go all the way behind the 18 car, the guy that had actually blocked him that he was taking the position from.

If he just lift off the throttle a little bit and lets a couple guys go by, then he probably doesn't get black flagged doesn't lose the draft. But I don't think that Stenhouse knew that, and I know I didn't know that at that particular time. more, I don't know how many drivers in the field knew that. I'm sure there were some that understood the rule. So, that's interesting because it seems like everyone has different understandings of the rule. Well, I don't want to assume all the drivers felt the same way I did,

but I certainly felt like the rule was, if you're forced below the line, you're no longer guilty of taking the position. You're no longer in trouble if you do, you know, advance your position. But, you know, because I had been in real situations that way, or seen situations like that play out, around me. And I mean, guys get forced below the line all the time in these races. So this situation pops up all the time. Does NASCAR see every one of them? I doubt it. But you imagine they do. And you imagine they, you know, and you remember, you know, you take stock and you see this

situation, race after race after race after race as a driver. You start to have a mental clock or a mental note about, all right, this is the way they're going to govern this situation. And so I certainly interpreted it differently than it, than how they're going to govern. going forward. I appreciate O'Donnell for the opportunity to talk to him today so I could come on here and speak about it correctly. It's clear as a bell now. Yeah, and don't you think that maybe the reason why this one is going to be such a black and white issue is because they get criticized so often for having to make judgment calls. Everything's judgment, right? People are going to 50% of the people are going to disagree with judgment. I want to know if you're in control,

what do you want the rule to be? If I could. Yeah. Yeah. What would you want? What do you want as a driver? I personally don't, I would say that I like the rule of the way I interpreted it. I had gotten so used to that over so many years of racing that way and felt like that I really understood it to be one way. And that was if you were forced below the line, then NASCAR would look at it as a judgment call and say, well, the guy was forced down there. He didn't go down there to advance a position, but you can't ask a guy.

to quit racing. And so you're basically, you know, going to have to look at penalizing the guy who threw the block, which they never did that I know of. I don't know that they ever did penalize anyone for throwing a block that pushed someone below the line. But they always threatened that in driver's meetings, which would give the people being blocked the idea that it could go either way. Sure, that is one way to interpret that. As a driver, I did interpret it that way. If you're saying there's wrong versus right and wrong is, you have potential to be punished for blocking somebody, then therefore you would assume that you would be in the right

if you were forced down there by somebody like. You were out of the, you know, you were out of the woods or safe from being any, any penalty. That's not what's going to happen going forward. And I want to know either way, really. I think once I got done talking to Steve, it was more like he's going to make the rule. I want to know what, clearly what the rule is. is.

And it's not, it's different than when I interpreted it over the years. Well, you got clarity. I'm looking at this a little differently. I see it through a different lens than you, Davis, than you, junior. It's racing. 1979, Daytona 500. Yeah. We had some people slamming each other out of bounds right there.

I mean, do you think there should be an out of bounds? We were talking about this before the show. Yeah. Yeah, what do you think? I would love to sit down and vet through whether the line's still necessary to. today. You know, I don't think it's as easy as sitting here and saying, let's just get rid of it. What needs to happen is, is maybe it would be interesting to sit down with the powers to be and have the conversation of, is it still necessary? It's a 20-year-old rule or 18 years old. Do we still

need it? And what are the ramifications or repercussions if we don't have it and see whether that's something that, you know, you don't just, that's too big of a situation to turn like a switch. I think, though, but sitting down and having the conversation of whether it's still necessary, I think, I love what Kazelowski's been saying lately less rules, better racing. Can I ask a dumb question, though? Isn't it the difference

between the degree of banking and the apron and then the actual racetrack so vast that driving, especially I'm talking obviously in the corners? Isn't that going to cause a wreck? If you go from a race track... No one would go down there. Well, unless you're you, you know, when you did it on

the last lap there, Talladegan saved it. or Larson this week at Daytona. Yeah, I mean that... Larson, yeah, I mean, he did. Yeah, but nobody's going down there on purpose. Okay, so you're saying, okay, that's the obvious. You're just talking about the straightaways. The back straightaway and the front straightaway,

you'd get guys going down there and, you know, you'd get guys going down there and block each other low, and you're basically forcing the guy to either make a decision, A, I'm going to go into this corner on the apron, which is no good. Or I'm going to have to lift and get back behind them. Right. So saying, yeah, I got you.

Okay. And he has to force his way back into line all at the last minute before you go into turn one or turn three. And that's when you had, we had a lot of crashes that way. But yeah, I think it would be worth revisiting that and seeing whether this is still a necessary rule to have. But until that happens, we got some clarity going forward. There will be no gifted, you know, passes out of bounds. No, no. I mean, if you make a pass out of bounds, even if you're forced, you better give it back.

I'm sure fans can tell us exactly how this rule came about. I know. I sure as hell can't remember. I can't remember why we have the yellow line. Tell us, I'm sure somebody can do the research. Somebody had some paint. Yeah. Somebody had some paint.

Right. It was probably a promotional thing. This week we're going to put in a line. Get your tickets. Oh, man. Who knows? Well, that's the bottom line. I got a last question on this.

Would you penalize the blocker? In the Dale Jr. world, like Dillner asked, what would you do? Do you think the blocker needs penalized if you're going to run someone down there or not? I have a hard time penalizing anybody in the moment of a race, in the act of racing. I hear you. He's doing something that is so instinctual as a driver. And blocking is just, nobody loves to be blocked. But, boy, when it's a tool to use and to keep people from passing you, you're going to use it.

and it's an instinctual thing in racing. And I would hate to penalize somebody for doing what I think is, I think it happens every lap out on the racetrack. And I don't think Kyle was looking for an advantage. Like, oh, I'm going to push him below the line getting penalized. I mean, you're just doing something instinctual in that moment. So, no, I would not be able to, oh, man, I wouldn't be able to bring myself to do that to someone knowing how critical these races are,

and they're just out there racing. Right. So, and I don't think that's why you've ever seen. I guess that's why you've never seen it. I don't think NASCAR feels the same way about that. Let's move on to the Daytona 500. It's the week of the race. Yeah.

This is the first one you haven't been a part of in a long, long time. You used to be super anxious about this race this whole week, and you'd have some, you know, lightning bolt for a race car, and you still were never at ease about it. things. What do you think is causing driver anxiety this week? Give me an idea of what the drivers are thinking about now that it's the week of the Great American Race. So I got an opportunity after the clash to reach out to several of the guys to ask them about what they're thinking, what are they going to focus on the rest of the week. We're hearing about how these cars are all a little more

challenging to drive with the new rules that we have in the back of the cars that allow the guys to have the cars lower. So they're a little tougher and a little more challenging. in the corners, and there's an open rule to what springs and shocks that you want to run in the back of the car, they used to govern the springs and the shocks, and now it's pretty much whatever you want to run, everything's on the table. So why is that, by the way? What made that rule? NASCAR just wants to have less rules.

Okay. And it's just NASCAR wants to get to where there's just less inspection. There's less, the process of inspection is shorter, quicker. and they are starting to go down this road of do we really need to police this? Is this critical to us, you know, to performance and to safety? So they get rid of a few things, and I think it's a good move and a good direction to open up some creativity with the teams and crew chiefs to set the cars up and get the cars to handle better or get advantage of handling better than someone else.

I like the new rules or lack of rules in the back of the cars. You're going to see guys cars drive better than others. you're going to see guys go run really good at the beginning of the tire run. Guys not handling so well at the end of a tire run. They're going to miss it. Some guys are going to nail it. Some guys won't. And we saw that in the clash.

We saw some guys' cars driving really good or maybe issue free. We saw some guys that really had their hands full. And we saw Larson get loose. We saw Jimmy getting loose. But I talked to a lot of these guys and asked about, you know, after running that race and experiencing some of these rules for the first time, where is their focus now? Are they still thinking, man, I need to work on my speed

and get my car lower and how can I get a little more straight line speed out of my car? Is that still important today? Or are they all focusing solely on handling? And all the guys, really, that I talk to are really more concerned with handling right now. Especially with these new rules, getting an opportunity to get into the duels, A lot of people are talking about the duels this year, not really having a lot at stake. There's nobody going home from the Daytona 500.

You're saying fans are saying, like, fans assume that. Fans assume, you know, that there's nothing on the line. So why should the race be interesting? Because there's nobody having to miss the race. Everybody that's qualified in is going to get in. And I would disagree or I would say that there is a lot of concern from the drivers at this moment about getting some true, genuine real track time to continue to improve their cars. A lot of them would love to get their cars driving better than they felt in the clash. A lot of them are maybe concerned about

finding some speed, but everyone wants to get a little more time in race conditions to see how they can improve the handling of their cars. I think a lot of these guys are going into the duels with a lot of anxiety or a lot of concern about getting their cars where they feel more confident to be aggressive in the pack for the Daytona 500. So when I watch the duels this weekend, I do anticipate seeing guys trying to take care of their primary cars because they do want to race these cars into Daytona 500. But I also am going to be watching to see whose cars handle the best and whose cars don't. And then are these guys going to really, they're going to not have a lot of opportunity

in practice to be in this kind of race condition that they'll see in the duels. So the Dules is the best situation for them to go learn a lot more about their cars. And we're going to see guys that are going to still be struggling to find the balance, guys that will still be struggling to have the confidence in the draft to make moves, make aggressive moves. And so that's the kind of thing that I'm going to be watching during the Dules. And it's going to be really interesting to see how that plays out. Right now, it looks like to me that the Penske guys have a great package of speed and handling.

And you're telling this just from the country. clash. Yeah. Even though these aren't the cars, they're going to race in the 500, but you're saying they got their act together. Yes. Yep. Just from the clash and what we've seen from them over the last couple of years, I mean,

Lugano's been winning races. Brad's been winning races. They're both really, really good at the plate tracks. And from what we saw in the clash, it looks like that they have a good handle. Like, we didn't see them get in difficult situations where they couldn't be aggressive and try to, you know, maintain their track position. And I think the Toyota's looked good to me talking to those guys. They feel confident about the way their cars drive and the way their cars feel.

So I still think that they're going to be comfortable in the draft. They'd probably like to find a little more speed like what we see in the Penske cars. I think that the Chevroletes are the guys that are a little bit, they still have a lot of unknowns, I think, as far as how their cars are going to drive in race conditions. They have a lot of speed. The 88 cars on the pole, but how are they going to drive in a pack? How are they going to drive with three wide in the middle of the turn with no air on the car? They're going to have to have that mechanical grip in those situations to be aggressive in the draft.

And that's one of the questions I think that's still unanswered for me. I didn't see enough in the clash from the Chevy's except for Chase Elliott. Well, yeah. I thought Chase did. Chase's car looked really, really good and he was really aggressive early in the clash. Once everybody went single file, it got difficult for anyone to make any moves. I still need to see a little bit more, I think, from the Chevy guys to feel good about how their cars are handling. And maybe we'll see that in the duels.

But I think the duels, there's a lot there, even though there's not a lot on the line and not a lot to lose. There's so much to gain. Especially if you're Alex Bowman, because even the traditional thinking would be he's won the pole while race, but he didn't get to race the class. I know it. So he has not drafted yet. Yeah. And he's got a brand new car. He's got a brand new car that he has no idea how he's going to handle in traffic.

He has a very, very fast car. And a lot of times, speed comes at a sacrifice to handling and vice versa. Handling to gain handling, sometimes you sacrifice speed. I would be interested to know. I'll be interested to watch the duel and see how much Alex races. I won't be surprised to see him try to take care of his car. but I think that he also needs to do a little bit of a balance of both. Take care of my car.

I want to be able to have this car for the Daytona 500, but I also need to know what I need to work on for my car as far as handling, because I think that handling is going to be the most critical thing to winning the Daytona 500. We saw that race come down to the finish last year, side by side, three wide for rows deep. Handling in that moment is so important because if you're down a little bit on power, you get the right push, you can win that race. If you can't be aggressive with your car because it doesn't handle well, you can't defend,

you can't make passes, you can't side draft, you can't turn the wheel in the corner. So I think that Alex has got a lot to learn about his car and its capabilities, and he can only learn that in the duel. What about the lines? What did you see the clash about, like the top line versus the bottom line? I'll try to explain it the best I can as far as why that top works the way it does. and a couple of the drivers that I talked to were telling me that the bottom line was really not working well at all. Even on restarts, guys were struggling trying to make any headway on the bottom.

For whatever reason, the top line becomes really dominant. So this is, you know, reading people's tweets and comments on social media, it seems to me that the opinion is that all the drivers are sitting there in line, not doing nothing. And the reason why we saw what we saw on Sunday, there's a couple different things. And number one, we had three teammates, one, two, three. All right. They are going to take care of each other, and they're going to try to make it to the end of the race and race amongst themselves. I think if they may be thinking that, well, with five to go, I don't want to jump out of line and ruin it for all of us.

I've got a great opportunity to win the race sitting in second, sitting in third, and I can wait a little bit longer. That may be why you saw those three not really very active the last several laps. When all the cars go to the top, all the cars create more speed, and there's less accordion effect happening. The accordion effect of the cars sort of running up on each other and pushing each other away, and it creates runs. That creates passing opportunities. And that happens all the time on the bottom,

because we go down in the corner and turn the wheel. You get a lot of wheel into the car. Guys start to according, the accordion effect starts to happen in the corners and down the straightways more often. And you get guys kind of getting shoved around and pushed into, you know, pushed into opportunities to make passes. Well, when we get on the top, we sort of string out a little bit. And that accordion effect almost goes away completely. And you get a little more space between everybody. And all the cars sort of reach maximum velocity.

And the leader wants to go up there. The lead car wants to go to the top. In this case, Brad Keselowski, because he knows with less accordion effect, less runs happening, there's less to defend. And so if you pull out a line, the potential for you going to the back is almost like 95%. Didn't that what happened to Blaney? I mean, this isn't new. This isn't new. We've seen this for years. And so the whole thing about going to the top, no one else wants to go up there but the leader. But if you don't go up there, you're going to the back.

The leader slowly works his way up there to see if everybody else is going. going and they are like, oh, we got no choice. You know, here we go. I guess we're going to the top and we're going to do this. And he's like, hell, yes, I'm loving it. He's up there with less to defend. There's, it really knocks down the runs and opportunities drivers have on the leader to a minimum. So he loves it.

Which doesn't really bode well for a clash type race, right? Well, the clash would be a much better race if it was 20 or 30 laps. Okay. Because that would, people would have a sense of urgency. Right. Okay. Now that makes sense. But where it is, how many laps is it?

75 laps. 75 laps. You got to stop for, they're going to, yeah, that whole segment first, I don't even understand that. I mean, that is a pointless piece of racing right there. You should tweet that. I don't want to cause any more shit. I'm kidding.

I mean, that first segment to that caution just seems like it doesn't really add anything to the race. I think this race, that race, that race belongs 20, 25, 30 laps, anything under a pit stop, any race they can run in one take of fuel. And if, you know, if there's a caution, there's a caution. Let them come in and get tires or whatever.

If it goes caution free, it goes caution free. But there'll be some urgency. Guys know that they can't buy their time and just wait for something to happen. Another thing that was bad for that, bad for everyone that would love to pull out and try to pass, Greg Hezlowski, is the fact that the lot,

the guys in the back, were losing the draft. We saw Harvick lose the draft. Newman lost the draft. I think Hamlin lost the draft right there at the end of the race. Jones was in jeopardy of losing the draft. The less cars, as cars are falling off of that lead pack, and there's less cars in it, there's less energy and less push.

There's less accordion effect created. If you put four cars out on the racetrack to just draft by themselves, I mean, you wouldn't see any passing at all. So, you know, the bigger the pack, the more runs are created. within that pack and there's more potential there is to see a pass for the league. Real quick, if you can give us your feelings watching Alex Bowman win the poll in that 88 team. I was really, I wasn't surprised because I was, you know, that car is fast and qualifying last year. You qualified on the second.

You qualified second. You and Chase on the front row. We set on the pole to Talladega. We set on the pole at Dayton in July. I was just really happy for Alex. Whatever they can do that helps him gain confidence, this early, in the season. I mean, this really, when you win the poll, you're a young guy like that.

You're really going to get a huge boosting confidence that you feel that belief in the team around you. Everybody's in the hauler, excited and happy. Everybody around the car is happy. The rest of the week is a lot more upbeat. You're on the pole for the Daytona 500, no matter what happens. You know, you're going to be carried on this cloud all the way through the week. And so that really bodes well for him long term.

This checks a good box for him. that's going to carry him on into the first several weeks of the season. I think it's also something that it can be extremely proud of, setting on the poll for the Daytona 500 is a great accomplishment, a great team accomplishment. I'm pulling for Alex more than anybody, but there's so much experience in that field stacked up against him, and they are going to take advantage of that inexperience on that race.

I mean, he can have a bullet, but if he doesn't have the, I won't say respect, but if he doesn't have the confidence of the other guys in the field, they can move him out of that league. draft quickly. There's just so many, so talented plate racers in this field. And we won't list them all, but he's got his work cut out for him. But anything's possible. He definitely has a car that's quick enough. Again, will he and the team have the car that handles as well as it needs to? I think that's still something that they need to find out. And hopefully in the duels,

they get a good answer there. All right, man, there's the guy's Dangerous Summer, Mike's favorite band. that was them? That sounded like the people from the beginning of the show. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. So that was Dangerous Summer. Oh, I'm so happy to have Dangerous Summer back.

Yeah, me too. Yeah. Do they get any new stuff coming out? They do. They have a new album coming out. And as soon as Tony Mayoff gets the rights for using it on this show, I've been tailing for about a month. I've got some stuff I want to ask you.

You know, a lot of people were, I don't know if they were critical. You heard some comments on social media about the clash was boring. They were all just running that top line. But listen, there is a way that you can make this a lot more interesting. And it's not just waiting for NASCAR to do something for you, but it's honestly being a part of it. And that isn't fantasy. And we

are sponsored by Draft Kings in this episode, and it's a sponsorship deal that we've been talking about. And I find it interesting because you have been such a big proponent in fantasy. And a lot of people know that you play fantasy football, but you went to NASCAR several years ago and we're like, you know, look, y'all need

to be in on this. Like, fantasy needs to be a prevalent part of the NASCAR watching experience. And why is that? Why were you so vocal about it then? Where are you on it now? Yeah, I still feel the same way. I've always felt like that the NASCAR or our fantasy platform hasn't quite reached its potential. I think that for the most part, it was how races were scored.

And you basically, you know, would pick your drivers and however they finished in the race. That's where you landed. with this new stage racing, it presents so much opportunity to have creative scoring mid-race that gives you an interest, rooting interest while the race is going on. You can actually score points

as the race is happening, and that was something that was the real draw for me in fantasy football was sitting there watching the games and trying to see my quarterback or my ride receiver get some points while the game's happening. Because I know, man, I'm behind,

I've got to get the game. I mean, that was a whole lure of it was you could watch it as it's going on and score as the day goes through. And with the stages in NASCAR, that gives you that opportunity. And I think that this presents a real chance for NASCAR fantasy to become relevant. And that's important because, I mean, let's all be honest here. You know, fantasy sports is a multimillion dollar business. It's unquestionable that it's done some major things for NFL from a popularity standpoint. standpoint, that's where NASCAR could make a lot of gains is through the fantasy platform.

I think that also the demographic that we're trying to target the guys and girls that were trying to bring into our sport, the 20-somethings that we need to become interested in our sport, that can happen through the fantasy platform. If it's fun to do and it's exciting to play fantasy, sports as the race is happening, I think it's a win for everybody. There's a lot of money to be made there, and there's also a lot of potential growth for the sport as a whole. I know that we all kind of joke and laugh at the players in the NFL when they reference fantasy sports and how they hear about from fans where, well, you know, they're mad because I didn't do enough today to

help them win their game. I would love for that to be a problem. in NASCAR. Yeah. You know? You would love the drivers to be annoyed by the people saying, why did you not make that pass? Right. So that would be a great problem to have for us.

Yeah. We don't have that problem. And so for fantasy to be that prevalent and that popular in our sport would be great for us. That is the demographic that's playing fantasy sports. I know there's people my age and so forth that play fantasy sports as well. But we're trying to find ways to get youth involved in young fans. involved in our sport, fantasy is a great way to do it. So I'm excited to have draft kings on board.

I think that the future is bright for fantasy sports in our sport, and I'm a big fan of it. I want it to happen for us, and I think it could be big for our sport, carry us way on into the future. Well, you know what, listen. We've had stage racing, what, for a year now? Yeah, yeah. So that thing, that right there alone to me was the missing piece of the puzzle. And that presents an opportunity for us to score mid-race.

And hopefully fantasy platforms take advantage of that and really utilize that well to create some mid-race interest for fantasy players. Well, listen, they have a chance. I mean, this weekend there's a game specific for the Daytona 500 by Draft Kings. And I think that for listeners of the Dale Jr. download, if you want to support you and I, and Matthew here on this show, give it a try. If you don't play fantasy, do it this weekend. It's a game specific for the Daytona 500, and it's very simple. You go to draftkings.com before the race begins.

Can't do it when it starts, right? I mean, just do it before. Pick your contest, use the promo code Dale. That's very important, Matthew. They've got to use the promo code Dale, or we don't necessarily get credit for it. And that matters if we're going to have a key to help us out. And we're trying to gauge here the importance of fantasy sports and NASCAR and whatnot. Trying to kick start this thing.

Listen, Dale Jr. put his neck on the line years ago when he was trying to implore NASCAR to get in fantasy. Now they're doing it. It's just to do it. Help us out here. So use the promo code, Dell, pick your contest, draft your team of six drivers, points awarded to your point, Dell. Fast laps, laps led, finishing positions, all this stuff. There's really no reason not to do it. And that's ultimately what we want to do.

We need you guys to step up and help us out and also hopefully increase your whole race consumption experience. I think that's what we want to see here. And we'd love to hear about it. Like, what was that experience like? And did it, you know, are you going to continue doing it? All right. Here we are. Time for the Ask Junior segment of the show.

Matthew has the questions. Let's go. All right, man. People chiming in on social media using the hashtag Ask Junior. And you could do that each and every week and we'll pick out the best, not the questions that are boring and dull. first one comes from AM Brooks. What's the best thing that you look forward to when you become a daddy? Her saying daddy, I guess.

It's special. Yeah. It is. Yeah. My first hug, too, like her real first hug. She ain't going to do that. She ain't going to do that for about a year or so. Yeah.

That'd be it. Okay. Until then, if you want to hug, if you want to hug Dale, Mike, you can. No. No, not anybody. Damn it. Do I got to call him Daddy? Jesus.

It's terrible. All right. That was awkward. All right. Next question. Space Ace 3. I like that name right there. Did you ever take up that offer to go down on a bobsled?

Yeah, well, actually planning on trying to do that in March. We can't do the, we can't bobsled while they're in Korea. They're working. They're trying to win the gold. I'm not getting in the middle of that, screwing any of that up. And they don't have time for me to do that. So I was talking to the team a little bit. We got a chance to come in March.

They're still able to sled that late in the year. And that would be a good time for them. So we'll see. If not this year, definitely going to try it again next year. It's not something that's going away. All right, Nat, 0123, all these numbers. NASCAR Intrigue, great name, aka Zachary. Let's just call them Zachary.

Hey, Dale, after your television careers is over, any interest in being a part of the top brass of NASCAR management? I don't know, you know, I think that it'd be interesting to see what opportunity would be there. And definitely sit down and listen to those guys if they thought I'd be able to help them in any way. But love the sport, want to help it grow, and definitely would have that opportunity if you got a chance to work in NASCAR. All right, Ed Gerwood, I know Dale, you've been watching some Olympics. You've been ingesting it, watching it on TV, getting prepared, man. But he's asking, so far, what's been your favorite Olympics games event?

I am learning a lot about short track speed skating, and I love it, man, watching these guys race and how aggressive they have to get. They play a little bit of a cat and mouse game from the start. They, you know, waiting on who's going to take off and all that good stuff. It's very interesting. That's definitely probably one of my favorites, aside from obviously the bobsled. Could you see yourself as a short track speed skating? No, absolutely, no. I don't have a chance in hell of becoming an Olympic athlete at this age.

Remember, you could chime in every week, ask you, and you're on Twitter. look for the tweet. We love getting your questions in there. All right. Now, did you see that segment of the show? This is always something that maybe we saw on Twitter or Instagram this week. That was crazy, cool. It doesn't have to involve racing.

All right, what's the topic this week? Well, your buddy Tim Dugger, your buddy Tim Dugger tweets out a, I think we'll call it a theory. And he basically put his phone up against the broadcast of practice. And he suggested in his tweet, That the reason why Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Gordon and Mike Joy were cracking up laughing and there's no doubt they were was because somebody farted in the booth. That was the... Am I, did I see that wrong? Is that right?

I mean, if you play the tweet, if you play Dugger's tweet. Dugger swears somebody tooted in the booth. I don't know. Was it him? Was it Dugger? It might have been. I reached out for confirmation and was told it did not happen. I won't name names, but I reached out for confirmation.

confirmation and was told that it did not happen. And then I asked Steve LaTart, one of my colleagues in the booth this year, what the etiquette is. All right. And now, I think that's really, it is really funny. But if you think about it, yeah, but if you think about it, it's no different, people are going to go, oh, my God, I can't believe you ask this or talking about this. But if you think about it, it's no different than fans for years asking drivers of whether they

go to the bathroom in their suits. What are you doing a car if you got to pee? It's the same thing. It's the same argument. So what do you do if you got to take a toot? What do you got to do if you've got to fart in the booth? You fart. But I think that going to the bathroom thing is actually a better question.

What happens if you have to go to the bathroom? Because you drivers will do it just in your fire suit. But you can do it in the booth. You can? Yeah, because I can be, I bet I could be out of the booth an entire segment of a race and you wouldn't even know it. Okay. Or you could pull the Nib Jarrett and call it. and call a pit stop fake from Port-John.

There will. That happened. That's right. There will be segments where one of us doesn't say a word. There will. We'll know what's up. We'll know what's up. Well, I'm just saying there will be times in the races when that happens.

So, I mean, you know, you can just step out and take a break. There is commercial breaks, too. I didn't get about that. That's something I never even thought of that toots are happening. Yeah. So basically, on the show, we had clarification on some rules things. Yeah. But there really isn't, it's still an unsolved mystery like Fartgate.

I don't know. It seems like they are denying it. They said it did not happen. Although my crack interview guy over here didn't go, well, what was it you guys were laughing at? They were laughing. I know. Well, you can kind of hear it.

You kind of hear it if you're playing. That's what I'm saying. I'm just realizing that you're correct. They were laughing. Yes. They were laughing at something. So what were they laughing at? I don't know.

And you don't have to reveal your source, but do you trust the source to have told you The truth did not own. Okay. They're not going to... They're not going to tell you if they did. And they're not going... You would. You'd own it.

You'll tweet about it. I'm sure of it. You will. Y'all know what we were laughing about? They're lap 102? Well, we'll see. Because it's definitely going to come up in the season. It's definitely going to happen.

You would never do that. Oh, God. You don't know him. Ask Amy if what she thinks. I've heard. Anybody will definitely pen to... on DW. Yeah, me too.

I still think it was Darrylacher. You can tell by the way the guys were laughing. Mike Joy was just, you know, you don't laugh that much at your own fart. I do. You already know who it was? No. You're the guy that could figure that out and find that at. I mean, I'll pull it into audition and micromanage the audio waves of it.

I bet you by Monday next week he knows exactly who did it. He knows all the inside scoop. He'll figure it out. I don't want to get too close to that inside scoop. White flag, taking a look at Dale's schedule this week. I could not help but notice that you have a dentist appointment. Yes. And I just got to ask you, did you text your dentist?

Or did you make this appointment normally like people do? The dentist appointment was Monday, but my dentist texted me personally and said that my dental hygienist was not feeling well, that maybe I could come in another day this week. So I texted him back. I said, you just tell me what day. And he said, how's 10 o'clock Tuesday? so we're all square. Dillner, do you have a text relationship with your dentist? No, but I do my pizza guy.

You have a text relationship with your pizza guy? Yeah, I always... So it's what's important. Like, his teeth are important to him, and pizza is important to me. Fair enough. We're headed to Daytona this weekend because Del Gere's a Grand Marshal. Grand Marshal. A lot of responsibilities with the Grand Marshal.

Del Jr. will be making some public appearances. So here's a couple for you on Saturday at 11. This is Saturday, Saturday, 1120. Dale Jr. will be at the team Chevy stage located outside of turn four on Sunday. This is the day of Daytona 500, Matthew. Sunday at 1130, Dale will appear in the fan zone stage. Who's located inside the race. Was that a toot?

I'm going to appear. Like, poof. That's the big area inside the track. It's called the fan zone. It's a big area. Actually, you know what? You're going to be the Grand Marshal. Yeah.

Remember, hey, remember when Richard Petty returned. tired. And Daytona, he was the Grand Marshal the next time we came back. And he was in the, he threw the green flag, I believe, and his hat blew off. Yeah. Oh, really? So don't do anything crazy like that. I'm not throwing the green flag.

So you're safe. All I'm doing is the command to start your engines. Have you planned out anything? Drivers, start your engines. Pretty good? That's how you're going to do it? It's all right. Classic.

I think you need some practice. I'm going classic like that. Hey, guess what? There's an Xfinity Series race on Saturday. Junior Motors will be racing on Saturday with five entries, five entries. You don't enjoy the... I mean, like, I know you're rooting for your people. Like, as an owner, it's not like the most enjoyable experience of your life.

Because it's like you see Rex and it can't be a good feeling. When you just see, like, you hear the cash register. Chachin, cha-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-chee. The Daytona races are tough. Yeah. Not as hard as the, you know, them two battling it out for the championship at Homestead. Oh, that was true. The Daytona races are hard on the bottom line.

I'll say that. Elliot Sadler will be in the number one. Michael and Ned in the number five. Justin Algar in the number seven. new guy Tyler Reddick will be in the number nine. We had a good time with all these guys, by the way, at the company lunch in the other day, didn't we, Matthew? And by the way, that'll be a JRM 360 this week.

Look out. It will be on Thursday. Chase Elliott will also be in the number 88, so that's what you have to look forward to on Saturday. Then Sunday, Del General will be the Grand Marshal for the 60th running of the Daytona 500. Alex Bowman, the showman, and number 88 nationwide team will start first. Any Hamlin will start second.

The rest of the field will be determined on Thursday. The first dual race is at 7. 7 p.m. and then the second one is at 8.30 p.m. So as Dale Jr. said earlier, a lot to look forward to and a lot to pay attention to in that race. Tickets for all these races are available at Daytona International Speedway.com. There's some really good deals, including the Dell Junior Celebrity Appearance. Did you even know there was a Dale Jr. Celebrity Appearance. Then on Monday. Who's the celebrity? I think they're suggesting you are. Oh, I thought it was me and a celebrity. Well. There's like a Dale Jr. And Dale Jr.

Celebrity appearance. Who would that be? I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Mike Davis. Well, they'll be let down then. On Monday, Monday freaking morning, 5 or 6 a.m. sometime, me and Dale Jr. are off to South Korea. Oh, boy.

I'm talking a 14-hour flight. My gosh. Right. All right. So we're going to get to South Carolina. South Carolina. South Korea on Tuesday. It's slightly different, by the way.

Is it the same or is it different? It's slightly. So we'll get there on Tuesday. We've got Dale Jr. doing some work for NBC. You looking forward to it? I am. I'm nervous. I have no idea what they're going to have me do, but I'm just going to wing it.

All right. We're going to wing it. Lastly, everybody, share our podcast, rate and review it. Tell your friends about it. Share our content. Support our sponsors. Get us where we want to be, which is nowhere in the back. We want to be up front.

Dale Jr., any closing thoughts? Closing thoughts. Well, we talked about NASCAR fantasy. Here's your opportunity to be part of the future. There's a specific game for the. Daytona 500 with Draft Kings totally free. So go to draftkings.com before the race starts. Pick the contest you want to play.

Use the promo code, Dale, D-A-L-E. I'm glad you clarified the spelling on that. So pick your contest, draft your drivers. Points are awarded for fast slaps, flaps lead, finishing positions, etc. Again, the promotion code is Dale, and it's at draftkings.com to play the free NASCAR contest and win $10,000 in prizes. Give them the dark horse that they should draft on their team. Man, see, I hate doing this.

No, no, you could do it, though, because they're going to be part of the game. This is what you get. Oh, so this is your C driver. Give them a C, yes. Who's going to be your... That's right. Who's going to be the guy that would be your value pick? This is the VIP type of stuff that you're going to get.

I think the front row guys are always undervalued, and they always have a potential to do well in the Daytona race There's this guy named Tony Urey Jr. who's crew chief in this race, and he's got Danica Patrick. That's true. Her car didn't have a whole lot of speed the other day. Yeah, but it might have that handling. Might have that handling.

That's a good point. Danica, could be your, could be your. Hey, if you're drafting a team of six, I would take Danica in a heartbeat. I think you're going to go with the front row of motorsports cars. Either one of them, McDowell or Reagan. Reagan's a pretty good plate racer. Yeah, he is. That team will present the lowest value for the best.

upside finish. Well, that was a pretty good show. Just pretty good. Come on. Yeah. Well, I mean, it depends on how you edit it, buddy. I was excited, though, to have a chance to talk about all that stuff. We got a lot to look forward to going into this weekend. We've got the duels coming up, tune in, see whose cars are handling good. Still got a lot of guys, a lot of things up in the air as far as who the favorites are for the Daytona 500,

and that's going to be apparent in the duels. A lot of questions are going to get answered in that one. Also, Mike mentioned the Xfinity race. we'll be there and hopefully cheering one of our drivers from junior motorsports into victory lane and then obviously the Daytona 500. We'll talk to you guys later. Hope y'all have a good week and enjoy the Great American Race.