The Dale Jr. Download - 206 - Jetsetting with Jr.

Episode Date: February 20, 2018

Dale Jr. and Mike Davis break down all the goodies from The Great American Race and more while in the Atlanta Airport on a layover in route to Korea. 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.

From the Exhafta Studios, well, not exactly. Exhaught the Airport. Yeah. We'll call it the Exha Airport today. Yeah, we're not exactly at the Exharessee Studios. We're actually recording this in the Atlanta airport on Mike and my layover for our trip to South Korea. So we're not in Mooresville anymore. Your attention, please.

Yeah, you're going to hear an occasional PA announcement, but that's just the way it's going to be today on the Dale Jr. Download, isn't it? That's just showing our dedication to getting this out there to you. We've had an awesome week. A lot to talk about, so let's get to it. Ladies and gentlemen, this is your producer, Matthew Dillner. On behalf of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mike Davis and the entire Dirty Moe Fly Crew, I'd like to welcome you to the Dale Earnhardt Jr. download.

Dale Jr. has turned on the fastened seatbelt sign. Make sure your seatbacks are laid all the way of the way. and your folding trays are full of frosty beverages. Portable electronic devices are to be turned all the way up. Thank you for flying with the Dale Jr. download. Dale Jr., first of all, before we get going on Daytona, we are on our way to Korea. We have had our first flight to Atlanta.

We are about to get on a flight that's 15 and a half hours. How are you feeling? What's this going to be like for you? You're looking forward to it? Well, I know you were worried about this layover, But it's not been that long, and we're about to have to board in an hour. I've been worried about the flight. I'm sure I'm going to find out that I was worrying for nothing. You're going to sleep most of it.

I am going to sleep most of it because I stayed up all night. I tried to stay up all night, and I fell asleep one hour before I was supposed to get up and go to your house and meet you. And Amy comes downstairs, luckily, or I'd have been sleeping. I'd have slipped through the... Oh, wow. Yeah. I didn't know it was that... Yeah.

I forgot. I'm saying my alarm and everything, so... If Amy hadn't come down and woke me up and said, let's go, because she drove me to your house at 5 this morning, I would have slept through it, and we would have probably had to figure out another way to get to South Korea. I did stay up enough that I think I'll sleep quite a bit on this flight. Yep. And I got my bag full of snacks. I mean, you've got a vending machine in there.

Let's be real. You have everything that we have in our vending machines at Junior Motorsports. I think you've packed in there. You are well prepared for this. I am, man. I was, me and Amy, we sort of hoard a little bit in our cupboard, and even though we don't eat Oreos, there was a bag of little mini Oreos in there. I don't know where they came from.

Probably something like a, they were probably like a stocking stuffer for Christmas, and they've just been sitting in there. I know where they're going. Right. To Korea. That kind of in handy, man. I threw them things in my bag and a couple of other things I found. And so I'm not going to need any help trying to stay full.

and I won't go hungry on this flight, but I think the flight will end up probably being just fine. We got a little bit of a drive from Seoul where we land to Pianchang. Yeah, I'm dreading that part. That's the part you're worried about. Well, I mean, think about it. We're going to be on a flight for 15 and a half hours, and we're going to feel like finally got there,

and then it's like, okay, now you have a three and three and a half hour drive. Yeah. But you've talked me off the ledge on that. Listen, to be honest with you, my biggest fear that's ever, when it comes to air travel, happened in our first flight this morning. And that is not having any room for the carry-on. Yes, that was so embarrassing.

Listen, I've been doing my fair share of commercial travel. Look, I've never had that happen, and yet it terrifies me every time we're boarding. And it happened today. Me and you get on the flight, and there is literally no room in the overhead bins. All the way to the back of the plane almost. And me and you went all halfway down the plane. We basically greeted everybody on the plane because, again, we were late getting on the plane. think we probably could have boarded earlier.

Sure. Here it is. There's no room. And then, of course, I guess my bag is bigger than what most people's carry-ons are. You know, it looks at average to me, but I haven't took too many commercial flights. But when we got on there, that was really embarrassing. I'm looking at all the overhead bins are open, but it's packed full of stuff. And I'm thinking, well, where's all this stuff come from?

There's only so many people in these seats. Where's all this stuff coming from? And where we're going to put our stuff? So we walked halfway down the plane and couldn't find anywhere to put our stuff. turned around came all the way back up. With oncoming traffic, because people are still boarding. People still trying to board. We really made a fool of ourselves.

If we thought we were going to do this real cryptically, that went out the window. And then, of course, you know, the nice flight attendant was going to help me. And because my bag didn't seem to fit in the thing, I looked like a rugby player trying to push that thing in and finally got that to work. And so I was like, this is already terrible. This has been my worst nightmare. I snuck my bag into one of those compartments where the food boxes go. that they run up down the aisle and the flight was so short that they didn't have the food boxes on there so I shoved my bag in there oh nobody put that in there for you no

you just took the liberty of doing that yeah man I'd get you kicked off right there you put your bag in the no it won't the lady you just saw it uh she walked by it and saw it a few seconds later and just kind of shoved it in there a little farther and I think that was the only bag in there okay but look that's good good for you I was terrified it was terrifying so you're saying while I was sitting there trying to shove my bag in you just kind of slipped yours into that closet Not in the clock. Had you? Wow, good for you. All right. Let's talk about Daytona 500. We did it yesterday.

We went there, had a good time. I don't know where do we start. I mean, like, let's just start with the command of start engines. Okay, let's start with gentlemen to start your engines, all right? I think a lot of people are talking here. I've not seen a bad comment yet. I haven't seen a hard critique yet. Everybody seems to believe you delivered it.

They gave you an A plus on this thing. And you felt good about it yourself. I did. I, you know, I'm a traditionalist and like to do things. I don't know if it's old school, but just kind of by the book. And when I got that microphone in my hand and just sitting there waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting, man, it was getting so, I was getting so excited and more excited and not nervous, just like really excited about it. And I was hearing in my mind like these old, you know, gentlemen start your engines from back in the day.

Oh, wow. Before they ever had anybody import in or CEO of a company or anybody ever do it, it was always, before they had, you know, when they had professional gentlemen start your engines guys, like. Oh, really? Yeah, like, let's get rid of the rumble guy. Okay, Michael Buffer. Yeah, Michael Buffer. Yeah, so they, you know, when racetracks just had a PA announcer do it, they did it really well, you know.

And it was, and you never had anybody get up there and play it soft or get too goofy. Of course, you know, Adam Sailing them guys, it's funny when they show their personality, but I enjoy doing it. I don't want to overstate it, but man, that was so much fun. It was more fun than I anticipated it being pretty much everything I've done since I stepped out of the car in November has been more fun than I thought it'd be. So we're on a roll, and that was, you know, and as I was saying it, I got more and more excited. I know.

I could tell. I can tell the moment. Listen, this is my theory on it. after having a front row seat for that. And I've always thought this, but you confirmed it. I think people must go in, with the exception of Sandler. I think people go in with this like, I'm going to just do this solidly. I'm not going to go over the top.

I'm not going to go underneath. I'm just going to be a neutral delivery here. Right. But the moment in the microphone sort of forced you to really kind of lean into it when you get going because it's like, I got this microphone in this moment and people are cheering. And you said you were just going to do a traditional neutral thing. but you came out

I mean you you tackled us with that thing I poured by something to it yeah you went all in so Martin Trace texted me out the race and said man it's a great command and I was like you heard it

and why I say that is because I can't remember the last command I could actually hear from inside the car over the you know with the helmet on you know plugs in your ears all those things

I can't remember actually being able to hear the command over the PA system we never could so we would always have TJ say all right, you can start it up, you know. And the guys around you are firing it up too, you know.

He said, yeah, that was great. I said, you could hear it. He's like, oh, yeah. And he had a screen he could see, too, to watch it. He said he liked it. So that meant a lot to me being him as my good buddy. But yeah, that was fun. We went up to, we watched the start of the race on the 88 box.

You did. Yeah, I did. I watched the start of race on the 88 box until about 4 o'clock. And then we had a request to go up to the France. suite or the ISC suite. Yep. So we went up there. They had a lot of great food up there. Amy had been up there all day and you were up there. So we watched a lot of the race up there. We went down, we went back down to the infield with about 40 to go, 30 to go, and then we sat there and watched

hoping that Alex was going to win. And when Alex was knocked out, we started packing up and heading out and we didn't really see the last lap. We caught a bit of, you know, a bit of grainy video on social media and so forth of the finish and knew that Austin had won and knew that Bubba had run second and so forth but as we were taking off we were kind of getting bits and pieces of it just disappointing for Alex had he run good good all day I thought he he ran I don't want to say he ran better and I expected because I expect great things from him but I was real happy with how his car drove I was a little more worried about his car not handling because they had not really had a lot of time to practice in a pack you know what they

did in the qualifying race. They bailed out and decided to save the car. And I was afraid he's going to find himself in some situations in the pack Sunday that weren't comfortable and that would take his confidence away and he wouldn't run well. But man, he did great. I mean, let me stop there. I mean, you had said that while the experience in the field is going to be a whole lot for him to tackle. Sure. And then also Kevin Harvick had said after the duels that he didn't learn anything in the duels that he didn't get any draft and practice. You said last week how important all of that drafting was going to be the practice leading up to the race. So it is fair to say he exceeded expectations.

Do you think it was, I don't know, unfair to assume that much of Alex? I mean, it just comes to the territory. I mean, he certainly surprised me. Yeah, I didn't mind being freaking surprised. Right. You know, and as the race went on, I found myself pulling for Alex in a different way. for so long we've been trying to help him get this opportunity and now I'm just a fan and I'm sitting there watching the race going man I'm an Alex bowling fan I'll be down yeah you know and I'm I'm really wanting to win and I'm thinking about I'm like I'm like daydreaming about what it might be like to watch him win this race and so that that was a really unique feeling for me probably a first since my dad you know watching my dad race and pulling for him to win I've never really had to see I've never really had to and watched him really pulled for someone else like that.

So I had fun, you know, Blaney and everybody. Blaney runs so good and see Bubba do well. What a surprise that Austin wins the race. I thought the event, what I experienced in those two days and the whole event, the energy, the feel that I got was that we've turned the corner as a sport. I felt it too. Yeah.

Before the race even started. Right. I felt that before the race, and I didn't know if it was because we were, in a different type of environment with a different approach. You certainly were, we were both way more relaxed. I mean, usually we're on edge because you're on edge. I mean, you enjoyed the heck out of the speedways.

Yeah. But the crowd and the energy that we were feeling from the time we started in the morning, it was obvious. You felt that when you went on stage and you were doing these, making the rounds, and then when the thing started, and there wasn't an empty seat. Right. I mean, come on.

Yeah, they've had a couple sellouts the last two or three years. I didn't know if I felt, I didn't know if I sensed the difference visually in the size of the crowd or anything like that. But I felt like a new dawn, you know, a new beginning. Because you know why? Because those young guys lived up to the billing. I mean, they honestly took speed weeks. I felt like you and I were talking about this. I'm like, they really showed out.

All of them. They did. All them young guys. Right. All week, you know. And the offseason stuff was entertaining to us. but we thought that it was no more than just entertainment value. Right.

But then, you know, the Denny Hamlins and the Kyle Buses, they would take the day when it all came down to it. You know what? They didn't. They were there, but they didn't push them young guys out of the way. Blaney was there all day. Bowman was there all day. Chase was there until the wreck.

You know, all of them young guys. Byron was in the wreck late. I mean, those guys, I thought they earned a lot of credibility, and they earned a lot of fans. Yeah, I think that you're exactly right. thought it was a fun back and forth, or it was fun to listen and watch the media in the offseason about the young and the veterans, the youth movement, the veterans. It was fun to watch that go back and forth, but once we got to speed weeks, and we saw exactly

what was happening on the racetrack, and it was really playing out. The youth versus the veterans was really, was playing out in these little qualifying races and in the clash and so forth. And so I think that that storyline is going to be. going to just continue to enhance itself over the course of the season. That's going to be a, that could be what the season's all about. It would be awesome, wouldn't it? Right. Yeah. You know, after that media day, Blaney already started being funny with it and, you know, him and Bubba Wallace doing that little video when he was having to spend the night party or whatever it was. And,

I mean, listen, that'd be great. I would love it. Because you know what? The veterans are going to have their days. I mean, they're still legit, right? Oh, yeah. But man, those rookies and those new guys and the young guys, man, they showed up. It was so fun to watch. I agree with that, man. I'm excited about the rest of the season. Because of that, I think that you have a real changing of the guard or you got a new, you got some new blood coming in, and they're really crafty and they're eager. They're so eager. Chase was, Chase Elliott was one of the main reasons why that extended race we saw on Saturday was so exciting. because everybody has, everybody sort of has their own style in the way they draft.

Chase is different than anybody's that I've seen in a while. How so? Well, Chase, so if you watch Chase when he's out there on the racetrack, even in practice, even when they're in a single car line, he just starts moving around back and forth. He starts going low and then high and low and high. And he's just hustling and aggravating the guy in front of him. That's all he's trying to do. And at the same time, he's trying to create energy or a draft or a push out of nothing.

Oh, wow. If he sits still, that push and that energy and that run that it's going to eventually happen, happens on its own. If he does this movement, he can create it beforehand. And so if you watch the Xfinity race and watch him in practice at Talladega coming up in a month or two, He just starts moving around, left and right, left and right, left and right. And he's really just aggravating the leader, and all of a sudden, somehow or another, creates some energy from behind and gives him the running needs to actually make a move. He's just not content with riding in second.

He's not. And that Xfinity race went on, and they started, they were getting more aggressive in trying to take the lead. It became a game between him and Larson and Lugano on who was going to leave. And it became almost insulting for anybody to lose. for one of them to lose the lead to some they're like, you know, they all felt like that they were the ones that should be leading the race and you could see it. They were having fun

but at the same time they got extremely competitive in that race to lead it. And I think that when Chase was up front and in the cup race we saw the same thing. Once Chase was out of that cup race a little bit of the energy

as far as the action and movement in the front of the pack died down quite a bit. That's one thing I like about Chase, and if you like exciting plate races, you won't Chase to be a part of it, because he's going to never settle for riding around in second, third, and fourth position. That's got to aggravate the snod out of everybody else, doesn't? Right, so it just kind of instigates action, and you can see it just getting bigger and bigger and bigger throughout the duration of that expedity race.

Yeah. And so that's a good thing. I don't know if people really picked up on that, but that's a great, great thing for this sport going forward, is to have drivers like Chase, and the goner. No, no, and Larson, they're just like him, too. I mean, once they saw that Chase was game for a contest of who could lead, who was the better leader and who was the guy that could make the moves, once they saw that Chase was game for all that, it was on, man.

And nobody was settling or riding or content. So that was something that I observed. It's going to be interesting going forward, seeing how that all plays out. We had a great Saturday, went in the race. Tyler Reddick did an amazing job. You know, actually, I didn't even see Tyler Reddick all race long. He ran under the radar all day. Sort of like Austin Dilla did on Sunday.

Exactly. Pretty much the same race. He come out of there in a great position there on the last several Green White Checkers and wins the race. And then we go to Victor Lane and he's just so together. He was. How would you explain his? personality and attitude to people who don't know him after a win like that.

I don't know. I mean, I'm learning about Tyler Redick as in real time, basically, like everybody else is. But the fact of the matter is that these kids, it's so funny. We use it almost as a cliche, but they're too young to know the magnitude of the situation. Even like the way they race, you know, we say they haven't hit the wall yet because they just race balls out and everything. But like Tyler did understand the magnitude of what he did because he was super grateful. But these guys are so cool. They're just so cool and collected.

Do you think they're mature beyond their, is it a mature thing like they've just, because they start racing maybe so early in their lives? Maybe, yeah, that's a good point. Maybe, I mean. They're mature in their racing career. He was so impressive. Yeah, I know what you mean. And I got a thing, I'm still kind of processing what to make of that Xfinity Series race. Because to be honest with you, Tyler Reddick, if we talk about how he composes himself and victory lane and everything, the race itself.

The race itself, I mean, first of all, he thought he won a race. He won the race on the restart before that. And then the caution came out before he took the white flag, like 100 feet before he took the white flag. Dave Bell and the crew chief is already celebrating on the pit box, which is like the ultimate, oh, dude, you just screwed it up. Anybody superstitious knows that if you start celebrating something early, then that's it. And yet, he had to recollect himself. Who does that at that age? Like, who can do that?

That is so... And then you got Elliot Sadler, who's raced for a million years behind him, and then they've raced to what was the closest finish in NASCAR Expedity Series history. I'm just impressed by the kid. I'm impressed by the way Elliot Sadler race. I'm impressed they didn't wad them up coming to the line. I was really scared about that.

And so, yeah, I don't know, man. I'm a big Tyler Redick fan now, too. He won me over. Yeah, me too. I'd have to say the same thing. We were... In the off-season, he was texting me about how their tests were going.

He went to Atlanta and test, and he's shooting me, you know, he's just on his own shooting me text messages about how the day is going and all that. And I love that about him because, you know, he just wants to be engaging. Yeah. And, you know, we've got, we have great relationships with all our drivers, but he's fitting in so well to Junior Motorsports. And I'm excited about his season. He's got a great team around him.

Dave, you know, Dave's going to do a good job, championship crew chief. This is going to be exciting season for us. We've got a work cut out for us up against Christopher Bell, I believe. I believe Christopher Bell is going to be our toughest competition. Cole Custer as well, he had a great finish to the previous season, and I know he'll be also in the mix, but we're going to have an interesting year, but it's awesome to be able to get a win right out of the gate. That does so much.

We've seen this before with our company, how much motivation and morale, That gives us going forward. And everybody was so stir crazy before the season started to get down to Dayton and get to work. To come out of there with a victory just really makes everybody happy. So proud of Junior Motorsports. And what have we left out about this weekend? Well, I've got a few. I mean, I want to ask you, I'm going to give you some names and just give me some quick thoughts on them

because I think we can really kind of review our weekend this way. Austin Dillet. And the fact that his win, the three, the whole. whole history thing, give me your impressions on that. Austin Dillon is a guy with his own style. It's a new style. You know, it's not traditional. I think the more we see of him over the next couple of years,

the more interesting he's going to be. It's going to be a new, he's going to bring some new flair into this sport. And we've seen that out of him over this offseason as far as how he's sort of branding himself. How is he branding himself? Like a cowboy? No. What is he? I can't make it out.

I know. He was wearing the cowboy hats, but he's starting to, I don't know, he's just starting to get, I don't know, you know, he's just kind of coming into his own. He was sort of part of the family and their whole thing was cowboy hats and dirt cars and racing and barns and whatever. Guns and guns. Well, he's sort of changing his style just a little bit. becoming his own man, if you will, got married, and she's certainly had a great influence on him, and he seems to be enjoying himself.

They're fun to watch. I don't know if you follow them on social media, man, but boy, they're getting some mess. All right, so there's awesome deal on Bubba Wallace. Bubba Wallace. You know, you can't help but pull for the guy. What a great story. He has a potential to change the face of the sport

and do some things that no black driver's ever done. in the sport before. You know, I believe he has a talent and a skill. A lot of people kind of wondered whether he had done enough, I guess, to get this opportunity. But I never felt that at all or felt like he didn't deserve the chance. And he went out and proved it on Sunday by driving like a veteran and driving with his head on his shoulders.

And he just put together a complete race. As we learn more about him, about his family, we saw a little bit of that after the race with his emotional. in the press conference. As we learn more about him, I think we're going to continue to become bigger fans. Did we give a glimpse of the weight and the pressure on a driver such as him? You've certainly had pressure. Like that moment when he just lost in the media center, which was this moment of vulnerability and just you couldn't help but feel for him, but also really like him. I mean, what was that that we were watching? Could you relate to that at all?

Yeah, I was watching him all speed weeks. And he, he was. We had so many media responsibilities and commitments more than any other driver by far, multiple times more than any other driver by far. It reminded me of the countdown to E-Day that we had for our first race in Charlotte with the Budweiser car and how not fun that was. I mean, that was a real miserable experience having to deal with all that pressure. and the reason why it's not fun is because as a driver, you're coming into your,

so Bubba Loss is coming into his first Daytona 500. All right, he's going to race his first Daytona 500 for Richard Freaking Petty. All he, the last thing he wants is, is extra publicity. And what that extra publicity does is it brings on more expectation and pressure. and it puts the focus on you and you really just kind of want to go in there and do your job. It sets you up for, you know, embarrassment. It set you up for all those things you just don't want. It puts so much fear and doubt in your mind over whether you can live up to all of this exposure.

Because exposure feels like hype, you know, and even though no one was really hyping him, we were just, you know, everybody that was trying to cover, Bubble was just trying to cover his stuff. story to the driver, it feels like it's people are hyping you, and you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I ain't deserving no hype. I don't want people expecting nothing, you know, we're just going to go in there and race and try to do the best of we can. And he was feeling that pressure, man. I think it was probably the most pressure I've ever seen any driver deal with, any kind of,

you know, any kind of media crush. I don't, I think that he set a, he set a new high for handling that type of pressure and how much he had to deal with. I was just so concerned with his well-being and his, you know, his peace of mind and where his head was at. But he held it together. Yeah. I was parked next to him in the bus lot. And there were, there was, he was, he was, he had media scrums outside the bus.

All the time. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he, not to mention the stuff he had to do in the media center, he'd go back to the bus and there'd be 10, 20 reporters around him, pushing him up against the bus, and he just, he answered every question, did everything they asked him to do, which he was asked to do a lot. I can't express that enough. He won me.

I met him last year. I put it on Twitter last night. I mean, I started to get to know him when we were playing basketball together, and I'm like, oh, he's pretty cool. I like him. He's a real nice guy. But then he started doing stuff on social media that made me really think that he's even cooler, and I like him now.

But then he won me. I'm buying a Bubba Walla shirt. He is, he, um, one of the things about him is he's going to, he's going to wear his emotions on his sleep. I love that, though. Right. Yeah. And, you know, that's something. For better or worse.

I know. Right. We actually got a little bit of that, uh, even before the, the emotional thing. I mean, like, he had some things about Denny that he kind of put on out there. Right. He did. Um, so he, you know, you're going to have to accept the good and the bad when, you know, when, when he wears his emotions on his sleeve.

We've seen that with him before. and as he races on into his cup future, he'll mature as a driver and continue to get better at managing his emotions. But I think it's great to see him. A couple of observations I had from Daytona, and you can add some to this, you can add whatever you want to do. One, you seem happier. Yeah, I mean, I was just going in there without the pressure of having to drive and perform was nice.

Just going in and enjoying the experience, enjoying the energy of the race. I love Daytona. Love Daytona 500. You know, to feel that event without the pressure from driving the car and the expectations of your own, you know, the pressure you put you on yourself was real nice. Because I don't mean this disrespectfully at all, but like you weren't a ton of fun to be around during speed weeks ever, right? I mean, like you, you had a lot of pressure that you were putting on yourself. And so this wasn't, you know, your most personable moments in your life. And so I never really, I always knew that, but I never really could process it until I saw how this weekend went with you with no pressure. And then I realized, wow, that was really kind of weighing on him all those years.

So you enjoyed it. The other thing, did you notice that Steve O'Donnell when he introed you at the driver's meeting, he brought up the yellow line? He dropped a little joke in there. Oh, he told me he was going to do that. Oh, he did? Yeah, he did. I was wondering if he's going to ask me to stand up there and say anything. About the rules?

Well, I'm just, yeah, I was, you know, he could have really put me on the spot. But that was a lot of fun to sit there and take in the driver's meeting from that perspective. You know, you sit there and those drivers meeting year after year and look across there of those celebrities and the people that they have guests. So, um, to sit, it was just staring into a mirror, man. It was so weird. You know, it would have been funny. If at the end of the meeting, when they always say, does anybody have any questions, which clearly that's for the drivers and crew chiefs, if you had raised your hand and started asking questions. It should have.

It would have been awesome. Could you clarify that yellow line rule a little bit? Another one, you did win a dollar on Draft Kings. Damn, man, how are you going to tell everybody that? Oh, you don't want to? Well, I know. I thought it was embarrassing that I just won $1,000 to $10,000. That might have been good.

Who knows? Were you expecting to win money? My first place guy won $500. Oh, is that right? Yes. All right. So you're only $499 off the lead. I looked at his lineup.

It wasn't all that. But, hey, I had fun playing draft kings. I have the app on my phone. I actually put in $25 last night. Oh, you did? I'm a little tempted to play this weekend in Atlanta. Yeah, all right, let's put together a league. Let's have some fun.

All right. Just tell me a story. I don't know what happened. Give me the context. We were going to Victory Lane to celebrate with Tyler Reddick. You grabbed a couple of kids that were outside Victory Lane. I don't know if you knew them or not, but you brought them in and you told the guards, like, let them stay right here.

And what was that all about? Was that just a random thing? I just see kids, man, and I want to make them, I want to, I don't know who they were, but they were wanting a hat. Actually, he was asking for the hat on my head, and I didn't want to give him that hat. And I knew there was like 150,000 hats in Victory Lane. So I said, why don't you come into Victor Lane, and I'll get you all the hats you can stand. The kids actually walked out of there with like 30 hats. Every time, all weekend, without the pressure of the race car, every time I saw a kid, I was like, come on, you want to go.

You know, it was fun, just dragging them in there and letting them see what's going on and taking them somewhere and think they could go. I remember when I was a little kid at the racetrack and you didn't know you could go and get in certain areas and so it's a really great experience when you could. It's time for Ask Junior. I got a question. You have a question for me? Hit us up on Twitter using the hashtag Ask Junior.

Let's do some Ask Junior questions. We've got five that Matthew Dillner picked out for us. He would typically ask these. I'm going to ask them this week because we're at the Exaltzalt Airport in Atlanta. Big Daddy Chunk says, in light of the photo finish on Saturday, I was wondering what happens if a finish is determined to be a tie. I don't know.

I mean, I really don't think that it's even possible that a finish could be a tie. You might have to go a few zeros down the aisle there to get to it, but yeah. I don't know. I think that they would have, I don't even know if it's possible for cars to tie. Yeah, who knows. Has there ever been a tie in maybe track and field or anything like that? It feels like that there has been a tie in something, and I don't remember what it was.

I don't think it was in our sport. Right. No, I thought it was on like a... It was in something else. Athletics, like track and field. Yeah, track and field. That's what I'm thinking. But I don't know.

It's a good question, Big Daddy Chunk. It was funny that when you went into the media center afterwards, they said, Dale Jr., this is the closest finish in NASCAR National Series history. It was 0.000. And your first reaction was... My first reaction was that sounds like a tie to me. Sounds like a tie. I'll give you a little nugget.

I was, when we crossed the finish line, you want to talk about that? That was, I thought that was pretty funny. What did you do? I don't remember. Well, we were, so we win the race, we think, and I come out of the bus to get on the cart to leave, and I was like, I really am not sure if we should go. Right. Because I was still worried that they were going to review the back straightaway push

and decide that they had locked up and penalized us and not take the win away. So I text Steve O'Donnell, and I don't know whether Steve thought I was being a smart astronaut and Steve if you're listening I was being genuine as hell when I texted you if if the finish was final and let's be real after what you did last week he's listening they're all listening well I just was like hey uh Steve is that is the race official he said nine's the winner I'm like all I just wasn't sure I didn't want to go over to Victor Lane walking there like an idiot and y'all right while they're pushing the car out and pushing somebody else is in there you know I just didn't know that race was so crazy at the end I thought that was pretty funny though and

and just to clarify You were concerned that they were going to penalize it because we'd already been caught. We got hooked up, you know, bump drafting, whatever you want to call it earlier with Chase Elliott and Elliott Sadler. They sent them to the back. So it looked like that there was a similar situation on the last lap. Yeah, the last lap for us looked similar and I didn't know how they were going to judge it. Right. So I was wondering if they were still thinking about it.

Matthew Boy 22 says, scenario. Amy has a craving for insert must food here. I must have food here. What is the vehicle you use to go get it for her? Probably my Holden Commodore. I took a G8, Pontiac G8 and turned it into an Australian Holden Commodore. It's got turbo so it can get around pretty good. And it's quick like a go-kart.

So I'd take that on down to wherever she needed me to go and I'd have it back pretty quick. Josh Fox asked, what do you think about Alex Smith playing for the Redskins? I'm fine with it I hated that they gave up Fuller, the cornerback. That was a disappointing move to have to make, but we'll see how the rest of the offseason goes

and hopefully they can put a good team around him. Last one, Jordan Tancel, I'm probably mispronouncing that. Did you ever get mistaken as Swifty from Six-Pack when you were younger? I saw that question when it popped up my timeline and I did not.

I did not. Six-pack came out, I don't know, I can't remember how old I was. That was probably 1982. Early 80s. Right, yeah. Yeah. I don't remember a whole lot from back then.

I was only about nine years old. Well, we actually have a flight to catch. We are on our way to South Korea, or as Elliott Sadler says, South Korea. Yeah. And so, yes, that's how Elliot pronounced it. South Korea. Yeah.

Follow. I'm going to post a bunch of content on my Instagram stories. So if y'all want to follow my Instagram story, I'll be posting a little, you know, stuff there. Mike, what about you? Yeah, I mean, you know what I would like to do? I'd like for us to record a couple podcasts this week at least, you know, and just kind of check in. And so we'll keep Matthew doing or working.

And we'll do short ones. I mean, it's not nothing crazy. But I'm going to post a lot of content. I'm along for the right. I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be exciting. Can't wait to get there, to be honest with you. So we've got these Daytona thoughts down.

Let's go to career. All right. Let's get on the plane.