The Dale Jr. Download - 210 - Superheroes and Bizarre Dreams

Episode Date: March 20, 2018

This buffet of a podcast has Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the guys discussing diverse driver personalities, dreams of John C. Reilly, Amy’s take-out food request, and more. 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.

Nearly losing control as they touch fenders. Well, I grew up in a sport, grew up around it. My dad raced, you know. And Ralph Earnhardt proves that they can run almost as fast. Walking side of the track type racing. A lot of hard work in my sacrifice. It's going to be Dale Earnhardt Jr. using lessons. Look at his father.

And Dale Jr. Downland. There's no excuse. What are works. to be the hardest wonderful person in here. He worked hard. That was the hardest, hardest race ever drove. I'm putting it in work. The Exaltus Studio.

The download starts now. Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download with me as usual as Mike Davis and Matthew Dillner. Matthew is killing it with these intros, Mike. I feel like I don't want to whoop somebody's ass. Yeah. Man. I feel fired up.

I am too. And I mean... There's a little chills. I was thinking there might be one of these days where we don't come off of intro and brag about the intro, but it just keeps getting better. I was kind of hoping that. Yeah. Well, quit being awesome. He keeps bringing it.

Man, that was, had a little, I mean, it felt like very Earnhardy. Very Earnhardy. There's a lot of Earnhardt in there. I mean, an Earnhardt feeling is somebody that's like you feel like you could go whoop somebody's ass. You feel like you may go plow field. You may just, you know, conquer the day. That's how I feel now. Hard work.

Hard work. Hard work. My man, Matthew, he's working hard on this stuff. And our show is just getting better and better. We got another good one on deck for today. Are you ready? I'm pumped. Let's do this.

All right. Let's go. Dale, we're back in the Exaltzance studio. I don't know where you watch the race this weekend. I watched it bits and pieces. I know that there were a couple things that came out. of the weekend that I thought was interesting. I think we need to talk about that.

I'm actually just wanting to hear your opinion on things. I wasn't tied to Twitter, and I know you were tweeting stuff off. I know that you were coming down supporting Kyle Bush yesterday, and I know that Kyle was in the news again, and I want to talk about that. I also want to get your take on these rule changes and try to make sure I'm understanding things right based off of the qualifying. There was 13 cars that didn't pass. First and foremost, Kyle, talk to me about Kyle, because you are in an interesting.

position. You are a TV man now and you're also a driver. So here's where that world kind of clashes a little bit because Kyle Bush, if I got everything right, he parked his car after the race and he didn't do a post-race interview. Now, if you hear Kyle Bush talk about it, he said, look, I was there. If TV wasn't there ready to go, then I'm gone. I'm under no obligation. I was there. MRN got me. TV didn't get me. And then there's other people that would say, but no, you're obligated to give it an interview. Where do you fall on this? I know exactly what was going on with Kyle.

He had gotten stopped at the entry to pit road because of a loose lug nut. He is hundreds of yards from where all the other cars are positioned at the end of the race. Media and TV is going to be around the top finishers over where those cars are stationed, and Kyle is not there. So he has to get out of his car. and if he wanted to do an interview badly, you know, he could have sought after a TV crew, but no driver ever does that. We, you know, our thought is to get with our crew chief sort of talk about the finish of the race,

make sure we're on the same page before we go change our clothes and hit the road and go home, right? There's just little conversations you have with the crew chief before you leave that's sort of, okay, did you see it the way I saw it? All right, we'll talk about it tomorrow. I'll see you later. Good job. Maybe you talk to you guys a little bit. So I didn't have a problem with, once I heard Kyle's side of it, I didn't really have a problem with what happened there.

The other thing, too, is you mentioned about being a TV guy now and having to see things a little bit differently, look at things through a different lens. I'm sort of in the transition there, and I'm not real sure where I land on some things or how I'll feel about some things in the future. But what I've tried to do is take my feelings for the drivers or my personal feelings for some of the drivers, maybe start from scratch. There are some drivers that I like a lot, got along with all the time. There's some guys that maybe I don't have the best history with. There's some guys that maybe I've gotten to know better. Me and Kyle actually pretty decent friends at this particular point, we had a rough, rough pass for sure.

You did. But we've gotten to where we both are much nicer people to each other. Which I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for that. But there's other drivers, though, that I didn't end on great terms with as far as my driving career. What I've tried to do is take some of that emotion out of it and call it as I see it. I just feel like that if a broadcaster has a bad opinion of a driver, he can't let that come out in how he's calling the race. And he can't try to, I don't want to try to influence the viewers on who's a good guy and who's a bad guy and who I think you should like and not like.

I don't know. Maybe I'll change my opinion on that and call it a little. little bit differently down the road. But if I think a guy's a asshole, I'll just say, hey, I think he's an asshole. But I don't think that's good habits for a broadcaster. It caused problems. Yeah, you're supposed to kind of call it down the middle. So that's been challenging for me, is to try to take out some of that emotion.

And, you know, if I have a grudge with a guy, putting that on the side and really saying, hey, all right, this guy deserves this praise or this guy, you know, this guy, you know, did a good job, even though maybe I don't like the guy. And I'm sure I'll face a lot of that as I go forward. It'll be even more interesting if I ever had the chance to interview some of these guys. I may get tasked to sit down with some guys that maybe I don't have the best relationship with just to interview them for a pre-race piece or something like that. You never know.

Because you were assigned it by your boss, right. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that'll be pretty interesting. Might also present opportunities to make the situation right, you know. But why did you feel so compelled then to go out and defend Kyle? What was it that Kyle did or what was people saying about Kyle that made you want to jump in? So when I was a driver, I looked at things completely different.

I might not have the same opinion about what I saw Kyle doing on Twitter. After the race, Kyle went on Twitter, and he was talking to his fans, and he was talking to his haters, you know. And it seems to me that I really, I mean, it was entertaining for me, and I don't know if I would have that same feeling as a driver. If I was competing against him, I don't know if I would enjoy it, like it, not like it. I don't know if I'd have the same urge to voice my opinion. about it. But the one thing that I've learned over the last several years, even before I quit

driving, was the sport needs people like Kyle. Even if you don't like the guy, the sport needs all kinds of personalities. And we can't have 40 heroes out there racing. We can't have 40 Captain Americas out there competing against each other. You got to have a Batman. You got to have a Robin. You got to have a Superman. You got to have a Joker. You got to have all of that to create storylines and create rivalries and, you know, and he brings so much to the table from a, from a, for reporters and for broadcasters, he makes, he makes moments, you know, one of the things that my new ball Sam Flood says that we should all try to do is make moments. And when I, when I think of Kyle Busch, he makes moments. And he creates, he creates content and things for us to talk about,

whether he's winning, whether he's frustrated over finishing second, whether he's doing something goofy on social media, whatever it is. I mean, the guy's really gotten more active about, you know, it used to just be all negative press about Kyle, even when he was winning. It was, well, you know, he didn't do this right or, well, he had a bad attitude about this. And he, you know, it used to be more negative press. And now it's kind of tide's changing a little bit. He's come out of his shell.

a little more open on social media. He's showing people what his life's like, sharing his family life and so forth. So I see that as a positive for the sport. It is, though. I mean, I get all that's positive. Is it positive to not go do post-race interviews for the viewing audience at home? I think if he did turn down the interview, if he said, I ain't talking, or he walked away from a reporter with a microphone going, Kyle, you got a minute, I think that that's bad.

But I don't think that's what he did. Yeah, I don't think it is either. Right? And he's done that before, but I think that, you know, you don't want any driver doing that. I think you got to, you know, I don't think any driver should ever blow the media off. Now, he didn't, I don't think that's what happened at the end of this race. I don't think that's what he did. I guess where I'm coming from and the questions that I have are that the state of the sport is different now.

And you and I have had conversations with other drivers, especially young ones, that were saying, And listen, the way we've done it before, it's not exactly the way you got to do it now because the sport's different. And there's bigger expectations for you. So with that said, should drivers, even though they're not obligated, and even though he did not turn down an interview, should they be looking for the opportunity to explain themselves on pit road about the race that people just gave their three hours or four hours to, should they be willing to go do that? because I look at you and I would see you doing that. Yeah.

I remember you were very courteous to the media and you would, even if it was a bit of an inconvenience to you, if I said, hey, Dale, five minutes that they're behind. You know, I could see you unless it was just one of those days, but for the most part, you would stay. Do drivers need to pick up a glove and play the game more now? Yeah. I think it would take NASCAR mandating a lot of drivers to do post race. hey, if you finish in the top 10, stop in the media center, or meet over in this particular area for media. I think Kyle was even suggesting that, wasn't it? I think he did after the race.

He's like, hey, I'm open to it. If anybody wants to say this is what I'm supposed to do, set them parameters and frame it up to where I understand what my responsibility is. And the media would love that. Media wants opportunities to talk to the drivers, and if they get great content out of it, then that helps them. do their job. NASCAR could mandate that a certain amount of drivers are required after each event to meet at a certain location to handle any requests that may be there. That give the media a place to go in a location to go get what they want. If the driver goes by there and gets cleared, he can go on home. But I don't think the drivers would be opposed to that. Yeah. You know,

there's something else you said that it was interesting about how you and Kyle had your pass, and that's been well documented, but you guys are at a good place. And I know that you've text him a good bit just to help you from a TV angle. Junior fans always love to hate Kyle Bush. Like, they don't even have to have a real good reason. But Kyle Bush is a really hated guy. Right, everybody. What would you tell people should they continue down that path?

But now, now you know Kyle, I know Kyle. Would we even go so far as to want them to turn around and say, no, no, consider liking Kyle Busch? Do you see that type of guy? If Kyle Bush fans in turn have that same. dislike for me. They do? Oh, yeah.

I mean, I run into angry. Really? I run into Cobbush fans on social media often that don't have a very high opinion of me. What do they say? That why am I still in the headlines? Why is Dale on NBC talking about racing? He's retired. Why do I have to see this fool?

Are you supposed to not take another job? Right off from the sunset. I mean, that's a conversation for another day. But I don't, you know, I think you, I don't know whether you go in and say, hey, man, everybody, let's give Kyle a clean slate. You got to look at his history, appreciate the adjustments that he's made as a person, and decide for yourself whether this is a guy you want to like. I mean, he still may rub people wrong, even as he, you know, even with what he's doing today.

He's obviously in my mind, when I watch him, he's trying to make some effort to say, hey, I think everybody's got me wrong. Or I've learned from the last 10, 12 years, and here's a new improved version of myself. And he's trying to at least expose that. He shares a lot. His wife shares a lot on social media about them, their personal life. And, man, I mean, we've asked drivers, and we want drivers to do as much as they can on social media. And some guys do, some guys don't.

Some guys, you don't even hear a peep out of them unless they're at the racetrack and on, you know, on the scoreboard somewhere. Don't even hear about him. And Kyle is active throughout the week. And he's been, I mean, there's some goofy things that he's done on social media that his sponsors have asked him to do. And the old Kyle would have flipped the bird and said, I ain't doing that. The new Kyle is saying, hey, I'm going to open myself up to doing these things.

I'm going to put myself out there. I got to respect that because it's hard to do. I just think that, you know, what you said about him opening himself up is totally true. but I don't want to see, personally, I don't want to see Kyle Busch be a good guy. Yeah. Because, I mean, the good guy off the track, I don't want people think he's a bad person, but I don't want to see him be a good guy because somebody's got to wear that black hat, man. I agree.

That's a good point. The Kyle Bush on social media after the race, you know, giving the haters hell, talking smack, I don't want him. I wouldn't want him to change. No, you're right. I think you're right. I think that, you know, I think that there will always be that little bit of him that kind of gets under your skin a little bit. And that's good.

That's, like I say, we don't all, we don't need 40 supermans and Batman's out there racing against each other. We got to have different personalities and we got to have villains and black hats and good guys and bad guys and blue collar and white collar. We've got to have a lot of different styles and personalities out there, guys from all over the country with a little twist to each one of them, you know, and Kyle definitely brings that. And the more we see that with social media and so forth, the better it is for the sport. He's definitely, I don't even know if he's a try and.

or knows it, but he's building his brand. He's doing a better job of building his own brand and letting people see a bit more of him outside of the car and outside of the driver's suit. That's going to help him in a long run. And he's turning that tide just a little bit from him just being a real shit to actually being a human being.

He's a human. And he's going to make eras and he's going to have things that you don't agree with or like, but he's a human. And I think that's good. I love the guy. I really do. And that does, that,

That doesn't mean that he doesn't annoy the crap out of me sometimes on stuff he does. But you guys are 100% right. I don't want him to be any different. No, who would want a PC Kyle Busch? Seriously, think about this right now. If you could flick a switch and have PC Kyle Busch, how less fun would Cup racing be? If I remember, Craig, that whole funny little thing on Reaction Theater where Mike Davis sucks, it actually started because I was defending Kyle Bush.

And that's a beautiful thing because junior fans didn't, they didn't want to hear it. And I don't want to hear it. There's a point to where I'm even uncomfortable with sort of praising Kyle. And I've reached it. All right, can we move on? You can. Hey, man, it's all about honesty. I love it.

You started it, though. I know. I'm saying we talked about it for five minutes. That's enough. All right. That's how much he gets. All right. Moving on.

I'm going to need you to explain something to me. Qualifying Friday, 13 cars did not pass inspection. I've got to ask, is there not something? something more to that. Are teams literally, like, is that almost part of the strategy? And is that why NASCAR made rules during the middle of the weekend, especially with the tires, like, you know, the whole tire thing? Like, it made me think that they were purposely not trying to get through tech so they could

start on fresh tires. Am I wrong on that? You are wrong on that. No team would deliberately fail tech inspection, have to start in the rear, lose 15 minutes of a critical practice time on the racetrack, because they all would lose 15 minutes of the last final practice, which is critical. Okay.

That advantage of new tires is only for that one run. You know, it's not an advantage you carry throughout the race. So as a driver, if you fail tech and don't qualify, you're like, yeah, I don't care, whatever, I start on new tires, that'll be fun. Everybody wants to come from the back with a faster race car than everybody else. That's great. Drivers love that. So as a driver for me, I didn't mind at all.

I almost felt like, hell, yeah. Qualifying was always disappointing anyways. So let's just not have to go through that. But basically, I think that the teams are starting to see how far they can push the limits of the rules with this new tech inspection. And they're getting a little more aggressive. They're getting a little more comfortable to be aggressive. There's so many things that are happening when these guys are going through tech too. They're not all failing the same thing.

If you fail the first time with one particular issue on your car, not every team goes back and fails that same problem. They may see through the process of being inspected an area where they can get more aggressive. They fix the first fail, and then they get aggressive on something else that fails them a second time. You know, that could be happening with some teams. You really don't know who's telling the whole truth really from either side about what's going on. I think that the crew chiefs, though, do like the new...

system. They do like the new procedure and it's much quicker. NASCAR is going to look at ways to trim down the tech inspection process and we're going to see that this weekend coming up at Martinsville. The cars will not get teched until after qualifying. So you're going to show up, practice all day and then qualify and you have to pass this tech inspection to hold your position in qualifying. That'll be a new procedure that we haven't seen before and we'll see how that plays out. And if it's something NASCAR considers using down the road and more often in the series, but I just believe that teams are getting a little more comfortable with this new system that NASCAR has and they're getting more aggressive.

And with that said, when they get aggressive, sometimes they're going to fail. You just, you know, don't know whether they're failing that same issue twice or they're correcting that first fail and getting more aggressive somewhere else. You really just don't know what every car has went through and what every car is experienced. But I think it's not uncommon. You know, we've seen, what was it, Atlanta a couple years ago, half the field didn't get to qualify. That's right. But this week we saw where they let the, um, with the sticker tires. Yeah. You know, they, they let the guys that had qualified run on stickers, start the race on

stickers to kind of like even that up and take away the advantage. That's why I don't know about wanting to take away that advantage. Like for me as a fan like sitting at home, I want to see, hey, if, if Jimmy wants to start or this guy wants to start, you're at the back of the field. No, they didn't want to. I didn't say they did. But if they're going to, I want to see him be able to charge through the field. Yeah, but you can't give a guy 40 horsepower just because he's in the back and you want to see it. It's not fair. Makes it interesting. Well, he's already at a

disadvantage. He's starting 40th anyway. Not at that, not at that racetrack. What is it? 10 laps, 12 laps in qualifying, less on those tires. I think it makes it interesting seeing him climb up through. It does. I mean, invert the whole down field if you want to damn have a circus. I wouldn't mind some of that.

No, that's not. We're a top elite level. This is how, you know, they need to run You can't have that crap going on. Well, that's why I thought that... I mean, that works really good at short tracks. You know, local tracks around the house in Burton Fields is always a lot of fun. It's common there.

It's not, you know, it's just some... In our elite level, we need to have some uniformity, and there needs to be some professionalism and how we do things, and they've got to take measured approaches to how they make adjustments. I thought allowing all the teams to start on stickers was a great decision. A lot of people didn't have the same opinion that made... making that change in the middle of the week, I thought it was a great choice. In the middle of the weekend.

So you're saying if people, if they made that decision on Tuesday, people wouldn't be fired up. People are mad because they did it in the middle of the race weekend. That's right. You know, some people didn't have a good opinion of that because they don't like changes in the middle of the week. But I think this was fair. It was just a fair change for guys that, you know, didn't qualify. They had an advantage. Yeah.

It should be a deterrent to misqualifying. It should not be an advantage or there should be nothing. good come out of that, right? Right, right. And so, and NASCAR went a step further before the Xfinity race, before the Xfinity race cars ever qualified, that if any of those guys failed tech, they were going to have to do a pass-through when the green flag dropped on the first lap of the race. Under green. Yeah. Oh, man. That could. That's a deterrent. Right. That's enough of a deterrent. That could be something that we see coming to the Cup series. We'll have to keep our eyes and ears open for that one. This is a situation that we've had for several years. NASCAR is starting to

make some adjustments. They did make an adjustment in the middle of the weekend. I didn't see it bother anything. I didn't think it upset any apple carts. I thought it was a good choice and took away an advantage that guys didn't deserve. What they'll do going forward. I've heard guys say, there's opinions of either docking the guys that fell inspection in a lap. I like the pass-through idea. I think we should definitely see how that goes in the Xfinity series going forward. If that's something they adopt for that series, maybe that's something they bring into the Cup series in the future. I think they should, you know, they should get rid of this start on your qualifying tires rule. Just get rid of it, all right?

That would get rid of it. Plus, it might make qualifying better, too, because you see some guys trying to conserve their tires through qualifying. Some guys won't even run, make a run in that second round, you know. Right. Right. Some guys aren't even. Some guys know they can make through that first round just by running, you know. There were about six guys, I think, that didn't run in the.

the second round because there was no point in them trying to do it because they knew they couldn't make the top 12 yeah that's not cool so save your tire yeah and if they weren't going to start on those tires they would have made an attempt why not what's it what's it going to hurt right right so i think they should they've tried to eliminate that set of tires because throughout the entire series or the throughout the entire year that saves the team's a little bit of money but i think they should get rid of that start on your qualifiers rule go ahead and uh you jump those qualifiers or let them practice on them qualifiers if they want to, whatever, start on stickers for everybody at every race.

If people's biggest problem was NASCAR creating a rule in the middle of the weekend, if they don't have that ability to do that, you're damn right. They're going to be exploiting and manipulating and being able to take advantage. I say they's the crew. The crews and the crew chiefs and those engineers will manipulate and they'll find those loopholes. Exactly right. We are humans.

Humans find loopholes and things. Yeah. And so if you cannot govern your sport, if you have to wait until Tuesday to do it, you're not governing the sport. Then you get Matthew Dillner's circus, in my opinion. And that's what he wants. That's what he wants. He wants the circus, he's going to get the circus. But these guys are too smart.

And I don't like new rules all the time. I want to end this conversation by saying that a couple things. Less rules are better. But whatever rules you have, keep them honest with an iron. iron fist. I believe in heavy penalties. I believe in hammering guys to keep them honest. You know, NASCAR needs to stick with the system, stay the course, allow the teams to understand these limitations and tolerances as we go forward, allow these teams to understand the consistency or inconsistency of the new system, and let their teams sort of adapt to fit into that,

fit into that shape, fit into that box that NASCAR has created. And things will have a way of working themselves out. Just like this week and last week we didn't talk about air guns. Soon enough, we won't talk about this conversation because the team's Nescar are going to sort of come to some middle ground and move on down the road. Anything else from California that caught your attention? I think everybody's talking about the Harvard crash. Yeah, I mean, they just, you know, racing hard.

Look like hard racing to me. Harvick's trying, they were getting more and more aggressive with side drafting each other. For whatever reason, that position was critical to both drivers. I guess Harvick didn't want to give it up. Larson was not willing to let him have it. And it looked like as they got more and more aggressive and a little more bullheaded about keeping that position, the side drafting got more aggressive,

and it seems that they sort of had a meeting. Harvick was coming. Yeah, Harvick was coming down to get on that quarter panel, and they were just getting a little more and more aggressive there. I don't think Harvick was actually trying to door him. No, and I liked the fact that Harvick, I couldn't believe when I heard it. Harvick manned up and admitted he caused it. Yeah, he owned it.

And that was awesome. Yep. That's great. He did. He owned it. At first, I thought that Harder was trying to door him, because he's doored me before for racing him too hard. But I think it was genuinely he was trying to side-draft him and got a little carried away. Hey, let's throw it to an Exaltor Race Center update, and we'll be right back. This is the Exaltor Race Center update.

I'm Natalie Stather. Both Cup and Xfinity competed at Auto Club Speedway over the weekend. Martin Truex Jr. won his first race of the season in the Auto Club 400, ending Kevin Harvick's winning streak. is now your Cup Series points leader. On Saturday, Joy Lugano won the Roseanne 300 Xfinity Series race over J.R.M. driver Justin Algar who finished second and right behind him, his teammate Elliot Sadler and third. Fellow Junior Motorsports drivers, Tyler Radick finished seventh and Michael Annette 18th.

Junior Motorsports late models competed at North Carolina's Hickory Speedway where Josh Barry swept both of the twin 40-lap late model events to get his NASCAR wheel-in All-American Series season off to a great start. 14-year-old junior motorsports driver Sam Mayer finished runner-up to his teammate in the second 40-lap event and finished eighth in the first feature. This has been your Exalta Race Center update. Exalta is the official paint partner of NASCAR, developing, manufacturing, and supply encodings to all types of vehicles and industrial applications. For more on Exaltta, visit ExultaCS.com. What's up? You good?

Yeah, I'm just talking to my wife here. She's texting me for takeout food. Oh, what are you going to get her? She wants some sushi? Sushi? Or monsoon. She can't eat. You're going to eat it?

Yeah, yeah. I'll do whatever. He'll never turn down sushi. I don't know, man. In fact, I don't eat the raw stuff. I don't think Amy's actually telling him that. I think she's asking for dinner, and he's saying that he's going to go get sushi. No, she said, would you mind getting takeout from monsoon before you come home?

Monsoon's way up on exit 33. I don't have never been there. I've never heard of it. Monsoon is farther away than Pisces. Pisces is where we usually go, but she must want to. something specific from mine soon, so that's where I'm going. Hey, I'm going, buddy. Let's text her.

Let's find out. What does you want? I'm texting her. I said, way over there, yeah, if that's what you want. That's out of boy. I want to see how this ends. She sends the prayer hands emoji. Oh, that's nice.

You've been watching any basketball? I have been watching some basketball for the few people that give a damn. I know one person in this room does it. That's not true. No, no, wait a second. You're already. And it's not me. I enjoy the heck out of the tournament.

Oh, you do? Yes. Okay. Yeah, I'm watching basketball. And Carolina lost. That was my favorite team. And that's all I have to say about it. Well, no, I have one specific problem, but it's not with the basketball.

It's with the people that watch the basketball. Yeah. And making me have to care. Which is us three. Yeah, I just don't like hearing about everybody's brackets. I don't want to hear about it anymore because my damn brackets toast. Did you talk about brackets? Not yet, but you were inferring it.

He was just excited that Alabama won. Alabama won its first game. We'll give him that. Can I just say that that is the worst part about the tournament? I like the brackets. Even my wife gets into it. It's not what I said. I like the brackets.

He don't want to hear about your bracket. I don't want to hear you tell me about your bracket being a dumpster fire. It is. I don't care. And to be honest with you, if it was just you doing it or I wouldn't mind. But literally a game plays, a team loses, and Twitter lights up about how their brackets are dumpster fired. That's annoying. I got a question.

It's like fantasy football talkers. Oh, come on. That's me right here. So you do a bracket? Yeah, I did a bracket? Okay. Let me ask you, did you go Alabama? So you went with your heart?

No. I didn't. You didn't? No. Yeah. I usually go with my heart and just go with North Carolina. But this particular year, I didn't. And I thought, man, I'm going to try to do it, who I think will win.

Really win, even though it's not my favorite team. Well, that's why I like doing multiple ones. Because last year I went with my heart for my heels, and they won. And I was very happy. Yeah. This year, I only did one with the heart bracket. The rest of them, I got Nova going all the way. See, right now, I could not give more of a shit.

Well, I was just wondering. Right now about what you did last year in your bracket. I was just wondering if you go with your heart. I think that's interesting. You go with your heart or you go with your brains. I won't ask any more questions about that. Yeah, forget about no talking about bracket. By God, if we talk about bracket, Davis is going to be at Piss.

I guess I'm a little surprised that I'm the only one that's annoyed by. I love all the upsets, though. March Madness is in full effect. The golden retrievers or whatever the heck that name team is. I don't know where they're from. I love a good Cinderella story, Underdog. For sure. I do too.

The retrievers. And they actually lost last night. They did. Yeah, yeah. But they were. They made it through one. They lost last night, but it was a one-position game with a minute left. Who were they playing?

Kansas State. Kansas State, yes. Really? Okay state, yep. Yeah. Damn, they could have been. My brother-in-law's team. Well, there's still a couple underdog Cinderella story still alive, so it'll be fun.

Houston's lighting it up. Houston is? I didn't even know they were in. They're not in it. I have no idea. I didn't even know Houston had a good talent team. South Dakota. South Dakota State.

They are lighting it up. Montana still alive. You're struggling here. Shubanakini, Nova Scotia. I don't actually think you're watching this. I think you're actually only watching your brackets. That's what you're doing. Yes, it is.

My brackets busted, so I ain't looking at it no more. Well, if everybody's brackets busted, maybe we got a shot. But Winston-Salem State is still alive, man. Stop already. Isn't anything serious anymore? Winston-Salem, stop. Florida Atlantic. Oh, yeah.

Are they in it? No. What are you doing right now? I don't understand. I don't understand what you're doing. What's the point? you're trying to make. Just the Cinderella stories are good stories.

But you're talking about teams that aren't even in the tournament. I know, because it's... We're just having fun with you. It's fun. That's not fun for me. It's fun for us. As long as we're not talking about brackets, let's get to, did you see that? Did you see that?

I've got a, did you see that? All right. What was this whacked out dream you have with John C. Riley that you put on Twitter? Yeah, sometimes I, you know, I don't remember my dreams. You know, we all dream every night. But I don't remember them, and when I do, and they're weird, I just got to share. It's just too random, and I'm like maybe getting it off my chest, sort of, getting it off my chest makes me feel a little bit better. I've done that before.

I had this one weird dream a couple years ago, and I was laying in bed at New Year of Daytona, actually, I think, for either the 500 of July race, and I tweeted about my dream that I just had, and I just have to get it out. And Twitter's such a great place Because people don't know really really how to respond to that I didn't know how to respond to this one What the heck, dude We were at a race And we were at pre-race

This is in your dream Yeah, in my dream, I'm at a race I'm in and around the driver intro stage with the drivers Are you a driver at this point? No, I'm just hanging out like, hey y'all Have a good day Woo, kicks my ass And Johnson Raleigh's there

And I got to beat him I'm a big, big fan of John C. Raleigh. Not only because of the obvious ones, like stepbrothers and Talladega Nights, but Brule's Rules is probably the best John C. Raleigh skits. And so... So was John C. Riley... Was he... He was himself?

No, he was John C. Rale. And so we were just like, oh, me and him hit it off. He was like, hey, man, how you doing? It's so good to see. And we were just having such a great time because, either one of us had to run that race. All the drivers were all stressed out and they were all grumpy. And we were just standing there all, you know, just taking it in, man.

We're getting ready to watch a race. And so you put it on Twitter because everybody wanted to. Yeah, I don't know how to respond to that either because it's just an odd dream. It is. It is. Is it odd dream or is it more odd that they'll put it on Twitter? No, man, I like that. If you want to get it out there, people want to hear that crap.

Yeah. It's basically just a relief. It's a relief valve. Because when you have those weird dreams, isn't it, doesn't it? It messes with you. It sucks to have it bottled up. Yeah. You got to tell someone.

Yeah. Aren't you a little concerned, though, that the dream might mean something that you're not aware of it? Like, you know, don't dreams mean something? Maybe he's going to have a good time. Is there something behind it? Like, why would you even have dreamed of John C. Riley? All right. I'll tell you, I don't know.

I'm a big fan of his. I had a dream that I won the Daytona 500. And I remember telling this story in 2000. and I don't remember when, but I think Dad was still alive. And I told somebody at Daytona, I told a bunch of media at Daytona in February before the 500, I think of my rookie year. I was like, man, I had a dream that I won this race. And they were like, where was your dad? I was like, he wasn't in the race.

I didn't even think about that to you. You asked me that question. He wasn't even in the field. Del Jarrett runs second to me. And I never saw Dad in the race. And they were like, oh, okay, whatever. And then Dad passes away and won the Daytona 500 a couple of years. years later and he wasn't in the race.

I mean, it just, you know, things like... Oh, wait. Oh, you're safe. I foreshadowed my win in my dream. So are you foreshadowing John C. Riley meeting, possibly? Probably. We should make this happen. We'll put him on the podcast, man.

I'm more than likely going to meet John C. Riley at some point being a fan of his. I'm a little shocked that you haven't. He was in a racing movie. Was he not at the track? I did go to Charlotte Murray Speedway when they were filming Talladega Nights, and I got to do a couple scenes with Will Farrell, and I got to sit down and talk to him a little while. I remember that.

I was there. But didn't get to see Johnstie, Riley. So is that the, like, that was a cool dream story. Yeah. You know, you know, with Daytona 500. Is that the weirdest dream you ever had? Because, dude, I've had some weird dream. Whatever that.

I think the one that I had a couple years ago, somebody will be able to bring this up and send this, tweet this to the dirty moe media Twitter handle. Whatever it was, I tweeted it out a couple years ago, this weird dream that I had. I mean, I'm sure we can go back and search it and find it. That's easier if they. It's about you, Dave. Davis? Some weirdo. Remembers Dale's dream from two years ago?

I have random. I have the randomest dreams. And I'm like, man, that's too good to not tell somebody. So Twitter's such an easy platform just to, you know, throw it down on. People probably don't even think I'm telling the truth. They're probably like, what's... Is that far out there? This dude's out there. I mean, he's not dreaming about his bracket.

But come on, man. Davis, you got to let us on the inside. You got some weird dream you've ever had? I don't remember my dreams. None of them? Do you meet celebrities in your dreams? You know what? I don't think I do because I don't really look at meeting celebrities as a big deal.

I don't think I've ever asked for an autograph. Have you? Maybe a time or two. Yeah, I think. I've asked for an autograph for a friend of yours. But I don't have an autograph of anybody's. And I've never even thought that was important. You don't.

I have a bunch of autographs of race car drivers. Really? From the past. Oh, okay. Oh, man, I've got it. You would love, I've got two booklets. of autograph drivers from the 50s through the 70s. Really?

He would love it. Lee Petty, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Ralph Earnhardt. I've got some legit autographs. Oh, yeah. I do have another, did you see that? Did it just occurred to me? Awesome. These are the best ones.

Did you see Matthew Dillner running down pit road with that camera? So Matthew Dillner. He just... I tweeted that. Yeah. Did you tweet it? I did. I shared it.

I was trying to stay in the shadows. I didn't know. You tweeted it. I did. I said definitely a pit road infraction here, carrying equipment out of the box and too slow. Yes. He sends me a text. Dale Jr. sends me a text over the weekend, and he embeds a tweet.

And I'm like, what is this about? This must be another crazy NASCAR ruling or something. And it's the tweet of dinner who is at Myrtle Beach over the weekend. Woke up on Saturday morning, decided to 6 o'clock a.m. And get out to Myrtle Beach. the modified race for NBC Sports and I'd be around all my old modified guys but dude I have this little

Osmo thing just so the people listen to this or have a little perspective and it's like a steady cam like a little thing on stick little gyro cam so I'm thinking okay this is cool this car's coming I could run with the car but I've learned if you run like pitter patter pitter pitter pitter pitter it doesn't do anything good to the camera

but if you run with these long strides you know what I mean so it's like I wasn't really running for speed I was running for strides and I did get in trouble by the The official. Trying to be steady. The official yelled at me. I bet he did.

He said, he said, you can't be running down pit road. And I said, two things. I said, first of all, I'm working for NBC sports, you know, getting these shots and stuff for the broadcasts. Oh, okay. Shut him up. He said, oh, okay. And then I said, number two. Yeah, like, that's not a good excuse.

Number two, if you call that running, we both have a problem. Okay. Knowing it was a race official, I'm sure that he calls it running. Yeah, and I'm sure he was like, oh, you're right. That was a running. There is a funny. picture that Dillner showed me and I know this is bad podcasting because it's a visual but Dale you have got to see it and if you can get your hands on it you I'll text I'll text it to you

it is fun all right well I'm known to share with you you can share some as well Mike you just send it to me and text and I don't have it oh no no he has it Jonathan Merriman NASCAR uh was busting my chops and it's pretty fun I'll send it he showed it to me okay but let's go to ask junior questions rock and roll 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.

All right, ask junior questions. Let's get to him. Calvin Warren wants to know, why is the Chevy struggling in Cup? I thought it was the same car that runs the Xfinity series, the Camaro. And in that series, it kicks ass. All right, so it's not the same car. The body's quite different. If you look at the character lines on the Cup car, completely different race car,

it's just going to take the teams a little while to find out what makes this body work. Now, the sides of the cars have a lot of great character lines that are going to visually look good, and you're going to look at that and go, man, that's really got to apply some performance to the car. But the nose of the car probably has a lot of question marks as far as the teams really understanding how to get that car to work. The front end on the car, how to get it aerodynamically to work in their favor is something they're probably dealing with, trying to improve the front grip of the car. They're always going to be searching for speed. They'll find it in big chunks early on with this car throughout the first half the year.

We should start seeing them applying some of those things that they've learned over the next several weeks. Obviously, Martinsville is a short track. It doesn't matter what kind of body you got on the car there. When we go to Texas and other places like that, maybe we'll start to see some of the advances that the Chevy teams are going to make. All right, Zoom buck 80. So far, you've been to the Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, the Olympics. Do you have any other major sports events you're going to or would like to attend? I'd love to go to the Kentucky Derby at some point in my life.

I'd love to go to a Formula One race at some point in my life. I'm sure there's a long, long list of things I could do or might be able to find the time to do. Amy and us having the baby is going to lock me down for a while. Probably won't do too much traveling until we start going to the booth in Chicago later this year. Patrick Kinzer, I think this is interesting question, especially I love history. Why is 1972 consider the modern era of NASCAR, 1972 and on? 1972 is the year that Winston came into the sport as a sponsor,

and sport organized with a new point system. And aside from that, I don't think much changed. The cars themselves really didn't change. As far as the bodies and the chassis, the rules really didn't change a whole lot. They had a lot of different rules as far as the engine makes and so forth throughout the 70s. So there's a lot of shuffling as far as that's concerned. But Winston coming into the sport becoming a major sponsor for NASCAR, and signaling a change in how they crown the champion through the point system.

That would be what determined the modern era. All right, one last one. Vicki Vanderhorn wants to know, what is the best or craziest I can't believe I just saw that moment that you saw at the racetrack, either during racing or, you know, off the track? You know, talking about Kyle Bush, one of the ones that come to mind was when he wrecked Ron Hornady in a truck race in Texas. Oh, yeah.

All right. I just saw that recently for some reason was watching. something was on TV where they were playing that. It's usually moments like that. When a car does something that you've never seen before, maybe it flips higher than a car's ever flipped, or maybe a guy that has an incredible save that's a real badass save or something like that,

when Matt Kenseth, you know, wrecked Joe Lugano at Martinsville. Oh, yeah. I mean, those are moments, even though Matt and Joey and a lot of other people probably like to forget them, those are moments that you never forget. I mean, it's just uncharacteristic. It's unusual and dramatic and all the stuff that went down with the end of the Martinsville race last year. All those, you know, the 11, the 24, and then everybody crashing across the finish line.

I mean, it's just bonkers. That was, I left there going, wow, if NASCAR could have this every week, we'd all be printing money. I mean, it's just incredible. And hopefully we'll get a little bit of that this weekend. Well, make sure you get your questions in each and every week using the hashtag Ask Junior. White flag right there, white flag. Dillner liked it better when I didn't have a script for White Flag. White Flag.

I'm going straight up into the schedule. I'm giving everyone a peek into the calendar here. And you are going back on NASCAR America. That's right. This is tonight, as you hear the podcast for the first time, but it's Tuesday night this week. Five o'clock. Five o'clock, good point. You know, it just occurred to me that we hadn't even talked about NASCAR America since we last did this podcast.

That's right. You're going to go back. This will be your third time on the show. Yeah, I was on the show twice last week, and we did that in Connecticut. This particular show, we're going to do from Charlotte, and it's going to be a little bit different situation. We're going to have a little bit of a roundtable discussion. It should be a lot of fun.

My first time filming it from Charlotte, so I'm looking forward to it. I had a lot of fun last week. Thought I did pretty good. Still think I've got to get rid of some of the nerves. It's fun, though. I got to be myself. They want me to be podcast me. They want me to be a little more conversational, and that's just what we keep hearing.

Dale Jr. comes out of the first show, and he says, how'd I do? And I'm like, well, once you loosened up after that first segment, God Almighty, you looked like you were like frozen stiff. Enbalmed. Embalmed. He looked embalmed. We don't want embalmed, Dale. We won't podcast Dell. We heard water cooler Dale.

Now we got podcast, Dale. I know it. We also got, I love that you have this on your calendar. the lunch with our commissioner on the DMBL season. That's coming up. And that's all I'm going to say about that. Martinsville this weekend. You're going to go?

Yeah, I'm going to Martinsville Saturday. I need to be in the garage and around. I've not really been to the track to focus solely on preparing the NBC style, the NBC job, the embassy part of my life. I've never been to the track really to work on that or have anything to do with that. So I'm going to go and I'll link up with a tar. and cruise around the garage, kind of watch what he does, get a feel for what he's trying to accomplish on that particular day in that afternoon.

He's really just kind of going and networking to all the crewchees and drivers and making contact with anyone he can. I'm just going to see what he's doing, why he's doing it, try to take into how he uses that to his advantage. To explain that just a little bit more, drivers really appreciate the broadcasters who get down in the garage during Friday and Saturday, and they like to see the broadcasters in the muck. And so I'm going to try to take every opportunity I can to do that

and keep that relationship and connection strong between me, Cree chiefs and drivers, so that I can lean on those guys during the week. So they'll trust me as a broadcaster. So that's what I'm going to do. That's all great. You're really going to get a hot dog, right? Well, I'm taking Sean with me,

and he's going to get the hot dogs. Oh, yeah. I'm going to have. That fella right there doesn't settle for just water, too. That guy will come back with a bag at 20. I'm going to probably have one for lunch when I get there, and I'll probably have another one on the ride home. You should get some for Amy.

Amy, they don't like them. Sushi or hot dogs. Oh, yeah, I don't know. I could Amy not like them? She had one. I got her to try one. I got her to try one. It's great.

Sunday. Autorama autograph session. Minneapolis, Minnesota. These are awesome. Yeah. Minneapolis. We've done them in, she, we did it in Nebraska last week, Detroit, Chicago.

We're going to Minnesota, and I don't know exactly what the venue is just yet. It'll be from 12 to 2. I'll get there right on time. We're going to sign autographs 2 o'clock. I'm going out the door. I love how you keep specified that you're going to get on, you're going to be there on time because you were 15 minutes late to the first one. And it looks like it has affected your life.

In fact, I'm surprised your dreams aren't about that. I was 15 minutes late, which is not professional. And then the next one, we were 30 minutes early. You didn't know about that, did you? I did. Yeah. Well, so we, I'm... Oh, so you're saying you're going to be right on time.

I'm going to be right on time. Got it. I'm going to be right on time. So I asked the first person that's standing there, the first person in line. All right, starts at noon. I say, hey, how long you been in line? They go 8 o'clock in the morning. I'm like, wow, okay, so you got here pretty early.

And then once we get it to 2 o'clock and the last person's coming through, I'll say, well, when did you get in line? They'll go two hours ago. So they got in line at noon. And they're the last person. So there's still 200 people that don't get an autograph. What I've been doing after the first one when they were very upset because there's 200 people that didn't get autographs, on the way up there, I sign about 400 cards on the plane on the way up,

and I get Tony Mayoff to hold on to about 200 of them. And about 5 till 2, they've got the line cut, and he'll go to the people that didn't make it and hand out some host cards. So they at least walk away with something. I know they're not getting that person. That is very considered. Well, man, I don't like people being upset, but we can't be there all day long. It's been fun.

We've been trying to autograph quickly, but at the same time, you know, have conversations and meet the people and where they're from and talk to the kids. And it's been a great experience. We've only do it. We're only doing four of these. We had eight opportunities to do them, but the circumstances didn't quite work out to do the other four. So we missed a couple shows, but it's been, it's been fun. This is the new, this is my new way of life.

It's good, though. I mean, listen, it's getting out there seeing fans. It is. We haven't done these style autographs in so many years where you're just your boots on the ground talking to the fans directly. We didn't really do hardly any of those over the last several years. Well, that's good stuff. That's it for White Flag. Anything else you want to say to close the show, Dale?

It's been a great week. I am excited about the first real short track on the schedule of Martinsville this weekend. Wait, we've already raced Phoenix. Oh, don't get out of here. Break ducks. Yeah. Everybody, it's going to be an awesome weekend. I'll be in Minnesota during the race.

Minnesota. I'll be missing out on some of the event, but I know it's going to be exciting one. I'll tune in when I get home. All right, guys, that's it. We appreciate Exalta. We appreciate you, Dilder. Nice job. Dale, see you later, buddy.

All right. Peace out.