The Dale Jr. Download - 211 - Ill Feelings, Dreaming of Bears and Dodging Shoes

Episode Date: March 27, 2018

In this episode Dale Earnhardt Jr. admits to not feeling good while watching practice at Martinsville. He and Mike Davis also tell old Dale Earnhardt stories, get honest about the Eury split and tell of another strange dream. 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.

Bring, ring, ring, ah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, ready. So what did you say? Brocco Billy bought a bucket of bananas. Brocbo Billy. Bronco Billy bought a bucket of bananas. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. again for another episode of the Dale Jr.

Download in this drum series. This drum. Oh, my God. Is it too loud for you? We're raging. Oh, my gosh. Hang on. That is pretty good

What was that? I don't know, but don't compliment the creator of it. Don't compliment the creator of that. Don't do it. It does not want his name mentioned. No. Good job, Matthew Dillner. Now I know why you told me earlier today

to not have to mention your name on the broadcast or on the podcast because of this intro, you were a little unsure about his reception. He thinks it sucked. Yeah. That's what it was. You ain't seen nothing yet. Oh, there's more.

Yeah. There's more. There's more. I mean, that's just a little music, man. Come on now. I can't wait to hear it. I always got something up my sleeve, dude. I felt like I was a pep rally or.

Well, that's Martinsville. Think Martinsville, man. Pre-race, they always got the drums. You got the band. All right. Well, that was pretty awesome. I mean, these are going to be anticipated. And I told Dale before the show, hey, dude, don't mention me.

These are going to be anticipated parts of the show, the intro. And I don't think we disappointed again. Anyways, this is the Dale Jr. Download. Davis, my co-hosts is here, producer Matthew Dillner. We got a race going on right now. Right now. Right as we're doing the podcast.

How many laps to go, Mike? Well, I don't know how many there are to go because I'm not good at math, but there's $329 in $500. Do the math. All right. So that's $1609. No, no, no, no. No.

What? 161. Oh, how many is complete? No, 100. 361? I like how I can't heard this. They've already gone to two laps. I like how I'm like, keep the kickstart short.

There's 33. There's 170 left. Okay. Yeah, there's 170 left. I was close 169. So right now, Boyer is winning. Kyle Busch's second. Denny Hamlin's third.

Do you think any one of those guys are going to win? They all have a great shot at it. Being that they're the top three, yes. All right, let's get to the show. The Martinville Speedway is far from a super speedway. Side by side as they come back to the strike. Race, an exciting, finished. From the Exalta studio, it's the Dale Jr. download.

He went in to turn about a mile over his head. Kansas takes him out. It's a drag race. They're right behind him. He's not anymore with my time. Time, time, time. The download starts now. So, yeah, we're watching this Martinsville race as we record this.

Dale, you know, I am a little curious what it's like for you to watch these races now. I know you, uh, you know, some of these. tracks you may not miss as much as others. But Martinsville, you loved Martinsville. You still love Martinsville. Yeah, yeah. Martinsville is one of my favorite races to go to. The worst thing that could happen during the season is the rain delays, man.

And I don't care how much you like a track. You don't want to be there Monday. You got plans Monday. You want to race Sunday when you're supposed to race. So, you know, those guys having, those guys going home, having to, you know, sort of wait and anticipate the start of the race. For me, I didn't like that. Now, I see some guys.

sharing on social media, they seem to be getting along just fine, you know, if they have a day off or snow day or rain day. But for me, I didn't like it at all, even at one of my favorite tracks, you know, I didn't want to be there on Monday. Mondays just felt like Mondays had a weird hangover about them, you know? Yeah. So it's hard to get up? Was it hard to get up to the race? Oh, up for the race. Yeah.

Yeah. To drive and be competitive, yeah. You know, not everybody's going to be there. You know, you've disappointed a lot of people because of the rain out. Not a lot of people are going to be watching, maybe not as big a number for network. It just felt like it was just not going to be as great or as cool, you know, as Sunday. So those races were always kind of weird. I mean, once you're in the car and racing, you forget about that,

and you're racing and you're going and you're digging. But, yeah, the feeling and the mood around the event and the atmosphere is definitely different. So as you watch this race today, Is that the first thing that comes to your mind is like, I'm glad I'm not there? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

Well, what's your second thought then? Are you seeing good action? Are you seeing any surprises for yourself? All of the guys that I have on my roster and fantasy are doing great except for one. So this is the second thing that comes to your mind. Yeah. Yeah, your fantasy thing, got it. I got into the, yeah, I've gotten into that a little bit.

What's your fantasy team name? I don't have one. You don't? No. It's just like Dallas team. I just. play under my name. He picks new drivers every week.

Yeah. You know, I think about, I was there Saturday watching some of the final practice. Felt like the 18 car was probably the best car there in that particular time of the weekend. But in the race, it's interesting to see guys that, like Boyer, you know, dominate and Blaney dominate. The guys that you just, it doesn't really show up in practice or maybe they don't get noticed as much because they, you know, they're not the guys that have been running in the top three of the last several weeks. So it's surprising to me when you see Boyer do so well. Not that he does great at Martinsville, so one of his better tracks.

So that's interesting to me is being out of the car and being able to really pay a little more attention to other guys' laps in practice and thinking, man, I know who's going to be good. And then the race happens, and these other guys come out of nowhere. I didn't think Blaney had a car that could lead as me lapses he did today.

And I'm a damn sure didn't think Boyer was going to lead a lot. I had Boyer pegged for a top six finish, but I didn't think that he would go out there and lead as much as he's led to this point. But the 18s lurking, the guys that are typically going to be up front at the end of this race, the 11, the 4, they're all right there. I've definitely been paying attention to the Hendrick guys because not only have we documented their struggles so far this season, but I'm also a fan of the teams and a fan of the company and a supporter in some ways.

So I watch them regardless of what's going on. So it's been fun to see. Bowman's done really well to kind of climb through the field throughout the race and stay on the lead lap and so forth. And Jimmy's doing Jimmy things, you know, making something out of nothing. Even when he struggles, he finds away. Guys just such a great race car driver and so methodical. So we debated on whether we should take this podcast after the race is over, but forget that.

I mean, we... I got time for that. Yeah, nobody's got time for that. You don't rely on the Dell Jr. Download to tell you the race winner anyways. So that's why by the time that you hear this, you will know who won the race, but as we tape it, there's 150 laps to go. Hey, did you, did you, you talked about going to Martinsville to hang with Stevie and sort of figure out how he does his job for TV by working on his conversations and relationships in the garage. So what was your takeaway from that on Saturday? Were you able to do that?

Yeah, you know, something weird happened on Z. Saturday and I ended up calling my doctor. But, um, so we went to the racetrack and I was, uh, I was there with Rick Allen and we were walking around and talking and having, you know, just seeing old friends and running in people and having a good time. And then the practice started and I was like, uh, Steve, let's go over to the pit wall in turn three right at the entrance to pit road and watch some practice. And that's like 10, 15, 20, it seems like 25 feet from the cars as they're going.

by. And so all these cars are going by. And I'm watching, Steve's like, hey, look at the 78 and how smooth his car comes into the corner and a splitter. And I'm looking at it. And I'm like, just that whole environment, I got real nauseous. Yeah. And I started not feeling good. And so I said, I got to get away these cars. I'm too close. And it reminded me a little bit of some of the stuff I was dealing with with my concussion. And I went back to, I backed off. And Steve's like, let's go get on this hauler. a 13 hauler and we climbed up on top of the 13 hauler and as soon as I got on top of it I said Steve I got to get down. He goes what to hell? What's wrong now? You ain't been down to racing that long and I said well I'm on I'm on the I'm on the guy go I can't be on this hauler oh okay so I've got to get off this hauler I need to

if I'm going to get on a nationwide 88 car hauler so I got down off of that hauler he's like all right I'm coming I'm like now you step here I'm fine he's annoyed already he's annoyed I got the rookie with yeah so I go over to the 18 or the 88 hauler and I got up on Ed, and I stood there for a minute, and it took about 30 minutes for that balance and that nausea to go away. And so I got real freaked out. Like, man, something's wrong with my head, or it just reminded me of those symptoms from so many months ago. And I was like, I'm calling my doctor as soon as I get home. Like he's in the concussion doctor?

Yeah. Or your family. You called Mickey. You went straight to the top. Yeah. Okay. What did you think? I mean, it's not like.

Because he's a concussion doctor. Clearly, you know this isn't from a concussion. It was the exact same symptoms I dealt with when I had vestibular issues. Okay. And so on the way home, I was talking to, I wrote up there with Rick Allen. And on the way home, I was like, hey, Rick, did you feel weird over there? He's like, yeah, I did. I did, too.

I didn't know whether that was just me or what. But I called my doctor and I was like, hey, Doc, I got this, had this weird thing happened to me the other day, told him what happened. And he was like, man, let me tell you a little story about this baseball player I was working with. He had some issues just similar to yours. he got cleared, call me two years later. He's like, Doc, I'm freaking out. He's like, I was on this dock, and the waves were going one way,

and a boat came by going the other way, and I about felt like I was going to fall off the damn pier. My doctor explained it is basically my vestibular system had never been in that situation before, and I got to think, I'm like, no, I've never been down in the corner watching cars practice, never have. Never been there since I was a little kid, you know? I ain't done that in years.

I've been in the car. And when I was out of the car, I never was, you know, standing 25 feet away from him. them as they practiced. So that was a real extreme environment to be in, and it made me trip out and, uh, remind, you know, give me some symptoms and stuff that reminded me of that illness that I had a couple years ago with the head issues. But my doctor's like, you know what you should have done? As soon as you started feeling better, you should have went right back down there, got right back in it. And it's basically like he used to tell me years ago with my head when I would get in

situations that were complex and I'd get sick and feel bad. He's like, man, pull back, getting to feeling better and get back in there and do it again and keep going. stretching it like a muscle, and eventually you're going to go over there and stand on the rail and watch some cars go by, and it's not going to bother you at all. Really? And I was like, damn, I should have done that. I felt like, I didn't feel like doing it anymore. I was like, get me out of here.

I know it. I can't believe that. Yeah. But you know what? I mean, it makes a little bit of sense, especially at that track. I mean, you can really get close to those cars. My doctor's like, man, nothing to worry about. He's basically, he's like, man, it's just your brain having to relearn something all over again.

Like, when your head heals from something like that, it don't just mean. mean everything's going to be fine. Your brain has to kind of relearn to walk, relearn to do things, relearn balance. Your balance just doesn't come back like a memory, you know, like a lost memory or like riding a bike. It's just you have to relearn your balance. And that's why, you know, all those, we used to do all these exercises every day. It was so simple and stupid, but that's all it was was teaching me to, you know, turn my head without getting dizzy and pass a ball and turn around and catch a ball and walk this way. You say they're simple and stupid.

I couldn't do them and I tried. Yeah. And they made me sick. They made me nauseous on the rest of the day. So that happened. Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah.

And this was before or after you'd had hot dogs. And you think I'm joking when I asked that. Oh, God. No, no, no. Stop. You think I'm joking. But literally when you said you got sick, I wondered if what do you naturally do when you feel like you're sick, you think about what you ate.

So I had to ask. I had two hot dogs while I was there. That little episode was 30 minutes. And then I was fine. We went up and started watching the beginning of the truck race. And it started raining. And Rick Allen's like, you ready to roll? I'm like, let's go.

So we got out of there. It was, to answer your question about following Steve around, it's weird as hell. You're walking up in all these people's haulers. And it's weird as hell to be in like the 17 car hauler and the 21 car hauler and just be in there. And those crew chiefs are like, hey, man, how's it going? It's what we're doing. Did you literally just walk in without? Yeah.

Telling anybody. Walk right in. Walk right in. Walk in right in. Right up in there. Introduce yourself. Ask a couple questions. You know, Steve's got legit questions he wants to ask these guys and he rambles through a few things.

They pass a few. You know, they just change. They just trade a little conversation. No real meaty information, but it's just conversating and how you doing and building that, you know, building relationships. So I think the conversations they have are more on the phone. Oh, okay. You know, during the week. Yeah.

And he's just building relationships. So those guys trust him. So you can talk on the phone during the week. Yeah. Right. And that they know that, you know, they're not going to give him any information that they don't want out. He's not going to say anything that's going to get these guys in any trouble.

They've got to build a relationship with trust so they can communicate. But it was fun following them around for a while until I got, until I had that stupid idea to go up and stand next to the cars as they went by. But the rest of the day was fun. Riding up to Martinsville and back. That was about a. three and a half hour trip with Rick Allen's talking to him. That was a lot of fun getting to know Rick.

Round trip, yeah. Haven't spent a lot of time with him. So talking to him, getting to know him was great. It would be great for us later this year when we get into booth. How is it like driving with that soundtrack of the voice? Rick, just rambling. He's easy to talk to. He's got an interesting history and how he got to where he is today and learned a lot about his,

is what he enjoys outside of his job. And he's a very, you know, he's got a lot of substance. I don't want to get too deep into this as far as NASCAR's decision and when they made the decision to postpone the race. Obviously, since there is a race going on right now, they had postponed it from Sunday. Weirdly, because of snow. We don't often get a snow postponed race.

But in this case, it did snow Saturday night and Sunday. They didn't call it until Sunday. A lot of people have opinions about that on social media. And I think that it's so subjective to your situation on whether it was a good idea to call it Sunday morning or should they have called it Saturday night that I don't even want to get into that. But what I would like to ask you, Dale, is just we are at the mercy of weather. We are an outdoor sport. We are in sports entertainment. And we're at the mercy of weather all the time.

So, like, are there things that we can do from a customer experience standpoint? obviously we're always talking about fans, needing more fans, getting new fans, this kind of thing. And yet, something like the weather, which we are subject to every week, can ruin our show. Even for you, as you talked about it at the beginning of this show, it's like, you know, it's just Monday doesn't feel right. It made me wonder if there's more that we can do from an industry standpoint or maybe from a track standpoint to make these fans not have to be put in a situation where they have to be mad or have to be, subjected to just weather phenomena. Other than putting a roof over your racetrack, which is very

unlikely, then what else can we do? I mean, do you have a thought to that? You have a thought about what we can do for fans and our customers? Yeah, I mean, they didn't call the race because of the surface of the track or anything like that. The race was postponed because of the necessity of first responders

and all the folks in the community, the policemen that will be directing traffic, all the officials that come out of the community to participate in the race weekend, they were needed elsewhere to handle the community's issues with clearing roads and helping people out of ditch. So the snow is a rare oddity to try to, you know, how race tracks need to navigate the weather issues that they have.

But even with that said, I mean, so the snow was an anomaly and, an oddity where the track had to make a particular decision based on their ability to have EMTs there, have police there to control the event as usual. They weren't available. So can't have an event. On the other side of that, the one thing that I think that the track personally could do is provide a better situation. And this is specific to Martinsville, but their parking situation is a little challenging. Yes, it is.

Explain why. Right. So we talked, a lot of guys talked about this on social media, but literally forget the snow. In a bit of a rainstorm, a lot of the parking lots are on these really kind of steep inclines. And when trucks and cars, no matter what, get stuck or try to get out of there, they all end up at the bottom of the hill, you know, slammed into each other. Legitimately, really. Really? What you're envisioning in your mind, that's what happens. It's what it looks like. It's not a dramatization. people trying to get out of there don't have good success they end up crashing and sliding into the cars and wedge down into the bottom of the hill on top of each other and don't get to go home and end up having an issue with the tracks whether they're going to handle this type of damage or whose responsibility this is and so forth so it creates such a bigger mess than

necessary so i think that martinsville could look at what what can they do to create a bit better situation just in general as far as parking goes. And that's, you know, their facility in terms of parking, I don't think it's changed in 30, 40 years. And I don't, I don't know if it can, but that's probably the first thing that I would look at trying to improve. That was the main concern outside of the first responders, as far as I could see and listen, you know, I'm absorbing everything I'm hearing on social media and that's a great channel to really kind of see where, you know,

this guy says this, this guy says that, and you just sort of absorb it all. You know, I know other tracks are in a little bit better situation as far as parking goes and that's never really an issue and at a lot of race tracks when it comes to weather. It's more about trying to get the track dried at most race tracks.

You know, how quickly and when can the track be ready? But that was not the case this particular weekend. That's where I think we got a problem. This is where I noticed on Sunday. day is that you had some people complaining about the fact that NASCAR waited the Sunday morning to call the race or to postpone the race. And so the people that drove several hundred miles to the racetrack that morning are complaining that you could have called this last night and it was saved us the trip. Well, then on the flip side, you're asking NASCAR to predict the weather

a day in advance and say, okay, we're going to call the race the night before and run the risk of it not being the weather forecast that was predicted. And so what happens then? And so people are going to complain about that. Also on the flip side is if you flew in for a race and not driving it, but flew in across the country. Martinsville is a popular race for a lot of people. They come from everywhere.

Well, you would want them to do everything they can to get that race in, including call it on the day of the race and not do it a day before because you flew there. All that being said, I feel like there's something. that race tracks and even NASCAR can do to perhaps better prep the fans during the ticket buying process as far as transparency on this is what we will tend to do in the case of weather. Here's what our ticket redemption policies are. I don't know that they get their money back or if they get a ticket to another race. It's got to be something better than you can come to the race on Monday and see two for the price of one.

That's not enough. I don't know what these tracks do. And I don't know if they vary from track to track. but I'm just saying at the end of the day, we saw some people in our industry calling out NASCAR fans for being hypocritical and wanting it both ways and always finding reasons to complain. My point on that was, they're still our customers.

And we're in the sports entertainment business. Exactly. So it's on us. It's our responsibility to figure this out. And we know going in that weather will always be an issue. As long as we're an outdoor sport and we're in sports entertainment, we know that weather could always derail our plans for the weekend. What are we going to do now?

If I'm Martinsville, I've got to fix my parking lot. I know my racing on the track is awesome. So the entertainment value of the race don't need any work there. I need to work on my parking lot. I need to also let people know, look, if it rains or snows or whatever, these are what we're going to do. So you know when you buy a ticket, this is what you can expect. There won't be a, if there's complaining, it won't be a lack of knowing on what our policies are. Anyways, I don't know.

I think we're in the sports entertainment business. Our fans aren't dumb. Our fans are fans and their customers. We got to keep them coming back and we got to give them reason when they invest their money for tickets to go to these races, that they have a confidence in the product that they're going to want to keep coming back. That's my thought. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think you definitely, I think NASCAR wants that.

They would have to want the fans to feel good about buying a ticket. Right. Right. You would think. Yeah. So, I mean, the object and the goal is to get them to where they feel pretty confident buying this ticket that they're going to get, you know, every opportunity to see this race. Yeah.

I bet those tracks take such a beating in the pocketbook, though, when these weather things happen. I'm sure that Martinsville suffered very, very badly for this particular weekend. Yeah. And it's not, you know, that's not good for any track, but Martinsville, Ben, it's a small market. You know, it really probably depends on fans from a farther distance than a lot of the racetracks maybe. Oh, in Martinsville's case, because of the small market. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Martinsville, for example, if there's a poor weather report on Sunday a week before that race, it hurts them. You better believe it does. Much more, I think, than it hurts maybe another event that draws from a major market. Yes, but to that point, walk-up sales are important for every racetrack. And those walk-up sales depend primarily on what the weather forecast is. And that's not just in racing. That's in any sport, really.

I mean, you're going to decide, well, I could go to the baseball game. or could go to a football game, what's the weather like? If it's not good weather, then I'm not going to go, you know? And so the walk-up sales alone had to kill them this weekend. We always try to be another sport. And I see what you're saying as far as the sports business side of it. We have to take care of our customers. But this sport is a little inherently different because it is so sensitive to weather.

You see it with football or baseball, especially baseball. You know, if you don't get a complete game, you have to come back. the next day. So it's not out of the realm in all of sports. You see it now with football, with lightning strikes and things like that creeping in. And the fans now just have to deal with a little different dynamic than they normally have to. It's not something we dealt with 10, 15 years ago in some of these sports.

Yeah. I mean, I think we all have to remind ourselves we got snowed on. You know, this wasn't just a rainstorm that came through. But that's a great conversation. I'm with you. I don't really think you can argue. what NASCAR should have done. You're going to have that as 50 to 50 down the middle.

Absolutely. You've got some fans that thought was a great move. A lot of fans didn't like it. And you've got some that didn't like it that wouldn't have liked it the other way too. They would have found a reason to complain either. What were they going to do? There's no middle around there. No tires.

I mean, did you see it? It was freaking snow piled up. I mean, they did. But I don't think people debate that. They didn't debate NASCAR. They did a great job reasoning for calling it. They just were debating the timing of it. NASCAR ends up having the race at 2 o'clock on Monday.

A lot of people are questioning whether they should run that in primetime on Monday. Oh, yeah. What do you think about that? I think that they have to get the circus on the road. What do you mean? That the season has to go on. These teams need to get this race in. What if you, and I know the weather forecast does not call for any bad weather today,

but what if you sat around all afternoon and tried to run it at prime time and it rained again? Oh, yeah. You're also talking about the fans, and we're talking about taking care of the fans. If we have them there tonight at 8 o'clock at night, Oh, yeah. Look at the temperature difference. You just, your fans are sitting in the sunshine right now. That's a beautiful thing.

Yeah. That's true. That's true. You know, I think it's a, get the race ran, get it done, get it in the books, get on down the road, get the next race track. So you were saying that you noticed on what social media that people were saying that why don't you run this race at night? There's just a question of why, you know, why not run it when folks are off work so they can watch it on TV. Got it. You get a little bit better network crowd.

Right. There's such a risk, I think, that you run of, you know, getting another rain out that pushes it back another day. And I know the weather looked good for that But if that did happen We can't be racing on Tuesday and Wednesday When they have to be going to the next racetrack This is, that's one thing that is again Unique to NASCAR is how big a circus this is

To move from one place to the other And this one day of delay Really affects these teams tremendously Yeah, what do they go next? What is it? Texas? But what's next week? Yeah, is Texas right? Yeah, that's good.

Texas. Wait, do we have a week off and then Texas? Yeah, it's Easter. Easter weekend. That's right. Why can't we race on Easter? And people were going to make fun of that. People were going to make fun of that.

But even when I was racing, I didn't know where the next race was. They're going to make fun of us for not knowing? Yeah. Shoot. Clown a hell out of us. They're like, aren't you in the sport? Why don't you know where you're racing? I would never know for one week to the next.

I'm like, oh, people would be like, where are you going next week? I'm like, I'm supposed to know. Dude, I based my whole life off of it for 20 years where it's like people would be like, Hey, can you do this this weekend? I'm like, what is that? Taledaga weekend? It's just like those people, those singers and those rock bands, like, thank you, Cleveland. It's Detroit, man.

You're in Detroit. Hey, you know one thing I think Martinsville's broadcast could use a few more Dewey Rider ads? Oh, man. If they've been running that a lot or what? I didn't know that this would get so much time. It's gotten better. And you think it's gotten better? I've been surprised.

It's funny you say that because I, I've been surprised at how many people. I know a lot of people do like it. I find it hilarious. I think they did a great job with it. It was fun to put together and be a part of. But I'm surprised by how many people don't like it. Really?

Or just the people that think maybe even, I find some people's comments on social media to give me the impression that they really think that he's taken over the car. There's a few that are like, I don't know about that guy. They're special. I can't, you know.

I don't know about that guy. I just can't like him. You know he ain't going to be able to wear that fire suit. Nobody says that. They just go. It just seems like they maybe think that it's a genuine ad of him. Like this guy's really going to race the car. Like it's Dan versus Dave back in the 90s.

Nobody can honestly think that. Well, the first time I watched Tel Avagan Nights, I'm just going to be straight up. That's one of my favorite movies just because I love Will Farrell. Love it. The first time I watched it, I kind of looked at it. through the racing person's eyes, and I was like, I don't like that. I get it. Second time I watched it, I thought it was flipping hilarious.

So the first time Dewey Rider came out, I'm like, all right, I kind of like it because I like, you know, I like Danny McBride. Now I think it's flipping hilarious. So that's a great point. Maybe that's what I'm seeing is people find it a slam on NASCAR. Like it's a knock on the sport that he's kind of making fun of her. It's goofy or whatever. Maybe that's part of it. I don't know.

For me, Talladega Nice was a tale of two movies. I liked the first half a lot, and the second half sucked. I don't know what it was, but it completely was like a light switch went on. And the movie completely, it's like they had two directors. One directed the first half, and then he quit, walked off the set. And they had to hire this other guy that was unproven and came in there and did a lousy job. I really didn't think the end of the movie or the back half of the movie was as good or lived up to the first half. So it was the opposite with the Dewey Rider.

maybe because I'm telling you those little You like the new one? Dude, that little blurps. Oh man, but I like the thing like this 30 seconds. It's like, where it's a salad comes to seizure dressing? That stuff is hilarious. I love it. In the 30 second skits, it's like hard to get the humor sometimes, but I watch one of the long-form

ones on their Facebook. Oh, yeah. And I was literally laughing out loud. 30 seconds. How about these like five-second little deals on Fox right now? There's like, Dale and I were sitting in my office. We were watching the Martinsville race, and all of a sudden they're like, and now a quick word from Dewey Rider and he's like

something about a wedge and a salad? Wedge is a salad that comes on, comes with Caesar salad dressing or seizure dressing or he said something and he did I was with him, I was there when they shot all that and they've got a bunch of those in the tank. Really? Oh yeah.

They've got a yeah they ask him what to describe what loose is and all track bar and all kinds of stuff and it's hilarious. Oh yeah that dude cracks me up when he was shooting those the whole place is having it. The whole The worst part about working with Danny is is trying not to laugh

during the whole thing. Every take gets ruined by someone, if not myself or someone else, laughing during it or at the end of it. You know, because when he has these wise cracks, your natural reaction is to laugh. Oh, were those like improv? Yes. Those all were improv.

Yes. Okay, so, yeah, it's impossible. Right. So there's like 30, 40 people in this production and he'll say something, wage is a salad with seizure dressing. There's somebody snickering in the background. he's like, oh, man, this.

This is funny, because, see, I didn't put two and two together. Tony had told us, when he came back from that production, Tony Mayhoff, who works with us, he says, they would literally throw out a word in the first thing that would come to Danny's mind is whatever comes to his mind. That's what that is. That's what you watched. There are some funny ones.

They're like, Danny, sit down. We're going to tell you some NASCAR terms, and you're just going to ramble. And, you know, honestly, he's like, oh, this is going to be hard. Or, you know, in his mind, he's, in his head, he's like, shit, you know, this could suck. Or I might not do very well with this. But he sat down and he just goes. And he's such a natural. You know, everything he does is just so good.

Again, I'm going to say, I hope that this ends up becoming a series on Showtime or HBO or wherever the hell. I think he's got legs. I enjoy it and I'm glad to see it and I think it will keep going if all things go right But he ain't gonna never make no race car grab No No you hung up on it But dude imagine

I'm telling you we need a driver with that sort of hair I mean we had Ricky trying to rock a mullet And it was it was spectacular But the sponsors don't seem to be in love with it I mean the short track side right now You've got Rico Abreu with one of the most legendary Little Mullets I've ever seen my life And it's like I think we need a little

little something like that. Yeah. 10 4. All right, well, the race still has about 75 laps to go, but we're going to jump to the future. Here's an Exalta Race Center update. This is the Exaltor Race Center update. I'm Natalie Safel. Both Cuff and Trucks competed at Martinsworth Speedway over the weekend.

A snowstorm delayed both races until Monday. Clint Boyer won his first race of this season in the SDP 500, ending his 190 race winless streak. Kyle Bush, who ran second, is now your cup points later. Monday morning before the Cup race, the truck race resumed. John Hunter Demechek made his way to the front on a restart with 31 laps to go and held off Kyle Benjamin to win the Alpha Energy Solutions 250 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. Junior Motorsports late models competed Saturday night at Myrtle Beach Speedway.

Josh Berry drove his all-things automotive Chevrolet to a fourth-place finish in the second Cars Tour late model stock car series event of the season. Teammate Sam Mary was 15th in his Monarch Chevrolet. Exalta Race Center update. Exalta is the official paint partner of NASCAR developing manufacturing and supplying coatings to all types of vehicles and industrial applications. For more on Exalta, Visit ExaltaC.S.com. Dale Jr., by the way, Matthew was feeling very good about his Kalo ring today in my office.

He goes, I've got a review for Kalo. And I'm like, really? Who said what? He goes, no, I've got a personal review for Kalo. Do you want to tell everybody that? Oh, yeah. So I do have a review for Kalo. So we do a lot of different promotions with a lot of different partners.

This will probably be my first real official review, I think. Okay. Outside of, you know, this will be a real unsolicited review. So I used to buy these rings. I've been wearing them since I've gotten married, and I would not, I wasn't brand particular. I was just going on Amazon and ordering whatever color I liked or whatever, and I thought they were all the same.

I would often take them off in the middle of day because they were uncomfortable. They were either too loose or they hurt. My finger would literally get sore. I know a lot of the guys that have gotten married in the last year, had that same sensation with getting that finger pain and an uncomfortable ring. Even with these rubber rings, I was having that problem.

And so I would take it off and not wear it all the time and forget to put it on. But I like the calo ring, and I believe that this is the first time I've worn one since we did the deal. I don't know what other brand I was wearing beforehand. They are a lot more flexible. It's a lot more comfortable. And this is the, ever since we did that shoot that everybody's seen,

I have been, they gave me about five rings and I haven't taken it off, not once. Good. I mean, I take it off to fiddle with it. But I haven't slept without it. I sleep with them all now. I used to go to, I used to not be able to sleep with them on my finger because they just weren't comfortable. The calo ring is a little bit more lower profile and a little more flexible. And for me, that contours to my finger better, where those ones that I was wearing were a lot thicker and they didn't, they didn't go with the flow or kind of work with what, you know, wherever my hand, whatever my hand was doing.

Great review. I'm going to give more. I'm not saying my review is great. Although I think it was. I was pretty, what color is yours? I think my review. I was pretty awesome on my review just now. I was really awesome. I was looking at the whole thing. The one I got now is a camo.

Cammo? Yeah. All right, that's cool. Let me see it. You're working camo? Yeah. Oh, look at you, Rambo. And so, but I get five stars, man.

And I can't wait to get my hands on a lot more. I've already talked to several of my friends that I'm going to send some to them because I think they'll be excited. I got a buddy of mine that's a contractor down in the Keys that worked on this renovation home with us that wants to wear these. but hasn't found any that he likes and fits well. So, Calo Man, that was a unsolicited. Unsolicited for a PSA holder. PSA review. Is there such a thing?

Yes. No, this is not an ad, although he is paid by Calo. They do pay me, but. Not for this. If I didn't really love it, if I didn't really love it, I wouldn't have said, hey, Mike, I got a great review on the cable. That's true. I was already looking out online for getting one for myself.

Yeah, I think you'll be real pleased. All right, so our guys ran the Cars Tour this weekend. We've been running the Cars Tour for about three years. For fans, I don't know it's late model races. Late Model, we've got two late model teams. They've been running on the Cars Tour for a while. Excellent, excellent tour. We've had a lot of fun on it.

We've had a lot of success. This year, they've implemented a competition caution. Oh, boy. And after 40, yeah. So they went to the beach this weekend to race at Myrtle Beach. It's a very rough racetrack that each. up the tires real bad, so guys have to manage their tires, right? When the race started, they had a late model and a super late model race.

When the race started, everybody rode like two seconds off the pace to save their tires. Nobody had the race because they knew there was a caution coming. They didn't need to use their tires up. They weren't going to use their tires up because the caution was going to stack the field back up. So the winner of the late model race, Lee Pulliam, very talented. won a lot of races, makes the expert decision to basically on that first segment, fall all the way behind everyone to ride in front of the leader and ride. So he chilled the whole time and lost all this track position, almost got lapped.

Wouldn't have gotten lapped, right? He wasn't trying to do that. But he was doing just enough to not get lapped and saved so much of his tires, and then he spanked them and won the race. Isn't that silly? Ain't nothing pure anymore. I mean, like, it just feels like we just kind of... It's so gimmicky.

I can see when NASCAR does it when there's rain or something, you know, and these cars and these radials with high speeds and they want to make sure the safety's right. But when we're talking about Myrtle Beach, we're talking about Hickory. We're talking about some of these places that car store runs at. What the heck you're doing, man? We don't need a competition caution. I know. Don't need a competition caution.

The race is a grid. The drivers still sort of have to save their tires, but they don't fall all the way back and just chill and ride two seconds off the pace. They go back to fifth or so, and then they start to all kind of make their charge. charge to the front and it's a great experience to watch. This is so silly and I hope the Cars Tour is listening. I hope they go away from this competition caution mess. They don't need to do that stuff of it in the short track ranks. It's not going to make things better. All right, let's do some Ask Juner segment. 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, Junior fans chiming in using the hashtag Ask Junior as always. Some good questions this week. Number one, Gloria Stevens, during the times racing with your dad, would you race him just as hard as the other guys, or would you back off a little? And did you ever rattle your dad's cage? I never rattled his cage. Boy, but I pissed him off a few times. I raced dad really hard. You know, when I was out there, I was obviously trying to show him what I was capable of doing, so I probably was over my head a lot of the time trying to do too much. there were a lot of instances where we we butted heads at the racetrack on the racetrack.

Can I ask you about one? Sure. Because I love the story. Yeah. Japan. Yeah. In Japan, we stole a set of tires out of his pit. It wasn't really.

It wasn't really stealing, but we borrowed it. You gave them back. Richard Childers said that we could take them that they weren't going to use them. And dad, the caution came out late in the race, and dad said, I don't feel like coming to pit, and I don't want to, you know, we're running like crap, not going to win, so screw it. He's around eighth place. We're like, me and Tony Jr. are like, that there's five to go. Let's put tires on. We ain't got no tires.

Well, Richard Chilter says we can have this set of tires. So come on. Let's do it. Let's see what we can do. And we're running around 6th or 7th at this time in front of dad. So we come in, get tires, restart. On the restart, I'm trying to pass as many cars as I can. and I got on the inside of dad coming off term four I'm in the gas and I ran him high off of turn four and he ran in the back of me real upset and then after the race threw a shoe at me in a little changing room we were changing he threw a shoe at me like hard and

like how hard like hard as he like far as hard as he could like like Nolan Ryan like wind like wind it up I've never I mean he threw it is no he's He's sitting down, and he took it off, and he goes, and threw it. Did it hit you? No, it hit the wall behind my head. Like, right. It was an attention getter as. It was an attempt. Yeah, he threw it as hard as he could.

And I don't know that he's, I don't know. I mean, he probably was trying to hit me, but I don't know. I'm glad it didn't. It would hurt. But we, he came to me and Elliott Salar one time at a Martinsville race. Elliot qualified on the inside of me and I'm on the outside of Elliot. Dad's starting behind Elliot. He comes up to both of us and he's like,

you boys got good cars, man. If y'all are smart and use your head, you're going to have a great day. We dropped the green flag, went down into turn one. Dad ran into the back of Elliot Sadler, turning sideways, and he backed up the track into the front of my car. And crashes both. And I was so pissed. And so Dad came by later in the race.

I get my fix. Get back on the track. Dad comes by, and I just turn. right and drugged the right front tire all down the side of his car and just was so mad and uh he's like he comes over the radio and he's like rich uh tony junior's like richard tiller said don't be running into him no more all right if you know it's good for you so we had some rough rough uh days on the racetrack for sure all right i want to know more like this is this is some good stuff i know right i mean did you not go to him. You threw a shoe at him. Tell me you threw your shoe at him.

Hell no. He would woke my ass. Wow. I didn't know that story. That's good. All right, go to the next question. I'll sit here and ask that about that all day here. I never thought I'd ask a question from this Twitter account, but it was a good one. Jim Utter. U-D-D-E-R. Jim Utter. Utter. Wants to know. Have you ever read the book, Stand on it, a novel by Strucker race? No, but I have that. You do? Yeah. And it's actually in my bus. on race weekends. And I've been playing. You got a shelf of racing? Yeah, I've just had all kinds of books, but that book is in my bus with an attempt to read it.

So we'll see if I can get it done. You're like me. I get a bunch of books. They sit on the shelf. Yeah. What, count Austin, when a race is delayed like the one at Martinsville, what's the best way to pass time? Or what way do you like to pass the time? I would be so ticked off about the actual delay that I just sit in my bus and be grumpy.

not reading a book. Yeah, watching TV or whatever and just grumpy grumpy. And I know I'm watching a lot of drivers, man. They go out, they do things. They disconnect. They go back home or go with their family or do whatever. But I was real moody and would be pissed that I was, you know, I'd probably have something I wanted to do on Monday or something that I wanted to do on Sunday night

that was getting canceled completely. I was ready to race on Sunday. I didn't live to race on Monday. Monday. I live to race on Sunday. All right, Deanna Journal, if you could get a do-over, okay, when we were all kids, we played sports and you got to just say, do-over and just do it again. If you got to have a do-over in life, what would it be? One, I would have never had, I would have done everything I could have to have prevented

busting up me and the Uri's. Oh, wow. Yeah. And there was no one person responsible for that. And there were times during that discussion that I was agreeing with the change to do something different. That derailed me for a few years. We just come off of a six-win season. Very good year.

The dumbest, stupidest freaking thing. I think back now and go, how in the hell? I'm wondering. Was I, at the end of Homestead, so freaking upset that I didn't want to work with him anymore after winning six races and literally just winning, I think, at Phoenix a couple weeks before that. You had won at Phoenix. Right. You'd won at Phoenix.

You had wins all over the place. Right. You just had kind of a down summer. Was that one of those things were working with them? Whatever. But I mean, we're in Phoenix smiling, having fun, winning races or whatever. I just... At Homestead, all of a sudden, y'all were fighting again.

At Homestead, we were fighting so much. Yeah. And just ignoring the shit at each other and doing everything we can to be just . And then over the offseason, I was A-OK with making a change. And I would have loved to, when I see them today, you know, and when I see Tony Jr., if I'm, I don't, you know, it's not always in person. Like, I'll see pictures of him or hear somebody talking about him or see him on a Cars tour event broadcast or a short track broadcast or something. The first thing comes across my mind is, man, I had a few more good years left with those guys, especially Tony Sr.

I mean, Tony Sr. and Tony Jr. came here, and they both had great success at junior motorsports. I mean, they were very talented and belonged. We had more years left in the Cup Series and more success to be had, and I wish that I had been smart enough in that moment to do everything I could to prevent that breakup, but I wasn't. What do you think disrupted your momentum? them more. The URI change or the car tomorrow implementation? It's a good question.

I think the URI change was the first real wheel falling off of the cart kind of thing for me. I didn't think the COT was my enemy. You know, nobody liked it. The COT wasn't responsible for me struggling in that car. You know, I hated the splitter. I still hate it today, but I won races. with the splitter, but in good cars.

I just feel like that we didn't have the whole package at certain points in my career. But for me, to be successful, it took a unique situation. I think it does for every driver. I mean, it takes the right, it's a unique situation. You can't put, you don't put a great driver with a great crew chief and hit the play button and win races. You know, you see drivers change crew chiefs, even the great ones change. crew chiefs and they're searching for that unique match and I had it a couple times and there's a couple times I didn't they were great people I have so much respect for

McGrew and we're still friends today but you know a lot of people look at our parrying on the racetrack is a really unsuccessful experience but he's a great great guy there was a couple other situations that weren't awesome but I always ended I feel like I always ended on good turns with the people that, you know, when things didn't work out. I got one more question about this. And now I'm just, all these things I've always wondered, now I'm about to ask you. When you got back together with Tony Jr., was it the same? It was at the very beginning.

We were, me and him were happy. You know, this was a great opportunity for both of us. And we felt like, man, you know, this was Robert G's home, our granddaddy. He had worked at Hendrick for many, many years. And so I'm just putting words in Tony Jr. mouth but I feel like we both felt like we were at home and it was really really a great experience for a while we weren't delivering her on the racetrack and I just I didn't get as involved I guess in that particular decision I get you know that change as much because of how I felt about

the initial breakup of me and Tony senior Tony Jr. But that was a very difficult time for me and Tony Jr. But he ended up coming over here, you know, to Junior Motorsports. You know, I just, I realize I've had it wrong this whole time because when I asked that question, I was assuming that you were with Tony Jr. The entire year before that, because 2004 with Pops and Tony Jr., 2005 was the year that was with all the different crew chiefs that ultimately ended with Steve Mill. And then I thought 2006 was when we went back with Tony Jr.

But that actually wasn't the case. I think that was, yeah, I think. That was still the, it was, oh man, it was, yeah, he did a year. Tony Gibson did a year. And I have always assumed it was Tony Jr. that year, but we didn't. What it was is they put Tony Jr. back on it for the last few races before y'all went to Hendrick. We did a whole 07 together. Oh, or then there was that.

07, right. Yeah. So there was a lot more Tony Jr. I was right about that. Yeah, okay. Yeah, we spent 07 together, then went to Hendrick and we were together in 08. And I think when things got difficult between me and Tony Jr. Hendrick, I missed Tony Sr.'s assistance in that particular time.

He was always great at telling me to shut up or either Tony Jr. to do whatever he needed to do to make the situation work. You know, Tony Sr. was really intimidating and nobody wanted to get their butt chewed by that man, you know. And he had a way of keeping me in check. And when he was not there anymore, I wasn't mature enough to do it. So it wasn't the same then because you didn't have pops. Yeah. I mean, I think when me and Tony Jr. together, we had a lot of fun.

We did some good things. But I think we both missed pops. Yeah. Yeah, I believe it because Tony Jr. and pops are inseparable even to this day. So, yeah. All right. Let's do, did you see that? So, all right, I had a dream.

I had another dream. And it's not really a did you see that. Because you can't pull up, you can't do a did you see that on your own tweet. That's wrong. It's like we're in a band's feature. I felt like it was breaking the rules. It is. The rules.

Let's break it. I will not do it again, but I wanted to bring this up. What's your mulligan? I had a dream about hunting bears, and I have never hunted bears, nor wanted to hunt bears in my life. And I was in a group of folks hunting, and Mike, it was me and you. We were hunting together. Yes. We were hunting bears together.

All right. Now I'm going to get a little graphic. Okay. These two bears came by, and there was a really giant guy. really big and everybody's excited and so it's decided that I'm going to shoot this big giant bear well something happens and he is not in

I'm not able to shoot him he's out of my line of sight but the other bear is there and so I apprehensively shoot this other bear it's still a big bear but and I'm not a big bear hunter so I have no idea what a good bear is and what a I don't know nothing about bear hunting And so I shoot this thing and I'm apprehensive about shooting it and then I was I was not happy. But you were there the whole, I wasn't happy that I got.

I was like, I really didn't want that. Why did I shoot that? And we can cut this out, but I shot it in the head and its liver come out of its sideball. I don't know if I was. It's got to go in. That's going in. You'll be hearing from PETA.

I don't know. That had to be. one heck of a shot if a liver came out from up there. I shot it in the head, and its liver shot out of its eyeball. I don't know how that happened. I mean, this is your dreams, man. They don't make sense. But Mike was sitting on my right side, and he had a gun, and you were smiling and laughing, having a great time.

Don't drag me down with your bare liver shooting. I'm going down with that shit. We need to get an anatomy. Listen. I'm sitting here looking. at some of the replies from it. Literally, you posted this tweet this morning, I'm guessing. Somebody just said, just don't do it. Leave the bears alone. And then somebody replied to that, hunting bears in areas that need to be controlled is vital for the local communities.

And so now there's a debate based off your dream. It's just a dream, folks. I've never hunted bear. It's just a dream. I'm never going to hunt bear. I'm not going to, nobody's going going to walk in here and go, man, you ever wanted to hunt bear? I got this place you got to go to, because trust me, I get invites to go hunting all the freaking time. I don't like to hunt. in places that I have no relation to or connection to. I don't like to hunt in that way. Me and Truex own some property together with L.W., my brother-in-law, I like to do that, and that alone.

We go deer hunting and we go turkey hunting. I bring my friends to my property, and I take my uncle and family with me. That to me is how I like to hunt. I don't really enjoy going on these big, you know, Hey man, I got this big hunt for you. You're bound to kill this giant, awesome buck. And I've been on those, and they're fun.

And I've appreciated those opportunities, but it does, you can't sit the race in front of me, man. There's one lap to go. Oh, there's one lap to go. I mean, yeah. And Boyer's going to break his streak. Call it. Come on. Come on TV, man.

Clint Boyer off a turn two. He has got clear sailing. I don't even know. Kyle Bush is a second behind, just three quarters of a second behind. So he's out of the picture. Off term four, coming to the victory. Victor Lee. That's why it's practice, man.

It is. Yeah, Clint Boyer. Good for Clint Boyer. So here's the funny thing. You guys are watching that. And I look over on the monitor. You guys are delayed. So I look up at the monitor in the shop here.

And he's burning out. So I thought he spun out in turn four. Yeah. He's doing it. He's spinning around. Oh, boy. Boyer. Boy, he's happy.

Boy, there's going to be some property destroyed tonight. There's going to be some beer drinking tonight. points. Oh, boy, you will get it done. He's going to get stuck in the snow. Watch out, buddy. Be careful. That's the corner where Dale Jr. got nauseous.

Right there. Keep talking about it. White flag, right there. White flag. All right, guys. This is the white flag. This is the end of the show. Thank you.

Good job, Mike. Hey, good job, Dale. Yeah, thank you. Hey, Matthew, good job for you, too. Good job. Matthew Dillner. There you go again. Matthew Dildner, Dildner, Dildner.

Closing thoughts on today. I went to the doctor and we got to another sonogram. Hey, what it looked like. And she's being super shy. So we have really not gotten to see exactly what our little girl looks like. Yeah, she's just not in clear view. But she's healthy.

We're excited. We're down to five weeks. And things are getting busy. So, yeah, things are getting real. It's going to be an exciting couple of weeks coming up. And I cannot wait. That is exciting. So you got nothing from the sonogram actually.

You didn't even get a good picture or nothing? Well, yeah, I mean, no. You got like a foot or a hand. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got a foot. Oh, the head's this big, the belly, everything's in order. And everything's the right side. Good feet?

Good feet. Yeah, she was in there hanging on to her foot. Doing those things. Ballet already. We got a real good idea where she's at and how she's laying in the belly because we were completely wrong on that. I cannot wait to meet her, man. I'm so excited.

So it's been an awesome day. Good. We came back to junior motorsports, had some great meetings with Kelly. We got a lot of things in the works. We'll be able to announce soon. Set down with Mike, watched a lot of the race, and we recorded this podcast. There's another thing that we ought to say in the white flag, and that's that NBC feature that they're going to do with NASCAR America.

Yeah, we sure can. Every Wednesday, this month, coming up, we'll be doing the round table. The big oak table, it's not round. We'll be doing the big oak table, which is giant and square. So it's a square round. Yeah. We'll be doing that every Wednesday on NASCAR America at 5 p.m. Eastern on NBC Sports Network. So tune in.

There'll be different guests on there with me, maybe a driver. This particular week, I believe we might have Ryan Blaney tag to come on the show. There'll be other co-hosts with me like Rut, LaTart, Burton, Del Jarrett, Kyle Petty, who knows who's going to be on the show with me. or who I'll be on the show with. I'm excited. I've really enjoyed doing NASCAR America. And last week when we did the Big Oak Table, we had a great time.

It was a good show. Yeah, I'm glad people enjoyed it because I had fun doing that. We're going to try to stick to that format every Wednesday this month. See y'all. See you guys later. Take it easy. Hope you enjoyed it. Top five.

Bravo.