The Dale Jr. Download - 216 - The Lowdown with Logano

Episode Date: May 1, 2018

Fresh off his Talladega triumph Joey Logano shares drafting insight with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and reveals regrets, rivalries and the challenges of being a father in a competitive environment. 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.

This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey, it's Dale Jr. for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. Co-host, Mike, Mike. What's up? We got a good show today. I hope. Yeah, every show's been good. Yeah, they have been good this year.

Last couple weeks been really good, but I think this was going to rank right up here with it. Yeah, you know, I want to ask, I want to know what happened to my Talladega this show. I want to know, and I want you to tell me, because you were Talladega master, but I want to know what happened to my Talladega because we had a. The eventual winner led the final 17 laps. That's not my Talladega Dale. I want to see a dramatic last lap pass like Spencer Gallagher did. And these cup guys didn't even act like they wanted to win the race.

And plus, they let Joey Ligano win the race. Who wants Joey Lugano to win the race? Hey, I'm right here. Oh, I'm sitting right here. Oh, Joey's here. There's one guy that wanted to win the race, at least. We know that. Joey's, you know what?

This is awkward. Let's just get to the show. Some say this track is haunted. It was built on an old Creek Indian burial ground. A medicine man supposedly put a curse on the place. It has been plagued by strange occurrence. Well, the pace car, we understand it's been stolen. The officials are not driving the same.

Isaac said he was quitting because a voice told him to party. A whole pack of cars went into that cloud of dust, and no one coming out into the third turn. They know about the action that comes from 190 mile per hour inches apart racing here. Uh-oh, look out. At one moon drive has won in a photo at 195 miles per hour, and with no visibility whatsoever, it was a nightmare. The Dale Jr. downloads starts now. A little freaky, freaky. You know what, though, Talladega was actually, if we're being serious, it was a little crazy this weekend, as it usually is.

Caledago weekend has a lot of surprises. Friday was a big practice crash. Scary practice crash. Saturday, it was really cool to see Spencer Gallagher go, you know, make that pass and then hold them off from the last lap to win the Xfinity Series race. Sunday, I don't know if I've seen as many pit road speeding penalties as I saw. You had, like I said, Joey, the gentleman to your left right now, driver the number 22. Gentlemen, thank you.

Pinsky racing forward. Joey did such an incredible job blocking and holding them off in the last lap. So, Dale, by the way, the gentleman here has become quite the plate racer. That was his fourth restrictor plate win. Yeah, I've been impressed. I picked him as one of the guys I was going to watch this weekend for several reasons because obviously he's in great equipment. The fords all across the board have been fast, but the Penske Fords have been fast for quite a few years.

And Joey's won his share of races at the plate tracks. He has a great spotter too with TJ majors this year. We'll talk about TJ a little bit longer, give Joey a little bit of opportunity to explain what TJ brings at a table. The other thing I like about Joey is he sort of dictates the pace of the field. He dictates the energy in the draft. He's really aggressive, whether he's blocking to control his position or he's fighting for every position.

Because I've understood that I do better in plate races when I contend every single spot. If I'm racing and I'm a little passive and okay with maybe losing this position or not really aggressive to block and hold and maintain what I have, sometimes I do better when I can test every single lap. And I see Joey races that way. That not only keeps him toward the front, because obviously he's defending his position more than most people, but he can sometimes single-handedly dictate the energy of the draft. And if he's as aggressive as he is, it makes other guys sort of have to be that way. First thing I wanted to get to, Joey, because you've been through a lot in your career, a lot of changes. Right now, man, you've got some great stability, not only in your

professional life, but in your personal life, but going back to the change from Joe Gibbs Racing to Penske, what did that whole experience teach you? Well, I learned a lot, you know, before I got to Penske, and a lot of what not to do, in a lot of different situations. You know, it came into the sport, you know, I got the token slice bread on me and you have all this hype and you're like, okay, you know, and you go with it. And you see a lot of young guys even today with that same hype that's on them with some of the focus on the younger generation of drivers coming in. And that's a lot of pressure.

And I wasn't quite ready. You know, I had six or seven Xfinity races under my belt before my first cup race. Wow, that's not a lot. 18 years old. I mean, I don't regret the decision because I learned a lot from the. those mistakes. And I think mistakes are a great opportunity a lot of times as long as you learn from them and don't have them again. And I made a lot of them, you know, the first few years of my career from the way I handled situations on the racetrack, off the racetrack. I didn't know what I

needed in my race car. I didn't know how to go fast. You know, I was used to just jumping in a car and winning, you know, up through the ranks. And then when you get in the top level, you know how it is. Everybody was so good. Like, these guys are the best. You know, and that was kind of the slap in the face for me and, you know, trying to figure out how to race and how to win again, you know, and somewhat kind of learn how to lose because I didn't ever have that before. So I kind of went through that process a lot and kind of ran out of time, really, at JGR to where they were going to have to make a change. I understood it. It's, you know, we're winning. You know, if you're not winning, it's a, you know, perform a sport. If you don't, if you don't perform, you're out, as it should be.

you know and you know it kind of got to the point that you know we had to split ways got an amazing opportunity though what a second chance I had with roger penske right there that was that was a godson for sure to be able to jump into 22 they needed some stability which i felt like i was able to bring that you know they kind of went through a few years of different drivers and crazy things happening and you was able to kind of jump in there with shell and with roger and Todd Gordon and And thanks to Brad. Brad helped me a lot to get into that ride. And I was able to take a lot of what I learned at JGR and have a fresh start at Penske.

You know, some of the problems I had at JGR as I started there when I was 15 years old. And it's hard for people to look at you differently than a 15 year old after a few years, right? And so I get to walk into, you know, Penske. I think I was 21 or 22. But I had years under my belt at least. And I knew what I wanted in my race car. I won some Xfinity races. I won a couple cup races at the time.

And you kind of make it your team and move on from there. And together we've grown a lot. We've had a great shot at a couple championships. We've gone through a slump recently. And yesterday we finally break out of that, which was amazing. It felt great. That's what I really wanted to ask you, is that I remember in 2005 when Dale didn't make the play. for the first time.

And up until that point, we thought, this is easy to make this playoff, right? I mean, like, we had the world right where we wanted it. And then that awakening where, like, wait, we just missed the playoff. It was the same year, Jeff Gordon didn't make the playoffs. I mean, then it was called the chase. I remember what that felt like. What did it feel like for you last year?

Probably the same. And what was that? It sucks. It's not really, you know, you get a little arrogant, little cocky, assuming that you will make the playoffs, especially after you finish second in the points at the end of the year, the year before, you're like making the playoffs.

That's going to be the easy part. You kind of think, how do we win the championship? And all of a sudden, we found ourselves, we got in a few crashes, we had our penalty. All of a sudden, it's like, oh, we're kind of in trouble. And then the guys we were racing to get in started running really well. And we weren't making up the difference that we needed to. We weren't winning like we needed to break into.

and you had some, you know, kind of one-off winners that don't win very often jump in there. And all of a sudden you're like, oh, we're not going to make it. It's harder. You know, and we put ourselves in that box, and, you know, that's our own doing, you know, and we learned a lot from it. And, you know, I think something that makes us stronger from that, though, is that we stuck together. You know, that was a great opportunity for us to, you know, implode from the inside out and, you know, start to point fingers at each other and why our cars aren't fast and why is this.

And we stuck together as a race team for the majority of us and be able to, you know, kind of start to slowly pick away at it. You know, at the end of last year, we started to run a little bit better. We'd get some top tens, squeak out of top five every now and again. And, you know, this year we've been consistent and we've been running towards the front. In Richmond, we, you know, won a couple stages. And then Talladega obviously getting the win. So, you know, it feels good to be back, you know, driving across that start finish line. And yesterday, it felt like I won a Daytona 500 again.

It's like, oh, thank God. It's just, I think the first thing I said is we're back because that's, it really, it just feels that, you know, a long slump like that. It's been one day short of a year since our last win, which was kind of funny, one day short. But you guys, you guys, you drivers, you have that statistic in your head, all of you. No, they just told me that in the media center afterwards. No, but, Joe, you knew that it's been a while and you had gone through that valley. So that's what I'm saying is like, this win yesterday meant much. to you because of where you've been.

You know, everything, like you said, you had to learn how to lose. You had to learn how to have that, watch other people go content for a playoff. And once you've gone to that experience, we know that. Yeah. Yeah. Didn't know that next win, it means so much more. It really does. And, you know, God put you through challenges like that to help you learn and grow as a person.

And, you know, as a person, I feel like I'm stronger and I've ever been mentally. Even after going through that, during the tough times, I still felt like I had what it takes. Felt like my team had what it takes. and it takes a lot of work to do that, right? Because it's easy to think you're great when you are running well, but you have to have that confidence. And like I said, we learned a lot from it, and we grew a lot as a team.

So going back to Restrictor Place, a lot of people, and I think myself included, think that winning a restrictive place, when that restrictive place is a bit of a lottery. Pretty much every guy in the field, pretty much can win that race. But when you win them with regularity, it sets you apart from the underdog. I think that there are guys, in my opinion, that have an ability to always be consistently good at the plate tracks.

You're a guy like that. You're a guy that wins it, Talladega wins at Daytona. You're consistently up front. If you were to describe to someone, what sets you apart from other drivers or what is your approach to restrictor plate racing? What would you tell them? It's a good question because I remember,

earlier in my career, I was like I had thought, you know, it's luck. You know, I went there the first time and I finished in the top five and I didn't know what the heck I was doing. I was like, oh, it's just got to be lucky. And you start watching it, like you said, and you notice the same group of drivers that are up front leading laps, winning races there. And I go, they can't be that lucky. You know, they can look at you that often.

And then you start studying it and figuring out, you know, where the runs come from. You study your competitors. You notice, you know, you're up there leading every lap and what you do. and trying to figure out what that is. And really, and like I said earlier, making mistakes. You know, you go out there and be aggressive, make the big moves. And when they don't work, well, you learn not to do that, you know. And if it works, you have that for later.

That's always been my mentality over the last, you know, five, six years on Speedways is just go for it. You know, and, you know, I have the attitude of running up front and being aggressive all the time. And if we crash, so be it. That's part of it. That's kind of my attitude, at least. You know, we're either going to win or we're going to crash, and that's just what it is. You know, sometimes you can't control a lot of things that happen at Super Speedways,

but a lot of it you can. You know, if you put yourself in a bad spot and you make a bad decision and you put yourself in the middle of the pack towards the end of the race and you crash, well, that's not bad luck. That's your fault. You know, and I think you have to own up to that stuff when you go to Speedway racing. The little details mean so much. But, you know, I think that along with the team side of it,

You know, Team Penskee Ford's very fast at Super Speedways the last few years. So I'm fortunate to drive that. T.J. is amazing. You taught him really well. Thank you. I should have thanked Junior and Victor Lane is what I should have. You mentioned in Victoria, like you said, thanks Dale for retiring, right? Yes, I did.

I did thank you for retiring. So I don't know if I gained fans by saying that. At least I got a great spotter out of that. And it was a lot of fun to, you know, over the off season to sit down with TJ. We watched some films together and he came over and we were watching the races and stuff. And, you know, he's telling me, you know, what you wanted to hear and why you would make moves. And I tell him, you know, we were watching races and like, this is why I did this? And he's like, well, why would you do that?

And I'm like, well, because of this and that. And he's like, well, that's making sense. And I'm trying to, you know, and vice versa. We were kind of going back and forth. And it was cool to have somebody to sit down with that. is open and that understands the draft. Like, it really gets it, you know, and you're not trying to teach them. He's actually teaching me.

And I thought that was really cool to have that open conversation and then go down to Daytona. And there's going to be some learning curve, right? Because you've got to understand exactly that lingo and the little things that he says and that trust level builds up as you keep going with each other. And then, you know, as we get to, you know, back to Talladega. And Super Speedways was definitely the strength. I think you'd probably agree with that.

Not that he's bad everywhere else, but Super Speedways is really good. And he paints that picture of what's going on and where the runs are coming from. And he tells you that it's going to happen, not when it's happening. And that's the difference. That is the difference. That was my next question, really, to get you try to explain to the fans listening and what T.J. brings to the table. And I agree with you.

Like spotters have a basic responsibility to spot the race, but at the plate tracks, they can be a huge asset to the success that you're going to have that day. There's a lot more responsibility for those guys at Dayton and Talladega. And I always would tell T.J. that paint the picture. I use that exact phrase. That's funny. So paint the picture of what's happening behind me,

and I can visualize it in my mind without looking. You mentioned that he tells you what's about to happen, not what's happening. Yeah. And he's very, you know, I agree with you. He's very sharp and understanding about how the draft works so he can see things that are about to happen and give you that chance to react to it. And so you react on time, and sometimes you get to these opportunities early. Yeah. You know, I think you agree.

One of the things that I tell young guys that ask me about plate racing is take every run that you get because that's how you learn. Exactly. And I've done this myself, even later in my career, the runs I didn't take or the moves that I didn't make. I didn't make, I've watched somebody else make them. It's the worst, isn't it? It is so frustrating. It could have been me in the league if I took that. I'm like, I thought about doing that, but I didn't.

And now I'm pissed because this guy's done it. Yeah. And it's he who hesitates is lost, right? It's so, I know it. I know that feeling for sure. But yeah, he's definitely, like you said, he does a great job. And I don't know if you realize this. I've never heard someone yell clear so fast in my life.

And you'll say it over and over again. Yeah. It's amazing. Oh, yeah. Have you noticed that? Yeah. Give me an example. He's like,

I can't even do it. But it's amazing. It's amazing. And the best part is he'll do it like off a lap car or something like that. That's the best part. Like a car you're passing really quick. The one thing that I pressure TJ the most on as we got, you know, I think the one thing that I would constantly remind him of is that when I'm passing a lap car or anybody really and I'm on the bottom,

I want him to clear me as soon as possible because I can't open the throttle up. I can't use the gas if I'm running, if I'm pinching the car on the exit and running low. And I'll look up in the mirror and I know I'm clear and he hadn't clear me yet. And I'm like, clear me, damn it, I want to mash the gas. You know, I want to use the gas and open the wheel up

and all those things you want to do to get off the corner because that's a half a car length or whatever. And he's like, I'm not taking no chances. And I'm like, come on, man. damn, you know, because he does take chances. He does, he has that, you know, ability to see things happening before they happen and, give you that information. But then there's other times when he's really, he's like, hey, man, it's only 100 laps

in the race, you know, it's Martinsville or whatever, you know. And I'm like, clear me. Clear me when I'm clear. We only got one gear, man. It's go time. All the time. So put me in the driver's seat there with you in the last two laps, three laps. What's going on in your head with T.J.

in your ears. And then also, Dale, you were rehearsing with NBC. What were you seeing in the way that race ended? Joey, you go first. Yeah, you know, for me, you know, as the leader, it's amazing how much you can look in the rear view mirror and somehow figure out where you're going without ever looking ahead. It's kind of funny because you're kind of driving off wherever that car and behind you goes is where you drive. If he drives straight up into the wall, you're going to follow him right in the wall in front of them, which is kind of funny. So you're staring at that car, kind of figuring out where those runs are coming from, listening to your spotter.

That was the biggest thing. And TJ was talking about the 17 and the 9. They were lagging back the most. They were the ones trying to make the moves. And that's where we felt like their run was going to come from. Behind me, I had Kevin and Kurt, which are two forward, you know, teammates, kind of. I felt like if those two team up, I was going to be kind of a sit-and-duck. So I had to be on my game there for when that move started to happen.

And then you saw, you know, behind them, it got too wide. that's where the nine and the 17, they started, you know, breaking up and going side by side, and they shuffled Kevin out. Kurt was able to make the block. And then, you know, after that, there was no big runs coming on either side because they were side by side. And Kurt was out by himself, but he couldn't back up to them because they were going to swallow them up. And he wasn't going to even finish second if he did that. So after that, I felt like, okay, I'm in good shape.

I just got to make one little block off a turn four. It wasn't going to be a big deal and be able to win. But, you know, those last 15 laps, you know, it's just a waiting game. You know, you're sitting in. You're waiting. You're waiting. And you're like, oh, you need intensity. Every lap ratches up a little bit. And you're like, okay. And you just, you got to stay focused at this incredible level, you know, as a driver. You have to just keep taking everything in. And it's a long time. It's 15 minutes pretty much that you're in there just with this ultra-focus and trying to take it all in. And knowing that they're only going to sit there for a

little bit, you know, and you kind of want to get into a rhythm where you just kind of fall in and keep making laps, but you know that moves coming at some point. Yeah. Mike, you were talking about how he led the last 17 laps. Well, there was a span of races and right around when we got our last win at Talladega where the leader hadn't been passed in the last 20 laps in the last five races. We were leading with 20 to go when we won in 2015. I was looking at that finish thinking Joey was exactly where he wanted to be, obviously.

as they had those last several accidents, it thinned the field out enough. It took so much energy out of the field. And there weren't enough cars really around Joey to create constant energy that he would continuously have to defend these runs. There were runs coming, but they were coming at such a frequency

that he was able to anticipate him. His spotter was giving him all the information that any time of run, run was about to happen. TJ knew it before, I think the drivers even knew it was happening. You know, and not a lot of guys were moving around that would create, I guess, unintentionally create a run or get somebody pushed in the right direction. A lot of the forwards were up front.

A lot of people talking about how they were maybe working together or not trying to make a run on Joey. They couldn't. There just wasn't enough cars in that front pack to create a run, to create enough energy. As you watch them run, there's last. several laps, they all had a half a car link to a car link between them. Nobody was getting enough energy to shove the other, to shove the other, to shove the other. It looked dysfunctional and certainly not harmonious. Well, the other part of that too is Joey's in one of the best cars. And behind him

is equally good equipment. The 41 super fat, I mean, these are the two guys that set on the front row, Harvick and Kurt Bush. So, I mean, there's really, really fast cars. That makes it even harder for a small draft to create energy to get a run. So does that lack of energy, is that because of the quantity of cars that were eliminated in that record, or is it the quality of cars? Because you lost Denny Hamlin,

you lost several other people that had been leading laps. Is that? A lot of it, there weren't enough cars in that pack to constantly pressure Joey or constantly create runs. And then the ability of Joey's car and the car directly behind him

was, they were towing. We watched them all day, long. The Ford's were, when the manufacturers split up in the first stage, when they were pitting, the Fords were running by themselves and the Chevys were running by themselves, and the Fords were six-tenths faster than the Chevy's. When Joey's leading the race, I mean, he's one of the best cars in the field. So he's pulling them around with an energy better than, you know, he's the best car to be leading the draft to make it the most difficult car to pass. And, you know, He's a great plate racer, great spotter, all that information right there, all that together.

Those guys didn't have a chance. Does losing Kislauski in that big wreck, does that concern you? Or being that he's a contender and also a very good plate racer, was that one less major contender that you had to deal with at the end? I don't think you ever want to see your teammates crash. No, I don't mean that one. You're like, you're right. You're right. You know, I felt like, you know, my initial reaction is like, oh, boy, I'm on my own.

Yeah. But, and then more I thought about it, you know, Kevin and I were. work really well together, which may be a surprise to a lot of people for the way our relationship started. I'm one. But we get along really well now, and we work really well on speedways together. Even before he drove a Ford, we worked together a lot on super speedways for whatever reason. And it seems like now that he drives a Ford as well, we've been able to continue building that relationship not only on the track, but off the race track with some of the things we've been doing to try to help grow to sport and things like that. And I think that's kind of helped.

what you see yesterday. You know, and I know, you know, Kevin was behind me, and you can kind of tell when there's a car behind you. If they're not lagging back and making big runs, you know, like they're kind of content where they were. And I noticed that Kevin was content with running second at the moment. You know, I knew it two to go, three to go. He's going to start thinking about it.

The runs behind him, we're going to start building. He's going to want to win the race. He's a racer, right? We all want to win. You know what I mean? There's no way anyone's happy would just finish. second, but I think he knows if you make that move too soon, you get shuffled out of that single file lane, you're going to the back. And you make that move too soon. That's what happens.

And he knows that, and he was content where he was. He had his teammate behind him. I think he thought he was in a good spot to possibly win that race with the right run that he had a teammate going with him. Once they got split up, that's when I felt like I'm in pretty good shape now. You're good. I find it fascinating watching the races, especially in the last couple of years, the manufacturers have really all bonded together and they make a lot of decisions of how they're going to run the race together. This is something that we wouldn't see five, 10 years ago. Can you describe as a driver, how do y'all all communicate? How does that communication begin? Is that something that's talked about during the week? Is that something

that's talked about on the weekend? How do you all, how does a manufacturer all plan to work together at once? I mean, obviously, yeah, it is crazy. This is something that's unprecedented if you ask me, I don't think we've ever seen it in the sport up until the last couple of years. Yeah, and you know what started it really, I think, is watching the Toyota guys in the Daytona 500 and 2015 maybe. I don't know what year it was. But they were so committed and selfless to each other, and they just kept running laps off and no one could pass them. They just kept it on the bottom and it was like, man, this sucks. We can't pass them.

We didn't have the teamwork good enough to figure out how to mount a battle really on them. and how to beat them. And at that point, the whole game was changed. At that point is, how do you, we all said, how do we beat the Toyota's, right? And Ford has more cars than Toyota is basically what it kind of comes down to. Our cars are fast, yes, but we have all the Stuart Haas cars. We have the Rausch Fenway cars. You know, the front row cars that run well at Super Speedways as well.

You know, Penske cars, obviously. That if we all can work together, they're not going to be able to beat us. Yeah. You know, and I think we all, that light bulb went off. Like, okay, we can do that. But it's hard. You know how it is? Like, as a race car driver, you're very selfish.

Oh, yeah. When you put that helmet on, you change as a person. You know, you can be a nice guy sitting here on a couch. And, you know, when you put a helmet on, you kind of become a little bit of a jerk. And I'm guilty of that. I'll be the first to admit that. You've had a few altercations. So, but it's a competitive atmosphere.

And you can't be the same person as you are when you're not in a competitive atmosphere, my opinion. But in a super speedway race, the only way today that you win is you have to still have that selfless attitude that you have when your helmet's off. You have to be able to work together. And you've got to know sometimes you're going to have to help somebody else win the race and you're not going to get to win. And that really sucks. Yes. But it comes back around full circle. Eventually it comes back around.

And you just hope that you're the guy that's in the lead of that Ford pack, you know, and you're able to be able to be able. to mount the charge because we all had to work together to control that race. And there is a certain point that we all say, okay, we can race now. But we have to work together to make sure one of us wins and protect ourselves as well from being in the big one. So somehow we have to all work together through the pitch strategy, but even a little bit after that, to make sure that a Ford wins. And I think that's kind of cool. You know, NASCAR is built on manufacturers battles, right? And then and building cars and all that stuff. And yeah, it's a little different now.

You know, they were not taking cars from the showroom and putting them on the racetrack like your family did. But, you know, I think at least now, you know, it's kind of cool to see that, you know, if you're a Ford fan or a Chevy fan or a Toyota fan, you see your cars all working together, you know, and that's kind of neat to see. Yeah, I agree with that 100%.

I think it has some positives because the manufacturer debate and war between either Ford and Chevy or what have you is always good and health. for the sport, and it creates a little bit of that. It's so funny, though, man, you guys go into practice even with the intent to only work together. It doesn't always happen that way as practice goes, but the teams. That part is no fun. Right.

The crew chiefs are like the fun police. Right. When it comes to practice, you're like, well, we don't want to get in a crash in practice. We're just going to go out with our cars. Right. All the Chevys go run together. All the Toyotas go run together. And, you know, it's such a, as a driver is really frustrating.

You just want to draft. You just want to learn what your car can do. Exactly. And sometimes you don't even get in the big enough pack to really get a sense of how stable your car is. And because of the fact that you, you know, everybody refuses to draft together. And yet we still have one rollover this weekend in practice. Crazy. Crazy, yeah.

You talked about in Victory Lane this weekend, how it was really emotional to be there with your family. And I wanted to ask you, I'm going to be a father here any moment. How has becoming a father changed you? it's changed me in a lot of different ways. Inside the race car, nothing. I think the way I prepare and all that, I've had to kind of find a new flow for me, my new schedule and understand, you know,

how do you kind of change your life and make sure you're there for your family? Because that's your priority, as it should be. But then how do you make sure you don't suffer on the racetrack and how your job doesn't suffer from that? and that's a hard balance. I've had a hard time trying to balance that, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't,

but we're starting to figure that out. Hudson's been a hard baby. From what I hear, from what other people say, he's been really hard. The first month, I'd go to sleep at 7.30, and then I'd wake up at 2.30, and we'd switch, and then Brittany would go to sleep, and then wake up at 7.30.

The shifts. We had to do the shifts, like, this kid would not sleep and cry non-stop. Oh, man. So we've kind of, he's gotten better, which has helped. And we've kind of figured out how to, you know, be able to both do our thing and be able to, you know, be there for him. And which has been really awesome and so much fun. Like just the little things, you know, I put a little tire swing up for.

Well, it's not a tiger swing. It'll be a tire swing eventually, but it has a little baby chair in a tree. And it's just seeing him swing in it and all. It's like a proud dad moment. Like that stuff's like as little things, he really. rolled over for the first time this weekend in Talladega, which I thought was kind of ironic because a lot of people roll over there. He wasn't the only one, right? I was like, that's pretty cool. You saw Jamie do it. Yeah, exactly. So he tried to copy Jamie. And those things, if someone told me

that your baby rolled over, before I had a kid, I'd say, so. Right. Like, big freaking deal. Boring. Yeah. But like, like, when it's your kid, you're like, oh, like it was like a win. You know, that was the biggest thing. So, you know, pulling into Victor Lane. And I, I'm obviously you see your team first, you see everybody, and you get out, and you're yelling screaming, you're excited, and you do your interview, and then I turned around and saw Brittany and Hudson over there, and that brought some tears in my eyes. It's just a cool feeling. I know he's never going to remember it, but we're going to have one hell of a picture that will help him remember that someday when he's older, and I don't know, I just think that stuff is your perception

of what fun is and what's really cool changes when you have a kid, you know? It's all it is. You change your priorities when you have a kid. You really do. It's hard. It's harder than I thought it was going to be. Yeah. But it's really, it's worth it. It's fulfilling. Yeah. And even like I got a baby, you know, you think like he can't do much, you know. Like I said, he can roll over now. Like before he couldn't hold his head up, you know. Like he's a little, like at first he can't even focus his eyes. You know, he's all cross-eyed and everything.

I'm like, he's okay, Doc, you know? But, you know, those little things are so cool, and I can't wait for him to get, you know, older. And I don't want to wish his way time because it's awesome now. But when he gets older and he can walk and, like, talk and do little things, you know, you get him his little first set of power wheels or something. He'd see him drive around his bike or something. You know, I mean, it's really cool. You're going to start taking his lap times on the big wheel, that kind of thing,

trying to see how fast you. I don't know if I could teach him how to play baseball. I struggle at that, yeah, golf, I'm awful at that stuff. but I'll try to help him along with whatever he wants to do. People ask Dale, you know, like, are you going to get your daughter into racing? And Dale's answer is always like, I don't, I'm not putting that on her at all. Like, he doesn't even have any interest. What about you?

Where are you at with Hudson? Whatever he wants to do. What if he wants to race? Cool. If he wants to race, cool. We'll go race. We'll have fun. If he wants to.

I think playing sports is important. You know, I think that teaches kids a lot. I think that's important. But, you know, if he wants to, when he grows up, he wants to be. be a doctor or he wants to throw garbage cans. Whatever. You know, whatever you do, my thing is, whatever you do, be the best in the world at it. Yeah. You know, and as long as you have a good work ethic these days, you don't even have to be super smart. As long as you are willing to outwork the guy next to you, you're going to be successful, you know, these days. So I think that's one of the

main qualities I want to try to teach him is that, you know, there's no, you know, freebies and you got to work for things. And that's hard with our lifestyle. Let's be honest. You know, we, I don't live a normal life. I drive race cars. Like, your dad's a race car driver. Like, that doesn't even seem right. So trying to raise him as a normal kid is going to be a challenge for us. But, you know, we're up for it.

And, you know, we'll do the best we possibly can to raise a good little boy. I wonder if Hudson becomes a racer. I can't wait to see what Joey Lagano, the dad, is like at the race track, especially if. Have you seen my dad? I'm a lot like that guy Actually not so much here lately Yeah Yeah

It took his hard card I don't know what happened They took his hard card Well that was a long time ago He's got it now He's got it back They got it back Is he purposely stepping back

And trying to give you your space? Yeah maybe a little bit You know Yeah he's still I think he's learned that When there's certain times To be involved in that And I get it now

As a father at the time You know I'm like Dad What do you do? doing like I'll fight my own fight you know what I mean but like as a father you're like no one going to mess with my boy right you know what I mean you know and that's and that's I get that now you don't get that when you're when you're in the heat of battle and you don't have a kid and all that right now you might maybe Joe but I am like that I mean I'm the same way my dad and I are wired pretty close to the same that we'll uh you know we get fired up we're emotional

people you know I ride the highs and and you know there's the lows too that you battle through and It's enjoyable for me to be like that. It's naturally who I am. So we're a lot alike in that way. So I learned a lot, I think, then. Hopefully that helps me as he gets older and stuff like that. I think it's really hard, but I think to try to let them kind of learn things the hard way sometimes. And I think that's probably the most challenging thing is when you see your kid probably doing the wrong thing.

And you kind of got to let it happen for them to learn. So hard. I don't know what that's like yet, but I'm sure that's probably one of the hardest things. Well, you know, you don't want to see your kid, you know, in pain. You don't want to see your people being mean. I mean, like all those things. And yet, that's a learning experience. It's a growing experience.

I can relate to that as a parent now. You can now as a parent. I got it for a while. Listen, but those are learning moments, right? And I think that's what's so interesting. Mistakes are opportunities. And speaking of which, I mean, like, okay, so you've had a few driver feuds. however you want to call it.

Just a couple. Just a couple. You know what's funny is when you, like, go into YouTube and you're punching my name. Yeah. The fights come up first. I mean, that's kind of cool, though. I know. You get 19.

But there's no, like, good fights, you know? They're, like, just kind of shoving matches and just no, like, really go at it, you know? Of all those, which of those do you regret? Do you have any that you wish you could just do over it because you're like, that was not a good look? Or maybe you were wrong in it? Give me one. There's a few regrets. Probably the comments I made about Kevin Harvick and his wife was not the right play.

Taking it to the personal level, that was immature from my side of it. But regret, no. I don't regret anything because I learned from them. I will say, was it the wrong move? Yes, there was plenty of times I've made the wrong move plenty of times. But I learned from it. And if I didn't make those wrong moves, I may not have learned from it. So it's different growing up in the limelight.

And you know what it's like. I mean, you grew up in the limelight your whole life. And, you know, for me, not as much as you even. But, you know, you get thrown into situations that, you know, I was just an, you know, 18, 90-year-old kid that I don't really know what the right thing to do is at the time. And you do what you think is right. But at the time, you know, you're 18, 90-year-old kid that. You think you know everything.

You don't know Jack, but you think you do. And a lot of times you make the wrong decisions because of that. But it's part of growing up. And people are going to judge you off of what you do on the racetrack and your character and what you do in the heat at a moment, what you do as a kid and that sticks with you forever. But, oh, well. You know what I mean?

Only a certain amount of people really know who you are. And as long as those people that you keep closest to you, understand that and you kind of shut down the people that want to form their opinions off of the competitive Joey, which is different, but I get that. Yeah, I was pretty wild when I was right after that passed away, I didn't have any parental guidance and I was just, it was kind of dangerous because I could make all my decisions and whatever I wanted to do on the track or off the track or about any confrontation I was going through was really left up to me.

and I didn't always choose the way to handle it wisely. But once my mom moved to North Carolina, she had retired, her husband retired, and they moved to North Carolina, and she would text me after every race. It rang a bell in my head that my mom was always watching. And so anytime, from that moment on, any interview I did or anything I got myself into

where I was upset at another guy, I was always thinking like, what would I do? Let's not do something that's going to either upset her or embarrass her or piss her off. Even though she was usually, I mean, I was most often on my side in the whole deal. That is fascinating. Really? Yeah, that's a fascinating.

I never knew about that switch that flipped for you when she moved here. She wouldn't never text me after the races, really. And then when she moved here, we got tight, you know, because I was only seeing her like once or twice a year before that. And when she moved here, she was going over there and seeing her all the time. Yeah. And she would text me out at the races, and I'm like, oh, man, I bet her straighten up. I think that's something cool about Junior, though. Like, I remember the first time I met you.

And I think this is why one of the reasons why you have so many fans is that you're just a normal guy. You know what I mean? You can say things like that. And it's just who you are, right? And the first time I met you, you took your hand and goes, hey, I'm Dale Jr. And I thought, no kidding, huh? Right. Like, I've never seen you on TV before.

On every freaking commercial, you know. Where was that? Do you remember specifically where? I think I was in Atlanta. I was in Atlanta. I was walking around. I got snuck into the garage. I was a little guy.

And Donnie Allison was taking me around. Yeah. And, oh, that happens to every kid in America. I know, it was super cool. I was running the Allison Legacy cars, so I got to know him that way. And he snuck me into the garage because he knows everybody. You know, he's peeking in during practice and, you know, he's shaking guys' hand. I thought it was the coolest thing of the world.

And it was cool. But, you know, Dale's just like a, I don't know, he's just a normal dude, you know? He's larger than life, right? I mean, he's the most popular driver for the last 100 years. But, uh, that wasn't an old joke. That came out right. I'm sorry. 10 or 20, sorry, whatever.

The first old jokes. Sorry. That came out as a total old man joke. I'm sorry. He was the most popular dinosaur ever. Trophy. Since I've been in the sport, you've gotten the trophy, right?

Who's going to win that this year? I was going to ask you. I mean, you're down there in the muck and right amongst all the guys. Who's going to get it? I'm telling you, you're really asking me. Chase is obviously a good choice,

but I think he's going to have more competition than he thinks. I think Blaney's going to give him a run for his money. I think so. I think that, you know, I think Blaney, Blaney, if I wasn't there last year, I think Blaney would have won it. And it was tight and it was close. And I don't know what might have happened if the tide's shifted a little bit since then.

But Blaney's definitely in the top three. He's had a funny personality. Yeah. He's dry. He's super dry. He'll say funny things and you don't even. We were a couple weeks ago in Richmond. We're sitting in the driver's meeting and they have the screen up and doing interviews.

His drivers come in and they start interviewing Blaney. And Rowdy Burns was there like from Chase of Thunder. and he's doing an interview with him with, I don't know, whoever person was there. And it's talking about how he met Rowdy and how there's a Days of Thunder 2 coming out. And it's, you know, funded by Fox Pictures, this and that. And he kept going on with this whole thing. And I'm sitting there like, wow, that's awesome.

Days of Thunder 2, that's a great idea. And so he sits down next to me, your teammate. So he sits next to him. I'm like, dude, I didn't know Days of Thunder 2 was coming out. And he goes, I don't know, I made all that up. He did a whole interview for like over 30. 30 seconds talking about this. Don't care.

Just BS and making it up. On the fly. It's pretty awesome. He's got a hell of personality. Yeah. Yeah, but he'll do the things that I've seen you do, you know, some of the off, you know, things like when he went and had lunch with a fan, you know, and I've seen you take a step out from the norm of a driver, which is to do your appearances and to fulfill your obligations as a driver in competition to do something bold to go over and put yourself in a position. to gain fans. And right now, in the climate of our sport, that's incredibly important.

It is. I think showing your personality is important. But being who you are, right? I mean, don't be fake. Yeah. You know, you can see some people try to be larger than life or try to make something. It looks forced. Yeah.

And it doesn't, people can see that. People can see right through that. And I think that's a challenge that I have is that some people don't think it's authentic because the difference between me sitting here and when I put a helmet on is pretty extreme. You know, I go from, I think, I think I'm an okay guy, you know, for the most part. I don't want to say that myself because it sounds kind of arrogant. But when I put a helmet on, it becomes quite a G-I-K-ass.

You know what I mean? It's just, but it's part of it. My crew chief says the blood circulation gets cut off. Cut off. I'll say that would be an accurate assessment. You're a great guy. And in the race car, you know, you're a completely different person. I think that was hard for me.

times to realize there was a difference, you know? And I think a lot of drivers, a lot of reasons why you find yourself, maybe or found yourself in some altercations early in your career, because a lot of drivers didn't understand that difference. Right. You know, and people took you the wrong way. And coming in, too, I was kind of shy, you know, and you walk into a situation you're 19 years old and you're like, well, I was Jeff Gordon, you're a terribly young.

You know, most of the guys. I'm scared to say hello. All the guys that come in at that age are going to. to be that way. It's such a big world you're walking into. And it's so, yeah, I was,

you know nobody. Blew my mind earlier in this conversation when you said that you went to Penske at 21. I mean, it just seems like you were 25, 26 years old when that shift happened, but you were still incredibly young and, you know,

incredibly, I mean, you had a lot of laps, but as far as life experiences, you had, you know, you're still relatively inexperienced in life. Yeah.

in that going through that whole process. I still screw up a lot of things every day. Yeah. You're maturing. They're new ones, at least. You're new screw-ups. You're in a round of course. You're maturing at a rate much faster than I did.

So hold your head high. Well, that's good. Thank you. He's right. Yeah, he's right. And I mean, like, I hate to even think about what it happened if his mom had not showed up apparently. Oh, man.

If she's still in Virginia, I don't know what we got here right now. Mom ain't happy. Ain't nobody happy. Yeah. It's the gist of that story. As a driver, though, do you feel like you're... I'm talking about Joe Lugano in the car? Yeah.

Are you more liked or disliked? Probably disliked? Even today. I don't know. What do you think? I think it depends on the time in the moment, right? I think if there's... Depending on what the job is at the time, right?

And there's times that you can't afford to let somebody go. And you've got to be... I'm always saying. A kidney's... basically. You've got to be hard to pass. There's times you've got to be a kidney stone and there's times you've got to think of the big pitcher. And I think it depends on the type of a racetrack. You know, Texas is a place that you know if you let someone go, how are you going to pass them back? You know, it's so hard

to pass there. You know, but maybe a place like Richmond is a place, okay, in the early in the run, you know you're going to have a 50, 60 lap run. You can let someone go and save your tires. and then you get back to them, they'll let you go back. And I think that's just kind of the way the sports is right now. And there's times that, you know, I realize it. You know, I'm holding someone up, and I'm like, yeah, I know. You know, they give you the bird or they give you the what the heck out the window. And you're like, yeah, I can't disagree with you.

But it's what I have to do. Or I think I have to do at least. No, I think that, you know, you're consistent. And that's all that you can ask for somebody, you know, Ryan Newman was one of the hardest guys to pass in our sport for so long, and it's almost a badge of honor for him now. And it got to a point. It used to be where guys hated it,

and now it's got to the point where you know it. You know what's coming, and it's okay, you know. Nobody, I don't think the other drivers look at it as an annoying thing anymore, because they know what's coming. He's consistent. He's always, you know, that's him. That's who he is and it's ingrained in his personality. I think you as a person to the fans, you're well-liked,

whether intentionally or unintentionally or accidentally, the issue you had with Kenseth was a difficult time for you and him. And I think that, you know, when a driver gets into something that's so big and gets blown up to be something that's so huge, it's hard not to come out of that with a few scars, you know. And it's hard. It takes a while to sort of rebuild. that reputation, but I think you're well on your way to, you know, sort of undoing any damage

that might have done in some people's eyes. I think people are going to always remember you as a good guy, great guy out of the car, a really aggressive, tough competitor that fall for every spot. And that, in turn, in the end, that's going to be something people respect. The way, the way people respect Ryan for the way he fights for every position. I think people respect that. I appreciate you coming by. Absolutely. Thank you. I know we don't have a whole lot of guests on here.

This is like a third guest or something. Third one we've had. You just won. Oh, really? Man, I'm like. But they either have to come off of a win or about to win. We literally asked you to do this in the last 10, 12 hours. We appreciate it.

We know you got a busy week coming off a win. And giving us your time means a lot of us. So thank you. And I picked you to win the 500. Didn't happen. You did come through at Talladega. I'm going to pick you to win all the place. There we go.

With you and TJ teamed up. I don't know how people can't pick you guys to win. But good luck going for the rest of year. This has got you in the playoffs. You don't have to worry about that. Thank you. You can sort of enjoy just racing cars. That's a great thing about getting a win early in the season.

Oh, man. Oh, man. So have fun with that, man. Rex and points up. Get some wins. We'll see you next time you get a checker. We'll have you back. All right.

Well, thanks for having me. It's a lot of fun. Appreciate it. Thanks, pal. We'll see you guys. Let's hit an Exaltor race center update. This is the Exalt to Race Center update. I'm Natalie Saither. Both Cup and Xfinity competed at Talladega Super Speedway over the weekend. On Sunday, Joy Lagana won the Geico 500, making it his first Cup race win of the season.

Kyle Busch still maintains the points lead. On Saturday, Spencer Gallagher bested the field and won the Sparks Energy 300 in overtime, claiming his first series victory. Junior Motorsports Drivers Justin Algeyer finished third, Elliot Sadler 5th, Tyler, Tyler, 8th and Michael Annette 14th. Junior Motorsports late models were off this weekend. We want to send a huge congratulations to late model driver Josh Barry who was married over the weekend. This has been your 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 Exulta, visit exultaCS.com. All right, guys, we got a did you see that this week. We do? Yeah. Did you see that?

David Acres rant on the Cowboys in the draft. You know I appreciated that. Being a Randskins fan, even though it's coming from David Acres, Philadelphia Eagle, I really enjoyed how he just went at him. I mean, he kind of went like old school wrestler like Allah, like Aaron Anderson, Rick Flair, up at the draft, Dallas, and just went on a rant about them being champions. And the last time that the Dallas Cowboys were in that position. and won.

The people that were being drafted weren't even born. And the fans went nuts. Wow. So the thing about that is David Akers, I know David. See, David Akers was a sim racer. He used to race online with me and TJ and all our friends. We used to get on TeamSpeak, which is a voice program, so we could talk together while we're in those little races.

So we spent a lot of time online becoming friends with David Akers while he was in the middle of his career. And David actually came to a few races, hung out in the bus with us. That's cool. Always at Dover, I remember that. Yeah, he's a good friend. He's a good friend. He's a good friend.

I haven't been in touch with him since his retirement. You know, I don't know what he's got going on now. He doesn't Sim Race anymore. I pass do not cross physically anymore, but I consider him a good friend. I know at one point in his football career, he quit social media because, or he cut way back on his social media because of the negativity, you know, about when he would, if he missed a kick. Oh, yeah. He was like, you know, this ain't for me. I think that his rant on the Cowboys was sort of a release for him.

All that negativity on all, you know, from all those people about a kick missed or something like that in his career. I think he was just unleashing it. That was his moment to sort of give it back. And he chose one heck of a moment. He certainly gave it back, man. Have you ever seen anything like that? I haven't. I mean, it takes guts.

But he had the microphone, man. He was on stage and he had a microphone. He definitely, he made a lot of Philadelphia Eagles fans happy. And, I mean, anybody that doesn't like the Cowboys, which there's as many haters of the Cowboys as are fans of the Cowboys. That's for sure. You either love or hate them. Right.

So a lot of people appreciated that. Good job, David Akers. All right, let's go into Ask Junior. 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, first question.

here. Mitz Prophet said, can you explain how the wind apparently messed up Jimmy Johnson and caused that big one? I get the wind in it all, he said, but was it just getting loose? Okay, so we know the cars were unstable. You got to think about, you know, the car is just being on edge at any given time without the wind. All right? They're uncomfortable. In that particular situation, I think Jimmy was loose, but as the 24 car moves up the track, all right, just think for a minute about the 24th, The 24 car traveling through the air at 195, 200 miles an hour, the air that hits the nose of that car and starts to wrap around the fenders is really highly compressed air. You can almost cut it with a knife.

The air hitting and wrapping around the nose of that car becomes so dense that it creates a pressure. Sort of a big invisible force field of pressure. And as that car gets close to Jimmy, who also has that sort of air wrapping, that dense air wrapping around the car and down the side of the car, when those two, it's like invisible bodies, you know, like the cars almost collided, but it's really the air going around both cars sort of colliding. And that pressure coming off of both cars, that air, that dense air coming around each car so fast, really that air coming together. We've seen it before where guys have gotten close to other guys in the corners, maybe at Texas or Atlanta. They don't touch, but one of them gets spun out, right? There's no contact, but a guy goes around. It's really because of that dense air coming around the front nose and the fender of the car that come up the race deck, that 24 car.

So he comes up to track, that air pushes, that air coming off the 24 car so fast around that nose, around that right front fender pushes Jimmy's car around a little bit. It's all it takes. is already on edge, you know, it just takes just a little bit more to push that car beyond traction, you know, before Jimmy's in trouble. The 24 car coming up the track is, you know, he's almost, you know, he's changing the air coming around Jimmy's car and he's also bringing very hard, condensed air that's going around the right front of his car up into Jimmy's car and it just shoves Jimmy around.

So also, you know, I don't know what the wind direction was as far as was the wind direction. In and down, I know, looking at the flags that they cut to right after that. Kind of down into three and four from four into three. So it could have played a role. So if that particular point, Jimmy has an extra amount of front arrow or front nose down force. If he's driving head on into, if he's got a headwind, he's also having a little bit of, you know, the air pinning the nose of his car, which could make it a little bit looser at that particular moment. If the air is blowing in the driver's door of your car in the corner, it makes you tight.

If you have air blowing in the passenger door of your corner of your car in the corner, it makes you a little looser. I mean, depending on the air and how, you know, where you're hitting that air, there's so many things happening right there that can make your car spin out. I spun out off a turn to it, Tallade a couple years ago. Just got tires. Car is completely comfortable. Never saw, you know, never had a hint of the car being uncomfortable. But I moved into the wrong position, and I caught air hard on the right front fender.

of my car. I was following another car that was blocking the air from hitting the left front fender. So I had air pinning the right front fender real hard and it made the right front of my car turned down the racetrack

and spin me right out. You can't see it coming. You don't, there's not situations, you don't know enough information to go, I can't get in that situation, I'm going to spin out. Jimmy never knew that

was probably going to happen until it's too late. And you can see in a particular viewpoint, point when they have a camera angle that Twitter is looking at the back of Jimmy's car. Even before the 24 car gets there, Jimmy's car is starting to get a little too yawed out. So he's already in a yawdish, you know, a very strong yaw. Just one more little domino is all that was needed to spin him out.

And that was the 24 coming up and that air coming around that nose of that 24 car pushing Jimmy's car around. Wow. What a lesson right there. That's a very good. Very good detail. All right. A question that I don't know if we want details on. Eric Yoder, personal question here.

Don't know if you've ever heard this mentioned on the old Mike and Mike show on ESPN, but they had a big conversation about it, apparently. During the birth, do you plan on being below or above the equator? Oh, my gosh. Me, I wanted to be a northerner and I had to be a southerner. What about you? Oh, man. Is there a way to?

Plead the fifth on this? Plead the fifth? Plead the fifth and we'd just move on. Ollie north thing? Yeah, absolutely. Ollie north it? Perfect answer. Ali north.

All right. All right. That kid, Steve, what would NASCAR do if a team took off their restrictor plate and ran one lap during practice? And I remember this happened once at Daytona while you were in your driving career. And what happened? I believe it was Bill Elliott in testing. I don't know if it was a mistake. but they took the plate off.

There was no plate there, and he ran out there and ran a lap of 200-something miles per hour, and everybody went nuts and the Medias Center running out there, and there was obviously a mistake. What do you think NASCAR would do these days? I think NASCAR would probably do...

I think NASCAR would probably do something to the team as a reprimand that would be veil. It would be a smoke screen. because, you know, they would have to look, they would have to appear as if Mike goes out there and does that, and I'm NASCAR, I'm going to look everybody, and we'll smack him in the hand now.

Don't do that again. But the publicity that would get would be so positive for NASCAR that they would obviously, you know, they would probably be like happy with that. Yeah. You know, whatever commotion that stirred up would just get more eyeballs on NASCAR, and NASCAR would be like secretly going, yeah, that's pretty, that's good. but at the same time, they don't want everybody going out there to do it.

So I'm going to slap you in the hand now. Everybody see this. Everybody watch this. Boy, don't you do that again. Conduct unbecoming of the sport of racing. 12-1, baby. Chad wants to know. What's your favorite quote from your dad?

Oh, my God. I'm glad you asked this. So I get on my Twitter timeline, people send me Del Earnhardt quotes all the time. That's got to be kind of odd. And they're not answering to a tweet. They're not, they just, they just tweet me. I don't know what it is. But it's stuff like, it ain't the fastest car that wins.

It's the one who refuses to lose. It's like that. And I don't remember him ever saying that. It's sometimes those quotes come in and they're, I'm like, that's not bad. That was like Jeff Gordon and his team or, you know, I'm like, God, where do you get this? I have a dream. Dale Earnhardt. Four scores

And seven years ago Dale Earnhardt. So I get quotes all the time And some of them I have to scratch my head And wonder That's definitely not a Dale Earnhardt quote. A lot of times You know, those quotes are broad

Those quotes are advertised somewhere As a Dale and Hart quote incorrectly You know, by a media outlet or something like that And people just assume, okay, well, it came from media Or it was on Twitter. I saw it on Twitter so it's true. And so I start getting them. But my favorite one is probably where he's talking about

when drivers were complaining about the speeds being too high at Talladega and they were going to bring in the restrictive plates for the first time. He said that all the drivers needed kerosene rags to tie around their ankles so that the ants wouldn't crawl up their legs and eat their candy asses. That is the best. That I know was a true. Genuine quote. I don't know. I mean, I probably walk out of here five minutes later and think of another one that's my favor of mine. But for the most part, I mean, that's one. That's a true one that I hear a lot that I can go, yeah, that was definitely something dad said. And definitely, it's perfectly who he was.

All right. Last question. Wes, with all that we've learned from concussions recently, there's a growing number of people that say contact sports such as football, hockey, etc., will cease to exist in the future. With all you've learned from your experience with concussions, do you have? agree. I don't agree. I don't think that football and other sports like that will eventually die and go away. I just don't. I mean, there's too much, there's too much money to be made. The fandom of the sports will always maintain its popularity and success. Maybe there won't be as many people trying to play football. Maybe there'll be more parents that

won't allow their kids to play football. So the pool may be smaller. Now, not next year, but like 20, 30 years from now, the pool of players could be smaller, but I think we'll still have the NFL forever. And I think that I'll be a fan of the NFL forever, even though I've suffered concussions and I know they're dangerous, doesn't mean I don't think that people should quit playing football. Yeah.

I just think that there's, it's a, it's a personal choice. Like I have had issues. I've had issues in the past and I chose to continue to raise, you know, and I, I am, I'm armed with knowledge and understanding of how, uh, try to prevent myself from getting in those situations as best I can, but it's my choice to keep racing. And, um, I think people should have that decision whether they want to play football or not, you know, and not, you know, hopefully, the only way I think it could go away is, if it become controlled, you know, by an outside source, such as a government or so, you know,

so, and I don't think that'll ever happen. Good questions. Keep coming, bud. White flag, right there, white flag. White flag. Big and veil of a new project you're working on that we've been kind of keeping as a secret lately, but a book called Racing to the Finish, My Story by Dale Earnhardt Jr. with help from Ryan McGee. That is now available for pre-order.

Dale, do you want to talk about that at all? Your book? Yeah, yeah. So speaking of concussions, we're going to talk about. I'm writing a book with Ryan McGee, and it's going to detail my experiences with concussions from 2012 all the way up to 2016. There's a lot of information that there's, I mean,

basically 80% of the book is going to be stuff people have never heard before. We were transparent, but not completely transparent about everything we dealt with and everything we had to go through from the crashes and the concussions themselves to the rehabilitation. You're going to get my point of view in perspective, Amy's. anyone else's who was involved. And we're going to talk about how we made the decision to come back and race after going through everything. You're going to realize the process and decision making that we went through to come back and finish our final season. And then this will also help you understand how we made the decision to eventually retire and quit racing full-time cup.

So I think it'll be a educational book for a lot of our fans. It'll be helpful to folks that may be going through the same. situation or maybe have a family member or someone they know a friend that's went through concussions it can help explain a lot of the things a lot of decisions these people may be making going forward or it may help them going through that process but anyways either way it's going to be a great book that i think anybody can enjoy i have wanted to tell this story but i couldn't and while i was trying to go through the rehab and then when i was trying to finish my final season i could not tell this story and now i can and i'm ready ready for that

to get out there. I get asked all the time. Why'd you quit? You know, why you quit racing? Well, this is going to answer all this questions. That's powerful right there, boys, I'm telling you, because I know my man took exquisite notes throughout the process. I lived some, you know, a good bit of it with him. And so if this book even, you know, goes into 50% of what I know his journey being, it is going to be one heck of a book. I think people are going to find it very entertaining. And pre-orders are now available so you can go to Delljutor.com forward slash book to pre-eor order. It comes out in October and it like got all the way up to number seven on Amazon's new. That's impressive. Yeah, right out of the gate. And it was sort of a soft launch and we unveiled the

cover. So a lot of people I think are going to be interested in it and they're already showing that. Look, we get questions on when are we going to be live? Well, the Dale Junior Download will be live at Junior Motorsports Fan Day on May 25th. So mark that on your calendars. Friday, May 25th. That's during the Charlotte Race Week. And we also will have door bumper clear out there. We did this for the first time last year. We had a stage out front of junior motorsports and it was a lot of fun. And so we'll do that again. And so come check us out, May 25th. You heard us talking a lot about the Dell Junior car giveaway, when Dell Junior's Ride.com. One thing we don't really mention, this is on me, is that there's a limited number of tickets.

So, like, you know, when they're gone, they're gone. The other thing I fail to mention is the fact that there's other prizes, actually. If you don't win the car, that's the grand prize. But there's also some really cool race experience packages, pick, crew, honorary pick crew member, all these things that you can be in the running for just with the same $25 raffle ticket. That's cool. Windale Jr's Ride.com. The car is a 2018 Corvette, Cuczio6, and a lot of good stuff there.

Windalejunersride.com, $25 raffle ticket will get you in the running. Follow Dirtymo Media's YouTube channel. It's a new thing we started this year. So you can, this is one of our social media platforms. Also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. And that's it because you know why? I looked at Dale Jr.'s calendar, and this is so fun for me. I've never seen this.

I've worked for him since 2004, and I've always had access to his calendar. It literally says this week, he's got a basketball game tonight, and he's got a haircut on Wednesday. And that's it. That is all he's got. What is that like? I have no idea, but I'm real excited. Amy keeps asking me all morning, damn, I wish I was in a good as mood as you are. And I said, well, I ain't never had a whole month with nothing on the,

calendars in 20 years. So I'm pretty excited. I got some projects around the house I'm going to do that are going to be a lot of fun. I'll probably document some of that stuff on my social media. And speaking of social media, let's close out with this. There was a post on Twitter today with a little boy running slow mo. Okay. All right, this little, this little, like five-year-old kid running slow motion to home play.

Right? He's playing tee ball or something with his friends. And the dad comes on, he's about halfway to home plate, he's taking forever, right? He's running in slow motion. And his dad comes over there and he's like, hey, man, come on. He's like, get off me. And he goes back in his slow motion. And I went gross shopping with Amy the other day.

And we're hustling, trying to get everything. I'm like, man, I'll go shopping with you. She's pregnant. I'll go help her. We're going in there. Let's get this. Let's get this. Let's get this.

All the way, 80% through the whole experience, we get to the ice cream aisle. and I was like, man, things have changed. You know, I ain't been in the grocery store in a while. You always, you know, what they got? What's the new stuff? Where's some cream sickles at? And I was like, that boy is me when I hit the ice cream mile when I go shopping with my wife. Yeah.

Well, that's what I put down on social media. Well, hold on a second. What did you get? Well, I said me. I said, I said my response to that kid running. slow-mo was grocery shopping with the wife and hit the ice cream section. Yeah. Well, everybody's like, boy, you're going to get in trouble for that.

And I'm like, no, not. This ain't my wife going in a slow-mo. This is me going in a slow-mo. I don't know how people got that mixed up. Well, I tell you what. I mean, I think that there's some people were equating the whole ice cream mixed up from a month ago. Oh, yes, I forgot.

I got it. Without having to read, because nobody gets into the media. of a long tweet, or they certainly don't read the sub-tweet. They just know that you had been in the doghouse once, and it had ice cream to do with it. Well, listen, I would never, I don't know any smart man that would ever clown his wife on social media. I was talking about me when I hit the ice cream section. His reputation is restored now. Thank you.

I had to get that out of the way. Good. Have a good day, everybody. See it. This is a production of Dirtymoot Media.