The Dale Jr. Download - 217 - Dale Jr is a New Daddy!

Episode Date: May 8, 2018

On this special episode of the Dale Jr. Download, Dale candidly discusses the emotional birth of Isla Rose and his first week as a dad. Dale also talks about victory lane with his father, hot wings and JRM’s big Dover weekend.. 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, everybody, it's Dale Jr. Another episode of the Dell Jr. download coming at you. This is, what episode is this, Mike? A million. 217? Wow. Episode 217.

Thanks, great. My voice you hear is Matthew Dillner, producer, as well as Mike Davis. Hey, how's it going? It's going well. How are you? That's the better question. I'm awesome. Good.

Yeah. Good. Let's get to the show. What we got? Well, you know, we could talk about Kevin Harvick winning Dover yesterday. We could talk about Junior Motors' Sports Finishing 1-2. But we all know that's not what we're here to talk about, Dale. We're here to talk about the trophy you brought home.

You got her parked up right now of the Harley J. Earl? No, man, no. But this is all about it. I want to hear about your first week as a parent. That's what's up. Let's do it. All right. Let's get started.

She's incredible. I mean, one minute she's inside you, and then 47. hours later here she is you gotta see the baby when are you gonna see the baby hello how are you do you have put these things on well around the butt and up over the groin area yeah baby yeah I love you all congratulations most of all just so happy for you guys having kids is just like living in a frat house that's gonna be throwing up everywhere we can advise, we can have a beer, we can shoot, we can do anything. We're here for you guys, and I would deeply care for you. Your lives will be forever changed as parents.

And the world cannot wait to see this beautiful baby. You know, that's part of what you were hearing there on the back end of that intro, marvelously done by Matthew Dillner, was a little bit of a video that the folks here at DirtyMode Media put together for with a lot of folks that are, you know, just friends of ours and real close, you know, important people in our lives. That was so nice to see. Was it? Yeah.

Like, that was a big surprise. I didn't know anything about it. So when I saw it, me and Amy both teared up. Just, it's so cool to be, to have people care about you, real genuine, you know, care. So that was a great feeling. And, you know, for people to be excited about what's happening in our lives was, was. It was really cool. So, yeah, I mean, here we are.

We've been one week to the day. To the day, yeah. You literally left the Joey Legano taping of the Delguter Download, and at some point, you ended up in the hospital that day. Okay. You're right. So we got done finishing up with the download with Joey. I went home, and me and Amy had an appointment at the doctor scheduled that day.

this little checkup, and she said, I am not 100% sure, but I believe that my water broke. And so I had had a car prepared and ready for weeks, you know, for this. I had the car seat in there. I had my bags. I had one bag for me, one for Amy. We had, I was clothes in there, and everything was ready for, you know, if we needed to hustle to the hospital, the car was just ready to go. I was so worried that I wasn't going to be at the house when she needed to go to the hospital. I was so worried that I wasn't going to be there and that I wanted to drive her to the hospital.

That was really important to me. And I just know I'm a pessimist, so I always think about like the worst that can happen. And Amy's the opposite. She tries to attract positives in her life by thinking that way. And so, you know, thank the Lord. I was able to drive her to the hospital, so I got to be there with her and us experience that together. So we're driving to the hospital, and we're still going for this checkup. We've talked to our doctor, and he's like, just come on in.

We'll just do the checkup and see what's up. Because we'd already thought that her water had broken at one point about a week before and went in for a regular checkup, and everything was fine. So we get there. They go through the whole normal checkup and the things that we typically do. And, you know, her doctor was great. He comes in there and he says, well, I think it's time. And so we're like, really?

Like, we're both excited that, you know. And he's like, yeah, yeah, I think it's time. And I'm like, man, because for the last several days, me and Amy were literally just sitting there looking at each other going, man, the seconds are just ticking by. It's so slow for her to get here. Yeah. You know, Amy wants her out. Amy's over it, you know, the pregnancy, and she's like, I just want her out of here, you know. I want my space back.

Yeah. And we're both dying to meet her. And so we're like, okay, you know, what's next, Doc? And he's like, well, you go get in your car. Go get in your car in the parking deck and drive it on around to the front of the hospital and go through the whole check-in process that we talked about. And we went through this little tour, you know. So we, all right, we'll go get in the car. We went.

And we skipped to the car and hopped in it and we're just giggling. Amy's scared, you know, and getting nervous. And we go through the whole check-in period and get in the room and throw our bags down. And we're in this delivery room, you know, not the room we're going to spend the night in. My mom wanted to be there so badly. So LW was nice enough. My sister's husband LW was nice enough to drive mom all the way there. So mom's able to be there in the delivery room before the baby.

came and she's so excited. So we're sitting there and it was, with the information we had from the doctor, we thought was going to be later in the evening or early that morning. And it's the 30th at this particular point, probably around, you know, I don't know, seven o'clock at night. And a couple hours go by and they come in there and they go, it's time to push, you know. I didn't know that, you know, they were like, you know, you could probably wait. I don't know why you'd want to wait, but you could wait, you know.

we've waited before. You know, if the husband's 20 minutes away or something and trying to get here, we sometimes wait. But there's no reason to wait. I didn't know it was so flexible. I didn't either, actually. Yeah. When it's time, it's time.

Right. Wow. And so they're like, but if you're ready to have a baby, we can have it. Let's have it. So me and Amy are like, let's go. You know, without, you know, getting into the details. But we were, Amy was awesome. She worked really hard.

And an hour later, we had our baby. and she has a lot of hair on her head. They were telling us in our ultrasounds that she had a lot of hair, and we're like, we don't really know what that means. They were really excited about that for some reason. So when she came out and I thought, you know, those are the things you look at and you go, yeah, she does have a lot of hair. And she had all her fingers and toes and cute little face.

And I got to cut the cord and do all those things. I mean, it was a traditional, you know, experience. and it wasn't a very difficult one for Amy compared to, you know, how we had been, you know, the stories that we had heard. But you're preparing for, right? Yeah. So I went over and watched them, you know, get her ready over home. The baby's a little table. And they wait her, you know, and I'm there. And you're so, it's like, there's your baby.

You know, sitting right there on this little table getting weighed, and you just can't wait to get her in your arms. And you're like, you know, just the whole, the whole, all the things of all the things like, oh my God, I can't believe this, Amy made this in her body and this is here and here she is. And I can't believe this person, it's a person. You know, all these things are just coming into your head and rushing into your heart. And I was so proud of Amy. Amy was awesome.

and she worked, you know, she worked really, really hard. She is, Amy had been working out, you know, riding a peloton bike or, or doing, you know, various exercises all the way up until that day. That's amazing. You know, I couldn't, she's like, I just got to be moving. I just had to do something. So she kept working out, working out, so she, she's really in great shape and very determined, and I think that had a lot to do with. Of course it did. You know, how her pregnancy went and how the delivery went.

You know, the staff was great. Everybody's so nice, you know, and it was just a great experience. So we have Isla right there in front of us and we're enjoying her. And Amy was smart enough to have a friend of hers that's a photographer there. So we had some, we were able to document a little bit of before the delivery and a little bit after the delivery. and then she got some decent stuff there for us personally, and mom come in and got to hold her. What was that like?

You know, I think that I don't know that I was, you know, I don't know that I was, you know, when me and A first met, we weren't excited about having kids or didn't know if we wanted to have kids. We were both telling each other we weren't sure and maybe not. And so I don't know if mama thought I would have a child. And so I think mom was super,

maybe relieved a little bit, but also just, you know, just in love with that little girl. I'm assuming you held her, though, before you handed her off to your mom. So, like, when you got to hold her, I mean, you've been talking about for weeks, I can't wait to meet her, I can't wait to meet her, I can't wait to meet her, I can't wait to meet her. And then the moment comes where you get to actually meet her and hold her, what was that like? You know, the love, you know, everything, I feel like everything is going to come out of my mouth is going to see so cliche, but the love that you have is more than ever.

You know, this person, I don't know what it is. It's hard to explain, but you feel this love for this baby that is not a love that you felt for anybody else. And, you know, I love my wife to death, and I loved my parents and my father, my sister. but the love I feel for this baby is nothing like that. And it's just, you know, it's a hundred times more than that. Yeah.

And immediately you're like, oh, my God, I'm never going to let nobody do it. Now, you know, you just immediately go, man, what if somebody hurts her feeling? You know, you start getting so. Absolutely. This whole, all these emotions, this, you know, this protective emotion, this, You know, you're just all. And I was really emotional more so than Amy. I always, ever since, this whole week, I keep telling Amy she reminds me of a pit crew.

Car comes down pit road, hops in the box as soon as it, it's like clockwork. It hits this line. The crew jumps over, goes to work, does the work. That's right. The crew goes over the wall, car leaves, and then everybody's back watching the race. And it's instinctual. And so she, that's the way she's been. She, baby comes out.

She knows what to do. doing it she's not crying not emotional she's just you know instinctual doing her job doing a mother thing yeah and I'm a basket of nerves and crying and oh you guys I mean you know I look at Amy and I'm like you're so strong and I'm just in all of yeah how strong Amy is and my love for her is even more than it was before so I've been I've been the one of that's kind of have a hard time holding it

together this whole week because every time I look at I want to cry every time I look at Amy and her together

when Amy's holding her or feeding her I just can't believe this is in my life you know I just can't

believe you know sometimes I don't know how this is going to sound but I told Amy this

the other day sometimes I think I feel like I'm in that movie Truman the Truman show

the Jim Carrey yes yeah so you feel like it's all just part yeah

yeah I feel like I'm wake up and it or you know I'm going to poke a hole in the wall and realize it's not real. Like his boat did right? Yeah. Like he's right right. Remember right? Yeah.

So I just feel like I'm in the movie. Yeah. It's so weird. What you're describing it, I remember this and it's like the kind of love that you're talking about and you can't know this until you have your parent. You can. Until you're in this moment. And that is, holy crap.

You're looking at your baby and you're saying the rest of my life I am going to do whatever it takes for you. Whatever I got to do, it's now for you. Right. Exactly. You're talking about protective. You're talking about all these flow of emotions and stuff. But it all kind of funnels into this point where it's like, my life is now to protect

you, to do what's best for you, to give you the best life. It's not about me anymore. It's not even about, you know, like I am a parent and that is my identity and it's for you. And that's what from this moment on, and she's laying on that table. That's what it is. Perfect way to explain it. Like, I was feeling the same way. Like, none of my interest matter, or they all take a back seat.

Absolutely. And the things that I want to do on a side, you know, the things that I want to do on a day off or where I think I might invest my money or what I might do for myself here or treat myself here or what, you know, all that's not even, don't even Matt. God, it was so freaking important a week ago. Right. And it is not on the same damn planet no more. I sit there and I'm like, I just want to, I'm like, Amy, I just want to give her everything.

I just want to give her everything. I just want to do everything she says. I'm going to do everything she says. I used to give my sister such a hard time because I watched her very closely raising Carson and Kennedy and Wyatt. And I was, I was a, you know, I would be opinion. I'm her brother, you know, so I would come in there and go, I don't think I had to handle that that way.

you know, if I was, I would have been stauncher and I would have been disciplinarian, I would have been hard on her about this and that and the other and you gotta be tougher and da-da-da-da-da. And Kelly's like, you're not a parent. You'll see one day. It's not like you think.

And all these, I've had to call Kelly and apologize to her this week. I've had to call TJ and compliment him because of the father that he is. I feel like I got to call all my friends and go, man, I had no idea. You know, you don't. because we all get it.

Right. Because I was not a parent until I had a kid. Obviously, you were an apparent, you know, we didn't get it either. So we're in the same damn boat where, you know, this rush of emotion, but this rush of responsibility, this rush of a different type of love you've never felt before. Trust me, we know exactly how you're feeling like, oh, my God, yeah, I feel like I need to make amends or do this. It's a common thing.

I mean, it's the simplest things. You know, I can't do some of the things that Amy can for Ala. and so what I've been trying to do is cover everything that I can do as far as keeping, you know, taking the trash out, walking the dog, doing the laundry. If I, you know, peas on the changing table, I clean it up. When Amy's done with a bottle, I go wash it off and sterilizing, get it ready for the next, you know, next round. Anything that I can do I've been trying to do. Is there anything that you have grown to really like? Because me, I like washing bottles.

It's weird. Have you found anything so far in this first week? Not so much. I mean, there's things that I like, and it just depends. But I go outside with Gus to throw the ball, and I just stand there, and I just think about, like, how perfect my life is, you know, for me, you know, and how amazing it is. I mean, the month of May is, the weather's been amazing.

I mean, I go outside, it's like the sun's brighter, airs fresher and you know what I'm saying it's just it was cold and rainy before Ila came and then all of a sudden it's like it's like the Truman show weather exactly somebody's pulling a tree right right but it's really surreal I enjoy changing her diapers but at the same time that's probably the one activity she doesn't like and I think I mean obviously a lot of this is really common but so there's here's a couple things that are surprising to me the hiccups they hicc up oh yeah so much. And crazy, like... Long time. Like, ten minutes of hiccup. Nothing, you know. So that's interesting, because you can't do anything about it.

And they sound, they're heavy. They're like violent. Yeah, they're intense. For a little tiny thing, the hiccup, it's like it rocks her world, right? It's a Richter scale hiccup. Yeah. So the hiccups. Isla is really calm.

Doesn't raise, doesn't get upset. You know, she moves. They squirm all the time. Like, she's all the time moving her limbs, always, unless she's sleeping. If she's awake, she sits there, you know, pretty much, I mean, almost expressionless, but moving limbs all the time, you know. And that makes me think she's uncomfortable, but that's not it. She's just working out.

She's used to that, too, being, you know, inside Amy. Yeah. She was working out on the day of her birth, so she just might keep that going. Yeah. That's surprising. You have to remind yourself, like, you know, She's okay. She's not uncomfortable because you're like, oh, what do I need to do?

You know, how do I need to make you where you're just calm? So she's really good most of the time. It doesn't hardly get upset about nothing, you know. She'll let you know when she's hungry. But when we change her, so when we take, and I take her, I like those little bunny sacks that go, that are long. She likes them too because she hates her legs not being covered. And so when her legs are out, she's screaming.

Really? It's almost like a switch. You know, you can cover the legs. She's fine. Open the leg, you know, pull her legs out. She doesn't like it. The cold, just that little bit of temperature change, she's going to start crying. So I know when I go change her diaper that she's going to get upset.

And so I like to change her diaper because it's a parenting experience, you know, to keep her clean and keep her dry and all those things. But she hates it, you know, so that I like that probably the best. The diaper changes. but it's something that she doesn't like. I wish we both enjoyed it. Wow, we'd have lost this prop bet. Yeah, right? Like, totally would have lost it.

Yeah. As soon as we, well, the thing about it is, it's cool. As soon as you get her new diaper on and get her little, get her legs covered, whether she's in the bunny sack or whatever, she just goes right back to normal, just real quickly. And then you, I like the bunny sack because I can grab that extra material from the bottom and lift her up and put my head. hand under her and pick her up so easy.

I hate grabbing her by her limbs. Like when you pull her, when you put a new diaper underneath her and have to pick her up by her legs, that feels uncomfortable to me. I just don't like. The first time I did it, it felt like I was like roping a calf or something. Not that I've done that, but it was like odd until you get used to it. It is odd. I'm not quite used to it yet.

I do it because you got to get the diaper under there. Oh, man. I'll get her on. The thing about her not like her. the diaper change is typically when she's crying, she has a movement. You know, she pees or poops because she's grunting. And, yeah, that's the other thing. So a diaper change can take a while because, and it might end up ruining a couple diapers

where you finally get one on there. Hey, part of it. That's one. I mean, this for a new dad, I'm like, man, I thought you just changed it. And now we'll put one under there. She'll pee in it before I can even get it wrapped up. Pull that one out. Put it on, now the whole back, now the whole change of table is wet.

Now her back's wet. Now, you know, I might have to change your clothes. The other thing that me and Amy were talking about this morning is her grunting. So she grunts constantly. And she's fine. She's not. And she's her, she's trying to use the bathroom. So she grunts like, ugh.

So you can hear it coming. Oh, yeah. I mean, this is what she does for hours. And when I hold her, when I, it's, this is weird. but how much they use the bathroom a lot. But for them, using the bathroom is an interesting experience. And they smile when they use the bathroom. Oh, they feel great.

Oh, yeah. So I didn't know how long it was going to take us to see her smile. I couldn't wait to see her smile. And she smiles all the time when she's using the bathroom. So that to me was pretty interesting and funny. It's trying to catch one of them on the phone. It's kind of hard to do. She'll just smirks.

She smirks the Earnhardt smirk some where she does one side. I'm sure all babies do the one-sided smirk, but I like to tell Amy that's the Earnhardt in her coming out because that's how Daddy always smiles and Jeffrey and Kerry. We haven't taken her anywhere. I mean, she's, you know, we don't have any experiences leaving the house. She's not got her shots and we're just staying home and we don't have a lot of visitors. Anybody that came over, I've had them go over to the pharmacy and get a whoop and cough vaccination. Yes.

My mama was supposed to come this week to see her, which I'm excited about that. Carson hasn't seen her yet, but Kelly L.W. Mama, Kelly's kids. We've had some visitors, and everybody's thrilled to see her. I know a lot of fans on social media have been hammering about pictures. We haven't taken a photo. Like, we don't have a, me and Amy create photo streams and just do out everything we do. When we go on vacation, when we go visit. family when we do anything we create a photo stream and me and her put our photos in it together so we

both can share and i love seeing the world through amy's eyes and and that's a way to do it so we have a we have a photo shoot for ila from the day that amy was started you know first got pregnant we've been taking pictures amy's belly everything right so we got all these pictures in this big old folder and we look through there and there's just not one in there that i don't want to put out but um i do want to put a picture online. I do have one that I like a lot and it's just really whenever we feel comfortable doing it, I guess we'll do that. So you're just waiting for the right picture. I didn't know if you maybe were waiting for everybody to have a chance to meet her like Mammal. Yeah, that too. That too. I think it'll feel right. It'll feel right. When time is right, it will know it. Really, it's been a

week and it's been us just trying to settle in and it's different man. So it's like it there is a settle in period. Yeah, there is. Like everything about mine and Amy's life has changed as far as what we're responsible for every day. And when you get up in the morning, from the time you're, I mean, really all night, too, but from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep, the first priorities is that baby. And that's all you think about all day long, is what does she need?

What do I need to be doing? What can I be doing? What does she need now? What can I be preparing for her for a few, you know, hour from now because she's got to eat all the time she's got to use the bathroom all the time she's got you know i need you know it's just you're not worried about putting out a picture on social media right that's really not your it's a concern was it hard for you to even come over here to do this podcast that see that that's another question amy was a couple days ago i was like amy why don't you

come on this podcast with me and do this and because you can probably explain this whole lot better than i can and uh she was she was she was intending to come and then when we woke up this morning. I looked over at Amy and I said, you don't want to leave, do you? And if you don't want to come do the podcast, no problem. She's like, you promise? I said, I said, yeah. I said, you know, we can do it. We can have Amy on, you know, in a few weeks, you know, when I was got her shots and can come over here too, you know. That's a terrible experience, by the way, the shots. Yeah. That goes down as my worst things. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, that and the time you have to leave them at like a daycare for the first time. God. She's had a couple, and she's been pricked a time or two on her heel. And, yeah. It's not fun. It's not much fun. I'll be honest, though.

You know, Alla gets upset, but it's really momentarily. Okay. You know, she doesn't, it doesn't take a while to calm her right back down. And I know it's only been a few days, and she's just, you know, wondering where the hell, what the hell is going on. where she's at. But she's super calm. I'm so happy about that.

Yeah. I'm happy for you. When she was in Amy's belly, you know, she moved a ton. And in my mind, I'm thinking, man, we got a restless one here. And she's going to be, you know, needy, needy and upset and upset easily, you know, flustered or sensitive or whatever. But, man, she is quiet and just, you know, it's her eyes are, you know, she's always looking around. We're happy for you.

I'm telling you what. I mean, you gave us a reason to drink on a Tuesday. But, you know, I got the pleasure of FaceTiming with you Tuesday morning when we, when you, you know, you and Amy were in the hospital room and you guys looked just happy. Yeah. And you were just so happy. So we were so happy for you. And plus, it was cool seeing the world react to this. Yeah, I mean, I go to the car wash, local news and everybody in this building, the positivity.

The fans, I mean, the social media interact. the engagement on that. It was like people just wanted to be part of the celebration. And that was what was neat. Yeah. I felt. Yeah. It made my heart full to have to see or know that people were happy and excited for us and excited for Ila.

And I can't wait for her to grow up and get to where she can understand that and feel that too. Feel how much people are happy for her. I think that'll be good for her. But it's, man, I'm telling you, it's something else. We have, I got to thank NBC because when I, I say NBC, but I got to think my boss, Sam Flood, because when I was hired to do, to work with NBC, we were right in the middle of pregnancy. And I, I told Sam, I said, man, I really need some time at home if I can get it. You know, if you don't mind. I didn't know.

So I'm apprehensive to ask for this because I've never been, this is a real job. This is my first real job in 20 years. and I say that jokingly, but it's true. As a race car driver, if I wanted some time off, I'd tell everybody just to leave me alone. And I'd say, Mike, I need you to just tell everybody that calls that, you know, we're going to do this and we're going to be at home. And hopefully they'll understand. Right. Right.

But with my new employer, I didn't know what kind of, you know, flexibility I had. But I went to Sam and I said, I really would love some time off, you know, before we get started in July covering racing. and they gave me the whole month of May. I literally look at my calendar for the month of May and it is completely empty. And I've never had a whole month completely empty since before I started driving race cars. So to be at the house and wake up in the morning and go to bed at night knowing that you're going to be there the next day and to be able to be with Amy and go through this experience together because these first few days are so special, It means a world to me.

So I appreciate Sam, everybody at NBC for allowing me to have that freedom. It means a ton to me. It makes me even more excited to be able to go back to the racetrack and start our broadcasting in July. They're like a family and they care and they've all been reaching out and asking me how things are going. And I've been seeing some of the promotion that we put together. Yeah, pretty cool.

NASCAR NBC has been promoting on their, their handles about the upcoming season and me being a part of the team. It makes me really, really excited about July and going to the racetrack and calling these races. We've been practicing doing some, we did another mock broadcast for the Talladega race, which was a lot of fun and just sort of getting in the groove. I'm very green, and I'm going to make my share of mistakes, but I'm really having a lot of fun, and I think this year is going to be a lot of fun as far as that broadcasting goes. Did you let yourself even for a moment imagine what it would have been like if you'd

had to go to Dover to race this past weekend? T.J. Majors, I was texting T.J. I've been joking with him a little bit. TJ, and I always tell it, I've always told him that I really admire him as a father and the effort that he puts in as a father and is incredible. I realize even more so now that I know what the first week, been like with our baby. The responsibility and the job that TJ does every week with his little girls is pretty incredible. So I text him and I was like, man, I really see you in a different way now. I always thought he was a great father, but now I really see what he actually has had to do,

you know, physically do. And he's a spotter on the weekends, and his wife works during the week, so he watches the girls all week and then he goes away. And he doesn't have the freedom that I have to be able to say, hey, I'm going to stay home for a month. And I know that I don't like to even think about it what's going to feel like when I have to leave to go to Chicago in July for that first race. I'm going to be, you know, part of me is going to be super freaking excited about that first broadcasting job. And then the other half of me is not going to want to, you know, leave Amy and Iowa.

And I can't imagine T.J. told me that. He says that's going to be the hardest thing he does when you have to leave. it's the hardest thing that I have to do. But coming back will be great every week. When they get old enough to where when you come back, they put their arms out to hug you. That's the best part. The thing about TJ's weeks and mine are, you know,

when I was racing last year and all the years before, my weeks were just as busy as the weekends. You know, a lot of times I would be gone and doing things on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Thursdays and racing on the weekends. with this NBC job, I'll have a lot more time or a little bit of an easier schedule from Monday to Thursday. So while I'm home, I'll get to spend some time with my family each week, which is what I'm hoping for. It's really as busy as I can be as busy as I want to be or I can be as free during the week as I want to be outside of my NBC responsibilities.

So, you know, I just can't do nothing but grin. I'm giddy inside because I got an awesome new job. I'm excited about. Yes, I'm nervous about whether I can make it work or whether I'll be around for a while, all that good stuff. But I'm excited, happy. I'm looking forward to doing this broadcasting for a long time. I got this amazing little baby in my life.

And my love for my wife and my relationship with hers never been stronger. and my family, everything happening in my life. Personally and professionally is just, it just keeps getting better. I said this a year ago. I said this a year before that, the year before. I mean, it just seems like as I've gotten older, it keeps getting better.

It does. I'm excited about the next several years. Me and Amy, we sit there and look at Island and hold her and think about, everybody says, you know, hold her while you can. She's just a tiny little thing and hold her as much as you can. You know, you keep wanting to. when she gets to sleep and you want to put her in her crib and just lay her down and they're like you know

one day you're not going to be able to hold her you're not going to be able to put her in her crib one day she's going to be walking out of the house with her friends to go to the mall whatever she's going to do um so hold her as much as you can but me and amy sit there and hold you know look at her and we're going amy's like man i can't wait till uh you know she's old enough to to talk to us and and we communicate with her and all those things. So much to look forward to. I can't wait until she gives me little kisses on the cheek and calls me Daddy and all those things.

I definitely do not want to rush it. You get here when it gets here. I know you know all about this. Both of you really as fathers. I just, I don't know, just hard to comprehend, you know, just how good this past week's been. Well, listen, as far as the Dell Jr. download, I wouldn't mind if every week we get to hear more stories about you and your life experiences.

Because it is fun for, you know, a father like myself. I know it is for Matthew. Matthew's had a new baby recently. And we both have two kids each. I mean, it's like it just, we're gooey inside. I love hearing your stories. I'm going to walk out of here and be like, damn, I forgot to tell them about this. I forgot to tell them.

We'll have more episodes to do that. And that's, that's fun for us. You know, when you just said that about having my little girl Annabel, one of my favorite things to do the first few weeks, even though they're going to completely change their look over the next month or two. But was, did Hudson look like me? Did Hudson look like mom? Oh, yeah, yeah. Well, what do you think, man? Me and Amy look at her and don't see either one of us really.

And I'll go, maybe she's got your nose. And then the next day it's like, maybe she got my nose. I don't know. And I think she's got my ears. Oh, maybe she got your ear. You know, it's like something. So hard to tell this early. And she has, she has changed.

You know, in the first week, she has her little head and features and everything continue to change. And she changes colors. I mean, she's, you know, her little hands will be purple and then regular looking. I don't know. You know, she just, she's amazing. I can't, I can't wait until, I just can't wait to get back home and be with her and listen to her. She makes all these little noises. My heart melts.

You know, she's laying in that bassinet just. make a little baby noise, and I can't wait for her to make another one. When she's quiet, I'm like, oh, you know. What's going on? Yeah. You know, I miss it. Like when she's quiet, I miss her.

That makes any sense. And she's five feet away. Did you watch Dover with her? It's like me. When I had Hudson, this was cool. I came back from Darlington, and I got to watch a Southern 500 in the hospital holding Little Hudson.

Did you get to watch over? I watched the first stage, and then I love my wife. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, what can I be doing? And so Amy and I made a little grocery list and I went and left to go to the grocery store. And so I drove to the grocery store, shopped for groceries and came home. Missed about, missed the whole second segment. But unpacked all the groceries, put them away and all that stuff that Amy would typically be doing. And that felt so great.

Yeah. Plus there was a rain delay. I mean, listen. when I was living alone, I shopped at the grocery store all the damn time. No grocery store trip was as fun as this one this past Sunday. And there was nothing special about it. But I rode there with a smile on my face, and I drove home, feeling like a champ. So being able to go to the grocery store Sunday during the race was awesome.

Amy needs some vitamins, and I wanted to get her some Chick-fil-A breakfast. So Saturday at 8 o'clock in the morning, me and my buddy Sean got in the car and drove over to Chick-fil-A. drove to the vitamin store and I took a video of me and Sean in the drive-thru and I sent it to true X. I said, hey, this is what retired guys do on Saturday morning, 8 o'clock, sitting the Chick-fil-A drive-thru. He's getting ready to practice. He's like, man, that's awesome. That is cool. It's so awesome to be normal. You sent me a text either Saturday or Sunday saying that you were kicking ass in your first week. I am. I am doing, I kept, you know, I kept the house. Now, I'm not doing as good a job as Amy would, but I kept the house clean, trash taking out, dishes washed.

You're keeping it on the rails. Went to the grocery store. Yeah. Grocer shopping, keeping the groceries in there. Even your other responsibilities. I mean, your Isla is one for one as far as J.R.M's concerned. Yeah. That's right.

That's true. We got some are coming, so I'm getting all the Aces checking, check for free on, make sure they're all good on free on, making sure things good there. Because it's going to be 90-something. That's going to be 90-something degrees this weekend. It's so awesome to have this much time to be able to look around and take care of things that needed to be done around the house. Let's do an Exaltor Race Center update.

We'll be right back. This is the Exaltor Race Center update. I'm Natalie Sainter. All three NASCAR series, Cup, Exfinity, and Trucks were at Dover International Speedway over the weekend. With Sunday's weather forecast looking gloomy, teams were on their A-game all day, but it would be Kevin Harvick's game who was stronger than everyone else's that he would win his fourth race of the year. For Saturday's Xfinity race, Junior Motorsports drivers, Justin Algeyer and Elliot Sadler did not disappoint the fans.

With contact coming for the checkered, Elgoyer would hold on to claim victory for the one main financial 200 and also claim the $100,000 dash for cash prize. Fellow Junior Motorsports teammates, Elliot Sadler finished 2nd, Tyler Reddick, 5th, and Michael Annette 15th. Sadler, Algear, and Reddick hold the top three spots in the point standings. On Friday, it was an intense finish for the truck series as Johnny Sauter battled with pole winner Noah Gregson. Sauter would best the field to make it his second straight win at Dover. Junior Motorsports late model drivers were back in competition at Hickory Motor Speedway. Josh Berry qualified third and finished second. Teammate Sam Mayer qualified 19th and made his way up to finish seventh for the car's tour event.

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. It's time for Ask Junior. I got a question. You have a question for me? Hit us up on Twitter using the hashtag Ask Junior. All right, Ask Junior.

I was up in Dover and for social media for Dirty Mo. I found this kid that's been a huge fan of yours and I've gotten to know him throughout the years. This little kid, Alex Das, who's not so little anymore, just got his driver's license. And he asked us on our Twitter, if you had a time machine, Dale, and you could go back and relive any moment in your career,

what would it be? Probably the All-Star win. The All-Star win because Dad was alive and he was there and it was in Charlotte and he stuck around. Yeah, he couldn't jet out. Yep. So that victory lane was a little bit awkward because we had to climb up on top of this thing. So we were, you know, so we go down, we win the race, we pull up. We are all down at the car on the racetrack.

And the next thing I know, we're up on this platform. And the whole crew's up there and dad's up there. And it was a little bit, I don't know, that was a little strange. But unorthodox as far as Victor Lanes go to be up on a platform, you know, a second state, kind of like a, I don't know, it's a stage with a second floor on it. And we were up on the second floor taking pictures with a rail in front of us, which is weird. We're like 30 feet from the car. No, would you want to relive that just because it was just like such an amazing thing? Or is it just so you can reflect on it more?

I would want to live that again to be able to, I remember Badger, you know, Poking Dad. going, hey, how about this? How about this, man? How about this? Because he wasn't saying, he's just sitting there smiling, and he's high-fiving and back-slapping all the them guys on the team and me.

I mean, he was happy. But I would really, now that I know what I know, and now that I've grown up and matured quite a bit, I think I would like to go through that experience again with him and had a little bit more of a conversation afterwards, maybe, because we just didn't ever talk. You know, as soon as Rick Dallay's over,

I was going to wherever my friends were, and we're going to drink a bunch of beer, I probably would have went to my dad's house and maybe had a beer with him instead. Good question, though. Great question. Jared Zent, would you ever do, consider doing an episode of Hot Ones on YouTube? Have you ever seen that?

The hell is Hot Ones. Oh, that's a great show. It's a show where they take famous celebrities and they do an interview with them while they step them up the ladder of hot sauce on wings. Hot wings. I love Hot wings. Yeah, but this thing goes into a level. Dude, this goes big.

Yeah, I'm down. I'm a ghost pepper guy, so I go pretty big, yeah. Well, this would be for you. Dude, I'm a wuss, man. I can't even do a jalapeno. I put in my, when I smoke wings in my buffalo sauce, I put a little drop or two of a ghost pepper in there. Extract the deal?

Like the drop of like the extract? No. Just legitimately the ghost pepper sauce. What are we doing here? Yeah. But that's exactly what Hotman says. They even, they'll dab a little extra on that last one. And if you get through the stages, then you've got 30 seconds to promo.

or to do whatever you want to the cameras. That's the goal. And if you get that, so you can promote whatever it is and actors will do movies and that kind of thing, you'd be great for that. I'd be damn. I'd damn sure be down for that, man. Why not? I love chicklings and buffalo sauce. And as long as it's got a little buffalo sauce flavor behind it, I'm good with that.

All right. Jeff Steenhook, hopefully I didn't pronounce that wrong. More nerve-wracking. The drive home from the hospital with a newborn or leading the last lap of the Daytona 500. Leading the last lap of the Daytona 500, definitely more nerve-wracking. The drive home, all right, so I thought the drive home from the hospital would be nervous, but I was in, okay, they told us we was going to get discharged before lunch, and we didn't get discharged until about 3 o'clock,

and that was like a two-hour span where nobody came into the room for a while, and we were getting a little antsy, you know, because we were excited about going home and getting to the house and all that stuff and getting all in there and showing around. And so I was finally would get discharged, and I'm thrilled. Amy was real quiet watching the baby in the backseat, you know, and I'm driving home. Like, I wasn't driving super slow like I thought I would. And I'm like, hey, this is the lake.

Ila, you're going to love this lake. You know, a lot of fun times on the lake, man, we're going to get the boat. We'll get the boat out. We'll go out on the lake. We'll have fun. This is Mooresville. This is your hometown. You know, and a whole way home, man, just sort of like showing her around.

And, I mean, I've teared up pulling into the gate. Did you play any music? I don't know. No, you didn't have. No, I didn't want to... Scared. Yeah. Danger summer.

This is dangerous summer, right? I had a damn playlist set for Hudson. Wow. I'm weird that way. Yeah. Pulling into the gate was emotional. Like, or pulling into our driveway. Coming home.

Right. So, yeah. I'm like, man, this is a big moment. She is going to her home, you know. This is going to be her home for all these years. And she's coming to it for the first time. So I had put, I had made this property for her. You know, I bought this home and built this home.

and created this place for her, you know. I didn't know it. Didn't know it, right. So that was really cool. All right, fans are getting creative with their questions, and Anthony Earhart gives us a good creative one here. If you could meet any one historical figure at any point in their life, who would it be and when?

Historical figure at any point in their life. I would love to probably meet, probably Elvis Presley, maybe back when he was younger before the movies. or JFK any time during his presidency would be cool. Maryland Monroe. I mean, you know, just any your mind races through all kinds of iconic figures and people that have, we have a lot of Maryland pictures in our house. So Amy and I are both kind of Maryland fans,

and I got a whole room dedicated to Elvis, so, you know, either one of those two. All right. I think this one is a good question based off the fact that we just had a JR round one to finish at Dover. Danny Hodges says, do you think NASCAR's top drivers, meaning cup drivers, should be allowed to race in Xfinity because that question's been coming up now because of this Dash for Cash program, and we haven't seen those Cup guys on the top of the heap lately. Yeah, a lot of Cup guys haven't been running many races this year.

They have access to run quite a few, actually. I think it's like 12 races that they're allowed not to run. Yeah, not the Dash or Cash ones too, yeah, yeah. So, you know, there's still a lot of, opportunity for them to compete. I think that it's kind of like, you know, tacos are better with a little sauce on them. And I think that the Xfinity series is better

with a little bit of cup action, cup drivers competing. There is a moment where there's, that gets to be too much, too many in one race and times like that. But for as long as I've been alive and even before that, Cup guys have competed in the Xfinity series, the Bush series, the Sportsman series.

Cup guys competed in those races. Cup guys won a lot of those races. Going way back into the early 80s, late 70s even. So some cup participation is healthy for the Xfinity series, but with anything, it's in moderation. I like the limitations. I wouldn't be for cutting the cup guys out completely. I wouldn't be for having 15 cup guys in every race.

But I think where we are now feels better. If we don't have to create more limitations, then I don't think we should for the sake of just trying to see what happens. But I have enjoyed, and I've not really tried to say much about this because we're coming off a win. My opinion's a bit watered down

because we just had success this past weekend at Dover with our cars. And, you know, so I've tried to really kind of not get in the middle of that because it'd be better to hear this from a smaller team that runs regularly in the Xfinity series. How does this affect them? What have they seen in the last several weeks

as far as the lack of cup drivers coming into the series, and do they get more exposure? Do they not? Can they tell? What do those guys feel about it? So I think there was a time where we had way too much. Yeah. Cup participation.

I agree. But where we are now feels really nice. I do like to see races where there aren't any cup guys in it. I have enjoyed that more. I'm just being honest. When I see those races, I didn't know I would. Yeah, my opinion changed of it. just this recently last half a race.

But when I watch those races, I find it more interesting to watch these other guys compete for wins. But I don't like that. I don't know if I want that all the time. It's Charlotte, Daytona, the first race in Daytona. I mean, you've got to have some cup guys in there. You know, it's Charlotte for the 600 weekend. You've got to have some cup guys in those races. So I think there's a-

Why? I don't understand why you got to have them. Why that makes it healthier? For me, it's always been that way. So you're just saying from a point of nostalgia, that's why. I also think, you know, it's good for some of those Xfinity guys to race against the Cup guys every once in a while. I like the fact that, you know, this Dash for Cash thing, I always thought it had such great potential. And I didn't know why it hadn't met that.

And this year, I think it's met it because of that. I will say this. Be careful what you wish for. If you cut them out completely, all you're going to do after about a year is want them back. You're going to go, you're going to want, man, it would be nice to let those guys compete against them. the young drivers are going to want the cut drivers to come down there and compete. You're, you know, even our guys are going to want to test themselves

against that quality of driver from time to time. And it wasn't ever a real problem in the 80s, in the 70s, in the 90s, it wasn't really a big issue. And it only really came about when Kyle dominated so many races for so long. That's when it really became a real issue. And I think that, you know, know, it's been, it's been scaled back a little bit. It's, you know, it's making the races a little more exciting, a little more interesting.

But I don't know that you really want to cut it out completely because I think you'll regret that in the long run. I think that the cup guys have always had that freedom to come down there and run, and I don't want to cut off that. I wouldn't want to cut that off completely. Fair enough. I mean, I think everybody has an opinion on it one way or another. I mean, you bring up a good point that you think it started with Kyle.

I don't think that's when it started with somebody coming down and dominating. I mean, I remember when I first started paying attention, it was Mark Martin every week in that Win Dixie car, just winning every time. The thing about it is. But nobody disliked Mark Martin like that. That's true, yeah. I mean, Mark dominated, you know, but I don't know that it was, you know, I don't know. It didn't feel as intrusive.

It didn't feel as intrusive. Right. I don't know why. Maybe I just was true. Something about it. Yeah. It didn't feel intrusive. Nobody thought, wait a second, this doesn't feel right.

Why is he coming down here? It didn't. Yeah. Maybe it was just a lot. The only times that I ever was bothered by it is when the only time that I'm, I don't really care if, it doesn't bother me if a guy, if a cup guy comes down and wins a lot. It doesn't bother me if a cup guy comes in and wins the race. It's when I look at the rundown and it's eight out of ten, eight out of a guy, eight cup guys in the top ten.

Yeah. If it's 15 cup guys in the top 20. You know, when it's that much saturation is when it's difficult for any, exfinity team to survive. That's 100% true, and I didn't think about that. That's the only time that I don't like it. And so I think we're scaled back enough to where that won't happen. Yeah.

That can't happen with the current guidelines. Until this year, your dash for cash winner might have finished 11th. Yeah, and that's what I think has changed it. Seriously. These last few dash for cash races have been exactly what I think they intended them to be. The dash for cash guys are going for the win. Yeah. Like coming off a turn four.

Not fifth place. Slamming into each other. other and going for it. Like at Dover, that was one of the best Dover finishes, let alone Dash for Cash finishes. We've seen historically in a long time, that was amazing. Yeah. And granted, I mean, we know on this podcast that we're talking about our team. Yes.

And so I've been kind of reserving my opinion and just putting out the question, posing the question to the fans to hear what they had to say. But I really like where we're at right now. But you did put out the question. That's what I said. I have been reserving my. Oh, I got you. Reserving my opinion.

But you put out a little poll. Yeah. What's wrong with that? Nothing. What was the results? Do you remember? I haven't even looked. Okay.

It was like 40 some percent or like 40 percent wanted them out completely. Oh, you have looked. A few out. I haven't looked at the finishing. Yeah, I got you. Okay. It was like, I don't know. I'm not even this eight, but you can go look.

The listeners, not you, listeners can go look. But I like where it's at right now. All right. I think it'd be a huge mistake to cut that cord completely. Perfect. One more question. There was so many good. ones it's tough but this is one that we have to do how did you and amy says a j how did you and amy pick the

name isla rose did it have anything to do with key west was his question it didn't um we were looking we were we were we were going through a lot of different names and i would uh you know me and amy would take the handful of names and sort of mix and match them together and write them out on paper and all those things and type them out and stuff and read them to ourselves and uh i came home one day and amy said i've got another name that we haven't even considered and it was ila we had had had rose on our list as a sort of a middle name for a while and ila rose just rang so nicely and you know flowed out so nicely when you say it i just loved it and i it's really the one name where me and amy had the same exact feelings about it other names that we were choosing i'd like more than amy or

amy like more than i did and we hadn't really come to common ground and that was the one where we're like yep checks all the boxes um i love the fact that it is uh it means island or you could you know it references or Island Rose. That sounds cool. So, Isla. And it's a name you don't hear too often, which is neat. You know, it's not a real common name, but not too. She's not rain or, you know.

It's not too eccentric. Yeah. That's a good way, fun of it. It's not too artsy. Right. Artsy. Yeah, it's good. Perfect.

Is anybody mispronounced it yet? Oh, yeah. I mean, I saw people, and I told Amy that. I said, people are going to wonder if it's Isla and how to pronounce it properly. And I've had people come up to me personally or I've said, seen it on social media, but it just takes time. Yeah. Good questions.

All right, let's go to White Flag. Keep talking about white flag, bud. White flag right there, white flag. White Flag. As Dale alluded to, not a whole lot going on in his schedule. It's just being a daddy to Ila Rose, a husband to Amy Rose and a book collaborator with Ryan McGee Rose, who I noticed was in the studio a little while ago. So don't forget Dale Jr.

His raffling office, 2018 Corvette, to win it enter the raffle. at Wendell TunersRide.com. I want to congratulate our partners, Mountain Dew and Good Year. They were recognized by the SportsCLEO Awards this week. And also our old partner, Budweiser, won a SportsCleo Advertisement Award, all of these Dell Junior spots

that rolled out in the past year. So very cool with them. Speaking of great stuff, I just want to encourage everybody, if you want to check out some funny video, Hammerhead, your production company, Dale, put out a good one with Z-Max, a week ago.

You go to Hammerhead's Twitter feed at Hammerhead Ente. Hammerhead E&T to see that video. They've been killing it lately. There's also a brand new Whiskey River at the Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Whiskey Rivers are growing. You're putting out whiskey rivers.

I'm hungry now. Yeah. If you find yourself stopping through there and your travels, check it out. Dirty Moe Media is on all your favorite social media platforms. Lastly, Dale, you know when Mother's Day is? weekend. There you go. He knows it.

He goes. We were wondering. I wasn't sure if he knew it. And so you got a new Mother's Day gift to get. Yeah, I got a whole new responsibility. So I got a sister Ila for a few years until she can handle it. You know, get her Mother's Day gifts for herself. But I have to come up with something pretty cool. I was thinking about doing something. So we'll see how Mom likes it. We're in the retail store. You can get her a, you know, get her a t-shirt.

A hat. Mr. River T-shirt. Coozy, that's a great Mother's Day gift. No. But that's it. Good show, buddy. Congratulations on Ilar Rose. We're so happy for you.

Hey, before we leave, we just got to do one thing. Uh-oh, what's it? We have to congratulate everybody at Junior Motorsports. Yes. For their finish this weekend. Their whole company had a great weekend. We'd be making a big mistake if we didn't acknowledge their accomplishments this weekend. Justin and the 7th team, Elliot, all those guys.

They put on a good show at the end, good sports machines. ship among them. They've great teammates together. Love seeing the teammates working together and happy for each other and competing hard together. Can't ask for more than they gave us this weekend. So very happy for them and we're going to celebrate this week and try to go get it again. Heck of a job by Algaard even hold Elliot off on this last 20 last. I mean, I could not believe it that he was able to stay in front. And Elliot was whipping that horse. Yes, he was. Yes, he was. And three of your four cars in the top five. So Tyler Reddick finished fifth. Great weekend for junior book. Good stuff. And so impressed to my first time flying.

with you guys on the way back the race winter midway through the flight going up to the front grabbing a basket full of snacks and walking down that airplane and serving all the people with junior motorsports that was on that plane that impressed me he wants some good cars we got some good guys working for good teammates good stuff thanks guys this is a production of dirty moe media