The Dale Jr. Download - 220 - Live On Stage at JRM Fan Day

Episode Date: May 29, 2018

Dale Jr and Mike Davis do the show live on stage in front of a packed house at JR Motorsports Fan Day. They do live #AskJr questions from the crowd, talk about wanting more Short Tracks and go over zany baby scenarios. 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. Nearly losing control as they touch fenders. Well, I grew up in a sport, grew up around it. My dad raced, you know. And Ralph Earnhardt proves that it can run almost as fast. Working silent track type racing. A lot of hard work and a lot of sacrifice. It's going to be dead on Hart Jr.

The Dale Jr. Download. There's no excuse. I don't work all the first of a person in here. He worked hard. That was the hardest hardest race ever drove. The download starts now. Ladies and gentlemen, big round of applause.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is here. Signing some autographs for you, J.R.M. Fanday. I'm your producer, Matthew Dillner. Proud to be here in Mooresville, North Carolina, for J.R.M. fan days. Loving the beautiful weather. The Dale Jr. download. of course, wherever you listen to podcasts, and the NBC folks here are shooting it as well,

having a good time, everybody's showing up. You guys ready for the Dale Jr. download or what? All right, let's get this show started, folks. It's almost through with the victory lap. You've seen him take a victory lap with a checker flag before he's doing it today with a Sharpie in hand. And of course, signing that beautiful Oreos Ritz card. Look at that one. I remember when you had that go-tee like that.

that Dale all right let's start it out right here by introducing this guy he's got the shades on it kind of looks like Terminator X or something right here shades are off now buddy you want me right there ladies a gentleman big round of applause for Mike Davis the host the Dale Jr. download or co-host you guys nice some familiar faces out here a lot of familiar faces on Charlotte Race Week and of course J.R.M. fan days this is my first one Davis so getting to meet a lot of people man I was from Alberta we got Canapolis right here all over you've got Japan here and yeah we've got some some friends that come either every year or every other year and I just saw them as we were

walking out here I don't know where they ran off to but I said I met England yesterday they win that award the Japanese fan so good to see them again good to see some other familiar faces out here today if you have to cross-contidence to come to the Dale Junior download award now I don't know what that award is and I'm It's pretty spectacular. Ladies and gentlemen, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Dale Jr. All right.

Awesome. Thank you guys. So this is fun. We usually do the podcast here at the shop and the studio in there and rarely do live shows. Yeah. So this is going to be a little fun and a little different. Following TJ and Brett is a little weird. There's two things that could happen in my opinion.

one is the crowd is pissed or the other the crowd is gone right i wasn't sure which is going to be it turns out they've stayed around so i'm already grateful for you how was a door bumper clear yeah pretty good that was t j it's always good to see tj it's always good to see tj i don't seem as much you know he used to see him every single weekend because he's working together but now that um that i'm not racing and he's spotting for joey hardly ever see each other so he just text it's kind weird i'm used to seeing him a lot more often so t j and bret were good to anything inappropriate i'm sure there might have been a few things, but we just, as long as we're keeping it on the rails here. I know Brett's happy because I just saw him with a box of chick flage.

It's a good day. Yeah, I hear you. So we don't do live shows like we used to, and there's a reason why, and I want to bring that up for a reason. When we started the download this year, we obviously have an NBC affiliation to your new career. And we've been implementing TV to some degree. last year when we did this show live we had a bit of an announcement that was your appreciation campaign I feel like we ought to give our friends here at least a little bit of a heads up or a little bit of news breaking that we haven't been actually given the okay to and that is that on june 7th in just a couple weeks the dale junior download will now be a television show on NBCSN and so that's a little piece of information if you could keep that to yourselves because I don't think we were allowed to tell you but that's a little bit of a little bit of information if you could keep that to yourself because I don't think we were allowed to tell you but that's a little bit little that's a little thing for you to know we're that's exciting for us well one of the great things

about that is in our um we made some changes this year obviously bringing in matthew dillner's really been a great uh a great hire for our company but for the dale junior download i think a lot of you guys especially me and mike we've seen a huge difference in the production and the uh the creativity in the show yeah so thanks thanks to matthew for all this hard work his ability and and the in the company's ability, dirty-moe media's ability to put out a little more social media marketing has brought up a lot of interesting comments from the folks online and from our listeners as to where they're going to be able to watch a full video of the podcast. I've been seeing that a lot by the way. So we, you know, Matthew and the podcast has been had a lot more improved production

this year and we've been able to put these little clips out on social media and people want know how they can watch the whole thing. And you see some of those clips on NASCAR America on Tuesdays and so forth, which has been great for us. It's been great for the download and promoting Nerdymo Media. So we've been talking with NBC and they've liked the show enough to where they're going to start to put the full show on TV. Just them liking the show is something that we couldn't expect. I mean, we did like, oh my gosh, I don't know what they just signed up for. But yet they keep putting it on Tuesdays on that segment for NASCAR America. so they seem happy.

And so now they're ready to take this into a television show. So that's how people can watch a full video of us now. Yeah, I can't wait to see the reaction to that. I hope. It's going to be fun. Right, I hope. Try by fire, you know. Yeah, yeah.

So forgive us because I don't know if any of you guys were at the appreciation event in Vegas just at the end of last year. But if you were, you know, we don't really know what we're doing and we don't really come in with a good strategy. This is what you see is what you get. And that also applies to the day. download podcast. It also applies to the television show. I don't know that NBC is aware of that yet, but they're about to find out. But we're going to, we're looking forward to that. Thanks to Matthew. Thank you, Matthew's making us look like a little bit. Matthew makes us look great. Yeah. Yeah. So listen, we're at Fan Day. It's good to see you guys again. I wanted to ask you,

Dale, you just drove down this road again. You're weaving through crowd and cones. And I know that for me, it's nothing I ever take for granted, just when people come out here. And especially when I think about where we came from, where junior motorsports came from. And to give you guys an idea, we currently, where junior motorsports started, we play basketball, a half-court basketball on that shop floor now. So that's where we now, we went from that to this. And anytime you guys show up for fan days such as this, it's really gratifying for us. What were your thoughts as you drove through here today? I'm still glad that people want to be here. You know, it's, it's race weekend. It's a very big race weekend for racing fans, whether you, you know,

you've got the indie race, you got the Formula One stuff going on. This has always been sort of a big race weekend for motorsports in general. The 600 brings a lot of folks into town with the All-Star race kind of book in with the 600. This is a great week to be in Charlotte if you love NASCAR. Having this Friday really of no track activity is great for the sport because a lot of industries in this area, us included. And it gives you guys an opportunity to go tour some of these places wherever you want to go all the way up to welcome to see the museum at RCR, which is a great experience to be able to come here and see what we have going on. And we try to do our best to give you some entertaining things here with the kiosks and so forth

and my brother and everything. He's here trying to promote some of the things he has going on. So it's a lot of fun to see it still going and the fact that people are in town and supporting the race this weekend. And this gives you guys something to do on a day where there's nothing happening to racetrack. I think it's just a really great fit for our, for our, for our, for our, for our, company and for motors for for for NASCAR that that we had this all Friday this week yeah you know to allow the fans to be able to do this so we're glad you're here um we always have something new going on

and our our company is always changing so it's fun for it's you know when you come here each year you're really not going to see the same exact thing or or exactly what happened last year we always have something new going on new drivers new sponsors and partners and people trying you know setting up and promoting what they have and new new partners and it's it's always great is anybody here for the first time for a fan day wow look at this didn't expect that a lot i didn't either yeah all right so that's awesome thanks for coming um for everybody that has been here before really appreciate you guys being dedicated to to what we do and i hope you enjoy your whole week and enjoy this whole weekend but appreciate all the first timers i mean that's really impressive i didn't think that there would

that being people here that have never came before. But we have a lot of fun, and you're going to experience some of that today. By just your reaction, yell through something. Are you having a good time? All right. That's what we needed to hear. That's what we needed to hear. Can I always count on you guys for that.

Listen, what we want to do for this show really is kind of let you guys have every opportunity to ask Dale Jr. questions. And so we do a segment every week called Ask Junior. It's mainly we take stuff off social media. We want to get to that here in just a few minutes. And so be thinking about questions. This is your chance. A lot of you first timers are here. This is your chance that you can ask junior questions.

We didn't buy you. We didn't pay you money. We don't know what you're about to ask. It may be harsh. We don't know. This is your chance. But we'll do our best to answer that. And so be thinking about that.

Before we get to that, Dale, a couple things that happened this week. I just want to get your impressions on. You and I haven't talked about this. So I'm myself. I'm curious. One, the Hall of Fame inductees, the new class of the Hall of Fame. Did you have any impressions on that? You got Jack Rouse.

You got Roger Penske, Alan Kowice, Davy Allison, and then your old teammate, Jeff Gordon. Some Gordon fans at the crowd. It's a really good class. And looking at the nominees, all those guys are going to be in the Hall of Fame at some point. It must be very difficult as a voter to have to go through and really do your homework on each. individual. It's, you know, and not take it at face value. You really, a lot of these guys, you have to, you know, a lot of these guys may not have been around in my lifetime. So to do,

to do the due diligence and go do that homework on each individual to understand their impact on the sport and be able to some sort of, you know, somebody measure that must be a real challenge and a hefty responsibility. I, you know, it's an exciting time for our sport. I get excited when the Hall of Fame nominees get announced. And then when they narrate, down to the five and to watch those guys go through that experience that they, you know, they go and find out that they're nominated, then they go find out that they've actually going to be inducted and then to watch them go through the whole experience of being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Everybody that's anybody in the industry that lives in this area goes to that

event to watch that happen. I always sit with Helton. Mike Helton is a guy that I enjoy spending a lot of time with and that's such a great event to be around Mike with because he's had such an impact on the sport and to be able to watch the inductees get inducted and sit with somebody like that. It's a lot of fun for me. So I text Mike just after the nominees or the inductees were announced. I said, don't forget to save my place at the table for the dinner because I want to be there. And I think that all of us should want to be there.

And whether you're going to get inducted into the Hall of Fame or not, it's something that I think is a person that loves a sport you should embrace and celebrate. So I was excited for all those guys that got in and I think that they certainly are well deserving. And, you know, it just makes it gets tougher, I think. When we first started the Hall of Fame, you know, it was obvious who would be in those first handful of classes and the decisions maybe weren't quite as difficult as to who to choose out of who the five are going to be. But as we get more and more classes in, it gets a little tougher to really decide. one guy over the next. So it's a very challenging process, I'm sure, for the, for the people that are voting.

I was pretty happy with it, and I don't know how you could be disappointed with that type of class. I mean, Dave and those guys, Dave and Allen going in together is really unique. Considering their story and the circumstances around their careers. Jeff is a lot to go in, I think, immediately. Pinsky, you know, a lot of people think about what they've done on the racetrack and even with owners. You know, people think about, well, you know, Penske won a championship and he won a couple days on a 500s,

but you also got to remember that he owned Michigan International Raceway for many years. They built Fontana Motor Speedway, which we wouldn't have those racetracks, and they might not be in such great shape without Roger Penske's involvement and his efforts in funding those facilities. So there's a lot of – and he was around – you know, he got – the – car that Rusty Wallace ran his first race in Atlanta back in 1980, I believe, was a Penske car. You know, Penske owned cars in the 70s for Bobby Allison and Mark Donahue and y'all remember the Matador and all that.

So, I mean, that goes way back. So Penske's been around forever. You think about Rous and all the things that he's accomplished, not just on the racetrack. I mean, he's been a huge influence on Ford's involvement in the sport. these people you know drivers you see their stats you see the numbers but it goes way deeper than that it really does it always does by the way when you texted mike helton which as everyone has the opportunity to do you know you reserved your seat at the table but i think my friends here would join me and saying that you could text him to just say reserve my spot in the hall right oh i don't know

come on now i can't wait for that day i can't wait for that day you would never text mike helton that But I'm saying we would if we had his number, right? So you actually put out your, what would have been your five. And it looked quite different, actually. I saw Ralph Seagraves on there. A lot of people might not even know these days who Ralph Seagraves is. Yeah, that's the thing about it. I think everybody is going to have a different opinion on who should go, who should be the five.

But all 20 of those guys will be in the Hall of Fame one day. And they all belong in there. and it's just really up to personal opinion and preferences to who you think those five are for this particular class. But C. Grays was influential in bringing in Winston as a sponsor for the series. And not only for the Cup Premier Series, he worked at RJR and brought them to NASCAR, and he sort of cultivated that relationship and that sponsorship for Winston to promote the sport. who knows where we would be without Winston promoting the sport for those years and giving us that stability. He also did a lot of things that a lot of people may not be aware of with the local racetracks.

He would promote thousands of local racetracks across the country, not only just giving them Winston Racing Series backing as far as sending them pain and everything and all the stuff to be able to improve their infrastructure and so forth and get their facility looking nice. But he also, I mean, he simply brought some racetracks out of bankruptcy with just pure straight cash. I mean, he wasn't just looking at NASCAR as an opportunity to sell cigarettes. He cared about the brutes of the sport, and without that, you don't have a very healthy tree. So he belongs in there.

We'll get in there. He obviously got nominated for a reason. Ray Fox was another guy I thought would be in there or get in there this year. but it's hard. It's really hard to pass over Roush or Penske for Holman and Moody. And a lot of people might not know really. I mean, what Penske's done and what Rouse has done is very fresh on our minds because they're here and it's present.

What Ralph Moody done and what Holman did, I don't even really know that I understand that impact because that was so long before I came around. And only the people that were present, in that time and experience that their involvement really know truly their impact. You know, even reading stats on a sheet or stories in a book can't really give you a clear idea of exactly the impact. Guys like that that are so deep in the history of the sport had on the sport.

So it's, like I said before, it's got to be very tough for the voters. You've got to go in there and you've got to do your homework on these guys, especially the guys that aren't here anymore, the guys that were in the sport in the 50s and 60s that get nominated, trying to figure out exactly, trying to shape the picture of the impact they had. It has to be very difficult. I see that Matthew Dillner is down there with a microphone. Is that for the ask you your questions? I think that we ought to go ahead.

I'm really curious to talk to you guys. And we can have some conversation. Matthew is, oh, I already see some hands coming up. So how about this? How about this? Why don't you just introduce yourself when you get a mic, just raise your hand, let Matthew find you, introduce yourself. tell us where you're from because we want to know that. And then ask us, ask questions.

All right, fire away. Hey, death. Paul from Maine. Yes, sir. I don't want to start a floodgate of requests or nothing, but my mother is the reason that I became a NASCAR fan. And, I mean, you were my car seat when I was a baby. Oh, man.

You were his, oh, he was your car seat. Does that make you feel good or old? Yeah. Makes me feel old and good. If it helps, I'm only 23. Hey, all right. But is there any chance I can get you to maybe on a video or something to say hi to my mother, Eileen? Sure.

Thank you for being a fan. I mean? Eileen, yeah. Thanks, Eileen for being a fan. We appreciate it to sport. Thanks for raising a fan. That's right. Man, that's what it's all about, you know, parents raising fans, you know, taking their kids to races,

helping them understand and enjoy the experience. So appreciate her for doing that, raising somebody who's still a fan of the sport today. There you go. Thank you, Paul. All right. What's your name? Where you from? Hey, Dale.

My name Diego. It came out of way from Atlanta, Georgia, on a bike. Whoa. Like a bicycle. Did you pedal? Yeah. I took the Greyhound butts and then rolled my bike from Charlotte all the way over here. Wow.

Are you serious? That's impressive. Jimmy Johnson doesn't even do that. Yeah. All right, what's your question for Dale? So my question is, how are you doing with your little girl? Yeah. Great question.

It's going great. You know, Ila's been a lot of fun. We've certainly learned a lot. I mean, it's been three weeks now. It just such, so much information happening, so many things happening in such a short period of time. But I've been really involved in trying to, you know, help Amy as much as I can to take as much responsibility and off her shoulders, much pressure off her shoulders, trying to give her opportunities to rest and try to keep our sanity in the house. And, you know, it's tough, you know, because her, as a. mom, you know, she feels an obligation and responsibility to do everything and, and handle it one minute at a time. So I try to stand there and be available and try to, you know, change a handful of diapers during the day and feed Ale if I can if Amy wants to allow that. Because she wants to do

everything. You know, you have to, you know, you have to realize that her instincts is to do it all. but sometimes she even realizes that she needs to lay down and get a nap, you know, because neither one of us are sleeping all the way through the night. But it's, yeah, oh, I know. Everybody says it keeps getting better. It's not, it's nothing to complain about at this particular point. I mean, I was sleeping well. She's easy to put down and not very fussy.

She does not like a wet diaper. She doesn't mind a dirty diaper, but a wet one is no good. No, boy, no. Yeah, I mean, she'll wake straight up out of a seat. sleep if she's got a wet diaper and one it changed immediately and and uh the amount of diapers that they go through i really surprised once you know amy once amy started making more milk um you know she's ila started using the bathroom a whole lot more often and and multiple times in a series there so you'll be in there and go through you won't even get it'll be like the third diaper you finally get

on her and get locked down before you you know she'll keep on going but uh it's just a lot of fun i'll be honest with you and you go you know i've never had anything in my life making me so excited to wake up in the morning to see you know like every morning you get up and you can't wait to go in there and see her uh you just want to have your eyes on her you know it's something i don't know what it is of i mean it's just love but i've never had anything in my life that had me that excited when i wake up in the morning it's hard you know

You know, when she's, when she's, you know, wakes up to get fed at 1 o'clock in the morning, and I'm like, man, I want to go in there and want to play with her, I'll hold her. Wake her up. Get her going on. Yeah. You can't do that. You know, you got to, yeah, let Amy feed her and try to get her back down and get back to sleep. And Amy doesn't want you to go in there and make a little racket and all that.

It's hard, man. It's hard to be reserved about it. By the way, I just want to say that the lady that just yelled out, it gets better. She currently has, I'm assuming her husband, Fannie, the baby that she has on the lap. He is programmed just the way you want him. Is that not right? Yeah.

That's right. Appreciate your efforts to get here, bud. That's awesome. And do you need a ride back? Are you planning on doing... He doesn't know yet. He hadn't thought that far ahead, right? You're going to ride back.

That's dedication right there. Sunday. After the race. I've got so many more questions to ask you, but we'll go ahead to... Well, what do we got? I had to stop by this guy because I see him

at our buddy Mike Kerman Jr. South all the time. Is Andrew from up the road in K-Town, man. You got a question for them? Annapolis. Other than your dad, who were some of your biggest inspirations in people that were fundamental

in your racing career? One guy that I, I don't know why I am like this, but I've always been a huge sucker for an underdog and love the underdog story and their fight and their plight and all that. So one guy that I gravitated to really, really young was Jimmy Means. And Jimmy raced in the Cup Series against my dad. Jimmy started in the 70s and raced in the 80s and 90s in the number 52 car.

And most popular car he probably had was the Alka-Seltzer car. But when I went to one of my first races at North Wiltsboro's like 84, Jimmy and dad were parked side by side and dad introduced me to him for some reason and so that i just kind of never forgot jimmy me and jimmy's son brad were to the same age and we played together and hung out all the time at the racetrack every when you go the track first thing you did when you got turned loose from your dad was go find brad and go find all your buddies and brad was always there and uh so i run around brad all the time and that helped me understand really what jimmy was dealing with and the challenges that he faced as an independent so i always liked uh

Jimmy and his career and his way of working influence to me as a person, I believe. I love Kill Yarborough. He was probably my favorite driver and his style, his personality, how he handled winning, losing conflict, success, everything, how he talked and handled himself and very professional and stood up from, you know, what he thought, but he wasn't really ever any very controversial or causing any. problems or always sort of promoted to sport really well. So that was a guy that I think always looked at and always set an example for me whether he knew it or not. So, you know, Helton, I talk about Mike Helton. You know, it's kind of a guy that I look up to and I think

he's, to me, Mike Helton is like the guy, you know. I know a lot of people don't know Mike that well outside of him sort of being for many years sort of the, the man behind the curtain pulling the strings of NASCAR all these years, you know, making all the big decisions. for our sport and direction that it goes, but I've got so much respect for that guy. I can't even measure it. To me, he stands on a mountain. He's just such an important person, somebody that's really helped the sport and been important to the sport, and he's been important to me and helped me a lot.

He was really, really, real good friends with my dad, so he's always been a guy that I would go to when I needed some advice and some guidance because I knew that he was going to give me the good information that he felt like my dad would go. give me. So that's another guy that's always been of good influence on me. Good question. What you got, Matthew? We got a little guy down here named James from Landis, like the Landis China Grove area here in North Carolina. He's got a question for you. What win in your career means the most to you? You say what win? What win? My career means the most to me. Probably, I mean, the Dayton 500 wins are the ones that are going to come to the top of the conversation.

Winning that twice. I mean, such an incredible opportunity. I wanted to just win it once and never thought I'd get a chance to do it again. So I was really shocked and surprised that we won it again. Not many people win it a decade later from the first one either. I mean, 2004 and 2014. I don't know what the stats on that. I know.

I can't imagine there being a lot of people that have done that. It's a long time between wins. The All-Star Race is a rookie as one. that I, when I start talking about, I've been asked this question a lot, and I always start off talking about Daytona. And then by the end of the conversation, I go right around back to the All-Star race because we were rookies. My dad was there. My dad was in it. He was one of the cars we passed in the last handful of laps driving to the front. I can't imagine what he was feeling as he watched us go by and going up there and pass a leader because he could see it all. He

wasn't that far behind us and I can't imagine I you know what that must have felt like um yeah I don't know I'm glad he didn't that would have been a difficult wait a minute wait a minute what did you decide I said he probably thought he wished he would have turned yeah I don't know he owned the car so that's right a bad business choice yeah we wouldn't we were going by so fast he didn't have a shot yeah on that night it's pretty fast That one's the one that I'm most proud of probably, or one that's most special to me, just because we would win races in the Xfinity series

and he'd be at the track, and he'd have to come, he would come in there and see us and say that's great and be proud, but he'd have to leave because they always had happy hour practice right after the Xfinity race then on Saturday. So he'd have to run to go get back in his car and run that final practice for the cup race.

So he never really got to spend a lot of time in Victor Lane with me, but that night he did. You know, that night he spent, he was in Victor Lane as long as all of us. You know, he was spending, he was going to stay in the condo, I believe, up there in term one. He has a condo in turn one. And so he wasn't a hurry to get out of there. And he was up on top, he was in Victor Lane with the whole team taking pictures and doing

the whole thing, you know, and he never did that before. And that was the only time he did that. Usually even when we won cup races, he would come in there, say that was awesome. But, you know, he'd be splitting out of there in five or ten minutes. All right. And what's your question, Virginia? What's your name and where you from? So Chase from Chesapeake, Virginia. Dale, I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on one of the top big three touring series returning to tracks like South Boston and Langley Speedway. I'd love for more short track races, you know. I think that when I want to get a race and fix and go online or go on a website or look for videos, I always gravitate to the short tracks.

and it's typically Speed 51, which Matthew's brother is the owner of Bob Dillner, that you can go on websites like that and watch videos and full races of all the guys that, all these local tracks in the area, even across the country, you know, all these short tracks. So being able to have that content at your fingertips is nice, and that's what I kind of gravitate to. I'm not, I don't, you know, I don't go, oh man, I want to watch a bunch of mile and a half races, or I always want to watch these old shore track races, whether it's something that happened last week or something that happened 20 years ago. So for me, I'd be super excited for the Truck Series or the Xfinity Series to go to South Boston

or race at Myrtle Beach or somewhere like that. You know, it'd be so much fun to see those guys go to those smaller venues. I may be wrong, but arguably I believe they could probably have the same, same-sized crowd at those racetracks that they have at some of the mile and a half race tracks. I don't think you're wrong. The other part of that, too, is the action you know is going to be interesting. You know you're going to be entertained if you're watching that. So that's a no-brainer.

But, yeah, I think we do need to run, you know, we do need to get some more short tracks into the schedule. I think there needs to be a good mix. And right now we don't have many short tracks at all. I mean, the only short tracks we have on the schedule in the Cupside is Martinsville, Bristol, and Richmond. A lot of people want to call Phoenix a short track. But to me, a short track is anything from a 5-8 mile or smaller. So, you know, there's not a lot of short track racing and that type of excitement to see during the year. Love to see more of it however they need to get there.

I think I got a North Carolina magnet or something because this guy raised his hands from Riley, North Carolina. What's your name and what's your question? I'm Zach. And I was wondering if you think if NASCAR allowed more fan access, like maybe got the drivers on a pit road before the races to sign autographs, do you think that would like bring more drivers to, I mean more fans to the field of the grandstands? Yeah, over a period of time,

that would definitely have a positive effect on the experience for the fan. That would introduce, that would probably create more fans. It wouldn't be overnight, but it would definitely, anything that gives the fan a better experience where you walk away and you're like, that was great. And you're going to bring your buddies that made. maybe never been before, and they love it. Now they're hooked.

That's kind of how that happens. It's a slow process, but certainly, I mean, this sport's been around for 50 years. And at one point, we did have a lot of that sort of homegrown grassroots, you know, one-on-one time with the fans. We did a lot. But back, you know, in the 90s, dad was flying to dealerships across the country doing autograph sessions

every single week, sometimes two a week. He was doing it not on. only for the interaction with the fans, but he's trying to pay for his king air airplane, too. But he was at these autograph sessions, not even in race markets. You know, he just, whatever dealership would call him up and say, come on out. He'd go out there and sign for two hours, and he'd go somewhere else, maybe two days later, and do the same thing. So he was creating relationships and memories with these folks.

That was probably encouraging them to go to the race in their area. We don't really do that as much anymore. There are still times when I'll end up in a, where not even me, maybe Chase Elliott this weekend will be in a Walmart sign autographs for Mountain Dew. I mean, those are the type of things that are always going to be better when you can get down on the ground, boots on the ground, working one-on-one with the fans. This is a great week for it. You guys can go anywhere in this area to these race shops and have opportunities to meet the drivers and have autographs and pictures and so forth with the drivers. So more of that is definitely going to be a good thing. Yeah, it sure is.

I mean, back in the 60s and 70s stuff, you know, the king would hang out after the race signing autographs. Yeah. You know, people go to short tracks like your dad used to do that tour, whether it's New England or whatnot, doing that. So still drivers still do that, but, you know, things are just a little different. All right, what's your name and what's your question for Dale? All right, I'm Tanner from China Grove, North Carolina,

and knowing you're about to go into broadcast, and if you could put kind of an all-time team of broadcast, castors and pit reporters together who would you put together yeah question barney hall is on that list barney was awesome on the m r n kyn kyn squire i thought is was amazing still is amazing but um his his call of the 1979 Daytona 500 is just so much fun to listen to hobs was in the booth david haws was in the booth with him love david hobbs he does f1 now uh still fun to listen to uh he's very matter of fact and just kind of tells it like he sees it which is fun Benny Parsons, I thought, was amazing.

I love Benny Parsons because, you know, he was a driver. But when he got into the booth, he was really down the middle, didn't try to say, you know, this guy screwed up, or I don't think this guy's very good, or this guy's amazing. He just kind of was right. He played the middle ground really well. Was friendly, easy to hear, easy to listen to, fair, you know. So those are guys that probably at the top of the list for me. I'm really enjoying working with Steve LaTart, Jeff Burton, and Rick Allen.

The other guys that I'm able to spend a lot more time with, Kyle Petty, I really never spent much time with him throughout my career or in general, so that's going to be fun to get to know him better. Dale Jarrett's a guy that I love to death. Every time I seem, it's awesome to be able to be able to spend time with him. He's a guy that supported me in my career and was always kind of in there behind the scenes and around helping me through my whole career. Always very supportive.

So to be able to work with him at NBC's been awesome. I've got some great people that I'm around that I'll get to work with this year. It's going to make it so much fun. We were just on the phone call today. We have a practice broadcast this weekend, and we've done a couple of these this year where we're going to go to the racetrack on Sunday for the race, and we'll be in one of the suites,

and we'll have everything just like a real broadcast, And we'll fake the broadcast basically using Fox's Feed. And we did this at Texas and we did it at Talladega and just trying to, you know, kind of get some repetition and get some idea of what being in the booth is going to be like. And it's been a lot of fun to practice. So we'll do that again this weekend. We were just on the phone talking about that and getting prepared for Sunday. And, you know, if you got a job and you get to go work with your friends at your job,

it makes it so much easier. Sure. And those guys, they'd be. been real nice to me. So I'm looking forward to it. We're just, we're just all really excited because the first race we cover this year is going to be Chicago, July 1st, and that's coming around the corner, man. We just can't wait to get started. All right. What's your name and what's your question? I'm Craig from Columbus, Ohio. I think it's a great way you do for a nationwide Toronto's Hospital, but anyway, I was thinking, do you think they should take the Xfinity race and move it back to IRP,

you know, where they get some people to show up? Oh, yeah. Everybody that I talk to thinks that they should be racing at IRP at the Raceway Park over in Indianapolis instead of the big track. The only people that I've talked to that don't like that idea are the owners. And I'm going to take myself out of that owner box for a minute because I'm an owner as well. But when I listen to all the owners in the Xfinity series, selling a sponsor for that race is easy for them if they're at the big track. And when they're at a little track, it's harder to sell that race. So from a financial standpoint and for the health and success of the business model for each race team, they need to be at the big track.

They did make some changes to that package last year that we ran that made that race a whole lot more entertaining. And I hope that we can continue to go down that path for at least the Xfinity series to help make those races more entertaining to where we don't wish we were back at IRP anymore and we like being at the big track at Indianapolis Race Speedway. But again, I love the short tracks. The races where they were truck, Xfinity at IRP,

were never disappointing. No, you didn't need to adjust the package at IRP. That racetrack with the banking and how it's a little bit progressive, I had a chance and fortune to run there in the Xfinity car in 9899. We won a race there. So much fun. Such a fun racetrack to race at. So racy, easy to pass and run different lines.

And definitely miss seeing us race there. I miss watching races there. Had you been at IRP before? You watched races there? Nobody at IRP, yeah. Sorry, Matthew. There's nobody at the big track. Yeah, that's what he said.

Big track, it's a small track. And they would pack him in at IRP. It looked like a sausage coming out of its casing at IRP. It did. This lady over here has been patiently waiting. What's your name? Where are you from? What's your question?

Hi, Dale. My name's Mary Ann, and I'm from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. All right. Another good track. So I actually kind of had a two-part question. One, my husband and I were so happy to hear the confirmation of Whiskey River coming to North Myrtle Beach. That's right.

So I wanted to know if you. plan to make some appearances. Yes, certainly. Fantastic. And also my other part was being that, we're like two traffic lights from Myrtle Beach Speedway. I know you've got a crazy schedule, but was there any thought of possibly making a stop there anytime soon? There's not been much thought about that, to be honest with you, but let me expand a little bit. As far as the Whiskey River, we got one that's opening in Raleigh Durham, was open already in the Raleigh Dorm Airport.

and they do a soft opening, so they'll open the doors and not really exhale anybody, and people can come in there and go eat, and they'll use that opportunity to see what people think about the food and make some adjustments to the menu and the experience before they do a grand opening, and now go to the grand opening, which we're going to do this week coming, right? I think it's Monday. Yeah, it's coming up. It's coming up. Like in a week or two, I'm going to this Raleigh-Durham airport.

So that's similar to what we'll do in Myrtle Beach. It'll probably open up without you even knowing about it until you drive by it. and they'll have a little bit of a window where they'll just be gauging the experience for the customer to make these adjustments before we do the grand opening. I definitely wouldn't miss the grand opening. But we're really excited about the Whiskey River business. We got one that we started in Charlotte downtown at the epicenter. We got one at the airport in Charlotte.

We got one at the airport in Raleigh-Durham, Fort Lauderdale. That's right. And it just opened this year and we're going to open one in Whiskey River. So trying to, you know, we've had opportunities. We finished second in the voting to get one, I think, in the Phoenix or the Atlanta airport. So we're close to getting some and some more airports because they're doing really well there. But when I go to the one in Charlotte, I like the food myself. I mean, I really enjoy it.

My favorite is the buffalo – anything with Buffalo sauce is going to win for me. But buffalo chicken salad there is really good if you happen to get a chance to go by there. But thinking about going to Myrtle Beach just to see the race or race myself. I haven't really thought about it. I got a couple late model cars that run locally in the southeast in the cars tour. And so we've talked about maybe going over to Hickory and practicing one day just before I go race to Exfinity race at Richmond just to get some laps in a race car and just sort of make myself feel a little more comfortable. But I don't know whether that means I'm going to end up racing late model cars a little more often down the road. But never say never.

I definitely miss driving. I want to be on a racetrack. So maybe doing a few late mall races each year, we'll scratch that itch. And we'll just see how that goes. Good question. I think we've got time for one more. We've got to use this guy right here because a lot of you guys I've seen both days at Junior Motorsports

fan days. This guy was here yesterday making us all laugh. This is Jack from West Virginia. You got a question for Dale? Junior, thank you very much, brother, for all the good years you've given your fans. Thank you. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. It's good. And your little girl, you just signed down there from me,

but this little girl here, if you can spoil them like her pipeball dies, brother, you're in. There you go. But the most important thing is I've been a season ticket holder at Bristol Motor Speedway for 15 years. And this is the first year you could actually walk down pit road and not see Dell Jr. And his car and his crew. Whenever you were in the car, you know, it was always a battle to get close to you, which I know you know. And that's a good thing, brother.

But this year, you could walk down to the end and there's old Kyle Booth down to the end. You know what I mean? I told you he's going to make us laugh. And walk back. But I guarantee it NASCAR misses you. Thank you. Oh, you're welcome. I know they do.

All right. All right. Jack, is there a driver? Have you had a hard time trying to find a new driver? I mean, who's got your interest? Well, actually, you asked me the question. I'll just tell you the truth. I got a little grandson named Colton McIntyre,

and he's got nothing but Dale Jr. close. He's seven years old. He'll be here tonight about midnight because he's in school. I couldn't take him out of school. I got in trouble before. I can't fight that battle. Let's turn into Ask Jack, by the way. You've been replaced, Junior.

And Colton said, Papa, it'll be a fight, but we'll be there tonight, he said. So what clothes are you going to get him now is the question? You get a switch. Ryan Blaney. Ryan Blaney. That's not a bad choice. No, and Chase Elliott.

So there's two good young kids that my grandchildren are grown up with. That's awesome. I followed social media pretty heavily over the last several months and listening to fans' feedback on who they were going to pull for, and they were asking me who I think they should pull for. Me personally, I love Martin Trix Jr. is a great friend of mine, and I love to see him do well, but I also do like Blaney and Chase.

I'm going to pull for Bowman, an 88 bunch no matter what. Byron's a great new kid coming in. I got a lot of favorites, and I wonder, like, his fans. Is it important to have like this one guy above all else that's number one all the time? Or is a fan, is it okay? And do you have like a handful of guys that all kind of have that equal respect? Because I know a lot of fans do have just one guy they pull for and that's it. But I don't know if with these new guys, new young guys coming in,

if they're getting adopted by a lot of fans, whether maybe more fans are having more drivers to pull for and having a bigger kind of stable of drivers that they like to see. And whether the manufacturer still matters when determining your favorite driver. That's a good point, too. Has to be a Chevy. Has to be a Chevy, you say. So I guess the manufacturer still matter.

That's good. Good for us because we need that in the matter. The manufacturers wouldn't have any really necessary to be here, necessary to be involved in the sport. It didn't matter to Jack. He went to Blaney, though. Well, thank you guys for your questions. And, you know, listen, you can always still ask Dale Jr.

questions because we do this every week, and you can just do the hashtag Ask Junior. and Matthew gets to as many as we possibly can, and that's going to go all season long. Before we get to White Flag, Matthew, I think we still got a little bit of time. My bike peddling buddy here had asked a question about Isla Rose, and there were a couple scenarios. We have enjoyed being able to ask Dale Jr. questions,

especially those of us that are parents, and we've loved reliving these first several weeks just through Dale Jr.'s And it's made us always have these questions and scenarios. and myself, I'm interested in how Dale Jr. responds to them, and I'm really looking forward to when they actually happen. So, Dale, if you don't mind, you don't know these. I want to give you a couple parenting scenarios, and let's just see how you think you'll do in them. And this is all good practice for us because we can talk about it before we actually get to the real scenarios. And as our parents know, sometimes even you don't, you think you've got it all expected and then all of a sudden your kids surprise you. So all right, you ready, Dale?

Yeah. A couple scenarios here. One, Amy's not feeling well, and the baby is just exhausting her. What does Big Daddy Dale do to make everything better in the house? I try to convince Amy to allow me to manage Ila over like a three or four hour period where Amy can go upstairs and go get in bed and go to sleep, pull the curtains, and just get some good hard sleep. The other thing that I love to do is take Amy out to dinner.

So it's hard for both of us to want to leave the house. Like leaving the house and leaving Isla is just not, doesn't feel like a good idea. Doesn't feel good at all. I'm assuming you're leaving her with somebody, but I think that's a some, all, good. Yeah, we have a friend of ours, we have a friend of ours Tammy that's been working for us for a long time. And she, we're very comfortable with her watching Isla for an hour or two and to want maybe on, on a friend of our. Friday taking Amy down and letting her pick the place and going to dinners, getting her out of house for a minute, just to kind of see.

Because literally, she's been in the living room and the bedroom, and that's it. I mean, she'll go out and walk a lap around the driveway. We've got a one mile paved loop on our property, and she'll walk that. But outside of that, I mean, it's the living room and the bedroom and I'm going crazy, and I can't even imagine what she's feeling like. so trying to get her some sleep when I can help, you know, when she'll allow, you know, listen, let me talk her into it and just maybe going at dinner. I like it. I think we all approve of that. Not bad, right? Yeah, I'm up for any other suggestions.

Several years ago, I don't know if you guys caught this. There was a gentleman who was sitting on the first row of a major league baseball game with his infant baby. And a foul ball comes popped up. And what does my man do is he's going to lunge for a foul ball as we are all programmed as men to do, right? and he catches it one-handed and then what does he do? He turns around, holds his baby up in one hand and his foul ball and the other to the cheering crowd.

If Amy were to see you do that, what is her reaction? Is she proud of her man that caught the ball and fed the baby? Or is she upset that you even thought to lunch for the ball? I think she'd be a little worried or nervous that I would take, be so daring and maybe you're responsible.

But your instincts are going to take over, and maybe you don't make the same decision every time if you do that 10 times. But hopefully I catch the ball, right? There we go. Right answer. The problem ain't really is it the right thing to do, but if you go for that, you better catch it.

You better catch it. That's right. If you don't come out with a ball. You drop the ball, man. You're really in trouble. Not only have you looked like you have no athletic skill, you also upset your wife. Right, that's right. All right, two more.

Ila is 10 years old now, and she's in fourth grade. She brings home a report card with all C's. All right. You consult her about this. You're not happy about it. And her response is, well, wasn't dad a C student? Not always. And it's just, look how well he turned out.

Yeah. All right. So what's your response? Yeah, that's fun. My dad, so this isn't really a... I told you I didn't ask him beforehand. All right, all right. So I would...

When I was younger, I used to brag to people that, look, man, my dad, he quit school in the eighth grade. I mean, he was a 16-year-old student in the eighth grade. He'd already failed several years, way behind. He finally just gave it up. His dad was upset. that and then he goes and becomes this big time, famous person, race car driver, winning, and people would say, quit the eighth grade, man. Look at this guy.

Right. Quit the eighth grade. Flying in his own airplane. Look at him. And he hated that. Oh, he did. Yeah, that was embarrassing to him. Oh, wow.

He was ashamed of it, and then he didn't like that people thought that was cool, you know, because he didn't want his own kids to think that that was okay. Look, man, you know, it don't matter if you finish school. he didn't want people to think that or his own kids to think that or anyone else's kids to think that. So he hated it when it got brought up. I didn't know that until I got older. And so I would say to Ila,

if she was like, you know, well, you turned out just fine. I would say, but it's not, it's something I'm not proud of. It's something that if I could go back and do over, I would have put more effort into. And you don't want to have those feelings when you get older and go, dang, you know, if I just, all I had to do was just apply myself just a little bit more. Right.

You know? Right. Hey, we all have stuff we wish we had done better, right? Yeah. So that's how I would probably handle it. I don't know if it'd matter. You know, it's hard to, even, I mean, when I was that young, I don't know whether that talk would have worked on me, but.

No way would have it worked on you. Right. So I don't know how you really encourage, you know, a kid to do better in school. But certainly, hopefully, she realizes that that will present new and better opportunities for her, you know, her effort and. school and the grades she gets will determine her her future collegiate experience and so forth. All right. Last one here.

Ila has reached the age of reason and says, Mom, Dad, I have something to tell you. I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan. Yeah. I'm good with that. Oh. Actually, you know, I am good. Well, I'm good not with, I'm not good with her being a Dallas Cowboys fan, but I'm good with having some competition in the House. Good healthy competition.

Okay. You know what I mean? So it's fun that Amy likes the skins, but she really only likes them because I like them. Right. It might be even funner if she liked Dallas. Really? And we were really competitive. You know what I mean?

So we could have some fun with it. Yeah. Because she wears a red skin stuff because I like them. Right. Really. She's not really emotionally invested. So I see her put the stuff on and we've watched the games, but I know it doesn't matter. as much to her. So I don't want

Illa to do that either. I want an Ila to like whoever she likes and when our past cross and it's us against her, I mean, we'll have some fun with it. It would be entertaining. I mean, I think that if she is passionate about the redskins or whatever it is, if we could

have fun with that too, but I think it would be better if there were some different opinions in that. Wow. You are already a better dad than I am then. So you raised two girls, right? Well, I'm in the process of it. I know, but you're raising two You raise as in the... It's happening.

Yeah, the word present, presently raised. Oh, yes, I raise you. So what are your efforts to grow them up Alabama fans? One of them is failing miserably, and the other one is working great. All right, so one doesn't care or likes another team? My oldest one makes it a point to like the teams that I don't like. Oh, man. That sounds like my dad.

See, my dad didn't have a favorite team, but he pulled against every other team. If the Redskins were playing the Raiders, he pulled against them. She just likes to see that reaction. And I don't feel like I've given enough reaction for her to care about this particular thing. Like, Dad, did the same thing. Right. But, like, my little one, she'll be like, Dad, what times the Alabama game come on? I'm going to watch it with you.

That's awesome, ma'am. She doesn't even know what sport she's talking about or anything. But my oldest one, she's like, you know. Go Georgia. No, no, worse. She'll say, what times the Auburn game come on? She says that? Oh, she does.

She's not even looking for it. She just wants to see what's happening. So that leaves me real good optimism for when she becomes a teenager, by the way. But that being said... So my dad would, when I would watch Redskins game with him in the room, he cheered when the other team did anything. No matter who that team was. There's always that one person in your life that does that.

Is that how she is? Yeah. Yeah. That would get annoying. I would need Aola to pick a team and that be her team. That's the thing. Not just to antagonize me. It's not that the team is important to you.

It's that annoying me is important to you. That's the problem, right? Yeah. Well, listen, I am impressed that you would let her be a Dallas Cowboys fan. I mean, I know how that's a big deal to you. Yeah, so I, well, this, I'm going to do this with everything, whether she, whatever football team she picks, what she wants to do with, you know, for a living, where she wants to go to college, she's going to tell me,

and I'm going to say, yep, I support 100%. What do you need me to do? She'll find something, though, that you're not going to want. I know. It's probably going to be the guy she's dating or something like that. The car she wants. The car she wants. You know, I want this car.

Well, no, you're going to get this car. You're going to appreciate it. Yeah. I don't like it. I want this car. Right. So we'll probably fight over a couple things, but we were talking another day about me and Amy.

We talked about this a couple times, and I joke with Amy just to annoy her. We were talking just now about how that was a bad personal trait. But when it comes. up in conversation that I like racing. I'm like, you know what? I don't want her to race. I'd rather her not race, really, because racing is expensive, racing is hard, racing is...

Dangerous? It's dangerous. That doesn't really bother me. No matter how successful you are, you're never satisfied, you know? And there's more disappointments than there are victories. And it's just a really frustrating thing to do. It's just very tough. And plus, on top of that, being a woman in that whole experience.

would be difficult. But no matter all of those hurdles and speed bumps, if she says, I want to try to race, I'm going to go, okay, here we go, down to the racetrack. Oh, wow, okay, good. You know, even though that's really what I would wish you. I hope she doesn't want anything to do with it. But she's still an earnhardt.

She may have it in her. If she wants to try it, we're going to try it, even against her mother's wishes. I know Amy probably doesn't want her to do it either. But you're going to do, you know, pretty much 90% of the stuff that she wants to do. or try or see your experience, you're going to have to help her through that. Well, good stuff. I mean, I think he passed. I honestly did.

I think he did well, okay? Let's, uh, Dillner, do you want me to do a white flag right here? You want me to go ahead and do that? Okay, we'll wrap this up because I know that we have an autograph session here. That's right. By the way, bud, do you have a wristband for the audit? You do now. We're going to get that taken care of.

I'm going to make sure you, you peddled here. You're going to get a wristband. It's the least we can do. So we'll do that afterwards. For the white flag segment, Dillner. it's very quick. I want to dedicate this to the fact that we have a book coming out. And just this is exciting.

I know that we've been talking a lot about the book on the podcast, but we finished the manuscript this week. And I want people to know, including you guys here, not just the ones of the podcast, but you can pre-order Dale Jr.'s book called Racing to the Finish, my story, on Dalejutor.com forward slash book, B-O-OK. And I think you're going to want it.

I mean, I'm telling you, I've read some of this book. and even I who lived this last two or three years with you alongside you, I even found stuff that I'm just amazed at how transparent in the conversations that you are opening up, like your conversations with Rick Hendrick to tell him, hey, look, man, I'm not all right. I'm, you know, I've got, you know, and the decision to retire,

you guys are going to find it unbelievable, okay? So the book is Dalejino.com, ford slash book. It comes out in October, but pre-orders are now. Dale, I know I keep asking you this about your thoughts, but we did finish the manuscript this week or this past week with Ryan McGee. I mean, how excited are you about this? I can't wait. I mean, the actual release of the books a ways off,

and I'm anxious for people to get their hands on it to be able to hear and read this story. The book is basically going to tell the story of the concussion experience in 2012 and everything that happened from that point through the issues in 16, all the way through the retirement. So you're going to read about all of those things, and there's probably 75% of that story I could not tell because I was in the car, or I chose not to tell, because I was in the race car. It wasn't conducive to being still in the race car and being able to tell the story. Right. So what you know is only about 25% of the truth.

And so I'm excited for our fans to get their hands on the rest of the truth. I think it'll help a lot of the folks that have followed us through all the years and put some. so much effort and emphasis on our career, get some closure, I guess, to the retirement and the next chapter in my life. But it's just nice to be able to get it off my chest because being, while I was in the car or going through all that, I wasn't able to really be as transparent and tell everything that I wanted to tell. And now I have nothing stopping me from doing that. Awesome. So it's going to be great to hear people's reaction and, you know, just finally feel some relief that that story is there and available for everybody.

We're lucky it's worth reading because you were going to write that book regardless. But it's actually very interesting. So, Dalejutor.com, for the slash book. Also, I noticed the Windale Jr.'s ride car, the Corvette is over there. If the people here, obviously you can enter to win that. But if you're at home and listening to this on the podcast, windell juniors ride.com is where you can go and enter that raffle. And lastly, thank you guys.

You're here. You're standing. and the support that we feel every time you just show up for one of these things, it's really gratifying. I'm repeating what I said at the beginning of the show, but I just want to end on that. And Dale Jr., you get the closing thoughts to these people that showed up to watch today. Hey, I appreciate you guys support, not only Junior Motorsports,

but the sport in general you guys are out here this week to see us and see what we have going on here, but also visit other facilities and enjoy your opportunity to see. a great race this weekend. I hope you guys do. We're going to be there practicing our little broadcast and getting our butts prepared for the second half of the year for NBC, and I cannot wait to get that started because it takes me back to the racetrack. I miss it. I miss everybody. And I'm glad to see you guys again. And I hope you, like I said, I hope you enjoy your weekend. Guys, thank you so much. Thank you. Big thank you.

How about a big round of a pause and let us hear it for Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hope you guys enjoy the Dale Jr. download. Make sure you enjoy the rest of JRM fan days. Thanks to our sponsors, Exalta. Thanks to NBC for being here. But most of all, thank you for every single one of you for being here at JRM. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo.