The Dale Jr. Download - 222 - Resting Denny Face

Episode Date: June 27, 2018

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is joined by Denny Hamlin to discuss life, organizing a driver’s association, and misconceptions about his personality.  Dale & the #DJD guys also perform the single greatest ad read of all-time and reveal untold insight into Dale & Kelley’s sibling bond. 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.

Oh, hey. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. It's Dale Jr. co-host, Mike Davis. Hey, what's up? My producer, Matthew Dillner. What's up? We have a pretty exciting show. I've been looking forward to this one since we field our guest spot.

Oh, we did. We don't do guests very frequently, but when we do, they're powerful. Well, the guest thing, to me, I think, is going to get more frequent because we've enjoyed it so much. I've enjoyed it, you know, and we've gotten more people more interested in being on the show. We're getting, you know, instead of us having to go after these guys. I like that they're guests with purpose, though. You know what I mean? Like, I mean, it's not just having somebody on here to have somebody on here.

I like that. Last couple people have called us to be on the show, and that's a good feeling. So, anyhow, you want to tell everybody who are guests? Well, our guest this week is going to be Denny Hamlin. You said last week there are questions that you need to ask Denny. Not want to, not have to, need to. I'm eager to hear these questions that you need to ask. You're really pumping this one up.

This feels a lot like the NBC commercial. Also, yeah. Well, speaking of which, Mike doing his own version of Countdown to E-Day. Guess what this week is? Countdown to Dennie. It's Countdown to E-Day. NBC takes over. We're going to talk about that.

We got to. It's go time. We've got some Asked Junior questions. And also last week you mentioned that, You couldn't remember if you got a Father's Day gift. You were sort of struggling a little bit. We were a little worried for you. Turns out you did get one.

You brought it in. I don't know. I don't want to speak for Matthew here, but I'm eager to see what you brought. I want to see what your first Father's Day gift was. The show is all about being eager. I'm very eager. Hungry. Let's get to it.

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This is a journey into sound. It's such a long, long intro. All right. That's good. What was the theme behind this one? Certainly a journey. Something about a journey. Not the band.

journey, but just good. All right. So anyhow, you know, we've been, we was talking last week about it being Father's Day and y'all asked me what gift I got. I could not remember and I thought I was going to be in trouble. What the truth is that I hadn't had my gift yet. It hadn't come in the mail. So when I got home in the next day, and he says, your gifts here, your Father's Day gift is here. So I opened it and I've shared, I've shared with you guys what the gift is, but you haven't seen the gift. So what you've shared with us? makes me really want to see it. Oh, man. I've got this picture in my head.

All right. Well, let me explain. I've got nicknames for Ila. One of them is Taco. I don't know. She thinks that's a funny word. Anytime she hears the word tacos, she smiles. I like tacos, and she's probably going to like tacos.

So this is a good thing, right? So we're rolling with it. And Amy got me this clothing item to wear. So you'll see you on it. What the hell is, you know, what the hell is going on with that? I don't know what tacos and clothing items have to do. This is going to be good. Yeah.

You don't want to show us. Come on, man. I don't want to show you. I don't want to upset my wife. It won't upset. All right. You're showing off a gift. Come on.

Are you ready? Yes, we are ready. The long-awaited arrival of the gift. The gift. Oh, look at this. Whoa. Are you serious? I'm serious.

Let's see. There you go. I love taco. Why are you taking pictures? Is it so good? I have to take a picture of that. It has a hoodie. It has a...

For dirty metal listeners. Let's describe what we're looking at. The feet zip off. It is a onesy. It's a onezy. Do you remember Ralphie from the Christmas story when he comes down the stairs? That's what that looks like. It comes down the stairs in the pink.

You look like a bunny suit. This is what this is. Everything about this screams Ralphie. So that's what that. That's what Amy got you for Father's Day. Yeah. A onesie pajama. No butt flap.

That's the only disappointment I got there. Let's see this. All right. So, and Amy was, I was like, you know, I was honest. I was like, Amy, this is not exactly what I was expecting. Did you laugh, though? You had to have laughed. Of course I laughed.

And then said, did you put it on? No, I've not putting it. I'm not ever putting that on. Oh. For the wife and kid? Let's not even go there. I'm not putting it on. The thing about it.

it is like how do I my wife got me this genuinely thinking I would like it this is not a joke so I'm in a very sure I'm in a really precarious situation here where I've got to show enough appreciation so that she's not upset or insulted but I am not ever putting this thing on well you're doing a crappy job of showing appreciation I know I'm in a bad I'm not going to be I'm not going to win I'm not going to win I'm not going to win in here. This is a... Listen.

She told me to be nice and to not do anything that was going to upset her. Has she required you to put it on? And if she hasn't, she has a really good understanding as a wife. I mean, you know, I listen to my wife and I do whatever she says, but I don't, you know... So, Amy, please. We don't have that kind of an arrangement where she can boss me right into a onesie. It's very soft. I don't know, man.

My wife could probably boss me into a onesie. I just got to be honest with you. Listen. Amy wouldn't go to those links that it would take to get me in this one. She would just wouldn't do that. Have you ever worn a Snuggie? Don't lie. I did one time.

All right. Yeah. What is this? Who hasn't won a Snuggie? This is a Snuggie. I was only curious as to what the Snuggie was all about. So I got a Snuggie. Remote control pocket.

It's great. Right. When I said to Amy, and this was 10 years ago maybe or eight years ago when I had the snuggie, when I said to Amy like, what gave you the idea that this is what I would like? like my first father's day, this is the gift. What gave you, like, what gave you this idea? She goes, well, you did have that snuggy eight years ago. I'm like, that was the catalyst for this?

Yes. She never could forget. Hey, all I know is if you get invited to a pajama party, you have an instant winner on your hands in your back pocket. Damn, you might be right. I mean, I say I'm never going to wear this thing. It could come in handy in some situations. Halloween, maybe. What would you be?

be, though. You don't want me to answer that. If you were dressed in this in Halloween, how would you explain that to people? Unless it's a party, don't do it. A taco? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, I don't walk around dressed up on Halloween just randomly going about my day.

It would definitely be a party. Well, listen, I think it's a great gift. I think Amy did a very good job on this. Take the words out of Rudy Rudeger's dad. This is the greatest thing these eyes have ever seen, right? here. This is this. I've seen Denny Hamlin's

in the building. Do we want to get right to that? I want to get Denny's impressions of this. All right. Let's get him in here. Come on in, Denny. What's up, bud? You got golfing today?

No. I don't know. You look like you're ready if you had to golfing. Golf and bust it out. You never know. All right, so Denny is in the studio. We said he was going to be our guest today,

and he did show up. Yeah, Denny. By the way, What we have a tradition here for all guests is they wear this, their first appearance on the Dale Jr. download. So just go ahead and put this on and don't ask questions. So I saw that in the only... I personally would never wear it,

but that is something that my girlfriend should be interested in wearing after she does her little spray tans or whatever because they stink so bad. Yeah, and they get it all over everything. Yeah, so that'd be good for her to bundle up in at night. Now, so you've been a father, and do you remember what you got for your first father's day? No. Right?

I don't. I'm never going to forget. I'm always going to remember. That was a strange 30 minutes. That was a lot of weird stuff. And she gave that to you straight face. Yes. I'm like, you know, I thought, man, this is a gag gift or something cool behind the curtain,

you know. Nope, that was it. Like tacos, like actual tacos. If that came paired with actual tacos. Yeah. Or maybe if, you know, she had like one for Isla too, but no, Illa didn't even. get one. This is all you. This is all me. I was supposed to walk around the house in this thing. This is the question on whether it was a gag gift, and you never went this far, but if you had put

it on what her reaction would have been, if it would have been a laugh, then you would have known this wasn't serious. Do you think that if you would have put it on and then come down the stairs, just like Ralphie did in a Christmas story, what would Amy's reaction have been? She would have had to laugh, right? Of course. I mean, she was laughing some. She was? Yes. How could you not? I mean, I like tacos, but... Were you laughing when you saw that? Yes.

Yeah. And the Ralphie reference is perfect. It is exactly what I thought of. And I told her that. I said, this is exactly what everybody's going to think when they see this. Del Jeter walked out. I can't put my arms down. He's like all stuffed up in this thing.

This is perfect. Well done, Amy. Well done. Now, Denny Hamlet, you don't have to put this on. We're not going to do that too. Thank you. Maybe the second time. I did have tacos last night, though.

You're welcome. If this is what you really are going to, you know, start buying as gifts for people to cover up their spray tans. How you been doing? What's going on with you? I'm just chasing kids around the house now. I mean, Molly's now got like a one-legged, you know, hobble, you know, crawl going on. So she's like paddling all over the house now.

And then Taylor's wanting a rough house with her and drag her around. And so it's, yeah, trying to keep all that. There's gates all over the house now. Can't hardly walk anywhere. I want to see what Daddy Denny looks like, you know, on regular weekdays. There needs to be some TV show with that. I mean, just use a dad. What's that got to look like?

It's cool. I mean, I like hanging out. It's just there's different, I have different fun now. Like what I considered having fun before, you know, let's call it 10 years ago. And what fun I like to have now, it's just different. It's more, you know, kid involved and, you know, seeing how excited they get, you know, I was hardly, I was really resisting a play set that Jordan was telling me about, you know, she says, you know, I really want to get a play set for the back.

I'm like, no, it's the dumbest idea. They're going to use it for two months and they'll never get used again. And so just seeing their reaction when they see it for the first time and how excited they are, it's just, yeah, that's fun for me now. You're talking about Gates everywhere. Did you call a company to have them come out and look at the house and give you ideas as far as how to kid proof it? Because I've heard about those. We've thought about that because they have all kinds of things you do.

Obviously, you know, you plug the outlets. They've got the locks for the cabinets, which I think. I'm going to do. Did you have somebody come out and do that? I just told a buddy mine is like, look, just make sure it's safe. That's all I really care about. And you raise everything up off the floor. I mean, if you safe proof of your house.

And let me just tell you. Let's be honest, you guys don't live in a double wide here. Both of you. All right. So if you save proof your house, to the fullest extent, it comes out looking a little like a bouncy house. And once you say proof it. I mean, you got cushions in places you never thought.

You got things covered up. Yeah, I don't think I'm going to do the fall. home corners on everything, but... You don't want to be that old lady that's got, like, the plastic covers over their couches. No, we went to Key West a couple weeks ago with a buddy of mine who has a one-and-a-half-year-old, and they opened the cabinets and get everything out.

And I'm thinking, yeah, I'm definitely doing the cabinet thing where you like, you know... Yeah, that's part of my idea. Yeah, Taylor was really good. I mean, we, you know, I was in a rental house for a while while we were building the house that I'm in now, and, you know, we never really... She never really got into much.

You know, Molly, it seems like she's a little bit more, you know, searching around about things. And so it might be a little bit more careful with her. But Dela really just, she really didn't get into much. So, you know, she had her falls here and there. I mean, you set her somewhere and next thing you know, they roll over and they fall on the ground and they cry for 30 seconds. And I'm of the opinion A.

That's how you get the respective. Don't go over the ledge, you know. You got to fall a couple times. Yeah, you got to hit the wall to know how hard it is sometimes, don't you? Yeah. That's right. That's right. Well, you're coming right out of a road course at Sonoma.

There's been a lot of, you know, conversation about road courses in NASCAR over the last several years. People want more road courses. We are going through the roval at the end of the year. I don't know if you tested the roval? A couple weeks. You did? Or you're going in a couple weeks? So without testing there, what's your anticipation of that race and what it's going to be like?

You know, I mean, I can only rely on what I hear from the people that have run it and that it's just, it's difficult. which we're all about being difficult. There's some blind spots, you know, just a chicane on the back, things like that to try to you know take the speeds down because otherwise the teams would have to build a really a certain type of car that can run both on the banking at high speeds and around a road course. So, you know, I don't know, I'll reserve judgment till afterwards. I'm optimistic about it, but I haven't heard a lot of great things, but I also think, you know, some of the road course guys that went out there said, hey, this course is actually pretty legit.

Really? I used to hate road courses, but over the last couple of years, I fell in love with going to them, actually, really enjoyed racing at Sonoma, probably the last four or five years of my career. Do you think, I know you probably like road course rates because you always run pretty good at Sonoma for sure. Do you think we should be going to more road courses, and what road courses would you take our sports? I know the Xfinity runs in a couple different ones that we don't run on as far as a Cup series, but where would you go? I loved Montreal.

I actually loved Mexico City. I thought that those venues were really cool. I like the road courses that are in a big market. And that way you can, you know, there's a lot of places to entertain new sponsors and guests and whatnot. So I'm all for if we want to, you know, go road course racing anywhere if we want to do it half the schedule. I'm okay with that. Really? Whatever's good for our sport I'm all for.

Yeah. I think that road courses have kind of become the more exciting and more anticipated races on the schedule. You know, the excitement leading into Sonoma is kind of amped up over the last couple of years. People seem to really get excited about that race coming about. There's been some conversation not really in the industry, but with the media about street courses. And you talk about big markets. Do you think that NASCAR would do well on a street course, a flat, you know, 90 degrees, corners.

Wow. Hmm. This is a big one. It's not, you know, they're not, they aren't traditional road courses, and they're not purpose-built racetracks. Right. So I don't know whether it's hard for me to understand or realize how cup cars would react to those type of racetracks. But I think it'd be kind of similar to what we see at Sonoma.

Really? It would be similar. Yeah. You know, our cars just don't stop very good when you think about normal road course cars and when you see, you know, you've got to have good acceleration and. you've got to have good stopping ability. I think if you're going to run a street course, I mean, and really how many street courses are there that really have a long distance straightaway, right?

It's just kind of really intricate corners. You might have to change your brake package and things like that a little bit different, maybe suspension. I don't know. I'm not really. Y'all don't talk about it. Not really. You know, I think that our cars really run well on purpose-built road courses. You know, the cream rises at the top nearly every time you go to these road courses now.

And so, you know, the drivers, I believe, have a bigger influence on your finishing position at a road course, aside from strategy than you do at most tracks we have nowadays. So I think that it's a good thing. It lets us showcase our talent. And if we can find a street course that is, you know, wide enough, long enough straightaways, we could make it work. Yeah. So when I was a driver, we were both part of the driver's council. Is that something you're still part of?

So I'm a part of a different secret council now? Secret council. Beautiful. Double secret council. Yeah. I meet with, you know, I meet with all the industry leaders to track presidents, the team presidents, you know, NASCAR. And there's just two or three of us drivers in that one.

So we talk to TV, things like that, just on a bigger, broader schedule or, you know, different subjects. You know, when we do the Drivers Council, it's more about our competition. It's where do we need to go with the Aero Package? What do we need, you know, let's talk about security and this, that and another. That is a bigger picture of, you know, schedule formats, you know, big, big changes within the sport. So I was honored to get that message to, hey, we want you to come to these. Yeah. So I've, that brings up so many questions.

Yeah. What's your secret handshake? That's the first. So you're a guy that has been involved sort of behind the scenes and wanted to be involved, like actively sought out opportunities to be involved in behind the scenes with NASCAR as far as anything involving competition, the business side of the sport. You just always sort of sought out those opportunities and never turned down a chance to be in the conversation. What drives you to do that? What's your agenda, you know, to be that involved

with networks, with, you know, talking competition, talking formats, you know, the future of the sport? What drives you to do that? I just wanted to be better and healthy and stay on top, you know. I just think that, you know, we really do have a good thing here. And it's definitely, in my opinion, it is healthy. You go out to Sonoma this weekend, it's like there's a buzz on pit road, and there's new people coming in and checking out NASCAR,

and it's still a very viable sport, I believe, and it's still got a great staying power. And I just, you know, there's some things that, you know, I like to see changed, and that kind of gives me the voice to do that without having to go on social media and say, you know, this sucks, you know? And that doesn't help anyone.

So I think that, you know, it just, I like the ability to be able to go in there and talk to the men in charge and say, you know, this is what I think, you know, would make things better. And not just talking about the competition side. It is the fan experience at the racetrack. You know, I think that, you know, ISC has done some great things over the last couple of years updating these racetracks and hearing them say that, listen, you know, we're doing better now at 60,000 seats. We're making more money than we were when Daytona had 160. thousand. Wow. And it's just because there's fans sticking around and they're in these social areas and

everything. And I firmly believe that asking someone to sit in aluminum bleachers for four and a half five hours is a tough ass now. They want to be in Lexus Stadium with a, you know, cup holder in their drink, you know, and concierge is coming to bring them a beverage. That's just the way the world is now, you know. We become spoiled with, you know, the experience. It's not just about the game.

It's about, you know, where, you know, can you meet up with your friends? this, that, and the other, you go to a Charlotte Knights game, right? There's, everyone in the NASCAR world goes to Charlotte Nice game. Name one player. Nobody can name a player. But they're there because it's, it's an instant social environment. And I think that that's somewhere we need to really explore going forward with these racetracks and making the facilities better, you know, make our garages something that can be seen.

And that really would go a long way. But they don't need, why is it coming to a point where drivers have to tell NASCAR those things? You're on the track. You're focusing on complex. competition. Surely sitting in a grandstands for four hours is probably a big ask. Why do they need Denny Hamlin to tell them that? I don't think they do. I think they're really smart and they hire the people that that can tell them that but I think that you know we're there in case you know there's other things that hey we don't know which way to go on this or that and the other

on the competition side but we we definitely you know I feel like they give us a great platform to go in there and speak our mind and talk about schedule and hey hey hey, can we get some midweek races going on? How can we do that? Let's start it now. So I think that there's some big things on the horizon. Midweek races. Yeah, I see it coming.

Really? Yeah. I was about to ask you from the things that you guys, from the competition standpoint, what are we going to build on to grow the sport then? Is it, I mean, like, we've got to think something outside the box. That sounds pretty outside the box to me. I like it. Yeah, I think it definitely could go in some good directions.

I mean, I think that you've got two networks right now. one's ready to go and all for it. The other one's like, I just, I don't know. But I see it, you know, within the next couple years, you're going to see something on Wednesday, Thursday. Wednesday, Thursday. How about that, Dale?

Yeah, I mean, it's been, like a lot of conversations, it's been building a little bit more momentum. You know, as you see it's successful in other sports, so I don't know why it wouldn't be successful in our sport as well. I think this time of the year, no basketball, no hockey, no football, we've got to be crushing it. Yeah. I mean, we have really need to be.

Totally agree. We need to be at the forefront and we need to be on TV as much as we can. And I think that this is a great time for us. And, you know, there's no cat letting out of the bag here. It's still, you know, just nothing but talks. But it's definitely on something that's on people's radar for sure. So back when the Drivers Council came about, me and you and Jeff Gordon sat down, you were kind of the one that's spearheaded this.

Thanks. Well, I want to give you proper credit, you know, but I was totally in. We were talking about trying to organize the drivers, and we actually had a meeting where we got most of the guys in the same room. We actually had a lot of paperwork filed and money spent, and this was really moving forward in a heavy direction. And right as soon as you, you and Jeff went and sat down with the powers to be at NASCAR, and told them our plan.

And then, like, literally in 24 hours, the driver council had came out. Yes. So I got a couple questions about that. Do you wish that opportunity or that chance we were taking to organize had happened then? Yes. Do you think that it will ever happen? Yes. Do you think that the council was a reaction to us trying to organize?

Yes. Yeah, me too. I just wanted to know how you felt about all that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there was a, I knew it was serious when NASCAR said, you know, we all approached them and said, hey, we need to sit down and talk to you all about what us drivers are thinking and what we're thinking about doing. And we step in the room and Brian, France is in there and they're like, oh, they're taking this pretty serious.

It appears. So, yeah, the next day, it's like, hey, we'll do a little driver's counsel and, you know, we'll include you all and this, that and the other. And, I mean, really, the communication to NASCAR has been better now, the last three or four years. it's ever been. But I think eventually it makes sense to the drivers to have something that is a, can create some cohesion there and be more consistent for all the drivers. I mean, it's tough because you know, not everyone's on stable footing. And do they want to step out there and say to their own or, hey, I'm going to be part of this driver's association or whatever it might be. But I think in the long term, especially, you know, with all this talk of, you know, the sale of

NASCAR and whatnot, I mean, you, you know, you. You've got to make sure that you're protected. And I believe that now, if any time, is a great time for the drivers to get together and create something that's a little more formal. The RTA has done it, and I believe that it's created a lot of good things out of that. And I'd like to see that for the drivers as well. And it's not, you know, it ain't about getting paid more and things like that. But, I mean, there's some things that, you know, drivers could definitely, you know, have a little better.

What do you feel about the drivers around you? Do they rally around you? I mean, he talked about himself and Jeff Gordon. Well, those are two guys that are no longer there. Yeah. You know, who do you lean on this day? Yeah, they just left me and I'm just out here. Yeah, I'll get it from here, guys.

Thanks. I mean, there's a lot of young kids out there now. We can't expect them to know what, what's important to them isn't the same thing that's important to you. Yeah, I mean, there's different, I agree with that. And there's some things that, you know, they really could be educated on that they're going to be seeing here in the next few years. I mean, it's different going from being just a local late model driver to be involved in the Xfinity series or the Cup series or Truck Series, your life's going to change a little bit. And so, you know, being prepared for all that is something that would be good to educate those guys on. And I just think that, you know, they definitely do come to you and they know, I think within the Cup garage now, you know, most of the guys know that I talk to, you know, a lot of the people in higher management.

and so they tell me the things that they would like to see changed or different, and I relay that message. Yeah. Are you still, I asked you earlier, but you didn't really tell me. You still part of the council? I'm not part of the council, no. The council, for a lot of people that don't know, there's like a couple drivers get in as far as the highest finishing manufacturers in the points.

So that's one way you get in. Then there's a bit of a voting process for a few other guys. It was years ago, the whole group, the entire group, meeting with, you know, the higher executives, O'Donnell and so forth, you know, four or five times a year. But from what I understand now, it's broken up into segments or groups to where drivers are responsible. You have an error.

You have a competition side. You have a security side. I'd have to look at all the other text messages to figure out the other side. It's changed a lot. A schedule and weekend. So there's like three drivers tasked to discuss the schedule. And then there's three drivers tasked. to discuss security.

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. It's changed so much and it continues to evolve. How does that happen? Is that the drivers saying this needs to be better or this needs to be this way? Is this NASCAR's idea of changing the council to be more effective? I think that that change was NASCAR's input there,

wanting to make it a little bit more streamlined because, I mean, it does get a little messy when you just have an all-driver chat. and you're discussing every single subject, right? And things get lost in between the lines. So you break it up a little bit and to, hey, if you have an issue, come to this chat. If you have an issue, come to this chat. And so that makes things a little bit more streamlined. And they know that if you see something at the racetrack and see a security issue,

if a Chase Elliott fan wants to beat you up or whatever, you go into this chat and say, hey, we need to work on that. Why would a Chase Elliott fan want to beat you up? I have no idea. That big old beard guy at Martin's list. I saw him this spring. No way. Tell us about that.

You saw the fan? Yeah. All right. Did you have it? Nothing. He stayed over where. Did you wave? Did you have it?

Any kind of interaction? So I'm walking to the car. I'm walking to the car in my, you know, pure girl, Tina. She's, she's like, oh my God. I'm like, why? She's like, just keep walking. So I'm walking. And I get to the car.

She's like, what? I said, what's going on? She's like, that guy, the guy that wanted to beat you up, he's over there. And so if you watch a video back, Tina's actually the one like telling this guy, hey, back off, you know. So it's just funny. She recognized him. I would have, you know, I would have never known. Are you still catching flag for all this, though?

No one, right? That was old news. It's simmering down. Okay, good. But it's, I mean, it's just part of it. I don't know. I didn't wreck him intentionally, but I for sure wrecked him. We know that, right?

We know that. But, you know, I just, it was just a bad time. You know, he hadn't got his first win yet. And, you know, I was, I was to blame for all 80 races. He hadn't won. Yeah. It was great TV. Yeah, that's for sure.

That's our focus now is what makes good TV. You have to understand our mentality now. I get it. It is. My whole perspective has changed on. And I'll be honest with it. And I respect that more now than ever in these meetings is listening to these TV guys saying, listen, this is what we need to make this more entertaining.

And from the competition side, I was always like, well, that's just stupid. Why are they doing this or that or whatever? When you hear their side, it's like, hmm, that actually makes sense. And we can make that work. I know. I've done a 180 on so many damn things in NASCAR as far as what I thought I liked and needed, the sport needed, or what I enjoyed, what I thought we should be doing as a driver to being out of the car and seeing it from this perspective and watching you,

guys compete every week. I'm like, oh, I kind of get a lot of the reasons why they want to do some of things and why they focus on a lot of different things. I always wonder why they focus so much on an incident like you and Chase and they continue, you know, even a year later, we'll go to Martinsville and those, you'll see those images and those videos. I get it now. You know, is to drive interest and so forth. And us, when we're in it, we're like, get that crap off TV, man. It's a lot of you. That's all the news. What the hell. Exactly. So we talked, we talked, talking about me and Jeff trying to form that organization. Me and Jeff have retired. You're still racing. How old are you? 37. So they're 37 years old. At 37 years old, do you think about

retiring? Do you think about when you're going to retire? Do you think about how you're going to retire? Or is that not even on the radar? I'd say I have a timeline, but it's a very vague one. Yeah. You know, I thought that, you know, I'm 14 years in now. I'm not going to go another 14 for sure. I'm not going to be Mark Martin. But I'd like to go, you know, a little bit longer. I've got a good long-term contract now that we just started this year that goes for a while and maybe do another little short one after that. That'd be about it. And, you know, not because I don't love the sport. I want to go as long as I'm competitive, obviously. but there's, I mean, that's going to be right around the time my kids are going to start to be into sports or whatever they're into, and I really want to be around for that. Do you have business interests outside of driving? What is Denny Hamlin hoped to be doing when he's not driving race cars anymore? You know, this sounds really crazy, but I want to open another trailer shop. I just, that was something that I really loved going to do and working.

I want to be working at a business. I'm not necessarily saying I'm going to be there opening the doors in the morning, but I want to be there. The lake shift. Yeah, I just want to come in, you know, check on my employees, you know, make sure customers are happy. I don't know what that business is. But, you know, I mean, there's several different things I'm into now. I have, there's between, you know, there's car dealerships, there's, you know, these burger places that we're opening and we've got a lot of different, you know, businesses and whatnot that's going on that's going to help with long term. revenue, but I just want to be on the day-to-day, and I loved working at my dad's trailer shop.

That just was, I knew everything about them. I knew everything about the sales and the building of the trailers and working on them and fixing them, and it's something that I'd like to do later on down the line again. That's how we met. We bought a trailer from Denny. It was a used late model trailer. We were getting ready to take TJ Majors to go race a late model and needed a longer trailer. And so we bought one from Denny.

Denny, and we raced online together for years. So we knew each other quite a couple years, I think, before you got to deal at Gibbs in the Xfinity car. Because the famous story is that Denny stayed with you in the motorhome at Daytona. He invited me to come down in 2004. That was when you won, right? Daytona 500. Yeah.

Yeah, so I remember I was in my house and we were racing online or something like that. And you're like, well, just come on down to Daytona and, you know, spend the weekend. And I'm like, and at that time, I was supposed to meet with Joe Gibbs Racing about signing a development contract with them. And so I had to head south at some point anyway. I'm like, man, this is a great idea. I love this. You need a place to stay. Yeah, stayed in the house.

It was me, Martin Truex and Josh Snyder and those guys. And I think Sean was probably there too. And it was just a cool weekend to be able to experience it. And, you know, on daytime, I'm hanging out at the motorhome. doing whatever, just talking, racing, you know, online racing or late model racing and whatever it might be. And I, you know, hung out at Gibbs Haller a little bit, and I signed my development contract deal.

And I remember, you know, 10 laps to go, I'm in your motorhome. And I'm like, wow, Tony might win, Dale might win. This is a pretty good day. So I head on out to pit road. And, you know, you won the race. And I remember coming to Victory Lane. And there's video out there. There's someone's got a behind the scenes video of me and you, you know, giving a big hug right after you got out of the car.

And I was just, it was just a me, just a small time short track late model guy. It was an unbelievable experience to be able to be there. Wow. And I remember carrying your trophy. And I never, it was unbelievable. Who's your bus driver at that time? Mike Watkins. There you go.

I carried the trophy onto the golf cart. We took it back to the bus. And I was thinking, this is it. This is unbelievable. I'm carrying this trophy. I don't know if I'll ever be able to touch this thing again. Well, you did. Yeah.

Yeah, that's awesome. You know, it's funny about that is that because 2004 was my first year with Dale. And it became very obvious that most every week he was going to, he has invited some of his computer buddies. And they show up in their Atari shirts. And it's like, and you're going to credential of these cats. And it's like, you were the first one did of the computer buddies that we ever met. And by the way, when I walk in. junior merciful, I'm like, I see all these signs on the wall of these people that have offices.

I'm like, I used to race a line against that guy and that guy. That's awesome. I tried to hire as many as I do. This company is comprised of family or computer buddies. You didn't know that, right? I get it. We need help at IT. I know a guy.

Hey, man, you want to move to Morrisville? They're like, yeah, that's funny. That's how it happens. That's how it happens. You know, I do want to ask. You got one more? Yeah. You know, I know this sounds like a PR type thing, but you are running some scheme coming up.

Oh, yeah. But this scheme that you're running, I just literally learned about the reason behind it. Why don't you tell me about it? I guess it's called Team Rubicon. Yeah. So I've got to do a lot of really cool things with FedEx CARES. And that's, you know, it's the one thing. You always see these companies now that's like FedEx CARs or NBA CARES, whatever.

They're donating $200 million. from I think starting two years ago to 2020 that they're going to donate to different charities and communities. But this is really interesting. It's guys that have come back from military service that, I mean, they basically have been trained to serve their communities, right? They basically all get together and they volunteer as first responders whenever there's a natural disaster.

So versus, you know, just going back in the normal world and doing a nine to five, they, They continue to want to serve even after their deployment and all that's over with. That's amazing. It is great. And they have grown into a huge organization. So we're going to have them on the car for the July 7th Daytona race. Right on. Really looking forward to that.

You unveiled the paint scheme already, right? Yeah. Right. And so, you have FedEx ships, all this supplies and stuff to help in disaster relief. And then the veterans go out there and execute it and help. That's an amazing program right there. Yes, it is. That's awesome.

And they got to come out and I got to hear about their story. And what they do is they do. special training. So they come back and, you know, it is a little different, you know, being trained for the battlefield and being trained for, you know, natural disasters and, you know, how to handle that. But they said it's, they've grown, you know, exponentially every single year. And it's just so many different members and people that are wanting to continue to serve their country even after they're done in the military. Yeah, that's awesome. FedEx has been a great partner for NASCAR for many years. A great partner for Denny Hamlin. Absolutely. Yeah. It's awesome to see them.

It's one of the partners that still, they build equity in the driver, and you don't have a whole lot of them anymore, and that's a shame. And yet FedEx and Denny Hamlin now they're connected, you know, for life, right? Yeah, absolutely. And I tell you, they've just been so great to me, obviously. We know about our long-standing relationship. They, you know, they really, they had two races all year that they, you know, sold off to do sport clips, and they bought all them back.

And so we're all FedEx, and, you know, we're proud to have them. and they believe in the business model that this is a viable thing for them and something they can entertain that. They always have a bunch of guests at the racetracks that they're entertaining. Their employees love it. And that was the number one thing Fred Smith said to me is that this is our employees asked for this. This is something that they wanted to root for on the weekend. And so I'm really honored to be with them.

Cool, man. You know, let me ask you something real quick because this just occurred to me. Like everything I've heard you say, you're, you are still very much invested in the future of this sport. You've got a sponsor that's backing you. So you're, you're very fortunate in that way that you've got this full season sponsor. But you're also invested in the future. I asked Junior a couple weeks ago, like you can notably see that he's happier. Okay.

And he's happier. He's got this new career. And I asked him about it. And he's like, look, you know, most drivers don't really act that happy most of the time. I've been guilty of that. No doubt. Listen, when I came into the sport, it was so hard because I came from winning almost every week in a late model stock, right? And one year later, I went from late models full time to cut full time, one year.

And that was a different transition going from being able to just show up and just beat up on everyone to just, you know, at my considered running top 10, not good. You know, at the time, you know, the FedEx car was struggling and they thought it was great. but I was like, and I remember Mike Ford sitting me down one time and saying, you know, you're going to have to find happiness in a different way than just winning. Like, you're going to have to find a way to be satisfied on good days that you might not think are good days. And so that was really great advice. And so what do you find that? Realizing that you're going up against the best in the world.

And it just makes you appreciate the wins that much more. And I know that even later now in my career, you cherish the wins more so now than ever, because I believe the competition is as strong as it's ever been, and it's tougher now to win than it's ever been. So it's just, I don't know, I'm such a competitive guy that it still bugs me when I don't have good days, but it's still, having kids helps too. It really helped, you know, with the transition of getting out of the car and being pissed off or upset to, okay, Taylor's happy.

That's infectious. I can deal with that. That's balance right there. Yeah. give you something to counterbalance the, you know, being completely plugged into the racing probably isn't the healthiest thing because it's a grind, is it not? I mean, this is such a long schedule. It is.

You've got to find reprieve somewhere. It is. But, you know, I actually find myself over the last two years. When I usually get to like Wednesday or Thursday, it was like, man, I got to, we're going back on the road again. And now, honestly, I can't wait to get on track on Friday anymore because it's like, I just, I feel like, you know, as much studying. and stuff that I do and checking everything out and doing my homework during the week. I'm now looking forward to applying that homework on the race track.

Wow, good for you. So you're jobbing, man. I mean, you're 37 and feeling it. It's just like it's new to you, right? It's harder work. And I'd never bleed when they said, you know, these athletes that had been in, you know, NBA or football for many years, they're like, you can still perform at a high level. You've just got to work way harder than you used to.

And, you know, it's not just about natural talent. You really have to put in the work to run. well, and especially nowadays, and I believe that. I went from being, you know, pretty moody and affected by, you know, affected by performance, whether it was practice or what. I mean, everything was driven by how well the car ran. And I mean, Monday, Tuesday, all at home, you know, everything was driven by what happened on the racetrack.

But as I got into the last couple of years and started to think, man, you know, I'm not doing, I'm not going to get to do this. no matter how much I want to do it, I'm not going to get to do it that much longer. I started really appreciating the practices and things that I just thought were so boring. Like we would go practice on a Friday somewhere, and I would enjoy it. I never really got to where I like testing that much, but practice, you know, trying to get the car better, the act of trying to work with your guys to find speed. Those things weren't frustrating anymore, even when they didn't work.

you know, even when it didn't go the way you wanted it to. But as I got, maybe not at 37 years old, because you probably see yourself racing to at least 45. But once I got around 41, 42 years old, I started to really think about not taking it for granted anymore and just really trying to soak it all up. I agree with that. Because you're right, man.

I feel the same way. A lot of, you know, there's a lot of people with a lot of opinions, but I really feel like our sport is in a good place. And we are in a, we're in a, it's got, energy, it's got opportunity, and I could feel that even the last two years that I drove. It was fun to race, it was fun to drive cars. And I believe, too, that the reason it's in a good place is that these young drivers, they're not winning yet, but they're on the cusp of being able to take over this sport in

the next three, four years, and they're exciting drivers. Yeah, yeah. I race around them, and they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, exciting. There's no question they're talented and there's some great young drivers. My wonder is do they have that it factor where people can just latch on and really just win over the attention of new fans? Win the attention. Does that make sense? I've yet to see a young driver go out there and maximize the opportunity that is sitting there. And that is to go win new fans. They seem to be just, you know, I want to race my car. And that's how all of you guys were.

All you cared about was your car. But there's got to be somebody to step up and go with the attention. Prime example of that probably is Kyle Larson, right? Yeah. Crazy exciting on the racetrack, but people are always picking him apart off the racetrack because they think he's not interesting. Right. I know Kyle pretty well. And I just, you got to appreciate the talent that you see on the racetrack. He's giving you that entertainment during that four hours on Sunday, and you've got to really appreciate and respect him for that. Yeah. One of the guys, like Jimmy Johnson is a great example of that,

and Kyle's probably just the same, and you know Kyle really well. The public perception and the real individual is it the same. I totally agree with that. Jimmy is one of the funniest, most down-to-earth, coolest guys that I know. that everybody that knows him and everybody is friends with him gets along with him great and loves being around him. But he, for whatever reason, was never able to connect to the audience that way. You know, I think that that's the biggest struggle really is we have a ton of young guys coming in with a lot of personality. And they're engaging fans on social media.

They're not afraid to get out there and do the extra leg work. You know, you say that they all want to sit there and just drive the cars. some guys that don't might, you know, they're on social media, talking to fans, being funny, being goof, just being themselves. But for some reason, trying to get the fan to see that person that we, you know, that they, their friends do. That you know, yeah. You know, it's so hard.

And it just takes a lot. And, you know, it takes a lot of outside work. You know, it takes a lot of, you got to have a good agency. You got to have good people around you that are helping you find opportunities to showcase that personality in it, you know, and you got to be able to, you got to be willing to do things. You got to go on podcasts. Our podcast. We are brand builders here.

You got to put yourself out there. What is the perception and the reality for you? Do people perceive you? You know, there's always studies, right? Yeah. And they think I'm one of the most unapproachable guys you could meet. And it's interesting. And I always look at, you know, video that they have of me or pictures they're taking.

And I look like I'm pissed off all the time. And I get it. And I'm like, man, I probably wouldn't approach him either. But I'm just thinking, I'm in the moment of thinking about this race car. I'm in the garage. I'm like, you know, thinking, how can we get better? And I'm not always cutting up and things like that, you know. But I've never been.

You're just born with that face, man. Gotta cut him a break, man. It's a resting denny face. Resting denny face. I've never been rude to a fan ever. If I have, if I am not, I've never turned a fan down for an auto. unless I'm directly going to into a race car, into my hall or something like that, and I'm in a hurry.

If I ever have time, I do it. No question about it. I just, you know, something about my personality, fans just have not latched on to and probably never will. I mean, I've never been one of the top five or six most popular guys ever. I think the most popular I've ever been. It was probably my first two years in the Cup series. That's probably because they just didn't, you know, it's a new guy and he's successful.

Sure, we like them. And you were in some Daytona 500 pictures with Dale. Yeah, that probably helps too. You know, it's sometimes it's a struggle. And, you know, I've had history of getting into it with a couple guys here and there, you know, and at really bad times when Chase Elliott at Martinsville and then Bubba Wallace, he's coming in, he's fresh, and, you know, me and him are getting into it after the rate. So I think I've rubbed fans the wrong way in that sense, but, you know, I'm a competitive guy,

and I'm friends with all these guys. Listen, the relationships that you see on TV sometimes are different. than what you see outside. And I agree with you 100% that I, you know, I have no problem taking time for fans and being hospitable. And I really do enjoy it. But it's not always what they see. Do you have any regrets?

And I think a lot of it, too, is that, you know, they say that, you know, they feel like I'm cocky or whatever. And I'm like the exact opposite of that in the sense of, I think I'm just quiet and I don't talk a whole lot. I'm not in, I don't, I've never been the guy. to go up to a stranger and say, hey, I'm probably the opposite of Carl Edwards, right, in the sense of, you know, he is very outgoing and can start a conversation with a stranger and just make it interesting. And I don't know what to talk about. You know, I'm sorry. I don't,

I just, it's never been, I've always been an introvert. I've always been that way. And it's just, you know, it's just, that's something that fans on TV, it looks different. Where they tell you all the time, you know, be exciting on TV. You know, you got to be up and exciting. And it looks great on TV. and when you're doing it in real life, you're like, this just seems silly, right? I'm acting goofy. It feels over the top. It feels big. It feels way over the top. It feels big.

And so I just, I'm myself and sometimes it looks negative. Yeah. That's so true, man. When we, TV will tell you to bring it and act, you know, be loud. Be yourself. Yeah. And it feels unnatural. And it feels like it's too much.

But then the TV knocks a bunch of it off. That's interesting. Yeah. So it, but I mean, it's so, it's exhausting. to be big all the time, you know. But I will say this, Denny, you got a really sarcastic sense of humor. No doubt. Yeah, and I think that that comes across, you're not on Twitter all the time,

but your fan base appeals to that person. You know, which is true to you, that's your true person. There's the fan base out there that has that same humor, you know, and same personality appeals to that. And I see that in your interaction with, social media and the people that follow you. Exhibit A, last week, you tweeted a thing about Dale Jr.'s race to the way. Tzlowski.

Yeah. Tell me what the mentality to me. But yeah, you'll see the other side. I get it. Looking back to see the other side. And you're like, the top story. Yeah. And they're like, I get where people would be like, oh, man, you're d'i.

I was like, I was thinking, man, he's coming on the podcast. where that story came from. I can't help what they rip out of the podcast. And be ready. Yeah, be ready. Something out of this is probably going to be on NASCAR. And you should be embarrassed, by the way, losing that. He did.

Losing the race. I won. I won. Oh, you did. Was it even close, though? That's what he should be embarrassed about. He's embarrassed a couple things. One, it was close to two.

He was exhausted when he got into the Port of John that he couldn't even go to the bathroom. That was before my cycling days. I was drinking beer all week. But something. out of this podcast and probably something that we think is not even that important or not the biggest story we told will end up on, well, not saying, you know, it might not be NASCAR.com, but it'll end up somewhere.

Yeah. And that's just a fact of life. But think, you know, but I know where you were going with. Once I took, once I looked at you and thought about who you are and thought about what you were trying to say, and I could see myself putting out the same tweet and not trying to offend anybody. It's funny. Just trying to be funny.

I really wasn't, like, offending. trying to offend anyone. I just thought it was hilarious. I was like, so it's an off week, and I'm clicking. I was like, no kidding. Yeah. Race of the Porter John. Every time we tell that story, it gets some traction.

It does. So I want to ask you, do you have any regrets? You're talking about dustups with Chase, and I remember, look, 2007, you had your own dealings with our company here when Brad Zalowski was driving for us. And so you always tend to find some moments where you have to, you're thrust into the position to give us. to give an opinion and be yourself, and that's a tricky balance, as you guys already said.

So of all of those things that have happened over the years, do you have anything you regret and wish you had to do over it yet? Oh, man. That's a good question. Regrets. You know, definitely there has been some times on social media where I'm really critical of people that I get into it with. Okay.

And I just, that can, those things are a little personal and probably left unsaid. But, you know, there's not a whole lot of a change. I mean, other than I wish I was, you know, people saw me for who I really am versus what they think I am. But, you know, I just think I definitely had some confrontations with guys that, you know, that were in a really bad time for me. And, you know, I look back on it and I think it really made my relationships with all those drivers much better. bad, great now.

Me, Joey, good now. I mean, everyone, you know, me, Chase and blah, blah, all good. I mean, we are all good. And so, you know, I just think that it's tough because, you know, we're competitors and confrontations are going to happen. But I think that, you know, at times when I got interviewed, I probably could have taken the high road a little more. Well, Danny Hamlet, it's been a privilege to actually talk to you about all this stuff in here.

And your gift, your going away gift, is this. We ought to get a bunch of these printed. You got to put it on for her, man. Listen, Ralphie, all they did was make them walk down the stairs, in it on, and then they say, do you like it? He said, no, and they're like, all right, go change. Well, I'm confiscating all cell phones and recording devices in the house before I put it on. Awesome.

All right, Denny. Thanks, Denny. Appreciate your guys. Appreciate it. All right, let's hit an Exaltor Race Center update. This is your Exaltor Race Center Update. I'm Matthew Dillner. A bluff pit stop call was the strategy.

that put Martin Truex Jr. in Cup Series Victory Lane at Sonoma Raceway. Truex led 62 laps en route to his third victory of the season. Kevin Harvick, Clinton Boyer, Chase Elliott, and Kyle Bush rounded out the top five. The truck series had a wild one under the lights Saturday night at Gateway Motorsports Park. On a green-white checkered restart, Justin Halley held off a hard-charging Todd Gilliland to score his first career truck series win. The Junior Motorsports late models were in action at Carteret Speedway on Saturday. Josh Berry had the lead with 25 laps to go in the car's tour event when he was involved in a crash.

He finished ninth, while his JRM teammate Sam Mayer gotten an early race angle that ended his night. Both drivers will race at North Carolina's Hickory Motor Speedway this Saturday night in twin 50-lap features. This weekend, the truck, Exfinity, and Cup Series will all be in action at Chicagoland Speedway for a big NASCAR triple-header weekend. This has been your Exaltta Race Center update. Exxalta is the official paint partner of NASCAR, developing manual. manufacturing and supplying coatings to all types of vehicles and industrial applications. For more on Exalta, visit Exalttacs.com. All right, man, did you see that?

It's been a long time since we've heard that. It's been a few shows. We hadn't seen a whole lot, I guess. Dale, you know, I've got something, but did you see anything we're talking about? Man, I probably did, but I ain't got nothing on the top of my head right now. I got something really big. I've got a small one. You got a small one, but I think this is going to trump it.

What was the biggest wrecked Sonoma weekend? What was the biggest wreck? Yeah, I'm putting you on the spot. What was the biggest wreck? I watched the race. Mike Davis? Yeah, it was Mike Dan Davis. On his bike.

You're on vacation, man, and my wife is surfing Instagram. And it's like, did you see Davis wreck the crap out of his bicycle? And I'm like, what? I'm like fumbling trying to get to it. Okay. So Davis wrecked his bicycle. I did. I did.

But admittedly, I was. Well, I was on. My family, we went to Cumberland Island. Are you skinned up? No, no. I was laughing so hard. Not much of a crash. There's video of this because he was recording himself.

I put it on my Instagram story. But the fact is, I was on this island, Cumberland Island, and they have wild horses on this island. And so I'm riding this bike with my family. And I'm trying to video these wild horses and ride my bike. And I'm trying to do it where I don't disrupt the horses. So it's awful. And then I went and wrecked my bike and spooked the horses.

Oh. So I can't video. I'm not the Matthew Dillner of Cumberland Island for sure. I was trying to video at the same time. Didn't work. Wrecked my bike, but I thought it was funny. It was entertained. Watching the bicycle crash, the fact that you got actual video of it just, I had to pick on it.

Andy had the guts to put it on social. You got a laugh at yourself. I mean, what are you going to do, right? I mean, if you wrecked your bike, would you put it on social? Oh, probably. Yeah, of course you would. It's fun. If you lived a television.

I'm very cool and comfortable with self-deprecation. That's right. As am I. I give myself plenty of opportunities. Here's a did you see that that I thought was kind of funny. I noticed Alex Bowman had a tweet after the race, and he referred to Greg Ives as Gregory. Great call by Gregory to one stop that final segment.

And Greg Ives, who tweets every once every lunar eclipse, goes, it's only Greg. I didn't see that. That's great. I loved it. I loved it. So we don't want the... I was asking Greg the other day about...

How he was doing, how our driver was doing, building relationships within the team. He said he was pretty good, but could use a little work. So apparently he's telling the truth if he doesn't know Greg's first name. He definitely hasn't earned the right to call him by his full name, Gregory. Yeah, but he said it's not even that. It's not even his full name. Oh, it really is Greg. I got you.

Don't call me Gregory. That's funny. That's what I saw. That's not my name. That's funny. All right, Mike. We got a new sponsor for the Dale Jr. Download.

All right. Tell me about it. I got to tell you about it. ZipRecruiter is a new partner for the Dell Jr. download. Let me tell you a little bit about what ZipRecruiter does with their powerful matching technology. They scan thousands of resumes to find people with the right experience, and then they invite them to apply to your job. Okay.

So if we're looking for somebody to hire, we could go to ZipRecruiter, and they've got the candidates all sitting there. They got the guys. So they bring them to you. Because DirtyMo Media is looking to have a few new hires. We're growing. And we're growing, yeah, especially with sponsors and partners like ZipRecruiter, we're going to be able to afford to make those hires.

So they would be the perfect place to go for us to find the people we need. And people could go to a specific address too. Is that right? ZipRecruiter. I'll have you say it. Ziprecruiter.com slash Dell Jr. Why don't you just say it? You were just saying it.

That was just so conversational. It was so good. Ziprooter.com slash Dell Jr. So they can go to ZipRecuter. So they can go to ZipRecruiter. So they can go to ZipRecruiter. or no, ZipRecruiter.com slash Dale Jr. Yep.

They can go to ZipRecuter. I can't even say it. Skidsteer. They can go to ZipRecruiter. Dot com slash Dale Jr. And us as a company, go to post a job with ZipRecruiter. Yeah. They go out and they find applicants that best fit your job.

Where does this address come into play? I think the companies, like myself, like Matthew. So if you're a company and you go to. to ZipRecruiter.com slash Dale Jr. And do it based off of that, we basically get the credit or, you know, the attention.

Well, damn. And they need to do it now because this will be the last week we have ZipRecruiter as a sponsor. Hey, we're all learning here. It just shows that we don't want to just read an ad to you. We're all learning here. We're all learning about ZipRecuter. It is so...

You try to say it 15 times. ZipRecruiter. Does anybody remember? Ward Burton with this cat skitsier. Somebody's going to go to ZipRecruiter and they're going to not find resumes. Go to ZipRecruiter.com slash Dale Jr.

If you go there and either fill out your resume or if you're a company looking for an employee, you get some kind of a break, right? First of all, we get a break if you use the Dale Jr. website because that means that we affected somebody. And I would be shocked if that happens at this point. But I'm telling you, right now. Maybe that's a reason why you should go to ZipRecruiter. I will say this. You hit on it earlier.

We at Dirty Mo Media are booming. We're growing. I'm looking right now to add people to our team. And I will use ZipRecruiter.com to go find these people. I'm going to do it. Mike, when I have the candidate and y'all are wowed by how awesome they are, we'll be able to refer back to ZipRecruiter. We will. As an employer, Mike, your effective rate is going to be 80%. Wow. If you're an employer and you post on ZipRecruiter, you're effectively going to get a candidate, a qualified candidate, within the first day. That just saved me a bunch of time just hearing that. Because let me tell you something.

This is no lie. I hate the process of hiring. I like meeting people. I hate the process of hiring because you end up having to talk to a bunch of people that you know are not candidates, and then you go hope to find that one. And, you know, I wish every process was like Dillner, who just shows up. In your office, it says I would have to work, and it just happens to be a good time. But this is something that helps people like me.

It helps people like you. You run a business. And at zipRecruiter.com, we can actually go and really kind of fix that process that we already don't like. As applicants come in, ZipRecruiter is going to analyze each one. They're going to spotlight the top candidates, so you never miss a perfect match. So when you're ready to hire some people for Dirty Mo Media, Mike ZipRecruiter is where you're going to go. You're going to go to ZipRecruiter.com slash Dale Jr. And you're going to find the next hire for Dirtymo Media.

And I bet ZipRecruiter.com people go to ZipRecruiter to find people to read their new ads. Possibly. Dale, could you just do me a favorite? If you like what you just heard and you want to advertise on this podcast, I'm telling you, nobody's ever going to forget your name. ZipRecuter. ZipRecruiter. Right now, listeners of this podcast can try ZipRecruiter for free at this exclusive website.

Now, this is an exclusive website. You can go to ZipRecruiter.com slash Dale Jr. Man, with results like that, there's no wonder why ZipRecruiter is the highest rated hiring site in America. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. We're doing all our ads that way, right out of the date. Absolutely. Completely dry. I mean, people know.

Dinner did not want canned. People know. I don't even know if I can edit that now. Now people are going to never forget ziprecruiter.com. We're learning about zip recruiter. We're learning about zip recruiter. And they wanted a 60-second spot. We over-delivered.

I think our listeners can appreciate that we're learning at the same time they're learning. The name of this show needs to be ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter. I think the name of our podcast this week is Denny's Misunderstood. That's a good one. Denny's misunderstood. Denny's Misunderstood. Resting Denny face.

resting ditty face That's funny That was hilarious Let's pretty good Let's go into Ask Junior It's time for Ask Junior I got a question You have a question for me

Hit us up on Twitter Using the hashtag Ask Junior All right Taking a look at some of the questions Fans chiming in using the hashtag Ask Junior as always And some really good ones

This one, Kay Frieden, wants to know What's the most trouble that your sister has rescued you from. I'd have to say that her going to military school, to join me at military school, rescued me from a lot of trouble. So I was in a Christian school,

and they would write you up in class for all sorts of things. But something as small as just talking in class. We weren't allowed to talk and communicate with the person next to us. And so I was written up several times. I didn't take it seriously because I didn't think that was a very serious offense. But if you're written up eight times before the Christmas break, they would expel you. This is a no-nonsense place, right? And so I get this eighth slip and then right before, it didn't get processed or I wouldn't know my fate of what I really be expelled until,

after Christmas break. So I go home scared of death. Like, man, this is supposed to be a fun time for me. A whole week off from school. But I'm nervous. When I go back, I'm going to get expelled. I know my dad's going to give me a whoopin for that. And so this is a terrible, very scary time.

Well, I walk into the house, and Dad and Teresa have pamphlets laid out all over the table of military schools and boarding schools that they want to send me to. They had already decided that where I was wasn't working and that I was too much trouble for them to deal with at home. And they had these books out in Oak Ridge Military Academy. It was one of the schools. So we ended up going to visit Oak Ridge in the next day. And they enrolled me in Oak Ridge Military School a couple days later. And I started going to military school after that Christmas break. That's how the whole concept of boarding school was even introduced to you.

Like, had you had a con? No. You walked in to a presentation of your future? Yeah. I mean, I walked up on them looking at these pamphlets. And they're like, oh. They're like, oh, I look at them. I'm like, I know what this means.

I mean, I was in the. Yeah. I was in the. They weren't planning vacation spots from the family. I was in the seventh grade. And so they sent me to military school immediately. And it was awful. I can go on and on and on.

and tell you tons of experiences that just were dreadful. But, you know, I ain't ashamed to admit I cried the entire first two weeks, being away from home, being away from my dad. Didn't think my dad cared about me anymore. Didn't think, you know, they wanted me anymore, didn't feel, I felt, you know, all kinds of terrible things. And so my sister was not doing bad at school. She was not having trouble at home. She was, everything was great with her. And as far as, you know, dad and Teresa were concerned, I think that she was,

going to carry on with her plan to keep going to Christian school. And, but after a couple weeks, Kelly's like, you know, me and Kelly are very, very close. Even today, you know, that relationship is, we're very, we're extremely close. And me and Kelly both lived in the downstairs. We had each other as it. You know, we didn't go upstairs too often. And we spent a lot of time taking care of each other. Kelly, a good example, that would be Kelly ran the cash rest of school and I would spend my lunch

money on candy bars or something and she would make sure that I got my lunch when I came through the line. I could always count on her. If she knew something was going to get me in trouble, she would change it so that I didn't get in trouble. Anyways, she decides to go to military school because she missed me and wanted to be able to look out for me. She was scared for me. I was really short. See, right around this time, I was probably four seven, four foot ten. You were a right. Tiny. Yeah. And I've got pictures of me. standing at attention with my company, and I'm literally shorter and everyone else. It looks like bring your kid to work day.

Yeah. So in that, you know, she's worried about me being in that up there by myself with no, no one, like looking out for me. Yeah, there's teachers and faculty, but when you're not in a classroom, really there was no adults around at all. In the dorms, they were ran by the upperclassmen, which are 11th and 12th grade kids with rank. You know, this, you know, so you're really in the, at the, you're really at the mercy of these 17-year-old, 16-year-old kids to. And they treat seventh graders well, don't they?

Yeah. Yeah, right. So you really, you know, if they don't like you or you're not well-received, your new guy coming in middle, middle of year. You know, it was damn rough. And a lot of new kids, you know, I mean, the kids were constantly going. I wasn't the only new kid there over Christmas break. I mean, a lot of kids started. When I started, I mean, there was a ton, and everybody's got a story, a backstory.

All the kids that are going there, well, I was a shoplifter, you know. I couldn't stop stealing from the store. And so here I am. Or, you know, I set my, you know, uncle's ass on fire. Or, you know, all the kids have some sort of a backstory as to how they ended up here. I couldn't quit smoking pot, something. And, you know, mine wasn't as that severe, right? I didn't have, and I'm little.

And so it was very scary. By the time I was done, though, I mean, I really felt like that it did what its purpose was, and that was to mature me, and we can get on into that another time. But anyhow, the answer to the question is definitely Kelly joining me literally like a month or two later at military school. She gave up her friends. I mean, you know how girls are in high school? All these friends, oh, you know, this click, that click, this guy. they've got a crush on this and they're going great and this they love this teacher she gave

all that up yeah that's spectacular that's love all right go from this great serious question to something really fun uh we were speaking about your dad there so breaking badger wants to know what was your dad's go-to brand of beer man that is a good question i need to phone a friend i i'm oh i want to say bud light i don't think he drank Miller High Life or Miller Light. He might have drank a lot of Coors Light. But when we would go over there and steal beer, we were stealing Bud Lights. Going where?

To Dad's shop. We and Tony Jr. would sneak into the shop when Dad was off racing or, you know, if we were having an off weekend. Xfinity Series had a lot off weekend. Okay. You know, so me and Tony Jr., we were going to throw a party. we're going to do something. So me and Tony Jr. hopped the fence at night,

and we knew where the key was to the tire room, where the tire room was all the beer. Dad had a deal with Bush. If you remember the Bush beer standups with dad on them. And he would get shipment, he would get, you know, the bud truck would show up and unload. Yeah. And so we drank a lot of, he drank a lot of bud light, and so did we.

There you go. There you go. Hop of the fence in the cloak of darkness. That's right. One more real quick. If you were asked to compete on celebrity family feud, he has been asked to compete. Have you?

Which four drivers would you choose to be on your team? I definitely would have to have Jimmy Johnson. Smart cookie. Yep. I'd have Jimmy Johnson on there. I'd probably have to have Harvick. As competitive as he is, I think he'd be a guy that help you win.

Two more, right? Let's see. Well, you got two there. You got Jimmy and Harvick, so it would just be two more. Yeah, so who would be good. Who is smart, right? Yeah. You know, Paul Edwards left.

Oh, Brad, you know. No. No. No. See, Brad's going to be. If you get Brad on family feud, he's going to end up being tasked to answer the question where you need 30 points. And there's an obvious question or an obvious answer. And he's going to go somewhere way off in Bradland.

And then it's going to strike him and he's going to disagree, go, that's not right. And here's why it's not right. This is clearly women like this about men. And this is the way it is in my life. And I've talked to doctors about it. And this is not a strike. I've never heard Mike in person, because of Caz. That's pretty good.

Google University says. I would, I mean, it would be funny and entertaining to have Brad on. but I would probably pick someone else. I want to answer this. McMurray? No. All right. No, McMurray?

Blaney? No. I would bring Blaney only because of his youth and knowledge of pop culture. You're not going to get all questions tailored for the 40-year-olds. So we'd have that covered with me, Jimmy, and Harv, so we would get Blaney. And he'd be funny. Got to have a young guy on there. Maybe another young guy.

Maybe like Chase or Kyle Busch? The only thing, Chase is not going to want to go. He's not going to want to go. That's right. You could send Chase the invite to the show, and he's going to find something else going on that day that he needs to do. He's right. So Chase won't be able to make it.

No, no family feud for Chase. Oh, what about William Byron? College Educators. Oh, there's some smarts. Yeah. All right. Yeah, perfect. That's a great crew.

Family feud, it's done. Call us up, Family feud. Let's see it. Get some other racers. Maybe we go against the Ind. No, let's not go against Indie guys. No, there's Indie guys. The Indie guys have been on the show.

Oh, they have? Yeah. I've never seen that one. Yeah, they went up against SIS swimsuit models, I believe. Oh, man, you guys missed the boat. You could have gone up against them? That's a good question. All right, let's throw that big old white flag from the flag stand.

Keep on the white flag. White flag right there, white flag. Big old white flag from the flag stand. NBC 30 Rock Car washes this week. You and I are going to new. with a couple other people. You've got the Today Show you'll start out with. You've got Jimmy Fallon, Dan Patrick, and a bunch of other stuff.

Watch What Happens Live. You're going to go do that again. That's going to be fun. Okay, so I know you don't watch what happens live, but Blaney's supposed to be on that show with me. Yeah, we found this out the other day, and can we say what he's doing? He's the bartender. Okay, so the bartender is that a role on this that is a fun role?

I don't know anything about the bartender. It's probably the easiest role. Okay. You may get asked one question. Okay. Somebody reference me. You won't do a lot. That's a good role for him.

Yeah. I'm excited. He'll be there. So we've got a full day on Wednesday. Yeah. We'll get back late. And then we'll turn around and go to Chicago where Dale Jr. Countdown to E-Day officially commences as he begins his broadcast career for the booth with practice on Friday.

And qualifying on Friday or Saturday. Are you as excited as Mike David? And Dale Jr., that's going to call the race. He's been working all year on this. It's time for broadcaster Dell to make his debut. What are we thinking, Dale? So actually, we get there Thursday. There's production calls and production meetings.

There will be a dinner where all the crew will get together. Thursday will be a full day of sort of getting ready and preparing. At some point, we've got to get down into the garage, go see some crew chiefs, talk to some drivers. You should go in and in a full day. Fire suit just to throw them all off. Got to network a little bit, get prepared for what's coming on, what's coming up on Sunday. I will not be in the booth during the Xfinity races, but they have this new pit cart that they're going to unveil this weekend that you'll see a lot this year.

I'm going to pop up on that pit cart for a little bit during the Xfinity race to talk just a little bit about what's going on. But I want to know, these are all the things that you're going to do, but I want to know, like, how excited are you? Because there's been so much buildup and we've been talking about it for a week. That's it. I mean, as the buildup goes and goes and goes, my excitement, I temper and temper and temper. Because it's so nerve-wracking to have so much put on your shoulders, you know.

And it was the same way with driving race cars. You know, the way they promote this, which was similar to the way we talked about it, the way they promoted my driving career when I started with Bud. It was a lot to, you know, you felt responsible for a lot. and I don't know how it makes my coworkers feel that I'm the emphasis of all these promotions. You know, you got Steve LaTartre, Jeff Burton, and Rick Allen just to name a couple that are part of the team. You know, and hopefully, you know, they've been pretty understanding to this point of the promotions. All that, though, is finally put it to rest.

You know, we can finally, we shelve these commercials and go to work. There you go. You know, and start talking about racing, talking about drivers, talking about action. Well, you're already talking too much. That's the first lesson because this is a white flag. This isn't to get your thoughts. The owner started asking questions like this is an interview. I'm in the middle of my white flag segment.

That's the first rule of thumb in TV. Know your role, man. I don't know. We're looking forward to it. I can't wait. I'm going to watch TV all week watching Dale Jr. Also. So much TV.

So little time. NBC, SN. NBC, SSN. That's where it's at when Dale Jr's ride.com. We talk about it every week. It's still happening. You can still buy your raffle tickets. Also, racing to the finish, the book.

Read it for a second time over the weekend. It gets better every time. It's getting better with eight. I can't wait. I can tell you what. You can pre-order it right now on Dalejutor. com, forward slash book, and that will be released in October. All right.

It'll be well worth it. Dale Jr. That's a good show. Countdown, Eddie. Thank you, Denny Hamlin. Thank you, Denny Hamlin. Thanks listeners. We'll see you next week.

Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo.