The Dale Jr. Download - 223 - The Booth, Buffalo and Slide Job!

Episode Date: July 3, 2018

Dale Earnhardt Jr. discusses his first weekend in the booth for NASCAR on NBC and his "Slide Job" call on the last lap at Chicago. The DJD guys also chat about Kurt Busch’s aggravation and reminisce about the day Dale’s Buffalo roamed free in Mooresville.  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.

There comes Lars and down to the bottom of the racetrack. Sly John. That's the Twitter user, Steve Grice. Oh, so people are now making it a parody. They're now, slide job has become a pop culture. Yeah, phenomenon. Yes. Well done.

Yeah, I'm still wore out. I still don't know what to think. My head's spinning from the whole experience of this past weekend. We got a lot to talk about. We've got a great show. You've been on Jimmy Fallon show once. You've been on the Today Show twice this week. Just all this since we've last been in the studio here.

You've broadcasted, I don't know, four or five practices, a couple races. One of them was a thriller. You wore a tie once. You tucked in your shirt maybe a couple times. Now that you've had time to decompress, kiss your wife, hold your baby, pet your dog, do whatever you do to Buffaloes, which I don't know. What are your thoughts? That's what we're going to. That's what we're going.

Why are you? God dang it, Dale Jr. He's back. He's always, he did this on Instagram last last week. He was all low key this morning. He was all low key coming in here and quiet. It was awesome, dude, you got to the Buffalo part. I'm trying to think about all the things you do when you go home.

Did you just ignore Buffalo? It was dark. Big sons of bitches and you don't even acknowledge them. I mean, yeah, you can't miss him, but the way you said it was pretty funny. All right. We want to know on the download today. What your thoughts are now that it's actually We tape this Monday, day after the race.

It's a podcast Tuesday, show Thursday. We're going to talk all about it on the download. Is that okay with you? It's mine. All right, let's do it. And here comes Larson. Your download. And here comes Larson.

TAMBC. Trying to take the lead away. The Exhasta Studio. You're download. You're download. I can't believe. I can't ever laugh. I can't believe that.

The remix. The thing about that, all that is I can't believe that they pay me to go and watch their race and just to talk about what I see. I mean, I don't know. Watch out. The heck was that. Crash in the studio. Stone Cole Steve also is going to walk in any second. Oh, my gosh. That was so loud.

I had so much fun this weekend. And obviously, I was really nervous going into the cup race, but it was a blast, and we're going to get into that a little bit. But I come home just going, oh, man, I mean, this is it. This is what I'm going to do for the next 21 weeks and however many years. Holy cow, hold on. I know, right? I mean, like me hold on, not everybody else.

Like, I'm, it's going to be a ride. You've got to temper it a little bit because you've got 21 races. but that was an exciting start. You know the best part about that? The absolute best scenario for your NBC broadcasting debut would be that on Monday, the main storyline was not your NBC broadcasting debut. Absolutely. That's the best scenario.

And we got the race that we would want it on your debut. It was so perfect. I'm telling you, there was so much promotion about me being on the broadcast, and that was necessary but concerning. if I'm NBC, I'm doing the same thing. You're hoping that the story isn't the broadcast. It's the race. If that's all you have to talk about, right.

And so at the end of the day, yeah, at the end of the day, the drivers went out there and performed phenomenally. Yes. And we had a battle for the lead all day long. We had different guys leading. We had different storylines happening. There was just so much happening in that race to make it a. fun race to call, fun race to watch, easy to engage. And that all comes down really to the drivers and their freaking tenacity, man.

I mean, it was just, I know I'm seeing the race from a new perspective, so I'm seeing it like this for the first time, but I felt like yesterday was different. You know, from what I was seeing from the sport as a whole, you know, the drivers and the way they contended all day long and the way they pressed all day long and the conditions they did all this in with the 150 degree interior car temperatures, I was just so amazed and so impressed. With 10 laps to go, I didn't think Larson was going to catch him, and I said so much on the broadcast. I was still enjoying it. Would he catch him and would he not?

I still thought it was an awesome race, even if we don't have the finish that we had. I mean, heck, you scrub the wall there, and I thought it was that, but I mean, so I thought it was done, but it was, even if it ended there, I agree. It was an amazing race even without the finish. then we get that incredible, incredible finish. And whether you like Kyle Bush or not, it doesn't really matter. That's what we need. If we can get that every week, that's what we need.

No matter who's in the mix and who's creating that drama. And you even needed an old guy versus the new guy. I mean, everything was perfect. Yeah, it's great. If it had been Harvick and Kyle Bush, we would have taken it. But it was Kyle Larson. Yeah. And he has this talent.

And you really opened up my eyes to Kyle Larson's ability. We always know he's talented, but you brought up a point about him riding the high line. One, you said he goes up way higher than you did, which is saying something. And two, you brought up a point of when that safer barrier ends. You had noticed that he even turns right to get even closer to the wall to pick up more speed. And so we got to watch that, especially because NBC had this really good camera angle from high above the speedway and they really kind of leaned into those shots and you could see the lines and then you could see the ground that he was making up by doing that high line especially in the last few laps

and it was so it all all the puzzle pieces kind of fit together and then they gave us the last lap the finish we got the perfect racetrack we got the best out of the best you know all the drivers in the field are the best in my opinion in american motorsports and we got the best of the best Yeah. We had a challenge with the weather to talk about. We had all kinds of content. And so it was an easy race to call, in my opinion. I think for a new guy like me coming in there, it was a great scenario.

And just all the theatrics afterwards with Kyle Bush talking about the haters and all that, even though he stirs that pot and aggravates more fans and so forth, that's better than nothing happening in us going home bored to death. I'm not saying that I loved it. Or, man, you know, I like what I saw. I'm not saying that made me a huge Kyle Busch fan or a bigger fan of Kyle. I'm saying that what he did is necessary

in sports and entertainment. And he ain't even trying, but he's bringing something to the table. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? He's just being himself, and that's what's cool about it. That's him being him.

He's not forcing it. He's not underplaying it. That's unfiltered. You could tell it got to him a little bit, the booze, by his reaction in that interview. Nobody loves that. And so, you know, and that's his natural reaction to it. The funny thing is, to me, that I noticed, is that we got a little bit different, Kyle Bush, once he got to Victory Lane.

And he has that interview in Victor Lane. He was much more particular about choosing his words and how he described what happened. And then later we see Kyle Arson go to Victor Lane, and they have, you know, they talk about the race. and how much fun they had. Kyle Larson's interview after he got out of the car was a great interview about how much he enjoyed the racing and the battle to the end

and how he viewed it was a quintessential, you know, Kyle Larson or racer. You know, he was having fun. Didn't work out for him. Amazing saved by him to be able to even continue on to finish second. Amazing. And the fact that he wasn't mad surprised me and I thought it was cool as hell.

It didn't surprise me. I was not surprised. I knew he was going to get out and go, that was fun. You were surprised. or you were not surprised? I was a little surprised because, you know, that is Kyle, though. I hardly saw Kyle Larson get mad.

I never have. I mean, yeah, Kyle Larson ratchets up the maturity of the two, I mean, of the scenario there. Kyle Bush was going to be him. He brings that W.W.E. type stuff without the script. I don't think he's going off a script here. He's reacting to his environment all the time, which is why when he goes to Victory Lane, which was that alternate victory lane inside that garage, yeah, he was not doing that stuff. All the theatrics don't happen if we interview him in Victory Lane.

Because he has the time to sort of process it. And the energy level by those fans, because you heard it. It's different, yeah. And so people complain about the double interview. Some fans do not like the winner getting interviewed twice, but you don't get what we got yesterday without that happening. We need that interview on straightaway because it's instantaneous. And then we're getting that fresh reaction from the driver

and what the fans thought was awesome. Oh, yeah. You could see them on the fence. You'd only hear them. Yeah. You'd only hear them. Yeah. That made that moment even better or more unique, more entertaining to see.

Yeah. I mean, so it was great. Yeah, we had a long week. Mike talked about a lot of things that we did. We went to New York City on Wednesday. Who knows what we did the day Monday, Tuesday. But we spent all day in New York City. I mean, you know, we had the download here with Denny Hamlin.

Then we bounced around, did a few things. But we went to New York City and spent all day in New York City promoting the race. We went on Fallon, which was fun. We had the scooter race, the cooler scooters. They were like, hey, man, you know, you can jump on this cooler schooler and try it out a little bit before we had this race. I was like, I have one of these at home. Don't you worry.

We've got to be good. I've tested it. I know all about. Yeah. So we went and had the school. Did Fallon test it? I mean, he was kind of slow. Well, I probably could have taken a little easier because we had such, we got so separated that they couldn't really get any good shots of us racing.

That was the worst race of the weekend, by the way. That's a good thing. They would try to catch one of us in coming by and they'd get nobody. It'd just be an empty shot. So I thought it would have been a little closer, but I was ready and rocking. I gave it all ahead. The beers were good that we had. I thought I was worried that they were going to be hot, but they were cold beer.

Good. And it was Bush, which was interesting. But I finished my Bush beer because I felt like maybe bad luck if I didn't. Then we went out and did the sit down on the couch. That meant a lot to me to be able to do the couch because typically what happens with drivers is they, and they've asked us to do this before, and we've not done it. We've turned it down. Usually it's just the comedy skit, the race.

And then they may talk to you standing up, oh, this is down. You never get a chance to do the interview and get to. to kind of what's going on in your life or talk about anything. Yeah. So I was really glad to be able to get on the couch. And I felt the same way when I was, back in the day, when we would do Letterman. The first time when he did Letterman, they had me out on the street doing donuts and a Corvette, and I didn't get to do a couch interview.

And the reason why I want to do those, the reason why that's important to me is because way, way back when my dad was racing, for him to get an opportunity to go on Leno was a big deal to him. he felt like that that was like, you know, a huge milestone for himself, for the sport, to be able to get those opportunities because we rarely did get that kind of recognition from the entertainment world. And when I would get asked to go on these shows, I followed my father with that same sort of mentality about it. And when they would ask me to do a gimmicky kind of thing out on the street doing donuts, it was fun. I needed to do it because it was great exposure for me. me.

It was great exposure for NASCAR, but you'd love to be able to sit on the couch and engage with the host, and that gives the people watching at home chance to get to know you. And so I finally got to do that with, how did we want a Daytona 500, I think, in 2004. Maybe it was 2014. I can't remember, but I finally got to do a sit-down with Letterman. I was on Leno. So we've done a few, and any time we get that opportunity, whether it's foul, whatever, we need to take it because it's great exposure for us

and great exposure for our sport. Really, it's big for NASCAR to get recognized. You get a driver on that couch and let that show and the producers of that show and everybody see that we're capable of sitting down and engaging and being entertaining, then they invite other drivers on there. Other guys have opportunity to get that opportunity to grow their own brand and continue to grow the sport and introduce the fans out there to other drivers in our sport and the personalities we have.

So that's all the things that you're thinking about when you're asked to do Fallon or do anything like that. We went on what, watch what happens live, which we really ain't supposed to talk about, but Mike tweeted out some social media about it anyways. And that'll be on in a couple weeks. Yeah, we could talk about it, but I guess we're not. We're not supposed to be live. Yeah.

Well, I've got it in the white flag, too. It's fine. And so that'll be on in a couple weeks. We was on with Shep Rose, which was great. Shep's in Southern Charm, which is a show that me and Amy would be fans of on Bravo. We did tons of other media hits. We was on the Today Show and spent all day, really, doing interviews.

Dan Patrick. Yeah, obviously did Dan Patrick. We got to go in studio with Dan, which is always fun. His studio is a little bigger than ours? It's a castle. What do you think? Dan Patrick is, what I think is Dan Patrick is the best interviewer that I've ever ran across by far.

I know, I've told that to other people that are great interviewers, and they also agree. I don't know what it is, but he has. has a gift to make the conversation so comfortable, even though you're kind of nervous because it's Dan Patrick and he's great. He takes that out somehow. He removes that from you real, really quickly. He asks questions that are different and more personal, and he makes you immediately realize that he knows a lot about you and that he knows things about your personal life and he's not just gathering information from the top shelf.

He goes a little deeper and ask things that are fun, that, you know, questions that you, questions and things and topics in your life that you, you wouldn't even think about bringing up because you don't think that people would be interested in them, but he does want to know these things, and it's always fun to do an interview, and he never end up with the same interview.

Even though we might talk about some of the same topics, we end up getting great content from those conversations. So I've learned a lot from him, watching him. And his questions, too, are often very brief. And one of the things that I think I've learned from that is that he all, his brief question encourages the interviewee to really give a long answer. That's great in situations where you're talking to somebody who's young and doesn't do a lot of interviews that isn't, or a driver that doesn't want to open up, you know,

because drivers, they don't love doing interviews. So how are you going to get good stuff out of them? Throw a real quick, short, brief question at them. And that forces them to expand. And here's the example. If I'm remembering correctly, Dan Patrick opens up the interview with something like, did you take a cab over here? There you go.

You know, or what was your cab driver like? And so I have to go into, it makes me want to go into detail, like, you know, get this long explanation. and he just keeps popping them little short questions in there. And I like it because he's the best interviewer. We can go on and on. But we had a great day anyways in New York City talking about NASCAR, talking about NBC. We finally got to the racetrack and was able to get down to business.

The best thing about the whole weekend to shed the nerves for Sunday, because I was super nervous, was doing some of the Xfinity practices. not a ton of people, you know, are watching that practice, nothing like we're going to see on Sunday for the race. And so if you screw up, yeah, it might go viral, but it's not a huge deal. As long as it don't happen on Sunday, that's kind of the thing. It's like when a race car breaks apart,

if it happens in practice, hey, long as it didn't happen in the race. So I got to get some of the nerves out. I got to get a, I got to grow my rapport in relationship with my teammates. up in the booth. Not so much Lartartre because we're solid. More Jeff Burton and Rick Allen. I mean, trying to get comfortable with those guys is not going to be real hard,

but the more I can work with them, the better will be. Just like a race team. Yep. Can we actually use the example here? I will. You know, in the Xfinity practice, Dale Jr. got frustrated

as he's trying to really kind of hone his craft, by the way, and these Xfinity practice were very important. And he was telling us how he's got a producer in the ear telling him, okay, Dale, when Jeff Burton's done talking, you've got to hit it quick, and then we're out to commercial. Well, Jeff Burton doesn't hear that. Jeff Burton keeps talking. And so the producer is in, Dale, you're saying,

okay, you're going to have to make it even quicker. Jeff Burton keeps talking. Okay, Dale, you're going to have to like, boom and out. Juniors knew it this. He doesn't know how to, what is boom and out? I mean, he has a thought that he probably wanted to convey. You should just said it, boom, out. Yeah, but so that was a very tricky thing that he had to figure out.

And by the way, Dale June, I don't even remember what it was that you were saying. It came off natural, but he was so upset about it after that practice. Yeah. So when I say anything, I go, man, I could explain that better or I don't think I'm explained that well at all. And so I have this. When Jeff's talking, I'm listening to Jeff and I'm thinking about his opinion and whether I agree or not. and whether I have anything to add to it or what else I could say. And then the producer's like, you know, Marv, he's awesome.

He's like, he's like, make it quick, man, make quick, we've got to get out of here. And I'm like, well, I don't know how to make anything quick. You know, I have this thought. How do I cram that into this, you know, a couple sentences without, and not sound ridiculous, you know. So I felt like that I didn't do a very good job of that. and I leave those Xfinity practices really frustrated trying to figure out how to do a better job. And it just takes time. But the great thing about it is I had the opportunity to do those practices and do the several sessions that we were able to do.

Cup practices, Cup qualifying, the Xfinity race. I was really, I thought all that stuff would be the same. I thought we'd get in the booth and it would feel the same. I was really surprised at how different it is calling qualifying versus the race. The race is the easiest thing to call because the content is kind of created for you. The race is happening. You're reacting. Yeah.

In qualifying, that's not happening. There's not as much content being created. It's all the same. You almost got to dress it up. That takes a little skill and charm and ingenuity. And so I was surprised at the pace. When we went and did the Xfinity race, Anytime I really had a thought, I felt like I had as much time as I needed.

We have these talkback buttons where we mash them and can talk to the producer, and the guys around me, they're hitting them a little bit. Lattart, he mashes every once in a while and talk to the producer about something he thinks is going on on the racetrack. Sunday, we had tiny, tiny windows to get our thoughts into. And there was a way more talk going on in my ears from the producers, and Steve was on his button to the producer the whole race. And so I can't hear Steve when he's doing that.

And I'm like, man, I really want to know what he's doing. What are you thinking about, Steve? Like, why are you talking so much to the producer? What am I missing? What am I not seeing? You know, so I got the producer in one ear. I can hear whoever's talking in the broadcast, Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, in the other, and then Latar's over here on the button talking to the producer.

And I'm like, what's everybody doing, you know? Did you think they hit the talk back and ask the producer what Steve just told him? No. Because the producers also hollering to everybody in a truck, like, what's going on? You saw all that. So I'm like, I ain't going to bother the producer. You know, he's got Steven's here. Probably Jeff Burton's in the other booth, probably doing the same thing.

Yeah. So I'm just going to lay out, just react to what I'm seeing. As soon as I got up in the morning, man, everybody was way more frantic on Sunday. Sunday morning. Yeah. As soon as I got up, the radios, the walkie-talkies of people communicating and the whole production crew are just chattering about. everything and it was wide open from the moment we got up on Saturday for Expedity everybody was like hey this will be fun yeah this will be cool hey everything's good

yeah let's go do this race and we had you know it was real chill and lay back all the practices same way Sunday was berserk and how long did it take you to get comfortable with all the chaos well we went up into the we went up around two hours before the race starts to do a rehearsal up in the booth so So I'm down in my bus, getting something to eat or something. We haul ass up to the booth and t-shirt and jeans and do this rehearsal, and I sucked. You did. I was wanting to ask you about that because when you came down to the pit box, I said, I had a rehearsal going.

You're like, awful. I'm like, what? What could be awful, but tell us. What we rehearse is basically the first 20 minutes or so, or the first 10 minutes. It's basically the opening of the show. Rick Allen's going to come in, say what we're doing. hey, here we are, where we are, what race we're doing. Jeff Burton's going to say something, and then they're going to toss it over to us,

and Steve's going to say something, or I'm going to say something. I had my thoughts, and I was going to talk about, I had been really high on Chase Elliott and Joe Lugano, had my points on why, and had been talking about them basically the whole weekend. So, and I was doubling down that they were going to have good days. And so when it came my turn to describe that, I blew it. You know, I just didn't do very good, but it was a rehearsal. And so I went back down to the bus and grabbed a lunch and thought about it and calm down a little bit.

I was really nervous in rehearsals for some reason. Did anybody give you any type of suggestion? So nobody said any feedback to you. I don't know. Okay. And because they didn't think it was. They didn't think it was. I did.

I got you. And so they got their own to worry about, you know, like Jeff and them and they're doing their own homework and notes and all that and rehashing what they're doing over. whatever they're doing to prepare. So I went back and cleaned up my notes a little bit. I thought that I would have a lot more time because of Saturday in the Xfinity race, you had these talk forever in the pre-race. Well, on Sunday, they smash everything together, and you got just seconds to get your thought in.

And I was like, I had this long thought, and I couldn't get it in. And so it blew up in my face. And I went back to the bus. I cut all my thoughts down to barely know. nothing. And then I went into the booth to do the real deal. I gave my thoughts, you know, my bullet points to a buddy in there to put on the whiteboard and, you know, hold it right next to the camera. And it came pretty easy then. Less is more in that scenario. And I felt like anyways, I was pretty happy with the opening of the show. The opening of the show is the only

produced part, the only part that's structured really for me. And so that's not a lot. That's as fun because you got to remember stuff. You know, you got to go, I like Chase Sail it today, and this is the reasons why. Well, he ran second in 2017, and he ran third in 2016, and he qualified third today, and he was second fastest on average practice. You know, you got to remember those moments, and you're nervous, and you're like, I'm almost forget something, and that means you forget something. Yeah, the second you think that, you're done.

your mind just goes blank. And so... There was an example from that, by the way, on Saturday when he wasn't really listening to what Jeff Burton said. And he went with the thought that he had had a minute before. Yeah. And it wasn't the thought that he would have been responding to because Jeff Burton teed him up to say something. Jeff Burton said, hey, man, this guy's driving around the racetrack. Let's listen to his throttle.

And I go, yeah, man, he's driving her down into turn three and watch him go over his mouth. I didn't wait. I didn't let the audience hear. the throttle. But the produced stuff that we do, the opening to the show is the least fun because it's the most structured. The great thing, I don't know how, I don't think they do other sports this way because other sports have a time, they have a time of each period and so forth.

So they can build the whole show basically as a structured show from start to finish. We're going to do this at the end of this period. We're going to do this at halftime. And at halftime, it's like a whole show. Yeah. You know, this is going to happen at 113. This is going to happen at 114. You're going to say this at 115.

At 1.16, this person's going to come in and talk. And so that's how the open to the show is. And as soon as, you know, the green flag drops, it's fluid. We just react. We're not responsible for remembering anything or being on time for anything. It's so easy. That's the fun part, right? Yeah, that's the fun part.

It's easy to do. It's easy to screw up. But it's not rocket science at all. I mean, it's just, they say, just be you. We don't want you to do what Rick's doing. We don't need you to bump us in and out of commercials or anything professional. Just react to what you're seeing. If you have a thought, jump in there, you know, get in the game and have fun.

And that's what we did. And the great thing about Rick, so Rick's supposed to call the finishes to the stages and the race. We pretty much back out and let him have the cars, it's crossing the finish line to get the white flag, and he'll call that action to the end. What Rick doesn't mind is for someone like myself that's excited to not, you know, you don't want to step on him, but to add to what he's doing. I thought that this would all be super competitive as far as like between me and Rick or me and the Tard or me and Jeff, and I thought the whole environment would be really

sensitive, and it's completely not like that. I know, I mean, the cup garage, everybody's friendly, but, man, you know, I got to race against you. Oh, yeah. And you're on the other team, even guys, even the crew guys, mechanics, you know. You know, we're great pals, but got to keep you at arm's length. It's not like that, at least that's the way it feels initially in the production crew and with the talent. Everybody is there to support each other and help each other. We have these production meetings in the morning that are actually a lot of fun to be in.

Everybody's giving each other input and ideas. If Jeff Burton's doing something about during pre-race, nobody's scared to speak up and go, hey, man, maybe add this in there. And Jeff's never too big to go, I got it. Jeff goes, yeah, yeah, and he'll add it. Like we were doing something the other day, I knew. What the hell did I know? He was getting ready to do something.

He had a thought, and he's like, hey, When we come back from commercial, I'm going to talk about X. And I said, hey, man, while you're doing that, maybe think about this. I remember what it was. He was going to talk about the restart with Martin Trex Jr., where Martin pushed the 41 car into the lead. And he was like, I'm going to talk about how that's become an art, trying to res, the guy in seconds just is responsible to help or push if he wants to. You know, he's got to time that perfectly. Some guys can do it great.

Some guys might do it, you know, might not do it so well. He wanted to talk about the restart. and what Martin did and why he did it. And I said, hey, maybe also talk about, like, at the end of the race, how that's totally, Martin's totally jumping out of line there, you know, like we saw the Gano do late in the race. And so he wasn't too big to, he said, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I was like, man, I wonder if he'll add it in there.

And he did. And late in the race, you know, it's going to be completely different. And so everybody sort of helps each other to be the best they can be. Which I would assume is difficult because you and Burton are not in the same booth. No, but we can talk to each other. Of course you can. But there was something about the chemistry. This was a new, it was not an experiment.

This is what NBC had been planning, but you have two booths, A booth and B booth. That's different. That is very different. And so it's not even familiar to the producers and to the directors. And so you've got, Dale Jr., I saw a notice several times during the broadcast. He was conversing with the people in the other booth. You never know it. So you guys could see each other.

Yeah. There's a button I can hit that just only the people that are in the booth can hear. So only I can hit a button and talk to LaTart, Burton, and Rick without anyone else hearing it or the broadcast hearing it. And so I can hit that button go, hey, Jeff, brother, every d'ar. Yeah. You know. You and Steve in the same booth, though, was awesome. I mean, can we just be honest?

That's great. You tell me, man. But you enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. I can't, I am never going to say, me and Steve in the same booth were awesome. I'm never going to feel awesome. You know what I'm talking about. Like you did it?

You guys, the chemistry, everything seemed to really work in there. They have a camera on you the entire. entire time. They had a junior camp. But did it make you feel more comfortable, maybe, is the question, because you've got this rapport in relationship. Yeah. I love working with Steve.

I mean, I love it. I want to, I know this, it's going to suck to here, man, but I want whatever the fans want. If the fans want me and Steve in the booth together, then I want to, I want us to be whatever people are going to watch. Of course, I love sitting with Steve and doing the show, just like I like sitting with you and doing the podcast. I mean, I like hanging out with my friends.

and working with my friends, hell yeah. You know, I want to hang out with them after work. Can I hang out with them during work too? That's awesome. The way I feel about it is Steve left our, you know, we had a great friendship when he was a crew chief and I'm the driver, and he left that to go do something new for him and his family. And as hard as that was, he went and built something, you know, and did this on his own

outside of our bubble. And I am so glad that he's so open to me joining him. and being a part of something that he doesn't have to share. And, you know, that makes me feel great that he's like, hey, man, I'm so glad this is, we're back together, you know, I'm so glad we're doing it. You know, he could have been like, man, you know, I had fun racing with you. But I'm doing this other thing.

Don't come over here. Don't cram my space. Don't come onto this playground, man, this is my thing. You know, and he wasn't like that. I'm so thankful for that because I really did want to work with him again. I'm not going to complain when they put him down on the pit box for some races or if we're not together in the same booth. We practiced with me and Jeff together in a booth, and that was enjoyable, and I want to work with Jeff as much as I can so we can continue to build some chemistry. So that'll be fine if we're not together all the time.

And I don't know that we need to be, and I don't know Steve would even want that either. But yeah, it was fun, and it was probably best to put us together for my first race because I'm going to feel the most comfortable next to him more than any of any. anyone else I know in the whole NBC family. Let me ask you something. Take us now through that last lap. We were talking about at the beginning, having a lot of fun with the slide job stuff, but you said some interesting things coming after the race coming back home, and you weren't actually trying to call a race.

And then what I'm hearing from you today was, you know, there was a concern of who is actually going to speak up and accessorize Rick Allen's, you know, call of the final two laps. So what's going through your mind as those last laps are going, and what led to slide job and all the other reactions that you had? So Rick's going to take the field with two to go or at least one to go. The producer wants us to back out and let Rick take it and start, you know, building up the finish. Rick is comfortable and I've heard it before.

I've heard Jeff and Steve both maybe more so Jeff. Rick is comfortable with Jeff coming in and adding to the extreme. excitement. Like you said, accessorizing is a good word. We went to Martinsville to spend the afternoon, I think on a Friday or Saturday, the Martinsville race weekend. I rode with Rick all the way there and back. So we've spent time, we've made an effort to be around each other outside of all this to get to know each other. And I know Rick's comfortable with, as long as, you know, you're going to come in there and make things better, he's happy for you to come in there and join him on that last lap call. He's not territorial when it comes to that. And that's so,

nice, you know, because my, it happened at the, I think, the end of the stage with Harvick when he passed to 41, I could hardly keep my mouth shut. You said as much, too. Yeah. You're like, yeah. Like Rick's calling that to the finish line, and I'm like, I can literally, I literally cannot contain myself. This is so freaking cool.

Yeah. What a race. And so it's hard, and I know I'm going to have a hard time with that in a lot of situations if we're having, especially if we're having stages in that way or races in that way. or races in that way. It's going to be hard not to join Rick and really have this. I'm not going to add anything that people don't know. I'm just going to be doing what Rick's doing,

and that's be excited about what I see. But as far as the slide job stuff, I mean, we've been talking all day about for two days, really, about Larson and his dirt experience and how I think that that helps him a lot when he especially runs that high groove. And I'd heard someone in an interview, maybe it was Larson,

talking about how slide jobs were a realistic tactic at this track because of how slick and worn out of it is. I read that in somebody's statement, but here was the perfect opportunity. I did not think that Larson was going to go to the bottom in term one. He had been gaining on the 18 running the high side, and even though he was going to be right up behind him and in dirty air, I still felt like he could at least come off the corner with the same distance or the same gap.

and then in 3 and 4 really have an awesome run and passing either on the outside and turn 4 or running to the start finish line. So I thought that Larson would go in behind him and try to at least keep pacing one and two. But he dove to the bottom. And initially I was thinking, oh no, because the bottom just wasn't as good in 1 and 2

for anyone. Everybody had made a lot more speed around the top and I thought, man, he's going to, if he has even a decent, corner. He's going to lose speed down. He's going to lose

time down the back straight away with the momentum that the 18 would have running the top. So initially goes down there

and I'm like, oh no, but then he started, he sailed it in there and I'm like, I was like screaming Sly Job because I was wanting Larson

to do it. And I was wanting Rick. Yeah. I was wanting Rick to say it. So he was talking to Rick. He wasn't talking to he was telling Rick.

Slide job. Like, hey, this is it. Yeah. And I'm glad I didn't have that button mash where I was just talking to the group, where I was just talking to him and not the broad, and so the broadcast can hear it. But I was like, slide job, slide job.

Like, say it, Rick. Say slide job. It's happening. Here he goes. He's doing the slide job. And, I mean, you don't see slide jobs on asphalt often, you know. And here's a dirt guy, one of the best in the country, trying to make a pass on the last lap, trying a slide job. and what a, what a, and then the next thing that happened.

Keyword try. Yeah. The next thing that happened was I thought, okay, so he's trying this slide job, and I thought he's going to be able to clear him if he wants to drive up in front of him and really commit it all the way, commit that slide job to the fence. He's cleared him, and he didn't know that he had him cleared or didn't think he had him cleared, and so he gave him a little space, and I thought, oh, damn. I had dropped my head in disappointment that,

that and predicting that the race was over. And Jeff Burton comes over the radio and says, he hit him or they touched or there's contact. And I look back up. And I was like, damn, man, he's, that killed the 18s run. Yeah. And I'm like, oh, it ain't over yet. You know, so they go down the back straightaway, shallow as hell into turn three.

So they both went into the corner pretty shallow. Do you like how Kyle, like, was going at him so much that he, like, I don't know if you know. He bounced off the curve. Yeah, he hit the late. apron there even. He was going for him. He was committed and got in the back of him and turned him sideways. I mean, I would have done the same thing and I think 98% of the field would have done the same thing because it's for a win. It's for a win and wins are hard to come by. It was just incredible. And then as soon as they're wrecking, I just, I thought that they had lost enough

momentum that Harvitt could win the race. I did too. So I started hollering, where's Harvard? Who's in third? Yeah, where's third? Right. Where's Harvard? You know, because if he's close enough, how far behind is he?

I haven't really paid attention for the last handful of laps. Oh, because you had so much going on with the lap cars? Yeah. Yeah. So is he close or not? But he wasn't close enough to get in there and steal that win. But, man, that would have been dramatic. You know, that was, that reminded me of the crash into the 79, 500 down the back straightaway.

Where's third place? The camera's going. Third place is in turn three, you know, and the camera's trying to find them. I was like, it felt just like, it really did feel just like the last lap of the 79, Daytona 500, and the calls and all the things happening in that moment felt very similar. And by the way, and how the call of the race really kind of amplifies those moments, and you had Ken Squire going, and there's a fight. Now we've got a new one.

Slide job. And by the way, let's not lose focus of the true hero of this. moment because none of this happens without Ryan Joseph Newman. Yeah. Being Ryan Joseph Newman and racing guys as a lap card. Thank you, Newman. I was trying to explain to people how Ryan races people really hard. And he carries that as a badge of honor.

It's like he heard you, man, because he like ramped it up a little bit. I tried to do that. And then I thought for a second, maybe I've just insulted it. Ryan Newman. I know. But that's him, man. And no, Kyle Bush was pissed,

I'm sure. Yeah. Like, you know, anybody would be. Damn, and he rakes, I would be pissed if Ryan did that to me. Oh, of course, yes.

But that's Ryan. You're like, immediately you're freaking mad. And then a lap later, you're like, well, you know, that's Ryan. It's Newman.

And then when Kyle got bundled up, Ryan Newman, boy, he had his run. He's going to do it. He's going to get him. He's going to get him. I'm like, golly Newman. Where did Newman finish?

Does anybody know? It doesn't matter. He's sitting there thinking, these are all positions for me, man. I don't care. Because there's three other cars around him. I don't care that that's the leader. I'm trying to get these spots. God bless that guy.

American hero, Ryan Newman, a mountain of a man. That was so perfect. And it gave us that. I saw when the leader was coming and the lap cars were side by side, that was a problem. Newman made, I'm sorry, Larson made up all that ground and this like, oh my gosh, this might happen. How about you, you've played video games and you've raced cars and when stuff bottles up and Larson took that outside there and he wasn't lifting coming around that first car. And then Stenhouse is up there and it's like, oh, is he going to squeeze it in there?

That was amazing that we were on that in-car view, that roof cam view at that very moment because it was just he's just going for it. Oh, so good. Such a good race. My goodness. What a race to debut as, and, I mean, that's just so much fun. You looked like you had a blast up there. I'm going to tell you, you sounded like you were having a blast. That was my big takeaway from that, from watching you do your debut.

It was a busy week, busy weekend. You went to countless meetings. You had early starts, but man, what a way to end it. That was a beautiful thing. A beautiful thing. I wore out. I'm still tired now. I got home last night around 9 o'clock.

Ila had just went to sleep. So Amy was like just, I was like, hey, I'll have her sleep. Because if I pick her up and she wakes up and she starts crying, then, you're in trouble. If it could take her another hour to get back down. So I had to wait until 1.30 in the morning, until she woke up to get hungry. And I went over there and picked her up, man.

You're happy as heck. And I got to hold her so tight. And Mama fed her. We changed her. and then she went back to sleep. And I had to wait till this morning and pick her back up again. We took her to get her shots today. We heard such horror stories about the shots, right?

And she had one before, and I was pretty upset about it. But we took her to get her shots, and, man, she only cried just for a second. Like, she cried for, like, five seconds. And then wanted her to pacifier. And once she got her pacifier, she quiet. put her back in her car seat fell asleep one tough customer road home falling asleep one tough customer so soon as she stopped crying i said dang and amy goes yeah that was real anticlimactic and i was like i know and she goes earnhardt i was like yeah she's tough like an earn heart that's right

dale earnhard never cried during his shots i'm i know that i know del earnhard doesn't cry during his shots what a great deal i couldn't believe it everybody had been setting us up for this this whole, you know, storm. Well, good stuff, good stuff. All right, let's throw it to an Exalta Race Center update. This is your Exalta Race Center update. I'm Matthew Dillner. The only thing hotter than the steamy weather in Chicago this weekend

was the on-track action at Chicago Land Speedway. On Friday night, John Hunter Nevecheck looked to be on his way to a win until he ran out of gas on the final lap, handing the checkered flag to Brett Muppet. On Saturday, Kyle Larson took the win in a dominating performance. Elliot Sather was the top finisher for Junior Motorsports with a sixth place effort. A spectacular race on Sunday was kicked off by a Cup series finish for the ages. Kyle Larson attempted a last-lap slide job on Kyle Busch that led to contact and then retaliation from Bush on the final corner.

Bush came out on top in a dramatic finish to win his fifth race of the season. This week, the Cup and Xfinity Series hauled down to Daytona for a July 4th double header. The Junior Motorsports late model team was in action this weekend at South. Carolina's Myrtle Beach Speedway, third generation driver Jagger Jones, the son of PJ and grandson of the legendary Parnelly Jones, scored the W in his debut for the team. This has been your Exalta Race Center update. Exalta is the official paint partner of NASCAR, developing manufacturing, and supplying coatings to all types of vehicles and industrial applications. For more on Exalta, please visit exaltascs.com.

Hey, one thing I wanted to actually ask you, you know, the battle between Kurt and Kevin, which, by the way, Jeff Burton had a really great line after that segment. But I think it was the race to segment two. Kevin and Kurt, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, teammates Stewart-Hawks Racing, had a heck of a race. Another one, just another great race that we saw during this event. What were your thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean, it was great television.

So I didn't think Kevin was going to get him or even get near him, but Kevin run him down and then they went down into turn three, and Kevin dove to the outside and got on his corner panel, and that's when I was like, man, if he can be there as they're going to throttle, it's over because he'll have the outside momentum off the corner. If he doesn't push you up in the middle of the corner through the bumps and lose the quarter panel of the 41, then Kevin's going to win the stage, which was exciting TV.

And then they come off the corner so close almost. I mean, Kevin looked like he brushed your fence or had to get very close. The 44's in his door, sideways. Great, great. great racing. I mean, the whole day had been pretty awesome. And it was just kind of the energy and intensity was just building. So we loved it in the booth.

And I, Kurt's reaction to that was like come out of left field. I just could not. I mean, I can understand like, darn, I got beat. Yeah. My bad guys, I chose poorly in three and four on what to do. or I could have tried X, Y, or Z, and I gave up that stage win. But not, like, I would have never expected Jimmy Johnson or a teammate, I guess, any teammate, to give me, or just to not race and not try to win that.

The stage points are so freaking important. Were you really surprised, though? We're talking about Kurt Bush. I know, but, yeah. I don't care. Kurt seemed to have changed quite a bit. over the last couple of years, particularly since he's gotten married. Over the last several months, his activities on social media have shown a side of him,

which is friendly, fun to be around, carefree, totally a bit of an evolution from the original Kurt that we know from way back. And he has worked hard to try to shed that reputation. Yeah, I give him a benefit of doubt, so I was surprised. and I was surprised that he had that point of view, and then I was surprised that he shared it with his team. Yeah. Because I'm sure that maybe they were probably as shocked

as the rest of the world that heard it. It was like he had to get it out. I know, like couldn't keep it to himself, or he couldn't say it to himself. He had to hit the mic. That's Kurt Murdo. And so, I don't know, man. I just was really surprised on his take.

I surprised that he shared it with the team, which ended up going on the radio to the network broadcast to everyone. He plugged NBC. I know. Like, what? What was that for? That was vintage Kurt, man. I don't even know why,

why is that in his mind in that moment? Why is that in his mind? Yeah, like, I'm, Ficking, M.C. You know what I mean? I mean, I'm sorry for my language. I just couldn't,

I just was really surprised by his take. And I ain't going to bash on him or nothing, man. The rest of the... But Jack Burton did that enough. He didn't... Everybody that hears it can handle it from here. Right, right, right. I like Jeff's comments.

I thought that was good. Yeah. Because he didn't like... You know how... I'm sorry, you're now a broadcaster. Broadcasters sometimes err on the side of safety and, oh, you know, well, this guy did greater. That guy did great.

And sometimes they don't say critical things about race guard drivers. And I thought that was a cool little moment there that Jeff shared. A cool moment. for Jeff. I, you know, I thought it was ridiculous. 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, let's get into the questions here. Jessica, this will be a good pace change. Jessica wants to know, what's the first concert you've ever been to? You ever went to?

The first concert was, yeah, yeah, yeah. The first concert I went to was Chicago and Moody Blues. Really? Yeah, I was 15. That's a big show. Charlotte. Yep. My sister... We're in Charlotte.

The Verizon... What is it now? Was the amphitheater deal? Yeah, it was called the Blockbuster Pavilion back then, back when they had blockbusters and you'd go to rent your movies. Now it's Verizon? It's some sort of amphitheater. It was Verizon.

It was. Who knows what it is? Mike Davis Amphitheater. It's probably Bank of America or something. Yeah, probably. Nights and White Satin. That was the jam. Oh, Moody Blues.

Damn. Knights and Light. That's a... Freaking awesome song, man. I'm 15 years old, and I was loving it. Chicago was good, Moody Blues. That was the best. Moody Blues is the best part of it?

Yeah. All right. Chad wants to know, how soon can you talk NASCAR and NBC into ditching the ties? Hashtag, Ties don't belong in NASCAR. Yeah, so I got a good idea on, I got a good little story on that. I was coming in, and so we started doing the Wednesday show, and they said, you know, dress casually. The Wednesday and NASCAR marriage. Yeah.

The Wednesday NASCAR America, Wednesdays show. They're like dress whatever, wear whatever you want, jeans and a button down, even untucked if you won't. And so we're starting to do these shows. And Rick Allen and the guys are like, just so you know, we've never done this show without a tie, much less in jeans and our shirt on button. So this is freaking awesome. And so we're doing the Wednesday shows. We get to the racetrack for the broadcast for the real deal this weekend. They're like, yeah, just wear whatever you wear on Wednesday for the, you.

Xfinity practices, and for the cup practices, and even maybe for qualifying. And then, you know, for the races, we're probably just going to put you in some jeans and a dress shirt. And so we were like, great. So we're wearing jeans all weekend. And me and Rick and Jeff Burton and LaTart got together and I said, we were in this meeting. And I said, hey, guys, there's one more thing. I said, they're letting us wear jeans. This is awesome.

You guys are happy. Something new, not having to wear ties, every broadcast. Let's not screw this up. So, you know, be particular about the jeans you wear. We're some really nice ones. Gotcha. All right. Well, Rick Allen shows up in his house jeans.

Right? Something you put on. Yeah. At the house. Like old dad jeans or something? Regular old dad jeans. And, I mean, we got a practice and a half, I think. The first two Xfinity practices and we got a memo.

that jeans were gone. Wow. So, Rick Allen. I'm going to blame Rick for wearing his dad jeans. And we all had our nice jeans ready to go. But I'm going to be, and this ain't no crap, man. This ain't no sponsor plug. But Wrangler makes this slack sort of.

It's a cross between a nice dress slacks and jeans, and it's a stretchy too. But they make a tan and a charcoal and a black. And I'm going to fill the closet with them things because apparently NBC said they're good to go. And that's what I'm wearing all year. Wow. Okay. And so I don't like wearing slack slacks. I didn't even own a pair of slacks until a couple months ago.

And I don't like, I hate wearing suits. And everybody knows I don't like wearing ties and all that stuff. I like how you rock the petty shirt the first day. Yeah. You know, I turned on my TV and I'm like, well, dang. Oh, yeah, yeah, on the pit box. Yeah. I was like, awesome.

So all the casual stuff is gone. We'll be tucked in, even for Xfinity practices. Can't be untucked, which sucks. That ended quickly, too. I know. It didn't last long at all. So there you go. I made a joke about that on Instagram.

I don't mind. I saw it was he had it tucked in. I'm like, uh-oh. Did we just do something? Did we screw that up? Something screwed up. Yeah. So we're going to blame Rick Allen on all that.

I'm not going to blame Rick for the untucked because that was probably just because our shirts were too long to be untucked. And we tried to make them work, but you got to get them on tucket shirts, I guess. How'd it feel being in that? Because I turned on the whole weekend I'm seeing Casual Dale, and then I turn on the race. Oh, you know we weren't going on. Man, you got your suit, you got your tie, you were all business. I felt freaking totally, I don't mind doing that for the race.

It doesn't bother me because I feel like that the race. Some fans, I don't mind if we, maybe ditching the tie will be okay. I kind of like putting a tie on every once in a while. And the reason why I say that is because I just love. learn how to tie one a couple years ago. So now I'm like, I'm going pro-tie now. I don't know how to do multiple knots, but I can tie a tie, so before when I couldn't tie a tie, hated ties. Don't like them because I can't tie them. But now that I can tie one, it doesn't bother me to use it. All right. Jennifer Jay, odd question, she says, four ass junior, which I say

the odd or the better. But how did you end up with the buffalo? And how many do you have now? I mean, because everybody's seeing them now on those new Wrangler ads. I got four Buffalo. I know I remember how I got the first two. I don't remember how I got the second two, but the first two. So a long, long time ago, I had this Hummer, and put a lot of work into it,

put a giant stereo in it, and I sold it in a family down in Florida that had a buffalo farm bought it. They came, when they come to get it, they're like, man, looking at my property. They're like, you got a lot of property here, man. You know you should fence it up. He fence it up.

We'll send you some buffalo. I was like, I don't, why, okay, like, what goes into Buffalo? Is that a lot of expense,

you know, how they don't, their maintenance free, man. And so we do. If they don't get out. Yeah. That's one thing that didn't tell me.

So I fenced up the property, fits up quite a bit, and have it added additional, even additional pasture for them. And he brought them over, and they're all females, so they're not, you know,

aggressive. And males are much more aggressive. And so one of them's a cut up. It's funny because the first two are super chill, never bother nothing. And then I guess we got two more. And one of them's a real cut up and onry. And so it finds the weaknesses in the fence and pushes the slats out and gets loose. And then they all walk out.

And so one night, they've gotten out a couple times. And so one night we got a call from the state trooper a couple of times. a couple state troopers, our buffalo had escaped and walked two miles down the road, and we're standing in the front yard of somebody's house, four big buffalo. Imagine those people waking up and being like, what the hell is a buffalo? So, like 2 o'clock in the morning, Mitch, the guy that sort of takes care of them, had to walk him all the way back with a bucket of feed. I think I was going to a race.

And so he got a bucket of feed, and they follow him everywhere with that. When he's got that bucket, they'll go wherever he wants. And he walked them all the way back home and all the way back in the fence. And they're like, okay, you know, here we are. It's weird, man. And once they find the weaknesses in the fence, they stand in those areas. Like, man, I remember getting out here one time. I remember there's a hole here somewhere, you know.

That's cool. Yeah. But it's just a buffalo cruising, Moorsville. I mean, nothing to see here. It's very scary. We've seen the bear in Canapolis before, but, you know, the Buffalo and Moorsville, yeah, that's. If you put like a, if you parked a golf car, in that pasture, once the buffalo got used to it,

they'd start playing with it, pushing it over and stuff. And so it makes me a little nervous that they could get out and hurt somebody or something. Have you ever given them anything to play with in the yard like that? I need to. I need to put in some gigantic beach balls and stuff. So what they do with them, why not? We'll have field goal posts.

Yeah. They love, this morning, one of them, they're out there running like hell. Really? They can run fast as shit. And they're just, you know, this morning they were spry and having fun running around the field chasing each other and stuff. Stampede. Yeah.

They stay tight, boy. They don't never leave each other's side. All four them together. They're never, you'll never see them apart. Loyal. Yep. All right. I wasn't going to do one more, but this one I think wouldn't have a shelf life unless we did it.

Brian Jr. 88 referred to a picture that recently surfaced on Twitter. And he says, what can you tell us about the convertible race at Charlotte Motor Speedway when you won against Dick Trickle? Why were you wearing an oversized Burger King suit from one of the Steve Park crew guys? And what was your dad, Mayfield, and Dave Burns laughing at? There was a good series of pictures. I don't know if you saw it. If I knew what year it was, I could probably explain this uniform. I think that I wasn't in the Xfinity car yet.

I was still a late model driver, and I didn't have a decent uniform to use. And the one that I would have had for my late model wouldn't have been in my possession. It would have been down in Union County near Paisland, South Carolina, in the hauler, the gooseneck where my late model was kept. I probably had to borrow one, and they had the Burger King deal that just started with Steve Park, and they were going to run this cup race, and it was Dad's first cup car as an owner, and so he was probably trying to butter up Burger King a little bit with a little additional exposure, you know, just being a businessman. I can't even remember what happened in the race, but I'm not. remember they let us bang up they let us crash them cars and banging each other and that shit was

fun because i mean you know i'd never really drove too many big cup car chassis before with those type of bodies and i don't know you know they just let them destroy the they just let us destroy those cars and banging each other rub and it was it was like paying to ride at the go car track you know giving your five bucks and hopping on with your friends and beating hell at each other but in a big car i don't know why they were convertibles either i don't even know what was happening there probably some crazy plan Humpy Wheeler had. Oh yeah. It was the promoter back to start a convertible series. He liked it because he liked it also

I remember because you could see the driver in the car. Exactly. He was going to start a convertible series probably that run to the quarter mile with the legend's cars. Probably. The coolest part of that is Dick Trickleby. But it never got no traction. Yeah, well yeah, you're right. The coolest part is beating Dick Thrier, you know.

All right, good questions. Can always send him to us Ask Junior. Hashtag Asked S. All right. Put it out. Put it out. The white flag. Put it out. Keep on the bud. White flag right there.

White flag. The Dale Jr. Download is now on TV. Tune into NBC Sports Network every Thursday at 530 to watch the download. Although I don't know that we'll do it next Thursday because you're going to be in Texas. Is that right? I'll be in Texas. I'm taking Ila.

Let me sclan. My apologies that we won't have a download next week, but I'm taking Ila to Texas to see Amy's family for the first time. So this is a big, important trip. And that thus is why I won't be around. Right. There you go. But by the way, did you guys see that it re-aired after the race? Yeah.

Yeah, that was cool. Did it? So the deal to your download on Sunday. Sunday. Sunday. Yeah. Well, during Wednesday's Media Day, you did an hour-long appearance on Watch What Happens Live on Bravo. I learned in this show that I probably wasn't supposed to talk about that.

But we did. That airs on July 9th. That was before you had 10,000 followers on their emo media. Oh, yeah. Let's talk about that on the Instagram. media, baby. Dale Jr. really kind of helped us get over 10,000.

That's a big deal for Matthew Dillner. So, freeze me up. Explain to people what was so important about getting to 10,000 followers on it. Well, we like to do Instagram stories. That's something that we enjoy doing. And it's fun.

It's really killing it lately with those stories. And so what Dillner will do is he'll put together kind of a clips package, much like we've been doing on social media. But now we can actually go and swipe up directly to our podcast and to our links and all that stuff. You get that at 10,000. followers. You get that at 10,000, you gain the swipe-up feature, which instead of just watching it and think it's entertaining, if you swipe up, it drives your right to the content.

And so is there other unlockables, I would call it? I don't know, but that would be cool if we could get some prizes and gems. Like it's Super Mario Brothers. Yeah. It was fun. It's like a game for me. I hope everybody else enjoyed it because it was like we won something. Yeah.

I was celebrating. It was fun. I enjoyed actually just documenting stuff from the week, right, with Dell. since I don't go travel around much anymore. So when we went to New York, we had a lot of fun with that, and then Dale Jr. sort of got involved with it. We were having fun. Although Dale did get a little angry at me because he was like,

no, I wanted this from my Instagram. Well, all that great content was going to 8,000 followers instead of 610,000 or whatever. Sometimes you start off and you got an open trailer with a tire rack. That's right. You'll get there. We're getting there. Well, why do that when you have a brand new, The challenge.

Yeah, you have a brand new trailer, all big decked out trailer with a lounge up front and everything sitting at the shop. Why would you take out the open trailer? I don't know. So you could swipe up. I would because I'm an idiot. So you could swipe up. You would, Dylan her. Listen, honestly, that was it for White Flag.

Although we do want to wish Happy Independence Day for everybody out there. Good luck in Daytona, Dale. What else you got for the final word here? Good luck in Daytona is right, man. We're going back to the Daytona International Raceway, a track where I've had a ton of success. I'm going to be back in the booth. I can't wait. I'm only enjoyed a couple days off, but I am just as excited to get back in the booth as I was this past weekend at Chicago.

We're going to have a lot of fun. We're talking about drafting. Something I feel like I know a lot about, so I should have a good time trying to explain to everybody what they're seeing and why the drivers are doing what they're doing. So tune in. We'll be doing some of the Xfinity stuff, practices and so forth, and just we'll keep you aware of all the different broadcasts that we'll be a part of and what we've got going on. We got going on. We got Friday with Rut, Fan Friday.

Oh, yeah. That's right. I'm glad you said that. You were doing a live show with Rutledgewood. Friday night. That'll be fun. Hold on. How good was Rutt this weekend, by the way?

He's amazing. Yeah, he's always been that way. I saw that side of Rut at the Super Bowl. Yeah. And then, you know, a little bit in South Korea. The guy, I had a perception of him, and it's completely enhanced now. Oh, yes. Having spent time with him and watch him work, see what he's doing.

And he's a great human being. He's a great person. Jim. He's a gym. I mean, he's an exceptional talent. So, yeah, Dale Jr. and Rutt will be on stage at Daytona. It's a fan show, a live show. Yeah, there's four drivers going to join us.

Yeah, I think Bubba Wallace. Stan House, Denny Hamlin, and Austin Dillon. Austin Dillon. And I think the poll winner, whoever wins the poll is going to do a walk-up interview. That should be a lot of fun. It's kind of a trackside now. Kind of like a trackside live. Trackside live that used to have years ago.

But they got this. idea. Sam Flood and Jeff Binky got this idea from the show that you and I did in Vegas last November for the appreciation tour. They saw kind of this dynamic where you and the drivers and just kind of a conversation and so. I need to do a homework then. You do. We're going to have to bring it. So I'm going to go home and start taking notes and see what kind of cool questions we can ask these guys outside of what they get asked all the time at the racetrack. We're going to try to get them to open up a little bit similar to the way to do on this couch here at the download. There you go, buddy. Good luck. Have it going. See it. This bit of bad assery was made by Dirtymo Media. Dirtymo!