The Dale Jr. Download - 224 - Ring Ring… Heyyyy Dale!

Episode Date: July 10, 2018

The #DJD guys phone Dale Earnhardt Jr. to break down Stenhouse’s wrecks, dumping the yellow line, remaining an unpolished broadcaster and why his seat on the couch is being filled, literally.  Plus, Mike Davis reveals a powerful quote from Dale’s up-coming book. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is a production of Dirtymo Media. From the Exaltes studio, it's the Dale Jr. Download. Welcome to the Dell Jr. Download. The Dell Jr. or less Dell Jr. download. But it does have Dillner. So this is Sands Dale Jr. download? If you will. Yeah. I'm Mike Davis. Matthew Dillner sitting in Dill Jr. sitting in Dill Jr.

He is in Texas this morning. Am I fell, Earnhardt, Jr.? like Fat Dail? Oh, you said it. I didn't want to say that. But, you know, you said it. Are you fat, Dale? Is that what you are? I am fat Dale today.

Taking up a lot more space on the couch than Dale Jr. Or is he skinny Dillner? Skilner. Skilner. Dale is not here, and I know what you're thinking. You're thinking right now. It's crossing your mind whether to go ahead and turn us off because it's a Dell Juniorless, Dale Jr. Download.

However, I will say a couple things on that. One is the first four years of the Dell Jr. Download didn't have Dill Jr. Junior on it and some of you not all of you some of you did still listen to us and secondly we've got an idea sholts we got an idea sholts is sitting in uh they'll might not like this i think dill should prank call dale star six seven in he's at his he's star six seven how are you even old enough to even know that i don't know dale junior is in texas right now at his in-laws i think is that what you understand yes which he might want us to call he gets in along with his in-laws i know You can get along with your in-laws.

In-laws can be outlaws. You can get along with your in-laws and still be an in-law jail. Yeah. The weird thing is I actually like my in-laws. It's weird. Sure. When they come and stay, they could stay for three weeks and it wouldn't bother me at least bit. I'm not saying that kiss up.

They're awesome. I like my in-laws too. However, I picked up hunting and this idea of getting out in the woods by myself to get away from it all at my in-laws house. Because that just seemed like a little too much. So Dale may want the distract. is what I'm trying to say, Dillner. I would love to take a poll right now of how many people think Dale's actually going to pick up.

Do you think he will? Okay, if we call from your phone. Let's take our own poll. If we were to call Dale Jr. right now. What time is it in Texas? They're on central time, right? Central time. So we're recording this at 11 o'clock on Monday.

So it's 10 o'clock there. He might not be up. Oh, please. He's been up for hours. How many beers is he allowed to have it as in-laws, you think? I don't know how many is allowed, but I know how many he's thinking about. right now. So of course he's up. The question is, does he answer? I think he does. Okay, we'll call from, if we call from your phone, I think he does. Oh, no, if we call from my phone, I think

it should call from your phone, because if you prank call him, I want you to take the fall. No, you're taking the fall because I'm way more fireable. Is prank calling even a thing anymore? It's not a cool thing to do. Dude, we just did it on 360. Is prank calling not a thing? We did. Watched a hair him 360? But we got the most gullible person ever. I mean, like, second most. That's pretty gullible. I mean, but Dale Jr., could you honestly prank call Dale Jr. And get away with it?

I mean, in the age of caller ID and everything else. I hope he doesn't listen to this podcast after it's put up, so then we could use that as an idea and just prank all the hell out of them. Well, all right. So let's call Dale Jr. At least just to be friends. So we miss him. We're going to do it already.

This is how much Dillner misses Dale Jr. Dillner, I mean, Dale Jr. hadn't even arrived in Texas yet. He wasn't, he hadn't so much left Moresville. Dillner's already sitting in a seat. seat. Dale Jr. It's like you never left. I wonder if that's even a thing that Dale Jr. would be upset about.

I mean, you don't sit in Dale Jr's seat. You know, Howard Stern has a seat. You don't touch Howard Stern's seat. We've got the redheads sitting in my seat. Yeah, I still have Matthew's seat. I didn't want you to be alone on the couch, Mike. You're a community seat over there. I didn't want you to be alone on the couch.

There's many butts that have been in that seat, don't you want you to be lonely. Well, I'm glad you're here. Even though Del Jr. may have a problem with it. I think we should call Dale Jr., because honestly, I got a lot to talk. talk to him about. There is a lot of stuff this weekend, man, at Daytona. What a race. It was ridiculous. I mean, both races were awesome. I admit, I only watched the cut down at the cup race because it was my wife's birthday. And for two years in a row, I've missed her birthday. So by God, this year, I set myself reminders. I had friends reminding me, and I did not fail. I kicked it out of the coverage. I mean,

I did get you this year. What did you do? I took her out to, oh, I took her out to a brunch with some friends. I surprised her with that, gave her a nap during the day where I took care of the kids. We went out to a movie without kids, had to set up a babysitter, did a nice dinner afterwards. So it was a nice stress-free day for her. So it's better than the last few years of actually forgetting it. Well, so you didn't watch the cup race. It was quite interesting. I'd tell you something. You know what? I'll save my thoughts on it and see if we can get Dale Jr. on the phone. Let's do it. Dial them up. All right. Let's hit it. Hello.

Oh, he did answer. He did answer. I thought for sure he wasn't going to answer. Hey, Dale. Hey, how's it going? What are you doing? I am in Texas, and we came over here Monday morning, or no, Sunday morning. It feels like, you know, when you have those Saturday night races, the next day feels like Monday, which actually Sunday.

But anyways, we're, yeah, we're Sunday morning. We flew over here. You know, since I was been. born, not all of Amy's family has been able to get to, you know, hold her, meet her. So we brought her out here to accomplish just that. And we'll be coming back home tomorrow. So we make sure we're back home for the Wednesday episode of NASCAR America. Wednesday, Wednesday.

So what's the setting on your end right now? Are you on a porch? Are you in a room? What are you doing? I'm pacing around in the kitchen of my sister-in-law, Amy's sister. Okay, you know, she's got a cool sister. Do you get along with the in-laws? You get along with them pretty good, right?

Absolutely, yeah. So we get along. I love coming up here. Texas is just a fun state. There's just a lot to do. They kind of know how to live. They know how to live. They know how to live in Texas.

Texas people just kind of have a way about them. That makes me enjoy myself when I'm here. They've shown me around to all kinds of places that we went to Luka. And we went to Luka. and nice different yeah different yeah they've shown me a lot of texas over the last several years and it's really been enjoyable getting to know there from no amy's family and we all get along pretty good when you're cruising through lukenbach uh were you playing some you know willie or whaling you know please well as far as i know luke and bock is really just kind of this uh big barn and these there's people

in there playing every day they have a gift shop and they have old wood stove and everybody just just kind of grabs a beer and sits around and listens to people picking on their guitars and bentos. We need that here. How awesome is that? Well, it doesn't work if it's not at Luke Block. Right. Were you about to say I would like it? Mike, you would like it, yeah.

It sounds awesome. I got to say, a barn with a bunch of picking. Yeah, they have an theater outside. So, I mean, it's a historic place, I guess, where most all the old school country acts and guys would go just to hang out and play and have. have fun. I really don't know that much about the history, but they took me there. I was impressed by, you know, how much of a throwback it is. It's pretty fun hanging out there for a day. So you got out there yesterday and you're out there showing Ila off, which it's time. She's, what, three months old and they hadn't met Ila. So you're on the Tour Day Isla out there in

Texas right now. Let me ask you something because I was thinking about this back, you know, putting my own kids and going back and thinking about when they were Ila's age. Have you got comfortable letting anybody hold Ila? You know, that's completely comfortable, but it's something you need to get comfortable with. You can't. I know that it's weird or not normal for me to not want people to hold my babies, so I, especially family, you know, her grandparents, her aunts and uncles. So you got to kind of loosen up a little bit. But she has reflux. So we got to keep her sort of upright as much as possible. We even, you know, we even proper kind of. up on a pillow when we change her diapers, so she's not laying flat.

And so there's no chance of her having any kind of reflux problems. And so, you know, when you're letting somebody hold her, you're kind of watching on like, hey, man, you know, kind of keep propped up now. Everybody's got that uncle that's going to screw that up anyway. And you feel bad when they spit up on them instead of you. I don't feel bad. I don't know. Why would you tell bad about that?

No, that's what I'm cheering for. Yeah, man, you wanted to hold her. You were holding her flat. It was your cause. We told you. We told you not to hold her flat. You brought that on yourself. That's right.

I had a babysitter yesterday and Annabel spit up all over her. I'm talking not a little spit up, like big and like repeatedly. And I came home and I felt so bad. It's funny. You've got a conscience that some of us don't have then. That's something. Dale, the last question before we get into the race. Do you have a problem with Dillner sitting in your seat right now?

Some people would. Some people wouldn't. But right now, you weren't gone but a minute, and all of a sudden, Dillner hopped right in your seat like it's the Matthew Dillner download. Is there an issue with that or no? Yeah, I mean, it'd be like some coming in, it'd be like walking into your house and somebody sitting in your. No. Your lazy boy. You're recliner.

No. You're sitting in your, dude, oh, now I feel bad. See, I do have a conscience. Yeah, you just. No, I'm just, I don't want you to feel bad. Hey, dude, I will promise you one thing. When you come back, they're going to be a big old divot in your chair. It's me.

Matthew, it's me. It's not you. Don't feel bad. Yeah, but if it doesn't feel right, if it doesn't sit right when he gets back, Dillner, you're going to have a lot of explain to do. There's going to be a divot here, like when you sleep on the side of the bed. I'm not a big fan of that couch anyway. It's weird. I know.

I'm not either, but then all of a sudden, people just act like it's this magical couch or something. And we can get drivers on it, they open up like it's like a psychiatrist's couch. We should talk about it. I want to change the couch and a couple of things, but I don't know exactly what I do. So that's why it's not changed. Luckily for you, you know somebody that knows a little thing or two about interior design and decorating. That's true. That's true.

But they always, sometimes they go for visual and not to comfort. We got to hit on all cylinders on that. Right. So just make sure, Amy, if we redo this, we get the wood burning stove and the beers. using the wood, burnt and stove. All right, Dale. There's much to talk about.

I am curious. I was actually on my own family vacation during the week. I did catch the cup race. Dillner had his wife's birthday, so he caught the Xfinity race, not the cup race. So we've all got these bits and pieces,

but leaving Daytona, let's talk first as a broadcaster, second, about the race itself. From a broadcasting standpoint, you were week two and to your new career. I think it's now, That time we can all know what our first impressions are. You know, the first week we're probably probably putting it all together.

But now our first impressions on your impressions of being a broadcaster and also fans' impressions of you as a broadcaster. What are your impressions so far after two weeks? Well, we did the Xfinity race down on the pit box with Steve LaTart. And I really enjoyed being in the booth. I'm new, and so it's easier for me to do the job in the booth because I need all the things that are up there to assist me. When you're down on the pit box,

you don't have a lot of the bells and whistles that the booth has, so you kind of just flying blind a little bit, and I didn't really enjoy that that much. And plus in the booth, you know, you just kind of, I don't know, it's like playing double dutch and not knowing when to jump in. And so I would say that that made the Xfinity broadcasts a little difficult for me, but Sunday or Saturday night for the cup race back in the booth had a blast. I thought everything went well.

There were a couple things that slipped up on or trying to remember drivers with the right car and things like that. I think I slipped up at one particular point when I was trying to talk about whether Jimmy Johnson would be considered in the most popular driver award. I put Brian Blaney in his old race car, I think. But anyways, little things like that are going to happen. You're going to make mistakes and misspe. from time to time. I think one of the big ticket items I pulled away, especially from doing the Xfinity race, and it shows up mostly on the plate tracks because everybody is going to be in the

race at some point. And you see how we had a lot of guys that don't typically run that well on the other racetracks finish well. And we, I got to do a better job or as time goes, I've got to really learn all the drivers in the field, not just the ones everybody's aware of, but all the drivers in field and I got some input from the people at NBC that I'm leaning on for feedback and I felt that way myself at times during the expenditure race and during the cup race where you know I think we we got to cover everything and there's a lot of times when I felt like that I didn't I didn't acknowledge you know say you know when a guy's having a good day or a guy's in the top 10 uh Jeffrey finished 11th we never I never talked about him at all I mean there's a lot of guys

that finished well that that I never mentioned or every broadcast that I do I'm going to try to find one thing in particular to work on that would be probably what I would take away from that from this weekend it tested you there were some names up there I'd never heard of and the cup race I'm talking about even I mean late in the rate like DJ Kennington or Kensington or whatever's name is and and there was other guys I mean obviously de Benedetto those guys I mean there was it almost looked like the junior varsity up there in the top 10 late in the race because of the attrition of that race I think it's important that you do that anyway on the broadcasting side I mean I

know when I did a garage cam, I took a little flack at the beginning and they didn't want me to cover the guys that were maybe on the third part of the garage. Really? You know, and this and that. And I'm like, no, if there's 48 guys in this garage, all 48 of them have a story. And that story deserves to be told. And the fact that you're recognizing that is a good thing for our sport. So when one of those guys is in the top 10 and you know them personally and you know things

about them, it's only going to enhance a sport, man. That's true. Dale, so you. you want to be able to get better at recognizing some of the lower tier teams that are creeping up in the top 10. That's one. What else did you think about the weekend as a broadcaster? You know, I feel like, you know, with plate racing, obviously we have a good success there. So I went into the broadcast real confident, and I felt like that we were going to have an exciting race.

We've had two great races right out of the box with NBC. That's made the job in the booth a lot easier. We've gotten great feedback from fans and viewers about how they've enjoyed the two broadcasts and we're going to Kentucky, which will be a completely different experience, the different asphalt, different. I mean, it's going to throw some, it's going to be a different style race and what that race looks like I'm not sure of. That's going to be a fun challenge. I'm interested to see if we come out of this weekend's race with the same high remarks that we've been getting. They have been high.

I'm anxious to, as soon as we got done with Daytona and got ready to leave the booth, I was ready to fly. I got it. Kentucky, get started. And you have just nailed on what I think people are noticing about you. After two weeks, correct me if I'm wrong, Dale and Dillner. But the thing I'm seeing of people's response to Dale Jr. in the booth is that we have a true passion for racing. Now, it's not to say those other guys don't. It's not even to say the Fox people don't have a passion for racing. But Dale Jr. cheers in the booth.

Does he not? I mean, he cheers. Hey, man. He's reacting the way. we react at home. If you want people to like the sport, you need to like the sport yourself has always been my opinion, man. So that enthusiasm, I love it.

I'm trying to decide what it is, like, the difference between Jr. and then the rest of the other broadcasters and that kind of thing. And, you know, like, because DW, he's passionate about the sport. What is it different about Dale Jr.? He's new. And you know what else? He's humble. Dale, I know we're sitting here talking about you as if you're not listening, which is

weird. It is weird. But I do think that your humility and your passion is sort of taking shape and taken form. And I'm looking for things to pick a part about you, to be honest with you. I mean, you got to have somebody to say, dude, you screw that up and not take offense to it. I've tried to be that guy. But so far, it's, you know, as a matter of fact, I brought up as a joke, you know, how you mispronounce words sometimes. The overwhelming response to that was, no, Don't change your thing. That's what we like about him. I mean, I miss that, Dale.

I mean, I miss Buddy Baker in the booth. Like, Buddy Baker is like probably one of my all-time favorites, even though he wasn't polished at all. Yeah, they don't want polished. Yeah, I love to listen to Buddy Baker in the booth with TNN back in the day. I thought he was one of the most colorful people we've ever had in a booth. So, Juner, just leave the polish at home if you even have any. I don't have any. They're, you know, getting polished or getting cleaner isn't even in the back of my mind.

So I'm not really, don't want anybody to have to be concerned about that. But, you know, I just want to always have my fact straight. I want to always tell the truth, you know, when we had some things happen this weekend in this race, and I'm sure we're going to talk about here in a bit. And the fans want you to call it straight. You know, I want to try to do that and, you know, hope that anybody that, you know, that's involved in the race understands that that's what the fans are asking for the broadcasts is to you, for you to call it fair.

And we had a lot of opportunities to do that. and I'll continue to have opportunities to do that going forward. But I like to have fun. I'm a smart ass. I told some of the guys that I'm sort of leaning on in the production and executive side of NBC to give me the feedback. I said, look, as I get more comfortable, I might get a little more snarky or, you know, be a little bit of a smart ass. And I think that's okay. Just don't never let me cross the line of being unprofessional or making the broadcast about me or hammering on one individual too much.

So, and I told you too, Mike, so I'm getting that kind of feedback. You know, I'm asking for that. I'm asking for that feedback. Yeah. Because I don't want to step over any lines. The other feedback I'm asking, and I've asked this from several people that are watching and you as well, Mike, is anything annoying. If I ever do anything that's going to be annoying that is a habit that I want to know about it so I can break it before it gets harder and harder to break. But I'm just going up there and reacting to what I see.

And I'm going to watch these races anyways. I'm going to tune in. I'm going to be excited to tune in, whether I'm sitting at home or whether I'm going to be in the booth. I'm going to watch these races anyways. And I, you know, I love watching the race with Lattard and Jeff and Rick. And we're up there just punching each other in the arm and slapping each other on the back and, you know, loving being able to watch the races, you know. And we see there's a lot of stuff that's going on in that booth. and there's a lot of reactions to what's happening in the race that actually don't make error

because they have a lot of things that they have to do outside of me and Jeff talking about the action. They got a lot of things. They got to go down to pit road and run through a couple pit reporters down there that are going to give us some information about what's happening on the racetrack or in pits. They got a lot of things. They got a cycle through that are already planned and implemented into the broadcast. So we have these windows where we get to talk about what we're seeing. And when those windows are closed, there's still a lot happening up there.

that we're, you know, we're still watching the race and excited and having fun and entertained. Yeah. I love the camera. I know they don't always go to it, but maybe later in the week when the social media team gets a hold of that footage, they've cut a video or two here and there. And I've noticed that the cameras of your reaction. They're hilarious, man. You are really like jumping up and down. You're kind of, yeah, you're poking shoulder.

You're doing all those things. It's hilarious to watch. Yeah. No, I mean, we have a good time. So and Burton and those guys have been such good friends to me. You know, we already were pals, but we didn't hang out, you know, and now we're hanging out. So we go to the production meetings together. You know, if there's a production meeting, we all on the text together, hey, man, let's all ride together in the production meeting.

Let's all ride together to dinner. Yeah. We want to, you know, be together and hang out and be around each other and build that relationship. And then we get up in the booth and we just all love to watch the race. So this race, bud, I'm telling you, man, I am basking in the fact that we've gone two weeks of optimism. You know, the negative nancies have been just removed from timelines. It's like people are actually talking about how awesome races were for two weeks in a row. I don't know how long that sustains.

I don't know. But I am just basking in the fact that Daytona was never going to disappoint. It's a restrictor plate track. Okay. So we got lucky there. But the fact is that two weeks, I've just enjoyed how the racing has just left us entertained from start to finish. I'm not even talking about the last 10 laps I'm talking about from the beginning. We have Ricky Stenhouse to thank for a big part of that.

But we also have some great talent, young drivers, old drivers. So let's talk about the race. Just how incredible was it to watch and what were your takeaways from the action on the track? Well, I mean, you know, the big crashes take out a lot of contenders. there's a it's a double edge toward it's it's you know it creates drama and it creates opportunity for other drivers and that's ultimately what we saw at the end of the race but it also takes out the contenders that you want that you're you know you you're you're you're really want to see uh in the middle of action all night so it's it's like oh man you know wow that was crazy to see that action and that's what look at that man that was wow you know it's a big crash and what's happened what's going to happen from here on out and then you see the cars that are knocked out of the race and you're a little disappointed that you're not going to be able to watch those guys Duke all night long. You know, the concern, I guess, is as a field gets thinner, guys don't, you know, the racing may

suffer, but it didn't. They continue to, they continue to work hard and battle for the lead and trying to put themselves in position to win the race all night long. So we never had much of a lull in action. You know, Ricky had a tough night. He made some moves that, uh, created some accidents. You could hear the remorse and regretting his voice when we did the post after he wanted. in the stage, the interview. You could tell that he was disappointed in how that all worked out, maybe disappointed in himself, that he's, you know, that he crashed a bunch of cars. I've been in that situation before, and I know what that feels like.

And if you're going to be a plate racer that's going to try to win and be aggressive, you're going to sometimes make mistakes. And you're going to sometimes those mistakes are going to cost a lot of people some big problems. I turn Vickers almost in front of the whole field. They took $500 in the back straightway. Yep. It's his fault. I incorrectly bumped-drafted Marcus Ambrose at a test in January and tore up everybody's brand-new speedway cars they've been working on all off-season.

I wrecked about a dozen cars there. So, I mean, that's just two of a few instances where I've been part of something like that. And it's embarrassing. You got, you know, the best, I think the best move is to admit, you know, own your role in the whole thing. And, you know, so people know that you realize what has happened. and what you did, make an adjustment and move forward. You know, if you're going to be in this sport a long time,

you'll mend the relationships with the drivers over time. And everybody, all the drivers, though, they know the kind of person that Ricky is. And he's a nice guy. He's an approachable guy. They'll all probably go up to him or at some point another and tell him and, you know, knock it off a little bit. But at the same time, Ricky doesn't need to lose that edge

that did take him to two wins last year at Daytona and Talladega. He needs to keep that kind of mentality that he has to race hard. and work hard to get those wins at those two tracks because he apparently has a knack for plate racing that he obviously won a couple stages and up until the end was a contender to win the race. You kind of touched on something there, Dale, that I wanted to ask you about because, I mean, back in the day you had like swerve and Irvin and, you know, you've had the popularity and you haven't really had too, too much heat on you when you've had incidences happen. But for a guy like Ricky, you know, social media wasn't around back with Ernie Irvin and all that stuff.

man, he's taking a bath on social media by some people and all the nicknames and the Recky Stenhouse and all. What do you think it's like as a driver right now hearing all that? You got to keep your edge. You just said it. But it's like it's a different world now because you're hearing the criticism so much more. Yeah, absolutely. Social media is almost a blessing and a curse. You have to, I mean, if you are going to be a part of social media and enjoy the positives that come out of it,

you're going to have to know that the negatives are going to be a part of that as well and part of that experience. And I think that the best thing he can do is just not, you know, just avoid social media and try to not bring, you know, not allow that to come into his life over the next several days, maybe weeks even. The great thing about today, even though social media is tough at times, the great thing about today is the news cycle is short. So in a week, we're going to be talking about something completely different. And nobody's going to give a damn about what happened to Ricky Stenhouse at Dayton. I mean, he's going to get ragged about this and people are going to give him a hard time for a while.

But nobody's going to be hammering on him in about six or seven days because we're going to be talking about something else that happened at Kentucky. That's the great thing about it is just be patient when you're in a doghouse because the new cycle is so short, you'll be out of it in no time. Yeah, but before he even had a chance to get to it. I mean, I remember you, I'm trying to think what the race was, you know, where you started carrying the guilt of it before the race was even over. And so like, you know, the struggle of getting over the fact that you just caused a big wreck and cost a lot of people money. You remember Charlotte when you and Michael Waltrip wrecked on the front stretch and Popps went all

Yuri on the cameras after the race? And I think that was 2005. We'd just gone through that crew chief change. I vaguely remember you already kind of feeling. remorse and the race wasn't even over and you have to still race i mean so ricky stenthouse causes two wrecks do you think that rickie is already feeling bad about that or is he is it hard to focus on the race at that point you could hear the remorse in his voice when we interviewed him after the second stage yeah yeah that's true and i and i and i definitely knowing rickie and knowing that he's a

good heart you know he's got a good he's got a good heart and i can i know that he felt bad about that which makes him easy to forgive yeah yeah so So I would forgive him. I mean, even if I wasn't in the crash, you know, and it's not fun banging around and crashing at a plate track. And especially when you get, you know, it's nothing that you could have done to avoid it. It's very frustrating. And you could hear that in the drivers when they did their interviews at the media in field care center. You could hear the frustration of being out of, you know, that being out of their hands,

them being unable to control their own fate in that situation. And they were all frustrated with Ricky. But, I mean, if you know the guy, if I was in that crash, I'd be pissed off. But then after a couple days, I'd be like, you know, well, I'd text him, say, hey, man, do you learn anything? Right. You know, tell me you learn something. And we'll be good. Yeah.

So, okay, my question to you, we had Casey Kane up there. You had a green, white, checkered restart. You had names up there that were racing for the wind that may not have that chance if a lot of these other cats had not been wrecked out. You had Kevin Harvick, who was in the wreck earlier. Eric Jones was in that wreck The Y-65 Yeah, guys that were in the wrecks counted them out

Now they're back in the top 10 Now they're racing for the win You got Eric Jones True X was just remarkable to watch He went from the back He went from having lost the draft To single-handedly Going up into the top five

Like it was nothing Okay, so what did you expect In the final restart And did it play out like you thought it would? It started out like I thought it would then Martin chose correctly on the restart and you got the lead and got clear. But I was surprised that Casey Kane was able to get the run on Martin that he did. Casey had a good run, jumped on his quarter panel.

That right there made it anybody's race once them two guys began to side draft. Because as soon as Casey jumped out there and got on his quarter panel, he didn't have enough of momentum and a strong enough side draft to clear Martin. And Martin's side drafted him back. So basically both of them had knocked a lot of stuff. speed out of their cars in that little situation coming off turn two. And so they were going to have their hands full with the rest of the field. And that's basically what happened. And the bottom never really organized really, really good all night long.

You could tell that the top was getting, the top was able to stay together and be a little tighter and have the ability to get runs better. So that's what it looked like to me at the end, particularly with the teammates of the 37 and 47 working together. And Chris Busher and Almondinger, they worked really well together to go. get the top organized and give Jones that opportunity to get pushed out front. So it was just, you know, I didn't see anything that surprised me, but I thought with Martin, once he got clear in one and two, that he was going to be in good shape, but didn't work out

that way. Now, Eric Jones boy, that Jones boy from wherever he is. That Jones boy, man, wow, how impressive was he? I mean, first of all, you go back to the restart before the last one, him pushing Truex. Well, you had Harvick and Boyer teammates. on the bottom, they couldn't even get connected. The team, that's what you thought was going to happen, right? That Jones boy goes and pushes Truex out to the lead,

and then all of a sudden, rends the thing at the end. I mean, what are your thoughts on Eric Jones? My thoughts on Eric Jones are he came out of the super late model racing with a lot of respect from people that had never race against him. Coming into the Xenity Series and having kind of Kyle Bush's endorsement, a lot of people just really respected his talent. I think that he has, you know, in the Xfinity series, showed what he's capable of or what he's going to be capable of one day.

We got in the Cup Series. It was kind of an odd situation with him going to Furniture Row and a brand new second team. Those always seem to, those type of teams that they kind of, you know, start from scratch or build from scratch tend to take a couple years. But that was like a one-year experience for him. I thought he did really well, you know, in a situation. like that that was a bit challenging. Even though, I mean, he had great cars and he's great people.

It's just, it takes a while for teams like that to sort of set route. He moves over to the 20 car, and, you know, that I think people expected that to take off right away, you know. It hadn't really been the year. I don't think Eric's, Eric was hoping for, but we were all, we all knew it was just a matter time for he got a win. I didn't think he would come at a plate track. I thought he'd probably win in a mile and a half somewhere, but a win is win no matter

where it's at. And this kind of thing that will give him confidence and settle his, you know, settle his mind a little bit going forward. Once you get that first one out of the way, it seems like it, you know, it becomes a little bit easier to expect the next one and put that together and start to, you know, start to build your career. The career that we all think he's capable of is right there in front of him. Can I just say, can I just say, though, thank you for bringing out the mullet comment.

I mean, when everybody's thinking it. I mean, everybody's thinking it. He's proud of it. He owns it. He should be. He wears it. Yeah. He certainly owns it.

He's a nice, you know, he's a great guy. I don't really know him really, really well, but he, he's no controversy. Goes about his business, loves to race, wants to do well. He applies himself. You know, he works hard for his opportunity. I like the fact that he, you know, just kind of sticks to what he knows and drives race cars. And, you know, he has a little fun on social media. He doesn't mind showing his personality a little bit.

I think that'll get better and better as he gets more and more years in the Cup series, a little bit more under his belt. And, you know, you got to do that. That's not the most important thing winning races is, but you got to be able to showcase your personality, fans, you know, that won't come to the racetrack and watch you. You got to get to know you. That's a great way for them to do that.

And he, you know, you can tell that he does all his own social media. You know, he doesn't have a PR handler, somebody in the background doing all that. And so that's, you know, it's fun. He's a fun follow on Twitter and get, That's the best way to really get to know a lot of these drivers is to see what they're doing during the week and he don't mind sharing a little bit.

And their haircut. You know people through their Twitter and their haircut. And that's how we know Eric Jones. And now is the winner Daytona. All right. Dillner, do you want to go to Ask Junior or do you have any other question? I actually want to ask something because, you know, we always get caught off in talking about Cup.

And that Xfinity series finish was spectacular. But then there's a rule deal that, you know, came into play. and for some it seemed like there was split opinions on it. The rules are a rule, but then there was a lot of people that were dogging on the rule. Really? Yeah. And I think they got it. Personally, I think they got it right.

They's a NASCAR. Junior, what do you think, man? Because it was definitely 50-50 split it looked like in some ways. Yeah, when he crossed the finish line, my initial reaction was he didn't break the spirit of the rule, so give him the win. He didn't take advantage of that rule to win the race. I got you. And I know as a race car driver, when he sees those cars sort of hammering on each other on the right side, the natural reaction is to move away from them. So I kind of thought that he did that kind of unconsciously. I just don't, you know, initially, if I was up in the booth, I probably would have called it a fair path. But after looking at the replay over and over and over and thinking about the integrity of the sport and how that needs to be governed for the longevity and the future credibility of the. the sport. They made the call per the way the rulebook's written. So if you're going by the rule book, they made the right call. But that doesn't, it doesn't end there. I don't like, I hate that we have

to see an exciting finish like that and then have to rewrite the finish by by rule in the rule book. What everybody witnessed and that extent, what everybody saw has to be untied and undone and repackaged because of a rule in the rule book. And so for me, that's where I think we need to, focus is how can we change that rule, alter that rule, or get rid of that rule, so where we never have to deal with this. So this never, never has to happen again. That to me would be the best outcome of all this is to fix it to where we never have to worry about this. And we never have to tell fans, nope, that guy didn't win. This got one. And that would be what I would be working toward if I was in the situation to have any influence. I'd be trying to fix it or change it to where

this was never an issue going forward. Yeah, because nobody likes to see a rule suck the energy out of a sport. And, you know, that's what I think you're hitting on. But the rule was the rule, and I think they got it right based off of that. But this rule was created for a reason, man. Mm-hmm. And, you know, you were in that era of why this rule was created. And I think there's a percentage of people out there that also don't understand that aspect of it.

I would say, yeah, I mean, we know how the rule was created, but I think you'd argue that has the rule really made a difference. I mean, we're still crashing. We're still wrecking. The rules created crashes that wouldn't have probably happened had the rule not been there. Wow. Do you see that differently now that you're out of the seat a little bit or no? I saw it this way before.

I mean, you know, the yellow line, any rule can be taken advantage of. And as a driver, you know, you can be on both sides of it. You can use the yellow line to keep a guy behind you. force a guy from being able to make a move that he's, you know, a run that he's put together and developed. So, I mean, I think that you could argue that the rule has maybe not made that situation better. You know, the rule came in to try to keep guys from going underneath, down on apron and driving into the side of each other going in the corner and causing these big crashes. We still... That's what happened to you in Vickers.

Well, we still had a crash in. You know, we still had a crash that was a car under another car, entering turn one down at the Xfinity race. The guy came down across his nose. Yeah, yeah, with TIFT. I mean, those crashes still happen. Yeah. Yellow line or not. And then there's other crashes that happen because of the yellow line,

because the guys trying to force each other into that yellow line, getting forced underneath that yellow line. I don't know whether the yellow lines do enough good, I guess. What was the conversation we had after the Talladega race just a few months ago in this room? Dale Jr., you had been talking to Steve O'Donnell. I'm trying to remember back you had been talking with Steve O'Donnell. There was a big controversy over this. This was in February Daytona.

Oh, February Daytona. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And you had a very strong position on it. And I thought it was for consistency in black and white. Am I wrong? Am I remembering that wrong? Yeah.

I mean, the thing that I learned in February is that as a human being, we all are going to interpret this rule differently. Right. Even if you try to write it pretty straightforward in the, rule book visually when it happens and it, you know, we see it. We see cars and drivers making decisions and doing things. We're all going to interpret what those drivers did, what they, what they were attempting to do, what they were mentally thinking. Everyone's going to have a different opinion. And so when we try to go about whether that rule was broken or not,

we're all going to have a different opinion. Really, ultimately, I came down to, let's just get rid of the line. We're still wrecking. It's not like this line. It's completely wiped, wrecking off face of the map, let's just get rid of the line. And we won't have to argue this point anymore. And we won't have to worry about taking wins away from the drivers and stuff like that when they're three to 10 inches underneath that line or whatever. So I don't really know what the right answer is. It isn't good.

What happened at the end of that race? You know, we have an awesome finish. Everybody's excited. Two guys sitting there doing burnouts and then one gets told he's not the winner. Oh, I know. Right. That's not awkward. Yeah, we can't have that, man.

We just can't have that. So, I mean, let's just get rid of the possibility of having that happen again. NASCAR's in a tough spot, man, because it's like you're either going to have, you're going to have gloves off, balls and strike call, or consistency, which is what they rule upon in this case. So that's... Yeah. It's good right, though.

The history of the yellow line rule, this guy, NASCAR man on Twitter, put this video together. I encourage everybody to go watch that because. It's interesting to see how that rule seems to have evolved over time. And you'll see in some of those instances where that yellow line rule is, you know, part of the reason why maybe that crash happens. So it's an interesting conversation. I just hope, you know, I really hope that NASCAR can make a change where we never have to have that type of finish again. That's a weird thing to have to call from the booth. Yeah.

And you're trying to explain to anyone who's maybe tuning in for the first time why this has happened. is nearly impossible. And not a lot of fun. It's not a fun story to tell. It's worse for the people in the grandstands. I mean, you know, I look at it like when you see the orange cone or the orange box rule where somebody dips down and hits it and there's an infraction. The guy sitting in turn two and three, that one and two doesn't understand that when they're

sitting in the grandstands on TV that could at least represent it a little. I guarantee you the finish of that race didn't give many people the warm and fuzzy so we're watching. We just need to get rid of that potential, you know, that being a potential ending to any race. Whatever we need to do to get rid of that. We need to try it. I'd be down for that.

Let them have the pavement. Wherever it's paved, you can go. Close off, man. Real quick, let's do an Exaltor Race Center update. We'll be right back. This is your Exaltor Race Center update. I'm Matthew Dillner. At Daytona International Speedway, the sparks flew, the cardinch grew,

and the driver to visit Cup Series Victory Lane was, Well, new. Eric Jones rebounded from damage in a lap 65 incident and held off veteran Martin Turex Jr. to grab his first Career Cup win. In Xfinity Series action at Daytona, a daring last lap move by rookie Justin Halley had his number 24 crossing the finish line first. But wait, NASCAR ruled that his car went out of bounds during the process, handing the win to Cup Series regular Kyle Larson. Larson edged Junior Motorsports driver Elliot Sadler at the line by 5,000. thousandths of a second to score the win. This week, the truck, Xfinity, and Cup Series will get their giddy up on at Kentucky Speedway for a Thursday, Friday, Saturday triple header. The Junior Motorsports late model team will hit the high banks of Kingsport

Speedway on Saturday night for a 125 lapper at the Tennessee Bullring. This has been your Exalta Race Center update. Exalta is the official paint partner of NASCAR, developing, manufacturing, and supplying coatings through all types of vehicles and industrial applications. more on Exalta, please visit exaltasc.com. It's time for Ask Junior. I got a question. You have a question for me? Hit us up on Twitter using the hashtag Ask Junior.

All right. Do we have some Ask Junior questions this week, Matthew Dillner? Yeah, man, I mean, why not kick off with the guy with the Twitter handle, Big Dog? I mean, Big Dog, you get a question from a guy named Big Dog. You want to take it, man. and this to you, Dale, is how much fun has it been working with Mike Torrico? One of the most knowledgeable people on broadcasting. I told Mike Tariko that him being there made that event feel bigger and more important.

That's what we need as a sport. He raised the profile of that race by being there and helping us kick that broadcast off. And he's just a real nice guy. He enjoyed his afternoon and experience at the track. and he's been really supportive and helpful to me joining NBC and trying to get into the broadcast booth and become a broadcaster. He's been very helpful. So just a real nice all-around guy that's great to hang out with. All right.

David chiming in and asking, have you ever been escorted out of a racetrack by a state trooper like Ricky Stenhouse? Yeah. I don't know. That was weird. Yeah. I wonder, I don't know how that happened. I wonder how that happened. Who called those state trooper?

or who called those policemen to come do that. Sounds if we're at Texas Motor Speedway, you'd assume that Eddie Gosser did that. I've got a theory on that. Yeah. I've got a theory. Maybe Eddie Gossage called that in from Texas. Maybe. Drive on over and ask him, man.

Dale, you know, there have been many times. I think that was just a timing situation where a photo was taken. There have been many times when Dale Jr. would get out of the car. And you got some really eager cops that, uh, are there for a reason for protection, but they also make it look like the Secret Service. And we had that a lot, to be honest with you. And we would say, guys, we're fine.

We don't need any help. They're like, yeah, but there's a lot of fans. Yeah, we got it. We've gone through a sea of fans before. It's not a big deal. We don't like this look. But this is, so, you know, stand down. I'm not so sure that the, I don't think anybody called,

certainly on Stenhouse's team for help. This is just my theory, that these were just, you know, some police officers that thought they were doing good in a situation, and somebody happened to snap a photo of it. But going back to the question, man, have you ever been, I mean, from your late model days to, you know, Bush series or whatever, have you ever been escorted out of a track? I have not. Good boy. I've never, yeah. I mean, I've had some, I've had some situations where I might have needed an escort, but never, never had one. I, um, well, I think one, this, this goes way,

way back, but we had a, we ran a late mile race at Hickramur Speedway and got into some controversy and had all the whole grandstands pissed off at us. There was a guy that was running the race director, basically. I knew who the guy was because he'd come up to the dealership and I'd change oil in his car. And so he's a black flagged me. I got waived. I got waved by a lap car before restart. And I'm running forth and they're coming down to like the last. 20 laps of this race and I'm in fourth place having a freaking career day and at historic Hickory Motor Speedway this lap car waved me by and I'm still not even behind the guy and third. I'm still got a couple lap cars in between me and him and I didn't pass them because they

didn't wave me by. Well, we throw the green flag and then like we had another caution come out like 10 laps later. Well they said they come up to me under the caution it was a red flag and they said you got to go to the back for passing under that last yellow and I'm like we don't run 10 laps and there's another yellow. Y'all are black flagging me for something happening earlier in the race. Yep, go to the back. You pass this guy under yellow. I'm like, he waved me by. And so I pulled the car into the pits. I said, screw it, and flipped off the booth. I walked out in the middle of the pit road, and I flipped off the booth. And I was trying to flip that guy off. And I think the fans all thought it I was flipping it. Oh. And so they started booing the bus. me. They were really pissed off about that. Wow. And so that would have been a good time to have

an escort to get out of that place because we were a little nervous. We were racing at Myrtle Beach every weekend and it was really competitive with the fans. If you were a local at another track and came to their track to beat their hot shoes or race against their guys, they looked at you as the opposing team, not the home team. You know, and it was very, it was very hard to, I mean, you know, they typically, and especially with the last name, Earnhardt, you're going to have some, you know, people that like you and dislike you automatically. But if you were a local from another track coming into someone else's racetrack, they looked at you as the opposing team. And this guy's coming in here to think he's going to outrun our guys. Ain't, you know, it's no way.

So it was tough, but that was a wild day. All right. Justin Payne wants to know, with your piqued interest in cycling, will you be sitting down or have you sat down and watched some of the tour to France? You know, it's interesting that that's a great question. I watched the Tour de France last year for the first time since I became a cyclist, and there's things that I know about cycling now that I didn't know before. So you're watching these guys in there. You're seeing these cyclists while they're riding do things,

and now these things make sense. And there's a lot of things that you didn't even notice they're doing until you become a cyclist. So, you know, with just hydrating or eating and changing gears or drafting and not drafting, leading, when to lead, all those things. It all sort of makes a lot more sense now, having been a cyclist or having road with several guys and understanding how the draft works and all those things. And two, you know, I've learned about the bikes, you know, what all makes these bikes work. So when I look at, when I'm watching them race, I'm looking at their bikes and seeing

if there's anything new or where's it, what's their position, their seat position, what's their hand-a-bar position? What are they doing with their hands and all those things? And so what's the stance they're riding in? There's a lot of things that you watch that I never would have even thought about or knew about before last year. So, yeah, I watch it. I watch it really just, I'm not so much watching it pulling for a specific individual. I don't really know if I care where anyone finishes.

But it's just to watch these guys and knowing how hard that is, knowing what they're putting their bodies through. It's fun. It's pretty impressive. Well, this is some good stuff. Dale, the last question we have, and it's from me and Matthew. Do you miss us even a little bit? Just a little. I do.

I know it's not the same as being there in person. And obviously, if I'm on the phone, this means that we're probably not going to have the TV portion or TV episode the spinoff on Thursdays. So I wish I was there so we could be able to deliver the video on Thursday for NBC. But I'm going to be out of town some on Mondays, throughout periodically throughout the year. I want to call in so that we can put together a podcast. for everyone and keep our listeners engaged. I'm glad you guys called me up today so we could talk about what all happened this past weekend. It was a wild weekend. Family first. Family first, my man. Family first. That's right.

Have a good time with the in-laws and out in Lucan Bach picking some guitars in the barn. Y'all got any plans tonight? What are you going to do tonight? It's raining right now. So that's supposed to get out of here after a while. We got some more family coming over today. and it's going to be a full house. We'll probably be grilling some food and hanging out, man. I don't know. With these kids, you don't just jump up and go to Lukanbach anymore. That's right.

Right, right. You're going to chuck your cheese. Yeah, you kind of just, these kids keep you grounded and keep you at the house a lot more often. So we'll probably just enjoy the day here once the rain moves out. Who's the kid we hear in the background? That's Adlin. That's my, that's Amy's niece. I got you.

All right. Well, cool. So we got Adeline on the show this week. She's a trip. We got a house full of kids here. All right, brother. Listen, man, we miss you. Safe travels back.

Enjoy your time out there. And we'll catch up with you when you get back. Looking forward to Kentucky this weekend. Seeing you in on NBC Sports. All right, man. I'll see you Wednesday. I'll be back home. All, buddy.

See you. Bye. You know, Dale mentioned Hickory. And right before that, he had mentioned something about the race in Daytona. And he mentioned making a mistake on the broadcast. and I realized I made a mistake. I've been so wrapped up in this stupid wife's birthday thing, not that my wife's birthday is stupid.

Well done. But when you mentioned Hickory, I realized I didn't miss the race because my wife's birthday, I'd be just so consumed by it. I decided last minute to go to Hickory Motor Speedway and bring my kid to watch the demo derby. And I'm getting text from my wife saying, you went to the demo derby, but you're missing the demo derby, and she's sending me pictures of the TV screen.

There's cars, sparks everywhere. She was watching Daytona. She was watching Daytona. Yeah. And I was at a, I mean, awesome. They had auto cross and demo derby. And it was monster trucks. It was redneck gold.

Dylaner, is there ever a weekend where you are completely deprived of racing? TV or live? If my wife had anything to do with it, yes. No, no. But that's not what I asked. Okay. When is the last time you went all weekend without thinking about racing? Thinking about racing, that's impossible.

Like, or being, watching it or consuming. Consuming is a better question because thinking about it. Consuming. When is the last weekend you did not go Friday, Saturday, or Sunday without consuming some, in some form, a race? I'd say my honeymoon, but it was in December, so there was not much racing going on anyway. Your honeymoon? How long have you been married?

Oh, God, you don't know. Seven years? So you're saying that you've gone every weekend for seven years? At least. I mean, I was probably still. thinking about racing then too. I'm weird. During your honeymoon?

Oh, no, you're right up with it. I'm telling you. A little bit. You are a racer. You love it. That's good. That's good. And I'm glad you're good at what you do because it all works out well for us.

Hey, I love racing. We talked about Dale in the booth. And that was just, you know, I'm not saying that because, you know, kissing butt, but seriously, you know, when you have somebody that has a passion for something and that comes out to the fan, you know, that's a good thing. You listen to Emmer N, like I listen to the end of that. Daytona race coming back from Hickory. And you listen to Moody and all those guys, and they're amped up on that last few laps.

And it makes you a fan. It makes you excited. So for Dale to do that in the booth, not that any of the other guys aren't excited or passionate about it, but that's a good thing. There's plenty of people that are as passionate and excited about the racing. Here's what I think it is. And I'm glad we're having this conversation with Dale not on the phone because this made it more awkward. is like right now our sport is in dire need of an advocate that has some pull or influence. There's a lot of advocates, but there's none that are as influential as Dale.

And Dale is honestly, that makes him perfect, the perfect advocate for the sport. And so his advocacy comes through his passion and his fandom of the sport. So this is where I think that you draw the differences between Dale and a Darryl Waltrip. Darryl Waltrip is very passionate about racing. It's his entire life, right? But the stars aren't aligned for that type of advocate. DW can't go carry the torch for NASCAR right now. DW is not going on Fallon.

Right. He's got an inner industry respect and advocacy. Whereas Dale right now still has, and we hope will continue to have, an advocacy that reaches within the world of social media to pop culture, to, I mean, heck, he was Rolling Stone magazine back in the day, the reaches further than the inner circle of our sport. We're starved for it. We're starved for have somebody carry the torch and be the advocate for racing

and quit crapping on our sport so much. Don't get me start on that. I mean, like, it's just, it's around us. It's around us. Everybody wants to knock it down and look at a TV rating and knock it down. And yet, it's kind of refreshing to, one, have two good races in a row. That's the first thing. but then also have Dale Jr. sort of advocating for it based off his fandom and passion.

It's not BS. People are sick of BS and fake and all this, the things that they are hit with, whether it's through their politics or whether it's through their sports. Dale Jr. brings this pure passion and fandom about it. And it's a really nice advocate for what NASCAR is and still can be moving forward. And I think the stars are just aligning. The NBC thing is where it's so wonderful. Now, maybe he's going to show me.

reasons why I should be passionate about it. I don't think Dale Jr. needs an exciting finish, even though he's had two, I don't think he needs one to be excited about it. I've always said, and it's something I've kept close to my vest sometimes, but if you call our sport like a golf game, and I talked to Rick Allen

about this when he was doing the truck series broadcast, because I always think Rick's good at getting up in moments where he's announcing somebody passing for an eighth place position, and his voice, his vocals get up. He's excited about it. And to me, if you call our sport like a golf game, What is it going to do for the fan that's not a racing fan that's tuning in?

No, you should be excited. These guys are like inches apart. I know this sounds cliche, but inches apart, 170, 80 miles per hour, you know, on the edge, man. And it's like you've got to make it exciting for the fans, you know, without being fake. But, you know, that's what's good about that deal. Dale Jr. brought up one thing about not wanting to be annoying. Is that what he said? Was that the word he used?

Or pick up annoying habits. Do you have one? Do you think, have you noticed anything? With Dale? About annoying habits? Yes. Because myself, I got a trillion of me. No, no, we've noticed your annoying habits.

We know those. I'm talking about Dale as a broadcast. Wait, wait, hold on. Here's Mike Davis' annoying habit. Ready? That's a clicky pen. And guess who did it today. Guess who did it today?

I did. You did. Yeah. My thought, my honest thought on that is I could see, it's hard to speak for Rick Allen or Steve LaTard of Jeff Burton, but I'm going to attempt to. I could see it if I'm them. being annoyed at Dale Jr. How do I say it?

You have all raced, Rick Allen calls the last two laps of every race. Yeah. And you've built up for this moment. If I'm Rick Allen, if I've gotten my head how I'm going to call this last two laps, or if I'm calling it, do you want the interruption? Do you want that guy? Now, we love it. We love it.

That's the one thing. I don't notice any annoying habits of Dale from a fan's perspective. I wonder if there's any annoying habits that he could develop for his people. peers. As long as you're not taking over the call, no. Because if you're just going, oh, boy, and reactions are different than a call. You know why I think about it? It wasn't from anything he's done this year.

It was when he was doing the fill-in broadcast. And I think it was Talladega. Yeah. And he absolutely overtook the call when there was a wreck. Or maybe it was the shootout. That's what it was. It was the shootout race at Daytona. Do you all remember that?

I remember him doing it, but I don't remember him. Absolutely. And there was a wreck or something like Ken's, Choir-esque. He didn't know about stepping on toes, nor did he care. He was going to go. He's a racer. He wasn't a broadcaster, and I don't want him to become a broadcaster anyway.

That would be one thing I've kind of sort of paying attention to. But you know what? The beautiful thing about that group is their chemistry. If there's anything he's developing that it's annoying, they'll tell him. There's not like it's going to be going, it's unsaid. You're sort of honest with him. I'm very honest with him. I really am trying to find things that I, as an objective viewer, would want

to see out of him. And to be honest with you... That's why I'm glad he doesn't have a catchphrase. NBC uses... Exactly. Exactly. You know what else? I don't want him to become a cliche. That's right. Which is why he didn't want to do those t-shirts last week, right? Yeah. He didn't want to start marketing... Although NBC came out with some t-shirts. Yeah, they did.

But the fact is, is that... We didn't get any. NBC wants Dale to be Dell. They say this over and over again, so much so that it sounds like a broken record and it almost sounds cliche. Dale, just be yourself. Now I realize after two races that... I don't want anything else. I don't want him saying signal.

I want him to continue saying single. And I don't want him to say ambulance. He says ambulance. And whatever other words, he botches and butchers up, keep doing that because I think that's what we need. I think that's what we need because that's an advocate for realness and advocate for your favorite word. Oh, don't you say it.

I won't say it. You can tweet. Organic. All right, I see the flag. man right now. He's got that popsicle stick up in the air, point, and he's about to unfurl that white flag. Keep coming, bud. White flag right there. White flag. White flag. Listen, I've been saying this every week on this white flag segment, but I'm going to actually, now that Dale's not here, I've got a little bit liberty. The boss is gone. We're not wearing clothes

in here. You don't know that because we're not on TV. That's a bad visual. Right. Watch our numbers dip at the like right at the white flag. It's neck a day at junior motorsports. I'm going to the boss is gone but I want to tell you something about this book Dalejutor.com forward slash book is where you can go pre-order this thing. You're going to be blown away by it.

I'm anxious to read it. Let me read you. This is what you're going to be blown away by. And it's so hard to say this when Dale Jr. is in the room which is why I'm taking advantage of this. Because he probably won't like the fact what I'm about to say. So Dale Jr. in this book empties out his notes

from his phone. And what's going to blow you away, Dillner and Schultz, is that these notes go way further back than what you thought they do. This isn't just started in 216. It started way before that. And it started during the season when you would have not assigned concussion symptoms to him, okay? So you're going to be like, oh, I remember that race.

Oh, wait, he did well in that race. Why is he having this stuff? And these notes are so raw and unpolished. I mean, the misspellings and everything are in these notes, right? Let me read you a paragraph regarding the notes that are in this book, okay? this is a paragraph out of the book, racing to the finish. At first, I don't think I even really understood why I started doing it, as in documenting these notes, right? This sounds morbid, but when I look back now, I realize that what I was doing was leaving a trail for others to discover in case something happened to me that kept me from being able to tell them myself.

Wow. That's just a paragraph out of this book. Dale Jr.'s whole reasoning for this book and for the notes that he was taking, actually. was in case he didn't, in case he was incapable of saying what happened to him or what he was feeling all this time. He wanted to leave a trail. Get some of that, right? Yeah. That's something.

So I will say it again. Dale Jr.com forward slash book. This is a great gift to get your wife for her birthday. For her birthday. You can pre-order now. You can pre-order for her next year. You will have already done her taking care of her birthday for next year. And so what you claim to be so bad at, you will have all.

You already fixed. You would have fixed. Yeah, you would already be taken care of next year's birthday. Honey, I got you something for your birthday. Oh, flowers? Dale Jr.'s. Racing to the finish. It's got to be racing themed if it's in the Dillner household, right?

It's got to be. So that is the book. Also, of course, we're not on NBC Sports Network this week. But have you guys seen how much it's been re-aired on NBC? Yeah, dude, it was like during the rain delay. Our Dale Jr. download is on the weekends as well. We're rainfall, man. We're rainfall.

I've always wanted to be somebody's backup. So anyways, that's it. And I would say, you know, of course, follow us on social media. Dirty Mo Media is on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. I saw you've been swiping up a lot. Swiping up. On Instagram. Not swiping up.

I don't even know what swiping right. What does swipe right do, Schultz? That's Tinder. Well, on Instagram doesn't do nothing about Tinder. Oh, so we can go on dates if we swiping up right? How many followers do we need on Instagram to get swiping? Right. You get this, right?

20,000. 20,000. Okay, people, if you're listening to this and you don't follow our Instagram, do it. You know, we've developed some really good behind the scenes content. You know, Mike Davis was along with Dale and Chicago, and this is an PR crap that you see on a lot of social media content. This is some real stuff, man. So go check it out. I invite you to.

And if you want to be a social media person for DirtyMov Media, what's your home number, Schultz? Just call Schultz at home, preferably. late at night. Swipe right. Although this morning, this morning, I texted him at 6.30 in the morning like about something about BBC and then I realized I was like, oh crap, he's probably not even up. Do you have a girlfriend?

Not yet. What do you mean, not yet? Are you still trying to the side? What's the hold of? Everybody swipe right on Schultz. Dude, I mean, I've seen your social media stuff. I mean, you've got a lot of females in your pictures. I've seen this.

I mean, candidates. Are they candidates? Man, what a problem you have. I mean, this is just, you guys. I was going to say something that I should. You got so many to pick from? I'm telling you, it's just all over the place. They're flocking to you.

I know. It's great. Was it when you became a part of the Dirtymo Media? Yeah, exactly. It just like a lot of my profile on Twitter. I know it. I'm taking off. Good luck to you on that as you play your game.

Thank you. Good luck on your game there, Schultz, as you just play with their hearts and emotions. All these girls that are just wanting to be Mrs. Schultz. Yeah. Good job today, Skinny, Dillner. Skinny Dillner.

All right, guys. Thank you for. listening to the Del Jr. Landl. Del Jr. Be back in the studio next week. It'll be good to have it back. And you can get back in your seat, Delter.

Get back into your seat. Go back to your seat. Go back to your seat.