The Dale Jr. Download - 228 - There's a Feeling In the Air

Episode Date: August 7, 2018

Dale Earnhardt Jr. addresses the news about NASCAR CEO Brian France. The #DJD welcomes guest Alex Bowman to discuss his career, contract extension, Chase Elliott's win and a genius idea for a race track bar. 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.

Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. We recorded the download on Monday, and since then, obviously, the news has come out with Brian France and NASCAR. We felt like we needed to address it, so I wanted to say before we start the show, obviously, it's disappointing news. No way around that. It's very disappointing. And I'm sure that Brian is disappointed in himself. And the one thing that, you know, I hope is that Brian gets in front of the people that he needs to get in front of and gets the assistance and help that he needs to make sure that this is something that doesn't happen again. You know, regardless of his role in NASCAR going forward, it's important that he's healthy and that he takes care of himself. So I'm wishing that on him. With that said, I'm very confident in the people that NASCAR has in the industry. I know all of them very, very well.

I feel incredibly optimistic about being able to move forward. and beyond yesterday. And with being in the broadcast booth, I've had the opportunity to see the competition from a different point of view. And what I've seen on the racetrack over the last several weeks, whether it's in the Xfinity Series or the Cup Series, has been incredible. The racing itself, what the drivers are doing, the effort that the drivers are putting in on the racetrack is impressive.

And I've thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. That gives me a lot of confidence about not only how great this season. is going to be as it continues on into homestead. It gives me a lot of confidence about the sport over the next 10 years over the next several decades. So we've dealt with difficulties in the past. We've dealt with losses. And the sport has always continued and always thrived.

So I'm looking forward to this weekend in Michigan. I'm looking forward to the rest of the season. And I hope you guys have a great week. Enjoy the download. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download with my co-hosts, Mike Davis. What's up, buddy?

How's it going, Mike? Man, it's good. How was your weekend? My weekend was fantastic. You know, we had that rain that was like just wouldn't stop. It was like monsoon season. And it finally led up enough to mow the grass. All right.

That was my weekend. I was happy about that. Boone the grass. Yeah. Matthew. Ducking and dodging cars at still the most exciting of them all, Bowman Gray Stadium. Bowman Gray. He was over at Moonsville.

Yeah, man. Well, we got a pretty awesome show. We got Alex Bowman. as our guest, he'll be on here later. We've got obviously Wachin's Glenn to talk about a lot of things there, the radio-style broadcast. Chase Elliott getting his first win, so let's get started. Respected as old-fashioned review-lawly from organization, So-Beat.

Alex Ball has just won the ball for the Daytona 500. From the Exhaelso Studio, it's the Dale Jr. Download. So what's going on? All right? Well, Mike, you've got your grass mode, right? Do you get it all mode? No. But we won't worry about that.

Here's what I want to know. Turn announcer Dale. Turn announcer, Dale. Turn announcer. Is that the proper term? It is now? Yeah. Turn announcer Dale, you camped out there all weekend. Yeah, I know.

So this weekend, we did a radio-style broadcast, and they did this last year. Basically, they take all of us out of the booths except for the crew chief, Rick Allen. They put Mike Bagley in the S's. I was down in the interloop and the carousel, and then they put Jeff Burton over in the final two turns of the racetrack. and we're up on these radio towers with where the MRN guys usually call the race. Everybody was telling me Parker Klingaman did this particular position last year. And me and Parker actually, just to go back and understand the relationship, Parker started doing work for NBC quite a while ago,

and I've always liked his approach and his personnel. If I was going to go into broadcasting, I'm thinking, you know, this is kind of the route. Yeah. This is kind of the route to do. This might be what I'm watching. him to sort of see what it'd be like for me yeah he's like man you're going to love it out there everybody that i talked to is like this is so much fun jeff burton this is so much fun it's going to be a great time you're going to love this i wasn't really that excited about it um you know because i

just have i've just started you're still learning you're still learning booth yeah i don't want to i mean we're just changing and changing and changing every week it's hard to sort of get into a groove or sure you want you to get comfortable with something you go try something completely different the next week. And so it takes me a while I feel like to get comfortable and get my personality to come out because when I'm nervous, I sort of get boxy and predictable. Anyways, here we are. We're up on this perch. Great vantage point. It's fun to ride around the property and see parts of the racetrack that I'd never seen before. But anyways, we get up there and called a couple practices. Practice is not anything like the race. You're not seeing cars race. You're not

calling action. You're not calling race action. That's what I love to do. I think that's what I do. The best is call battles and talk about what the drivers are doing in those moments. Practice is not that at all. And so practice was sort of boring. I didn't get a good sense of what the race was going to be like or what the day was going to be like. We had the Xfinity race later Saturday. That was pretty fun. And as most of the races tend to go for me, they get easier as we get through the event. And the intensity starts, you know, wherever it starts at the start of the race, it's pretty cool for a couple laps.

And then the intensity just slowly ratchets up as we go through the event. And the final stage is just full of information, drama, content. In every race we've done, it's been like that. So as the Xfinity race went on, it got more and more exciting. And I went from kind of being a little frustrated to really being happy and satisfied with what I did. So frustrated it yourself or frustrated just kind of the... There's a lot of things that it's really weird and I'm new, so I don't want to... I mean, that's kind of everything.

I start every sentence with, I'm new, so I've heard a race on the radio. I know how it goes. I know how they pass the baton. I've heard guys do it and do it very well. And so when I get the first opportunity, Mike Bagley calls them up through the S's and then I get it. and I don't do it a nice, seamless toss. Handoff, yeah. It's amazing how they do that, and I never do how they do it.

If I start poorly, I get frustrated there, or if I don't describe what I'm seeing the way I think I should have, or if I don't do it naturally, if I feel like I'm too uptight, I get really frustrated. And once I'm done, there's no redoing it. It's out there. So that screw up or that mistake is there. Everybody heard it.

Yeah. It was live. And so you move on. We got into the cup race. It was exciting, really, really exciting right from the first two laps. And you can't. The cars are coming right by. So you raise your voice over the cars, even though it's probably not necessary.

Oh, right. Because you got a mic. You just forget it. And then the actions loud, or the actions, I say the action is loud, but the action's intense. And that also raises the voice a little bit. So you're almost screaming. You really are. You're screaming as you're calling those first couple laps.

You're in a hurry. You don't know how long this action is going to last. You want to be able to talk about it as long as you can, as much as you can, before it sort of fizzles out. And so you're just kind of rushing and talking really fast and probably talking too fast and probably saying too much. And you're hoping that it keeps going and going and going and doesn't end. But eventually the car sort of string out a little bit and the broadcast moves away from you and goes toward pit reporters and goes toward, you know, storylines about. about this guy and his situation into points or you're in there doing a lot of things,

like calling that action at the very beginning of the race, and then maybe you're sitting there and you feel like, wow, I haven't talked for 20 minutes. Really? Yeah, there's times when that. Just because of the natural flow of the race and where things go. And then right at the end, at the very end of the race, man, it just starts ramping way back up. That final stage always gets, you know, that's just the drivers get into it.

and they know that the race, the end of the race is coming down. They know that their opportunities to take advantage. Their opportunities are few and far between, and it just gets busy. And then the race, that's when the race kind of comes back to you. You start to become more and more involved just by how the action is playing out on the track. And we have had so many incredible races. Even Kentucky wasn't that bad of a race. We didn't have an amazing finish, but still had a, you know, a lot of good things happening in that race.

But all the races that we've called this year, are just crazy. It's incredible. It's like manna from heaven. I mean, these races are just so good. Yeah. The question I have for you, it occurred to me during this race that not only are you never been a turn announcer, and that is a whole different craft, right?

I mean, that ain't just bright. That's a whole different level of talent, right? But you've got Mike Bagley handing it off to you. It's like having, if you were running a relay and Usain Bolt is handing you the baton, that is pressure. I mean, because Mike Bagley doesn't miss a beat. He is a turn announcer by trade. And he's talking a million miles an hour.

So I would imagine that the flow, just like, you know, because you know how Bagley talks. And then they go to the hill. And they're like, and they go to you. And you're like, and there they are, side by side, you know, whatever. It's like, how do you even take that handoff from Mike Bagley? You know, it's probably, it was great that it was Mike if it had been somebody without that type of energy. because he would take it from Rick Allen. Rick, I mean, Mike Bagel is pretty much the first turn announcer.

So he sets a tone for the rest of us. And whatever he does and however he speaks is how the rest of the lap is going to go. So I didn't feel it as pressure like you might think. It was more like he was setting the tone like the quarterback with the huddle. And, you know, he would hand it off and you would be responsible to keep that energy going. Good. And so I have a monitor up there, all right? And people are going to think, well, why are you in this radio tower if you're just watching the monitor the whole time?

You really are. You're watching the monitor probably 90% of the time. You're not watching the cars on track. So I can't call action that's not on TV. Exactly. That's right. Right. So I can't talk about a car battling for a tenth when they're showing second third.

Right, right. So I got to watch the monitor. I have to be able to talk about what the fans are being shown. And so I'm watching the monitor. as Bagley is calling him through the S, and I'm listening to what he's saying, and I'm kind of cherry-picking from things that he's talking about, and he's telling me what the conversation needs to be when it comes to me,

because he'll say, all right, you know, the leaders, you know, got a 10-carling lead. The real battles for third. All right, now we're going to, okay, the battles for third. So I'm watching third. I'm listening to how he's describing what the drivers are doing. We talked earlier in the weekend, and I said, hey, hand it to me before they get into the breaking

because I want to describe them breaking, I want to describe them downshifting. If he hands it to me beyond that, they're already into the curbs and everything. So if he would hand it to me early enough, that would give me the chance to say some things about how the guys may be trying to pass each other in the breaking zone or outbreaking each other.

That also obviously gives me a chance to talk about them trying to get to the curbs and how much you're using the curbs. The other thing I would always try to watch and pay attention to is the third curb on the left-hand side as they're turning back out of the chican or the interloop. If they missed that, that was a bad interloop. Screws them up for the carousel.

Yeah. And it's losing, it's slow. It's going to lose time. You can talk about that. You can say, hey, man, he's missed the corner. And you could see the visual gap close between that car and someone else. The hardest part that I never really feel like I understood

and did well was getting them through the carousel and to Jeff. And I would say, Jeff, you know, after the exfini race, I said, man, I said, I felt like every time I called the cars to you and handed it to you, I gave it to you in a way

that made it difficult for you to pick up. And Bagley's really great at passing it so easily and you just go, yep, you know, he almost says half a sentence for you to finish. It makes it so easy. He just provides you with finish.

He almost, it's almost like, interview question or something. Wow. You know, where you're like, oh, yeah, here's the answer. And then I'm going to talk about them coming through. And then when they come out of the carousel and I'd say, and they're out of turn six-headed to Jeff Burton.

I don't know. I mean, I must have said that every other time. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Because I couldn't figure out how to do it better. Yeah. I couldn't figure out how to do it better and differently.

And I couldn't hear it in my head like as I'm thinking about, man, how do I need to do that differently? And I couldn't hear, I couldn't come up with a better solution. What did Jeff tell you when you said that? He's like, hey, man, every time you did it in the Xfinity race, it feels fine. They'll fine to me. I'm like, well, man, I've heard a lot of radio over the years, and I just didn't feel like I did it as well as I should have.

Well, it's just like a race car, man. The best thing to do is go back and listen to your broadcast and take some notes for yourself. That's the thing about it. I don't listen to the broadcast. I know everybody says I should because I'll listen. I'll hear things that I'm doing wrong and I'll stop doing them, and I don't even realize that I'm doing. But I don't think I can.

can stand to listen to myself for more than two seconds. I know that about him. He would just make you more depressed, and it's not because he did anything wrong. Like, all these, he's beating himself up over Saturday, right? But that's when it occurred to me. It's just so difficult to be put in a situation that's so unfamiliar. I think that I'm so hard on myself, but the same way that Chase is hard on himself. Right.

And I'm telling him, man, we don't genuinely feel, there is some frustration, but we don't really feel that terrible about it. The only thing we're trying to convey to people, and the only reason why I critique myself so much, is because I want my bosses to know that I'm not oblivious to the little mistakes, even if they're not that big of a deal, that I'm not just that I pick up on it. And I don't know whether that I want it to make them feel like,

hey, okay, he sees what he's doing, or he's paying attention. He's not just running through this, The hardest part is to get all my freaking life, and I bet this is the same way for Chase, and a lot of people like Chase in the same situation, you can't get anybody to tell you the damn truth. Everybody you ask, yeah, oh man, that was great. Really?

Yeah. I know you would tell me the truth. But really, like 95% of the people around you aren't going to give you the damn truth, you know, and say, hey, that's, you know, that could have been better. Or, you know, they don't have to be rude about it, but they're just, they're just going to say, oh, yeah, it's good.

And in their mind, they're thinking, all right, maybe it wasn't that awesome, but he'll figure it out. It's going to get better over time. You need to. You need help to figure it out. No need to beat him up about it. So it's hard. I've been pushing everybody to, like, give me the real criticism,

give me the truth, tell me the things I need to work on. I will say there was one highlight moment when I was watching the race with you in particular. And it was in the closing lap, I believe it was, or with one to go. So you're taking it from Bagley all the time, right? Yeah. So you get the call and you say, Chase Elliott is on the drive of his life.

Yeah. And I noticed, I was like, wow, okay, he said that. I'm like, man, that was good. That was good. Next time Bagley picked it up, he picked up on it. And he repeated, he's like the drive of his life. And I'm like, there you go. Well, Bagley also saw that drive of his life almost go off in freaking flames.

My God. We all did. Yeah. Well, I know, right? Yeah. And to be honestly, I had just started thinking about five. Lime lapse earlier and Trux was really pressing him. And I was thinking, you mentioned how Chase is so hard on himself.

I'm like, I don't think I'm going to be able to watch Chase Elliott beat himself up if he loses this race. Because this one is right here for it. And when I saw that last lap turn one, I really just, it flashed in front of my eyes. The level of dejection that Chase Elliott is going to bring to this post-race interview is going to, it's going to be like the notebook. It's going to be like the Titanic, the end of. It's like, how are you going to not just like want to go hug the guy, right? You want to talk about the ultimate like, okay, you think, okay, you know, I heard a few people say, is he going to choke? You want to talk about the ultimate stick in your face, not choke, the fact that he got that thing into neutral and did that, had that poised during that moment, he overcame it.

Yeah. There's no doubt now. Anyways, that Chase Elliott, the one good thing about where you were is that as far as the narrative of the race goes, Chase Elliott had him covered in that. Oh, yeah. And that bus stop. That's where Turex would come up, get him, get him, get him. And then Chase Elliott, through that little bus stop, would just, just mow him down, man. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, he was, that's a real difficult part of the racetrack. I felt confident about Chase not making huge mistakes. I was more worried, I think, if anything, about him running out of gas like Trix. Like Trix did. I was like, man, in my mind, I'm thinking, this ain't going to be lost on a mistake. This is going to, this chase is going to run out of gas. And that's how. You're thinking just like,

chase. He's in the car going, what was that noise? Yeah. Is this, you know, it used to do that. Oh, yeah. You used to do that. In his last lap, you're like, is it breaking? Is it running out of gas? Is this happening?

What's going to happen? What's it going to be that creates a, you know, cause me to lose this race? And I'm thinking in my head, I'm thinking, yeah, if he loses this thing, it's probably going to be on fuel, you know, fuel. And it was close. Yeah. Holy crap. He ran out of gas coming by me.

Yeah. He was going to stop, I think, and do a burnout in the interloop in front of his dad. That's what he said in the post race. And I'm, I'm standing there watching. And then he said, well, I'm out of gas. And Jimmy pushing him, that was kind of, you know, one of those things I think we'll look back on as like a little bit of an iconic moment, no matter what happens in careers and whatnot. That was definitely something incredible.

But for Chase Elliott to get his first win after all that anticipation we've had in this industry, you know, you could probably speak to it how huge this is for our sport. Yeah. I mean, I think that was one of the things that I took away from the day. I've been talking, me and Jeff Burton were riding in the car on the way to the airport and I said to Jeff, I said, I don't know whether it's this vantage point that I've had as a broadcaster since Chicago, but there's a, there's a feeling. I can't explain it or describe it as anything other than something in the air that it's something's different. You know, the drivers are delivering the drama. You know, every week the drivers are giving it hell, right? And I don't, it just feels different. So you're saying like this whole season is just feeling different. Just since Chicago. Since Chicago, yeah.

Since I've been in the booth, I've felt like I'm seeing something different. I felt like I'm experiencing watching something different than I've seen the first half of the season or even in the last five years. And I said to Jeff, I said, man, is it just the vantage point? Is it just me watching it from the booth and being a broadcaster and being plugged into the race experience differently? He's like, no, it's not. He says, I feel it too. he said something's changed i don't know what it is something feels different and i'm telling you man at the start of this year in january i had a hunch a gut feeling no reason no nothing to back it up

but i had a gut feeling that we were about to see the sport turn a corner that we were about to see a transition and an evolution in a positive one everybody there's a lot of people out there that have a lot of information, a lot of statistics, and everything else about the struggles the sports facing right now, there's things to back it up. But even with all that said and all that information out there, I just feel like my belief is that things cycle. I feel like that we're at the bottom of the cycle for the sport. It's cycling back toward the positive. And I felt that way in offseason. Yeah. It's kind of like those last laps, man. It just seems like it's ramping and ramping and ramping.

I feel like it is. And, you know, this weekend was great, having Chase win, having him win on NBC. That's huge. Yeah, I mean, listen, you know, we had great ratings for the Xfinity race Saturday. Yep. It was a sellout race. Sell out on Sunday. You had Chase battling one of the big three, or two of the big three, really.

You had Kyle Bush the first half of the race that was pressing him. And then you had True X at the end. So you got the legitimate, you get your horses up there at the front. Chase had to beat him. It was on the big network. I mentioned that on Twitter afterwards, and somebody said, yeah, but is it too late? And I was like, too late for what?

Who said that? Yeah, you know, just so somebody responding, and I'm like, too late. What is this? I mean, was the end near? I mean, no, no, no, no. It's a cycle. This is about to bounce back.

NASCAR's taken back off. All you had to do. I hate to put the pressure on Chase, but like, we all were sort of waiting for Chase to emerge, right? In the cup. I mean, I remember that when he drove. for JRM, when he started winning him, we were like, this optimism was more so not just for our company, but for the sport.

I feel like we're waiting for others to emerge. Yes, but NASCAR needs its next star. We're lacking a little star power right now. And it's not singular. I agree. It's not singular. Star power and a rivalry. Yes.

So it needs more people. Yeah, yeah. You're right, Mike. But you're right. And, you know, there were times when the sport was successful and there was no, there was no number one star. And, you know, there were times when it was, they'll earn hard and everyone else.

There were times when there were, you know, Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Kell Yarbril, David Pearson, all equally sort of in that same conversation. You know, I feel like that, you know, everybody knows all the heavy hitters, all the veterans, everybody knows who they are, and we're just waiting on this next batch of guys to emerge. Who are they, you know?

And Chase is one of them. Blaney's one of them. Larsen and all those guys. And they're starting, you know, they're doing that. it's happening over time. All this shit doesn't happen overnight. And I feel like the sports on an upswing. I am excited about its future.

I felt that. I didn't feel that way after yesterday. I felt that way since I retired. And in the last several weeks, we've seen some incredible things on the racetrack. And the drivers are delivering. And the drivers are, the drivers are showing their guts, man. And they are grinding it. It's insane.

Even those three guys that are on the top are showing their guts when they don't have to. And that's what's damn cool. Yeah. It's been some awesome, awesome, awesome racing. And it's been so fun to be able to see it and watch it. It's been beyond my expectations by far. Hey, before we bring out our guests, let's go for an Exalta Race Center update. This is your Exaltar Race Center update.

I'm Jason Schultz. Watkins Gun International, as usual, did not disappoint on NASCAR weekend. In the Xfinity series, a full three-wide move put Joey Lugano in the lead and then victory lane on Saturday. Sunday, a sell-out crowd at the Glen witnessed a wild race and a popular win. Chase Elliott and his 99th Cup start held off defending series champion Martin Trix Jr. to score his first series win. For the second week in a row, the JRM late model program brought home at Checkered Flag. In a throwback scheme honoring L.W. Miller's family-owned modified Josh Barry took the win in the throwback 276 Cars Tour event.

JRM driver Sam Mayer had an impressive drive from 24th to finish 7th. This Saturday NASCAR is a split double header on schedule as the trucks do battle at Michigan International Speedway at 1pm Eastern, followed by the Exfinity Series on the road course at Mid Ohio at 3.

The Cup Series caps off the weekend going 400 miles in Michigan on Sunday. 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, visit ExaltoscS.com. Hi. How's going?

Alex Bowman. All right, Alex. Alex is here. Alex Bowman. Yeah, thanks for having me. Is this your first time as a guest on the download? I don't think so, is it? I don't think so.

It might be. I've done a couple different shows in here. I can't remember. Alex Bowman said. Yeah, we kind of used him up when he was at Juven Motors. We hadn't done all kinds of stuff. Yeah. I'll do whatever.

all the players together. Yeah. You're not a rookie anymore. Hey, it's my fifth cup season as a rookie. So, you know, I just want the rookie set of tires and the rookie of race money. Yeah, I want the money, the rookie of the year money, all that stuff. I mean, let's go. We're talking about the race a little bit.

I had a great time watching it, great time calling it. It looked like a lot of fun from where I was at where you guys. Did you have good time out there? I did not. You did not. No. The honesty. Yeah, it was a frustrating weekend for me.

I just, I mean, obviously our cars were really good. You see how well Chase ran and William ran and Jimmy through most of the day. So I just felt like I was a little off all weekend. Kind of had some break issues first practice and had to scrap that. And then kind of felt like I was just behind from there. So don't really have a good excuse of it. I just felt like I didn't do a great job all weekend. So definitely have to address that going back.

We ran really well in Sonoma, so I thought we were going to be really good going to Walkins Glen. And I feel like I kind of let my guys down and didn't do a great job. But my pit crew was awesome. Picked up spots every time on pit road. So that kind of helped us. And we still had a good finish or a decent finish and a good points day. So I'll take it.

It could have been ahead of a lot worse. I just didn't feel like I did all that great of a job. That's the thing. It's like Feast your famine at the road courses. You're either going to have a decent day or you're going to really be frustrated with the result. And there's a lot of times, particularly when those races have those late yellows, that you could be running up in the top five or even the top 10 all day long, thinking, man, this will be a, you know, I don't love the car.

I don't love how things are going. But if we can finish here, this is great. And you get those late yellows and guys dive bombing and all kinds of crazy things happening on restarts. And you end up 18th or 25th. I've had plenty of those races there. For me, I always had a hard time, even later in my career, trying to tell the guys how to make the car better. I could tell them the things I didn't like them.

about it, but I never could say I need more rear spring. I need specific adjustments to help me. Like at an oval, you know. Yeah. Like I need the right rear to be doing this and that's the adjustment that'll fix it. But at road courses, I'm just like, well, I don't know.

It's just, I'm slow in the SIS I am. You know, I don't know. How do I get faster through there? I don't know. Absolutely. That was... It does, it turns shitty to the left and to the right. Yeah. How do you fix that? Yeah, I mean, that was kind of where I was at all weekend. We qualified really bad and I wish that I had like missed a corner completely in qualified

bad or like been like, oh, I did this wrong and this is why I qualified bad. But it was like, no, you're just a little bit slow everywhere and that's why you qualified bad. And it's like, okay, well, I don't really. Lose the time all the way around the course. Yeah, I don't really know how to fix that. And it was really like starting over. I hadn't been there since I paved it. The place has changed a ton. And I really, I just didn't know really what I needed for the race. and what direction to lead the guys in. And when we got to the race, I mean, you're really not going to fix it during the race. So I think going back, I'll be better and hopefully do some different things to maybe prepare a little better.

But it definitely was a little bit of a frustrating day. Did you keep it on the black top all race? I did. I didn't drive off the track. I made a couple little mistakes here and there and gave up some spots. Not many guys go off the track anymore. I mean, we saw a couple. Yeah.

But it's not like in the old days when it was guys going off in the sand trap left and right. The cars are so much better. It's a repaved track that has reasonable grip. There's a lot of paved runoffs now. Yes, that's huge. And the drivers have gotten so much better at road course racing. Well, hold that thought to after the roval. Well, that's a different animal.

I mean, we remember Walkins Glen in the late 90s, early 2000s, where it was like, you had road course ringers coming in there and finishing the top. And now some of those road course ringers can't even hold a candle. There were cup guys that would go. They were good cup guys like Sterling Marlin and so forth that would go to those road courses and just, you know, check out. Like mentally, just be like, yeah, it is what it is. Whatever happens, happens. Yeah.

There was no real like, man, we're going to go this time and this time we're going to win. You know, they were just like, it's a recourse. Yeah. We're going to get through this. Can't do that anymore. But back in the day, you could just go over to Boris and somebody or somebody, whoever you picked is your kind of. teacher you know there was ron fellows and boris said and a few others uh you would kind of get you know buddy up with those guys and learn everything you could about driving and then you'd ask for their set up

and uh be friendly with it's it's not like that anymore you can't get it you can't get any driving tips from anybody really yeah it's it's interesting you bring up ron's name he um he actually helped william and i a little bit we went to the simulator with ron um which was a big help and um we went to his school out in Spring Mountain before Sonoma as well. So you did the school twice? No, so we just did the school before Sonoma, and then he came here to run the simulator with us. I did Bond-Dron in Phoenix back in the 90s when me and Steve Park.

Steve was going in the cup car and I was going to an Xfinity car, and that was incredible how much that helped me. You wouldn't think that going to one of those schools would be such a big help. But if you get the right teacher, and I think you had Ron specifically, the things that they can show you about corner, and Apex, it's incredible. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, they have so much knowledge. It's like I feel like we could do the same thing if we took Ron Fellows to an oval. You know, you're going to be able to teach him the same amount of stuff just because that's what you've done your entire life. Yeah, that's cool. I mean, it's awesome that Ron's still around and involved and real good guy. He ran for junior motorsports and won a race. Yep.

That's right. That's right. In the rain, I think. Yes, he did. He's such a cool guy, too. He is. And he's still around, man. He says it's going to take me to LaMont.

Heck yeah. Now that I'm not driving, I can go do all these cool things. Yeah, that looks like it's one heck of a party, a little bit of racing involved. It looks pretty neat. And the wife would love it. So talk about obviously Chase winning the race. You were teammates with Chase, 250th win for Hendon Motorsports. You got to enjoy, be a part of that celebration after the race.

You see how important. You see how much this means to this company and being a part of it. Yeah. You've been on the outside. I was in the same situation watching them win, win, win, and on the outside looking in going, man, I wonder what it's like to be in that group. And now you are. Yeah, it's, it was interesting, you know, because obviously I was pretty frustrated and kind

of down on myself. But to see everybody in the company so excited and, you know, Chase has been so close so many times. It's amazing to be a small part of that company and to have HMS get 250 wins is incredible. I mean, you think that is so many wins. It's amazing. So I want to get my name up on that wall someday, hopefully sooner rather than later, but to have Chase do it in his first win doing that, it was really cool. So the guys all seem pretty pumped. I don't want to smell champagne ever again, standing in Victory Lane, waiting for Chase to come out of the media center to take that photo. Everything smelled like champagne.

Until it's your victory lane. Yeah, if it was my champagne, it would have been cool. But on that note, Alex, I mean, like, I know I guess you got to say you're happy for Chase, okay? And I've got to be careful how I asked this, but I'm saying you, William, Chase had not won a race. I mean, I know that there's competition between teammates. You can be good teammates and still be competitive with each other. So does Chase winning, does that occur to you? Like, man, I would have loved to have gotten this 250th winner.

I would have loved to have been the one to actually win a race before Chase had. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, obviously, I've been pretty close to. And I think selfishly everybody wants to get a win first or get that 250th win for Mr. H. So that's just part of being a race car driver. You want to be better than all the other race car drivers. So I don't think that means you're a bad teammate by any.

means or anything. So I think Chase has been the closest, the most times out of anybody that I've ever seen, not win yet. So I think we knew, I mean, the nine cars been running the best of the Hendrik cars all year. It seems like I feel like we kind of knew it was coming. But we're all trying to get there first, you know. Yeah, but you guys, the last, you know, certainly the last month, I mean, we've seen Chevroletes and certainly Hendrick Motorsports, you know, step up their game and kind of see, you know, almost like they're entering the fight now. Yeah, honestly, it's a lot of hard work from a lot of people. Whether it's the engine shop getting better, the chassis shop getting better,

the body's getting better. I mean, everybody, every race team is working 100% all the time, trying to get everything they can get every single day. So when you start the year off and have to ask more of those people, it takes a lot and takes a long time to try to catch up because everybody around you is getting better at the same time. So we've kind of been saying it for a while that we are getting better and our cars are getting better.

But over the last couple weeks, I feel like we've been able to really show that we're getting better. It's tough. There's never any relaxing or downtime. So for them to step it up that little bit more and be catching up, it's pretty cool. Talk about it a little bit this week,

but you got an extension on your contract. You've got to resign from nationwide to be a part of the team going forward. That's got to be a lot of things. That's got to make you feel great, though, that this far into your first season, you got sort of a commitment to continue and be part of this company. I always knew when I would get a new extension or something like that. It was kind of like a pat on the back or, you know, confirmation toward, you know, that you belong there and that

you wanted to be there or people want you there. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it gives me a lot of confidence going forward that nationwide as well as Mr. Hendrick and everybody in the company have faith in me to be driving the 88 car and be there for the next couple years. So really excited about that. Nationwide, it's been so much fun to work with, whether it's doing the children's hospital stuff or the pet insurance stuff, it's been a ton of fun. So to have them come back and actually be on the car for more races going forward is really neat. It's a great feeling to have that confidence going forward. And in my career, I've never stayed in the same place for more than a year until I got to HMS and 16. And it's been a different role every year, so it doesn't even really feel like I've been in the same place.

So to kind of have that short up for the next couple of years, it means a lot. I would make the argument that this is your biggest career milestone, even more than going to Hendrick. Absolutely. But it sort of felt to me like you're in a rehearsal, right, in the 80s, since he came out of the 88 car, you filled in for him in the concussion thing, you and Jeff split time in that. But it still felt like to me that you still had to earn this contract. and that this was the validation that you belong. So I think this is your biggest career milestone as far.

Am I wrong? Yeah, I mean, I appreciate it. I would look at it similarly. I mean, I think going into this year, there are a lot of things in the back of my mind. And number one is, I mean, the sponsors like Nationwide and Exaltah going from Dale Jr. to me, you know, I mean, that's a huge difference.

I mean, so to have them still think it's worth their while to stick around. and be happy with what I'm doing and my brand and how I represent myself and all that means a lot to me. And definitely it's pretty cool to have them sign back up. Where were you when you found out, not when you announced it, when you found out that nationwide was coming back and that you were going to get re-signed? Where were you and what were you at? So it's kind of funny. I was in the shop with the guys for all our Tuesday meetings and I got a text. from Kelsey that said,

Jesse Tucker, you're your PR girl. Yep, said, hey, can you come upstairs? We need to sit down with Jesse Essex, Pat, and Laura. And I was like, okay.

What's happening? What's wrong? Exactly. I said, what's it about? Yeah. And she said, well, did you hear about nationwide? And I was like, oh, no.

Like, what did I do wrong? Right. Like the most ominous text message ever and I'm like heart is pounding right and I'm like uh hopefully that is good news not bad news and she's like yeah they sign back up for two years and I was like oh thank baby Jesus I was so worried so that was a pretty frantic two and a half minutes waiting for her to text me back but it felt pretty good I mean there's there's a lot to that no deep down you know I know you talk about the opportunity and whatnot but you know we don't have a lot of time to reflect on what we do in life sometimes when we're

on the circus. But then when you get a chance to, I mean, two years ago, I remember you kind of walking around kicking stones with your head down a little bit in the Phoenix garage. And I was about to do our show Garage cam back then on NASCAR.com. I'm like, hey, come on. Interview. You're like, well, I don't really have anything. I'm like, exactly. So like, if you look, two years ago, you have that. You get this little opportunity when Dale has his concussion. And to now have that nervousness, it all is connected. And you have this opportunity. Do you reflect on that journey because of that? Absolutely.

I mean, if you would have told me the beginning of 2016 that I was going to end up driving a car for Hendrick Motorsports full time, I'd be like, yeah, okay. Like, there's no possible way. I did an interview in 2015 that with Alan Kavana, and we talked about how I was just kind of getting by driving for smaller teams and probably was never going to get a shot driving for a bigger team, but was still getting to drive a race car for a living and trying to do more with less and make the most of my situation. And I specifically said, I don't think Mr. Hendricks ever going to call me to come drive a race car for him. That's great. And then a year later, it's like,

hey, can you come drive this car in New Hampshire? So it's pretty wild how things happen and everything happens for a reason. Obviously not the circumstances I wanted to get a shot under, but to have Dale kind of throw my name in. He's been a big advocate for you. Yeah. I mean, you could have had anybody do it. So why is that, Dale? There's been a handful of drivers. It's not every driver that's come through with JRM that you really have been a big advocate for. Kozlowski, I remember you were willing to lose sponsorships that people didn't like Kislauski. You know, sponsor didn't like Kislowski, and you're like, this is guy, I won't drive with that car.

And Bowman is one that you just, you've been such a big advocate for him. So what was it about Alex? I just know, like, when you get to a certain point when you get to watching somebody race and somebody drive and then you're hanging around. him a little bit too. You realize like, hey man, if this guy had an opportunity in this car, our car here or the car at HMS, he could do what he needs to do with it. He could do what needs to be done. And he could qualify up front.

He could win. He could, you know, he could be marketable. Brad had the last name. He grew up in a racing family. I knew that if things went the right way for him, that, you know, the traction would get there and he would just keep going and going and snowballing. Alex drove for some pretty challenging, he drove in some pretty challenging situations,

and he would get more out of those situations than I think that he should have or anyone else would have. When you watch guys get in some of the cars that tend to run toward the back half of the field, Ross Chastain's another guy. You watch Ross get in cars, and he doesn't get in those cars

and assume he's going to run last. He doesn't get in those cars and assume that, you know, I'm just here to get my 30% or whatever. He could care less about that car's past track record. He's going to freaking go out there and show air. Lay it down. Yeah. And he would do the same thing in those same situations.

And anytime we put him in our car, which was only really spotty, rare, you know, his opportunities, trying to scrape money together and be able to afford to race was difficult. But when he did drive our cars, he always shined. And I would watch him, like physically go watch him run the car in the corner. And he was really smooth and really smart. And, man, it's so hard to get guys to understand how to make great judgment on the racetrack. It's not easy to go fast. But going fast is a raw talent.

A guy doesn't learn how to drive. A guy doesn't get in a race car with completely no ability and then learn how to drive a race car. He either got or you don't. And so you can get in there. and be quick. But damn, the judgment that some of these guys have is so flawed and so frustrating. And he didn't have that. I never worried about him in...

Looking like a donkey. Yeah. I never worried about him like, oh, man, he's controlling the restart. Oh, no. And we've had a lot of drivers come through here. And there have been some where you're like, oh, crap. I hope he doesn't just destroy this. this. You know, this is a, you know, you get backed into a late restart or something.

Yeah, yeah. We had a driver, and I won't name who it is, but he was a rookie, and he'd get that rookie set of tires, right? They actually had an extra practice for the rookies by themselves. Wow. A 30-minute practice with all the rookies. I wish I still got that. Right. We are fast. We're in the top 10. It was great to be in the top 10 at this particular point in the company's history. We get the 30-minute practice for him to go out in a new set of tires. just go out there and get a little extra time with clean racetrack, and he backed at the wall. Oh, no.

And so I'm like, man, you just cannot make those mistakes, you know, when you're working for a company and you know this because you've worked for a lot of them that are really counting every dollar. Yeah. And you can't, you don't write in the budget that we're going to bend a rear clip today, you know. And so I think him having to race for those companies, he understands how teams work on a budget. he understands how to take care of equipment. You hate to see people like Alex not get that chance. When you know and believe in someone's talent,

it's so frustrating watching guys that you know got it and can do it, not get the chance to show it. Based off your conversations, though, with Mr. Hendrick, whenever he'd asked for your opinion, do you think that it took your concussion and then Alex's races in that 88 car to be able to earn the confidence to get him in that ride? In other words, without your concussion, I don't think you would have been any less of an advocate for Alex.

You're basing all this stuff off of his time at Junior Motorsports. But would he have got that Hendrick ride without it? You're shaking your head, no. Every driver has to prove themselves to whoever the owner is or what have you. And Alex is no different. And William Byron's the same way. And just because William Byron came here and won a championship, that doesn't mean that he goes to, he's going to be an amazing cup driver.

There's so much difference between the two. cars in the two series power and the strategy and the length of the race and all those things. There is such a big difference when you agree in the two cars. Absolutely. The way the cars drive and handle and feel. You know, so there's no guarantee, you know, and even though I knew that, you know, those opportunities in that car in 2016 were the ones that, you know, I'm telling him. The first one, I think the first race I was, and I'm not, I wasn't, it wasn't like I was a remote

patrol. But I remember telling him, I'm like, hey, man, you know, just, this might be the only one. Yeah. Absolutely. I said, this might be the only chance. So there's only a little bit of pressure that week. And you get the sense in your disappointment at the end of that race on the radio, I remember. Yeah, I mean, you know, because we had a really good day.

And it wasn't anything, literally coming out of the pit box, I remember it clear as day. We're running 10th or 8th coming out of the pit box. We were pitted right behind Carl Edwards, and he literally backed up, like, threw it in reverse and backed up into the left rear quarter panel while I was swinging out of the pit box. And we got a left rear tire rub, drove to 6th, and then tire popped. It was so, yeah, we were all dejected for you. Yeah, so there was, I mean, I felt like I did my job. You were there that day. People knew you were there, but Phoenix.

Yeah. I would even go so far as I have to talk about. I asked that question of you guys. No, no, as I say, I'm saying, I'm wondering if Rick Hendrick gets you that gives you the opportunity to drive the 88 full time if Dale had not had a concussion. I almost wonder if Phoenix had not happened where you won the poll, right, and then raced up there with him. Yeah. And that to me was like, oh, Alex is really like, he can run these cup cars. Yeah.

That was a big thing. I opened for a lot of people, I thought. Yeah, I think there were a couple of them. I think Michigan was really the first one. So the second race I ran in the 88 car was Michigan, and we were really fast all weekend. I think we qualified sixth, and we were running third or fourth and had a mechanical failure. And then we fixed it, and we went back out, and we were one of the fastest cars all day, but we were like five laps down. Charlotte, we were running second or third, qualified second, popped a left front tire.

So that was going to be another really good one for us. And then Phoenix obviously leading the most laps and all that. So I think those three races were definitely kind of key to it. I think if I didn't have Phoenix, it probably would have been tougher. But I'd say if I didn't have any time in that car, there's no way. I don't even think my name gets brought up in the conversation. Just hadn't proven myself. You know, I hadn't won an Xfinity race.

I hadn't really done much. So, you know, I think those races, really helped my career and obviously not the like I said not the circumstances you want to get them in but just tried to make the most of them and you can be honest I mean there was that concussion if there was a silver lining in that in that experience that was one of them and then also Jeff Gordon not wanting to race certain races that's another one I mean yeah definitely got to thank Jeff for for letting me run some of those because that's uh he could have just wanted to run them all and not giving me any chances after Loudon I don't think there was any worry that Jeff Gordon would want to

run them all. He probably is enjoying. Yeah. Enjoying being retired a little bit. You know, another thing that I'm reminded of, and I thought about this Thursday, the three of us went up to the nationwide children's hospital, y'all did an appearance. I went with you.

No, it was your appearance. Yeah, yeah. And I remember as we're going through that hospital, and I'm watching you, I'm watching you both kind of like, you know, like really kind of engage and interact with, you know, a lot of the kids, the doctors. I mean, we had this really good day, right? And I remember Dale Jr. even giving you advice on how to engage with sponsors. Yeah.

You know, you would even be on a pit box. I remember Dale Jr. would be like, you know, you need to take pictures and post them on social. Yeah. You're just sitting up there observing. So he's been kind of advocating for you, but also kind of coaching you even off the track, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you look in the beginning of 2017, every time I'd go to the racetrack with you guys and sit on the pit box,

I would always try to post something with like a big nationwide. logo in it or a big Exalta logo in it every week just trying to be like hey I'm here like so I did everything I could and I don't know I feel like Dale's much better at engaging people than I am I'm a little shy and not quite as outgoing as you are but I try to that's so funny to hear somebody I know it I'm such an introvert but I feel like you're not a really good job like he was at the Children's Hospital, like, you're so... It's my sixth visit. Yeah.

So I feel like, like, I need to do a better job at some of that stuff. And, like... It'll come. The biggest thing that drives me crazy is my memory is terrible. Mine is, too. Like, I cannot remember names for the life of me. So I definitely need to work on some stuff like that. But Thursday, I try to watch what you do and try to learn from you a little bit,

because I feel like you do a great job with it. So try to learn as much as I can. Yeah, I think the best advice, I could have for you on all that. And I haven't talked to you hardly at all on a performance professional level this year. Yeah. Because I've just, you know, it's been fun just to watch you go. What I'd say is don't worry about it right now.

Because when you do start to get that performance you're looking for and you do start to get the wins, all that stuff gets so much easier. Yeah. The wins sort of push you in front of everyone. And then it's much easier to be able to engage. Right. It's so hard to engage. And I didn't, man, when I was running like crap, I just closed myself off.

Yeah. You don't feel like you're worth engaging with. Right. Right. Plus the questions would be like, you know, you do meet and greet with fans. They'd be like, hey, Dale, when you going to win? Yeah. Well, they're like, I'm sorry, who are you?

What car do you drive? Yeah, like, hey, can I have your autograph? Wait, you spelled Dale wrong. Have you really got that? Yeah, I got, they're like, you're in the nation. I'm like, he retired. Like, I'm sorry. I'm sorry to disappoint you.

Is that really? That's a great question. What does this transition been like? Do you get these constant reminders that you're not Dale Jr. And you're not, you know. So sometimes, I'd say the biggest thing that I get is whenever I drive an exalt a car, I get, hey, William. Everybody thinks I'm William Byrd. And I'm like, really, he's like 12.

Come on now. I'm sorry. He's in detention today. He's still in high school. Like, he couldn't be here today. So I'm filling in. But no, it's. It's funny, the things I've gotten, but a lot of 88 fans have been super supportive and been really cool, too.

So very appreciative of that. You know, everybody's going to cheer for somebody different or look for different things in the driver. So any of the 88 fans that have stuck around, I'm super appreciative for that. Yeah. I think it's just the very beginning of a long, long, enjoyable, professional career. It's going to be fun. Had to get that first re-sign, though. That was a big one.

I'm proud of you. I appreciate it. I'm telling you, that reason, getting the sponsor to come back and getting the team to say, yep, he's our guy. and it's through 219. Is that right? Through 20. 2.20. That's big.

I tell you, I think that's your first big milestone and your next one's going to be your win. Yeah, I appreciate it. By then, you'll be given the tours at the hospital. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Shoot, I'm catching you.

That was your sixth visit. I'm already on three. So I'm catching you quick on that one. You all did a nice job up there. Both of you. I thought it was an enjoyable experience, and I'll tell you what, I mean, like that nation's one,

that nation's one. It's amazing. Come on. I've been to so many children's hospitals. When I drove for Tommy Baldwin, we had a RC car sponsor. So every week that the RC car company was on the car, we went to a different children's hospital and gave RC cars away to kids. Oh, wow.

So I've been through so many different children's hospitals and seen different situations. And then so I kind of thought that I knew what a children's hospital was and how they looked and how they operated. And I remember last year my first time going to a children's hospital, I was blown away. The nation of my children's up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's just an amazing facility. and to meet everybody up there. It's an amazing place. So I feel like every time I go there, I take something different away from the experience. This time I kind of hung out with you in that meeting. It was really cool to see kind of where the Dale and Amy fund is being put to use and how stuff like that is used by a children's hospital.

So it's really cool and just really puts things in perspective going up there. Yeah, sure it is. Did you hear that, Dale? He's taking his cues from you on how to behave and how to act during a bull. board meeting, a boardroom meeting. He didn't fall asleep in this one, so we were good. I've heard some stories. Oh, yeah.

Hey, we're not, we all, we are a little rough around the edges when we start out. I enjoyed you being there and being a part of it. I told Nationwide folks on Sunday when they brought Bryson, you know, you saw Bryson. Have you ever seen a kid smile so much? Right. Oh, my gosh. Oh, y'all met a kid from the National Children's Hospital? Yeah, his name was on the car this weekend.

Oh, yeah, his name was on the passenger side. He hung out all weekend. And I've literally never seen a kid smile so much in my life. So this is a great opportunity for me and Alex to still do things with the Children's Hospital. It's a great chance. It's great for us to go visit together, work together on some funding and so forth, and spread the word and awareness. So I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed Alex being in there because Reddick was with us. Yep. And they took him off somewhere else. He wasn't in that meeting. Tyler Reddick got a tour of the meeting. He got a tour during the meeting. while we were handling our business. Yeah, he's in the board meeting.

Yeah. Yeah, he hadn't been there before, so you've got to get the full tour. A couple more visits than he comes into the board meeting. He can't make his way into that conference room. Slide on in there. Yeah, he just can't snore like he did on the plane coming home. He did. Oh, my gosh.

Little guy, big snoring. Oh, my gosh. I think he must have stayed up the night before because as soon as we got on the airplane coming back, not only did he fall asleep immediately, but like he went into like, almost like that deep, deep sleep. He had some sleep apnea going on. Yeah, and he was like, you know, and we're like,

we needed some popcorn. Are we going down? What is that? They're like, oh, it's just Reddick. He snored. Tyler Reddick. Oh, well. Listen, man, I appreciate you coming by.

Yeah, thanks for having me. It's a lot of fun. I really appreciate it. And good luck. Yeah, thank you. Congratulations and all that stuff. Yeah, thank you guys so much. It's always cool to come hang out.

A couple more races left for the playoffs. Good luck moving forward. Thank you. I'll be watching and hollering and screaming. Yeah. Don't lose your voice. You might need that. I thought he was going to lose his voice at Waukins'Let.

That's what I heard. That's what I heard. Trey said he could hear me. Yeah, I thought I heard something. Maybe it was you. That's awesome. Hey, before you go, you're a fun guy and good personality. We have a little segment on our show.

We're going to keep you around for another segment real quick. We got a little section on our show called Did You See That? Did you see that? I haven't heard that in a while. Yeah. All right, man. We like to talk about random crap that we see on the internet. Okay.

And I don't know, two things kind of struck Davis and I going into the show. But one in particular that I know you probably saw in love, but Logan Sevee, man. That was amazing. Did you see that on Instagram? So he's going to avoid a wreck. So you saw it. He goes to avoid a wreck and it looks like something out of the cars movie. Yeah.

Because he, wall ride. He hit the wall and avoided the wreck by driving up on the fence and around it. That was amazing. That was really cool. I love midget racing. I mean, I have two midgets and try to race them through the winter when I can. So I always keep my eye on that type of racing. And that was the coolest wreck avoidance I think I've ever seen in my entire life.

I mean, he was literally like on the chain link fence floating above his spun out team. mate just like drove right around him and then just came down and kept digging finished third that's amazing so really cool to see zeb wise win that race to get his first national major win it's really cool lindsay lohan made that same move in herbie the movie yeah to win that right yeah except she needed some special effects Logan didn't need any well that was special effect i thought that was pure driver right there Lindsay lohan's a wheelwoman if if she did that on pure driver she uh she can come drive for jrm i think get it done yeah uh Ty Dillon, man. Mike, you saw that this morning, too.

What is it? Ty Dillon put the entire, all the racetracks on blast just because Wachens Glenn had a sellout. He's like, everybody else, what's your excuse? And we're like, what? Yeah, I mean, well, first of all, it was also that we have sellouts at Waukins Glen. You know, we hear so much crap about, hey, you know, attendance is hurting, attendance is hurting, attendance figures, this and that.

Let's see. And finally, we hear some great news like Waukins Lend's selling out again. And Tye's tweet. Here it is. Ty Dillon, fourth consecutive sellout for Watkins Glen. What's everyone else's excuse? Hashtag NASCAR. Wow.

Get her done. I don't think I can touch that one. No, I wouldn't touch that one. I saw it. I saw it. Yep, I seant it. Couldn't believe it. I seen it.

Good stuff. We'll do Sebastian Jr.? I, oh wait. Oh, go ahead. All right. Me and Amy think that some tracks ought to plant trees in the infield. Talladega. For shade?

Yeah. So I was, I know this sounds great. I was like for what? Like peach trees or apple trees? All right. So I had to, I was in the inner loop and I had to drive a half a mile golf cart ride from there to the inside of the track. And I did this drive on this golf cart 15 times this weekend. I was blown away by how beautiful this racetrack was.

And as we're riding, I would have to drive down the back straightaway outside the racetrack. And the whole time I'm like, man, I'd put my bus there. Oh, that's a cool tree. I'd park it under there. You'd shade the whole weekend. And there's only a few spots open. And I'm like, yeah, I can see myself back here. They'd only probably, you know, fans back here, they'd probably bug me for a day or two.

Then it'd be cool. And I'd just kind of be one of them. You get free beer. You know, I'm trying to talk myself into, like, how I could make this work. And so I came home and I was telling Amy about it. She's like, of all the tracks we went to, Watkins Glam was the only track we went to where I was thinking, man, it'd be so fun to camp out there. And it's because of the trees.

But you could only do that at a road course, right? Well, why couldn't you plant trees in the infield? Sonoma just doesn't have that feel, you know? Because it obstructs the view, whereas at the road course, there's not a view to obstruct other than what's right in front of you. People are watching the race at Talladega from the center of the infield? No. But they still got to see over the trees, right?

They would be able to see over some of those trees? I don't want the entire infield covered in trees. Just like select, yeah, make some shady areas. Yeah, some sort of high-end camping. Those are the VIP camp in spills. You get a tree. I just think, I'll tell you.

All right. No, I mean, it's interesting. I never thought about it. But, you know, Walkins, Glenn does bring, has a lot of little features

that you're seeing for the first time. We've known him to be that way. Yeah. Because if you just go out to either a spotter stand or whatever, just going into the tunnel. Like, it feels like a little, not a little city,

but like a little festival. A little town with like intersections and stuff. We're leaving the, we're leaving the racetrack, right? I'm on this golf cart. We're leaving the track. We're on the track. Driving around the carousel,

the same direction. his race cars. We're going down the back straightaway to turn six. And there, I looked to my right, and there is literally about 800 to a thousand empty beer cans stacked in this one area. What's right there at that area? Two giant freaking trees. Everybody was hanging out in that shade, the whole race and watching right there.

And that's where all these beer cans would collect. I thought it was funny because it's like, I've seen that, like Mike said, I've seen that, you know, for 22, 20. I haven't. I haven't. You've been in the car. I only know the car, the bus lot, in a garage,

and maybe the media center every once in a while. Did you see the math? Did you see where the fans sometimes make a map? Oh, yeah. With the beer cans. I got a great business idea, though.

Just go to Talladega, plant two big trees and put a beer stand in the middle of it. Sell beer all day. That's a tree stand, beer stand. Track as big as Talladega could get away with having some giant oaks in there

without any kind of destruction. Of course it could. Yeah. I mean, Talladega could because you can't really see the whole racetrack anyway if you're in the infield. There's that back on the back straightaway. There's that little hill all the way on the interior of the back straightaway area. People sit there. They could.

They have picnics and stuff back out there. They could put trees there. That's a great place to watch out. Well, they're redoing the infield at Talladega, so we have some time to tell us. Yeah, I mean, think about all the, like, we can't continue to expect fans to come and watch a race the way they did in the 80s and the 90s. Get blasted by son. We always need to try to give more, give new, come up with creative ways to make it more comfortable. I've just said it and thinking, let's give the drunk people something to climb.

That's a good idea. I didn't think about that. So there should be a sign, no climbing trees allowed. Wackenslam would be considered one of the bigger party racetracks and they don't have any issues and there's trees everywhere. Yeah, I haven't seen anybody in a tree there, so we're good. Just on the racetrack. The other thing I think is all these are. racetracks need to build, they need to build

Whiskey River style. I'm not, you know, toot your own Tute my own brand or proposing that they build whiskey rivers. But every, a trail like Taledega should have a genuine structure that is a bar in the infield. That would be incredible. That's a moneymaker. Why is there not? Printing cash. Yeah, why is there not a giant freaking hooters in the infield at Talladega? I mean,

unless if you don't want to be a whiskey river. Yeah. That's a good idea. Why is there not? It's got to be, you know, just, you know, people bickering over money. But eventually we've got to come together and work together on this, tracks. Yeah. I'm like Ty Dillon. What's your excuse?

Hey, Ty Dillon's tweet. Why are not bars and trees in every track? What's your excuse, NASCAR? The tracks need more bars and trees. Bars and trees. I've always said, bars, trees and internet. If you build it, they will come. Well, that's great.

A tree is a great place to put some internet. A tree bar with internet. A tree bar with internet. Oh my gosh. A tree house with Wi-House bar with Wi-Fi. Bovin, do you know what you're getting yourself into? No. I just, we need to have a contest for naming this tree-house, tree-house Wi-Fi bar.

That would be easy. That would be easy. The Treehouse Wi-Fi bar. Every racetrack. Yeah. Every racetrack. We're here at the Talladega Treehouse Wi-Fi bar. That's right.

Say that five-downs fast. Listen, the homeboy at Texas, you know, Eddie Gosses, he'll build one tomorrow if he felt like it was a... He'll somehow replicate it. a 200-year-old oak tree. I think we need to trademark this so we all get a cut of this great idea that we're giving. 2018, copyright. Dillner Bowman, Davis, Earnhardt. We cut you into the deal.

Perfect. I'll take 2%. This is your second big career moment then. Yeah. Sounds like it's going to be a big one. All right, man. Appreciate you coming on. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Much appreciated. Have a good weekend. We'll see you in Michigan. Yes, sir. Thank you guys. Let's do some Ask Junior. It's time for Ask Junior I got a question

You have a question for me Hit us up on Twitter Using the hashtag Ask Junior All right now Fans chiming in on Twitter Using the hashtag Ask Junior Mike Church What do you think about having Bill Elliott

Spot for his son Also would your dad have spotted for you And if so How do you think he would have done My dad was actually on the radio He didn't spot for me But dad was on the radio So actually when I won my first Xfinity race to Texas, he had a headset and talked a little bit.

But he would only talk when he thought that, you know, I needed to shut up or, you know, he was pretty quiet for the most part, but he loved to listen in. And I think obviously when we ran companion races, he's probably listening to all the races. Of course you won that race in Texas. Bill, he's on the radio for Chase winning that race. That's a special thing. So, you know, for a father and son. Bill, you know, he's not going to show his real feelings. And we saw a glimpse of maybe how proud he was,

but I'm sure he was bursting inside in Victory Lane. And, you know, he's put a lot of effort into, which a lot of the guys do, a lot of fathers do. They put a ton of effort into their son's careers and they believe in their sons, and they know that in the right situation their son can make this happen. There's a lot of fathers that feel that way. He was realizing that dream and realizing, you know, his vision for his son. right there in that moment.

Now, I love nicknames in racing, so I think this is a great question right here. Clintie chimes in and says, now, Awesome Bill from Dawsonville was just such a great nickname. But now that Chase has his first win, he kind of needs a nickname, too. What nickname, if you could, what nickname would you give Chase? Oh, I got a great nickname for Chase, Young Elvis. Young Elvis? Yeah. Why?

If you ever put a picture of Chase, I'm a huge Elvis fan, so I can do this. this in my head. But if you ever take a picture of Elvis Presley as a, like, when he just starts breaking into music and Chase, they are really similar. Really? Like profile or like regular straight-up face? I don't know. Their face.

They look the same. Same hair, same sort of boyish looks. It's very similar. And I think that the hope is that he would become the Elvis of NASCAR. That would be great for NASCAR. I think it would be cool to start calling Young Elvis. Young Elvis. Yelvis.

Young Elvis. All right. Lisa Garrity wants to know. How did you like announcing the race by yourself? Used to have your boys next year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was, I wasn't really by myself. I have, I had a, there's a few guys up there with me.

There's a guy that's sort of a stats guy and gives you all kinds of information. And I said at one point in the race, Chase has led for the last five races. And before that, he hadn't led, but only two of the first 17. That was a stat that the stat guy handed me on a whiteboard. Nice. So when you hear us say things, it sounds smart. It's really usually coming from the stat guy. And also I shared the platform with one of the folks from MRN.

We had a great time. I do prefer, you know, to be in the booth with. In the booth, not only do you have your buddies to talk to during commercial and so forth. You also have so much more tools in front of you. There's like six monitors of every stat and information in any kind of camera angle. you can think of. So that's helpful. Kind of a zany question here. I like those ones. Michael Tucker, if you could spend seven days on an island with one driver, who would it be and why? Probably Turex, because you'd think about, like, after a few days, who's going to annoy the hell out of you

by talking too much? Trix is not going to say a word. Trix is also going to be a guy that's going to come up with some pretty good ideas on how to survive those seven days. He's kind of an outdoorsman and a tinkerer. and he said as much on the show last week on the Winsdale show. So I think he'd be the guy to have. I think I would either kill or be killed by any of the other drivers in seven days. Kill or be killed. Yeah, I mean, you drive each other. You'd drive each other crazy.

I'd love to ask who you'd least want to be on the island with, but that's probably dangerous. Who's the least? Who's the least? Yes. I could tell you who would be. He's a great guy. I love the guy, but he's a germophobe, and he would not be good on an island. Jamie McMor?

Oh, God, yeah. Why would he be forced into having to deal with the situation? He would be, this is icky. This is icky. I just got to get off this island. I mean, he was just, yeah. I feel so sticky. Yeah.

Yeah. It's a white flag? Oh, yeah. Come on. Dare loves those racing puns. Throw that white flag. White flag right there, white flag. So Dale, the Xfinity Series races in Mid Ohio this Saturday.

The Cup race where you'll be. Michigan on Sunday. And obviously you're going to watch the race, the Mid-Ohio race on Saturday. So you and LaTard and Kyle Petty, the NBC guys are going to do something cool this Saturday. What is it? Yeah. So we would, you know, we're always watching an Xvenity race. When it's not a companion race, I'm going to watch it somewhere.

My bus, usually by myself. But this is going to be a great opportunity this weekend to watch it with all of my NBC co-workers. Me, Steve LaTarre, Kyle Petty, Del Jared. Everybody that's going to be in Michigan, I think several others, Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, we're all going to get together and watch the race as a group. And there are going to be a live camera set up,

sort of filming us watch the race. So I can't come to your living room, but if you wanted to watch the race with us, you can watch us watch the race, and we can all watch the race together on the Twitter handle at Xfinity. At Xfinity. At the Xfinity Twitter handle, you can watch us, watch Race live, and we'll interact with fans on Twitter,

and live tweet to the race, and it'll be fun. You know, it'll be a unique way to sort of enjoy. You can still watch the race on NBCSN, right? On your tablet or iPad or iPhone or whatever, we can all, you know, experience the race together. And that'll be pretty neat. So I'm looking forward to it for just a random idea that we came up with to try to find new ways to enjoy what we love,

and that's watching the race. Fantastic. That's Saturday. It's 3 p.m. Eastern Time on the Twitter feed at Xfinity. That's right. All right. So you saw the drivers at Watkins Glen wearing Dale Jr. inspired skeleton gloves. Now it is time to auction those things off.

Each pair will be signed by the driver who wore them and Dale Jr. The auction begins this Wednesday, August 8th at noon and ends on Wednesday, August 15th. You got one week, one week, everybody, www. www. nascarfoundation.org forward slash Dell Jr. That again is www. nasscarfoundation.org slash Dale Jr. All Proceeds Benefit, the Dell and Amy Earnhardt Fund at Nationwide Children's Hospital. We were just there last Thursday, as we talked about with Alex. It was an incredible visit.

An update on the book, guys. We got something to hold and feel and look at and smell. Wow, there's words in here. It's actually all bound together. This is the racing to the finish my story. It's like an advanced reader's copy, so it's just for us. But this is your reminder to pre-order this book. at Dale Jeter.com forward slash book.

Dalejutor.com. And it is a good read. You'll see that. I mean, like, it's not a long read. Not huge. I knock this thing out. I think that people that have read it said that they got through it pretty quickly in one sitting. Yeah.

So there you go. Racing to the finish my story. Lastly, subscribe to Dirty Moe Media's YouTube channel and follow us on all social media platforms, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Good show, guys. Thank you, everybody. Yeah. Last thoughts, Dale, what do you got? Last thought?

Yeah. Any news or anything? going on out there? Oh, man. I'm getting my haircut tomorrow. I'm so thankful. That's the biggest news going on. Haircut.

I'm one of those people that waits and waits and waits and then it's lazy and lazy and none of my hats fit and it's annoying. So getting my haircut, that's going to be great. And I'm not. I have a haircut and the production call this week, which is about a, it's a production call on it at the same time. So I don't know how annoying that's going to be for my hair. Do you get buzzers or just clippers?

Stylus. Or just the scissors. Every part, everything she's got in there. She uses every tool. So you just get that mute button working. Yeah, I've definitely going to be muted. But I have to talk at points. I couldn't move the haircut and I couldn't move the conference call.

So this is going to be fun. And then Wednesdays. Wednesdays. Wednesdays shows. This show will be on later this week. That's exciting. Thursday. And then Thursday, we've got a three-day weekend instead of a two-day.

For Watkins Glen, we flew in Friday night, which was great. And this weekend we're flying Thursday, which will be fun. All right. Thanks, everybody. And I have a little surprise for all the drivers that helped with the gloves program this weekend. You got a surprise for them? Yeah. Okay.

Not for us. Okay. That's all right. Our surprise is coming up later, I guess. All right, buddy. Thank you. Good show. See you.

This bit of bad assery was made by Dirtymo Media. Dirty Mo!