The Dale Jr. Download - 232 - Up in that Brickyard Deer Stand

Episode Date: September 12, 2018

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and the DJD guys discuss an unusual Indianapolis weekend that saw Dale driving the pace car, fenced-in upon completion and perched high to announce the race. Also talk of NASCAR silly season, a return to Nashville, Kahne’s bold decision & more. 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. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. With me, as always, my co-host. Hey. Mike Davis. Hey. Our good friend Matthew Dillner.

Who we haven't seen in a while because we've been gone. And Dillner, it's good to see again. Good to see it, Matthew. We got a lot on the show. I'm excited. I'm ready to go. What we got, Mike? I mean, we got, you know, the 70 days of Indy that we were at.

We had Turn 3 Dell. We got Pace cards. Dale, we got a lot to talk about. All right, let's get to it. Start the show. Ladies and gentlemen. With the most perfect set of chompers known east of the Mississippi. Mike Davis.

And your host, a guy who likes his race cars fast and his livermush crispy. Dale Hurdhart Jr. Dale Jr. download. And showdown. Man, that was great. Dude. That's how you get into the show. I know.

We've got a good introduction. So we had a great. A great weekend, a lot of rain, didn't see a lot of track activity. Let's cover that. We, you know, with the Indy for the Brickyard 400, this is a big weekend for NASCAR. They moved this race to the final race of the regular season. Indies pumped up all year long. We get there, nothing but rain.

I got there early enough to actually catch the final day of the dirt race. They built this dirt track in the interior of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It's a purpose-built facility, so that was a big question. that I had on my mind when I was going to the racetrack, was this something that would be there for years to come? Would this be a one-time thing? Though this thing is purpose-built, it's there forever, or for the foreseeable future.

It's something that I believe would be cool for the track to use leading up to the Indianapolis 500 and also the Brickyard 400 next year have like we have the World Series or whatever the hell they call that in New Smyrna for Speed Weeks. They have like seven nights of racing over there in New Smyrna just miles from the Daytona Motor Speedway. leading up to the 500.

Well, we should have that happening at the dirt track on the interior of Indianapolis leading up to its two major events. That'd be awesome. A lot of fun. I was over there at the dirt track. They had a margarita stand. Oh, yeah. That was very cool.

Almost got me a margarita. Almost. A lot of food trucks. I mean, the food trucks. Wait, how do you almost get a damn margarita? I looked at the margarita stand and said, hey, Blaney, we should get a margarita. And we just kept driving. We did we could

Anyways Blaney passed up a drink Yeah food trucks Like this I don't know if you guys are But I'm crazy about food trucks I mean look at me I'm watching food truck TV

Like who We're watching shows on TV now About food trucks Instead of just going to the food trucks Downtown We watch a rat We watch TV shows about them So here's

I think the food truck atmosphere Or the what a food truck brings to the environment Is really cool My whole point is this dirt track thing I'd never been to a sprint car race. I never been to a winged, non-winged, other than Millbridge, which, you know, I've never been to anything like this.

So I was a rookie. It was a lot. It was a great experience. I was there to watch Carson, Billy Boat and his team, all those guys. It was a great experience. I love that dirt track being in that infield. I think it's great for the Speedway. They did a great job getting in the main event or any kind of racing for the fans that were there.

The place was packed. It rained all day long. They finally got some racing. So great for them. Good job. Good effort by them. Did they feel people in both grandstands, like in the turn three? Or was it just those grandstands around the track?

No, no. None of that. None of that. No. All right. But they had to cancel a lot of the B, C, and D and E mains. They got rid of all that stuff, but they still had a main event. So this is a, I'm telling you, man, it was a very difficult situation.

I think any other, from what I heard from the guys that run this stuff all the time, anywhere else or any other racetrack probably would have canceled. but the indie guys really pushed hard to get through. So great, we got on to Friday, Saturday. It just rained. How's Carson do? Tell me how. Carson did okay.

Carson started her heat and finished maybe a position better than she started. Okay. That was it. She didn't make the main or anything. I got you. It's tough to make the main. There's a lot of cars. Yeah, the thing about it is, is that with all those, the B main to C main to

the E main canceled, she didn't get that opportunity to try to race more. That makes sense. She got a 10-lap heat. That was it. I was glad, though, that I got to go see her practice a little bit and run, and, you know, I was there to support her. She, you know, with the rain and everything, her lap time was very limited. And the track was not in a situation that invited passing an opportunity for guys to move to the front. It did get better, I think, for the main event.

Anyways, I'm no expert on dirt, so I'm moving on from that. Friday and Saturday, it rained a ton. Biblical. Bunches, you know, I sat in the bus and Twitter on my thumbs, Watched a little college football, watched a little NFL. And, yeah, Sunday I got to watch the Redskins play. That's the only, you know, it's a positive that comes out of us getting rained out and not being able to call the race itself.

Steela Tart and the guys, they didn't have their buses there. They hung out downtown, so we were kind of disconnected from each other. Didn't get to spend a lot of time with my coworkers. I was disappointed about that. But my wife came, you know, Isla came. They were there for a couple days, and then they went back home. It looked like we were going to get rained out. So I said, man, you know, you're going to go crazy in this bus all trapped in here.

We were going to go to the zoo. I guess there's a real kick-ass zoo there. So we were going to go to the zoo and stroll her around. That was really excited about that. That didn't happen. Yeah. So anyways, we didn't get to see any track activity at all. There were no cars on the race.

And we're going to call this race radio style, which is what we did at Watkins Glen, where at Watkins Glen, I sat down in the bus stop and called the action as it came through the bus stop. Well, in Indianapolis, I'm going to sit in turn three, and I'm going to call the action as it comes to turn three. I'm nervous, and the reason why I'm nervous is because at Watkins Glen, the bus stop or the, you know, whatever you want to call that, is full of action. I'm never going to be without content. It's whether I can articulate. Yeah, articulate, right? So if it's bad, it's my fault.

All right? Well, at Indy, the cars get a little strung out. I'm not going to call the Xfinity race that has the awesome drafting package where the cars are freaking four wide and stuff. I'm calling the cup race where the cars get a little strung out. And at times in the race, the cars are going to come through my turn spaced out and single file. What am I going to say? I don't know. What are you?

Right. What am I going to say? It's not like I can blow smoke up the people's butts that are watching on TV because they are watching it. They can see what I'm talking about. I can't say, what a battle this is when these guys are 10 cars. Arnings apart. Right, right. So, all right, I was a little nervous about that.

I'm thinking, man, I'm trying to think in my mind, like, what could I, how could I describe this and make it interesting? You know what? We had our race on Monday, and that never happened. I never had a moment where the cars were coming at me, and I went, man. I don't know how to make this sound good. Right. The race, it felt like, was really interesting and entertaining.

And I'm in a position as a broadcaster where most the races are going to feel that I'm not at home watching on TV, and I know that's a little bit different position to be in. But from where I sat, that race was interesting. There was strategy. There was guys doing so many different things trying to put themselves in position to win. And then, obviously, it comes down to the end. We had some cautions that created some real drama, and gave Brad Keslaski the chance to get up there and duke it out with Denny Hamlet.

And boy, did he ever. Yeah. I mean, they were beating and banging like it was Martinsville down the straightaway. And the best part was they were doing it right coming to you. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that call, man, I got to give you some props there. I was like, Dale Earnhardt Jr. turns into Ken Squire. Well, thanks.

I'm going to be honest with you. I am enjoying it just like everyone else is, and I just kind of, you know, I feel like that we've been really blessed with some great action, and the races have been tremendous. The drivers are delivering. I mean, the drivers, man. That's the key. They are delivering. We've got to get it to them. They are going out there.

and giving it everything they got. And when Brad had an opportunity, he went up there and tried to seize it. And Denny tried to fight that off. And that creates such an incredible experience for everybody watching it. Being in turn three was kind of strange. Yeah.

All right, you're up there by yourself. You know what it reminded me up? And not a lot of people are going to get this because I don't think a lot of people are hunt. Not everybody's a hunter, right? So not everybody goes hunting. It really reminded me about of riding up on my four-wheeler and walking to the deer stand

and climbing up in the deer stand and getting ready to sit for about three or four hours to wait on something cool to happen. That's the way it looked. That is exactly the way it felt. Like I'm literally getting out of the car going, I'm going, I go to walk up upstairs. I'm like, this is just like...

You want to hook onto something? Yeah, and I had a safety belt up there. Did you? I did hook up onto you. You did? Yeah. All right, so I'm up there by myself. I'm up there by myself.

I've got a monitor in front of me. All right? And this monitor has on it, the rundown, and a very small picture of the actual program, the race, right? What's being shown to the people on TV? So I sit on my chair and I got the cars coming directly at me down the back straightway and going right by and I look at this monitor.

You know, I am hearing Bagley down in turn one and two who's calling action as well, and I'm listening to what he's saying, and I need to listen to him so I don't repeat exactly what he says. So I'm listening to what he's saying, and he's talking about the cars that are on the TV, so I'm looking at the monitor. I look at the monitor 95% of the time. He ain't lying, by the way. That's a good thing.

He had told me that he does that. And I actually was out in the grandstands from about halfway on. And I just occasionally, because people were always just turning around looking and see what Dale's doing. I said, uh-oh, there must be some activity up in the deer stand. Let me turn around and see. And he's just sitting there staring at that monitor. Just like that. He literally just stared at that monitor.

And I texted him. That's good TV. I said, you wouldn't lie. You do really stare at that monitor. Yeah. So, I mean, all right, this is the reason. And I would say to my, I would say to someone, like, I would say to a broadcaster, well, why don't you look at the track and call the action?

Well, the thing is, is you can't talk about something that the fans aren't seeing on TV. If I see a great battle happening back in the field, I look like an idiot if I'm talking about that, and they're showing the leader on the TV. I need to go, and it's my job as a broadcaster to hit the button and say to the trailer, hey, there's a great battle, and maybe they'll go to that, and then I can talk. about it. But otherwise, it's important that I'm talking about what the fans are seeing. And so typically, you know, our guy, our team's so good that they're showing the best thing to see on TV, right, in that moment. Anyways, you know, you sit there and you stare at that monitor. And, you know,

if you're looking, if you're like, all right, you know, Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin are having a battle. You look up the run, and they're battling for a fifth. All right. You know, and, you know, you're just kind of pulling things out of the air with that little bit of information you have. Now, when you're in the booth, you got like six monitors, but all kinds of stuff. You got your papers, you got your notes, you got all that laid out in front of you, and tons of content really to grab and use when you need stuff, right?

When you need bullet points and information to speak about, it's all right there. But when you're up in the... Does Dale Jr. bring a clipboard? What do you bring up there? You bring anything? That's not true. Winging it.

Well, I take my book bag, but I never take anything out of it. I just had it just in. case there's notes in there that I've taken throughout the week but all right so without with the rain out there was no practice there's no qualifying there was no that is when you take notes right where during the day during practice during qualifying and throughout the week you're like forring content you're creating content and things that are interesting to you that are happening and things you want to talk about that your colleagues aren't doing and you don't you don't want to you don't want to just agree with them on everything they say you have your own

opinion, right? So you take all these notes and stuff, and if it comes up, you've got a note about it, you know, and you can remind yourself, this is my opinion on this, or this is what I think about that, or I want to talk about this guy, like, because of what he's going through. And so you have all those notes, but if you're not, if everything's rained out, you're not developing that content throughout the week. So that was, you know, my first time going through any kind of rain out and having to, you know, find something to talk about or have content to talk about, but I just said, screw it. I'm going to go up in there and sit in that perch and just say what's happening.

You're going to do what the drivers are. Wing it. You don't have practice? I didn't have practice. I like them not having practice, but you, I could tell there was a little anxiety. Oh, yeah, I was nervous. Yeah. I'm going to jump right into that perch and start calling this race without really knowing.

Like, practice is a time to do the screw ups, right? Practices when you screw up stuff and say dumb stuff. And so there was times during that race. where I said dumb stuff and I'm like oh man you know it'd been good if I had a little practice or hadn't been up here Friday or Saturday but we weren't and so there the guys were like man you did a good job jumping right in there because I came out of the pace car we'll talk about that minute and I jumped up there as like lap five and so I kind of missed the first part of the race and it was weird I had a fun time though

I hope that we do the radio style at the roval I'm not such a big big fan of it at the ovals I like being in the booth and I like be able to talk about the action no matter where they're at on the track. I'm kind of limited to describing what's happening where I'm at, whereas when I'm in the booth, I can just say I can point out anything at any time. Yeah. It's such a big, ballsy move to, one, to do the radio style. I like the radio style, even at Oval, but man, it's such a craft in its own self.

Otherwise, you would not have Mike Bagley as part of your thing. But you got you and Jeff Burton, this isn't something you guys do. So that was pretty bold. I mean, to put you guys, two drivers up into the three, turn three and four. I'm snapping my pen. The Dielder's getting mad after. Dielder doesn't like it.

I do it during the broadcast, too. They tell us, hey, if you can't. Mike Davis used to do it. Now you're taking over. They tell you, if you don't know what to do with your hands, put a pen in it. And so, you'll see it's on the broadcast a lot of times with pins because when we're standing there, you know, I don't know, holding a pen is better than, you know, doing. this. So what you end up doing is sitting there clicking that son of a bit.

Anyways, Pace car. Oh, yeah. Got to drive the Pace car. Something else you didn't get practice in. Yeah. Yeah, there you go. And, yeah, there's Pacecar practice. That was rained out too. First off, I want to thank Chevrolet and Indianapolis Motor Speedway

and NASCAR for inviting me to do that. It's kind of a bucket list item to check off. Really cool for me. I was very, very proud. And we unveiled the Chevy Camaro ZL1 for Chevro. Beautiful car. It's badass. Yep.

So we had a little press conference for that, talked a little bit about the car and talked about the partnership with Chevrolet. We went to driver's meeting. I got to sit with Andretti. John was there. And, you know, everybody knows John's going through a health scare and a battle in his own. And so it was great to see him.

So, but to be at the driver's meeting, I haven't been in one of those in a while. and there's some good energy there, and it's fun to see what the drivers go through and experience that. I always hated it when there were people at the drivers meeting that weren't drivers or crew chiefs, but now that I'm not one, I kind of like to go down there.

There's way more non-drivers than there are drivers. places like California, it's 35 minutes of actors. But now I get it, man. I used to hate it. Like, what are y'all doing here? This is for the drivers and the crew chiefs, man. We can't even ask no questions. You are what you hate now.

That's cool So get back to that pace car though I mean No track time Were you nervous? I'm just saying the pace car Those are the experiences That I got to do

Because of the pace car ride With the pace car Oh okay They're like hey come to the drivers And we're going to introduce you As the pace car driver So I got to go do some things like that And I got to stand on stage

And shake the hand of all the drivers That was cool Tell him what Boyer said to you Boyer said this weird He comes by and goes This is awkward Yeah You know, because Boyer's going to always say that.

But, yeah. Anyway, I don't get to see the drivers any. So, you know, unless I try to track them down wherever they're at, drivers are kind of always moving. You got to, it's hard to find them. So it's good to be able to see everybody just for a second and say, hello, shake hands. And then, so I enjoyed that.

I enjoyed the intros. And then I got to go and climb in the pace car with Buster, whose Buster's been working the pace car forever. And I've known Buster a long time, one of the NASCAR officials. and he's set to retire, I believe, soon. And so we had a couple of good conversation there together. He run the whole thing. All I got to do is put it and drive and get it up to 55-mile-hour, set the cruise control,

you know, just hold my line. And then what's he doing? What do you say? He's in there with the lights. Okay. Yeah, the Pace car has lights. He's flipping the lights. All right.

I'm listening to NASCAR and I'm listening to Lartan those guys in the booth, too, and talk to them for a bit. And NASCAR, they were cool. They were like, man, we're proud to have you pacing the field, and I know you probably don't want to get off the racetrack, but this is the time. That's funny. Coming around three and four, they're like, you know,

really glad you did this. Thank you, and hopefully you don't have a problem pulling off now. That's funny. Got around a turn four. When Kyle Bush came up there, did he actually nudge? Did you all make contact? Yeah, he bumped on the car. So I saw Kyle Bush before the race, and he goes,

hey, you think people will boo me if I wrecked you in the pace car. And I'm like, how about you just run into the pace car? everybody that, you know, is on the front row, it's sort of a thing. You know, you go up there and bump the pace car. It's some celebrity in there, and you just, you're screwing with them, you know. So it happens just about every race, and I said, you better bump it because I want the full experience. You not, you know. Hit the pace card.

So he did that early, like, as soon as we pulled off and got going. Yeah, that's funny. And he hit it pretty good, and he rubbed on it, and I'm like, wow, this is excessive. I'm a little concerned now for him in his car Even when you guys had thought about this before the race I was like I wonder if the crew chiefs have any say so in that Because I would be a little nervous that you do Even the slightest little damage to a car could affect it

Right But that doesn't seem to be a problem Yeah so I got all that Or maybe it was for him The one thing I was worried about And you guys could tell me if you were watching the race Mike you wouldn't have seen it But Matthew if you were watching the race on TV

Is you know the coolest the cool pace cars, the cool pace cars, are the ones that wait to the last possible second to pull off on the pit road. Is that drama? Yeah, and they go veer, they veer off the racetrack into pit road like it's, oh my God! Right. He's turned them loose.

Like, you know, like the gate dropping at the Kentucky Derby and stuff like that, right? So I tried to wait to the last possible minute. I don't know what it looked like, but I try my best to make it as cool and dramatic as possible because those are the best faces. Yeah, because you don't want somebody just going, Yeah, easily merging out of traffic.

Yeah. That would have been something that if you would have had practice, you probably could have really dialed that move in, right? I want to lay down. He's willing it sideways. You would have had your marks on the track to know where to write last minute and everything, but you didn't get that. That's unfortunate.

You were a little nervous. I'm going to tell you something. I was real nervous. Yeah, you were. It's exterior that sounds funny, but I get it. I'm nervous by nature. Well, let me tell you what happened. High anxiety, this guy.

The fella that turned that car in the IndyCar race, the Pace Car back several months ago. Detroit Bell. I think he sort of got in everybody's minds moving forward. I think that every Pace Car driver has that in their mind, in their psyche. And you don't want to mess up. Because he wanted it up in that race. And then when you don't get your practice, when I told Dale Jr. that they've canceled Pace Car practice, I thought he was going to be happy.

It turns out because he had a full day. He had a full schedule. he's like man of all the things I need that pace car practice he wanted it but he didn't get it he went in cold right there for the start of the race the pace car practice kind of knocked the edge off without that practice even though I know like what happens that just made me nervous I'm a note taker I like to practice things yeah little little things that we've learned about you the preparation preparation so okay so we got to ask this then did you know where the car would end up once you pulled down the row had no idea So we come down pit road and I think I'm going to pull behind pit wall right at the very end.

Yeah, we're like Brett and then would be. Brett who? Vote on. Nope. So I thought I was going to pull down pit road. Brett, that's not where Brett goes. Not an indie? Not an indie.

Oh. You're getting ready to learn. Oh. All right. So you go down to the end of pit road and I thought that once you got to the end pit road, there are some caution trucks and safety trucks and an ambulance and all those things there. And that was traditionally where the pace car would be located at most racetracks. Well, they keep going.

And they go toward the access road for pit exit. And they go, there's this little area for the road course, which I believe that the may be used for motorcycles or something. I don't know. It's a part of the road course that it hadn't been used in F1, I don't believe, or IndyCar. I don't know. But anyways, so there's this little road. And it's out on the, it's part of the track. Like it's not back behind fences and barriers, right?

So I pull over there and Buster's like, you see Brett standing over there? I'm like, yeah, I pull over there and it's just Brett. There's no kind of like a big open area. Yeah, huge open area just barely on the inside of the access road that the cars used to exit pit road. And so there's no golf card or nothing. And Brett, I opened the door and Brett's like, I hope somebody's going to come get you. I'm like, I do too. I'm looking around.

I'm like, I don't see an exit, an opening in the fence any way to get back. into the infield. And there's cars racing. The green flag's out. There's cars going by. I'm like, all right, I can't go that way. And I can't walk back toward the end of pit road.

I'll be literally 20 feet from the racetrack. Dangerous. With cars racing. Yeah. There's no people over there. I'm sort of stuck. You know where it would be similar to the sand pit in turn six at Wachens Glen?

So imagine me standing in the middle of, for him. Imagine me standing in the middle of the sandpit. Yeah. The second last turn at Watkins Lynn, that's where I was, right? I'm that closer to the racetrack with, I'm like looking behind me, like, how do I get across the fence? So luckily, I see my golf cart drive by on the side of the fence. Which he's going as fast as the actual racers out there because we were in the part

where we thought Dale would end up. Turns out he's going. Kenny's like, where's he going? Kenny Jones is a golf cart driver. He's like, where's he going? I said, I don't know, but he's going over there to where the. the T-boxes are, the golf course. And so he's driving on there.

So, Kenney's, he's got the golf cart matted, and he's doing all this stuff. And then we see Dale get out. But we see Dale get out as cars are going by him, and it just looks weird. And he's in this, like, big open pasture. It almost like if he was in the, you know, like in the triobles for the, like, Charlotte or Texas. Like if he would have been in the grass there, the tribal, it sort of looked like that. You got cars going around him. And there was no gate.

I was like, he's going to have to hop this fit to get out. So he's like a caged animal in there. He looked like a caged animal. He did. I go over there and we found a way to get over the fence or through the fence and. Okay, hold on. Over or through? Through is.

Overish and through. Yeah. So I went. That's right. It was. It's all on social media. Mike's, Mike tweeted or put it out there. I did.

I couldn't help it. And then they took me straight to the turn three where we got up in that. Deer stand. Deer stand. That was an eventful day. But I tell you what, you did good with the pace car. I hope it was fun. I didn't screw up.

You did screw it up. Yep. And I was curious. I had a reasonable race and a great, we finished the race strong. We as a group finished the race strong. Oh, that last, let's just go back for a second. Kislauski's move with those 15 lap fresher tires. I was sitting out there.

I just enjoyed sitting in the grandstand. I don't think I ever have sat in a grandstand for a cup point race since I've been in the sport. And I, you know, Dale said, you ought to come sit up there. You know, I'm going to be out there. You ought to come sit up there in the grandstand. So I did. And they were coming right down that back stretch. And you know what, for the most part, you know, you really do need, as a fan, you need to hear something.

Or if you don't have anything to guide you along. If you don't have something guiding you along and telling you what's going on, it really can't get boring. But that being said, when you have something guiding you along and then to see what Kozlowski did, I thought they were going to wad them up. I ain't going to lie. I didn't get to hear Dale's call, though, until we were in the car going to the airport. And Dale played it on the phone. And I tell you what, man, I was pretty proud of him.

I thought it was good. I thought it was real good. It was just, it was a fan watching a race is what it was. I was also proud of Keselowski, you know, because like what you said, you know, there's an opportunity there. And sometimes drivers in the past, we've seen people just kind of not stick their nose in there and not risk losing a second place effort. He just went for it. And they made contact. And that's the sort of race in that we all love.

Yeah. I couldn't believe it because down the back. straight away, Denny had the position, I thought, because he side-drafted the outside of Brad's car. And as they're going into turn three, he's almost got Brad cleared, you know. He drove down in front of Brad but couldn't get to the bottom, and Brad was close enough to disturb the car aerodynamically and give Brad another shot at getting up under him. And they got together again off of turn three. There was just way more contact than I had imagined what would happen.

So surprised that nobody had any kind of tire issue from any of that contact because it was enough contact for that to happen. I know Denny Hamlin was so damn disappointed. I would be too. I mean, that is a big damn race. And Denny's won, you know, Denny hadn't won a championship, but he's won all the big races. He's won 500, 700, 700, right. So he's won some of the biggest races, and he takes pride in winning those big events. And he would have won that race had that last cost you not come out.

Yeah. And so... The last caution, which was two, you know, guys in the back. Yeah. And Denny was pretty critical of that. Yeah. As he typically is. Yeah.

Denny said meaningless... I think he meant meaningless wreck or meaningless... But he called the meaningless drivers, which I thought was some shade. Right. That unnecessary. All right. So Denny is going to, you know, going to win the Brickyard 400 and it's a huge race. And so there's a crash.

in turn three, Jeffrey Earnhardt, who I'm related to, yes. You are? Yes. He gets loose underneath Lannon Castle. They went down in a corner together real tight, side of the side, and he gets loose underland and corrects into Lannin and they're both going to the outside wall. I mean, it was a hard wreck. Unfortunate, but wrecks happened.

Rex happened at lap one. Rex happened on the last lap. Rex happened any point in the race. Now, a lot of people were going to say, man, you know, is at the end. Why did they have to wreck then? You know, I agree. I mean, why, you know, I'm sure they didn't want to wreck with five laps to go in the freaking race, you know, they're trying to get to the finish and they're driving for teams

that can't wreck cars, you know, they're driving for teams that don't budget to crash cars. That's a major loss for those guys financially to wreck a car that weekend or any weekend. So, I mean, that, you know, of course they're not trying, they're trying not to wreck. They're trying to get to the finish of the race. I think personally, Denny says that, you know, it's, it sucks to have many of the, meaningless drivers crash and bring out that yellow. And in my mind, I felt mad at the end of races when a caution comes out. And mad at the people who bring out the yellows.

I have. I was talking to someone after the race about this. They were like, man, that's bullshit what Denny said. And I said, well, I think it is bullshit. I think it was just a poor choice of words. What Denny said was just a poor choice of words. I don't think that he was trying to say that, I hope, that Denny was not trying to say that Jeffrey or Landon are meaningless drivers.

I think what he means is that the wreck was pointless. Unnecessary. Why are we wrecking it with five laps to go? And he feels that way because he was going to win. Right. On that situation, you got pissing vinegar, man. I have felt the same damn way. Sure.

And a lot. Like in races where I'm running eighth. Yeah. And there's a wreck. I'm like, damn, why are we wrecking with two laps to go? I've had the same frustration over a late race wreck many, many, many times because you're like, God, we're just so close to finish and the thing. Why are we wrecking now?

Like, this should be the time when you're trying the most not to wreck. Like, this should be when you're trying, you know, aside from the first lap of the race, the last few laps are the, man, we're almost to the finish. Bring it home. Yeah, bring it home. But I think he allowed, you know, he's very frustrated and had a poor choice of words. I certainly, knowing Denny, I don't think that he thinks those guys are meaningless. Right.

But he's catching shit for that. He was caught up in the moment. It's pretty disappointing if you're him. I get it. We'll give him a break on this one. You know what it isn't meaningless? Yeah. What is this segue?

Our beautiful ad reads. All right. On the DJD. All right. Never meaningless. Never one of those things you skip forward 15 seconds for. Not on this show. This week's ad read is for Pristine.

They're back. We had another returning sponsor. Pristine auction is starting to become a thing. Well, yeah, there's something about auctions that make shopping so much fun. Wouldn't you agree? I would agree. For sports fans, it probably has to do with the competition and the suspense of winning or losing. Right, right, right.

Nobody wants to be a loser. And autographed items. Authentic autographed items. Yeah. And that's the thing about when you're doing a sports auction online, how do you know? You don't. I've gotten some things off of the other thing. It came to me, and I was like, this isn't real?

Right. I hate it. You've got to be careful. All right. So who wants to spend time, though, researching the nearest auction house or researching whether their items are legit? I damn sure don't. I mean, who wants to do that?

Not me. You got to track your ass all the way there. Yeah, who wants to do that? I ain't got gas for that. That's why we love pristine auction. That's it. An online auction house where you can buy and sell. You can sell, not only buy.

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I saw some Dale Jr. stuff on the day. I just saw an Alex Bowman photo for a buck. A buck. Well, starting at a dollar. Starting at a dollar. I love how they bring that. You're talking about a playoff guy. That thing needs to go up a little bit.

Well, I believe the bids will rise. Yeah. This is what I like about pristine, man. They start their auctions affordable and load. Yep. A little bit for everybody in there. Can't start it too high, man. Scare people off.

Nobody don't want it. I also saw an authentic number eight seatback from Daytona International Speedway that I signed. You did. Yeah. So this is a seat back from the grandstands. Yeah. And you can look at yours. You can look at yours.

You know it. There's a photo there to prove it, some authenticity. and it's only $89. Well, whoa, that's a little more than the Bowman. I think I would have to go with the Bowman. Yep. I'll go with the Bowman picture. $89 a little much for me.

There's some red skin stuff on there too, a whole lot of it. I got my on some of that. So check out pristine auctions now. You'll be hooked. It's free to register. It's free to bid. You only have to pay for the items you win, all right? Free, free, free, free, free.

Until you time to pay. Until you win something. That's fair. And when you register, be sure to select Dale Jr., download podcast. from the drop-down menu into how did you hear about us section. And that lets them know that we sent you that. We're not wasting their time. Yeah.

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from only the most trusted sources. My wife listened to The Last Week Show and she laughed at that and then she couldn't pronounce it either. Oh, good. Good for her. That's Karma. It's called Karma. Brought to you by Prestine Auction. All right. Good stuff. Time for an Exalta Update.

This is your Exalta Race Center update on Matthew Dillner. Mother Nature played a significant role at Indianapolis Motor Speedway all weekend forcing a double-header Monday matinee at the historic track. And the cast of 12 Cup drivers for the NASCAR playoffs is now set. One of the roles will be filled by Brad Keselowski, who muscled by Denny Hamlin to win he and his car owner Roger Penske's first, Burkyard 400. Before the cup feature, Justin Algeyer continued his rise to stardom in the Xfinity series. The Illinois driver

battled hard for his fifth W of the season. Tyler Reddick played the top supporting role. His second place performance made it a one-two finish for Junior Motorsports. Team JRM actually took two checkered flags this weekend. Junior Motorsports its late model driver Josh Berry used the drama of the high side on the final restart to capture his second cars tour trophy of the season. Teamate Sam Mayer finished sixth in the 150-lap act at North Carolina's Orange County Speedway. The next scene is NASCAR's version of casino with a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, triple header at Nevada's Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This has been your Exalta Race Center update. Exxalta is the official paint partner of NASCAR, developing, manufacturing,

and supplying coatings to all types of vehicles and industrial applications. For more on Exalta, please visit ExalttaCS.com. All right. Now this is a fun segment. NASCAR talk quickies. Is that what we're calling this? No, that's not what we're going to talk. That's what Matthew has these listed as.

But yeah, they're just a quick conversation about some of the things. The finish, obviously, we talked about that. Great finish. How about the racing so far leading up to the playoffs? I mean, ever since I started broadcasting, you know, I've been at the track, broadcasting the races, watching every single lap.

The stuff I've seen has been tremendous. I would say Kentucky was a little bit. Michigan. Michigan was a little better than... Everything else has been kicking out of the ballpark. Michigan wasn't as bad as Kentucky. Truex made that up, you know, a big sticker. I didn't mind Michigan as much.

It was still interesting. Kentucky was there. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Kentucky, if they bring back this package, you know, if they bring back the package we have from the All-Star race

or a version of it, Hopefully they take it to Kentucky, at least for a year or two, until that track ages out. That would be the one place I agree with it. Are you talking about the draft package that they had at All-Star Rees? The restrictor plates. Yeah. Don't say restrictor plates. That is a bad word.

It is plates and arrow. Don't say it. It's called a drag package. Drag pack. Oh, we got a name for it now. Fans don't want to hear it's restricted, all right? They don't? No.

Don't slow them down. Don't restrict them. All right, so drag them. They would rather use it. You drag the cars? Put the drag on the cars. I think we have to have a car. Drag is arrow.

Restriction is engine. All right. Okay. I guess. Listen. If they bring that damn drag package to any of these race tracks next year, I'm not, you know, it's a great race we had at Indy. I don't know if they need it there or not. I don't know if it would be exactly like what we saw in the Xfinity race.

I don't know if it would be. All right. But Kentucky. They need to do something. Something. Don't go back to Kentucky just like we left. Please do something. Otherwise, again, the racing has been amazing.

And it has me so excited that we're starting to playoff. I can't wait for these last 10 races. You think I've been screaming during the broadcast about the action. Went to the playoffs. I'm going to be hoarse until we get to Homestead. Are you willing to make a prediction on who you think the first four out will be? Out? Oh, my God.

No. I mean, I don't. Let me elaborate before you get all pissed off. Restrictor played on your mind. Yeah. Drag. You drag packet. This is the thing.

Like, all right, here I get, okay. So when I would make the playoffs and people would put out there, oh, this is who I think is going to transfer. And I'm, and I'd be like, man, screwed up. You ain't got me going through round one? Oh, you mean when they didn't pick you in? Yeah. I would get mad when people wouldn't even get me through the first round.

I'm like, what kind of friend are you? These are friends of mine. All right. So. So you don't want to be a bad friend? I don't want to be a bad, I don't know, man. What good does it do for me to tell you the four guys that I don't think will make it past round one? I'd rather tell you the four guys I think will make it to Homestead.

Okay, don't tell us the first four that'll be out. Just tell us the first 12 that'll make it to round two. There you go. No, I want to hear, well, shoot, I wouldn't mind hearing that. Well, the thing is, I think I've probably changed my mind before we get the Homestead. But, I mean, obviously, I wouldn't have said this weeks ago, but Brad is Lasky. I mean, he has a real shot because of the points he's gathered. He's gathered so many playoff points in the last couple weeks that he's actually putting himself in position to transfer just because of that buffer.

You know, I think that Cobbush definitely goes, obviously, with the playoff points that he has. You've got to put Kevin Harvick in that same position. He has just as many. Yeah. All right, so there's two positions taken. Guaranteed. I think that Truex will get through, and I think Brad Kislazki will be number four. I think Brad's clicking, boy, you got to put him right there.

I think Brad Caslisly gets more playoff points as we go through the playoffs to help him in each individual round. So before Homestead, we can see how Nostradalmus. Nostradalmus does here. We'll hold you to do it. And I think that everybody's talking about Kyle Larson because Homestead says you're great track for him. I think that he will run amazing at Homestead. If he gets there. But I feel like that he won't make it to that round somehow.

It'll be tough. All right. But if Kyle Larson, if Kyle Larson does make it at Homestead, he's got a major upset potential as far as winning the championship. Because that is a track that he loves, man, running that fence. Nobody does it better. All right. Exfinity win.

We got to talk about that. These were supposed to be quickies. Exfinity win. Yeah, this shouldn't be a quickie either because that is awesome. How are we going to crush this into a quick conversation? I'm telling you what. I am so proud of Justin Algar. What a season this guy's happened.

Him and Burdette. but man, to win the emotion that he had at the end of that race, I'm telling you when it means something to you, that's what fans want. They don't mind saying restrictive plays. I agree. They want to see it mean something to the drivers. Absolutely.

You love to see that emotion, and I told him that. I went to Victory Lane and I said, hey, I love the emotion. And I know, you know, this is, let it go, man. Let it out. And there was emotion in this building, too. We all ran down to the break room and watched it and the interview and your mom was getting a little misty eye and everybody was celebrating.

It was a good time in here. We've had an amazing season as a company. Justin's been amazing. Our partners on that car have been so much fun. Brandt and everybody included. It's been a fun experience to win with everyone and how excited they are after our wins. Two back-to-back indie wins. I mean, can you believe it?

That is awesome for our company, man. I mean, so awesome. I mean, we run first and second. I mean, how good is that? Did they get to kiss the bricks? Yes. We didn't kiss the bricks, Mike. Me and you didn't.

Nope. You had the pace car on your mind. I had my NBC stuff on. I just didn't know if it'd be... Right. Oh, I see. You said you thought about it then. Yes.

So we just need to get some... Davis, you need to roll around with some duct tape. All right. So you can duct tape that logo. Let me say this. All right. No, you picked the right thing. I was concerned.

All right, there's been some hubbub on social media when I do any of the Xfinity races. When I cover the Xfinity races, some of the fans don't necessarily love it because I'm an owner. And so when we won, I was like, man, I got my NBC stuff on because I'm ready for the race. I'm going to call later. And I tried to sneak into Victory Lane and just say hey to everybody. And as soon as I walked up to Jason Burdette, Kelly from NBC started an interview with him and go, hey, here's the boss man, send the guys.

And here's our crew chief, Jason Burdette, Jason Burdette. And I'm like, man, well, there goes back. There goes your cryptic. Blue my cover. Right, right. Well, Lattard didn't do you any favors either because, like with three laps to go, he's calling it. He's like, you know Dale Jr. somewhere patient and wearing out that carpet as he's

watching his two cars. Yep. I was in the TV compound. I was in the TV compound. Yeah. But anyways, I'm trying to respect everybody's opinions about my involvement in the production of the Xfinity races. I'll drop in on the pit box a few times this year, like we did at Darlington with Rutt. Rutledgewood.

The Peacock Pit Box, yeah. I'll drop in on the peacock pit box, a couple of these Xfinity races. It's fun to just be able to give a little feedback on what we're seeing. That was a good time for me at Darlington to do that, even though it was blazing hot. and I almost got some sunburn there. But, and there will be a race or two, though, in the Xfinity series that I do call from the booth.

So I'm looking forward to just having that extra opportunity to work. The impact of the 78 closure. Let's talk about that for a little bit. I mean, there's opinions all over the board with this stuff. For me, I go from, it's part of the business. Teams close. This happens. Sucks, but people move on.

Things happen in this sport all the time that are tragic. What happens the next day? Sports school. We race. We race. People are working. People are digging. Yeah.

Barney was an amazing owner. Did a majority of all that stuff on his own. Yeah. If you, I think someone did the numbers. And if you look at all the races that that car ran, some 400 and some races, he personally sponsored 80% of those events. It's incredible. All right.

So give the guy his due. Leaving a champion. Not only, yeah, not only came in and had success. What a championship. I mean, a team from Denver. That was a starting part, running the back, grew to a championship contender and a championship winner. Incredible. I don't know if we'll see that again, unless somebody has some real deep pockets.

Otherwise, it'll be interesting to see where Martin Trex goes. Cole Pern, I think they stick together. I think they go to the 19. Then that will knock down some more dominoes. Daniel Suarez, where does he go? I don't think I have the answer for that, or I might, you know, I could see him going. to several different teams. There's going to be lots of opportunity and lots of switcharoo going on.

You got the 41 car out there. Rumors flying about other teams as well. The one car is open. Yeah, because they just announced over the weekend McBurray's out for 219, right? It's going to be interesting how this unfolds. I think it will be the most kind of movement we've seen from cars and teams and drivers in the silly season, as they call it. I think it'll be the most we've seen in some years.

some years. Casey Kane. We had him on the show. Casey Kane, so this is a guy really using his head. All right. Has a race that, I mean, this is not just this event, but last week suffered some heat exhaustion, went to see some doctors,

expressed to them about how this has been an ongoing issue. And you can look at his victory lane celebration, or lack of celebration, at Indy last year when he won, just how gassed he was. And, I mean, you can look at the guy's face in that moment. If you go back and look at that Indianapolis celebration, you look at his face. There is genuine concern, not just misery.

There's real concern on his face about what he is feeling at that exact time. And I've had that same feeling, too, about my body at times with the concussions and so forth. You look at that guy and you go, wow, he's scared. He's scared with what's happening and how his heart's beating. how he's feeling. And so this is a year ago. All right. And now he's continued to have some issues and struggled with, you know, staying, you know, I guess, I don't know, the fortitude.

stamina. The stamina and endurance just isn't there. And so, you know, smart move by him to go see his doctors. This is a real serious issue because he's putting his organs in a bad, a dangerous place. You know, this could create some real problems for him long term and damage his organs. organs to where racing, you know, would be the last thing you'd have to worry about. I'm glad that he's taking a step back to figure this out. I know that he wants to get well enough to where he'll be able to come back and finish his

year. He has deemed this is final season, and he wants to be able to go to homestead and close the book himself, not have it closed by someone else. So let's hope that Casey gets that figured out, but I'm really proud of him for doing the right thing. And the final quickie is going to be SMI interested in

Nashville Motor Speedway. There's been some rumblings on social media. There's been some letters and some things. There's some information and correspondence between SMI,

Marcus Smith, the politicians and mayor in Nashville. They're all communicating about the future of Nashville Motor Speedway. The fairgrounds. Not that old crappy race track

out on the interstate. We're talking about the fairgrounds, man, the iconic half mile that needs to needs to be on the, I want to say Winston Cup, needs to be on the Cup schedule. Not only the trucks, but in Exfinity,

but the Cup guys need to go back there. I know that, you know, people were thinking, if you would say that five years ago, you'd be just, you'd just be dreaming, man. Yeah, you'd be just dreaming. This ain't never going to happen, but that would be an awesome dream, right? Awesome.

Well, it's getting closer and closer to being a reality. And so I'm pulling for that big time. Hopefully those negotiations or conversations that they're having go well, And somehow, some way, we get to see NASCAR back at the fairgrounds. And if Marcus and them are allowed to get in on that, and hopefully, you know, that would be with the soccer team. It can happen. This is real.

Marcus and his team will go in there and they'll improve that facility. And, man, it would be an amazing experience to see racing there again. I mean, the place has just got so much history and we should have never left. Great market, too. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of good things going on right now with, you know, we used to say five years ago, man, there's some of a mile and a halfs, you know, we don't go to short tracks anymore. There's only really two or three short tracks on the schedule now. And it was just you, you know, all it was was just complaining.

I was doing it. Other people were doing it. All we could do was complain. Nobody was listening. Nobody was listening. Well, now people seem to be listening. I mean, there seems to be a real movement here. and some real potential for it to swing back toward getting more short tracks on the schedule,

maybe even more road courses. I wouldn't believe it would be possible years ago, but I think that's a real possibility. Let me ask you something real quick. Did you see Jeff Gluck's article about how he was making the case for the one-day show, how the racing was just as good, and we just did it in one day rather than three days or four? What is your opinion on that? Do you think?

Because I think that does play. His point was this opens up. to go, to not go, you know, elongate your schedule, but to, you know, be able to fit more stuff in. I like a one-day show. I do, too. I like a two-day show. But for the race weekend, I think you need multiple series,

like truck, Xfinity Cup, IndyCar Cup, EMPSA Cup. You know, you got to have different, you got to have a variety of entertainment. That's not for our industry people. That's for the fans. For the fans, if you're going to drive five, six, ten hours I'd meet some NASCAR fans. You want to be there for a weekend.

Yeah. So give me a, you know, there was a concert. It's supposed to go on this weekend. That was great. This weekend was going to be a great weekend. It's unfortunate for Indy that we had the weather we did. But they had dirt racing. They had an awesome, awesome concert.

Some real players going to be out there playing, man. Yeah, Friday night. This ain't a, you know, B team. This is the A team coming out. And Coleswindale, Florida, Georgia. line. I mean, that's a big ticket. Yeah. And they're going to, you know, the Xfinity race and the cup rate, this was going

to be an awesome weekend. You had the late model guys running over at ORP. You had a lot going on in a small little area for motorsports. And what could have been a huge weekend turned out to be a bit of a struggle. But again, going back to your question, Mike, I think one day shows

a real possibility, but you need variety. You need a weekend to be a big ticket for the fans, so multiple things happening would be great. Talladega, you could go We're going to have a two-day weekend there, but you got the dirt track over there across the street. They could, you know, the Arka race is a big deal back in the day. I remember going,

I remember climbing up in the grandstands to watch all the Arca races year after year at Talladega. That's cool. Yeah, it's cool. Got to get that stuff pumped back up to, you know, get the Arca race out there, the trucks and all that stuff. Anyhow, that's our NASCAR talk quickies. That really, you know, we've got to rename that segment.

I don't know if that's the right name for that segment. Would you say that's the right name for that segment, Mike? No, no, but that's all right. I get what Dillner was trying to communicate to us. He might as well just said, just be quick on these. All right, back in the saddle. We got to talk about being back in the saddle, man. I went over and drove a car at Hickory.

A car was Junior Motorsports late model car. One of the cars that we race over at Hickory Motor Speedway. My guy, Josh Berry, who's a driver for us, won this weekend at Orange County Motor Speedway. Congratulations. That's three in a row for Junior Motorsports and Late Models. I've been kicking some butt on the cars tour. But I went over to Hickory. That's where, you know, 45 minutes up the road, Josh has so much.

many wins over at that place, a track championship. I ran for half a day. I had a blast. I thought my laps were good. I don't know whether I'll run a late model race, but I certainly moved just an inch closer to doing that, maybe a step or two closer to doing that. But I wanted to get back in a car just to kind of get a little feel for it.

I'm going to go racing the Xfinity race at Richmond in a couple weeks. So now it's kind of like that pace car practice. Not necessary, not needed. Wanted to do it. Knock off the anxiety. We're good to go. Did you knock it off? Yes.

Did you peel some... Pills... Did you lay down some laps? Pilled away the layer of anxiety and laid down some laps, Mike. Set a record? No record. A new track record. There was no record set.

It was in the middle of the day. It was 92 degrees. Track was a little slow, but my laps were great. Dang track slow, man, kept him from a record. Old tires. I haven't ran at Hickory since 1998. The Busheries? Yeah.

Oh, wow. Okay. It's been that long. Yeah. Hickory. Almost 20 years since I ran a lap there. That place is tough. Still cool as hell.

Oh, it's cool. All right, let's go to the 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, let's hit up some Ask Junior questions. Jessica chimes in and says, when your book is released in October, will you be doing any signings at the track?

Like places like Martinsville, maybe? Yeah, I'll probably do a signing or two at the track. We've had some kind of built into the schedule. We'll announce those as we go. We'll have some books available, obviously, and try to encourage people to buy the books and read them and spread the word. I mean, I'm excited to see how this book's received. And also, hopefully, you know, we help some folks who are in the need of help, you know, with their concussion situation or they have a family member. And maybe, you know, through reading this book, they can understand how to help their family member with that issue.

Chances are they do. A lot of people out there. Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's lots of people out there. Been affected by that. I mean, my social media timeline is full of people going, hey, I've dealt with this for so many years. And everybody that I hear from, I just want to get them in front of the right people that can help them because they don't have to deal with it.

That's the thing. People either accept that this is just a problem that I'm going to have to live with or this is a symptom that I've got to have the rest of my life and there's nothing I can do about it. Well, that's, you know, that's the rest of my life. It ain't true, man. If you can get in front of the right people and get the right help, you don't have to live this way. Hopefully that's what the book will share and invite people to do. But yeah, it's frustrating, you know, to hear people that when they're, you know,

that feel like they don't know where to go. And you just like, man, if you got to get in front of the right guy, you're going to be great. You know, you get to help you need. All right. Next question. Terry Davis. Do you think it's flattering when people, name their pets after you or other celebrities.

I'm thinking somewhere somewhere, somebody somewhere, has a pet goat named Dale Jr. Do you know of somebody? No, this is what she's saying. Oh, that's what she's saying. Okay. So have you ever seen any of pets named after you or whatever? I don't see a lot of pets named after me, but I met a few dogs that are named Earnhardt. I think it's fine.

I used, you know, it depends on the day. You know, sometimes you wake up on the wrong side of the bed. Some days you wake up in a great mood. Sometimes it's like, man, is that a knock? Is that some kind of an insult? Depending on the way the animal looks, I don't know. Or what type of animal it is? Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, you're talking to a guy that has a dog named Junebug. That is not my fault. Amy did that. And she says, knowing now what she knows about the nickname Junebug, she never would have named him that. We were going to name him Charlie, which I wanted to name Charlie. So, you know, anyway. it.

After? Charlie bit my finger, the YouTube video. Where are we going? Hold on. There's a reason I brought this. We're in the weeds. This question was like, we're in the weeds. This question was like eight weeks ago, and I keep questions that we don't use because I'm

on vacation last week, right? No joke. And we got a sick kid, so we're staying back. The rest of the family goes to Charleston. They take a horse and buggy ride. And my mother-in-law texts me and says, you're never going to believe this, but the damn horse that we're on. The horse is named Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Damn, cool. Big old horse named Dale Jr. I dig it, man. I mean, I think it's a compliment. At least I hope it is. If it was a turtle, I wouldn't want to be called. No, you don't want to be a turtle. A sloth.

All right, here comes the iPad. Coming to you, Mike Davis. Of course, our nationwide kids question from the nationwide children's hospital, Dale, this is a little Cohen who has a good one for you. All right. Hey, Dale. My name is Colin, and I'm seven years old. Dale, what's your favorite Fortnite dance? My favorite Fortnite dance?

Yeah. You know the video game, Fortnite? Yeah. So have you ever played Fortnite? No. No. Okay, wow, I'm surprised. Really? Yeah, I mean, you're a guy that likes some gaming right there.

Ten years ago. Yeah, I haven't played a video game in so long. Do you know the phenomena right now that's going on with Fortnite dance? So apparently when you eliminate somebody, in this game, let's just say eliminate somebody. You can do a fun dance celebration above them, and there's all these wicked dances you could do.

It's kind of like a touchdown dance that you could do over the person that you eliminate. Can you show us? Give us an idea. I can't dance. Look at me. No, did you have any on the iPad? No, but we could look them up afterwards. No, so I didn't have an example.

So basically, Cohen, no, he doesn't have a favorite. I don't, yeah. This is the video game situation for me, right? I play eye racing on the computer, but it's rare. I only get to get on there and screw around every once in a while. That's the best race simulation available, and by far,

and nothing's going to even get close to it in the next several years. So many pretenders out there. I'm just kidding. I'm such a fan boy for irasiness. Anyways, I play a lot. I play Madden, and I haven't played in a while. I was in several leagues, you know, that had, And TJ was one of the guys that was commissioner of the league.

And there's, you know, every team was a human owner and players. So we would have to link up and, hey, man, we've got to play tonight. It's our time to play. We got to play. And so we'd do this for years. And so I played tons of Madden for a long, long time. And that's about it for me, man. But Red Damned Redemption 2 is coming out.

Oh, I love that game. Yeah. I played the first one a lot. Yeah. I'll play that when it comes out. I played Grand Theft Auto for years and a lot of first-person shooters. but, man, I haven't been in the game and it's hard over the last two or three years.

Yeah, you're going to have to go talk to Bubba and a few of those guys. My wife, yeah, my wife is not a big fan of me as a gamer. Oh, really? It's not what she married. She didn't marry Dale the gamer. Well, wait a minute. So your wife actually wants your attention? How does that work?

Oh, wait, wait, I shouldn't say that. Sorry, honey, if you're listening. But I did build a system, a PC, and put her on it because she wanted to try. She played one of those One of the zombie games There's been six or seven That had come out over the last couple years on PC And it's basically just survival

And you walk around and try not to get killed And she played that And she liked it Was she good? I mean she played for a couple days And then this guy killed her And he was talking Like how

Like I'm taking your stuff or something And she started talking And the guy flipped out Because she was a girl He's like oh my God you're a girl And so Amy started chasing after the guy Wow, it got personal. Yeah.

The video game got personal. He freaked out because she was a girl. And then the guy started singing all the single ladies by Beyonce. It was just very strange. This is hysterical. It's taking a turn that I never thought it would take. Go ahead. Yeah.

And Amy was laughing and giggling. And I'm like, all right. I would be surprised. We have to get her on here to explain her experience in gaming because that was it. I mean, she, you know, she's a very smoking hot woman. and she played some video games for a while, and it was the coolest 10 minutes ever for me. Well, it's kind of like when your girlfriend or your wife or, you know,

like wears a football jersey or something. It's like, yeah. Yeah, she's like, what am I supposed to do? And I'm like, go over this trailer and rummerged around in there and try to find a gun or something. Got to have something to arm yourself. She has not. She felt you fall into the world with nothing, right?

So she's going over this trailer and she's looking around in there and she's got, like, find this gun and this other thing or something. And then this guy's like walking around outside. And she's like, oh, my God. You know, she's freaking out. I'm like, you're going to get shot. You better get down or something or get ready. He's coming in.

He comes in, shoots her, and she screams. And the guy goes, oh, my God, you're a girl. There's so much to this. I mean, like, she landed in the pool of gaming immaturity, first of all. Well, let's get her on here to describe it. That's good. But the fact that you thought that was probably the hottest that you thought your smoking hot wife was. I mean, maybe second to the wedding day.

No, no, no, it's not the hottest. Oh, it's not what you meant. No, no. No, not even close. You're not going down that road. No, but it was a great. It's cool. It was a great experience for me.

I got you. To watch or play video games. Hell yeah. You weren't lighting scented candles. No. That would have been the... That would have been... That would have killed the gaming.

I got you. All right. I think it's time for the white flag. White flag right there. White flag. It's been a great show. Mike Davis up on the flag stand. The deer stand, buddy.

That's what we climb up these days. Listen, the white flag is going to be very ad-lib here. I want to thank Chevrolet again because it was a distinct honor, and it was good being a part. It's always good being partners with Chevrolet. But those guys, Terry Dolan, Jim Campbell was in the track this weekend. And so like Dale Jr., look, Earnhardt's a Chevrolet. Always have been, always will be.

And so this weekend just was one more piece of that puzzle that just has always been a really good relationship. So I want to thank Chevrolet off the jump there. Also, Dale Jr., you got this week, you just got back from New York. We're a day late. Brian, our TV producers, loving the fact that we're a day late because he's got even less time to make something of this mess. But we'll be on TV again. We weren't last week.

We will be this week. But I do think that the television show, Brian, correct me if I'm wrong, it's at 7 o'clock on Thursday this week. That's what Jeff Beinky told me, seven o'clock on Thursday, because I think NBC Sports Network is broadcasting some stuff out in Vegas this week. So make sure your DVRs are adjusted. Right. So it'll be 7 o'clock on Thursday for that. Junior, you got back from New York today. You will be at HBO. We went to New York for Mountain Dew.

That's right. We've got a program with them coming up. We'll be able to talk about soon. But our partners are Mount Dew and us are working on something really cool with the military. Tomorrow we're working on something with HBO Sports that will be coming out soon. So we've got to do a big, long interview for that. A lot of cool stuff going on. Man, we're so busy.

Also, don't forget about the book. Pre-order the book. Go to Dale Jr.com.com. slash book, pre-order the book. That's right. I also want to give a shout out. Of course, lost one of my favorite actors. Bert Reynolds, the Bandit.

Stroker Ace, man. Big news this week, of course, for everybody in racing was chiming in on it. So, Godspeed, Bandit. All right. We'll see you guys later. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo.