The Dale Jr. Download - 238 - Talk Like Earnhardt, Drive Like Mark Martin

Episode Date: October 30, 2018

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and guys download about the controversial finish between Joey Logano and Martin Truex Jr at Martinsville and Roger Penske’s reaction.  Plus, talk of Chevy trucks with train horns, bad racecar numbers, barbecue and why the "Intimidator" impersonator creeps us all out. 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. Welcome to another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. This is the third one today. This is the third take. No, you're not kidding. Yeah, a lot of people would really be interested to know exactly how,

what goes into making this show. We just repeat everything over and over until we get it right. Because Dillner messes up. Yeah, there's a lot of reasons. We're on a point of any fingers. We have a lot of stuff to talk about, Mike. Yeah, we do. I mean, listen, you're now a New York Times bestseller.

I know we're going to talk about that. I know we're going to talk about the foundation event driven to give. There's a lot of impactful moments. But the one thing that everybody's dying to know, and the question we must answer today is, would Dale Jr. have done to Martin Truex what Joey Legano did at Martinsville on Sunday? We're going to ask it. You're going to answer it.

That's what's up. All right. We've got a lot to talk about. I'm excited. Let's get started. The 2017 chip. We get the bumper. Yes, he does.

Here comes Ligano. All right. Man, you heard it all right there. All the action going on from Martinsville, Martin Truex Jr. upset. If you saw the interview, great interview. Yeah. Yeah. Parker Klingerman, you know, brought that out.

He did. Yeah. He was great. You know, I never knew how much the guy doing the interview had a role in getting the interview. Yeah. I mean, I understand. He's got to ask the questions. But sometimes when you get a driver, especially when they're upset like that,

the persistence to get the driver to talk, the ability to get Martin to talk in that moment, he's so mad. He really didn't want to talk. And then once he got to talking, he got everything out that he wanted to say. That was really only because Parker was persistent. And too, Parker was asking him questions in a way that made Martin comfortable to talk, right?

Yeah, there's an art to that. Yeah, he didn't piss Martin off even more or annoy Martin with his questions. Because you've seen drivers when they're mad, Kyle Bush, other guys get easily annoyed by the question because they feel like it's a dumb question. Like you're asking me a dumb question right here. And so we had a great gift of Kyle Bush

doing his eye roll from Bristol when he got his question from Marty. And I thought that was great. But Parker did a good job. What he did best was he asked for more information. So when Martin said he ain't going to win a championship, Parton asked, what does that mean? Are you going to get him back? Are he retaliating?

He wasn't satisfied with just that. He went for more. But he asked him in a way that it wasn't like, you know, it did piss Martin off worse to where Martin shut up and, you know, blew him off. Parker has a real good ability. even in his young career to do that, I thought that was cool. Most people get nervous in that situation, and he didn't.

Or just equally as, and equally as annoyed, I think. Yeah. You know, they're doing a job. It's weird. It's so weird being on the side of it now. I feel like I had it totally wrong as a driver. I really did. I had it totally wrong.

The way I thought as a driver was completely assonite on many accounts. Because you don't think about it when the guy comes up to ask you a question. And he is trying to do a damn job too, man. And you don't even think about that. You're sitting there thinking about you, you, you, you're sitting there thinking about you, you, you, you're saying to me, I'm mad, or whatever, right? That's all that matters. How can you ask me that? I am the center of the world right now.

Didn't you see it? Yeah. You just watched it. You just saw it. Yeah. You and everybody else. What a dumb question. You're an idiot.

Yeah. Anybody can do this job. Leave me alone. Yes. I've got to go to my helicopter in my jet. Leave me alone. That's it. That's it.

I'm going to go to the bus. I'm going to my motor coach. It sells for a million dollars. Well, it sells for one-four and immediately he's driving off the lot. And it's a million. You drive it off a lot and it's worth about $400,000. Nobody said all this stuff, by the way. No, it's all hypothetical.

This is not what Martin said. Anyways, I thought Martin's interview was great. Man, I could go on and on and on. We can. Race was good. Martinsville always delivers short track racing. Just love it. New we were in for something cool.

Same thing we saw last year with the 11 of Denny Hamelin and Chase Elliott. Saw some more of that this year. I was just really surprised at Martin drove him as clean as he did. Yes. I was like, come on, Martin, quit being so clean. I've told Martin that. Last year, same race. Was it two years ago?

Yeah. Kyle Bush wins the race. It was at Martinsville. And I was like, afterwards, I was like, Martin, why didn't you race him harder? And he's like, my mission is XYZ. I've asked him before. He's gentlemen. Yeah, why did you run so clean in that particular race?

Man, damn, you know. Because Martin is an outdoorsman. He's hunter. He's tough. He's rugged. You hear that, I mean, the interview that you saw him give Parker is Martin Trex Jr. That's him. That's him when he's mad, right?

He doesn't even remember what he said. I asked him afterwards later that night. He doesn't even remember what he said to Parker. Really? Yeah, he's so mad. He's that hot. Right? So that's really true.

But he races differently. He talks like Earnhardt, races like Mark Martin. Right. Exactly. I told him that. I said, man, you got to talk like Earnhardt and drive like Earnhardt. The thing I loved about his interview and his reaction was that it brought to light the ultimate dilemma that all you drivers have. And that is, how do you race people?

How do you want to be, how do you want to know? Because there's repercussions to every, there's consequences to everything. You can race aggressively, but there's consequences to that. And there's also racing clean. And you're probably going to give up wins. There's consequences to that. And so I don't think neither is wrong. But it's the ultimate dilemma that now Joey had to basically decide.

Do I get into Homestead? Yes. I don't think anybody. How could you disagree with him? But do you do so and run the consequences of having somebody basically put a target on you and ensure you that you're not going to win a championship? A dilemma that nobody would want to see themselves. And yet I think drivers and yourself, you know, people.

I will tell you this. Go ahead. All right. So if you don't feel, if you think that you race around all season long without a target on your back, you're dreaming. I mean, this is a cutthroat sport. This is going to happen in any race, any time. Last corner, last lap.

You know, there's a rule, unspoken rule, that, you know, you can move a guy as long as you don't put him in the wall. You don't wreck him out of the race. Using the bumper to get a guy up the racetrack, which is what the 22 did, is totally cool. Yeah. In stock car racing. Bump and run, not the dump and run, right?

I think that most all the race car drivers out there would have raced Martin, I mean, would have raced Lagos. I know clean. It's 10 to go. It's 5 to go. It's 7 to go. Whatever. Four to go.

They would have raced as clean as they possibly could have without, you know, really just running over the 22. Everybody would have. When I've been in a situation before, guys don't drive up to you and just dump you with five laps to go. That only happens on that last lap, that last restart, one, you know, green white checker, coming to the white flag, turn 1 and 2, turn 3 and 4, whatever it is. That's when the bumper's coming out.

Every other driver in the field is, probably going to race pretty similar to the way Martin raced that 22. But pretty much every other driver in a field, I think, would put the bumper to you in the last corner. And forget about it being for the playoffs and going to homestead and all that. It's for a clock. It's for a win. It's for a trophy.

Winds are hard to get. Wins don't come every week. If I own the car and my guy didn't try to move him out of the way or try something, I would be a little disappointed. I would be mad. Getting moved out of the way on the last lap is no fun. Right. You worked your ass off to get by the guy.

You did it the right way. and you got every right to be pissed. But damn it, if I own that 22, I want him to try something. I want to win the race. I don't care if it's for the, you know, it's even better that it's going to Homestead, but even if it's for the fifth race of the season,

I want to win, you know. So there's no right or wrong. There's no, nobody did anybody dirty. Well, right, I think there is a wrong, but Joey didn't do it. There's no right or wrong in what happened. Truex finished third. He didn't get dumped.

He got moved out. I mean, he pretended. protected Trux in that manner. I think Joey actually did it perfectly, if you think about it. Trux had the faster car at the end, right? He had the preferred groove. And he had everything. And yet Joey still, like if Joey doesn't get him on that last lap and last turn,

Martin probably pulls away and where Joey doesn't even have an opportunity. Joey held him off long enough to be able to set up that move. I thought it was matched for it. And he still protected Martin and the fact that Martin still finished third and didn't end up on a rollback. Yeah. I agree. Most people must understand that, by the way. And I think they do.

I think they do. I was talking to some race fans, and they all said the same thing. They said they thought it was dirty, but they had done the same thing. Right. And I think the booze that Joey had probably were not considering. Those are lingering from other things that have happened to Joey in his career. Or just an unfavorable result since most people probably wanted Martin to win that race, and so therefore you booed. I mean, right, I mean, that's fair.

Yep. That's fair. What I love about it is three races in the last few years at Martinsville, and we have seen a environment that we all love from short track racing. where it's just explosion of just emotion because of something happening on the track. And that's freaking awesome. So I want to get your response to this. Any good race car driver hates to lose. Martin had every right to be angry.

But every good race car driver probably more than likely would have done exactly what Joey did. It's exactly what we hoped. I mean, we hoped would happen. Yes. Everybody wanted a great dramatic finish. I mean, you might not like the guys who prevail or the guy who pulls it off. Right. But you got what you went for.

Right. And if you went there looking for a clean race, I don't know that you know Martinsville all that well. Go to Kansas. Don't go to Martinsville. Go to Kansas. Don't go to Bristol. Go to Kentucky. Go to Kentucky.

Real clean. So people, when they were asking with Dale Jr. They did the same thing. Some people drew to the race where Harvick passed you late and said, Junior wouldn't have bumped him. I tried. I tried. Exactly. I'm like, Junior would have absolutely tried to win that race.

Dude, I tried to hit Harvick. His bumper was so destroyed by that point in the race that when I went to run into him, it was like stepping in a bucket of water. I mean, it didn't do his damn thing. I tried to hit him and nothing was there to hit. I was trying to push him up the racetrack. You damn right, I would have done the same thing. I thought that same thing, though, until I heard you explain that right there.

Because I was like, you didn't need him plow into his ass. I tried. You thought you would not do it. This is it. I didn't want to hit him so hard. He spun out, because it's easy to spin a guy at Martinsville. ask Denny Hamlin. Yeah.

And so I wanted to hit him hard enough just to move him up just like the 22 did. But when I went to give him that shove, I only have one shot at it. Yeah. And I went and pushed him that little bit, and his bumper just sort of fell in, caved in because it was so, you know, banged up already. There was no bumper bar or anything left. And so once I did that, he gassed it up and took off. And I couldn't get back to him. And so, listen to this.

I've been the nice guy. There's a lot of those moments in my career that I certainly regret. I mean, of course, you know, you relive every race that you didn't win, what you could have done differently, what you should have done. There's moments when I know, oh, if I'd have been more aggressive, or I could have run over the guy, you know. And, you know, it's just, so when I see Martin doing that, I'm like, er, Martin, come on, no, don't do this again, you know. Don't do this, Martin. He's got, he's got every opportunity in the world to be that guy that ruffs people up and people like, it. Remember what Dale Earnhardt used to do?

Yeah. Rough people up. Now people booed it. Some of them. But a lot of people that like Dale Earnhardt, wanted Dale Earnhardt to do that, right? And Martin has that persona to me. He has the competitive race car. He has the lifestyle. He's blue collar. He came, he made his, he's self-made. That's true. He's got all the ingredients, you know, to be, you know, that style of driver. Working man's hero.

Yeah, it's going to get, hey, I'm going to put some donuts on my car. You know, that's how I race. And he goes out there and he's just like taking care of everybody. I'm like, who is this guy? Right? Well, we may see that Martin that you're looking for. We may see him flare up here in the next couple weeks. You know, as this thing, I'm afraid. I bet that he calms down.

Yeah. Oh, no. Yeah. Really? I think he will. Right. Here's a deal. If you look at it, nine times, excuse me, 9.9 times out of 10, maybe even 10 times out of 10, what has he done?

He has not had that reaction. Like a Matt Kenseth had that. reaction. Yeah. Okay, which we've seen that at a mat. We've never really seen that at a Martin. So I don't think it's going to happen. Well, I think if Martin had been able to get to him, if there would have been a

lap, certainly Martin. If he'd done it one and two. Martin probably would have wotted him up. But if you give Martin three weeks, Martin's going to calm down and go there and go, I'm putting the blinders on. I'm coming here to win a championship. I'm not even thinking about the 22. What if he's not in the championship hunt, though?

I don't know. So you're saying there's no way Martin would ever do any retaliation. At Homestead. Never. I dare you. No, you're not daring. No, I don't. I don't think it's out of the question.

I just feel like Martin's personality and his past history would say that Martin is going to calm down, think about it, go run a couple of races, try to get his ass into Homestead, which he probably will. Then once it gets to Homestead, he's going to go, I need to think about everything that I need to do to win Homestead. That's true. I'm not thinking about the 22. That's not helping me when Homestead. Trying to screw him ain't helping me. That's right. That's right.

Now, he'll have the opportunity to maybe snooker him on a restart or something like that, but not going out there and record. Or likely they'll be around each other. You can bring up a good point because if your motive is to go in there and ruin it for somebody else, you are not likely to go win it yourself. And you are also more likely to hurt yourself. Yeah, you're going to let somebody else win it. Well, hurt yourself even cosmetically.

I mean, like, if you're going to literally go try to spend somebody out, then you're now running the risk of being caught up in something. That's not worth it. Yeah. You don't get satisfaction out of that. I think Martin may be saying he's not going to go spin him out. Martin would never spin him out. Martin would run him hard, make it hard for him to get by.

You know, do everything he could to make it a difficult night. He would probably never punt a guy or fence the guy. But if he can pinch him down off the corner or hold him up somehow, make it hard on him, because it's hard, you know, it's hard to pass these guys up front. You saw it. Martin had to work for, but it seemed like 10 damn laps to get by that 22. Yeah. Yeah.

So Martin can do the same thing at Homestead, right? Yeah, he could. Say the 22 has a faster car late in the race, and the 18's leading, and Martin's running second, and he's not as fast as 18, but the 22 is. Martin could hold that 22 up if he wants. Yep, could do it. Instead of, you know. I'm expecting to.

Did Joey Lugano, we're all talking about Martin Truex Jr. and his reaction, and Martin this and Martin that, did Joey, Joey ran the perfect last lap, really? Well, I'm glad you asked him. One thing I liked about what Joey did is he owned it. He said, hey, he got out of the car and said, I did it. That's how I race. Homestead.

That's all I'm thinking about. But he said that. He said, y'all seen me run before. Y'all know that's how I race. He said that in an interview. I thought, well, all right. You know, he ain't getting out and going, you know, I hate it for Barton. I feel bad.

He got loose. He got loose. And I got in there and it was just a, it was a real race to deal. Man, you know, I hated to do it. Yeah. No, you didn't. He got out and said, And y'all seen how I race, that's how I do things.

You know, in this situation, that's what I'm going to do every time. And these are the decision and the dilemmas that drivers face. He said, this is what I'm going to do. Now, he has basically raced his entire career with targets on his back. I mean, people have been after him and have got him back. For the longest time, he was a push-around. Yeah. He was a guy everybody would push around and say, yeah, he ain't going to do nothing.

Well, he got tired of it. Yeah. You know, and he started pushing back a little bit. And I think he still has, I think that that experience has created the Joey Lugano that we see today, the driver that we have enjoyed today that doesn't mind to push a guy out of the way. Hell, I've been pushed around all my career the way he feels. I'm not going to be that guy anymore. I'm going to be the guy doing the push.

Right or wrong, that's just who he's become on the racetrack. So I agree with what he said. You know how I race. That's how I race. That's how I'm going to race you every time. Be ready. Yeah. Interesting.

Yeah, well, that's so much fun. Interesting seeing both sides of it. Joey Lagono being in the final. Final four is good for everybody. I mean, like, that'll be a fun Final Four already. That's what R.C. would say. Man, that's good for everybody. Well, it would be because I think that he's, you know,

I think he's got to be a little hungry. He hasn't been one of these people people who are talking about all year long, and now he's got, now he's in the Final Four. This is what our sports grader. You know, he's got a bad year last year. That's got to be annoying. So you've got to be able to put all that aside. One of the other things, too, man, I thought was interesting.

Roger Penske. What was that about? So after the race, somebody told Roger Penske what Martin said, and Roger said, well, Martin knows better being a race car driver. That was probably the nicest shot he could expect to get at a race like this saying, you know, he said Martin should be ashamed of saying that being the race car driver he is. And that is the easiest shot that he could expect in a moment like that. Right. That he got handled with kid gloves. Yeah.

He was protected in a way. But, man, you know where I'm going. Yeah, I do. Do you remember him in Ohio? Junior Motorsports? Oh, yes, yes. Pushing that 22 car out of the way in the last corner? Yes.

You remember what Roger said about that? No. I will never hire a driver that would win a race that way. Oh, that's what he said. That's right. I'd never hire a driver that would win a race that way. So, all right. That's a good point.

Yeah. So think about that. It's just like, and this is a lesson for all of us. It's just like the race fans. It depends on who's doing it. Sure. If it's your favorite driver, boy, you're all. all for it. If your favorite driver's getting bumped out of the way, it's chicken

shit. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Hate it. Yeah. Do you love Super Speedways? Even if you're Roger Fricincki. Right. He can make an emotional opinion about something. Even Roger Penske's a race fan, too, just like you know. No, it's true. It all depends on how you turned out. That's right. You know, people ask us, do you love restrict your plate racing? Well, did we win or did we not? That will solely determine what the answer is. I've been on that side of it too, man, watching my late model's race. Yeah. You know, boy, there's been some things where I thought, God, dang, that we got screwed. But when we're winning, we can get screwed.

Right. I don't care what happened. The rest of them people. Everything's great. Oh, that's bad. And that's why I think that the source of the booze were more about that. It was more about the situation more than, I don't think those booze was a response to dirty racing. I think it was a response to Joey Lagano winning the race other than Martin Truett.

I watched, if I forget about Martin racing clean, which every driver out of there pretty much race, most everybody clean all day long. There was times... Right. The two-car, Keselowski a couple times, he'd get up to guys, get to their bumper,

and just kind of lightly shove them up to track. That's not dirty. That's exactly what you have to do and can do and should do. It's totally okay. You're not going to go down the corner and blast Keselowski for doing that. I mean, he's faster, all right?

I saw that all day long from all kinds of guys. But if you forget everything that happened in that race and just watch Joey on repeat, watch Joey's move over and over and over and over on repeat. All you see Joey do is give him just enough of a shove to get him up off the bottom. That's it. He didn't keep hitting him.

He didn't drive him in the fence. I mean, they did have a lot of contact after that. But that was just, which was awesome. That's because Martin was trying to stay in the gas and just get into the end. That wasn't Joey wrecking him. Yeah, that was just burnouts happening and cars out of control. But just forgetting about everything that happened in the moment's leading up to it and just watching Joey's move over and over and on repeat,

it really just looked like a lot of other things I saw all day long. And I thought, again, you know, Joey could have fenced that 78, cost him dozens of points. And Martin ended up losing the race. It sucks. No clock. No short track wins still. And, you know, but he did finish third. He gets to come out of there.

Great situation points-wise. And I'm telling him, he's going to calm down. Yeah. All right. We'll see. Good stuff from Martinsville. Anything else from the weekend that we need to cover? I can't think of anything personally.

What else matters after that? I don't know. I don't think there's anybody at their water cooler talking about Johnny Sauter winning or, you know, or, sorry Johnny, I love you, brother. But, you know, or Clint Boyer's bad day in that move in the corner with Jimmy and Sforres. But everybody's talking about this, the big deal. I thought, yeah, it's a good race. The only thing is, I'm sad. It's going to be a while before we go back.

I know. I love that place. We need a few more Martinsville's. You're going to open up that can of worms. There were so many moments during the weekend where I wished I was out there. That's one of the ones where I really miss it. Yeah, you were so good there, too. Even before you won, there were some really good memorable races that you had at Martinsville,

and you were top five in them a lot. But, you know, the one that I just will never forget is where you were just torn up all over the place. Fender missing, you got into it. You got it back on the lead lap, raced all the way back through it, only to get wrecked by Newman again, and then you went back and you still finished fourth. Just an incredible race. I think that hole in tricks, his car helped him cool that right. Right front tire.

Well, you brought up that point on the broadcast. I tried to bring it over and over. No, you did. And I think that the point was well taken is that it actually can be a benefit if it can cool your brakes. Right? Actually keeps the temperature out of the tire. Gotcha. Keeps the tire working.

The right front tire keeping the temp out of it keeps it working better on the long run. Really pays off on the long run, which you saw Martin was the best car on the long run. In what way? Is it temperature or is it blowing off? Temperature. Yeah. Because the temperature gets so hot and it blows that tire up and it right front gets hot and the grip goes away in the heat. The heat causes some grip loss, plus the air pressure blow up, the brakes, heating the wheel, the tire.

There's just a lot of things happening there. So have an extra air on that tire, brings a temp down, brings the speed up. Yeah. It would really keep that, it would really keep that tire pristine. Oh, good heavens. What a segue? I saw the hole, and it wasn't the perfect situation, but it damn sure wasn't hurt a thing. All right, well, we got to add read.

I think y'all just might have heard the clue. The attempt. The attempt of a creative segue. This week, Pristine is back again. Yep. I mean, you guys happy about that. We are. I'm happy about it.

I love Pristine. I'm on it now every week. All right. Are you? Yes, I am. All right. What's your experience been like? So far, I have not won anything.

Yeah. But I will. That's a great sales pitch. No, it's not a good sales pitch. But at least, hey, just like my dad's moniker when you try because he wasn't a good racer, it was we try hard. That'll crash. That'll crash their servers.

Yeah. They're going to flood in right now. Well, I love pristine auction. And it's an online sports auction site where you can bid on and win authentic sports memorabilia from the comfort of your own home. And they offer daily auctions where all bids start at just one buck. So pretty simple. Jump on in there and get in the middle of the bidding and hopefully win something cheap. That's where Dillner misses that on these online auctions.

He thinks that they end at one buck. I'm not that cheap. Well, yeah. There's no waiting. So hurry over and check it out. out now. In addition to the daily auction, they also have several other formats, including a 10 minute auction, which is a lot of fun, so it's real fast. Rappen Fire. It's pop up just for 10 minutes, then they're gone. Something to pop back up. So if you're in a hurry, you can still get you bid on.

Some of these deals are pretty insane. There's a Rick Mears signed 8 by 10 on there right now. Is that what you were going for, Dillner? No, I was, I'm actually got my eye right now on a, because I'm a dork, this Steve Payne super modified. I never thought I'd see a super modified autographed something on there. That's obscure. So it's not just cup stuff and the Indy car stuff, but I thought that was kind of cool.

Makes me want to bid on it. Yeah, well, if you're Rick Mears fan too, he's got 8 by 10, signed, posing by his race car, starting at a buck. So, I mean, that's definitely worth more than buck. Heck yeah. They guarantee the authenticity

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There you go. P-R-I-S-T-I-N-E auction.com. They're the best. Hey, that's right. Yeah. All right, let's talk about Driven again, man. We had this awesome foundation. It's actually called the Dale Junior Foundation.

Every year we have an event, live auction, silent auction. We have a comedian come in. Preacher Lawson was a comedian this year. He was a freaking hilarious. And I got to chat with him just a little bit before the show. Pretty cool guy. And we had some kids. Yes.

We had four kids with several of the different partners that we work with. See, we work with 80 different charities on a one-on-one level. Monetarily or through auction items and so forth, we deal with around 300. different charities per year. But there were four kids from various programs and charitable organizations that we worked with that came and did like a talent show style format. And so we had some singing, dancing, doing poetry and so forth. Pretty moving stuff.

Oh, it's incredible. Standing ovations for every one of them. Well, we had a lot of fun, raised a lot of money. It's something we do every year. We do it downtown to feel more in Charlotte. This was probably my favorite event that we've done. I don't know how many we've done there, probably six or two. Eight.

Yeah. I don't know how many at this point. But this one was the first time we've had this type of thing. I think the idea kind of came from Truex's. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, where they actually have kids perform, the people that are, you know, where the money's going to.

And it really is a moving experience to see these kids overcome what they have going on. And I'm telling you, you know, one of these kids at the event Thursday night, you know, she's had her body's riddled with tumors. and she's overcome. She's 12, 13 years old. She had the voice of an angel, Dillner. She had the voice of an age. She was incredible how awesome she was.

And the courage these kids have to get up there in front of what, four or five hundred people maybe? You know, it's an intimidating room. They knocked it out of the party. They killed it. And there was a kid, a 14-year-old kid, I think that came from Camp Luck, that Wade Jackson here started.

And he wrote his own, I don't even want to call it a rap. I'll call it one of those musical parts. poems. He called it a parody. Okay. And he wrote it. It was long.

It was lengthy. And it was about his story. And it was amazing that he performed this thing and wrote it and performed it and just, it just was a really good moment, very impactful, standing ovation. We'd still be standing if this thing was going on. I mean, these kids just got up there and just killed it. And that was the highlight for me. I know that Preacher Lawson was fantastic and all.

But those kids performing was amazing. Yeah, I think for everybody that the performance of the kids is a highlight. A lot of fun, great event. It happens every year. We try to keep everybody posted on, you know, what's happening and what the foundation. I know we have a lot of people that probably listen to this podcast to support our foundation throughout the year with the Corvette Raffle, the ride-alongs. So we try to keep you guys up to date on things we got going on. We had that event. It was a lot of fun. What was your favorite part of it? I wasn't at it. I just heard from Mike about some of these things.

Definitely the kids was the best part by far for everybody. The fact that they would come in there and perform in front of all those people considering the struggles that they faced individually was just hit home. We've had a hard time, I think, over the years trying to tell the story of what the foundation does, all the things that it's involved in and where the money goes.

And I think that that did a great job of doing that. We usually put together a video. We decided to scrap the video this year and try to have the kids there and the kids could tell their story, where they're from, what organization they've worked with, how they've benefited from it. And so that, to me, is better than me trying to tell that story.

Yeah. Or Kelly trying to tell that story. And I love, too, that my sister is such a big part of it. She spends most of the night on stage sort of describing, doing all the house cleaning and telling everybody what we've been up to and so forth. I love that because the foundation for me is about us as a whole, you know, Junior Motorsports. And we've got a great staff. It's about them.

It has my name on it, but, um, it's, Obviously, we got a lot of people here that do a lot of legwork for it. So it's fun to have them up there getting their recognition and people seeing them and understanding who's involved in this program and this foundation. Anyway, good stuff. It was. It was. Let's throw it to an Exaltor Race Center update.

We'll be right back. This is your Exaltor Race Center update. I'm Matthew Dillner. Sunday, the Cup Series provided fans with a barn burner at Virginia's Martinsville Speedway. Martin Truex Jr. and Joey Lagonal battled door-to-door in the last handful of laps. The two made contact on the final corner and traded pain across the finish line with Lugano taking the dramatic win. The W locks the Connecticut native into the Final Four championship weekend in Miami. Kyle Busch's fourth place effort keeps him 21 points to the good on second place Martin Shurex Jr.

In the playoff standings with Kevin Harvick and Thurb. On Saturday, Johnny Sauter got out the broom and swept the stages and took the win in the truck series race at Martinsville. The dominating victory puts the 2016 series championship. into the Final Four in Homestead. Saddle up. This week, all three of NASCAR's Big Three series gallop into Texas Motor Speedway for a Friday, Saturday, Sunday throwdown.

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 our great partner Exaltta, please visit exalttacs.com. Dale Jr., you know, it's been a couple of weeks

since you took ownership of your Silverado. And I know that any true blood an American man wants to know what this 2019 Silverado looks like. And what's it drive like? Have you been enjoying it at all? Is that really how you talk? This had nothing to do about how I talk. It had to do about the facts of the situation. Red blooded American man.

Heck yeah, man. He's trying to get a Silverado commercial like some. He's going to be the today's Chevrolet. Of course that's the way I talk. It is the way I talk. Oh, you're trying to get it. You're trying to get a book. You're trying to get some VO work, Chevrolet?

That was a VO material. I go rock. Every red blood mirror for me. I love this car. You know, you sounded like. Honestly, let's talk about that, Silverado. I'm excited about this. So I've drove Chevroletes all my life, but I have not bought a truck in 10 years, 12 years.

I have a red. Big red. I have big red at the house. It's a 04 or an 06, but it's my truck. I bought it back then. I've had it ever since. I don't even think you got that many miles on it, but I'm thinking about selling it.

Yeah. Train whistle, too? It's got a train horn, not a whistle. No. Yeah. It's a horn. Different. I guess.

I don't know my train horns. Whistles like, whew-hoo-hoo. Yeah, what kind of wimpy, man? That's like Thomas the train. What does the train horn sound like? It's loud as shit. All right.

And the train whistle's not. You ever heard a train come through? You know, I just kind of assume that's the whistle. No. No. I thought it's the same thing. Well, you know, look. I don't know.

It's like, wharf. You know, horn sound different, too. So it's got a train horn. I stand corrected. Make sure we don't get that wrong. All right. So anyhow, this truck that I've had forever has a train horn in the bed of it. And it's awesome.

You got to run this air pump to pump it up to give it enough pressure to make its noise. Top five redneck things of all time. Because it's a big release of air is all the train horn is. The new truck doesn't have that. But anyways. Yeah. Let me tell you why I'm buying a new truck. So I went to Texas when they unveiled the Silverado, the new one.

All right. And I'll be honest. For me, I haven't bought a new truck because I wouldn't head over heels with the way they looked. I really wasn't. I mean, they're a Chevy was a good-looking truck, but it just, I don't know, didn't turn me on as much. Not enough to buy one. So anyways, I go to the unveil of the 2019 in Texas. And this was a while ago.

They helicoptered this truck in for everybody to see. I had, on display, they had a bunch of old Chevy trucks. And I had mine there. I had an S-10, and I had a 48 pickup truck parked in this lot with about 150 other old trucks. And all the owners of those trucks were there. And everybody's watching this new Silverado come in and be dropped on the ground in front of all of us and drove up like a god. Yeah, it came from the heavens. Yeah.

It emerged down from the clouds. It was as if it was, yeah, delivered from the Lord. This pickup truck here comes. It came from the sky. The Silverado emerged. The sky's opened. Yeah. So anyways, when I saw this truck, I...

It will be mine. Yes, it will be mine. When I saw this truck, when I saw this truck, I said to myself, I'm buying one. I'm getting one of these. It has the body character lines that I like. This is exactly what I felt like was missing from the previous models. This truck is a beautiful looking truck. And I love the four-door, full-size cab.

Got to have it. With a short bed. Yep. The ability to haul a good group of people in comfort in the back for me was important. So, yeah, I ponied up and I went out to the dealership in Tallahassee and put an order in and bought a 19 Silverado. I could have gotten one for free from Chevrolet because I have a deal with Chevrolet and my PSA that there's a couple cars that we get. I decided that I don't want to do that. I want to own this truck.

I'm going to keep this truck. It's my truck. And so I'm excited about it. I drove it today over here. I drive it everywhere. You just hit on it. A man in his truck, even a woman in her truck. It's your truck.

I mean, there's something sacred about that. It's the same thing as mine. And to be honest with you, I'm the same way. I got a full-size Silverado because I got kids. My kids, they don't need to be crammed in there. They've got to have their space. And so, yep, you give up, you get a little bit more room in the cab. That way you give up a little bit of room in the bed.

But I've never had a problem hauling stuff and that stuff in that truck. And I'm jealous. The 2019 looks. chart. Oh, my gosh. It's completely different than the last year's model or this year's model. The thing about it is, is that, like, in the 2000s and so forth, even up until a few years ago, I was just driving a lot of different stuff, you know?

Yeah. And I was buying different cars. I'm like this. I like that. I buy it. And I'd drive for a couple years to sell it. I'm done. I'm done with that.

This truck's going to, I'm sticking with this truck. You got to keep it. You keep them for a long time. Yeah. I've made up my mind that I'm slowing way down on my buying. I'm going to pick up on my selling. And this truck's going to be my. my mainstay. This truck's going to be my daily.

Yeah. People ask me all the time, well, you drive every day. Well, I got about three or four different cars I drive. Now I'm going to tell them it's the truck. It's a Silverado. That's what I drive. So you say you're going to sell the Big Red, huh? The Big Red, I want to sell it. The Big Red has been sitting in my garage and in storage for a long, long time. And I've gotten it out a few times and drove it. I love it. It's big. It's obnoxious. I put a body kid on it to make it look like an off-road truck. It's just... Are you going to take the horn from it before you sell it?

No, leaving the horn. Leaving the horn. You're not putting it on the new red truck. That truck doesn't represent you where you are in your life today. It represented where you're life back when you got it. Sleeping baby and a horn doesn't like that. Don't mix. I would love to put the train horn on the new truck, but Amy isn't going to want to

give up a third of the truck bed for this train horn. Oh, it's a big ass. Hell, it's a big ass horn. It's loud as hell. Now, you ain't thinking about selling the four. 48 are you? No, I'm keeping 48. But I did park to 48 for the winter, so I'm serious, man.

Me and this Silverado going to do some bonding. Hey, other news this week, they actually got to tell you on your Wednesday with Dell that your book, Racing to the Finish, landed on the New York Times bestsellers list. Now, listen, this is the thing that a lot of people are not recognizing here, is that Dale Jr. has had two books in his life, both of which have landed on the New York Times bestseller list. Yeah. The first book, Driver Number 8 that we wrote with Jade Gersh,

made it to the New York Times, and yeah, racing to the finish with McGee has made it. Yeah. And I'm excited, happy, I don't really know exactly what that means, other than it's very prestigious for a book. Like it's hard, hard, hard, hard thing to do accomplished, to get on that list. And when you do write a book, you realize something that you did not know.

And that is how many damn people are writing books? Oh, I guess so many freaking books being released every single day and they're good. Yeah. And you hear about these, like we're with this, the publisher we're with is releasing a lot of books all the time. And I hear these names and these stories and I'm like, wow, this really makes making that list, that New York Times bestseller list more impressive for me is the competition that we're up against. The quality and material in these books that we're up against is makes it feel even better about it. There's nothing to.

So when we make this list, so this book is, my fear is that this book won't get read. My fear is that the people that need to read this book won't read this book. Just like when you write the book, you're scared, maybe I'm going to leave something out of it that needs to be in there. And, well, when you get the book done, now you're scared that the right person is not going to read it. Or someone that needs help that could get help through the book is not going to get it. And when we make the New York Times bestseller list, now that shoots our book into the stratosphere as far as it's advertising. Absolutely. And who will see it, where it'll be seen.

It moves from one aisle in the bookstore to the bestseller list aisle. Yeah. Even if only for a few weeks or whatever, right? And also, we'll have another printing, well, that'll have that bestseller logo right on the cover. Yeah. You know, there's a lot of people that are book fans that will recognize that and pick that book up. Yeah. They don't even have to be Junior Nation or even have to suffer a concussion.

Well, that's the person that I want to read this book. I'm so glad that Junior Nation loves it and I'm so glad they're reading it. But I want the person that doesn't even know who I am or doesn't even know anything about racing to read it. Right. Those are the people that are going to help this book, you know, spread in notoriety. That's 100%. How'd you do in English as a kid? I made it through.

I mean, you made it through, but like if I was a damn two-time New York Times best-selling, I'd be like, hey, English teacher from seventh grade. You're asking me how I did on English and you've heard me broadcast. That was your answer. You heard him go through that pristine auction read, didn't you? Yeah. Authenticated. Funer.

Funner. Good stuff. All right. You know what? We're going to try something new. We're going to try doing an Ask Junior live segment on YouTube. It's time for Ask Junior. I've got a question.

Oh, yeah. Your questions. Your questions for Dale Jr. Live on YouTube. Ask Junior. Presented by Nationwide. Ready, Dillner? We do.

We do have one here that we can ask already. Dale. I'm a little nervous that we're leaving it up to Matthew. to pick the questions we're going to answer. Funny, funny, funny. So, all right, here we go. All year, it's been decent. All year?

Up until the last two weeks when you're giving me junk. Okay. Here we go. All right, Daniel Anderson wants to know, suppose your driving career is kicking off today. The numbers 3, 8, and 88 aren't available. What other number do you hold special significance? Heck yeah.

I was talking. Two and that you'd like to see yourself run. Well, I ran 08 on my street stock. That's right. And 03. So the first tree stock that we built, me and Carrie shared, and the number on that was 08. And then I built my own car, and I was 03. And I was also the same number in some of my go-car races, you know, way back when I was 12.

So I think that 08 or 03, even though I know oh anything isn't really very popular. No, no, no. I'd probably do it just because that. Just because you'd be really kind of paving the way for that number, it probably wouldn't have a lot of history, you know, so you'd be creating the, not good enough, you'd be creating, you'd be starting the legacy from scratch. It feels a little like that's an easy way out. Just assumed the numerals three and the numeral eight were not a, like, oh, you think that's

too easy to say, oh, and oh three. It's like, sure, I'd take four O's in an eight. And I was like, I mean, come on, can you branch out to numbers that do not have the three or eight in it. All right, some numbers that I like, I don't have any, 17, my granddaddy, uh, Robert G built cars in the 70s that ran at dirt tracks and all over, really. Snowball Derby, Metralina Speedway Concord, and Darrell Waltrip drove for him. My dad drove for him.

A lot of the guys did as well. And he had an orange and white 17 that had a blue 17 on it. And I loved, love that paint scheme. So I'd probably run that number. That's a good answer. You know, Howard Plyler. 17. I think that's why me and Matt might have been as good of friends as work.

Me and Matt would have been good friends anyways, but we were even better friends because he had one of those cool numbers. That's funny. Boy, you would have hated him if he had a bad number. I mean, like, there's no even point being friends with him. Yeah. What is a bad number?

What is a bad number? What is a bad number? Anything in the 60s is kind of, like 62, 68, those are kind of, eh? 99. I don't like that. I always thought 99 was kind of a, you know, strong. No, it isn't. It's actually, because I'm a big college football fan,

And when they put the number 99 on the kickers and they do that too many times, that's annoying. That's why you don't like it. It's so annoying. And I attribute anybody that has enough. I'm afraid to say what numbers are kind of underwhelming is because it might offend someone. Because I'm probably thinking, not really thinking about someone who ran that number was actually a pretty cool person. Right. But like 87.

87. That's a name of check. Neiman check. It's kind of, uh. Yeah. It's kind of dorky looking. Yeah. All right.

Sorry, sorry, Sorry, Front Road, Joe. 46. That's cold trickle-ish. That's kind of cool. Oh, you like that? I don't like that. That's the only reason.

If it was like fluorescent green and yellow, it would be okay. This is so good. Can Rain Man for Car Numbers in History and the ultimate short track guy find a number? I used to play this all the time. That you can't go attribute something. We're going to spend the whole time on the numbers. But I'm saying it's like it's a lottery. There's no way.

There's so many people sitting on there right now thinking I got a better question. Right. Ask it. But how good of a startup question that Dillner chose that we're already, yeah, we're talking about? I did something good. He's so happy. Shut it down now. Yes.

That's over. It's over. I'm back, baby. All right. Michael Taylor, I like this question. Uh-oh. The doom. No.

The ultimate doom of a question. Going for two for two right here. Have you ever turned a lap at North Wilkesboro Speedway. Yeah. I raced in a late model race at North World Sparrow Speedway in 1994. It was a companion event with the Cup Series, so we raced on Saturday. I crashed.

I just kind of started racing late models that year. I'd only ran street stocks the year before, so I didn't really have a whole lot of driving experience and probably didn't need to be there, but it was pretty awesome. All right. Todd, Bradshaw, and Austin Dugger both have this question. Are you looking forward to the new Wives show now that you see the official trailer? The trailer came out. I'm very, very excited about this show.

So me and Amy, Amy particularly, she watches a lot of the Housewives show. And if it's anything like that, I think it'll be pretty entertaining. Even the fact that I know some of the people that are in it, like I've been around them or met them and know Samantha and those folks at the racetrack, it makes it even, I don't know, cooler for me. I was a little disappointed that Denny's girlfriend bowed out or whatever happened. She was in the pilot, I think, and they decided. not to be a part of it eventually, but I was kind of hoping that we'd get to see kind of what their lifestyle is like or what Denny's like. Did that trailer live up to your expectations because you had high expectations already?

Did you watch the trailer? Yeah. The trailer told me nothing about the show, really. What? I didn't like it. About the conflict flick thing with the monster girls and... Conflict? Yeah, well, you know, you don't want to get on Samantha Bush's bad side.

That's kind of fabricated BS right there. I felt like that was definitely fabricated. Yeah, I think. think that'll be interesting really to see what's real and what's what's kind of fabricated or scripted kind of being at the track and being around all those people i don't think that that i don't think the trailer told me much about the show told me enough that i didn't like frankly and was there not a little bit about you that was embarrassed for the sport no god i don't but i'm not into those wives it's not i'm not into the wives show so i guess there's a there's a specific niche audience for

that kind of thing and it's a very big audience i get it i was watching i was watching i was watching that stuff and I'm like god I mean like it didn't leave me it just kind of left me with a kind of it doesn't bother me I feel like there's not so for our sport there's not just one kind of fan there's not just that's true

our fan is not a mustache industry or blue collar worker die cascarian 6-2 right yeah right tattooed yeah I got you we don't have a sport that has a typical fan

And there are people that will like this show. There are people that may not even watch racing that might like this show. And in some way, I have a feeling that's definitely going to, if it works, I mean, if it's popular, it could be a big positive for the sport. There was something that, what's Austin Dillon's wife's name? I think it was her that said it. She says a line in this trailer that's like, you know, I think I am the first one to introduce sort of the monster energy girl type, model into I mean,

Miss Winston Day is that one and I'm like, please. No, you're not the one to introduce that. You're not the pioneer. Not even close. Whitney. You are not.

Whitney, you're not the first one. Now, I don't know if that was something that they put in a trailer just to kind of ratchet up the drama. The Raymond Parks. Okay, the trailer, the trailer cannot be boring. And so, yeah, I think the trailer is

definitely going to be juiced up a little bit. I'm looking forward to it, man. And if it creates some drama, even better. If it creates, if it gets people riled up like you might, even better. That's true. Even better. I'm bored. I'm bored.

All right, damn it. I'm bored. And I just want to watch some drama happen. So bring it on. Bring it on. Well, good question there. All right, Grady Long wants to know on the YouTube live Ask Junior chat here. Dale, are you going to watch the new Bowman Gray Stadium show,

debuting tonight on the Discovery Channel, because I know why. I need to set my DVR. 10 p.m. On Discovery. On Discovery. That's race night at Bowman Gray. Dale Jr. Is it really, is it so similar to the old show that was on the history channel?

I think it's going to be different in the way things are set up. There's going to be no fake radio show. Those are your old fans of that that really knew that was fake. Yeah, that wasn't what made the show. We were big fans at the last show. What was it called? Madhouse. Yeah, the Myers Boys are on it.

John Boy is back. John Boy wasn't back at the beginning, but he got his way on that show, bid way through. John Boy, I remember you. John Boy. Jonathan Brown. Brown style.

Hashtag Brown style. Is Tim Brown's on there? You could rest sure he'll be throwing something and get all pissed off at some point. All right. I said it. I put it on my calendar. I heard it was coming back. I didn't know it's coming back so soon.

Yeah, I was a huge fan of the Madhouse show that Bowman Gray don't know why that History Channel didn't pick up a second season, but I'm hoping that, you know, this Discovery Channel show hits. and we'll get to see it for more than one year. I like this question. Grotaus, it might be German, or buddy Martin might know this. I'm from Kentucky, and you have clearly displayed your displeasure for the race at Kentucky this year. I think we all have.

What do you think, though, they could do to make it better? Well, they're changed the rules. That's what they're doing. Yeah, they got 2019 rule package coming in that might improve the racing. Might. Might. I don't think any of us know for sure what it's going to do. I don't think anybody knows exactly what the racing is going to do.

So I'm not going to sit here and try to tell somebody something that I don't know. But I think it will improve the racing. I don't think you can make it worse at Kentucky. The track, that repays, man, they're just so hard. I mean, they're just, they are what they are. They're just not going to be amazing. You know, you have to be patient, wait for that asphalt age. But I think this new package coming could be interesting.

It'll be fun. Yeah, I think it'll be interesting. It can't hurt. No, it can't hurt. Brian Callahan chiming in on YouTube live. Dale, we know you're a GM guy, and we just talked about your Silverado, but he wants to know what non-GM race car

do you think was the best looking, and also given the best GM race car of all time. The Buick Grand National was awesome, so the Buick Regal. Begins with an L as I thought was going to be your answer. What? Laguna. That's a Chevy.

Yeah, and it's a GM one and a non-GM. Oh. The Laguna is probably my favorite Chevrolet. The Laguna ran in 76 and 77 and 78. The Oldsmobile 442 is probably my second favorite non-GM or my first favorite non-GM, then the Dubuick Grand National or Regal. Beautiful cars, man. All right, Brandon wants to know.

I'm from Kansas City. I've seen this guy on Twitter before. What's that, man? I'm from Kansas City, and you know we're the barbecue masters. What is your favorite barbecue joint in the Midwest? I don't know. I mean, I don't live there. I don't go to enough of them to have a favorite.

I'm sure that if I said Oklahoma Joe's or Jack Stacks or what the hell ever, somebody's going to come on here and say, no, you got to go to blowing over there. So I'm not going to say what one of you. There's so damn many good ones. I just hope to be able to go to them. I got a list in my phone of barbecue restaurants that I hope to frequent, and I'm checking them off one at a time.

I hope you put that one in there that I told you in Kansas. See, there you go. You are just like every other guy out there. You gotta go to jibba-dabber-doer. So, damn it. Who else has got one? Come on, chime in. Mike, you got one I need to go to?

Don't answer wrong either, but I'm about to tell you. Now, if I tell you, you really stir them up, I'd tell you that Kansas barbecue ain't the best. Oh. I'd say Kansas and Texas is my opinion. And sorry, Carolina, I live here and I love it more than anything. The vinegar base just doesn't. I just like Chicago pizza.

It's not my favorite, but I respect it. I cannot stand pulled pork. See, I'm a brisket or ribs guy. I'm a brisket ribs, burnt in, stuff like that. I need chunks of meat, not like shredded. You done smoke pit around here? What are you talking about? Smoke pit around here, Concord, you know, Salisbury.

Dude, look at me. I'm a fat guy. I love barbecue. I know. Hey, speaking of fat guy. We've got to get you up to speed. Hey, nice picture I saw of you on Twitter back in the days when you looked like you were about a stiff wind would have blown you over. Back when I was doing, man.

Nice. I don't have many pictures around your old man. That was kind of cool. My buddy actually had that on his desk for 10 years. We were live on YouTube. Can we get back to what we're doing here? We've got all these people waiting here. They're fine.

They ain't going nowhere. No, they're not going anywhere. I just lost the question that I was going to do. Yeah, because you're jibber jibber and jabber. You're jibbing about her. You're fine. You're fine. You got another one?

Yes. Does Dale Jr. Have any motorcycle stories? Yeah, actually, I do. You do? Yeah. I mean, there might not be great motorcycle stories, but I got stories. Average stories.

Dad bought a brand new Yamaha dirt bike. Brand new in 1980. And he would run this thing up and down the road. I remember when I first went to move in with him in 81, I remember him running it up down the drive or the road. We lived on a dead end road. being rang, ran on this motorcycle, right?

Brand new, white, you know, just basic as hell. And it had a spoke rear, front and rear tire on it, like a metal spoke, old school. When I turned 16, I had my old S-10 pickup truck,

and dad let me have it. It was old as shit, but, I mean, this is like 1990 by the, this bike's just been sitting, right? So I got it running, and I teamed up with a buddy of mine who had another motorcycle old junk piece of crap,

and we would, he knew, this buddy of mine knew, a route where all these little dirt bike trails were in Canapolis and Concord, and we would spend the weekend taking our bikes and run it. And, I mean, mine, the seat would fly off. If I did a jump, the seat would come off and fly off, and these things were just falling apart.

And finally, I landed and busted all the spokes out of the rear tire, and just I didn't know how to fix that. So I brought it home, and Dad was a little P-Oed. But I'm like, Dad, it's so damn old. It's like 11 years old. I'm bound to fall apart. Sitting there in? The seat wasn't even bolted on.

It was just kind of unbolted and loose. But man, I had a lot of fun riding that thing. I'd never rode a motorcycle before. So that's how I learned. Sometime around when I did the bud deal, Budweiser brought me a Buell brand new, painted red with all kinds of bud logos on it. Two bad things about this.

Okay. Dad found out about it and hid the title. And today, we still had the motorcycle, but no title. Really? Yeah. So it didn't turn up? No, Dad hid the title because he didn't want me riding it, didn't want me putting a plate on it. So I never wrote it on the highway.

I wrote up down the driveway a little bit. I mean, I wouldn't have wanted to. This thing was terrible. But what Budweiser had done to it was awful. They painted it red and they put Budweiser logos in the paint, which is fine. But also, everywhere there was a Budweiser logo, it said, drink responsibly. All... So if you get pulled over, you just be like, look right here on the tank.

I'm good. There were like eight drink responsible. on the tank, on everything on this bike. And I'm like, this thing sucks. Ruined. Yeah. I mean, what do you see? A Harley out there that said, go the speed limit on the outside.

I mean, like, don't be too loud. Yeah. On the Harley. I mean, come on. That kind of. I was so. And I still have the bike. Still have it.

All right. One last one here. Blake E. I've always wondered this if you thought this was weird. Have you ever met the guy in Martinsville? And I know he's had some other tracks, too, that dresses up like your old man. It's weird. I hate it. Yeah, it's weird, man. I thought so, too. And I've always wondered what you thought about that. All right. So there's a, there's a guy that dresses up

like my dad, and I've seen him at Martinsville, and he has a guy that comes with him that dresses up like me. Oh, real? I didn't ever see that. Oh, yeah. And they just walk around in the grandstands. All right, so I hate it. I've been in the race car and seen them. Really? Yeah. I've been on the racetrack in the race and seen them walking around, just shaking people's hands. It's weird. It's a little morbid. But I go to Vegas, I'm sorry, I go to Vegas, and I see Elvis impersonators all over the place. I don't think that's, I don't get the morbid feeling from that. I think it, like, I'm an Elvis fan, that's cool, right?

You know, I kind of hold in, I've never really been too vocal about it because maybe, maybe not people in this room, but maybe the fans in the grandstands think it's cool. Or a nod of appreciation or whatever to dad. I don't know. But to me, it's weird. Yeah, I tell you, you're not the only one. Now, I remember my first year with you in 2004. I don't like it. In 2004, that guy, it wasn't Martinsville.

It was another racetrack, but he was right across from where the bud pits were. Yeah. And that's a crew that all had really close, tight relationships with your dad. Yeah. And he was standing over there. And even his posture, he was trying to emulate DeL Earnhardt Sr. And I'm going to tell you something. If there wasn't a racetrack and a catch fence in between that guy and some of the characters on that

crew like two beer. Yeah. Kevin Pinell. Yeah. They would have had at it. And they were not happy. They were yelling at him. And so I was like, okay, so this thing is a little, people are taking it disrespectfully.

I don't think that's that guy's intentions. No. I think people in the stands, like getting their picture made with him and that kind of thing. But I think, you know, sitting there and standing in front of, you know, the bud pit and everything, it was probably a little inconsiderate. Yeah. And then when the guy brought whoever his buddy was, it was dressing up like me, it got even weirder.

I'm like, I'm alive. I'm right here. Why are you trying to impersonate me? Yeah. Right, right. It's weird. It's not even Halloween. It's so weird.

That's good. Hey, Chad Hull just threw this in there and I thought it was cool. With all the hype about the book, racing to the finish and getting on the best sellers list, what's your favorite book? Do you have a favorite book of all time? We were trying to answer this. I have a favorite book of all time. Yeah, we were trying to. So when I was young and getting, just started going to Lutheran Church with my dad and I got baptized, I got a book.

and it was, I think I was baptized when I was like seven or eight, and I got a book where the red fern grows. And I think I didn't read it until I was around 12 or 13, but I thought that was a great book. I know a lot of people have read it, you know, a lot of people. I've never heard of it, honestly. Where the red fern grows? Yeah.

Mike, you read it in your childhood, right? I mean, I'm sure I read it. I've definitely heard of it. I mean, I've read them all at this point. I kind of, I'm super nostalgic, so that's why I still think that story is great. I like the book, reading the book for me as a child. It was an easy read, but it was. was one of the first books that I really wanted and liked reading.

You know, when you go to school, all that, you don't like to read. You don't want to read. I read this chapter, study this crap. Nobody wants to do that. But this was the first time I was reading something and I couldn't put it down. And so that was a cool experience. I read Unbroken, that movie they made. That's right.

That was incredible. That was a great read. I read that book about that football player, that guy that was buddies with the football player and they fell overboard and he survived. He floated out in the ocean. They were on like a 24-4. foot fishing boat and his buddies died. You know, they all fell overboard.

The boat flipped overboard and he survived and they didn't. I read that. I've always been fascinated with being lost at sea, cast away the movie, things like that. Being a castaway, Amelia Everhart, just fascinated with that stuff. So any kind of book or a read about that, I'm going to be interested in. Good stuff. All right, man.

That was Asked Jr., of course presented by Nationwide. So thanks Nationwide for all your involvement. with everything on the Dale Jr. brand and especially with this podcast. Good stuff. That's cool. Is it white flag? Keep on the bud. White flag right there.

White flag right. All right. As we said earlier, it's a New York Times bestseller. Now go to Dale Jr.com slash book. That'll get you there. Or any of your local book retailers, including Walmart, Barnes & Noble, etc., to purchase Racing to the Finish. My Story by Dale and Hart Jr.

Speaking of the book, we're going to be going to L.A. next week for a press tour. So we got a week or so off on that, and now we're going to get back at it. We're going to be in L.A., like Wednesday and Thursday. So everybody checked Dale Jr.com for a list of appearances that we'll be on, putting that together still. Dale Jr. talked about his Chevy truck. He's got a Chevrolet production to do this week on Wednesday. So, by the way, if you want a Chevy truck, I'm sure our boy Andrew DeWirf down there in Tallahassee would love to hook somebody up. So that's it, Dale Earnhardt, Chevrolet.

But, yeah, the Silverado. Delenhart Jr. Chevrolet. That's right. You have to draw that distinction because there is a Delanoch Chevrolet. So, yeah, see Andrew. As always, Dill Jr. Download TV show airs on Thursdays on NBC Sports Network. But be aware the shows the weeks of November 12th and November 19th will be one hour TV shows. Oh, yeah.

Usually we're just a half hour. Brian, our boy, Brian, is looking forward to putting that one together. So one hour shows, those are the ones right after Phoenix and right after Homestead, one-hour TV shows. Del, finally, you know, we've said in here we like giving gifts and we like receiving gifts. And so Dillner came with a gift that somebody wants to send you today. So Richie Evans, Richie Evans Jr. And his sister Tara, the late great nine-time National Modified Champion, Richie Evans' kids,

they have the original screens. They know you're a big T-shirt fan. And they got the original screens. They're not printing them for sale. And they wanted to print you, me, I believe, Mike, some custom from the original prints, Richie Evans shirts, which I know you're a history fan. And one of the great drivers in NASCAR.

our history. Yeah. So, yeah, take a look at the front of these. I had this shirt. When I was, like, seven years old, I had this shirt. Stop. Stop. Do it.

Do it. Do it. Don't. Come on, take that pillow down. It didn't hurt. That hurt. No, it don't. I got a bruise.

Show the front of that thing. I had that shirt when I was like six, man. That thing's cool. That's cool. Let me see this. So thank you, Richie. Thank you, Tara. That's an X-L.

This is an X-L. A legend. I'm an medium. Ascar Hall of Fame. They'll be underneath the small these days. Well, cool. Thank you. Who do we thank again?

The Evans family. Evans family. Thank you, Evans family. Thank you, Evans family. All right. That's a good show, boys. Good job. Nice job, Dilloner, picking them questions.

Dale Jr. I enjoyed it. Good senior, bud. Guys, thanks for tuning in. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo.