The Dale Jr. Download - 255 - Amy Earnhardt: Maximum Security

Episode Date: May 7, 2019

Amy Earnhardt joins her husband to give the inside scoop on Dale Jr.’s Kentucky Derby Day. The DJD gang discusses the controversial finish, sneaky infield drinking, a bugler in jorts, Dale in pink and Mike’s Twitter trolling, Dale Jr. talks about playing hooky, getting in trouble with Dad and gives us an update on his racecar restoration project. Jr Motorsports Late Model driver Josh Berry stops by and 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.

I feel a lot of immense pressure after John Forrest's... Don't. Wait, hold on. Please don't I am. In the middle of your interview, Amy, you need to go, oh, look, a squirrel. Yeah, right. What are we talking about? Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. for the Dale Jr. Download.

Got a good show today, Mike. Yes. My co-host, Matthew Dillner, Lear here. Also, coming in is my wife, Amy. We're going to talk about the Kentucky Derby. Yes. Had a great experience there. We also have Josh Berry coming in, our late-mile driver,

who had a great victory this weekend in a very, interesting race at Ace Speedway. So it's going to be a good show. Let's get started. There are wrong. All right, so we talked about it. My wife's here, Amy. So this past weekend, was it the weekend?

Yeah. It was the weekend. So this past week... On Saturday. It was Saturday. All right, that's one thing. The Derby on Saturday. Doesn't it feel like it should be on Sunday?

Wasn't it on Sunday? No, it's always been on Saturday. Has it? It did feel like a Sunday, though. I feel like I remember. Maybe it's because every time I've watched it's usually been in the hauler of a of of of the race for the race team and in between practices or something like that we're always trying to hustle in from a practice to watch it or or having to miss part of it because of

a practice but anyways i've never been to the kentucky derby and because of uh this awesome new job that i have NBC's been sending me uh all over to all kinds of cool things the world's yeah and um you know i really never thought about until I sat down we've been to the uh Super Bowl for the first time, went to the Winter Olympics, Mike. We went together to South Korea. We'd never go to South Korea, right? I don't think we'd ever been, and I don't think we had any attention to going. Yeah, that wasn't on the calendar this year. Nope. And so we, and we got sent to the Kentucky Derby. But my wife Amy, who's here with us today to help us talk about this experience, went to the Kentucky Derby last year, right? It was like five years ago. Five years ago.

Yeah, I remember she left Talladega. Holy Cap. I came to Talladega and watched you race on Sunday. Five years ago. It's been that long. My hair was black, too. Do you not remember? It's been that long ago. I know, but dang, it just seems like two years ago. Yeah, no.

It's been a while. Holy cow. So five years ago, well, you went five years ago and you loved it. Yeah, so much fun. And you're like, we got to go, we got to go. I was going this year for the first time, but I'm working. So, you know, I'm experiencing it. True.

But at the same time, I'm working. We'll talk a little bit about what the difference is there. But it was amazing, man. And just like Amy said, it was incredible. The energy there is pretty crazy. Yeah, and we talk about the energy at NASCAR races and the Super Bowl. Everything has its own kind of feel and culture. And the Kentucky Derby culture is definitely loud and proud.

It is there and evident. I mean, one of the things that I noticed right away was when we got there, a couple of the people coming in were, I guess, locals, and they're like, welcome. Welcome to Kentucky. That's right. Happy Derby Day is what she knows. And this one guy goes, I hope Kentucky treats you well. Yeah.

And the hospitality, I guess, was one of the first things that I noticed from a lot of people that are there. They're happy that you're there. Yeah. Happy Derby Day is a thing people say. Right away. Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

They're shouting it to you as soon as you walking up. But that's cool. It's not like Daytona Day. It's cool. It's bad. I guess it's, maybe that's where Daytona Day got there. They ripped it off from them. but I think the happy Derby Day has been around.

You know, that's another thing. Like, you can't make stuff up. Like, this stuff has to happen organically and naturally, and I believe that one did. And anyways, just a really great day. We'll talk a little bit to Amy about what it's, the one thing about it is, is it's for everyone. Male and female, there's just as many,

women there excited about what's happening, maybe even more. Right, because of the fashion. Because of the fashion. And so, and they get into what's happening. You know, you're into the race, right? Everybody's into the race. Well, horse racing is a lot easier to understand than football. You know what I mean?

There's a lot less to analyze and pay attention to. Everybody gets it. You start, you finish, you're going in a circle. Right. It's easy to follow. Straightforward. Until we realize we have to learn what the disqualification rules are. Didn't know that existed, but we can get to.

to that in a second, but yeah. But it's pretty simple, yeah. It's incredible. We got there, walk into the talent trailer. Von Miller's there. Got to meet Von Miller. Denver Broncos. Awesome, nice guy. He's there doing some work with NBC as well. I got to work with Rutt all day long. So I'm nervous. I'm going into the Kentucky Derby to, I've never been in. I'm going to, I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know what NBC's going to want me to talk about. So Amy's been dealing with me being a nervous wreck for two or three weeks. I keep waiting for one of these days for him not to get nervous when he goes to do something. But tell us real quick, what were two weeks leading into the Kentucky Derby like with him?

Well, we had a lot going on, but he's just, hmm, how do I put this nicely? You don't have to be nice. This is where you can be honest. Oh, he was, you know, whiny, worried. Oh, my gosh, you know, just. Because of the clothes? Need to have the conversation every day. This is going to go well.

I'm just so nervous. Yes, taking him shopping. I waited to the last possible day to do that because. he hates to go shopping. For the most part, we have to drive down to Charlotte, which sitting in traffic is no fun. And usually shopping with him doesn't take that long, but he gets it built up in his mind

like it's going to be this huge horrible task. So we get to... So I'm not worried that it's going to be a horrible task. I'm really nervous that we're not going to hit it out of the park. We always do. Well, that's kind of the same thing. Like you're just worried about the whole experience going bad. Yeah.

Because everybody's so critical, and if you screw it up... Well, and on top of that, I don't know if Amy said this to you, but she said it to me at the party. And she was like, listen, if y'all are going to the Kentucky Derby with me, you know, you're not going to look like a couple of chimney sweeps plucked out of the Talladega infield, basically. I don't know if I put it like that. Yeah, you got the gist. That was the gist of it.

And so, like, I hadn't felt pressure until then. Yeah. And now I'm like, oh, this is a thing I got to go pay attention to. I don't pay attention. I don't know what style is. And I certainly didn't know Kentucky Derby style. But anyway. It was pretty easy for it.

you to shop, though. Oh, it was actually funny to shop. Was it fun to shop? Yes. Okay. Yeah, you go first. All right. Amy's like, we're going to stop at this one place that's next to Shannie Johnson, Jimmy's wife's. Yeah, I went to Tabor. What's it called? Tabor. And so we go in there, a small little place. And right away, there's a Searsucker suit. They're like, here's a Searsucker suit, and it fits. I put the pants on, fits, no. We've been there for 10 minutes and he's got a great outfit.

Perfect. Nothing. And I've, all right, so I've never worn pink. I can't say that I remember ever wearing pink in my life. Not by choice. Yeah, I kind of always wanted to, but there's never been an occasion. I've always wanted to, but there's never been an occasion where I thought pink was going to work that day. And here we are, Kentucky Derby. It's a perfect opportunity, and there's this pink jacket hanging on the rack of the door. And it's got this little X on the pocket.

And as soon as I saw that X on the pocket, I thought that's just like the jockeys uniforms. Like those silks. Oh, that's a good point. Right. And it was actually a polo jacket made by this guy. It's in polo or something. But anyways, I'm hoping nobody notices it was a polo jacket. But it's got this perfect little eggs on.

I'm like, it's great. And I'm trying to convince Amy to let me wear the pink jacket versus the jacket that came with the pants. It matched the pants was a little tough because she had this. Well, I already had my outfit picked out. I had bought five different dresses just trying to make sure that I picked the perfect one with my fascinator or the hat or whatever. So getting an outfit for a woman's a little bit more of a big deal. So, of course, I take him last minute to shop and he picks a pink jacket, and so I've got to redo my whole look because what I had picked out was like neon pink,

and we were not going to look good standing next to each other. Yeah, she had the neon pink. Mine was kind of a faded pink. Obviously, Amy's fashion and what she's wearing is at the priority top of the shelf, what I'm going to wear, not quite as important, but I'm like, come on. Yeah, but he's going to be on TV all day too, so I just had to let him have it. I'm like, she's got a picture of her dress, and I got my, my jacket on. I'm like, come on, don't they look good together? She's like, no.

The associate in the store too also said that's not going to look together. You sure? And maybe if I put this towel, changes things a little bit. But anyway, she let me wear a pink jacket. And man, I loved it. I loved my outfit. I usually don't care much about what, you know, all that. Did you ever think you would hear Dale say, I got to wear a pink jacket and I just loved my outfit? I know, right? Right. Things Cali Yarbrough didn't say. All right, so. Earnhardt's got a little background with pink, so you good?

That's true. Yeah, you had a pink race car. Yeah, that's true. Way to pull us back around, Dylan. Yeah. Thank you, Matthew. You saved me. So, anyways, in 15 minutes, we got her outfit.

Easy. Headed back home, drove down to Charlotte, headed back home. Excited. Amy's got to figure her deal out, though, but now because she's going to have changed dress. I had backup options. She had backup options. She got straightened out. We had to sit around for a while before we started doing any work.

And like I said, Rutt's there. Rutt. So when I go work with Rutt, Rutt does rut things. Everybody knows Rutt Lich Wood. Everybody knows when he's on the show what he's going to be doing. He's the guy that's going to hop around, little different locations for the show, show everybody what else is going on besides the actual event. Which is going to be great for me because I'm going to the Kentucky Derby

and be able to see all these different locations and sort of see what's happening everywhere. aside for most people that just kind of stayed where your ticket is. So I'm going to see a lot in my first this is going to be great. And working with Rutt, so I'm new, I'm a little nervous, I'm going to screw it up, I'm going to ask questions, I'm going to have questions,

and working with Rutt is so good because he's patient and he is the kind of guy who doesn't mind a bunch of questions. I'm kind of like the, you know, why is the sky blue, you know, the two-year-old, asking all them questions like, what are we going over here for? What's going to happen there? You know, and he's like, all right, this is what's going on because he's done all this. Every year he kind of does the same routine. We started in the infield. On the way there, on the way the infield, we found a lost phone. We did. Oh, wow. Was it mine?

No. On the track? Amy did lose her phone. On the track? Yeah. On the grass track, right? In between. Yeah, in between, like on the rail. So you had to dip under the rail, and when somebody leaned over to go under the rail, that phone fell out. and we handed it to the sheriff. I'm already got anxiety because it ain't even my phone. And I'm like, damn, it's 2.30. It's the start of the day. Somebody's here to have fun.

And now they lost their phone. And you know how that is. You know, you just fall apart. So your phone's everything. Yeah. And I'm thinking about that person. I'm like, man, this sucks for them. It's getting text messages coming in.

Oh, yeah, blowing up. And, you know, you got the emergency call, but who you're going to call? So we give it to the sheriff guy. and I try to talk about it on TV show so maybe somebody will get the light bulb going off going, oh, that must be my phone. I'll go to the sheriff's office, so I don't know if they ever did that.

Well, the only issue there is nobody can see the broadcast. Yeah, but maybe they, you know. But Dale's doing all he can with the platform that he has in a little trying to find somebody that gets their phone. But it also, you know, I've been thinking about what I'm going to say in that opening segment, that opening hit in the infield, and me and Rutter going back and forth about what might be funny and what might not.

You know, and we had this whole plan. And on the way over to do the hit, I came up with it. When I saw the phone, I said, that's it. We've been here five minutes and done found a lost phone. That's a party. That means the train's coming off the rails. Literally came all. We found it off the rail.

There's still three hours left to go before the race even starts. That's right. I have a good question, though, for you because we got to go see the infield too, but it was much earlier in the morning. I've heard so many crazy things about the Tala, not the Talley game, but the infield at Churchill Downs being similar to Taledaga's infield. Really? Yes. Especially back in the day, like all of that wasn't paved.

A lot of it was grass or if it rained, it was mud and there was like mud slides and all kinds of things going on. What was it like at 2.30 in the afternoon? At 2.30 in afternoon, it was pretty wild. I can't imagine what it would have been like near the race time or even after the race. They even have more horse racing after the derby's over with. But everybody in there was, It was a majority college crowd, and they were doing college things.

You know, they're just hanging out together in groups and rowdy and making a lot of noise. There's a lot of music playing. One of the things that surprised me, obviously, when you watch it on TV, you don't get an appreciation for the size of facilities. Sizes the track, you don't get an appreciation of how much can beat in the infield, how much can fit in the infield. When you go down there, you're like, well, this is bigger than the end field. It's like a county fair. It's bigger than the infield at Dover. If you're a race fan, been to Dover, Charlotte, places.

like that and there's all kinds of facilities buildings and and activities tents hospitality all those things are going on in there so there's no because there's no trailers and car all the horses are outside right yeah the horses are outside okay so you're there's just a lot happening in there that you would never they don't i don't know i mean i've i've watched the der before but they just i just didn't know that all this was happening in there there's concerts there's music there's djs there are ends of the racetrack in the corners where there's grass and lawn and people hanging out. But there's a lot of structures, buildings in the infield, functional, you know, hospitality and so forth.

Anyways, I was reading trying to get an understanding of all the locations that me and what were going to go to. And I read that people, you know, they don't allow alcohol into the infield. And people have been, you know, ingenious and coming up with ways to get alcohol in there. And they would hollow out loaves of bread to stick bourbon whisky. into those loaves of bread. And carry that in. Rut told me that people... Nobody's alarmed by a loaf of bread coming in.

Right. Well, I mean, if you can't take a loaf of bread somewhere with you, what can you do to be the ducks? You can bring a cooler. And in that cooler, maybe they had that loaf of bread, some peanut butter jelly. Yeah. Little camo... Everything filled with alcohol. A little smoking mirror going on.

But... Listen to this. Rutt said that they would come in a day or two early and bury the whiskey in the grassy areas. Yeah. That's insane. That is insane. Right.

I mean, that's hardcore. So anyways, and I was glad that our hit was at 2.30 and not later in the day because it's going to get more and more rowdy. And it's plus it rain like hell. We luckily got in the infield and got out before it was too wet. I thought you guys were going to slip there, man. I was watching. You got that looked slippery on that damn track.

No, I was not slippery. It wasn't. Okay. We'll talk about that down here in a minute. But when it did rain, yeah. We got money. He got muddy. Damn, my God, money.

So muddy. But the thing about the infield, Dale, just so you know, I doubt we went into the real, like, seventh circle of hell part of the infield. No, we didn't. I mean, I think we probably saw the, you know, the upper echelons.

We went into the lobby and came back out. That's exactly right. But even in the lobby, see, this is stuff Dale doesn't actually know because he had earpieces in. He and Rut had earpieces in. I did. I was, you know, but I know what you're going to say,

and I was telling Rut while we're standing there, he's got one out. one ear out. So he hears everything happening around us. Oh, okay. And I told Rudd, I said, he's talking to me. And I said, rut, I can't hear what you're saying. And I don't want to hear anything going on around me right now because I'm trying to remember what I'm going to talk about during the hit. And I'm like, all this is such a distraction. I'm going to forget everything we're going to talk about. I'm so glad to hear that you couldn't hear it because you would have lost your train of thought had you heard what was that going on. What were they saying? During the interview, during the

Pete, during the hit, live hit, okay? We had one lady asking for a photo, okay, during the hit, they're talking. Dale! Get my picture! Okay, that's one. Get me a picture. And I turn around, I'm like, he's busy. Then you had the security guards that were with us, big old, big old guys, right? And there were a couple runners.

I'm telling you without those security guards, you're, interview or your hit would have been interrupted by a runner. Yeah. There was a guy particularly that it was double fisting, had two beers, and we could see him, and I said, I nudged the guy beside me. I'm like, he's thinking about it. Look at him. He's thinking about making his move.

Because when you're good and sauced up, you get brave. Oh, yeah. This was a brave guy. This was our hero. And he was about to do it. Now, he didn't necessarily comprehend the fact that they were doing the live hit at that moment. I just don't think he cares.

and he was coming. And that security guard did their one arm thing, and he's a big guy. And he basically, yeah, snagged him right at the last minute. Dale and Rudder just chipper are just talking through all the party and stuff. And I'm like, that would have been on YouTube. That would have been a viral moment we would have just had. You know, like we always see that Chris Berman thing from 1979 where the fans interrupt. That would have been it.

So there was chaos going around Dale. And this was his first hit. And I knew he was, you know, he was nervous. about it. That could have messed up the whole trajectory of the day. But it ended up being an awesome hit. I think you and Rutten nailed it. Right out of the gate, we had a great hit, live hit. And people don't, people, people that aren't brought in the broadcasting part of their network, they probably don't care or think about whether the hits good or bad. You're just watching it on TV and you go, oh, that was cool. I wasn't bored. Me and I'm sitting there going,

Rut, that was great. We did a good job. And then we do the next hit. And I'm like, that sucked, we got to do better next time. And he's like, just like, yeah, what? He was, that was great. I would give it a B plus, sad. Yeah, we did, what was the next hit? We did this. The mansion.

The mansion. We go to the mansion and we did a hit, and it sucked. Well, we were trying to, like, kind of pick on people that we thought might be in the mansion or might not be in the mansion. And he's like, Danica Patrick. I'm like, I don't know if she'd make it in the mansion. She's probably a millionaire's row. But yeah, now that I'm here, I think Danica would be up here with the Rogers. And we were going to pick on foul.

you know, saying he would refuse to come to the Derby unless he had a mansion ticket because it's an NBC event. He would definitely try to, you know, use that leverage. That's valid. Yeah. And we saw Steve Harvey up there who I was on his show and he, me and him were having a conversation before the hit. And I was like, man, you got to work Steve Harvey in because we saw him. Well, right as we're getting ready to finish the hit up, we started good. This is a 30-second hit. The first 15 seconds good. Rut gets it in his ear from the producer that we need to toss it to Rebecca

toss it to Rebecca, toss it to to Rebecca, go, go, go. In this hit now, we got to go. And so Rut rushed to the end and sent it out. And we were trying to do a bit, you know, it's kind of a joke at the end and he's a straight-faced as hell. And I was like, damn, Rutte, you didn't even laugh.

I mean, even if my jokes aren't funny, you're the one that's supposed to be laughing. He was cackling in the rehearsal. Yes. And I was like, that hit sucks. I sucked. I sucked. You sucked. You didn't laugh. And he's like, whatever, man, it's cool. So he grades the day globally, like, as a full. Yeah, he averages it. Sure. He gets in and then and then goes, yeah, that was good. Okay. Next one. Next show. And I'm sitting there going, that, that minute sucked. That, that last 30 seconds was terrible. And he's like, well, you're a race car driver. You go every lap. You go that. And overanalyze everything. That was a good corner. That's a back corner. Yeah. And so I do that. And I was driving him crazy. But anyways, we get down to the garland of roses. The garland of roses is a trophy, and I had in my mind all this information.

In 1896 is the first race where they gave away a floral arrangement. It was a pink and white floral arrangement. In 1904, the rose was made the official flower of the derby, and in 1932 was the first time the garland, as we know it today, was given away. And I got all that in my mind, and I'm just reading it over and over and over and over, and Rutts trying to talk to me about who the hell knows what, you know, just random thoughts that are coming through his mind. I'm like, Rudd, stop, stop talking. I'm trying to keep the stuff in.

I can't do your things in mine. So we're standing, the Garland of Roses is in this stable type of utility closet. It's dirty. There's buckets and stuff on the shelf, and it was just not a place. I didn't think about it, but the, the sort of officials of the event and the people that run Churchill Downs were like, oh, y'all ain't shooting live in here. You know, you can't, we can't let people see the garland in this utility closet.

Right. And I was like, oh, this is going down. Like, this might not happen. We're live. Like, they're getting ready to come to us in a minute. And the producer's scrambling. He's like, I got to get this shot. We got to show this.

We got to tell the fans about the garland. They're like, you ain't doing it here. You ain't showing it in this room. and they're like, well, where's it going? When's it moving? Yeah, get it out of there. And the guy's actually, our producer, had his heel on some of the ribbon. Oh, no.

The garlands land on the, part of the garland. The garlands land on the table, and beside the garland is like a rose, round rose arrangement with a ribbon underneath it that they also put on the horse. Like a mom kind of thing. Yes, yes, yes, the mom. He's got his heel on the mom. Ribbon. The lady wins.

crazy. She was like... Right before the hit, too. She's like, you're standing on it. He's like, no, I'm not. She's like, yes, you were! And she gets down and she's dusting it off with her hand.

And she is even more man now. Now we definitely ain't going to get to shoot the shot, right? Now we're done. She's like, you barbarians have ruined everything. Get the hell out of here. And so they, the garland is carried in, the garlands carried out of the tunnel into the view of the crowd by servicemen and women and part of the military.

So they, they're carrying the, garland out of the tunnel and they're staged right at the tunnel right at the right at the exit so everybody's calmed down at this point you know tempers that flared have calmed down and the the lady and the officials are like okay if you want to shoot a shot right now is the time to get it you got to get it right now so they came to me and rut all this is happening and i'm still running through my mind those dates you know so i don't get the dates wrong and i pulled this off of wikipedia so you know i don't even know whether i'm telling the truth so But I'm gambling.

I'm rolling a dice that I'm not wrong on this. And we did the hit right standing next to the garland where the servicemen and women are holding it. And we got done. And I was like, I don't remember anything I said. I don't even know what I just said. I can't remember it. We did it. It happened.

You just blacked out? Yeah. I don't remember whether I said the right dates. I don't remember the words I said. Oh, man. Did you? I don't know. I have no idea.

what I said. We should have recorded this. During that hit. Authentic frontier gibberish. And we get done, I'm like, oh, this is just getting worse and worse. Like the first hit was awesome. Second hit kind of flat. And now you're blacking out.

Now I'm like just completely blank. And then we go out to the pagoda. This was one hit that I was probably the most excited about because I read up on this guy, the bugler, Steve Butler. Steve Butler. How's so cool. And I was afraid to I was going to forget his last name, but it was written on this.

table. He has his own table in the pagoda, and he's got his bag and his stuff stacked on there, and somebody was moved in front of it, and I was like, get out of the way, get out of the way. I didn't tell him why, but his name's written on there. I'm like, I'm going to just be able to look at that if I get lost. Yeah. And so we're getting ready to do the hit, and it's raining like hell. And the thing about him is, I wanted to tell this story, but I'm thinking, people don't need to hear it for me. I need to let him tell it. So in 1995, the job as the bugler became available and he wanted to go audition. He also needed to take his wife's car to the service

auto service to get it worked on. He didn't know whether it would be done in time. So he took his bugle along with him just in case. If it didn't get done in time, he wouldn't make the audition. He don't get the job. And that's the end of the story. He goes out on the curb of the Midas where he went to get his wife's car worked on and practiced,

bugling. So imagine driving around downtown Churchill, I don't know where the hell he was. Downtown church. Whatever. Louisville. Right, Louisville. Downtown Louisville, go by the Midas, and there's a guy bugling.

As you would expect it. On the corner of the street. And anyways, the car gets done. He did show up late. He walks in. There's seven other guys there to audition. They're all in suits and ties. He's wearing cut-off jeans.

Jorts. My man. He's in Jorts and a windbreaker. And he bugles. All right. And he gets, and then they narrowed it down to two. And he got, they did, they did it again. They did another audition. And they gave him the job. And he's had it ever since 1995. He's also a bugler at another racetrack full time. He does both Churchill Downs and another racetrack. He's done 60,000 races. So he'll do a dozen races a day. Wow. And he's done it since how long? It must be the track in Lexington. Right. Okay. But it's amazing. That's just a great story. So I read that, I read about that. I probably on Wikipedia as well. And so... We've got to find him a more reliable source of information.

He's going to do these live TV hits. Is that not good? No. Okay. I mean, you can't take it to the bank with confidence, can you? No. Really? Wikipedia is a good reference to get you to different areas, though.

I just Googled, and that's what popped up. So I basically just tossed the story to him, and he told it. Great freaking guy. And we were in there for 30 minutes before I hit, just killing time, having a conversation with Steve Butlerman. I'll never forget his name. Yeah. And... Did he verify that that was what he was wearing?

Yes. He told the story. So he verified Wikipedia's... Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. And so, anyways, that hit kind of was... I felt like a B-plus.

Okay, you felt good about that one. Then we're going to do the walkover. And the walkover was going to be amazing because basically the horses are outside of turn two, outside the racetrack. And we walk over there, and there's a little stretch of track coming off a turn two where they have a gate that they run a...

shorter race. All right. Horses are released there and they come running by onto the racetrack, on to the backstretch. So we're standing on this little stretch or extra race track on what they call it. But all the families are there. The families that own these horses and they're part of these trainers' lives and all that. So there's tons of people. Everybody is pouring rain.

The track is covered in water. And I was wearing like a Chuck Taylor type of shoe and I had to walk on my toes because if my heel got down in there, it's pulled my shoe off. It sucked my shoe right off. It was like eight inches deep of mud. And so it's raining and raining and raining and the horses aren't coming. And we can't do the walk until the horses get there. And it's pouring and pouring and pouring and pouring.

And the tracks getting worse and worse and worse and filling it with water. Finally, here comes the horses. Me and Rut did this walk. And I would say it was really emotional. And I would get emotional about this reminded. me of building cars for Daytona. We spend more than the off-season getting one car ready for the Daytona 500. You would put six months into this car.

And no other race track or no other race gets that kind of attention. No other car gets that kind of attention during the season. You massage this thing, work on this thing, everything's perfect, and then eventually you've got to put it on the starting grid for the race on Sunday, and when it's out there, it's out there. Can't no going back. They can't do nothing else to it. This is what it reminded me of.

They're taking these horses that they've worked every day of their life. They've bred these horses. This is years coming in. And a lot of money. Forgive me for my ignorance on horse racing. I've watched the derby, but you just don't know everything, right? They don't get another shot.

They're three-year-old horses, and after the derby, that's it. They don't come back, all right? Not to the derby. They may race. They'll race a, but yeah. That's what I mean. They don't get to go back to the Daytona 500. Right.

You might bring Amelia back. and race Amelia a few times at the plate tracks like we did. So they don't, you never see a horse racing in the derby? I didn't know that. No, no, you race once. One and a time. They're three-year-olds. Yeah, that's it.

Right. See, I was the same way, Matthew, and I'm sitting there thinking, wow, that makes it even more emotional because this is it. Yeah. You're one shot. And then me and I said, I said, I said, rut, this is it. They're one shot. And then he went right into an M&M song. He did.

I can imagine. Every moment has a lyric for Rutt. Just how you know. We learned this in the TV compound. We would see something and all of a sudden he would bust into like a Carly B song or something. I mean like he could just. Is that her name? Cardi.

Cardi. Cardi. Cardi et whatever. It keeps it light though. So we're doing the walk. The walk was great. The people. So there's these people that are own horses on the track.

I don't know what their job is. They're guiding their horse. They were laughing. It kind of keeps them calm, keeps the horses knowing where they're supposed to There's also some people that work for the track that are out there on horses. They were laughing at us. They were laughing at us because we're walking into mud. They're like, y'all are silly.

This is ridiculous. You're doing this. Well, everyone else that was there that knows what they're doing has on rubber boots. I know. I'm looking around. Stales and Chucks. I'm walking around. People got their shoes in Ziploc bags and all kinds of stuff.

Rut had his Jordans on. Rut had some Jordans. Yeah. He ruined his more expensive shoes. Amy was up in the mansion, and she's like, after you're done, come to the mansion to watch the race. It's the best seat in the house. I disagree, and we can go back to that. Well, this is just in my mind at that moment.

Oh, gotcha. And so I'm looking down to my shoes. I'm like, yeah, I ain't going to the mansion. Oh, because of the mud. Oh, yeah. I was like, yeah, the mansion's out for me. I might not even be going to my suite down there down at the NBC sports suite.

But anyhow. No wonder he said no. I'm not covered. Oh, I was covered in mud. My pants got ruined. But I knew that was happening. Rut told me he's like, don't buy any expensive clothes. He wore a $100 suit.

That suit, that outfit that he had was $100. Really? Yeah. And. I wouldn't have guessed much more than that. No, right. Oh, really? I'd say $500.

Anyways. We get the walk done. That was a lot of fun. That was a, you could feel how special that was for everyone. And the horses are magnificent also up close. It's just all the things. I can imagine him why it was an emotional experience. Yeah, when we saw the first horse up close, I said to Rudd, I said,

I don't know what the flaws might be in a horse, but these damn things are perfect. Perfection. They are perfect. They're the Giselle Bunchens of horses. They're walking around like, I am the baddest dude here. Yeah, they are.

They have a little ego. They can feel it. Yeah, it's neat. It is so cool. You don't want to tell the horse you're 50 to one odds, bud. All right, we'll get back to Amy in just a second. Dale, let's hear from our friends at Valvaline. As many of you probably know, I was sponsored by Valvaline.

several years and I even drove a Valvene car. Darlington back in 2015, that baby was hot. Not literally. This was just a very good looking race car. A lot of drivers are sponsored by motor oils, but Balveline man, they were something different. They were more than just a logo on my suit

or a decal on the car. So they were a true partner and they always were hands on and helping us make our engines perform better. That was one thing that I learned about them as we got to working together. They'd send teams over to Charlotte to work directly with our engine guys in the garage to squeeze out a few more horsepower out of our engines. We literally mixed oils together. And it didn't matter if we were

running plate races, road courses, short tracks, or intermediates. They always had solutions for us to make our stuff run faster, run better. Vavilene even helped me get the monkey off my back at Martinsville in 2014, where I got my first win ever on NASCAR's oldest track. That's why Valvene is the motor oil I trust in my engine, and it's why you should trust them in your engine too. From high mileage rides that need that thick anti-wear film to newer engines that have carbon buildup. Head over to Valeline.com slash

Dale to find the product spec for your engine. That's valene.com slash Dale. There was a horse from Japan, right? Yeah. Really?

That was cool. Yeah. He didn't have great odds. Yeah. He didn't have great odds. But I learned so much about each individual horse and their story.

I picked maximum security. Earlier in the week, I was reading about him. And he was sort of an underdog. Well, as the week progressed he became more of a favorite and obviously one well he he crossed the finish line first had him covered he did had him covered so he's never lost a race and he's never came from behind he always

gets out in an early lead and keeps it and that was the idea that he's a fast starter and if he gets the lead he probably won't lose it the most of the horses in the field were closers and and late finishers and it was a little bit longer of a race than he's ever run and that was also a question whether he would be able to sustain his speed over the entirety of the race. But, dude, he did exactly what people, you know, thought he could do. The other thing, too, is with the rain and the mud and the wet, would that neutralize his speed? That was another question.

But I'd committed to him earlier in the week, and I was going to stick with it. And by the time I got to the race, there were a lot of the people on the NBC staff that were liking that horse as well. he wins he win i say he wins the race um me and amy put money or we we put a little money on him and we were excited so excited obviously everybody knows about the disqualification he come off the rail uh exit in turn four or whatever around the last turn uh bumped into a few horses they had to cause them to lose a little momentum and they rubbing is racing i've never heard of this happening ever

this is why you married these horses are all over each other yeah how can you avoid that i know i was And to be honest, that's probably not the horse's fault. That's the jockey's fault. I don't know. I don't know. I'm ignorant. They're being steered. I know.

I'm ignorant as hell about all the rules and history. When they made the call they made, I'm like, there must be more to it than I can see and understand from a technical standpoint as to why they made that choice. If it was left up to me, I'm like, hell, I was walking on that track. That mud was deep as for me. I'm 180 pounds for a horse hauling ass around that thing. Yeah, they got to be digging 10, 12 inches into the, they got to be stuck in that mud.

How in the world they could maintain any kind of line and control in conditions like that, I would give them a little more leeway. But apparently there's some technical stuff about it that I don't understand. Do you know now? Because I still don't get it. I still don't get it. I would have never made the call they made. But, again, you know, I admit I don't know much about it.

And I was so disappointed because, not because we really didn't win a ton of money, but it wasn't about the bet we made. It was more about the history and the legacy and the prestige, the buildup. You know, I was in love with that moment. And here we are, and I'm experiencing my first derby, and it ends in controversy. And they take the win away. They take the win away from the horse. That sucks.

It's so bad. Don't you feel like, because you know, the, you know, the, like you said, they were the baddest guy walking in there. He knows he lost. He knows he got that thing ripped away from him because he was out front. I feel like they opened up a can of worms, man, and it's changed. It'll change the temperature of that event for me going forward. What do you think, Mike?

Well, that's a bad first impression. I hate that you feel that way. Yes. Right. Yeah. Well, I experienced all this through with Amy. So we did hang out in the mansion with you for a little bit when you were doing your bit. But we quickly left because it was rather quiet. up there. And some of my college friends were way down on the ground level. It was covered,

and they were having one hell of a time. They were. And just to give you some context, you know, that booth where you watched it from, it's on the track level, basically. So that would have been more or less like what this was. So you didn't see the whole track. And I say all that because all of this stuff about who won and disqual, we didn't know it. Yeah. There was so much noise going on. Everybody was screaming because so many people were betting on that horse and just, you know, mint juleps and all. It was a lot of noise. So they go by, they win.

We're all looking, who what? Anybody know who won? And then they find out it's maximum security. You've had a tough time saying that. I have. I thought it was just a mint jolips, but it's still there. No, no, no. No, I had nothing to do it.

But it's still there. That's this memorabilia. But we go, because she had bet money on that horse. You know, Mr. Security. Mr. Max. You have to say it. And so. we go in there and we're in line and I text

Dale and say hey Amy's collecting her money and that's when we learned Dale says you realize there's a protest right and we're like no everybody there's a protest Mike's like Mike takes me back he's like no wonder this line ain't moving and no wonder it's so short and then it's like maybe we should

look at the television and actually watch and see what's happening and that made all the sense in the world so like you know it was so funny being there with Amy and her friends and our friends Sarah Bundy. And we just were oblivious to all that stuff because I think that when you're down there, by the time the derby rolls around, I don't know that the race is the most important part for anybody down there. It was singing old Kentucky home. Big deal for them.

Okay? And then just if you saw a horse jockey go by, good day. Oh, yeah. You can't see a whole lot. Especially being 5'3, you're not going to see a whole lot. Amy. I got to let you go. I know you got some things to do today, but I wanted to ask you before we did.

From a female perspective, the fashion is probably the most, the coolest part for you. I know, just speak on that because that was as impressive, I guess. It's as much as part of the derby as anything else. Sure. Yeah, everyone enjoys getting dressed up, girls especially. You get to wear a hat. A hat, especially on Derby Day is the thing. I know a lot of people wearing fascinators now.

And I was. Hey, we learned what a fascinator. Guys always wore hats. I think just, you know, a specific style, like the newsboy. Because Vaughn had a pretty cool hat. Yeah, I think you can. And your hat is called a fascinator. It was a fascinator.

I didn't wear a full hat. But typically like... That name for the hat blows me away. Fascinator? It sounds like a car part now that you're saying it. If you said this is a fascinator, what is a fascinator? I would have never said hat. I didn't know that.

Yeah. Well, I mean, it's kind of a British thing. You've seen British people. wearing the fascinators. I don't have a British accent, but. But me and Dale, we learned something there. Fassinator. I can't do it. I can't do it. Can you do a British accent, Amy? Do it. I'm not going to try right now. Fascinator. Fascinator. Have you have you a fascinator? Say maximum security with a British accent. Seriously. Maximum security?

Oh, that's pretty good. Hey, I'll give it to you, man. You tried. Come on Amy. So did we pass the test as far as fashion goes? You did great. You both hit it out of the pot. I felt like I was real conservative compared to what I saw. You could have gone bigger. I don't think being on TV, you necessarily want to try that hard. Not next to ride. Mike in his efforts.

Steve Harder was dressed up pretty cool. He was. He had a lot of pink on, too, from what I can remember. White suit. Pink hat. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, everybody gets excited about the opportunity to get dressed up. It's not Halloween, but there is a look, and it's almost like you can't do too much.

The bigger the hat, the better. The bigger the everything, the better. or things you don't typically wear on a normal day. So people have fun with it. I saw people that they looked like centerpieces at a gender reveal party. Oh, my. Couldn't believe it. You're talking about feathers.

Oh, yeah. I mean, pastels. It can get crazy. Well, we're going to go back next year. Are we? Well, of course. Are you going to work next year? We are going to the Derby for the foreseeable future for many years.

Really? Oh, my gosh, honey. Honey, it was awesome. I'm so excited. I'm going to work on next year's outfit now. And lock that in. I did get, my boss Sam Flood, did say that I would be probably working next year. Damn.

I know. We'll keep going. We'll just keep going. Okay. All right. I just said good to that. You said, damn. She wants me to completely different.

Mike wants to go to. I want this man to myself sometimes. Amy wants me to be with her. No, listen. I get that. I get that. I just want him to experience things like you got to experience. Like he's never going to do that.

Her friends and all. I was with Dale, and then the rain came, and I'm like, you know what? I think I need to take care of Amy. But no, it was a good time up there, and your friends are awesome. Yeah, they are great. You know, your friends are great. It's funny, like, through the years, I've noticed this, like, you're attracted to the same types of people. Like, no matter my Sarah, my college friends, all of my friends get along, like they've known each other forever. Right. I think that says a lot about how good they are. Real quick, you were saying that something about the vantage point from the mansion, which was like, you know, probably the upper echelon of vantage points. but you said it wasn't been a good place to watch the race.

Well, so it's a great place to watch the race on the front. All of these big suites have balconies along the front. And we did go out there for a little bit. Do you remember? I remember seeing the top of everyone's hat. It was raining at that point. If we had gotten closer down to the front, you would have been able to see everything. Like the whole track, the whole race.

Yeah. But the energy up there is just not the same. Yeah. I loved being down on. We were on, in Suite Zero was NBC Sports Suite, and it was literally down on the track surface. Like in the corner? No, we were right to start and finish line.

Oh, wow. That's cool. And right on the ground, energy was incredible. I loved it. It was everything everybody, it was everything you said it would be, if you haven't ever been, I would definitely make that, put that on your bucket list to go at some point. And it's like a whole weekend that's stuff to do. It's one of those things.

It's an American pastime. It's an iconic thing that happens every year. You have to do it. It's like the Grand Canyon. It's something you need to see once in your life. And we will be going back. Amy, thanks for coming in. I don't know if I compare it to the Grand Canyon.

I would. I've been to the Grand Canyon. I'd say it's pretty similar as far as just walking up on it and seeing the canyon. I was like, damn, this thing's bigger than I ever thought it would be. I felt the same way about the derby. Grand and scale and every bit of the pageantry and the fashion and the excitement, energy. Everything was bigger than I'd imagine. Thanks for coming in today.

Thanks for having me, guys. Appreciate it. Not the last time. Yeah, we're going to get you in for a little more. family conversation or something at some point this year. And we'll talk to you. Thank you. See you later.

All right. See you later. Adios, people. All right, guys. Let's talk about ancestry. Ancestry DNA gives you so much more than just the places you're from. Ancestry connects you to the places in the world where your story started using precise geographic detail and clear-cut historical insight.

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So ancestry DNA is going to help me sort of understand the timeline of where these people traveled from. Basically, the Earnhardt came from Germany to Philadelphia, then down to Salisbury, North Carolina, and the Concord area, Canapolis. I know a little bit about that, but not this ancestry DNA kit will really help me complete that picture. And paired up, the ancestry DNA paired up with a tree. and a lot of people on Ancestry have built their tree,

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For 20% off your AncestryDNA kit. Ancestry.com slash Dale Jr. So Mike, we heard from Amy and we talked a good deal about the Derby. One of the things that I enjoyed a marvel at is on the car ride out of the derby, you decided to troll all your Twitter followers. I didn't know where you were going with this, but yeah, okay. Was that a troll job? Oh, God.

The biggest. Okay. I thought of a sort of self-deprecating humor. Like I was, because I knew we were going to be getting them calling me an idiot. So you sent out a tweet. All right, Leah, you got the tweet? I can pull it up. Yep.

It's all caps. That's what I liked about it. And Mike's, Mike knows about the disqualification, knows all about, we're on the car ride home decompressing. And Mike sends out this tweet. I won. Maximum Security for the win. I'm retiring today. All right.

So he sends that. out. And he starts giggling and he's like, I can't wait to read the responses. And so, and maybe a lot of people, I'll give them a credit. Maybe half of them knew it was a troll job and we're install right through it. Then he sends out another tweet. His next tweet was, I knew maximum security had it all the way. No doubts. Can't wait to get my money. Why ain't this line moving? Man. And now we're at the airport already. I was like, so my mind don't even go to places like that. Like, oh, I'm going to screw with everybody. I'm glad your

mind doesn't go there. I don't know. Yeah, I'm glad that. I was jealous, though. That was so good. Oh, you thought that? Yes. That was awesome. And then he added another one. Once this line moves... Hold on. We were back in Moresville at this point. Shut up, really? No, no, we really were. I did this after we landed.

Once this line moves, I'm about to be so rich with my winning maximum security bet that I went ahead and purchased tickets to every Garth Brooks concert for the rest of the year. hashtag all I do is win Perfect I should still send them out all week

No I don't know So okay so That didn't embarrass you that I did that No I loved it I mean that sense of humor Is that's a rare That's a

That's a place you went with that I mean I don't know I liked it because I was mad I was mad at the result And the disqualification That gave you something to laugh at I got you Leah the first tweet

The one we were in the car ride to the airport. It got a lot of responses. Oh, 137 responses. Really? And most of them did not think I was joking. Hold your horses. What were some other ones? I'd hold those retirement papers. You realize now NASCAR has to decue a driver over the qualifying BS. Oh, that's right. A lot of people were equating it to NASCAR finishes. Yeah. Well, we would have found out on Tuesday. Rubbin is racing, which is the same thing that Amy said. The pigeon one is. I mean, there's So many gifts in here. I mean, it's just, didn't pass post-race inspection.

It didn't clear the templates. I loved it. It was one of your finer moments on social media. And I love seeing you have a good time. Love seeing you pick on folks. You know what we did? Not take yourself or the Internet too seriously. Yeah, I mean, that's where you got to be because you know what the marketplace of the Internet

of Marketplace, whatever I'm trying to say. We didn't ask Amy about the fact that she left her phone in that car. She did. I did those tweets from. Yeah. Yeah, we do have the phone. And, yeah, Amy lost her phone on the left, and basically left in a rental car, but, or the car service. But she's good, man, we're going to get the phone back.

Well, this is the thing about it. The guy was super nice. Most people, and Dale said this, the person that lost their phone that he found on the rail, you know, and it affected Dale to the point. He's like, because, man, you know somebody when they lose their phone, that's going to affect their day. Except one person, Amy. I don't think she much cares that she had lost her phone. I mean, like, it did not bother her at all. She laughed.

We didn't know that she was missing. missing her phone until we'd already landed back in North Carolina. So she went from the car. That's an hour, hour and a half without her phone, didn't even realize it. Well, if you need to know, this is the second time in this week. In this week, she's lost it. Really? Yeah.

She loses the thing all the time. That isn't saying that she is forgetful or loses many things. It's just that she, like you, not taking the Internet very seriously, doesn't take her phone very seriously. Whereas my phone is everything. I can't be without it. I need it all the time. Everything I know and have is on it.

And for her, it's like, eh, whatever. I don't have my phone. I'm still going about my day, doing my things. I'm kind of jealous, actually. I know. I mentioned that as a commendable thing. She laughed when she realized that she didn't have her phone. We were all sort of wigging out for her.

The other day, yeah, so the other day, we took a ride on the golf cart around the property, and one of the stops, we stopped at the dirty dome to, I was changing the steering wheel. on this car. But we'll talk about that. I was, Amy was playing with the I let the basketball gym and bouncing the basketball and took a couple pictures and laid their phone down and left it. We went about and riding around the rest of the property and then later that

day she's like, I'm going to go to the grocery store. It's hours later. And I was like, okay, I'm going with you. We're piling into the car and she's like, I ain't got my phone. I'm like, where is it? She's like, I ain't got it. I'm like, let's go find it. We go look all over the house. Can't find it. She's like, well, I'm still going to go to the grocery store. I'm like, I ain't going. I'm looking at this phone. We've got to find this phone. I cannot go to the grocery store.

I can't have fun at the grocery store thinking about this missing phone. And so I stayed back and retraced our steps on the golf cart while she was gone. She's like, whatever. Go do that. I'm going to the grocery store.

And I'm like panicking and it ain't my damn phone. I know, right? So I find it and I'm like, yes! And I can't wait until she gets home. She's going to be so happy. We get home.

I'm like, hey, man, find your phone. She's like, cool. All right, whatever. And then... Wait a minute. I'm a hero here. Wait, wait, wait. She has an iPad Mini.

Everything on it, Samler, it's a copy of her phone, right? Texting, everything's there. She loses her phone for the Kentucky Derby. We're home. I'm like, hey, you got your iPad Mini. Anything you need to do, you can do it right here. Your phone will be here Tuesday. You're good.

I don't need that thing. I'm signed out. And it ain't even mine anymore as far as I'm concerned. Put it in the cabinet with all the old used electronics. I'm like, Amy, God, I don't know how she has that mentality to do that, but it's awesome. Yeah, no, that was cool. It was funny. But you know, the moment, so Dale has that find your phone feature, as most people do with an iPhone.

And so there was a moment we were back in North Carolina, and we were kind of looking through the airplane trying to find the phone. And Dale pulls up that find your phone feature. And he saw where the phone was. And it was still in a, it was like in a. Louisville. Yeah, it was still in a parking lot in the, wherever the car was. And we could see exactly where it was. That's cool.

Yeah. Yeah. But even with that knowledge. they still thought, maybe it's in the plane. We'll go look again one more time. I'm like, no, y'all. I see it right here on my phone.

Mike's like, I don't know, man, maybe it's in the plane. It could be in the plane. I know. You were. No, no, it's true. Yes. Yeah. And that's pretty funny.

Yeah. He has no explanation. Yeah, I don't. He's just now learning about this technology, man. Right. I was still just kind of like reeling on my tweet. I didn't know this phone and all this stuff. He's drumming up the next one.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was trying to think about what musician am I going to put in this next week? All right. One of the things that I was reading about on social media with our followers for the Dale Jr. download is a lot of people want us to come up with a word to instigate a drinking game. Oh, really?

Yeah. So basically, we're not going to pick that word, all right? No. If you follow Dirtymo Media on Twitter, please at Dirtymo Media on Twitter and hashtag it, DJD. Who else is going to use that hashtag? We'll know exactly. D.J.D. Word. Is that what we're doing?

It's a word. Hashtag D.J.D. Word. And let us know what the drinking word should be for our show. You guys can determine what it is, and that'll be the word. And we'll make sure to remind you every show. How many drinks? What word? That's true.

You know how this makes... So when you hear the word, you drink? So do we need a drink? No. No, not us. I mean, you can if you want, Mike. I think it'll be more fun if we did. It's totally okay.

We're okay if you want to drink during the show. We don't know when people are listening to this show. Even though we do it in the mornings, we don't know when people are listening to it. So we're going to have a word for all the drinkers out there that will appreciate that. Leah, we all had a great time this weekend. Leah, you got another dog? Not another dog. I got my dog.

I have a dog with my family in Illinois, but he's a farm dog. Oh, he's been living up there. Yeah, he's a farm dog. You went and rescued your dog. Well, I didn't. She didn't rescue this dog. What happened? I went and picked him out.

What? Breeders. She basically, like, bred a horse. No, I'm saying, like, you went to get your dog. Yeah, so Friday afternoon. You rescued him from the north. No, no, no. No, no.

No, that's not what happened. No, no, no. I got a new dog. Like, my, I have a seven-and-a-half-week-old puppy. So you did get a dog. I did get a dog. That's what I said. You went and got a dog.

Yeah, I started this question asking if you got a new dog. And then you convinced me that, no, it's an old family dog. I went, I went up there back to the old homestead and got my dog. that's been living there. It's not like you dump the other dog, so it is another dog. Straight me out. I don't get to see the other dog as much. So how many damn dogs are in this story?

I'm confused. Yeah. How about a drinking game anytime we get confused about stuff? About my dog? Yeah. Yeah, so I have a seven-and-a-half-week-old miniature Australian Shepherd poodle mix. His name is Hank. Hank the cow dog.

He's amazing. I'm terribly worried about him right now. This is the longest I've left him. You know, I mean, I got him Friday. Oh, he's in your apartment. apartment. Yeah. Or house. Yeah. So he could be destroying it. Well, he's in his kennel.

Oh, okay. So you're worried about him being worried. Yes. I mean, he's a bit of a cryer. He's a baby. Okay. So. Oh, yeah. Seven months? Seven weeks. Seven weeks. Oh, my gosh. She's probably freaking out. I know. Are you going to work all day? Hell no, she's not. She's going to go three times to probably. Yeah. As soon as we're done to. How close is home? Ten minutes. Oh, okay. Check on him all you need to.

As soon as we're done here, I'm going to run a moment check on. Once he's three months, you have to scale it back. Okay. But hold up. I want this dog to come visit me while I'm editing the show every once in a while, though. Hey, listen. Yeah, bring your dog to work. Jonathan Davis.

Isn't there bring your dog to work day? Fridays. There you go. It's a zoo around here on Friday. Jonathan Davis showed us that app where you can actually feed your dog from wherever you are. A verbo. Yeah, listen to her. She'll explain it.

Ferbo. So I do it with my dog in Illinois. It's a camera and it has treats. It looks like a treat chart, but it has a camera in it. So I just go on my old Ferbo app. And you can call for them. I say, Ozzy, you want a treat. So you talk to your dog.

I talk to my dog. I throw him a treat. He comes and, you know. Through your phone. Through my phone. Isn't that amazing? Have you ever seen that, Dale? Nope.

I mean, you can look at, talk to and feed your dog a treat. Yeah. From wherever you are. Yeah. So I assume you'll do that, right? With this dog, Hank. I mean, Hank's only 10 minutes down the road, so I don't really need that. But to see my dog in Illinois at my parents' house, I need that.

But I was FaceTiming him over the weekend, and he could hear me talking to my new puppy, and he was not happy. My goodness. He might have been all jealous. It's because you're cheating on your original dog. I know. My OG. All right. What else we got in this open segment?

A lot of chatter on social media about the Vortex theory. DW would be glad we brought this up, but he believes that. in the vortex theory, which is basically the fact that if cars are on the racetrack, if there's rain in the area, the fact that the cars, the heat that the cars are creating and moving and going around in that circle create enough of an effect on the weather

that will hold the rain off. It could be raining all around the racetrack, but it will not rain if there's cars on track racing at that particular area. When the cars stop, the rain will start. We have seen there be a threat of weather in a lot of races over the years

and as soon as the race is over, boom, it starts pouring. And DW swears that it's a vortex theory. I really don't know if he's just trolling everybody and truly believes it, but he talks about it all the time. You believe it? I don't. I don't believe it. Mike?

This would be one of those categories of I couldn't care less, but I will say that he's not the only one that believes it. Mark Martin believes it. Well, Mark Martin believes it. My father-in-law believes that he has a farm, and he thinks the interstate prevents them from getting rain when they should be getting rain. Now, he really does. And I mean, I'll tell you, he'll,

there ain't nothing you're going to change his mind. So I mean, I don't think that DW is exclusive to that line of thinking. I believe it. Martin believes it to do enough to decrease low-line fog. But he's not quite sure about rain because he says rain comes from so high in the atmosphere that it's not possible. But I think DW just loves the fact that even people are talking about it. Jeff Gluck was defiant about the notion of the Vortex theory on Twitter. And I don't think Regan Smith believes it either.

But there's some people that do. I think it's 50-50. I believe in that more than I believe in Santa Claus or Easter Penny. I'm telling you. The vortex theory works. I made a joke about Santa Claus not being real on the internet. Damn, did I get burnt. I got a burn on that one, yeah.

I guess my question on this is that how the people that are defending the vortex theory, like the DWs and whatnot, I mean, how do they make an argument considering the race was rained out? But I've seen it. Well, there wasn't the cars couldn't get going. But all weekend they had delays. They had weekend. Oh, so you're saying that they never. we're on the track.

Not Sunday. No, no, I'm talking about all weekend, though. Friday, was it not raining? Basically, I think DW thinks that if the cars can get out there and get going enough to get the heat built up into the surface, the rain will not. No matter what rain moves in, it will not rain. But we've seen races get halted for rain many, many times. You ever been in the pool and done that deal where you and your friends run around in a circle and you get the whirlpool going as you're when you're a kid? It's the same damn thing with air.

What? No. It's the same thing with air. No. I think, see, I'm, hey, I might be a minority, I believe it. Cars may be doing that at 20 feet, but no higher. You don't think that air moves up? No.

Well, heat rises. Heat rises, that's for sure. We do know that. That is undisputable. But that's about as far as I know about the rest of that. Where it goes from there. I'm a believer. I've seen it too many times.

All right, we've got a believer in here. All right, before we move on, I got a buddy of mine coming in the door. Josh Berry, he's a big winner this weekend. Speedway. Josh Barry, he's got his check. He's got his trophy. Oh, love this. You're bringing it.

You're going to let us have it. Oh, man, that's cool. Come on in. Hold on. Let me help you out. That trophy's awesome. Look at that. Damn.

Have a seat, Josh. Put on them earphones. Appreciate you coming in late notice. I just basically text you a minute ago. Yeah. You came on over here, so thank you. And the reason you're here is because you won. You won it.

Ace this past weekend. You've never won't pretty much everywhere. How many wins you got on the cars tour? This was a 15. one. How many you got in your career? About 52 or three now?

Yeah. And you said it in your interview post-race. You've been here for 10 years? Just about. He gets a watch. I think it's... Yeah, I said 10, but I think it's actually 9. It's coming.

Mom passed away a couple weeks ago, and you dedicated the win to her. Thank you. I know it was emotional for you. You mentioned it in your post-race interview, how when you came here from Nashville, you actually live with them, mom and Willie, for a few months. Yeah, no, I do. I remember it like yesterday. I mean, thinking back on it now, now that I'm older, I think how crazy it was, really. Right. I mean, just them allowing me to live there,

they're probably like, who the hell is this guy? I can only imagine the conversation when you called them, texted them, say, hey, I've got this girl that's going to live for a couple months. I'm sure Brendan might have had an opinion about that. Yeah, I would say definitely, definitely. It was good for you because, I mean, you weren't crazy or wild or anything like that as a younger kid, but, you know, I think it kind of helped you become part of the family very quickly to have that, have that relationship with them and have that guidance from them. But, man, I've worked, the one thing I love about you is that we've had late models for a long time. We've been in racing for a while.

We ran in a Pro Cup series. We obviously have the Xfinity cars and all that. But we've never had that success in the late models that I was hoping that we would have. And I didn't as a driver. and that made me, that's what made winning in the late model series so important and so special to me is because I know how hard it is and I never attained it. I never attained that kind of success as a driver or as an owner until we got to working together. And the car that you had this weekend at Ace, to me, you can speak on it because you drove it.

But to me, I think might have been compared to the field the best car that you've ever had. It was really good We took a little bit different approach That place honestly was Pretty similar to Martinsville In a weird way And we kind of took what we learned there last year And applied it to this

On a little bit, you know Some different things And we worked on some long runs in practice And felt like we were pretty good We didn't feel like we were the fastest car But we felt like You know once it got going to be pretty good And then third life of the race were turned around

And we're like all right then So how did that happen? A couple of them in front of me just kind of got together. You fight for the bottom so bad. The car in front of me was just trying to get down and kind of cut the guy off. We stacked up in the car behind me, got into me, and it caused a chain reaction there. There was about two or three of us ended up turned around.

So you had to go to the back of the field and start of the race. And where did you start, by the way? Eighth. Okay, so you start eighth, get lapped up in a wreck on lap three. And then what happened? I was going to ask the same question where you started. So you go to the back of the field after the spinout, and you drove all the way back up into the top five, right?

Yep. And then you got another accident. No, we made it to about 10th and gotten another wreck. On a restart. Yeah, but it really didn't. We didn't really actually go to the back again. I thought you were done when that happened on that restart. Guy jumped over your right rear tire.

Typically, that can do's pretty bad damage to the quarter panel and not only the cosmetically, but hurt the suspension of the car. Did it change the way the car drove at all? All this fram and bamming spinning out getting ran into, the car never changed. No, the first hit, we really didn't hit anything. The second time it, it damaged the quarter of the car. border panel, but it really wasn't that bad. It just kind of broke it, but luckily,

it didn't really get the tire. I figured, I mean, that's what we were worried about was that we were going to have a tire going down or something. When you spun out earlier in the race, that hurt those set of tires at all none. Wow. It's crazy. It's so crazy.

If I lost, I guess I could have blamed that. Right. You were preparing, right. So tell us about the rest of the race. I mean, you drove up to the front and really just kind of looked like the, you look like you're in a class of your own. Yeah, the, you know,

After the spinout, I think we were 18th or 20, that's something like that. And we were just kind of talking amongst ourselves. We were like, we just got to be patient because it's the tracks of boring and there's going to be wrecks. And we just kind of started picking them off one at a time. And before we knew it, I think by lap 40, we were like six or seventh. And then a couple laps later, we're like fifth. And then once we got to the top five, we're like, all right, we kind of took our time a little

bit from there and just tried to just pick them off. And really, it was pretty important there to kind of stay in an odd position because the bottom was good on the restart so we kind of tried to do that yeah yeah and uh you know we ended up getting third and and then i was actually pressuring the leader pretty good and then we had a caution i was trying to get the lead and then i got him on the next restart which was about 35 to go and i think the uh the one thing that i love about late model racing and and i've i've hassle you to death about this is the tire conservation you know we don't have a ton of tire conservation conservation in the top three series. Those are bulletproof, good years, and you just haul ass and run qualifying laps every

lap, fast as you can go. And in the late mile series, you guys have to have to take care of your tires. I love that being part of the process. I love that being a thing that not everybody's good at or a thing that maybe you can use your advantage. And so tell me about like the process of doing that and I guess in this race this weekend. When you get spun out and you go to the back, I thought, At that time, I'm like, well, he's going to have to use his car up a little bit more than he probably wants to to try to work his way back to the front. So how do you conserve yet get yourself toward the front? You know those guys up front aren't having to do that. They're just kind of taking care of their tires, riding wherever they want to be, waiting on that end.

Were you worried about using up some of your car and your tires and what you would have left at the end? Yeah, for sure. I think when it initially happened, you know, we actually discussed on whether we should just try to run through the field and just get back up front or if we should actually kind of hang out back there for a little bit and try to use it to save and then try to make a run later in the race. But the place really didn't wear tires real bad. And track position was so important. And we need to just get up front with some better cars, really.

So we just kind of decided to go with it. But, I mean, you see it from what you watch. I mean, that's the hardest part, you know, because you know a lot of the places you know you need to give up track position to save your tires. But then a lot of times it puts you in some bad situations. Yeah, when y'all go to race at Burdell Beach, you literally are two seconds off what your car's potential pace is.

trying to save tires, right? Yeah. And now it's to the point where it's, everyone does it. And it almost to me has a feel like that race specifically, it almost reminds me of like a plate race or something. Like I'm more mentally exhausted after a race at Myrtle Beach than anywhere we go because we're constantly on top of each other. You're constantly looking ahead of you.

I mean, I imagine it would be like a plate race or something because you're watching what's happening in front of you more than what you're doing really because everyone's just so, you're just worried about somebody checking up and you piling into them or something. You know, it's, it's, uh, everywhere is a little different, but they, all of them, I mean, the majority of the places we run around here, especially in North Carolina, are pretty hard on the tires.

Really? That's so, I love that, man. I miss that, you know, about, I miss that a little bit about cup racing, uh, is the tire conservation part of it. But I think, I think it's a lot to do with the buy supply as well, but great job by you, man. Um, he was, where. He was pumped. He was texting everybody.

I was. He knows that. I text a shit out of him where the wins are losing. Is that right? Yeah. What, what, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, How many text a week do you get from Dale? It's all on race day.

Yeah, most of it's on race day. One in particular, I can think of I wasn't too happy to get. Yeah. We've had, but, yeah. Are you going to tell us what it is? Well, what, at the first race at Southern National, we took off and led the majority of it, and I got knocked out of the last lap. Yeah.

Led, like, what, 145 of 150 or whatever, and lost it on the last lap, and he's texting me, right? Right, as soon as I get out of the car, I look at my phone, and it's, what the hell are you doing? Blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, come on, man. Do you remember doing that? Yeah. Okay.

I was like, why didn't you have more tire? What did you do? What was the deal? What would you do different? And I just, you know, I'm sitting, well, this is the thing. Like, I'm so, I just enjoy our late model program. And I enjoy what Josh does and I love his success. And I want to win.

And I want to run every race we can run because I know we got a shot at winning every one of them. And so I'm just always inquisitive about where he's, his heads at and not only on what you know what he's doing in that particular race but like his thought on the season and what his how he's processing and what the years because he the thing about their deal is he's going to run the cars tour and if I'm incorrect straightening me out he's got the cars tour and he's got some big races he wants to run but it's a little fluid you know he can change his mind or make or add things to the schedule or take things away and and and so i'm i constantly kind of want to know where his head's at and what he's thinking about and i mean just i'm just some sort of

blown. I mean, we've been winning races for several years now, but it still hasn't it sunk in yet, I guess. Well, but now you can watch most all of them, can't you? Exactly. Exactly. That's one of the big difference. Now he can watch you. That's what I was going to say. And I love the fact of how engaged he is now, because I would say that me and you are

probably closer than we've ever been, because, I mean, every week he's texted me, you watch, you know, we're talking about the races and talking about what we do. And I think me and him are probably even closer on the same page of where we're at with our program than we were because, I mean, before he was always gone racing. I mean, now he's able to sit down and watch it and understand it a little better and see, you know, like I said, see a little bit of from what, you know, my side of things, you know.

Right. And the first, he's been there 10 years. We've been racing for a long time in the last several years. I've basically gotten all information from LW. LW is a big proponent of the program early. We're actually, we keep the cars at LW shop over by the drag strip. So LW has been involved heavily with Josh. and the program for a long, long time.

And for many years, a lot of times wouldn't even text Josh. I would just talk to LW or LW would tell me how things were going. We had two cars that race. We got Adam Limpke this year in our other car. And so we're just all the time asking ideas on, you know, I'm just all the time talking to LW mainly. But this year I've been more with Josh. As Josh gets older, he just got married, going to be building his family.

I'd like to, you know, be available to him for advice on that or whatever. He's got LW and he goes to him quite a bit and he's got a lot of other friends. But I don't know. I just, I got more time on my hands, an opportunity to be more involved, be more inquisitive. And I've told him I'm going to go to some races this year. I haven't made good on that promise yet. But I hope I'll be able to get to a few. And actually, driving one.

I talked to Amy about it and she's like, you ain't running no late models. Them kids will spin you out on purpose. And I was told her, I said, well, they go to Myrtle Beach and they run two seconds off the pace for on purpose. It's like, you can't crash. And she's like, all right, maybe you can go there because I used to race there all the time. But don't, we're going to, you can't tell her that it's one of the toughest races you run all year. She'll not let me run it. There you go.

But I would say, we went on to where she won't listen to the podcast. But being that she was on it, she might actually listen to this one. Well, man, Adam Limpke, we talked about him. He's the new guy this year. How's he doing? He's doing well. Yeah. I mean, you know, he's from the West.

Yeah, he's from the West Coast. And I feel pretty sure that the racing is a little bit different. especially in that cars tour from what he's used to. So he's adjusting to that a little bit. I mean, it's just a little more, just more difficult, really, is the main thing. But he's already starting to show improvement. I mean, the last couple finishes in the tour have been pretty good for, you know, just about learning.

I mean, you just got to make laps finish the races and build on it. Good partners are hard to come by in the sport, especially down at the late model series. You got a great one? Yeah, for sure. Mark Thomas with all things automotive. He's kind of like a family friend of Brian Schaefer that works for us. and they've been tight for years, and he's come on board, and he loves it.

I mean, he watches the races. I mean, I can't thank him enough for everything he's doing for us, really. I mean, it's tough at that level to find sponsorship, and he just loves the short track race, and he loves being able to watch the races on the broadcast like you do. And it just, like I said, after every race, he's, you two are probably the first two texts we get. That's awesome. He texts me again this morning and was all excited about our winning still, so it's been a lot of fun. It's just been, I feel very fortunate to be able to do this for as long as I.

have you know I said like nine years we've been doing this yeah yeah for sure but it's it fans are going to want to know too and I hear this a lot of times where's your next race next race is motor mile on the May 18th car store race a lot of fans are going to and it's going to pick right back up after they hear this podcast your uh opportunities beyond late model stocks we've got we've had opportunities to run you in Xfinity series there's been a few truck races that you've created opportunities for yourself. Is there anything going down right now? Not really. No. But it seems like whenever something doesn't, you know, I think it's kind of dead, then, you know, something comes up. Right. It's just, it's like you said, I mean, we've worked

hard to create opportunities here. It's just, it just gets harder and harder. And I think with what I do, short track racing as an involved as I am with the day-to-day operations of our team, it makes it hard to go out and find stuff. Search opportunities. I mean, because I, because I think that's the hardest part is because I'm just such a, just so Saturday night short track race minded, you know, just I'm always looking to the next race. I'm always like, what do I need to do the car? What do we got to fix? So it just makes it hard to really find the opportunities. Well, we're not done trying. We'll always keep trying to find ways to get you those opportunities. Beyond that, though, you're starting

a little bit of a new, I would consider it new occupation, and that's a bit of a driver coach. And so who you've been working with there? I've been working with Sam A or some on that. He drove for us last year in the late model, and he's made a step to ARCA and K&N with GMS. So I've been going along with them some when I have some time to test in a couple of his races, and he's honestly starting to run well enough where I'm not sure he's going to need me much longer. Maybe you're helping him run well. I would like to think so.

I'd like to think so, yeah. He had a tough one at South Boston. I saw a part of that. He had the race one, had a caution right at the end, like two or three to go, and then he got knocked out of the way on the restart and lost it. Those are tough ones to lose for sure. A lot of stories coming out of South Boston this year, hasn't there been? It's just short track racing.

What you're hearing out of South Boston has happening everywhere on every Saturday night. Well, Josh, thanks for coming in. Appreciate it. We're so proud of you, buddy. Big old trophy. Good luck at Motor Mile coming up May 18th. And we'll definitely, if we're not there, we'll be tuning in. Is there a way to watch that one?

Same deal, the Car store TV. Car store TV. May 18th. See if Josh can, you've got some great success at Motor Miles. See if you can make it two in a row. Zipper, zip recruiter. Zippercruiter. Maxicum, Samarity.

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and we've had a great show. So we got hopefully got some great questions today for the rest of the show. Let's go. Yeah, let's kick it off. We actually asked our fans this yesterday, and I want to hear your take on it with the Dover race being rained out. I'm betting some people are playing hooky today to stay home and watch it. So do you have a tail playing hooky?

Yeah, actually, actually I did. My sister used to skip school all the time. She had great grades, but skipped high school all the time. One time I was in class, and they called me to the principal's office. I go to the principal, and they're like, hey, somebody's out front, needs to see you, your sister. I'm like, my sister, she's not in school. Like, I'm in school. She's not here.

I go out, and she's at the front of the school. Skipping school and came by school. I don't even remember why she needed to tell me something. Oh, she had a car accident, and she's like driving a different car. I walk over there. I'm like, why you got this car? She's like, I ran in the back of somebody. And I went to a dealership, and they gave me this car while mine's getting fixed.

and she was skipping school and drove to the school and called me out of class. To tell you. Wait a minute. I know, right? So she went to the scene of crime. Exactly. Okay, I get it. That's pretty bold.

Yeah. So that was one instance, and maybe she can, you know, we'll have her on the show to tell her side of that because there's got to be more to it. You got to be. But yeah, she skipped school, got in a school. got in a car accident, came to the school to tell me about it because she's like, what do I do? And I'm like, well, you don't need to be here.

I don't know much, but I know that. Yeah. And so, but I, she, that, she didn't encourage me. That encouraged me. Oh, Kelly's skipping. I'm a skip. So, me and my buddies are like,

dude, let's skip school. We ain't never done that. Where are we going to go? Well, we're in Moorsville. So we're going to go up to Statesville and go to the mall in Statesville. and we'll just hang out up there. Nobody will know, right?

We're up there hanging out in the mall. We're walking around, eating chick-fil-A and buying CDs and doing what you do. This is like 1991, 92. And there was some traffic cones. They were doing some work on the parking lot or something, and I was like, man, I want one of them cones. My buddy's like, yeah, we should steal a cone. So we're driving.

Oh, my God. Oh, we're like, it's a cone, right? Not the barrel. So I'm like, all right, here's how we're going to do it. I'm going to drive by the cone. You're going to reach out the truck window. You're going to reach it. It's a single cab.

Single cab truck. You're going to grab it and just hinge it into the bed of the truck. Nobody's ever going to see a thing. He timed. He did it perfectly, just as we designed, right? I go home. I got this cone. I'm like, oh, shit.

What am I going to do with this cone now? Like, where am I going to put it? Dad's going to know, I stole it. He's going to know what he's going to be. It's not like, you know, you know, you know, can't put it. a stop sign in your room and not get asked how that got there. So I got this cone and there's an empty lot next to our house. And there's a bunch of pine needles lining this empty lot, a bunch of pine trees.

And so I buried the cone, I thought. In these pine needles, all right, under these trees. A couple days go by, I'm like, I don't know what to do with the cone. It's just going to stay there. All right. Dad comes over and he goes, hey, come here. And he walks me out there and we're walking to. toward that damn

I know it. I know it. Like I'm walking toward it. Everybody's been in this situation with their dad where you done something wrong, you broke something, you done something,

and he's walking you to it and he ain't saying a word. And you know where you're going. You're wondering what's going to happen when you get there. I'm feeling a little of the nerves right now. So we're walking up through there

and he points and that thing's a little bit uncovered. And he saw the orange. And he's like, what's this? You put this here, didn't you? I was like, yeah.

And now I'm thinking, how in the hell do I tell the story without getting, knowing that I'm playing hooky, right? Yeah, you could have thought, it's hard to think of that on the fly for sure. Hell yeah. And your dad, they know you're lying. Yeah. Right. So I got in trouble for stealing the cone.

He's like, I didn't tell him that I was playing hooky. He made me return the cone. That was dad's thing. So you were able to get out of that just for the basically. I did not get in trouble for playing hooky, but I had to physically take the cone back. Yeah. That's not a big deal, though.

I know. That's fine. I thought my ass was in trouble. Here's what I'm wondering. How many, just ballpark, how many acres does your dad have at this point? This is on the lake, so we're in a two-acre, two-acre lot. Okay. And next to us is a two-acre empty lot.

Gotcha. Which is now built. Still, four acres, the high, you couldn't hide that cone any better. I don't know. It was in the one place where you thought he'd never look. Yeah. I don't know how he's. No, no.

I'm thinking more of how impressive it is that there ain't a spot on his land. You're going to be a lot. able to do something like that. Honestly, now that I think about it, if he stands on the, if he goes, his house, his bedroom is on the second floor and it was a balcony on the back. And if he goes out that balcony, he's got a perfect vantage point to see that thing. Especially orange sitting out in the woods. Somehow, it could become uncovered.

But yeah, I played a little hooky. We had some people chime in on Twitter over the weekend. And Kevin White said he and his buddy cut class and went to breakfast. They ran into his buddy's dad who was supposed to be at work. When his dad confronted them, he said, aren't you supposed to be at school? And his buddy said, aren't you supposed to be at work? And his dad replied, I won't tell mom if you don't. That's nice.

I thought that was really good. And then Jen, she took her youngest son to qualifying at Richmond and didn't tell her oldest son. And when they got home, he was waiting at the door to say, I saw you guys on TV. Oh, damn. Busted. Wow. Hey, real quick, that reminds me. I cut school one time, and when you mentioned that about your father, it made me think of this.

And I was walking down this big hill from my high school with my buddy Mike Durley. And we're like, oh, man, we're cool. We're going to go get some pizza, play some video games, and we come down this hill. And I see my father's red and white pickup truck coming up the hill. And I'm like, there was nowhere to go. He stopped, turned around. Where are you boys going? I'm like, uh, hop in, I'll take you there.

So he took us there. I knew he let us go and cut school, but I knew when I got home, I was in big trouble. Hey, you know what this reminds me? Remember the fella from Canada that showed up here to watch us tape at Dale Jr. download and you let him in?

And you were so, he was from Canada and he drove all the way down here. And you were taking pictures with him and you were doing this. And on your phone, not for him, but for you, you were just enamored by it. And then the guy comes to him and he goes, hey, what do you think

Dale Jr. is going to do with those photos? And I said, if I know him, he's already posted it. And he goes, if y'all could hold off posting that because my work doesn't know I'm down here I caught in sick that's awesome yeah that is great uh we had a lot of people talk about uh john force last week and we got a question uh from amber after having john force on have you ever wanted to race in an in aty tony funny car or any other type of drag car i uh you know i think i've always you're always curious as to

what other cars drive like and and like um certainly curious as to what the launch feels like. Oh, yeah. I was thinking about that at Kentucky Derby. I'm like, I never really put my mind to it. But imagine when the gate is, when the horse takes off, like hanging on, not being left in the gate. Right.

Like that probably takes some pretty strong concentration, not to just be jerked right off the back of that horse. Because then things just go. And I imagine being thrown back into that seat, the G-forces that those guys' experience, has got to be incredible. I mean, by time you realize what's going on and you kind of catch up to what's happening, it's time to pull the shoot and it's over with. I'd have to do it many times to really get an appreciation for it, I think.

Just like when you go to Talladega or somewhere, Bristol, one of those more wild experiences, it takes a lot of laps before things slow down and you go, oh, man, this is cool. You know, you're kind of way behind and mentally and physically way behind what's happening for a while before you appreciate exactly how cool it is. David wants to know, what's your favorite Chevy model that they've made throughout the years, and do you have a favorite year? My favorite Chevrolet is the Laguna, and I got a 76 Blue Laguna. I love that car.

That car had a lot of great success in the Cup Series for Cal Yardboro. Actually, you won a couple championships with it. NASCAR outlawed the Laguna because it's superior downforce and arrow. I didn't know that. Yeah. They would not allow that car after 70. I believe the Laguna went away because it was just too good, I guess.

If you look at the nose of that car versus maybe the Oles Cutlass and... Slant. Yeah, it probably just had better downforce and so forth. It wasn't a great super speedway car, but it was also on the mile and a half and the short tracks and so forth. And I like the way it looks.

I just love the... From 75 to 1980, I love those big cars. I got Oles 442 and 77 and a 76 Laguna. JJ Durham says he met you several years ago near Bristol when you and your buddies brought your RC cars and played on our track made like BMS. Do you still mess with the RC stuff much?

That's funny, man. I have such anxiety over the piles of boxes and parts and pieces of RC stuff that I still have. I remember going over to that track near Bristol and playing at that particular time, me, Tony Senior, Tony Jr., we were all kind of into it, and we would go to test at Greenville Pickens and then we'd go over to the RC track

right there next to the racetrack and play. We had my own, I built an RC car track at my house that we ran at a lot. Tony Senior and then would come over. We got into the quarter scales at one time. I've got quarter scale chassis parts, bent parts, broke parts, still good parts. I got half cars that we've torn apart

trying to put things, you know, put other cars together and fix bent suspension. I've got boxes and boxes of RC cars that I never ever got put together. And we did, I got, I got a battery, electric, I got gas. I guess my pride and joy. I've got three cars that Leonard Wood built. Leonard Wood builds 10th scales and 12th scales that are amazing.

Really? Amazing, amazing pieces of machinery, man. I mean, they are complex. Leonard Wood of the Wood brothers can build the hell out of an RC car, independent suspension and all that. And he built, he builds gas-powered ones primarily. And he built, he built me two a couple years ago, and I have them put up. They'll never run a lap.

They'll never fire. I'll keep them, one's got an orange, bright orange body on it, and the other's a clear body that I'll never paint. And I'll keep them forever. I want to see that. Yeah. So I've had one that I've ran of his that he built for a long time, but those two he made for me and I'll never use them.

He built him for me to race, but I just being who he is in the history of the Wood Brothers, I'll keep that forever. This question is actually from Mike Davis. Hashtag, Ask Mike Davis from Colby. I thought you were retiring after the Kentucky Derby. You know what? That's funny. We actually talk about this on the show, so I'm not going to go elaborate on any of that.

Is that a teeth joke? I'll stop. I was wondering. That blows my mind. How did we go that whole day at the Kentucky Derby without you hitting me up? I was wondering if you ran into your family were there. Oh, stop. No, I was thinking, is he related to John Forst?

Because I watched the NBC show, and you guys both have the most perfect bridge of teeth. It was kind of uncanny like you're related. John Forst does? Yeah. There you go. Maybe some of those horses were a little jealous when they saw Mike Beeman up there in the grandstand. That's why he drifted wide. Yeah, that's why he drifted wide.

You guys distracted by my face. Oh, my God. Can I just say something real quick? Yeah. There's news on this right now. Oh? There's news right now. On what?

The owner of Mexican's... Mexico... Mexico. He's not been able to say that word. I've not been able to say this all week. I'm putting that in every ad read he's ever going to use maximum. The winner of Maximum Security owner Gary West told today show he ain't running the horse in the Preetness. Oh, wow.

West is worth $1.1 billion, so Preakness money and a further loss in the horse's stud fees is immaterial. And he's apparently going on and not holding back. Yeah, he's laying the lumber right there. So there's some news on that horse that he has. I would say this, you know, regardless of what he did in the preakness, I bet his stud fees are pretty set. I mean, the success there is made no matter whether he raced again or not. I don't know that he could improve the stud fees.

I mean, if you could, I'm sure. I mean, if you win one of those triple crown races, I can't talk now. I think that what he did in the derby is enough for him to have a kick-ass. Can you imagine the build-up, though, to the preakness and to the Belmont Stakes if he's in that race? I mean, that would have been fun just from a new cycle. But anyways, we're such horse-racing experts now. Yeah, all of a sudden, we're all horse-racing experts. I didn't even go.

Let's just remember. This is today. And the guy's a competitor, and he knows his team and his horses and his trainers are, too, and their opinions could change. Of course. So there you go. I hope that he would race, and you know if he did, he would be a huge, fan favorite. Oh yeah. I'm rooting for him. Yeah. This is a good question from Mike. Mike Fitch.

Would it be possible to do a weekend at Charlotte using three different tracks to help, maybe help attendance, thinking trucks on dirt on Friday, Xfinity on the roval, and then run the 600 on the Oval. The only thing is, is the change the roval to the Oval is impossible. You can't run the roval one day and the Oval to next. You know, there's too much preparation that goes into creating the roval that you couldn't do it. So that's not an option, I don't believe. I love the first part. What do you think about the first part? Trucks on dirt, perfect.

You're them, run them on the dirt out there. Whatever they want to do. I think you could have all kinds of dirt racing all week long over at Charlotte's dirt track out there in front of the track. You could have Legends cars racing on the-drable. Yeah, drag racing, whatever. Bring it all. By the way, by the way, I got to just jump in here. This guy comes back for the Kentucky Derby, Dale, and the first thing he frigging says to us is.

I walk in his office. I'm like, dude, how about the Derby? That was awesome. He's like, how about that drag race? And I was like, wait a minute. He's addicted. Oh, yeah, he's watching. He's wide open addicted.

Shout out to Ron Capp. It might or might not be in our white flag. It's hard to say at this point. Oh, my goodness. All right. Should we do one more? Yeah, do one more. Come off.

Oh, how about this one? This is a fun one. Cinco de Mayo was yesterday. So anybody celebrate? I didn't. I didn't even know that. Usually you hear it. I didn't.

I had a margarita. Me and Ala and Amy got in a swimming pool. Thunder clouds came. We were on the end there for about 30 minutes. But that's about all we did. Oh, we had some tacos. Yeah, there you go. Perfect.

It's good. Dale's been working so hard, and this is no lie. Like, he's been on high alert of just every day. It seems like, and it ain't ending today. He's got tomorrow, Wednesday, but the fact is, is that I don't blame you for taking a day just by the pool and not going crazy on something. That would have been the way to do it. Y'all had a good time at the Derby.

I didn't get to do any of that. I mean, I had a great time, but I didn't get to have any drinks or anything. So when we got home, I had a few beers after that and in a margarita yesterday. You did take a sip of the mint, juulip. That was awful. That's what he did. They're not good, but like you have to have one when you're there. You got to get the glass.

He had enough of. It's all liquor, man. It's just this straight Kentucky bourbon. I don't drink my liquor straight. I just don't. Yeah. Well, there was a mint in it. Could fool me.

Yeah. All right, I think that's it for today. Thanks to Nationwide for our sponsor of the Ask Junior segment. So today is the first of many Valvaline, do-it-yourself questions of the week. Dale, we've heard you claim that you were the fastest oil changer when you worked at your dad's dealership. I'm curious, is there anyone who can actually attest for that?

Are we going off your word alone? Also, we want to know how fast you could actually do this by yourself, of course. No help. How fast could you do these oil changes? So you don't need help doing an oil change. That's ridiculous to even think. But at a service dealership, you might. Nope.

There's no damn reason two people are trying to do one job. Okay. So I'm insulted. Anyway. Well, you should be. Well, yeah. Basically, this was back in 1994 around that time frame. I graduated from a technical college with an automotive degree, went in to work at my dad's dealership as a

mechanic you start out or I started out as a quick loop guy we had a 29 minutes or less deal on a GM good wrench quick loop service and I could do it in eight minutes whoa yeah I could do it in eight and really I never even tried to do it very quickly until they put me on commission and I've been asking me to go on commission for a long long time and eventually they said okay we'll put you on commission I was making about take home 150 dollars a week after taxes. And then when I worked commission for that one week, I made $350. And they took me back off commission because they could not afford to pay a quick loop guy $350 a week.

But that eight minutes was soup to nuts? Like the whole deal? Of course. I mean, yeah. He's about to get offended again. But, I mean, that's a good question. What do you think I'd do at half-ass? No, I would just want to know what it was time from.

Like, the time the thing pulls into the deal. I don't give you a, oh, yeah. When the customer sees the car pull in and the customer sees the car pull out I mean it's 29 minutes or less So basically it was putting the car up on you know Bring the car in put it on lift change the filter change the oil Check all check all the other fluids Oh you didn't have a pit you had to lift that lifts included in that time

That's impressive because the pit would be quicker No I had a hydraulic lift Yeah that takes longer Yeah um I didn't really think about that but it was easy eight minutes You just sort of got in a rhythm of what you needed to be doing and and oil can be draining while you're doing something else and all that good stuff. I loved it, man. I had a lot of fun working at a dealership.

I had an Immaculate Bay and tools and kept everything clean, kept everything. I had my, I clear-coded my vice. I mean, I had a very, very clean area, organized all my filters in the filter cabinet in the right place, and I could work very efficiently. When they put me on commission, I done the job as fast as I could, but also it was good for me if somebody needed a transmission service or needed a shock replace. So I slowed down to be a little more, I guess, critical of diagnosing this car to say, hey, man, you know, I can make a little money if I can change this transmission fluid and filter

and do a transmission job real quick. So that might make it a little bit longer. It's no longer a 29-minute or less quick-loop job. It's more. So then the time goes away and you just do the job, do the other jobs that you need to do on the car to get it serviced. But if I was just doing a quick oil change, I could do it in eight minutes. of course there's some failures and mistakes during that particular time. One time I forgot to put the filter on a car, cranked it up, backed it out, drove it into the parking lot and parked it for the customer with a trail of oil all the way back to my bay because I forgot to put the filter on.

It just basically when you cranked the motor, it just pumped all the oil right out of the filter, right out of where the filter goes. I was about to ask if you could still do it that quickly today because I actually am for an oil change. Probably not. I'm not going to ask you to do it. What is the timing? I probably could do it in 15 minutes, but... Not after that filter store, you're not going to... Oh, I was so proud of myself.

I mean, I'm back to this car out. I pull it around, and I turn... I get out and I stand up and look over the roof of the car back until the shop, and every mechanic is standing in my open bay door looking at me laughing their ass off. I could tell you some other stories about... I eventually got fired from that dealership. My dad's dealership. Yes, they did.

That's also the do-it-yourself thing. He got himself fired by himself. We could tell that story another day if you want. The other thing I'm doing in the Vivalene do-it-yourself realm is this eight-car restoration. There's been a little progression there. I talked a little bit about it earlier in the show. I changed the steering wheel. So I went on eBay and I bought a time period correct Schroeder steering wheel for the car.

Did not have the correct steering wheel. So I drove, I basically, Amy was off doing something downtown Charlotte. Me and Ila took a little stroller walk down to the shop where the car is. And I tried to change the steering wheel there, but she wouldn't let me do that. I got about halfway done. But eventually finished the job. So I got a new steering wheel or a correct steering wheel in the car. I need a old Banjo Matthew seat.

So Banjo Matthews made the seats, and this is a seat that would be any of the seat that would be any time around late 70s up until 87 or so, 89. Bucket, low bucket. It's a low bucket seat, yeah. Banjo Matthew made the seat. I need one of those. I called around to people, Ray Everingham, a couple other guys. Ray has one that I can copy.

So I called Corey LaJoy. And I know Corey and his dad, Randy, have been building seats forever. I said, hey, man, I need a banjo seat made. And he's like, we just had one that was an old Benny Parsons seat. and they gave it to the Hall of Fame. I was like, darn. He said, but I can make it. I can make it so good that Banjo won't even be able to tell a difference.

And so Corey's going to build me a seat for this car, which is going to be awesome. And he seemed very excited to do it. Ray has a seat that we can take some pictures of and get a very close copy of it. So that was the other thing. I need a seat. I also talked to my uncle Robert, who helped build the car. He put the body on the car. He agreed to do the restoration or help me get the restoration done.

done. He said, I have to, only thing I have to do, though, is to bring the car over here to Junior Mergersports. So, I've got to talk to Kelly and get it passed by her and all the other employees back there in the Fab Shop. I'm sure they'll love having it around. But the car's coming over here to stay for quite a while, and they're going to complete the entire process. We've got a long list of things that I want to do to the car and to make it back to the way it needs to be. So that's where that eight Bushra National Car Restoration stands today, and we'll keep you updated. Yeah, we're going to keep you updated because we've got the perfect platform to do it with Valvaline. Thank you, Valvline for jumping on with us.

And just like Dale said earlier, Valvene.com slash Dale, check out that website. So, Dale, last week we started a four-week series on Navy SEAL John Tummelson, who was lost in an RPG attack on his Chinook helicopter in 2011. And Nationwide is running a special paint scheme on the North Carolina. number 88 Chevy at the World 600 honoring Tomlson. So we are just getting to know him. Last week in talking with his sisters, Christy and Joy, we learned about his childhood and how at 13 years old the dude knew he wanted to be a Navy SEAL. This week, we learned it wasn't so easy just getting that chance. I think there's a lot of times John thought, I don't know how we put up

with this kind of, you know, we're girls and sometimes I think he probably thought we were silly but we went to all his taekwondo meets and you know i think we were always supportive and let me know do you love me proud that he was our little we called him i remember we called him at little s a which people thought was smart ass but it was stud alert that's what we had so he always called him little s a say no one knew what it was oh my goodness he was kind of a smart ass but I want to go further. I'm not just to play you. He enlisted in the Navy the summer before his senior year.

So left pretty much right after high school graduation. So they told him in his papers, you go to basic training, and when you're done with basic training, we'll send you to Buds. The Basic Underwater Demolation Seal Training, or Buds. Wasn't in his paperwork, but he didn't discover that until he got done with basic training and was like,

all right, send me to Buds. And they're like, you're not going to Buzz. So then he went to A school for communications because they told him, they said, okay, you want to be a seal, go get a communications job. That's a seal ready job, and that'll give you the training that you need then to go to the seal teams. Busted his butt, did what he had to do, actually graduated top at A school, so he was the number one graduating student. I was frustrated for him because I knew it was his dream. Yeah, so I was disappointed with him because you knew that's why he joined the Navy, you knew that's what he wanted to do. You wanted that for him.

You knew how badly he wanted it. Just had the best attitude like, okay, you know, wasn't mad, wasn't bitter. Just, all right, you're not going to let me go. So what do I got to do? And so then... We are the Navy! We are the Navy! World's greatest Navy!

World's greatest Navy! You have to go on one deployment. And so then he was on a ship, and so he went on one deployment. And so then basically, just like I said, roadblock after roadblock, and then it was about the time to re-enlist. So his enlistment was up. And so he said, okay, I'll re-enlist. but you are going to send me to Buds.

Four years later then, after the deployment, now he's eligible to go to Buds. But even then, he had a rope. Well, he got. It was eyesight. He had eyesight issues. Like, you have to have a certain eyesight because they don't want you wearing contacts

because they do so much hand-again combat and those types of things. But somehow he got around. I think they ended up then lifting the eye restriction or something. Buds is actually one of the first phases. So it's like a year-long process. And when you graduate from buds, we were ignorant to this at first. We didn't know that you graduate buds.

We thought you were a seal. Oh, no, there's like a longer process. That's just the first phase of them weeding people out. What is it only? So it's like 10% or 20% aren't make it for buds? Well, he had 152, I think, in his class when they started and only 30 some of it? I think like 20. Graduated.

Yeah. Debrated? Uh-huh. Yeah. Just do buds. Uh-huh. Hell week. So that's the hell week that you hear about that where they're sleep deprived.

and well so we had to buy our plane tickets we wanted to all grow out for graduation so we had to buy our plane tickets for the buds graduation before we knew if he was going to actually graduate from the last conversation before he went into hell week because then they did kind of cut off communication you didn't get to hear from him and so christie said to him I have my plane ticket bought so help me god if you do not make it through buds and I have spent this money on this plane I'm going to be so mad at you. And so... Ever you do, you did not ring that bow. So when he graduated,

we said to him, did you ever want to quit? And he said, yeah, actually, he said there was a moment when he was out in a boat. He'd only had a couple hours of sleep over a seven-day period. And he's like, there were brick walls. He said, not just, I think I'm seeing a brick wall, like

there were brick walls. I mean, he was hallucinating. In the middle of an ocean. And he said, he wanted to quit. He wanted to give up. And he heard Christy's voice saying, so help me, God, if you ring that bell and I bought my plane ticket, I'm going to be mad. And so he didn't quit. Incredible stuff. We'll continue that next week.

Christy and Joy came to North Carolina guys and selected the paint scheme. They chose the paint scheme that will be on Alex Bowman's 600 car. And I mean, nationwide's been doing this for years. Dale, you and I talked about it, how they run during this Memorial Day race, a lost service member on the paint scheme. It's just incredible, right? Yeah, our sports, you know, heavily involved in the military for years. We've met servicemen and women over the years at the races, particularly in Charlotte. And this is just a continuation of that.

Nationwide is doing a great job. Awesome for Alex. Great for the family. I'm sure they're enjoying this experience and the honor that it brings. Yeah. Thank you nationwide for this, and we'll keep it going next week. Keep coming, bud. White flag right there.

White flag. So everybody, when friends of the download win a race, we all win a race, right? Right? I mean, when people, when listeners of the download win? So that leads me to say, congratulations to Ron Capps, avid listener of the Dale Jr. Download. I might have woken up my family after he won. I was so pumped. I was nervous for him, but it, you know, listen, he did eliminate our buddy John Force in the second round, so we were conflicted a bit, but anyways. I think the coolest thing, I got a FaceTime call from his crew guys and his crew chief. By the way, Dale, what has been the response this week of our John Force episode that

as far as your vantage point when people talking about it. It was huge. I mean, it's the biggest thing we've done to date for this podcast. We received a ton of ratings and reviews this week, probably the most we've ever had in one week's span,

and it was all based off of the John 4. So obviously, I'm not going to read all of them, but to anybody that rated and reviewed on our Apple podcast show page, thank you. We read them all. Here's a few of them. Your mom, 03, says, great show last week.

I had no idea. Gary Busey was a race car driver. That's awesome. We've seen a couple of Gary Bucy comparisons to Forst. JR 88 says John Forrest being on the show was a great idea. I didn't know anything about him.

Turns out he's a funny dude. So for me, this was by far the best Dell Jr. download to date. I would say this. The numbers themselves would suggest this was the best Dale Junior download to date. We had never had any, you know, more people listened to one show

than this one right here. So he's right on that. Colton Light says, I've been a fan of Dale since I watched my first race when I was a baby. Now I'm 15 and I'm missing many school assignments due to me listening to the show. Uh-oh. Do you have a response to that?

I mean, I don't think that's what our intention is here. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe. I thought our show probably didn't take up that much time. Well, the thing is you don't have to listen. School assignments. Yeah, that's the beautiful thing about a podcast. You do it after you do your school assignments.

We can't get behind people missing school assignments, all right? We say this to Schultz, our other producer on Doorbump of Clear who's here, We'd like, Shultz, don't miss school for the download or for DBC. As of this taping, which is Monday morning, which my understanding is that our TV show, I'm going to look over to my TV people here, that tomorrow night at 5 p.m. on NBC Sports Network, we will be seeing the Willpower episode on TV, not this one. That's at 5 p.m. on NBC Sports Network, and then again, the Willpower episode will re-air later in the week. This one will be airing just clips, I believe, on the U.S.

YouTube channel for Motorsports on NBC. I think that's what the YouTube channel is called. Motorsports on NBC. And so that's where you'll find this one. But you know it's so good sometimes they change their mind and say, hey, this thing's got to be a TV show. So we'll keep you posted on our platforms on our social media, dirty moe media, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter,

especially our YouTube people that know and follow and subscribe to our YouTube channel know that we put Dell Jr. download stuff all week there. So we'll keep you posted. I want to give shoutouts to our sponsors this week, returning partners nationwide, Chevrolet, ancestry and zip recruiter, plus our new partner, Valvaline. You're going to be hearing a lot more of them in the next few months. Also, a big thanks to the fine folks at Cadence 13 for all they do for this program.

Lastly, I think it's fitting that we congratulate our new Hall of Fame member of the North Carolina Sports. Hall of Fame, Dale Jr. We did that Friday night induction, and so congratulations on that. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. It's a great honor. And now our odd history. Here we go.

All history. All right. In 1952, Tim Flock won the modified sportsman race at Daytona Beach. All right, on the sandy course. But he had his win taken away when NASCAR inspectors discovered his row bars. Mike, they were made of wood. What? Ah.

Not too safe. The youngest of the racing flock brothers had shown up to the track with no roll cage. And that was against the rules. So the Flock brothers and some crew members went to work and quickly made a roll cage in their car out of two-by-fors to enter the race. After taking the checker flag, officials declared the wooden roll bars were illegal. And by the time this ruling was delivered, the news of Flock's win had already been sent out and reported by the news services. Roll bars made a wood, man. That wouldn't have been too good in a rollover.

God, no, no, just let them keep it. I mean, if it's illegal, okay. Not only you're getting crushed, but you're getting splinters. Splinters. Didn't even think of that. Or maybe an errant nail coming around getting hold of you. And don't even get me started on termites. Jesus.

Damn flock brothers, monkeys and wooden roll cages. Have we ever had a DNF for termites? Guys, this is a great show. We had to do this. We had to work on the fly because with the rain out in Dover, Jimmy Johnson, who was scheduled to be on the download, could not be. But we had a great show. I hope you guys enjoyed it.

Jimmy will be rescheduled for later this year. Until then, we'll see you next week. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo.