The Dale Jr. Download - 267 - Chase Elliott: Dawsonville Boy

Episode Date: July 29, 2019

Two of NASCAR's All-time Most Popular Drivers, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Chase Elliott, sit down to talk about small-town life and racing.  From flying planes, a busy "Awesome Bill", world travel with Blaney, dealing with Denny, and not worrying about rules, the Dawsonville, Georgia driver is candid about it all. The DJD gang talks about funny moments in racing, including not making it to the restroom in time, booth farts, and unique short cuts. 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.

Stop the presses. Forget suggestions. He's not impressed with it. So stop the presses. This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dell Jr. download. We've got guest Chase Elliott with us. They like to call him Clyde.

They do? Clyde. That's his name. You never seen that? No. His name is Clyde. His real name. It's Clyde.

I did not know that. I don't know why he doesn't go by that, because that's way cooler than Jay. Clyde Elliott would be a great name. That's a great racing name. Alabama's Mike Davis is here. Long Island's, Matthew Dillner, Illinois. Thank you for saying Illinois and not Illinois. Illinois is represented by Libol.

We will get right to it. So we've got to revisit a question we had last week. We could not answer. What is that? We got a real broad question in our Ask Junior, and sometimes those are tough. Funniest thing you've ever seen at a track. We went to social media to help us answer this question. So, Leah, take us down this road.

I'm so eager to go to you. We actually, we got a lot of responses. The first one that came in was from Chicagoland in 2004, when the orange, inflatable orange, got loose. That was a good one. Todd Zeggney almost wailed that thing. Driving for Nemeco, I believe. Oh, the wind caught it and sent it down the front. This wasn't a beach ball, man.

That thing was like. It was huge. I remember that. And then we had a couple others, you know, the usual fans climbing fences, things like that. Oh, the fan that climbed the fence at Richmond and set up there for many, many laps. Set in turn four, causing a caution. Yep, somebody, Scott Clark tweeted us that one. Gail chimed in

She said Brad Keselowski calling Kyle Busch and ass in intros was pretty funny The fire extinguisher guy on Alex Bowman's burnt car at New Hampshire

Very good That's a good one of my favorite guests He tripped and fell Before he got to the car The fire extinguisher went off I don't remember this Oh hold on It's great

You got to look at this I have video of it There's Alex Burning Race car He's climbing out he's frustrated long day long life like he's throwing his hands up there like what what could happen to me next now he's thinking let's put this fire out guys here they come here they come here comes the brigade hey wait out she stoned off I didn't remember that

and then Alex throws his hands up and he just walks out of frame that's perfect that's good yeah it's almost like this was like that's good that's good This was, that looked like a, that looked like a choreographed scene to a comedy like, Allegheny nights too. Keystone Cops. It's like a Charlie Chaplin movie.

You could almost see it coming too. Like he was never, like, he didn't have steady feet as soon as he hopped out of there. He just, you saw it coming. We had a lot of people talk about different animals that have been on track. You know, we've seen Fox, yeah, jumped over the wall.

And there's a dog. There was all kinds. I looked it up on YouTube. Did you all think of any? Nope. I got a list. Oh. Oh, you made a list.

Oh, my gosh. I put a little thought to it. I mean, I just put, I had to put a little thought to it because it's hard to do that right on the spot on YouTube live, you know. Some of these are not public knowledge, a few that are. Oh, God. I've got. Be worried, Dale. The time DW farted in the booth.

Allegedly. Totally did. That was funny. Yeah. He really farted. Maybe it was Mike Joy, but on the DW. You know, that's the fall. You know that's a good point.

We don't know for a fact that it was DW. It was an old man fart. So it could have been either one of them. So it was airy. Okay. Damn. The time Tim Richmond showed his dingling in the Winston All-Star photo. Yes.

Yeah, that was, that's... I mean, after all these years, it's still... It's funny to a select group folks, yeah. Probably not the ones that were there. No, Bobby Allison was laughing, though. Not Neil Bonnet, who had the dangling next to his head. Does that not disturb anybody? No, no.

That's right. None of these would be funny for some people, right? I mean, if DW fart in the booth, I mean, it's probably not funny to Jeff Gordon. I don't know. I mean, who knows? All right, here we go. Let's see here. The time we were heading to an airport after an appearance in New York,

and Dale Jr. asked the driver to pull over on a busy interstate. So he could hop the guardrail and take a shit. Yeah. Out of boy. You know, you have those moments where it's now. or never. It was now or never. He said, stop this car right now. We had a media reporter with us. We had Wright Thompson, who's just skyrocketed in his popularity as a rider. Is that his lead? He wanted it to be, but I think we asked him not to please don't do that. But he had been following us. We went to John Stewart Daily Show that day, and then we did a Budweiser appearance with Arturo Gotti. We were heading to the airport, and Dale Jr., like, pull over. The best part was, and I'm trying to explain this visual here. The best part was when he came popping out of the woods with no shirt on. Well, Dale, what do you think?

No, no, no. I mean, you don't have to explain yourself. I appreciate that. But the fact is, it was funny seeing him, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, de, with no shirt on. Getting into his airplane with no shirt on, the pilot's looking like, what the hell y'all? What the hell y'all done? R.I.P.

What kind of appearance was not? Dale Jr., you'll remember this one. The time we were taking a private tour of Graceland. I had to send a couple text messages. Oh, I remember this. I had to send a couple of texts. This didn't happen at the track. No, no, this wasn't at the track.

You're right. But, yeah, still great, funny, funny stuff. I had to see a couple of text messages from my phone. And I just very simply needed a place to sit. Yeah. All right. So he crawled, he steps over a velvet rope and sits on Elvis's couch that hadn't been set on in 30 years. Since Elvis.

Since Elvis. Since Elvis was alive. What? So we're standing in the living room and where there's a small, narrow space for us. us to walk and take the tour and there's a velvet rope and then there's Elvis's living room and you're just able to look at it and Mike just was on the phone and he just kind of stepped through that rope and sat down on the couch and the lady comes in there and goes get up get up freaking out she's like no one has sat on that couch since Elvis was here

and now Mike Davis the lady this is a very important phone call oh that's good it was comfortable I ain't going to lie. Elvis had some couches now, and I can attest to that. And then lastly, this is back at the racetrack. That time, Dale Earnhardt told Richard Childress, under caution, I'm going to be off the radio for a while. The next time

you saw the car rolling by, there he was. Dale F. and Earnhardt sitting outside the window cleaning off his windshield. I was a good one. I love that clip. To this day, it is still badass. That's how we complain about track position

or how important, you know, fans of be like, oh, track position. That's all I hear about. Track position. Well, there you go. It was important back then. Yeah. He didn't want to come down, pit road.

Give up the track position. That's right. There were some honorable mentions, by the way. Uh-oh. Yeah. You know, the funniest fight is ever John West Townley and Spencer Gallagher. That was hysterical. Rolling around.

Yeah. Yeah. That was, I bet it didn't make my list of five. Leah, got anything? That's a great list, Mike. You know, just, I feel like a lot of the funny, like, obviously just in a jury for me, a lot of the funny things. that I've seen, cameras don't catch,

like, you know, guys getting, you know, kind of stuck in Port-a-John's. Like, I saw John Forrest going to Port-A-John once, and somebody, I don't even remember who it was, rode up on a scooter and just parked the scooter in front of this. You couldn't get out. That's funny.

Just stuff like that. You know, just little pranks in the pits. Do you guys know, I mean, fat boy, Donnie, I think his last name, Etling, Donnie Etling. You know what I'm talking about? His nickname's Fat Boy.

He was in a Port-of-John at Dover. And TJ went and started shaking it really bad. And it was that portage on right by that crossover bridge. Yeah, yeah. But, oh, Donnie. You can hear him screaming in it. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's bad.

That happened to Teddy Christopher, the late Teddy Christopher. He wrecked the crap out of Bruce Delisander in Speed Weeks one day, like seven to the hospital. The next day, I believe it was at the track. I remember Teddy was in the Porter John, and Del Sander's crew came over and tipped the porter John over with him. and the door was facing up and it looked like a spaceman coming out of the capsule because the door opened up

and here comes a crap covered modified racer. Hey, if we're talking Porta Johns, I mean, that race you had with Brackislauski during the Red Flag at Daytona was pretty funny. Oh yeah. Remember that one?

Yeah. Anything else we got on that? Why does everything have to do with like Porter Johns and people? They're funny. It's like an easy prank. There's my Henry Benfield story when he locked all the Porta Johns.

Yeah. I had a producer crap his pants one day right before the race. Oh, gosh. That's not good. Is that one of those stories where, like, I have this friend that did it, but it's really you? Oh, I promise. Has everybody at one point in their lives between the four of us, their pants?

You never have Leah. That's an adult. No, not as an adult. I'm talking, well, beyond diapers. Oh, I'm sure there has been. Oh, God. I don't have me. Madge's holding up. I think we talked about this, but maybe we haven't.

Yeah, we shouldn't. I think I did last time. I was about 12 years old. That was the last time? Yeah. I remember it like it was yesterday. Really? I don't know that that was the last time.

I've got a memory. Oh! Do you remember at Watkins Glen? Was this, you shitting your pants are pissing? Because at Watkins Glen, you'd just finish an Xfinity race, and you said, on the radio, Mike, come meet me at the car. And I go to the car, and you said, get me the golf card. I had to poop.

Oh. Oh. It was one of them New York interstate incidents. Yeah. Yes. I got you. Have you crapped yourself as an adult, though? Like, you remember?

Me? As an adult adult. I don't know. I think I did one time coming home from vacation. It was a long time ago. It was probably 98, 99 or something. I was out partying, raising hell for a couple days of my friends. And we were driving home.

It was one of them thing. Pull over now. We got to go. Pull over now. And we didn't get in there. quick enough. TMI. I don't feel comfortable asking Leah.

I don't think I have. She said she hasn't. She wouldn't tell us if she did. Wouldn't it be, wouldn't it be? Wouldn't it be? I'm sure I have. I mean, but I don't remember an incident. Well, it would have been a long time ago. It's scarring.

Wouldn't it have been. It's stanging forever. Wouldn't it have been funny if the three of us had not had one, but Leah was the only one that remembered. This is enough of this. All right, let's move on. You started it. Let's go.

Let's move on. No better way to open the Chase Elliott's episode. Every piece of that gets in the TV show. I should have said I farted in the booth. Did you? Did you? Oh, yeah. I've slipped some out.

Not during a race, I don't believe. Maybe I probably have during a race. Does it matter? If you can't hear it, it didn't happen. I'll tell you the fun. This can go on the show, doesn't have to go on the show. It doesn't really matter. I have a friend of will.

We're all in the booth and we all have our headphones on, right? Yeah. And it's before the race. So there's nothing happening there. Everybody's just kind of sitting and waiting by in their time. It's probably, it's me. I don't think Burton was in there yet, whoever was in the booth with me. And a couple other NBC folks working that are, you know, hanging out.

And, you know, I had to fart and I slid one out. And I'm like, man, you know what? I don't even know if that one made any know. noise or not, it could have been loud as hell because I've had my headphones on. And so not everybody, no one else in there has headphones on. And I'm thinking they either all heard that and or they didn't, right? And now I turn around and I'm like, huh, no, I'm looking for a smirk or laugh. It's all, it's nothing.

And no, I just couldn't, so I still don't know to this day whether I offended the hell of those people. Isn't there a way to talk to people without everyone hearing it? So you know if they heard it, did y'all like, you know, hey, Marv, did you all hear that? Dale just ripped one, right? But Dale would never know it, right? They could talk behind your back, basically.

Dale puts his headphones on and forgets the fart, yeah. Forgets that he's not in his living room. Hey, nobody can ever accuse him of not being comfortable in the booth, right? Oh, yeah, there you go. Seriously. He's just right, he's right at home in the booth.

Yeah. That's the headline. I learned a good lesson that day. I was like, man, don't assume. Don't assume that it's not going to make any noise. We're not the first to say it. Sometimes we need a vacation from our vacation. We do.

Delayed flights, hotel snafus, chatty travel companions. I've seen some nose. Yeah, you know Matthew's one of them. Get away for two minutes. Twice a day. With Quip, their wireless electric toothbrush is lightweight and compact, so it packs away easily, and your tote. Who calls it that? That's right.

Who calls it that? I know. Is that there, Reed? Did you guys pack a tote to New Hampshire? That's like a girl thing. Girls' toot things. Girls listen to the show. Well, it can go in your carry-on.

You don't like the word tote. When you're overstuffing your luggage, it happens all of us, man. I mean, I always set my bag up there. and hope it's over, or not over 50 pounds. Right. I mean, I've been over. Yeah. Put the extra bucks.

Overpacked. Yeah, yeah. You pay the extra bucks and then you go way down the line of priority. Sometimes you come on the next plane. Mm-hmm. You know, when that bag is heavy. Mm-hmm. Plus, the timed sonic vibrations that the quip has gives you a meditative break

from that jam-packed itinerary. Even if it's just between moving from the hammock, over to the pool chair, which is always... That's what I always do. It's a tough part of the day. Always tough. When it's finally time to go home, keep staycationing with a fresh and simple health routine.

There's two great points to make here, guys. Number one, sensitive sonic vibrations for an effective clean that's gentle on your sensitive gums. Don't you talk about my gums. Why? People brush too hard, and some electronic toothbrushes, they're too abrasive. I heard that.

All right. Number two, refresh. Refreshing brushheads. Quit brushheads are automatically delivered on a dentist recommended schedule every three months for just $5. A friendly reminder when it's time for a refresh and to stay committed to your oral health. Why? 75 of us use old worn out bristles that are ineffective. 75%.

75%. This is all true. I know that we're reading an ad here, but I got a buddy of mine named Billy. And, boy, does he brush hard. You should see his toothbrush. It's destroyed. And he keeps using it. I don't get that.

And the, yes, I mean, you know, you brush too hard. Oh, I know I have a relative that brushed so vigorously, they've worn the enamel down on their, you know, their doctors like, hey, man, calm down. Really? Back it down. Yeah, the dentist is like, hey, you're brushing too hard and you're wearing an enamel off your teeth. Anyhow, I don't even know that's possible. All right, so, you know, get the quip. Going to alleviate all those issues.

I like my quip because it's convenient. I travel a lot. It's easy to travel with. My dentist recommends that I use electronic toothbrush over the standard old school toothbrush I used all my life. They say it cleans better. I trust my dentist. They're the one that's got to take care of them teeth when they're not doing

so great, so they don't want to do all that work, right? So, I trust what they're saying. That's why I love Quip, and why I'm taking it on the road with me as we travel across the country with NASCAR on NBC. That was a hell of a good reason.

Dude. Great job. We got a little left. Geez. Quip starts at just $25. And if you go to getquip.com slash Dale Jr. right now, you can get your first refill pack for free. That's your first refill pack for free at g-et-Q-U-I-P-com slash Dale Jr.

Hi, I'm Dellenhart Jr. Due time off is a campaign by Mountain Dew. They want to empower people to do what they love. They help remove those barriers to get in the way of their passions. Due to Do the Do. Thanks to Mountain Dew, I'm going to give some employees DTO, which is due time off. And to make it even more special, Mountain Dew is going to give them $1,000 cash. Do the Duke.

We become accustomed to see the red and white number nine of Bill Elliott is the leader. Picking up the race here this afternoon, overcoming almost two laps down early this afternoon and coming back to win. He just needs to do seven turns perfectly and Watkins Glenn to grab his first career wins. Back to the throttle still comes zipping down and continues to pull away and the fans are cheering him. Chase Elliott almost home.

Bill Elliott is going for him. All right. Chase Elliott, in the house. So, Chase, you brought some, something. What you got? Drake. Yeah, I don't even what you call it. Yeah, so Hooters Spirits is what you call this. Have you had in this?

Whoa. I have not. This is brand new now. You're seeing the first bottle ever. Really? So there's some gin. Gin. That's gin.

Here's some dark rum. Dark rum. You know, feeling yourself. Yep. Man, this is a pirate. American straight whiskey. Oh, my. Right here.

We got rum? They make it all. And if you really want to party, you know, and watch your figure, there's some vodka. Okay. It's a vodka. You just went to Russia. I sure did. You brought back some hooter spirits.

I did. You've not had any of this. I have not. This is right off the line, actually. Just got it. Awesome. When does the taste test happen? Well, the taste test can happen whenever you want.

Unfortunately, I have to fly home, so not for me today, but they are sponsoring our car at the Bristol Night Race, which is pretty cool. So Hooters' coming out this fall, via Hooters and some other places, retail stores. So, yeah, cool them to come on board and, yeah, it'd be good to have a reason to drink it at first. How has the Hooters sponsorship been to you? I feel like it's been pretty good. I mean, it's been, I mean, obviously, I've probably had worse partners over the years, but no, they've, you know, it's been just an easy, you know, partner to have. I mean, they've been easy to work with.

But really the people there and doing the stuff with them, they're really easy to work with. And even if it wasn't Hooters and, you know, the pretty girls and everything weren't there, it'd still be a good partner to have with how they operate. So they have been in the sport in and out a long time, right? Yeah, for sure. So does their history and NASCAR ever come up in conversation, or does that influence the sponsorship or the relationship, or does that ever –

because I'm my old-school guy, like the history and stuff, so I was wondering if that pops up and you're doing any hooter throwbacks or anything like that? I wish it would be cool to do that around Darlington. That's Napa's race each year, you know. So that would be a cool deal to do an Allen Quickie throwback. But I always thought it would be really cool to win a race in their car and do a Polish victory line.

There you go. Heck yeah. Will you have, will you remember if you win? Because when I win, I sort of black out. Yeah, well, I probably won't. Like all your plans just sort of go out the window. Yeah, but hey, it sounds good right now at least. So do you have your throwback?

I do have a throwback. Have you announced it? We have, yeah. Yeah, you haven't seen it. I probably have. Oh, we know. We just wondering if you know. Yeah, it's one of my dad's old cars.

One of the first ones he ever ran, actually. So it's on, you can look at it on. Oh, is it the, uh, The one that bought from Penske? Yes. Yeah, I saw it. I saw it. Yeah.

That's pretty cool. So, you know, what year were you born? 95. 95. Oh, geez. Yeah. So his dad's career is already two decades. Yeah.

How do you connect, how do you connect, learn, understand that part of your dad's career? Yeah, that's obviously a tough thing because, you know, he won his championship in 88, you know, and they were. Do you watch old races? I watched old races some, you know. Ask tons of. of questions? I ask some questions, but I feel like a lot of it, to me, my favorite thing to do is just listen to stories, you know, from my dad and Uncle Ernie or Uncle Dan or people around. How often, how often are those uncles around? Because those, for the people listening, your dad's brothers

and him, they were a teen. They were, where one was, the other two were. And they raced together and they built their dynasty together. So they know everything. They were there for everything. So some of the, some of the cool, so you get most of your history lessons from those guys. Yeah, I mean, I just like listen to the stories, you know, like the, to me, the best stories come out. Are they around all the time? I saw, I actually saw Uncle Dan when I was leaving this morning, he was out mowing grass down, down at the runway, and I was, I was literally at the taxiway to taxi out on the runway, and he's driving by on a tractor. Is this Dan Elliott airport? Pretty much. Yeah. Yeah. Does he manage the airport? No.

Haven't you seen this air strip? No. You haven't seen this Elliott airstrip? No. Is it a private? Yeah. You know you're a baller when you got your own airstrip. I don't.

Not me. I just get to use it. Is it grass? No, it's paved. Y'all paved it? How long? Paved it to 5,000 feet. That's nice.

I mean, heck, it's been paved since like early 90s. Yeah, okay. So you're, you're, what, Ernie, what's he doing? He has been also mowing grass. a little bit. Are they just all retired? They don't retire. Is that what I got to look forward to in a couple years of snowing?

It's going to be you. It's going to be you coming up. No, he's been mowing grass and, you know, honestly, still does work around the shop, you know, up there. I think he still tinkers with a couple motors here and there. Dad's got a couple projects there he works on, so they all kind of do their things. What kind of projects? What does your dad do?

Well. I wanted to ask you that, because your dad, when I got to know you a little bit more when he's driving for us at junior motorsports and then went in the cup series, I was surprised to find out how active your dad was. Skiing and motorbikes and all the time. A little racing here and there still drives sports cars with Ray Everham for whatever reason. I know he's having fun. He even drove a throwback like one of his old cars.

He owns it. So, I mean, your dad is busy. That's his favorite thing is to be busy. He just likes, you know, he just honestly likes to work. I don't know I've ever met anybody. that likes to work more than him. And he just likes to have projects. He still flies a lot.

You know, and then obviously... Is he building hot rods or... Not really. He's restoring, so his old cup car that he won his very first race in, he found it. The big Ford, square Ford?

Yep. So what it... He'd have to give you the story, but he won his first race at Riverside. And whoever he bought that car from, I forget. the story, but the chassis was painted green. And when he won his race at Riverside, there's a photo in the shop at home that you can see the chip.

You can see the chassis chip and you can see the green up underneath where they painted it. And he had that car, that car turned into a show car. So he's cut the body off of it. It turned into like maybe an 88 show car or something around there. And then he's going to re-body it to his first wing car and wants to kind of. Those are amazing projects. So are you digging that? Are you into that? I think it's really cool. And he's been pretty passionate about it.

And I think now he started that project, I don't know, probably about a year ago. It was before Watkins Glen last year. So after Walkins Glen happened, I think he really got motivated to want to get that car done because we could both display our first win cars, which were both road course cars. So that's kind of something we wanted to do. So do you have your win car? I don't. You going to figure out a way to get it?

Yes. So the boss says I can have it. So it's yours. It's just his right now. At some point down the road, but it's it's a Hendrick right now. So maybe. Well, they need it. They need to show it off.

I mean, I'm in no rush to get it. But I think it's really cool that it's there as it should be. It's his car. But at some point down the road, maybe when dad finishes his project, we can display them both around home. Yeah, that'll be pretty cool. I got into, I collected a couple of dad's cars recently and got into restoring them. I also found a Budmore 1980 Mercury that Bobby Allison drove.

He won the July Daytona race with it, and he finished second to Daytona 500 in 1980 with it, and I've just bought it. I think I saw you. Did you post something about it? Yeah, I think I saw that. Well, I'm not into the restoring. I want it.

I want a car. I'm glad I got it, but it's going to be expensive. And that's the only bad part about it because it's not cheap. No parts are hard to find, and they have to make parts for it. just don't make that stuff anymore. I know.

I'm hung up right now on this old Monte Carlo that I have in my dad's trying to put the brakes on it because I've got to find seal kits for these old calvers. Good luck. Yeah. I don't know how it's going to work out. So you moved back to Dawsonville, and I was asking you about this back when you did this. Why?

Yeah. So you're racing for your family and you're racing late models, super late models, out of your dad's shop down there in Dawsonville. You're living in Dawsonville. You're a young kid. You belong at home. You get a job racing at junior motor sports. You end up moving up here in an apartment.

And then you decided that you didn't want to live here. You wanted to move back to Georgia. So what is it? Why? What is it about? He's always giving me such hard time about this. Yeah. We all wonder this, though.

I mean, homes home, and I think that that part for me is always, I've always taken a lot of pride in that. I always took a lot of pride into how we, we short-tracked raced and even going further back than that how dad and his family went about racing they always kind of did their own thing now granted i could never do this by myself or without being aligned up here but i just take pride in that i like living at home um i like to fly and to me that gives me a way to get back and forth i mean i can fly up here just about as fast as you could drive to to hendrick from from your house you know so it's uh you know logistically it works out and

you know, keeps me close to home, which is, my family just has a lot invested around Dawsonville with, you know, our shop buildings are, you know, they have offices and the airport and the hangers and all that stuff. So I feel like, I feel like I owe something to all that. And that's where I want to be. So I like it there. And I just like being a part of it. Yeah, what do you enjoy, what do you enjoy about your hometown? Just that it's home. I mean, heck, I don't know. What is anybody? What do you eat? What's your favorite place to eat? My favorite place is to eat. There's, man, all kinds of places that eat around home that's tough isn't there like a non franchise though like is there a local mom and pop's place yeah there's a little um there's a little

sandwich shop down the road called mary's bread basket and that place is awesome it's down the road she loved the shout out there you go mary's bread basket it is really good if you're ever around dawsonville one thing that i was shocked to learn so upset this is this has this has hurt me this has hurt my heart the pool hall is not a bar no no I don't know. I've never been to Dawsonville, obviously. No, it's not a bar. I always thought in my mind that it was a bunch of race,

you know, a bunch of hardcore race fans sitting at about a nine or 12 stool bar with some pool going on in the background and a race on the TV up in the corner, a little maybe a 15-inch. Now, that is, the race is on the TV, about 15-inch TV, and there are pool tables. Yeah. But it's a bird. It's a burger joint. It's not a bar.

It's awesome. Look, putting a siren on the roof is a drunk idea. That's why I guess we assumed it was a bar. Well, that's on the side. That's on the top of the fire department. That's just part of being in North Georgia. You don't have to be drunk to come up with that. Is the siren over the pool hall or at the fire department next door?

No, it's at the pool room. Okay. Another thing you didn't know. Damn. Well, how did you not know that? It's actually a sirene. Yeah, that's Gordon Perl. Yeah, that's right.

Gordon, the gal that owns that place. He calls it the sireine. And you told me you don't head down to the pool hall too much. I don't, no. I mean, I drive past there probably twice a day at least because that's on my way home. So I'm just going to use him as an example because I know him, Blaney, one of your best friends. When he went there for the first time to Dawsonville, what was his reaction? Why are you here?

Why do you live here? Why? You know, honestly, Dawsonville's going to hate us. Dawsonville is going to hate you. And I'm upset that you're trashing on my hometown this bad. I'm not trashing on it. I just need to go down there and see it. To me, it's bigger than Dawsonville.

It's North Georgia in general is what I love. And I think there's just, there's a lot of things about it that I like. You know, you're right at the base of the mountains, kind of a mountain town vibe up in DeLonaga, which is just the town north. You're an hour from the Atlanta airport. You can fly anywhere in the world. Okay, now you're talking about it. So, I mean, it's just logistically.

It's in a good spot. I like it. I don't know. It's home. I hear you. Quit hating on it. I'm not hating on it. I'm not hating to be educated.

This is a chance for Dale to. Well, why don't you come visit? I need to. Yeah. He'll be doing ads. We need to do a live podcast from the pool hall. Hell, no, no, no, no, from the sandwich shop. No.

The Mary's breadbasket. Yeah. We'll get Gordon and let us bring a few beers. I just really want to come see this car your dad's restoring. And what else is there? You still got a late model or two sitting around? In full disclosure, that car actually, GMS is helping with it.

Oh, so it's there. It's up here. I can see it here. You could go see it. I just went over to GMS the other day and I didn't go inside. Yep, it's up here. So you go see it. Mike Beams.

Well, that's a great guy to work on it. Mike Beam. He's been around forever. Yeah. He knows exactly how it's supposed to be. Exactly. Yeah. But what else is over there in that old race shop?

Or is it basically, so when I'm trying to build the image in my mind. When I go down there and can I look at the shop your dad raced out of? Yeah. Can I stare at it? Absolutely. You can stare at that. You can stare at the engine shop. All that's still there.

All in the same parking lot. What's inside those buildings? The engine shop is still pretty much a functioning engine shop. What do they build on for? Dinos, machine shops. A guy is renting that building, and he's, I think he's building for road race cars and maybe some hot rides. I don't exactly know what he builds for.

Didn't Ernie or Dan build hot rod motors for a while? I mean, Uncle Ernie's been into all kinds of motors. Dan still, to this day, he's, did a lot of transmission and gear work. He still does some of that freelance transmission work for guys here and there, road race vintage cars or whatever. So he still does some of that. What's in the rest

of the building? Well, those are two different buildings. So it was actually really, you know, looking back, I mean, they had an awesome setup, you know, back in the day. And they had engine shop that was on its own. And then, you know, the chassis fab shop and body shop was another building. And yeah, you walk in. There's some offices. truck bay they parked the truck inside and had a wash area i mean it's it's a race shop i mean it's

this yeah just you know building 1983 or yeah mid mid mid mid 80s is any of your stuff around there yeah all of uh basically any any late model that i felt like i was emotionally attached to uh dad let me keep which was really cool and like which ones like give us some yeah like uh yeah both snowball derby cars are there. Oh, really? The car we won with in 15 literally came back from the race and it has the same set of tires on it from the way we ended the race. Oh, neat. Taped still on the tire from where the guys were hanging the tires on the pit stop, which is really cool. So basically just cleaned it up and it's just sitting there. I have our Winchester 400 car. I believe that same car was our, no, I'm sorry, One of the Snowball Derby cars was one of our All-American, or it was the All-American 400 winner.

And then the World Crown 300 car was also the Winchester 400 winner. So have those cars from those big wins, which I thought was really cool and was, you know, massive moments in me coming along and meant a lot to what we had going. Do you miss racing supers? I do, yeah. I miss it a lot. And I really just miss how we did it more than anything. It was just so cool. and looking back, I didn't understand at the time how cool it was and what we had going on

and how special some of it was. You know, basically there was a group of guys from literally all within 15 minutes of the shop, and we just did things on our own and didn't really ask for much help outside of there. You know, built Uncle Ernie help with motors across the parking lot, built our own shocks, in the building, set up, springs. I mean, did it all right there, which was really cool. And I don't feel like until you're a part of something like that, it's really hard to understand how cool it is and looking back on it,

just how much pride you have in that. Did you have a lot of pressure on yourself in those times, so you feel like maybe you didn't enjoy it as much as you should have because you're worried about, like, the next level and making it. Yeah, but at the same time, like that to me, you know, you want to enjoy it and whatnot, But at the same time, I just, if you weren't worried about moving forward, you weren't worried about doing good and didn't want to push yourself to be better, you probably probably wouldn't have done as good, you know.

So I can't fault me wanting to push myself to do good. So that was my feeling about my late mile racing is I didn't realize how much fun I was having. And I think that's the thing. I was working, we were working hard and we raced all the time. I mean, it was every weekend somewhere. I think one of you ran like 45 late model races, which is a lot in the asphalt late model world. Not for like dirt car guys, but for that, that was a lot of racing. So do you think that, you know, I know you got a long, long way to go, but do you think that you'll ever go back?

I know your dad went back and ran dirt and played around and he's, like I said, he still does a little vintage racing here and there and some club stuff. I have, I guess, a daydream about that. Yeah, I do. and my dilemma in it, I have two things that I have a lot of pride in. I love the group of guys that we had that were working on our cars. Wouldn't be sitting here without a couple of them in particular. You said they're all within 15 minutes of you. So something about this group of guys that you really like.

Are they friends of yours? Yeah. Or are they family? What? Became friends, yeah, over the years. So one is that and just how I feel like those friendships grew over the years. The other thing is, last race we ran, we won. So it's like, and it was a snowball derby.

So it's like, do you go out, you just be done with it, go out on top, be finished, or do you try to go back? But to me, I don't want to go back and do it unless I could get some of that group back together to go run. So that's kind of my two things with it. We now have established nobody's going to leave Dawsonville, and if they do, they're going to come back. So that can't be too hard, right? Maybe, yeah. You can get the band back together, I bet.

I never wanted to race anything like that while I was still running a cup because there's so many responsibilities. and a little bit of tiny free time. You sliver a free time you had. You didn't want to be racing. And you're right. Yeah, but like once I retired, I'm like, now I want to go run a late mile race at Myrtle Beach or just show up somewhere without saying anything. And that's the dilemma I get into as well as, you know, like a lot of guys go and run races, right?

But those guys, they're devoting their time to their obligations on the NASCAR side. They're just showing up and racing. I mean, I doubt they might be working on the cars some and involved in that a little bit, but is it an everyday thing? No. Was it an everyday thing when we were racing? I felt like it was. And I want to be involved.

That's where you want to be. I want to be involved like that. And I don't really know that I'm with you. I'm not sure that I want to devote that amount of time. And I don't even know that I have enough free time to devote that amount of time to it. You know, so it's tough. When you do, though, you should go back and race under your real name. Yes.

Who's with me? Yes. Clyde? Clyde. Do it. Yeah. That is, I would buy. that shirt if you print it today I'd buy it tomorrow. All right, good. Well, I might have to print that now.

We learned this just today, by the way. I didn't know that. I didn't know it. If you go on Wikipedia, you learn a lot. That's what I should do. I should spend more time on Wikipedia. But we all agree that Clyde Elliott's a hell of a good racing name. Awesome racing name. You don't like it, I bet. No, I don't mind Clyde. A lot of my friends call me Clyde, actually. They do? Yeah. Well, that's where you knew at the end of right? No, I went to Wikipedia. I'm not in the calling him Clyde circle. Oh, you're not? I don't think this. Who gets to call you Clyde? Who does? I mean, like anybody, Blaney calls me Clyde occasionally. Guys I play video games with, and they call me Clyde. You play video games? Yeah, yeah. When did that start? Well, you know, I've always, I've always played. I mean,

I played a lot like in middle school and stuff. And I kind of got away from it a little bit. I thought so. And here lately, I don't know, probably the past a year or maybe two. What friend drug you back into that? I don't know that it was really... No, I don't think it was anything in particular. There you go.

Trashing Dawsonville. What? That is not trashing it. I don't know. It felt like a dig. It might have been a dig. It might have been a big. Well, it has to be a Dawsonville guy because he's in Dawsonville. He said it with a smirk.

You can play video games and somebody in Hong Kong if you want. It doesn't have to be in Dawsonville. That's right. That's right. So I think that's awesome. Video games are cool. I love them. They're cool now that he's dug his hole.

My wife gives me a ton of shit for playing video games at 44 years old. Don't change. I don't want to. God. Hey, all right, real quick, we'll get back to Chase here in a second. Dale, let's remind our listeners about an important partner. Yeah, it's a great partnership, and it's with Valvene. Man, we've had a lot of Valvene in this podcast.

You know why everything they've done with me has been on a custom and personal level. We've got a great relationship. You know, they're, you know, not just a motor oil brand. They're dedicated. Their engine lab makes them a great partner outside and under the hood in 2014. They let me build one of my all-time favorites. You know, born in 1974, Chevy trucks is my thing. Shortbed pickup trucks is my thing.

So we built a 1974 Chevy Cheyenne shortbed truck. We talk about this a lot. And that relationship with Babylon, we do a lot of cool stuff. Cheyenne was cool. We also had a lot of funny moments. Two years later, they made me into a bobblehead for their pit pales promotion. Only True Furians would make you a bobblehead. Actually, the bobblehead was a caricature.

I was in the commercial with the bobblehead, so I don't know, did they make me into a bobblehead? Or is the bobblehead kind of like, remember the basketball, Kenny Hardaway? Penny Hardaway, right? Okay. Was the bobblehead after? You was a Dale bobblehead, though? Hold on, Kit. I still don't know you need about any.

You don't remember those commercials? No, was he talking to a basketball or something? It was like a little bobblehead kind of character. Oh, no, I do remember those. Yes. So it wasn't him. It was like his alter ego. But it was a pity.

Yes, that's exactly right. That's right. Yeah. It kind of reminds me of that a lot. All right, there you go. We had a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun with that promotion. I signed one of those bobbleheads last week.

Is that right? I did. I've signed them all the time, man. I love it. No other moral old brand goes to that. extra mile to build a relationship like Vavilleen does, which is why I trust them in my engines and you should too, from high mileage rides that need that thick anti-wear film to new engines that have carbon buildup. Check out Vaville.com slash Dell to find the right product for your

engine. That's favilleen.com slash Dell. Now back to Chase. Flying. So that was another thing that I couldn't understand about you. You're young and flying is scary, dangerous. But I guess if you go through the process and understand how it's done, it doesn't sound dangerous, it doesn't feel dangerous, it doesn't worry you, it doesn't seem doesn't concern you at all getting an airplane and going and flying to Hendrick just like you're going down the street to pick up a burger. So where, I mean, your dad flew. Is that exactly, is that where all that came from? I think that's, that's definitely where the passion grew from. And I mean, I remember being just a little kid, you know, and I was lucky to be able to go fly places with him.

and do things like that. So yes, I definitely think that's where that passion came from. You know, obviously I was fortunate to have access to airplanes when I was, you know, 16 years old to go start taking lessons and stuff. He started early? Yeah. So, I mean, just things like that are just lucky to kind of fell into that situation. But I love it.

And it is a very serious thing. But to people who have been flying for years, like way longer than me, you know, they do. They get in their airplane and it's no different than them drive. having a car, you know, and that's what you shoot for as a pilot. You want to get to that point one day. But yeah, for me, I learn every time I get an airplane and I enjoy it as a serious thing. It's a challenge. It reminds me a lot of racing on the weekends, you know, and just being in the car, you're the only one in there. You've got to make decisions and figure out what's best,

and that's kind of the same thing in the airplane. I've been seeing on your Instagram. Like, it's one thing to fly a plane, but now I'm seeing pictures of you upside down in planes. What's the story with that? So my dad was into aerobatics a little bit when I was little, and he had some planes, and I remember going up and just loved it. And as I got older, he didn't have those anymore. Got rid of them for whatever reason. I don't know if Mom made him get rid of him or what.

But anyways, kind of got on down the road. Met a friend who flies in an air race, which they traveled. That's what we went to Russia for to go watch him. And he's in aerobatics does shows across the world. his name's Kevin Coleman, and he's actually an Oshkosh, which is a huge air show right now up in Wisconsin doing air shows, and that's what they do. So he actually took me up, I don't know. I'd been in him before, but I went on a flight with him.

I guess it was probably a year ago, maybe a little over a year ago, and I just got hooked and wanted to start training and started doing some training and been flying with him a lot and doing things. So it's a challenge, different kind of flying for sure. So you were flying that plane when you did that? Yep. Yep. Oh, my goodness.

That was me. I bet that is fun. It is fun, yeah. It's just right. All right, so there's things in our contracts that say we can't, we can't bungee jump, we can't skydive. Yeah. They didn't think to write that one in there. I don't know, but I'm going to ask for forgiveness on that one.

Yeah, later. Yeah, later. Do it and ask for forgiveness later? Nobody's came up to you, Rick had in college and said, hey, how about not doing that? No, but now that you've blown my. cover you blew your cover by going on Instagram well he probably didn't see my Instagram but he probably listens to your show sorry boss hey another thing to wise man once said to me and I think you you know this about Alan you know Alan's

you know wanting he pushes me to go do things that I like to do which I think is awesome and he's been a great crew chief to work with. And, you know, much like Jimmy's mountain biking and dirt biking and the things that he does, I think he's pushing himself, you know, and trying to be better. And, you know, he's on the edge of uncomfort. And I think that as a race car driver, we live on the edge of uncomfort. And I think the guy who is the most comfortable at being uncomfortable is probably going to end up being pretty good down the road.

So I think all those things are related. And I just think as you push yourself to do new things, and new challenges and fly new planes or, you know, go down a new mountain bike trail or whatever it is. Like, those things are great. And I know they might not, you know, you could go, I could break my arm walking out the front door today, you know. But you got to live life, man. It's, uh, get one shot. I agree.

That's his justification for doing or for wanting to do, uh, air shows. I think it's, like you practiced it for Rick when he asked you about it. I think it's extremely healthy to have passions like that. And yeah, it's fascinating to me, uh, especially, because you could hire somebody to fly you around but you want to do it and you enjoy it. Who flew with you today?

Did you just fly up here today? Yeah, I flew up here today. To do the show and just fly by yourself? Yep, came to see you. So just came fired up the plane. You know, does anybody say? Don't believe it. At the Elliott International Airport,

is there a tower? Do they say, you're clear for takeoff? Or do you just say, I don't see anybody. Let's just mad it and go. Let me tell you. Yeah, I do. I call the tower. You need to come see the tower.

Is there a tower? Is Uncle Dan the air traffic controller? No, I'm not. There is no tower, but we can make one for you if you come visit. We're coming. We're coming. We're going to Dawsonville. At this point, we've got to be there. Yeah. So, you mentioned going to Russia, and I saw Blaney last night. I ran into him at Epic Steakhouse on Main Street in Moorsville. Oh, he must have a hot date.

No, he had a sponsor agreement. Oh, man. But maybe you did have a hot date. I just didn't see. He probably did. Yeah. I was going to call him because I wanted to talk to him about y'all's trips. And I know he doesn't always go on everyone.

Yeah. So you mentioned why you went to Russia for the Red Bull air race. Okay. This is just like flying for me. I guess I'm just not as a confident or as an aggressive person or a daredevil. But I would be real nervous. traveling to Russia. To Russia.

Yeah. But you guys, you know, you and your buddies, y'all are somewhere all the time. At every opportunity, it seems like, anytime y'all get a good chunk of time or a weekend off or something, y'all've got a plan. And y'all got somewhere you're going to go.

What drives that motivation to go see the world? You know, I really don't know where that sparked from, I don't know, probably five or six years now. We've been traveling around a lot. name some of these places you got russia yeah so it kind of all started it going to cost rica and that kind of sparked it um i feel like we kind of we we spread our wings a little bit got out of country you know went down to costa rica uh and just had a lot of fun and i think from there we're just like man you know we're young and we have you know we're lucky enough to have

the opportunity and and the means to go and travel the world let's go travel the world you know Let's go to as many places as we can go while we can. And you never know. You might not be able to next week or next month or whatever. So I think that's kind of where all that sparked. But, you know, like I said, it started kind of going to Costa Rica. I've been there a few times since. I really enjoy it down there.

Went from there. We've traveled to Ireland a couple times, which is a lot of fun. I heard great things about that. You should go there. That would be up your alley. Yeah. Why do you think that? Well, it's just old school.

Pubs, Irish pubs, and the architecture's old, you know, old buildings and old cobblestone streets and stuff. I mean, it's really cool. I've been to Amsterdam, which was actually a fantastic area, really nice area. Enjoyed that one. When I think about Amsterdam, I just think about people just standing around smoking weed everywhere and everything smell like hemp. And that is, that is not the case. No, absolutely not. I thought that way, too.

We're idiots. Definitely. Mike said so. Speak for yourself. Speak for yourself. Mike said you. I mean, I'm sure you can find it. You can definitely find areas like that there, but I mean, that's not the city.

The city is actually really nice. I'm trying to think where else. Obviously, we went to Russia. We flew, when we went to Russia, we went through Istanbul, Turkey, which was, that was, that one was close to the edge of, I think, where I would. You're getting your uncomfortable zone? Yeah, just not my cup of tea, I don't think, but it was a layover spot. Where else? How was Russia?

I guess that's been about it. In general, like, what would you, how would you explain Russia to me? Russia to me was absolutely fine, like, nice. The food was different. I didn't really care for some of the food. What was the food like compared? I don't really even know how to compare it to. Not good, in my personal opinion.

But I would say the biggest thing about Russia that was different from other places is, for one, we were literally like 50% around the globe. So we were like a long ways around. there and the language barrier was about as bad as I've been to anywhere yet like you go you know you go to Ireland or you go to Amsterdam or you know you go to Costa Rica all these places and typically somebody in the restaurant can speak English you know or some sort we certainly don't speak Russian I certainly don't speak Russian so the language barrier was tough and I would say that was probably the toughest thing about the whole

trip was just the language barrier but it was really nice it would be no different than and you go into a city here. I mean, it might not be as modern, but, you know, as far as the people and the restaurants and how things are set up, I mean, they get up and go to work and eat and sleep and same thing we do. Who's the traveling party? Because you kept seeing we.

Who's all with you? Yeah, I think me and Ryan really have been the only two that have, yeah, they're consistent too. But I have a couple buddies that, you know, from around home, he's got some friends too that have either tagged along on a couple trips. But yeah, mainly me and him kind of been, you know, just a fun thing to go do when we have time. What's on the list? What place you haven't been you want to go to?

Yeah, so Australia is on the list. How do you get to Australia? Because I've wanted to go back and it's a long way. I mean, probably you went to Russia, so it's not too down far, but Russia was that flight was rough. Yeah, the flight to Australia is pretty tough. Certainly. I wouldn't think it'd be much worse than that, but maybe. Yeah, you know, I don't know.

I think, you know, do the Australia thing, I would love to have enough time to go to Australia and New Zealand. I feel like I have a cousin that lives in New Zealand who actually married a guy from New Zealand. So I like to go over there and go visit them. And I think the cool thing about the time of year that I want to go, I like to go in the winter. Obviously, we have the most time then.

But that's their summer, which I think will be really cool. It'll be a really cool. It would be really neat. And maybe go see some sprint car racing. Those guys are over there racing that time. year. When I went over there, I went in 06, and we went and sat in the grandstands right under the flag stand at a dirt race. Nice.

Sprint car race. Yeah, that's awesome. And ate all the junk food, and nobody knew who the hell I was. Perfect. So it was great. Yeah, that was a great thing. We just cheered and raised hell in the grandstands. And then we went to Phillip Island to watch the eight supercars.

That was pretty cool. That is cool. And then we hooked up with Marcus Ambrose. He hooked us up with Paul Morris, who has a driving school. and it's basically little toned down V8 supercars, and we played at his driving school all day. We were the only ones there and got to, I mean, wearing board shorts and T-shirts and flip-flops racing these cars.

Hey, man, got to have fun. Yeah, so I got you hook up if you ever go. Yeah, we want to go. I mean, we've been, Australia is the one, I would say, that we've talked about the most and haven't done. So we're going to do it at some point. Hopefully, hopefully some time this year, maybe the end of the year. It's been talked about.

We just got to lock it down. It's so funny when you're trying to make plans with, like, Ryan or any of our friends. It comes down to, like, we'll talk about it and we'll have a plan and we'll talk about the dates. But until the first person just ups and buys their ticket, it just kind of floats, you know. So I just screenshot my itinerary and send it to them, and then typically it goes from there. So what? What's your, do you, you know, like I said earlier, you got a long time before you ever going to retire from driving race cars, but do you ever think about ownership or what your plans are beyond driving? Who you want to be, what you want to do?

I don't know. I don't know. I can't say I have any interest in the ownership side. I don't see myself on TV. You know, I'm not sure that you saw yourself on TV at 23. I just don't see myself doing that stuff. I'm kind of the kind of person. I just hope, you know, everybody hopes that one day when they get done doing their respective jobs, that they can go enjoy the things they enjoy doing on the backside of that. And I'm lucky to be able to enjoy a lot of things I enjoy now while I'm making a living. But, yeah, I don't, I just, you know, if I'm lucky enough to travel this circuit for another number, of years. I'm not sure that I want to keep travel on it when I get done, you know, but I don't know.

I mean, who knows? I don't know what I'm doing next week, so we'll see. Yeah. Well, let's talk about racing. Like, what do you think about your season, this season? What do you think about the cars? There's so much going on there. We just started broadcasting over the last couple of weeks. The races have been great to watch. Been fun to broadcast. Yeah, you guys have been, you guys stepped right into another few good finishes. I got a driver here. So this is a good time to ask this question. I know where he's going. When I raced, I didn't feel this at all. But last year, when I got in a booth, we had a great race at Chicago with Kyle Larson and Kyle Busch.

And that wildness or whatever, I didn't feel like I saw that in the first half of the year watching the races. But then all of a sudden, boom, that happened. And then the racing and the intensity was great. And, you know, you had your wins and just a really cool playoff battle and just a lot of great excitement all the way to the very end. And then this year it started again. I felt like I watched the first half of the year, and it was ho-hum. It was like everybody's just kind of, you know, doing their job, got their head down, working away. And then we got to Chicago, and it was like a for-alarm fire, you know.

And the intensity just shoots way up. Do you feel that as a driver? Do you feel like it's a tail of two halves of the season, or is it not felt that way? Not yet. I mean, I don't think we're at the point of the season where things are just, completely cutthroat, which I mean, I don't know, it's tough because now I feel like it's, it's edging towards being that way all the time. The way you're driving, racing, and just how aggressive you have to be.

Like, there is no, there's very little give and take now. I mean, I feel like it's pretty cutthroat on what you give and you don't really expect anything much. That's changed a lot in the last year. Seems like it, you know, but I still don't think, there's always, I feel like there's always a little bump in aggression, no matter how aggressive you are leading in, I think there's always just a little bit of a push when the playoff start. But I don't necessarily think it is there yet. I don't think we're to that point. So it's interesting you say that. I mean,

I think you guys have got some great finishes. For sure. To me, those races could have looked like the first half, you know, without a couple late race cautions or this or that. So, you know, it's hit or miss. That's why we watch, though. And two, you know, you. You know, You know, those finishes, we love to see him. And just like a close football game, we want to see it every time we watch. But it doesn't happen every time we watch. And that's what makes it special when you do see it because it doesn't happen all the time. This is interesting because, you know, with Dale Jr., since he's been in the booth,

we honestly didn't know, because I've been watching, you know, from this vantage point for a long time, including all my life, actually, because I've never driven. The fact is, is that we didn't know if there was really an uptick of aggression out there. Because Dale Jr. comes back after being a broadcast. You're like, these drivers are, man, they're driving. crazy. And honestly, we don't know if you sense that, and it sounds like you might be suggesting maybe not in the short term, but maybe over the past year or two, do you feel that there's a competitive uptick in the aggression? Or is that just a product of a different vantage point where

it's always sort of been there? And it's just hard to know it when you're in the middle of it. I mean, I definitely think the vantage point can certainly change your perspective or opinion on things. I mean, you know, like one example now is the spoilers are so big. to me side drafting has become a big deal everywhere everywhere and you know on TV that looks super cool it looks super cool and it is I mean we're really close to each other because every couple inches makes a big difference on how much you drag that guy back so that's one thing I feel like that certainly sticks out and to me that's you know that's I mean that side drafting is what in the aggressiveness of that to me is what sparked the entire finish at Kentucky if

Joey and Kyle hadn't have been, or whoever was on the bottom, hadn't have been side-drapping each other so hard. Kurt would have never drove around him, and it would have never been like that, you know. So it's one small thing like that to me can change it. Yeah. Do you like driving the cars? You know, I have had a change of heart and opinion in the car

and my approach and view on that, and I just have got to the point where somebody make the rules and let's go down the road. Boy, I love it. It's just, you know, yes, is it frustrating sometimes on Sunday when you're better than the guy in front of you and you can't pass him? Yeah, we'll do a better job, you know, and pass him. It was hard to pass when you had no down force. The guy in front of you's still going to have an advantage, whether he has no down force or 5,000 pounds, you know.

So to me, I just, I think that somebody needs to make the rules and quit asking everybody else's opinion and quit letting people on the team. TV and social media dictate it because it just doesn't matter. You know, the races don't look any different now than they did five years ago or eight years ago in all reality. I mean, from the casual fans' perspective, it looks about the same. So let's just quit changing it. Yeah, I like that. I love that. I do, too.

Yeah, we've had Helton on here. We've had the president of NASCAR Phelps on here. And we've told them the same thing. Stop all the collaboration. Find one guy that makes the decisions. Everybody just listens. Just be done with it. Yeah.

And people are like, oh, you're just sucking up. You know, it's like, no, you know. Just tired of the back and forth. Tired of the back and forth. And, you know, it's like, you know, they ask us to sit down in meetings and give our opinions. And it's like, look, man, our opinions shouldn't matter, you know, just make the rules and let's just go. And I just think as you kind of, which I kind of came in and, you know, I came in in the era of the driver council and all those things going on when I feel like, you know, there was a conscious effort to at least make it look like the driver's opinions were. going to be viewed and things were going to be changed because of that. And that shouldn't,

to me, we shouldn't have a, we shouldn't have a say in that stuff. Just pick it. Let's go. Let's go, Ray. I agree with you 100%. Amen to that. The one thing that I learned, it was tough for me to learn just for me personally, was when they would make a change, I would be angry. And hated change, hated anything that wasn't traditional. And I would bitch into media about it and complain and thinking that my complaining was going to do something. Right. And I found out that like, NASCAR's going to make, we're going this direction. NASCAR wants to go. Correct. They hear me, they hear me mouthing off, but it ain't going to change none of that. And it's better for me to probably just embrace the new. Yeah. And try to figure out how to make that work for me. And

I did that with racetracks too. I hated going to Sonoma, hated going to Darrington, and I'd always run like crap at them because I hated them. Yeah. I finally figured out a way to like them. And then I started doing that. Was there a specific incident that made you turn the corner? Can you think back to something where you were like, was it something that you didn't like how yourself was portrayed or look? Did you come off, you know, or was it something that NASCAR like didn't take your considerations or something? What was it that made you turn the corner?

I mean, I think it was a few things. You know, I came in. I think much like anybody at a young age, you think you have the right viewpoints and opinions on everything or whatever. So, you know, and they sit you down in those meetings and those driver came. council meetings and you know when it came time to raise your hand I I like to raise my hand and I felt like I had a valid opinion which probably didn't you know I'm an idiot you know I just started and I shouldn't have an opinion why am I in here why am I raising my hand and I asked myself that after I say something so I just

kind of got to the point where I'm like look you know I've sat in these meetings you know I was I was lucky you have to be the rookie the year my rookie season and that earned me a spot on the driver council and 17 sat through you know whatever five six of those meetings throughout the season maybe saw a couple of the thoughts in the meeting actually come to life. And, you know, to me, that's completely fine. That's not me bashing it. But that's just saying, hey, I don't want any part of that. I don't want any say.

I don't even want to have the opportunity to raise my hand. Yeah. Tim of the rules. I will race. Exactly. And we don't, you know, too, I was having this conversation with somebody the day. You know, the drivers, you know, we're lucky enough to go drive race cars for a living. The owners and these teams are the ones who are in the tough spots

in funding these cars and putting 600 employees to work. Mr. Hendrick has a lot of risk and all that. I'm just lucky enough to go drive the car. So if anybody should have a say, it should be the people who are at that kind of a risk and have those kind of things going on. If it's going to impact the way of life of that many people, the man who's paying those people should have a say.

in it, not the driver, you know, not the guy who's just getting paid to go in circles, you know. Yeah. You, you know, the year for you has been kind of interesting, up and down, frustrating, I'm sure. What are you looking forward to? Well, I couldn't wait to get out of New Hampshire. I couldn't wait for the wheels to come off the ground in the, in Loudon, New Hampshire. Yeah. I was counting down the seconds.

And frankly, you know, Kentucky and Loudoun have been two really, really tough places. So I wasn't looking forward particularly to go on to either one of those two races in general. But the bad thing about that, you know, is I think some of our struggles at Loudon are similar to our struggles we've had at Richmond. I know it doesn't seem exactly the same. But I think some of the characteristics in what I feel are wrong at Loudon. I think that translates to Richmond. So we're going to work really hard on Richmond. And now this is the bad part about Kentucky.

Kentucky's turn three and four is real similar to one and two at Texas now. And that's a bad thing. We've run really bad ever since they repaved Texas. So those are two racetracks that are coming up in the latter part of the year. Texas is obviously a very important race. That's interesting. I wouldn't have compared them two corners. But with that flat entry into turn one at Texas, it is quite similar.

And how flat the eggs it is off of two at Texas. Now, that's a tough corner that myself and that particular piece of asphalt have not gotten along really good. Yeah. Are you, did the win at Watkins Glen change or improve the way you feel about going back to that track? I was, I won at Watkins Glen in the Xfinity Series, but damn, it didn't change the way I felt about that track. Yeah. You know, it's such a love-hate relationship. You hated road courts.

I've, you know, obviously I say this. Now, I've always enjoyed road racing. I haven't always been great at all the tracks or whatever. but I've always had fun at it. So I look even before, I mean, I know it's easy to say, you know, but like even before last year I looked forward to going to Watkins Glen. I look forward to going to Sonoma. It's a tough road course.

I think to me Sonoma has been more challenging than Watkins Glen. Do you think they should go back to the old layout and get rid of this carousel or keep it? I think, again, it doesn't matter. But it didn't change the people who ran up front. I mean, Martin. I thought it took out of passing. zone. Maybe it did. Maybe it didn't. I mean, am I taking out a couple wrecks because the carousel got people further away from each other before that next tight turn, which instead of having two really

tight 90-degree rights, the carousel you needed your air to get around there. So I think it probably just stretched you out a little bit more. But the way I viewed it was the same guy still dominated, same guy still ran second or in the top five or whatever. So same crowd is still good. How's William Byron? You're doing all right as a teammate? Yeah, I think William's doing good. I mean, heck, I feel like, you know, obviously Loudoun was a tough weekend for all of us, but you take Loudoun out of the mix. He's been really fast.

I thought he was our best car at Kentucky. I know he had, I'm not sure what happened there at the end. I was obviously not up front, but he was up front there at one point, and then all of a sudden he was a lap down. I don't know if he got a penalty or maybe they were talking about that in the meeting, I think, the other day. But he's been, heck, they've qualified well. on more than one occasion, and he's been fast in some races.

So it's interesting watching him come along because he has different viewpoints, and just like I'm sure when I came to HMS and my viewpoints were different than yours. And then now with these rules changes in these cars, to me, driving more like trucks, in theory, and he just got out of that, you know. So it's kind of interesting hearing him talk about and refer to some of his truck series days and how that's relating to what he's doing now. He's sharp. Yeah, for sure.

When I raced at Hendonk Motorsports, the 88 and the 48, we're in one shop. The 24 and the 9 were in another shop, or the 5 in the 9, whichever. The 24, it was the 24 and the 5, I think. Either way, this team was split down the middle between the two shops. It was two different cultures. They all made some big changes over there physically in the building to bring everybody together, have all their little more collaboration amongst all four teams. How's that going?

and what's the physical shape of the company? It's definitely different from when, you know, you and I were teammates. And, you know, my first couple of years, I felt like the 24 and the 5, they had their own ways of doing things. The 48 and the 88 kind of had their own ways of doing things. And there's, it's tough because I think there's pros and cons to both. You know, I think when something's wrong and something needs to be changed, you can change it quicker when you're working with a smaller group.

and when you have a problem, it's hard to change things on four cars and get it all done at the exact same time. So it's equal and fair for everybody, you know, I guess is the theory and the goal. I do think as we have progressed in that side of things and that collaboration, I do think that we have become more efficient in getting parts done and getting changes done for four cars and being able to implement it all at the same time and doing it quicker. So to me, that is the biggest negative in that. And I think as time goes, you continue to get better at getting things done and becoming efficient and building. And, you know, the men and women who work at HMS, I mean, there's like, I think right around 600 people that work there now. So, I mean, it is a full-blown machine. And they've, you know, they work really hard in their each respective departments to contribute.

And, I mean, it's amazing all the hands that go into the product on Sunday. I mean, you know, it's unbelievable. Oh, yeah. You've been asked like 243,3,322 freaking times about the deal between you and Denny. But I want to ask you something different, I hope, a little different about it. Yeah. It seemed like that was the moment, you know, the turning point, obviously, everybody looks at your win. But that seemed to be the moment you went from this up-and-coming kid racer to putting your feet in that cement and being, you know, putting a stamp on not only your career, but, hey, this is how I want to be raced.

okay what did you learn anything maybe about yourself through that whole process yeah i mean that obviously you know the biggest thing i i look back at that you know is is uh i mean yes obviously i was i was mad about the whole deal but i think looking back at it as time went on uh and what made me the most upset about it was just the opportunity that was there from winning that race i mean that locked you into homestead and what could have been on the horizon, I think really pushed me to want to try to get ourselves back in that position again. So, yes, I mean, I think you do have to set the way you want to drive. I think your peers know that, you know, on track.

And I think as time goes, I think you set that standard. I think that's an important standard to set. And there's guys that you're racing against each week that have been doing this longer than I've been live. and guys that I grew up watching do it. So it is a delicate thing to try to assert yourself amongst that, and it's also a respect thing. And to me, the best way to earn that respect is to go beat those guys.

And when you start doing that regularly, which I don't feel like I've done regularly enough, but I feel like if you can start beating those guys that I watched growing up as a kid regularly and assert yourself there, I think the respect will come. So I guess to answer your question, I look back at Martinsville, mad about what could have been and to have a shot to race for a championship and that that's the most

frustrating thing you know i've been wrecked before to short track on a Saturday night or whatever night it was you know but that one just had a lot of a lot of hope on the other side so just hope we can be back in that position again can't change it so going down the road and uh try to have cars like that again had a great shot so that's the big thing try to try to try to have cars that drive that good on on a you know whatever day Sunday night at martinsville well but i think that's all i got you got anything else? No, I, you know, I was curious on, you know, you're back here, you know, you're back here and there, but, you know, it's like you're all stomping grounds a little bit. Yeah, I'm going to go in here. When I walked in, I just came straight in here.

So, I'm going to take a trip back here. I'm going to go say to a couple guys. I think if you guys still work here that actually were on my team. So I go see Danny and Billy Wilburne. I actually see Billy right now. So I'm going to go go say hey to a few guys. guys and then I guess we still got our championship Chase Elliott championship banners hanging up and a few wins and some of the wins you had here were amazing at the

time it was really cool but heck there's two more flags after that man you guys have taught me you got us going man you got us going you'll always be that guy that got us going with the championships and so and man I think back to your race at Darlington which was insane

and then the wind you started pulling off right after that man that was just an year. So much fun. It was so much fun. 14 was special for sure. And just how late that whole deal came together and how good it went. I couldn't believe. First off, I couldn't believe it all came together. And then second off, I'm like, man, this is late. We're going to be behind. I forget how late it was. I mean, it was like Christmas time. It was. Yeah, December. I was like, we're going to go. But, I mean, it's so late in the game. Like, no way we're actually going to run any good, you know. And just everything kind of aligned.

And even since then, you got in our car at Daytona, want us a big Daytona race in February. That was so cool. It's cool, man. I love that. I love that connection and what you've met to this business and this company for helping us kind of get our feet wet and get. I don't know about that.

Well, you did. You got us believing in ourselves to be championship contenders every year. You know, we thought we could win races, but you made us a championship company, and now that sort of set a new standard for us to achieve. All right, buddy. Well, I appreciate you coming in flying over here from Dawsonville. We're coming to Dawsonville.

Don't hate me, Dawsonville. I wasn't dogging, y'all. Don't hate him. I want to come check. Don't hate him now because he said you're coming to visit. I'm coming. All right. Got to hold them to it.

We'll see. Hopefully I can get in there and get me a sandwich. And we'll see. It might not even let me in now. I don't know, man. You got some. You got some apologies to go out. You could get off on the wrong foot.

You have dug a hole today. Oh, crap. I think it's more than Dawsonville. I think you have trashed the entire North Georgia area. No! Actually. That's okay, though. We'll work on it.

I'm going to come back and make amends. There you go. All right. We'll see you. Yeah, man. Thank you guys. Whether you're moving into a new place, having a baby, or just Mario. Marie Kondo.

What the hell is that? She is a Netflix star when it comes to organizing and things like that. Like, she's crazy popular. She has a show on Netflix about organizing. things. Yep. All right. And then she's a verb as well because you can say Mario Marie condoing. She's not Mario andretti. She's Asian, not Italian. Correct. Well, you're either way looking for the opportunity to free up some space. Self storage is always an option, but that's not very convenient having to drive across town or whatnot. What if there was a way

to store your valuables without breaking your back or your bank account? Well, now there is. Meet Clutter. The world's largest on-demand storage provider. It's zero effort. Schedule a pickup and Clutter will be there to pack and move your belongings to store that in their secure facility. Need your

stuff? No problem. Just let Clutter know and they'll bring it right to your door. So they'll bring it back to you. Clutter's online photo inventory means that you never forget what's in your storage. That's pretty nice. Clutter has a great sign-up bonus.

for our listeners, you get $50 off your first month when you sign up at clutter.com slash Dale. $50 off first month. Clutter.com slash Dale. That's on top of Clutter's no hassle moving, online inventory management, free pickup, and delivery, and price match guarantee. See why clutter is better and get $50 off your first month at clutter.com slash Dell. That's clutter.com slash Dell and enter promo code, Dale, at checkout.

That's key. Experience the future of storage with clutter. All right, everybody, this is the nationwide ass junior segment of the show. Over the weekend at New Hampshire, Matthew Dillner went out to the fan section and interviewed a few fans for some questions. We got those questions coming in, so we're going to list to them, and here they go. I'm Nick. This is my brother.

We're from Swansea, New Hampshire. We're big Bush Brother fans, and we want to know who's the better Bush Brother. Oh, that's a great question. Who is the better Bush brother between the two? You know, the thing about it is it's hard to tell because they've never really both been in equal equipment at the same time, right? It's hard to tell.

That was not me. That was a stool to step up. The stools do sound just like farts when they slide off his story. I want to say, getting back to the question. Somebody over their head phones on. too long on this segment. Dustin's turning red. I honestly, my opinion of that changes from time to time.

My opinion about what the better Bush brother changes. Depending on the race, depending on how they win or where they win. For the most part, I've assumed that it was Kyle, but boy, this, I mean, for Kurt to win, nothing against the Ganassi team, but we know they've struggled. they don't have the numbers that the Gibbs team has or that Kyle's had and Kurt went out there and took that race away. He took that win. He won that race. And, you know, it's a great car.

Great job all night, you know, with the strategy and so forth. But, boy, that was impressive how he did that. And I just don't know if those cars are straight up even, right? And so my mind changes on the better, but maybe they're both. the same. Maybe they're both just, both amazing. Maybe there is no difference. Sounds to me you were making a case for

Kurt. Well, I changed my mind. I mean, Kyle's going to do something in the next couple weeks or a month that's going to make me think it's him. Yeah, if you put Kyle in in any of those other cars, he's going to win just as much too, right? Don't you think? I mean, maybe not just as much, but he's going to do what Kurt's done. They're very, they're very close. They're super talented.

Great question. All right, here we go. All right, hey, this is Stefan Clark from Connecticut. And my question is, what do you regret about retiring what do I regret about retiring you know I don't know if I regret anything but I miss it gosh I miss it so much and I didn't when I first retired I didn't really the first year had to broadcast booth and that new job was pretty nerve-wracking and that kept me pretty busy and mine busy but the further away I get from racing man the more I miss it the more I guess I don't know if I regret retiring but I wish

that I hadn't got those injuries that I had to have to retire because I'd still be racing. But, you know, I just think about the guys down there. And I'm curious as to what the racing's like this year, how much fun it is. And there's moments when you're watching the race, broadcasting the race that you'd like to be out there. But there is a lot of it that I do not miss.

There's more to that job that I don't miss because it's not all a bed of roses and it's definitely none of it's easy. But, yeah, the further I get away from it, I thought I'd miss it less, but actually it's ramping up. For whatever, yeah, it's odd. Here we go. Hello, I'm Troy Sooner from Freehold, New Jersey.

Junior, who is your number one person that you want to see on the download? Oh, good question. Good grief. Who's the number one person I'd like to see on the download? It just popped into my mind the other day. Maybe, I mean, we had a long list of, of people that we would love to have. I'll just go through a couple of names

that are on the top of my list. Carl Edwards, love to have him on, talk about what he's doing with his life. He's a bit of a mystery. He always kind of been a private guy, so maybe one day we can get him on here. Jimmy Johnson would be a lot of fun. Me and him got a great friendship relationship,

and I think there's a lot of stuff about Jimmy that's pretty cool that I think you'd find cool as well. Richard Petty. Love to get Richard on here. Kyle Petty. Kyle's a great storyteller. He lived his life alongside his dad and has a lot of great stories as well of Richard,

and his whole experience would be great. Mark Martin would be awesome to have on the show. Let's see. Rick Hendrick would be awesome to have on the show. Kenny Schrader, absolutely. Hey, Brian Bell and Sam Bell from West Bridgewater, Massachusetts. And Dale, the new table's cool. You look very professional sitting at it.

But do you prefer sitting in the couch being relaxed for the podcast? I don't. I actually prefer the table. I like the table because we got room for all our IP. pads and phones and my glasses. It's cool to be able to showcase some of our favorite diecasts from the past. And I can clearly see Mike, and he seems comfortable. I like being able to talk to my guests straight across the table.

I didn't like sitting side by side and looking and, you know, your neck would get sore sort of looking at that person that way. But so sitting straight across from them, we can have a one-on-one. It's a little more personal. Dale, buddy. Steve from there. mask. I got one question for you, bro. I like hats as much as you do. This is my favorite one. What's yours? My favorite hat, you know, it's the one that fits good. I don't really know if I

have a favorite all-time hat. But let me think. You know, I got one from my late model days that I really love, but I don't wear it because it's the only one I have. But I, a hat from like 1996 that we had made for my late model racing days. So I'm Taylor from Boston and I want to know what's most off-the-cuff question you've been asked by a fan that made you think, wait, did they just really ask that? I don't really know how to prepare for this. Nobody trained me for this. What do I do from here?

And how do you respond? The question is, will you marry me? Oh, really? Sure. How do you respond to that? I mean, there's only two ways, right? Probably no. I'm assuming.

Either yes or no. Okay. All right. Yeah, that's an odd one for me. Still odd. The other one is that you'll get from, this is terrible, but you'll get from the husbands that, or the wife, that you're the hall pass, that's weird.

Especially when they're all present. Hey, Dale Jr. My name is Tori Giles. I am from Athol, Massachusetts, but I currently live in Manchester with my husband. And I love animals, and I know you have a few. so I was just wondering what is your favorite farm animal and why? Well, I love our buffalo. What are your favorite of a farm animal?

You know, my dad loved horses. He had a Clydesdale. That's not really a farm. Wait, he had a Clydesdale? Oh, yeah. That's not really a farm animal because, you know, they don't, right, you know, I wouldn't consider Clydesdale a farm animal. Farm animal to me is an animal that is productive on the farm,

whether it's working on the farm or it's making the farm, money like cows and horses and stuff but but dad loved horses and he would saddle those horses up and ride them on his property often and he loved it he'd get his friends michael and waltrop and other people to come over to ride horses as well and uh so that probably is my favorite farm animal i don't have a horse though there's always tomorrow it's a lot of work they are a lot of work yeah too busy last one my name's jason dean from dover foxgraf maine dale jr what's your favorite thing that mike Davis does and what's the most annoying thing that Mike Davis does. So the most annoying thing that he does is probably, hmm, doesn't answer my phone calls or text messages. I knew he's going to say it.

Guess what, guess what his most annoying thing is? Doesn't answer his phone call or messages. Okay. So that's one thing because we are such a part of each other's lives, at least mostly professionally, that it's necessary that we stay in communication so when you when it's not the line's not connected it's tough the best thing he does i mean there's so many he does a lot of amazing things he's been i think my favorite part about mike is he's loyal and that he's worked with us here and helped us um he's built dirty mo media from the ground up it's been his vision um he's helped me uh build my brand that list goes on and on the things he does and he is selfless the right word yeah and just you know he works hard great family guy he's been an inspiration to me as a father and a husband and you know just there's a lot

of amazing things about the guy that's why i say that for last i don't mark moment i went i went down i went down negative then back up positive you like that yeah yeah yep so now don't worry that you won't you'll forget all the negative we'll end on that note and he's right He's right on the things that are annoying. I don't doubt that. I knew that was going to be the answer. All right, y'all, that was fun. I kind of, you know, we'll get back to the YouTube channel and, you know, doing this live

because that's always enjoyable and spontaneous. But that was pretty good, good job, Matt. It was a good job, Matt. Getting those great questions, some great folks giving us their time to do it. We appreciate that. Maybe we kind of move around, flip back and forth, doing it at the racetrack. Maybe we'll get some more of these, maybe Charlotte Race Weekend or something local. But that's a lot of fun.

I like it. Hey, anytime you want to send me the damn track. Yeah, well, I'm all in. I knew you'd probably be at Charlotte, so I was just going to go ahead and throw that. I started salivating. He's sacked his pants. For the third time in his life. Three for now.

This week, Vivalene DIY question of the week, best shortcuts from the track, or the craziest shortcuts from the track. And we all have been spending our lives at racetracks over the years. And I always took pride in, uh, finding the best shortcuts out of the track, into the track, beating the traffic, that kind of thing. Dale Jr., you and I have been in many cars leaving the tracks. Do you, is there a shortcut that you always knew? You know, and Dale Earnhardt would have been one that I would thought had some pretty good tactics on leaving race tracks and stuff.

But best shortcuts, craziest shortcuts, what do you got? Well, there's a Michigan shortcut, and it's a dirt road, very scary because there's all, there's not only you're on it, but there's all other race teams and drivers as well. and everyone is hauling tail down this road. And so it's shooting us dirt and dust and rooster tails. It's kind of like driving in the rain. You can't see the car in front of you, racing in the rain, I would say. And so, yeah, that's pretty treacherous and nerve-wracking.

There's also a similar escape out the back of Watkins Glen where you would drive. Oh, yeah. Forgot about that one. Yes. And so all the tracks have these. quirky little ways to get out of them that I don't know that a lot of people are aware of and we don't take them as much as broadcasters now because we don't we don't get out of the booth right away right you know when we were driving a race car shoot you jump out of the car you jump out of

the car and jump right in the rental car which your shoot on right um and just haul but um but now we're not in as big a hurry to leave so we don't really use these uh little little secrets you know escape plans as often, but man, there were some wild ones, and dad was the best at it. Dad, there was a competition. Everything was a competition. Not just with him, with all the other, I mean, all the drivers sort of were about this. But there was the race to win in the cars, and then there was a race to the airport, and then there was a race home.

I mean, literally, they'd be in their planes going, how can we get around that other plan? Like, isn't that illegal, you know? I don't know. Is it, like, is it legal to be passing planes? Should we be going through their front yard? Yeah. And then Dad was sort of the one that spearheaded all that was the antagonist, if you will, on making everything a competition.

I mean, there's still some pretty interesting escape plans, and we'll park our cars in places to be able to access. At Richmond, we parked the car out across the street from the racetrack. So when the races, though, we walk right out there with all the fans. We're walking amongst the race fans exiting the racetrack into the street to get in a car. We've done it that way for years. Same way at Chicago. At Watkins Glen this past year, we parked a car in a grass lot way, you know.

Way on out. Yeah. And then golf cart out? We drive up. I don't know. I don't know where we're – this first time I've done it this way. I don't know where the cars parked. So I get out of the booth.

We get on the golf cart and we ride about 10 minutes into this big, giant field full of cars. and race fans getting in their cars and there's our car right in the middle of it when he hopped right in there and everybody's like hey Dale I'm like what's up just like I mean bear me Dale Jr he's just like the rest of us

broadcasters they're just like the rest of us but he I mean he brings up Richmond I mean we would go out with the crowd I mean I'm talking in Dale's heyday Budweiser years and stuff like that walk out through that tunnel and out with the crowd yeah one time I put on a Bobby Labani t-shirt and Bobby Labani hat

I went out to the place to get it. You went and bought all that stuff. Yeah. So I said, buy something, buy disguise. And you bought a Bobby Lonnie shirt, hat, in a seat cushion or a cooler? That's right. I bought a David Ruderman, a seat cushion. There was no line in his trailer.

It was easy. I needed to go. I went and bought it seat cushion. The funniest part was he went in and changed into our, we'll call it the disguise, although it just looks like a race fan. And then all of a sudden, somebody in the media, probably Bob Dillner, showed up to do an interview and we just said, look, man, frame that thing tight. Because he's like, you know, Bobby Labony gear on, maybe like a Domino's Pizza seat cushion and whatnot.

But yeah, but he did. It was like right up there in his face. I remember taking a shortcut. You remember how bad the traffic was at first at Texas before they improved it? And I was like, we're not getting in this. And I remember there was like a gas station or something. And I saw a gate behind it and there was a field and I pulled into the gate. my producer started getting mad at me.

We can't go into somebody's property. I'm like, let's go. So we started driving down this little grass road into this pasture. And next thing you know, we hopped to another pasture and there was damn steer off to our left and he was mad as hell at me. Like, we're in somebody's farms, it's ridiculous.

And we could see the highway over there. Well, we got back. It only took us an hour to get back to the hotel. Two girls that we had dropped off of their cars, it took them three and a half hours to get back to the hotel. So it was like, damn, through pastures. Listen, good stuff. Listen, from high mileage rides that need that thick anti-wear film,

the newer engines that have carbon buildup, head over to valvene.com slash Dale. That's valvine.com slash Dale to find the product spec for your engine. This ain't your average race, redireeac. Unfiltered commentary and an abundance of opinion. Mr. nice guy or Mr. Gets got him out of my way. Like Johnny Cash, we ain't afraid to walk the line. This is a door bumper clear, available on major podcast platforms. Four, bumper, clear.

White flag. Keep talking about it. White flag, bud. White flag right there, white flag. Dale Jr. did something last week that you guys are going to like here on the Dale Junior download. He surprised a few employees here at Junior Motorsports with some time off from work and a thousand dollars cash. Just like, boom, guys, they show up to work and they end up with $1,000 cash.

And the best part is we rolled on it. And so coming up on the Dale Jr. download over the next couple months, you guys are going to be hearing these segments. Matthew does a great job designing. that and so we had the first one this last week with Kira, but she just helped us, you know, kick this program off. So that's a due time off segment, a new partner with us is Mountain Dew. We really appreciate that. That's what's coming up.

Anyone want to take a guess what's coming out in a few months that will change your life or can change your life? Does anybody know this? God, you said this the other day. I remember you asking this question. I couldn't remember that. You should know this, Dale. Racing to the finished paperback edition.

Oh. Yay. I don't know if we're supposed to start promoting this yet, but it's something I've been working on the past couple weeks. Whatever. Yeah, in a few months, the racing to the finish, paperback edition will be coming out, but you can still buy racing to the finish right now.

It has really changed a lot of people's lives. And we talked to Dr. Collins not too long ago, and so he still gets a lot of new patients. You guys, we've got a TV show. It's pretty awesome. Every Tuesday on NBC Sports Network, if you ain't watching or DVRing or at least attempting to watch and you suck, Brian doesn't lose sleep for nothing, boys and girls.

That's right. So that's 5 p.m. Eastern on Tuesdays, 2 p.m. Pacific. And I'm going to end with a few Apple ratings and reviews. Boone E.M.A. 987 gave us five stars. Nice. And he wrote, I was dearly close to both of my mammoths and have lost them both. Listening to last week's episode brought up so many memories, and I think it's awesome that Dale is close to his mammaul Earnhardt.

And after this episode, I have decided that I like Brenda even more. Dale Jr. and Amy need to take out of mammals more. And now I am on the fence about liking Harvick. Oh, Ouch. Flying Ryan 64 gave us five stars and wrote, This show blows me away. Every guest is intriguing and it's awesome to see the other side of junior.

I wish now I hadn't rooted against him all those years. Those are the best. I know, right? Right. Wait. I thought he was an asshole. It's pretty cool. Joe, this is the last one.

Joe from Virginia Beach gave us five stars and wrote one of the best podcasts out there. You don't have to be a huge racing fan to enjoy. with a Dirty Mo Crew. Fun, down to earth, and entertaining. Mark my words, one day, I'm going to have a beer with y'all. Awesome. There you go. All right, guys.

Some good stuff. That's great. Good stuff. Thanks for those reviews. They really mean a lot to us, inspire us, and motivate us to keep kicking ass. Let's hear some odd history. As we head into Watkins Glen this week, we turned back the clock to 1993. It was the bush race at Watkins Glen.

Todd Bodine was driving for fiddle, fiddle, fattel. What? Yeah. Fiddle fattel fattel. It was just, I think it was kind of like a caramel, popcorn-ish thing. Number 34, Chevy Luminah, Frank C.C. on the car. I remember him. Well, Todd had a handful, but it wasn't because of the race car.

The car was on rails, and he came from 18th, toward the front really quick. In fact, about midway through the race, he was chasing down Joe Nimichick for second, but then he lost both of his contact lenses. Around Lab 30, Bowdown lost contact lens number one. Then the second contact popped out under caution on lap 36. That was a bad six-lapse span for Todd. But it wasn't as bad as the rest of the race. There were no more caution, so he had to deal with the impaired vision

because pitting for a pair of glasses would have cost him too much track position. He drove the final 25 laps without his contacts and ended up finishing fifth. Well, it still explains a lot. The driver, Todd Bedin, said it was a blind finish. We had a shot to win, but I couldn't see where I was going. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Is that the day you called him a cue ball-headed fool? No, it wasn't. No, that was Colorado, right?

We got an update on last week's odd history. Apparently TNT had footage of the man that Moon Mayfield. We've never seen it. But word is that they handed the footage over to the police for evidence. It's got to be out there somewhere. We hope it surfaces. It's surfacing now. Look, a little birdie just sent us right now.

A little birdie just sent us at an undisclosed source video of the moon. You got to check this out, guys. Holy crap. Watch what he does when he gets to the wall. Oh, my heavens. No, he didn't. Shake it like a Polaroid picture. No.

He really did that. And then he ended up in the woods lost and had to build a fire. We forgot about all that, you know. I think that was the other guy. Yeah. There was a lot of guys hopping into the woods in Pocono. Wow. I could have gone without seeing that.

I think that that was the one that ended up building a fire. No. For singling for cop. No, that was another guy. Yeah. That was different. three guys that we highlighted. A lot of crazies.

A lot of nuts up in the northeast, I guess. That explains me. Is that a, is that a, is that a pun? On what? Never wrong. Guys, that was a fun show. Thanks for Chase Elliott, coming out here and joining us finally.

You can find some good Chase Elliott autographed items at pristine auction. Pristine auction likes hearing me say authenticity. They make me say it a lot. And Mike? Blah, blubb, me remember Bill you. Mike says that a lot. They like it so much. They like it so much that they keep coming back.

Here's the deal. They're an authentic memorabilia website where you can bid and win great autographed items from the comfort of your home. I've signed for these guys. Their items are legit. Authenticity guaranteed. There are all types of auctions, including daily auctions and those speedy 10-minute auctions that I love so much.

You can snag some incredible deals on there. We had Matthew pick up an item this week. What you got, Matthew? All right, I found a awesome 16 by 20 framed, yeah, not an 8 by 10, Dale. Photo from one of my favorite movies of all time Slapshot, the hockey movie with Paul Newman. It's got the famed Hanson brothers sitting on the bench all bloodied up, and it's currently 20 bucks. Sometimes I wonder why I let you pick some of these items out. What the heck?

Hey, did you guys see what DBC did? because, you know, they always bid on an item each week on their show. Brett Griffin is gone, so they bought or bid on and won a Clemson football that they're going to put on the table. That is going to go flying. So good. He literally said he's not going to do the show. Oh, so he knows about it.

He knows about it. He said on Twitter, he will not do the show. Got it. Good commitment about it. That guy. Go check out pristineauction.com now. It's free to register, free to bid, and of course, you only pay for the items you win. That's Pristine Auction.

It's spelled P-R-I-S-T-I-N-E-A-Oction.com. Okay, Junior Nation, we're going to depend on you guys when you register to please select the Dale Junior Download podcast from the drop-down menu in the How Did You Hear About a Section? That's very important. Happy bidding to those with birthdays that are listening. Happy birthday! Oh, wait. What is that?

That's picking on you because you said happy birthday the other week instead of happy bidding, which is funny as hell. Happy bidding, and to those with birthdays that are listening, Happy birthday. And be sure to join us next week on the Dale Jr. download. Goodbye. You are the weakest week. Goodbye.

Oh, I'm not. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo.