The Dale Jr. Download - 270 - William Byron: The Next Big Thing

Episode Date: August 19, 2019

Dale Earnhardt Jr. precedes the show with a personal message regarding last week’s plane crash.  Then on this episode, Dale digs deep to get to know young racing phenom William Byron.  The two discuss his meteoric rise, a face-palm moment with Kyle Busch, Chad Knaus’ personality, owning the SIM racer label, wake surfing and feeling out of place in Cup.  DJD talks about DMBL Hoops, fantasy football, Dale’s new specs, a date night gone wrong and how hot dogs are best friends with mustard.  Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. We pre-recorded this podcast a few days ago with our guest, William Byron. And obviously, since then, my family and I were involved in an awful accident. Just wanted to let everybody know that, you know, we're so thankful for all the prayers and phone calls and everything everybody did over the last several days has really helped lift us up. Yep. Yep. And it's, I was here trying to help me.

send this message to you, but we're just so appreciative of, you know, the quick decisions by our pilots and the emergency personnel, law enforcement. Everyone at the hospital was amazing. It just was, it was so fast how quickly they responded and took care of us. We were in incredible hands. And there's an investigation going on, so we weren't. We're not going to comment or speculate about what happened or discuss that with anybody going forward.

We're just trying to process what we went through, and we appreciate all the privacy that we've been extended to do that on our own time. It's been a very difficult few days for everybody, but me and my wife and our family just are trying our best to get back to normal as soon as possible. and we just really appreciate all the support. It just meant a lot to us and want you to know that. So enjoy the podcast and we'll be seeing you soon. This is a production of Dirty Mo Media.

This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Dirty Mo Media. I see the goal and you done. You see it's coming better run. You better run. Get out the way. We got a squad. We going off.

Hey everybody. It's Dale Jr. back. again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download this week's guest is William Byron. William is coming into the show. We've got a lot of questions. Let's get started. How do you feel about your ability in the wet? I love the wet. Yeah. It's my favorite. That was a greasy place. That's saliva. You had to poop. Oh. Oh. Whoa. Really, really bad diarrhea. Oh. Oh my head.

No, he didn't. Brother, sun tanning in the park with just like a thong on in a toboggan. No. He developed an erection. Oh, my goodness. He really did that. Brother. What's a duck dude?

Quack, quack, quack, quack. Hey. Mike has a really big feet. Quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack, quack. I'm going to wait. I can't wait for that. I want to bundle up. That's awesome, man.

All right, Dale Jr. Download back again. My co-host, Mike Davis is here. Matthew Dillner, Leah, is in the little, I don't know, what you guys call it? The dirty booth? Dirty booth. You're in the production booth. I get on my new spies.

Oh, look at this. So I can read. Yeah. Spectacles. I am officially wearing progressive lenses now. Is that right? Body's falling apart, huh? Yeah.

All right. So I've been wearing glasses kind of on and off to read a little better, but now it got so where I could my arm went long enough. You know, Matthew, you can always bump up the point size of this show sheet here. On my phone. It's going to be a tablet. 18. I refuse to go up on the font.

Don't do that. Of my phone. Don't do it, yeah. Because everybody that I see that has the font really large, I go, damn! Right, right. You old. Yeah. Right.

And so I'm trying to avoid that. But my arm ain't long enough anymore to get out there and get it where it ain't blurry. So I went to the doctor and I got me some progressive lenses. I like them. Here people don't like them. Oh, so these are new? Because I thought these were the ones that you were wearing a couple years ago with the concussion deal. These are new. So the top is for looking far off. The bottom is for reading. All right. So you don't have to pump up the point size. There's something going on in the middle. I'm not quite sure what it does. The transition, I've got it. Oh, so you're progressive lenses as well?

But I thought you would have to like pay attention to the angle of your neck or your head to be able to know reading, reading out the bottom of them and stuff like it. You know, it comes pretty natural. I know nobody understands this, but this is a significant moment in our whole friendships that we have in here because Dale Jr. used to go get his annual physical as mandatory by NASCAR and brag about, I see like a beagle. 2020.

Actually, whatever's better than 2020, that's what I got. Yeah, 2010. 2010. See like a beagle. And really, he was memorizing the letters on the, eye chart. I mean, it's the same chart. And they walk me right by the damn thing.

So, I mean, it's not easy to see the bottom row and get it in your mind and then read it off. And she'll go, oh, you're 2010. He's like, got another year. Got him for another year. Bottom line, E-G-O-T, every time. Every time. Well, he's got those glasses now, though. Yep.

So another thing that's firing up this time of year is fantasy football. Now, I was a little apprehensive to bring up this particular topic because Mike used to be in my fantasy football league, but he quit or retired or something. I did not quit. You did not quit. I did not renew the contract. There you go. Same, whatever. Okay.

So, anyways, yeah, guys come and go. Tyler Overstreet's no longer in the league. He is retired from everything in life. Yes, he has. I hate that. I'm still part of stuff for years. You hate what? I hate when people bag out of leagues.

Well, I don't understand. Why do you hate it? You're in a league with friends and stuff. You stay in a league. Finish the season, yes. But you hate it when people don't do it another year? I like tradition. So Mike left.

I like having a life. You know what's even worse? Mike, yeah, the fantasy football got in the way of Mike's life. Obviously, it is doing it wrong, if that's the case. No, no, listen. I love that all you guys like fantasy football. I love hearing about it. I really do.

I love it. when the plight of the fantasy football owner becomes everybody's business in the room. That is fun for me now that I'm not playing. The worst thing about it, Dillner, since you love tradition so much, is his team was amazing in the fact that what was the names, it was a reference to Jimmy Means. What was it? Jimmy's smut means.

Smut means business as well. Smut means business. Smut means business was his, and he had Jimmy's car as a logo and all that. It was really sad to see that leave the league. That was my logo. The Alcissetzer. The Alcissor.

I was really sad to see that tradition and that, you know, that personality that Mike brought to the league leave anyhow. Right. This is not what I want to bring it. Right. This isn't about me. Let's not. Let's go easy on Mike.

Thank you. So, yeah, I have a league. It's called the Basement League because we've always drafted in the basement of my house. And it's a mix. It's really not a mix. It's just friends. Let's see. Smith is in it. He's, I think, new this year because he took Tyler's place. But we got a lot of

TJ's in there. He's been in there for multiple years. I also have a couples league, which is all females in one division and all males in another division. There's 10 teams in it. So there's five females, five males, and they're all married couples. That's cool. Yeah, it's pretty fun. That is cool. They're not on the same team. No, no, no. All the females play in the division. And so it's a guaranteed male versus female championship game. That's a good idea. You might get some male versus male or male versus female in the playoffs.

I'm not sure because the way it sort of plays out in a... Or in the regular season. Yeah, sure, that too. But in the playoffs, even, you might get a male versus female. But it's always going to be... Anyways, that's neither here nor there. But that's a lot of fun. But it's cranking up, man.

We got draft scheduled. So maybe we'll give some updates about our fantasy. Matt, you're in a league? I'm in two. I'm in a J.R.M. League. Jerry M has a league, awesome. Actually, three. Leah, you do any fantasy football? I got roped into the J.R.A. Ladies League this year.

Yes. No clue what I'm doing. You may likely be taking my mother's place. So it's very important for you to be thoroughly excited about this. Are you going to be my coach? Well, yeah, I guess I can get you started. I literally don't watch football at all. Does Taylor play?

No. All right, then you need some help. So I will definitely. Definitely, you know, be happy to coach you along to get you started. But, I mean, eventually it takes over and you're on your own and you don't want to listen to nobody. Sometimes the people that don't know what they're doing actually win the league. Yeah, that's a great thing about fantasy football is you really don't have to know what you're doing. Oh, perfect.

Yeah. In the couples league, we had one of the girls auto draft and ended up winning everything in one year, and it was so annoying. And then they think they're the greatest of all time to ever play fantasy sports. But we might, since Mike doesn't play anymore, we'll go easy on the updates. We won't get too deep into it so that it annoys the hell out of him. Or we should just like prompt him to play. Listen, to be honest. I would love to hear some, sorry, Mike, go ahead.

No, go ahead. I'd just love to hear maybe if you play fantasy football, what are some cool fantasy football team names that you might have that are racing-related? Oh, yeah. Everybody got, you know, everybody knows using the football. last names, first names and so forth of players to incorporate that in your team name. What's some good fantasy football team names that would be racing or NASCAR related? That'd be cool to have on our social media.

That would be a service for a lot of people, to be honest with you. Have you already known your team names yet? I want y'all, if y'all have any of those ideas, write to at Durnimo Media on Twitter and let us know. Have we done it? We put out a call for people to tell us team names, but we did not get very many racing ones. They're all, like you said.

Well, try to specify and see if some of the guys are a good little creative. My team's names are of historic, fictional, which I don't know if that's oxymoron, but historic fictional TV or movie team names. Like, for example, let me get my teams up here. I got two teams left. I was in about five leagues at one time a couple years ago, but I've since backed it way down. Oh, wait, one's not.

One team name is Key West Chugglers. Only Middilner laughed at that. Key West Chugglers. Key West Chugglers. But this is a historic fictional football team name. Tell me what this is from, if you can. Between the three of you? All right.

Favor college mongles. Oh, that's Animal House. There you go. So I like to use those fictional, I like that. Historic. I had a Ridgemont Wolves. Yeah, okay.

Yeah. From Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I had that as a team name at one time. Schlitz Happens was a team name. That was your team name for a long time. My last year, yeah. And Unicall 76ers. That's a good one.

Was one. What are you going to do? I don't know. Oh, you don't know the name of your team yet? No, I don't have a name yet. You know, in the JR.M. We used to play where we would name your teams for it. Like people would name.

And you had to stick with the team name. That doesn't sound fun. It actually was the funest part of the playing in that week. Was giving the name. I hated my team name last year. Are you doing that, yeah. Oh, you got it assigned to you. Yeah.

What was it? I can't say it on air. Yeah, that's the fun of it. Usually it can be pretty tacky. A lot of the tweets we got, I cannot. Oh, really? Another thing I did this past week, I'm extremely proud of myself for doing this. So I've been living at this place where I'm at for over 10 years now.

And I went into, I have two outdoor grills. One off the kitchen and one downstairs around where we hang out at the bar. And I replaced the grill grates and the heat shields. And I'm looking into replacing all my. burners too because they're over 10 years old a little rust on them uh yeah i felt like a real man out there uh ordering these off of amazon patiently patiently waiting by the front door this could be DIY i was just thinking the same thing patiently waiting by the front door as they arrived and taking them out of the wrappers and placing them onto the grill as if i'd done some real work it was awesome that's

good you know a lot of flavor builds up on those things uh over over time it is a little they're a little It was a little flavor, rust flavor was no longer. The rust flavor. And there was another thing I wanted to mention in our open segment that this is very embarrassing. Oh, good. Let's hear it. Amy's going to be mad because you and her have been talking about doing a podcast and she's flagging all these little experiences for her show. Oh, this is good.

This is one of them. So she might be mad that I'm stealing her idea. So a couple months ago, me and Amy were having a couple beers. thinking about a concert we'd like to go to. And Ben Folds is playing in Charlotte, all right? And we bought tickets. Amy bought them on our phone right there as we're talking. And we jotted it down in our calendar and never put it out of thought into it for the next couple months.

And the week arrives for the concert. Amy's like, hey, we've got to get a sitter. We're going to this concert. Oh, that's now, yeah, it's this week, a couple days from here. We've got to get this figured out, getting the sitter. Going. When we're going to leave? We're going to eat first.

We're going to go to dinner. We're doing all that, right? We're doing the dance. So we get ready, get our sitter, hit the road. We go over to Burkdale to eat. We're going to go into E's sushi joint. Slam-packed. Can't get in there.

And we got a place to, we've got to be at the concert, right? Yeah. It's time to get there. So we walk over to this other place to eat, somewhere you might eat lunch, where you walk up and order in a buffet style and they make it in front of you and we sit down in a

not very romantic or date nighty at all right we're the only people in there so we hustled through our dinner so that didn't go quite as as good as I had planned for date night but we're on our way to the concert yeah and you're fed we're going to get there on time

so we pull in to the venue and if you know Ben's fold right you know his music right violent films was opening up for them. I know their music, right? And as we're getting out of the car, this is at the music factory, the much music factory,

as we're getting out of the car. It's a big place. There's a lot of things happening there. There's bars and other venues and events, and so we heard rap music. Right? Not, yeah, that's... And I'm thinking,

man, it's coming from another location. There's four or five little venues there, right? It's got to be coming from somewhere. That's not our... That's not... Got anything to do with our show out of the amphitheater. We got right up on top of the amphitheater, got our wristband to have an alcoholic beverage.

We're getting ready to walk through the metal detectors and we walk up to the lady to get our ticket scanned and we got the little square, little barcode thing to scan on our phone out. And the lady's scanning it over and over and it's not working. And she's like, what y'all doing? This is a different ticket. This isn't the bin folds.

What's that? I'm like, look at it. the ticket and Amy looks at it and it was the next day. Oh, you were the wrong day. Yes. Oh, no. Wow. We thought the glasses were the sign that you were getting old.

We were at the whole day wrong. The day before. I don't even know who was playing. You were just early. I thought this was going, he went to the wrong place. No. But you went the wrong day.

So we had to walk out. and back to the car and I'm in I'm like this is embarrassing yeah I'm so embarrassed Amy is the complete opposite of embarrassed she thinks it's funny yeah

yeah she's like this isn't a big this is a big deal I'm like no no no this is embarrassing and she started writing in her phone writing notes about I love it I love it for this podcast you and her working on so I won't dive too deep

too much deeper into it no you don't have to dive any deeper. I think you just went deepened up. I mean, this is good. Now, that was so embarrassing. Now, this is funny because now it's all coming back to me. So the next day he calls me and he says, do y'all remember this? He says, hey, I've got these, uh, Ben Folds tickets. And he goes, and I can't give these things away. I'm going out of town. And I said, Tony, is he going out of town? He goes, I don't think he's going out of town. I don't know what's going on. And he goes, I just, I can't use them. Can you find somebody to give him? He didn't tell me,

he didn't tell me the real reason why he was giving rid of these Ben Folds tickets. Well, I wasn't going to go to Ben Folds if I had to be, I had left that night to go to Michigan or the next morning and early, and I couldn't go to Ben Folds. Well, that's right. You were leaving the next day. That's what I said. You said, I'm going to be out of town, but you didn't, you weren't actually out of town. You could have gone. Yeah. But you. Well, so we gave him away. To Tony.

To Tony. And he had a, and by the way, he had a great time. I know. He said it was an awesome concert. I bet. Those concerts always are better when you go on the day of the concert. They always said that. It's amazing how much better they are

When you're actually at the right concert Yeah I did that once And at least it was you and Amy I had like four five cars Oh yeah Meet at my house That was a lot of people

Yeah it wasn't good And I had a new kind of girl interest She rode with me And we were going to the Charlotte Checkers game At the old Bo years ago And we showed up and there was a damn empty parking lot. My gosh.

I looked on the schedule, and they were playing on the road. Unreal. I was embarrassed. Amy didn't care. Amy did not feel any bit of embarrassment. I wish I was like that. We've all had those stories. It's all happened.

Hi, I'm Dellen Hart, Jr. Due time off is a campaign by Mount Dew. They want to empower people to do what they love, and they help remove those barriers to get in the way of their passion. Do the Goose. In partnership with Mountain Dew, I'm going to give some of my employees DTO. That's due time off and $1,000 to pursue their passions. Stay tuned and do the due.

Well, before we bring out our guest, William Byron, let's take a minute to remind you that support for Dale Jr. download comes from wicks.com. That's all right. Y'all know Wix, right? And they have been everywhere. I mean everywhere. Keep going. With Wix, you can create your very own professional website. Choose a template you love and customize it by adding your own text, images, and videos.

With hundreds of intuitive design features, you can tell your story exactly the way you want. Want even more for your website? You can easily start a blog, launch an online store, or create an event. Create an event Just don't have Dale create the event Because you might get the day Call on that Man, I've created some websites

Yeah, you have actually I have, I mean multiple times Yeah I had this one website That I made Back when I was sim racing Big time This is probably in 2000

2001, 2002 And I made a sim racing website So I used to paint my own cars Or paint other people's cars And I'd paint a bunch of cars You could download You could click on a JPEG And download the car

that I painted if you liked it and use it in the race. That's cool. Oh yeah. It was called Junior's Race Place. Oh, I remember that. I do remember that. Junior's Race Place, and that's a blast for the past right there. That's cool. If I had Wix back when I created that website, it would be around today still, so popular.

That's right. Share everything and a click on social media and drive even more traffic to your site with SEO tools to get found. on Google. Are you guys amazed at this? I mean, it feels like a monster truck rally. Let's go ahead. Wix has all the tools you need to create the exact website that you want.

You can even create a beautiful website while listening to this podcast. Over 150 million people choose Wix to create their website. Create yours today. You can get started right away by simply going to wicks.com. That's WI-X.com. Cool. And that's the end. Can I just tell you that producer Brian looked up what website or what concert that was that you showed up to?

And it's Joey Badass with the S's as Dollar Signs and Flatbush Zombies and the Underachievers. Oh, damn. Oh, you should have stuck around. I have no idea what that is. Can you text me all of that so I can send that to Amy? She should be amazed that we missed that. That's what you missed out on. Hey, I can tell my kids I went and see them play.

I didn't stick around. but all right bud have to see pull on them head bones all right in the studio as promised william bairn thanks william for coming yeah no problem thanks for having me i appreciate what you've been up to uh just i did a little uh school tools deal downtown with uh some charlotte kids for uh elementary school what is that uh it's just basically they donate school supplies so they had uh i put together like three or four backpacks and gave it to them met some kids had the show car out there so it was pretty neat. They, you know, I've done a couple

TV promotions for them, so it's cool. Yeah. So, um, appreciate this hat. You brought this hat in here today. Let's see this. Yeah. It's got a good look at it. Uh, this is Rick's original, one of his original Charlotte stores.

Sporty. And your throwbacks from the Days of Thunder movie. Yeah. And it's beautiful. Have you seen Days of Thunder? I have. Do you know a person that has not seen Days of Thunder? This is off topic, but, uh, no, no, no, no, I know one.

You're going to be surprised by who. it is. Steve LaTart. Really? Hired and worked at Hendrick Motorsports all his life up until he became a broadcaster. Never saw days of thunder. Right, and it's basically a movie about Rick Hendrick. Rick and them supplied all the cars and

it's a basics. I tell anyone that is one of my racing or high school buddies to watch that movie to understand racing. Yeah. It's racing 101. Yeah, absolutely. There's a couple other ones. Do you ever seen Strucker race? I haven't. You should watch Stoker race. Yeah. And Last American Hero.

It was made in 1972, 71, but it's about Junior Johnson. Okay. And it stars Jeff Bridges. Yeah. You know who Jeff Bridges is. I don't. Oh, you don't? Okay.

I'm sorry. Jesus Christ. You forget. Young. Yeah, yeah. Remember this is William. Remember everything that we know of. He has not learned it.

I don't want to underestimate the guy. Okay. All right. Jeff Bridges is still out there kicking ass. He is. All right. So, William, what was your first? race car. First race car was a legend car. Right. And when did you, where did you get this legend car?

So I, so I, there's a guy named Devo. There's still a guy named Devo out in, he's got a shop in Concord right behind, it's near 3M. So kind of back there behind that area back there behind the Speedway. And I race for him for a couple of races. I actually got started in Legend cars with a driving school that they had out at the fifth mile. out behind Charlotte Motor Speedway. Was it paved or dirt then? It was paved, but it was all the sinkholes, there was like a 12-foot drop into turn three. So it was pretty exciting, but I drove there,

and then I drove for Devo for two or three races before driving for Dennis, who's out of Indian Trail. So he's got a shot behind his house out there, too. An Indian Trail. Yeah. I've never spent much time in Indian Trail. How would you describe Indian Trail? It's, so it's basically like,

if you're on the south side of Charlotte, so it's on the way towards Darlington. Yeah, Monroe area. So he's got... How far is that for you? Yeah. It's probably 25 minutes. Oh, it's not too bad.

Yeah, not too bad. So he had a Legends car and you raced that. Yep. How old were you? I was 14. That's right. I ran at Charlotte, I guess, on the front stretch. Yeah, I ran at Charlotte on the front stretch,

and I ran the fifth mile in the wintertime. So I ran out there for probably eight races in the wintertime. and then, gosh, I ran 65 races the first year I race the Legend Cres. Really? Every weekend. Just wide open. Yeah, at Concord. Yeah, they got that small track on the back. Yeah.

Right? Yeah, it's a quarter mile. It's like I never raced at the big track until Super's, but I race the Legend car every Friday and Saturday out there. Wow. Yeah. So, yeah, you raced a lot, running Legends cars. Did you jump right out of Legends cars right into our late models?

Did you run anything in between? No. I ran Legend cars for a year. All right, so one year. You ran Ledger's cars for one year, 65 races. How many did you win? Did you have any good success? 33.

What? 33 races. Do you remember how quickly you won? I mean, what race was it? I think it was a 12th, or, yeah, 12th race I ran. Wow, so he didn't win until a 12th race, but then that means he basically won every other race. After that? Yeah, after that.

Well, I got on a hot streak. We race, you know, when you race the same racetrack, you know, you kind of get to know the ins and outs of it. We'd go racing every Friday night at Concord. We'd maybe go to Carraway up in North Carolina, so up in the mountains. That's cool. So you ran, you won 30-some races in those legends cars that year. You went and, you won super late model races with Kyle.

Trucks, you won, Xfinity races you won. You're in a cup series now. You ran late models for us. at Junior Motorsports right out of the Legends cars. So this is like your second year in racing. Yeah, right? And we didn't do good. No.

Why? I finished second like 10 times. That's right. I couldn't win a race. I don't know. What was your sort of take away from running late models? And you've had a couple years to remove from it and to think about it. I, for me, felt like it might have been the toughest style of racing to be good.

to win at. I could never really find consistent success like Josh has done in the late models. It's tough. It's tough. I mean, I won run race at Hickory and then I won a race at South Boston. And those were my two wins. But it was just tough to know, like, it's kind of what I'm going through in the Cup series, knowing what the track's going to do, knowing what you're going to need for a hundred

lap race versus 20 laps in practice, all those different dynamics, being aggressive at the right times you got to really kind of use your car you got to use like i thought the late model stocks you had to really have good racecraft because you you had to get position on guys and guys weren't going to give you much room so that was tough for me to to learn right off the bat legend cars you never touched anybody because you got open wheels on the outside of them so you can't so uh late models you kind of got to use offenders a little bit more i was um i was always surprised by like so we took martin trix junior me and him built a car ourselves we had a lot of fun doing that We built a car in my little shop, and he took it and tried to race it.

Awful. Like, went out there in practice and got out and said, I ain't racing this thing tonight. Really? Yeah. He's like, I can't figure out how to drive it. Right. And, you know, I struggled off and on. I mean, I would run top five, but I wasn't ever great in a late model stock car.

And so now with you having some experience in as well, there's some guys that it just, like, Josh. clicks. It just clicks and it just works. It fits them like a glove for whatever reason. Yep. But I always found them to be really challenging. I just wondered what your opinion was. Yeah. You go into Super's for Kyle. Yeah. I think you ran Supers and trucks. I ran supers for him, yeah, part-time. For a whole year? Yep. Yeah, I actually ran for Jeff Fultz first. Okay. I ran for, it was right when they were starting that Fury race car. So Tony Uri and Jeff were kind of going in on it. They wanted me to drive their house car or whatever. went to Hickory and we won that race.

I'd ran Hickory all year in a late model stock, which was harder, and then I went to a super and it was a little bit easier, I thought. How come is super easier? You can manage the throttle more. You don't have to make as much speed through the corner. It's more exits. And I could just kind of manage my tire wear. And I thought, I felt like that was easier for me

than trying to hustle a late model stock. Because you've got to hustle late model stock and you've got to save tires at the same time. That's a tough balance. I went to Hickory and drove the late model a year ago and was mind-blown about how fast through the middle of the center corner they are. Yeah, they do. They fly through the middle of the corner. Like, that's where they make all their speed.

And I thought I was doing everything I could, and I was still a couple tents off of Josh to be able to run what he was doing. I don't know where it was at. It was mind-blowing. So you go into Superlapes and you start winning again. You know, you've been running, you won in the legends cars, did not winning in the late miles or, you know, you won a couple races, but did the struggle there sort of probably didn't deter you any, but was it a bit of a wake-up call? And then you jump into super's, and you're like, oh, yeah, this is, you know, this is more my speed. Yeah, it was, I think I learned more from late-mile stocks than I did winning races in legend cars, just, you know, dominating and just kind of running up through guys. Yeah. You know, those cars, they fit my style more.

the super fit my style more, but the late mile of stock was tough. I mean, I had to grind it out and kind of learn the ropes a little bit, and I didn't really know what to say on the car either. If the car was loose somewhere, I didn't really know how much that was slowing me down. So, you know, I think I learned from that perspective. I think it kind of carried over when I got into the Cup Series and stuff. Yeah. So early in your career, everybody's got natural talent, right?

and raw ability. You obviously had it. But who are the people that have taught you how to drive? There's always people that are part of people, part of driver's careers that help them understand how to open up the corner entry and arc to entry. Even if it's just small advice such as that, who are the people that have taught you how to drive a car?

Yeah, Dennis was the first guy. Dennis Lambert. So he, you know, I still talk to him, especially about like what to do in situations, how to handle conflict. and how to handle racing guys because he demanded a lot of respect in the legend cars. So he had Ben Rhodes raced for him, a bunch of guys that, you know, Chris Busher lived up in a shop at one point. So he was really around it.

He just was never in the NASCAR side. So he was kind of the guy I still go to for advice on, hey, what would you do to not necessarily pay it back, but how would you stick up for yourself? How would you, you know, handle this situation? So I kind of go for him for stuff like that. And he helped me just, he could see the race car on the racetrack and he could come on, like we test, and he would walk onto the racetrack, sit on the door and ask me questions about the car based on what he just saw. And he knew exactly what was going on. And so that just that kind of blew my mind.

I didn't have to explain to him much. Are you saying he's teaching you more than just the car, though, like on how to drive the car, but more on how to be a racer? Mm-hmm. Is it, you know, off the track as well? Is that right? Yeah. Yeah, I would say, like, he just taught me what's, I guess, acceptable. Like, how do you race someone?

How do you, when is the time to maybe move a guy a little bit or not or give it back, I guess? So you ran supers for Kyle eventually, some, right? And then trucks for Kyle, you race to almost won a championship. Yeah. You all broke a motor. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

That was very disappointing. You'd won, what, seven races that year or something like that? Six to that point, yeah. That was going to be the seventh? That was going to be the seventh. How was that? Early disappointment in your career. I mean, that, you know, it's truck series.

You're looking beyond that. You're looking at Xfinity. You're looking at Cup. But still, I mean, how hard was that for you to swallow early in your career there? Yeah. I mean, it was tough because I didn't know any different. You know, I was like, man, I like, in my mind, I'm like, I got to win. Like, I got the best truck.

I got to win the championship. You know, it's expected kind of thing. And I didn't like that whole expectations piece of things, but it was part of it for me. Like I was coming to drive for you and I was like... You can sort of understand what some of the drivers of his, like Harrison Burton and so forth, are going through this year with the expectations. Yeah, and I think so. I mean, I think a little bit of it is that, but we had won some races, so that took pressure off me.

But just knowing that, you know, Rick Hendrick had given me a call, I was going to come drive for you. I'm like, man, everybody's like got their eyeballs on me to win. So I think it was a little disappointment in that aspect of not coming through with it. but it wasn't something that we could really control. So that made it a little bit easier. I got to tell you, this is reminding me about when he first came here. And you're talking about expectations. Yeah.

The expectations were coming from you guys. You had expectations and your dad had expectations that was unlike any other expectations. We've had dads and their sons come in here wanting rides. But when you guys, you guys, I couldn't believe it. You had your own hero cards already. You'd run a year of legends. Yeah, from legend cars. Yeah.

And you bring in your stack of hero cards. And it's like, and his dad, to his credit, it was like, he's going to be the next thing. He's going to be the next thing. I mean, his dad was very, very up on it. And we're like, sure he is, Mr. Byron. We know he's going to be the next thing. And dang, if you don't go out there.

And even though the late model year where you finish second a million times it seemed like, you really were finishing second a lot. You did win those couple races. But when he started winning in the super lates and then in the trucks and then in Xfinity, I'd be like, dang is, his old man was right. He was like, he knew it from the beginning. But the expectations you guys had, you guys brought it to us and said, this is what we expect

out of him. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I was always bringing my dad to the racetrack. And so it was always like, you know, it was what I wanted to do. So he knew how passionate I was about it. And he knew what a dream it was for me to just be a part of it. So I think he just kind of, he knew how much passion was there. And so he knew I was going to do whatever it took. and I guess that's kind of how we went about it.

Yeah, man, you were so good, so early. Who do you credit for discovering you? Yeah. Oh, man. That's a good question. I'd say Dennis, because Dennis or, yeah, that's a good question. Probably just in legend cars. Probably Devo.

Devo was actually, I will say, Devo was the first guy that went to watch me at a racetrack. Nobody else wanted to watch me because I was so new and never raced anything. and Devo went to the racetrack and actually watched and got me in one of his cars. So that was a big deal. Yeah. I would bet Kyle says it too. Kyle likes to think that he's discovered and trained you into this awesome driver

driver that you are. Well, you've had some good laughs over that. Would he be accurate even a little bit? I mean, yeah. Kyle's info once I got to KBM was huge. I mean, him being in the debriefs every week and explaining to me what I could do different or what maybe sometimes it was like, hey, you did a good job this week, you know, keep doing it. But other times it was like, hey, that's the first time you've been in that situation.

Maybe you can try this. I didn't even know how to do a restart. I didn't know how to manage all those different games that are played. So he helped me with that. So you're watching this year with the CUS Cup series and the struggles that he's had with his drivers and their success. And he's gotten a little criticism, I think, on the ownership side of it, how he's handled it publicly, being tough on those guys. He's been pretty tough, pretty honest. But you consider him an incredible owner. He's helped you a lot as far as shaping your ability

and your time, even though short-lived in his program, really helped you a lot. Yeah, it did. I mean, it did for sure. It was, you know, luckily the things he would say in the public were kind of were pretty positive about what we're doing. But it's a business. I mean, you've got to work. Like when you're at the race shop, you got, it's your workplace. and, you know, I didn't necessarily have a lot of friends around the track. I was just there to race for his team. That was my number one goal. So I think that's what he expects, and that's kind of how we went about it.

And Rudy was really, Rudy was instrumental in that, too, my crew chief. He's probably, you asked me guys that kind of taught me the ropes, and he's definitely up there because he taught me so many things that Kyle didn't even have to say. Rudy would kind of lead me down that path already. You said just a second ago you didn't have many friends at the racetrack. So who are your friends at the racetrack? I like Eric Jones. Really?

Yeah. We get along. Do you hang out with any drivers away from the track at all? Probably just Eric. I mean, a little bit, Ross Chastain, Cole, Custer. Eric's the only one that we directly kind of race against, I would say. But, you know, we do hang out every now and then for sure. Yeah, what do y'all do?

I just go out on a lake. Go out of a lake. Oh, I've seen you're trying that way. You're trying that thing. Every single other person around Lake Norman, around Lake Norman, North Carolina is doing it. Wake surfing. Oh, you wake surfing now?

Yeah, I like it. It's like, it's definitely the thing to do, I guess. Well, the thing to do is to do it and then Instagram it. Like, it's not even worth doing if you're not going to Instagram. I want to see the Instagrams where they wipe out. Everybody's great at surfing. What are the ones where they don't stand up? How many times did you bust your ass for you figured out?

So many times. So many times. But the thing about that one, wakeboarding hurts you a lot more. than wake surfing. So you can go, wakeboarding, you're going 22 mile an hour. So you're, when you hit that water. It's 10 mile an hour difference.

So you're closer. Why would you do one versus the other? So with the wake surfing, you're closer to the boat and the wakeboarding, you're, I know, but one is better than the other or easier or harder?

Why do you do either one? Why is one? One hurts less than the other. Like wake serving hurts less. They don't have a wide open while they're surfing the way behind the boat. Yeah, but I didn't know there were two types

and that there was such a very small difference between the two types. Why is there two types? We don't know because we don't do it. I won't him to tell me. Well, there's, I mean, somebody else could probably say it better than I could. Which one do you prefer? I like the wake serving because every time I hit the water around wakeboard and it hurts, man. It's like it goes, you knock the wind out of you and everything.

But wake surfing is just, you know, you're going 10 mile an hour so you can do that. Relatively easy? Yeah. Was it easy? It's pretty easy. Is it? There's lots of freaking balance of it now. Yeah.

It's like the thing to post for sure. I know. Is that what you and Eric Jones do? Does Eric go out there to do it too? Yeah, he does it. Is he good at it? He's pretty good, yeah. Okay.

Who's real good at it? Oh, man. Rodney Childer's pretty good. He does it a lot. He does a lot, yeah. He's got a boat. He does nothing wrong, that guy. Rodney?

Rodney Chilers, right. I mean, just, you always got the right amount of fuel at the end, too, doesn't he? Just always got enough gas. Everybody else is running, running out, and then he goes off in his best wake surfer. Of course he is. So talking about Kyle, we've got to talk about Watkins Glen. So what's...

I saw it. I'm there. I'm calling the race. No. So did you... When you ran in the backup and it destroyed your car, did you face-pal? That was so dumb. That was like racing 101.

Like I don't... I've never done that in my career and looks like such an idiot. So it was... So why did you do it? Did you do it? Because Chad said... Dang it, you better be hitting him. I think it was part of that.

I think a little bit of, you know, I wasn't thinking for myself. Like, I think if I would have handled it differently, it would have been later in the race or something. You know, if we're racing around each other, aggravates me a little bit, maybe give it back. But so there was a little bit outside pressure. And then I think also, you know, I was getting info that, hey, you got grass on the grill too.

So I'm kind of like, hey, I want to pay him back, give him a little nudge, maybe get some of that off. Yeah. I could have done that. I thought you were going to get grass. off the grill. I could have done that on the lap car. I could have done that on the lap car too, which Kyle reminded me of.

But I went up to him, obviously. And it just, you know, yeah, there's definitely. Did you and Chad talk about the radio conversations, you know, in the weeks after? Like did Chad come up and say, I was wrong? I shouldn't have said to do that. He did right after. He did. Right after the race, he's like, man, I killed our day.

You know, I shouldn't have said that. He took some responsibility. Way to go. Yeah, he did. Which, you know, it. Obviously, I'm driving the race car, but I think it kind of helped us bond a little bit. Oh, really? Bond.

You know, I wouldn't have taken away that as a bonding opportunity. But, you know, I love Chad. I think Chad's a pretty awesome guy. And kind of, you know, interesting to watch you and him to work together because he'd worked with Jimmy for so long, who is this older guy. Yeah. Older guys are stubborn and hard-headed, and you can't tell him anything. Chad could talk to these blue-in-a-face and older guys.

guy isn't going to listen. He's going to do it his way. But younger guy is going to do everything that Chad says to do, including running in the back of the car in front of me. Yeah, that was not pushing you into a fight. Now, that's why I think, like, I was so excited for Alex to get with Greg because when me and Greg were together, I wouldn't listen to Greg. Greg would go, hey, try it this way, and I'd go, that'll never work. You're crazy. I'm doing it this way. But when Alex subbed for me for a couple weeks and I was listening on the radio, I was like, wow, Alex is doing every single thing that he says. He believes it's really going happen. I'm like, wow, this is exactly what Greg needs. He can be a crew chief now.

What he's getting paid. So that's kind of how I'm, that's how I'm watching you this year with Chad. How's it been? I mean, forget Hawkins, Glenn, the whole year. How has it been trying to develop a relationship with him? It's been good. I mean, we, you know, the guy's really intimidating, obviously right off the bat. You know, the first thing that we did, we went to pit practice in December. I show up on time, you know, at 7 a.m. I'm like, okay, I'm good. he's like, you're late. You need to be here 10 minutes before so you can make sure you sit in this car and it's right. And he's like yelling at me.

And I'm like, oh my gosh, like, is this how it's going to be every week? This is right out of the gate. I'm sitting the tone. And I'm like, you know, I didn't know if this is what it's going to be like. So I think it, we have a really open relationship at the track. You know, we talk about anything, everything. I think you just got to learn to handle things, you know, one-on-one first and then open it up to the rest of the team. Yeah.

So, you know, it's been good. I mean, there's definitely been, you know, times and conflicts, and that happens, I think. How early are you to the hauler before a standard practice? 30 minutes. Okay. Is that an ask of his? Yeah, that's an ask. Have you ever been late, and has he ever got mad at you?

He hasn't. I mean, a lot of times I get there, you know, I got a couple interviews or something, so I get there 45 minutes, but he's never been mad about that. I'd say, I don't know what he's been mad about. Okay, so for people that don't know, Chad, what makes him mad? What's his pet peeve that you just don't want to cross him? Just not being fast enough.

He wants to just, he's just, that guy is like so, I mean, if you, literally, you come in, so at Watkins' gun

and we unload, and we're 10th on the board, like decent, you know, maybe get a couple more laps, it's going to be okay. He's like, what's the matter?

What's wrong? Like, why aren't you fast enough? Like, you're slowed through one. It's the same as Tony's senior. This is why Jimmy and him had the issues that. You tell,

Jimmy, is there a problem? Are you not feeling good today? What's the problem? And I just go back to him. I say, well, I'm a little free. Like, I'm a little loose. So maybe we get a little tighter. I'll be a little better.

And I don't like, I think I've learned to not take it personal because it's just part of the process of practice. Yeah. Well, I worked with Tony Senior. They wanted to win every practice. They were almost angry if they weren't at the top of the sheet. And so I think Chad's kind of the same way. But describe Chad to,

anyone who's never met him. Oh, man. He's type A kind of guy. What does type A mean? I don't know what that means. He's so very direct. Like, he wants it direct. He wants you to tell him where he's staying.

He's not super emotional guy, I wouldn't say. But he just wants everything to be lined up. Like, it's got to be on a, like, we've got to whiteboard in our little 24 team room. And we've got to have it lined up perfectly. So each week is like the next. thing that we're going to do for indie or for Darlington, whatever. Yeah. So have you seen his, what is that color-coded personality thing that Hendrick does?

What is that called? What is that? MBS? MBS. And you've got four colors that describe you. You got red, which is very direct. And you've got like green, yellow, and blue. And they mean either your organizer, your social or whatever.

Chad's chart is like this, and this is red. And it's like, it's like nothing you've ever seen. It's just like, it has his own shape. It's just, it's like direct, almost, you know, like, it's like it says, and then doesn't care about anything else. Doesn't care about feelings, doesn't care about any of your time, it's just straight to the point.

That is what Chad is, right? Yeah, I would say he's a asshole, but he's. You won't call him an asshole. I don't mean he's a, so I'm saying that's what the chart would suggest. Yeah, he's, uh, well, yeah, he's red. And red, I guess, is, like, you know, very intense, very direct. I don't know what the other things are. Yeah.

Little emotion, little sympathy. Yeah, compassion. Yeah, he didn't have that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no compassion. Did you take that test? I did. What's your color? I'm, uh, so he says I'm a blue.

I took it, yeah, so I'm basically a blue too. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, you seen, you said it earlier, where you go back to this guy that you worked with in the legend cars to sort of understand how, how he might handle a conflict or situation or a challenge. You seem more assertive, assured, stern. By example of the Watkins Glen deal with Kyle.

I mean, you seem more ready for conflict or prepared for conflict, knowing the hurdles that are, you know, you're going to jump in the Cup Series are much bigger than any of you've ever jumped before and you've got to earn respect on the racetrack. What's changed? I feel like you've sort of matured very rapidly. Yeah, I feel like you've, you've sort of matured in very rapidly. Yeah, I feel like you. said something in an interview or when we were actually after the Xfinity deal about how I was going

to take some time for me to kind of come into my own in that series and it really did I mean like the first last year I felt like so kind of out of place at times you know obviously if you're not running well you don't feel good about anything so you're just kind of trying to hide and be behind the scenes whereas this year I've had some runs where I feel comfortable and confident about and I've got a race team behind me that I know all those guys we got to eat they all have my back so that's all i really need i feel like so that's kind of where the confidence comes from is just knowing those guys come back in the shop on tuesday and they're they got my back so that's pretty cool yeah does chat aid in that is he is he talking to you about like you know like you said when he came over the radio at the glen it

made me feel like man he must be sort of taking some ownership and in grooming you as well showing you like, man, this is the time where you can step on this guy's toes. And this would be the time when, you know, I need you to push back at this guy a little bit. This is, you know, fight your battles and pick your, pick-chews and pick your battles kind of thing. Is Chad part of that as well?

He is. Yeah, he is. I try not to, you know, as Watkins Glenn showed, I try not to, like, I use his opinion and I hear some other people's too and kind of evaluate it. But he is definitely kind of helped me with some of those situations.

Because he's much more comfortable with a guy like Brad or a guy like Kyle or Kurt Bush than I am. So he can come back and say, hey, man, that guy, you know, sees it this way, and then I can feel comfortable to go talk to him, I guess. You went and talked to Kyle after this, and how'd that go? It was good.

I mean, he, you know, that was the first trip to the NASCAR hauler. Oh, you went to the holler? How was that? That's the first trip. Both of you? Did you get yelled at in the holler? Because they yelled at me. Did they really?

Yeah. You had it come. I did not. I screamed at me, man. It was just me. It was just kind of an open conversation between me and Kyle. And it was good. I mean, you know, what we talked about kind of, I guess, stays between us. You sorted it out. Yeah, we sorted it out. And, you know, I have a lot of respect for him.

Obviously driving for him. It's a big deal. He did a lot for my career, just like you did. And I feel like that's, I owe it to him to race him with respect. You know, so the Walkins-Gland deal wasn't a respect thing. It just was kind of fighting for space. He did the moment. Yeah. What's your opinion of the race cars? So you've had a chance to drive the cars last year and with this new rule package this year. What is your, I don't know, do you enjoy the direction they went? Do you like the horsepower? Do you like the downforce?

That's a good question. Some tracks, the 550 is tough, but the thing that's happening now, which you guys pointed out on the broadcast, is all the cars are getting more trimmed out, so they don't drive good at all. Everybody on, I go on irascent, everybody's like, oh, man, these things are so easy to drive. I'm like, yeah, wait until you get it like trimmed out and you're hanging on.

So I think, you know, it's an interesting balance. I feel like they're not all that different. They were at the beginning of the year. It felt great, you know, at certain places it was like, man, this is too easy. But now they're getting closer to what they were. You know, so I don't know. The arrow push that you got behind guys is kind of frustrating. You know, I think that they'd be awesome with that horsepower 550 with zero downforce.

Almost none. Take the spoilers off. Right. You think. That'd be good. I'd go for it. No side force. Let's do that for the All-Star Race.

Yes. God, I'm naughty. Big carnage. I was just curious because he's, basically, he's got a season of each, you know. Yeah. You know, so he would be a good guy to ask. What are your passions outside of racing? So, you know, you love this wakeboarding.

What else are you doing? Man. Well, I'm in school still, so I take... What? You're still in school? Yeah. I take college classes, so I'm taking an... economics class right now.

How much? Are you going to just go to school, rich, your life? It's going to take, it's taking a while. It's taking a little bit longer. Are you on a seven-year plan? Well, I mean, it's not, he's not been in it that long. I mean, to be honest, but you've only been in it a couple years, right? Yeah.

And you take, well, yeah, because. I started in high school, I started senior year of high school, I was taking college classes. That's right. So I, um, so I'm, I basically got a year and a half left. Oh, really? Yeah. Is it taking you longer because you're online in racing and doing your job and all that? You can't do it?

You can't take a full load. Can't take a full load. This is uncommon. People need to know these answers. It's tough. I go on there. I do my work. All the work's due on Monday nights.

So I got Mondays off. We don't have any competition meeting or anything on that day. So do all my work Monday afternoon. And then go on to the racetrack and then do it the next Monday or try to do it on Thursday before I leave, stuff like that. So what's your course right now that you're taking? Economics. Okay. So 14.

And so tell us what you're learning in economics. economics right now. Like what is it about economics is really just just rejuvenating you and just, you know. Well, I'm learning about inflation rates and there you go. And GDP and the government, how, you know, which, which, which other countries owe us the most debt or own the most or how much do we? How much we owe them? So it's kind of interesting stuff. I mean, at first I was like, gosh, this is a lot of reading, but it's, it's okay. it'd be cool you take your economics course what's your major business communications yeah yeah you go tell rick hendrick hey rick you're doing it all wrong see let me tell you what i've learned you know no he does does chad take into account all this other things you're doing in your life for how stressed out you might be on the race weekend when he when you get there Friday for the first practice and you're like don't talk to me i've been uh inflation i'm dealing with economics all here

yeah he does i mean he uh you know i think once he's gotten like like a family. He's pretty like, you know, he knows I've got time. That's right. He knows like, I guess when he's spending time with his family, he knows I'm doing homework. So he's like, he knows you're not to screw it off. So that's a passion. Well, that's not a passion. I would say other passions, yeah, I love snowboarding. I love kind of outdoors, any other sports. Like I love the Panthers, you know, a big Panthers fan. All my buddies play, play some golf. Do you get out to the Panthers games, mix it up with some of the play? I do. I know. I love. With some of the players?

You go to training camp? I haven't been a training camp. Throw a couple of passes? Catch a couple of passes? I should. Yeah, that'd be cool. Hell yeah. You could.

I could, yeah. I should go down there sometime. Play that card, man. You're a cut driver now. That's right. All right, we'll get back to more conversation with Willie B. But first, let's tell you a little bit about our special friends at Valphine. Valerene!

As many of you probably know, I was sponsored by Valvene for several years. And I even drove a Vavalin car at Darlington back in 2000. 2015. That paint scheme looks so good on the track. It did look good. Yes. A lot of drivers are sponsored by motorhole, but Valvillin, uh, they were different and they were more than just a logo on my suit or a logo on the quarter panel. They were a true partner and they always were hands on and helping us get our engines to perform better. And if you don't believe me, listen to this. They sent teams over to Charlotte to the garage at the shop to work directly with our engine guys and they were able to create different types of oils for different types of engines,

depending on whether you had a short track, intermediate, road course, whatever it was, wherever you needed the power, they could create an oil that would maximize that speed out of that engine and squeeze a few more horsepower out of it. We literally would mix all types of oils together to do this. Babylon even helped me win the Grandfather Clock in Martinsville in 2014. Loving the history of our sport, it was cool getting a week. when NASCAR's oldest track. That's why Valvaline is the only motor oil I trust in my engines,

and it's why you should trust them in your engines, too. If you got that high mileage ride, it's going to need that thick anti-aware film. You think straight at this. If you got a new engine, it's going to have some carbon buildup. Head over to Valvene.com slash Dale to find the product. Speck for that engine. That's valvillin.com slash death.

All right. So, like Martin Trex builds RC cars, right? I love that. His thing. What do you got at your house that you're, that's something you're working on? Is I guess sim racing? Yeah, I got sim racing. So I, um, I've been sim racing a lot lately because I feel like it helped me on the restarts and stuff.

Like I was kind of, I was kind of struggling on the restart. So I was like, you hear that? I was like, man, I need to. Mike doesn't believe sim racing's a hell's not true. Well, I know Jeff, you and Jeff Gluck are probably the two that don't. No, no, I'm not, I'm not even that. I, I'll give these guys a hard time. But no, I, I, you know.

Yeah. Yeah. So I have to ask you. So you are sort of the one of the poster guys for the Sim racer that, you know, I know that in your eyes, you probably don't feel like Sim racing made you a race car driver. You just happen to, that happened to be coinciding in your life as a hobby of yours. You're a race car driver that liked a Sim race, which is pretty much what I was. But you are, you are to Sim racing, to the Sim racing community, you're one of the one.

of the guys that made it, you know, that Simrace, and Sim Racing helped you, and you would say that Sim Racing helped you. How comfortable are you with that label? You know, and explain that label to us. A lot of people want to think that you were a Sim racer that became a racer, which isn't really true. So explain to us exactly sort of where that fits. Yeah, it's a tough balance because guys kind of label that, you know, me as the irising guy or whatever. And at first, I was like, man, I don't want to be considered that. I look at all the races I won and legend cars and look at all the stuff that I'm doing in late models. I'm like, you know, and you kind of want to make that separation, right? It's kind of like being away from

high school or something. So it was, that was a big deal at first. But now I've kind of realized, you know, there's some, I can kind of paint it with a broader brush and say, you know, yeah, I still use it to help me. It might not be exact, but I still use it. So I got to vocalize and tell people I do that. So you embrace it. I embrace it now more than I did before. I know you were invited to possibly become a team owner in the esports side on eye racing. So I was kind of curious. When I heard about that invitation to become an owner on the e-sports

eye racing peak league, I thought, man, I hope he embraces that part of his sort of history or his story. Yeah. I didn't know if you were sort of still distancing yourself from it. No, I think I'm pretty interested in that. Steve and I talked a little bit. Steve Myers, and he told me basically how to, you know, just in a pretty short conversation about how to get started.

So I'm pretty interested in it. I love watching them. You know, when I watched that All-Star race that they had on NBC, that was pretty cool. It was good. That was cool, actually. Yeah.

And now they have announced that they're going to broadcast live the final championship race for the peak series on NBCSN at the end of the year. That's cool. Yeah. I didn't know that. So that'll be the very first. Is it for 100 grand or something? Yeah.

Well, there's 100 grand, I think, total in prize money. But I think the champion might get 20. or something. I'm not sure, but there's a lot of money at stake. And so I like that, man, I'm proud that I'm glad, I'm really thrilled that you're sort of embracing that part of your story, and it's your story to tell, you know, and I'm glad that you're going to hopefully be a part of the e-sports side of it on eye racing because you're one of the guys that can help push it into, you know, make it nuclear and make it more, bring awareness to it. I actually started, when I started Sim Racing, the reason I started

was because I saw you talking about it in a press conference. I was like... That's where you first started? You were probably already racing. I was already racing a little bit, but I think it was 2012 or so, and you had talked about it at Homestead,

I believe they had the whole peak series was there. Ray was there doing, you know, Ray Alfallo, the guy, he's won like four championships. And you were talking about it. So you gave it like a legitimacy to it, and I was like, man, that's really cool. So I think about that when I'm talking about it

and these kids are trained. That's what you're doing now. You understand? Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah. You're legitimizing it. You're becoming an owner in the series.

You ever, anytime you ever couple it with your own career, it legitimizes it because you're, I'm the past, right? I'm the guy that used to race and sim race and I don't do really either one anymore. You're the guy that's still doing it today. You're the cup guy on the track on Sunday that they watched that they know they just sim race last Tuesday, right? You're that guy. That's cool.

Yeah, it's very cool. I actually did do some RC racing. I actually... Oh, man. Yeah, so I got a lot of that stuff. You will come over my house and buy it. I love it. I sell it to you for pennies on the dollar.

They used to have a... So when you talked about that with Truex, I think it was last year, sometime around the summer, and that he raced RC boats. I was like, man, that's awesome because I used to race at Scott Speed. You used to have a track up here in Mooresville.

I came here every Wednesday night when I was running Xfinity. I was up until like one in the morning racing those cars. Really? It was awesome. At Scott's Place? Yeah, I got four of them sitting at, like I learned how to build them.

I'm not really a car guy, so that's kind of how I learned, you know, what it's like. Back when I was racing with Tony Jr. and Tony Senior, we were still in the bud car. We bought, God, dang, we bought a bunch of RC crap. Tons of it. I still have it all. And I don't know what the heck to do with it. But I've got a couple cars. I got two cars that Leonard Wood.

built that'll never ever I'll never drive them yeah you know because what kind of cars are they they're gas powered probably I guess they're probably tent scale but Leonard builds them you know that right I didn't know that you didn't know that no he comes up to me every race dude you got to tell you I talk about it now it makes sense why he's asking you about RC cars all right if you go if when Leonard comes back up to you say hey man um I'd love to talk to you about RC cars just say that yeah all right and he will take it from there and so so you don't have to come out and ask him like, hey, man, I'd love you to build me a car. Just say, I'd love to talk to you about RC cars, and then he will grab the ball and run with it. Okay.

But he's, uh, he built me three cars. One I had for a while, and I ran and knocked a right front off of it, and he fixed it. But he built these other two cars for me, and I'm not going to run them. I'm going to keep them because he built them, right? Right. He designed them. Yeah. He's like this. That's cool. It's crazy. He's like a savant with those things. But anyways, That's really cool. Yeah. I got piles of that crap. It's tough, man. I got so many tires.

Yes. You have the mini scales? Quarter scales, like size cars. Oh, oh, I got you. I got you. We got into quarter scales at one point. Tony Jr., Tony Senior, Tony Senior, me, old man.

Yeah, yeah. Tony Gibson. We all had them. Unreal. And I kept about 10 of them at my shop and they would come and run on my little oval track that I have there at the property. That's right. You built a track just for them.

We built a track just for RSI cars. That's right. That's really good. Was it oval? Yeah, or, yeah, it's pretty cool. Now it's all sitting, just wasting away. It's like, man, if they had a track here,

that, I might should invest in that. I have an original RC10, like from the 80s. That thing's like worth some money. Like team associated? Yes, yeah. From like 86, 87. What is it? I heard him say something that was interesting right when he said about going up

to Scott's thing. Yeah. You said you're not a car guy and you learned working on those things and building that. Can you expand on that? Yeah. So you got the kit for the car. So all those good race cars, you know, don't come pre-built.

You can buy the ones that are cheap, you know, that are pre-built. And those only run about a 16-8 when you need to run 15-1. So, you know, I figured out how to, you know, I got one of those kits, and I'm like, man, I have no idea what to do. Like, I don't know how to build the shocks. I don't know what springs to run. So I had to start asking people around the track there, what springs to run. what springs to run, how do you prep the tires? So I had to learn how to, you got to sand the tires

down and you got to put tire prep on them and do all that. So I learned about that. And then I learned about making the shocks and not having air in the pistons or airing inside the shock and what a difference that makes and how it drives. So that's kind of my first experience. I never grew up working on cars or anything. So that was kind of my first thing to take a car, you know, a scale car, and sit there and work on it all day. Be proud of it. Yeah. Yeah, we took, we took, our, this was a, when I first did my track, it was high bank,

concrete, and we had to put, like, mayonnaise in the right front shock. Why? Slow it down. Because it was too fast. It would just. We needed to stiffen up the rate of the shock, the compression, so we would put, like a thicker fluid or, like, mayonnaise or something or honey. Who's not real?

Yeah, honey's good. Honey would be great. Honey would be great. Because that's kind of like that shock fluid. Yeah. Yeah. It's the same viscosity, right? We put it in there to make it where it was still a shock absorber, but it was just stuff.

That's fascinating. Like adding compression to it. Yeah. I wonder who's going to go home and put mayonnaise in their shocks. Don't do it. Matthew's raising his hand. Don't do it, he said. That's fascinating.

So, what kind of music you like? That's a good question. So I listen to, why is everybody in the room laughing back there? Well, she... They are laughing. My PR lady, Ashley, she always says I come up with a different song every week.

For intros, I'm like, okay, give me a couple days because I got to figure out which brand I'm into or what kind of music. For Bristol? So I did Credence Clearwater. Let's tee us up. At Bristol, all the drivers get an intro song, which is fun. Twice a year,

you get your own intro song. You get to turn it in yourself, pick it yourself. So you've been changing your song routinely. I changed my song from the spring for sure. So I was... You can have the same song. You have some new song every time.

So I did Credence Clearwater revival because I'm a big... I like Forrest Gump, like the movie. So the... What? That's your favorite movie? Yeah, that's my favorite movie. So I did a fortunate son. It's a good song.

That's a good song. So I kind of... I'm into 80s rock and like... 80s rock. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of different stuff. Like, sometimes current country, but more kind of anything, 80s or 90s.

That's legit. I don't know why they were laughing at you. That's a good answer. I guess because they're changing it. He's probably emailing him every other day, changing it. But the Bristol song, is that what's going on? Yeah. It's a tough thing to choose.

It is because you don't, at least for me, I'm like, man, everybody's going to judge my song, right? So you're like, you better pick a good one. Yeah. But you took that very seriously back then. Yes. What was your song? I had one ever, different one every time. But it was usually like a popular song that I was liking at the time that I wanted everybody to know that, look, this is new stuff.

Listen to it. It just a crowd. Not that nobody would know, right? The more obscure, right? You had to be. Didn't you do one where your dad was singing that? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Dad and all the cup guys came out with that record back in 1982.

What was that? It was like NASCAR goes country or something. So, I know. That's awesome. It's crazy they all agree. It's crazy they all agreed to do it. No way would any of the drivers agree to go to Nashville and all cut songs that were trash.

It's like they wrote them the five minutes before they cut them. It doesn't sound like they mastered anything. They sound exactly what you would think they would sound like singing these songs. Pull one up. I'm doing it right now. I heard those. But I played it.

Chase has used his dad's as an intro of song to Bristol. All of the many guys did solos. Yeah, it was like 15 or. or so cup guys. That's cool. They all went to Nashville. They all sang these songs individually. Yeah.

And they're awful. That's awesome. And so, uh, which I can't believe they did it. And they must have. Would you do that? I would never sing. I can't even sing karaoke. I would never, ever sing to release it to the world.

No. They used to ask him to sing the nationwide jingle because nationwide's been a long time. I refused to do it. And then now, look, Peyton's singing the damn thing all the time. Yeah, that's right. I should, I should have. done it. When everything's right underneath my moon and I'm rolling.

This is dad. Isn't that awful? That's awesome. At least had the guts to do it. That, you know? That's what's most astounding to me is I want to know the conversation they had when they went and asked them to do this. Right, right.

Who did that? Who had that job? Hey, whoever it is, hire that guy. He's got a silver tongue. He could talk anybody into anything. Trust me, Dale. It's going to sound good. It's going to sound real good.

good. It could sell anything. Yeah. Man. Yeah. Right. You're into playoffs, going into your first playoffs. Right.

Yeah. You nervous about that? I haven't gotten there yet. I haven't gotten there mentally. Like, I feel like, you know, this week or after Michigan was really the first time that we had enough of a buffer where I felt like, man, I'm getting somewhere. I can start thinking about it. Yeah.

I kind of start thinking about it. Kind of approach to a couple races a little more. or something, but I don't know what to think. What's your advice on it? The guys on the bubble right now are starting to think, well, it ain't even, it don't even matter if we make it because we're not good enough. They're mad, right? That's what they're saying.

Yeah, they're all saying that. Tony Stewart said that too, and he barely made it into playoffs. They were, well, he was like 10th or 11th or 12th or something. He's like, we suck anyways. Right. We don't even belong in here. And then won a championship, I think. One five races.

Right. Yeah. But so that's what those guys are saying. So the guy like yourself who's got a nice cushion and can start probably thinking about it, I think eventually maybe not this week, maybe not next week, you got an off week. Yep. Right? You might start sitting down with Chad going, man, we're in.

Now we've got to quickly take stock of where we are as a team, how competitive we are. How we're going to beat these guys, you know, how we're going to get through the rounds, right? Because you've got to think about that. I always, you know, I never won a championship, so everybody that's listening to this is going to go, what the hell is he talking about? But I always looked at each round, and I look at it the same way for our Xfinity teams. So we have won championships there, so I kind of have an idea that one I'm talking about there. Oh, yeah.

In the first, the first round is the easiest round, right? You only got to be. Yeah, it should be, right? You only got, you know, that's the league, the competition just gets tougher with each round, right? and so I think that maybe not stressing out so much right out of the gate. Right. You know, because you put pressure on yourself. God dang, you can put so much pressure on yourself.

And then you're racing weird. You know what I mean? Then you're acting weird in the car and not feeling comfortable and you're not confident anymore. Right. I feel like what I learned from the Xfinity deal was, you know, eliminate the mistakes, right? Like the first playoff race of the Xfinity series,

like we had a loose wheel, finished like 30th and he lose like 25 points and I was only eight points above the cut line and I was the first seed so I'm like this is like not what I expected so I just went into the next couple races and was like I got just got to be myself got to be aggressive I think so I don't know I don't know what I'll think but it's a little bit bigger crowd yeah for sure right than your affinity's experience but I think you could approach it the exact same way you know I guess if you try to change what you're doing or think you know drive differently you're going to make a mistake. Yeah, you're going to like attract. What are your feelings about the tracks

that are in the class? You're going to attract mistakes and flaws. Do you have something that you love or do you have some that you hate? Oh, man. What's in it? Well, you got Richmond. Well, you got Vegas, Richmond, Charlotte. Those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head. And then there's Texas is in there, which is pretty good. Martinsville's cut race. Martinsville, I don't know. Martinsville's tough. That's a heck of a run right there, Talladega. Talladega. Yeah. Yeah. No, that would make me nervous. What's the one that makes you the most nervous, do you think, when you were in it? When I was in it, probably Talladega.

Right. Because even if you felt like, man, I'm great at Talladega, you just, even for me, I felt like Taladae was 50-50 hit or miss. And I was either going to go there and run up front all day and running a top three or I was going to crash, you know. It was like an eighth chance you're going to wreck. Yeah. I figured you'd like Taldaiga because you were so good there.

Well, I did. I figured you'd go there and you'd be like, man, all these guys are nervous. like I'm going to go win this deal. Yeah. I was always, I think in the playoffs, you know, the playoffs brings some intensity that you just never feel during a regular season. Right. You know?

Right. It's crazy how intense the races are this year. I can't imagine the, because the playoffs are like a whole other step. Yep. Of wacky. And this year, it seems like we, we're as wacky as we were leading in the homestead, you know. Last year, when I got in the booth for the first time, the first race at Chicago. We had this crazy finish.

Right. And then the intensity was insane the rest of the year. And then the playoffs came and it bumped way, way up and everybody got mad and everybody started hollering to each other and fighting and driving aggressive. It seems like that's the way it's been this year already. Already. I feel like it has. Yeah, we talked about that. Why do you think that is? Well, we talked about that in the broadcast. So with the down, with the horsepower down and the down force, you went down in the term one on the outside of that 18 car. right and you were thinking i'm gonna contest this position i'm not going to back off at the flag stand and just let him go right uh what you would have done that high horsepower low low down for us you would have

right you wouldn't have went on the right outside of them you'd have been way off oh yeah you would have been off in the woods exactly so at all the racetracks even the ovals we watch and see all you guys driving in on the outside of each other not giving up every single pass because you know how hard it is to get that back yeah and it's not not as simple as it used to be to be a pass a guy. Right. And so people get more frustrated, too, when you're going to pass somebody and you're like, dude, if I don't pass you here, I'm not going to pass you.

You're not going to have another chance. And so there's a lot more contesting for position. Whereas, so Martin, I won't put this on him, but when he was around and he was the one that did it the most. Yeah. There was a lot of, hey, man, go ahead. I'll let you go. a hundred laps down the road if I catch you real quick let me go obviously the last 50 miles of

the race we'll race like hell uh-huh that's the way the races went every week guy called you you let him go you call it a guy every week he let you go everywhere when did that how long did that continue like that's what i'm wondering decades yeah like till you were done driving yeah pretty much yeah this year it's shifting back the other way because of the rules you have to drive the way you're driving you you guys all have to you can't let a guy go by you can't let one guy then another guy go by and you got enough downforce you got enough horse power or you got a lack of horsepower that allows you to fight that guy for that position you know and and if you can get back in front of him he might not get back by you you know you might not get back to your side because of the

struggle he's going to have in dirty air yeah uh i think that's what it is too i think it's it's easier to run side by side so you don't feel like last year you know how i mean like you go in the corner at polkine on the outside of somebody you're you're going to bust your butt right you're not going to it's not going to stick. And now you know the guy on the inside is one really struggling, right? Yeah. And so the mentality, really, we're watching it. It's shifting the other way where there's no more, man, I'll let you go.

There's no more of them. Because you're saying because they can't. They just, the package of the car too. They don't really have to anymore. Yeah, the only place like at Michigan, Michigan was a little more spread out. You could do that. Like I did it with Shura Exited with a couple guys, Denny. but it was because we were in the top six or seven guys,

so it's like the gap towards the next guy is way far back. But if you get that 10th to 15th, like your nose to tail, like there's no more separation, so you can't really afford to do it. Right. It's fun to watch, man, because you guys are more, there's a lot more drama for the lack of a better way to describe it. There's a lot more people that are not happy, guys that are upset, and that tends to turn into a really good, exciting show

when the drivers were sort of aggravated. I think there's something to that. I think there's also something. You know, Mark Martin was sort of an anomaly. I mean, he was a very respected guy and carried himself that way. There's not a whole lot of Mark Martins. It's like hard to find Newman out there now because everybody races a lot more like Ryan. It's so true.

Newman is not the only one. He let me go at New Hampshire. I was like, well, that's awesome. Did you have to radio and say, who's in that car? Who's in the six? But like you said, I mean, it's not just the only guy anymore. It's hard of the way it is. About that schedule real quick, if you want it.

Las Vegas opens it, so it's Las Vegas, Richmond, Charlotte, then Dover, Daga, Kansas. Kansas. Which is a total shift up, so it's a little just different than we're used to. Then it's the Martinsville, Texas, Phoenix. I thought Martinsville was a cut race, but they changed it. No, they changed it. Can't keep up with all these changes. There's too many.

How about next year's schedule with the two-week off in the middle of the summer? They're going to have the Summer Olympics in Japan, and that's where I'm going to be shipped to. You're going to be there. They're going to box me up and ship me over there for NBC. So I won't have two weeks off. I would love it. Be jealous. Don't complain because I'll be coming after you if you complain.

Oh, man, I appreciate you coming out here. I hope you had fun. We'll get you back on the show. Go have some fun. Go win some races. and I think from what I've seen, you've got the best-looking throwback this year. I like it.

There's a lot of pride in that, man. Got to run well, that's for sure. Well, that's absolutely true, but you've also going to look good. You've got to look good good, when you're running well, and you're going to look the best out there as far as I'm concerned.

Beautiful car. Thanks, Dale. All right, man. I appreciate it, guys. We'll see you. This ain't your average race, recaking. Unfiltered commentary and an abundance of opinion.

Mr. Max guy or Mr. got 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. Door bumper, clear. All right, Dale Jr., Valvling, DIY question of the week is about the DMVL basketball league. How ironic is that?

Because there was some conversation earlier today about the DMBL, maybe firing it back up. So we got to tell everybody what the DMBL is and how it started and go from there. Dirty Moe Basketball League, DMVL. Basically, we grouped. together, as far as I can remember, about 30 different guys, buddies, friends, people that work at Junior Motorsports, to play basketball. And we split all those people up or drafted them into five separate teams. We've had this league for, I don't know, what, seven.

Why, it's been, I think it's been longer. Longer than seven years? Yeah, it's probably been nine years now. Nine years? Yeah. So it's been around a long time, and we didn't take, we took about a year off. We did take a year off. Yep.

And we've done that before. Yeah. But so I'm the co-commissioner along with Regan Smith now because Tyler has retired from everything in life. That's a motto now. I like that. I like how you've adopted that. I did not know Regan was the commissioner. Yeah.

Well, he offered, he's like, hey, ma'am, let's get this going. Is this going to happen? I said, well, I kind of need some help. Wow. So I think he's going to help a little bit. He's fiery and excited about it because he's won the last two, I think, as a captain. He has. championships at the DMBO.

But anyways, we have a half-court basketball gym at my house. This court is the same court that the Bobcats used, the guy that put that floor in, and Charlotte came and put our court down. It's safe. We did that because a couple guys who were blowing their knees out when playing on concrete. Mike was one of them. Yeah, I've got a good story about how we found that guy, but keep going. But, yeah, so we just, I don't know, what else is there?

There's a, you know, we have a scoreboard, a scorekeeper. A ref? We've got a real ref that comes in and make sure the games. don't get out of hand. He's awful. It's three on three. So there's about six or seven guys on each team. And you've got to have that many because most every game there's only one or two guys

that don't show up or can't make it. Right. And so we have three on three. It keeps it fun, keeps the ball moving. It's pretty high pace. But there's a heavy lack of talent that's needed. Accurate. Yep.

You cannot be good to be in this league. If you're a good basketball player, we don't want you in the league. you will not be allowed. You have to be awful. And if you hustle in this league, you will get removed. Technical foul. Technical foul. You'll get a tech if you actually try too hard.

If you chase loose balls out of bounds, you're out of the game. If you dive on the floor, we don't have any place for that. We don't know diving out here. So it's a no hustle, no talent league. I even saw a message earlier today. Really? Yes. I even saw a message earlier today from Regan. Are you guys just a, we said to be serious.

I'm sorry to interrupt. I thought it would be serious. Like, I thought it was very serious. Absolutely not serious. There's beers. Let me just tell you. There's a lot of beer. There are people that take it too seriously.

Okay. And they are also reprimanded. They're reprimanded. Tony May off. Stephen Stephen Stephen. So, um, there are some people that do take too seriously and they get, they get, they get, they get a lot of talking to. Yeah.

But we, uh, we got a cooler full of beer. You're encouraged to drink beer before and during the games. And, uh, Riegan wants to install a new. rule this year that every beer you drink before during the game is a point added to your point total as an individual. That's a very DMBL rule. That's the kind of

thing that you would have is you can make points by drinking beer. We look good. We do. It's fantasy camp. We have professional jerseys with logos for each team. And we have like you say, refs, scoreboard, scorekeeper.

The court is It's incredible. Everything looks a plus except for the action. The action and the players themselves. But it doesn't matter. We still cut highlights packages and have newsletters. I think so much more of it now,

because I always thought it was a serious week. There is also a unpublished documentary of a season in the DMBL. That's right. And it is good. It's pretty damn good. Dale Jr. tried to get direct TV to buy it. I tried to get direct TV to buy it. Yeah.

Oh, really? But they didn't care about our league. I don't know that I ever really sent it in for them to look at. We did. I can't remember. Oh, we did. No, we did. But you look, this is, it is so much fun.

We should have a private screening somewhere. We have. It should go on Netflix. We had a private screening with the DMBL. Right. About half the players made it. We had everybody in the grandstand. We have bleachers.

We have a locker room with lockers. I want to come to. to one. You're not allowed. Watch a drink. No, no. You have to be invited. It's invite only. I just, I didn't say I was coming. I said I'd like to come to one. That is, yeah, people bring their kids, wives come. And we run them out.

No, that's not true. People bring their kids and their wives come. And, yeah, TJ always brought them ads and all the kids get to have and play. That's right. We play music during the games. Let me tell you something. We developed a reputation the first year because we had so many injuries. And the reason we had injuries, what was that floor that we had on? I mean, basically, the court was built in a, in a late model shop, okay, on Dells property. And so it was just concrete. And then he put like, on top of the concrete with those plastic

tiles you snap together. Oh yeah. Yeah. So we made a cord out of that. Right. So there's, but there's no cushion. There's no, I mean, it is very, you're basically playing on concrete. Well, we had ACLs, MCLs. We had somebody that, Billy Davis that was on the 88 team, went into a wall. broke his upper arm completely tore his elbow out. Holy crap. And then I blew out my ACL and I remember being in the

doctor's office, the surgeon's office down in Charlotte and I could hear outside my room, I could hear oh is this a, looks like another one from Dale's basketball. Yep, yep, another one, Dale's basketball. What's the ACL? Yep, oh, got another ACL. This is our third ACL

from that league this year. Yep, yep. I mean, like I could hear this going on between the surgeon and his assistant. And he comes in and I'm like, are you saying we've, we've sent some business? He goes, y'all built a whole wing on this hospital. But that was the day. I went and I got my ACL looked out. We planned the surgery.

I left there and went into the Bob Katz Arena, right? And I said, who puts that floor in? Dale Jr. told me we've become a weapon of ourselves. We need to put a good floor in. Let's start looking at getting a good basketball floor put in. So we talked to people that built in the YMCA and this, that and the other. I went to the Bobcats Arena, now the Charlotte Hornets. I said, who put that floor in?

They said, it's a guy out of Monroe. The next day, he was here at Junior Motorsports. And that is the guy that put, the one that put in the floor for the then Bobcats, now Hornets, is the one that put in the floor. It's an NBA grade basketball court. Yeah, it's like multiple layers of stuff underneath it, but it was also the best quote. The cheapest price out of all of them. That's surprising.

Out of the Lake Norman YMCA. Out of the Statesville. It is Bono. The Statesville. No, no, all he does is basketball courts for NBA teams. Like, that's all it. It's all he does. He doesn't put in hardwoods for your living room and that kind of stuff.

It's incredible. Listen, it is a blessing to be able to play in this league. It always has been. I look forward to it every year. We're going to start a bag up. Let's do it. From high mileage rides that need that thick anti-wear film to newer engines that have carbon buildup, head over to valvene.com slash Dale to find the product spec for your engines.

Come on, girl. Get it. All right. It is time for Ash Jr., presented by Nationwide. First question comes from Chris Mackay, M-A-C-H-I. I'm not sure. Not that, sorry, Chris. He wants to know what is the frame photo that would be over the shoulder of the guest with it out of focus.

Yeah, it's a cover of Hit Parade, a Hit Parader or something like that. I don't know what the hell the magazine was, but it's a music magazine. Kurt Cobain is on the cover. I was a huge Nirvana fan, and we pulled that out of our collection. of stuff. We just have all this random stuff. Mostly racing, but some odd and some ends, a lot of music stuff. I got some Kurt Cobain posters and concert flyers and stuff like that.

So we stuck that in here. Terry Tucker writes in, and she's asking, if you could have a starring guest role on a TV show, what show would it be? It doesn't even have to be a show that's currently on. A starring guest role on a TV show? Yeah. The office.

Who wouldn't want to be in that? I knew it. That's an easy one. I knew he was going to say it. I was a huge fan of the office. Absolutely. Ever seen it. What?

You've never watched The Office television show. Stop it. Get out. No, I've never seen a single episode of it. Take you off your headset. Watch an episode immediately on that big monitor in front of you. I'll finish. And then we can continue. I still watch The Office on YouTube.

I just watch Office clips. I'll get binge watching those things. For real. I love them. Fix that, Leah. Okay. I have homework. One episode.

All you have to do is watch. Is there like what one should I watch? Any. pull up any episode of the office. That's not true. You got to watch it that had Steve Carell. Okay, it's got to have Steve Carell in it. If it doesn't have Steve Carell in it, don't watch that one.

First off. I mean, you can get there eventually to watch those, but it has to have Steve Carell in it. Right. I thought that was a given, but I figured I'd take a risk. She wouldn't miss. She would end up saying, I didn't like it. One episode, we need a review next week. All right.

Is it on Netflix? Not much longer. Oh. Not much longer. I think they're taking it off. All right. If it ever was. All right.

Was that it? No, no, sorry. I thought he was going to say more. No, we have one more question. Kate Worley wants to know, what is one of your favorite meals that Amy makes for you? Oh, Amy makes this buffalo chicken soup, and it's made with cauliflower, ground up, purate, or whatever they call that. So that makes the density or whatever, that gives it the feeling. So it's not just a broth.

but it's got shredded chicken and buffalo sauce. It's amazing, and it's good for you. Sometimes she replaces the chicken with ground turkey, and that's awesome too. We don't like that. We do have one more. Dylan Fink, he wants to know with all the talks

about the Gen 7 car coming out. He would like to know what generation was your favorite to drive, guessing by your tweet from earlier. It was not the car tomorrow. Nah, yeah. Somebody said, you did not like that? No, no. You didn't like that?

I didn't like it and I didn't like watching you drive it because you didn't like it. Did you know my tweet? I didn't see the tweet. Oh, somebody said, use one word to describe the car tomorrow and I said trash. Yeah. I thought I'd get a little blowback from that. Why? I think everybody thinks that.

Everybody seemed to side with you on that. Okay. So what was the question? I love the 70s. So if I could drive any car from any era? No, no. What was your favorite? What was your favorite?

That you drove. Oh, that I raced in? Yeah. Oh, crap. The Xfinity Series. $9899. Amazing. Those cars are so much fun.

I would say it was the perfect amount of horsepower and downforce. It wasn't. But for whatever reason, we just had great cars. They were always fast. We always had a shot at winning. And for whatever reason, it just fit me like a glove. All right, guys, that's it for this week's Ash Jr., presented by Nationwide. All right.

All right, white flag. Keep coming, bud. White flag right there, white flag. I mean, I'm sitting here looking at something Dirty Moe tweeted of Godwin Kelly, who just said those guys at Dirty Mo scored another gym by having Harry Gannon. Godwin Kelly is well respected in our sport as a media member, so that's why I was just seeing that. Awesome. All right. I guess I'll get back to the show here.

White Flag. Apple ratings and reviews. I've got two. There's a ton. We're getting so much. And I want to tell everybody, even if we don't read your stuff, we read them all, and we appreciate it. We can't fit them on here. There's two good ones here.

Darth Bro Bro writes, I've been a Dale Jr. fan my whole life. I was an inspiring go-car driver and was glued to the TV every Sunday watching Dale Jr. I heard my first Dale Jr. Download on the way to the 2018 Richmond race I was listening to the Kyle Busch episode. This was my first cup race my dad and I went two together. Dad and I have been able to use this podcast to stay involved with racing and even as I am now stationed overseas in the Army. Junior, I'm hoping to shake your hand one day and let you know how much you've done for me.

That's Darth Bro Bro there. Probably not his real name. Hydra homie rights, also probably not their real name. I used to live in Charlotte and work in NASCAR as an engineer, but that came to a premature end a few years ago. I was bitter, and I avoided the sport, which was a shame because I was a Dale Earnhardt fan in the 90s, and I'd fallen in love with the sport. Anyway, I discovered your podcast a few months ago, and I'm hooked.

You're making me miss that time of my life, and I honestly never thought I would. So there you go. Those are just a couple Apple reviews. We're affecting people's lives, guys. That's nice, right? I like that. Lastly, let me tell you about a boy named Carter Nance.

Carter's an 8-year-old, recently had brain surgery to remove a brain tumor. He is a patient champion at Nationwide Children Hospital, but that's not why I'm telling you about him. This eight-year-old kid designed some socks as part of the Socket to Childhood Cancer Initiative. And you can, and you should, buy them right now at Socketto-CC.com. That's Socket to c.com. All proceeds go directly to the Dale and Amy Earnhardt Fund at Nationwide Children's Hospital for the purpose of childhood cancer and rehabilitation research. There you go. That website again is sock at the cc.com.

So Carter, Nance, this one's for you. We appreciate you. And we're going to buy some socks. And I promised I was going to be doing that. I haven't yet, but I'm doing it today. So there you go. Dale, let's hear some odd history. There's a lot of inspirational quotes out there about not quitting.

Satchel Page said, never let your head hang down, never give up, and sit down and grieve, find another way. Madden said the road to Easy Street is through the sewer. John Jim Balvano had that famous quote. Never give up. Well, after this odd history, maybe you can draw a little inspiration. From the performance of St. Peterburg to Florida's driver, Ted, Chamberlain. In a cup race at Dayton, Ohio in 1952, Chamberlain drove his 1950 Plymouth to a 13th place finish in a 200-lap Grandational Division contest.

13th. But how he got to the finish was the real story. Ted ran most of the race without a steering wheel. Oh. It fell off somewhere just before the halfway mark. Unable to get the wheel back on, he grabbed onto the steering shaft to drive the car and remained on the track.

He didn't quit at a slower speed than his competitor's Chamberlain finished 13th out of 15 cars. 14 were still on the track. 36 laps down when he took the checker flag. He qualified 14th, so he moved up one spot. So he beat one guy out there that had a steering wheel. Make that guy feel like an idiot. The point is, don't give up.

Don't ever give up. That's right. You've had that happen to you, by the way. Had the steering wheel come off during a race. Remember that? It's treacherous. Talladega, even. He had his steering wheel come off.

It was under caution. He's all right. Still. All right, guys. That's a great show. Good job, Matthew, Leah. Awesome job back there in the booth. That's right.

It's a closet. Mike, awesome. The show's not over just yet, though. Tell me more. All right, don't stop listening. I didn't. You never know what we're going to talk about when. We talk about our friends for pristine auction.

That's right. It's an online sports memorabilia website where you can bid and win some amazing authentic items. They have all different types of auctions, one that lasts for days and days. There are some daily auctions, and yes, they have 10-minute auctions. I love those.

Something cool we spotted is a lot of two die-ca. A lot of two diecasts. Oh man. A lot of. I hate that. Save me. When people say... Save me, Dale Jr., save me.

When people say something is a lot of something, like a lot of it, like a... I don't like that. No, actually, this is a lot of two di-cats. So it's a bundle of two digests. I know. I don't like that. I don't like the bundle. Yeah, using the word lot to describe a bundle.

It's always been one of my pet peeves. Like a lot. So let's... come up with the different words. I have a lot of... What other things that people put into lots? Package? Oh, like... Stamps or...

A lot of... I don't know. I don't know. It's... I feel like it's only used in, like, auction... It's extremely common in auction jibber-jabber. Yeah. Okay. Who knew that? Yeah. We see a lot of these. Two die casts of my throwback cars.

Two of our great partners on this show, too, Vivalene and Nationwide. That's a 2015 Vaville. about car in a 2017 nationwide Darlington car. It's a two-for-one. So, you know, go check it out. Maybe you can snag a great deal on those. Go to pristineauction.com. Now, it's free to register, free to bid.

And, of course, you only pay for the items you win. Remember, with Pristine, the authenticity, authenticity is guaranteed. That's Pristine Auction, spelled pristineauction.com. If you are new and haven't registered, be sure to select Dale Jr. Download podcast from the, drop down menu in the how did you hear about a section and that's extremely important. Did you realize you said that's pristine auction, spelled pristineauction.com? No.

I did. That's spelled pristine auction. Hey, that's pristine auction spelled pristine auction. P-R-I-S-T-I-N-E, pristine. We'll see you next week. On the Dale Jr. Now, Lou. Great show, guys.

Yeah, it's pretty good. Dale, can I ask what is going on? on your shirt. I've been sitting here wondering this the whole time. What is that? It's a hot dog high-fiving a bottle of mustard. Of yellow mustard. Yeah, they're pals. Any other questions about that? I know because, like,

maybe why? Yeah. I didn't know they're high-fiving. You did, because they're friends. Hot dog and mustard are very close pals. What? Is this news? I'm going to break your heart again. I hate mustard. Oh, so you put ketchup on your hot dog? Yeah.

But not mustard. No, I don't put mustard on anything. That's crazy. It's no calories, you know. Ketchup does, though. Zero calories. Ketchup has calories. Mustard and hot dogs are like best friends.

Absolutely. Yeah. Ketchup? Uh-uh. I mean, I'll put ketchup on there, but not without mustard. Ketchup alone on a hot dog is freaking weird. That's for five-year-olds. It's weird anyways.

This has been a condiment-heavy show today, by the way, between the mayonnaise and the shots and this mustard ketchup conversation. I think it needs, hot dog needs, mustard down one side, ketchup down the other, chili, and then dill relish. You ever do the slaw? Do you like slaw with the chili too? Nope. I do.

I'm there for the dill. I do not. I'll all agree with you in the dill relish. You're there for the deal? Yeah, I like that. But with ketchup. Celery salt. A little pinch of celery salt on. Dang, man.

Where are you getting your hot dogs from? That's like Chicago style, man. I mean, this is a freaking hot dog out of the damn backyard. That's how we do it at the grill outs, man. On a stick. intimidators. I need a pinch of celery salt. Give you a little pinch there, a little pinch there, and a little squirt of chili here.

It's a perfect. Bam! Salt bay. It's beautiful. Sorry, I just had to ask that. I was wondering the whole time. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo