The Dale Jr. Download - 272 - Brad Keselowski: I Just Wanna Win

Episode Date: September 4, 2019

Dale Earnhardt Jr. returns from the driver's seat to sit down with his former driver, NASCAR Champion Brad Keselowski.  The two discuss Brad K's biggest break, debate stage racing, talk about living on Dale's property and a unique take on what makes social media so intriguing.  Dale opens up about his race weekend back behind the wheel at Darlington.  Also, a story of boxing champions, bull riders and rock stars taking punches at Dale's basement boxing ring.  The DJD judges the best and worst of Darlington's throwback paint schemes.  Plus, Dale uncovers a time where NASCAR founder Bill France got the boot from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. 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. All right, we're going to do intro. Okay. Ready. Ready? Ready, ready, ready, ready? This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey, everybody.

It's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dell Jr. download. My guest today is none of them. Brackensack is Alaska. Co-host Mike Davis is here. Matthew Dillner. Leah, Marie Vaughn. We got a great show. We had a lot of fun this weekend at Darlington.

We're going to talk about it. Let's get started. I had a lot of fun. I appreciate all these fans coming out here to Daughtington. They love this play. to love you. Love shed to his cry

cover up all I own grinding to the late night that's the only thing I know been through the fire now I won't all the smoke My dogs stay with me I'll never be on my I'll never be on my

Also a shout out to Just thanks for everybody's support and I hope they enjoyed the race. It was a fun one. Man, that's pretty good, Matthew. Good job on that. You were working that crowd, boy. I was not working the crowd.

You were. Hey, shout out to my dad. Well, grown man crying in the stands at that point. They had them. He hooked them. I was just saying what was on my mind, Mike. I got you. They went nuts.

They did go out. Yeah, it was great. Yeah, you get introed at races, people cheer for you and so forth. But that was definitely the best experience for me when it comes to crowd reaction throughout pretty much my whole career. Yeah. Yeah, for me, that moment was very special and emotional. I had no idea everybody enjoyed the day that all, that is, as much as I did, I guess.

Is that right? Yeah, you know, you don't know. Fifth place is not, you know, fifth. We were six at the moment. Six at the moment. In the moment, we're all cheering a sixth place finish. Right. The most celebrated sixth place finish in the history of the sport, I believe.

And, um. In the Xfinity series, for sure. For sure. but the stands were packed first of all the crowd up for that Saturday race was incredible and they were loud the whole time during the race

oh yeah man it was it was the atmosphere was so cool just on Saturday it was so neat and then when you got out I wasn't trying to say that you were intentionally working the crowd I know exactly what you know you were feeling so good you were feeling so good about that because and I think it correct me if I'm wrong

you were nervous going into the race I think I said that a million times a million times yeah you thought you were going to suck Well, I didn't think I was going to suck. I was just prepared mentally for any kind of, you know, result. God, man, you cannot run. You can't get yourself all psyched up for this just one.

You're going to run one race, Mike. All right. Imagine doing just one podcast a year instead of, and someone, you know, there's 50 podcasts or how many do we do? Yeah, we do enough, but we take one week off, and it's like we never have done them one. You're going to get to do one, right? Right.

And so do you go in there going, man, we're going to, I'm going to kick this podcast. This is going to be award winner. This is going to win them. This is going to win them podcast awards. I'm about to do the best. I'm going to do the best podcast. You know, I don't have that. Some people do that.

Some competitors, athletes have that mindset where they are going to go in and kill it. They psyched themselves out. Yeah. Or up. Or you think they believe. No, no, that's what I mean. Yeah. They build themselves up.

Yeah. And it works. Sometimes. It's whatever works for everybody. My wife, I talk about this all the time. So my wife believes in a law of attraction. So she believes that something's good is going to happen leading into the event, right? You know, she thinks you bring that positivity on yourself and you get a great result.

If you bring negativity into your mind and your thoughts that you're going to have a bad result. So she believes the opposite that I believe, whereas I aim low. I go in with low expectations so that if it doesn't go well, Well, if it doesn't meet my, you know, my hopes, then I'm, you know, hey, all right, I can deal with it. You're not as let down on the back. No, I'm not my, yeah, yeah. So going into that deal, I haven't raced all year. I picked a very tough race track.

Didn't Hamlin even said it? He don't think he would have picked that track if he was in my situation. He wasn't the only one that said that. Really? Because I didn't read that article. It's from the athletic, right? Right. I didn't have the subscription, so I only got like the first paragraph.

You can only read the teaser. So you can let me know what the rest of it said. But so. Baller on a budget. Well, that's like the first athletic article I've ever clicked on. Steve LaTart, Jeff Gluck would love to hear that. Sorry, Jeff. Steve LaTard had said, I mean, a lot of people would say,

Darlington, really? That's the first one. But hey, this throwback weekend. I mean, it all lined up for you to be able to run that paint scheme. But yeah, you know, Thursday night, you and I were doing that little foundation event. And we were doing a Q&A with the fans. And I said, okay, who has never ridden in a car?

You know, we had about 10 or 12 people that raised their hand. And you were not even, I don't, I wanted to say you weren't confident even then. But you were clearly like, I don't, I don't know exactly what this car is going to do when we go out there, y'all. I mean, it may, you know, it may get a little, you made it seem like it was a little precarious. Am I wrong? Did I read that wrong? Of course. Yeah.

So these people were like, we're raising their hand. And they were like, oh. What does the general public think about? I just really am kind of surprised by that. I'm taking that. The general public thinks that you're going to hop in that car, and that car is going to perform perfectly. The general public doesn't know how hard it is.

And I am one, by the way. I mean, unless we've ever driven a car, you just don't know. I know. This is a track that's just fickle as hell. Right. All right. And I'm getting in a two-seater car to take people around for laps.

and the first guy getting in is going to weigh 125 pounds. The next guy that climbs in the car is 225 pounds. So, you mean, you're strapping like 100 pounds of weight. You're not only putting that much weight on the right side of the car, which we would never do in a race car, but you're varying the weight from passenger to passenger, and that's going to affect the way the car drives. And so I've never driven this car.

Don't know what they've gotten under the car for a setup. Don't know what tires I've got on the car. Don't know if these are the tires that are now good your recommends for this particular race track. I have no clue. I don't know what the nose weight is, the cross weight. I don't know where the track bar is. I don't know what springs are in the car.

Shocks are on the car. I don't know whether it meets minimum rules on weight. Whether it's 3,400 pounds, 2,800 pounds. I have no idea how much power the motor has, whether it's an Xfinity motor, whether it's a crate motor, whether it's a drag motor. I don't know what. A drag motor.

I have no idea what this car is going to do. No clue. These ride around sounded like a good idea at the time. Maybe we should find other ways to raise funds. It's not a dangerous thing. All I'm saying is that, no, it's not. I'm not going to go out there and drive it over the limit. I'm going to go out there and work, you know, learn.

Just like they're going to learn about what it's like to go around the track. I'm going to learn this new race car that I've never driven. When you came back around for the first time, we literally cheered. We were so happy. I mean, I'm talking about it in the ride around. Saturday was another whole thing, but when you came back and completed the first laugh, we're like, he kept it off the wall.

Oh, my gosh. I was not worried about... It seems like I should have been even more happy considering all the things you just said. I wasn't worried about, I don't know that I was concerned about hitting anything. I was just worried about giving that person the genuine experience. And so we borrowed this car from Hendrick Motorsports, and it is a very competitive car, very comfortable car.

It was awesome. Anyways, we're talking about this ride around. I know, I know. But, yeah, there's such a better part of the weekend we should be talking about on the rider. Well, yeah, all right. But anyways, yeah. But I got to ask you, how did the, when you drove the actual race car on Saturday, okay, how different did it drive? How did it meet your expectations?

Let's actually go back to Friday when you were in practice. Yeah. First lap on the track. Oh, man, I was glad. Really? Yeah. Car was awesome. Very comfortable. Is that crew chief?

Well, I will, I have to say that I went there and ran a couple laps in a test a couple months ago, and that wasn't comfortable. The car didn't drive good. The car was out of control. I was white knuckling it. My heart rate was through the roof. Everything was bad, right? And so I've got a lot of gray hairs worrying about whether, you know, from that moment on, there were a couple months for the race weekend. So I worried every single day about, man, is that how it's going to be? We're going to have to go back there and run, you know, run that Xfinity race in this way it's going to drive. I was very nervous. So I got a lot of gray hairs over that. But when I hit the track for the first, practice the car was really good and I was I was very comfortable the back was

hooked up the front was hooked up and so man I had a huge smile on my face and then it went from more no more no longer really worrying about how comfortable the car was because it checked all the boxes but then it got to my mind went to just thinking man I'm just enjoy running each of these laps yeah and then Taylor would you know I'd either quit or he'd call me in and we come in and talk about making an adjustment and we changed a few things in those two practices, but no, usually, you know, when you're, when you come to the racetrack, there's not a lot of confidence that you're going to make a change at the track that's going to really change and improve your car.

That happens, but it's rare, and it's gotten more and more rare as the preparation and so forth leading into the races has gotten so much better. They're basically able to sim these cars into a pretty awesome. some setup in the shop and throughout the week. So when the car gets there, about as good as it's going to get. And so when you unload a car, it's not comfortable. It's a bit concerning more so these days than it was years ago because it's hard to make them any better at the racetrack anymore. But we had fun. We practiced. Race was fun. Everything went well, man. I was even a little surprised by how well we moved up as the race started because I screwed up and qualifying big time. You said that. I didn't know what the heck I was doing. But

What'd you do? Going into term one, the car got loose, and, you know, I was just trying real hard not to pull a backup car out all weekend. I didn't want to do anything that was going to be hard on the team or embarrassing or, you know, I don't want to come in there and step on my toes too bad. So I was probably a little gun shy would be the way I would describe it going into qualifying. And, you know, just we probably should have qualified eighth right around there. But anyways, 14th wasn't awful. I just knew that, man, it's going to be hard to pass, and I need to be aggressive. I was thinking all night long, like, leading up to the race, like, man, I need to be aggressive on the restarts.

I need to try to take every opportunity I can to get these guys. And I'm not going to – I don't need to wait on a restart and think I'm going to drive through them over the duration of a run. Because at Darlington, the cars contend to get spread out. You battle a guy for a position, and the guy in front of you drove away by half a straight away. and then it's take you forever to catch that guy. So I knew on the restarts I had to be real aggressive, and man, we got a good handful of them right away. Yeah.

And I was like, oh, that was cool. I didn't expect that. So made the rest afternoon easy. We sat there and run around seventh place all day long. I thought we had a top three car on the long run, around 40 to 50. We were very, very fast. Just didn't have the fire off speed.

At the first 10 or 15 or 20 laps of a run, the car was super, super tight, and I was really on defense trying to keep the guys from passing me on restarts for the first handful of laps and the top five would get out about a half a straightaway to a straightaway in front of me and then after 20 laps we either held them there or maybe even gained on some of those guys from third to sixth and then at the end of the day you know a couple guys had some problems the seven got in the fence a lot that was a spot that we gained you know ended up sixth crossing the line we were better than the 20 car on long runs and could get by him into the top five late in the race.

But then we got another late caution. That was not good for me because of our short run speed not being all that awesome. And he was able to beat us on that last restart. But then they threw him out and that put us into the top five as far as finishing. So I was thrilled. I mean, listen, I know that you're too humble to give yourself too many problems. so I'll do it for you. You've had two retirement races and you finish in the top five in both of them, Richmond and

Darlington. Richmond, you know, that was a track that's one of your favorites. Darlington, though, again, I think it can't be overstated how difficult that would be just to go in there and not have raced all year and you still finish in the top five. So, man, I tell you what, I mean, as happy as you are. And it's one of the happiest I've seen you, I think, ever after a race. You were so excited. and I was happy for you because I thought it was a job well done.

Thank you, man. For sure. Do you want to talk about the project you guys were putting together for that? Let's save that to the end. Okay. We're going to say that to the end of what, your white flag? Yeah. Okay.

By the way, I did have to say one of my most enjoyable moments was watching your battle with Christopher there where you guys swapped. Because I was actually watching it going, I know he's having fun. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I went up to Christopher at the end of the race and was like, you know, I was like, man, I had a good time. and he didn't have that same experience. He was more thinking, man, we didn't do what I thought we should have done. He in his mind feels like he needs to be running up front, leading laps, winning races, and I get it.

He'll hopefully maybe look back either a couple days later years down the road and think, man, that was pretty fun. But, yeah, I had a blast racing Brandon Jones, and, you know, me and him had some pretty good little battles there and a couple of the guys out there, a lot of fun. I was curious because you mentioned one time during the race about how you were watching Christopher Bell burn his tires up. Well, so we were running and he slid the back tires off a turn four and I knew like that right. When you do that, it's cost you some time. Like your car is going to be a little slower.

You don't recover from that at Darlington. And I wasn't catching him and he slid him rear of tires big time. And then he came to me. I was like, yeah, burn them up. Did you ever hit the wall at all? rubbed it. Yeah, when we passed Jones, when we passed Brandon Jones, I was in the fence. And I think when I passed 20, I was in the fence. Because there's a little knot in the wall just before the center of turn three. You roll up into the corner and get right against the wall, and a wall kind of has a nod in it right there.

And you would, it go, foop. And, but it, but then the wall goes back away from you. That little knot sticks out there. And it, it'd clip that little bump on the wall. Did it give you a feeling of nostalgia? Like, I remember. you. I remember you from all those years. There's that wall. You know what it was is when you drive the cars week after week after week, you get a very, you get a great understanding of where all the corners are. I can almost, you know, it's almost like the car becomes part of your body. Like I know, you know, I know exactly where the right front corner is and I could drive that right front corner kind of like where you know where the tires on your car are when you're parking and you know, When you're about to hit the curb.

Sure. Like you know, man, I'm inches from the curb. And you'll get out and look and you're inches from the curb. You know it because you drove that car time and time again. 100% into a curb, right? Into a parking spot. Well, when you race every single week, you get a real, real understanding exactly where the corners of the car are.

And so not having drove. When I hit the wall, I was like, oh, I didn't think I was close. So that was a little nervous about that. So I was running around real close to the wall in turns two. And man, we're running so fast there that if you clip the right rear, it's going to put you in the fence, like I suck you into the wall and put the right front in the fence. And so it made me a little apprehensive, I think,

because I hit the wall in three, and I was like, man, I thought I had another six inches. You know, so right rear was way out there further than I thought. That was what went to my head when I bumped the fence. But, yeah, man, it was great. We ran the high line into wall. one and off two, that was fun. It's very treacherous, pretty white-knuckled experience, but fun to be able to do that.

I got everything I wanted out of that whole race and be able to drive the car and enjoy it and battle some guys and have some fun, catching and passing people and doing stuff like that. What's all about, right? That's right. Check all the boxes, man. That's all you can hope for. Then you had to go back to your normal job. Right, yeah.

Which, that was great. You know, I didn't have any NBC responsibilities or work to do throughout the weekend. They let me out of everything. all the practices, which isn't preferable because you'd like to get experience and get to know the paint schemes, because it's a throwback weekend, everybody's got a different paint scheme. It's good to be able to do some practice broadcasts and qualifying broadcasts just to familiarize yourself with some of the stories. So really jumping into the booth on Sunday without having any experience all weekend was a little nerve-wracking. I felt like I had been out of the booth for months.

And so we did the opening of the show. I was extremely nervous, probably sucked. And then as we got to broadcasting the race, though, I mean, picked it. It came back, and I was so excited. It was a great race. The first two segments were awesome. The second segment was amazing. I wanted to ask you about that.

The action on the track was great. Oh, you guys had some stuff to call. That made it easy, right? It did. It made a lot of fun. Kyle and DJ had a blast, and I had a blast too, because in that situation in stage two, Marv, the producer, allowed me to be able to bring us in and out

and send us to commercial. And I wasn't great at it, and I'm not great at it. Is, you know, Rick Allen's, that's where, like, people give Rick Allen a hard time sometimes. But, you know, he, they give us all a hard time. I mean, there's people that don't like my style. There's people that don't like LaTart. But people, I think people just don't know how good Rick Allen really is. I agree.

And in those moments, when you have to do his job, you're reminded, like, why he's in that booth. and why it's so important that he's in that booth. He brings so much structure to the show. And so I say that because being in that seat for that stage two really, really brings it home as far as, you know, kind of what Rick's doing for us in there. So, I mean, they put you in there with Kyle Petty and Dale Jarrett for the second segment. Now, obviously, Kyle Petty and Del Jarrett aren't typically in that booth.

They're certainly not who you're calling races with. Was that difficult, too, to switch partners in the middle of a race from a chemistry standpoint? Or did the racing on the track just take over? No, no, no. I mean, you're just hanging out talking with your buddies. That's all you're doing. Yeah.

Yeah. So no problem. So in stage one and three or any other race, I'm just hanging out, you know, slapping their shoulder and, hey, check this out. Or what do you think about this? Yeah, I mean, we're just hanging out talking about the race. And then, you know, when Kyle and DJ coming there is even more relaxed, you know, because it's a one-time thing.

Yeah. And they, they're, Kyle and DJ aren't there to, they're not, they're rolling with it. They don't care. They're not there to impress anybody. Right. They really aren't. Right. They're just like, you know what?

Doesn't in some meantime, whatever. So, uh, it's pretty fun. And man, they treat me so well. You know, Kyle and DJ and obviously the, the regular guys in the booth, Steve and Jeff, Rick, they treat me so good, man. It makes it so fun. and, you know, there's been a lot of things going through my mind about my future and what I want to do. And, you know, being able to get back in the booth was a great experience for me.

We talked about therapy. We talked about how that Xfinity race was good therapy, being at the track, seeing people being around friends and being comfortable. Definitely, that carried on over into Sunday being in that booth and working that booth and going through that process. Now, the rain delay was a little frustrating, you know, and I'm sure it was for the fans as well to have to get out of the seats and wait for the start and stay dry and all those things. It was very difficult for everybody. But, man, everybody hung around. That was pretty impressive. All the fans hung out all night long.

See that tweet I sent out about NASCAR president? Yeah. Oh, yeah, he was in the grandstands. What was he doing? I don't know, probably talking to. Just talking to people? No, he's on the phone. Okay.

Yeah. Steve Phelps was in the grandstands, and you took a picture of him from the booth, right? So he had come, Helton come in there to tell us that, you know, we feel pretty good about this, about an hour for now that's going to stop raining, da-da-da-da, right? And they come in there to tell us that so that we can keep the optimism going on the broadcast, right? And it's not fake. It's, you know, that, Helton genuinely feels strong about, you know, their confidence in starting to race, so he's going to come in there and let us know.

and then Phelps come in there just to say hey and then a few minutes later we look and he's out there on the phone just standing at the top of the grandstands and to me like it was perfect because it's throwback weekend and that was so throwback like for him you know to be standing there on the phone in the grandstand that's neat okay you know it really would have been exactly what you would have expected out of Bill France Senior is that right um and and Bill Jr. to be boots on the ground, you know, getting under, try, you know, for Phelps or helping any of those guys to be on ground level, to see that perspective is important.

And they know that, you know, and so, yeah, it wasn't, it was just really an interesting sort of moment for me, for me. Not to even divert from that, but then on Monday, you saw Carrie Thorpe, the president of Darlington Raceway. Yeah, standing on the side of the road. like he's one of those guys during tax season, you know, trying to get people to do their taxes. But he was just saying, thank you see you in 2020.

Yeah. You're seeing these big time guys, these big time executive level people really showing gratitude, and that's nice. Yeah. The fan support for the race this weekend, you talked about Saturday being great. Sunday was awesome.

We've seen some decent numbers over the last several months with our TV audience. I just feel like that we're turning the corner, you know. And it's things like, you know, seeing Phelps down there on the phone, I know it's not a big deal to some people. Some people are going to say, you know, whatever, I don't care. That doesn't mean anything to me, but it means something to me. You know what I mean?

It means something to me. And it's another small sort of signal that things are in the right hands, things are going in the right direction, the care and passion and division that our leaders have is great. Did you see Steve Phelps at the car before the race? My car? Yeah.

You did? I didn't think you would have seen him because it was a big crowd. I did. I looked across, we were standing on the right side of the car and I looked over to driver's side and there's Steve Phelps,

the president of NASCAR standing there. Just hanging out. That's why I didn't think you had seen him. He wasn't out trying to get your attention or anything. He was standing there on pit road, you know, talking to people, but also taking in the moment. Yeah.

He better enjoy that. I think he better enjoy nobody knowing who he is for a while. Because it's going to change? It's definitely going to change. Being anonymous, you know, be able to go down and do the crowd and all that is going to change over time for him. And as we go farther into the future and have the success that I believe we're going

to have, people are going to learn more and more about Steve Phelps. But yeah, it was pretty cool to look over there and see him and nobody bothering him and bugging him and him just kind of taking it in. Did you have any other final thoughts on the cup race at all? You know, Eric Jones? Yeah, yeah, great. Just, you know, everybody, well, not everybody stayed up and saw it. I know a lot of people couldn't stay up that late.

But great race. The segment, too, was amazing just as far as action on the track. I couldn't believe we had like a five-car battle going on. They were crossing each other up, too. Oh, it was crazy. And you never, you just can't. I loved your moment when you're like, it's just like the 80s, you know. I mean, like, you literally were seeing passes back.

in crossing crossovers. It was neat. It was. And Eric did a great job. It was a lot of fun to watch that race. Pretty exciting stuff. All right. Paints favorite paint schemes? You want to do that? Yeah, come on. If you want to do it. Hold on one second. Let me draw some notes out of my bag here. I just so happened to have all the backpack from the race weekend and all our notes. I highlighted a couple paint schemes that I liked over the weekend. I did too. Ryan Newman's Mark Martin, 1993, Vivalene 4.

Now, I typically frown upon throwback paint schemes that use incorrect colors, and Ryan Newman's car was the, what was it? Oscar Meyer colors, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know why I couldn't think that. So Oscar Meyer colors, so it's orange, yellow and all that. It wasn't the valvillene colors, right? So I frown upon that usually when they don't use the correct colors,

but it really was a great-looking race car, Ryan Newman. Kyle Bush, Bobby Hillen's 1990 Snickers, Buick. They did an amazing job on that car. aside from the fact they didn't use the gold wheels. It was an amazing job. Obviously, I was a little partial to Martin Tricks Jr.'s 2004 Chance 2 Motorsports Chevrolet, the Xfinity Series championship car that he drove. I thought, you know, it wasn't a perfect rendition,

but definitely one close to my heart. William Byron's Cold Trickle City Chevrolet from the movie Days of Thunder was awesome. So nice. Missed opportunity by HMS not to have all four cars in Days of Thunder livery. Missed opportunity there. So like you're talking about like the, the Hardys and the Superflow. Somebody in the Xfinity series ran a Superflow paint scheme.

Jeremy Clements. Yeah. So missed opportunity there. Bad job, HMS. But they had... Jesus. I'm sorry. God, they had such...

Could have been so cool to have all the four Days of Thunder cars out there. Michael McDowell's Jimmy Means, 1989 and 91 Alka Seltzer Pontiac. That was pretty. I was a big Jimmy Means fan when I was a kid, so that's why that one was special to me. And obviously, Bubba Wallace, Adam Petty's 1993, pre-paid phone card Pontiac from the Arc Series.

Beautiful race car. Kyle, watching and hearing from Kyle Petty throughout the weekend, how much that meant to him was very cool. I mean, there were a lot of other great cars out there, but those are the few that I highlighted that I really enjoyed. I had highlighted Lannett Castle Silver Bullet honoring Sterling Marlin. I'd noticed that my era, like my favorites all sort of came from the same era,

that's my golden age of racing, right? Like the early 90s and then the 2000. So like Landon Castle's Silver Bullet, I thought it looked good. Brackislowski's Rusty Wallace car, second year in a row, he's done that. And then I even like Kyle Larson's a kodiac looking car that Ricky Craven ran in the early 90s. I liked it. I did, but they missed on some of the colors. Yeah.

I wonder about this. I wonder if it's because, like, to me, these things aren't going to be perfect because of just the font of. the number. Like the numbers are such a prevalent part of the overall livery, right? And even the way the numbers look. And so when the numbers aren't going to be completely replicated in the same font, then it's not, you know, we're going to be hitting on seven cylinders when it comes to paint schemes, in my opinion. Like, but, and then you got the other sponsors, you know, you know, they're not going to put like, you know, Coors Light on Landon Castle's car. What do you got?

I just have to say it's going to sound like a homer here. But when I first, you're not going to saw that paint scheme of Dales for this weekend with the Hellman's car and you see the die cast on our table it looks okay the white wheels yeah the die cast needs the white wheels made that I would have never realized that until you made that such a focal point and then I see how much it changes the overall look beautiful but imagine if you would have ran that car your dad's paint scheme but with the font of the eight that like the wrong font that takes away from the overall feel of the car most people do that. We didn't, and the eight cars as far as it goes. Because he's

the boss. Let's, uh... Those white wheels, though, made it look so cool around the track. So, to be, to be specific, I don't want to, uh, I mean, notes, the notes, get my notes. Yeah, I got the, uh, Sterling Marl in 2002 Cors, like... You liked it? Yeah, they do a good job there. Um,

how about this? I made a little joke or made a little fun of this during the race. Kurt Bush threw it back to his personal vehicle. 1969 Chevy Camaro Z-28. Wasn't a fan of that. That was weird. I did not understand.

Okay, good. I'm not alone then. Well, he bought it a few years ago at a Barrett Jackson auction. I just thought, maybe Kirk could tell us, you know, what the inspiration was there, but it's interesting throwback choice. Yeah. I'm going to throw it back to my... I'm going to throw a whole new wrinkle in this throwback game. I'm throwing it back to me.

I'm going to throw it back to my 1989 Silverado. She's been a good one. thousand miles. Yeah, that's weird. You see, because, you know, Jimmy Johnson threw it back to himself, but it was kind of a cool thing. It was, you know, his truck. I don't like, I'll tell you another thing I didn't really like.

The, um, throwing, caterpillar's done this a few times, but throwing it back to their equipment. Right. We're talking about Hemrick's car, right? Yeah, I don't get it. You know, it doesn't resonate. If you're going to do that, throw back to Ward, right? Yes.

So we missed opportunities, right? Race winner, Eric, John. Jones threw it back to his late model car. Okay. You know, he wins the race. Now that's going to mean a whole lot to him, right? Yeah. That car's going to, you know, he won the race in his throwback to his late model.

Not a bad. Not a fan of it, Mike? Not a fan of it, just because it's hard. You know, listen, I get it. But like, when you're throwing back to your late model, it's hard for a lot of people, most people, to have a personal connection to it, which is why it doesn't end in my favorites. I like to see things that I can relate to that I remember seeing on the racetrack. When they're, look, when they started the race, when they dropped the green,

And you saw on the front row that Miller genuine draft look alike next to the Days of Thunder car. And man, it just brought out of these feelings of nostalgia. And then right behind it, you had that Ricky Craven look. And then you had, I mean, just I have a personal connection to any of those cars because I remember watching them. All right. Corey Lejoy, his car was a throwback to Dale Jarrett's 1991. Nestle Crunch Pontiac. Thought that was a great one.

Yeah, that was. Okay. So talking about Kyle Arson, the green on that car. on the back, lower quarter panel. In 1995, it was like a lime green, like a bright green. So I have a picture right here, Mike, so you can see. But that's what I'm talking about, the little particulars. I'm a little bit too particular, maybe.

Well, you are very particular about it. Now I see the difference. Yeah, I totally see the difference. They missed on that. Just a small miss. And the numbers, yeah, they were right. What did you think of Denny's? I like Denny's.

I thought he did a good job on it. I thought it looked pretty sporty. And it's good because they got to use the chrome numbers. Right. Oh, man. Rambushar's 1984. Buick, that's what Ryan Priest used, but they had a white hood on their car. Ron did not. See what, see a difference? Yeah. Like, come on, man. Oh, man.

Kroger probably said, nope, we want a white hood. We need it because we have this certain particular logo that's blue. Can't have a blue logo on a blue hood. So those little things annoying me, but I'm a real... You're particular. I don't... I'm sure it doesn't matter to the general population, so... Well, that's why... Good stuff. You should keep my mouth shut, probably. All right, we've been doing this great. segment with Mountain Dew giving out some due time off. This one has a great family connection. Take a listen. I've been a partner with PepsiCo for more than a decade, man, but I've been a Mountain Dew drinker my whole life.

In partnership with Mountain Dew, I'm going to give some employees DTO, which is due time off. And to make it even more special, I'm also throwing in $1,000 so they can pursue their passion. There's no excuse for what to work. I'm Danny Earnhardt. I've worked for Junior Motorsport for 12 years, and I'm the rear suspension mechanic. I mean, you know, most people that see you work in family business think you was put there because you're family,

but I feel like I've always worked hard, no matter I was at DEI or here or wherever, I've just done my job. We come into the shop at Junior Motorsports, start on our suspension work. We work all day. We get it done and get it done right. Okay, Danny Earnhardt, my uncle.

Danny Earnhardt, please come to the front studio. Has been paged to come into the studio. Danny Earnhardt, please come to the front studio. I know he's really busy and he's probably thinking, I don't have time for this. What is this about? He has no idea why we're paging him. And I hope we can surprise him.

He doesn't show a lot of emotion, though, so it would be hard to tell whether he's surprised. Okay. Don't be so disappointed. I got to put my arm. Talking to the mic. This is the mic. Okay.

How you doing? So, Danny, you're my uncle. How long you've been employed at a race team? I'm a lot. No, uh-huh. Well, man, I mean, you worked at the can of meals as a general, what was it? What was your job there? General manager?

No, I was a supervisor. Supervisor. So you worked there for how long? 25 years. And then did dad come up and say, man, I want you. you to come work over at DEI or were you thinking to make a change? I talked to him about coming up there and he said, oh man you got a good job. Why don't you just hold off?

I don't even know if this is going to work. I was right when it started. So, of course, you know, he passed away and then I talked some people up there and they got me up there. Yeah, that's right. But she'd been going to the races with Danny forever. Right. All right complete here in the world of 600.

It is Earnhardt in front. I got pictures of you of you carrying tires in the 70s and so forth for that note, you know, when y'all was racing at Nova and so forth. And you went to his races in 79 and 80, supporting him when he got his first full-time cup deal. I got pictures of you. I look at all that in video and in images, but, man, you live me.

You live those trips to Daytona and racing in the Carolina and going to the races on the weekends with Dad and even Ralph. You didn't realize what you was doing. You know, you're just doing it. Yeah. Do you like working in suspension? I mean, you must. Yeah, I guess.

Yeah. Is that what you did when you were helping? dad on his cars and 70s and so forth? Because I had a real job. I started helping daddy, of course, just changing gears and putting tires on and off, changing tires and whatever. Yeah, but you knew when you started working at the, did you go right into suspension there? Yeah, I went to work for a bono.

Yep. They put one rear ends. I learned how to do that. That's what I've been doing ever since. And you're a grandfather, right? Right. Do you like being a grandfather? Mm-hmm.

What do you like to do when you're off on the weekend? Do you spend time with... I try to spend time with Nash if I can. Well, the reason why I'm setting you down here is to tell you you might get a chance to do a little bit more of that. Mountain Dew has a program called DTOs, due time off. It basically is a way for them to celebrate people that are hardworking and deserving of opportunities to have a day off.

Right. Right. And so I got the chance with my partnership with them to be able to choose a few employees around here that I thought would be really deserving of that and you were one of them. you've been dedicated. I tell people that you don't rock the boat. I want to give you a day off and a thousand dollars in this envelope. I'll take it.

I appreciate you coming in here. I appreciate it. And I hope you're surprised. I know it's hard to tell. I am. All right. Thank you. Thanks.

Yeah, when he gave me a check, I was a surprise for sure. You just work hard every day and just go home. It's a great. great feeling to be rewarded. You know, like you're trying to get no reward out of it or anything else. You just continue and go down the road. Well, I was almost in shock because it's really great to hear it, you know, from somebody. Everybody wants to hear it, you know, pat on the back or something.

But generally, you just work and work and work and work some more, you know. It's not, nobody's saying, hey, you did a good job a day, see you later. You know, you can just go back and come back the next day. Yeah, it'll get you fired back up. I guess I'm most passionate about me and my wife for taking Nash somewhere. I think a great thing to be would go to Tweed's at Red Road and ride a national train

and see how he liked it. He's wide open. His favorite word's papal, so I'm great with that. I'm so glad our partnership with Mountain Dew has given me this opportunity to give some due time off to my employees. I can't wait to see how Danny uses his DTO. Stay tuned.

In the coming weeks, We'll be surprising more employees with due time off. In the meantime, go live your passion and do the do. Okay, Dale, before we get to our guest, let's take a second to tell you about a great partner. Yeah, Mike, we're talking about Valvalline. Valvene is a great partner on this podcast. They've been a part of my career, and you're still a partner with Junior Motorsports. We just ran Darlington, and that really, you know, that's a place where we celebrate the history.

That's right. And Darlington, obviously, has been a big part of this sport for so many years. When thinking about that, you see, Valveline has been there for so much of it. From Unster to Bushard, Foyt, Martin. Not Martin, Trucks Jr. We're talking about Martin. Of course. I mean, one of the best Valeline cars that were. Yardt.

To me. Right, right. Earnhardt. Valvillin has been a mainstay on the timeline of motorsports history. I don't know if I rank up there with some of those things. Well, you did put yourself last. I did. A lot of drivers are sponsored by motor oils, but Valvine, to me, they are a true partner.

They are always hands-on and helping us make our engines perform better. Back when I was racing at Hendert Motorsports, they would send guys, their technicians, their engineers over to the garage to work in the engine shop with the guys at HMS and develop oils specific for different types of motors. And I don't know, man. I think that's really, I think people will be really interested to know that. I know. Right, so if you have a short track motor, you want the power to be in a certain RPM range and you need more torque and things like that. And when you're racing at the plate tracks, you're obviously at the top end RPM all the way around the racetrack,

running around max RPM, the whole lap. You need the power to be way up there, right? And they would develop oils to make those motors perform those tasks better by changing the weight of the oil and so forth. Back in the day, they would make such light qualifying oils for qualifying. get an extra couple of horsepower. One, two, three horsepower at Daytona Talladega for qualifying, man, that's almost a tent. I know.

Y'all are really good there. That's why Valvaline is the motor oil that I trust in all my engines. That's why you should trust them in your motors, too. From high mileage rides that need that thick anti-wear film to newer engines that have carbon buildup, to qualifying motors that don't need very heavy weights. Head over to Valvene.com slash Dell to find the product spec for your engine. That's Valvaline.com slash Dell. All right, Brad's here.

You guys want to bring him in? Let's bring him Brad. Let's bring him Brad. Let's bring him Brad in. Let's bring in Brad in. I think we're going to bring in Brad. Get on in here. Hey, Brad.

Here, come put this headset on and tell us about it. He's walking into Junior Motorsports. This used to be his palace right here. This is where Brad used to make it rain. How's the going, Brad? Doing good. Doing good. How are you guys?

Awesome. No, it's some things change. Some things stay the same, but it's different. This used to be a gift shop. Yeah, you know. when you retire, anticipate selling a lot less souvenirs. Fair enough. So I'll go from $1 to zero.

No, I'm just kidding. Cut the souvenir shop in half. Cut it in half. We've made some space. Well, you've got a line of people out there, so. Well, they know we're doing the podcast, and they probably hear for you as much as they are for anybody. So we tell them about the guests beforehand,

and so they're excited, I'm sure, to be able to get an opportunity. Plus, it's Darlington. A lot of people probably traveling through town to get home. It's interesting you said it, because, you know, I just feel like there's a couple race weekends where fans always come through here. Yeah. Bristol Race Weekend. That's right.

Charlotte, of course, Darlington, Martinsville. It's like, hey, on the way home, we'll just drive through Morrisville. You threw it back to Rusty Wallace, 1996 Miller Ford this year. Last year, you threw it back to Rusty Wallace's car. You won the race. How do you decide your throwback? Does Miller help you? Miller makes the complete decision.

Really? Yes. And you stay out of it. Well, they asked me, like, a final opinion? Huh? And I'll be like, yeah, good. Okay. But for the most part of stay out.

What throwback are you wanting to do that you haven't been able to do yet? I really like the old Miller High Life car, Bobby Allison, not the white and red one because I already did that one. Yeah. The other one, what is it, it's more of a gold. That's a gold. That's a gold numbers. Yeah, yeah. You don't have a red top, white sides, gold numbers, beautiful car.

Yep. But that's Miller High Life. And, you know, the beer brands are all kind of funny about that, right? Yeah, they're very competitive. Yeah, like internally. Yes. I don't understand that. When I was racing for Budweiser, they were like, man, you should do a Bud Light car one race, like the All-Star race.

Everybody would say that. Bud Light and Budweiser are almost at odds. They were competitive. Like they don't want to sell more beer. They're like angry teammates. Yes. Like Formula One teammates. Right.

So Bud Light sells more beer than Budweiser. At least that's what I believe. It was the case. And there's certainly different marketing budgets. We don't want to help them sell more beer. They're already selling more. Those guys. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. I saw, you know, beer world's a little bit weird, but somebody once told me in racing, you know you made it when you're sponsored by beer, cigarettes, and oil. So.

Yeah. Cigarettes are gone, but I still got beer. Now, how particular do you get about the paint schemes? Because if they're going to throw back, we were just talking about this. And Dale, as you remember,

and probably know, is so particular about it. If you're going to throw back to that paint scheme, he wants everything perfect. It's got to be right. And what about that for you? So I don't have to worry about it because, you know,

we joke that Roger Pence, is our art director, who just so happens to be our car owner, every paint scheme he looks at. Wow, that's cool. I mean, think all the paint schemes. He's got Indy cars, the cup cars, and Spinity cars, he looks at every paint scheme. That's pretty cool. And come January, before we go to Dayton every year, he has him, you know, paint up a car, decal it. You know, we're talking like first, second week of January. He comes in the shop and looks at each one because he wants, you know, he sees it in art, but he wants to really see it. Yeah. So they end up painting cars like in half. so he'll have like one half of a car

would be one idea he had and the other half will be the other ID he had and you'll look at one side and he'll walk around the other side look at it but no so he's really intense about paint schemes it's kind of like you know every place has their thing that's Mr. Penske's thing

you don't mess with his paint schemes you don't like put him down you don't like give recommendations they're very much his paint schemes that's pretty interesting I didn't give I didn't figure that for him you think the drivers would be the ones be real particular it makes sense though

I mean he's very brand oriented I mean, like, the Penske brand represents so much. And so for him to be that particular about paint schemes, makes sense. I didn't know it either, but that's really cool. So every once in a while we'll get, like, you know, a junior sponsor person that comes in, you know, and they'll have like a paint scheme idea, and they'll try to push it on us. And it'll get up to RP level. Like, oh, you don't want to, you don't want to do that.

That's not what RP wants, and they'll push it up. And it's like, hell hath no fury. It's like he hits the button and they drop down the shoot. Yes, exactly. Like, blame me, this is not a road. you want to cross, buddy. So, Brad, you come from a racing family. Your dad raced.

What do you remember about your dad's career? Characterize your experience as a child. I wish I remembered more than I do. I really did. I wish I could remember every bit of it. You know, I joke about, you know, when I fail with memories that, you know, give me a break. I've hit a lot of walls, you know.

But probably the biggest memory I have is the first time that I can recall, at least, going to Victor Lane with my dad. and how excited it was. Never where that was? Yeah, it was the first time that I remember, I know there were times before, but the first time I really remember it was Duke Coyne, Illinois Dirt Track, and an Archer race.

And it was 1994, so I was 10 years old. Now, my dad had won races before that. Right. But it seemed like every year we'd get to travel with him during the summer, but not during the spring or the fall because of school. And he would only win during the spring and the fall. And we'd be like, you never got to go. Yeah.

And so he won a, a string of races in 94, and I'll never forget that. That was one of the best days of my life. And probably, of all the things that, you know, stand out as being like one of the most hurtful moments in your life, missing my dad's win when he won his first and only NASCAR truck race. Oh, was that crushing. Where was that? It was Richmond in 97. And it was the first day of school. I'd travel with them all summer. And it was a lousy summer. Like, he ran like 10th, 15th. And then the first race I didn't go to, he won. So then you're kind of like, maybe it's me.

You know what I mean? Like when you're a kid, I was 10, 12 years old. Like, maybe it's me, you know. But I really wish I could have been there for that. Besides your dad, obviously he ran in the Ark Series and the Truck Series for years. Your family, I mean, you have his brother ran in the Cup Series. Talk about that a little bit. Have you done any real, you know, kind of digging on just how much history is there for your family?

Yeah. Well, you know, my. My family is from Michigan, which you would think would be huge for cars and for racing. But it's not. It's really strange how it never really developed into that. I always kind of had a theory on it that maybe just people in Detroit wanted to break from cars. So the last thing they wanted to do is watch racing. But what it was was really big into all other forms of automotive.

So a lot of like motocross, my grandfather actually used to run motocross and he'd race snowmobiles during the winter. So where my family start really in NASCAR and stock car racing came from is one day my grandfather was running hill climb and he fell off and almost got killed. Wow. And so my dad was really young at the time. You know, there was four siblings and grandma comes in and says, you're done. You know how that is when the missus says you're done. That's when it's really over, right? So she tells him he's done, but he doesn't want to quit racing.

You know, this is, you know, early 50s and, you know, he still has some spunk in him. So he decides, well, I want to do the stock car racing. And at that time, stock car racing was fractured, right? You had NASCAR, which was the south. And you had USAC, which was the north, maybe the Midwest. And so they competed in USAC. And that's where they started running stock car races. And every once in a while, and ARCA as well, and every once in a while, those races would go down south.

And every once in a while the NASCAR races would come up north. And it was just, hey, we'll run that race. So now USAC, of course, is, you know, years since defunct. But over time, my dad and uncle grew up working in the pits. And, you know, they came to some of the original NASCAR races. You know, the first Talladega race. I got, you know, pictures of my dad and uncle there watching a race and being a part of it. And, you know, they tell stories about being here for the early Coke 600, like the first one.

And they came and they were, you know, 17, 18-year-old kids. But eventually, you know, my uncle got drafted into the war, Vietnam. He came back and was a bit of a thrill-seekers. so then he started racing and it just kind of transcended from there yeah wow so yeah so i've seen i've the name kezalowski popped up in uh some of the uh history that i've you know dug up and researched uh he raised 88 car yeah yeah he raced uh Daytona and and all you know all kinds of places with you know very very competitive you know as the story i'm told on the 88 car goes my uncle raced the 88 car.

And he was approached by, who was it, Buddy Baker that took over, somebody took over the 88. I can't remember who, but they didn't have any money to race. Like, they barely made it through the race track. Like, their racing stories aren't as much about the races as they are, like, the trip to get to the track. Like, you know, we had this old torn down truck, and we took the motor out of the race car, we put it in the truck because it broke down halfway. We got to the racetrack, took it back out of the truck, put it in the race car and ran the race.

That's right. Those are their racing stories. How did you finish? I don't know. I don't remember. Yeah. It's sort of like it was with Dave Marcus a few weeks ago when he was here, you know, driving from Wisconsin and that kind of thing. They can tell you everything that happened on the way there and home, but they didn't even race.

I don't remember. Did we run it? Yeah, maybe it rained out. I don't even remember it. But anyway, so they barely made it to the racetrack. So one year somebody offered them to sell the 88 number because they really wanted the car number. And so they sold it. And I don't want to say it was the Buddy Baker's team, but I might have that wrong.

And yeah, that's how. That's how it turned. And they turn in the 19. So people ask me, my trucks used to be 19 to 29. Those were my dad and uncle's two numbers. Okay. So what do you remember about your first race car? What's the first thing you ever drove competitively?

First, like, full-body race car. You know, I ran quarter minutes. I didn't know that. Yeah. Oh, you didn't know that? Yeah. So I ran quarter-mages for two years. And so the first quarter-a-minute driver had was my dad's friend had one for his son.

And his son outgrew it. And you're like, well, what do we do with this? And my dad traded him. My dad was always a horse trader, as you can probably tell from this story. Here, take this some metal I'm not using anymore and don't have any use for. And let my son run, you know, three or four races in your quarter of midget. So that was a deal. How old were you?

I was 14. 14. So I wasn't like super young. I wanted to race way before that. And we didn't have the means to do it. That is agonizing. Oh. Because I was there, too, like sitting there at 12, 13 years old going, I want to

race something and I that we did have the means dad's sitting there in his recliner every night and I'm going uh you know tell me like how what how to get into something like I'm dying I can't wait until I get my driver's license that's three more years exactly those are the longest years of your life like 12 to 16 awful longest years of your life painful awkward if you're wanting to drive race car oh man it was and so I remember we uh I got my dad to get me like an old uh yard cart so you know I'd race in the backyard or pretend to race in the backyard like you know how you'd have the pictures in your head like there are other cars around you and be driving a go cart and

eventually I just must have worn him down. I'll never forget because he drove me to school one day and my dad didn't know he's driving to school and I remember him just kind of nonchalantly he's driving, I'm sitting next to him, he just looks over and he says hey I think I got an opportunity you know for you to race a quarter midget if you want to just like that

just completely nonchalant and I'm over there like what? Yes! Yes! Is this a trick? This is the meanest trick ever, if this is just a trick. And, no, so I remember everything about it. And it was agnizing to not get the race. Yeah, how did it go? It went well. I won my first six races.

What? Yes. Dang. Yeah. And, yeah, so what's tough about winning your first six races is when you lose your seventh. Yeah. You forget all about winning the first six. You hadn't learned how to lose yet.

No, no. And I'm a terrible loser. Did you guys test? I mean, I was. No, I got one time that let me run some practice labs. Okay. That was it. Yeah, it was it. And then he's off and winning. So then my dad got me, that was somebody else. Right. You got your own? So then he got me on my own and then I got the race.

And kind of grew through the ranks from there. Yeah. What were the ranks? So for me, quarter minutes, then I went to factory stock, hobby stock, and everybody's got a different name for him. Street stock. Yeah. So what was your street stock car? It was a 79, Monty Carlin. Yes. I had a 78. Really? No kidding. Yeah. And it had the fenders that had like, the peak on it.

Yeah. And I remember because I hit somebody and it, like, flattened out, and I could never figure out how to fix it. I could never get that peak pulled back out. So you'll be shocked to know I had a lot of torn up right front vendors. Dude, yeah. I mean, street stock, it's amazing that the front clip on our car didn't eventually snap off as many times as we had to straighten it.

Yeah, man, a 78 Monte Carlo, 79 Monte Carlo, that's a pretty common car for streetstock. So how did that go? It went really well. So my first two or three starts didn't go well. I'll never forget. What race track are you at? So I ran those up in Michigan, this track called Auto City. Real small track up and around Flint, Michigan.

Still going today? Yep, still going. Now they got, it's funny because now they race, but only like once a month, and they do weed festivals there. Oh, okay. Like apparently that's a big deal up there. They can do weed festivals. Weed festivals.

Yes, weed festivals. It's a big deal in Flint, Michigan. Yeah, it's like a woodstock type thing. Woodstock for racing. So I saw that when we landed in Michigan, they had a big billboard up there. And I saw that and thought it was the funniest thing ever. But racing's changed a little bit. How big a track was that?

716s. Yeah. That's the first time I ever heard that. A 716th smile. Yeah, everybody always rounds up to half. You all are very particular up there, very precise. They round up to half. Like every other track in the world, like, you know, they're really not a half.

It's like quarter half, three eights? Yes. First time I've ever heard it's a 716 mile. I haven't heard that either. Of course, I hadn't heard a weed festival. But if you're erasing, every, you know, measurements need to be precise. Yes. I guess so.

That weed part's definitely going to get edited. I can see the show sponsor being like, yeah, let's not play that part. So you're running your street stock up there in between weed festivals? They didn't happen at the time. Not fair. Now, that's not so much. So tell me how you're, did the car drive good right out of the gate? Oh, no, it was terrible.

Right? It was terrible. Plow. Oh, it was super tight in the middle, barely touched the gas. Whopo, bo, bo, bo, bo. Spinn. And I don't know about yours, but mine chattered the rear tires. Oh, yeah. Them street tires would pop.

Oh, man. The rear end would bounce. Like, it's, it ripped the spider gears out of the rear end. And my favorite part about that kind of racing is I always say that it prepared me for cup. Because when I want to run late models, like, if you rub somebody, like you'd get out of the car and it'd be like, nah, you know, they'd get a little upset, but not super upset. That was late miles. It was like the nicest cars at the local. But the street stocks, like, if you bump somebody, there was a fight in the pit.

Like any simple little rub, you put a donut on a car. I had a race where I put a donut on somebody's car, and they chased me through the pits, madder than a lot. Wow, really? And so I always thought that that was the funniest thing. Like, this is the lowest value race car, and you're the most upset you could be. Why is that?

I don't know. That is interesting. Yeah, I don't know. I think it's because, you know, the street stock level is the racers that are just barely able to race, and so that's frustrating for them when they get tore up a little bit. Me and Kerry put our first tire mark on our street stock, took pictures with it.

I got a picture of me and Kerry. What kind of phone did you use? Did you use like the wind-up or the camera use? I don't think I used the phone. It's probably the Kodak, you know. Yeah, disposable stuff. Yeah, disposable. But yeah, we're standing and there's a tire mark.

It's like a half-tire mark. And we're like, look there, a tire mark. What's the story? You felt like a real badass thing, didn't you? Yes. Yeah. Real quick, where did y'all get your first street stock cars? Where did you find yours?

Where did you get yours? Where did you have a friend who owned a, Carrie had a buddy of his that owned a junkyard. and he gave it to us, gave us the car. Gave you the car out of the junkyard. Yep. All right. Mine was somebody else's old race car, and it had been sitting in a barn for like three or four years.

That's cool. Yeah. When we got it, it was like, my dad bought it because it was like the cheapest one he could find. Sure. And he just thought, given this, he'll completely destroy it. Right. And I don't think he knew how bad what he bought was.

Because when it actually showed up, he looked at it, like, like you couldn't touch it. Like anything you touched. was rusted. He had technist shot. Yeah, yes. Oh, it was terrible. Do you know how much you spent on it?

I want to say it was like $3,800. Wow, that's a lot, yeah. Yeah, $3,800. It was something like that. For a car, sitting in a barn. Yeah, but it was not worth that. It was not worth that. But it was the cheapest one he found, so that's what we want with.

So how long did you run the street stock? Oh, about a year and a half. Wow, that's a pretty long time. Year and a half, yeah. Yeah, it was just the right amount. Because you started in your 14 or 15 when you started in a mid. So I was 16 when I ran a street stock. Yeah.

So now, like, you watch these K&N races or, you know, the Archer races, like, 16-year-old, da-da-da-da-da-da. And I'm like, damn, I'm old. You know, like, the back then was different. Yeah, the kids that you're racing against now, the rookies, Byron, and those guys, I mean, they're starting when they're five, eight years old. Yeah, yeah. I didn't really get in a car. I really wasn't racing until I was 15, 16. Yeah, crazy.

But you know what? I don't know about you. I feel better because of that. Like, I'm not like, I have no regrets. Yeah. I think if I had started as soon as they did, I would have been out of it quicker. You'd have burned out. Yeah, I could see that.

Absolutely. I mean, I don't have any regrets. Like, you know, you go to these T-ball games and you watch, like, the five-year-olds playing. When they get 12, they want nothing to do with baseball. Yeah, right. And I saw that at the racetrack, too. Like, I'd see the five-year-olds.

I'll never forget. When I was running quarter midges, there was this girl. She had to be 10, 11 years old. Now, you and I have daughters, and I'm learning this. And you have daughters, too, Grace. Yeah. But girls just mature quicker than guys do. So there was this girl there that was, you know, 10, 12 years old,

and she would kick everyone's butt. And, like, you know, you hear about all these girl racers. And I bet I ran into, when I was running quarter midgets, at least three or four drivers that I think could have made it and been very good based on how they wore it that time. And every one of them burn out. Yeah. Like by the time they got 15, 16 years old, like, I want, I'm done.

I'm like, no, you're good. Yeah, but, you know, it's so interesting how that plays. But I don't have any regrets. My teammate, Joe Lugano, he started racing when he was five. Wow. So, you know, he's about six years younger than me. Yeah. He has more racing experience than I do, six years younger.

And, you know, there's some days I look at that and say, well, maybe I could have got to cup earlier. And there's other days where I'm like, thank God, because I was nowhere near mature enough. Ready for it. To handle that. I certainly wasn't either. At 10 years old, 8 years old, whatever. I would have burned out. immediately. So I don't have any regrets. I'm glad you don't either. So you ran your

street stock winning races, winning some street stock races eventually? Yeah, but I won. It took me about six or seven races. And the first two or three were really bad. I mean, like, really bad. Spent out two or three times in a race. And they're like, you spend out one more time, we're parking you. Right. You know, like, yeah, back to the barn. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And the key moment for us, I got to where I could run, you know, like fourth or fifth, and I was nowhere near winning. The key moment for us was a guy that my dad knew, told us, said, well, the problem is you don't have the right transmission in that thing. And that's da-da-da-da-da. My dad put a different transmission in it and it fixed the whole car. Really? All that wheel-hoping stuff, all that, it all went

away. And then I could actually drive it. Wow. I never forget that. I remember when it came in. I remember thinking, this is ridiculous. But he put what was called a power glide transmission in it, and it smoothed everything out. Wow, that's pretty cool. Yeah. I remember that. So those are the things you remember. I got like the Mark Martin type memory. Yep. I don't remember like what setup we ran last week. But I could tell you like the early days we ran this car, this spring, preloaded the sway bar, percent and a half.

Yep. Yeah. I don't remember anything today. Yep. So what? You got a lot of people to have to, they can remember it for you. I think, you think that's it? I think it might be.

I mean, like, you know, you guys didn't have teams of people to handle stuff. I mean, so much is different now. You guys had yourselves. Yeah, it was it. Well, like, your setup was what you wrote on the sheet. So you remember it. Now it's like the team might hand you a sheet. And you're looking at like, I don't know what they're doing this.

Did they even want you to be involved in? No. That is why you remember all those things because you wrote them down. I think so too. Yep. And now today, you can look at a sheet. You see it. You know what's on it, but you're not going to remember that.

Yeah, it doesn't make its way in. Like, it's in one out the other. That's why I'm a note-taker kind of guy because I have to write it down, Even if it's, because we're sitting there preparing for the races and Parker Clingerman sitting next to me, he's like, man, you're old school writing all this down. I'm like, that's the only way I can remember anything is by writing it out, even if I know it. Guys, let's take a quick break from Brad and take a little time to tell you about a great partner with Dale Jr. download. Time. It's out there. We all spend it in different ways. We all need more of it. We're all real busy, especially if you have a small business. No one really has.

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That's Stamps.com enter Dale Jr. You're running the street stock. Then what's next? I get you super late. I want to late models. Yep, yep, late models. So is there different stages of late? Because there's pro-late models, there's crate late models.

We had limited late models where I was from, which was like, it was a normal late model, but with a front chassis, like a factory stock. Stock clip, stock front clip, and a smaller motor. I ran that for about a year or two. Man. Ran, okay. Yeah. So by that time I was, gosh, was I was 17, 18 years old and then made it to super late models.

Yep. Had the super late model experience go. Oh, I loved it. Yeah. It was awesome. Where are you racing at now? So then my dad would not let me race at one track. So I race at like five different tracks.

I would race in Auto City, Michigan, Owasso, Michigan, Berlin, Michigan, Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Toledo, Ohio. Those were like my five tracks. Who's helping you? I had like a rag tag, like one or two people. Yeah? Where are those people now? Looking back at it now, I don't know how I did it. Yeah.

It was like, hey, so-and-so owns the asphalt company, and he's available. Like, hey, will you come help? Yeah. And I'd go to the track with like one, maybe two people. My dad would always go with my brother. My older brother raced late miles at the same time. And, of course, being the brothers that we wore, we never race at the same track. Never.

Never. Right. Like, it was like a bad, it was like bad karma for the race at the same track. And I think there was a, you know, one race really early on where we both ran late miles at the same track. And my brother spun me out. Oh. And that was it for it because, you know, mom and dad, you know, everybody's mad at each other. But success with a family, best success you ever have.

The highs are high, but the lows when you're racing with your family are really low. How long did that carry over? How long did that last? Oh, probably, you know, a couple weeks. Really? Yeah, a couple weeks. Wow. What kind of race car driver was your brother?

He was really good. He still is really good. You know, he was, his nickname's The Bull. Yeah. And my brother was a qualifying. He was like Ryan Newman, a qualifying. He would always out-qualify me. Because he would just drive it so hard.

I mean, just, he would go to qualify, and he'd drive in like two car lengths deeper, slide up the track and, you know, just mad it and take off. He'd like, there's no way that's fast. Oh, that was fast. You know, he was always so good at that. Yeah. We were always two different styles because I could never qualify at all, and I would race well.

But so Brian had some actually really good success, you know, running late models, arc of cars, things like that. And just never really, for whatever reason, got to the. the chance that I did when I got to drive for you. He never got a chance like that to break through. Yeah. So now he still works in the garage. You know, he helps different teams out as a mechanic.

Right. I think he wishes, obviously, he was driving. And he did pretty well when he did. Yeah. So you're running your super late and winning races in that. Yep. What was the next step? So I started running super late miles 2002, 2003.

early 2003, my dad had a massive stroke. So my dad has a massive stroke. And, you know, our family's business competed in the, what's now the NASCAR Gander Mountains truck series. And so he ran the team, and we'd race on weekends where the truck team wasn't running, which, thank God the truck schedule was it was. You know, they run 24 times a year. But so then everything was in jeopardy, right?

We didn't have a lot of money to begin with, but now we were, really, you know, in trouble. So I went to work for the team full-time. And I was working for him part-time before, but then I went full-time to try to help. And so I worked for the team for about a year and a half, two years, and probably ran like three or four races a year. Do you. And that was, it was painful. Yeah. It was really painful. Until I got to 2004, my dad let me run the truck a handful of times. Really? Yep. And so he started to to recover. It took him about a year to recover and to where he could, you know, go to the racetrack and be, he would go to the racetrack, but it was like no physical activity. So about a year

later, he got to where he could do things again. And so we ran the truck. And that's why I got my first start at Martinsville, 2004. Yeah. When did you start noticing him? First time I noticed Brad was on TeamSpeak. We were racing online. Oh, yeah, TeamSpeak is a throwback weekend and is still going here. Is that still around? Well, they use... Because it's Discord now, right? Discord now, yeah.

So it's basically a chat program where you can basically talk to your buddies while you're racing or playing video games. People use it for that. And so we're on our computers. I'm at home. T.J.'s hanging out. Truex, I think, was living with me or renting from me at the time. This was the modular house, right? Yeah.

You and your brother were on TeamSpeak racing online with us. I think y'all were still living up north. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I didn't move down here until I come to drive for you. So that was the first time that I remember Brad's name and hearing Brad talk and us, I think we were all kind of just a big group of friends. Like most of the people that you raced online with, you never met in person. No. You know, but you would talk to them every night or once a week or whatever while you're racing online.

So that was the first time I'd ever heard of those two guys. And then we went to, we were at Atlanta, and I was up in a condo, Dad and Teresa owned a condo in Atlanta, and Brad was driving a 23 car in the Xfinity Series. Yeah. Who owned that car? A guy by name of Keith Coleman. Okay.

He was out of Kentucky, originally from somewhere in Louisiana. Yeah. New Orleans, I think. So there's 23, Black 23. And Brad, you know, that car would run in 20th to 35th every week. Brad was in it every other, you know, there have been a few other people driving it,

but Brad's getting in this car. And he went to the high side. Atlanta and ran that car probably about 10 or 15 spots better than it should have ran. Yeah, I remember that race. And I said to TJ, because I was like, oh, that's Brad Casaski from our sim racing crew. And dang, man, he's really doing a great job. And then we went to Bristol, same year, a couple weeks later, and Brad qualified in the top 10, eighth, I think.

Something like that, yeah. With that car at Bristol. And me and him happened to be parked side by side. I was running out and race too. Yeah. And so Brad's sitting there on pit wall, and I sat down next to him, and we just had a conversation. I was like, man, I'm really impressed with how you driving this car, man. I watch your Atlanta, and you rents are good, and you were moving around, and not a lot of people move around, and you were moving around looking for speed and found speed.

And then here you are qualifying in the top ten here. This is freaking crazy. And I looked at that car, you know, and it was just, you know, pretty rough little. It was rough. Yeah, it was rough, yeah. Yeah. So I immediately started, you know, paying a little closer attention to it. Brad at that point. Gotcha. And the reason I wonder about that is because at some point,

Dale Jr. became like your biggest advocate. And I remember with us in Junior Motorsports, we had a sponsor, we had a team and whatever. And Dale Jr. was convinced that you are the next driver at some point. Do you remember how this all went down? Because I don't know that everybody was all about Bragg Keslowski as being the next driver. No, definitely not. It wasn't so much that it was, It was, so what was going on with us is that we had a couple different guys in the seat. And we were changing, we had been, we'd been changing drivers. We'd had about three guys in the car over a short period of time. So no one was excited about another change, no matter who it was.

Right. We were, you know, we weren't, it was like, oh, we just changed drivers. Now you think this guy's going to do it. You know, it's like, we got to, you know. So one thing, though, is what I liked about Brad was that he, from a racing family, Right. And so I knew that he knew how to take care of his race car because of how his family raced, how his dad raced. And I was watching him run at 23. I'm like, they have an objective not only to run well, but also they have to race that car the next weekend. It's the only car we had. Yeah, you have to take care of it. So Brad had that mentality. Whereas the drivers we were working with were like, oh, cool, new car. Cool. Oh, okay, we got another car. Get that car out. Okay, bam, bam. All right, new car. We'll build another one.

Gosh, we were going through cars. And we were budgeted not to go through a lot of race cars, and so we had to fix that. I knew how to fix it. I was like, if we put Brad in there, we're going to run as good as we possibly can, maybe better, and we're going to finish the race. You know, we're going to have a great car. First race we go run is Chicago. Chicago, yeah.

Wow, you remember that. Yeah, we put Brad in the car, and it ran all day, and we finished great. And everybody went, man, that was kind of nice. I remember, though, we kind of jumping ahead a little bit, but you got an opportunity to run a truck at Memphis. All right. Is that kind of the first big break in your mind? I think so.

You know, what's tough is... Was there a big break before that that I didn't see? I don't think so. I think that was probably the first real big break. You catch a lot of little ones. Sure. That was the first big one. Something happened.

What happened? So the week before I was in Milwaukee, the team I was driving for, I was saying about it, they had shut down. There was a whole bunch of issues, couldn't pay the bills, yada, yada, yada, you know, normal race team stuff that happens. And so I'm on the sideline. You know, again, back on the sideline. Well, Milwaukee was where the race was that weekend that the team had shut down.

So, you know, Milwaukee, Detroit, you know, it's about four and a half, five hour drive. So I'm just going to drive there. And there are trucks and Xfinity were there. So I drive to Milwaukee. I think this was the cup off weekend. I can't remember exactly what it was. But I drive there and I go through the garage. And, you know, you walk through and you try to knock on doors, what opportunities are there.

And mostly, I was there for the trucks because I was trying to find a truck ride. And I ran into Todd Bodine. And Todd Bodine said to me, said, hey, man, I feel like you've done a great job with that Xfinity car. And, you know, if you ever need a break, you know, I'll try to help you where I can. And, you know, I said, yeah, man, he'd break bad. And I don't know what it is. But, you know, if you know anything, let me know. He says, I will.

Well, sure enough, his teammate at the time was Ted Musgrave. and in the race, Ted Musgrave was running really well, I think, top five. And that was back when they used to have the restarts where the lap down cars were on the inside and the leaders were on the outside. And they had a restart, and the guy underneath them was a lap down, got loose, wrecked him. And he was mad. So he drove up to him as they were both kind of stopped against the wall and, like, ran into him, right? I don't know.

Everybody's got a different version of it. And NASCAR suspended him for one week. Their whole thought, which I agree with is, you know, they were just in Iraq, the car could have been compromised, you know, everything was done, and you started it back up. Got it. So they suspended for one week. And Todd, of course, that was his team truck. He told the owners, you need to call Brad, go run Memphis. You need to call Brad, go run Memphis. So they did. They called me, and I'll never forget because they wanted all kinds of paperwork. Like, all right, you can drive this week, but we need your workers' comp number.

I'm like, ah, workers' comp. About that. Yeah. What is that? What is that? What exactly do you need? I'll figure out how to get it, but what do you need? All right, we need your insurance.

Uh, like this whole bunch of, uh, all right. And I said, well, make sure to bring your uniform. Like, uh, dude. So if you, if there's pictures online of me running that race and out of the car, I'm wearing Ted Musgraves uniform. Oh, wow. And it's like clamped together. But, so I remember I got to the racetrack to drive it.

And I looked inside, of course, beautiful. It was a brand new race truck. And it had air conditioning. Yeah. You know, like, I'd never drove it. I had air conditioning before. And I remember the first time I sat in it, like, you know, the toggle switch, like, on off, on. Like a little kid, like, this is awesome.

And so, yeah, we ran the race, and I sat on the pole, we let a bunch of laps, and I was battling with Travis Kovapua at the end. And I had passed him for the lead, and I caught a lap car or lap truck. Yes, and the lap truck got loose in front of me. I hit him, and it split the nose open. And they're like, oh, now it's slow, right? And so Travis caught me with a handful of laps to go, and I was doing all I could to block them and like,

oh, I'm not letting this guy by, and eventually he got tired of that and hit me. But, yeah, that was about my first big break. It was the first time I'd ever led laps, you know, ran up front, and been competitive, and that was really an amazing day. Yep. So immediately after that happened, I'd already been talking to Kelly and,

and a couple people here at Junior Motors Sports about Brad. I hadn't talked to Brad yet. But I was telling him, I'm like, man, this is a guy. We're looking for a driver. I think this is a guy. We need to figure out how to get him in the car. I think he can do it. And I'm going on and I'm about that for a couple weeks.

This race happens. And then I called Kelly and I said, we got to get on this now. If this is going to happen, it's got to happen right now because his phone's going to start ringing. Yeah, he's not under the radar anymore after that Memphis race. He might get even, he might get a better. opportunity than our car or he might get a phone call from somebody not quite as good but he's going to

take that next chance because he didn't have a job yeah nothing yeah so i'm freaking panicking and i remember uh calling brad i'm standing in the middle of my driveway at my house when i called you that day really yeah i remember the very i remember the conversation like it was yesterday standing there outside the front door of my house calling you hoping that when i told you about this that you hadn't agreed to do anything else i hadn't at the moment i had uh so this this is is my favorite part of this story. From your perspective is great, because I didn't know that that's where you were. When you called me, I was on an airplane.

Because remember the first time you called me and didn't get a hold of me, so you left the voicemail. And I flew back from Memphis. Like this is the first time I ever flown back from a race. Like the team bought me an airplane ticket from Memphis to Detroit. I thought it was awesome, right? I made it. I made it, yeah. But, you know, that race we were talking about Atlanta, I ran that race and I drove back.

And I got back, you know, three, four in the morning, whatever time it was. And you're exhausted and all those things. and turned my phone off, sat on the nightstand, woke up like nine or ten the next day, and I had a missed call for Michael Walter and a voicemail. And I'm like, shoot. And so I call them back, like, as soon as I can, and they didn't answer. And I'm like, oh, I missed it.

That was my opportunity. And so I joke with Michael all that about that all the time. You never called me back. Michael, I called you back. You never called me back. And so when you called me, I'm telling you that sort of saying to you, when you called me, I was in an airplane. Phone was turned off.

I land. You know, you turn your phone. phone on. And, you know, when you fly commercial, like, don't turn your phone on until you get to the gate, you know, all that. I, you know, somebody would get fussy about that. But I turned my phone on, but I didn't want people to know I had it on. So I got it up there, and I'm like, trying to listen to the voicemail. I heard yours. And I remember doing like, you know, you're trying to make sure it's really him? Yeah, yeah. And not trying to overrack because I'm on the airplane and I'm not supposed to have my phone turned on. Right. He don't want to get, like,

I don't want to get, like, throwing out in an airplane jail. And I remember how cool that was. And you were in New Hampshire that day. and I think we talked the next day, one day or something, yeah. But no, I remember where I was when I did talk to you. I was in my mom's basement, the ultimate cliche. You know what I mean? Like, I was literally in my mom's basement. That's amazing.

That's so cliche. That's funny. And so you called him and when he offered that, did you offer him a job at that time? I think. You offered me three races. Yeah. Is that right? Okay.

It was Chicago Gateway and one other track. I can't remember what the other one was. but there was three races and you took him up on it right away oh yeah right away because I thought three races was perfect if anything else came up I could still do it do it right and it was good for him because I don't want to get all the way in

it was like perfect for everybody did anybody else call you even after that yeah Toyota called me a couple times they wanted me to run the trucks and you know I like the trucks a lot but I wanted to drive what's now you know Xfinity I wanted to drive that more so that makes sense because I like the way those cars felt and felt like that was a better opportunity.

Yeah. Yeah. So that was, it was awesome because Brad agreed to do it, which was a relief to me because I knew that we weren't going to tear any more cars up. And we went to the racetrack and we ran really good, you know, for where we had been running and how things had been going, it brought so much stability to our company. I just seem to remember, and I may remember this wrong. Tell me if I'm right. But like we had the U.S. Navy as a sponsor. Obviously, I remember that not just how the driver drove,

but how the driver, like, did it look like a military, you know, war-ready type of person? Because Navy's trying to recruit all the time, right? Yeah, I was definitely not your picture. You had braces. Yes. You definitely, like, you weren't thinking, you know, about brand and looks and stuff like that. All you did was drive a race car. Do I remember this right?

Did the Navy want Brad or did you, I feel like they didn't. No, they didn't. Oh, you remember that. Okay. But Dale Jr. was adamant. I felt like Dale was prepared to let a sponsor walk to put you in the car. Am I right? Well, I mean, it wasn't really, never really kind of came to that.

I didn't have to think of that. I didn't have to contemplate that. I think you might have been alone in that because I think other people were thinking that. Yeah, you're probably right. Yeah. But I remember a few tense conversations. Yeah. We had, I think at that time when those thoughts were going through other people's heads, we had already had Brad in the car for a handful of weeks. And it was like, you know, well, I mean,

our cars were, we were running, you know, finishing races. I think we were kind of finished them eighth to 15th every week, which is about as good as our cars should have been doing. I can't really remember exactly what the stats were. We really didn't take off until we got Tony senior and Tony Jr. here, which that was a lot of fun for Brad, I'm sure. What was that line? I thought it was awesome. Because Tony Sr. was like driving for my family. Really?

Yeah. It was, you know, my uncle and Tony Sr. had almost identical personalities. Really? And, like, I saw, when I saw Tony Senior, I saw my family. Yeah. And so it was easy for me. Where I think it would have been hard for other people.

Yeah. I just saw my family. And, you know, I had just moved to North Carolina and left my family behind in Michigan. And, you know, you get homesick and all those things. And so Tony Sr. was, he was like a security blanket in some ways because I knew I would have good cars, but he was also somebody that I could relate to. And, you know, you don't expect that because, you know, Tony Sr. can be tough on people. Yeah. But I appreciated that. Like, I always knew where I stood with him. Does that make sense? Like there was never any like, oh, well, he's just saying it, but he don't really mean it. No, you know what I mean? You can tell, if he's saying it, he means it. Yes, and that's exactly how my family was,

and it just was easy for me to speak the same language with him. I always thought you guys were a good match, and it really showed its face, or it really became apparent at Memphis in an Xfinity race. You got into, you won the race, and you spun out Carl Edwards. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was. I did.

It was an accident. It wasn't intentional. There was like a bunch of traffic. We were on new tires. There's a car in front of lifted. A lot of things going on in the back straightaway. But what was interesting about that is that Tony Sr. was always ready to stand up for himself. And I felt like that that was a good match for you.

And it showed that day because you too like to do the same thing on the racetrack. You know what I mean? Yeah. You don't make, you don't second guess what you're going to do. You go out there and do whatever it takes to win the race and all that. And if you have to get a little physical, you get a little physical. And you don't even look back. So when that accident happened or your call gets the bad, the wrong end of it,

you didn't even look back. You were like, face forward, eyes forward. We're going to, what's next to win the race? What's the next thing I do? And we win the race. Okay, I did what I was supposed to do. Won the race, awesome. And Tony Senior was the same way.

If somebody got trampled on in the middle of that process, that's just racing. That's what happens. Yep. And you don't see that a lot these days. Everybody wants to like point blame or yeah There's no like hey that was just a racing deal Y'all got y'all went well together Yeah and I'll be and and why that's worth pointing out is because

Not a lot of things meshed with Tony Sr. They didn't Not a lot of things meshed with him Yeah And he I won't name names but he was honest about the people driving his race cars I don't think this guy can do it I don't you know I don't like this about this driver and and he would voice his frustrations, you know, where a lot of guys, a lot of guys wouldn't.

But man, he never said a word about Brad, but believed in Brad. He believed in Brad. That's when I knew, you know, for us, because that was just so not normal for Pops to be an advocate for a driver. He usually was, you know, crushing them, crushing their souls. I mean, like, even on the radio, on the radio during a race. And he did that with Brad some. Oh, yeah. You know, he'd be honest during the radio.

Yeah. There was a time where I was the dumbest son of a bitch alive. Oh, yeah. Everybody gets that. You know what? My dad and uncle told me that plenty of times growing up. So when I heard it, I just heard my dad and uncle and knew that, oh, that's just a quick, like three seconds later, you want to remember he said that. You know what I mean? I'm looking at this season.

This was 2007. You started off obviously at Chicago. West Ward was the crew chief, finished 14th. Then at Gateway 26. IRP was your first top 10 in your third race force. You finished 10th there. You know, with one, two, three, four races to go in the season, that's when you and Pops started working together at Memphis.

And you went ninth, and then Texas sixth. I remember that race. That was your best finish all of a sudden. Now you're just like you're clicking off finishes that are like, you know, this pairing right here may be it. That may be the secret sauce force. You know, you didn't win your first race until the next year, but when you did, man, it seemed like the dam was now open.

Well, and that series was a lot different back then, too. You know, that race in Chicago, so my first race driving for you all, and what stands out to me the most is standing on the grid. And I think to this day, it's still that way, that race had the record amount of cup drivers in it. Yeah. I want to say it had like 20.

Was it 20? Really? Yes. And I remember, like, driver intro is being on the stage, and you're like, is this a cup race? Or is this the expedite race? It's got like Mark Martin's, a Tony Stewart, you know, like, dang, I'm just trying to, like, that's why 14th was a big deal.

Yeah. You know, it was like 14th in a cup race is how I felt. That's interesting. That was a big day. When did he, when did you move out to the property then? I remember the exact day. It was July 4th, 2007. Dang.

So pretty quick then. Like I remember it, was it because of the fireworks? Yes. Oh, July 4th, right, of course. I remember, too. We lit off fireworks on Snewter Trail up there at Josh Snyder's house. Oh, right. That was like my.

The residential Carolina, right? It was an introduction, welcome for rad party. Yes. It was really interesting because I remember I came here. And, of course, beautiful shop, new things everywhere. Everything was new. And it had that new smell still. Like the shop still had that new smell and everything, the floor had the new look and all that stuff.

And I remember doing that and just being like, wow. And then like, what can top this? And there was a party that night. And I remember like, woo! This is awesome. This is what tops this. Yes. Fireworks.

Boy, that must have had some influence on you because Piratechics and you, Breck, is the tagging hand in the end. I like some fireworks. You got quite the reputation of fireworks. You know, I still have all my fingers, so I'm good there. You're doing good. Right. What was that like living out there, though?

It was good. So I remember, you know, a lot of different things. I moved in next to TJ in the townhouse. And, you know, little things stand out. like growing up, you know, probably because we were boys, but like we never had like new dishes or silverware. I remember going to Target and buying new dishes in silverware and be like, I got new dishes and silverware in my house. Like I thought that was so cool. That was not anything that I was used to. It was like starting a new life. And a lot of ways to most people,

it would be like for me going to college. Yeah. You know, like you left a family. He moved into your dorm, which was kind of like a dorm. It was. And it was a really, cool time. I'll tell you what. Did you ever wonder, I wonder what fireworks will do to these new dishes if we just put it on top.

And that turned into rifles, shotguns. Yeah. Yeah, we graduated through that. Oh, man. Mike, it was a good time. I bet. The other thing I remember

when he won that cup race at Talladega, and, you know, Dale Jr. obviously was right in the mix of that stuff running in the top four or five and that's back when those tandem racing. Dale Jr., we were upset

because he didn't win the race. You know, as Dale Jr. people. Dale Jr. was so happy for you having won that race at that moment. They hadn't even pulled into the garage yet. And obviously, you know, in typical Brack-Kislauski pyrotechnic fashion, it ended up with, you know, crazy. But Dale Jr. was like, Brad Kislauski just won this race. And he was going crazy as if he had won it. And that was something also, to me, it always spoke about the relationship and the respect

that he had for you. and wow did you make a presence then that was uh that was one of those whirlwind days where like part of your wishes you could relive it oh yeah and then the other part is like no because i think i'd screwed up you know like everything came together perfect yeah and uh you know that was you know a string of you know more good breaks uh that it was really blessed with at that time of my life and uh you know it set up a really good um opportunity for me in the future so you know i want to move forward uh to three wins this year, fourth end points going into Indy, just come off of the race at Darlington.

How do you characterize your season? You had a pretty interesting year last year, didn't have much success early on, I guess, by your standards, and then you reeled off some wins there right around this time of year. Where do you feel like you are now? We're pretty good. We're not great. I feel like if you grade a whole season,

you grade it off the points in the championship, right? since we're like two-thirds, three-quarters through this season, I always kind of look at wins, you know, because of the way where the points are. And, you know, there's two or three drivers that have four wins. We're, you know, at three. I feel like we probably stole one or two that we probably shouldn't know one and we probably lost one or two.

We probably should have. So, you know, I think going on, I'm like in that A-minus category, we've got a great shot at making a run for the championship. We just need everything to come together. I feel like the last, you know, a few years, years, we get in the playoffs, we fire off really well, everything's cruising along, and then one thing happens, and we can't recover from it. And, you know, there's two ways to fix that either. You know what anything happened to you, or you win your way out of it, and we haven't been able to

win our way out of it. So I'm really anxious to hopefully win our way through it. And that's what Joey did. You know, he won through Martinsville, and then he had his issues in Texas. It didn't matter. Or I guess it was Phoenix. And then you look at Homestead. The opportunity to present himself, and he went and took it. Yeah. One of the things that I remember about you guys over the last decade, or since you won your championship, at least, is that y'all always were really aggressive or gutsy in the playoffs

with pit strategy and y'all have, you know, sometimes will go off the sheet a little bit from what people would typically do. Is that still the MO for y'all's team when you get to that part of the year? I just look for opportunity. Yeah. And the opportunity is the most important thing because they're out there and they're out there for everyone. It's just can you find it and can you be the first one to it? Whether we were leading or not leading, I think that's the right way to go.

I've always been a big believer in that. What you feel like about the sport and the direction of sports going? I feel like we talk about it all the time. I feel like we turn in a corner as far as viewership, support, fan support, fan engagement, popularity, all those things. It feels like things are headed back in a good direction. What do you think? It's a really interesting time because, you know, I think we're seeing, you know, a fan-based shift, which is natural.

Having the benefit of having a family like you had that was in the sport, I ask them these stories, you know, and this, you know, I ask them about, you know, my dad and uncle, you raced in the 70s. Why did you get out of NASCAR in the late 70s, early 80s? Well, what? Why didn't you keep racing? I'm telling the way you need to understand. You know, the sport was really, really booming in the early 60s.

or late 60s, early 70s, and then it just trailed off. And, like, there weren't full fields, like, in the late 70s, early 80s. And, you know, the gas crisis hit everybody really hard. And so, you know, they shortened schedule and all those things. And, you know, the factory money from the automotive guys pulled out. And it was really tight times. And what's interesting about that is that's one example. But if you look back, you know, to motorsports in general, 40s and 50s, it's done this

cycle numerous times. And, you know, it's doomsday every time it's going down and it's, when it's going up, everybody doesn't see that it's ever going to stop. You know, that's just really natural. So, you know, I don't know where we're at in the cycle. Sometimes I think we're, you know, we're at the bottom of it. Sometimes I think, you know, there's still more to go. Obviously, I have a vested interest in it going up. Yeah. And I want to see it do that. But I really debate about it. I know there's been some big improvements I really like. I really like the stage racing. I feel like as a competitor that you race harder. Yeah. And I feel like more of a race car driver. I mean, you run these 500-mile races like darn this is a perfect example. And you would just like,

first two-thirds of the race, don't hit the wall. Don't hit the wall. Don't hit the wall. Now it's like, man, I need to go past that guy. That's two or three stage points. You know, that's... This is his observation now. This is what he's been saying. These guys feel like the race. racing harder now than they ever have before. Yes, without a doubt. And it's different running 500 miles that way. Like, you know, when you're on local short track races and you have like a 35-lap feature, okay, that's 35 laps, you run as hard as you can.

But 500 miles running that hard, it's, you know, it's grueling. Yeah. It's as demanding as ever. And I like that. That's how it should be. Like, when I get out of the car, I feel like, left it all out there. There was no cruising for the first two-thirds of the race. And so I really appreciate that about it.

So I think that's good for the sport, I think is where I was trying to go with that. You know, I'm really interested to see where everything goes in the media landscapes. I go places now and, you know, I want somewhere in their day, and I see them turning the channels, and they had Hulu. And I don't have to Hulu at home, but, you know, I have direct TV, but I'm watching them turn the channels. I'm like, you know, this is becoming a mainstay. The way people consume and watch things is just different. And sometimes I think that's great for racing. Sometimes I think that's bad for racing. I don't know. The Amazon Primes and all that. how it's changing. I think it's a time of, you know, uncertainty, but I could see it boosting back.

I don't know. Sure. You know, if I did know, I would make some pretty big investments. Yeah. You know, like I wish I knew how successful Amazon was going to be 10 years ago. I would have put a lot of money in that. No joke. Do you think that stage racing could still exist, still be important, still be effective without yellows where you were you were given stage? No, no, I don't think so. I think the yellows are really important because it sets up the strategy. And I think that's super critical. You need that timeout for the next. Yeah, it sets up the strategy.

So I think part of the reason why stage racing is successful is because of the yellows. Okay. Because, you know, like 10 laps to go, y'all comes out, half the field pits, the other half doesn't. Yeah. You would lose that, right? Yeah, absolutely. So I think, now, certainly there's something to be said for stage racing without the yellows, but I think it adds another element.

I'm convinced. You've helped me land on one side of that argument. Yeah. Were you on the fence before? Well, I just wasn't sure. I mean, I've heard people say, you know, maybe without yellows, it'd be better. You still get them. But I think that you're correct.

The one thing I don't like is the yellows are so long. They are a little long. I wish they were like one or two laps less. Sure, I agree. But that's just natural. Yeah. Current package, everybody's talking about rules this year. From a viewer, I love it.

from a driver. I know the drivers probably prefer. Everybody has a different opinion on what they love to have. But you started this season out with one opinion. Do you still have the same opinion? Has it changed? Are you evolving? I've kind of ran away from my opinion because it's clear the rules are what they are.

NASCAR is going to do what they're going to do. And so for me, that means I just want to win. Yep. You know, I enjoyed winning with last year's rules, but I can't say that winning with this year's rules felt any different. I can't say I was like, wow, the rules, that's not a special. Still hard to win.

Still hard to win. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you ran away from it because you felt like you didn't see it correctly or because it's just not worth it. It's not worth it. No, I want to win. I don't want to, you know, at the time, there was the ability to influence some of the

rules that doesn't exist anymore. So it's not worth the energy. I want to put all my energy into winning. Yeah. Great attitude. I feel like a lot of other drivers have sort of resort to that as well. Just give us the rules. We'll go out there and race with it as best as possible.

Let's go try to win. So you're a family man now. How's that? Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Total perspective. What's the best thing about being a dad?

How it humbles you. Yeah. Yeah, I really enjoy. What's your favorite thing that you and your daughter do? She's really into fishing right now. Really? Like hardcore into fishing. Yeah.

Like bag it down, girl. Like every day. Dad, let's go fishing. And, you know, we've caught one fish. And we fish for, you know, a couple weeks now. And she enjoys it. Yeah. She really does.

How old is she? She's four. She's four. And she's four. And I would not have predicted that. No, me either. Like, I don't dislike fishing, but I wasn't like, come on, let's go fish. Yeah.

You know what I mean? I was in the middle. But seeing your kids get enjoyment out of something is just so rewarding that you don't even have to like it yourself, right? Yeah. It's like a TV show that you watch them and you hate the TV show, but your kids like it, oh, it's good now. It's a really, it's a really cool thing to have kids. It gives you you so much perspective, you know. You learn that as you grow up, you start to think that

you're a product of your environment and to some extent you are. Then you have kids and you see that they're like born with their personality. It's not like, my daughter gets up in the morning and the first thing she does is make her own bet. I don't know where she got that from. It wasn't me. She wasn't like, oh, I see dad make his bed. Like I'm a grown-up and I don't know if I've ever made my bed. Like I'm going to leave it open, come back to the next day. Well, I make it if you're going to mess it up that night. Yes, I don't understand it. Right. And there's all kinds of facts that say it's dirtier when you make it, like the germs and all that. So it's way more comfortable getting in an unmade bed. I agree. But Paige, did she instill that? I mean,

no, page is definitely not. This is a mystery then. Yes. That is something. Well, Paige is a make your bed person. Don't get me wrong. But, you know, it sounds like Scarlett watches that. But she just woke up one morning and said, you know, I'm going to make my bed every day. and just does it. Yeah. It's impressive. And you realize that's her personality. Like, we never walked up there and said, you need to make your bed.

No, she was three years old and she started making her own bed. And so I'm like super proud of that. Like, my kid makes her own bed. She's better than her dad already. But then they start to do the things where you're like, oh, shoot. That's me. Yeah, that's me. There's me in there.

The stubbornness and, like, yeah, sorry, dear. You put a lot into social media. One thing is that, especially over the last, I don't know, a couple years. What's your, what do you use social media for? Number one thing I use social media for is the news. I treat social media like a newspaper. Do you think about the things you tweet? Or do you just put it as you, are you instinctual or do you contemplate?

Balance. Yeah. Sometimes when I'm really committed on something, I just go. You're right. Just throw it out there. You've had a couple situations this year, though, that you might have caught a little heat for or, you know, I don't even know if that's how you. That's like every year.

But my question is, has that kind of worn you down or changed your tone with social? Because that's one of the unfortunate things that people recognize is that do you want to let these athletes show their real opinions or are you going to sit there and chastise them every time they have an original thought? Well, the issue with social media is the issue from the beginning of time. It's just, it's demonstrated in a lot better way in social media. but it's this theory that that I have personally that most people are good people. I mean, most, the majority of people, you walk down the street and you see 100 people,

you know, 90-some of those people are great people. But social media brings life to those other 10. And so with that in mind, like I've gotten to the point where I just shrug my shoulders and recognize that, you know, when people do things on social media, they're that 10. And I recognize there's the 90 behind them. and then I just, I don't care. So it doesn't affect you? I don't think it does drastically.

My wife thinks it does. So Paige, my wife, we talk about it. Do you read mentions? Oh, yeah. You do. Oh, yeah. Wow. Yeah.

You're a better man than I. Well, yeah. Like, you know, fans will write me some cool stuff. I don't want to see it sometimes, you know. I just told Amy this morning, she's like, how come you only got four hours of sleep after the race? I was like, well, I had to read Twitter before I got to bed. Got to see what everybody thought of the race.

Yeah. You got to know what people are saying about your job that you do. what they thought of the event. I love it, though. I mean, I feel like I take more from social media than it takes for me. Why is it, though, that Twitter seems like the meanest place on earth, and Instagram seems like the happiest place on earth, when they're both two social media platforms,

why are they so vastly different as far as the experience? Because Instagram, you're putting a piece of duct tape over everybody's mouth. They can't they? Why? They can't they? Because it's not built for that. Well, they can go into comment. It's built for imagery.

So that's an interesting observation because I guess I see it a little different. You do? I see it like Facebook is where all the conservatives hang out. And like Twitter is where all the liberals hang out. And Instagram is where all the people who don't want to deal with those on Facebook and Twitter hang out. You might be right on that. Like the key to winning the election, if I was running for president, is to win Instagram. Those are like the undesided voters.

Okay. That's how I guess I view it. I think that's a great spot to end on. Yeah, I got nothing. Yeah. That's awesome. I don't know. That's my opinion.

But you go on Facebook, it's super conservative. I mean, at least it is to me. Yeah. And then you go on Twitter and super liberal. I just, I see a political spectrum there. Sure. That's what I love about Brad. And he's always been able to give you that additional layer of thought.

Honest. And honesty. And the reason I ask those other questions is that I hope that never changes with you. And I worry that, like, in some cases, and you're one of them, that social media will make you convince like, oh, this is not worth it anymore. And that would be a bad day for our sport when you, in what you bring to the table from an intellectual standpoint, a thought standpoint, just a conversation standpoint, you like to have conversations. Yep. If that day, if that day changes where you're like, it's not worth having the conversation anymore,

that would be sad for us. That would be. Yeah, it would be sad for me too. But, you know, those conversations are tough because there's always that one person that chimes in that just wants to, I hate you, I hate everything. Hey, I just brush you off. There you go. Well, I want to get you back on the show, man. We got a lot more to talk about your career and what your, I'd love to ask you and talk to you about what you think your future is down the road beyond racing,

but we'll do that another day, brother. Thanks for coming and giving us your time. I know you're a busy man. We appreciate you, bud. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks for having it back. It's been a long time.

It's been too long since I've been here. All right, dude. and an abundance of opinion. Mr. Nice Guy or Mr. You're going to be a fuck out of my way. Like Johnny Cash, we ain't afraid to walk the lie. I'll walk the line. Listen to door bumper clear.

Available on all major podcast platform. It burns, burns, burns. Ring up fires. Door, bumper, clear. All right, it's time for the Valvaline DIY question of the week. Dale Jr., we get this still a lot. People asking about the infamous boxing ring that you had, and they want to know if you still have.

have it or what the origins of it are of ours. So let's talk about it real quick, the boxing ring. Well, we don't have it anymore, I don't believe. I believe we donated the boxing ring to a local high school or gym or something. The boxing ring, yeah. So I was a big fan of boxing. Yep. And was looking for various creative ways to do physical activities that were more

interesting than just running on a treadmill. And I had a buddy in mind, Josh Snyder. that agreed to box with me and promised not to kill me. He's a big boy, too. Yeah, he's a big guy. And so we actually started just boxing in, you know, in my basement or in the garage without a ring, right? And I'm thinking, man, we need a ring. We need to get a ring.

So we got a ring. I was living across the street from DEI at the time. So we put this big ring up there and we got the bell, we got automatic bail, and we got the headgear, the mouthpieces and all that. And we boxed. We would just box, and we really didn't, we had certain rules that we abided by. It was more of sparring, and we would go 10 rounds. I mean, we would do the whole match to try to get a workout in, you know,

and try to sweat and stay active. It was more about moving than trying to beat each other up. Of course, it gets competitive and stuff at times, And then the boxing ring became less about working out and more about, man, it's two in the morning. We're all drunk. Who wants to beat the shit out of somebody? You know? And what two people in this group of five or ten or twelve or fifteen that are hanging out would like to get in a ring together?

And you would sit there and badger a couple guys and go, oh, come on, man. And before you know it, you're all at the boxing ring. Everybody's there drinking beer. and two guys are in there, going to town, beating each other up. Now, you know. Absolutely, no former technique at all.

It was ridiculous. And, you know, the last 10 minutes or not even that for somebody got their feelings hurt or something, and we'd just laugh

and go back to the bar. That's funny. The best experience with the boxing ring was this. 30th birthday party. I invited Arturo Gotti. A boxing champion.

A boxing champion, I think, at 147. 17-157, something like that. One of the greatest that ever lived. Well, he was a blood and guts fighter. Won a couple titles, and I was a big, big fan of his. He came to a couple races and so forth. Anyways, he's at 30th birthday party.

He's there. Ross Coleman, pro bull riding champion is there. Brad, a lead singer of Three Doors Down. Brad Arnold. Brad Arnold. He is there. And obviously a lot of friends. And I thought, I knew that Arturo was.

coming and I said you know what the party was at this bar called the double door in Charlotte and it moved over to my basement by the end of the night and I thought all week is leading up to this party I was like man I got to get Arturo down to the boxing ring at some point and get him in there and try to see if he can show me a few things give me an advantage on Josh next time we get in there and so we you know we never got the opportunity to get in there before we all got liquored up pretty good and so it's two in the morning and everybody's drunk and I said, man, I really would love to go down to the boxing marine and show me a few things. He's like, sure, let's go. So me and Arturo go down there and

everybody kind of follows us down. Arturo and I get in there and he just shows me how to throw a combination. And believe it or not, he helped me understand how to throw a three punch combination probably about three times faster than I was throwing it very quickly and very easily, which was really impressive. I'll never forget it. And so Ross calls. Coleman's standing there, and he's like, I'd like to get in there. And he's like, I'll fight that, I'll fight that boxer. Because bull riders are crazy. They're crazy, especially drunk. All right. Bull riders, yeah. Bull riders are crazy. And he, when we go out to the bar, Ross, Ross wants to find the biggest bouncer and fight him. That's just what he wants to do. And the

bouncer doesn't even know this. So we're at the boxing ring anyways, and he goes, man, I want to fight that boxer. And I'm like, really? He's like, yeah. So Arturo goes, all right, no problem, of course. I'm a little, yeah, this will be easy. Now, Arturo's 150 pounds, and Ross's 210. Easy.

And so we're putting the headgear on Ross, and Arturo's got a buddy of his there, and so they're doing what they're doing in their corner, getting ready. And I'm putting this headgear on Ross, and he goes, he knows we're just kidding, right? We're just playing. I'm like, I don't know whether he knows that or not. I'm not sure if he knows it or not. I'm not sure what Arturo is going to do when I ring this bell. And he goes, okay.

And so I ring the bell, and I bend the couple of Arturo's fights already by this point. And they went at it as hard as they could go. I'm talking knocking their heads back, twisting their heads on their shoulders with hooks, left and right, uppercuts. they went hard for a minute, which is a long time to be in there where the championship boxer going as hard as you can go. And I couldn't believe it.

I finally the bell rings and Ross comes back in the corner and he goes, holy crap, he's like, that was crazy. And I was like, dude, you really kind of hung in there. Like you hit him really good a couple times. And now Arturo is standing in his corner with his arms up on the ropes ready to go. If he won't, you know, he ain't taking his head gear off.

And Ross is like, I'll go another round. So they went two more rounds. Wow. Hard. And finally Ross tapped out. He's like, that's enough for me, man. Just because he got exhausted or because he was taking a beating? Well, both.

They both, you know, it's two in the morning and drinking beer and liquor all night. They're not exactly sharp. Yeah. So Brad Arnold wants to get in there. Oh, Lord. And he gets in there with Ross. Jeez. So, you know, Arturo's done.

He's like, man, that was fun, cool. Brad gets in there with Ross. Ross laid Brad Brad Arnold is bleeding. He's smiling and he's got blood between his teeth. I'm like, dude, you're lead singer for Vito's Down. You're bleeding in my freaking boxing ring gym. And I'm like, I don't know whether this is cool or this is bad or what, you know.

And he's like, I'm fine. I don't care. And then, you know, all my friends want to get in there before you know it. Everybody's in the ring at some point boxing. Royal Rumble. Well, one of it, you know. It just turns into everybody wanting to fight. You got your eye blacked.

Yeah, I got in there with Ross and a buddy of mine, Scott Young, who was one of our late model racers at the time. And so we went after it. And I got hit a few times, but it wasn't like, ow, you know, that was a real good shot. I didn't even, I don't even know what shot did it. But I'm standing there and I'm like, man, I'm seeing a shadow on one side of the room. And I'm like, that is weird.

What is that? And I keep rubbing my face like something's on it. And I finally rubbed it one time and I'm talking I had a knot on the brow over my eye, right where my eyebrow is on one side. Giant, it's swolled up. And I went into the bathroom and looked and I was like, that's the shadow. It's like I got a lean to on my face. It's an awning.

And so, yeah, I got an awning popped out on my forehead on one side. And I felt like, Rocky Bowman. I'm like, look at me, man. I'm really in here, it in my head. You wanted to take that black eye everywhere. Hell, yes. And so, yeah, by the next day, you know, it's a black eye. All the blood's draining down into my eye socket and turned into a black eye.

And I think I went to the racetrack. I think there's a picture of me wearing a helmet with a visor up. There sure is. You went to Kansas that next weekend and there's a black eye. That was why I had it. Yeah. Come from that boxing ring. A lot of fun.

That is good. All right, the boxing ring will live on in history. Anyways, thank you, Valvaline, for that. From high-mileage rides that need that thick anti-ware film, the newer engines that have carbon buildup, head over to Valvlin.com slash Dell to find the product spec for your engine. Hey, everybody, it's Dell Jr. for the Dell Jr. download. This is the Ask Junior segment of the show, brought to you by Nationwide.

That's the first time we had a little intro music for it. Fancy. Yeah, getting pretty fancy here in the studio. So, Leo, got some good questions out there coming in? We do. Let's start with one from this past weekend. Andrew Higginbotham, who I actually met this past weekend. Big fan, he did earn a sticker.

He wants to know what was the most memorable moment from the race weekend. Just getting out of the car and hearing the fan reaction, waving to the crowd and their reaction was just unforgettable. I'll never forget that moment. There were amazing moments all weekend long, but that one stands out there by itself by margin. Sam Bladen writes in and he wants to know, can you provide some context as to why NASCAR issues impact guns to the pit teams

and why they can't use the impact of their choosing? And are there any other tools that pit teams use where they can't use their own during the race? I'm not sure if there's other tools, but the reason why that they decided to provide the guns for the teams is because the teams were developing their own guns and spending hundreds and thousands of dollars doing it. it. NASCAR stepped in to try to stop that development and the spending and cost of that development. Teams had built some impressive guns. They were way better than what the rest of the

competition had. And, you know, there's sometimes when NASCAR feels like, well, we want to step in in this area and cut the cost, stop the cost, stop the development. They just pick, you know, pick places in the sport where they don't want that development going on or don't want that sort of, you know, it's unguided and can, hundreds of thousands of dollars turns into millions of dollars. And before you know it, you know, these teams are spending way more money than they have. And it's tough for the little guy. Obviously, they can't, you know, not everybody can't afford to do any type of gun development. So I imagine, you know, and it was met with a lot of resistance when they did make that change to try to provide guns. There was a lot of

problems with the guns breaking and the teams were using different types of air and so forth in the guns and trying to trick the guns to make them do better and perform faster and the guns were failing. We don't hear much about that anymore. There's a lot of consistency and I think the teams have found a great box to live in and I like it because it's put the responsibility and the performance back on the changer. And we can celebrate the changer and the human being holding the gun that's doing the job and how quick and how good he can do it. So I think that's really, you know, we used to talk about, we used to have All-Star

Pit crews and back in the 90s. We can now really celebrate and see and point out these unique individuals that have such great gift when everybody has the same equipment. Jason Ewing on YouTube once to know what happens? to your Darlington throwback car now? The Darlington throwback car is at NASCAR, and they took it over there to take a look at all the parts and pieces on it to make sure everything's up and up,

and the team guys, Taylor and crew chief, and the rest of the guys are over there to retrieve that car and bring it back here, and I don't know what we'll do with it. I want a panel off of the car. I think I want a door, maybe the right door or something like that for my own collection. But otherwise, I'm sure that car goes into rotation and will be raced somewhere by somebody.

Bob wants to know of the remaining bubble drivers, which one has the best opportunity to go to IMS and clinch a playoff spot? I don't really know. You know, I think that I think everybody's waiting on Jimmy Johnson to win a race and make his way into this playoff. And he's a seven-time champion and no task or no objective is too hard or too impossible for him. So you never count him out, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. But all those guys are going to have to be, some will maybe think that they need to be conservative and play it safe. I think Ryan Newman is a workman-like sort of driver and he's going to steadily go in there and crank out a top 10, you know, and hope that's good enough. Whereas some of these other guys may be more aggressive, Jimmy Johnson being one of them, they're going to go in there and say, man, we're going to try to put ourselves in position to win.

and we're not expecting a top five or a top ten to save us. We got to win the race, but they may be quite a bit more aggressive trying to attain the track position that they need late in the race to be able to do that to control the race on the final few restarts. It's going to be pretty crazy, especially with these rules this year. The racing has been pretty dramatic and pretty fun, so I'm excited to be able to call that race.

Obviously, we're going to do it radio style. I'll be over in turn three on Sunday calling the action from over there and hope to have a lot of things happening, so it'll be an easy job. Christy Dee wants to know, how often do you play PubG, and is it easier control on iPad versus phone? Yeah, it's all that sweet.

I wanted to answer it right then. I like the iPad. Obviously, I got this pro, and I play PubG with a friend of mine, Tim Dugger. We play with, let's see, Noah, play with Noah, and Noah's got some friends on the West Coast. we play with. So Al Geyer, he plays as well. Trying to convince my other friends to play

PubG Mobile on this iPad or on their phones. T.J. plays every once in a while. So I like to play a lot. Amy does not like that. So I get what I can. All right, guys, that is it for today's Ash Jr. All right, man. Thanks for tuning in to Asch Jr., presented by Nationwide. White flag right there, white flag. All right, time for white flag. Listen, guys. on our YouTube channel. That would be the Dirty Mo Media's YouTube channel. We will be featuring an original documentary that will blow your socks off, which is also a reminder to buy your socks at socket 2CC.com to help the Dale and Amy Earnhardt Fund fight childhood cancer.

But anyway, the great and powerful dirty moe media crew did an outstanding job this past weekend, documenting Dale Jr. We talked about how much fun it was for Dale. I really think that this documentary is going to show, why it was fun and really kind of get into the, to the granulars of, of the enjoyment for Dale. And Matthew,

you were, you know, you and James did an outstanding job just being present all over the weekend. So listen, that's going to come out soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel because that's where you're going to find it. Don't even wait.

You can go subscribe to it now while you're listening to the rest of this podcast. Let's hit some Apple podcast rating and reviews real quick. J. Red 88 wrote, Dale, I thought it was awesome on Saturday when you were talking. to the boys in the booth while under caution at Darlington. It was like you were announcing from the car and actually using the car to explain what you were feeling while driving.

As a true fan, I got a lot out of that, which I really appreciate that because it's not, you know, I like it when the viewers are not just trying to be entertained, but they're also trying to learn and become educated on what exactly is going on out there. So I thought that was nice. NASCAR is the best 88 road. I am 13 years old. And I remember my dad rooting for Dale Jr. Now every Sunday, I turn on the TV and I watch the race. Me and my family went to the Bristol night race and I was on my feet screaming from Matt De Benedetto

to hold off Denny Hamlin. You and me both looked. I never got to see some of the people race that you have on your podcast, and it is fun hearing how their racing careers unfolded. Thank you for making my Mondays enjoyable. So very nice comments there. We had a lot more, a lot of comments on Saturday

as you were racing. So a lot of people, listen, I ain't going to read them all. They all really appreciated seeing you out on that racetrack, Dale. Our TV show this week, because of the late you know, the fact that we had Labor Day and we're taping a day later, the TV show is going to be a re-air of the Del Jarrett episode that's Tuesday night. But this Brad Kozlowski episode is going to air Sunday, September 8th, at 11.30 a.m. Eastern Time on NBC Sports Network.

That is going to be part of the Brickyard pre-race coverage for NBC Sports. So that's going to be nice. Again, that's Sunday, September 8th at 11.30 a.m. Eastern Time on NBC Sports Network. And other than that, I just want to say, I want to close this white flag by saying it was great. talking to fans over the weekend. Matthew and Leah, you guys will jump in on this as well. We had so many comments about podcast listeners. You couldn't walk from here to there without somebody talking about this show.

And that made me feel really well, really good. I know you guys got a lot of... Leah, you were handing out on the house. I walked around the infield, and obviously I haven't spent a whole lot of time at NASCAR races, and I could not believe how nice everyone was, first of all. And, you know, people were invite me in and need to drink. need food and people are so nice and they all want a dirty mouse sticker. So I had a lot of fun.

And I love the fact that most of the people I talked to wasn't just like, hey, I'm a big fan of the show. So many of them said, and this is something that Dale doesn't get to hear maybe as much because he's busy working now at the tracks there. But so many people said thank you guys for doing the show. That's right. That's my experience as well. So to everyone who we saw at Darlington, thank you so much for making our weekend even better

than it already was. All right. Dale, let's hear some odd history. Odd history, I do not know this story. We're going to learn it together, Mike. All right, let's hear it. Usually I am the history guy. Usually, not today.

Not today. You're learning with the rest of us. So the AAA contest board. Triple A, got you. All right. It was an arm of the American Automobile Association formed in 1902. All right. AAA sanctioned early motorsports events and pretty much helped form what we know now as the IndyCar Racing series in America.

Okay. They also were the first to use a formal point system in the sport of motorsports, right, in the racing industry. They sanction great events from the Vanderbilt Cup. Never heard of it. Never heard of the Vanderbuk Cup of the earliest motorsports contest in America. Never heard of it. To the Indianapolis 500. Have heard of that one.

Heard of that one. Well, then comes along NASCAR. NASCAR was formed in February 21st, 1948, obviously. The culture of the two forms of motorsports was clearly different. And in the early days, there was a lot of animosity between the two parties. That's interesting. All right? Let's go back to May 13, 1954.

It's a great example of the two parties having some animosity. That's the day that Mr. Bill France stepped foot into the hallowed grounds of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Bill France Sr. was there to watch practice for the Indy 500. When it was discovered that he was in the garage, security came and escorted Mr. France off the speedway. The guard was quoted in a newspaper article As saying he had, quote, orders from the front office, unquote, to remove Mr. France.

The article goes on to say that Big Bill Grinned and said that he borrowed a Speedway badge from a friend to go to the garages and shake hands with old friends among the 500 drivers, car owners, and mechanics. France at the time was promoting an upcoming project, a mammoth stock car racing facility near Daytona Beach that would hold a fire. 500-mile stock car race that many felt would rival the Indianapolis 500.

Hence the Daytona 500. NASCAR and the IndyCar sanctioning body, AAA, they were rivals to the point that they banned drivers from running in each other's series. I remember reading about like, you know, if a driver left NASCAR and went and ran a AAA sanctioned race, they stripped him of all his points for that season. It's crazy. Yeah. Like top drivers.

Championship drivers, winning drivers, were being stripped of all their points, like midway through the year. Championships were won and lost because of these rivalries between the two sanctioning bodies. The chief steward of AAA was quoted as saying, quote, We have a long-standing disagreement with NASCAR on what constitutes good racing, unquote. Boy, that's a big. Shots fired! 40 years after France was thrown out of the Indianapolis Motor Speed, Speedway, Mass Call would run their first race there, the Brickyard 400.

Hey, listen, if those security guards at Indy were anything like the yellow coats today, it makes a little bit of sense. Am I wrong? The yellow coats? Is that what they're called? The yellow shirts? Yellow shirts. It's kind of like you're thinking like they're British. Those would be red coats.

Red coats. But the yellow shirts, right. They're hard people. They're hard people. Red coats are Budwisers. Oh, yeah. Of course. Blue coats are Budlights.

Budlights. That's right. Well, it's good to see that the two sports got, you know, came to terms. Well, AAA went bye-bye, and that's what helped. Is that right? Yes. Because AAA went by-bye. AAA saves my ass from time to time.

Not the same AAA. It isn't? No. Not the same. AAA went by-bye. I think it was after Lamas and Vukovic's accident. Okay. Then that big accident, Lamont.

Ah, got you. All right. Good stuff. Man, what a great show, guys. Sure was. Sure was. A lot of fun. Thanks for Brad for coming on.

But keep on listening, guys, because the show ain't quite over. Just an ad that we want you to hear. It's an ex. It's Christine. Of course. Let's have some fun talking about pristine auction. Pristine is an online sports memorabilia website where you can bid and win some amazing authentic items. The auction styles are plentiful.

Many lots. You love the word lots. I do. You do? You said it last week. week. You loved it just so much. So that's how you worked it in? I don't think that's how, I don't think that's what he said.

We said we're going to have fun. Oh, my gosh. The auction styles, they are a plenty. He will have a plenty in next week's read. There are ones that last for days. If you love to wait around for days to win an item, there's some that are daily, meaning that they last one day. And then there's the qualifying style.

Ten minutes. auction. This week there's a diecast from the 2018 Darlington Throwback Race. It's the winner's diecast, Brad Hiselowski. He was just on the show. It's a signed diecast, has a little confetti on it. The black and gold, rusty Wallace scheme that he ran there, 2018. Go to pristineauction.com now. Right now. It's free to register, free to bid,

and of course you only pay for the items you win. With Pristine, one big thing is guaranteed. Authenticity. I'm so good at saying that. now. Thanks to this ad read that I read every week. I've even signed for Pristine, so I know that all the autographs on there are legit. No phonies, no fakes, like

at the other sites. That's Pristine Auction, spelled P-R-I-S-T-I-N-E-Oction.com. So, Junior Nation, when you register, please select Dale Junior Download podcast from the drop-down menu and the how did you hear about a section on their website. That's important. All right. That's right. We'll see you next week on the Dale Jr. Download.

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