The Dale Jr. Download - 313 - Ross Chastain: Straight Outta 1976

Episode Date: September 1, 2020

Dale Earnhardt Jr. brings one of NASCAR's hottest young stars, Ross Chastain, to announce a throwback that lights up the Download. The watermelon farmer turned NASCAR driver has been turning heads and making headlines during his journey in the sport. Despite his recent success, he shares the emotions of how it all came crashing down when a sponsor got in legal trouble and how it makes him feel insecure to this day. Chastain details his rise from Xfinity mid-packer, to winner, to playoff driver. Dale and co-host Mike Davis get Chastain to open up about the controversial finish during last week's Xfinity Series race at Daytona when he wrecked with Kaulig Motorsports teammate A.J. Almendinger on the final lap. How did he feel and how will the young driver move forward in his aggressive approach of risking it all for the result? Bringing an actual Cup Series racecar to the studio, Ross unveils a tribute scheme throwing back to a rare Dale Earnhardt Grand National machine that he'll pilot during the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway for Spire Motorsports. The car design and t-shirt drop has Dale Jr.'s fingerprints all over it.Dale Jr. shares with us his inner-thoughts on possibly being a hoarder and how he plans to start an Ebay store to combat the issue. He also breaks news about the NASCAR on NBC booth that has him nervously excited.In Ask Jr. presented by Xfinity, Dale gives advice to an Australian camper and talks about his favorite throwback schemes. He also weighs in on the hottest Short Track racer in America, Kyle Larson, and the speculation surrounding a potential return to the NASCAR Cup Series. Will he really come back?Dale lets producer Matthew Dillner have a shot at Odd History. We tell the tale of why Neil Bonnett spent some of the 1976 Southern 500 behind bars. Like it couldn't get any stranger... Dale Jr. tells us about an aggressive Beefalo that escaped impending doom at the slaughter house and has now police searching a small town in Connecticut. 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.

Get those wagons rolling. Rolling, rolling, rolling. Ready? What? You stop. Stop what? Rolling, rolling, rolling. Go.

Rolling, rolling. Keep them wagons rolling. Raw hide. I can't do raw hide like you. Really? I love raw hide. Rawhide. Raw hide.

There you go. This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. And there it is. sends them on their way is that we have a new leader. Ralph Bernhardt car number 50 in the lead. Ralph Earnhardt number 50 in the lead. He's been informed that there has been a protest that has been lodged against Leroy Yarbrough.

So let's go down to Chris Aconnemackie and get the story. Well, how do you feel about winning one this way, Ralph? Well, I'd rather outrun him, but we wasn't allowed to wheels, and he is running the wheels. He is illegal, I guess. Well, a possible winner. Ralph Earnhardt. Now, back to you. Hey, everybody.

Welcome to the Dale Jr. download. It's Dale Jr. Back again for another episode. Episode 313. Co-host, Mike Davis, Matthew Dillner, Leobon. Let's get the show started. I got some pretty cool news today.

Oh? Or the other day. I don't know if it's open segment worthy, but at Dover, so throughout the Throughout the year at NBC, they like to give each of us a little bit of time off. You don't have to do every race. Obviously, I don't do every Xfinity race, and you'll notice it Dover in the second Xfinity race

Rick took off and Steve Latt was the host. Well, Richmond Weekend, apparently they were wanting me to host one of the Xfinity races. Oh, like the play-by-play, like the league guy? Welcome to Richmond Raceway. Oh, watch out now, Chris Ocannamackie. Here we go. I'm pumped. I'm excited.

I've gotten to do just a little bit. bit of that when and and i guess i'll kind of do some sort of sort of do that job this weekend we'll do a segment with me del jarrant and coppedi during the race and so uh i'm sort of the host there but it's uh it's it's it's going to be pretty fun trying to uh navigate that letart is going to give me some notes rick allen's going to give me a lot of notes i'm going to watch a lot of races and uh sort of try to understand how to bring us in and out of commercial commercial. It's, you know, people really don't understand how difficult and hard and nerve-wracking that part of it is. See, I can just react to the racing as an analyst and go, oh, look at that.

But Rick Allen's got to introduce, like, the guy that sings the national anthem, man, you know what I mean? Right. He's got to take us to the command, like, for the start your engines. They'll be like, all right, Rick, you got 10 seconds till the command, and he's got to say something, right? He's got to boof off the top of his head for 10 seconds. Just whatever. And then go, all right, let's get down to the command. And he does it so effortlessly that we take for granted, I think, how hard that is. It's a craft.

It's a talent, and not many people can do it. I mean, because you're still talking, and then you've got people in your ear telling you where you're going to go next while you're still finishing your thought. I could not do it. That's multitasking on a level that I have no idea how you do that. It's amazing. And now you're going to do it. So we've done the driver's booth at New Hampshire a couple times where it was me and the Tart and Burton.

Right. And in those races, when Rick's not there, you really learn how Rick is the most valuable part of the team. He is the most valuable part of the team. It's been fun trying to do that, and hopefully I don't do too terribly bad. And that's it, Richmond, you said? Richmond. All right. So that's coming up.

having a couple weeks. Yes. Next week. So I'm already nervous. Wow. I would be too. So I've always wanted to do this so badly for like six years, probably more than that. I've wanted to sell, start an eBay store.

So I have a lot of things that I've accumulated over the years, laying around literally, like I told you, just stuff laying around so RC cars I got piles of that stuff that I'm never going to mess with brand new motors gas powered engines and blocks

I mean in boxes not even used brand new bodies Lexan bodies and I are never painted old stuff Oh really I've got model rockets and stuff that kind of shoot up in the air

I was into the that for a little, you know, a couple months and bought a bunch of stuff and never, you know, there's brand new. I got, so I used to have like a little fun par three golf course on my property, just a little cheapy, crappy one that I never used. And so we had cups and flag sticks and all that stuff and it comes in a kit in a box, sitting around, laying around, never going to touch it, never going to mess with it. So the randomest things, old helmets, racing helmets, right?

We used to have go-carts that we, we used to have go-carts that we, have people come right over the property. And there's all these helmets laying around, just laying around, right? Somebody might give me a couple bucks for them. So you're going to start a store? I'm going to start a store. Part of me thought you already had one, but I guess not. You just do all the buying.

You buy. Well, I have, I did buy, I do buy, and I did buy, I did sell a lot of stuff with that account, but it was like cycling stuff. I bought a bunch of cycling stuff that I didn't eat. Yeah. So I sold a bunch of cycling. stuff, which was nice because I kind of got some of my money back. But yeah, I'm going to try.

I've been wanting to start a store, but I needed a partner because I need somebody that can list, search for the price, sort of understand what the price point is for each item, get a little bit of history and put the post up and all that, right, and help with shipping. So basically, I've thought, I think that this might be a good idea. All right. I'm going to get a partner and I'll do, I'll provide the, I'll provide the, I, item and the partner can take 30% or 25% and Mike you have a new job no I'm just kidding no I was going to say I hope you don't think the partners at the table no no I think I've got my partner but

what do y'all think that sound like a reasonable deal 30% yeah I put my hat on 25% hold on you're already negotiating against him and do you even know who this person might be I know I'm just saying if you say give him a cut okay yeah yeah because it's It sounds like they're going to be doing a lot of the legwork. Yes, and then you get rid of your stuff, so it's a win-win. Your value here is that the things are yours. The value for them is they get to do the work and then they get a cut of it. That's fair.

My property and the accumulation makes me feel like that I basically have a hoarding issue. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're close. Yeah, I'm very close to it. A hoarding scenario going on there. The difference is, the difference is, is that. the hoarding scenario that you've got going on, a lot of them are really super cool stuff.

You know, hoarders are saving the box of macaroni and cheese from 1960. It's feeling some of these, all this crap, like stuff, right? It's just junk to me. And it is. It's old stuff laying around. A lot of it's a decade or more older thing, R.C. stuff they're never going to use. Model cars that I bought that I'm never going to put together. When I'm gone, I don't want.

want to amy or I'll have to fool with it, garbage it, you know, it's just not going to mean nothing to them. Plus, it's still relevant now, so might not get rid of it so somebody can use it. So I'm going to start a store and offload some of this stuff. I like it. Because in feeling some anxiety, like it's a ball and chain, weighing me down. All the stuff that you have? Yeah, I'm pinned to this sort of geographical location due to the junk bits of accumulated in that space.

Maybe you are a hoarder. By definition, hoarders, you know, it affects your life in negative ways. Maybe you are actually hoarding. I think so. Just think when you clean your house how good it feels when you sit there and you're like, look around. So that'll be the same for you probably. So I don't know much about what it means to be a store owner on eBay. I don't either.

Okay. I know. I've had a handle. I've had a handle on eBay and I've listed and sold an item and the person bought it without complaint and apparently has it. Right. I've done that. Having a store on eBay is a little, is the next, like the next. step.

Okay. Like you literally have a store that's got a name, like, you know, whatever. You want to name it, but. Dells Crap Shack. It's whatever. I thought about doing that. I'm really close. I've been wanting to do it a long time because it's stuff, just, I hate stuff laying around.

I got this one shelf from the goes of ceiling of RC car stuff that's old. I mean, cars that are still in the box that I never built, like, gas. We were into gas-powered forward drive stuff. I don't know. I mean, a couple hundred bucks is what I pay for that stuff. I'd like to get at least 50% of my money back. Did you say that you had, like, model kits? Yeah, model kits.

Is there, like, value from a, what am I trying to say? They're old. Yeah. Like, they're from the 60s, 70s. And if they're still in the package. Yeah, they're still wrapped. Yeah, those, like, people that would buy that have no intention of actually building it. They want to keep it like that.

That's why I bought it. Oh, is it? Yeah. I bet you do have some cool ones in. I bought them as in a collecting motive. Gotcha. And now I'm like, hmm, I feel like they are tying me down to this. What scale?

Huh? What scale? Uh, model, car, whatever there. What scale is a model? Like, like, no, the RC stuff, though. Oh, all different types. Ten scale, eight scale, 12th scale, a quarter scale, any scale you like. I got all, you know what?

I got some stuff that you guys run. Okay. Yeah. I know a lot of people will be interested in buying it then. Well, I'll show you my eBay handle when I get in a store going. Right. You know, I got a lot of nitro gas stuff, but I got a dude's got some battery stuff. Leo likes that.

Oh, man. I don't know, man. It's got a bunch of junk laying around. Yeah. I don't like it. Well, I hear you. I bet your wife doesn't like it either. She didn't see it.

Okay. Oh. Let's go, let's talk about these playoffs. Cup series, obviously. ended their regular season in Daytona, going in the cup of playoffs. Who do you think is going to win the championship, Mike? Let's not go with the obvious. Why?

Because that's boring? Oh, come on. I'm going to tell you's going to win. I'm going to tell he's going to win it. I already know. It's going to be Lagano. Wow. Yeah, it's going to be Lagano.

I think Harvick edges out Hamlin. For some reason, I think, you know, this has been sort of Denny's by far. This has been Denny's best year ever. And I think he comes. very close. I just don't know if it happens for him. For some reason I feel like I get this weird feeling that Harvard's going to, because Harvick's

tied Kyle and wins. More than likely going to finish this season ahead of Kyle and wins and I think that he gets his second title. This has kind of been Harvick quietly asserted himself as one of the greatest.

Yeah, and he's certainly the favorite. And I tell you what, that championship race at Phoenix couldn't set up any better for him if he's that final four because that is his track. I'm telling you he mows them down there. Who's the dark horse? Well, gosh, I mean, listen, you could make an argument

that any dark horse is anybody not named Harvick or Hamlin, frankly. But I don't know. Who do you think? I mean, so here's who you got in your The guys that aren't highlighted there are non-winners. Right. So the winners are Harvick, Hamlin, Kislauski, Lagano, Chase Elliott,

Martin Truix, Jr., Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, William Byron now, after this past weekend, Austin Dillon and Cole Custer. And then 12 through 16 is Amarola, Boyer, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, and then 16 is De Benedetto. I think Ryan Blaney may be the Dark Horse for me.

There you go. I mean, the guy's got a legitimate, you know, shot at it. Well, I tell you what. I'm looking at these, like, like the tracks that you go, the last four, Kansas, Texas, Martinsville, Phoenix. Yeah, what about it?

I'm just trying to see if those tracks set up like any of these drivers are known for their success there. Well, you just got to get in. It's just tough for those guys at the back there to, you know, their whole thing is to make that. He's got a pretty reasonable track record at Phoenix. Is Kyle Bush?

Is Kyle Bush a Dark Horse? Is he qualified well? Is who? Is Kyle Busch a Dark Horse since he hasn't won this year? I don't think so, man. He doesn't qualify as a Dark Horse for me because he's defending champion. Yeah.

Who are the four drivers that don't make it out around one? Ooh, that's a good question. Mike? De Benedetto. Two, three more. I disagree. I know you do, but I'm going to say, you know what? It's Cole Custer.

Okay. Austin Dillon. This is a good one this year. Do we want to say Kurt? I don't know. I don't know. I think he's going to be fine. It's pretty solid.

I'll say Dylan, Custer, Boyer, and DeVinadetto. Boyer. Damn. It felt wrong when I said it. Boy, it's tough when there's two short tracks in there to count out. Somebody, you know, somebody has to miss. So this is, you know, I remember this when I was a driver. These drivers take such an offense to this.

I know. When you're like, oh, first round. That's why you had me do it. I'm going to do it? Okay, let's hear. Oh, really? Who's not making it? Who's not making the first round?

Austin, Dylan, Cole Custer, and Kurt Busch and Clint. So I think the same except for Matt.

Right. You're saying De Benedetto will make it. Yeah, I think, for some reason I feel like he might. I might be wrong about that. I don't know. It's tough.

What, I guess the last question before we wrap that up is, who's one of the top guys you think's vulnerable of missing the, you know, to getting knocked out in the first round. Oh, yeah. Well, give me a guy maybe, give me a guy in the top eight. Let's go that. Let's go even harder. Top seven. Ryan Blaney, Martin Tricks, Jr., Chase Elliott, Joe Ligano, Brad Kislaski, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick. Which one of those is most vulnerable to missing the first round? I think it's easily Joey Lugano only because it's two short tracks and he's had a target on

his back from some, even though he's my championship pick. These drivers don't run into each other. These drivers don't target each other. They should. they don't. I know. So below Zet theory out of water. You think somebody's going to get some payback. It could happen when you got, when you got three physical tracks, well, two real physical tracks there. Could. Good. All right. Wishful thinking. You think it's Joe? You're wishing. Not against Joey. I love Joey. I think you just did. I think you just said that. Contact. I think you just said that. You said Joe because you don't think he has a good spotter. What did you just say? He said, I wish Joey would get right. I think Joey's going to win the title, but he's the biggest risk of those top guys. He said, I wish Joey would get paid back. some of the stuff that he deserves to get crashed. I'll say Truex is an answer to your question.

True X. All right. I'm going to say Brad is Lousky. Yeah. The three races are Darlington, Richmond, and Bristol, and so anything can just happen at those tracks. I'm telling you. So, like, you're right.

I shouldn't have said Brad. He can go win Darlington. Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. And Bristol. I'll stick with it. I said it.

Okay, you've said it. All right. All right. Okay, Ross is entering. Ross is just. Let's get him in here. All right, there's Ross. There he is.

Oh, my gosh, we did it! Bring that baby over here. Is it time? You're going to bring a watermelon, aren't you? It's time. All right, everybody, guest today for the Dale Jr. download, Ross Chastain,

Ross, I appreciate you making some time to come on our show today. How are you doing? Good, buddy. Wish I was there in person. I know, we do, too. And, you know, you've been on the show before. We had a great time.

So we're glad to have you back again. That's exciting for me getting returned guests. The reason why you're here, man, we're going to talk about here in a bit. But first off, you're having an incredible season. I mean, I know that you are dying to get yourself a win, get your team a win. They hired you to win races. I know that that's running through your brain. But you are, without a doubt, and the numbers don't lie that your most consistent driver on the circuit.

So where do you sort of net out with all that, with your expense? ride with colleague trying to get the win versus now you're going into the playoffs in a few weeks to battle for the championship. So are you viciously kind of going after this victory before the playoffs starts so you can go ahead and check that box? Because once the playoffs starts, you sort of have to go into championship mode and just, you know, piling up points. What's the approach for you? I don't know how to change, to be honest. I've heard guys forever growing up watching this sport, talk about points racing and, you know, looking at the bigger picture.

But especially now with no practice and qualifying, you know, we just get these cars in a race. So for me, it's just about putting together lap time. And for myself, I feel like I try to put like quality, high percentage. passes and moves together. Now I did not do that this past weekend. No, I think once we, you know, down the stretch here,

I just try to drive my race car as fast as I can and put it in the best spots and manipulate it as best I can. And that's not going to change a whole lot. You know, I mean, now we have Talladega in our playoffs in the Xfinity series, which is new. So, you know, I don't, I don't know how I'll handle that race.

It'll probably depend on the point we're at in the points. You know, last year in the truck series, I was able to get in late, but get in and run for a championship there is my first real, real quality effort. And I got Talladega in their playoffs in the truck series, and I was just like, well, if we crash we crash. And that was a terrible mistake. I should have been a lot more conscious of the situation I was in. We barely made it through that round because I,

I put us in a big hole, so going for the win. So probably have to look at that race at Talladega a little different. We don't need to be, you know, that high risk pass at the end. But all the other races, all the downforce races, it's truly it. I don't really know how I would drive different. How do you look at your career where you are now? I mean, do you, are you still sort of pinching yourself or is that kind of worn off? And now you're like focused on this path because, you know,

you sort of got your, you might not feel this, it's funny because he will probably feel completely different than the perception that I have of his situation. Like my perception of your situation, and I think this is probably common for most people, is that you're, you've kind of finally gotten some roots in a reasonably great race car. I mean, this is a great race team that's grown a lot over the last couple years. So you're, you're in a winning program, and it appears on the outside. that you have some real stability and a sort of understanding of a path, right? But I bet, and I'm almost just guess, that you don't feel that security.

You still feel like you're grinding and striving to survive to make a career out of this, that you don't trust, I guess, that you have that stability and that. But, you know, you can kind of tell me, are you less anxious about, your future, then you might have been a year or two ago. Are you more confident that you might, you know, this might kind of work out and lend itself into a 10, 20 year career? Because I remember when we talked on the show, you were like, I might go home.

I might not, you know, this might not work out. I might be doing, you know, back at the family business in Florida one day. So where do you feel? How do you feel now? Because it looks stable. It looks secure. and people really see you as one of the bright prospects in our business. I'm glad that we are faking it until we make it in a good way.

Man, you know, we are. So, you know, I mean, if we back up and I don't want to get too far down this road because it's a tough subject for me and a lot of people. But the last time I was on your show, we really had the world by the tail. And a lot changed in a short amount of time. You had just announced that week the D.C. solar sponsorship and the full ride at Gannasi in the Xfinity series. And then he was on our show. And you were feeling great.

Yeah, man. I mean, you know, I think we joked about getting tattooed, getting the stuff tattooed and all that. And even a step further, the day that it, you know, technically all happened out out west, Dale, you and I, I mean, it's a day that normally I would have never remembered. I mean, other than you're a great guy and I love eating sushi really, but we went and ate lunch on Tuesday, and I had you signed two of your books for my grandmothers. And it's a day that I'll never forget because that's the day that the raid actually happened. And it had already happened that morning, and I didn't know yet. Wow.

And here we are eating sushi. I mean, like, that's a day that I'll, you know, just it stands out in your mind, right? we've all got those days for good or bad reasons and you know that night got the news of what it happened and it all went down but you know we made it like we're still here and that's that's the biggest thing like we we had to fight you know and that that put me with some different people you know behind the scenes we all have a ton of people that support us and I kept my you know my core group stayed with me and and you know even on the front side of the business you know the folks that Chip Nassie racing didn't just say, oh, well, too bad.

You know, nice knowing you're lost. They Chip and Doug Buchart and those guys found a way to keep me in the family. And the folks aspire were a big part of that. The sports and entertainment side, and now on the race team side with that coming along. So we all just kept fighting. And then you bring in Nutrieneag Solutions, right? I mean, I've got the hat on. There's no denying it's a great partnership.

you know, Elliott Sadler, Brett Griffin, bringing that to me. And, and, you know, I'd have some really hard-to-heart conversations with a lot of those people I just mentioned and be like, look, we've got to fight. We've got to figure this out. So I'd never put it past that the current situation could change. And I don't know how any driver could be too sure these days. But I feel like that no matter what, we will find a way to keep fighting. So, no, I don't feel secure. I don't feel like, you know, I can relax and I don't feel like on the track or off the track.

I mean, I, you know, I want this to work so dang bad and I want to be around for a long time. You know, I'm not one that I don't think I'll, you know, retire early just from working. And I know that job titles can change and stuff. And, you know, going back to the farm, I, I, I, I, I. usually say it like it's a bad thing but it's not it would be a great time and a great time of my family so um i'm still involved there as much as i can be from afar and um you know if that if that happens like i'm not afraid to go back and you know i think pocras asked me a week or so ago you know what what do you think next year looks like and i'm like and i just hope i'm not farming watermelons

like yeah you know i want to be racing so listen not to rehash old painful stuff but for our listeners, we ought to at least clarify exactly what Ross is eluding to that happened a year and a half, two years ago. And that was his sponsor. He had a sponsor that, you know, a full-time deal. We were so upbeat. We were so happy. Dale Jr. couldn't wait to get him on the show to talk about this. And we just had such a good time. A short time later, the sponsor ran into some legal troubles and federal legal troubles never recovered. I don't think. In fact, I think there was some news about their, you know, plea bargains and whatnot from three weeks ago even. So this thing is a still ongoing deal. But obviously, the racing deal fell apart and Ross was left after basically

being dealt a hand that could win him the, what looks like could win him the poker main event. Now he's on the outside of the tournament, right, again. And, it's interesting, Dale, your perspective of that in talking about stability, because I would, Ross, I don't know if it's just unlucky. I don't know if you're superstitious. Like, you have had a couple times where opportunities look promising and then somehow, maybe not to the fullest, but, you know, the mat gets swiped out from under your bit. Even you were going to get Newman's ride for, you know, a couple months as he recovered this year.

And you were in that rousting within the pandemic hits. And Newman didn't actually end up missing many races when it was all said and told. So it's interesting because, yeah, if I'm you, I would be a little skittish. on getting too optimistic at this point. It's almost like you've been let down a couple times. Yeah, but I mean, I do. I keep kind of, you know, my glass is never totally full, but it's not empty either, man.

I mean, how in the world does, I mean, you know, it's terrible that Ryan got hurt at Daytona this year, and, you know, the fact that he walked out of that hospital was awesome. Amazing. But how in the world, an Xfinity, you know, driver for a different manufacturer in Chevrolet and I've been working with them for years exclusively since 2015 and off and on before that. We really found a home there and they've really helped me and they, you know,

on the Xfinity side, it's not like, you know, they're sending us, they're sending us cars back on them driving those red cars and it's not like, you know, they're not sending us a street vehicle to drive and, but we got to go out to, you know, Ronfellow's driving school for road course stuff and get a few simulator dates. along the way for road courses. And then here I am full-time at Colleg Racing. I've just ran 77 car for Spire and Super Nasty Racing. And Ralph Finley Racing with Ford calls me.

Like, and everybody agreed on it. I mean, that's the most, that's the most besides, I mean, that's the most incredible, you know, behind the scenes with the, how usually this sport operates, how I understand it to operate. That doesn't happen. And everybody agreed we needed to help. Those guys over at Ralph Finlay needed help. We needed to help Ryan, and I was the guy that they wanted to put in it.

Now, if they told me I was the first guy, I don't know if I really was, but we got the deal done where I could drive both cars and, you know, Expinity with Colleg Racing on Saturdays and the Chevy and then drive a Ford Cup car on Sunday. That's not heard of. That's incredible. So we just keep fighting through all those scenarios and we'll come out on another side of them. In a really tight sort of short period of time, you've race for Rouse, Spire, been behind the close, you know, being behind the doors at Chip Gannessie, racing for colleague, Johnny Davis. What are you learning about how all these different companies operate? Because I think fans would be pretty surprised at the culture in each one being so unique. Not better, not worse, just different how each company sort of approaches being successful.

you're learning that from a lot of different companies in a really short time, and is that really surprised you? It kind of surprised to me. I thought for the longest time that every race shop is the same. You know, there's race cars in there and guys that building them, and there's what could be different, you know, but there's a, from the top down, you know, from the owner down, there's a real change from shop to shop. Yeah, for sure.

I related to something I heard a long time. ago, but there's no bad employees. There's just bad bosses. And I believe that. Like you said, there's not one really any better or worse than the next shop, but you're right. It all, it all starts at the top and, you know, just how they, you know, just being friendly and being truly nice to each other. And yeah, we all have a business. This is a business, right? It's a huge sport, huge, you know, way bigger than just any of us in particular. So for me, I just try to find my spot in each group and just fit in the best I can and provide whatever I can provide, right? I mean, I'm a race car driver, but how behind the scenes can we do different programs and can

we leverage relationships just trying to work to make it where I can drive a race car? And however, you know, that best suits each team. I've always got a lot of ideas and I've got people that have a lot of ideas of how we can move the ball forward. And, you know, just trying to fit into every group, though, is probably the biggest thing that I've learned is like, you can't, I can't walk into the same group with, you know, the same attitude.

You kind of got a mold to fit in. And, you know, I feel like as public spokespersons, as we all are, you know, we're held to a little bit higher standard. and we've got to rise to that, even if it's uncomfortable. I think that you said that you have a hard time kind of understanding how to change your approach to racing when it comes to going all out, trying to win this race, or, man, I really need to finish, you know, to get these points. But you have to change quite a bit going from organization to organization because the agenda of each organization is so different. racing for Spire, they have a set few things that they really need to accomplish in that event, right?

And some things that cannot happen in that event, right? Because the smaller teams, they can't afford to go for broke and take certain risks. Whereas, you know, when you're racing for maybe, you know, another team, you know, that can, you know, that can go out there and really put that effort in to go win the race and, you know, take risks. and, you know, take risks with their race cars and so forth. You know, your agenda, the agenda for your race changes. So how do you manage that? I mean, you seem to do that really well. And I think that, you know, we hired drivers at Junior Motorsports for that same reason, right?

I brought Brad Keselowski in here because he was going to finish the race. Take care of the equipment. Yeah, we couldn't learn unless we were finishing. If we were wrecking every, you know, every weekend, we weren't learning nothing building race cars, but how to build good race cars. Which we had done that before. So you seem to do that really well when you go from team to team because you do this. You'll race for Spire in Darlington.

You'll be in the colleague car with an entirely different agenda of the day before. How easy is that? Or how hard is that? How challenging is that to finishing, because Spire needs you to take care of their car, right? You're going to be in maybe the hardest race to do that, Darlington. That's a very difficult race to finish in one piece. So how does that work? You know, I've never had to explain that to me.

I've never really been in that situation. I've just, I could be just completely careless most of my career. So how does that, how do you deal with that? It's tough, man. I will say that the Saturday Xfinity side currently, right, with collag racing, that right, you're right, it's about trophies. Matt Colleg wants trophies. you know we want to lead laps when stages when races and and do that as much as we can and yeah we don't

want to tear up cars long as no team does but they're willing to let me put the car at risk to do that and then it the the gap to sunday right there's no further distance in the world than that walk from exfinity to from the exfinity garage to the cup garage and i heard that and i and it's true it's so true, man. But getting in the way I did to the Cup series was with Jay Robinson and premium motorsports, but two races at Dover in 2017. That's all I did. Now, that was scary, but we came out there okay with our first race. And then we go into 2018 and 19 just for a little backstory. And I had two almost full years. I think I missed three races in 18 and one race in 19 where I got to be in a cup car every week, but we would qualify around 29th, the 33rd. And, you know,

I was racing, chasing De Benedetto the first year in 18 and the 32 car. And then I was chasing LaJoy, the second year, the 32 car. That was always our rabbit. But as long as we just stayed within one position of them, it was a good day. And, you know, it's, I had for two years, I had Jay Robinson, who owned premium motorsports at the time. And he was in my ear throughout the race is, hey, this is a high risk restart. We need to just lay back.

There's only 20 laps to go to the next stage break. let's just we're going to keep these same tires on it we're going to just don't go a lap down and sometimes we'd go a lap down so that the guy behind us would not get the free pass to keep them a lap down so the next run we didn't have to race hard either so there was a lot of a lot of wisdom there wow yeah so I had two years of that in the cup series of just 30th place running you know in a good day would be 26th or 25th if it was some attrition um but I mean like sometimes our goal was to say like a single digit number of laps down at like Darlington you know you can easily go six seven eight laps down there and it's still be an okay day but I never wanted to be double

digit like 10 laps down that's that's my line um so having that perspective made up 10 or two years of doing that really helps that gap between an exfinity race on a Saturday and a cup race on Sunday now the problem I had to be honest was getting in the 70s. seven car with Tennessee racing and the sixth car and the sixth car in a Roush

thanway racing was was tough. I knew then you know performance was you know at the top of the list now and not you know

not that they want to wreck cars but and I would put those cars in just really high risk spots like in and I cut a tire down at Vegas for example racing on restart

you know I think we're three or four wide on one of those early or you know mid-race restarts and kind of tire go a lot of down, come back out, we're passing when, I think I'm catching Boyer in the 14th. And I'm, we've got our car where I'm running almost wide open and clean air. And I catch him and I don't anticipate how loose it's going to get. And I spin out and cause a late caution in the cup race.

I don't hit anything, but the biggest thing that Jack had told me that week was you're in this car because you're not going to tear it up. And here I go, cut a tire because I run into the one car, Kurt Busch of all people. And then I spin out with like, I don't know, 15 laps to go for no reason. I'm not racing anybody. And here I'm trying to run wide open around Vegas. And I spin out because I get in dirty air. So that's been my biggest struggle is performing in the Cup series at the level these guys do.

But being in control, I was not in control in a few of those races and drive it over my head. And I've got to be better next time. So that's been my biggest takeaway from this year's cup races in the quality, you know, fast rides. And those top rides has been, you know, drive 100%, but I've got to be in better control of my race car. Yeah. That was something. Okay. So I'm not saying it's the perfect segue, but I do think that that brings up an opportunity to ask you about Daytona this past weekend.

All right. So let's just, let's all do it. Let's get there. All right. So first of all, the last lap, you're in second. Let's set the table here. This is Mike's idea. Dale Jr. is in the booth, so he's watching and just enjoying an amazing race.

And your teammate, A.J. Amandinger, is in the lead. And I guess you guys were like that for eight, ten laps or something. I mean, so you had a chance to sort of, in your mind, set up how you were going to try to win this race. Now, to your credit, you have always said, listen, I'm going to, you are going to be aggressive. Everybody knows it. There's no questions that you're going to go try to win that race. There's also no question that AJ's going to try to block, because as he would. All right.

Take us through the last lap as you take the white flag. What's in your head? Man, a lot. But as a race car driver does, right, we've got to back up a little bit here. I got to start with four to go is when I really started trying to figure out how I would do something. You know, our kind of thought going into the race and Chris Rice passes down is like, take care of each other until 10 to go. My number was four to go.

I started backing up to the third place car. I started seeing what kind of run I could get. Our colleague racing cars are so fast, man. Super fast. It's incredible. I mean, we can turn left, turn right, side drive. We can do all the things and the cars go right where you point them. They don't do anything weird.

They don't, they keep their momentum. And that, I mean, obviously fast cars. And then three drivers that are really aggressive where we can carve up through the field only have to restart, not on the front row. So, you know, we took the white and they were side by side behind me, and I thought we were lost because I just couldn't get the momentum to my back bumper. I couldn't back up to him by because they were side by side. So off of two on the final lap, I got the 11, they were backwards in my mind.

I thought the 11 and the one car were swapped, but 11 was on the top. He comes and gives me a huge shove, and almost Rexes, he actually lived. like halfway down the backstretch when he runs into me. But it gives me the run that I need, and I took it. And now I'm back in the race. I'm like, man, we've got a shot. So my whole thought was get to AJ's right rear. I go low, get him down to the yellow line at the end of the backstretch,

and then I'd turn right, and I'm too far back. And in my mind, it's going in slow motion, and I just see him go up, and I'm like, holy cow, he would open the bottom, like I never thought he would. and I'm taking it. Like, here I go. Well, it was the ultimate, I mean, the best way I can describe is like the ultimate sucker hole of all, of all sucker holes. And I took the bait. And in my mind, I had a huge opening.

And I'm going to get in his left rear. And now Justin Haley is going to decide who wins this race because we are going to be side by side. And, you know, whoever he pushes, we will have a colleague racing car in victory lanes. we might bump a little bit side to side coming down the end of the trial. And he's left the bottom open for me. And as soon as I thought that here he is blocking, and I just wish you would have done it more aggressively. The problem was I took the high risk move to get there.

You know, I should have just stuck with the top. And hindsight, Monday morning quarterback, Monday morning race car driver, you can slow it down frame by frame. hole that I saw was not there at all. And I just saw it for what I wanted to see it. It was wrong. I thought the hole was there. I did. I thought he came down and I thought even his block was a little delayed. I thought he came down a little slow. That was my impression. Of course, you bring up a good point. We rewind it, we pause it, we slow. You don't have that opportunity, obviously, on the final lap and you're sitting there getting after it and you're trying to win a race. But Monday morning

quarterback is something we all have the opportunity to do, but would probably be pretty aggravating, you know, if you're your guy. So I thought the way you and AJ both handled that after the race was completely classy. I thought that was, it said a lot about you both, frankly. Well, we're truly good friends, and that's the craziest thing is that Justin Haley, AJ I'm and myself, are all actually friends with each other. Now, we don't, you know, we don't hang out that much away from the track, but we truly care about each other. And we truly, it's not just teammates. It's truly friendship.

And that's, I've been in a lot of different race teams, not always for a long amount of time, but we all hit it off very early on last year. And he's a, he's such a professional, you know, he's done all this so much. And we, you know, Justin and I joke about him being older and he's Uncle AJ. He's, you know, Justin calls him daddy and, uh, or calls him his dad. They have this weird relationship, and then I'm like the cousin or, I don't know, something. I'm in the family, but, you know, maybe at an arm's length. And, you know, we really do care about each other.

So it's, you know, he's such a professional that when he gets out, he's done the TV side now. He can put into words what we're all thinking just in the moment I'm hot. My heart rate is spiked. I was honestly confused. I got out of the car and I watched video back. And I just walked back and forth on pit road, like, looking around. And I truly was confused as to what just happened. How did I just wreck coming to the checker flag with my teammate?

Like, at the end of the day, I wrecked my teammate. And that's terrible. I said it in my interview, like, this is not going to help me moving forward. I know that. I know that now that was a bad move, and I don't know how I'll ever make up for it. Well, you got the rest of the season. Do you look at it like that? You know, I got a little bit of racing before the playoffs start.

and, you know, I'm in position with the most consistent team to try to, you know, we're going to have an opportunity, a real, real opportunity to try to win a championship. So do you put that, you know, put that behind you and just try to go deliver what the man truly wants? Yeah, that's the only way I really can is just get back in the race car. I wish we were racing Darlington on today, you know, if you're down there, that way I could just put everything out of sight, out of mind, and just go drive. the race car. We mentioned Spire and we've got a car sitting here behind us.

You're going to run a throwback. You know, Darlington is the throwback weekend. Everybody comes with a great plan. And Spire's no different. So first off, you know, explain your relationship with Spire and you don't run every weekend for the team, but it seems like whenever they need you, your part, you jump to the, you know, you jump into the action and get. in there and do work. So talk about your experience with that and what you get out of that.

You're racing full-time in Xfinity Series, but you also get to drive this cup car. And I guess if anything, you know, as a driver, you get to stay on top of where the Cup series is. I know they've got a new car coming in in another year or two, but I think if you don't run this car, then, you know, the next time you get a cup opportunity, you're just kind of way behind and having to play catch-up. So otherwise, I mean, you know, what do you get out of? these one-off sort of racing in the cup series every other week or so? Well, I mean, the biggest thing is probably the confidence that a cup team, you know, wants me in their car and they, you know, they want to put tires on it and put the best effort

they can, right? I mean, Peter Suspenzo is one of my heroes. He's the crew chief on this car. And, you know, I mean, he's what he does with this group and Pat Trison on the 15 with Brendan, uh, you know, what they do in that shop. I've watched it over the years. I've been there when it was a different race team with Tori racing and now to see how they operate.

I mean, Peter, he doesn't back down from it. He doesn't put his cars on a pull-down rig. They had one in there. He didn't. He's like, I don't need it. I know what we need to do and I know what Packers and what gaps we need for each track. And, you know, they really put forth their best effort. And I, you know, I feel like they really take care of me.

So you're right, though, and just keeping up the date, being in the garage is just important. And right now with COVID, if you're not in the car, you can't go, walk around, just have your face. I used to do that in Exfinity Garage before I was full time, just walk around and waved to owners, waived to, like Mark Smith back in the day, you know, before I got to know him, just would make sure he always saw my face. And eventually got the driver race for him, and that was a dream come true. so I miss that guy, but, you know, it's just being there. And you're right, keeping up on the technical side, you know, and just trying to be ready and be as prepared as I can be,

so I'm not the weakest link in a race car. That is so true, man. I've tried to tell drivers, sometimes drivers lose their opportunities, and I'll tell them like, man, just go to the garage and be seen. And they're like, I don't understand what that means or why I need to do that, or that feels weird walking around, you know, because a driver doesn't want to. It does feel weird. Yeah, a driver doesn't want to be.

anywhere where he doesn't have a role. And to go to the garage literally just to be seen feels strange. But you're right. The next time that owner that sees you in that garage on a regular basis needs somebody, you want him to think of you. First, be the top of his head, right? Yes. And if you aren't there being seen, showing your face, you're going to easily get swept away

and forgotten in this sport. So that's some great. I'll say that's advice for anybody else listening. It's kind of maybe where you were several years ago, how to get the opportunities and become entrenched in the sport as you are today. That's one of the best ways to do it is just go to the track and take your helmet, take your suit, and be ready. So Spire, Darlington, talk to us about this paint scheme.

Yeah, man, it's, you know, I haven't actually had made. opportunities to do, you know, really planned out paint schemes, throwback paint schemes. And this is something that was a little touch and go for a little while if we were going to be able to pull it off. But I'm glad we are, man. It's one that I'm guessing a lot of people won't remember, and they'll probably have to do some Googling to fact check us on this. But it's, you know, there's a reason that we're here with you today, man. It is one of your dad's old schemes. It's, I mean, like, I'm getting kind of goosebumps right now that the fact that I'm going to get to drive a paint scheme, he only drove it once.

And it was, it was early on in his career. But it's one that a lot of people might have forgotten. I'm really hoping they would start pulling that cover off while you're looking this way. Do you want to be? Yeah. Are you ready for them to show you? You ready for everybody to see it? I guess.

Go ahead. All right. Let's do this. Is this thing sponsored, though? Is it, you got a first-time cup sponsor? It is, man. So that's the other thing is we have a new sponsor to the Cup series. All right, let's see this.

A brand new sponsor. All right, here it is. His cup car for Darlington. Here comes, an Earnhardt scheme. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's cool. Look at the gold leaf on it all. What?

Dirty Mo Media, too? What? What do you think, Matt? So it's Leah? Look at Matthew. Look at Matthew. Holy F***. Oh, sorry.

We got a cup car. We have a cup car, don't we? Ross, I wish you could see the faces in this room right now. Yeah. I can see Matthews. Can you see Matthew? Look at Matthew. Matthew, take a good look at it.

Take your time. Oh, holy crap. And while you do that, take it in. Ross, and Dale, both of you, this paint scheme, when did Dale Earnhardt run it? 76. Yeah. It might have been 76, 78

sometime around then. Johnny Ray owned the car and dad raced at Atlanta was having a really reasonable top 10 day. Dick Brooks blew an engine in turn I think three and four and was sliding down the track

and dad came through there and wiped them both out. Dad ripped the motor from his car, flipped down to banking. There's a couple pictures of the car. So dad wrecks the car. destroys it, brings it home to North Carolina. Johnny Ray was in Alabama. You know the truck that would drive around Talladega with the American flag on the back? The redneck flyby.

Johnny Ray's truck. Yeah. So Johnny Ray lives near Alabama Moe Speedway. They destroyed the car. Dad takes it home in North Carolina and Robert G., my granddaddy and dad rebuilt it. This car would be raised by Johnny Rutherford, eventually gets sold. Several other teams used it. I think before Johnny Before Johnny, it might have been a Dygard car with Darry Walter, Donnie Allison, because the paint scheme, they just bought the car, didn't even change the paint scheme. So you'll recognize that paint scheme through the years from Degard. And they had a number 77 on it. This car that you're looking at right now has gold leaf numbers.

Beautiful. NASCAR's really relaxed some of the restrictions on numbers, reflective colors, and so forth. And so that really sets it off, the gold leaf numbers. And it's just such a pretty, beautiful, clean scheme. Thanks to Spire for allowing Dirtymo Media to be a part of this. And look at that shirt. We have a T-shirt that Ross is wearing.

Holy crap, that's cool. Now, Ross, I designed this T-shirt. Oh. Let's talk about this. I mean, there's not much to the design, but we wanted to keep it clean. Simple. Yeah, clean.

That's definitely 19 mid-70s design right there. You got a real clean-looking car on there. I can't wait to wear mine. And by the way, I want you guys to know, the t-shirt designing process, Dale Jr. takes that as seriously as anything else. I'm telling you it's a high-40s. And Mike, no, Ross, no kidding.

Me and Mike were up to what hour texting about this t-shirt last night. Yeah, yeah, we were. All the way to last night. Which, by the way, and when he sent, this is so funny. This says, this is, if you know anything about Dale, let this be it. We've got graphic designers in the house. We've got good ones.

Man, I'm telling you, Ryan Williams, he can design with the best of them. He comes up with some fantastic little designs. I mean, just, we're going to have T-shirts. We're going to sell them, by the way, dirtymomedia.com. You'll be able to buy these shirts. Dale Jr. says, no, no, no, no. I got the design. And he comes back and he texts us, well, was it an actual T-shirt that was, or it was just a graphic?

It was a graphic with no character of a car And no character lines It basically the way you could describe it Is if you are into cartoons Think of the way South Park does their graphics That would be this Like no character No character lines

Just the draw And man if it ain't the cleanest Coolest looking retro like t-shirt Yeah it's not too busy It's something you'd wear at a bar Man instead of those crazy t-shirts The car If the car has all the character lines on it

It's too modern of a design To sort of mimic that retro 70s look you know So we stripped all of it down. It's really clean. Plus, yeah, the colors, the red, white, and blue, the sponsor and all that pop really well with all that stuff gone. So I just want to say, you know, thank you, Ross, number one,

for driving this car this weekend. You know, we're, I know Spirefield's the exact same way, but we here at Dirty Moved Meteor, so lucky to have a driver your caliber behind the wheel. Amen. And I mean that because we had a lot of conversations internally about that. And we were hoping to get the opportunity to work with you.

And thanks to Spire for coming to us and us being able to create this quick, you know, this partnership for this weekend. Absolutely. You know, we're a growing business and excited about the opportunity to, you know, we got a lot of great things that we're happy to, you know, we got going on and we got a lot of proud people here that work on this podcast and on a lot of things that Dirtymoe Media creates. And so this is a great opportunity for us.

We're very thrilled to be a part of it. So we just want to, you know, say, thank you to Spire and Ross and you're our driver, buddy. Yeah. You are our driver. Yeah, man. You carry the torch.

Yeah, it's a dream come true, man. I mean, just getting to run in this cup race at Darlington well, and carry a scheme like this, but this has so many connections deeper than just the paint scheme with the Ray family.

For me, Kevin Ray, his son. Is a part of Spire, it's a part of the family, and was a what's crazy is I actually interviewed with him back when when Tom Beloge had Red Horse Racing in the truck series and Kevin was the president I guess I don't remember his technical title but I interviewed with him at a another sushi place in Morseville back in like 2012 and I actually what ordered a hamburger at the sushi place and he just looked at the world like you want to drive one of our trucks but you don't even order sushi and At a sushi place. At a sushi place. So from there to growing, when Red Horse, you know, when Tom shut that down,

to having Kevin be, you know, helping on a lot of things, I actually did not ever get to meet his dad, but it's just something that having this connection to him, you know, hopefully he's proud of this as well. And, you know, it's just, we're just trying to fight, man, and we appreciate you guys, letting us do this. I mean, a simple t-shirt, it's awesome. We need to have a few cold ones over it and celebrate this thing. Yeah, it's a great shirt.

We're going to try to get some toddler size made for Ila, and Amy's all, Amy likes the shirts. She wants a toddler size. But I'm pumped. It's a great-looking shirt. Kevin and me used to ride three-wheeleres out at his dad's place in Alabama when we'd go to Talladega race weekends. So me and Kevin used to hang out quite a bit.

So we had, I know Kevin really well. Man, they had a dirt team that would go race over to short track at Caledagagia. They had dirt cars. I mean, Kevin's dad was, they were a cool family. So, yeah, this is kind of a tribute to a lot of different people, I guess, in a way. And Johnny passed away last year. Did we mention that? I think he passed away last year.

And so, no, you're right. There's all kinds of historical connections in this. By the way, I've caught you guys doing this too, but I keep peering over. I just can't stop looking at it. It's like we're at the maternity ward in the nursery looking at our baby for the first time. You know, we're all just like, look at this. This is so pretty. You know, I mean, this is really how it feels right now.

Damn, son. Damn. So we tried to keep it, you know, like the simple design, I guess, I mean, it's as true as it can be with nothing on the hood. But this thing will have die cast mate as well. So that's, we know that. We know plant B sales are going to have that. That group is like family to us as well. So you can't see it from here, but they're on the deck lid.

They're on the back bumper as well. Knowing right now we're going to have diecast. Oh, we're going to have two types of diecast. Joe Mattis made sure that I knew that there was going to be autographed diecast and then the regular diecast. So you guys get ready because y'all be doing some sign. I'm glad you mentioned the hood because when I sent over a scheme, I think it was at the end of last week, Dale Jr. replied to me, he's like, you know, y'all didn't put the logo in the hood.

And I'm like, hey, Dale Earnhardt didn't have a logo on his hood. and so we're not. And I wanted to make sure that if this thing, if we had anything to do with it, we were going to keep this car exactly like it was in 1976. And that's a pet peeve of mine, is that people, you know, do these unveilings and hey, this is our throwback car,

but then they make it look like a billboard and you can't even tell what card they're trying to throw back to. This one, you know where it came from, straight out of 1976. Truth be told, I wanted to slip, element brand on the hood. As soon as I thought it, I was like, what am I think? I can't do that.

But we had to keep it simple and keep it true. That's awesome. Well, y'all did an amazing job. Spire, congratulations, man. You have hit a home run. I'm such a finicky or very judgy about paint schemes and designs. Yeah, I had no idea. I can admit that.

And, you know, I'm not. I don't know if people really want to hear my opinion. Probably not. But I have an opinion about every single throwback that will be out there this weekend. You guys are in the top shelf right here with this one. And I know I'm not, you know, dad drove the car. I'm not being biased. This is so well done.

It looks like the real thing on a modern shell. Just so well done. Congratulations on a job well done on that. And just look forward to the race, man. I know you've got a busy weekend. Again, you know, it's a drive. driver, I know how busy you guys are. Y'all are pulled in so many different directions and doing Zoom calls all weekend long for

media, for your race team, trying to prepare and think about what you've got to do. I know you've got two big jobs to do this weekend, one for colleague, one for Spire, and I'm looking forward to seeing that race car out on the racetrack. It's a beautiful, man. Thank you. Yeah, thank you, guys. I wish I had three. I wish I was running the truck race as well, but two will have to do.

and I'll sleep, sleep good Sunday night. And, yeah, I mean, it's the challenge of running this cup car around here and keeping it clean is not easy. So I'm looking forward to the challenge. So thank you guys again for letting us do this. Well, I know Spire wouldn't want this,

but if you do actually get you a Darlington stripe and they need to put another side on it, I'll take the striped up side. We'll put it in the studio. I'd love to have some sheet metal. so. I'm going to go, oh, the 77 brushes the wall. Yay!

I'm going to get that door. Yippee! Give me that door. Spire gets the left. We get the right. Hey, they all do it. Oh, man. Have fun this weekend.

Thank you, Ross. Yeah. Thanks, guys. My favorite part of the show is here. That's right. It's Asch Jr. brought to you by our friends at Exfinite. podcast partner and premier partner of NASCAR.

Let's hear what you guys have sent at Xfinity racing. First question coming from Graham Wilson. He says, hey guys, love the podcast. I listen while I'm driving my truck here in the Pilbara area of Western Australia. I bought myself an RV over in the U.S. And once COVID is over and I can get out, what would be the best NASCAR race to watch and camp at? Watching and camping.

I'm a Bristol night race The camping in the Bristol area is a lot of fun Rolling Hills great campgrounds outside that racetrack Going to be a lot of people excited to be there So the atmosphere will be great And there's you know You can you can get around and walk around the campground And sort of see a different vibe

As you walk around the circumference of the racetrack outside And there'll be stages with I'm assuming that if we all get back to where we want to be. There'll be a lot going on outside the racetrack that you'll enjoy. And the race. I mean, it's a stadium-like atmosphere. It's unlike any other racetrack with it. There's not another track that I can compare it to. It's kind of like a college basketball stadium style seating. And for your first race, I mean, I think that Bristol Night Race is going to be the one that be the most action-packed. Mike, you've got an opinion on that. I mean, hard to argue with that one. As long as we can

drove the distinction between camping is not on the infield. Like don't camp on the infield anywhere because if you're trying to watch the race too, he said both of them, camp on the outside of the track, get in the grandstands, watch the race. Bristol, there's probably not one better. Watkins Glen. Walkins Glen. Big, good camping. Yeah, just can't see much of the race.

That's true. All right, next question coming from Nicholas Goldie. He wants to know, what was your favorite throwback scheme that? you've ran. He says, I have a few that I like, but my favorite was the gray ghost. Love your show and podcast. You know, the gray ghost was definitely my favorite paint scheme or one of my favorite paint schemes of all time.

I can't even, I have to think about my throwbacks and which ones we all did. Vivalene. Valleon was cool. I guess to be honest with you, all of mine, in my opinion, were like B to B plus. I don't think I ever really had a home run. The Xfinity one? With the last year, two years ago, last year? I can't hear you.

The Blue 8? Last year's Darlington Exfinity race. Oh, oh. Yeah. That counts. The degree number eight. They all count. They all are throwbacks.

But I'm just saying, all of mine, I never really, they're good. But there's only just a few great, really awesome throwbacks in my. mine. There's not sometimes, I mean, there's not many out there that really nail it like this car right here. Is in the A bracket.

But a lot of the paint schemes that I did where they were, I was happy with them, but I just, I didn't have one that I was like, holy moly when I saw it, right? I mean, the gray ghost was pretty close. But back then, they wouldn't let us do the reflective numbers and it was just, there's a

couple pieces that were just not quite exact and that's important to me when you nail it. All right. Next question coming from Bernard Newton. Junior, what are your thoughts on Kyle Larson's recent success on the dirt he's winning all major forms of dirt racing against the best dirt racing competition? Do you think he's headed back to NASCAR? You know, I don't know.

He says he wants to come back to NASCAR and, but I don't know why you would want to if you're doing all these things. When he was in NASCAR, he would say, man, I want to be in dirt. I want to race dirt for a living And here he is doing exactly what he wanted to So why would he leave? You know, why would he? He's basically, look at all the different types of cars

That he's raced He finally got a super late model Dirt car win First time trying it too Second. Second? Yeah. Okay. That's what I read.

Okay. Yeah, he won his second one out. Okay. Yeah. So, um, I just feel like that I don't know, you know, I guess he feels like he's got some unfinished business and maybe his tunes changed a little bit about racing in the Cup Series full time. You know, we tried to get him on the show to come out here and talk to us and we'll see if we can get him

but to answer those questions. But honestly, like when he was in Cup, when he was in Cup, it was almost like he was, and I sort of understand that a little bit because when I was racing in the Cup series, I would tell the late model guys, like Josh Barry and my drivers, I'm like, look, you're having as much fun as you're ever going to have in racing right now, racing late models. Now, you want to get to the Cup Series. You'd love to have an Xfinity ride and all those things.

But the higher you go, the more work it is. The more there is to do, and there is more going on outside of the literal driving part where the fun gets kind of peeled away. Some of those layers get peeled away. Racing is always fun no matter what level you're at. But, man, when you get to go to a short track with your friends and jump in a car and just go out there and race and, you know, you're never going to have as much fun as you do in those moments. So I don't know, while he might come to the infinity, well, he might come back to. cup and he might you know he's certainly got going to have opportunities i believe to get back there

one day um i don't know that he'll ever have more fun than what he's doing right now in this moment this year so uh um and he can always go back you know to dirt so it'll be interesting i'd like to know that because i remember when he was in cup he's like man i just love racing dirt i want to race dirt I hope to be a world outlaw champion and racing full-time in the world outlaws one day. And here he is doing just that very thing. So it's interesting to, I didn't think he'd ever come back. I really didn't. I think he'd found, he'd sort of landed in this perfect sort of world that he'd imagined in his mind.

And so it's interesting to hear that he'd come back to cup if he could. All right. That's it for today. Man, that was pretty fast. That seemed to go by really quickly. It was. You know, speed always wins. It sure does.

It speeds good. Yeah, that's why Xfinity X-Fi keeps me connected. I honestly can't think of a better way to stay up to speed with NASCAR and Dirtymo Media. You heard it here, folks. Don't forget, Dale's here every week to answer your question. So hit us up at Xfinity Racing on Twitter using the hashtag Ask Junior for a chance to hear from Dale Jr. himself. And one last thing, thanks to Xfinity for being a premier partner of NASCAR. Hey, Dillner, you got a great odd history for you?

course. All right, Dale, Darlington, that's where we're headed, is known for being one of the most gruel tracks that can be tough on drivers, even the toughest ones. Neil Bonnet, though, had it tougher than most in 1979. You see, Neil spent much of the Southern 500 and 79 behind bars, Mike. Oh, boy. Oh, yeah. If you never heard of this one, it's a good one. Both Neil and his longtime friend Bobby Allison had fallen out of the race early. They both hung around for a while until it started raining. The rain's caused a red flag. Bobby Allison was, man, he was tired of waiting out that delay. So he asked Neil to drive him to the airport in Florence so he could fly back home to Alabama. So they borrowed a van and headed to the airport. Neil was still in his fire suit driving on Bobby because he planned

on coming back to the track and maybe, you know, fill in as a relief driver if needed. After successfully dropping Bobby off, Bonnet turned on the radio on his way back and he heard that the rain had stopped and they were back to green flag racing. In fact, the race was actually still coming to an end, was actually about to come to an end. So Neil put his right foot down and he sped back to the track as fast as he could. He wanted to beat the post-race traffic to get inside the track to pick up his wife and kids. That mic is where things got squirrel. I imagine so. While speeding back to Darlington, he encountered a bear. Yep, the blue lights were flashing behind him and he was pulled over. On the side of the road, pulled over by a cop in his fire suit, he realized, oh no, his wallet was back at

the track with his wife. Sure. To boot, he didn't have registration for the borrowed van. Neil tried his best to talk his way through it and explain it to the cop, that he had to get back to his wife and kids, but the officer replied, boy, you ain't going nowhere till morning. So he was brought to the jail, put behind bars, he even had his mugshot made. Luckily, after a call with Darlington's then-track president, Barney Wallace, Bonnet was released from the police station and the charges were dropped.

Wow. I have never heard that, Neil Bonnet, man. Arrested during the race. Oh, yeah. Now that's a odd history. And we, of course, Dale, you always thank NASCAR Man for that. We always do. He teased us up to some good ones there.

So let's hit the last call. Last call. All right. Last call. Show 3-13 is coming to a close. Dale Jr. Download. It's back on TV. Mike, you've got the time and the day. Oh, man. Wednesday at 6 p.m., where we belong, boys and girls. That's our normal slot. We're back. The hockey playoffs are not pushing us out. Wednesday, 6 p.m. We're happy about that. Blake Shelton is on door bumper clear. Blake was a guest.

Some good drinking stories. Talked about NASCAR, what he likes, what he doesn't. Talked about his buddy Clint Boyer, obviously. They love each other. He even surprised the boys with a theme. which I thought was amazing. It was hysterical. That's available on all major podcast platforms. Blake Shelton, door bumper clear. Got some weird in the news. Beefalo at large.

Look out for the beefalo, a hybrid cow and bison. Well, one escaped in Connecticut, and it's been wreaking havoc. The police said that the beafelow bull is owned by a Massachusetts farmer. It escaped its pending doom at the very last. minute breaking out of its trailer outside of a meat processing facility. Good for him. So it fled slaughter on August 3rd. And a few weeks later, it was spotted in town, having a beer. I'm kidding. A brief capture attempt was called off when the animal displayed aggressive behavior. He put his dukes up night.

You knew what's coming. They saw him out, they saw him outside the bar shoving somebody. He's being aggressive. He's starting to fight. Right, right. So he got away. Again. Despite a considerable effort to find the beef below, they use drones to go after this guy.

Goodness. The crafty beast is still at large. Wow. Boom. Boinkle. What? He's been looking for the perfect time to pull out that impersonation right there. That's a moose.

Moose. Maybe it's a moose. It's a moose-a-lo. Beeflo. Beeflo is good. Hey, as we close down, I want to remind everybody, the T-shirts, the diecast of this new paint scheme will be available at dirtymomedia.com. The diacast on plan B-Sales.com.

Just be, and I'm even going to make some hats. Screw it. We're making hats, Dale. Let's just do it. Only if I get to design them. You know, of course, I'm going to let you do that. Just want the number on there. Thank you, Dale.

Thanks, thanks, everybody. All right, y'all. Great show. Thanks, Ross, for coming on. excited to see this race car this weekend. Hope you guys enjoyed it. Have a great week. This bit of badassery was

made by Dirtymoe Media. Dirty Moe!