The Dale Jr. Download - 411 - Recapping Our Redneck Romance with Sterling Marlin

Episode Date: February 9, 2023

The people have spoken, and Dirty Mo Media has listened: we need more Dale Jr. Download. With that in mind, welcome to our Thursday Download Wrap-Up Show. In this new addition to the Dirty Mo programming line-up, listeners can expect Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis to unpack their guest interview of the week and other current and upcoming events. This week, the guys discussed the following: Sterling Marlin’s appearance on episode 410 of the Download A follow-up call with Sterling, discussing some things we missed Conor Daly to attempt the Daytona 500 Kyle Busch’s recent legal woes Kyle Larson to attempt the 2024 Indianapolis 500 Dale’s upcoming late-model race Super Bowl Picks 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.

The following is a production of Dirtymoe Media. Sterling Marlin will be the guest for the show. Man, I'm pumped. I'm pumped. Sterling Marlin's here. I mean, man, this has been one that's been requested, and we've been waiting for a long time. Well, I told you, he'd be kicking me an ass with cowboy boots. I'd be going around a circle. Broke his collarbone twice.

What's his collarbone? Yeah. You broke your dad's collarbone. Well, we go car. Oh, okay. He got him jumping out at me. I dodged. I ain't dodging this time I come back. You ran over him?

Yeah. You ran over your dad? I thought he was going to jump out of the way and he didn't. You know, a lot of people would want us to touch on the 2001 Daytona 500. I'm getting literal death threats about this, about, you know, people thinking I had something to do with this. Let's talk about Parkinson's. When did you recognize that you might have something going on? I get out of bed in the mornings and a trip, trip in the house.

I don't know. I couldn't hurt my seatbelt. I don't know. You can't talk right. Times. I'll at least six feet above. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. This is episode 411.

This is Thursday, February night, 2023. Basically, man, we're going to recap a bit of what we went through this week. We had Sterling Marlin on the show, and we certainly want to talk about that. he was here in the Bojangles studio and it was pretty interesting to listen to some of the things he had to tell us but Mike let's get right into it man Sterling Marlin Sterling Marlin was somebody that's long been requested

somebody we wanted to and I'll just go ahead and say right off the jump we knew that it was probably going to be difficult to understand some things and I don't you know that yesterday when we dropped the podcast some people may have to try a little harder to kind of make out some things he's battling Parkinson's guys and we didn't

that does not need to be a reason why we don't have Sterling Marlin on the show Sterling Marlin needed to be on the show and I'd love to have him back one day so the fact of the matter is it was great to see him what did you think just from the conversations that we had that we had with him

what were your just immediate depressions from yesterday? I was glad that we I was glad he said that because yeah it's times at times it's difficult to understand Sterling but with everything that is accomplished in his career and who he is and what he means of sport we certainly want to get him in here and talk to him it was good to seem good to you know talk to him about his battle with Parkinson's and and how he's managing that these are personal topics and conversations that that you're trying to interject yourself into and it can be a bit uncomfortable at times,

but Sterling seemed happy to discuss that with us. We touched on the 2001 Daytona race a little bit briefly. I really didn't know what else to say about that. I know how do you, when he came to me that day at Rockingham, a week after Dad's crash and said, hey man, would you mind doing me an assist here and telling people to get off my back? They're literally giving me death threats. And I thought, yeah, I can handle that.

I can clean that up for you. We never talked about it afterwards. So that stuck in my mind as like, you know, what kind of, you know, how if he didn't have any guilt or any, didn't have any, you know, concern or doubt about involvement in what happened that day, that, you know, getting death threats about it certainly would. have an impact on your psychological feelings right about it. Right. So he seemed like it's not something that bothers him,

not something that he worries about, which is good. You know, and talking to the folks that are with him during the interview, they said that, you know, they told me, they like, you know, Sterling probably once a month watches the last 10 laps of that race. Wow.

Yeah. So Sterling wouldn't open up about it, but they said, you know, he came in, he came to the studio with a group of people and some friends of his and so forth, and which we like that. We like people to be here and support the people, and it makes the person in the chair more comfortable, whatever. Well, they said, you know, about once a month he watches the last 10 laps of that race and maybe looking at what might have could have been done or happened differently and that it still bothers him they wouldn't share that with us which is fine right but um you know that i hate that yeah you know

and i hope that um you know hope that him coming here today uh and talking to us and uh you know hopefully i'm certain he's got other things to worry about than than something that happened 20 years ago, but the fact that that he might still, you know, think about that day and what might could have happened differently or that's sad. It is. I mean, I don't,

I certainly do not go back and watch it. Right. And I do not wonder what might have happened differently or could have been done differently. I do that with my own races. Now, you know, I'll watch, I'll watch races of my own and think

about what might have happened, but I'll never never had that problem with that particular event. And so that must be difficult. It occurred to me while we were talking to him early on. I didn't realize that he mentioned something. It was very quick. It might have been difficult for the listeners to hear, but he said, I loved him.

Right when we started talking about Delinor, he said, I loved him. Right out of the top. Yep. And then as you started bringing up the 2001 race, it occurred to me, you know, the fact that he had to come to you and ask your help to try to, you know, eliminate the death threats, he wasn't even able to grieve right. And maybe he's actually still grieving.

And I've noticed this. I don't like to go overstate these things and over-dramatize these things. But it certainly has occurred to me on this show over the years that some of the people that we've had on here are still sort of processing all that went on, you know, some 21, 22 years ago. Yeah. And I, you're right. He didn't really want to go open up that.

and you gave him an opportunity. He said he doesn't think about it, but it appears that he does, and that maybe he's still trying to cope with it and trying to, you know, grief somebody that he says he loved. Yeah. I enjoy talking to him about how he kind of piecemealed his career together there for a while before he got the full-time ride in the 44 Piedmont car. I really am, you know, kind of fascinated by that work ethic or that effort to sort of, you know,

fine rides calling people up, calling hell or a, hey, can I take your car to the track? Yeah, if you want to build it. Yeah, if you want to crew it, build it, everything else. Yeah. You know, having to be resourceful. It's fascinating to me. Plus then, why do you leave one team to go to another, right? Why do you leave more McClure, this thing that seems to be working really well?

well and go and drive for junior johnson right that you know in my mind when he went to the 22 i thought well that's not better um what if that you know a second car looked at that was the b car the bud number 11 was always going to be juniors prime top piece and the second car was never going to be as good or perceived to be as good right and perceptions a lot so So, but here's Sterling, he's like, hell yeah, I was, Jr. Johnson, man, kickass, you know, we're going. I was fired up. And then when he left, he leaves and goes to Sapko, right? And it's like, why did you, actually, I think he was.

He answered that one. Felix has money. I think I kind of got that backwards. He left the 44, the 94, and goes to junior. That's right. Because that Hambi had then sold to that wanky? Well, I'm just saying I got it a little bit backwards, but he leaves the 44 team to go to the B car on the 22 for junior.

Then he leaves the four and goes to Sabco. That's right. And he made sense of it. He's like, you know, I took Glover with me and all those people from the four. He took what he thought made the four car work with him. Right. Now I remember, you know, now that we, you forget about those details. You forget about all the little pieces that move around.

And I'd always wanted to ask him about breaking his neck, leading the points, a championship-style year, and he literally had to call in and say, hey, man, I'm done this year. And that was kind of the end of Sterling's. That was his best year, and he never even came close to having a year like that. Jamie goes and wins in his second start. Jamie kind of... He was the air apparent at that point.

It really was the end for Sterling. It was. I remember that year very well because it was my first year in the sport, and I was just captivated by it all. My driver was a teammate of Sterling. So while, you know, my driver was sucking out there, Sterling had the world on fire. And so this, you know, I remember a lot of those wins.

He was so good. But that car was amazing. Yeah. That silver bullet, man. It was so good. It was good that year. Yeah. Everybody thought they had trash control.

I thought they did too. Maybe they did. But I know we went to Martinsville and sat in the driver's meeting and NASCAR held up a like an electronic and said, we got out, we got information that leads us to believe teams may be using traction control or something like it in this garage. And if we find it, better trust. it's going to be a massive problem for you. I remember this now because it was like anybody that was running good, you just sort of started going,

are they running the traction control? When Sterling started running that good, everybody just started. That's what I kind of tried to allude to him, and that's another difficult thing to do in this chair, is when you're sitting across from a guy going, you know, people weren't sure about your talent, you know. So you win one day Taurus 500 and people call it a fluke.

Right. Now you win, you back and win, back to back and that that adds you know that credit that makes the first one creditable it's hard to figure out how to word that without offending them or pissing them off yeah because it pissed you off when it happened to you Jimmy Jimmy did the same thing in a very public way so I understand that makes sense so when Sterling had that you know that championship style or championship s career or season everybody a lot of people thought that you know well they're they're doing something

And it's going to ask you he's got that indie car technology. Whoa. Yeah. What could that be, you know? That hindi car technology. That's right. That's exactly what people were saying. The one thing I, you know, hopefully this comes off in the, you know, the television production.

NBC and Peacock are not going to start airing episodes until the week after the Daytona 500. I hope, I hope they do this one. Yeah. But I don't know if they will. It's not our call. But my point on this is that if they don't, we will have videos that certainly show the facial expressions of Sterling. I know it would have been difficult to hear. I know that he, you know, at times he rocked back and forth and he'd get away from that mic a little bit.

But he's battling the Parkinson's, right? Like he was battling the Parkinson's during the conversation. But his facial expressions was the same old Sterling, like the joking. Like he would give you that smile, especially when he starts talking about the hijinks that he used to pull. or like, you know, when they're going trying to drive the track at Pocono or just those things. Man, that was what Sterling Marl was so, that's his legacy. It was just a fun guy that there would just never be another guy like him. Yeah, he was unique.

Hey, Mike, something great about this Thursday show. When we do interviews, we often either run out of time or something slips our mind, you know. Yeah. And we can't go back, right? and get that person back in the room and ask them a question. But with this Thursday show, this gives us a chance to try to get that person on the phone to be able to get that last bit of information. And there's one particular thing that I need to ask Sterling.

Oh, what is it? Well, I mean, obviously, I'm a big fan, I suppose, of the L.W. Wright, NASCAR, D.B. Cooper story. Oh, my God. Yes. He was involved in that, wasn't he? Yeah, he rented L.W. Wright, the car. And recently, LW. Wright's come out there. There's a man that's come out that says, I'm him. And certainly we need to hear from Sterling's side, not only what Sterling experienced back at Talladega in 1981,

but now that this guy's come out to say he's L.W. Wright, what does Sterling think about that? Right. So let's try to call him up. Dude, call him up, yeah. Sterling's still in town. He's visiting a few folks while he's here, so maybe we can catch him before he goes home.

Oh. Hey, Sterling. Yes, sir. Hey, it's Junior. What's going on, man? Hey, man, just wanting to call you back. I'd thought about our conversation yesterday and had a couple things I forgot to ask you about,

and I wanted to ask you. All right. You got a minute? Oh, that's good. Okay. Hey, so I've always been fascinated by L.W. Wright in that story. And obviously, I don't know if you've heard, but in the last year he sort of came out

to, there's a man that came out and said that he was L.W. Wright. Yeah. Did you see that? I saw it, yeah. Was it him? I can't remember really what it looked like. Oh, man. So you were the one that rented L.W. Wright the car in Talladega.

Yeah, I got to trade the car and put food chiefs it and all. So where did that car come from? There was a car that I bought from, uh, who bought it from Hutch. It had narrowed up But the Six feet straight with it And I run one race

I went short and fall Yeah And then they had the money To sell it But he came up to house He's on the telephone That's like he's talking Metal Hagger

And George Jones I'd have got some money sometime And I'd come and just Pace some money before It took off, you know Yeah He'd tell the beggar

And he didn't realize He never drove Yeah so what was What was the first sign that you noticed this guy wasn't a real racer? He didn't want to get in the car. He didn't want to get in there. To practice, yeah. He was scared.

He got electric chair. He was scared. Yeah. That one was running 2.010. He went 2.10. Yeah. And so, he wrecked it, didn't he? 50.

Pull it on a hill. Right. I seen a picture of it. The fender bent off of it and everything. Oh, yeah, yeah. Why didn't y'all... At that point, why did you fix it? Why didn't you just call it a weekend?

I don't need some money. Yeah. So he needed to run the race for the money to come through. Yeah, he'd money come through. So he wrecks it, and you're... By this point, when, you know, you get ready to start the race on Sunday, you're pretty much sure that you got a con man or a guy who's lying. but but it is what it is y'all are going to go for it yeah yeah and he got black flag

early in the race because of his pace or something running too slow yeah he just was scared he told me he's park you and so he pulls in did you see him after he gets out never saw wow so he pulls it into the garage uh yeah and he got out for you anybody got to him He went down and way down in all the In Fifth Road. He's gone when he got there. Never heard from him again. Never heard from him again. I had to go pull a Secret Service move at night, and I found the car.

Been my buddy, he got the truck and turned it back. Oh, the car, they loaded the car up and took off with it? Yeah, they, we left. We've gone back. I didn't boil those stuff up. He, uh, he'll go up in Mount Judith somewhere up in Nashville. and that's what the car was. The car was hiding, the car was, you had to go get the car?

He had an old barn. Oh, he stuck it in a barn. Yeah. And damn. So you find the car and get your car back and you're fine. You're like, whatever. I got my money, I got my car. I don't need nothing else from this guy.

Yeah. Yeah, I told me that's not something that's about it. Damn. So the other thing, that's pretty interesting. I mean, the story. In a way has kind of been looked at as the D.B. Cooper of NASCAR. And in a way, it really is that. Like, you know, even if the guy does come out and identify himself, I mean, the way it all goes down is pretty damn cool and crazy.

Let's talk about quickly the 2002 Daytona 500. You get, you know, one of the things that we see on social media from everybody is, the story of you getting out of the car and pulling on the fender. He can't do that is what they holler over the radio broadcasts. Right? You knew, did you know, I guess, when you were getting out of that car, you either had to come down and pit road to fix it or you were going to try to fix it on the back straight away one way or another. Yeah, I wouldn't put it out and fix it or a pit. You see, I knew smoking pretty bad.

Yeah. But I'll tell you, you know, I'm going to tear his car, too. You had to take your, so. So you took your chance getting out of the car there. And Glover said, can you see what's wrong? I said, we could be cutting. He said, we'll put it out. Okay.

Yeah. That's when the crowd was right there. Were you mad that they put you, you know, black flagged you because of that? Were you upset? Well, did you understand. Over the way, they would finish under caution, you know. It's the first time we throw it in it. Stopping them in just from the last two laps.

Again, you don't have. so I would I still won't race yeah you think you're still pretty hot you're still pretty salty about it yeah all right all right that's good to know

would you do anything different probably if I did it again I'd sit in the car from blow tight and a little sometimes out of his wall you know yeah you're going going for the wind yeah I got you well we I don't think any of us want to see

what would happen if you did not got if you did not got out of the car to pull that offender I think you did the right thing by getting out to try to fix it I don't know, man. NASCAR maybe should have let you

be able to work on it. You know, you're one man back there, you know? Yeah. And like the whole cruise changing the tires. I broke my damn funners too. You didn't get it back up. Oh, yeah? I'm going to give one more toes.

And you finally got it? And you finally got it? Oh, man. Well, we had a lot of fun talking to you yesterday. I know I told you that. Yeah, I appreciate it. It was good. Yeah.

We enjoyed it, man. And I know you're in town visiting everybody that's good to know that you spent a couple days while you're here seeing everybody and I know you're going back home soon but I hope you had a great trip and hope you got to see a lot of good friends what happened was on the fender too yeah before race race saw how a checklist and the fabricator I had the glove of note put trim right front fender quarter of the knees yeah it didn't do it oh no so if he'd done that maybe you fender what the rub cost me and had dogs yeah that's what it paid a million

not about got me, but it starts the odds of the winter down race, you know, three to go. Yeah. Well, y'all were fast back then. That thing, that down silver bullet was a rocket. You bet. Built a car, a week. That's pretty short period of time, considering most people spend all summer, all winter on their, on their, on-time and stuff.

She did. Yeah. Well, we appreciate it, man. Thanks for let me call you back. You didn't have anything. Call you, too. Yeah. Have a good safe trip home.

We'll do it. All right, Sterling. We'll see you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, man. I'm glad we did that. Dude, that's fantastic.

Arquez, I had so many things that came across my mind just listening to you guys talk. First of all, boy, does Sterling Marlin, I think, is like Ken Schrader when he knows every single dollar that he's made or could have made. He knows the purse money. I mean, like, just in the conversation from Wednesday to even what he just brought up now, he knows how much that move that Glover didn't do that he forgot on the checklist. cost him. It cost me a half a million dollars. Yeah, cause me a half a million dollars.

And I'm like, dang, that guy knows every dollar that he's made and hasn't made. So that's something. I know. A lot of people know what they've spent or know some details about things that have happened, but he knows what he didn't win. That's right. I mean, that it eats at him. That's really interesting that he can retain the type of information like that.

It is amazing. Right. All right. So what did you think about as LW? Right. Well, so if I can be quite honest, um, L.

W. right or a man saying he's L.W. right came out in the last year. And man, I mean, it really, it left me with more questions than answers about, you know,

what, what went on. And I don't know that, you know, I didn't, the, the questions that I would have wanted to ask L.W. right or this man posing as L.W.

right didn't get asked. And I, and I just didn't, I feel like the mystery of the story was, the air come out of the balloon a little bit. So the mystery of the story was cooler than whatever revelations we got in the past years, what we say? I suppose, yeah. I understand that.

Listen, whether it's really a true mystery or not isn't necessarily the point for me, it's the idea that it could be, right? And trying, you know, if we're going to have a guy that comes out and says, I'm LW. right, and we're going to add credibility. to every excuse that he has. Damn, we're taking the mystery out of this. It's really cool story. So, I believe that Sterling propped up the mystery.

Yeah, I got you. Right. Yeah. He gave it life. Right. I agree. He said basically what we all thought all along. You know, the funny part that we didn't know was the guy was scared to get in the car,

didn't want to practice. It was like climbing into an electric chair. Right. And then, you know, the guy, they truly disappeared. Sterling was there. He said, I was there with the car the whole time, crew chiefing it, and he recognized right away the guy was a fraud. And then when the guy get, you know, Sterling tells them park it

because he won't mash the gas and he's scared to go, the guy takes the car to the garage. And while Sterling them are, I assume, gathering up. the pits to bring all that stuff back toward the garage area they'd get back and the truck and trailers gone the car's gone Sterling had to go all the way to around Nashville somewhere where he lived

to get the car find it and stuffed in a barn all of that to me props the mystery back up that this guy was a con man if that's LW right that we've been that's been revealed to us in the last year then the mystery of who this guy was

has now solved but the story, as we were told, the fable or whatever you want to call it, is legit, right? What is a fable? A fable is a tale. Yeah. So we've been led to believe that there was this, you know, the shenanigans and the con and the disappearing, it all was real. Yeah. Or to a point, right?

Yeah. Still fascinating. Yeah. Right? So I'm glad about that. Because I wanted that story to, you know, I wanted it to live on. I didn't want this guy to come out and everybody go, oh, yeah, well, he has an excuse for everything. So there was no mystery.

Yeah, there's a romance to it. And let's just call it a redneck romance, you know? I mean, because frankly, you know, there's, once you know what the magic trick is, you know, once that's gone, you don't ever get that back, you know? like, and so this is, there's a bit of mystery here. There's a bit of magic, a bit of romance. And I love the fact that not only that Sterling has a perspective that nobody else on the planet has, but we have the ability to go, you could go call him up and ask him about.

I know. I felt like that that was one person that would be able to either say, yeah, it wasn't that big of a deal, right? Or the mystery and all the buildup over the last two decades wasn't that big of a deal. or yeah, everything that everybody said it was is what it was, right? So pretty incredible. And I don't know that I've ever really heard that much from Sterling about this story. So at least for me.

That's a good point. He never talked about it. I don't remember that. Yeah. And he seemed willing to. Yeah. But nobody ever. Just needed somebody to ask him.

And he was a man on the grounds, right? He was there. Yeah. Right alongside. He fixed the car when LW. wrecked it and qualifying, which I was thinking, like, why, if you know he was a con and he wrecks it and qualifying, why do you fix it? Why don't you say, hey, man, let's just call a weekend.

This ain't working out. He's like, I don't get my, apparently he don't get his money unless the guy gets the green flag. Right. How about that? I mean, could you imagine a man walking, could you imagine a man conning his way all the way to the green flag of a cup race at Talladega, no less? Taladega.

Well, if it's going to happen anyway. They're running 200 miles an hour. I know, but if there's anywhere, you can probably get away with it, Talladega feels like that could be. Why? Because, I don't know. It's the most treacherous and dangerous. And I don't know that...

It just needs somebody with the balls to go do it. It certainly couldn't happen today. But anyhow, man, I'm glad we were able to talk to Sterling again. And I think this is something that maybe, you know, not every week are we going to have something where we go, oh, we let them out the door, forgot to ask them or wanted to hear about this. But now with this Thursday show, we got a chance to get him on the horn. Well, we're one for one.

That's right. After the first interview we did, I enjoyed Sterling. You know, we said it before he came in the studio. We weren't quite sure what to expect with him in terms of how he was able to have a conversation. You know, what was his speech going to be like? And I reiterate the point that we made before that interview, and that is, did it require some grace? Sure.

Does it require for us to go, yeah, this may be a little harder to understand than some others? Sure. But Sterling Marlin is still every bit the badass that he always was. And he comes in here toting beer. And I think that he exceeded at my expectations. I hope he exceeded yours. And I enjoyed it. I enjoyed every bit of it.

I did too, man. It was fun to talk to him. Way to kick off this season. Yeah. Dale Jr. Download with a great guest like that. I'd only wish we to drink the beer with him. People said that.

I noticed after we released this thing yesterday, they're like, surely y'all drank a beer with him, right? He brought the beer, you didn't drink it with him. And I'm like, it's a great point. It was cold, too. Was it really? Damn right, it was. I think he brought it wanting to drink beer with us.

Why did we not do that? We got to do that. Call him back. Tell him to come back. Dude, we covered a ton of stuff. in Tuesday's dirty air. Yeah. But we didn't even get to all the things that we wanted to talk about.

And even since then, there's been even new news. Like our boy, Connor Daly is going to be trying for the Daytona 500, which, by the way, how cool would that be? Because if, you know, one thing's better than one guy, one podcast hosting the day-tron-500, the money team, the Tony Jr. car. So, you know, I hope he makes it. But that would be cool. So we've had that.

We've got other things. Listen, Kyle Bow. Kyle Bush came out with a statement. Did he say Kyle Butt? Did he just call him Kyle Butt? Could that be the first time somebody called him that? Maybe not? I don't know.

I think it is. This is the very first time he's ever been called that, Mike. Kyle Butt. Let's call him that from now on. You are taking ownership of that one. Sure, I'll take ownership of it. Kyle Butt had a gun at the Mexican airport. That's the headline.

Yeah. But did you think anything of that news? Did you, like, did you, like, of all people for that to happen walking through the airport with a gun cow butt I had to go

I had to go I had to go and see if it was true oh you thought he made it up well I wouldn't I wouldn't say that I would say that I didn't know whether it was a real story or not whether it was

what like is this some type of you know do you check the Twitter Twitter handle and make sure it's not a parody account or something. Ah, I gotcha. Okay. Well, he put out a statement. I know he didn't. But you're saying it could have been from the... Well, I'm just wondering, like...

It could have been from an account like Cal Butt instead of Cow Butch, right? When I saw it immediately, I didn't think... I just was questioning whether it was real or not. I'm like, you know, just like anybody else. Like, what? Yeah. Is this real? Yeah. Well... And then... I thought, man, I didn't, I don't see, I didn't see, I didn't see Kyle Bush is a kind of with a concealed carry permit. Really?

Well, now that he works for Richard Childress, maybe that was part of the requirement. Maybe that's in the contract. You know, I hire anybody without a concealed permit. Can't drive for Richard. Yeah. Better tote, maybe better be packing some heat somewhere. Yeah. I've, I had a concealed long, long, long time ago.

but uh and i was going to do the class again i got lazy no yeah and just didn't do it do you know though it's believable i i had the same thing it wasn't with a gun it was with a knife i had a knife in my backpack just a couple months ago going to nashville and i'm i forgot all about it i just always had it in my backpack and i just forgot about it kind of like a regular pocket knife pocket knife yep oh man yeah oh in like a heavy duty pocket knife it wasn't a swiss army knife i'm telling you it was like you know, it's a nice pocket knife. And I'm just going through TSA. They said, sir, come over here.

And now I'm like, oh, God, here we go. What is it? What in the hell? I'm going to have to explain to them what an iPad is. What is it? And then they like hold up the knife and I'm like, so what happened? They took it.

Right. They sent you on? They took it. Right. Yeah. It delayed me for a while because, yeah. Five minutes or an hour? No, no, no, more than that.

Not an hour, probably 30 minutes, 35 minutes. I want you out. I wanted to keep the knife. They checked you out? Oh, yeah, they checked me out. And by the way, there may be just a few Dale Earnhardt Juniors in the world. There's a ton of Mike Davis's, and one of them's got something on them. Yeah.

You know, one of them's got a track record. So they're not quick. But, yeah, so it's believable. I guess my point is that you can't forget that you're maybe carrying a weapon into an airplane. Yeah. I felt embarrassed by it. Let's see what else. I just want to see if you had any reactions to these things.

you know, Kyle Larson's going to be running the Indy 500 in 2020. Yeah, that was some news that came out over the off season, and he had hinted like, you know, he had interest, but there were some limitations or he was kind of tired. There was like a couple years where he's like, I'm tired of getting asked about this, remember? Yeah. You know, and so he finally comes out and says, man, I'm going to do it.

I think that will be a very, very anticipated event. Oh, yeah. Because he is young in his prime, and winning anything and everything he drives. And so that to me, I know we're not that thrilled about, I mean, it's not creating a big buzz now, no more than any other cup guy that announces he's going to do that. But when we really get up on top of that,

that'd be a big damn deal. You dang straight at will. Yeah. That's right, because he really can just drive just about anything, right? What about, okay, so we had an interesting, we launched a couple new shows. We got one going out today. the Dirty Mo Doe with Steve LaTarts going out today.

But we had Denny on Monday doing his first episode of actions detrimental. In that conversation, and also on door bumper clear, a lot of people talking about how, what do you call it? The bumper tags, the bumper tags still hurt. Yeah. Car still causing some headaches. Rigid. Some, yeah. Car still rigid.

Too rigid. Listen, I know you probably get tired of me asking you about this, but you are the concussion guy. And I just, I felt after watching the Bush clash, Bushlight Clash, that I started becoming very concerned about concussions and the susceptibility to concussions for 2023. And they're just, if these cars still haven't gotten any better, we're going to have a couple other drivers, have problems, maybe even have to come out of the car. And I hate that. I hate that going into Daytona thinking about it. If they were taking these types of hits and coming out with these types of problems at that little racetrack that's not a racetrack, as you said, on Tuesday so eloquently.

I can't even imagine what these hits are going to be like at the big tracks. Yeah, I mean, I don't know that NASCAR has made this statement that they are done and they have fixed the problem. They are finished trying, you know, they're finished raking this car,

absorb the crashes better. I think it's an ongoing process. And drivers are always going to be in some element of danger, driving race cars. drivers should never be satisfied with the situation they're in. They should always be outspoken and vocal about any concern they may have, such as Denny and Bubba Wallace, post the clash.

They need to talk. They need to mention what they're feeling. They need to hold everybody accountable. But I also know that NASCAR is still in the process. of understanding where gains can be made, how to make gains without creating additional issues or new issues. They did a lot to get the rear of the car to absorb crashes better, the harder impacts where a car spins out and backs up into the wall.

They did something to the safer barrier that was unique, where they pulled the, they pulled the foam behind the space of area out and had fewer. foam pieces around the racetrack that would allow this, this safer barrier to absorb those hits, those smaller hits. That was something I don't think anybody even was looking at. So we know NASCAR is looking outside of the box, right? We know NASCAR is exhausting all avenues. And they won't stop.

They won't say, okay, that's it. No, of course not. Now, we also got to know, man. I mean, yes, we need to be on a quest for safety all the time, but we also have to accept the idea that this is terribly dangerous. Yeah. And there will never be a fully 100% safe alternative other than just not getting in the car at all.

So, you know, but yes, is this car rigid in areas? yes, will NASCAR try to identify and find solutions to that? Yes. Is it slow? Yes. They're trying to avoid any unintended. So, for example, an unattended consequence to a change would be this. NASCAR could have hastily made a lot of changes to the rear clip of the car to make sure that it absorbed crashes better last year.

The terrifying result or repercussion to that is that the fuel cell would then go into the rear end housing or the transaxle. And it would bust. It would, it would, it would, the transaxil is going to pierce and go through this, the front of the fuel cell. As a fuel cell squeeze between the wall of the transaxil, fuel's coming out of it. And now you got a car on fire. Now you got a driver in a situation where he could get burned or kids. And so, you know, that they were trying to make the changes to the rear clip and avoid creating that type of a repercussion, right? That clip's got to absorb.

It's got a crunch. It's got a bend. It's got to go somewhere. But it can't send that fuel cell through the transaxon. Nope. Right? Can't do that. So there's every time that you make a change, there's going to be a repercussion and it could be something severe.

You can create it even more severe. issue and do you think everybody's going to have grace for NASCAR when that happens? No, but, you know, that's part of the job, though. NASCAR has to make this process work to where it doesn't create additional issues and it's going slower, obviously, than probably the drivers won't, but I do have confidence that, you know, there's a lot of loud, loud, loud conversation about it midway through the 2000 and 22 season. Drivers rightfully angered and pushing NASCAR to get some momentum.

They now have that momentum. NASCAR is now trying to do everything they can. But I don't think that all types of hits are now better off for the drivers. There are still going to be some scenarios where these light bumper tags, bump drafting, you know, checkups in short track racing and so forth, they're going to result in hard, hard hits. that the drivers want to have eliminated. They want that bumper to absorb crunch.

And there'll be a lot that NASCAR will have to do to make that happen. Yeah, man. The car is going to have to have more changes. The bumper structures, all the things that bolt onto this car, it's going to have to get weaker. It's going to have to absorb and get, that means more shit going to have to get torn up. That means when Denny Hamlin sends his car,

the 23 or the 45, the one he owns down into turn 3, and it gets in a chain reaction checkup at Martinsville, and it knocks the whole, you know, it bends all of the front bumper structure, but the car is able to continue and finish the race. Well, it costs him, you know, whatever, $15,000, $20,000 to get a new bumper structure. Can't fix that one. You got a shit in it and get a new one.

Yes, it's going to get more expensive when these cars start wrinkling up. It's a process. It's a process. It makes me also glad I'm not an owner. But you on the other hand, you know all about these bills. Dale, before we wrap up here, you mentioned it the other day. You're going to be in the late model race this weekend. When do you head to Florence?

There's practice on Friday. Weather doesn't look great, but we'll see. A couple hours of practice Friday. The race is Saturday around 2.2.30. There's a little practice in the morning and qualifying on Saturday, but we should be wrapped up around Dart on Saturday night. All right. watch, no, you're not going to be watching any NASCAR race because this is their last off

weekend for a while. That's what Denny said. Last off weekend. So I think we won't watch Super Bowl. Super Bowl bid? You got one? Well, I think, you know, you hate to any of the teams that are in your division, like the Eagles, I pull for the commandos.

You don't like them. You want to beat them. You hate them. You want them to have bad years. Unless they make it to the Super Bowl. Yeah. Then I am the kind of person that wants that team. team to win.

Look at you. Because it makes our division look better. Okay. Look at you. That's very commendable. Well, that's coming from somebody whose division's been the laughing stock and, you know, that's the worst division in the league where, you know, all the teams are terrible. Yeah.

Well, if we have one of the best teams in the division, then we're kind of more well respected as a whole. Maybe it doesn't really work that way. But so I'm kind of pulling for the Eagles to be honest with you. as hard as it is to say that. I am too. Plus, I want Martin Trex Jr.

to be happy. He is Eagles. Oh, well, I mean, it's been such a rough two weeks for him that, you know,

he needs something to be happy about, right? Boy, you know, he's loving life right now with this big clash win. I'm going for the Eagles, too. You know,

half of Alabama's roster is made up, is on the Eagles, so Jalen Hertz. And the commanders have quite a few. They do. Yeah. They actually do.

So that's that. Have a good week. I, boy, what a launch week, Alex. It's been a good one. We had a bunch of good podcast this week. And I also want to just say ultimate experience, Las Vegas. Seats are still available. You could buy your tickets right now at Dirtymo Media.com. We've got a few seats left, a few. It's already a really good group. I'm looking forward to that. That's going to be on March 5th. So if you want to come to Vegas and hang out with us, I think Brett's going to be there just hanging out, not spotting. So we've never had an ultimate experience with him on. full liquor alert. It should be fun. Maybe we kick him out. Yeah. But yeah, so ultimate experience, go to dirtymolemedia.com.

Dale, close us out, whatever you want. Yeah, I just encourage everybody to go back as we close this week out, go back and check out all of the stuff that we've been able to offer you this year. We've got an incredible year full of content. Actions detrimental, Denny Hamill's new podcast came out Monday. Make sure you want to go listen to that. See what Denny's going to be telling us. throughout the year get a taste of what kind of content you might get from that door

bumper clear guys are back at it and we all love what they do dirty mo dough from steve lethart a bit of a gambling podcast going to give you some odds on on everything happening around in the sport weekend week out it's going to be a lot of fun to see how that is received and obviously all the episodes of Dale junior download coming at you every week that's right make sure you check out everything dirty moe media has going on we're always growing and trying to provide you with new information, new content to listen to, and hopefully you're giving us the great feedback so we can continue to change and grow our shows and shape this business.

Appreciate everybody. It's been a fun week. It's been a fun record. Can't wait to go race this weekend and we'll talk to you next Tuesday. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.