The Dale Jr. Download - 418 - The Future of Fontana; Kyle Busch is a Fan Favorite

Episode Date: February 28, 2023

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his co-host Mike Davis are reunited in the Bojangles Studio and it's time for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. On this week’s edition of Dirty Air, the guys discuss: How to deal with parenting frustrations (2:00) The final NASCAR Cup race at the 2-mile Fontana (12:50) Possible reconfigurations of the track  Kyle Busch and Richard Childress Racing’s strong 2023 start (32:30) When the line of questioning was turned over to the listeners on Youtube Live for Ask Jr., they sent in questions about: (54:10) If social media existed in the early 2000s Who inspired Dale when he was growing up The best concerts Dale has ever been to Naming race cars 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 Dirty Mo Media. Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. It's Tuesday, February 28, 2003, episode 418. Dirty Air and Ash Jr. on deck this morning. I'm in the Bojangles studio, my buddy, Mike. How's it going, Mike? It's going well, man. You're back from the dead.

Oh, man. It was rough last week. What happened to you? I mean, I had this little bronchitis thing going on. You had this every year? Yeah, it seems to happen every year. but I was stopped up. Boy, I'm telling you, every wind tunnel and the air tunnel I had was taped up and sealed off

like I was going for the lap. Like I was going down. I was going for the track record in every which way. I couldn't breathe, what I'm trying to say. Yeah. But I'm back. Man, I'm glad you're back. We had a great, you know, we had a great little week last week and got some help.

Yeah. See LaTart came in. I thought we had a lot of fun talking to him and got to promote Derry Mo Doe that he's doing for us every Thursday. And then Kelly helped me with Jeffrey Unhart. And we ended up, you know, Jeffrey had been on the show before. So I'm always apprehensive to bring people back for the second time. We've already talked to them.

You've already heard about them. But Kelly, I thought, could bring some new information or at least a new perspective on Jeffrey and his role in the family and all those things. So if you haven't listened to any of that stuff, go check it out. Last week's stuff was pretty good. Let's get started. Man, my ass is stressed. I had a, yes, I had a, so we get up this morning and I had to get both, well, Amy and I had to get both girls ready for school.

Illa was mad, I was mad when we woke her up, mad, we'll get out of bed. Today's Farmer Week. I don't know what that is, right? Everybody, you know, kids dress up like farmer. A farmer week at school. It's like a Dr. Seuss Week or something where they're kind of like each day is kind of a different day. Yeah. Well, it's Farmer Day, I guess.

Okay. And so their clothes are vaguely farmer-ish, you know, nothing to, everyone. over the top. Al is not wanting to dress like a farmer. I'm like, Ala, it's overalls in a church. It's not really that farmer-like. And, boy, she refused to put it on because she didn't want to be a farmer. Won't eat her breakfast.

I'm not hungry. I'm not thirsty. I'm like, you've been to sleep all night long. I know you're not telling the truth. It pushed me to like this sort of weird breaking point where, like, I'm about to get angry. I'm about to get mad. I'm about to yell.

But I'm struggling with this, man. I'm telling you. I mean, I'm talking to you as an, as a parent. who's been through this. Yeah. So she's four. Yeah. She's about to be five.

She gives these vibes off, though, that she knows better. Like, I don't want to say, oh, well, you know, I'm going to give her a little time because she's four. I should, you know, I should calm down and go easy because she's four. She's smart enough to know that right is right and wrong is wrong and this is the way to behave. And doing this is not going to end well. Acting certain way isn't going to end well. And so I guess maybe sometimes I might expect a little bit too much out of her. But I don't know.

This morning I had enough stress in the one hour it took us to get up, get going, get ready, get to school. I had enough stress for the week in that one moment. I really wish I, I know I needed to do it all differently, but I ain't got a clue what I would have done different. You walk away from a lot of things in life and go, you know, I could have changed this, I couldn't have changed that. Or I'm pretty happy with how it went. but in that hour, I don't know what I needed to do to make it click in her mind. This is so interesting because, first of all, let me ask you, did she end up dressing like a farmer or no? She put her clothes on.

I went up. Is she at school right now as a farmer? Yes. She's in school wearing what her mother picked out. Okay. I finally said to Amy, I'm going to go on upstairs. I really needed just to back out of the situation because I was just, you know, I've, you know, I've read a little bit and I've heard a little bit and Amy and I talk a lot about, you know, how to, how to parent.

And I know that you're, you know, to raise your voice and get angry and yell is not going to imprint the right information into the brain of this child to make them go, okay, next time I'm going to do this and that another. We'll do this. Or I'm just going to straighten right up. I don't know. all right so i know i know that if i were to yell at them in that moment that i wouldn't have the right impact not the intended effect right now there is a way to be stern there's a way to handle it uh and demand you know be stern and strict right and you can't raise your voice i don't i'm not against all those things but i know the way i know that i'm not good enough at doing that

that I would get the right intended reaction from her. So I just said, you know what, I'm going to go upstairs, get ready. I got to take a shower. I got to get my clothes on. And so Amy, in the time while I was upstairs, got things moving in the right direction, slow a little bit surely. But we get on the phone after I dropped the kids off, and both of us feel like, man, we got pushed to the brink of maybe being, you know,

being angry or yelling or whatever. And we're glad we didn't. obviously in all those situations. These happen all the time for parents. But I also feel like, you know, my dad was, you did not want to piss him off. He was going to get the belt. You were going to get a whooping. And when he was mad, you were terrified.

And that kept my ass in line. I wasn't going to go do anything stupid, stupid. Now, I misbehaved. I didn't do a chore or I might have told him. little lie here or there, but I wasn't going to do nothing massive. And Amy's dad was much different in how he disciplined them, but she had the same respect for him, same like, I don't want to disappoint him. I'm not going to do anything too crazy, right? And so I'm, I guess, you know, I guess I'm kind of wondering, like, I know that she's four,

but I'm thinking, man, what we're doing today is steering the direction of where they are 10, 5, 10 years from now, right? Yeah. This is their most impressionable years right now. Right, right. So it is important to like having a little concern because how you do, you know, whatever you don't do right now, you're going to have to fix twofold, threefold in two or three years, right?

And so if she doesn't realize that she, if she doesn't have that, I guess I alone talking about, if she doesn't have that sort of respect and fear for lack of a better word of upsetting and her parents in some form, even minimal right now at four years old, then, man, she's going to be impossible to handle it down the road. That's my worry, right? That's my worry, too. Anytime. It's so funny about this. First of all, I got two thoughts. One is, this is when it's great to have, you know, a spouse. I feel so bad for single parents because when you have that counterbalance, you got the bad guy and the good guy,

and they alternate a good bit. I could not imagine parenting, being a single parent in those situations. Shout out to all of you single parents, because it is not easy. It's not easy when you have your spouse in the house, and yet this is when those advantages take place. When you got the, my wife and I,

we have our good moments, we have our bad moments, and there's always the counterbalance. One of us plays that role so that we can be consistent. with our kids. Consistency is one of the most important parts in my opinion. Now the second thing that's funny about this is that you feel in the same trap that I fell into. You know what it is? It's these ridiculous, inconsequential things that we should not be getting mad over, but then it lights our fuse, and now it's a principle that we have to defend. Yeah. Like, okay, go to,

go to school and don't be a farmer. Big freaking deal, right? Like, okay, so you're not going to be a farmer on Farmer Day. Big deal. But that's not the problem. The problem is, is that is she going to get away with this? She's going to be okay in disappointing me? Or she's going to be okay in, you know, changing the expectations? That's the problem. I had the same problem.

I was so mad at my daughters, both of them, that they did not like the way the movie Rudy ended. And I'm like, see, there's a principle. There's a life principle there that if you don't ever quit and you keep after it, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll succeed in life. And they're like, that was the most boring movie I've ever watched. And I got furious. And then it's like, I'm getting mad. And they're like, are you really getting mad over a movie?

And it's like, I'm getting mad over a movie. But it's not the movie. It's the principle. And I don't want you guys to miss this. And so it's all these, like we play these life. We feel like if they don't appreciate this, then when they're 20, they're going to, they're going to suck as a human being. And then we overthink it.

That's all you're doing. And the fact of the matter is, is the Islaa's going to be fine. She's going to be fine. I don't want. But you got to just say, you had your bad cop, which was you this morning. And I think she's got to know that you were disappointed. But you had your good cop, and that was Amy who came through and got her in her overalls or whatever she dressed up. And then, and you know what?

I was not even going to remember this. I know, but damn, all I'm saying is is that when I say, sit at the table and eat your breakfast, she sets at her table and eats her breakfast. She doesn't turn to me and go, I ain't hungry and shoves her plate across the table. That right there is bull-h-h-h-h-h-h-h. That's the stuff. Yeah, you can't get away with that.

That's the stuff. That's the stuff that pisses me off. And I don't know exactly how hard to push her in that moment. I have, because, I mean, I'll be honest, man. I don't know if I did enough homework to studied up for this test. Because I can promise you. I feel way under-trained and not, I don't feel like I don't feel like I'm a very good parent in moments like that. There's moments when I feel like I did a good job, man, I hit a home run there.

And but then there's these moments where I'm like, wow, I am not ready for this or I'm not equipped to handle what's happening. I'm not, and if I don't make the right choice, I've not, not, I didn't seize the opportunity to parent. it well, right? And make a, and, and that's a, that's a core moment or core memory maybe, right? Yeah. And so. The one thing she remembers from her childhood is, but the time she, you may, you know what I'm saying. Like, this, now tomorrow morning, you know, are we going to sit at the breakfast table and, and tell daddy and mommy, no, I'm not hungry. And shove her, shover plate again, you know, those,

how, how, how, how, how, how, how, is it really

meaningless? There's got to be a consequence for it. If there's a consequence for that behavior, that's the problem. I don't know what the consequence should be.

Well, like, how, how, what am I going to do? I mean, you know, what am I going to do

that's going to make her go, oh, shoot. That's, that's, that's, that's not good. I need to,

I guess I need to eat this food. I'm having a hard time really knowing how to, because, man, we'll tell her stuff, and she's like, it's not like, yeah, I don't care. I don't, you know, I'm not going to miss this toy. Yeah, well, I walk in there and I'll say, I'm taking the, you know, the bouncy house, and I'm going to throw the damn thing in the trash. And, yeah, she gets upset and cries, but she ain't trying to eat her food. She's, like, worried about the bouncy house.

Now she's left the table entirely, wondering, I'm going into the, wherever the toy isn't, and I'm going to take away or get rid of. Now she's worried about that. I don't know. It's something, man, I'm telling you. Oh, we've got guests in here, and they're cracking up on this right now, Bill.

I hope everybody probably is wondering where the hell this is going. My whole point is, like, this morning was a freaking exercise in patience. And I am glad to be sitting at this table, and I can spew this horse shit out and get the pressure off. I am built up. Anyways, let's get right to it, man, this past weekend, Fontana, its last race. Everybody's all upset because such a great racetrack, so much great racing, multi-grove puts on a lot of, has a lot, you know, there's so many great things to say about Fontana.

Am I right? I, I, I, I, I, I, all right, so I'm going to. I hate to do this because it's unpopular, but, you know, this track's been like this for quite a while. I mean, this track has raced this way for a good, long time. It's put on some great finishes. And for whatever reason, that didn't sell a lot of tickets out there. Thank you. And I'll be honest, this is exactly like Atlanta.

In the same, you know, Atlanta, wide track, run to top, run the bottom. All the drivers loved it. not many tickets sold to Atlanta over the last 15, 20 years, especially in the last decade. So while I agree, look, I love Fontenna. I really wanted to run in that Xfinity race. It is a fun racetrack to run, but man, there is a disconnect for me somewhere between everybody's opinion of the racetrack, especially now that it's going away, and what has been going on there in the last 10 years in terms of attendance and general, you know, appreciation, I guess, for the racetrack itself.

Yeah, like everybody's forgetting all the problems that Fontana had. Well, yeah, the weepers and the back straightaway is rough as hell. It's, you know, that's one thing that I forget about. They should have paved the damn back straightaway years ago to just alleviate the issues. But, you know, the track's gone, going away. They sold the property. We talked about that last week. and everybody kind of wants to know what the future is for the racetrack.

The track president is like, you know, more information is coming down the pipe. Can't wait to tell you, fill you in. I've seen some renderings. I know a little bit about what I think is going to happen with this racetrack. The first idea for reconfiguring this racetrack was, in some way, somehow, they want to do all this. Now, let's move on. The track's gone, all right? Everybody get rid of the emotions of that, okay?

Get rid of those emotions. Track's gone. So what the track wants to do is build a short track. What they want to do is basically use a large portion of what is currently there with the front grandstands. They're going to use the footprint of the front straightaway. I don't know if they keep the banking or they fill in that interior infield and bring it up a little bit. I would think that maybe you could keep the front straightaway banking, but the transition into turn one with so. much banking on the straightaway would have to be unique. It'd have to be quite steep

in terms of what the banking would be in the turns for this front straightaway to retain its current degree of banking. So that's a bit of a challenge for me. Concern number one, I guess, is transitions from the front straightaway and the banking you have there into a turn, and then the transition off a turn to onto whatever the back straightaway is going to be. Will it have the same amount of banking is the front. Those are some questions. The other thing was, is they were going to try to fit this racetrack, Mike, in between, they weren't going to tear the suites down and the back straightaway. You know, I'm not the back straightaway, sorry, the pit road. The pit road, so they were going to try to keep those sweets, right? And then put the back straight away,

literally where pit road is. Yeah. I don't know how that works with the degree of banking in the angles of the turn. That would have made such a tight turn, turn one and two and three and forward would have been unrealistically tight. And so high chance of just utter failure in terms of how this track would have raced, how the cars would have cornered, and how the drivers would have reacted. So they were going to try to put the racetrack literally using the front straightaway as is, turn around a corner and go back the other way up the pit road. And that would have just been too next.

arrow of a term, right? Turn one and two would have been way too sharp. The loads and bankings, none of that stuff would have worked out well. I think there was finally an opportunity for developers and designers to understand that, and now they have grasped this idea that, man, the suites got to go. Those sweets on the, on pit road, they wanted to keep those. Those were going to be probably some nice, you know, nice tickets for fans to be able to watch the race from a good vantage point unique to that racetrack but they realized you know well

that's too small of a footprint to put the racetrack in so they're going to knock those sweets down and when you look at these renders that we're seeing online where did this one come from this is from Bob Pockers he tweeted out so you can see over on off a turn to

the current garages or some of the current garages those little great things. So that gives you an idea of how far they're going to take the back straightaway into the current floor footprint of the racetrack itself or the property. So now we have a much better curvature for one and two and three and four. And that really, really makes me happy.

I think that actually being able to knock these sweets out on the back straightaway, or the pit road suites, and move this racetrack and take up the space that it really is going to require. To be a good racetrack is really smart. It does take it from a half mile to a little bit larger of a racetrack, almost three quarters of a mile or so. Now, the question remains, what to do with the front straightaway in terms of the banking? That is a very banked straightaway. That's fine for the two mile, mile and a half course. but for this short track

if you're going to have that much banking on the straightaway the turns would more than likely require more and again that creates some challenges on the transition you need the banking to remain off of the exit of turn two so now you've got an elevated back straight away just like the front stretch right so that's a bunch of dirt that's got to come in there and be put on the ground to be able to get all of this to sort of match

all right and so the third. the question for me is what are the what's the what's the you know what's the banking on the front straightaway what are they going to do the back straight away you don't want that to be a flat straightaway relatively flat straight away and have the banking just fall off on turn two before the corner ends i mean it could this could this this that right there and i know i'm making no sense whatsoever no you're making sense i'm following you whether this whether this succeeds or not all hinges on how they configure the racetrack and the transitions into the turns and out of the turns. If that's not nailed perfectly, it will not race well and the drivers won't want to go there.

And so I would encourage a couple things for the track owners. I would encourage them to use simulation programs like IRA racing, which I believe they are absolutely doing. I would assume they would be. I would also encourage to include as many cup drivers in the development and the design of this racetrack as possible, particularly on this simulation side. These guys have rigs in their house. Get them the various versions of the future Fontana Motor Speedway.

that on their racetrack. Get, you know, whatever auto club's going to be, get them various versions. Say, hey, man, try this one. Try this one. Try this one. Try this one. Try this one. Try B, C, D, EFG.

Different bankings, different transitions. Tell me which one you like the best. And get driver feedback. And I'm telling you, man, when you've got the drivers on your side, when you get them excited about, you know, any kind of project, that's what's going to bring the fan on board. You know, the questions that I have. I'm a fan.

All right, so if I hear the drivers go, man, I've tried this thing, it's going to be great. Well, that eases all my concerns. If I hear two or three or four reputable cup guys telling me that they're pretty excited about it, then I'm going to be excited. But even before I even see it. So that would be probably a good direction, I think, for the, and they may be going in that direction. I know that they're trying to use simulation.

to help get this right, but they need to include the drivers. Because damn, dude, I mean, that's free press. If you get these guys on board and they're chattering about this thing, helping you, like, promote the new future of this place, why wouldn't you want that? I assume you mean a select group of drivers, not every driver out there. Like, you're talking about the key influencers. Is that right?

I think the drivers who A, enjoy simulation, right? You ain't going to put some driver on a SIM rig that can't damn drive a SIM rig, right? He ain't going to help you. He's going to be more frustrated than anything. But there's a handful of them that are pretty decent at it. William Byron, Denny Hamlin, Harvick's decent on the Sim. There's a handful of guys that would be able to hop on the rig, run some laps around multiple different ideas of configurations and bankings and so forth,

and say, you know, this is what I'd try. Or maybe think about this. You might hear some things from the drivers that you're not even consistent. right that's fair and so but the the point is is like for anything what I'm kind of learning is for anything you want to do a race format a track reconfiguration any you know when it comes to big ticket stuff that is going to really impact the fan you got to get the driver's feedback not only include them in trying to develop things like this but you also need them to like it so that they go out and talk about it favorably and because if

If you spring this on them, we've seen this in the past with Atlanta and a couple other things. When you sort of, hey, man, this is how it's going to be. Atlanta comes to mind. Right. They didn't like it. They didn't like it. No. You didn't even give them a chance to.

Yeah. And all that would have probably, all that would have probably balanced that out would have been to have at least three or four guys that did like it. Yeah. That felt, you know, that were roped into the conversation from the start and explained why. all these things were happening with Atlanta, right? And so then you got three or four guys going, hey, man, I know you don't like it or I know this guy over here is not excited, but this is why this has got to go forward. And that helps a ton.

The drivers have the biggest, you know, the biggest voice. What do you make of the skepticism or the narrative that's recently come out saying that, you know, NASCAR obviously sold this land, but they kept a little less than 100 acres, right? And now there seems to be a skepticism of are they really intending to build this track here? Can you actually have a world-class facility on 95 acres or whatever it is? What are your thoughts to that? Why would they have kept that if they could have sold it? Why would they have kept it?

As valuable as that land is, I wonder why they would want to hang on to it. Good point. Yeah. I'm with you. I'm skeptical. I'm skeptical. This is going to cost a lot of money. Yeah, I mean, nobody's came out and said with enough confirmation or solid, nobody's really came out and give us a, we're excited, this is happening.

Look at this. We're going to do this. This is what's going on. You mean from NASCAR? For not from anybody. From anybody. Well, yeah, NASCAR has said we're evaluating our, you know, market in Southern California, kept an open end in vague. Yeah.

And it leaves room for skepticism. Yes, it does. Yeah, I agree with that. So I was wondering, is 90 acres enough to be able to build a track and, you know, all the parking and stuff? And I'm like, well, this is going to be easy. Let's just go see what Martinsville acreage is or what Bristol acreage is. It's a lot. Do you know?

It's a lot more. It's a lot more. Like I Googled it. And I don't know how reliable that is, but I googled it. Martinsville covers 340 acres. Yeah. So, and I think Bristol's more. Yeah.

So, yeah. There's a good reason to be skeptical of it. But I also sort of mentioned a point we're like, let's see what NASCAR. decides that they're going to do with this. We'll have to wait and see. I know. I think it could be done. Maybe it's just a smaller track that doesn't have big, well, the grandstands are staying,

so we know how many grandstand seats that would be. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how they rectify all that. I mean, also, man, think about how, like, how many questions we have and concerns we have about the short track package. If we, so while this is sort of being determined, right, is while they're evaluating what to do with this racetrack, this property, If we start going through this season and the short track package is still struggling,

the excitement around building a short track out of this place is going to wane. I mean, you know, any plan to do something short track outside of the current schedule is not going to be very exciting, right? I guess for people that just look at, you know, the very surface level of everything. I mean, like, how a track race is or how the quality of race is, is on a particular track is such a sample size and there's such extraneous factors that there is a massive issue though with the short track package might you don't think that it'll be resolved over the past several years is that good is that going to be quick enough

well the track's not going to be ready for the next couple years i agree but are they going to be i mean are you going to spend all this money when the actual short track package is pretty and i think you have to yeah really i think you have to have short tracks yes we have them I think we need more. I do too, but we got to fix the way the cars race there. I'm not building a brand new racetrack at a track when the configuration for the package for that isn't very good. I just don't define whether a track is good or bad based off of today and yesterday and tomorrow how the cars race on it. I think that there's all these other factors that help determine that.

Certainly the track is one of. You know the one that comes to mind to me, Richmond. Richmond used to be the most badass track. there was, and now it's not. That was my favorite track. It was everybody's favorite track. Everybody loved going to Richmond. And now that thing can't catch a break. I mean, people talk like this, such a shuddy race.

Well, I'm not ready to go indict Richmond. I'm ready to go, like, okay, the cars now not work. Maybe the pavement needs to be repaid. Right. I'm just saying maybe there's other things that need to be happening. I don't think that's a reason not to go build a short track because the cars today aren't

racing well enough on them. They go fix the cars, that's one thing. That's a big, yeah, but you're spending, you're not spending your money. I think if somebody came to you and said, man, $250 million, we're going to spend $250 million of your dollars and you're looking at the short track package and going, that's, I, can I wait a minute? Can I see a race or two? Can we, can we hold off for about eight or ten months before I sign off on that check?

Because I want to see exactly what these changes NASCAR brought into the sport are going to do. That's the way I would feel. I would need more than just a slap on the back and, hey, man, we got it. We're going to figure it out. I think it's their job to figure it out. It's not a hope or a strategy is not a hope here. I think that, listen, you're going to have to have a bunch of racetracks. Listen, there was a time when these two-mile tracks weren't the raciest things either.

I agree. Michigan and California, I've been to some f***y races there. Sure. Now they're awesome. Now they're four or five wide. I mean, those races this past weekend were incredible. It's good race. For sure.

I'm just saying, I think that if you can't go pin the glory on a racetrack when the races are good, you also can't go blame it necessarily and pin the bad things on it. There's another thing I've got to say, too, man, is this idea that we can't racing, like everybody's saying, you know, well, what we're going to do next year? We're not going to be in Fontana. Where are we going to go? We've got to be in Southern California. Where, where, where?

Oh, yeah. That I don't understand. Yeah. I don't understand that at all. Why can we not skip that region for a year or two? What's the big deal? I think NASCAR sort of teed us up to think that they're trying to stay there in that region. I don't know why we can't skip it, though, Mike.

Why do we have to have, why do we got to force ourselves to be there? And I say my concern is, you know, if it's, it depends on the racetrack they end up taking us to. If you're going to go, hey, man, we're going to be in Southern California. We're going to have a class. We're going to have a points rate. It's a Coliseum. I'm like, no. You're forcing it.

That's not what we need to do. If you're saying, man, we're going to go to a road course or a track that's built, it's got some history. That's, that's, now that might be a different conversation that I think would be reasonable. Even another road course, unfortunately. I can't believe I'm saying that. I can't either. But they so badly, I think, want to be in the market. Rightfully so, but like if we missed it a year or two while this short track is getting built,

is that such a big damn deal? No. Like we don't, I don't hear this outcry from other areas in the country that we're not even competing in. How can we not be in the northeast? Oh my goodness. We miss what, decades racing up there. And they are there. You've got to take it a step further.

Do we really need a points race in this region? Because you do got a race right now. You could stay at the Coliseum and continue to do the book. clash there, whatever, it's an exhibition. The question is, do you put a points race in the college team and nobody wants that? You can't do it, can you? Yeah, I don't know.

Maskar will figure it out. If they want it, they'll make it happen. Yeah. Oof. I don't like that. I don't understand the, the, the, the, the, this sort of, we can't. This infatuation. Yeah, where are we going?

We can't, we can't not come here. That was, uh, that's, it's surprising to me. I hear it from other media, like, that's, we got to find a place to race in Southern California, where is that going to be? Where can we go compete? We certainly can't just not come. And I'm like, well, why couldn't you not come? I mean, how many racetracks did we not go to during the pandemic?

There were a lot of places that we just didn't race at, right? We skipped a couple that we were going to. And then, you know, when the pandemic was over or whatever, we went back to racing at those places. It was still there. It was still there. I hear you. I hear you on that. I don't know.

We'll see. I'm fascinated by that. That sort of, you know, we have to be there kind of mentality. Kyle Busch wins in the second start for RCR and his 19th straight season with a victory, which is now a new record. There were, it was a fascinating race, man. Like you said, it was fun to watch. Kyle had an amazing race car.

Redick won stage one and two in that car last year. Kyle talked about how, you know, good they ran there in the past. and it just seemed like it got even better. And as the race went on, his car got faster and faster, and he became the class of the field in the final stage. I was pretty surprised. I had friends texting me going, man, I'm having all these conflicting emotions. I never liked Kyle.

I don't want to pull for Kyle, but now he's driving a Chevy, and I like RCR, and they were all having these interesting, emotions about Kyle going to, you know, going on and winning this race. Ultimately, I think in general, everybody's pretty happy about it. You know, there's not, I don't hear anybody going, damn, I hated that. I wish that wouldn't happen, right? Nobody's acting that way. Am I right?

I haven't heard it. I'm assuming they're out there. 9% of the people on Jeff Gluck's poll said that that was a bad race. I don't know who those 9% are, but they've fallen off their rockers. So like, there's people out there that are going to say it. I don't know who they are there. But, and I'll say this too, man, the number font that they, so they had that old block eight. And that new eight on that car is, I like it.

I like the new number font. I just, you know, I'm a paint scheme gas. Oh, no, that's hilarious that that's the thing that jumps out. I mean, like, to be honest with you, I would expect nothing less. You're going to notice the changes of a font of a number. I didn't. And his number's rather big in comparison to what, you know, NASCAR made this sort of template. You couldn't get, you couldn't come outside of this box.

and the numbers were kind of tiny and weird, and now there's more freedoms, I guess, that they're giving the teams to do whatever they want, except for being able to put the number wherever they want. But their numbers are kind of big, which I kind of think slapped on the side of that car. It just looked really good this weekend. So I don't know.

I had some sort of mixed feelings about it. You know, I don't know what, I don't really know how I felt about it. But I was happy for Richard, and I think Kyle is, you know, there's some conversations about, well, Kyle's one of the greatest drivers to ever do it. We heard it from Kyle Larson from Chase Elliott after the race. They're like, why is everybody surprised about this? Why is this such a big deal?

He's great. He's good. And I think that's all true. I agree with that. I think he's, there's probably eight, roughly, drivers that you could put in the argument of the five best to ever do it. Kyle's one of those eight. Everybody's going to have a different Mount Ruffles. Rushmore, right? Kyle is definitely

in the conversation as one of the most raw, talented race car drivers that's ever came into the Cup series. He's only 37. Think about how many years he still has. 37 to 43 is probably every driver's peak moment in terms of

where where risk taking and experience and saviness and patience. All those things sort of cross. at a point in a person's life,

and in NASCAR and in stock car drivers, it seems to be that 35 or 37 to 43 year, you know, he's really coming into what could be his best years as a driver. Now, whether, you know, what that means in terms of, like, true victories and success on the racetrack remains to be seen. This car was fast at this racetrack last year. It looked a little better with Kyle driving it. this year. I wanted to talk about that team for a minute.

There's only one crew member, only one over-the-wall guys that remains from last year. Oh, is that right? Yeah. So it's a whole new team. Yeah, the Jackman. I want to get this right. Josh Sebecki. He is the only person, the over-the-wall crew, that's there from last year. There's a lot of guys on that team that are from different teams. The front tire carrier, Brian Backus is from the two. 23 last year.

Lamar Neal from the 42 is the tire carrier last year. So different people from different teams making up his crew this year. But everybody that's on the pit box, everybody that's part of the road crew is still the same from that team last year. And one person in particular

is fascinating to me. Former late model driver, he's a winning driver. Is the car chief on this car. His name's Clay Alexander and the last name should mean something to everybody. Um, that is Mike Alexander's son. Mike Alexander was a prolific short track racer, uh, Nashville fairgrounds.

He actually got into, uh, Exfinity, got all the way to the Cup series was sort of the one to take over, uh, when Bobby Allison was injured in the Miller car. Uh, Mike Alexander was kind of that guy that was, that was, that was chosen to, to maybe be the next, um, you know, to feel in, you know, follow Bobby's, you know, shoes in that car and take over and take that car back. to Victor Lane. Unfortunately, it didn't work out, crashes and injuries and so forth. Derailed Mike's career, but he was a prolific short track racer. And somebody we should consider having on this show at some point. Yeah, that'd be awesome. I had no idea that Clay was his son, and I have so much respect now, more respect for Clay. So you were cheering. The pedigree, right? Yeah. And also, another thing I want to say is his crew chief, Randall Burnett, I was so surprised that he didn't go with Redick when Redick went to 2311.

He stays, he gets Kyle Bush, and whether he knew that was happening beforehand or early in the process, I don't know, but that guy is a rock star. The car that he put under Kyle this weekend was incredible. He's giving him a piece every week. Yeah. I mean, every week they are just up there in the front. Yeah. It's pretty impressive to see. I think that, you know, we're going to hear a lot.

We're going to hear that name a lot this year. We heard it a lot last year. They won three races last year. They were a fast car. But I believe that, like we said, with Kyle's age and where he is in his career, the stars are aligning for them to be one of the contenders throughout the season. I wasn't sure what to expect. I told Kyle, he asked me,

what I thought about going to RCR, and I was apprehensive. I was like, you know, I didn't know what Randall, I didn't think Randall was going to be there. And I'm thinking, man, you know, what kind of car are you going to have? Who's your crew chief going to be? Where is the company in terms of, is it trending upwards? Is it trending downwards? There's just no right answer here.

And I was apprehensive, man, but he chose to go there. And he's got one of the best. crew chiefs in the garage at least that's the perception right now got a great team around him and denny said on his podcast that the that the rcr motors are the best out there right now yeah i mean like their motor program right now is just hitting it's hitting yeah there's something now so denny said i want i want to get your opinions and the chevvvvies and all the chevvvils are good good everywhere that's right there's something i want your opinion on here it's kind of related to this denny asked a question it goes i wonder where ad's head is in all this ad being

Austin Dillon. Yeah. You know, RCR's last four wins have all been by Austin's teammate. Now, as it's been well reported, Austin made the phone call to Kyle to try to get him and recruit him over there. Jared Allen on Denny's show asked the question, do drivers really want their teammates to succeed? I know what I think on that. What do you think on that? You've been in the situation of having to be Jimmy Johnson's teammate when he was clicking off everything.

What is Austin Dillon right now thinking? and is he we're all going to we all know they're going to say the right thing yeah we're all going to wear a smile but as denny said on action's detrimental that smile will wear off after a while i think that austin is fine with kyle going out there and outrunning him i think that austin you know as long as austin's not mired back in the top you know the backside of the you know the 20s if he rallied and finished in the top 10 he was up toward the first of the first of the first of the front at the end of Daytona race at points. And so, I mean, as long as he

is running relatively well, I think that that will satisfy him. I think that he knew when he called Kyle Bush and brought Kyle in that Kyle was going to show him up. I think he knew that. He had to. He was

kind of world-class talent. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think that Austin, I don't, you know, Austin's young, how long does he want to race, that's up to him. But I think that Austin knows that if he's ever going to be in position to run that company someday, he's got to make sure that company survives. He's got to make sure that he has talent in there. He can't bring in, if he's a B guy or a C driver, he can't bring in D and F drivers to run behind him intentionally and expect that company to be there for him

15, 20 years from now. So if he's smart, he brought in Kyle Busch. so that Kyle can win races, elevate this brand, and keep pushing this company forward so it can survive another 20 years. And that when it's his turn to take over the helm, which could be sooner than later, that it's a healthy team people want to come work for. And drivers want to come drive for. And so this was a really unique scenario where you had Reddick wanting to leave, thinking that the pasture was greener where he was going. and one of the best drivers in NASCAR coming there out of possibly because of limited options elsewhere, right? There was nowhere else to go.

Everyone else, you know, the end was full everywhere. So it was a very fortunate, lucky break for RCR to be able to get Kyle and a driver of his talent, and they are now both working toward, you know, elevating that brand and that company up to an 18, like an HMS, Pinsky, and it's close. They've done it. I think they've already done it. I mean, like, they, there was skepticism and what, and where RCR was, and all of a sudden that

skepticism is gone. I don't fall for that. So, this is the shit that bothers me. We go to the clash and Priest runs really good, and everybody's like, oh, priest's going to have an awesome year. We talked about that on this show. Kyle goes and wins that race. The A car ran good there.

They run to both stages there. It's a fast race car at that racetrack and you put one of the best drivers in it and it wins the race. It shouldn't be a shock. It shouldn't be a surprise. But I need a bigger sample size. I need several more. Let's go to some more racetracks. Let's be patient about just what we think they can accomplish.

I won't be shocked if they win six races. But if they only win two or three, I won't be shocked either. It's not easy to win and be successful in this series. But they're certainly, I wouldn't say they're at Penn State. you know, Hendrick level yet in terms of just a brand and a company and organization. But they are rising fast. Yeah. And so if Kyle can go out there and keep it up, top five's, wins, you know, assert himself as a championship favorite, a month, two months into the season, then certainly they are, they're not the RCR of old. That's the same thing with Kyle. I think that

You know, I need, you know, I, everybody is positive on Kyle right now, and I, I am too. I think, you know, this might, I wonder if his situation at Gibbs was just so miserable, and that was what made him an insufferable human being, is that just his situation was that frustrating for him, that he could not help but let that sort of shine in a lot of things that went on in his world, right? and we would be exposed to it. Now in this new environment, a completely different culture, is he less stressed out?

Does he feel surrounded by all the things that he really needs and wants? And is this sort of, you know, are we going to see a new version of Kyle Bush? I hope so. But again, like, let's get down the road of several more weeks, see some, you know, see how it goes. the ups and downs of NASCAR will expose everybody. And, you know, you've seen the worst than me in moments. And so I feel like that, you know, I'm going to be a little patient on, you know, what I think their potential is this year.

But out of the gate, it's phenomenal. It is phenomenal. And I'm happy for RC. Listen, I'm not even talking about the fact that they went in and won that Xfinity race at Daytona, Austin Hill, you know. He was a four-de-old car. I mean, the company, I can't imagine a better start to a year for a company. Yeah.

And the whole overall, not just one particular team, but the company, than what they've got. Yeah, that's true. And there's a point in Xfinity race at Fontana that they were positioned to win that race. They are, they are impressive. I guess sometimes we should maybe appreciate that more. Maybe I should appreciate that more because they've been flash, you know. They'll be, you know, R.C. I'll show up and win a race, dominate, be strong as hell.

and then disappear for a couple weeks, right? And maybe I should appreciate what they're doing more. I don't know. But I want to see, you know, we've got to get a little further into the year where I can kind of, we always talk, the way too early, championship favorites. We talk about those things. It's a joke.

We do it because it's fun. But we're not really. You had your whole 16. I know. I don't, I mean, that's a thing. It ain't going to work out for me, right? Yeah. So you're not crowning Kyle the champion is what you're saying. No, yeah. I think we've got to see a few more races.

And man, I'll be honest with you. I hope that this situation for RCR is good for Kyle, not just professionally, but personally. Because, you know, whatever it is that has frustrated him over the years and been difficult for him, I hope that all those things are much easier and RCR and those people give him, you know, allow him to have, you know, a little more of a peaceful, settled disposition. I'm with you, but can I make a motion for the industry to stop saying that Richard Childress has found his Dale Earnhardt-type driver in Kyle Bush? That, to me, is starting to really annoy me.

And I've heard it every week. I've heard it every week on the broadcast. And I'm not going to sit there and, you know, I'm not going to sit there and harp on it too hard. I'm just saying let's give Kyle his credit that he deserves and let's not go sit there in rope Dale Earnhardt, who is on the Mount Rushmore, you know, make this about him as well. This is just, they're two separate things. I'm kind of tired of hearing that. Are you?

Well, I think that the comparison ends that they are winners and they're champions, but there's really nothing between the two, and I know both of them pretty well. there's nothing else that reminds me of either one of them, right? I wonder why Clint says that every broadcast very emphatically. And I don't, you know, I kind of wonder what he's, what he sees that maybe we don't see. It's not Dale Earnhardt. I'm just saying we don't need to, like, it's almost like a lazy narrative because it's like, I made the joke where it's like, I think I'm just going to call every driver who, whoever drove

their car number back in the 90s. Like, you know, I'm glad Jack Rouse has finally found his Mark Martin and Brad Kislauski. I'm so glad that he's, and I am so glad that Joe Gibbs has his Bobby Labani now in the form of Ty Gibbs. Is this how we're going to do this all year? Or is it just complete bull crap? It's bull crap. Look, it was fine. You said it at the clash. They said it to Daytona. Let's move on. Yeah. It's not Dale Earnhardt. I hear what you're saying. and, you know, I think that, I think about that, though, and there's times when, you know, you've, you've compared drivers or we compare drivers to David Pearson, Richard Petty, other greats because of, you know, the style, right? So I kind of, I don't know if you can't just say, hey, man, you're not, you know, you're not allowed to compare anybody to Dale Earnhardt, but I think that, you know, I don't, I don't, you know, I don't. know exactly where I land on that.

Because there are times when you're like, hey man, you know, this guy, he reminds me of David Pearson because he, you know, the Silver Fox was kind of always lurking. And then right at the end of the race, he's the fastest thing going. Maybe Kyle Bush was like David Pearson this past weekend more than Dale Earnhardt. So I kind of want, I kind of, there's a part of me that likes to hear dad's name mentioned or hear him recognized or people think, oh, okay, this guy's, that reminded me of him. more, but I think, yeah, a little more detail would be from, you know, if you're going to say this is the, you know, Richards found his Del Earnhardt, like, you know, he's found his winning

driver. Why? He's found his champion. He's found the team. Right. You know, Earnhardt made RCR what it was, you know, arguably. This guy can keep it going. He can do for the team the same thing going forward.

Yeah, that's a good point. Without giving more context to that thought, it. seems to minimize the accomplishments of Dale Earnhardt. I guess that's my point. Anyways. Well, it's going to be awesome to see how things go in Vegas. Kind of a similar racetrack to Fontana wore out, multiple grooves, cars sliding around, put on a good race.

So I'm looking forward to this weekend. Junior Motorsports, man, what an eventful race they had at Fontana. Got a couple guys, three of them finishing the top five. Josh Barry bounced off a few things. That was funny. He bounced some people. You know, the thing I'll go back straight away with the two, you know, the two just threw a block and Josh was coming. You know, Josh had a momentum.

That was kind of like a racing accident. But the Reddick slam, the funny thing is, so Redick got, the one car gets Reddick off of turn two, lap one. Brandon Jones cleared himself across his nose off of four at some point in the race and spun himself out. And then Reddick gets destroyed off of four by Josh. And so I'm thinking, man, Redick's been hit, did you? Yeah. Reddick was. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's probably like, what's going on? Yeah. But I called T.J. And I'm sure you were telling Josh there was a car up there. He goes, yeah, yeah. And I talked to Josh, and he was like, man, I had no clue he was there. I thought, because Josh was passing three cars in that corner. He cleared two guys in the middle of the corner and toward corner exit.

And I guess he just thought he was clear to the fence. and he wasn't right he could he's a full commit yeah to the to the fence Brett great Brett Griffin gave TJ a little bit grief about that today yeah what was it this week on DVC oh just saying you know what you got to go out wrecking people for like that you know driving right through him I'm surprised they didn't even try to make a defense of it he knew he's yeah I'm surprised that both I don't know the 24 was worse for wear after that that's hard that's hard to get slammed and shoved into the wall like that but also actually even surprised Josh's car wasn't more injured uh

Garage 56, they've announced that that car is going to be number 24. Yeah. You know, I don't know. Jimmy's driving it. I wonder why they didn't pick 48. There must already be a 48. I don't know. Yeah.

Probably, I mean, they're going to start 60 or 80 cars or something like that. I'm sure there's probably only a select few numbers to choose from. I'm just sitting here thinking, you know, we just did that deal with Garage 56 down in Daytona. I guess there wasn't a car number on it. I didn't even notice. Yeah. I would assume there was a car number. car number on it, but there wasn't. Number 24.

All right. Carl Larson, Kyle Larson's going to run Indy. Now it's been reported that is a two-year deal racing in Indy in 24 and 25. If everything goes well, he's supposed to test this year, I hear. Can't wait to see how all that goes. I get really excited when Cup guys go do that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And a two-year deal is a good commitment. I like that. So by the way, you got me thinking on Indy car. You know, we do have Scott Dixon coming in this week. He is. I know. I'm just getting ready to write some. notes down. We need to talk to him about Kyle Larson. The other thing is Connor Daly has Jimmy Johnson on Speed Street this week, and so that'll be fun.

And they can talk about that garage 56 more. Hey, downloaders, listen up. A few of you are thinking about getting out of the house this weekend. I know. Some of you are just thinking about it. Maybe a little trip, a little off-the-cuff deal. There's some fantastic weather. You want to enjoy it. Here's an idea. Go to the race. Yes, go to the race. In Las Vegas Motor Speedway, I don't care where you live. You can get to Las Vegas easily. It's not so crazy. Just think there's no track on the circuit more suited for a last minute, kind of just fly by the seat of your pants type weekend, right? Because you've got your restaurants, you've got hotels. None of those things are a problem. You've got plenty of options. Any kind of

price point. You can do any of that. Accommodations all in one place. Oh, and then there's the Penzoa 400 on Sunday. The only track on the circuit where Cirque performers, you know, Cirque to Solet, and acrobatic acts are, they're going to be at the racetrack, right? But what's unexpected is the battle for the finish, the bragging rights and the trophy, because I don't know if you remember last year at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, wow, what a finish, especially this spring race.

I'm telling you, they do put on a good show. Vegas sets a scene like no other, the lights, the action, they're all part of the experience. Uncle Cracker will entertain race fans, followed by driver introductions, which is always a fan favorite. The neon garage, there's no garage in the circuit like it, right? It allows fans up close access to the teams as they work on their vehicles and are maybe even lucky enough to get a driver's autograph.

By the way, if you're going to camp, you know, go take your RV. You won't miss any of the action. By the way, Las Vegas entertains their campers with goat yoga, countryline dancing, karaoke, and a NASCAR tech talk. It's all of LVMS. So somebody out there needs to get away, and you're thinking about it. it. You're just trying to find out what to do. Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend. It's sitting there. You go buy your tickets at LVMS.com. Tickets at LVMS.com. I will be out there. A lot of the

Dirtymoe media people will be out there. So we hope to see you. LvMS.com. Go get your tickets today. Well, should we get to some Asch, Jr.? Yes. We should. Let's get it fired up. And we are live. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. Thanks for tuning in to Asr Jr. here in the Bojangl Studio. So Andrew has your questions ready to go. Let's get it started. Yeah, this first one is coming from Ryan. If social media were around in the early 2000s,

how do you think you would use it? Oh, man. Probably about the same. Probably the same. But you remember when we first started using social media? It was like, hey, this is what I had for lunch. Here's my dog. silly stuff, right?

Just dumb things. Everyday normal life. We don't do any of that no more, right? We're like, yeah, yeah, it's got to be. Throwback Thursday. Oh, yeah. Couldn't miss a Thursday. Couldn't wait until Thursday.

Had it all lined up. All the throwbacks you were going to post. I think there would be a lot more of that. Had we done this, you know, 20 years or 10 years before, we would have been even sillier. Yeah, like all the cheesy trends. Cheesy, cheesy. Super cheesy.

How do you think you would document just like yourself as an up-and-coming race car driver? You think it would be the same? I think it would. I think it would, especially because when you're young, I think when you're young in your 20s and in the early 30s, you're seeking attention, seeking affirmation, sinking accomplishments,

checking boxes, right? And social media helps you sort of climb these imagined ladders and give you that affirmation. You know, man, there'd be a lot of going on Twitter and going, man, that was a tough race. I'm sorry. I let everybody down. Only to get the reaction of, well, you'll get them next week.

Okay, yeah, I feel good. I'm back together. And then there would be a lot. lot of, I don't know, there would be a lot of seeking affirmation and just. I could tell you this. It would have been a treat for all of us to, if you think about Dale Jr's career back in the early 2000s with Anheuser Bush and the amount of cool stuff you got to do. I mean, like if you would have even, you know, think about ringside in an Arturo Gotti fight or, you know, filming a Super Bowl commercial. Like if, to be able to have seen just kind of like

behind the scenes of any of those things back in the AB days when they were at their height when AB was just spending money going to bars for appearances think about social media if we'd had it back then it'd have been amazing yeah i uh yeah i guess so i don't know man i i you would have been you would have allowed it to become a more another source of anxiety probably for sure yeah but at the same time think about it like how much bigger things would have been had people we've been able to really had that megaphone. You know, social media is this giant megaphone of this is where we are, this is what we're doing, this is what we're involved in today.

And like you say, all the things that we did with Bud back in the day, even early with Rick when we went to drive at HMS, that having that much more reach would have made it even massive, more massive than it was. And man, 04, 04. Holy crap. What a year. Can you imagine that like, you know, the, the, the, tweet from Dale where it's like Tony Jr.

is such a . Yeah. I would have never done that. Have I ever tweeted such language? Yes. That's not who I am. I've said an F-bomb here and there. In 0-4, you would have.

I do F-bombs from time to time. But not anymore, really. Well, if only we had a time machine, we would have seen what would have been like. This next one coming from Tim Cruz, who inspired you most growing up? I know it's a broad question. That is. I you know dad was certainly driving a lot of decisions and inspiring me one way or another I pulled for Jimmy Means who was an independent I thought it was cool that he you know worked as

hard as he did was so very it was just fun not fun probably not fun for him to work so hard but it was really inspiring to see somebody work so hard with very little while I knew at the same time everything that dad and other teams had right I could see behind the curtain of of Richard Childers and dad and those guys that were winning races. And that made me really appreciate Jimmy and the Independent more because I could also know in detail what they were using and doing to race. And so I think that was good to have that balance, knowing what it was like to be on that other side.

One of my best friends, Brad means Jimmy's son, you know, he was pretty transparent with me on some of the struggles. they had and the things they had to do to compete. And so it really made me appreciate that. Last week we talked about, you know, the MTV Music Awards. This question coming from William, what's the best concert you've been to? Oh, man. The best concert.

You know, it's always kind of like the last one, I guess, some of the best concerts that you go to. I'm into punk pop music. So like the Danger Summer was a good. one. I went to a Pine Grove concert. That sounded really good. Wonder Years, but that's some of the recent stuff. Lord Huron, been to a couple of their concerts. That's really good. Way, way, way back in the day, my very first concert was Moody Blues in Chicago. Really? Yeah, and that was really good. 16 years old. I remember going to see Atlantis Morissette and live, the band Live.

And I remember very vivid moments during those concerts where I was like, this sounds and is incredible. This is awesome. So I went to see Primus, Green Day, way back in the 90s. You ever done a mosh pit? Oh, yeah. You did? Several times.

Oh, my God. I would love to see that. I used to wear air walks and baggy pants. I had this phase when I was like Nirvana, Pearl Jam. and then, you know, Primus and Green Day and all that good stuff back in the late 90s. So, yeah. First show in Chicago? What brought you there?

Huh? You said the first show is in Chicago? No. The band is Chicago. Andrew. Oh, my goodness. It was in Charlotte. I don't know.

It was the Blockbuster Pavilion back then. Yeah. It's, I think, the Verizon Theater. I don't know what it is now. Do you ever hear, like, songs from the band Chicago and, like, does it take you back? to that first concert. The Moody Blues Nice and White Satin. I remember when they sang that at that concert

and so, you know, I didn't really know no or really, I didn't know this music when I was 16. Yeah. I'd heard it. But you go to, this is what I do. I go to a concert and, man, I'm obsessed with that band from that moment on. And I listen to, you know, I listened to Nice and White satin

a lot after that. Yeah. And, which is kind of strange. I mean, I was into, you know, I was into, I guess when I was 16, shoot, I was probably into poison and Motley Crew and all that stuff. We all was wearing those T-shirts in school. And then, but I'd ride around in my truck and pop in a little Knights in White Satin. I was probably the only one in my school doing that. Guaranteed.

Yeah. You know, we were riding around just this week, and I hit a Chicago song. And, man, we had. We hit the way. We had to go dial in some more Chicago. Underrated. I know that they're a big band and everything. But I don't think they get the attention they deserve.

That's a good thing. I get some good songs, man. Oh, yeah. I had like an eight-month stretch when I was in military school. I listened to nothing but Boston. Oh, I remember you said that. I have no idea how that happens. I had the same thing go with me with Abba.

I heard that. Oh, really? I was in the dorm. I was in the dorm in military school, and somebody was playing out of that room. and I was like, I like that, that's good. And so they gave me a tape, and man, I wore it a thing out. I was like, this is all good.

Boston, not the location, Andrew. It's a lot. I'm all caught up now. All right, I think we've time for one more. Did you ever, this one's coming from Kelly, did you ever name your cars? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. You remember some of them?

What was your favorite one that you named? We had one called Mach 5. We had one called East Coast Drifter. everybody remembers Amelia. Yeah. Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had the Red Head of Stepchild,

which was our short track car with a drops now, and we won a lot of races with that in 1998-99. Red-headed Step-child. Yeah. It was, yeah, the Gossamer car. We called that car Gossamer. We won one race with it, raced it once and dominated.

So yeah, naming cars is fun. The thing is today, the old sun drop car that I raced in the 90s that we've sort of brought back for the cars tour at North Wilsonboro, that car was Ralph. It just had Ralph on the roll bar. And so when you look at the car today that I raced at Wilkesboro last year and we'll race again, it's got Ralph right there. It's Ralph again. Yeah, it is Ralph again. Ralph is back. the naming cars was was a lot of fun and almost a must when you race the car enough, right?

When you took that car and ran it for a year or more, you would develop this sort of track record of performance and behaviors. Yeah, that car was tight in the middle always or really loose in, and whatever those behaviors that this car seemed to have would sometimes determine the name. but when we started building new cars every month and you would race you know you'd race your mile and a half or short track car twice and then and then you know sell it to the 51 team or sell it to someone else you know these cars were being built and sold and built and sold every three or four months you couldn't name them you was pointless to name them they were going to be gone right you couldn't want to develop this sort of appreciation attachment to it.

But now, I think with the current next-gen car, it's possible the names could come back because these center cages could stick around for a long time, right? These teams could race these chassis or the basic nucleus of the chassis for a while. I always encouraged names for cars because you would have an attachment for it, and it just made you more invested.

Anything that invests you more emotionally and personally is a good thing. I'd be curious to learn some of the backstories behind some of the names that you listed on the beginning of it. Darrell Walter. Well, the East Coast Drifter was a car that we just ran everywhere. I had that car. I raced it in the 90s. I have it over my shop. I'm trying to restore it. But we just ran it everywhere. I ran it at East Carolina Motor Speedway, Hickory, Florence. It was just a throw away. Nobody wanted it. I took it and fixed it up and raced it whenever we weren't running. We, weekly at Myrtle Beach. So it was just, I like the high plains drifter, Clint Eastwood movies and stuff like that.

So we call it the East Coast Drifter. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Love that. Andrew, I got a question for him. All right. I know you were trying to end. But Denny said on his podcast that in 2004 or 2005, you tried to recruit him to come over to DEI.

You remember this? Yeah. Do you really try to get it? Oh, yeah. So me and Denny were hanging out a lot back then. Yeah. Remember Denny coming into the 2004 victory lane? We won Daytona.

hung it. So Denny calls me we were sim racing and we were online talking online, just joking and racing online almost every night with a big group of people and the same group every night. We all hung out together.

And so he calls me one day and he goes, hey man I've got a meeting with Joe Gibbs to possibly get to drive his Xfinity car in Daytona and I got nowhere to stay and I said come stay on the bus. So he's spent the night on the bus like two or three nights during speed weeks for 2004.

And so he had his meeting. And secretly, even then, I was like, man, I wish I could get him to come to DEI. I wish we were hiring him, not Joe Gibbs. But he goes and has his meeting, and he's like, I guess I'm going to go home. I was like, oh, man, you ought to stay, man. You have Dayton 500. So I think he ends up spending the night. We win the race, and he goes to Victor Lane.

I hand him the trophy, and he carries a trophy back to the bus after we win, which we talked about before. So we had a pretty good friendship. You know, he showed up the house one morning with McDonald's just unannounced. You know, that type of friendship, right? And so he, I think, you know, Richard Gilmore or somebody or Ty Norse or somebody, I was like, we should talk to him or see if he'd be interested in driving the 15 car. And so I went to him.

And it was very brief. I was just like, hey, man, I want you to know this. an opportunity available to you. I don't know what you're doing or how, you know, how you feel about your future where you're at, but I want you to consider it. And I could tell right away that he was pretty happy with where he was, pretty, you know, feeling good about it,

liked his responsibilities and the cars he was driving and thought, man, I'm not going to, you know, I'm on a good track, right? I don't want to, I want to make a change. I don't know what that would have done for DEI. might have made a world of difference, might not have made any difference at all. But he was a very good race car driver, and a lot of people were looking to try to, you know, land him.

He talked about the 88 team. Robert Yates was trying to get him to come over at that same time. Yeah, I reached out to him, and I remember reaching out to him. We talked about it with Kyle Busch when Kyle was on the show. I stopped Kyle in the parking lot and was like, hey, man, don't know what you're doing, but we'd love to have you come drive for us.

So back then, I was doing a little bit of scouting, not as much as I do these days. I guess the interesting part of that, and what people are thinking, is that you had a driver for the 15. And I remember when Michael was in here, and I think that there was, I can't remember exactly the story, but he was talking about reading something in NASCAR scene maybe or whatever, but there was some, I don't know, some uncertainty about his future, but he wasn't actually being told that. It's just, I guess I find it interesting that in 2004 or 2005, especially if it was 2005, you know, when there was so much turmoil going on at DEI. Yeah, I wonder when exactly it was as far as what the timeline is. But yeah, I was asked to go see if he'd have any interest.

Just because of your relationship. It wasn't like you were out looking for people to drive cars. Right, right. Okay. All right, y'all. Thank you for those questions. Thank you, Andrew. And again, thanks for supporting everything we do here at Dirtymo Media.

again, Scott Dixon is our guest for tomorrow's episode. And don't forget our Thursday recap. Dirty Mo Doe with Steve LaTartre coming out every Thursday. That is getting some great traction, getting some great feedback from that show. I've heard a lot of people talking about how fun it is to listen to Steve, sort of handicapped the field. They're learning a lot about the betting odds and all those things and what they mean. And I'm learning a lot as well because I'm not very up on all that terminology,

but Steve's fun to listen to. Denny Hamlin getting incredible reviews for actions detrimental. Yep. Out every Monday. He's been working his tail off, runs that race at Auto Club, and then had his podcast out and available the next morning. They taped that night. They stayed out in Arizona and tape.

Good job, Denny. And everybody really appreciates the effort you're putting in, and the feedback is showing it. Door pump are clear. Those guys are hitting on all cylinders. Speed Street also. amazing. Door bumper clear and Speed Street

are in mid-season form. Yeah, that's true. But Speed Street, listen, if you didn't go listen to Connor Daily talk about his Daytona car, his Daytona experience in vivid detail, do yourself a favor and go to last week's Speed Street

and just sit back and enjoy. Holy crap, that thing. It is amazing. And then he had Frankie Munez on, and that was a good interview. So anyway, and they got Jimmy Johnson on this week. Yep. Jimmy Johnson.

So Speed Street is going to be great too, especially as we'll get closer and closer to the month of May for Indianapolis 500. You're definitely going to want to be tuned in as those guys talk more and more in detail preparing for that week or that month. Appreciate everybody tuning in this Tuesday. Great episode, great conversations, a lot of question marks about, you know, certain things, Southern California and Auto Club Speedway. Everybody's going to be watching Kyle Bush even more closely now that he has shown they can win races. out of the gate. What kind of year will he have? It's going to be fascinating. Thanks for tuning in today. Remember, Scott Dixon is our guest tomorrow on the Dale Jr. download. That'll be episode 419. You won't want to miss it. We'll see you then. Check out Dirty Mo Media.

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