The Dale Jr. Download - 457 - It's Nothing Until It's Something

Episode Date: June 1, 2023

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis are joined by JR Motorsports driver Justin Allgaier to discuss his weekend victory in the NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Charlotte Motor Speedway. They also chat about the adversity the team has faced this year and what has kept them from winning races. Dale fills Mike in on a book he recently read and tells the story of his first tick bite. We also hear from the Short Track Insider and our Man on the Street reporting from Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What do you think? Didn't get them? I mean, of all things to say. What? Family picnic sometimes. Are you kidding me, Mike? Are you kidding me, Mike? Oh, my God, that is hilarious.

Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dell Jr. Download. And it is Thursday, June the first. June is here. At the end of this month, we will be in Nashville, NBC, back again. But until then, I'm going to sit at this table with my co-host, Mike Davis, in the Bojangles studio. Mike, how are you doing? I'm doing well. How are you doing, man?

Well, happy Thursday to you. I'm doing pretty good. I got a little special guest for Thursday. We're going to have a guest. Oh. Yeah, Justin Allgaier is going to come in here. Winner. Yeah, he's going to talk about his win, talk about Portland a little bit.

But curious, you know, just how they, I'll be honest. I'll be honest. good as the Gibbs cars. John Hunter-Noonichick to me look like the fastest car all year. The Gibbs cars, whoever's in them, has been fast. And we were able to match them. Yeah. If not, be a little bit better, at least for Justin at Charlotte. So we're going to talk about that and see what he thinks about the potential for the rest of the year. There he is. There's the man. So what's happening?

You know, it's a good day. Yeah. So, all right. I know you've had, it's halfway through the week. It's Thursday. and I know that you've had a little bit of time to think about it. Well, it seems like we waited forever at the racetrack. Right. I was going to ask you. I've had plenty of time to think about it. Well, I was going to ask you, man.

How long did that race feel? Forever, because, you know, probably the weirdest part was the split for the cup race, right? I mean, we've been in rain delays and you've been waiting the next day or whatever. 600 miles. 600 miles. Like, it's not like you're at a 300 miles. What did you do? So, I mean, I.

I've been, this is a funny one. My daughter, Willow, my youngest, has never been in Victory Lane, right? What? Oh, the youngest. Yeah, the youngest. My oldest has been, but I think it was 2018 was the last time she was in Victory Lane. Just because softball and they're not there, and my wife hasn't been traveling as much. And so Ashley was like, hey, I don't have any clothes for the kids.

Like, they don't have pajamas, they don't have anything. And if it's going to be late, like, we need to go home and get some stuff. So we drove back to Moresville and got some clothes. Isn't that the weirdest feeling? Oh, it was terrible. race while the races. Yeah, because at that point, the cup race hadn't even started yet. They were getting everything switched over.

So we go back home, get some clothes. We drove back, and we stopped at BJs right there in Concord and ate and had some dinner and watched the start of the cup race on TV and then got back to the track. And then, you know, about 150 to go, I guess, I went into the garage. And at that point, it was like, all right, how do we, what do we learn, right? I mean, these are the conditions we're going to have as the sun starts to go down. you know, how do we learn from that? And so sat down with the guys and watched the race. And

it was cool, though, to walk in the garage because everybody was lined up in chairs, watching the big screen. Monitor. And they were watching the race. And I'm like, that's kind of, I don't know, that's just old school to me. You know, I just, I enjoyed that part of it. And it was cool. How do you think JRM found the speed to finally get to Victor Lane? Because let me set this up a little bit. So you've been great since the year started.

and it's been a little bit of change for you in all season, but you got a new crew chief gym this year. And so things are, things have been going good since y'all have hit the ground running. I think you've been fast almost every week. But we haven't won. They keep saying we haven't won. I get tired of hearing it. I know you've got to get tired of hearing about it.

All the other cars have not ran well either. You know, I think you've been the best car most weeks. weeks. But we've still been off of the Gip stuff. John Hunter and whoever else they put in their cars have been pretty quick. Ryan, or, yeah, little Ryan Trex. Yep. So, I mean, it's sort of been, it's been a bit similar to me like it was maybe like five years ago where we just couldn't match them. And even at Charlotte, I felt like there were time, most of the time they were a little better than we were. Right. At the end of the race,

we made good adjustments and we got to where we needed to get to. But, you know, we've talked about this a lot. I mean, collectively as a whole in this shop, I mean, you know, you watch the men and women that are in this shop and the effort is here, right? Like, there's never a moment where we're not thinking about what we got to do better. And to be honest with it, Jim, I laugh. He'll send me an email at 2 o'clock in the morning. He'll send me an email at 5 o'clock in the morning.

He's going to bed and getting back up. And we're looking at all the information. And it's like, man, and I tell him all the time, I'm like, look, man, you can't burn yourself out on this. You got to get some sleep. And he's like, no, man, we got to win races. Like, I'm in this to win, and that's the only thing I know. And until we win, I'm not quitting. And even once we win, I'm not quitting.

And I've seen that already this week. I mean, you look at the haulers having to get reloaded for Portland. My man is already full Portland, Sonoma, you know, trying to figure out what we got to do. and I just feel like as a whole, you know, we had a big suspension change in the off season for the rear suspension. And it's not that we lost anything. Like we didn't have any tricks last year. What we lost was some of the forgiveness that I think these cars had. And I think it, when we lost that, you know, I think it just suited the Gibbs front suspension a little bit better.

Their front arrow, their front platform. And so we've had to kind of scramble a little bit to get caught up to that. And I think the other night at Charlotte, you know, at the end of the race, we were making adjustments and we were learning. And we hit on some things that I just, I felt like we're a difference maker for us in the race, right? And honestly, one of them was saving fuel. I started saving fuel when I went faster. And they're like, I can hear Jim, we're calling a lot of times. And I'm like, oh, man, I'm going to catch grief on this all week because he tells me to save fuel and I start going faster.

But honestly, you know, I learned some things as a driver. I know they learned some things as a team. and that's good. That's good information for us, right? As a company, that's a good information. When you were out there late in that race, everybody starts pitting. I was kind of first off,

I was a little surprised that you knew as much as you did because you were like, tell me where the 21 car is. I'm like, how does he know that's the guy to pay attention to? So how are you getting that information on what the rest of the competition is doing? Do you see him go down pit road? And you're all of a sudden you pin that thought? like, oh, the 21's going to be the one.

If anybody comes, that's the car. Yeah, so I look at the scoreboard. I look at, I watch guys. How did you know he was the one on tires in the car that was going to probably be the first one to get to you? So I just look at, like, who was in the top five, right? Yeah. And I'm looking at the jumbo tron on the back straightaway.

So, like, I see him come down pit road. So I know he's on tires and fuel, right? Yeah. And at that point, you know, as much as we were trying to save, I mean, here's the one thing. When we pitted with 66 to go, we took that restart, Jim had already been telling me, Max fuel save, Max fuel save, max fuel save. So that whole caution, I'm like clutching it, killing it, doing all that stuff.

So once we got kind of recycled and once the race started, I knew from lap one, I'm like, whatever I can do to save fuel in here is going to help. If this thing goes, I don't know if we can make it or not, but I've got to give them everything I got. So then when Jim came on the radio and told me I need to start saying, saving fuel. All right. And so where we got a little bit of miscommunication was I actually let the 20 pass. I know. They had your audio and you're like, you're like, they were telling you to go and you're like, I can go. And they said, yeah, yeah, you're good. And you're like, well, I wouldn't let him go,

Bobby if I didn't know him. But I wasn't like frustrated. I just was like. I know, but you just drove right back past him. Was it? Well, and that's, in his post race interview, in his post race interview, he's like, why, I feel like if we could have been the car out front and then started saving, would have won the race. And I'm like, we were saving 20 laps before you started saving. So, you know, that was really the only way I felt like he was able to get to me was when we started saving. So the car

that's been faster than us, most every week, you just, you, you were better than him on this day. The last stage, yes. If it was, yeah, on that last run, the last stage, right? If it was hands down, hammer down, I think we'd beat him. You were better. Yeah, I think so.

Yeah, we made really good adjustments on the last pit stop. And you know, you add the last pit stop, good adjustments, and then learning, honestly, if we hadn't started saving fuel, I don't know that I would have found the speed to beat him. Like that's kind of the crazy part because I just, I changed my driving style a good bit. And I learned some things by doing that that I think helped me, right? Charlotte's unique. Charlotte's one of those places where it's not a normal racetrack. And so what I was learning, I think, will help in other places.

may not be as effective as what it was at Charlotte, but I was able to learn some things right there that will help me moving forward, I think, especially when you're talking about balance, right? I was able to affect my balance in a way that helped me with the adjustments that we had. So it was a good change. So when I hear you, because I've never driven a race car, never will drive a race car, but when I hear you say you went faster when you were conserving fuel, that would suggest to me that you weren't overdriving.

Is overdriving what I'm hearing? What else did you learn that wouldn't have been that? Yes, but I was driving beyond the potential of the balance of the race car. Right? Sometimes you just need to back it down because the back – that makes sense. Yeah, like the balance of the race car was good. I just had to find the sweet spot of it. And I was trying to get more. You know, when you're trying to find pace, the automatic answer is I should drive in the corner deeper.

I should pick the gas up earlier. I should do all these things. Sometimes that's not necessarily the case. And what is a normal fuel run? You went 66 laps. Is that right? You went and you can serve from the, from lap one in that, yeah, in that run. 62?

62. Yeah. So you saved. 62 with no saving. So you saved yourself four laps. Yeah. That's pretty impressive. I mean, 62 is a number that's like, pushing it.

No, 62 would be very normal. Okay. So like 63, 64, maybe, right, with, if you were going to be super aggressive. But, you know, I was talking to Taylor, the crew chief on the A-Car this morning. He's like, man, we weren't like, we weren't even thinking about trying to make it to the end. It wasn't even in their mind. But so to your point earlier, what you were talking about, Jim come on the radio and he's like, hey, man, if the 20 pits were pitting. Like if he pit, you're pitting.

And I said, well, no, if you think we're close, like if you've calculated and you think we're close, I would much rather run out leading this stupid thing than to abort and pit now. And lose it. Because the 21 now wins, because he's three, four seconds a lot faster, whatever it is. So I'm like, if you think we're close, I'm not coming to pit road. And he's like, all right, let's go. And I think for him it was just he wanted my, he wanted me to buy in, right? He wanted me to feel that they had done their job. The 21 probably would have beat both of you.

Oh, for sure. I think so. No question. So, all right. So heading to Portland. Yep. y'all ran there for the first time last year was that the first time back first time yeah in a long time and it rained it rained a lot which it might rain again who knows portland it's portland they uh they tell you

that they just they all wear slickers like they don't even have umbrellas they just have slickers with like the hooded raincoats and i apologize to everybody last year I'm like oh man I'm so sorry the rain and they're like oh man I'm so sorry the rain and they're like oh it's portland it's normal we're talking about this is normal and uh but it one thing that I will say is the fanfare in Portland was special, right? And I hope it is again this year. You never know. Like first year is always a lot better than, you know, the rest of them.

But it was special to see how many people came out and supported the race in the event. It was pretty awesome. Cool. What's the best part about it? I mean, where, what, you know, I've never been to that racetrack. I've never been up there, up that way that I can remember made for a butt appearance two decades ago. But, you know, what's, what's it like? It's just different.

You know, it's, what's they remind you of? Is it an track that it's similar to? No. It was very unique. It's very flat. Oh, I'm very narrow. If I were to picture like a go-car track. How do you see the turn-in on your term one, the apex? All this flat is hell. It's so hard. You're looking for those little curbs.

You know, like the little turtle curbs? That's all you're looking for. And they're short, too. So you're like... It's similar to the term one on Indy Roadcourse, but that one seems like it would even be easier to see because of barriers and things everywhere. Yeah, so the other thing that's weird about indie

versus Portland Portland is very compact where you do turn one and turn two Indy turn one is tight but then turn two is kind of open You can do whatever you need to do Turn one and two at Portland is like I mean it's sardines in there

One lane You know there were guys last year That never even tried to make turn one on restarts they just went straight, stopped Took the penalty and went on Because it was way faster Like they're passing cars I actually got passed in the rain

I got passed under green I followed a last lap car in to turn one. And I won't name any names, but a former teammate of mine. It rhymes with Noah? Yeah. Well, yeah.

He just drove into one, stopped, took back off, and passed me. And I'm like, I did what I'm supposed to do, my man, just passed me. And his fenders are clean. But there was no penalty for it, right? I mean, the penalty was to stop. This year, we're not going to get that lucky. They put in some barriers. You've got to make, like, a whole little snake.

And it will be a bigger penalty to not to not make turn one. well that's cool so um i don't know i mean where where uh where do we go from here how you look forward to the rest of the the summer i do yeah i mean you know i'm nashville's a good track great track yeah um here's what i will say i was really hoping that charlie would be hot and slick oh yeah like i love hot and slick if you look at the bread and butter of when we've had the most wins and the most success it's been hot and slick so i was really actually surprised that we won when it was cool and cold and gripped up but um i want i'm I'm thinking about running that one next year because I like the high line tracks.

You should. It's fun. It's a fun race. The only negative right now to Charlotte is the bumps getting in turn three. If you can get your balance to get over the bumps and be comfortable and not bouncing your head back and forth, and that's probably the only thing for me that I struggle with is when you get to that moment of like, I think Josh was actually dealing with some like a little bit more harshness than what we were. And so you, and I was there last year.

Like, I get it. You get down in three and you're like, man, I just want to be able to see where I'm going. Because your head's kind of bouncing back and forth, you know. That's the only negative for me to Charlotte, right? But you would be aware of that or familiar with that, right? That's not new, is it? No, it's worse. It's worse now.

That's where the landfill is. Yeah. You know, when they had the hole in the infield there, I think that really was what was the catalyst for a lot of it. Yeah. It just settles. I mean, here, Charlotte wasn't paved. that long ago, but it was a while ago. I mean, we talk about like,

oh, it's fresh area paid, like, 2005, a dozen six. Wow. Yeah, we're like, we're talking about how it's fresh pavement, and it was like 20 years ago. Is the bump, if you run the top on entry to three, is the bump's there still? They're there, but I mean, it's all the way across the track,

the apron? For the most part. You can't go around, them under, and over it. If you run the bottom, you can, you can maybe get a little bit of an arc around it and then get back to the bottom. But it's like, There's one path through there that's not bad, and then above and below are pretty bad. But it's also where the tunnel's at, too.

You got to remember like... What's the bumps into one everybody's talking about? I know there's like some train tracks. It's like da-da-da-da-da in the back. Yeah, that's what... I think John Hunter actually at the fence. Is that what that is? Yeah, it's weird.

Yeah, I don't know... Those were there years ago. Yeah, it's weird because if you run a little bit lower on entry or if you run above them, you're fine. But if you go right through it, it's game over. It's like railroad tracks. Yeah, you're like off the ground. Yes. Like, I actually...

Last year when Josh and I were battling, that's why I hit the fence and ended up with a flat tire. I got to that point we were racing and I just guarded a little bit and hit those and smoked the fence and tire went flat, right? I mean, that's just like, you better be committed to running the wall, which I think like Brett Moffitt, I think Sheldon ran up there or some. I don't know who else was like committed to the wall, but they were like on the wall and you better commit to it. Because if not, you just run the line I run, because it's way easier. Yeah. But you should run it. I mean, it...

Listen, Charlotte is Charlotte. It's home. Yeah, you're right next to the house. Right next to the house. And our cars are good there now. I mean, for years, no offense to JRM, but we... Man, we was our Achilles heel there for a while. We never won there ever until last year.

Yeah. I mean, it's pretty wild, but it's pretty special. All right. Well, buddy, we appreciate it. Thanks for giving us a little bit of time today. Congratulations on the win. Thanks for getting Junior Motorsports back to Victor Lane. Thank you.

I inadvertently... You got your filter time at. I inadvertently wore this today. I didn't know I was going to be on here. So I matched your normal. Yep. That's a good hat. Dale, you know, I did see a note real quick that out of the Junior Motorsports

press release that said that you are now one of 17 drivers that have won 20 or more races in the Xfinity series. Man, that's a list right there. You just think of the drivers that would beat it. That's an esteemed list and you're on it, dude. Listen, I looked at the people that I was ahead of and it blows your mind. It blew my mind. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to win a race. race, a little

and 20 of them. You know, I think you're at 25, 26, right? You going for him? You coming? Listen, not on purpose. They wouldn't have a problem with that at all.

But I'm going to be honest with you. I looked at the list, though, and I'm like, man, these are my heroes, right? Including you. I mean, just my heroes. People that I have been lucky enough to race with, people that I haven't been lucky enough to race with, but people that I have looked up to my entire career.

So to even be on that list was special, but, man, it was pretty awesome. Yeah. Seven years in a row of winning a race, too. I didn't know that. I know it. That's wild. Yeah. You've won.

I looked at your, after your win last night, I looked up racing reference for your career, and the last probably six years have been incredible. And I looked at that all-time list and where you are on that. And so you looked at the names. Yeah. Oh, I did. It's crazy. Yeah.

I think they yeah I you know I I've said it on social media I think you're a cup level talent and we're just the lucky people that get to have you so you can win races for us and

I'll be honest man I'm not saying this because you're sitting here you know you you as a driver had everything to do with winning that race at Charlotte But watching those cars move around, slide around, watching how uncomfortable they got at times, knowing how you needed to be aggressive to get the lead from the 20, to recapture the lead from the 20.

I've watched you win races just purely on grit. I'll never, ever forget the Chicago win, how you schooled everyone on that last restart. And that's, that is sheer motivation. You know, it's really, really impressive to watch and looking forward to seeing what else we can do the rest of the year. You got us back on the map, got us back in the wind column this year. That's motivation for everybody in this shop. You know how that changes the room.

And everybody's pumped about this summer. We're going to make a great run. We're going to try to win some more races. I said it last night. You, Kelly, LW., Joe Mattis, you, Mike. It's been awesome to be here. Do I want to go back cup racing at some point? Yeah, I want to go win cup races, right?

Nobody doesn't want to do that. I want that. But I love where I'm out here, man. This is such a great organization, such a great group of people. And I get the honor to go to the racetrack and go do what we did this past week. And it's been awesome. So thank you. Yeah.

Well, you represent us so well. Thank you, buddy. And good luck this weekend. Thank you, man. all right so this is way off we're getting away from racing for a second so you know that I you know everybody knows I was in that plane crash

right and so ever since then I've been kind of fascinated by by play crashes okay and so there I found this documentary first but then the documentary led me to this book

and it's an international bestseller and it's called When I Fell from the Sky and it's a true story of a woman's miraculous survival. This lady named Julian, 1971, was 17 years old. All right. Her and her mother, they were on an airplane in Peru and they were going to meet their, they were flying to meet their father for Christmas. and they were trying to get out of the you know out of they were trying to get out of where they were to go meet their father and they're rushing and scrambling to get some last seats available to leave there's not a lot of seats to leave everybody's trying to go do Christmas right and they make a flight the plane goes into a thunderstorm and the the plane is obliterated midair she's in the plane with her mom going through a storm everybody's freaking out

it's as terrifying as it can get and the next minute she is not in the plane anymore she's still strapped to her seat her mother in her mother all the other passengers

and the entire plane is nowhere and she is thousands of feet above the surface of the jungle in Peru falling yeah I'm just I'm waiting to hear the rest of this because I don't know how she's around to write a book

well I don't want to give away too much but um well how is that possible wait get me finish I so I don't want to I mean I want people to to search after this story wants you to want to understand what's it called look after when I fell from the sky and so I mean this isn't a new book I don't believe but her comment man is like So Warner Herzog is a producer and director of documentaries, and he did the documentary. You can look it up on YouTube. And his quote is,

she did not leave the airplane. The airplane left her. And basically, man, she is the sole survivor of this plane crash. And, you know, she's one minute she's in the plane, things are terrible turbulence, screams and all this. and the plane is plummeting, it's out of control. And the next thing, you know, I mean, the plane reaches, the plane suffers some structural integrity issues in this descent, right?

And it is experiencing things, loads and pressures that it's not made for, and it comes apart. She, from the next minute, you know, she is falling, it's in the middle of the day she can see the ground that she's falling toward and it's a canopy of trees somewhere over the jungle

miles from civilization and she is falling toward the ground and then she wakes up and she's on the ground under her seat she doesn't remember hitting the ground

I mean apparently the canopy of the trees sort of broke her fall. And she believes that due to her being strapped to this three-seat row, the weight of her holding the roe, you know the lilies that fall from the sky right out of the trees, right? They, whatever they call those little, there are these little pods that sort of have that little, there's a little pea or something inside them, a little, they fall out of the trees and they kind of, they helicopter down the ground? The helicopter, yeah, whatever those are.

I always call them helicopters. Okay. But that's probably not the scientific thing. That's exactly what she thinks her chair is doing as it's coming down. Oh, wow. She's the weight at the bottom of this three-seat row. And the seat backing and the seat itself is acting as a bit of a propeller as it's spinning toward the ground. So it's not falling directly straight down in this high rate of speed.

It's sort of this sort of helicopter-ish. Yeah. Still fast, but not. And so the break of the canopy of the trees breaks her fall. She hits the ground and she spends days going through the jungle to reach help. And so luckily her parents, they studied the jungle and they would go out in the jungle with her and live for months in these huts, studying insects, documenting things in the forest in Peru, right? She is absolutely completely familiar with being in the jungle

and knows exactly anything and everything that could and will happen. And so having all of that information, even at such a young age, is why she was able to survive the rest of her trip, right? But it's a fascinating story. I will say I watched the documentary on YouTube and I had to read the book because the documentary has a ton of holes in it in terms of like you watch it and you're like, well, what happened here? It doesn't explain the detail trek of her escaping the jungle.

It doesn't really go into detail about her experience during the accident. And so I've read this book. I brought it to Junior Motorsports to give it to my sister. and I was going to see if she wanted to read it. Because I think when you read a book that you like, it's your job to give it away to somebody else. So when I fell from the sky, if anybody would like to read it or watch that documentary,

look that up. Julian is the girl, man. It's crazy. Last name? I'll let you try. Oh, is it a big one? I'm going to go with Kepke, but it's K-O-E-P-C-E. Julianne Kepke.

The other thing that was fascinating about the story was how she's dealt with the recognition and celebrity, if you will, of living the rest of her life as the lone survivor, this miracle, right? And she goes back to Peru. Her family had established sort of this preserve in the jungle where they were, where they were studying all this thing, and she wants to continue that, right? It's her family's life's work. So she still goes back to Peru. She still goes back to that area. And when she does, everybody there looks at her and views her

as this sort of godly miracle. Deity or something. Yes. And so, and there's, you know, everybody's wanting photos with her and and then there's the inaccurate all kinds of inaccuracies in the news stories and all

those movies made about it that she's like, oh man, they were terrible and they were wrong and this and another. The book's really interesting. and she's pretty transparent throughout. Interesting. Yeah, I wanted to share that. I don't know. Thursday Book Club, new title to this series.

I know a lot of people heard me talking about the tick bite at the end of Tuesday's shows. We'll get to that. First, let's go to Short Track Insider with Hannah Newhouse. Happy June Short Track Insider listeners. I mean, although the first official day of summer technically isn't until June 21st, I feel like once we get into the month of June, that's really kind of the beginning of summer months for racing because the temperature starts to get hot out. And I say that as I'm currently right outside of Gateway, you know, St. Louis area for a busy weekend of racing. And the temperature is expected to hang out in the 90s all weekend long.

I personally don't do heat or humidity. Hashtag West Coaster over here. Hey, but listen, it's better than rain. So at the end of the day, I am going to take that over rain any day. So a little quick recap of the weekend. Of course, the Cars Tour was originally supposed to run at Tri-County over the weekend for their big race. But with impending weather, they decided to only run the pro-late model portion of this series and run it on Friday. So the 30,000 to win old North State Nationals for the Late Model Stock Series.

Try and say that five times fast. It's much harder than you think it is. But anyways, that has been moved to August 19th. And back to the Pro Late Models. It was Carson Quaple who raced on that Friday evening. You know him from, of course, the late model stocks. He decided to take the old family pro late model for a spin and ended up taking the win as well.

Also over the weekend, Chris Madden cashed a $25,000 check at Sharon Speedway with the World of Outlaw Late Models at the battle at the border on Saturday. And the Little 500 to Anderson Speedway is always one of my favorite events in the month of May. And if we're honest, it's usually one of the grizzled veterans winning the tricky and methodical race. But you know what? It was an 18-year-old rookie who bested the field. Jake Traynor, and if I'm honest, I have never heard of Jake Traynor up into this weekend.

But when you go out and you win the Little 500 at Anderson Speedway, that definitely catches the eyes of many over the weekend, whether it's car owners, new fans. I hope his T-shirt trailer did well, and if he doesn't have a T-shirt trailer, Jake Traynor, you should probably get one. Because winning the prestigious Little 500 definitely ranks you up there with some of the greats in, you know, pavement sprint cars. And lastly, for the weekend, because it was a headliner, and we have to talk about it. it of course. The $50,000 Show Me 100 was at Lucasville Raceway in Wheatland, Missouri, hands down one of the most amazing dirt facilities I've ever seen. But when the checkered flag flew, it was originally Ricky Thornton Jr. who crossed the line first was supposed to get that $50,000 paycheck. But unfortunately, due to a broken part that led to Thornton failing tech for not

passing the droop rule. And I'm just going to go ahead and put a note here that if you don't know what the droop rule is, you're going to have to do your own research on that because a seven-minute segment here is not enough time to explain it to you, but none than us, you know, an unfortunate circumstance. And with that disqualification, that handed the win and a boatload of money over to Ohio's Devin Moran. So, you know, a good weekend for Moran. I know not probably how we wanted to win that. And of course, Thornton's been on a tear. So, you know, it just have to take it with a grain assault and move forward. A lot of big paying late model races still to come throughout the summer. We're getting ready to get into some big money season, you know, with Eldora and such right

around the corner. But there's plenty more that I missed over the weekend, so we're going to switch gears to what to watch this upcoming weekend. And I'm going to start it with extreme outlaw midgets because they are at Tri-City on Thursday night. So tonight, if you are watching this on the day of the drop, as part of three busy nights for the racetrack. And that track, of course, tucked right outside of St. Louis, Missouri, right outside of Gateway, in collaboration with NASCAR weekend. The USAC, or I'm sorry, the Extreme Outlaw Midgets, then go to Wayne County Speedway on Illinois, Friday, and Saturday. And that just starts a really busy stint for midget racers everywhere,

because many of them will then go into USAC midget week, which starts on Sunday at Tri State. Tuesday, they go to Circle City, which is right outside of Indy. Wednesday, they're at Gas City, Thursday at Lincoln, Friday at Bloomington, which if you did the math, that's 10 days of racing in 11 nights. So starting on Thursday, they only get that Tuesday off. 10 nights of racing across 11 nights, not for the fan. of heart, but plenty of racing to watch for the racing enthusiasts. Of course, all extreme midgets

can be caught on dirt vision, and then you can jump over to the USAC midgets watching them on flow racing. We mentioned a busy weekend at Tri-City this weekend. So also at Tri-City on Friday is the World of Outlaw case construction and late models, but they start their weekend on Thursday at Farmer City, Illinois for the rescheduling of the Illini 100. Then they'll hop over to Tri-City on Friday, then head to Paducah down in Paducah, Kentucky on Saturday. And then for the World of Outlaw Sprint Cars, they're actually up in the North Dakota area this weekend at River City on Friday. And then they head to Ogilvy, which is in Minnesota on Saturday.

And Ogilvy, you can imagine it's spelt just as weird as it sounds, is actually a new track for the sprint cars. So it'll be fun to watch, you know, some of the best in racing tackle and new track on the circuit. So as always, all things World of Outlaws are available on Dirt Vision. The All-Star sprint cars are at Dodge County on Friday. They then head to Plymouth on Saturday, and the Lucas Oil late models hang out at West Virginia Motor Speedway all weekend long.

All Lucas Oil Racing and All-Star Racing can be watched on Flow Racing each weekend. And don't worry, I've got my pavement friends covered for a little bit of pavement racing this weekend as well. The CRA All-Stars are at Salem Speedway out in Salem, Indiana, and all CRA stuff can be watched on Racing America. They are racing Saturday evening. and Cars Tour, we talked about them, but they're back to back this weekend. With the late model stocks, though, as they head to Langley Speedway up in Hampton, Virginia. And Langley Hands Down is some of the best racing.

I personally feel like in short track racing, it's got a great little facility. I've had the opportunity to turn some laps there myself. And, you know, I feel like everything kind of leads up to the Hampton heat a little bit later in the summer. But when the temperatures start to heat up, man, so does the action there at the racetrack. It always just seems to, you know, slip and slide. you're searching for grip and the late model stocks there, I feel like are definitely the premier class every time they're there. So cars tour, they head there this weekend.

As always, all cars tour racing can be watched on Flow Racing. Also on Saturday, the ACT Tour, the American Canadian Tour. There is Seacongk Speedway up in Seacong, Massachusetts, and they're usually with the Pro All-Star Series, but the past series is at Oxford Plains up in Oxford, Maine this weekend. Again, kind of a prelude leading into the Oxford 250 a little bit later on in the season. But man, if you have never been to Oxford Plains or made the trip and you're

within a couple hours driving, please make the trip there. That is one of my favorite areas to visit for racing. It's such a beautiful area. You know, if you can get coastal, man, like, just what a great area to go racing. It's beautiful. I would highly suggest getting out there. They race on Sunday. The past series does. And all past stuff can be watched on Racing America. So as much as I want to hit every single race, every single weekend, whether it's, you know, a recap or what to watch, there's only so much room on my Google calendar or this lovely little paper calendar that I packed to every single racetrack with me. So if I miss something that you feel as important, if you want to highlight your racetrack, your touring series, whether it was a win that you and your team had over the weekend or, hey, even an event that's coming up this upcoming weekend or in future weeks, feel free to tweet me at Hannah Newhouse is all of my social media handles. I would love to feature them on an upcoming segment here of Short Track Insider. All right, before, yeah, I'm going to leave you hanging a little bit longer.

Should we do tick bike now or should we go to Man on the Street? No, I'm a privy to the tick bite. Leave that for the end. Leave that for the end. Leave it for the end. I know the story. I hope you tell it as well on the phone the other day. All right, well, we mentioned in Tuesday's show that Andrew Curlin had been to Indy,

He interviewed Mario Andretti. That's an incredible release you're going to have here for Dirtimo Media, Mike, in Next Level. But he also did some man on the street, which was very good from North Wiltsboro, right? I really enjoyed that. And we got some man on the street from Indy 500 from Andrew, so take it away, Andrew. What's name were you from? My name is Scott Dixon. I'm from Auckland, New Zealand.

What's the fastest you've ever driven in a car? In a road car, or like a race car. I guess both. Yeah. I don't know, I stick to the speed limit, man. I'm pretty lame like that. You know, I've always got a car full of, you know, family. I don't know, maybe 150 or something.

Oh, really? But here we do. Is that bad? What, here's the speed limit, that's 150? Tony Cannot, well, that's all my real name. Antoine, Miscala Kanan, Filio, and I'm from Brazil. Oh, and an Indycar, 252 miles an hour. Say probably 160 miles or not.

160, where was that? Undisclosed. What's your name? Where are you from? Felix Rosenkiss, Sweden. So it's 300 kilometers an hour, which is, I think it's 185. Wow. It's like a big downhill and it was no cars outside because everyone's like drinking and parting.

And I was just, okay, this is the time. Got it. And I was like, whoa. Oh my god. Joey Mullinero, Indianapolis, India. I would say maybe 90. Maybe 90. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. Did you get the air? Did you get the air? Yeah. Yeah. And then I broke the car. my dad is Patoa Ward and I am from Monterey Mexico. How much milk do you think you consume in a calendar year?

I don't need as much cereal as I used to. So now it's special occasions. Colton Herda, Los Angeles, California. Roman Gajon, Deliver, Switzerland. Zero. Zero. That's surprising from a Frenchman. I feel like there's like a lot of dairy out there.

My name is Singer Rob and I'm from Peette Idon. In high school, my two stepbrothers and I used to drink seven gallons a week. What? So I am by no means lactose intolerant. I love my milk and so I'm hoping I get a chance to taste of the victory milk and Victory Circle. We'll see what that's like. Seven gallons a week.

Holy cow. My name is Joseph Newgarden. I drive for Team Penske. I'm from Nashville, Tennessee. Me alone, I'm gonna say I clear 100 gallons of milk a year. I'm gonna say, like, I don't know where above 100 gallons it is, but 100 gallons is probably safe for me. safe for me. Yeah. What does that net out to per week? Two gallons a week. There we go.

Does that sound about right? No, it doesn't. If milk wasn't the tradition, what would be the go-to beverage in Victory Lane? Probably requests like McCroy. I don't think anyone else has said LeCroix, so that's definitely I've been drinking LeCroix all week. All right, so good job by Andrew. Man, I love you sending him all over the place. I was happy to see him. I'm telling you, when you go to these big events and see familiar faces, it's nice. Thank you for sending Andrew out to Indy. And he captured a bunch of good stuff. Don't forget, next level with Mario Andredi.

When can we expect that to come out? I think we'll start rolling them out this week. Oh, wow, early. Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean. I didn't know if you're going to hang on to that one. As soon as we can. I'll put it that way.

All right. Be on the lookout for it. Very soon. Awesome. So, all right, the tick bite. Hey man, have you ever been bit by tick mic? Yeah. You have?

Of course. Okay. I mean, not everybody has. Raise your hand in the room. You've been bit by a tick? You pulled it off? No. No, I know better than that.

Did somebody else pull it off? Okay. I have it. Anybody else over here? Everybody in the room had a tick bite. I had my first. All right. I've never had a tick bite where you got bit.

That one's a new one. I don't get it. Where did you? you get bit? On my head. Yeah, I've never had a tick bite on my head. Oh, really? No.

So I've picked a lot of, I mean, picked a lot of ticks off of me. When we bought the farm back in, who knows when, 1980 something, dad had us walking all out in the woods, you know, marking with trees and they go to paint the property line. And, you know, back then, man, we were picking ticks off left and right. But I've never had a tick bite me. that to me was a sketchy and scary so

I haven't been out in the woods or nothing right I'm not been wandering through the the weeds which is where I associate ticks live right but and I know ticks can get on my dog and all that

I am Ila is graduating kindergarten and for all the parents out there, most of, they do the graduation thing now. They didn't do that when I was in kindergarten or preschool. You didn't have a graduation.

You just preschool was over and you went to the next school. I'm sure yours was the same, Mike. But now there's a thing, right? And so the school has a, the school has a, you know, a little ceremony and we went through that. And then we were going to go next door and eat, and we're going to invite all the, all the, parents that wanted to come and they're going to bring their kids. So we go over to this room

in this restaurant next to the school and there's about six or eight kids and their parents and me and Amy and Ila. And man, it's mayhem. Kids running around in this room. There's, there's balloons and, you know, cupcakes and everybody's trying to order food. And it's just chaos. and I've been sitting in there for a while and I don't know why, but I rubbed the side of my head, you know, and it must have been the tick actually biting me. I don't remember feeling anything, but I just instinctually like rubbed the side of my head,

and I'm like, what in the hell is that? I felt it, and I grabbed it, and I yanked it off, and I looked briefly at it and threw it on the floor. How big was it, you reckon? Um, rather... Sounds big. Yeah. If you felt it like that.

Yeah. It was about almost the size of a top of a pencil eraser. Yeah. Not, I mean, legs in all, right? It wasn't tiny. No. And, all right. My initial reaction was, what the hell is that?

Grab it, pull it, throw it down, like out of my hands. And then, immediately, I went, I shouldn't have thrown that on the ground. Right. Let me look down. Is it going somewhere, right? But it's laying on its back, flailing its arms. And I'm sitting there for, it seemed like forever, but it was literally seconds.

And I was like, damn it, did that just happen? I got a tick bite. So I've had a friend of mine who had some issues from a tick bite. So I've got this paranoia already. Like, damn it, you know, what does this mean? and so I was like oh man maybe I should pick it up so I need I need to know I don't even know if it's a tick what if it's not a tick of course it's a tick but I don't know if it's a tick I haven't really looked at it so I grab this napkin and I've got this empty glass that I drink some arms juice in it's empty and I pick it up and I look at it and it's freaking a tick immediately I'm like damn it so I ball it up in this napkin and put it in this cup and I'm sitting there looking at it And now I'm Googling. I get on my phone.

Oh, Lord. Google's like 42% of ticks carry Lyme disease and all this bad news, right? And I'm not diving into the details, right? I'm reading all the bad headlines and just spiraling into panic mode. And also while I was Googling, I found out that you can send these off. You're going to test it. Right? and I'm like, I'm definitely, I definitely need to do that.

We need to send this guy off and get him tested. And so I don't want to wonder, because they're like, hey, you know, if there's any kind of reaction to this, it's one or 20 days. Who knows, right, when you're going to have some sort of reaction. And the reactions are symptoms that are common, symptoms of all types of illnesses. So I'm going, hmm, is this a tick bite that's happening here? I got a little... Nothing can happen without you assuming the worst.

I got some aches and pains. I mean, what's going on here, tick bike. That's right. So I'm absolutely assuming the worst. And I'm panicking inside. And anyhow, Amy sits down, she's like, what's going on? And I was like, man, I pulled a damn team. I mean, I say it real quiet.

I don't want anybody in the room knowing what's going on if they don't already, right? They have to see. There's not a chance you were stealthy about this. I know, right? I don't know who's seeing what's going on. And I'm sitting in there going, and so I'm like Amy I think I pulled a tick off my head it's in this cup what the hell and so um I uh I called Kelly and she ended up looking up how to mail it out and we sent it off

and that was Thursday last Thursday and I got my results and it's all good it was a dollar dog tick. The deer ticks are the ones with all the, mainly most of the diseases. I mean, dog ticks, I'm sure, can carry some,

but there's, there's some ticks that are bad and some ticks that are not so bad. And luckily, I got one of the least dangerous ones. And there was, and this, you know, this paperwork,

apparently they test this tick. I'm taking them at their word. And everything came back negative. And one of the, um, I think the one thing to take away from it is, apparently more people are bitten by ticks than I thought. Yes.

I talked a little tart about it. He's like, oh, man, I pulled some of me damn ticks off of me back up in Maine when me and my friends were running around in the woods, building tree houses and stuff. But the other thing, too, is that, obviously you know this, but I panic and assume the worst in every situation. Amy said, and I'll never forget this. it might be a good t-shirt or a coffee mug.

Her quote, Amy's quote was, it's nothing until it's something. And I thought, man, that's how I'm going to try to feel about this. And then I went to Indy and waited on my results. Whether or not that becomes a t-shirt that we sell, I definitely want to get that t-shirt made for you to have with you every day. It's nothing. It's nothing until it's something.

So it's funny, I want to give you such a hard time. about this because it's funny to me. Sorry. I mean, hold on. Lime disease is serious. Oh, yeah. People that have had Lyme disease, like, that is no joke, right? No joke. And it's long. It like, it takes, you know, for a long time to get past it. Yeah. I don't know that the word, like what, when I hear you tell that story, I'm thinking of something completely different than Lyme disease that I thought that you were scared of.

Yeah. When you pull a tick off, don't you have to pull it off a very specific? way or like I'd always learn burn it off because you don't want to pull it off and the head would stay in it. So when you're looking at a tick, aren't you looking to see if it still has its head? Because if the head stays in, it could be just as problematic. I know. Hey, I didn't not know all this. Yeah. I felt it and wanted it out of my life. And so I pulled on the damn thing. Luckily, I mean, we sent it off to get examined. They didn't ask us, hey, where's the head? Well, can we send you off to get examined and maybe we can find out if the head's still in there? the head was there

I sent it to the lab and the lab didn't go, what the hell a headless tick? Yeah, yeah, you got bigger problems than what you think. That head is in there just chomping away. You didn't pull it off. Yeah. Is that a is that a false thing? Like, I've always heard that.

Is that not true about ticks? By the way, I'm looking in the room. I know. Is anybody any, can the head get stuck in there? Is that a problem? Don't you have to pull it off a specific way? No. I think that you may be on to something, Mike. But, and I think, I think they, when I was looking up all this stuff, they were very particular about how you remove it. Like, you got to grab it a certain way. Pull it like straight out. Yeah, there was a, and I, I believe that, luckily, I must have, I must have not venture too far off of the preferred method. I mean, this thing came off my head and it still had a little bit of me

attached. So I not only, I don't only did not sever the head, but he got to, to have a little lunch on his way to the lab. That's so gross. Listen, I don't think it's an accident that you're just telling that story and not the whole day because the whole day is actually a funny story. What happened? Well, when you called me and you're like, I've had a day. I have had a day.

And I'm like, well, what's going on? Well, it started with this graduation performance, right? Oh. And so the tick story was like the last of a comedy of things that happened. And you don't have to get into it. Don't do it. In fact, don't. But I'm just saying the tick story was the last.

It's like just the icing on the cake, which that to me is the funny part is that I can only imagine. You probably reacted the way somebody would if they'd been amputated. The way your day had gone that so far. It was a, it was a, it was a, it was a day. It was a day. A lot of emotion. Yeah. Yeah.

But, hey, I mean, I'm glad to come back. Listen, I know I waited everybody, I made everybody wait until the very end of the Thursday show to hear about the tick bite, and there was no, aha, there was no big, you know, there was no big, no big finish. But it's good news. You revealed news. Yeah. You disclose it.

You don't have Lyme disease. That's good. Goodness gracious. Well, I'm just, I guess I won't be so dang panic about it next time, because I really didn't know it was all that common to be bitten by a tick. That shocks me. Yeah. I mean, I know that it's common to get on you,

but usually we find them and remove them before they bite you. Right. Ticks, they start to get big. I mean, the more the blood they suck here. Sure. Yeah. That one's not a small one. If it's the size that you described of being the size of an eraser.

He had not, he had not eight yet. He had, I'm telling you, man, I believe that he just bit me when I put my hand up there. I'm like, I'm like, you know, it was like a natural reaction of like, what's going on there? I didn't feel anything, but my, I don't, I don't know why else I reached up there just specifically to, to check that area of my head. Well, I'm glad you're well. I'm glad you're well. Keep bringing all these things to us, though. I, you know what?

I'm not ashamed. Don't be. I'm not. No. Especially knowing now, I'm like, part of the group, right? or all like this. Now we have one more thing in common. I suffered an eye injury this week.

You look fine. I don't feel fine. I got, I was weed eating. You're the only one. And I went right. That's funny. That's funny and people don't know why.

That is funny. And I'm still here. I had an eye injury and I'm here. Yeah, you made it. But I had a, I don't know if it was a rock or whatever, but something went directly into my eye. And I was down, and like, I got it out eventually, but it scratched my retina or, or, cornea? Cornea, possibly, yeah.

And I still, it's still, I don't know. It's scratched my eye. And I still have a problem. I don't think it's cornea. Is it? It sounds right. Did we just make up a word? Yeah, cornea is the outside.

It sounds silly. That's correct. What a silly word. There you go. You were correct. You won this week's game. It was on what, you know, naming. eye parts, tick-tac-toe.

But yeah. So, yeah, we both had our moments. Yeah. Well, man, I mean, I've exhausted my list. Oh, can I tell you one more story? Yeah. I got to tell you one quick story. You know, with Charlotte Race Week, a lot of people show up and a lot of people,

God, there was a flood of fans here at Junior Motorsports fan day. I met a guy. I was actually at Bass Pro Shops, and a guy comes up to me, Dale. Maybe you're not surprised by this. He says, hey, Mike, I'm sorry to bother you. I just want to tell you, I listened to an episode that y'all had with Chad Gannows and it inspired me and I moved, I quit my job, I moved to North Carolina and I now work at Hendrick Motorsports.

Damn! He's a pit coach at Hendrick Motorsports because he heard the Chad Gannows interview that we had where Chad Gannows basically left his home and sat out in the parking lot until so somebody gave him an interview. I said, dang, dude, did you sit out in the parking lot? He goes, it wasn't that bad. I didn't have to do all that. But he was in South Carolina, Batesland, South Carolina, Brett Griffin, hometown, was a football coach, moved to Charlotte without a job, went to Hendrick Motorsports, felt emboldened, said, by God, if Chad Gannouse did it, I'm going to do it. And he actually now works at Hendrick Motorsports. And it all started because of

listening to the Dale Junior download. Isn't that amazing? Pit coach. He's a pick coach. Damn. Yeah. I know, right? It's a great story. It is great. I felt good. We met a lot of people, but at Bass Pro Shops, there was a guy there.

He was wearing his Hendrick Motorsports stuff because it got rained out. It was on Saturday, so the Xfinity series got rained out. So he was over there with a buddy of his. And he's just like, I just got to tell you that story. And I said, listen, man, that makes me feel good. I like hearing stories like that. So congrats to him. Closing thoughts.

Today, we are going to record. Episode one, we're going to finish up. We're going to finish up recording episode one of a new podcast that I am excited to bring to our listeners, becoming Earnhardt. It's the story of the 1979 season. I hope that you love it. We are busting our ass on it, and we're going to finish up episode one today. We might actually end up finishing up episode two as well, and that's coming to you very,

very soon within a few weeks. Yeah. And I'm telling you, man, I cannot wait for people's reaction. And I hope it's enjoyable for everybody. But until then, that's the week, the Dale Jr. download. Enjoy Portland in St. Louis this weekend for the Cup Boys. And, yeah, have fun. We'll see you.

We'll see you next week. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram. Oh