The Dale Jr. Download - 469 - Atlanta, Hottest Ticket on the Schedule?

Episode Date: July 11, 2023

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back after NASCAR’s exciting weekend in Atlanta to join co-host Mike Davis and debrief the weekend. As always, there was plenty of homelife updates and racing action to unpack: Becoming Earnahrdt is upon us Potty Training round two Consequences of drinking a whole bottle of wine Atlanta is back 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? Did it get them? I mean, of all things to say. What? Family picnic sometimes. You get you more than just to create it out. Are you kidding me, Mike? Oh my God, that is hilarious.

Hey, everybody's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. And it is Tuesday, July the 11th. And we're in the Bojangles studio. So this episode of Dirty Air is going to be brought to you by Ally. And they usually do our guest segments each week, Mike. And I'm assuming the reason why we're going to allow them to have ownership of this Tuesday show is because we got a special announcement. We do.

I am wearing this hat, right? I got this hat on my head. Nobody can see it. But it's a hat that I had a buddy of mine make. And I've got to patch an Australon Racing. patch, right? And put it on a $4 hat and had a couple of them. And so I talked to you yesterday. I said, man, you know, coming on the show, one of us ought to wear one of these hats. So I went into your office and I had a bucket of hats and I said, here, pick one. And you go, well, I don't

like this one and this one. Can I have two? And I said, yeah, you can have two. Everyone else gets to choose one. Mike takes two hats. And he said, I'm going to wear one tomorrow. And I said, this morning when I got up, I said, I better wear my hat because he's not going to wear his. And he not only took two hats out of the bucket, but he didn't even wear the damn thing today. Yeah, I didn't, did it? No. No, I didn't. I'm playing to, though.

Listen. First of all. We're very happy. It's your plan on wearing the hat since you took two of them. You're going to tell us why you're wearing an Australon hat, and then I'm going to tell you that that's not just a one-week idea that we're going to roll out. And so I got multiple weeks to be proudly wear my hospital hats. Good point, good point. The reason why Ally is sponsoring today's show, not only because we're big fans of theirs

and they're big fans of ours and everything they do in the sport is amazing, they won't be able to sponsor tomorrow's guest show because we will not have a guest. Well, actually, I should say we have a very special guest. and it is a new series that we're putting together here at Dirty Mo Media. The team has been hard at work. Basically, I wanted to do an audio series about the 1979 season, and if it goes well, we may do the 1980 season and see where it goes. But anyways, it's a little bit of a step away from our typical guest interview,

but I basically sat down and came up with an idea of how to, of what I wanted to do, right? And I basically want to narrate this season, race by race, and get into some of the details. Not of like, you know, who took two tires and who took four tires to, you know, who had the right strategy for the win, but just the ebbs and flow of the garage, the arguments, the disagreements and the, the, the, the disagreements and the, the,

rivalries and allies and all the little nuances from race to race as the season goes on. 1979 is my dad's first year. The most important race of arguably of NASCAR's history is the Daytona 500 from that year. Really, we got our first, you know, really good TV contract that sent us into a new, you know, a new level of race fan engagement. You know, the sport grew from that. I think it's a cool opportunity to tell that story. And there's a lot of really cool things. I don't want to die too deep into it.

But there's a lot of things. So I'll just say, during that year, Dad wrote a bi-monthly article himself. A personal column. A personal column. Like first-person column, Dale Earnhardt, as a rookie. Yeah, and I'll read those to you. We also, you won't just hear my boring voice.

You'll hear, well, you'll hear a lot of sound elements about, you know, the races themselves, the MRN coverage of those races, you know, if I'm talking about a battle for the win, maybe we drop in a little MRN coverage from that particular race. As Barney Hall and the guys call them to the finish, it's just beautiful. Barney's voice is like Velvet, dude. It is. And listen, him back in the 70s and 80s, oh, oh, it's perfect.

Crisp. I mean, it's just beautiful. And his, I don't want to go on and on, but I will. His delivery dude, it was a weird, he had a way of not getting overly excited, but at the same time captivating you and you're drawing the image in your mind, right? Because you're listening to radio of the race. And he could help you really draw that image of what was happening in that battle. and I'm excited about this.

I've talked about it a lot. I've been posting a little bit on my social media handles about it. Well, we're dropping it tomorrow, the first episode. The first episode of eight, and unless we decide to make it even bigger, who knows. Roll-on. Yeah, right now it's eight episodes. And we're going to start off tomorrow when you tune in and listen to the first episode of Becoming Earnhardt, 1979. we're going to start off by basically framing up what was happening in a pop culture of that time

take you back to you know get you get you mentally back to how far you know what 79 was like and how simple things might have been but also we'll tell you about the cast of characters drivers teams crew you know owners and and the silly season and all those things so everything that happened to get to that moment we're also going to take you back I think we do a really, you know, nice brief, but at the same time, thorough education of dad's progress to get that full-time ride in 1979, right? How Austerlund and him were able to connect why he was chosen. And there's some pretty interesting sort of things that happen that, you know, really,

really were big breaks for dad. And also, there'll be some sound elements of people that were involved in all of this, right? We're going to hear from Doug Reichard. We had him come. He's been on the show here at Dirty Momiti. We had him come back in and talk more specifically about all this. And we hear from my aunts, Kay, my dad's sisters, Kay and Kathy. This entire idea came from two scrapbooks that my Aunt Kay put together.

That's how I, it spawned this whole thing. So she's going to tell us about, you know, imagine, back in 1979, dad's first full year, she decides, I'm going to start a scrapbook, Dale. And, you know, when I see an article of yours in the local paper, I'm going to cut it out and put it in here. She also cut out the finishing order of every race. And so this whole book is chronologically perfect race by race. race in every article that connects to each event. And not only, I mean, she did this over a course of 10 months.

This wasn't like, hey, I'm going to sit down and make a scrapbook on a weekend with my friends. This was a project that she literally had to pick up and put down over and over for 40 weeks. That to me was most impressive because it's thorough. She didn't slack off. It didn't get thin at the end. And so I got a hold of these. and actually put them in brand new books. These are kind of falling apart, these old originals,

but kind of restored them, if you will. But anyways, I cannot wait. Like I say, the first episodes and introduction to what you're going to be, you know, going to be hearing about and the cast of characters and so forth, and then we dive into it, man. Right into Race 1. Episode 2 will take you through the season on all the way through to Episode 8. Race by Race, and all of the little annexation.

that I found as we dug through multiple types of publications, right? We dug into those scrapbooks took us to a lot of other areas to find more and more information and more little stories to try to piece together some fun things that I didn't even know. I learned a ton about this season, right? I mean, of course, I can look at the statistics. I can look at the finishing order. I know where...

You can even watch the races. Yeah, I can watch some of the races. You do it. Yeah. And so, but I didn't know, I'll give you one little detail. Give us a detail. Dad, in the 1979, Daytona 500, right? I'm watching this.

I've watched this race over and over. I love it. It's great race. One of the most important races in, I've said it, most important races in history. And Dad runs in the top five and leads laps, leads its very first lapse in NASCAR history. Right? We talk about that.

And so he disappears in the last, I don't know, 25, 30 laps. And there's not a lot of mention about, oh, well, Earnhardt had this issue or whatever, right? Because he's a rookie. They didn't even expect to talk about him much during the whole day, right? But he does. He disappears. Finishes eighth in the running order. But he's at the very tail end of the lap down cars.

So in the last handful of laps, he lost an entire almost two laps. That's right. Right. So something was wrong. and I discover what that is. That's right. And I didn't know what it was. I assumed all these years that they just had a bad stop.

I'm not going to tell you what it was. You're going to tune in tomorrow to figure that out. But, you know, there's little things. There's another, you know, he gets injured midway through that year. You're going to learn. Blows my mind what happened. Yeah. You're going to learn later in an episode.

Something about that whole injury. There was a bigger injury that, I mean, you know, there's just stuff that I learned, that I, I'm surprised I didn't know, right? Right. About some of these things. But it's almost like you would have had to been there to know them. You would have had to. And it's like, how, what kind of gift did we land into with these scrapbooks?

What kind of gift? Because it's almost like, it's like a portal that took us back and gives us details that you're just not going to get anywhere else. And again, the articles that he wrote, I read them to you, man, and I'm hearing him talk. Oh. You know what I'm saying? You're so right. I can hear, it's in his cadence, it's in his cadence, the choice of words.

I can hear him saying all of those things, right? I know that he had Joe Whitlock and a couple friends that were journalists that would help him, that probably even told him, hey, man, this is a good idea, let's do this. Let's do this by a monthly article. You're a rookie. Let's get your name out there. Let's let the fans understand who you are. And he's like, okay, if you say so, it sounds like a little more work.

I don't know. You can tell he doesn't love it, but he's a rookie. He said when he didn't know how to say no yet. He's like, all right, if you think this is what I need to do. And he talks, he says as much, right, in these articles. I guess I got to do this column this week. Yeah. And so, anyhow, man, so for the next several weeks, we're going to be dropping an episode on Wednesday.

Okay. We're going to take a little bit of a break, not a permanent one, away from the guest segment on Wednesday. And becoming Earnhardt is something that we're going to be. bring into you and I believe you're going to love it and I want to say I want to also say I'm not giving you much of a chance to talk but I'm about to Mike

Mike has said over and over this is you know this project becoming Earnhardt we're doing it backwards right so and it's my doing I came to them with I basically came to them with the majority of the script I probably wrote about I don't know 90% of it

and at first a lot more, I wrote a lot of it to you and brought it to you and I'm like, here, I want to do this and this is how we're doing. This is what I want to do. Mike had to then go and take the whole Dirty Mo team and rewind and write an outline on how this show would run, episodes, spread it up, you know, split it all up into episodes,

then find ways to work in some of the sound elements from RMN. And so I packed it up, brought him a whole show, show and then he had to unpack it and then rewrite the show to be able to put all these pieces in. And we had a crazy deadline. I had, you know, we had specific dates we wanted to get this going and get it out there. We'd have probably rather took a little more time, but the team has worked in overdrive and the quality of, me and you sit down and listened to episode one yesterday.

It's meant. Great quality. Everything you'd expect from Dirty Mo Media. And it's something brand new, something that we've not done before. And I'm so excited about getting it out there. And I want to do more of this type of stuff. I want to build more of this content, something, you know, more personal things we create. And so this is exciting.

First of all, what you just said there, I think the listeners are probably thinking it. And so I'll just go ahead and say it's more important and it's better off the fact that we, this show is what your vision was, right? What you wanted it to be. not what we wanted it to be. And I'm going to make this awkward for you because I'm going to talk about you to the listeners right now. But if there's anything that I want them to catch on this,

that is, if you want to peek into what makes Dale Jr. tick, this is that project. I would even say more so than even Lost Speedways. Lost Speedways was your idea. You fought for it. But then we went and we kind of built it, and you were part of the process. This show is,

100% Dale Jr. driven. It doesn't happen without Dale. He's put more hours into this thing than anyone. He would spend even time on, you know, on vacations or time with your family. You would spend researching and writing. That is a fact. And so what this show is, I don't, you can send it to us backwards. You can send it to us in a different language in your language, you know, from the Dale

shenary, as we call it, you know. And you know what? It's more important that we preserve that because what we have here, and I want the listeners to catch this, is a Dale Earnhardt, it's almost like a biopic on Dale Earnhardt, but also through the lens of Dale Jr's perspective as he's learning about his dad. And that's just, that doesn't happen. I couldn't dream that up. I couldn't come to you and say, hey, Dale, I got this idea. It just requires all of your time and you're doing all the heavy lifting. and it's about your dad.

Hey, who's in? Yeah. I can't do that. It's got to be from you. I wouldn't have liked that idea. Right. Right. It's exactly right.

So what we have here is that Dale Jr. goes and he sees these scrapbooks. He comes into my office one day. I'll never forget that day. And he's like, you will not believe this. And he starts reading. And it's like, wow, yeah, we've got to do something about this. The second thing I want to say is this series doesn't happen without the motor racing network.

I am so grateful for the partnership with the Motor Racing Network. MRN and Chris Schwartz and Ryan Horn and that whole gang over there. The Barney Hall Velvet that we have access to is only possible because they wanted to partner with us on this project. And that cannot be overstated. I am so grateful. And because we got MRN races, boy does it jump out. It comes to life. So there is that.

Let's see. What else do I want to say about this? project. We learn a lot. I'm going to echo a little bit what you said, but the things that we learn about the 70, these people were nuts. Yeah. We think that we think we're a bunch of divas these days.

You think we complain? Boy, it was soap opera Central in 79. The race, even in all the 70s, not just in NASCAR either, open wheel racing. They've gone through their own public divorce. It might as well be like a Jerry Springer show, Motorsports in the 70s and 80s. Yeah. And so here comes little NASCAR and they go. produce a product in 79, and it made me realize this, and this can actually inform and inspire

our opinions today. That is, the 79 season in our working on this project reinforces to me that NASCAR is a beautiful product, and it's our own. And you know what it is? We get rough, right? We might bump you out of the way. Yes, we know. We might do green, white checker. We might, what, you know, some racing enthusiasts may say is, you know, oh, they're manufacturing stuff or this, any other. No, you know what? I just think NASCAR's tougher. All right. And the guys that have made this sport what it is, the Titans, they are tough dudes and they are pillars and they should be celebrated. And this 79th century, it's not just your dad. It's the Alessons. It's Yarborough and Pearson. The Pearson story line. And what it is, yeah, I can't say it. I am blown away about the effects

that Pearson had on your dad that year. You guys are going to be crazy. That's later in the series. But I am more grateful for our sport today because of this project and what we learned because it's like, hey, we ain't perfect. We're flawed, baby. This is what we are. It's our identity. We're stock cars, dang it. We will bump you out of the way to win the race. We've got fenders.

We will use them. And dang it, did they use them? And then they bick about each other. I'm knocking stuff over on this table. I'm so excited. They sit there. They had their drama. You've got drivers leaving owners.

You got owners dumping drivers. Dave Marcus, poor guy just as he quits after. a race in the top five. He goes to the press center and he goes, I'm leaving. This is drama, man. And 79 is a beautiful season and we're going to roll it out for. That's right. And if, you know, if fans engage with this, if our listeners enjoy it and as it goes through the process, we have another scrapbook. We have another, she did 1980 as well in the same energy and urgency as she did 1979. We have an entire another season, which dad ends up winning a championship in, which is as drama.

even more drama field for dad. And so if, you know, so we could have a lot of fun with this. I mean, no telling what we end up, you know, going in what direction we take this. But if it's the fans enjoy it and the numbers are good, I'd love to, I'd love to keep on creating projects like this because it is fun, man. I love learning. It is a lot of work sitting down and digging and try to find really the root of some of the stories and why things happened.

I had to call, I called Bill Elliott yesterday just for some silly anecdote about a Dover race from 1979. And I'm like, hey, Bill, I hate to bother you. I know you're busy. I got this weird question and it's really going to be random. And he answers it. And I'm like, that's it, buddy. I'll see you later.

I hadn't talked to him in a year. And, you know what I mean? And, and, and, but, you know, that's, I'm, it's worth the dig, right? Yeah. It's, to be able to bring the full story up. And like, again, I learned something from Bill yesterday that we're going to put in a later episode of this becoming Earnhardt season that brings the whole story together, right?

It's like you have to have those parts to be able to tell it. Anyways, we're excited about that. Again, tomorrow it drops the first episode, becoming Earnhardt. And, yeah, we'll keep on sharing stories about it. I'm sure we're going to react to it on Thursday a little bit. And so we'll talk about that more. We're in the middle of potty training baby number two. So we started that this week.

That's going really well. The first trip through that process with our first child was very new and difficult and challenging. I think we're a little more confident this time, but it won't be without its challenges. It's interesting to me how when you're trying to go through something like that, here's a couple things that I didn't know happened right when I when we when we were going through potty training I thought that you know you just kind of tried to encourage a child to you know here's a potty you know talk you know explain what's going on here they've seen you use the bathroom they know what a toilet is it just kind of takes time just like trying to you know

help, you know, trying to train anything, right? Trying to train anything takes like, you know, conversation and reasoning. But it's not like that at all. You have to, apparently, you know, my, well, I'm sure everybody does it differently. But Amy basically is on house arrest for a block of days, doesn't leave the house, might go out for a walk or something, but doesn't go she's next she's near that potty oh she's staying at the house just for this at all times that is uh that's that's a that's a commitment there it's like a it's like you know she

it's as long as it takes but it's going to be like in this case a like a four-day block of just her and Nicole and the pot and the potty and it's right in the middle of the living room and they just hang around right they just hang around the house and amy is Amy is like, you know, productive, doing things, cleaning, whatever needs to be done, whatever she can do. But she's ready at a moment's notice to get Nicole to the potty. When Nicole, you know, Nicole's trying to go over there and squatting the floor, you know, it's okay, let's go over here to the potty, right? So it's just, it's, it's, her attention is on that from the moment they get up to the moment they go to the bed for a block of days. Didn't know it was that dedicated, right?

I don't think I do that. Yeah. And so I think, and it's sort of like breaking a horse, I guess. It's like, you know, you know how you see it in the movies? The horses are wild and they're running around. All of a sudden they just, they're tame. It's like a switch, right? Okay, we've broken this horse and it's now this perfect horse that goes everywhere you tell it to go.

And everybody's so happy, right? Everybody in the movie there. It's a perfect analogy, frankly, you celebrate it. Yes. When it happens, when it finally happens, it's a, it's a, it's a perfect analogy. Party worthy. Yes. And so that's what she's in the middle of.

And I had this moment to take Ila and me out of the house and out of the, so there's no distractions, right? If Ila's there completely, Nicole's like completely distracted, this is not going to work. And so Ila has been gone for four days. We're about to all reunite. all right the potty training is not to perfection as it usually doesn't start

I'm a little concern right because we're not it's only been four days but we've had some good progress we've had some great moments but I and Amy is like you know I miss y'all so bad

can't wait till you all come back this is going to be great Nicole's going to want to show Ila what she's learned and I'm like I don't think it's going that way I'm thinking it's going to be a big setback. Nicole's going to revert backwards. She's going to take a couple steps back in this process when Ila comes because she'll be distracted again. And then she'll, you know, she'll start making mistakes, right?

And Amy's going to think, oh, all this work and these days, yeah, these days of sitting around here doing nothing, being bored of death. And so a little concerned about that, but we're going through it. We've given Dirty Moe Doe something to bet on, whether Nicole goes backwards or forwards when Isle returns. Steve LaTart and Shopper don't need anything. They need help. They'll do it. Put a unit on it.

Not to get into, I guess, not to get too personal about this, but number one comes easy, number two is a challenge. That part, you know, number one, number two. Oh, we're talking about the actual process, not the kids. Yeah. Number one, number one comes easier. as it should, right? There's something about number two that's, like, scary.

I can't quite, I don't really know exactly what the word is to describe it, but the number two is something that they are not freaking sure about, like putting it in that potty as opposed to their pants. It is a really hard thing for them to get their head wrapped around, right? You mean I don't want to feel this for a couple hours in a day? Wait a second. That's weird. You would think that they would

They would want They're looking for opportunities Yeah, you're not have to Set in it, right? But It's a scary, I think it's a scary thing And a privacy thing, you know A bit, maybe a bit awkward for them

When they're, you know, it's kind of like wearing It's kind of like When you put sunglasses on, right? People don't know where you're looking. You know, it's a You sort of have this sort of of insulation of privacy, right, when you have on sunglasses. And I think when they're wearing that diaper, they're like, man, I pooped and you don't know.

That's true, yeah. But now with this potty, everybody knows what have done. Especially when it's in the middle of the room. Yeah, right. Which is a good bridge to another thing. So we're going to move on from potty training to Austin Cendrick. Naturally, that's a good segue. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

The glasses thing brought up an idea of mine. Okay. So, but I read some comments from Austin Cendrick this weekend. He's wearing glasses now. I started wearing them this week. I find that really fascinating because, like, Harvick wears them, Ligano wears them. Do you, I don't, you know, maybe Dave Marcus wore glasses,

but I can't think of a lot of race car drivers back in the day that wore glasses while they raced. Mm-mm. But, you know, Lugano and Harvick, I don't wear glasses when I race. I wear them all day long, but my eyesight's pretty good at a distance. It's reading, but I can still read gauges, you know, but without them. But Austin Cinderick's like, man, I'm wearing these glasses, I went, got checked out, I need to see things better at a distance. It's awesome.

Now I can, you know, I was at a race. I couldn't really see detail like I wanted to. And what he means by that, it's not a real dangerous situation. What he means by that is like a crack in the asphalt, right, that he's trying to put the left front tire on, right? That's a little harder for him to find. Or some very specific detail in the surface of the track where he's trying to position the car for the entry of the corner

or transition or something like that. Those are the things he's talking about that he wants to see more crisper. and he wants to be able to see in detail so he feels like he's really hitting all the marks because six inches on that racetrack is the difference between first and 30th. Sure, I believe that. Yeah, and so,

kudos to him for doing this. And he, I could read his comments and I could hear his, I could hear his insecurities about wearing them because he says, I don't care what I look like, I don't care what people think I look like. I just want to see better.

And maybe you went through this too when you started wearing glasses. There's this sort of moment or a little bit of very short period of time of some, you know, feeling insecure. Do you look like a dork? Or, you know, you have everywhere you go, people are going to go, well, what are you doing now? What you got, what you got them on for, right? It happened to you? I mean, when you started wearing glasses is when everybody started making comments. Yeah.

I remember that. Yeah. And so, but he says, he's like, you know, he says this funny thing that I really could relate to. He's like, when he's like, I catch myself staring at people. And he's like,

you know, I only wore glasses when I was wearing sunglasses. And so when you're wearing sunglasses, you can stare at people. You can look anywhere you want for any duration you want. But now I forget I'm wearing just regular glasses and I'll be looking at somebody staring right at them. And he's like, I remind, I like remember, oh, I'm not wearing sunglasses.

This person can see I'm literally staring them down, burning a hole in them. And so that is so funny to me because it's so true. Like when you first start wearing glasses, you forget that people can see where you're looking because you're used to just only wearing glasses when you're wearing sunglasses, right? Does that making sense to you? Unfortunately, it does make sense. Why is that unfortunate? Unfortunate because I was ready to go, listen, there's no good segue.

Yeah, there was no good segue from potty training to Austin Cendrick, but I got to say you did do it. I nailed it. You did it because it's the insecurity thing. I didn't see that coming. Congratulations on that. You know, the thing that is amazing, how old is Austin Cendrick do you think? Let's just say he's 28. Oh, you don't know, is he not 30?

Oh, yeah, he wouldn't be 30 yet. Right. He's 26, 24. I found that interesting because. like the day I hit 40 was the day my eyes decided just to go down. Just like everything started. The day, that birthday. Yeah.

It was like just done. And I remember LaTartre said the same thing. Like, LaTartre's like, they hit 40, eyesight. And boy, if that's true. So if whatever insecurities I had, and I know that you also went through this, whatever insecurities you had. Imagine it 20s. As soon as you put those glasses on, you could see what you have been missing a lot, which is detail.

Yeah. you're like, okay, let everybody think what they want. This is way better. I know. And it's interesting that Austin's going through that. I just can't believe he's as young as he is. Yeah. Well, I applaud him for doing it because it is something you can be insecure about,

especially if you're an athlete that's supposed to be perfect, right? And when somebody sees an imperfection in you, it can be something they judge you by. But I think I applaud him for being confident enough and smart enough, like, hey, man, I need to see. this well. I need to see in perfect detail. I'm going to do this because it'll make me better. But I remember the moment when I learned that my eyes

weren't what I thought they were. What was it? I was at my mama's house and we were cooking pizzas. It was pizza night. We were making homemade pizzas. Probably about five, six, eight people around in this kitchen. Her glasses, reading glasses were laying there. Or whatever.

She wears glasses, I don't know. They were just glasses, right? I don't know if she just got reading glasses or what. And so I put them on and looked down at the paper or looked down at the table. And I was like, holy crap, I can see so much better. And it dawned on me. I was like, I didn't even know I wasn't seeing that great. That's right.

Right. I thought my sight was fine. But when I put these on, I'm like, dude, everything is perfect. Like it's so perfect. And so I went to the doctor and I said, hey, you know, check, check this out. This is my experience, and they gave me readers. I basically had glasses that were not prescription, but they had a reader in the bottom.

So otherwise, I didn't really need to wear them all day long. I got comfortable wearing them all day long. It was just pain in the butt to take them off, put them back on. You'd leave them places, right? You'd walk away. Maybe they'd be left at the house or somewhere, and you'd get somewhere you need to read something. So I just started wearing them all the time and then over the last probably four years my

My long Whatever they call it I get it backwards near-sided far-sided but anyway seeing it seen it Seen it distance became more challenging or just a tick blurry Yeah, I thought it when you were going to the concussion rehab I had glasses in too Yeah, but that was more to help my eyes So my eyesight my eyes were a little messed up things were just blurry. Yeah, and so that help my eyes relax so I didn't have a strain that created headaches. Well, some of the physical exercises they had you doing was literally like eye exams.

I remember doing one and it was hard. You know, you're looking at charts and all that stuff. You know, this reminds me of something. I remember you back in the day. You used to love the fact that you could see so well. See so well. You'd come in bragging. They're like, did an eye exam?

They put Beagle on there. They said, I see like a dog, whatever, or whatever. I could see the bottom line. at the thing, you know, the little tiny one. And then finally you admitted that you were just memorizing the letters. I memorized the board, yeah. You probably had bad vision all along, but your memory was good. I texted Truex the other day.

He turned 43, and I was like, oh, boy, time to go to the doctor, get them bifogals. He's like, oh, yeah. Just stop on the way to the colonoscopy. 43 years old, buddy, you might as well go on in there, stop denying it. He's like, he's like texting me back. He's like, no, man, 21. I'm like, I was that guy. Yeah, good times there.

Well, what else from potty training can you equate to the NASCAR series? Well, nothing, but me and you were talking about, I came, so Ila stayed with Kelly this weekend, my sister, two days, right? Hadn't seen her, missed her like crazy. Come into the office yesterday, Kelly had brought Isla to Junior Motorsports. You were here. Yeah, she was all over the place. I'm like, hey, how's it going, Aila?

Come, come give Dad a hug. Hey, missed you. Nope. Running in the other direction. Like I was going to, like, she's like worried I was going to say, hey, man, we're leaving. Yeah. Right. Probably she's what she thought.

Right. So she's running another direction. I'm like, Isla, come back, man. I just want a hug. You can stay. We're not leaving. And, man, I mean, it was hours before she, like, give me any attention. And I was like, I know this is, people have told me this.

They're like, you know, wait until she goes, wait until she's a teenager. They're never going to want to hang out with you. And she's five. And this is happening. It broke your heart, didn't it? Yeah, I didn't like it. And then, you know what? It's okay.

She did it to Amy last night, get Amy on a FaceTime. Amy missing her so bad. I was like burying her face in this chair and doesn't know. Amy's like, don't you miss me. And she's like, uh-uh, I don't miss you. I'm like, don't say that, you do. Yeah. And it hurt Amy's feelings.

Isn't that something, though? Like, you know, as parents, you know, you really just look forward to the break. Like, you just need a break or whatever. But when you get that break, whether it's a date night or whether it's whatever it is, all you do is think about your kids. My kids have been to camp for two weeks. And then when I say camp, I'm talking about in Florida. There is no conversations or anything.

There's only the postal service is all you got. And I tell them, listen, write me a letter every day. I'm going to want it. And then they will always forget. And there's two weeks that you go without them. And then when they come back, you think, well, now I'm going to get this, this just flood of love. And really, they're just ready to go to the next camp that they're going to go to. And it's like, oh, God, yeah.

You know, us dads, we try to be tough, but we actually are the ones that are most sensitive. And we get our feelings hurt really bad by our, especially girl dads, right? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how I feel about that, man. That's going to be tough. Because I, for up to this point, man, you know, each child we had just brought more love in the house. You know what I mean?

Like me and Amy love each other like crazy. And now I got two more people in there that this everybody loves everybody. This is awesome. We all just want to be together. And like literally you give Ila a little independence, right? She goes spend the night with Kelly or goes somewhere to have a sleepover. And it changes dramatically, right? Maybe that's the key.

Don't send her somewhere fun. Who wouldn't want to go hang out with Kelly? Yeah. She's going to treat you like. Now in their mind, they're like, oh, there's this. I can go here, I can go there. When do I get another sleepover? As soon as they come home, when's the next sleepover?

Can I go to this house? Can I go to that house? You know? That's a good point. Like, you want your kids to be independent and live on their own? Because that's what we're training them to do, right? It's being adults or whatever. But don't you kind of want them to have a little bit of homesickness?

Miss me a little bit? Yeah. And then when they don't, because mine don't, they love being gone. It's like, wait a second. I mean, it's a good life we got over here. I mean, I'm like, I'm a good guy. You know, it's fun. But maybe that's the key.

Don't send them anywhere fun. Make them watch you back. Oak Ridge Military Academy sounds good. So, hey, my, I want to talk about wine for a second. Wine, like whining or like the drink? Okay. Do you like wine? No.

I mean, I'll drink it if it. But, boy, nothing gets me drunk or quicker than wine. Really? Yeah. So I've never been in wine. wine drinker, never. Amy likes wine, has one, have a red with dinner or whatever. I don't know, you drink a white, you drink one or the other. They don't taste a sign. I don't know one from, you know, I don't know all the etiquette of wine drinking, right? I did go to Sonoma just a couple

years ago and we went to some wine, a reason, had some wine tastings, great time, right? Had a fun time. But I've never drank a bottle. Oh, a whole bottle by yourself? Right. Well, yeah, I've God Almighty. So apparently. I've never done it and remembered it. So, you know, people, I've, I'm a beer drinker, right, have been in my whole life, turned 49 this year. And so throughout the years, talking to people, having conversations, you know, people come in on a Monday after a weekend. Man, I drank a, you know, we had a great time.

We drank a bottle. We got two bottles of wine at dinner the night, you know, talking to their friends. Yeah. here, La Tart and them. The tart. Man, we had a great time at the dinner Saturday night, man. The whole table, we drank two bottles. And it costs, you know, 500 a piece or something like that.

They're going to throw that in there too, yeah. And, but anyways, I have officially drank my first bottle of wine last week. And you're here to tell you that. Yeah, and it was not too bad, but it was not too good. I did not feel good the next day. So there's a bunch of sugar in that. I learned. Yeah, I see that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going I'm going, look. What, what happened? What was the occasion, by the way?

Just, how did you end up in with a bottle of wine? Just on vacation. We're on vacation. Whose idea was it? Uh, so I like, uh,

I say it wrong, but of course, I say it wrong. Of course you do. I say, I drink Pino Grease. Grease. You mean, say it wrong or completely.

Completely. Yeah, whatever. Whatever it is. What is, Pinio. Yeah, there you go. There you go. I like Pino Greece for now.

Well, it's a P-I-N-O, then a G-R-I-S. how you say that. Those old peanut grease wines, you know, they're good. Well, I like that one. I like the light, like, you know. Peanut grease light. I don't like the, I don't like, I like the light ones, not the ones that are very heavy,

and I don't like a ton of flavor, and I like it to be really easy to drink, right? Right, right. And so that's the one I keep going to, and every other one I try, and I'm not drinking a red. That seems like, that's like drinking the thing. it's like drinking a Guinness. Like it looks thick, right? It looks heavy. Yeah, it looks super heavy.

I'm like, I don't even want to try that. But anyways, I got this, we got, I got a bottle and I was like, man, I started, I had one glass and another glass, you know, throughout the day. They goes on, I'm like, finally I get to the end of the day. I'm like, wow, I've drank this. I must have drank this whole bottle, really proud of myself. And then I woke up the next morning. Hang over. And I'm like, I don't like this.

I feel terrible. Yeah. And then, but I didn't. didn't think about all the sugar that's in it. It's too much sugar in there. It's the sugar that makes your hangover feel as bad. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm going back, I like it, but I'm going back to beer. Or, and here's an idea, don't drink the whole bottle all at once. Yeah, but I mean, I'm all, I'm a, I, ease into it. Nope. So you know me, man. I drink. That's true. I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I'm not a small talker. Right. Um, um, um, um,

You're not a small dog. That's an understanding. Yeah. So when I do want to have a drink, I only will drink when I can drink all day. Yeah. Right. I'm not going to have a couple beers at dinner. That's true.

We got beer in our beer fridge in here, but this won't even cross your mind because this is. No, not interested. Right. But if you said, hey, man, we're going to hang out till 6 o'clock in this room. The 24 hours of podcast. Yeah. I'm not drink four or five in things over there. Yeah.

There you go. That's true. Yeah. So, okay, well, good. I'm curious, though, was this one of those things where Amy's trying to get you to do new things and try new things like the cryotherapy and the core classes and now wine drinking? I was, we went on this, we went on this one trip several weeks ago where there wasn't any beer. I won't tell you the place because I know nobody's interested in going there.

So anyways, I saw Amy's delight in me drinking. wine with her. Oh, yeah. Right, for dinner and sitting around the fire and whatever and listening music at the end of the day. And I thought, man, I'm going to try to do this more because this really makes her happy. Yeah. And so, yeah, maybe I don't need to, maybe it's just, you know, glass at dinner. Maybe that's, hey, maybe that's my casual drink, right? Class of wine. This can't be the first time you drank wine, though, right? No. I mean, you got married at a vineyard. I did. And I got, I drank wine when I went to Australia. Paul Morris, he has a winery. We drank some of their cimmerettes, the name of their winery. We drank. We drank.

drink some of that. It's really good. That's where I learned a Pinot Greece is so good. In Australia. Yeah. Got it. Paul Morris's Pinot Greece is super awesome. Good as it would be. Yes. I would expect no different. Hey, I can't get it. I can't see him as being a sipper either. I think he's all in on whatever he does. Yeah. But Simmerette is his, their wine back over there and that's how, I think that's the first time I ever drank in. You know, there's a wine distributor probably listening to this and they are already going to pitch us on peanut grease, Dale Jr. Wine. Yep. I can see it. I can see it. I can see it. get coming.

Dale Jr.'s peanut grease. It might even be Sugarlands that's going to get in the wine business now. Some of our

listeners might not know this, but our friends at Lionel Racing, the official die cast of NASCAR, have an entire line of

cars and haulers that you can find on the toy aisle at a store near you. Lionel's NASCAR

Authentics cars and haulers can be found at all your local stores like Walmart, Target,

Myers, and Lionel releases new cars in this line all the time. If you're already a 164-scale diecast collector, or if you're thinking about starting a collection, you want to check out the latest NASCAR Authentics releases. What's great about Lionel is that in addition to offering the diecast of the most popular Cup Series drivers in their NASCAR Authentics line,

they make sure that smaller race teams and up-and-coming drivers are represented as well. The best way to find out when the new NASCAR Authentics cars are coming to your Walmart Target or Meyer store is to follow Lionel Racing on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. You'll find out everything you need to know there, and be sure to also visit lionelauthentics.com. Start that collection now or add to the one you already got. All right, man, let's move on to talk to Atlanta. What do you think?

Oh, yeah, Atlanta. We have to talk about Atlanta. It was too good not to. I agree. Yes. So we both watched, well, of course I watched the race, but we both watched it. We watched, you watched the race, boy, you were into it now.

You were into it. Yeah. I lost my, I lost my, I forgot where I was at. That's when you know it's good. Yeah. I mean, because you were just in the most true sense of, like you were enjoying racing. I would have almost thought you had a beer with you. Not because you were acting drunk, but because you were having that much fun watching racing.

Well, I, I've been thinking about it and thinking, man, am I overstating this? why did this feel why did this seem so amazing anyways we're going to dive into that you know I think that first off Atlanta

there was the threat of weather all right and I don't know about I think the door bumper clear boys were saying yeah that race was exciting because right everybody's racing to rain but that's not true entirely Oh yeah, they were saying basically they wondered if the sense of urgency was creating more chaos.

They are absolutely correct in that window of, you know, when we're racing toward the halfway point and then beyond it. Yep. Which would have been around, you know, lap 100. But that first 100 laps when everybody knows it won't be an official race, we're not racing to a halfway, we're not racing to rain. We're not, the rain and the weather issue was. was not a factor in the first 100 laps of that race. It just wasn't. Because it wouldn't have been an official race.

They were racing, they were racing hard for other reasons. Yeah. Right? Whatever they were. Yeah. And I was as, I was as thrilled,

captivated, entertained by the very first stage as I was the second stage. Like, I couldn't believe the first stage was as good as it was. And I'm thinking in my mind, well, if stage one's like this, what the hell stage three going to be like? Holy moly.

What they've done, man, is, and there was a lot of criticism and concern about the reconfiguration of this racetrack. A lot. A lot. But look, Atlanta was in bad trouble. We all loved that old surface, but fans didn't. There were nobody in the stands for those last, I don't know,

eight or ten events. Oh, maybe even more, yeah. It felt like on life support. And there's a lot of reasons for that, but whatever they were, it doesn't really matter. They weren't there. Fans and, you know, weren't selling out this racetrack. And so. So much so that it was almost an indictment on the Atlanta sports market, it was so bad.

It lost a date, lost a race. Lost a race, yep. I honestly feel like it was in jeopardy of losing another date entirely and being removed from the schedule. I mean, there was certainly a lot of doubt around the future of this racetrack. This racetrack that had been a place we had crowned our champion for over a decade. A place that was slammed full of people. Iconic. Back in the 80s and 90s.

Now, this track struggled with attendance early when it first came out in the early 70s, late 60s. But from probably mid-70 on through, especially. through the mid through the late 80s all through the 90s this place delivered it was amazing racing a true one-half-mile oval racetrack they put the dogleg in there repaved it reconfigured it i never loved that i talked about it uh man i never got it i was so mad i never got a chance to race on the true oval that atlanta was before 1996 and as the asphalt aged the track did become really fun for a driver, but it wasn't selling tickets. And so the reconfiguration was a, I think, last-ditch effort to save this market for us,

save this racetrack, save this property. And so I supported the choice that Marcus made to do it. It was a massive investment that he was making in something that was failing, a risk he was taking on his own that I thought needed to be supported. So what he's done, though, is he paved this racetrack with some newer technology or some technology that would hopefully provide an aging racing surface. And they shifted away from new technology and pavement. They're paving the streets out on the highways, right, with technology that they hope would last forever.

Well, they started paving racetracks like that back in the 2010 to 2012 era. Even the last time they paved Charlotte Motor Speedway, they used this newer technology that was way more durable. The grip and the track was going to sustain forever for a long period of time, right? That was not a good idea. Thought it was because if you're an owner of a racetrack and you're paving it, you want to pave it with the best you can get. That's right.

The bottom line. Not good because it provided a terrible product. Bottom lines is a great word, Mike, because that's all you got at Charlotte. The bottom line. You got a one groove. Everybody running right on the bottom because everybody went where the grip was. That's right. But now that tracks, you know, eventually starting to show what it's really capable of.

But it's taking years to get there. They backed away from that technology when they repaved and reconfigured Atlanta. This asphalt here is supposed to age rapidly. at the risk of actually being more expensive and needing repaved even sooner, they went with this technology. And when we showed up this weekend, the actual color of the track

was substantially grayer and older looking than what we remember and recall from last year. Now, this is only the third race on this brand-new surface, and it is graying out quickly. And when we started watching practice and qualifying, and then in the Xfinity race, you could see the guys were on edge. Cars out of control, guys busting their ass.

It continued to happen in the cup race. Yes, it did. You want to see guys bust their ass. You want to see it look like it's hard. Yeah. It looked hard. It looked hard. It did.

And it was surprising them, man. They go down in the corner and bust their ass, and then you'd hear them say, man, I was confident. I had great grip. And then the next thing I know, I don't know how that happened, I got too confident.

Yeah. Right? That's the shit that we need them beat. you know, that's things we need happening. I'm glad you said it. You said it, right. They were on the edge of out of control again. And that's when the racing is at its best.

You have to decide when to lift. You have to decide to do all these different things to stay in control of it. And then if you try to go cross that edge, you lose it. There was a lot of lifting. And that process of the track aging, that type of racing, getting more and more involved, that type of lifting and passing encummers and goers, that's going to increase with every trip we take to this racetrack. And so we had cars on the bottom in the middle.

on the fence. They were cars with massive runs, passing three or four people in one corner and then backwards the next. And it was just this accordion effect of passes always happening in every corner. It was so fascinating. Yeah.

And it is one of a kind. It's a very unique track, don't you think? Now it is. It's got its own story. It's like every racetrack and every race event is its own brand. I always look at it like what is the memory, what is the effect that you're going to have? You've got to invoke a reaction.

And if the reaction is boredom or empty grandstands, that is your brand. Atlanta was there not that long ago. Now we've almost all forgotten about that and are excited about a race that was also rain shortened. Two weeks in a row we had positive vibes and feelings of rain shortened races because the product was so dang good. And you saw drivers the best in the world losing control and not knowing how to figure it out. And that is a beautiful thing for us. And you, in your broadcasting, brought that out. Like you were in disbelief and also just in joy of being able to watch people,

drivers have it all in their hands. That's what we want. You want the drivers to have everything in their hands. We'll figure out who the best one is. And I want to celebrate Atlanta Motor Speedway being one of the hottest tickets on the circuit now. everybody has their opinion about where they want to go and what racing may want to see but I think Atlanta has jumped way up the charts. It has.

And I expect to see a pretty awesome crowd there going through the next year's events. Did you have a thought about the outcome on it? Did you think that they, I mean. Well, there was a few more things I wanted to say. Okay, go ahead. So we had this incredible racing. We had this great, you know, event at Chicago. I mean, the weather sucked, but we still, I mean, I think the weather actually made some of the excitement we saw at Chicago, but it was, you know, for me being out there getting soaked in it, it was in the fans as well.

It wasn't very fun, but we had a really great success at Chicago. We had a ton of fans tune in for the first time ever to watch NASCAR. We had fans that came to Chicago for their very first race. So many fans came to that race. for the very first time. Those same people, a large majority of them, tuned in to Atlanta to watch the next race. And they weren't let down.

And they weren't let down. And they saw something completely different than what they saw in Chicago. That's right. And they're thinking, holy crap, this is wild, man. What a variety of excitement. And so I wanted to make sure everybody understood how important these last two weeks have been for NASCAR.

We may look back years from now and still continue to comment on what these two weeks might have done for the sport. And can I just add to that and say, thank God that the big industry leaders like Marcus Smith don't let the volume of criticism and the pessimism that even myself might be contributing to or the podcast host or but certainly drivers. I mean, Justin Algar was quite critical just the last time they were in Atlanta. Like this is a circus. This is nonsense.

Bush, very vocal. Thank God the industry leaders, the bold ones, the ones that make big swings aren't afraid to fail, but they know that, hey, this thing doesn't have a future unless I go swing big at this, and I'll go ahead and be the risk. I'll take the risk of being the idiot here, but he goes and puts that banking in that speedway and does that technology. Thank God he doesn't listen to us. Well, I think he didn't have a choice because of the direction the track was going. I think he was kind of didn't have a choice. He had to swing big. But I also think about NASCAR, going to Chicago. I'm seeing some things about what they'll do next year.

Listen, as a sport, we can't let these people feel bad about making big. Even ourselves, right? Because, I mean, I wasn't on board with Chicago until I went out there a month before the race to look at it. Didn't feel good about it. I wasn't sure if that's, you know, if we're going to do a street race, we're going to do one at a place that's never had one before. Anyways, we're all skeptical of change, right?

and we love tradition and nostalgia, but Atlanta and Chicago have both shown us that, you know, sometimes new ideas and new innovation can succeed and be successful. But the, I was sitting there thinking I might be watching. I was definitely more entertained than I've been in a, in as long as I can remember. I was more entertained lap by lap than I've been in a long, long time. And so, you know, and I don't want more of it.

I want that to be specific to Atlanta. Thank you. I only want to see this at this racetrack. Yeah. But whatever this is, whatever we call it, it's like there's, there's a, now there's an in between of super speedway drafting and the intermediate, you know, speedway racing. I don't know if it's like this restrictor plate raceway. I don't know what it is, but I want Atlanta to be the owner of it.

Yeah, I agree. With that said, though, there's been talk about Texas, what to do with Texas, what should Texas become. If there's one track that's close to what we have at Atlanta, it's not really the same at all, but if there's one track, if they were to repave it, which Texas may get a repave, I don't know. that place right there would inch close to what we have at Atlanta and I don't want that to alarm people you know they may not need to touch Texas I think with this car this package we might need to go back to Texas as it is to see because I mean it might actually end up putting on some pretty good races there I would I would if anything consider redoing redoing turns one and two

back to where it originally was I just think that flatter corner that they put in there years ago really screwed up transitions and everything for all of us. Agreed. Anyhow, Atlanta's future looks really bright. That's thrilling and good for all of us. We need to race in that market and that track. I expect that area.

If you know anything about Kansas Speedway and what was there when they built that track versus the development that's happened around it since, keep an eye on Atlanta because I think with what we're having, with the crowds that may start going to that racetrack, that area around their hotels, restaurants. Yeah. It's barren and it's ready to go.

I used to love going to Kansas just to see what they've added just in the time that we'd been gone, like in a year. Cabellas and all kinds of stuff. Oh, right. The MLS Stadium right there at the entrance going into the, you know, like everything built up around the racetrack. So you're saying if that happens with Atlanta, boy, would it be awesome. I think that could.

So five, ten years down the road, that whole. entire property and everything around it could be completely different. Yeah, the finish of the race, I don't have anything bad to say about it. Dude, I didn't love it. I mean, I wanted more. I wanted to see more action. I wanted to go to the checkard. I wanted more of what I was getting that night.

But the way, you know, when the rains came, the rains were pretty substantial. I don't have an argument. I don't have an argument or a problem with NASCAR. and run under caution and the drizzles and what should we would do that we should have turned them loose we should have ran a few more laps there was you know 10 minutes to get you know a few more laps in um i think that would have been i don't know kind of foolish but uh not it didn't it wouldn't change my opinion about the race or or you know i think the other argument though is on the backside of that storm right the people were saying by 1130 the storm had passed right and

the rains were gone. But the lightning wasn't. I got this lightning app. We were joking about it in the booth during commercials. But I've got this app and it gives me this eight-mile ring and it tells me all the strikes that are happening in real time. And as everybody knows, I mean, the lightning holds are a real, they're a new, unfrikin fortunate reality in all sporting events.

they're there for damn good reason they're frustrating I mean we're at you know we're at Chicago we're under a lightning hold but I didn't seen any lightning but yeah it certainly wasn't raining right the alternative is not

preferable we certainly don't want anybody injured or worse and so I say that because while we did have the storm had cleared the lightning hold and all of that I mean I think we wouldn't have been racing till

12.30, 1 o'clock in the morning, drying the track and all of those things, right? So that's not realistic. No. A lot of people had a problem. Do you have any issue with how the race... I don't feel let down at all. Me either. Nope. I don't feel let down at all. I think they had to do what they had to do. Yep. Spot or Brett, I don't know who else talking about should the race be 300 miles. Right. So when the product wasn't good, we have, when the product's not good, right? We have conversations like, well, we don't need to run at all these tracks but once. We don't need a 500 mile event here. We need a 400 mile event.

We don't need 400 miles. We need 300 miles here. This race is too long. This race is too long. This race too long. When the product's good, we should want more, not. less. Good point.

I have a three, I mean, I don't know how long, I think the, the Xfinity race there might be 200, 250 miles. That's your short event. That is, yeah, yeah. We don't want to get, you know, I've always felt like, you know, when we start talking about shortening the schedule, which, dude, it is a freaking long schedule. It's a grind. But when we talk about shortening races and we talk about not racing at certain racetracks,

I get really pissed off because we're, only saying those things because we don't love what we're seeing. Can we not just fix what we're seeing? Can we not just make what the product better? And a great example of that is Atlanta. We've been going to Atlanta forever. And, you know, there's conversations about, well, is it too long? Should we shorten this race?

These races are long and boring. Well, now we got a damn good product and we love every single lap. So let's not talk about shortening it. Let's leave it as it is. It's one of the best products we got, right? now we're racing there two times a year instead of one as we should be yeah should we be dialing Atlanta back to one race a year hell no nobody wants that not after this weekend at a third right yeah let's go there four times um that's so interesting i mean i'm not i'm not considered this until you're

bringing it up so it's like listen the dover races that were 500 laps i agree yes that might have been a bit of a stretch going back going down to 400 where we are today in modern times feels better. Okay, that's a reasonable argument. Pocono, 500 mile races there, 200 laps, I get it, no thank you. They're long-ass races. Now we're down to 160 laps, 400 miles.

I, you know, I think when the product stinks, we need to not shorten races or remove tracks from the schedule. We need to fix the product. Yeah. We want to, things should be, That's a whole other way of thinking.

We need to make sure the product's good because we need to be always wanting more, not wanting less. But the counter argument to that, Dale, and this is not me disagreeing with you, this is me just saying the counter argument is the less is more theory. Like if you go less, then you will want more, but you want them to feel more. I want to feel like that I'm looking forward to college football season because I don't get it but three months a year, right? And then, you know, four if you get a bowl.

And so that's the counter argument. I like that argument. The NFL model, right, of the short season, man, you're waiting all year training camp and listening to stories and learning about the team and the players trying to make the team. Can't wait for the games to start. You go 16 weeks or whatever and your team's not even make the playoffs and you're like, now I've got to wait a whole other year. Yeah, it goes by so fast.

It does. It goes by fast. I get that model. I guess I would say is we had one of our we have one of our most entertaining products at Atlanta right

and we're and we got people talking about shortening that race where we have we have work to do in other places short track package road course package we got work to do

yeah we'll get a chance to do that this weekend when we go to New Hampshire right stay focus Yeah, yeah. Shortening up a race that's freaking totally fine. Right. Focus. Keep your eye on the prize, man.

They're going to New Hampshire, Mike. We're going to New Hampshire this weekend to race. But that might not be the most important days of the week for New Hampshire. Okay. Monday and Tuesday, a handful of drivers are staying back after the Cup Series race is over, and they're going to test a new short track package. Ah, okay. And so I even sent out a tweet.

I think William Byron, Ryan, Priest, Christopher Bell, a couple other guys are going to be testing this package together. It's about six. And I said, hey, the future of short track racing in big league stock cars is on y'all's shoulders. Monday. Yeah. If y'all don't come out of here with an answer, we're screwed.

We are. So no matter what they find, even if they find what they believe to be the Holy Grail, right, the answer to short track racing with the next-gen car, even if they find it, Mike, the parts and pieces that are made by the single suppliers will not be made and developed in enough bulk to be able to give to all the teams until next year.

That's right. Even if it's the right shit, they can't bolt it on every car at Martinsville this year because they can't make enough to provide for everybody in the series. And so if they miss this, And they don't nail it. And we go to next year with it, and it doesn't work. We're back to square one.

And it's, you know, the best hope we have is 20, 25. There you go. So, yeah, I see your point. This is interesting. So now I've got to pay attention to New Hampshire on Monday and Tuesday. New Hampshire test. Right. And they need, these drivers need to be smart enough to understand what they're there to achieve.

So don't take it like, I don't know, you would take a test session. You're not there. You're not there to make your car faster. You're not there to help your car turn or help your team learn or help your crew chief learn. You might need to sacrifice some of that for the good of the sport. You also might need to understand that you're not there to try to test what feels good. Ah. Not what feels good to you.

You need to test and be thinking like what is going to help our cars put on the best race when we go to a short track. AKA maybe not feel so good. Yes. That's right. So what we need to understand is to figure out how to eliminate shifting, which I think they're actually working on some ideas on how to do that. I don't know if that's going to be part of this test. They're doing a lot of arrow stuff at this test.

And so if one of these guys goes out there and they're racing in a line of, you know, they get four or five of them lined up, and the guy out front is not comfortable and he gets passed. And then the next person that now is out front is not comfortable. and he gets passed, they better not come in and go, oh, this sucks, man, you can't lead. Right. Can't do that.

You've got to be thinking differently at this particular test. It's a different, it's a different, you're being handed a different test to take and a different responsibility to achieve a unique result. And so I think mentally they need to make sure they go into this test. I'm, dude, a lot, I'm telling you. I know it's a, I know a joke about it, but a lot is riding on this.

Yeah. who's testing again I need to get my damn tweet out yeah now I'm now I need to take this more seriously well um it's you know not you said Ryan Priest you said Byron is there

William Byron yeah I mean I have to get the damn tweet up Mike I don't remember all the names so just give me a second um Byron's part of it uh okay here we go William Byron Christopher Bill Harrison Burton Justin Haley Ryan Priest Eric Jones So you know they're all very capable

Of course you'd you know you might love to have a Kaubush or Harvick even. Harvick going, you know, he's going out. No, think about it, Mike. He's on his way out. He won't have an agenda, right? Harvick would have been perfect for this because he's going to be thinking about the objective at hand for this particular test, right? Yep.

What they really need to achieve. And he might also be able to corral the guys that are there to keep them on task, right? Yeah. Guys, we need to make sure this is what we're trying to accomplish here. And I'll tell you, man, it's a big, it's a heavy responsibility. Just something for everybody to keep their eye on. And I know how important those tests are. If you tell me they aren't, I'll tell you about one at Indy,

that resulted in the very massive tire gate issue with Goodyear. I was part of that test. Tell us. Well, I mean, we went to Indy to test, right? We're out there running. We had a few tires that we liked that wore. and ran more than 12 laps. But we ended up going with a different tire

that I didn't prefer. I believe another driver in the garage thought that tire was good. And that's the tire that ended up falling apart after 10 laps. You couldn't run hard, right? Jeff Gordon. No.

No, he's not in the sport anymore. But anyways, I mean, these tire tests, at times at certain points in our history are very critical. And this would be one that's not. not a tire test, it's more of a short track component test to try to figure out how to get the short tracks to race better. This is a massive deal. To think otherwise would be a mistake. Yeah, I like it. All right, everybody. Mike, man, great conversation. A lot of fun talking to you

today. Did a lot of current events, man. I enjoy doing that. We had a really important weekend. Come off of that. We had a big show today. We got a big show tomorrow. Remember the first episode of Becoming Earnhardt is dropping tomorrow. I am on pins and needles. I want to thank Ally for everything they do for us here and for sponsoring today's show. Dirty Air is brought to you by Ally, do it right. Thank you, Ally. We appreciate everything you've done for us here at the Dell Jr. Download and from the entire Dirty Mo Media team, we appreciate everything you do for the sport of NASCAR.

We'll see y'all Thursday. Enjoy tomorrow's show. Check out, check out Dirty Mo Media. Check out Dirty Mo Media. Twitter, Facebook. TikTok and Instagram.