The Dale Jr. Download - 504 - Everyone Wins When Brands Are Built

Episode Date: October 25, 2023

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back in the Bojangles Studio for a Wednesday edition of The Dale Jr. Download. Mike Davis joins Dale to discuss yesterday's conversation with Xfinity Series driver Austin Hill. Plus Dale and Mike share their opinions on NASCAR team branding and who's responsibility it is to build driver star power, the team or corporate America?When the Download crew took to YouTube Live for the Ask Jr. segment of the show, listeners sent in questions about: What Dale learned from running the Xfinity race at Homestead for the Cup broadcast What other celebrity or athlete Dale would like to interview before a race The wild events during the CARS Tour race at Tri-County NASCAR’s equivalent to Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce Silliest rumor Dale has heard about himself 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 make? I am weird. You are weird. Wow. Mr. Dalyan Hart Jr. That family techniques sometimes. Gives you more than just a potato salad. That's the voice of my co-host and one of my best friends in the whole wide world.

Mike Davis. We're screwed. Was that me? No, we're not standing in that box together in our underwear. Are you kidding me, Mike? Oh, my God. It's hilarious. Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of the Dale Jr. Download.

We're in the Bojangles studio, my co-host, Mike Davis, coming right off of yesterday's interview with Austin Hill. Mike, that was a great opportunity to sit down with a current driver in a sport. One of the drivers actually in the Xfinity series that's relatively new to the scene, if you will. Didn't know a ton about Austin. Glad we got a chance to talk to him. Hopefully, nothing weird.

it happens on the racetrack during the next couple of weeks between him and the Xfinity series, uh, gerium regulars. Uh, I don't know. I'm overly worried about that. Do you think? Well, you, now that we've got the interview out of the race, now it can happen. Am I going to accidentally wheel this into existence? Well, boy, I hope not.

You might, you might do that. But listen, if it happens now, at least we don't have to face him in an interview setting. Right. I guess it's never good. And there is the possibility. Probably. At least, uh, he is going in this weekend.

and basically fighting with Cole Custer and Justin Algar for two positions. So ideally, Cole Custer could be the one out. And then we would have less of a problem with that. We certainly want Justin Algar. Sorry, Colchester. No, I'm not. Sorry, Cole. We want you out.

Not me. That's what I want. All right. And so then you could have Austin and Algar in there. And then they can sort things out at Phoenix. Sammy Smith and Chandler Smith and Sheldon Creed, there are 49 points or more. out from the cutline.

So they obviously have to go win at Martinsville. They're going to be up in there, duking it out. Cole Custer is plus three, Austin Hills at plus three, and Justin is in fifth at minus three. So yeah, it's pretty tight going into Martinsville. We really didn't talk about that a lot because I didn't want it to go there. I didn't want it. I mean, it's obvious, I know exactly what he wants.

I know what we want. But it was great to be able to, he was awesome about just, he was a great talker you give him a question he would run for a while he would very easy right as an interviewer um learned a lot about his childhood how he got into racing uh learned i appreciated learning about him being a little hands on with all his own stuff as he was growing up he was very involved in his in his racing uh physically working on his cars and so forth um also loved learning about how he has understood the B-to-B business and actually turned in, you know, turned a brand and a company into a full-time sponsor that's currently funding his, uh, Exfinity effort at

RCR. So, you know, where his father had been a big supporter of his financially, that's no longer the case, you know. Um, so he's gotten to a point in his career where he's not only doing the things that you want a driver to do behind the wheel, but he's also activating and creating, you know, sponsor interest for himself outside the car. Gosh, man, when drivers do that, it makes it so much easier for an owner like Richard Childers to be able to, you know, give you everything you need, but also Richard knows he's got a great race car driver. Right. You know, Richard knows that he's a, he's a wheelman, and he's still evolving in his abilities and talent. But great conversation with Austin. and curious to see what he can do going into the Cup series.

I don't know when he'll get there. I didn't want to say this in front of him, and it would be tough to say in front of Austin Dillon as well. My opinion on all of that, and I think you may share this, is that Austin Dillon is absolutely got plenty of racing years in front of him if he wanted to continue to compete. But in my mind, if I was Austin,

I would be looking for the exit ramp, and I would be if this is possible if there's a path for Austin Dylan to become the face of RCR in the same vein that Richard Childers is the face

of that series of that organization I would be looking for that exit ramp if I was Austin and saying hey man I need to I want to get into the business side of our organization as soon and fast as possible right

to be able to understand exactly how this thing needs to run. Now there's a person in the middle there, you know, Mike Dillon, Austin's dad, that probably also wants some influence there. But I think that he would make way for his son, Austin, Dylan, to sort of take over the reins. Richard's not going to be around forever. Somebody needs to, and I know Austin's already probably doing this,

but somebody needs to sort of be preparing themselves to continue RCR and whatever it is beyond, Richard Childers. And so while I think Austin has plenty of great years racing cars, they've got a great little race car driver right there that could take over that cup car, you know, for Richard and Austin. So it'll be interesting. I think that that's in play.

Not sure exactly what the timeline is, but I believe that that's sort of the possible direction. And it'll be, I'll be curious to see really what. what the timeline is, how quickly that happens. Let me tell you for me when that started to become a little evident, and that was in the acquisition or the alluring of Kyle Bush over, apparently from when I hear from public statements, Austin Dillon was the one that really kind of helped move that along.

That was the first time where, you know, for me and probably a lot of other people just to go, hmm, maybe he's like he's the guy that could be the, you know, the business guy. I never knew if Austin Dillon would have any of the business acumen or the interest of taking that role. But we know his dad did. It's funny you say this because me and a buddy of mine as we were watching the race from Homestead Sunday, we had this very debate on Austin Dillon. What is his future?

And we were having this debate because I told him that Austin Hill was going to be on our show this week. And it's like, yeah, what is, what does Austin Dillon do moving? for like how many more years does he have and i've always like figured austin dillon and what's your response to this like you've got you would love to have a stable full of a list drivers like a list drivers winning races two or two three four races a year Kyle bush is an a list driver how realistic is it to have a stable full of a listers or is a b you know b minus to me austin dylan has always been a good B level driver for an organization. He's won a Daytona 500. He's competitive. He's trying to get into, he's got years that are not so great or whatever, but like, you know, if, depending on a charter,

depending on if they go at a 13 or whatever that is, you know, we were just trying to figure out what would Austin Dillon be looking like for the next four or five years? And you bring up the point that you think, and I tend to agree with you. Man, who is going to be the next face or the next. guy at at uh at uh at richard children's racing i doubt it's mike dillon he probably wants to enjoy the rest of his life as well you know they've got great people over there we're fans of r c rston yeah well i think that you know austin ran great this weekend at homestead um as long as he's having you know as long as he's seeing his potential it may be a lure to keep him in the car it may want him honestly man if i was austin i know it's

hard for him to understand this or see this, but if I was Austin, I would be, I'd be out of the cup car, I'd be running the business, trying to learn underneath Richard as much as I could, and then run, you know, a dozen Xfinity races in a car that's capable of going out there and winning, and having fun, but also having time with my family. I could see that being a very happy place for Austin. not see that. In his world, he may think, no way am I leaving this cup car. I want to race this cup car. And I've got unfinished business here. He ran good this past weekend. I think as an owner, one A-list vet, like a Kyle Busch, a Kyle Larson, that is really, you need one in your stable.

You know, and I think one is enough. Financially, it's really great. to have a lot of young prospects, right? I look at William Byron and how as an owner that's affordable, right, to bring in a William Byron when he's coming out of Xfinity Series or a Tyler Redick, right? If you have a bunch of A-List guys, they've got to get paid like A-LIS guys. That's right, right? And who could afford that? Not a lot of teams can afford to pay two, three A-List guys, right?

So you had that one A list vet, that Larson or whatever it is that you need that's out there. He's going to be getting a nice base and going to be pretty expensive. And then you're going to have to take some flyers on some guys with potential like an Austin Hill. That's right. And you're going to trust that vet. You're going to say, hey, man, I am not only entrusting you to go out here and perform and win for us, as your paycheck and talent would assume, but you're also going to be showing this rookie. how to win. You're going to be talking to him during the week and, you know, shepherd him

throughout the season and develop him into an A-list champion. Being a good teammate is not a comment or a phrase to be taken lightly. It carries a lot of responsibility. It's certainly what you expect of your drivers at Junior Motorsports. Al-Gair is that veteran, that staple. that person that people, you're like, I need you to help these young kids that we have come through here. Elliot Sadler and Byron, I mean, there was a balance.

They get, and the veterans, man, it tests them because they get frustrated. The drivers beat them. The drivers run into them. The drivers do things that really get into grind their gears, man. Noah, you know, pushed all our guys around and tested their patients, right?

And, you know, but the veterans have to kind of regroup, retool, and then continue that mentorship. Yeah. You know, attitude. And that's what the owner needs them to do, right? Yeah. And so, I don't know.

I don't know. It'll be interesting to see what happens at RCR. They're still evolving. That Cobbush hire was a big, big deal, a great thing for RCR. And I think that next move is going to be a critical one. Yeah. So let me tell you a couple of the things I took away from that conversation with Austin Hill. One is his honesty and candor really did strike me as being somewhat unique. And I hope that

most people that sit at this table are honest. We assume they are. But for him, he did get into some details that we weren't even asking about or we didn't really expect him to do, but we didn't know either, right? But he exceeded my expectations and how much he was willing to just share. He was just put out there, you know, whether it be the fighting and the things that, you know, led up to that or particularly the thing that I love to watch, and this isn't just exclusive to him, but it's also, anytime that you get somebody that's really good at restrictor plate racing or drafting tracks, as we know them to be now, I love just watching the conversation between you two and the dynamics, because you guys now are speaking a language that me and, you know, I certainly don't speak and I don't

understand, but when you guys are talking about the attitudes of cars and this, that, and the other, like it is fun just to take it in and you had Austin who is who admits that he also is still learning the the drafting still a work in progress but he does have that knack that little instinctual thing that the greats do have and you recognize that and I did appreciate that and that that was a fun moment for me watching you guys go back and forth on that all right so great conversation great to have Austin come through look forward to you know the next current Xfinity driver that we get a chance to learn about and bring them through. I want to touch on some conversations that have been happening in the industry.

They had a racer's forum where Jeff Glorden made a comment about building up the drivers versus building up the team. And he explained that he would like NASCAR teams to have fan bases that rallied around them, regardless of who's driving their cars, much like. fan bases rally around professional sports teams in other major sports. Let's quote Jeff here. In all other sports, the teams are kind of what the fans are all drawn to. I'm a 49ers fan, no matter who the players are.

I think we all have a role as teams to build that brand up. He emphasized, though, that the drivers are still the stars of the show, but I don't know if that's really possible to, I will say, like, Trackhouse is chipping away at that possibility. So when Trackhouse came around, Justin Mark's name of the team alone, right, is not Justin Mark's Motorsports. It's not Justin's not Justin's last name. A lot of teams, right?

Joe Gibbs Racing, Hendrick, Kisalowski, all, they're all, you know, they're all tied into the owners specifically. Trackhouse was a brand. And they said right out of the gate. that they wanted to build this incredible facility right there on Broadway and turn their race shop into a destination where fans would come, party, eat, but also see the team preparing and working and readying themselves for the next season. And they wanted to be Nashville's team.

And so with that, I think with that idea, this is possible. But with all of the teams, residing right here in Concord, Charlotte, within literally 60 miles of each other, it's not possible, I don't believe. It's going to be more difficult for the teams to create brands that separate themselves from each other enough to where you're going to have fans, you know, that can get die hard behind a team. And how does a team that's been branded one thing forever, like RCR, right?

How does it create real equity and substance behind that? Whereas Trackhouse is sort of doing that. You know, Pit Bull named his album Trackhouse. Trackhouse has got logos in other forms of sport. Their brand is on other athletes in different sports. They're sort of trying to create an identity that's unique to what we know is a race team. and maybe in turn creating a fan base that loves all things trackhouse, right? Much like someone may love Chevrolet, Ferrari.

Manufacture Lord. Right. Right. And so that's where, you know, I know what Jeff wants. Yeah. Yeah. But, man, trying to create that, I think our, I think one thing that really stands in the way is literally the brand and the logo

and the name of the team, right? Like JR Motorsports. You know, when I named it that, I was naming Junior Motorsports because it's my race team. But maybe that wasn't the best choice in terms if I'm trying to create a national brand that's going to draw all these people in, right?

Right. Right. You're almost trying to just name an LLC. Yes. Who gives a lot of thought to that, right? Nobody. Yeah. Hendrick, all those. Right. You would, yeah.

And so that's where I think, If this is truly really possible, I don't even know if it is. If it's truly really possible, the only team that's inching that way or getting close to creating that reality is track house. I mean, I can appreciate you think that. I don't know that I agree totally with that. I think that there's a lot of, I think that there's team affinity with Hendrick Motorsports. I'm not saying that it's overwhelming.

The one thing I say in response to all this is I think Jeff, is right, not in that that's what we all should. I think the teams have a role, and this was his quote, I think we have a role as teams to build our brand up. That is 100% true. That is 100% true. I don't know whether or not it's realistic that fans will all of a sudden just cheer for the team in spite of the driver. That may not be realistic. I do think that teams should want to be able to have a brand strong enough because it's going to be a revolving door driver's, Most likely, you're going to have people come up, especially as we are in the Xfinity series. But that's my question.

I turn back to you. Junior Motorsports is way big a brand than you would even give it credit for because our whole business model is to send them on, send our drivers on. Algar could be an exception. Sadler, there's people that do come back and end their careers here. But we're trying, we can't go build, well, we wouldn't want driver affinity to be the sole purpose. and the sole sponsorship attraction here because as soon as they get good, they're going off to Cups.

So Junior Motorsports, you see people here and there with a JRM tattoo and stuff like that. I do think that there is an element of team affinity for the NASCAR fan base. Not exclusively, for sure. But I do think that Jeff's right and that teams have a responsibility

to at least try for that. I don't think Jeff's wrong. I just don't know how you do it. I mean in F1 the teams are manufacturers that's right you know for the most part for the most part

and so the the big affinity for some of the bigger teams is that manufacture loyalty and the location of that manufacturer right the country that's right and so we don't we don't have that no because we're all in the same place for the most part we're all in the same place

and yeah I mean so you know there's multiple Chevy teams. There's multiple Ford teams. It's just not necessarily going to be easy to turn and go in that direction, right, that he wants to go.

But I believe that some of the ideas that might help Jeff achieve that are already happening at Trackhouse. Yeah, I don't disagree with you there. Look, Trackhouse, we don't look at

track house and go, oh, that's old tip me nassie. Track house to me is like, no, no, you're right. It's own thing. And it has done that in a year, in two years. It's done that in a very blink of an eye. It's created an identity, a brand that is really, I would give it a lot of credit. I mean, it's created something that usually takes decades. That's right. Of consistent winning, by the way. Because again, track house, yeah, there, on their way to what appears to be building a brand that's sustainable and it doesn't depend on a driver. If whoever comes in after Ross Chastain or Daniel Suarez or whoever, all of a sudden they're not

competing very well or whatever, then the trackhouse brand isn't going to sustain like we think it will. So Hendrick Motorsports has a legacy of being able to produce champions no matter who's in the driver's seats, right? Like the wins and championships. I think that's the Hendrick Motorsports legacy and therefore there are Hendrick Motorsports fans. They used to be Jeff Gordon fans. Now they're maybe William Byron fans or maybe whatever, right? So you do have to win, but it does take decades. I do agree with that.

Interesting. Brad Keslaski made a comment on the Cup driver's star power. Right now there isn't a really good return on investment for the teams to invest in driver's star power. If a driver leaves, it's a big loss in that investment made, which is not great. and they don't get anything long, they don't get any long lasting value. I can understand this.

So the teams are hesitant to invest in creating stars because the driver could just up and go. That's right. And now the team is left holding the bag or holding the, holding the invoice. Do you agree with this? So you and I went through this in the bud days. In my mind,

the responsibility for creating star power rests on corporate America and NASCAR. The teams have a responsibility to activate on opportunity, to take advantage of opportunity, much like you know, you and Jade Gersd, as publicists were seizing chances when presented them. But those were presented by our access that Budweiser gave us. NASCAR's enthusiasm, right, to get in certain publications and get on in a certain sitcom or whatever. And so

NASCAR's role to utilize its leverage and its strength in the world and also whatever corporate sponsors that you have that may have that same connections or leverage. and it's your team, your PR team, it's your race team, right? Whoever's working for your race team that's paired up with whatever driver, that person's got to be active, got to be eager. And at times I'm certain cold calling people to try to see if there's interest

to have that driver be a part of something. And it's absolutely, you know, got to be outside of the box, outside of the normal racing, you know, publications. But you did that. You were that person. So, I mean, what is your opinion of Brad Keselowski's thoughts on, you know, creating starred power and whose responsibility that is? I understand exactly what he's saying.

It's not as cut and dry as you would hope. Let's go back to the example you just mentioned, Budweiser days. I would have, and I did agree with you, that the corporate sponsors were the sole mover of developing a driver's stower power. Anheiser, we can say this from our worldview. Did you just make that? Yeah, I made it. Well, this is the first.

We've been shooting at this basket. He's waddened up papers and shooting him in a basket. See, you just derailed because I'm now interested in about where that basket is. But the fact, but Anheuser Bush was extremely influential because of how much money and access they had to all that stuff. It helped. It helped in a great way. Today, though, let's ask this question. They've got to be honest. Is the way the corporate landscape in NASCAR today, are they even capable of building a star with as much? The way sponsorships are all divided up, I mean, the cost of it. I mean, like, I don't, I don't know with the exception of maybe Denny and FedEx. I can't even think of a consistent corporate sponsor that even relates to the driver in which they represent.

They don't do it long enough for it to even develop an equity. At least, and even Denny's is broken up. FedEx, you know, they took, now Mavis and others are on there. Is Mavis responsible for the Denny Hamlin? Or today with the landscape is the driver most responsible for how much in the team the driver builds around them, whether it be the race team or their own personal team. I think that it's shifted to that. I don't think the corporate sponsor has as much pull on this anymore.

I think the dollars and the budgets and the way the media landscapes changed. Budweiser, we can depend on a Super Bowl commercial. Yeah. But, you know, who in the NASCAR? Who's doing that now? So I think that the drivers have as much, or if not more, responsibility. I look around the sponsorship, I look around at sponsors on side of the race cars and there's still large corporate America companies that also invest and spend in other areas. And that's where I think, you know, if FedEx is.

you know, sponsoring or if they're branding on a stadium or for a national sports team. Sure. Like, I mean, there's ways that they all need to, it's almost like the B2B. That's true. There's ways that they need to, you know, Napa and Chase, golly. I mean, I know they don't make national commercials like they used to like Michael Waltrip did for years, right, that ran in every single race. You know, there's got to be certain ways that I believe the drivers, you know, their drivers don't have to be willing.

Like they get contracted into certain responsibilities. I didn't go willingly shooting all those commercials. I know. We joke about that, but I do think you were savvy enough to know the benefits to it. I think you did. Am I wrong? No. Oh, come on.

I could have been doing something else. Again, that's not what we're debating. Of course you could have been doing something else. I'm saying is that you did recognize. Listen, I'm not saying that that's not happening now in terms of the corporate influence. I'm just, my point on this is that I don't think that they're sold driver. I mean, I don't think Brad, I don't think Brad as an owner should feel any responsibility to spend money, invest on creating a star. I think he should be asking his partners to do what.

they can and use that driver wherever possible, that that driver is available to them. Here he, you have, you have put your name on this car. I will make my driver go wherever you need him to be. And if that can actually help introduce him to more people, whether that's a, you know, a national media spot or, you know, going to their national sales convention in front of 10,000 of their employees, whatever, right? Yeah. I need you to tell me, and he's yours.

That's right. I mean, again, I think the driver's ability, I think they have a little bit more weight in that, and that they also can disrupt that more than I've ever known it to be. Maybe I'm wrong on that. The interesting thing also, and I don't know if this particularly relates to it, but there was a shift, if you'll remember this. Like, when I was working for you, I didn't work for DEI.

Yeah. I was working with you as the fingerprint incorporated, which was the publicity agency for both. Budweiser. There was a shift where the teams started baking in the PR internally and the sponsors let that happen. They started saying, okay, whether it was in budgets or whatever it reason, the team said we want to handle the PR. So to Brad's, a counterpoint to Brad, and I don't know what the Kozlowski racing setup is, but if they start taking in their own PR, then they do have a responsibility of some point. Well, they're choosing.

They're making the choice that that's now their job to invest in that driver. If you're, it's a great point, Mike. I see what you're saying. So is it maybe advice to Brad or any owner out there to put the onus back on the partner to have the PR firm, hire the creative? I mean, in Brad's point to say we can't invest in the building up a star part? Brad would probably love to hand that. that off too.

That would be an interesting conversation with Brad, wouldn't it? Because again, if what I'm hearing him say is true, he shouldn't have a problem doing that, right? But then the teams all- Going to Kings wine and saying, hey, you guys, y'all hire the creative and PR firm that's going to show up at the racetrack and shepherd the driver around responsibilities and appearances throughout the year. And make our sponsor happy so that they want to keep investing in here. Right, right. I mean, you could make that, it's a conversation worth having.

That's also probably, I mean, I think that would have to be a better way for it to work because the sponsors, the one really with the better connections to, you know, to media, right? To magazines to. Yeah, outside the industry, exactly. Yes. Right. The idea would be, hey, look, we've got Claire B-Line covered. You don't need to develop a relationship there. We've got Bob Pockrass covered.

Go pitch us into places that we can't get. That should be the idea, which would be the advantage of having a publicity armed that's not race team controlled. Sure. Yeah. Because then what happens when the drive, you know, what happens when it's race team controls, the driver can start to manipulate things quite a bad. Thank you.

Yeah. And that's what's happened. Yeah. That's what's happened. And now the driver's like, yeah, I'm not available. Exactly. And you know what? They don't have to sort it out or answer to the sponsor necessarily.

It's just sorting. out with the race team owner. It can be detrimental, frankly. And it has been in some cases. We crack the code, Mike. I think it's also time to go to some Ask Junior. Why don't we bring up our YouTube page? Let's get connected to the world outside using that incredible Xfinity 10G network.

And you've all compiled all your questions to Xfinity Racing on Twitter. And we're ready to answer them. So Alex is going to get it fired up. All right. questions from Kenny. Did running the Xfinity race on Saturday help you call the cup race on Sunday at all? Absolutely. You know, I got out there and drove the car and understood some balance issues with the track

and some of the challenges of trying to run the high line. The bottom actually in one and two worked really, really well. And so that was something that I thought would happen in the cup race, and it did. We leaned heavily into that net. narrative of running the wall right in our pre-race. We had produced, you know, sound bites around it. I did a voiceover for this little piece. And it was important to run the wall.

You know, there were some cars that made good time up there. But in the Exfinity race, I did understand that the tracks a little bit wider for this particular weekend than I think we expected. And that bottom groove did come in handy for several cars throughout the day in all the races, really. And so that's like one example of something. So, you know, you go into the race a little more open-minded. It ain't like, hey, man, you've got to make the top work or you're done.

You know, you can actually find some speed elsewhere. Awesome. This next question has something to do with the pre-race. Melanie, she watched a pit bull interview pre-race, and she wants to know if there's a celebrity or athlete, you wish you could interview like that. Well, I don't think there's one that stands out, to be honest with you, but it's always nerve.

It's always nerve-wracking. At Homestead, I got to interview Pitbull. You know about that. It's on the show sheet in the morning. You get up, and they're like, hey, here's the countdown to green show sheet. And you read this show sheet, and there's like, okay, they're going to toss it to Dale Jr. and Burton, and you're going to be somewhere, and that's what you're doing. You don't get to really choose.

I mean, you do get some influence, but it's pretty much, you know, all spelled, out for you what they want you to do and what they'd rather you talk about and some of the topics that they think are prevalent and so you know in those moments you get to you get to say what you want i get to ask pit bull what i'd like to i certainly go to my producer say hey what do you want asked of of pit bull or whoever it may be we're interviewing but i i say you know hey you know one the when when a celebrity comes when a celebrity comes to nascar right and then they experience it right They've been there that day. They watched the race or whatever.

I really want to know their impression. Did they like it? Is it better than they thought? Is it not good? What, right? I want to know what that person thinks. What are they going to go back and tell their friends? What are they going to say?

You know, and so that's my first thing. And that was my question to Pitbull. You've been in this deal for a couple years now. What do you love about it? What is, what do you think? What is NASCAR do you? And so he was full of energy, great guy, really genuine, fun to talk to, easy. Sometimes you get nervous about doing that, doing an interview with a celebrity because you're not sure how well they'll work with you in those moments and how happy they'll be to be doing the interview on camera.

We see some extremes there when you watch F1 broadcast, right? Yeah. You get some celebrities on the grid that don't even want to do it, right? And so it can be, but usually that stuff's teed up and they're ready. We know they're coming. They know they're going to be part of the show. And they're kind of ready to switch it on. But I'll be honest.

I don't think Pitbull switches it on. I think he's like that all day, every day. He's got great energy. And I interviewed Michael Jordan at Homestead a couple years ago. You're just always nervous, you know, but excited. And it's a great experience when you're done. and you're like, man, that went well, you know, hopefully that went well. You really have to wait until somebody text you on the phone and tell, luckily, Morgan

Overstreet texts me after that. She goes, that was a great interview. And I'm like, thank you so much for sending that text because I really don't know whether it was good or bad. And so we talked about this, we talked about that interview and how we were scrambling on the grid right before we went live in dirty air. So you'll want to listen to that because it was pretty comical how it all went down. We almost were not ready. So I'll say that.

I think the fact he named his album, Trackhouse, tells us how all in he really is with it. That was pretty cool. Next one is from Iran. What did you think of the action from Tri-County Speedway in the car store? Both races had a lot of action. They did. All right, here it is.

You know, Tony's senior, right? He's my old crew chief from the Cup days. He was there. He was helping, he was a Tony Jr. And they were helping Chris Wright in the pro race. And so the pro race is happening. And Tony Senior texts me and he goes, is this your series? I was like, yeah.

I was like, stick around, man. The late mall stock race won't be this way. And so, you know, I'll be honest with you, man. Straight up, the pro race was embarrassing. I want things to be sensational. I want there to be some controversy. I'm okay with drivers going over that line and maybe being a bit aggressive,

but a lot of what I saw was egregious and just too much, right? The last lap, you know, the guy just really got just got dumped. And we've seen that there before at that exact same racetrack and that exact same corner and that exact same situation a year or two ago,

a guy getting turned off turn 4 at the coming to the checker and in the pro late model race. And so the deal with the pros is the drivers at times are a lot younger. A lot.

they're still working on their racecraft. They're still understanding the do's and don'ts. And I think that they need a different, they need a different experience when it comes to the driver meeting. They need a little bit different instruction. And Jack, who works with us at the cars tour, does a really good job. When he's got to say something about rough driving

or wrecking with a young driver, he's very convincing. And so maybe there's something that we do a little bit differently. So we have this sort of all-in drivers meeting, and everybody comes, and it's all the pros and the late models, and maybe there's a little bit of a tailored experience for both, right? Not that our late models are immune to that same sort of shenanigans. I mean, my own drivers have been penalized races for intentionally wrecking drivers. So it does happen in the late model stocks, but it just seems like that.

like the late model stocks and at the pro at the uh cars tour level the late model stock drivers have been in the series a lot longer and there's a bit there's there's a bit of a veteran presence there bobby mccarty and a few other guys that will not tolerate you know what what some of those other drivers are doing on the racetrack deep uh deep mccaskel and a couple of those guys are there and not only are they great stewards of the tour but they also help those younger drivers really understand where the limit is, right? What's tolerated and what's not. The pro class doesn't really have that better presence.

It's a lot of young kids really just trying to learn how to race. And so I wasn't shocked or surprised. I was more disappointed and embarrassed a little bit by the pro series. And, you know, you're not going to have that every single week, but every once in a while it's going to happen and you just have to, you know, try to get to the, get to the, to the drivers, have a conversation with them, tell them, look, man, you know, we cannot have this. It's even worse when it spills over into the pitch.

You've got grown people fighting like kids, shouting over the roofs, the race cars at each other. It's a really bad look. Yeah. What did you think about the late model stocks with Butterbean taking home? Butterbean just, you know, spank them, man. They've been fast there, and they kind of got one taken away from them at the last race of Tri-County, so they got the redemption.

that they wanted. Bobby McCartney and Stephen Nassie had a great battle for fifth, which was good. I like it when, you know, the pro, I like it when the super guys come run our late model stocks. You know, Stephen Nassie ran with us and Bubba Pollard ran with us before. And so we'd love to see, you know, all these drivers get them a late model stock car, come show up every once in a while and have some fun with us. I'd love for our Cup organizations and Xfinity teams

Like one there's a few Xfinity teams that have some late model stock cars Alpha Prime I think has one But I'd love for our our Xfinity and truck teams and cup teams to house a late model stock car That they you know would would either run the full or limited schedule on the cars tour and so it we'd have some more teams trying to compete. They had 30 cars at Tri-County. That's a great car count, and that's plenty. We had to actually add a couple cars to the field,

but I'd certainly love to see some of these other teams, you know, start buying race cars and start showing up. Yeah, that'd be cool. A couple more for you here. This one, I love this question. Katie wants to know, who would the NASCAR equivalent to beat, like Taylor Swift dating Travis Kelsey?

Wow. Would it be Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin? That's the sum she gave. Blania thinks off the market. Chase Elliott is our hope, right? That's that equal star power. Yeah. That was that, who was the girl that I think she was.

Oh, Livy Dunn? Yes. Talking about that. I believe that Chase went to NASCAR and said, I think she's cool. I'd love to meet her. And I think it would be great for NASCAR if you invited her to come to the track, it would show

maybe some of her fans might be curious as to why she was there and they may then, in turn, experienced NASCAR for the first time. So I believe Chase sort of leveraged that actually happening, which was really cool on Chase's part.

But yeah, it's going to be, if anybody I think it's going to be Chase Elliott, it's going to have to if anybody can create that type of you know, buzz in the sport, it would be him. Yeah. Mike got a suggestion, I know.

Chase Elliott. That's right. Yeah, it's pretty spot on. Last one here from Kelsey. What's the silliest rumor you've heard about yourself? I hear a lot of, you know, it's a lot of times it's owning property in places that I don't own property. Really?

I mean, there was a rumor that me and Michael have, better ones than this, but there was a rumor that me and Matt Kenseth had property together up in Wisconsin somewhere that I was, oh, man, my buddy said you was on a snowmobile last year bar hopping with Matt Kenseth. I'm like, no, never did that. But it's, yeah, you're buying property or you're going to buy property, you bought property or you own property or are you going to build a racetrack somewhere

I hear that from time to time yeah there was a time you know it's funny kind of going back to the last question Dale was the bachelor that everybody rumored to have been you know somebody's dating and I remember for a while what's the

girl's name that won the very first American Idol that oh uh Kelly Clarkson Kelly Clarkson there was that rumor that they were dating which was funny only because I remember this because Kelly Clarkson did come to Daytona and did meet Dale right after driver's meeting. I don't know if you remember this,

but it was funny because she goes, oh yeah, we're rumored to be dating and all the tabloids and it's good to finally meet you. That's funny. And like, so since we're dating, you know, according to all the tabloids, it's probably good that we meet, you know, or something like that.

It was kind of funny. She's awesome. I've had, every time that I've actually crossed paths with her, man, she's been super nice. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Super nice. Yeah, that's awesome.

Well, that's all I got for you. All right. Great questions, man. I hope everybody enjoyed their weekend. I hope you enjoyed Homestead. I had a blast. Not sure where we're going to run next year. We're definitely going to run another race next year.

And I'm looking forward to Martinsville, racing right up the road from the house, about an hour and 20 minutes. And we're only two races to go. And we're going to figure out who this champion's going to be. All right, man, great show. I appreciate everybody listening to us. week. I hope you tuned in Tuesday and Wednesday as well for Austin Hill. Thank you to all of our other entities, actions detrimental, door bumper clear, Speed Street,

and the guys at Dirty Mo Doe. It's been a fun week, and we're running out of races, and that means our season's coming to an end. It's been a long one this year, but a fun one. We've got a few more shows left, Mike. That's right, man. Looking forward to it. But fun, fun a bunch of episodes this week and have fun at Martinville, my man. It's going to be fun. I'm looking forward to going and watch some racing. I had fun racing in the Xfinity series.

Now I'm tired. I'm ready to take a break. And watch this season play out. And hopefully it's going to be good for us at Junior Motorsports and obviously exciting on the Cupside as well. So we'll see at the racetrack. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.