The Dale Jr. Download - 516 - Daytona 500 Recap: Amy Joins & Byron Calls In

Episode Date: February 20, 2024

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back from a rainy weekend in Daytona to deliver another edition of Dirty Air. Despite Mother Nature proving to be unpredictable scrambling the weekend schedule, there was still a lot of NASCAR action to unpack: Amy is in the house to set the record straight Dale experiences a parking fiasco What can be done to cut down on wrecks in the Truck races? The latest on the NASCAR charter negotiations Daytona 500 Champion William Byron calls in How was the finish actually determined?  During the Ask Jr. portion of the episode, listeners sent in questions regarding: Dale’s favorite Girl Scout cookie Favorite Earnhardt family tradition? Is Dale a good gift giver? Isla and Nicole playing sports 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.

Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download here in the Bojangles Studio. And we've got a big week for you here on the Dale Jr. Download, Dirty Air today. And then tomorrow, our guest, Ray Everingham, it's going to be exciting. In the studio for Dirty Air, my wife, Amy. Hey. Hey. It's nice to have Amy here. She's going to help us sort of recap the Daytona 500 and everything that happened Monday. We're also going to have William Byron calling in to tell us what he's got going on. He's going to be running. around doing media and then Asch Jr. later in the show, it's going to be a lot of fun. Let's get started.

The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Rain continues to fall here at Daytona International Speedway. It's rainy and it's cold. Point gustor, up to 35 miles per hour. Rain, rain, and well, more rain. We will not be racing today. NASCAR is pushed on to live. race until 4 p.m. tomorrow.

Monday racing year at Dayton. Oh my goodness. Oh no. Oh, look out. All right, so there's a lot to get to, and having Amy here is going to be a lot of fun. Amy, you watch some of the races. But I was allowed to watch by our daughters, yes. We were texting back and forth a little bit about our day as I was in Daytona, and Amy was home watching the girls.

But first off, we were flying to the racetrack, expecting to see the Xfinity race at 11 o'clock and we learned mid-flight that the race was going to happen at 9 p.m. Yeah. I was a little frustrated by that, right? What are we going to do the rest of the day? Of course, you know, seeing the Daytona 500 in person is not a bad deal, but you convinced you had some great ideas, said, hey. Well, you typically just panicked, and so I figured that was what was happening.

I didn't know who all was on the plane either, and you probably had plenty of ideas of things to do, but, you know, I remember all the little things we used to do when we used to go together, so just gave you a few ideas. She did. We went to Total Wine and signed some High Rock vodka bottles and some electric orange. They had some electric orange cream. Sipping cream. Sipping cream.

Yeah, from Sugarlands. So me and you are involved in the electric orange, but also we're a big part of ownership in the high rock vodka brand. And they set those sold out pretty quickly. We tweeted out that we went over there. So that killed a little time. Then we went over to Bass Pro shops directly across from the racetrack. It's noon. I was just going to say.

I don't remember the Bass Pro being there. Yeah. It's like 10 or 11 o'clock. We're trying to kill a little bit of time before lunch. And we went into Bass Pro. It was slammed. The registers were about 30 people deep. Every aisle had people in it.

And we went through Bass Pro looking around and took a few pictures. And then we got out of there. Did you buy anything? No, I don't think. think we did buy anything from there. We ended up going over to New Smyrna to this place. The Yellow Dog. A really cool place to eat if you're in Daytona in July or vacation at any point in a year. New Smyrna is a really cool town. And me and you spent some time there and Yellow Dog Eats is a great

place to get some food. It's a fun little dive and they have excellent food. And the menu kind of changes up. So that's fun about it too. The food's delicious. I got a buffalo chicken wrap and loved it. And then we buy some of their barbecue sauce. I got some sauce for Kelly and LW to take home. But anyways, we had a good time.

Then we went on over to the racetrack and buckled in for a long day. And it was pretty easy getting into the racetrack and finding our parking spot. And speaking of parking spots, I wanted to tell a little story. and Amy this is very helpful that you're here so um you know I love doing things for you and a lot of times it doesn't come naturally um but sometimes you know you'll tell me hey can you can you do this for me um and I'm like yes I would love to do that direct orders is usually yes so I'm out driving around maybe I'm picking up one of the girls from school or whatever and Amy will say I got to up at the grocery store, you mind going to grabbing it.

And she'll put it in the Instacart and you pull up into the parking lot and there's two spots that are, you know, got these big, they've got these big signs that say reserved for pickup. All right, big green sign right in front of the parking spot. Now, they're premium parking spots. They're up front. And so you can pull in there and you do a little dance on your phone and they'll bring the groceries out.

to the car. And so this is kind of something that kind of started from the pandemic. Exactly. But it's foolproof and it's a fabulous option that they kept because of having kids and shopping is not fun. Yeah. I like to go in the store and pick my own bag of grapes. That is the only conflict or downside I see to this is like, yes, they, you know,

if it's a boxed or bagged item, you know, it's all the same. But when you're getting something specific like grapes, you want to look at the grapes. Yeah. I'm that lady. If I'm in the store shopping for the grapes, I'm poking all of the bags of the grapes. So I'm sorry. Your grapes are going to get touched by me, at least through the bag,

because of this man's insane level of need for crunchy grapes. If I bring home a bag of grapes, and there's one squishy one, he's like, that wag was, what are you doing? It'll sit in there. And so I have extensive notes, too, in my Instacart. If someone else is shopping for us, it says, please don't buy anything but the crunchiest grapes. Oh my gosh.

They must hate us. We have a repeat shopper, so I think that's why we've gotten the good ones. But when you're doing the Instacart, you're hoping you get the good bag of grapes. And I'm pulling into the parking lot, right? And so I'm driving by the front of the store, right? I'm right in that little spot, right in front of the store where there people are coming in and out. And I'm looking directly in front of me at the two spots. and there's an empty spot and a car in another spot.

And I'm like, okay, I'm going to take that empty spot. But before I turn into that aisle to get into that spot, there's a lady in front of me trying to turn into the same aisle, and I'm like, by all means, go ahead. You turn in, find your spot. Well, she does a little UV right into the empty spot, right? She's going to do a little insta cart. No problem.

All right, I'm going to do some laps until one of these spots, opens up, right? And so I'm driving around, but as I pass by these two spots that are now both occupied, their original vehicle, I notice is empty. The person

did the unthinkable. Shopping inside the store. They went inside. It's a big no-no. Yeah. Yeah. And so I'm like, and I've seen this has happened before. It's not a new thing, but it gets you every time, right? That spot That spot is reserved for dads.

For dads? Yeah, for dads. And elderly people, I don't know. People who love grapes. People who want us to shop. And that's it. Right? Dad's on the go.

So I drive like, damn it. And so I drive like four laps. He's driving around the parking lot too in that rainbow truck. So he's very visible. And I'm like, there's people in their cars on the back side of this parking lot. lot that are like seeing me multiple times and I'm like yeah me again coming back through bud and uh finally I'm pulling up to uh the spots again and I see this lady wheeling her little card out there was she elderly by the way she was older to me and so uh I'm not going to touch

I I you know I was like you you you're the one and so uh she gets in her car and drives away And, you know, I tried to make eye contact with her. She didn't. Show her how to get it. She was a good old stare-down. I was, yeah. I was not important. And so, anyways, all right, I'm going to pull into this spot that's now empty.

I pull in. The car that did the U-turn that gets into the spot originally that I, you know, is empty. That lady, too, parked in that spot that I was going to pull into and is now walked into the store. She's in the store. Oh, man. At this point he's calling me And how upset is he on the phone? This car

His high pitch like this lady She's got a little stuffed animals across the dash Oh man Come on, I'm like it The nerve Yeah, the nerve And so She too likes to pick out her own grapes

Yeah What if they instacarded the rest And they're just picking out the grapes in the show Well you gotta pick your shit up And you go park in another spot Yeah Okay My thought on the remedy for this

and Amy may not like this is the store needs to move these reserve spots to an undesirable position. The reason why the people are taking them is because they're up front and they're premium spots. So if I'm going to sit in my car and wait for groceries,

I can sit in the back of the, you know, push me out toward the back. Make the employees walk. Yeah, right. So that's not convenient for anyone anymore. Right? I don't know. I just think if these spots are that critical, let's not have this happen.

How do we remedy to this? I feel like maybe they could do a curb, a curbside pickup. So some of the other grocery stores do it that way. It's not in the parking lot. It's closer to the actual building. Well, all of this is going on, and I call Amy, right?

Okay, if you get all spun out, right, or you just need to vent, you just got to get some off your chest. You can't keep it to yourself. Can't. Can't. Can't. Just can't.

Who do you call? My fiancee. Yeah. Who do you call? call. I'm single, so. I bottle it up. This is a good thing to take notes on. You don't have to call. You call a buddy? You don't have to call. Yeah. I just listen to nickel back and just scream. Well, I call Amy and I'm like, man, you ain't going to believe this. Because I'm certain she can relate. She's done this. Certainly this has happened to her, surely. Yeah, meanwhile, I'm at home dealing with whatever I'm dealing with, and he calls and he's got nothing but complaints

about how hard this is to pick up the groceries. I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, all you got to do is just get in the spot and get your things. And now at this point, he has made so many laps through the parking lot in his rainbow truck that the girl who has his groceries ready because he's, they're tracking you, you know. Oh, that's even worse. So they're tracking him doing laps around the parking lot.

And the lady comes out and I hear, she's like, oh, my gosh, we thought Dale and Hart Jr.'s out of here just doing lapses for his grocery. He's all crazy. I'm like, I hang up immediately. I'm like, okay. Now I've had enough. Now the lady inside feels bad for him, so he's gotten his emotions out, and now he's going to get some pity too.

Amy said something along the lines of, if you got out more, this would happen to you more often, like it does everybody else in the world. You'd be a little bit more desensitized to this. She's like, this is not unusual, and this happens to everybody all the time. Just happens to you every once in a while because you're insulated. So, um, insulated.

It's a great word. I don't know. I would love to hear from other people that have had the, you know, the inside shopper park in the, in the pickup spot. I'm always really careful about those spots in general. I mean, even when I was pregnant and it said expecting mothers, I didn't park in that spot because I thought, I'm fine. Like somebody else might need that.

Very expecting. There's just no manners. Someone who's really expecting. Somebody who's really, really into the store. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, they should be shopping for sure. Yeah. Well, man, don't be one of those people.

Don't park in that spot and get out and go inside. Don't. If I see that rainbow truck at the grocery store, I'm going to, I'm going to, just to annoy you. One of these days, he's going to do the Tawanda from, was it, fried green tomatoes and just ram the car. Have you all not? Who's that? You're too young for that movie, aren't you? Oh, God.

Fried Green Tomatoes. Katie Bates, she rams this car of these two young girls that pull into her party spot. And she screams to Wanda the entire time. She goes back and forth and rams them like six times. So another quick debate before we move on to Daytona, my 50th year or my 50th birthday coming up, right? Do you throw a party or do you have experiences? Well, you got to celebrate it somehow. Like it's a milestone.

I think you. You got to blow it out, man. Oh, man. What if you blew it out as much as you could have for your 40th? And your 30th and all the 20s. Sounds like, I don't know. And you're 48. We're down a couple cylinders now.

We need to save the rest. It's funny because, like, I never celebrate my birthday, but something like that, I feel like you got to go big. The 50th, dude. So I saw somebody, I won't name his name. He's a race car driver I race with. And he's like, 50 bothered me. because I was like, dude, I'm getting ready to turn 50.

He's like, hang on because it bothered me. And I'm like, I'm starting to feel it. Like, 50 is not a thing you want to get everybody in the room and celebrate. 50 is a, 50 is like a line where you go from one life to another. It's not this. Are your feelings hurt for turning 50? It's hurting your feelings? Yeah.

Sure. I'll say that. That's fair. So you feel like once you turn 50, now you're officially over the hill, old age? When I heard, when I was in my 20s, right, and I heard somebody say, you know, I'm 45. I'm like, ooh. Yeah. Close to 50.

When I heard them say, yeah, I'm 58. I'm 53. I'm like, damn, you're beyond 50. Like, that's a 50 is a number. It's a big number. Yeah, it's a big one. Right? and it's not something I'm super thrilled about

and I feel like that it's instead of like locking down in one spot and having all these people come into a room and feel this obligation to entertain and host at 50 I want to take Amy and have experiences I want to you know, do something with my, with our kids.

I want to, I want to have some moments that we'll look back on and go, what a damn cool year this was, right? We did X, Y, and Z. And we will not have the energy for a party. What were the other parties then?

They were big. You said you exhausted them already. All right. My 40th, my 30th was great. I mean, ludicrous was there. He just drove up. just to come and sit. That's badass. That's awesome.

I was a big fan of Arturo Gotti, a boxer. He came. Three doors down. There was a handful. Yeah, there was a handful. But there was a handful of folks that were really neat. You know, my 40th, we had 21 pilots play. I would say confidently before they blew up.

Basically right before. Right? Like literally, I stumbled on to them somehow and was like, and Amy was, I don't remember, I think Amy and everybody was like, he'll love this. Let's get them to play. Not knowing that they were going to turn into this thing. It was 10 years ago. They came between shows. We sent the plane and picked them up.

And they were very happy to do it. In the middle of the summer, was that when, was the big boat bash? Remember we had that big party on that on our boat? with Danica and all them. Oh, yeah. When we were playing 21 pilots. And I think it was like the first time a lot of people had heard it. So we were out on the lake.

It was probably right around before my birthday. And I was playing 21 pilots on our boat. We had about 30 people on this boat by the middle of the day. Clint Boyer and Stenhouse and all them. Casey was there. It was great. And I'm playing 21 pilots. And a lot of these people are hearing it for the first time.

and man it turned a party on did it not it was wild and and I think you know every Amy was like this will be great let's get them let's get them so we got them they came they played they rocked it out they took so there was one particular part of the show where they brought TJ majors oh man and he had to lay on the piano he laid on his side on the piano like like he was like he was a model yeah like he was a model being drawn it was a weird deal but it was freaking hilarious they incorporated him into the song too it was awesome one of my favorite pictures from that night is all of us at the front of the of the crowd we're in midair

everybody in the photo jumping jumping is in mid air wow we were having so much fun jumping to a particular song and then somebody took a picture and all of us are like six inches to a foot off the ground that's crazy yeah having the greatest time of our life um it was a big party and everyone i knew was there of course um and i don't i don't think you do that again no I mean, I'm tired, too. I really... I'm still tired. Hardies is hard.

We're still tired from that one. Trying to figure out how to, like, do the next cool thing or who to invite and coordinating all that. It's just a lot of work. And since he told me it wasn't so important, I have shelved that, you know what I mean? You might do something here at the shop with everybody. I mean, everyone wants, like you said, everyone wants to celebrate. And that's okay to do, but we don't have to do.

We'll have a beer taste. There you. Yeah. A little quick beer. People love that. A little quick L.A. I can usually find an angle to convince someone to party. I don't know.

That seems like a pretty tough. That's a high bar to meet for 50. I think you go to the experience. Like what do we do next? Yeah. We're going to go travel and see. And we got a lot of time this year. We've been working on our travel plans this week.

I've, so man, I'm going to tell you too. Me and Amy went on this trip and we used an agent. She was awesome. It was really, really good. And I'd probably do the same thing again if we had that similar type of a trip. We went to Europe. But on this one, I'm buying all the tickets. And we together are booking the rooms and doing all that, putting our, you know, putting

some sweat equity into these. It's a little nerve-wracking, that part. But so we used the agent, but this was for my 40th. We went to France. And we're leaving. We get out of the front gate. And we both get an alert on our phone from American Airlines that our flight had been delayed. And we look at it.

I'm like, at the same time. I don't really understand what they're going to. the delay is. Well, the date was different. Oh, wow. Just bumped us till the next day and we're like, that's not gonna work, you know? Like you can't connect and get to anywhere you wanna get.

Everything's already set up. So he is on the phone trying to coordinate all that. So he's good at this. They did the same thing with our connection when we actually got into our flight. They canceled our connection. So he's rerouting, I'm sleeping. He's rerouting everything on his app.

And so he's good at it. But I think that's what gave you confidence to do this. yourself. All right, let's get on into it, the meat of the show here, talking about Daytona on Dirty Air. Today's Dirty Air segments brought you by Tire Pros. Whether you know a lot about cars or a little, the pros at Tire Pros are a go-to. From an oil change to an engine repair, they've got you covered. Visit your local Tire Pros today. I love Tire Pros. All those Tire Pros are local businesses. They're mom and pops. They're owned by people in our community. And Tire Pro is a big

quarter of all of their stores and individuals that work in them. And it's really cool. We've been to a couple local ones around here. Hard working people, man. Blue collar. And they know their stuff. So anyhow, let's get into it. The duels were interesting.

Blaney had a massive, massive hit. Yeah. You know, whatever it was, 50-some Gs. 55. This dude has taken some hits in his career. And he's smart about it. We see these drivers, and they talk about how hard this car hits, how hard it wrecks. Harvicks talked about this already as a broadcaster that the next-gen car hits and crashes harder than anything he's ever drove.

And Blaney, to his credit, got connected with the United Medical Center of Pittsburgh, and he's connected to a lot of great smart doctors, very self-aware, very smart about his health. so when I see him have these crashes I am very confident in his ability to understand how to take care of himself but he is taking a lot of hard hits luckily the race was pushed back a day to allow him to recover

and the hard hits are coming from shoves from a lot of the same people you know Brad Kiselowski is in a lot of these situations you know I love Brad great friend of mine but man you know and I picked him to win the Dayton

on a 500 thought he was going to get it done and and I think that you know I want that for him but it seems like a lot of times you know he's in these situations when these pushes go wrong not the case that wasn't why he got wrecked out at the end of the Daytona 500 but you just when you see that six car you just kind of got to watch are you not drawn to watch him because of the recurring events do you think he's doing it because he's just trying to be aggressive or Do you think he's doing it with any am malicious intent? Not intentional at all. I think he's a hard racer.

And a lot of times the pushes that happen, there's an offset. There's a reason why the car spins. It's a bad push. And you would think that Brad, smart enough to know how to not have that happen. But anyways, also one thing that I saw that I thought was funny before we get into the truck race, Cendrick was in the broadcast booth. Did you see this guy? Yeah.

So did you see this? Yes. We showed a picture. Where is that? Show that picture. He's in a broadcast booth looking like blippy. Look at this guy. Oh, that is not a very nice screenshot of Austin Cendrick right there.

You can blame NASCAR chasm. Well, we showed that to our children and they said the same thing. Said what? Blippy. Really? Ila said it. Of Cendrick. Yeah.

You didn't even show. Oh, no, we didn't have to. Wow. This, hey, this, is that the guy you won't pushing you on the last lap? No. Oh, all right. The truck race, record, record amount of cautions at Daytona. And I had a conversation with Coral of Joy after the truck race about, you know, his

opinion on why the truck race was such a crash fest. He says the trucks are a handful. Very, a lot of moving around. around, you know, a lot of out of control in dirty air. The trucks will get loose in certain scenarios. The trucks will get tight in other scenarios. And a lot of these young guys have never been in these aerodynamic situations to have an understanding of what to expect.

And even him, he would say sometimes he was surprised and caught off guard about what the truck would do when it was in a certain box, right? And so if you're in dirty air and you're trapped in the inside line and you got trucks moving by you, they're trying to spin you out, that error and trying to pull that truck around. And apparently it's very pronounced in the trucks. So not only do we have very young, inexperienced drivers driving in that series, but we're also putting them in the most challenging situations that anyone in the whole NASCAR ecosystem will be in at Daytona during Speed Week. So how do you fix it? There's a lot of things you could do. Certainly figuring out a way to get the

trucks to where maybe they don't race as well together. I know that's a, why would you want to do that, right? Think about the ARCA series, right? There was a while where the ARCA cars run around the bottom in a line. No one could get a run. Nobody could try to pass, but they didn't hit. They couldn't get to each other. You could run in that direction with some changes that would make it difficult for

them to push, difficult for them to race side by side. you'd have a much less exciting race in terms of action but certainly would wreck less trucks you can also do more to lock the truck into the racetrack right they already have quite a bit of drag and downforce I imagine

but you could also always find ways to make them more stable but with stability comes more risk-tale making more daring, you know, stupid things happen, right? When you have an abundant amount of confidence in how much grip you have, you do crazy or shit, right?

And so maybe that's not the answer is to make the trucks easier to drive. The best races, in my opinion, at Daytona were when the cars had to handle. And so we would have to lift because our cars would either push into the wall or spin out. And so when you're lifting, you're losing distance to people. that are handling and driving better. And there's some space that's created after a few laps of green flag racing. I don't know if you can accomplish that in the trucks, but I'd love to see it in any of the top three series.

One of the big dominating storylines of the entire week was the charter news. NASCAR executives turned down invites to meetings with the teams. The NASCAR, you know, the teams were like, hey, let's all come together, let's get in the room. Come on NASCAR, we're all going to meet together. NASCAR would rather meet with the teams individually. And I, if I'm NASCAR, I like that. More control, right?

Oh, yeah. So, okay, here's what I think's going on. All the teams, they're unified in the RTA, the race team alliance. they all want to band together and appear you know, appear that they're all like-minded and united, yeah. And then you have a couple of the teams

that are the spokesmen for the group, right? The truth is they're not all like-minded. Some teams are, you know, some teams may, maybe don't want to make things difficult on NASCAR, some teams, some teams in the back end of this RTA may be like,

you know what, I'm good with this deal, right? You know, if I, if there wasn't, you know, if there wasn't a bunch of these guys pushing back trying to get a better deal, I'd probably take this deal. So that's why I think NASCAR wants to meet with them individually. So it's more like trying to go to each individual team and, and, and steer everything closer to an agreement. It's probably,

NASCAR probably feels it's easier to make that happen, talking to them one at a time, as opposed to all getting in the room and just shouting from side to side. So, yeah, the antitrust lawyer deal makes things a little more, feel a little aggressive, that it's getting a little more competitive or confrontational maybe. Anti-trust lawyer? Yeah.

It's the same one that ended up finalizing the deal for the NCAA-NIA. NIL stuff. Yeah, and he's got a few other things. This dude's really successful. Whoever he is representing, that's an advantage. The thing is, and I want to talk to Ray Eberham about this tomorrow,

what are the teams really going to be able to do? Are they really, are they really, really serious about, like, not showing up to the Daytona 500 next year or something similar to that? Are they really going to go that far? No. Yeah, I just don't, I don't feel that way either.

They're just hoping that they can have some leverage and come to something. I think that it may take something that big for the teams to get what they want. They're going to have to do something like that, but I don't know that they will or they really can or would. Isn't it kind of like, remember when drivers, this is way back. They were going to boycott Talladegh? Yes. Other drivers just filled their place.

Like I feel like this is one of those situations. I think so too. I think that NASCAR, you know, we'll figure it out and let the teams, you know, the teams can posture all they want. And I just think NASCAR, NASCAR will probably meet them somewhere, maybe not in the middle. But I think NASCAR is like, hey, you know, We're willing to do a few things, but not everything you want. And it's not just this chunk of money that the teams will be getting from the TV deal.

They want to make these charters lifetime. So like if you're the owner of a charter right now, you only have it until the agreement runs out. And then the charter, if NASCAR thinks they're obsolete, could just go away. And here's where the disconnect, I think, lies. The charter, in some people's opinion, and mostly maybe the people in NASCAR inside that building, they look at the charter as only really a guarantee that you're going to get a spot in the field.

The teams have now tried to evolve this charter into a franchise, and those are two different things in some people's eyes. The charter in some people's eyes was not intended to be a franchise, franchise, right? But the teams are like, hey, we're really finding value in the fact that we have this charter, and now it pretty much is a franchise to the teams, but to NASCAR, it's like, hey, this was really only your free ticket to have a spot in the race. This was not a, you know, this is not a franchise. Like, hey, man, you can take this, you know, like a football team or soccer team that can, you know, own this and move it all around the country. That chart,

worries me, man. But I'm looking forward to the next nice, juicy chunk of news about that. That's right. My goodness. Yeah. It's getting intense. I hate to interrupt, but we have the Daytona 500. Oh, shit in here.

Yeah. Daytona 500 winner, William Byron is on the line calling in. William, are you there? Yeah, I'm here. Hey, buddy. Where are you at? I'm in New York, making the rounds. I love it.

I love it. All right, hey, you got me and my wife Amy and everybody else here at the Dale Jr. Download. Congratulations. Thank you. Thanks, Amy. Man, so I got to ask you a question. What was the moment like? I was standing there watching this happen. What was the moment like waiting on the call as you've got the caution?

You might have an opinion you're sure you won. I don't know. You're waiting on the team to tell you, right? that must have felt like an hour, but it was just a few moments, right? What was that like waiting on the information? Yeah, honestly, I mean, I knew we had crossed the line, so I wasn't, I was sure of that, like that we had taken the white because they have the big, big lights on the start-finish line now, and then there was a caution lights were, I guess, like, towards turn one.

and Alex had had a huge run like he was going to clear me because all the energy you got broken up behind me. So I felt like, man, it's just a matter of when they called it because he passed me relatively quick right after the caution. So I was nervous. I wasn't going to like get excited or I was just super anxious. And my team like they didn't really, Rudy didn't really say anything and everyone was just super quiet, just waiting. And I didn't want to key up the radio and talk over somebody. so I was just like, I was just going to wait until somebody said something. So it took like a lap and a half and, you know, Alex was rubbing my door down on the front stretch.

So I felt like he must know something, but it was just cool, man. It was crazy. When they come over the radio and tell you, did you for a second think, are you sure? I did. Well, no one said anything. Rudy was just crying. He was like Tony on the box that year. with Kurt Busch. He was just in tears. So I didn't know what that meant. I didn't know if he was,

if he was upset that we lost. So I was like, tell me what that means. So you're in New York. Did they do the Daytona USA thing with the car? So they, they didn't this year. I think they took it post-raced. So, yeah, they took the car, but I didn't go there for, for the breakfast, but I think we're going to do something in a week or something like that. So when the Daytona 500 winner wins the race, right, the next morning you'll get up and you'll go into the Daytona USA, they'll have a breakfast, and then they'll have the car sort of a ceremony of the car going into. So your car that you won the Daytona 500 with, that car is now stuck in the U.S., you know, Daytona USA for the rest of the year, correct?

Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It's stuck there. It's awesome. But at the same time. time you're like hey you know that's a good car i would like to race one down two cars yeah can i borrow that can i take that car to tell it yeah we uh that was our backup car so now we're down we're down two cars oh that's right so where we're uh so you went to new york i'm sure like like what's the plan this this week i mean i don't know man it's uh probably drinking some beer tonight or tomorrow and then have plenty of those and then somehow get ready for Atlanta.

Do you have, is all of your Daytona 500 media this week? You got some more next week? It's mostly this week. I'd say it goes through Thursday. And then some sports shows and some things. And then all the other strands of it, I mean like Chevrolet and going up there, I'm sure it'll last for, I mean, two, three weeks.

Awesome. It's pretty cool. I never really understood the magnitude of every. that comes with the 500 until you know kind of seen it so it's a big responsibility William I got to tell you man and I know maybe you are aware of this we had this next Netflix show right we've we the Netflix show you were a big part of it it was a big deal I'm sure you felt the momentum that that's created then you go into the Daytona 500 and you win our biggest race in front of a lot of this new audience right and now yeah you'll take that

a step further and do tons of media in some big moments and some great shows that a lot of times NASCAR doesn't you know you'll go into some spaces for us that we typically don't spend a lot of time in so you you individually right now are are carrying the torch for the sport over the next handful of days all these interviews and all the media you're going to do is going to be uh i don't i'm not trying to put any pressure on yeah you are enjoy enjoy this enjoy the media. Like I always hated doing media. But when I won the Daytona the second time,

I was like, man, I'm really going to take this in and enjoy it. Yeah. But you're in a very unique position for us, buddy. Yeah, I think I'm starting to, I mean, it's unique for me. I'm a really quiet person. So I feel like for me, I'm starting to come out of my show publicly. And the Netflix show is a big step forward with that because I just, you never know how things are going to come across.

and I felt like they really portrayed what I'm passionate about and how I prepare. So I was proud of that. I felt like they showed everyone in a good way. So I'm just excited to kind of share more and be a little more active on social and just kind of open up a little bit. Yeah, I thought it was very bold to show them your your training, mental training, getting ready for your races by building Legos. I want the Titanic. How big is the Titanic? I'm a big Titanic fan.

Yeah. I built a Titanic model way back in the day. It's a great display piece. It's about, I think it's about four feet long. Whoa, perfect. Yeah. I love it. It's only like a foot and a half tall, but it's an awesome display piece.

I keep in living in your stove. It looks smaller than that on the show. Yeah. Yeah, I have to send out a picture or something. Yeah, it's cool, man. That's big. It has so much detail. Yeah.

They have all the rooms, like all the rooms inside, and you can take a part and open it up. I want that. Amy. William, no. Yes. I want to build the Titanic. You can come visit and play with yours.

I want to build the Titanic. You'll bring beer this week, and you guys can play with your Legos. It definitely isolates you for a little bit. Yeah. I like, I would compare it to build. I like to I don't do this a lot but I do like to build puzzles

and I think it's kind of similar in, like you get Yeah, it's a 3D puzzle work in your mind. We did that one little Lego thing together. We still haven't finished it. We did. Me and Amy did one.

It was fun. It's great. That's awesome. I want to do the Titanic with me, Amy. No, I don't. Come on. I don't want to house the Titanic. Can you?

Through project. Can you send me a link to the Titanic Lego set? Oh, absolutely. Okay. William? William. William.

So you're locked in... It comes in parts. It comes in parts. So it took me about three weeks to build. Oh, my gosh. I'm in. I'm in. I'm doing it.

We're going to build it. We're putting it in the studio. William, you're locked into the playoffs. So that's one thing that you really don't recognize immediately because the Daytona 500 is such a big damn race. But after a little while, you go, oh, you know what? No stress now. I can have some fun all summer. Hell yeah.

It's a... Oh, yeah. New York. So there's a lot of honking care. But yeah, I mean, it's a big stress relief. I feel like we're getting spoiled because typically with Rudy, we've won early in the season. So that's going to be a dangerous trend to hopefully keep going. Yeah.

Absolutely. Well, man, I know you're busy today, and we are excited about you representing a sport so well for us over the next several days doing all this media for the Daytona 500. Congratulations. You're now Daytona 500 champion, and I'll be seeing you at all of the Daytona 500 champion. and I'll be seeing you at all of the Daytona 500 champion get-togethers. There's a lot of things that they do where they bring us all together, and I look forward to seeing you at all those, man.

Enjoy that trophy. That's awesome. Yeah, that trophy is a special one to have in the house. Enjoy that. And have a great year. We'll see you on the road somewhere. Yeah, thank you guys. Good to see all. You too.

I can't wait to plop that Titanic set on the desk. It took William, who is a very dedicated, structured individual, three weeks to put that together. Yeah. I can do it. I can do it. It sounds like a bigger project than I thought. Sounds like Amy's all for it too. On your table, sure.

There's a lot of pride that goes into William winning the Daytona 500 for us. I was sitting. So I watched the Daytona 500 in the suite upstairs in the France family suite. And it was awesome to have the opportunity. We were going to go and watch the Xfinity race, right? And it gets bumped to 9 p.m. So we said, okay, well, we're going to get to watch the Daytona 500 because I was going to leave and go home after the Xfinity race.

So I called some people when we got up in the France suite and sitting there, Josh Berry, just driving the four car, leads a lap. And that was a big deal to me. He is 100% a junior motorsports project, right? Or development, right? and this kid from Hendersonville, Tennessee, has just led a lap in the Daytona 500. I couldn't believe it.

And then William wins the race, and of course he's raced in our late model stock cars with Josh. Josh mentored him to an extent during that little stint. He raced here and won a championship for us in the Xfinity Series. So we feel like we had some involvement in his, and the driver he is today. That was special. I was hesitant and didn't go into Victory Lane to say hey to William,

but thought about going in there. We were getting ready to run our Xfinity race, but it was a madhouse, and I knew it was really tough to get in there to him, but William just text me, the link. Oh, boy. To the Titanic started. How much is it?

He said he got his off eBay, but it's worth it. Oh, man, it must be expensive. It's going to be expensive. You can buy it. gets commissions. For $440, I'm Walmart. Oh, my God. Is it in stock?

Oh, man, this thing's going crazy. I don't know. We bought some smaller ones as gifts, and they were $100, so that Titanic thing has to be expensive. Oh, this is a smaller version of this. We don't want that. This thing is $670. Yeah. My goodness.

Well, all right. Here's your 50th birthday present. Yes, that's it. It's not a big. That's like a very 50-year-old thing to do, it's sit and put a giant 3D puzzle of the Titanic together. Yeah. Talk about a new experience. William is wise beyond his years.

that. Daytona 500, really cool comments about NASCAR from the Rock, I did a good job. It was awesome. Yeah. Fabulous job.

Yeah. He can't, you know, you get a big celebrity like that. Look, we're really lucky. I compare the people we bring to our events to other events. You know, are we matching? Are we meeting, you know, what's happening at the Super Bowl and so forth?

Are we in that? Are we comparable? The Rock's right in that range, right? Of some mega celebrity, right? You want to have somebody, he's a great promoter, right? He can shoot the promos on WWE with the best of them. Got some awesome stuff on YouTube to watch. So he knows how to make it sound great.

He came in and did a good job. Another thing that I thought was cool is that he stayed. Yes, I was going to say that. A lot of people, man, they leave. I'm not going to stay. Sorry, I got things to do. But he stayed. I heard that they put him up in Daytona 1, that little resort across the street from the track.

One Daytona, sorry. They put him up in this little thing, and they emptied out the suite next to him so he could bring all his workout gear. Oh, my God. He went to bed and woke up at midnight to do a middle of the night workout. Yeah. That's what makes him the rock, I guess. Commitment. Insane.

Who's doing that? Him. That's it. Only him. So anyways, that was cool. And props to whoever accommodated him to made it super easy and gave him no excuse to not stay. That was great. Yeah, we talked about the bump drafting and the pushes.

There was a big crash early in the race, a little bit of blocking, a little bit of pushing. Brad sort of took some of the response. Brad was a lot of the responsibility for that was dumped on Brad. And I'll tell you this, man. like he's been in these scenarios before. That affects you, I think, mentally. You're, you know, Brad, I called Brad to win the race. But when that happens early in the race, it makes you a little, you know, timid.

You don't want to have that happen again. So he's waiting for it, you think, in some part of his mind for that to happen again? No, I think he's just maybe not as aggressive. Diles it back a little bit. Man, he was making some big moves late in the race, though. Oh, yeah. I think you get over that timidness or that lack of aggression. How long?

Like half the race? That probably stage two. Yeah. Yeah. He was like, man, I need to be cool. Let's not cause another crash. Yep. Do you think that happened in the whole field?

Because, I mean, like an early crash, it seems like whenever that happens in a 500, you seem to get a little bit of calm. And we saw that, we saw pretty clean racing up until the end. Like, did that scare the rest of the field? That first wreck was very nostalgic looking to me. Look like a traditional Daytona 500. style crash and then the race went

into this two by two nonsense. Fuel saving all that. Yeah. So the entire field for like 40 laps in stage one ran two by two. And it was like if you said

to you know, AI, hey show me the Daytona 500. That would be what it looked like. Yeah. So that was kind of disappointing. I know they're saving fuel. How do you get the fuel saving out of the race?

You can't entirely. You just don't know when yellows are going to fall. Yellows are going to fall and present fuel mileage opportunities. There is a starting point, right? And one thing that I thought about while I was sitting there watching the race was, so to take fuel mileage out of the equation, you need to have the stages short enough so that they can run the entire stage on one tank.

That's one way of doing it. I don't like that, but it would create these little 50-lapse sprints, right? So you could do it like that. 50 laps, they're going to have to stop in the middle of that stage, but if you make, so if you split the stage in half, then you don't have guys really doing the fuel mileage game anymore. When it's a fuel mileage game is when our,

stages, the fuel mileage runs right up near the bottom of the stage, or the length of the stage. And so we have to figure out a way to either allow them to, the stage needs to be nearly two tanks of gas. Okay? So they're going to run a tank out, then fill up and almost, you know, and complete the rest of the stage and come, you know, come across the finish line with like a gallon or two gallons of fuel. Yeah. Right. then they're probably not needing to save, right? And so the other thing is

is you make the stage so damn short that it's like 30 laps, which is probably not going to happen. One of the things that I think would be cool is to add another stage to the Daytona 500. But one stage caution at lap 100. So think about it like this. You're awarded points every 50 laps.

Like how they did road courses last year. But there is a halfway caution. at 100. I think that's a mix. That might be a balance between what some fans want and what other fans want. All right. And it might take some of the fuel mileage out

where guys can race hard. And you're giving them more opportunities to get points during the race, which they do race hard for. Right. Every time we get toward the end of the stage, the points are available for the top 10, racing gets good, right?

Let's have that happen more often. Yeah. They had the big one. The huge one. Yeah. It's almost everyone. A lot of in-car camera and cockpit and driver shots afterwards with replays. NASCAR is doing a great job.

This next-gen car gives us so many opportunities or so many camera angles, and that is just going to continue to ramp up. Think about this, man. And the new TV deal, possibly camera in every single car, opportunity for you to look and view the race from every single vehicle in the field. That's the goal. Now is that attainable? We'll see.

Chase Elliott did a great job. all day long, talked about him having sort of a resurgence this year. He won a stage. He won the stage. Yeah, so he wins a stage and I'm like, all right, man, setting the tone for a comeback. Let's talk about the finish. William Byron, Chastain,

had a drag race for a few laps, Cendric and Chastain. Blippy and Chastain. So I'm watching that, right? Down the short shoot, coming to the start, finish line, the white flag, Cendrick is up the racetrack slightly There's a

Who's that trying to get underneath him? Corey LaJoy Corey LaJoy But Cendricks's cutting him off right And almost spun himself out across the nose of Corey's car When the 22 tries to get down In front of Corey There's a big enough hole for the one

Chastain takes a run through the middle And then the two drives back up the racetrack I don't know if he's getting steered by the seven Of LaJoy or not But Blippy was a little out of control coming to the wife. We just gave him a nickname. It's going to stick.

He's going to be really excited. Oh, I'm sure. What happened? Just for badass. Yeah. Blippy. Chas, they made clear. And win the race.

Yeah. He, there was, it seemed like there was a lot of room still to go for him to successfully clear. Yeah. And you're talking about that dive-bomb move right at the start finishing. To the middle. Yeah. Yeah. If the two, if the two of Cendrit doesn't come up the racetrack and they wreck,

I think the one clears. He had a heck of a run. run. You know, obviously, I think we're all pretty sure that the caution did not come out. They crossed the finish line and took the white. The race is over. I think we all agree that we knew the race was over. Yeah. But who was leading? Right. So when the lights come on, I think the 48 cars in front. And I have so much history in this sport, and it seems like over that 25-year period, the determination of who the leader was in a moment like that has changed. They go, there was times when the, well, it was the light.

Yeah, you're right. The light came on. That's when it was. And now, oh, no, it's the last loop. Right. You know, so it's, what is it now, right? I think it's the last loop. Well, it's, uh, according to the NASCAR rulebook, it is a, they use a couple of determining factors.

So it's video evidence last timing loop. But NASCAR posted a photo, a photo, which is the one that they used. determine and you can actually, there is a caution light on in the corner and Byron's ahead. Okay. So when the caution light comes on, Byron's like a couple inches out. As far as we know. Yeah. All right.

I'm all good with this. I know you didn't sound like it. That's fair. You show me a picture, show me the light, all that. So when the light comes on is the determining factor. I don't think so necessarily because next. There's a slight delay, right? Until next time, from what I heard.

I've heard. Because NASCAR freezes the field. Right. It's NASCAR's discretion of when the guy or the girl pushes the button. Yes, that's what I thought. So it's the button, not the light. Yeah. That's what Dale does not like.

That is what I don't like. Yeah. It's inconsistent. It needs to be an obvious rule. We went to the Daytona 500 and sat there to see it determined by the mash of a button. a simple button. Man, is that not heavy?

I know. That's heavy. That seems wrong. I don't know. Is it? I don't know. I mean, what other scenarios in sports? Rely on that button.

Rely on human error of someone not involved. Right? I mean, there's a clock. There's all kinds of physical moments where a person, a referee calls a time out or throws a flag or whatever, that's similar to mashing a button, right? There's someone that's...

Yeah, I mean, judgment calls are in every sport. This is one of those official judgment calls. Would you want to be the person that was mashed the button? Hell no. See, here's the thing. I don't even think that's crossing my mind in the moment. I would. You'd be fine.

I like that power. Just, hey, William Byron, you are the day top of the champion. I would add a quick trigger finger. you'd get distracted watching. I think it's so reactionary. That would also happen to. I'd be into it. Yeah. What? I think it's so reactionary. They're not even, I mean, they're focused on the two car. They're not even looking at the lead. I feel. Again, I'm speaking for them. Of course they're not. No, I don't, I know they're not going, oh, I won't buy it there. Everybody. Yeah. Yeah. I know they're not doing that. I'm just saying like when you, when you get up from the table, right, day is done. Do you go sit down and go, damn?

I just. determined the winner of the Daytona 500. I don't think there's any way to avoid it, but like you said, something just feels off about it. If I had, you know, hit that button just a couple seconds later.

Could change history. The 48th's leading. Yeah. And Bowman's in that 500 champion. Bowman's in New York calling in. I'll tell you, when you were racing, I always absolutely despised a caution win.

I don't care what the scenario was. I felt like it was complete bullshit. I hear me. I want a couple more laps. all my buddies on on my phone were texting me boo bullshit I don't like this that ending sucked

I'm like hey Dale Earnhardt won is Daytona 500 coming to a yellow and a white flag still bullshit we need a couple more laps Daddy might not have won

Bobby Labny was his time Bobby was coming what's the solution in your mind like should they have let them race it out a little bit more or like Like, what do you think?

I don't have... I thought there's nothing to fix. It's just doesn't sit right with you. There's nothing to fix. There's no... I'm not saying that I don't... I think goes, we've got to change this.

This can't happen. Right. Dude, this is... This is part of the product. I don't know. This feels a lot more like we're circling back to that parking lot thing

with Instacart. Where you just were like venting, but there's really no solution. There ain't no solution. I just wanted to bring to the table. I don't know if everybody's, thought about how somebody mashed a button

and that played a major role in how we all accepted the result, right? Yeah. That would be on my dating profile if that was my job. That's a big flex, I feel like. Yeah, I like it. All right. You're going to attract top tier.

Yeah. That's top tier level of people. William Byron owes me a brand new Titanic Lego set for winning him the 500. Listen, the rational person would say it's bigger than that. It's not a, no, it's not the, just the button alone is not, but it's a factor. To your point, there's pictures, videos, there's, they have, they have technology and things that they can see that we don't see, that we don't get to see. They have, they have so many angles.

they're not just taking you know broadcast footage and making new decisions. They have their own, you know, photographers and video that are not public consumption, right, to be able to see all angles of everything,

such as a finish like that or a crash or any kind of, you know, a judgment call. So pretty good technology that we don't even we're not even privy to. I feel pretty confident. I'm not disputing the result.

I just think it's so interesting how in that scenario, we take all of those factors to determine that William is the winner. And man, if it just, just one person does something slightly different or something slightly, you know, different happens.

Different result. Bowman is the winner, right? Shue. I guess if you're William, you're completely fine. but if you're Bowman, are you thinking like... Are you thinking about that? Thinking about that, right?

Does that eat at you a little bit? Would you be thinking about that if you're a Bowman? I'll say this. The two races at Talladega, the Ligano win where we got a caution coming into term one, Harvick and those guys wrecked at the start-finish line, and I'm passing the 22, and they said he was ahead when the light came on. Yeah.

That, I never got over that. Because you would have advanced the next round of the place. I don't even know. I just wanted to win. Right. Yeah. Not over that. Probably not okay with that.

Not happy with that. Still feel like, hey, I had your ass. I was going to win that race. Losing to Jeff Gordon when they threw the cans at his car. I'm passing him. The 25 wrecks. And they determined that Jeff's leading when the 25 begins to crash. So that's the moment of the yellow.

Right? And it just, those are tough to accept when you're on the losing end of it. So if I'm Bowman, yes, this is bothering me. Look, I'm happy for my teammate. I'm a company guy. I'm not going to say anything publicly. I'm not going to do anything stupid and go out and publicly disparage this result because my teammate won and I love my job.

But personally and inside, I'm certain that he's, having to stop himself from like running it back over and over in his mind. Like what could I have done differently? Well, what if this would happen? What if this person would have done this? And so, but you're not changing the result, just like I can't change the results of my events in my career. But it doesn't mean you have to,

you're never going to be like okay with it. of it. Second, seems like a miserable place to live, especially in that situation. Yeah, for sure. You know, NASCAR did a great job providing a lot of information

to the fans on social media and so forth to determine, you know, the decisions they made. I thought that was great. The worst, the one thing is, I love NASCAR. I want, and if you come at NASCAR,

you're effing with me, right? And so, while I do get critical of them from time to time, I want the sport to succeed and I want them to win and I believe in our leaders, right? So I love when I see

them provide some background and information in these situations where had they not, you know, the the simmering sort of critic criticism just boils underneath the surface online it gets really annoying.

So good job in NASCAR to handle that as soon as they possibly could. And it was the first win for Hendrick Motorsports since my win in 2014, 10 years of trying, and they finally got it done. So congratulations to Hendrik Motorsports. Rick and everybody. I text Rick after the race. All those folks were still up at 1 o'clock in the morning, which is great.

And then we got to see an Xfinity race. What time did you get home from that, by the way? 2 o'clock. Caught in a bed at 2 o'clock. Quiet mouse I didn't hear you at all I thought well when I crawled in bed you pulled you raised your arm pulling your cover toward you not in my real life Not in your dream

I don't want to turn this damn podcast toward the worst But if you want to talk about this Expendity race that's where it's going All right I drove around this morning making a few phone calls just to vent to calm the freak down Because I was so pissed off with the results for us. Just not a great race for junior murder sports. A lot of frustration and disappointment about our performance and choices on the racetrack. We were a non-factor. We had four fast race cars, and no one got to see that potential. Each team had, you know, different challenges and problems, some self-induced. I will say the one thing that I did see that I did like, that I was

was very happy about was Sammy Smith. So I spent the majority of the race on his radio and on his box. And Sammy, young guy, look, he doesn't, he, I could tell he's not 100% sure exactly what he needs to be doing out there. They were sitting there, he's running sixth in line on the first stage, great spot to be. Everybody's in line. If you pull out to go low, you're going to the back. absolutely no question and he's sitting there going i'm getting some good runs should i go and the

spotter was like no shut up he literally said like no shut up calm down you're in sixth i was like yes tell him poor kids just excited and eager he's like i'm getting some good runs should i go and they're like no dummy yeah um so right from the get go it sets the tone that like okay this guy doesn't he's not he's an experience yeah that does know everything he needs to know that's fine um we had a late restart and he's third or fourth in line on the outside green flag comes out right they're all just going through the gears no one has a run there's going be a little bit of a lap a lap or or so getting up to speed before runs develop sammy pulls out into the the third lane going into turn one with no run no momentum just pulls out and he's like oh man my bad

and he gets shipped to the rear and we're all up there shaking our heads but you know he didn't know right and it's okay the one thing that i loved was every time he did this he drove back to the front every time that he made a mistake that lost him several spots, he quickly would hustle back toward the front into the top five. Once he learns, I'm going to give this guy about four or five more restrictive plate races. And if he can continue to be that person that can find his way forward or always be trying to move forward, he'll clean up the little mistakes as he learns what you can and can't and shouldn't do.

and he'll be a hell with a strict plate racer. I promise you. So I like some things that I saw out of Sammy. The rest of it, for me personally, it was a bit of a disappointment. Well, not even a bit. It was a disappointment. We had terrible, you know, the results weren't good.

We weren't a factor, and we didn't put ourselves in real good situations. You know, I could go on and on about that. But we had a call or we had a question last week. We actually were going through some of my old Twitter stuff. This will be a good one for you to chime in, Amy. Oh, Twitter. Yeah.

We're going through some old tweets. And one of the old tweets was, would you sacrifice a toe for a championship? And I said no, and I still say no today. This was in 2014. And today I still say no. Andrew, you went to Daytona. You worked. You worked your ass off.

Yeah. I enjoy it. I love it, man. You enjoy working hard? I absolutely love it. I was like, man. I don't want to work that hard. I saw your interview with Jimmy Johnson.

You go have these on a date? No, no, no, no. I was more so just to, you know, get, yeah, get his reaction. Don't know. She pays for everything. It's fun. Oh, that's right. So you, but, yeah.

You asked Jimmy. Yeah, we were running around. Not only did I ask Jimmy. I asked a few other drivers. I asked fans. I got a lot of reactions. I need to hear it. We've got Jimmy's clip.

Tim's I think we've got it cued up here. A fan asked Dale, would you give up a toe to win a championship? And he brought you up. You've got seven of them. Do you got all your toes still? I do and I'd give one up for eight. Really? Oh, without a doubt.

To be standalone at eight and just cost me one digit? No problem. Man, just to have a few toes left would be tough. I would give one up for one more. I wouldn't give up seven and then an eight. Which toe would you give up? Which is like the least important? I feel like my pinky toe isn't doing much hanging over.

Yeah, that's what I'm staying, right? Yeah, it's just on the side. Yeah, yeah. I love that. Yeah. So isn't your pinky toe responsible for you not tipping over? Y'all are so wrong. Pinky toe is a popular answer.

I think the big toe and the pinky toe are actually very important. And the ones in the middle could go. Like the range. Maybe the one's right next to your pinky. I ripped the toenail off the second one from the big toe, and I was limping around for like a week. It hurt that bad, yeah. It's very important.

I never thought I would have to ask. Jimmy Johnson to confirm that he has all 10 toes, but he does. Let me guess all the drivers said that they would give up a toe. No. Who said no? Larson said he could do it himself. He was confident in his abilities. Redick said he would need a toe for five championships.

I feel like that's asking a lot. Okay, okay, okay. I would, if you gave me two championships, I'd lose a toe. Okay. I might need you to keep your toes. Just one? No. Two, I'd give you a toe.

I like Jimmy's answer. I mean, being a standalone at eight makes sense. Otherwise, like you said, your life's pretty damn good. I know. But if I had two, two would put me in an elite category, multiple time champion. I'd give them two. All right.

Never see it? I love that term. I mean, I'd be over it. You know, I'd miss the toe for a few minutes, and then I'd be over it. He'd just called a vent to you about it when he missed it emotionally. I'd be like, whenever it came up. After a while, I'd be like, yeah, I forgot about it. I forgot I lost that toe.

Yeah. Oh, that old thing? But these championship trophies there, apparently. What do you think it looks like when you don't have a toe? Mind you, that you chose this when you put your socks on and you've got this little weird divot. Yeah, you would have to. You'd be reminded of it every single day. Yeah, when you went to Key West and your flops all day, you would be feeling like a freak.

Yeah, no more flops for you. A freak with two championships. You'd have to wear your rings. Yeah. To supplement it. Distract them from your feet. I saw online yesterday that the NFL championship ring opens up and inside of it is an inverted, it's a carving of a football field.

Wow. Is there anything that cool in the NASCAR championship ring? Like there should be a racetrack. I think we're behind on the rings. We are. When I was a freshman in high school, I did a, I did. I did a, I did a Bristol, and I did a Bristol

Motor Speedway out of pottery. Oh, was it Clay? Clay. They were like, hey man, we're making cups or bowls. He's like, nah. I'm like, nah, I'm making Bristol, I love it. He still has it. I still has it. This week's segment was brought to you by tire pros.

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and take it to your local Tire Pros. Tell them I sent you. You ready to go to Ask Junior? I was just going to say that. All right, let's get into some Asr Jr. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. here at the Dale Jr. Download. with me is my beautiful wife, Amy, and this is our segment Ask Jr. Thank you all for sending in your questions. Got to get up to speed here with everything going on in the sport, and you can do that with

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I tell people all the time. And we're not just saying that. I'm thankful because the service is awesome. Here we go back. We're in, yes. We made that one. So Andrew's got your questions that you sent in. We've had a great show today.

I just want to say, Dirty Air, has been a lot of fun here, especially with Amy, on board today. And tomorrow Ray Everingham comes in. We're going to talk about SRX. And I rock. So let's get to it. This first question is coming from James. Do you have a favorite Girl Scout cookie?

No. No. You're not a you don't have any of them. Do you? Really? You don't have a favorite Girl Scout cookie? I couldn't tell you any of the brands or types. I mean, most people would say thinnints and like you keep them in the freezer.

Nope. They're so good. I like the shortbread cookies, like the tag alongs. Oh, I'm a Samoa guy. Samoa's a really good too. Well, I'm glad Amy came. I was not any help. Those Samoa's

Nope, next. I think we need to get this poor boy some cookies. I like peanut butter stuff, so what about that? They have a peanut butter one. That's a tag along. It's got the chocolate on it. I know way too much about Girls' Cup cookies. Don't you sell them.

Look, my situation is this. All right, I love to drink beer, and I love to stay in the same pair of pants or same size pants, and so I don't eat cookies. So he's lying a little. He likes to drink beer, but what he will trade for it during the middle of the week is candy. He is a... And he can't control himself. So if there was a box of thin in the freezer, he'd eat the whole thing

in one setting. I get ice cream for the girls and like these little tiny ones so that they can have a treat now and then. And if I don't declare them off limits, he will plow through all them on. Sorry. Ice cream's my weakness too. Really? Oh yeah.

Love ice cream. All right. All right. This next question coming from Edward, and this is actually perfect since both of you guys are here. Do you a favorite family tradition. Hmm. With our little family, I mean, I like going to the beach, like physically going to the beach, walking on the beach, finding

seashells. It's not like a super involved thing, but it's always something that all of us seem to really enjoy. I feel like Dale's going to say going to the racetrack. No. No? Boy, that's tough because we're so new at this. I will say that I enjoy

going to Texas to visit Amy's family. They do, you know, We're never going to miss the traditional holidays. I really, you know, I'm not saying this because she's here, but I love her family. They're so, I'm the guy, so freaking lucky on that. We like to have a good time. Yeah. And we don't half ass it.

So Easter is big. We make Easter nests in the yard, and the Easter bunny comes and fills them up. Like everybody's getting presents all the time, and everybody's also got their cooler of beer. So, like, it's laid back. Yeah. It's a lot of fun. They put a ton of effort into it, and you have to, you know, if you're going to be there, you're going to be part of it, you have to have this equal energy.

But it's great. I've learned to adapt and become part of it. But I agree with Amy. I think we like going, we've taken our girls to the beach on the Carolina coast. It's so this, you know, we're only a couple years into parenthood. But that's probably my favorite thing, too, is like us going to our vacation house and us being, that's when we sort of disconnect, right? Yeah, it's just us for. There's really no plans.

Yeah, it feels like there's nothing going to, you know, come up that's going to ruin the day. Or, you know, if I'm here in Mooresville, you know, there's always, hey, can you come by here? Can you do this? Hey, can you come over here? Can you read this? Can you say that? Can you do this? Because I'm here, right?

Yeah. I find this. Which is great. I'm here to work. But when you go there, you're like separated from everything. It's kind of nice. We did just get a camper too, so I'm excited to make some traditional. We haven't got, we talked about this last week on the show.

So, Camping World. Yes. We're going to get us a camper. And I think Camping World is going to give someone a camper through this process. Yeah. They're doing a giveaway, right? Yeah. So, but our camper should be here in the next couple of days.

I'm pumped about this thing. The garage is filling up with crap that I've ordered. I am ready. I'm so excited because we can do that pretty easily. No matter what the weather is like, you know. Where's the first place you're going? Kelly's given us a short list of places that are like within an hour to drive in the mountains and some in South Carolina. There's some awesome places, I guess, the kids, a lot of stuff for the kids to do with these campgrounds.

Over Easter, I think we're going to take it out to Texas. So it's going to get some use this year. I'm going to take it to the races at Florence later in the year. It has some place to sleep, but it should be great. That's awesome. Actually, you answered one of the questions Pamela was wondering about the camper in the YouTube chat. So there you go. It's coming at the, so the camper will be here.

Hopefully, fingers crossed. sometime this week. And as soon as it does, we'll share with everybody, you know, hey, this is the model. We, we look through everything. And I've been looking at truck campers, you know, bumper pulls, fifth wheels. So we've really, for like three, two or three years sort of. Van conversions, all of the things.

Yeah, we looked at everything. And I love this model that we got. It's going to fit our family perfectly. And I'm learning, too, that you can make it your own, if you will. There's a lot of things you can do with your fifth wheel that kind of, you know, custom and it's fixable. I can work on this thing. So it's got a little solar on top. It's cool.

Heck yeah. Yeah. I love it. This next question coming from George. And George is wondering, are you a good gift giver? That's a good question for me. I guess this is probably more for Amy. I'd say he's a good gift giver if he's got good direction.

Okay. He loves to give gifts. So like when he doesn't, when he forgets or if he, and he's done this, I'm sure he's talked to you about this before, if he forgets to do the stocking at Christmas or whatever, he feels bad. But he has a real lockup about trying to buy presents for someone with no direction. He like panics. No direction. It's tough.

I don't know what to buy, Amy. So here's the thing. Like you just pay attention, right? That's so easy for her. Buy for herself. What does she like to go do? That's so easy for her. It comes natural.

We've had a lot of conversations about this. We've gone through couples therapy. We've had plenty of conversations. It's not that hard. Take some notes. How many notes do you have in your phone about irising? How many? She's right.

There are freaking endless, copious amounts of notes on all the things, all the topics that he wants to remember. But there's not an Amy note. Nope. What size shoe doll I wear, Dale? Yep. Six and a half, seven. yeah we're learning but there's no note yeah no he's got it all up here some something's just flying in and out this is getting real yeah yeah I didn't mean to

when he gives a good gift it's like beyond it's it's he's look I don't need him to give me gifts all the time but I just want it to be thoughtful when he so Valentine's Day comes and I got her the forever roses we bought these last year and um And I like them, man. They last a year, right? They smell great and they're beautiful to look at. And so they come in this little box. I got the girls a little tiny one of four pink roses for each one of them.

And then Amy's was like a, anyways, box of forever roses. That's a great gift. I keep seeing this ad on my Instagram. Oh, man. For what? Charcutory board. Oh, God. The sharkity board.

It's like, hey, man. you know get get your girl this for valentine's day she'll love it and it's coming at me over and over and over and finally i'm like okay i'll get that whatever and so it comes in the mail and i bring it into the kitchen on valentine's day and put it down and it's got a red ribbon on it like it's obvious that it's for valentine's day it's got oh i love you and all that and then he's like what was your response what's that and he's like it's for you

it's cheese plate you know we love these and I said huh you are you serious the freaking Instagram ad said this was going to be a hit

false advertising I do love charcuttery I am so pissed at these people when we ever get it set me up to fail yeah they did they saw you comment yeah

when we get things like this gifted to us at Christmas or whatever they sit in the hallway we wait until like family comes over or something. I don't really dive into them. This is where that paying attention thing comes into play.

He should have known better that I'm not going to eat this wrapped up hot, been traveling in a UPS truck, cheese pork. How is it still good? I don't know. I ate it. How are you feeling? We threw the whole damn long boat of a thing in the refrigerator and pulled it out at like at 8 o'clock after he refused to eat

I made him for dinner. That's what he ate for dinner. You ruin your appetite. Dang. We got time for one more quick question. Katie's asking, have the girls expressed any interest in playing sports? Like you're going to get him in soccer? Dang, we're just kicking the soccer ball around the arts.

Isla's hard because she doesn't want to commit to doing anything. And she also very much wants it to be her idea. So she has said something about one singing lessons and piano lessons. Cool. So maybe we'll start there. soccer we've thought about it she doesn't really want to do the team thing and it makes sense she's very much like i'm just going to do me um she's doing little gymnastics on tuesday afternoons Nicole however is very agile and she seems to um want to be a part of the team go with the flow

she wants to do everything i was doing i think she would be more likely to do soccer or dance or whatever she's she too is always dancing and singing so it's hard to tell so i got this little electric go cart bought it for al-o when she was three when she got it for her birthday at three she hopped on it mashed a gas pedal it took off and she jumped off and hasn't wanted to get on it since finally i got her to get back on it and she rode around and and now we're a big fan of this go-cart right she's running it like crazy and having a great time um so that's one development Nicole did get on it too and got scared same so maybe it's just the age yeah now yeah Nicole jumped on it bashed the gas

It goes forward. She jumps off, don't want nothing to do with it. So we have a soccer goal in the yard, two soccer balls, me and Ila, she runs and kicks it into the goal, and then I send it back out to her.

Well, so he and I were out there, all four of us were trying to kick it. And then he and I started kicking it so much. I think that we got him, took the fun away from that. I was nervous he was going to plow somebody in the face because he gets into that game mode or that, that, let's go time mode.

I'm thinking in my head. There's no pulling back. Bounce right off of them. Yeah. Knock them over maybe. I would love to influence Ila toward soccer or any volleyball or whatever it may be, right?

I know I can kick a ball with her. I can't play volleyball, but I can kick soccer with her. But I'd love to sort of say, hey, what do you think about this, right? Maybe you want to try this or whatever. It would be good for her. Yeah, it would.

Yeah, she needs this. She does. So I'm encouraging that. But, yeah. Good stuff. Yeah. All right, everybody. Appreciate you all tuning in.

And thank you, Amy, for being here for As you here. Yeah, hope you all enjoyed Amy being part of the show today. If you haven't checked out Xfinity Mobile, you ought to. 5G network speeds and Wi-Fi spots all across the country. Great coverage. And we appreciate them for supporting us here at Dirtymo Media. All right, it's time for White Flag. Jeff Gluck and Jordan Biokki.

are recapping the action from Daytona last night. But we love having to tear down on our platform. And Jeff and Jordan are doing awesome work, giving us instant reaction post race. Denny Hamlin returned from Daytona and relived his experience in the Daytona 500. And this past weekend, you want to tune in to hear Denny's opinion and thoughts on everything that went down. Doorbubber Clear, they had special guests, Bubba Wallace,

and an exciting announcement. was made. You'll want to tune in and hear what Bubba had to say and the team at Doorbump were clear. They were certainly, I'm sure, critical, some things that went down this weekend as they usually are. Another episode of Speed Street is dropping tomorrow. Check out what Connor and those guys are up to.

And Dirty Mo Doe with Steve LaTart. That'll be this Thursday to preview the Atlanta race. So you'll want to tune in for that. Tomorrow, Ray Everingham is on the show. It's been a while. I hope you'll tune in. Ray's going to tell us about the SRX. He's going to tell us about IROC.

He also has a new book. book out called Trophies and Scars, a very honest take, biography on his life and the decisions and choices he had to make. And we'll talk about some of those on the show tomorrow. It is going to be a good one. You won't want to miss it. We'll see you. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.