The Dale Jr. Download - 520 - Dirty Air with Ryan McGee: The Best Advice Dale Earnhardt Ever Gave Me

Episode Date: March 5, 2024

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is on spring break, so his longtime friend and co-author of “Racing to the Finish” Ryan McGee is filling in. You might recognize Ryan from his longtime coverage of motorsports for ESPN and his popular show with recent Download guest Marty Smith, “Marty & McGee.” There was a lot to discuss after a full weekend of NASCAR action in Las Vegas: Writing “Racing to the Finish” with Dale Jr. Working with Dale Sr. as a young reporter Rajah Caruth’s big first Truck win John Hunter Nemechek continues to excel What Kyle Larson’s 24th NASCAR Cup win really means During as special “Ask McGee” segment, listeners tuned into YouTube live and sent in questions about: Ryan’s favorite Dale Jr. stories What he learned about Dale Jr. while writing the book What it’s like working on “Marty & McGee” Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The following is a production of Dirtymoe Media. Hey, everybody, Dale Jr., Dale Jr., back again. Hey, everybody, still, back, back, back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. Bugged and buggingle. Hey, everybody. Hi, McGee. Well, hey, Dale. How you doing, man?

Hey, what was it like when you raced against Richard Petty, Dale? Was that awesome? Hey, everybody, and welcome in to the Dale Jr. your download. Is it our official title for Tuesday? Yeah. Okay. This is the part where already right now, like in the truck, you're like, who the hell is this? This is not Delor and Hart Jr. This is Ryan McGee from ESPN. We are live, semi-live from the Bojangles studio. And here is always with Curlin and with Dalton. All right, Dalton, I got on, I'm going to get to the, I don't know you. I've known

curle instance he was like four years old. But how often, I'm of a certain age, right? How often do you get roadhouse reverses in your life? All the time. Okay. I used to get gifts of like Patrick Swayze on the cover and everything. The story goes that my mom, while she was pregnant with me, was watching the movie. And my dad came home and she goes, I think I found a name that I like.

And he goes, looks at the TV and goes, Dalton, she said, yep. No, what she said was, what she said was like from the movie. The name is Dalton. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. I thought you'd be bigger, all that. Yeah. And now, so now, by the time it's died down, there's a new roadhouse coming. Yeah, which I'm so excited for. Jake Gyllenhaal, by the way, who my wife is obsessed with is super ripped. Yeah. Yeah. And there's like wrestlers in it. Yeah, anyway. So I digress. Welcome in to the Dell Jr. download for Tuesday. It is the post-Las Vegas edition. And yeah, Dale Jr. was nice enough to, and Mike were nice enough to call and ask for me to come in

and sit. I think it's a big deal, right? I don't think Dale's ever missed the show. And if you're wondering where he is, he is on spring break with the family. You know, he's a girl dad, which I can relate to. What's crazy to me is, so folks don't know. I wrote a book with Dale Jr. It was six years ago. Dang. We fought. So the final, the reason I bring this up in relation to the girls, because Isla was born as we were finishing the book. Wow. Holy cow. And I was kind of panicky because I had, you know, no one understands what having a first kid is. Like it is, you don't, you think you know what it's going to be and you do not know what it's going to be. And so I remember saying to Dale, dude, we got to get this done.

We have to get this done. We have to get this done. And we got in a late start on the book. And he's like, oh, it'd be fine. I go, no, no, no, you don't understand. When the baby comes, right, this is, we're done. Like you don't, no, no, no, we'll be fine, man. We'll be fine.

And I remember, so I'm very proud of this fact. I am one of the first people to see Isla. Like I'm talking about like Amy and Dale and the doctors and the folks that work, you know, on Dale's property and like Dale's mom and like me. Wow. Like I showed up. And again, I showed. I said, oh, just come up Wednesday like we'd plan. All right.

And I show up. And it was like a diaper bomb going off. Like, because you just don't know. You have no idea. And so I kind of always, I know how old Isla is. And I know how old the book is because they were essentially born at the time. the same time. Ila was born and we finished the manuscript for the book just a couple of weeks later and the book came out in the fall of 2018, but it's crazy to believe that that was six years ago.

But we'll talk about that. But what an experience. But yeah, thank y'all for having me. I'm excited to be talking some racing here in the dojo. You said you're a girl dad. So like you probably know what the girl dad spring break is. What do you think Dale's doing right now? So I heard the show last week and I was just laughing about him taking the girls to the American Girl Doll store, which he kept calling it something. else. He could call on the American doll store. The American doll store is a different store. That's like the janky outlet mall version of American Girl Law. So I was like, dude, you don't understand. So I live right near South Park Mall in South Charlotte. And we didn't

have the American Girl Doll store. My daughter was going to, the closest one was in Atlanta. So we would drive to Atlanta to do that. But no, no, I was, I just had one, only a girl. I didn't, there were not girls in my house growing up. I had a brother. Most of my cousins were guys. my girl cousin lived on the west coast it was all dudes all the time and so i learned very quickly about barby and american girl doll and uh you know the brats and all that stuff but i but whatever i owned it man i would carry i'd carry the backpack there's so many pictures of me walking around the mall walking around new york walking to beach which i think is where the earnharts are now and i got to i got the barby backpack dude that's just how that's how it rolls and these dads that try to act

like they're not going to do that i'm like well then you know okay but you know you're going to pay the So my daughter, who's a freshman in college now, we're very close. And I swear I think it goes back to, and I've talked to Dale Jr. about this, about, you know, being involved from the jump. And that means, you know what? That means you're playing with Barbies. That's just how that goes. Dang.

Yeah. So girl dad, that's me, man. Yeah, and she likes race cars. She likes certain race car drivers. I always, it's funny when she was little. My daughter, I never forget, I took her to, there was a press conference at the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and my wife was on the road. for work and my daughter's probably like four, never met a stranger and there's a press conference

at the National School Hall of Family. They're like, hey, could you come to this? I'm like, I can't do it. I'm like, I'm my own dad duty all day. Well, just bring her. It'll be fine. I'm like, all right. So I brought my daughter to the National School of Family. We're in the parking deck. And Richard Petty is walking through the parking deck. And I roll down the window and he sees my daughter strapped into the car seat, walks over to the truck. And he's like, hey, and she knew who he was. I mean, he's the king. He's Mr. the king, right, from cars. Yeah. And my daughter's never met a stranger, and she froze.

And he's talking to her and leaning in the window, and she completely froze. And he walks off, I never forget, she looked in the rearview mirror at me, and she goes, Dad, I blew it. No, it's fine. So I took her inside. But no, my daughter met David Pearson. My daughter met Calyarborough. You know, my daughter, Dale Jr., and my daughter had a great time.

We had a book signing for the book. And Dale Jr. actually came to our house and, like, changed clothes because he had an event to go to downtown. He sat in the living room and watched TV with her. I mean, she's been around race car drivers our whole life. She thinks, I think she, when she was a kid, thought everybody hangs out with race car drivers. That's what dad did. Yeah, yeah. So girl dad, I can relate.

But yeah, that Dale Jr.'s at the beach. And I'm sure they're having a good time right now. And as we speak, they're probably hauling about four bags and three red wagons of crap down to the beach. Yeah. You don't travel light with girls. Little girls are like the old lady from Titanic. Like everywhere they go, there's like four boxes. of stuff and trunks and all that's just that's how you're rolling that that's the gig dang

beach day yeah sounds like fun oh yeah it's awesome they don't want to get in their bathing suit but then they do and then like you got to put sunscreen on them and they don't want that and then it gets in their eyes and all that stuff but it's but it's still the best and once you get down there it's fine so it's all good so that's so if you wonder what dale junior's doing right now Dale if you're listening that's our guest first thanks for listening and second of all uh good luck with hauling down to the beach yes hey you mentioned like the the book that obviously you wrote with Dale. We have this great clip that you sent us,

and I think this is the perfect time that we got to play it. It's Daytona, 2000, I think 19. It's 19. So the book you'd come out in the fall of October. And then, and it's funny, I'd not seen Dale. We dropped the book, we did one book signing together. And so when you're the with guy, I always say, I'm the New York Times bestselling with guy.

You know, it's Delahard Jr. with Rimeon. Right. And it was very, and honestly, if you read a lot of books, that are written by sports figures, movie stars, famous people, a lot of times the with person doesn't get any recognition at all. And Dale was very adamant up front about including me in it, which I'm very thankful for. But yeah, so we had not seen each other very much

because he went off to do the Today Show and all this stuff, and it was fun to watch from a distance. We kind of sent the book out the door. But then the next time I saw him in person, really, certainly after the end of the season, was at Daytona, when I think he was Graham Marshall, the Daytona 500 and they brought him in for press conference and this is what happened. It's good with Ryan.

Ryan McGee, ESPN, Della, I want to ask you, what's been in the response to your book, which is available at fine bookstores all over one? Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. We've become very good friends. I'm so thankful for that. That's hilarious. Yeah. So, as I just said, you know,

what's been the reaction of your book, which, you know, I like how you said fine bookstores. That was my favorite part of the whole thing. But you know, what he said right there meant a lot to me because, you know, the headliner is the laugh and all that. But what he says at the end has always meant more to me than I've ever told him because we did become great friends in that. And there's no way that wouldn't happen because he was so incredibly open and honest and vulnerable from the jump. And the reality is that we knew he. other and we had been or certainly around each other we had interviewed him a thousand times um press conferences and whatever else i mean i remember i was there when he made his bush series

debut i mean i've literally been there beginning of his career end of his career we weren't that close like you know he was close to certainly he and marty basically grew up together but but dale and i my approach was always very different with the drivers like i have you ever seen the movie almost famous don't make friends with the rock stars and so i always kind of kept guys at a distance because what if I had to cover something bad? What if I had to write something bad about him? And I didn't want that to alter how I cover these guys as a journalist, but always was crazy about him, always really respected everything he dealt with.

I think he saved the sport in 2001. And so we knew each other, and we had obviously I'd written features about him and interviewed him a million times, but we became friends during the process of the book. And I mean, just the, the gift of sitting in his house and in his office. So I would go up to the house and he would pick a different spot every single time on the property. Like we'd be in the tree house one time or we'd go to Old Westtown the next time or we'd be in his office

or we'd just get in one of these cars and drive around or we'd go over to the shop where he was working on some old truck or whatever. And we would do it. We would have these conversations and what we realized very quickly was we could really only do one a week because it was so intense. and it was all pretty raw. I mean, this is 2018. I mean, this is not, you know, he had just retired.

And so when he was going back through those things and vocalizing a lot of it and remembering a lot of it for the first time, it took a lot out of him. And so for him to share those things with me and to trust me with it. And Amy. I mean, the conversations I have with Amy, number one in particular, the three of us were just sitting in the den. And it was us and the dogs. And there wasn't a baby yet.

And I will, I remember consciously thinking during that conversation, I cannot believe, and I am so thankful that they trust me with this. And so that was a gig I took very seriously. But the ultimate payoff is we're friends. What Dale is, he's the friend that we've had this conversation. You don't see him as much as you want to. You don't talk as much. I'm very conscious about not bothering him because he's busy. And I think he does the same for me. But when we get together, it's great. In fact, the way I just said that, sounds like Dale, right? It's great. You know, so Marty, we just had him on Marty McGee when we're Daytona, and Marty and I've

joked ever since that Dale's that guy that when you spend a little time with him, you start talking like him, like your British friend. So when you're hanging around with that, everything's awesome, awesome, it's awesome. You know, and so ever since we, Marty and I had this conversation on the show Saturday, ever since we had Dale on Marty McGee from Daytona, we feel like we both have said the word awesome more than we did before. Man, that's awesome. Do you know what it is for me?

It's, hey man. That's me, too. As soon as I started producing the show. Hey man. Hey man. Well, what I love about Dale is when he gets fired up, he does this thing where he'll punch a word at the end of a sentence to make his point. He goes, right?

You know? But it just tells you that he's genuinely excited. When he's not doing that, that's when you're like, all right, he's ready to go. Right. So, yeah. But what a gift. And like I say, what he said in that press conference meant a lot to me because we did become great friends.

And I just, I will forever be thankful that they trusted me with that book. And that book still helps people. I mean, just within the last few weeks, a friend of mine had a family member that was struggling with concussion and had been in this protocol for two years. And it was very similar to what we write in the book where their local doctor just isn't equipped to handle it. And they're doing their best, but they don't know.

And I called Dale and I was like, dude, I need Mickey's number. And Mickey Collins was the doctor that helped Dale in Pittsburgh. And the book's been out almost six years. And not a week goes by. that I don't hear from someone who said, you know, we read this and we got an appointment or we read this and we read this and just changed people's approaches to, you know, how they attack a head injury or a concussion. And if I'm hearing from people once a week or once a month, Dale's getting it all the time. And so that's why that that book is the gift that keeps on giving.

Right. That's really neat. Yeah, that's cool. And again, I just, I still can't believe that they let me do that. But yeah, but it's, it's, and that's why, and honestly, I can't believe they called to ask me help with the book, and I can't believe they called me to come in here with you guys today. Hey, we wouldn't want anyone else. Yeah. Hey, and you've spent some time with Dan Sr. Yeah.

Yeah. It's funny at Dayton every year now, I do this thing. So with a late friend Marcy Scott, Marcy was, her name is over the door at the media center in the Landowner Speedway. We lost Marcy to cancer several years ago. But Marcy and I were having a conversation. I probably, I mean, it would have been. seven, eight years ago, we're standing in the back of the media center at Daytona the morning

of the race. And, you know, like John Sina or Chris Evans or, you know, right. So, you know, Charlie's Theron, somebody's doing their press conference like they do in the morning on race day. And she leaned over to me and she goes, how many people in this room, because it's packed, how many people in this room were ever just in the room with Delano Hart Sr. And, you know, and every year you go back to Daytona, this is my 29 speed weeks, you know, last month. earlier this month. And every time you go back, there's fewer people that you know we're in the room. I'm not talking to being friends with him, but just knew him a little bit, or we're just in the room with him. And the number gets smaller and smaller every year. But yeah, it drove me a little

crazy when Dale passed in 2001. How many people came out and said, oh, yeah, he and I went fishing one time. No, you didn't. I mean, all of a sudden everybody's your best. Oh, it happens now. People pass away. Chris Mortensen, my longtime colleague, ESPN, I was going to, oh, I remember I did. No, you didn't. I was with him all the time. I never saw you. And so a lot of people claimed to have been closer to Dale Sr. than they actually were. But I was around him a lot. And he knew my name.

I know that. That was cool. I didn't know that he knew my name. But the ultimate compliment from Dale Senior was if he gave you a hard time. And there was two times you did it to me. We did, I was in the garage back in the day of the 90s, right? Everybody's testing at the racetrack all the time. Right.

And so I worked on a show called RPM tonight. It's a nightly motorsports show on ESPN 2. I was a producer, field producer. And every week, they're testing at Darlington, they're testing at Martinsville, they're testing it, we would get in a car, drive over there and do it. And we go to Charlotte,

and there's like three cars tests, and it's like Dale and like Bill Elliott and like Greg Sachs or something like, you know. And I had a date that night, and I had no idea that I was going to be going to the racetrack. And so I was dressed for the date. I was going to go on a date rider. So I got on like Abercrombie, you know,

I got on a blue shirt and I got on like dockers. You know, I got on khakis. I'm dressed. I'm ready to go. Bucks, I'm ready to go. It's the 90s. And I go to the racetrack, and Dale comes pulling the racetrack and pulls in the garage stall. I'm just standing there.

We're shooting footage, whatever. And the winter net comes down and the crew's messing around. And Doug goes, hey, I looked at him. He said, you're dressed a little damn preppy for the racetrack. I go, yeah, yeah, I got a date tonight. He goes, all right. And he said, do you need to talk to me? I said, yeah, he goes, one more run.

We'll come back. We'll talk great. Thanks on the run comes in. He gets out. He goes, all right, we'll go. go to the bathroom, I'll come back and we'll knock this out. I go, okay. And when he comes back, he grabbed my shoulders

and he squeezed the back of your neck, you know, and he took his hand, he smacked me right in the center of the back. Oh, my man's got a date. Got a date tonight. Hot date. All right. Well, get you out of here. Great. And what I didn't know was he had put his fingers in some sort of bear grease something, you know,

and just put handprints on my back and like, oh, the reason he kept smacking me and stuff. And so I, The interview's done. I go walk through the garage and like Bill Elliott's crew's like laughing. I'm like, telephone with everybody. Why everybody laughing at me?

And I get in the truck and I'm like and I remember I started to get gas something and there's something on the seed of my truck. I was like, what is this? And I realized so I take my shirt off in the parking lot of the gas station and I got Dale Earnhardt's handprints on the back of the thing. Oh my God.

He put like a sticker back there like a move chassis parts or whatever. And so, you know, that was a typical Dale Earnhardt prank because it was fun. but it wasn't funny. Right. You know, and so now I've got to go back to my apartment. I've got to change clothes wear.

And I'm an idiot. I threw the shirt away. It was ruined. Yeah. But how amazing would it be? If you had to have this shirt. I have to have that frame. Yeah.

And but DeLer Hart's handprints were on it. So yeah, there was that. And then there was one time. And so at the 1999, the end of the 20th century, ESPN did this big, broad, sweeping project that kind of was the granddaddy of 30 for 30 and all that. And it's called Sports Century. And they went and polled all these sports writers, broadcasters, whatever,

and came up with the list of the top 100 athletes of the 20th century. And they did documentaries on the top 50. And, you know, it's Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth. And, you know, you can imagine. Almost no race car drivers on the list. And they were all in like the 90s. And it was like AJ, Mario, Richard Petty. That was it.

They're like 92, 95, whatever. So I decide working on RPM tonight, we're going to do the top 10 drivers of the 20th century. And I'm going to do features on it. And I polled a bunch of writers and they came with the list. And we set up, sit down interviews, all the guys were alive. We set down interviews with everyone. We go up to DEI, which is brand new. This was with 1999.

And it's the garage mahal and all that stuff. And Dale's agreed to do an interview. And they set us up in the executive, like, lunchroom, like this really, really nice dining hall. And there's an executive chef and all this stuff. And so, Dale, we're getting set up. We get there an hour and a half early. And we're getting set up all of a sudden the door flies open. And Doug goes, what the hell are y'all doing? We're getting ready for the interview. He's, we got to go. Get set up. It's time to get on with this thing. And I'm like, Dale, we've got like an hour and a half. No, you don't. You got five minutes.

I'll be back in five minutes. Y'all better be ready. Slams the door. Oh my God. And we don't even, so now we're hauling gear and Sam. bags and hanging lights and all this is the 90s right so y'all got these fancy LED lights these are like old school like hot as hell like you know theater radiate they weigh 500 pounds so we're setting up all this stuff as me the photographer's chuck lampy and i can't remember who the third guy was and we're scrambling and we get it all set up and in the middle of it he opens the door again you're all ready damn it's time to be ready and slams the door shut again so we get it ready and i'm sweating and everything and then he comes in and he goes well good job y'all he goes now let's eat

Oh, my. And they bring in lunch. And so we all sat there and had lunch. And I am rattled. And now he's like, man, eat this S-cargo. This is great. I'm like, all right, all right. And so he completely mess with us.

So then we do the interview. And the 20th anniversary of his death in 2001, we did a big series, it would be 30 for 30 documentary, or excuse me, E60 documentary for ESPN. And I told the producers, go find this interview. Because in my mind, he was the greatest. interview all the time. I wasn't a reporter. I was a field producer and they found the interview like in the back corners of the library at ESPN. So I only have a clip and the voice you hear in the background that sounds like a scared 12 year old. That's like 29 year old me. Not even 29,

like 26 year old me and I'm completely rattled and nervous to be talking to Del Earnhardt. Is that one of the things that a lot of guys sometimes in their career that say, man, I really would like to run against Richard Petty when he was at his best. I would like to run against Jeff Borg when he was at his best. And you kind of, you hit all that. I've been, fortunately, I was able to race with Kell Yarborough and Richard Petty and David Pearson and then Darrell Waltrip and all these guys. And then here goes Rusty Wallace and now Gordon.

I've, you know, been fortunate and been around a while. Maybe I've been around too long. But I've got, I still feel like we've got some years to be around. Hopefully we can be racing Dale Jr. some of these other guys for a championship. And so the interview, in my mind, the interview was like an hour long and it was epic. And what you saw is about half the interview. Like the thing was about 12 minutes long.

Toward the interview you see his eyes moving around. He's looking for J.R. Rhodes, his longtime PR guy, like, it's time to get out here. But he was so good to me, and we talked, we talked after that. But a story, I've told him and told the story a couple times, but I always think about him when it comes to Las Vegas. because the first Las Vegas race, which was this same year in 99, I wasn't there. And the reason I wasn't there, and back then I was doing 25 races a year. I wasn't there.

My mother passed away very unexpectedly at the end of February. I was supposed to go to Vegas next week and I wasn't there. And I was gone for about a month. And I was, you guys know this, when you travel every weekend, it's not a big group. It's only a few hundred people. And so you know when someone's not there. and I knew Dale knew my face

because I was there every week but I you know there wasn't any way he knew my name I wasn't again my job was to was to get Matt Yolkham and Bill Weber and John Kernan and these guys Jerry Plunch and these guys set them up I was a producer but I remember I finally came back to the racetrack

and it was at Darlington and I was coming out of the bathroom you all know they got that old locker room bathroom thing at that old garage in Darlington's coming out of the bathroom and Dale walked past me it's the middle of happy hour and he walked out of the bathroom and he walks past me and I walked past him and he just kind of nodded at me. All of a sudden he goes, Ryan,

it's the only time I heard him say my name. And I turned around and he goes, he walked up to me and put his hand on my shoulder. He goes, I heard about you mom. He goes, I'm so sorry. And now I'm trying not to cry, you know, in front of the intimidator. And he goes, I need to tell you something. He goes, everybody's going to tell you that you're going to get over this one day. He's, you were never going to get over this. He said, my dad died, you know, 25 years ago, whatever it was. And he goes, you never get over it, you just learn how to live with it. And he goes, you just do what you can to make her proud. And I'm like, thank you. And he turned, went in bathroom. And I just, I mean, fell apart. And then going back to the fact that I wasn't really close with Dale Jr. when his father passed

away, sometime in the spring of 2001, I stopped Dale Jr. and told him that story. And he didn't know me. You know, we knew each other a little bit of the racetrack. And I know he didn't remember it because you just, if you ever lost a parent, you just walk around in a fog, you know, and especially everything that Dale Jr. was dealing with. So it was, and I had a friend lost a parent just last week. I'm at that age now where that's happening a lot. And I recount that story from Dale Senior all the time. I don't say, well, Dale Earnhardt told me because that's just,

but I say best advice I ever received from anyone after the death of my mother was that. And so I always think about that when it comes to Vegas because Vegas was the next race after mom passed. And so, so yeah, it was, that was, my Dale aren't hurt side. So I got I got I got I got I got literally the greatest advice I ever received when it came to grief. And then and then who knew that two years later, you know, we all be falling back on that same advice because we lost him. So there you go. Crazy. Yeah. That's literally all the stories I have. Like again, all these people that tell these stories, oh yeah, Dale and I used to go hunting together and children should go, that damn guy

never went hunting with us. You know, all of a sudden, everybody starts claiming they were friends, but those are my Dale senior story. I'll say from that clip, you didn't sound nervous. You sounded more well-fed. Yeah. And I sounded like, it's funny, people, the weirdest thing about doing Marty and McGee is that people accuse us of having fake accents. It's the weirdest phenomenon. The first thing is them telling you how to dress.

I can't believe you wore that tie. You need a haircut. I'm like, really? But then the other part is people thinking that Marty and I are faking our accents. And then you hear me then, I'm like, hey Dale. Hey, do, man. I'm so from Rockingham, man. like oh yeah. Dale, did you like racing gets care of y'all, bro?

That's what it's selling. So, yeah, when I moved to Bristol, Connecticut, and I sounded like that, they were all like, we don't understand anything you're saying. I'm like, yeah, that's what got me about breaking of ESPN was I could interpret, I could play interpreter for when they would feed in interviews with Bill Elliott. Dang. I remember, because everybody, I was only Southern or ESPN in the mid-90s when I first started out of college. And I remember, all these guys, all these northeastern corridor, you know, guys all went to Cornell and they're, you know, they got 500 vowels in their last name.

You think they can understand what the hell Bill O'Neilley was talking about? Right. And so I remember I remember clearly a little bit guy named Matt Sandouly, legendary ESPN guy. And Mattie says, where's the southern guy? Don't we have a southern guy? I'm like, yeah, he goes, coming here. I don't know what the hell this guy is talking about. And he had playing.

Bill Ellis said, wow, we have a dial with a situation. And I'm like, well, all right, he said, this is the deal of a situation and what he means. I was like a U.N. interpreter. Yeah. And that was my break at ESPN. It got me moved back to North Carolina within two years. That's so awesome. Yeah.

So, yeah, so it's, yeah. Dale, what was it like when you asked against Richard Pady, Dale? Was that awesome? Yeah. You sound like a family guy character. Yeah, no, no, it sounded like one there. Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's so funny when you go back and listen to it.

But Marty and all the time, we go find old pictures. If you ever Google Marty Smith and Dale Earnhardt Jr., you get two pictures. You get the famous moment of them drinking the beers together, which they talked about on the show. show a couple weeks ago after the homestead race. And then the other one is Frosted Tips. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, Paroxide, Marty, and Dale Jr.

But they all had them. Casey Kane, all those dudes had. I didn't, I never did Frosted Tips. Y'all could probably never pull that off. But we have people in a room remember that. Every race car driver thought Frosted Tips was way to go. And it worked for them at the time. Should we bring it back? No, never. Not a chance. It'll come back, though. My daughter's buying vinyl records and...

I love vinyl records. I know. I know. That's all... Everything, everything comes back. I was in a urban outfit. with my daughter over the holidays, they're selling damn cassette tapes. Oh. So it's like everything, everything comes back. The 90s, I could make so much money now if I had just saved all the Chase Authentics, right? I mean, I had boxes.

Yeah. The jacket I'm wearing now, I'm wearing a Star Wars. This is a pod racing jacket. I love that jacket, by the way. But it looks like a 90s. Yeah, I had, I mean, I had boxes of that stuff and just hauled it down to Goodwill. My daughter's so mad at me. Oh, yeah.

because, you know, she would allow, I was in a, I was in a store at the mall, and they were selling a Mike Skinner Lowe's Racing shirt for $75. Yeah. I'm a, I mean, Mike Skinner. I love Mike, but I mean, I think even Mike would be like, really? That's like, that's like someone in 20 years walking around with like an A.J. Almonddinger jacket. No, no. So I'm at that age now, right?

We're going to talk, and by the way, we are actually going to talk about racing. No offense. A.J. Almonddinger. But we're, but, you know, I'm old enough. I remember the day John Hunter Noonchek was born. Oh. I remember the first time I saw Chase Elliott, he was about three or four months old and his father was carrying him down pit lane on the morning of the Daytona 500. So I'm at that point now.

So yeah, so the retro stuff is hilarious to me because I've come completely full circle. Check this out. Oh, look at this guy. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Is he rolling a tire? What's he doing right there?

He's sexually rolling a tire to the garage. Look at the collar on this shirt. Can you see that? Oh, yeah. Holy cow, man. I know, dude, it was, it was one of the greatest things that NASCAR chasm does is he'll dig out those old headshots. I'm a sucker for all these retro social media accounts, NASCAR social media. And when they dig out, there was the one year where.

NASCAR man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I worked at NASCAR, I worked at NASCAR productions. Back then, we called it NASCAR images for a couple years. And I remember we do the headshots, you know, we bring the guys in and shoot all this video. and we'd have a person in there with the thing spraying their faces to make them look sweaty and then shoot them almost like a almost like a fish eye lens so their noses look huge and they look all sweaty I'm like what are we doing to these guys but at the time that was you know that was what

you did that was cool back yeah if you took a field producer if you took a tripod in the field you get fired because the whole idea was keep it loose man we're gonna shake you know oh yeah it's m t ue baby oh yeah so it's it when it worked it was great, but it didn't work very often. Dang. How much for me to show up next week with Frosted Tips on this show? Dude, do it.

Yeah, you should. Bring it back. You show with frosted tips and like a genuine Dale Jr. Like, got the outlaw on it. You know, one of those. You need to just roll in with that stuff. 100%.

All right. You see, and you're the age, again, I've known you for a real long time. How old were you when I first met you? Probably like 12. Yeah. And so come to the racetrack, and it was awesome and just saw your dad at Daytona.

But you're of the age now. I tell these stories. So my, I promise y'all, we're going to talk about the races in a minute. My mentor was Tom Higgins. In my opinion, the greatest NASCAR beat writer that ever lived. Charter member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame with the Squire Hall Award. He was one at the very next year. But Pap, I would wear him out.

He lived right over here. We would do a feature called the Rear View Mirror for RPM Tonight. and it was just basically him telling these awesome stories. He had the most ridiculous Dale Earnhardt. He actually went fishing when hunting with Dale Earnhardt, Sr. But Higgins, I would wear him out all the time. We'd get a lunch after we'd shoot this stuff at his apartment. And I would ask him about Fireball Roberts and Curtis Turner and, you know, all these guys.

Well, then, you know, maybe 10 years ago when Kelly Crandall and Matt Weaver and, you know, Bianchi, these really talented young writers were coming into the media center. I took a bunch of them to dinner one night in Birmingham the way that Tom Higgins and Steve Wade and Bob Moore and his guys took care of me when I first started showing up the racetrack. And I think we're going to, dinner, I think we're going to talk about like interviewing style and writing style and, you know, about the business. No.

They want to talk about what was Ward Burton like. you know what was sterling marlin like you know what was it like covering races at south boston i'm like damn it really i remember i called higgins and i go is this how it was for you all he he was yes so so i'm at that point in my career now where you know i got people asking me and you know buying retro stuff and talking about frost the tips like they're talking about you know old war war two footage i'm like that happened like five minutes ago yeah wasn't it around the same time as well yeah it was yeah sure yeah and then you go back to youtube and you look at the races that I covered in its standard definition square one by one video and you're like,

damn it. It'll happen to y'all. If you're fortunate enough to hang around as long as a lot of us have, it'll happen to y'all too. I guess we should talk about the actual races, right? I think, yeah. Is that what we do now? Okay.

I mean, you know, story time with McGee. You want to get on with dirty air brought to you by tire pros. Today's dirty air segments brought to 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.

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and hardworking people, man. collar and they know their stuff. All right, so there was a race. There were three great races over the weekend at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. By the way, a little windy on Saturday. Did you see that? Oh, my God. I thought that the poor, there are certain protocols.

You're like, all right, we're not going to do this or we are going to do that. You know, Disneyland has the big fireworks show at the end of every night. But a lot of nights it gets canceled because of the wind because it's because, you know, it's basically sitting in the desert. I was surprised at Las Vegas did not have a protocol for the poor people carrying these flags they had these flags that walked out there

again I got on a pod racing jacket if you see Phantom Menace they walk out before the race and they're holding up the flags for each team and they had this whole flag thing out there Oh I missed that Oh my God I was like I was like these poor people trying to hold old glory

are going to be launched out into the desert I don't know how they did it but it was it was as windy as I can remember seeing it at the racetrack and the drivers talked about the cup drivers even on practice on Saturday trying to catch the wind. So yes, it was very windy.

But three great races, I mean, certainly three different outcomes. I guess you know what? Let's start Friday and work away. So Roger Caruth is an amazing story. Yeah. And the history of what he accomplished. I mean, only the third black driver to win it in an NASCAR National Series ever. Right. You know, Wendell Scott, Bubba Wallace,

and now Roger. But that dude's still in college. The funniest thing was him and his post-race press conference basically lobbying his professors. He goes to Winston-Salem State just up the road. Lobbians professor, hey, I'm a little busy this weekend. Can I get an extension because, you know, I got homework this weekend? I love that.

Yeah. And I need to ask him if you did. But that guy, that's the nicest dude, and he loves NASCAR. Jamie Little, our friend of Fox, posted the most amazing picture. I think it was on Saturday of her and Roger Caruth. I believe it was at Richmond. And he was just a teenager at the racetrack with a press pass, with an infield pass, I don't even press pass. And how to Bubba Wallace shirt on and had his, you know, had his red can headphones on going to listen to the scanners and all the stuff and took a picture with Jamie

Little. But that's who that dude is. And he's just, he is, he is so focused. I had a great conversation with him for just a very few minutes on Thursday night at Daytona. He was walking off the grid as I was walking out for the duels or whatever we're calling him now. And I had a great conversation, but I just, I like him a lot. And so for him to do that was, it's not just historic, but that is fine. That's a win that a lot of people have expected for a while. And now I think you guys know, once you get that first one, you used to start getting them pretty quick. What kind of potential you think he has for the rest of this year then? I think it has a lot of potential.

You know, it's, and it's not just about what he did at Vegas, but it was about what we saw from him in the races leading up to that. And so, you know, it's he's with a good group that loves young race car drivers in Spire. He's got backing. Obviously, I mean, you saw his sponsors, you know, had to Hendrick Car sponsorship. You know, and so I think the potential is through the roof. You know, the question is, how do you handle it? And there are guys that, I mean, I know.

I know Danny drops his podcast today as well. Yesterday. Yesterday. But I remember having this conversation with Danny. He had won the Bud Shootout. And then he won one points race. That was at Poconos, his rookie year, essentially his rookie year. Technically it wasn't, but he was.

And he made the chase. And we did a story for ESP in the magazine where the guy who wasn't invited to go to Good Morning America and to go to the Tonight Show. Gordon and Johnson and Stuart and those guys are flying all over the country. And Danny, literally, I was with him for three days. He went to great clips. He got a haircut. He went and bought Madden because he had Madden on hold at the GameStop.

And he was in the process of buying a house, the house that he made famous and infamous all at the same time. But he and I had a conversation. He spent a lot of money that week. Bought a new plane, bought a $3 million house next to Joe Gibbs, all this stuff. Haircuts are expensive these days. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Madden on hold, right?

I can't afford that. But he and I had a conversation that very week, and I wrote it in the story about, you know, all right, so what do you do now? You're really only won one race. So every guy stands at that crossroads of how do you handle that going forward? And I remember when Danny won,

I think it was the second Daytona 500. I was in Victory Lane for Sports Center. And this is, I mean, this is 15 years later where didn't grab me and he goes, well, what happened? How'd I handle that first one? I go, pretty good, you know? And so I don't worry about a guy like, at Roger because he's mature beyond his years. There are guys I'll worry about. Can they handle this?

But he's not one of those guys. He's such a workhorse. I met him, I think, in Dover, 2018 for the first time. And he was that guy handing business cards out. Just connecting as much as he could. It's cool to see that. He said yesterday on Door Bumper Clear, too, that you just got to do the work. And good things come to people who do the work. Who do you worry about in terms of handling the pressure? You said Raj is not one of those guys. No, you know, it's an interesting time for me because I have to work really hard to get to know these guys. I used to know them all coming up. You know, like Dale Jr.

I watched Dale Jr. and Kelly race at Myrtle Beach. So there were guys that I knew. I knew who Jimmy Johnson was because we used to run truck, his stadium truck highlights on RPN tonight back in the day. So there are, I don't know the kids in the truck series like I used to. And even if I did, I wouldn't say, well, I don't think that I'm a guy, I can't do it. You know, but what I just worry about is maturity. You know, I worry about, you know, when you, and we saw this, unfortunately, in a lot of awful ways when the young guns craze happened. And a lot of guys were pushed into rise that they quite frankly weren't ready for yet.

You know, Joel O'Gano will tell you. He suffered because he got pushed up to chain too fast. It's no different than taking a pitcher or running back and or quarterback. We're sitting in Charlotte. I think Bryce Young is an amazing athlete. Now everybody thinks he can't play football, right? And he's one of the best quarterbacks I ever covered. I voted for him for the Heisman.

And so how do you handle that? And so that's what I worry about. And we saw this with the Young Guns crazy where guys were pushed. Kenny Irwin was pushed into a cup ride way too soon because everyone was looking for the next Jeff Gordon. And then at the next level, we saw guys start doing drugs because all of a sudden they had money and he had time on their hands and they might have won a race or even just won a poll and their careers washed out. I mean, I go over that list all day. And so the question is how much the – and I think overall, I think because of social media, because of the world that – I mean, you guys have grown up in and the stuff that you've been forced to compartmentalize. from the pandemic all the way to Sandy Hook,

I think that there's a maturity level that exists with kids that are in their 20s today that didn't exist when I was coming along because of what they've had to deal with. I spoke at graduation at my own modern University of Tennessee back in May, and that was a speech I gave, which is, y'all are way smarter than anyone wants to give you credit for. And the reason is because you have dealt with more

than any generations ever had to deal with mentally. And so I think guys are built, I think race car drivers are built to handle those things, better now than they were. So I don't worry about it as much as I used to, but I certainly don't worry about Roger Cruz. And then the second race, and again, going back to guys that I remember when they were born, John Hunter and Eamcheck, all right, so here's a bar bet.

We were talking about this before we started recording. Here's a bar bet that you would win all day long, even with someone who considers himself a hardcore NASCAR fan, is how many Xfinity wins does John Hunter and Eamichick have now? He was 10. He won seven last year. That right there, there is not, I don't care if you found the most hardcore old school sandwich construction company NASCAR cafe, like, you know, NASCAR themed deal.

If you walked into the bar and everybody's sitting there wearing their NASCAR gear and you went, how many Xfinity races that John Hunter Nebuchek went last year? No one's saying seven. Yeah. No one. And I like that about him because he's just, and I love the fact that he's successful in that series because his father loves, loved the Bush. nationwide Xfinity series more than anyone.

Joe Nemechek, even when he was driving for Felix Sabatis and Hendrik and everyone else, he never stopped racing with his team in the Bush series. If you were in the NASCAR media in the 2000s, in the 90s, you have a picture of yourself, and I do, interviewing Joe Nemechek after the race, after he finished fourth or whatever, and his mom would take the picture, and then his mom would print it out

and would get him to sign it. Dear Ryan, thank you for your coverage, Joe Nemechek, and you would come in the mail by two of it. We all have one of those. Some people have 40 of them. And so Joe always loved the Bush series so much. And for folks that don't know, John Hunter is named for John Nemechek.

John was Joe's little brother. John was killed. People forget this, but John was killed in a truck series crash. I think it was a test session at Homestead, the old homestead, which was a mile and a half Indianapolis motor spirit. It was flat and it was a rectangle.

It was stupid. Like the layout was dumb. And this was before Hans, before safer. 97, I think. Right. And it was kind of at the beginning of that awful four-year period. We were just people, I felt like I was covering funerals monthly. But John, Hunter was born shortly after that and was named for his uncle that he never met.

And so every time John wins. I think those of a certain age just feel, it just feels even better because it's just a great story. But he's really, really talented. I mean, you know, Jimmy Johnson has seen something in him. So there's talent there.

But yeah, no way in the world that you walk in even the most hardcore NASCAR bar and you go, John Hunter and Ibechek won seven expedite races. Not a chance. They'll be like, nope, no way. Yeah. He won a lot in the truck series too.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Let's see. How many did he get? All right, take a guess. How many truck series wins? I don't know. See, I just, I just literally just said this is, this is the bar back. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on, Dalton. Did I get it right on the number? He won 13 truck races. Okay. So John Hunter

Emichick has 23 races, national, national series rule ends right now. That's pretty good. Yeah. That's a lot more than others. Yep, yep. And it goes back to me, the room we're sitting in, right? Is there is no question that you were given opportunities within racing because it is a family business because of your name. but there's also different tiers of that, right? You know, being Joe Nemech's son is some notoriety. Right. But that isn't going to get millions of dollars of checks worth written. And I always go back to the conversation I have with Austin Dillon when he was just getting

into that three car and had it with him again after the one of the day it's on a 500, which is there's no, he said, there's no question. I'm where I am because of my grandfather and because of my dad. But he said, they're not in the car with me. and my last name isn't driving the car and my blood isn't driving the car he said you know and we're standing in the victory

that's on a 500 so it's what do you do with it and I love watching John Hunter because it feels a lot like his dad like he's grinding right like he doesn't know how else to do it and that's what that's so so there are a lot of guys I'm actually again I can go through a no other list of guys with last names that you know that we were all sold on he's going to be the guy

and um a really nice guy guys and talented guys, but it just didn't work out. So to watch John Hunter win like he's winning. All right, talking about guys with potential and going to be the next big thing. I've managed to not talk about Kyle Larson now for like a half hour. Do you think he has potential? I think he has potential. Yeah.

So this guy, so there are a lot of guys that come in with more hype than Kyle Larson did. And there's a difference. You know, there's hype because of your last name or there's hype. because of the team you're with or the type because of whatever. But Kyle Larson was one of those guys that we were all hearing about him when he was 15 years old on the West Coast, you know, running on a dirt track behind his parents' house on the farm, right? And so, and then when he had the great break

and signed with Chip Ganassi, and that team was good, but it wasn't great. And so the question was always, what would happen if he got into that other car? You know, what would happen if you got in with a Hendrik, if he got him with a Penske, if he got in whatever. And that question was posed to me by Kyle Larson and his dad. We did a big story years ago for E-60. At this point, Kyle won just a couple of races, but he was already being earmarked as the future of the sport. And the next Jeff Gordon, because of where he came from, and next Tony Stewart and all that.

And so we did a big E-60 feature. I mean, it might have been eight or nine years ago now. but not on camera because he wasn't going to be disrespectful, but off camera, Kyle Larson and Kyle Larson's dad both were like, they were in the garage like Charlotte and they're looking at the Hendrick cars going, I'd just like one race in one of those cars just to see,

just to see if there's a difference. And I've asked Kyle that, you know, when Kyle was running for the championship last year, and I asked him toward the end of the year, I said, all right, so you said this to me years ago, man, if I could just get in one of those cars, I go, all right, now you're in a Hendrick car. you know, is it what you thought it was going to be?

And he goes, it's better. He said, there's just a whole other level to this that I didn't understand. And he goes, and it's not just preparation. It's not just equipment. It's also mentality. And it's also cycling up to the weekend. It's all these things that you just don't think about. And that's how, you know, you win as many races as they have.

So yes, I think he has potential. It went, it was 24 Cup Series races now, which in a relatively short time, he's won 24 races. He's just two wins behind Dale Jr. now, right? Yes. Yeah, Dale had 26. Yep. And two wins behind and Dale's tie with Fred Lorenzen. Right. And now he's in that group where if he has an average Kyle Larson season, if he wins four or five races, he's in that group now where you start the year ranked 30 whatever on the all-time wins list and you could end the year ranked 20th. Right. Because he's in that group now where there's a bunch of guys who are all-time wins list. You're in the year ranked 20th. Right. Because he's in that group now where there's a bunch of guys who are All in the Hall of Fame.

By the way, he just left a tie. He was tied at 23 wins with Ricky Rudd, who should be in the Hall of Fame. And next up is Jim Pascal, who should be in the Hall of Fame. And those guys have been nominated multiple times. So I think that, I mean, he's already, he would roller skate into the Hall of Fame if you're retired right now. Oh, yeah. And he's 31. That's crazy.

And 31 and just getting going, really, with the team that he'll be driving for until he's ready to retire. So to your point there, He's 36 all time in NASCAR wins with 24. Right. If he bumps up 10 spots, that's 10 more wins and that's where Truex sits at 26 right now. Like he could do that this year. Yeah, could do it this year. Easy.

Yep. I'm not easy, but you know what I mean? So, yeah, if he has two average Kyle Larson years, he'll be there. I mean, Mark Martin's sitting at 20th with 40 wins. Yep. And that's the perspective. And it's the perspective of how difficult it is. Mark Martin's a perfect example.

because Mark never enjoyed a win. Like Mark Martin, as soon as he got out of the car, drive me crazy, as soon as he got out of the car, and he's won like his 35th career winner, and he's convinced that's the last time he's ever going to win, which is what he needed to motivate himself. So it just tells you how hard is. When Dale Jr. retired, I wrote that column,

which was, it's very easy to go. He didn't win a championship. But you look at what he did in winning 26 races, and at the time, only 20-something drivers had ever done that in the history of the sport. You know, it's so hard to do. It's so hard to win a race.

And it's super hard to, and then you've got to back it up. There are a lot of guys won one race, right? A lot of guys, one, just one race. And then there's a big group of guys on one, two races. And then they were done. And even then, you know, Derek Cope, right, won two cup races.

And everybody all, well, you know, Dale Senior doesn't cut a tire. And he was tricked up at Dover. There's always an excuse if you've won two. if you won 24, then you're just really, really good. And then when you get to 25 and you get to 30 and you get to 40 and 50 and all that stuff, that's just, it's, we kind of take it for granted. It's like in baseball, we take home runs for granted. You know, these guys now, especially in the steroid, these guys are 600 home runs.

And, you know, Dale Murphy at 398, it was really hard, you know, but it's just very easy to retroact it. Like, oh, that's not many home runs. Yeah, it is. It's a lot. And so Ricky Rudd was a crazy talented guy and grinded his tail off for 30 years. And famously won one race a year for how many years, 16 years in a row, whatever it was. And he didn't win as many as Kyle Larson. 23.

Yeah. So it's just truly, truly remarkable. And also, too, I am the first one to have ripped the drive for diversity program, which has been around for 20 years now. But now we're sitting in a year where we had a truck series winter at Daytona came from the program. Kyle Larson came from the program. Roger Cruth came for the program.

Daniel Suarez came for the program. So credit where credits do. As someone who was banged on that deal for a long time because I just felt like back in, and it was back in the day, a publicity stunt. But to now see guys who actually came through the process, like Roger, and see them when, Daniel, seeing them winning races, that that's pretty cool.

Yeah. We talk about how good Larson is. Like, did Reddick stand a chance trying to track him down? It seemed like Larson was able to. I thought he had him. I mean, I really did with two laps to go. I'm like, oh, here we go. You know, and the way, by the way, like Harry Gant riding that wall.

That was awesome. Yeah. It was awesome. And see, I'm doing it now. Hey, man. That was awesome. He was riding the wall, man. It was awesome.

Right? But it's, um, no, I thought he had a chance. But also, credit to Kyle Larson, that car was so good. Larry McRillan has had the best line on the post-race show. Larry loves to talk about turning points, right? And they asked Larry about the turning point of the race. Because the turning point of that race is when they loaded that five car on the rig and Concord. And it rolled out on Tuesday to go out there.

And he's right. But that car was so good, but he still had a chance to lose the race. And that car was going away. And he still figured out away. And just that was a master at work. And if you're Tyler Redick, we're telling it getting headspace, right? if you're Tyler Reddick now what do you do with this? Because

three times now they finish one, two and three times Redick has finished second. Yep. And Tyler is a California guy with all the headlines and all that stuff and very much to me like Kyle Larson. You know, is he with the team that can get anywhere where he needs to get all those things?

So yeah, the question is what do you do with that? Is it the motivator for you? Or do you become and with the greatest respect to a Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace who could not get around Del Arn Hart in his head. He couldn't do it. And so if you're Tyler Redick now,

are you going to be like, Harry Gant's stroke a race, right? Oh, hell, here we go again. Right. And we're running behind him again with three laps to go. You know, this is not awesome. You know, but finally when he does it, and he will one day, it'll be fine.

But Tyler is the kind of guy that will turn out into motivation. So I, but it's, but man, that's got to be so frustrating. And again, it's so hard to win these races when you have a chance and you don't, and you think you really had a chance, and you think you might have made a mistake, or at least you got outsmarted a little bit, then I guarantee you Tyler hadn't slept a whole lot since I got back. In Reddick, after the race, he said,

same shit, different year, and he was referring to the pit crew. And Denny on Action is detrimental this week, went in depth on how 2311 had to kind of start their pit crew program from the ground up, and obviously there were mistakes that were made during the weekend for Reddick. I'm sure that probably has to be feeding into the frustration. But I guess it all ties back together.

We're talking about Raj's win. How do you handle it from here? Same thing goes for Redick. How do you handle losing again from here? I'm always fascinated by that when a driver calls out to Pitcruh. And they've all done it. I mean, they've all done it. There's only a few I can think of that never did it.

But they did maybe not publicly. But they certainly would do it in the team meeting or do it privately or whatever. I know drivers have shown up to practice on Monday morning and going, you know, same thing every time. So I'm always curious about that because, and Denny has done that a lot, which is, you know, calling, well, you know, another bad pit stop or another so, we get a big surprise, couldn't get fuel in the car, whatever else. And Tony Stewart used to do it all the time, guys would do it to effect.

And so I'm always curious how the pit crew reacts to that. You know, my dad was a college football referee. And it was always good to be anonymous because if you weren't, anonymous, then you probably had a call that everyone didn't like or the question. If you're on a pit crew, you want to take care of your business, paint defense, and get out of there. And so when the attention suddenly is on you, how do you handle that? What's different now is, is that these guys are all athletes. I mean, these guys are all almost exclusively college athletes. They've been in pressure pack situations before they've been motivated by different manners, by coaches, you know, good and bad.

And so I'm curious, I'm always fascinated by that, the tact of everyone knows what you're talking about. And you just said it on national television and said a bad word, you know, and the guys all heard it, you know. And particularly if it's going out of the PA, you know, they're packing your car up and they just heard you say it, dude. You know, and if they didn't, somebody's going to say, hey, man, they just said that by the same thing every week. So it's, I'm fascinated by the sport psychology of that. Would you say unwarranted ferretic? No, no. Listen, in the moment, and this is part of...

It's frustrated. This is one of the great things about the sport is that if your driver's probably not that great, but it's unvarnished. How long have you been out of that car? Sure, yeah. First person he talked to. The first person he talked to had a microphone and a camera, right? And so, no, to me, that's why that should never change.

You know, we, we, they fiddled around with the idea of a cool-down period at one point for post-race. And I, I don't call it. complaining about stuff, but I, man, I was raising hell. I was like, no, because it's the one thing we have that other sports don't have, which is, you know, like if I cover, I cover the college football playoff national championship every year. And the losing team, you know, really both teams, there's a cooling off period.

Like, you get to stand outside the locker room and you can literally physically hear and feel the energy, like, dis- Go down. and you're like, oh, I need to get in there. Talk to these guys while they're still thinking about it. And so, and it's because I'm spoiled because I'm used to grabbing guys on pit lane or grabbing guys of gas pumps back in the day, and you would get a real, real answer.

Good or bad for them. But it was, you know, I'm a sports showering, man. It was all good for me. Not to turn this into like an F-1 conversation. Yeah. But they have that cool down for the podium. And not that that will really increase much entertainment. right now for F1.

But I mean, should be scared of that? Congrats to Max Rassapin. Yeah, seriously. It's like, yeah, it's like, yeah, it's, it's funny. Again, I'm wearing a, I'm wearing a one. Oh, cool. Yeah, I'm wearing my, uh, Fangio T-shirt. But the, but yeah, I'm not a big, um, I'm not a huge dynasty guy.

You know, I'm not one that ever believed it was good for baseball for the Yankees to be in the World Series every year. And that's not just because I'm a Red Sox fan. You know, I don't think it's good for football. I think it's cool to watch the Chiefs win a lot of Super Bowls, but I want them to struggle. Like, I want them to have to earn it. I want them to look like they're going to lose the game.

But, you know, it's the line, you know, you guys are young. You ever watch Bull Durham? If you watch Roadhouse, you watch Bulldogs. Yes, Dalton, of course. But there's that line, which is, you know, strikeouts are fascists, and they're boring. And that's how I feel by Dynasties a lot of time. And so, yeah, it's stinking up to show.

I mean, and people get spoiled, right? We've had three really good Cup series races. You know, we've had an historically great finish. We've had what was a really good one-two duel. And then we had, you know, the Daytona 500, which is just always bonkers. That's just how it rolls. So you get a little spoiled, right?

Because, I mean, even back, we talked about back in the day, man, how many races in the 90s and 2000s that I literally go to sleep in the media center? Because you're just riding around. So what you want about stage racing? and Barry was just riding around. And I mean, I covered races. I was a race of Michigan at Dale Jared.

I'm still mad at him about that race because it was most boring thing I've been to. We'll go to Coke 600 and got a guy won by an entire lap. And I'm talking about not that long ago. And so, yeah, when I watch some of these F1 races now on my network, by the way, and I'm very proud of that. Yeah. We're very happy to have me to ESPN, but it's, um, and, but it is, uh, I mean, I literally, we did Marty McGee.

On Saturday morning, by the way, I like the race being on Saturday morning, the F1 race. I came back to the house and the dog and I went to sleep. So thanks, thanks Max for stopping for the nap. We appreciate that. But the cool down period seriously, though. And I feel that way too. Like I'm very fortunate most years I get to do the interview with the Daytona 500 winner and the Indianapolis 500 winner for Sports Center.

And I know the importance of the hat dance, right? I mean, I'm sitting in a room full of sponsored stuff. But man, it's killing me when, when, I, you know, You know, William Byron, again, whom I've known since he was a teenager, and he's won the race, and I'm trying to get to him, and every minute that goes by, I know I'm going to get less emotion out of him. And so, you know, when we have to wait for 30 minutes, and I get it. Everybody needs to do their deal.

But, you know, it's, I want to get to him because I want to, first of all, I'm impatient, and I want to write my story and get it to fed up their line. But also, I want to catch it as raw as I possibly can, you know. when he's been crying, and I get in 20 minutes later, he ain't going to cry again. Right. You know, and so I just, I like to catch, it's something this sport has that everyone else does not. Well, and I've been in that line waiting for the winner too. And it's like, while you're waiting, how do I ask a question that he's not going to have asked every single time?

Yeah, and that's why you get at your job because that's the most important thing. I talked to journalism classes all the time in colleges. I was talking to a group at Ole Miss early this week. And what I told them was I said, you have to ask a question that they haven't heard before because if they're in a situation, sometimes you have to ask the obvious question. You win the eight ton of 500.

How's that feel? But then you have to think about, all right, what's a question I can ask because I did my research? Or what's a question I can ask that everyone else, the 40 people that went ahead of me, you know, haven't already asked. It's why if you listen to, not just, get to inside baseball on

media stuff. If you watch press conferences and I'm in the media center, if I ask a question this at the very end, and I also defer to, because I'm only at the racetrack a handful of times a year now,

just like if I'm covering the Ohio State Michigan State game, I'm only at Ohio State once a year. There are beat riders that are there every week. And, you know, Bob Packers and Dusty and Kelly and they're all out there every single week. So the last thing I'm going to do,

get in their way. And so I'm going to let them ask what they need to ask. And when we get to the end, if the question I'm going to ask it. I'm going to ask it. And I don't like asking it in the room because now, hell, it's live stream. And I want it for my story. You know, that's why I get so twitchy in Victor Lane because I want to get my time because nobody else is over there with me. And so, yeah, it's a, it's a challenging thing in the time of social media. You know, you used to be able to get a quote and keep it to yourself and put it in your story and no one would see it till the one out that day or till the story ran on TV later that night. Now, you know, it's been tweeted or X or whatever the hell we're calling it now 40 times

before you get back to the media center. And so, yeah, it's an interesting time for content. Is there a question that you asked, you got an answer for that you remember the most after a race? That's a great question. Yeah, there's, we all think we know how race car drivers, we all, we, there's a part of a part of all of us that think we could do it, right? I've been going to racetrack, getting paid to go the racetrack for almost 30 years. And there's a part of you that thinks you know how to do it. So what I love is when they teach me something I didn't know. And when it was at the height of the tandem racing at Daytona,

and Jeff Gordon, who had basically pushed Trevor Bain to the win in the Daytona 500, but Jeff Gordon proceeded to make me feel like a moron. line. It wasn't his goal, but made me realize I don't really know what the hell these guys do because he started talking about stuff like Joey Legano just got busting for him. Finding ways to control the air sitting in the cockpit and knowing the stuff that Del Earnhardt would talk about with an open-faced helmet about hearing air pressure changes and feeling it in your nose and feeling it in the back of your throat

and right now it's time to go and being able to look two turns ahead and feel where it's all going to go and hope that you're right, but it's the best educated guess you have. But Jeff Gordon did that for me. The day he pushed Trevor Bain and it was funny because we, so we do the scrum, right?

Everybody's talking to him. And I think back in those days, they still, they would take the top, they'd take two through five to the gas pumps. And so we go to the gas pumps and talk to those guys while the winner was doing all the Victor Lane stuff. Then we'd run a Victory Lane.

But back then they wouldn't bring them to the media center. Like it was just, it was, I don't, I think that's the window that happened in. But anyway, I just remember it all kind of dissipated and then Jeff just grabbed me and started talking about, I want to explain to you what actually is happening out there. And that was the tandem deal. And I think that was the, I think that might have been COT, right? With the, with the, it was around that time. Yeah. So it was, but him that, that, those are my favorites. I mean, the all timer was when I went to do, it wasn't a race situation, I went to do the story on

Aaron Fike, just to ask him, are you okay? And he sat there and confessed to me that he had shot up heroin and got in a race truck. and there aren't a few there are on a couple moments in your career where it's like that if you ever seen the movie spotlight um which is the movie about the the boston globe and when they were breaking the story about the you know the horrible stuff with the with the catholic church and kids and all and so and there's a moment in that movie if i ever meet rachel adams right um you know for mean girls right if i ever meet her i'm going to ask her who did she talk to because this priest starts accidentally confessing and doesn't realize he's doing it. And the look on her face in that shot where she's taking notes and not losing eye contact and trying to make sure I keep this going,

that only happens once or twice in your entire career. And when Aaron sat there across that table from me and said, and just said it, and I stopped down. We need to talk about this for a minute. And we changed drug policy. We changed everything because of that story. And so there's only a couple times

in your career where someone will say something to you and you'll be like when i was writing the book with dale there there were amy said things to me that i still can't i mean that that's when i knew all right they trust me you know and sitting there on the couch and saying this is what happened here and this is what happened there and i really believe this and i thought this was over and you know and the things that dale talked to me about again there's a level of trust sometimes that's therapy for them and even if they don't know you they're just telling you right because they just need to say it to someone. Yeah.

But in those situations, that's a trust level, you know, and so you don't ever take that for granted. Good stuff. This week's segment of Dirty Air was brought to you by Tire Pros. There's few people who love cars as much as I do, but these tire and service experts equally love the drive. They offer a huge selection of brand-name tires and full-service repairs from all changes to alignments to brakes. Tire Pros is giving your vehicle the TLC it deserves.

Tire Pros is unique because each location is owned by. men and women in our community, but with the added support and resources of over 600 locations nationwide. Next time, you need to take your car in, show your neighbors some love, and take it to your local tire pros. Tell them I sent you. Should we move to Ask Junior? I mean, Ask McGee. Yeah, is it Ask McGee? Is that what we're doing? So is As Asr Jr. I like the graphic y'all built, by the way. Just the big X over Jr. And a little bit, it was like to cover the book. Dale Earnhardt Jr. with Ryan McGee. On this thing, it was Ask Dale with the X and McGee.

So yeah. All right. So Ask McGee. I'm a little nervous about this, but we'll roll. Yeah. This first question coming from, I think it was Twitter. Okay. Do you have a favorite Dale Jr.

Slash Dale Senior story? I know we talked about some Dale senior stories earlier, so you have to tune into that. So any good Dale Jr. stories that you have, that's a favorite. Yeah. So when Dale, so after Dale retired and. And typically Daytona Speed Weeks, I stay in a hotel down toward Orlando because I got to do some work. And Daytona's kind of crazy. But this particular year, I guess it was three years ago, Marty Smith, my co-hosts with Martin McGee, convinced me to stay at the Streamline Hotel.

And I'm a NASCAR historian, first and foremost, to stay at the Streamline's awesome. It's awesome. You know, for folks that don't know, that's the hotel where NASCAR was founded in 1947. and a group of guys sat in a very, very smoky, you know, room upstairs, the Ebony Room. And now that's an awesome bar. And there's a rooftop deal. And that place was completely falling apart most of the years I was going to Daytona. And now they did an amazing job of renovated.

So Marty and I stay there. And on paper, that sounds like a great idea. But if you're having to work and I'm on the top floor and I've got, you know, a country cover band up there. and it's like Barth Grooks or, you know, or Dukes and Brun, and they're upstairs playing like literally, you know, 12 inches from my head. So I go up there to like, damn, what's going on up here? And there's Dale Jr. and Amy, and they're doing a big launch, like a big vodka launch, right? And so I'll never forget.

And this is when I, we've just gone through the book together. And I hadn't seen Dale in forever. And all this is going on, everybody wants a piece of Dale. Like everybody's there. It's sponsor people there. and there's fans there and all this is why I love him so much he grabbed me he was come here come here come here and we walk way down around this corner like through the crowd and all the stuff and we go and we were completely abandon Amy like she's surrounded in this cabana area by all these

hangers on so he walks me all the way around the corner over on the back side of this hotel and he goes hey man he goes how do you feel about Tim Richmond and I go what he goes how do you feel about Tim Richmond you know I've never really had a conversation about Tim Richmond I go do you not need to be at this thing? I'll go back. I'll go back. I've been saying, if I see him again, I'm going to ask him about Tim Richmond. That's what we do, right?

The last time I met Dale for breakfast, which has been way too long ago now, I get there and he walks in with a big folder full of stuff that he'd found in the desk of this former NASCAR official and he'd like purchased some stuff in an estate sale. And he's opening up all these forms, like registration forms for like races in like 1949 and 1950. I'm like, this is awesome. Like, it is awesome. But that's why I love Dale because it's like no matter what's going on.

You know, my wife says all the time, like when I was able to write a book years ago when ESPN was getting back into NASCAR about the greatest moments in history of NASCAR. And I'm writing about Fireball and I'm writing about Curtis and I'm writing about, you know, Joe Weatherly and these guys. My wife's like, bless your heart. She gives you have been, you've had all this stuff in your head with nowhere to talk about it or write about it. And so Dale Jr. is like my safety valve on that stuff. And I hope you feel something about me.

Like, hey, man. How do you feel about Tim Richmond? I would have never expected it. But that's what conversations are like with him, which is why I love it. That is awesome. That is great. We actually, this is the first for Ash Jr. We had a fan send in an audio message.

Okay. So I'm going to play it through my phone here. Okay. You wrote that book with Junior. And I was just wondering what was the coolest thing or most interesting thing or surprising thing that you learned about him when you wrote the book together. Who was that? That pretty awesome fans. He didn't leave his name. It was all Ralph.

Yeah, Ralph. Ralph from Moresville checking in on the Ask McGee. No, we talked about a little bit at the top of the show. There were so many moments. But I'll go back to the first time that he and I sat down to talk about it. And I was honestly, I was over one. We were way behind schedule. I mean, way behind schedule.

Because they came to me. I was at Penn State working on a story about the football coach, James Franklin, and Mike Davis called. And I was pulling into a Japanese restaurant because I don't know if you all know this about me, like Dale Jr. I love terriaki. So anywhere I am, I'm finding like a Habachi place, right? So I'm pulling this Habachi place in College Station or excuse me in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania.

And the phone rang was Mike Davis. And he goes, we would like to talk to you about maybe helping Dale Jr. with his book. and this would have been like October of 2017. Okay, well, when do they want the book to come out one year? So just so you all know, that's not how this works. Like when you work on a book, you have time, right? So I'm thinking, all right, well, we can start working. Yes, I'm going to do it.

Let's work through the contracts and all of us. Well, it went on and on and on and then Dale Jr. had to go to the Olympics in Korea. Next thing you know, we're not starting this book until like the end of January. And the manuscript was due middle of March. This is not how you write a book. And so I was like, I'm not sure how we're going to do this. I really am not.

But he and I finally got to go to lunch once all the papers were signed and the public deal was done with our great publisher, Thomas Dunn. So we go to a Hobocci place down in Moresville. And my brain is just rolling. Like how, I don't know how we're going to do this. I don't know how I'm going to wrap my brain around it. And we sat down and he goes, all right, we need to talk about process. and I go, we need to talk about what we're going to talk,

what we're going to write about first. And he goes, I got you. And that's when he air dropped these notes to me that I still have. And these notes are, if you've read racing to the finish, then you know these notes were the skeleton of the book, like to the point that we just quoted the notes. And he, this is how his brain works. This is why he fascinates me,

is all along while he was. suffering, he was putting notes in his phone. And he's breadcrumbs. Like what he's thinking is if something happens to me, I want everybody to know how I was feeling. Which is horrifying when you think about it. But he air dropped those notes to me and in an instant. I remember he air dropped it to me. He's like, hey, I got to take a phone call and walked out and left me by myself for about five minutes. And I swear I think he did it on purpose because I just marinated in that for a minute. And it was like I wasn't worried anymore. And he came back, sat down and I go, this is the book. He goes, I know it.

And I go, who has seen this before? He goes, you. Dang. And so that, that was, that was, that right there was a moment. I was like, all right, this is, this is going to be, this, this has the potential to be something special. And so from that moment forward, man, it was, it was, again, his, his honesty with me, I will forever be thankful for, as a, as a writer and, and this amazing opportunity,

but just as a friend. You know, I just couldn't, I couldn't believe that he opened up like that. And it literally started in an instant with an air drop. People in the YouTube chat talking about those notes being a surprising thing to be able to read in the book. We got time for one more question. What's the dynamic like on Marty and McGee? Do you all ever get into like, you know, arguments, real arguments with each other? All right.

So Marty did the show a couple weeks ago, right? Because Marty's in the Netflix show. I tell everyone I was edited out they didn't interview but Marty is funny so Marty I didn't know Marty's doing the show and I'm like I'm at the house working on whatever and phone rings

and Marty goes hey man he said I just did the download and he goes I talked about us I'm like what would you say he goes well I just told him about how you know when we we think something's wrong we could pick up the phone

and call each other or whatever and I told him about that time I called you I go okay and he's I just wanted you to know. He said, about halfway through me talking, I thought, oh, I probably should have lit him to know I was going to talk about this. But the reason Marty McGee works, and this is coming from someone who, the first half of my career, I was a TV producer. And I worked on a lot of shows where we took really talented people and put them in a room together, and it did not work. And it wasn't their fault. It just didn't work. And the reason Marty McGee works is we are

friends. And I hope everyone can sense that. Because when people, are kind enough to talk about compliment the show they talk about you know the fact that we're just two dudes talking and it's just talking that that show started he and I were driving to martinsville together at six o'clock in the morning 11 12 years ago and just talking and it had been a long time since we had done that and we're just crying we're laughing so hard for two hours and I remember we got to martinsville we parked I looked at him I go dude I think people would dig that I think people would enjoy that conversation. And so we went to ESPN and to their credit.

You know, my friend Shereida, who now works with NASCAR, she's like, let's just give it a shot. So we did a podcast no one listened to that became a radio show with a terrible time slot in the middle of Saturday afternoon that my wife's still mad about. And then they moved it to Saturday morning. And the hilarious part is I'm not a morning person at all. And I co-host the morning show. But this is all a really long way of saying,

Marty and I are open with each other. And it kind of goes back to Dale Jr. being open with me with the book. And if you're hiding stuff, it's not going to work. And if you're jealous, it's not going to work. And there have been, as long as we've been doing the show, it was podcast, then it was radio, then it was radio TV, and now we do the show on the road in the fall. There's been three of those conversations.

And there's the one Marty was talking about. And there was one time I called him and just blew him up. I was so angry. But it wasn't about him. We were in the middle of COVID, and we couldn't do the show together, and I'm in the studio, and he was somewhere else because they're keeping us separated and all this stuff. I just was so turned up. I had to blow up on somebody, and it was him.

But, you know, we're in an age now where, and I'm not comparing us to these people at all, but we're in an age now where hauling oats are suing each other, right, and not speaking. And Brooks is done, don't talk. And to me, it's just like a driver and a crew chief. you know, when it's working, it's working. You used to have to do everything you can do to make it work. Chad canals and Jimmy Johnson, there were times when they just talked about the Hall of Fame. They didn't talk to each other.

But they made it work and made it work. So, yeah, he is, and what I love about Marty is, that is exactly. People ask me all the time, what's he like? He's like that. That's him. It is like it. From the time he wakes up, he is exactly like that. I swear, I think at 11 o'clock at night, his body just freezes and he just falls over in a bed and goes to sleep.

because that's just his energy level is just through the roof but he is all I want from someone is be the genuine article and there is nothing about Marty Smith that is not genuine and so you know knock on wood we they pay us an American dollars do that show and and you know hopefully they'll keep doing it I should have worn it but I have the like the original 406 like that yeah yeah oh yeah yeah from way back and that's like seeing a Yeti man you don't see

you don't see it we printed like a hundred of those And every now and then, you know, when we're at LSU or whatever, there's one woman in particular. We're at LSU. She's always shows up with that thing on. Yeah, yeah. And so, yeah, the 406, we called the 406, we only had 406 listeners. And in Montana, which is area code 406, people would send us all this stuff. I love it.

I love it. Yeah, so knock on wood, like I say, they still let us do it. Literally after every show, we walk out in a parking lot at our South Charlotte studios, the Wilderness Lodge Studios, and Marty looks at me and I look at him, and I go, you think we're going to get doing it. again next week? And he'll say yep, or vice versa. That's awesome. White like.

All right, so I know I'm killing you guys. This show, we're way over, whatever. Welcome to Marty McGee, right? If you ever listen to the show, we go, we blast through every break and we just kill, we go through producers like tissue because we just wear them out, right? So, including Travis, rock hold,

in the building, right? We broke poor traps. All right, so I'm holding this car because I love all the stuff that's in here, and if you're watching on the internet, You can see it. This is actually, this is like a chrome version of this car. It was actually yellow underneath. This is the Peter Max Del Earnhardt Chevrolet that senior ran in the All-Star race.

And it would have been 99, 2000, probably ran in 2000. And this was at the height of, you know, Richard Chulder's, I love riding around with Richard. And he'll say, you know what built this house? What? He said, a little bitty three cars. You know what? Pay for that helicopter? What?

Little bitty three cars. You know, at the height of Doccast. So big deal when everything. they unveil the deal. And so either 99 or 2000, you ran this in the All-Star Race, and they unveiled this car in Las Vegas. I think Peter Max is from there or something.

And back then, they had the NASCAR Cafe, which is right on the corner on the old strip. If you ever watch Vegas Vacation where Nick Papa Georgia gets his fake idea, that's right where it was. And all these Earnhardt fans are out there, like hundreds of them.

And they're going to unveil Dale's paint scheme, Dale Singer's paint scheme for the All-Star Race, and they yanked the cover off that thing. and this car was super pink. And if you can't see it, I mean, it's got pink and yellow and a lot of pink. And I'm not lying when I say,

it was a gasp. Like it was a, like it was a, oh, like, and just silence on the strip. And I remember, I remember looking over and I was like, and so Peter Max,

incredibly talented artists, a very distinct style, and that was the big deal. In fact, Richard Childerson, his office has the original prototype diecast that Peter Max had hand-painted. And when he had a meeting with him, Peter Max said, hey, give it that to me. And Peter Max signed it and handed it back to Richard because now you put your grandkids to kids through college.

Because Peter Max makes so much money. But, I mean, so much pink on that car. And that's when Dale Sr. started telling everyone, no, no, no, my first race car was pink. Like trying to. Right. But I'll never forget me. The only other time I saw Dale Senior fans more hard-five was I was standing at the gate. at the Brickyard 400 when he shut up without a mustache.

And he had been with Mikey in the Bahamas, and he shaved his mustache so the scuba gear would fit and or snooker gear would fit. And he showed up in the garage without a mustache and literally a woman fell to her knees and started screaming and crying. No, Dale! No, Dale! So between the pink car and Dale and her and I'm in a mustache,

put that in the McGee, Del Earnhardt stories. But they also sold about 500,000 of these. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so again. I'm looking at pictures of him without a mustache. Dude, it was craziest thing I've ever seen. It doesn't look real. It was, now on Instagram, you see these videos where these dads will shave their

beard. Oh, and then they walk into the room. Your kids just flip out and start crying. The one did kid, like the daughter started screaming, no, crawled into the bed. I shaved my, I've had a beard now for years. I shaved my beard. My daughter was like, nope. Nope.

And so, yeah, so I'm not comparing my beard to Del Arnard's mustache, but I'm just saying, but when Del Arndor, I literally, because y'all, they parked a hauler's behind Gasoline Alley, when he walked into that. gate. That woman literally started, I mean, like in the movies. Like, oh no, that collapsed on the ground. No, Dale, no. So pink race cars and no mustache. Even Dale Earnhardt. Sometimes it wasn't as cool as we thought he was. Remember when Jimmy showed up to the garage like in whenever the last year for Lowe's was and he shaved. Yeah. Oh yeah. And his beard. It looks so strange. Yeah. And now, I don't fall to my knees, but it was very well, thank God. Well, now I'm afraid to shave because I'm afraid if I

shave it now to grow back completely gray. Like I don't have any gray hair, but I'm afraid if I, it's a little bit in there, but I'm afraid if I do it now, it'll go completely great. But yeah, but y'all, this has been so much fun. I appreciate you having me. I appreciate, I appreciate y'all trusting me with the show. And, you know, I purposely went really long because I won't curling and have to work. It's extra hard, you know, putting this thing together.

But thank you all for having me and hopefully, hopefully we get to do it again sometime. Absolutely. Thanks for being here. Who's blast having you, McGee. Yeah, thank you all. And by the way, it's time for the white flag, right? It is. Let's put it out.

Next flag ends the race. All right. So, by the way, the amount of content you guys are cranking out right now is phenomenal. And there's probably going to be more coming down to race. It's great. It's awesome. It's awesome. It's awesome.

So much content. It's awesome. So Jeff Gluck, Jordan Bianchi. By the way, speaking of pink, our long national nightmares over. With the Gluck wearing the suit thing. I literally, all that rainy day tonne, I went back to my room and put it on YouTube as I'm getting dressed for Sunday morning. Or no, for Monday. to go back in the track.

And I'm watching on YouTube in the room, and I'm watching there, and it's the unveiling of the suit. Same woman fell to her knees. Well, yeah. Well, what I love about Jordan is, he's so great at his job. And Gluck, both of them are just amazing. And there's a small handful of them kind of carrying the bucket right now in that media center, and I'm so appreciative.

But Jordan, when we do the retro deal at Darlington, and I would show up dressed as a curse of Con, Macchi, or whatever. and everybody would have these old funky clothes on. Jordan just wear his regular clothes. Yeah, yeah. I love the throwback. All right. So those two guys recap the action from Las Vegas Sunday night on the tear down.

Denny Hamlin, as we mentioned earlier, he got back from Vegas and has an in-depth analysis on where his team, the team that he owns. By the way, I love all my sticking ball friends who watch the Netflix show calling it going, now, wait a minute. So he drives for one team. and he owns another team. How's that work? I go, this is very complicated. It's been like this for a while.

De Leran Hart did it. And he wants to talk about his team, how they can improve his organization on actions detrimental, which is available now. Door bumper clear. Had truck series winner, Roger Caruth, which we talked about earlier on the show. That's certainly worth of listen.

I always like listening to DBC and then text to Mike and going, Are you in trouble? Because they almost always say something. That makes somebody mad, which makes them great. Another episode of Speed Street. drops tomorrow. We're looking forward to seeing what Connor and Chase have a store for us. And Dirty Moe Doe with Steve LaTartre will return Thursday to preview everything ahead of Phoenix.

By the way, we live here in North Carolina, right? March 11th, sports betting becomes blue. Man, are they wearing us out? Holy cow. So you dirty mo do if you live in North Carolina, you can apply this. Exactly right. But yeah, ESPN bet and Fendando. It's like, but every commercial break of everything I watch now is, you know, somebody reminding me, yeah, that you can bet on sports in North Carolina. So, yeah, but it's up, but all the info that you need to do that, if you are a fellow North Carolanian and all the other states where such entertainment is legal, then Dirty Mo Doe can hook you up.

But boys, it's just been so much fun. Well, plus, I have to add here real quick, tomorrow, business motorsports. Oh, yeah, yeah, oh, yeah. Brian Carter of World Racing Group is going to be here. Well, and it has been, I talk all the time about seeing Dell Jr. race for the first time at Myrtle Beach. Kelly race in that race, too. And to see what she has done and continues to do and has managed to do it while the economy,

the economic model of the sport has changed dramatically over and over and over again. Looking right out the window at these dudes working out here. I mean, just what she has accomplished, that's why our book is so good. You know, that drive book is so good because it's, um, it's obviously about her dad. It's about those things. But, but there's a lot of, um, I was sorry, read that book if you have a business of any size because of what she's done. So yeah, I look forward to. I always learn something to list her. Yeah. Brian Carter is going to be great. Like, you can bet they're going to talk about world of outlaws. Oh, yeah. High limit deal. Like, yeah. And how do you survive in that

world in this time? You know, that's what, what they do and they, you have to love it. You know, you have to love it. I, I've become really good friends with the series. director at Arka, our daughters go to school together. And what those guys do, they love it. You know, nobody's getting rich, man. They're just doing it because they love it. And those guys, you're talking about, I mean, outlaws only race 14 times a week. So how you pull that off?

I have no idea. Hey, this has been great. And it's been awesome. It's been awesome. This has been awesome. Ryan McGee. That's right. I'm at the beach, y'all.

I hope McGee was awesome. So I appreciate it, boys. Check out Dirtymo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.