The Dale Jr. Download - 597 Amy's Surprise Trip & Ryan Blaney Recaps Month of Marriage

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

Christmas and New Years are in the books, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back in the studio for some Dirty Air. He is joined by his wife and special co-host Amy to recap their holiday travels and:Some Dale Jr. Download changes for 2025New Years in AnguillaDale doesn’t want the party to endNew Year's Resolutions?Attending the Blaney wedding in AspenHow marriage relates to toilet seats…The car count for Daytona is looking STACKEDNewlywed Ryan Blaney calls into the showAsk Amy features:Getting wives to allow more video game timeAmy’s experience on commercial production shoots with DaleDale’s new additions to the Dirty Mo Media studioThings that make Amy and Dale see themselves in Isla and NicoleFor more content head to our YouTube page https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. We're back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. And this is episode 597, the holiday recap. We have rarely done podcasts in the off season. But this is a new day, and I am pumped. There will be some new voices on the show this year, not just today. Travis is joining us. How are you?

How are you? You'll recognize that voice from some other podcasts. Not as good as the DJD, but some other podcasts that we have in the Dirty Mo Media family, but it's good to have you. I'm looking forward to it. I am. All right. You've been working in the Dirty Mo Media family for a while, but I am kind of curious about your feelings about coming onto this show and being a part of the DJD family.

I'm looking forward to. I've been working with Denny. He's pretty easy, so I'm hoping we just keep it going here. Is that a challenge? Like, I got to keep it easy. Take it how you want to take it. Okay. All right.

Well, I'm excited to have Travis. I've seen some of the work y'all have done over on Denny's show. And some of the stuff you've been doing this all season with Dirty Modo and all the work you've been doing with Tim's for Helmin and so forth. That's been pretty fun to watch. So looking forward to it. Andrew will still be here. He's going to be working on Asch Jr. with us.

And also, Amy. Amy's here today. Hello. Yeah. And Amy will be doing some more stuff with us. next year you've enjoyed this right yeah it's a lot of fun yeah yeah we talk about it all the time i don't really know what to expect when i come in here but i have fun every time i come in see i come in here and i don't know what to expect either oh yeah yeah he's got notes every time

i sit down with you like you've got it figured out like handwritten notes i hate to say this in front all these people but you see me at home i do zero prep like i'm not sitting at home at a desk going i can't wait i'm working on my show i know but you'll leave the house to take isle school and by the time when I get here you have prepped yeah I prep I don't know where you're doing that drive to school I'm prepping you're driving and writing at the same time I'll get on the phone I'll get on the phone I'll be calling Travis Travis that's something that you need to know yeah I be available yesterday you could have just responded with a text like a thumbs up because that's what the call was basically yeah no no no I'm going to call I'm up to turn my he's old he doesn't do that he's one of

those phone call people and I need to be available from let's say 730 in the morning on Oh, I'm up before that, but I have my phone off usually. Turn it on. Turn the ring you on for you. I'm calling you, Travis, 99% of the time it's going to be from 7.30 till I get here on Tuesdays. All right. I'll turn the ringer on that. Well, pretty much every day.

And he's in the truck and he's going to yell because it's tethered to his car. Oh, he didn't. He didn't sound loud, no. He is always so loud when he does that. Oh, my gosh. No, but he was like, he calls and, hey, I go, stop. He goes, nothing. What?

That's not how he answers the phone with me. He's like, hey, what are you doing? My ears are ringing now, but I'm good. Maybe he's easing into it with me. Yeah, maybe. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. This relationship, Travis, we'll evolve.

I'm looking forward to it. But, yeah, Amy, you came in last year and sat in on some shows, and I loved it. Also, T.J. Majors was in on the show a lot. toward the back end of last year. And he will be joining me on Tuesdays. Very cool. Yeah, T.J. I bet he's excited about that.

Yeah, I am too. You know, I kind of been looking for somebody to join me at the table since Mike, you know, went to focus more on the business side of Dirty Mo Media. Kind of been looking for somebody like, you know, Mike to go back and forth with. And me and T.J. You can talk racing. You can talk anything with T. Yeah.

But, I mean, he's over at the house last night. brought the kids over and just hang out. And we can banter and argue and give each other a hard time, which I think is a lot of fun. Yeah, it is fun. I even like doing that with T.J. Yeah. He's good.

He's fun to give a hard time, too. Yeah, he takes it very well. He just chuckles. And he's very smart, and you better watch out because he's going to get you. But there's a lot of opportunity there when you look at T. Right, to go at him. Damn. What?

That's so mean. I look at him, I'm like, what the hell did you do that for? Every time I'm around him, I've got about three or four things to ask him, like, why did you do that? Why'd you do that decision? I can't, because he always thinks about things in such a strange way. Well, curiosity is good, I guess. Yeah, well, all right.

I'm looking forward to it. I also love the, you know, he's at the track. He's involved in the garage or in the minds of drivers and in the minds of people in the industry and just having somebody on the show that can bring some of that. and you know because I see it from one perspective as a broadcaster and I'm not at the racetrack every week and so my I sometimes often am hesitant to bring some of my views because I don't know everything or I don't or maybe I'm not seeing it. You're not as engulfed in it as he is.

Yeah, I'm not seeing something that he's seeing and it'll be fun to see how maybe we kind of contrast a little bit. But TJ's going to be a big part of DJD next year. joining me on Tuesdays. There was also a big announcement with Doorbumper Clear. Exciting news. Freddie Craft is going to continue to, you know, host this show, and it's being kind of shaped and steered in a new direction.

Albeit, I think it would be a lot. I think it would be somewhat similar to the thread that Doorbubber Clear's kind of lived in all these years. but Freddie had the bright idea to bring on board Tommy Baldwin Tommy is very outspoken No holds barred Tell it like it is And him and Freddie are very close friends

Amy Tommy Has grown up up north And the modified ranks came down as a crew chief Crew chief Casey Kane And a lot of different drivers One of Daytona 500 with Ward Burton and owned his own race cars and races continuously to this day in the modified ranks around this area. And you know Tommy.

Yep. And so a very honest, opinionated, pretty straightforward guy. And I think with everything that he's experienced, especially recently, overcoming some challenges physically, he's got a new perspective on life. It's going to be fun to hear. And Carson stepped in a couple of times. over the past year as a bit of a referee, if you will. Sure.

And she doesn't get pushed around, which I... No, she can hold her on. Yeah, she can hold her on, which I think is really cool. And so I kind of liked what I've seen from her over the past year on DBC. And so I'm looking forward to that. Freddie is also reminding us that there will be a chair, a guest in that show every single week. and oftentimes either there's a driver or another spot or somebody in the industry. That would be fun.

Yeah, which I think will. There'll be a lot of conversation, a lot of information, a lot of good energy. So door bumper clear is going to kind of get a facelift going into next season, and I'm looking forward to seeing the content they create. But anyhow, you know, we've had a pretty busy holiday season, wouldn't you say? We had a busy 2024 in general, but the holiday season. season was very dynamic. I'm tired.

I feel like I still look like I've... I mean, look amazing. I can stare at you all day. Are you kidding? I, you mentioned last year, like, so it was my 50th birthday in October. Yeah.

And we went, you know, we went a little extra hard on, on traveling and going and doing and seeing things. I didn't want a party. I wanted experiences. So we, we went, you know, to Europe a couple times.

and down in Mexico and Cabo and Missouri. Yeah, we were all over. Yeah, we've been all over. You went hunting here and there with a couple of different friends. But I feel like every one of those trips was a little bit of a party too. Yeah. I came back from every one of them needing like a break from myself. That's the difference between you and me.

So when we first met, you could hold your own with any kind of partying that I wanted to do. we would go down to the keys and go, you know, three, four days in a row, and you could make it, you can make it happen. I know, but listen, I'm eight years younger than you. Huh? I'm eight years younger than you. I know, but these days. I had the kids. I know.

These days you're like, eh, not into that as much. I can't even do it. I can't. Man. I feel like my wheels just fall off. And I need just like to go in a dark closet and hide from everybody for a couple days. That's what it feels like. We get home and you're like, what I'm going to do tomorrow?

I'm like, nothing. I don't even want anyone to speak to me tomorrow. I got home from, we went, I guess we went to see your family a couple times during the holiday break. And then we went and celebrated our anniversary, which was a lot of fun. So you went to the Exumas for your bachelorette? No, I went to Anguilla. Anguilla, I'm sorry. Yeah, Anguilla.

What did I say, Exumas? I don't know, it's close. Well, we went to Anguilla. You went there for your bachelorette party eight years ago, and you've been telling me about it ever since. Yeah. There's this beach bar called Elvis. Elvis's beach bar.

Yeah. The whole trip was pretty epic. And it was eight years ago, and I was there with like 12 different girls. Yeah. And we had an epic time. But I was excited to show you a couple of those places and really hopeful that it was just as cool as I remembered it. And so we had a really fun surprise trip to Anguilla. Me and you.

Yes, they'll surprise me on Christmas with that, which he nailed. We've talked about surprising me and all of that. Yeah. And you did a great trip. job. Well, I had a lot of help. Okay. Well, use your resources. It doesn't hurt. I did. So, sorry, I got a frog in my throat if you can't tell. I've been dealing with this, you know, whatever the thing is.

Whatever the kids brought home after Christmas. Yeah. We can blame me on kids. But Anguilla was awesome. We had a great time. We stayed in this, when I went to get, honestly, you know, I thought I was booking it early enough, but then when I thought about it, I was like, well, it is New Year's Eve. Yeah, New Year's Eve is something people plan for. It wasn't a ton of things available. When did you book it? Like three weeks before we left. When did you book it?

Like early November? That's not early enough. I know. Yeah. I realized that. If it had been any other time of year, it might have been early enough. But I was looking around. Well, I have to be careful.

But first off, like the rooms that I wanted, they were ridiculous. There was no way I was paying that. But so I was kind of glad. I was like, well, no other options but these, and these are nice and reasonable. But everything was good, wasn't it? Everything was great. We stayed at a boutique hotel, and it was beautiful. Yeah, so the hotels in general that time of year, it doesn't matter where you're going.

They just double the prices, at least. It's no secret. I have a, that is true. There's no way that's the price of that room all year long, but I have a history of being cheap. I hate it when you say that. Well, what would you call it? Frugal. that's a better word frugal is not as negative sounding i'm tight i mean i don't know how you're only tight on some

things you will you will open the wallet for some things without even thinking about it yeah and then other things you're like oh god what what does that cost you want what yeah oh my god and it's like this giant explosion of emotions man i just have to drop the seed and like walk away and let him wrap his head around it that's usually what life is like when me and amy were planting our honeymoon. Like it was... We had a... Sticker shock on that...

Yeah. Room was... I was like, oh my God! Well, we went to Hawaii. The flights, the hotel, and the length of time he wanted to go. Yeah, it was quite a

trip. But that was the first time we had planned a trip like that on our own. So... But I got okay with that. Yeah, you did. You did.

But like I said... Don't you remember? Us having a conversation around and all that? Me freaking out? Listen, man, and you wanted to do this the whole thing. Like, we've got to figure it out if we're going to be able to do this or not.

Oh, yeah, he gets so bent out of shape. Yeah. But, uh, I'm not, I'm not as shocked by it anymore. I just expect it. I'm glad. So if you freak out, I'm like, I'll just come back tomorrow. He'll be fine. I can't get you.

I can't like get that part of me out. You're doing better about it. You used to, like, get really frustrated and cry and, like, not really, like, cry, cry, but as much as you could throw the emotions you did. The one thing that I wanted to say about Anguil was Elvis's beach bar. Yeah. So getting back to how I love to party as much as I used to. We just don't do it as much anymore because of our life changes and choices and priorities.

But we went to Elvis's and literally, man, it's a, it's just a bar setting on the shore of this bay. It's an old wooden boat they found. They turned it into a bar. Yeah, I mean, you kind of built things around it so that it's got more cover and seating and whatever. It's all sand. It's 50 feet from the edge of the water, bar stools and all that. I mean, it's just perfect. We walked up there, and I mean, as soon as I saw it, I was like, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I'm going to literally sit here for next eight hours. Not moving. He wanted to go back the next day. They were playing Nirvana when we walked up. Yeah, they were. Nirvana. It was perfect. It was like the sky.

I almost stopped for a second that Amy set that part up. I felt like, it felt a little too much. Amy called ahead and said, get the Nirvana on. Well, Brett, the owner of the bar, Brett owns this bar with Elvis. Elvis does work the bar too. And he has a very dynamic playlist. So it kind of was all over the board. Oh, for sure.

The very first song was. There was some real high moments and some real low ones. But you always knew there was going to be another good song coming. We tried to convince him to let us have the control of the wire. Do you remember that? I don't remember that. Yeah. He were like, hey, Brett, is this Bluetooth?

He didn't bite. He just. He's better off not letting me. me play all the stuff I wanted to um we were in we went to Blaney's wedding and I was in you let me go to the bar you retired you'd done partied all your way like at two in the afternoon partied all the way out and I was like I'm still going so I went to this bar and must have played danger summer six songs in a row I don't know how they didn't keep me out you probably you can't I mean you can't go to any bar and get on the touch tunes and play the same band six songs in a row and not get

a few looks you know what I'm saying what's the the most amount of money you've spent on touch tunes that's a great question we should pull the app out and look i'll be honest with you i mean you go in there you got to put a 20 in or 25 how much does each song cost to play a couple i don't know i have not it depends on the song this is one of those things it's where it's like um i'm not gonna i'm not gonna um i'm not gonna math it he's not gonna also not hear his music so he will pay more money to jump people oh and especially if it's tim or any of our friends around he will do it we will go in there though we will go in there and start it off going all of us agree to not skip right we're all agreeing not to skip and then someone skips

eventually and you're like i ain't no holds barred it's free for all the stakes are raised i don't ever hear those conversations it's between you and your buddies but because i don't even get in the middle of this there's no point well we um we had a good time at elvices and if anybody ever goes to anguilla it's you know Elvis's is in the island's pretty small and so anyone that's in Anguillo should be able to get over to Elvis's with a little 15 minute car ride but you have to get there yeah it's a great place it is people are friendly the food's good I very I very we we were there one more day after that and I highly regret we didn't go back to Elvis's but I didn't I didn't I felt it was our anniversary it was New Year's Eve I felt I was asking too much yeah well I was like

I just I got I should be happy yeah we did other fun things Well, we did. We laid around and lounged most of the day on New Year's Eve. There was a dinner for everybody that was staying there that evening, which we got in the middle of and met some of the other people that were staying at the hotel. And so we mingled. There was a beach bar down the beach about 500 yards or two beach down the beach, 500 yards from the hotel that we went and visited. and those were awesome and really authentic.

And then we were walking down the beach in the afternoon and we saw them setting the fireworks up. And man, there were some serious fireworks getting set up just about 200, 250 yards from our beach or from our resort. And so, you know, it was a long day, but I'm like, man, I'm going to try to stay awake. Getting to see that up close was really neat. That's not something you usually get to walk right up on.

But it was a lot. There was a lot going on. We're at the dinner. The dinner happens. All that's great. And then there's some music. And we're, me and Amy getting up. She convinces me to dance.

So we're dancing. And I'm like, you know, I'm thinking if I do some dancing, you know, I'm just buying more time with Amy. Amy, Amy's, if Amy's happy and dancing, she's going to stay up. You know, if I sit around and I'm, if I'm like, Amy, let's go sit at the bar. She's, you know, she's going to teeter out. Yeah. She's going to sit there. for about 45 minutes ago this sucks I'm bored

how much convincing does it take to get him to dance Amy it's I have to do it public shame really is the only way I have to get up and start dancing and then like do the fish hooker like and I have to go dance with her or else all the other guys yeah everybody's watching so he doesn't really have a choice does they all have moves

Dale can move just fine he just doesn't like to do it so I have to convince him every time he's he's got rhythm I have to go up there to fend off all the other men oh please yeah they're trying to like Hey, hey, this is that. Well, I'll dance with anybody, too.

So if there's a single guy out there and he's looking at me, I'm going. I'm going to dance. It's just for the fun. I know. But yeah. I don't take it too personal. But I eventually have to just get up there. Handle business.

But I, we're sitting there hanging out and having a great time dancing. And, you know, you sit down between a song or two, take a little break. And then Amy's like, well, I'm tired. And it's like, uh, 10, third. Yeah, it wasn't that late. We went back to the hotel room. I didn't know what time it was. Could have been midnight for all I cared.

And I get in the bed and he watches the fireworks by himself, bless his heart. She gets in the bed and I go over to the... The balcony. No, I go over to the in-room dining, the cooler. And I found random three or four beers they had stuck in there. And so... Had himself a little deck party. I had a little deck party, played some music, take some friends.

And then the fireworks go off. And I'm videoing the fireworks and I turn the camera to the bedroom and where Amy's laying in the bed. And I didn't know it. She'd been laying in there for 45 minutes. I put the camera on her and she's in there laying and she waves. Yeah, well, I couldn't fall asleep because of all the woohoo. Oh, he was out there hooting and hollering. That is the booming.

Well, the booming was not right up on me, though. you were like, woo! It's all in the video. I put music over it. I posted it on Instagram, but I put music over it so you can't hear you. But he is screaming and hooping and hollering.

I was having a blast. And then, so the fireworks happened, and all of a sudden, instantly, it's 2025. And... Do you feel different?

You're like, you know, it's funny how... I don't know how other people are, but... And I don't stay up every New Year's Eve. So this isn't something I've experienced every single year. But like I, the mood I was in at 1159.

And the mood I was in at probably 1230, all right, is so weird because the high, the right, you know, when you, if you, if you're, if you're like, you know, man, I'm going to go to the bar and drink. I'm going to have some phone my friends. You just go to you go. Right? You can go to bed. But you have a great time, right, on them good nights. And boy, but on a New Year's Eve, you're riding a high and you're having a blast and you're drinking beers and having fun. And then, man, when that fireworks are over, your balloon deflates or what?

It's just like, meo. It's like after a concert. Yes. Yes. Yeah, you're walking out and you're like, well, damn. Now what? Stuck in traffic. Now you just go to bed, y'all.

That's what you do. do. No, you're like, you're like, no, I've got to keep this going. This is fun, but you're like, no one else is, it's over. I'm out of beer and my wife's asleep. Yeah, I do with myself. Now I'm down to this beer. I got one or two of these beers I'm drinking, you know, something that's just in there that you don't want. And you're like, well, it's just me. Yeah. And I've played all the music. I mean, New Year's Eve is kind of an overrated holiday to begin with. Yeah. I kind of feel like New Year's Eve is fun, kind of like Valentine's Day, but

its weight is not that big for me either. Kind of another reason we decided to get married on New Year's Eve. Like it was fun and we always like, oh, there will always be fireworks, whatever. Yeah, adding our anniversary to it certainly did bring it back. But otherwise, I wouldn't really care. But if, yeah, if it didn't have that, I agree with you, it would be down toward the least. Because it was, I think it's like a pre, like to go out on New Year's. Eve it's it's impossible to enjoy and I mean unless you're 22 yeah that's fun yeah

because that you're going out anyway but we had some really really really really good New Year's Eve parties yeah we did you see that that's because no one wanted to go out right we should get that going again well maybe we'll just do it for our 10th anniversary yeah let's do something we used to throw themed New Year's Eve parties yeah we did what were our themes we had a way out of Western one down at the Sloan where everyone you didn't come you didn't everyone has We give you a hard time if you didn't have a really solid effort in your dress. I think that was the last one that we did. The first one we did was a roaring 20s.

Full on, man. Everybody in black tie, big hats. Yeah. Cains and all that. Second one was the 70s. Yeah, that was fun. Everybody was, everybody did a good job. You dressed up as evil, Conevo.

I did. I wore you Ceneval. Boots and all. Yep. And then I think the third one, which was the last one we did was the Western down at the saloon. Yeah. Yeah, we did three big ones. Mm-hmm.

Almost all back to back. Yeah. Why did we stop? I think, I don't know. I don't know what year we stopped in when we got engaged. We had a photo booth and all those, and I mean, I got all the photos. Every photo that that damn booth took. I still got them.

I honestly don't want to see those. I mean, it's memories. You know, I still have them on my phone. You can look at them and be like, damn, man, remember that? You do? Yes. All of them? I don't know.

I got all the ones from the 70s party on there. Wolverta have mercy. Yeah. Keep them to yourself. I mean, it's just everybody having fun. Okay. Yeah, but nobody remembers the photos. They've taken a photo.

I know. Everybody looks so drunk and sloppy. You're doing dumb faces. I know. So there's like, there's like, you know, plastic hats and big glasses and all the funky stuff. Not meant for public consumption. No.

Then what are you doing it? I mean, of course, I'm not going to post them on the internet, but why? They're good for memories. to look at and go, damn, let's do that again. We did all this too back before, like social media was such a big thing. I remember having Instagram forever ago, and I just used it to filter my photos, so I had pictures of the dog with a weird filter on them.

I didn't care about the social part. I didn't have a Facebook page or anything back then and didn't realize that it was going to be there forever. So did you make a, by the way. We need to know. Did you make any New Year's resolution? I have not made a resolution. I haven't done that ever, to be honest. Really?

I don't really believe in just like, okay, it's one day to the next, and now I'm supposed to change my whole life. Because people go so hard with that. I do believe in like I can set a goal for myself for the year or, you know, like focus on wellness or which I absolutely feel like I should do. But I don't know. I don't feel like I don't believe in. Dry January. So sorry.

Oh, man. I'm so disappointed when I hear that. When somebody tells me that they're like taking a month off, I'm like, you know, it's just quit altogether or just, you know, what's this one month? So I matched with this girl on Bumble and supposed to go on a date with her and she's doing dry January. Well, she sounds like somebody you should just go ahead and sway. Hey, can we move this to February? That's what you need to ask her. It's just a few weeks. Can we slide this date? I mean, why does everybody have to do it for that long? Can we just like take a week?

Is everybody drinking so much? They feel like they need to detoxify for 30 days. Yeah, take a week often. And change their life. Yeah. A week's good enough. I don't support it. Yeah.

I don't think people that do that should be trusted. Something wrong. Well, I did not make a resolution. And that, yeah, I don't think I made one. You don't like rules in. general so why would you make resolution or rules for yourself yeah has anybody ever tried to get you to do that make one yeah yeah or like do it with them um no not really i mean i tried back when i was you know smoking cigarettes and stuff like that i would be like you know i'm gonna quit smoking right

i'm gonna i guess if you had a ice yeah that you really were wanting to quit that would be a good but i always uh yeah lose weight or something at the new year i don't know i don't know Yeah, I never really had one that I stuck to either way. And I always felt like they were meant to be broken. Yeah, that's setting yourself up for disappointment, especially if it's too many. We did mention that we went on a trip to Blaney's wedding, and we can say that Blaney's going to call into the show here in a bit. So we get to talk to him. I just text him yesterday.

So he's, and I called him about something else, but he's, can't wait to talk to him and see how he's enjoying. Being married. Being married. And we will talk about the toilet seat. What toilet seat? The toilet seat story is my microcosm of a relationship. What? That goes from...

Why? Wait a second. Why a toilet seat? We talked about this. Who did? Me and you. No, we didn't. All right.

So quickly, I will go from start. start to finish and then you can come in okay okay please equate our relationship to a toilet our relationship related equated to the seat of a toilet um when we started dating the seat and the lid could be up and not a word would ever be said and there was no discussion around the toilet your toilet didn't even have a lid can we talk can i talk can i tell us let's just Be honest. That's true. That's true.

So, all right. Okay, fair enough. So when we first started dating, I had a toilet, no freaking lid on. So I had nothing to put, like, no, I couldn't do anything about it. That's how like, I had, my toilets were lidless. Lawless man with no toilet lid. Not a problem. So nasty.

So there was, there was not a habit to make or break. That was normal. When then we started, dating, dating or engaged, either one of these. all of a sudden the lid has to go down. What are you an imbecile? Are you a maniac leaving the lid up? Put the lid down. You crazy man.

Okay. And then I work hard to get that habit, right, of putting the lid down. Using the toilet and making sure the lid's down. And then we got married and... Look, honey, I put the lid down. Yeah, but you left the... Or I put the seat down. It's the seat.

sorry, can I start this over? I mean, you might as well keep talking just circles. Let me start over. So the equating the toilet, seat and lid, toilet, the whole thing, with our relationship, our relationship, at least how it went with us,

is when we started, when we started dating, I didn't have to put the seat down. We never talked about it, you never complained about it. At least I don't remember. Can I talk yet? And then when we got engaged...

That was a big chunk of date time. I know. But there was a period where it got more and more serious. When I moved in with you. Yes. Yes. When you moved in, right, when you moved in, all of a sudden, hey, man, you left a seat up.

Hey, you left seat up. What the... Are you a crazy maniac? What a dirty man you are. Put the seat down. You careless, thoughtless Keep moving to seat up Were you raised in the woods

That didn't say Call you You would write notes on the lid Yes Put the thing down I took a sharpie to it Once and I'm like okay All right

And so And I'm like all right I get it But it took me a while Like months To like get in the habit Of always putting the seat down Right

Because you got If you're gonna pee in the toilet As a man You gotta raise the lid Or lays the seat So you don't pee on the seat and then you got to put the seat back down when you're done and you're like, you know, I'm moving this seat.

It ain't really got nothing to do with me because I don't need this damn thing right now. But I will put it down for you. And then when we got... Common courtesy is so hard for you. When we got married, she's like, hey man, what? The toilet.

I'm like, yeah, put the seat down. But the lids up. Your memory is jacked up. I'm like, what do you mean the lids up? What about the lid? she's like you got to put the lid down it's a fair request and I'm like wait a minute like why she's like you know when you flush your toilet all the stuff comes out of it if the lid's up and I'm like all right but you never said nothing about the lid it was always the seat why couldn't

we just started with the lid this is all bullshit it's not yes it is so I felt like it was not a big deal okay this is why we had such a problem with you figuring it out because you didn't It was years of no problem, then a few years of seat, please. And now it's like, all right, the goalposts have moved to lid. And I'm like, why can't we just start with lid and be like, hey, put the lid down? That's how we started. When I first moved in with you, I asked you to put the lid down. It had nothing to do with the seat.

Like basically, if you put the lid down, the seats coming too, thanks. You're like, you can't really fuck that up. You know what? But here's the thing. I had watched something. about how there's overspray that comes out of the toilet. And you, pooping right next to my toothbrush, made me fucking uncomfortable, okay?

So I wanted you to put the toilet seat down, especially being in the bus, we were so close to each other, and all the things were, like, going to get whatever bacteria all over them. It made me nuts. Okay. And the fact that you refused to do it.

I didn't refuse. Please. I just knew it was going to, I didn't refuse. I just knew it was going to be a hard habit to cure. You were the one who were like, oh, that that's bullshit. I ain't do. doing that.

Well, that was back in. That's who you are, right? I was that guy. Yeah, so then we move in together. Of course, I still want you to do that. And you've got a habit of brushing your teeth because you'd come bed late in the bathroom right next to the kitchen where everybody uses that toilet all day long. So it's equally disgusting that your toothbrush is sitting out when who knows coming in

and out of there is using the bathroom. And we also have a giant dog. We've always had a big dog that's going to drink out of the toilet and get that water all over the place. Gross. and then we had kids little tiny kids who would like to throw their toys

sometimes their socks and whatever the f*** else into the toilet I'm like this would be a lot they do a lot easier to maintain my stress level about this toilet if he would just keep the lid down

and honestly it's just a good habit it's good to teach the kids to do it too like even teaching them to potty train and put that lid down first and then flush it all that makes sense I just wish we went through this sort of phase of... It was just a series of trying to figure out how to tame your wild beast habits.

The very first time I hung out with you and stayed with you in that condo upstairs, I'm brushing my teeth and this man sits down behind me to take a number two. And I turn around with my tooth brush my mouth like, what the hell? And he goes, oh yeah, this is what it's going to be, girl, if we're going to hang out. I'm like the f*** it is. I am out. I'm here. I couldn't believe it.

That's the kind of attitude I was dealing with in general. That's actually smart because if you can't take him out of his worst at the beginning, then he's not trying to be someone that he's not. I was just shocked. I grew up with two sisters. My dad even went to the bathroom to fart. He had super sonic manners. And then this wild savage, I'm like, holy. This is way different.

How am I going to get him at least a little bit this direction? That is another thing. I will be sitting on the couch or anywhere in the house. And if I fart, she says, go to the bathroom. Well, here's the, and I'm like, I'm not going into the bathroom to fart. That's weird. And she goes, well, you must have to shit if you're farting. I'm like, no, it doesn't actually work that way.

If it smells like that, there's something coming. There's something coming out. There's something else coming. It is not just air. It is not just like, oh, I feel better. Bullsh, there is something else to be done here. She's like insisting. I go fart in the bathroom.

I'm like, damn, I'd be in there for fucking half the day. Spine by me, put that lid down while you work when you walk out. Her dad's supersonic manners are commendable. I admire him, but damn it. I mean, he don't fart as much as I do, apparently. No, he doesn't. I don't think most people do. That's another thing.

I do fart a lot. It's crazy. It's a human bodily function. Yeah. We could avoid it if we just ate differently. There are times when it's way worse. Dairy, red meat, I'm like, oh my God. If he goes away hunting or if I go away and he's by himself, he'll eat nothing but beef jerky and like whatever.

The two things that are probably the worst for me is beef jerky and grapes. He eats the beef turkey first And then he puts a bag He'll eat the whole bag of grapes At one time On top of it I'm like that's wrong You're supposed to eat the fruit first

Now you've got fermenting grapes on top of your red meat Dying in your ass and it's awful Jesus Christ It feels like there's a dead animal in the room We're going to have to put a disclaimer next to this podcast Listen at your own risk Well

Don't eat and listen My whole point is Is that I can't wait to talk to a Blaney to see if his goalposts are moving. Ah, well, she's not going to pull the bait and switch that quickly. Has she talked about the seat yet? Will she wait a while? I bet he has better manners than you in general.

All right, we'll see. He seems like he does. We'll see. But that was a fun trip in Aspen. We had been there before. Me and Amy went to Aspen way early in our relationship. I took my whole family. Yeah.

Like Taylor went. Carrie. And my mom and Kelly, it was a bunch of friends. Yeah. Yeah. And we had a lot of fun. A lot of friends. All my buddies.

I mean, it was just like, gosh, how many people can we get on this plane? But pretty fun. Yeah. We went again for our first anniversary. And then we, yeah, we did. Yeah. We went again. Before I guess we get there, we can talk a little bit about some things going on in NASCAR.

As we close up on the Daytona 500, they're starting to announce. all the different cars that are going to be entered in the race as open cars. Confirmed, you have J.J. Yaley, Mike Wallace, Helio Castor Neves, and the Project 91 car just announced. B.J. McLeod, I guess, expected and unannounced is Anthony Alfredo, Jimmy Johnson, and Truix. Right? Yep. So that's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. I've heard as much as maybe ten open cars.

What's that mean about the health of the sport? So I'm pretty excited. One of the things that I always talk about, and you might have heard this, Amy, when I talk about the car story, is for me, a good sign of health or a good sign of things going in a good direction in terms of not only the health of the racing series you're looking at,

but also the economics of it is the car count. And so if you've got, 30 spots for the for the for the if you're going to start 30 cars and 40 you're there that's great if you're going to start 30 cars and only 28 show up it's concerning sure um and so for the daytona 500 i'll take you back to 1979 i think that almost as many cars failed to make the race as started the race so almost 40 cars yeah went home and um you would go to daytona and there would be 28 or 30 cars in the duels in each of the duels and only 15 of those are going to make the race or so it was a the duels would then therefore be dramatic because you had people in those races trying dying to get in

yeah and you would you'd have people on pit road crying joy about and screaming in in elation over just making the race just getting in we're in yeah yeah Because the check to be in the Daytona 500 was a big deal. It's a lot of money. I think to get into the Daytona 500 paid a ridiculous amount comparable to the next race, right? Or any other race the rest of the year just to start it. And so that has gone away because we just haven't had the car counts. There was a – I saw a little social media post a couple days ago about how –

honorable and admirable it was for J.J. Yaley to take one of the race teams that's kind of a one or two start team a year, that 44 car, and almost beat Jimmy Johnson for one of the transfer spots or one of the spots to get into the 500 either last year or the year before. And that was the first time in a long time. We really had like a genuine drama moment in the duel where, wow, these guys are racing side by side with a few lapses. to go and whoever finishes in front of the other is going to make the race. And going into this 500 with as many open cars as we have, I think it says things are trending in a good direction. NASCAR got away from, you know, the charter system came in and the money that the charter teams would be getting to start these races versus an open, you know, almost made running an open car too much of a financial risk.

But I don't know what has changed that's drawing more open cars into the Daytona 500. You won't see this kind of attraction from open teams in other events, maybe at the brickyard or some other races like that. But it's good to see open cars going into the Daytona 500 trying to attempt to make it because it does give us that

it does give us that interest during the duels. It does draw us to the duels to watch them to see how these teams play out and who. Because you're always looking, I don't know how everyone else is, but like when I, I don't really pay attention to college basketball. I don't. But when March madness happens and some tiny school starts clawing up the ladder, right, and winning games and, getting into the Sweet 16 or the, you know, if, that's exciting.

It is. You're like, it's the Cinderella story. And that's what I am drawn to in these moments when you're trying to see, you know, these teams try to get in there and make it happen. And I think that's what was cool about that year, J.J. Yaley almost pulled it off. And there's been other great examples of that in the past. one of the drivers that made an announcement to come back drew quite a reaction was Mike Wallace

he announced that he'll be driving the 66 car for MBM Motorsports and this is a quote that I hadn't seen a lot of people were giving Mike a hard time because of his age his brother Kenny Wallace aggressively defending him on social media and anybody who had an opinion but this was kind of interesting.

The big reason, Mike's quote is, the big reason is in January of 2024, I lost my wife, Carla, from being married 44 years, myself and my kids were all needing a boost. We needed something that would say, here's a positive story for us, let's go make it happen, and this opportunity presented itself. He was, you know, he's speaking on his motivation to take part in the race this year. And I will say this, like, you know, yes, he is, I think, 65. Yep.

Yes, it's been a decade since he's been in a competitive race or so, right? I think 17 or 18 was his last race. But he, I'll be honest, when I would, when I remember, like, if you would go back to 2003, four, five, whatever. When Mike Wallace ran at Daytona or Talladega, you saw him. at some point in the race. He was good at taking that, you know, that seven car. If you look at the 2001 race, we won in July. He was one of the cars that gave me the best push to be able to get up there and win that race.

He was always in the top 10. Yes, late in the race. When he would run that four car for McClure, he could take that car that probably didn't belong in the top 15 and be there all day, right? He was a competitive racer at Daytona and Talladega. And so I don't think it's out of the, I don't think it's out of reach, or I don't think it's, you know, tone deaf to see him out there and trying to go compete. And now when I read this quote, I'm like, yeah, that's good motivation. Yeah, it's a good story.

Yeah. It's not a good story, but it's a good reason to go. So Helio Castro Nevis was a shock to me, a bit of a surprise. when they, there's been this sort of rumble in the past 12 months about, and it started, I guess, from the XRS. Wasn't he racing in that series? And Don Hawk and a couple of those guys were chirping on, you know, talking on social media about like, yeah, we ought to get him in a, you know,

in a Daytona 500. And it was just this sort of almost a pipe dream, if you will, that you just thought never was really going to materialize. But apparently, they've been working on this behind. the scenes. And it's in a reasonably good car. The Project 91 car from Trackhouse,

Castro Nevis is quoted as saying, never in my wildest dreams. Did I think I would enter a NASCAR race? And certainly not the Daytona 500 with a team like Trackhouse. This is an opportunity that nobody in their right mind could ever turn down. And I agree. If you present it with the opportunity to drive this car,

Helio with you know, Helio like a lot of those guys, I think, on that IndyCar side, would love to run in Daytona once. Everybody wants to put that 500 on their resume. And this, I'm traditionalist, I'm a bit naive, but this goes back to like when AJ Foyt would show up, Mario N'Grady ran a Daytona 5001.

There's, it's, it's a feather in our cap. When a recognizable name comes out of any other series, especially a top series like IndyCar and tries to enter in our biggest race. That's how I look at it is like you've had open cars before but it's not necessarily how many but the quality of drivers that you're having too.

Yeah. Yeah. So these are some great stories that I think are going to be good to build up the anticipation going into Daytona. And I have a random question. Yeah. So for Helio, will he get any seat time before? There's a practice session.

Before practice. Thank you NASCAR. Let's give NASCAR. A little bit of a hand. I mean, I don't, listen, I don't know, I don't know what we were thinking. When we're going to the racetrack at Daytona for the 500, the biggest race of year, and unloading the cars and going out and qualifying immediately. That was not good.

But, you know, some things that the pandemic presented us, presented us, showed us ways where we were maybe doing some things unnecessarily, but it also brought on some things that I never asked for and never wanted. And apparently, like, less practice was one of those. And I'm all for more practice. I mean, I've had drivers sit here at this table aiming, Chase Elliott, and a couple of guys say, yeah, I kind of like where practice is, 15, 20 minutes here and there, and that's plenty.

I, as a viewer and a broadcaster, want more practice. I want to be seeing cars on track and learning more about who's competitive and who isn't on any given weekend. Yeah. But we were going into Daytona over the last couple of years, not practicing at all. You would unload your car and go qualify. And sometimes a new car that just changed cars. A brand new.

Most every car was new. Sure. You would have guys out there bouncing around and their cars obviously not ready to be on the racetrack at all. Yeah. I remember the year when our buddy Connor Daley went out there and that car was not. It was not ready. It wasn't. No.

And it was, it's not a knock on the team. They were a team that would have one or two starts a year or just a handful of starts. Connor is a young guy without really any understanding of what he's getting himself into. It was entirely unfair. And we should never be putting anyone in those situations. But thankfully, we've gotten smart and we're going to have a little practice before qualifying. Like the day of? The day of.

Aalio is also going to test that Taladaiga, so he'll have more cut time. Okay. Okay. So they're allowed to go to Talladega and run some laps, which is good. That'll be really good for Helio and to understand what he needs to do to try to maximize all his opportunities, especially getting off pit road to go qualify and make that lap. Getting a good time can help you if something were to happen during the duels. As some of the open cars are racing, some of the open cars will get locked in on time,

where some will have to race each other into duels, depending on how that goes. So qualifying is still important for the open cars. But to be able to go to Daytona, the morning of qualifying and see the cars out on the track and really kind of understand where you are and what you have is going to be so fun and so easy and nice for a lot of these teams.

They need to get the cars out on the racetrack to be able to find out if they got some serious issues. Sure, it makes a lot of sense. Yeah, so that's a great thing. We got Ryan Blaney calling in. Damn, dude, you were in Ficking Pinsky. Why ain't you at home? What's his fucking?

It's January. I got to get back in swinging things, man. Oh, man. I guess it is. Gotta get back going. I get too antsy. January 1st comes along. I'm ready to go.

Is it a requirement for any, anytime you guys do any on-camera content, you have to be in the same chair? I think every time I've talked to a Pinsky driver, this is the background. Do you bring in your own trophies there? No, they just throw them here. But yeah, all of our offices look the exact same.

You have your own office? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Is it mahogany, rich, and a lot of leatherbound books? A lot of leatherbound books, actually, or the whole library. Yeah. What are you doing in your office? Call you.

Calls, yeah. Do you watch, do you watch, do you, watch the races and if I have some time to kill I'll come in here and and just mess around for a half hour or so and do you know but yeah I I mainly come in here just to like we'll have meetings in here like my my team my guys will have meetings in here on Mondays kind of before our bigger meetings so it's just a nice little meeting space and it's a nice place to put stuff I don't want to put

in my house so got you yeah well while we got you here we wanted to talk about Thank you first again for having us out to Aspen for the wedding. And what an incredible, beautiful wedding that was. And, you know, you have a, I guess I don't know how you are, but you don't know what that experience is going to be like, what it's going to feel like, what it's going to look like. I guess you prepare as best as you can and you're part of the planning, right, throughout the year.

But how did all that go down in your mind? Yeah, well, appreciate y'all coming too. We had an absolute ball with both y'all. I was, you know, I was super fortunate to go to y'all's wedding, and I was really happy that y'all were able to come to Gianna and mine. And we had a blast. But, yeah, I mean, John and I, we kind of just went into it with like an open mind. You know, I mean, we planned all this stuff.

And we had a great wedding planner that helped us out. She was based out West. So she was a lot of the connecting pieces with, you know, all the vendors and stuff. and kind of organizing, but we just, we just, the only rule we had was we're just going to have fun with it all. And like, if there's an issue, we're not going to get upset with it. Just tell the planer and we're just going to still have our fun time. So I didn't really know what to expect. I try to, we try to go into things with open minds, especially when it's our first time doing things. So, yeah, it all went smooth. I mean, everyone had a ball. We had an absolute blast.

And these stuff that are coming back to me. What part? Oh, yeah. What part was the most, uh, rewarding, I guess. I think my favorite part, I don't know, there's multiple. Like, you'll never, I've never felt that way internally before when I first saw Gianna. Yeah. As she's walking up the aisle, right? Because we didn't, we had breakfast together, but I, you know, I didn't see her.

I didn't have like a first look, right? What they call it. And we didn't want that, right? I want to see you for the very first time. We want to see each other for the first time on the aisle. So I will never forget that feeling. I got really emotional and I just started kind of laughing because that was the only way I was going to keep tears back. Yeah.

So that there was nothing else like that. I'm pretty sure I saw a couple tears. Oh, there was definitely tears for sure. It was awesome. And then after, right, like the reception when everyone's together and like having fun together, those people will never be in the same room ever again. So that was cool to see that dynamic of friends and my family, her family and how they all got along was really cool. I always thought that too.

You see old friends hang out with your new friends and have the best time. You know, this is really cool. A really cool moment to see. And John's dad's speech was pretty epic. Damn. I'll tell you. It was she looked over at me. We were sitting at table like halfway through the speech and she's like, he is roasting my ass right now.

Yeah. He's been waiting and waiting to do all about. Yeah. It was good, though. It was good. Bruce had a good speech. Yeah. As a girl dad, I was sitting there.

and part of me was like, holy shit, I can't believe he's doing this. And then immediately I thought he's got to do it. Like he came in here with one objective. Like he, this is his mission. This is his mission. He's like, I am not leaving without saying all this shit.

He had like, he had like, it was like a movie. Like he had like three parts to his movie. That's right. Like, you know, the buildup, you know, the middle piece and then the climax. Like it was, it was awesome. I loved it personally.

Giotto, she was like, I don't know, kind of embarrassed her. It was awesome. I love it. I was laughing my ass on. So I know it's just been a few weeks, but how does it feel when you make it official? Does, you know, I know probably technically and physically nothing has changed about your life. But what does it feel like to finally to make that decision?

Yeah. You know, a lot of people ask me, like, does it feel any different? You know, right? We already live together, all that stuff. And I didn't think it would feel different. Like before we got married, I was like, I don't think it will feel any different. But it does, at least internally for me, it's like, okay, I planned on this person, you know, being with this person for the rest of my life. You know, but then when you actually get married, you're like, okay, this is for sure 1,000 percent, like, going to be my person for the rest of my life.

You know, I don't know. It's just a weird kind of, it's almost like a comforting feeling like, okay, everything's going as I wanted it to go, as we wanted it to go. as we wanted it to go. So there is a little bit of a mindset shift, but I really enjoy that side of it. Have you had to introduce her to anyone new yet and gotten to say, this is my wife or such as my girlfriend? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we went down to Key West for New Year's for my birthday, and it was cool introducing her as my wife. I only messed it up one time. One time I said, this is my fiance. Oh, no, my wife, Gianna. Yeah. That was good. That's funny.

So, me and Amy were having a conversation before you called in. about how. Apologies in advance, Ryan, for the context. Jesus Christ. Well, I joke about how our, as our relationship, you know, as the intensity of our relationship increased and our commitment to each other increased the rules and the odd, you know, the expectation from, at least for me, changed.

And one of the- Ryan's like, I know I've watched a lot of it. Well, yeah, he saw it. One of the examples I used was a toilet seat and the toilet lid. He tried to equate the entire evolution of our relationship to a toilet seat. Yeah. This is how we started with this conversation. So when we first met, I don't even think there was a toilet lid on my toilet.

And she pointed out. And then when we got to dating and we got more serious about our dating and then we got engaged, I was tasked to. keep the seat down. And I'm like, got it. That took a while. I finally figured that out and got, got in the habit of putting the seat down when I was done.

And then when we decided to get married, the new rule was the lid. When I moved in, it was the lid. And I was like, wait, why can't we just start with the lid from the beginning? It kind of got like, as the relationship got going, more things were, you know, his memory is a little fuzzy.

That's how I remember But the point of this is he wants to know if Gianna has Yeah Given you any rules If she's like hey man Now that now that this is the way the thing is Can you keep this shit out of my way Can you move this pile of clothes?

Can you put the toilet lid down? Anything like that? Yeah Oh yeah All right let's hear Yeah All right Dale Well I got to ask you a question okay

So He's got to answer it with a question first So now it's the lid down right so when you go to the bathroom and you have to go take pee yeah you you pick the lid and the toilet seat up and then you put them both right down do you ever leave the toilet seat down no no never i pick them both up so i don't peel on the seat okay okay that's good yeah that's good i say uh that's one of my i messed that up every now and then to where i don't put the seat up but i in my offense, I will clean the seat if there is any dribble over.

That's going to be fine. Like, it's going to be clean. You're not going to have urine on your seat. Sure. While you sit down. Yeah. I wouldn't say we're a big toilet like seat cover down, the top. Your lid late, your lids might be up.

Yeah. It didn't give a moment. Oh, day. Yeah, at any given moment. You never know what you're going to get. That can happen at our house. We have dogs and little kids. You might have a rule change coming in a.

couple of couple of you have as well with yeah little kids you might get a memo literally will throw her toys in that toilet there might be a there might be a memo uh coming down the pipe in a couple months where she's like hey uh by the way got a new got a new thing i'm expecting to happen hey me anybody's got a text her and be like you need to tell ryan to put the seat down oh my gosh i'm gonna you just so gross this boys so i will actually i've come up with a solution for this of i actually put a urinal in my house house. So I will walk across the house to go to the bathroom just so I can use the urinal. So that kind of takes away a lot of the seed issue. Yeah. That is that is that does save he's got one in the detached garage. A lot of trouble. Yeah. Yeah. Can we get a urinal? No. Um, so. You have to go live with Ryan. So, um, yeah, Amy thinks that and I'm not saying this doesn't happen, but that if I leave the seed up and. Flet. the toilet, whether there's pee or poop in it, that all of that stuff flies out into the air and all across the bathroom into her toothbrush.

It's a fact. I have seen videos of this. And after going through COVID and knowing what like just moisture vapor can do, you flush that thing with the lid up. You might get poop particles on your toothbrush. Okay. No, that's a good point. Well, this all started, Ryan, when we were in the bus and we were in close quarters. The toilet is right next to the sink. I'm like, that's when all this started for me. That makes sense. Yep. So that might be coming. Okay, I'm going to change it up.

You got my word. See, the recovery is going to be down. Just avoid it from the beginning. Just don't forget to lift that when you go pee. Well, that's, yeah. Have you ever, Dale, have you ever been a little, well, got a little drunk? You on top of that seat? No.

He's done that in other things, but not on the seat. Yeah, peed in a closet once. But I thought of that. in the bathroom. So, you know, I have done that. But, yeah, yeah, I appreciate your honesty there. And it's going to be fun. Hey, man, I'm telling you, it is going to be so much fun watching you go through this journey.

I have a question. I'm sure somebody else has asked you this already, and I'm going to be the annoying old lady asking. You're very young and you just got married, but are you guys going to have kids anytime soon? Working on that. You are? Big announcement. Actively working on it.

Tony Stewart kind of alluded to that same thing when he was on the show, and it brought some attention. So just be aware. Be aware. Beware what you're doing. I mean, I'm going to tell you, I don't know if I want to talk about it on this show, but you're trying. I don't know if it's going to work, but we're going to find out.

Hey. I love it. Yeah. Hey, man, we're big fans of yours. You're a great friend. Thanks for giving us a little bit of time today. I know you got a lot going on. And, you know, hopefully ease on into Daytona and get a good start to your ear.

But obviously, the personal life and all that stuff is going in the right direction. And we're glad to be able to watch you go through all those big milestones in your life. And look forward to seeing you soon. Thanks for coming on today. I appreciate y'all. It made a lot. Y'all were there. So thank you.

And we'll talk to you soon. All right, everybody. We're live here on the Dale Jr. download in the Dirty Moe Media Studio, and we are recording an episode of our podcast. I'm excited about that because we usually don't do that in all season, but we decided this year to throw some shows together, and we're here recapping kind of our holiday experience with my wife Amy. How are you? How are you? And Andrew is in the booth for the questions today. How are you doing, Andrew?

Doing good. Good to see you guys. How was your holidays? It was very nice. Yeah. Yeah. You traveled a little bit. No, just home to Chicago.

Yeah, well, that's traveling. Yeah, I guess that is. I guess, yeah, I did get it on an airplane. Yeah, there you go. All right. All right, man. So did you get everything you wanted for the holiday season? Yes, yeah.

It was very good. Did you guys? Yes. Yeah, ours was great. Yeah. Yeah, it was super busy, but everybody was all smiles. Yes. So good.

Yeah, so I'm excited about the show today, and we were anxious to come in. and have some fun, and we've certainly been, we've been talking to almost 70 minutes, just about catching up on our holiday experiences. And we talked to Ryan Blaney a little bit about where he's at. We went to his wedding several weeks ago, so to everybody listening or watching right now live. We've got a great show for you coming out this week, and let's get started with the questions. Yes, this first one is coming from Troy and Ruff. remember this is ask Amy so uh well i guess this is for both of you guys but he wants to know how

do i get my wife to let me play more video games so that's an answer for that's a question for amy yeah it's a question for amy then dale plays while i'm sleeping so there's that all right um i don't know you have to have an agreement about personal time like it just depends what their life is like you know he needs to pay attention to her needs and if she wants to like be able to go work out or have a hobby or own. There needs to just be balance in that. But I don't think that there's any issue. As much as I make fun of the video game thing,

like it keeps him off the street. So I'm not so mad about it. But he does it while I'm sleepy. Keeps you off the streets? I didn't know how close to the streets I was. It was precariously. It keeps him out of the pub. It keeps him in the home.

And even before we ever got married and had kids, I was like, at least he's not on the street. Stay off the streets, kids. That's right. Play video games. I only thing I would add is kind of to what Amy was saying is we talked about it on the show before

like it's it you're it's not it's not that you want to do an activity whether it's video games or anything as a hobby it's when you choose to do it have some you know kind of read the room just communicate yeah

yeah communicate too so like I will almost like drag my feet to tell her like man I got a I got a NCAA college game to knock out with my pilot, he's in the league with me and me and him are supposed to play. And the sooner we get it done, we can move on and everybody

gets to move forward in advance to the next week. Amy don't care about none of those details. Sure don't. But I want to do it. I'd honestly rather not hear the detail. And so I just need to tell her like, hey, I would like to knock this game out. When's a good time today? Is there anything going on? You know, because there's, you know, the kids need things and... Yeah, he'll just say, do we have anything

going on today. I've got a couple things I want to do in the computer room. I don't care what it is. Go in there and just stare at yourself. I don't care. Yeah. But when he communicates with me about what he wants to just be away and have some alone time, it doesn't matter. But that is important. Yeah.

All right. This next question is coming from Jake Powers. I believe this was from Facebook. And Amy, they want to know what was it like, or what is it like? What was it like doing production slash commercial shoots with Dale? I'm always very nervous doing anything like that. Really? It's easier when Dale's with me because he's a supersonic pro and knows what he's doing and he makes me feel more comfortable.

And he also can give me tips or, you know, over the years it's gotten a little easier. And he knows what to expect with me too and what to tell me because he knows I'm going to get nervous. But I try to have fun with it and not get so in my head about the seriousness of it because I don't know where it's going or who's going to see it. And that freaks me out. Dale doesn't mind that at all and he's used to that he's been doing his entire life it is fun, it's surreal

I try to have fun with it but it definitely makes me nervous every single time what's like the best advice he gives you then just to be myself and be comfortable and he tries to make me laugh

and give me jokes and like just constantly just trying to keep it light you know I will get in there and there's like pages and pages and pages he's like don't worry about it we're going to do one

don't try to memorize the whole thing and so that makes it easier. But as first, just even reading the teleprompter was like, I'm like, I'm going to stutter through the whole thing. I'm going to get nervous and start stuttering and it's going to be embarrassing. And I'm going to want to want to crawl under the table. You just kind of picture everyone naked. No. No, that's not what you're supposed to do. I don't know. That might give you like the deer in the headlight look the whole time. I'm not sure if that works either. But yeah. Yeah. I think when when I started earlier in my career, I was the same way,

you want to do it as well as you possibly can. And so you put a lot of pressure on your to go you're going into an area where say if you're in front of a sponsor they're in the room they're they had the script they wrote it and they want they know what they're wanting to capture that day and you're sitting down and hoping you can produce that and so you're trying really hard to just nail it and be perfect and then so I was like that in the first half of my career and then at some point you just get to where you're like I'm just going to be me and and and that And if that's good enough, it's good enough. And I'll find my lane, right?

And so it takes a while to get that kind of, it's not a confidence. It's kind of like it takes a while to get that comfortable to where you're like, yes, this is at the end of the world. This isn't a make or break it kind of thing. I don't, you know, and they just really want who I am. They're not trying to ask me to be a spokesman, like this polished perfect guy. And so to be as human as possible and normal as possible is the best in result, I think. Yeah.

How often do you guys like rewrite a line just because it sounds more like you if you say it this way? All the time. It's like that doesn't that's too hard for me to get all those words out together. Sometimes they'll do this. Sometimes they'll put words in a succession where it's they're just twisters, right? They're tongue twisters. But then there's there's words and I'll look at him. You know, I'll look at her.

I would never in my life say that out loud. I wouldn't say that. Have you ever heard me use that word? And she'll go, no. And I'll go, well, we'll change it. We'll change the word. And usually everybody's fine with that. Yeah.

This next question, let's see, he's coming from Peter. And I know, I think you guys were talking about this before the show, which is perfect, but any studio additions, any additions that you've brought in. And I think there's something behind you, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. The trinkets.

Yeah. Dusty Rhodes, Magnum Tee. right over my shoulder. I ordered these months ago and couldn't wait for them to come in to be able to put them in here. We have a ton of racing stuff in this room, but if you look around,

you'll see like there's some Elvis album covers, Jimmy Hendricks poster, there's some other stuff in this room that... Yeah, you don't really get to see the other cool stuff. Because we are, you know, we all have other interests outside of motorsports and our own careers. So it's kind of fun to drop in a couple of those.

I was a really big, I couldn't wait until wrestling on Saturday morning after the cartoons, wrestling would come on. It was NWA. And it was Dusty and Magnum were a tag team. Magnum was injured in a car accident, which cut his career short. And it was very sad for me. He's out still around sign autographs and so forth, so he's out there still kicking. But, yeah, I hated that his career was shortened because,

I loved him and Dusty as a tag team. And, but I, you know, continued to be a big Dusty Rhodes fan throughout, you know, his time as the American Dream. Now, he was, he had different iterations or versions of himself, but the original kind of American Dream was my favorite. And then we had Cody come in and do the show a year or two ago, which is a ton of fun. So, yeah, it's kind of cool having those different things in here. You described him as trinkets. Yeah, he's got a lot of little trinkets. He's got a lot of trinkets at home, too.

He's got two rooms in the house where he can put all of his little trinkets. Oh, really? Just this week, he likes to, like, you know how I told you he kind of hides some of his mail? Sometimes it's candy, which, you know, whatever. And then sometimes it's just new trinkets or cases for his trinkets. And he's literally, like, putting them together in the garage and then, like, walks past me as fast as he can. I'm like, what do you got? He's like, a case, and he doesn't even turn around to look at me.

He's like, I'm like, what? What are you hiding? And he's like, it's a case for my new cars? I'm like, can I see? Nope. He's all the way up the stairs into the library. Rearranging dusting doing all this stuff. So there's trinkets.

There's trinkets. I feel like everybody needs to see a picture of your new stuff now. My die casts. Yeah, he's got, but you've got new boxes. I haven't even seen them. I know. My new, my die cast collection is just slowly kind of growing. I actually got a new car today that's on the table right here in front of this red.

It's kind of like a candy apple red. It looks so cool. that Lionel gave me that for for Christmas I guess and so I'm taking that one home and but I have a collection at home and I really

I do want to show it off you know but I'm not going to do a you know I'm not going to do a crummy cell phone I think it'd be cool if you guys came over and we took some good quality videos of it and made he's got some towers but he's also got some smaller cases because I have I have two

full towers and there must be 40 or 50 cars in each tower. Yeah. And then to her to her point I got a couple new cases because I wanted to add to my collection's grown outside the towers. I'm looking for new towers. I put a social media post on. I bought those towers for you for Christmas

not too long ago. I know but now they're they don't make those towers. They did but they discontinued them or just they but they're I think lineals posted on their social media that they're bringing them back. or they're going to get back into creating those towers. DiCast for me, it feels like it's having a bit of a resurgence. At least I'm more of an avid collector of diecast now than I've ever been, which is strange to me because you would think back when I was younger,

as big as the souvenir world was in the 90s, I would have had a ton of those. You probably played with them. Yeah. Well, I enjoy collecting specific cars, not just anything, but specific cars, like these little one-offs and stuff like that. We get some of the samples. Those are fun to have because, you know, the samples are kind of a very special prototype. Yeah.

So, anyhow, yeah. Do the girls play with any of the die cast? Not my collection. No, my God. Don't touch the collection. The girls, including me, aren't allowed in there with some. Bicast. Sometimes, though, I'll get a car that it's not something that I...

They went in the other day. Sorry to interrupt you. He was organizing in his new cases. And the girls are just wanting to sit there and watch him. There's a chair in there. And I don't know what they were doing because I didn't dare go in. But he's like, no, no, you don't play with Daddy's things? And I literally just chuckled from wherever I was.

It's like, oh, Lord, these girls are going to get in trouble. They don't even know what they're doing. So I have a theater I have a library upstairs in the middle of the upstairs and it's got Amy's got some books in there but it's full.

It's got every episode of Circle Track magazine every episode of Stockcar Racing magazine I have them in binders and I have if there's a book about NASCAR it's likely in this library

from way back and books about all the drivers from all history if there's a documentary or not documentary but biography or whatever right so AJ Floyd and all the drivers right so I've got all these books and

there's some other stuff in there there's like so you know there's models that people have built and given to me. There's a model of my car from the Daytona 500, 2014,

there's a Ralph Earnhardt model. These are plastic models held together by glue and that stuff deteriorates over time and if it gets even moved a little bit, those things, wheels fall off and windshields come out and you just got to be really careful with some of that stuff and so I getting a little nervous about it.

Well, we got time for one more question. This one is from Hannah and it's what is something that the kids do or say and you can instantly see that in each other like oh they got that from dale or oh they got that from amy anytime they do something that's smart ass i just say that that's your genetics because that's just fun for me to do to dale um but i can see i can see a pretty good split difference of our personalities in ila she's she's built like your mom she stands like you with that one leg out

the little face shapes like mine or hairs like mine but there's different facial features i can't figure out if it's brenda or who else my dad told me that he thinks that she's she looks like he did at that age, so who knows? Nicole, she's built like me, but I have no idea where that personality came from. She is. One of one? One of one.

Yeah. And she keeps us guessing at all time. She's tough. She's tough, but she's so sweet, but she's pushing every boundary at every moment. She's testing all the limits. And so if you're like, you know, if I were to set this car on the table, she would reach for it and immediately and grab it. and pick it up and you'd be like hey no you know let's not touch that and you'll look over it or

five minutes later and she's like so i will carefully and you could hand it to her she could carefully handle it she's got a little glass t-set she's always played with she's never broken it Nicole is going to take the wheels off yeah she wants to see how she wants to but Nicole's not not going to touch Nicole's not going for the car again because she wants the car no she's wanting you He's looking at you going, what are you going to stop me? What are you going to react to this? How far do I get? I'm going.

I'm going to do it. Wait, and she's just wanting you to do. And that reminds me a lot of me. And when I was a little kid, like I wanted dad's attention or I wanted Kelly's attention or my mom's attention, I didn't care how I got it. You know, and I would antagonize or, you know, leave an empty bowl of cereal. under the couch or whatever, right, trying to, you know, and knowing that I was going to get a response out of that. And I was fine with it, even if it was like, hey, what the heck, you know.

All right. Well, she's one of two. So we found it. It's in down. Because he's still living his food on the couch or somewhere else. And it's funny because with Nicole. And you can't fight fire with fire. And he gets frustrated with her. And like, you can't fight fire with fire. You have to distract her and make her laugh to get her attention to move all the same. where I've tried that myself because I get super frustrated with some of the things that she does. And if I get frustrated with her, she gets uncomfortable, but she will act out. Yeah. I wish I saw more of Amy and me and the girls.

That's never been something that's been like completely obvious to me. And so because when the kids are born, everybody says, oh, they look like this. They look like that. It's these eyebrows. It's this person's nose. It's this person's mouth or whatever, right? It's just all, everybody's just got all these opinions about this, this. And I'm like, I don't see it.

I don't see none of that. And even today, like, I rarely catch a, I rarely see Ila do something where I go, dang, you're just like your mom. Or, man, that's what I would have done. Or you reminded me of dad or reminding me of any of that stuff. I see more of myself and Ila. Yeah. And dad even said that to me.

We were there for Christmas. The kids are all riding four-wheeler's. she really hasn't had a lot of experience driving anything like that like she's kind of cautious and so her cousins who are just barely older than her wheeling all over the place on these four-wheelers and I really wants to do it too so she's getting a 30-second demo from her dad and then she takes off and I'm like oh my god this kid has no business being on that thing because I feel myself like I was a reckless and fearless but reckless and dad looks at me and he goes you know that's you on that thing I was like I know she has no business being on there, and he just laughed.

He's like, yeah, you're right. Better watch her. She did fine, though. She did, she did fine. She just went around the house a few times, and they came and got off. What do you mean, like, when they stand like Dale with their leg out? Dale's dad stood like that too, like he's kind of back in one hip with that one leg out. I have a picture of Ila as like a two-year-old doing it.

Yeah, yeah, okay. Or the statue in Canapolis. Dale stands like that, just casually with his arms crossed, and Ila does that. Wow. Yeah, genetics are weird like that. You'll see these weird little things pop up as they grow. It's like the resting stance that we all have. I never noticed it until Amy started pointing it out to me about Ila.

Yeah. But, yeah. Fascinating. Well, that's a good place to end to ask Amy this week. All right, it's time for the white flag. We got a new episode of Herm and Schrader out this week. I wonder how Herm and Schrader have been enjoying this podcast they're doing together. Travis?

It seems like they're having a lot of fun. Yeah. I haven't had to have any issues. yet so that's good. Well, it'd be fun when they had their first fight. Oh, you think that's a thing that's going to happen? Well, I'm a disagreement. You know the kinds that me and Mike Davis would have,

where we're sternly in our own corners. Oh, okay. I'm looking bored to it. Surely they'll get there. They're going to have their, they're going to have their calla-patty moment. Yeah. So anyways, make sure you download whatever,

wherever you get your podcast and subscribe to Kenny's YouTube page as well. Kenny's doing some good work out there, and it's great for him to bring Schrader on board. get him involved. I love seeing all the drivers from the history of the sport, seeing some value in content creation. Mark Martin, Rick Mass, there's a bunch of guys starting to stick their toe in the water a little bit. Speed Street with Connor Daly and Chase Holden put out a new episode last week,

chatting up the 2025 schedule. Next Monday, we're dropping another DJD Classic. This time, it's my conversation with Ty Norris from 2021. That was heavy. You'll want to watch that. and remember to rate and review and follow our shows so you don't miss a single one. We got a big, big season coming up this year. I want to tell you all about all of the stuff, but I've been told I cannot.

I can't share all of the cool news, but... That's killing you, isn't it? It's killing me. It's killing me. Because it's exciting. We have a lot in store for DJD and some good changes and I think everybody's going to love. So, yeah, until we can tell you about those. we'll see you next time.

Thanks for coming, Amy. Thanks for having me, baby. All right.