The Dale Jr. Download - 60 - Kentucky: Conquering Kenbumpy Speedway

Episode Date: July 1, 2014

Dale Earnhardt Jr. & the 88 team muster a top five at Kentucky despite troublesome bumps, an unruly car, and Hoag’s shirt; tire-changer Joe Slingerland weighs in with insight. 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.

This is Dale Jr. And you're listening to Dirty Moe radio. We're pitting right here. If you have a hard time to see the side, we'll put Hogue on the wall. There's no way you'll miss it. Ha! He'll put the pole. It would be brighter, for sure.

I'm afraid it'd be like following the pace car. It'd be so bright to give you a headache, though. It wasn't that bright. This is the Dell Jr. download presented by a spy. I'm Mike Davis. He's Mike Hogue, the man with the bright shirt. She's a man of Troutman. Our boy Taylor Zarser is traveling this morning,

so the professionalism meter totally. just took a nose dive. Can you already tell? Yeah, we're coming to you from the Dirty Moe Radio Studios on a Tuesday morning. Joe Slingerland, the 88 team's rear tire changer. We'll be joining us here in a few minutes. I'm excited about that. Before we get started, we must tell you something that will dang sure make your life happy,

Hogue. Our friends at Spy are offering you. Dirty Moe Radio listener, 20% off your purchase of any Dale Jr. signature 88 collection sunglasses. Just go to spyoptic.com. your favorite pair of 88 collection sunglasses. Enter the code, Amanda. Dale, yeah.

It's not actually Amanda, Delia, right? I need to make sure that's... Dale, yeah. Delia is the checkout code. That'll get you 20% off. And I'm going to tell you something. This discount code shook the world so much that it's now trackside at the Junior Nation

souvenir trailer and right here in the Junior Motorsports retail shop. All right, Hogue, your shirt. The shirt was... Hold on. Tell me something. Explain to me something. How is it that on a race that is as pivotal is this one. And if you didn't know already, dear listener, the 88 team struggled mightily in practice on Friday. They struggled in qualifying, I think qualified 27th. They threw out the

notes Friday night, came up with a whole new game plan on Saturday, and yet despite all that, how is it, Mike Hogue, that the very first thing on Steve LaTart's mind and Dale Jr., for that matter, as they fire up the engines, is your shirt. I have no idea. I didn't think it was that bad, but everybody I talked to, I could not have a conversation without, dude, What's wrong with your shirt? Why is it so bright? The people wearing sunglasses to talk to me. But I don't know why that was the first thing he chose to talk about.

If I recall, this is that same shirt you wore at Fanday. Yes. And it was an issue then. Yeah. So check out the Hoga Mania 360 from a few weeks ago, and you'll see the bright orange shirt, right? Yeah. From now on, because I caught so much, you know, not crap from it, but that's going to be my Sunday shirt. It ought to be.

I agree with that. It's going to be a Sunday shirt. If it's that big a deal, then people need to see it every time. race. Oh, yeah. We have people that being said, I'm telling you, that shirt would lead

a lost boat to shore. I'm telling you. It is bright. And I love the fans that tweeted me pictures both from the pits and the grandstands during the race.

You could see that there was one thing. It was great. And it wasn't even like near the front or, you know, it wasn't near the front roads of the grandstand.

It was like halfway up of Kentucky's grandstand. The picture of the pit stall and you can see Mike Hogue in it. He's like the sun on the front. Pit road in this picture. As it got darker, the shirt got brighter.

It was weird. Well, you're going to see a lot more of it. Every Sunday. I'm actually having to get another one, too, just in case that one. You ought to get a box full of them. Orange shirts. That's your new thing. That's the plan.

Short arms orange shirts. That's your identity. It was an incredible run, honestly, by the 88 team. And, you know, I think Dale Jr. said it. He said it last week when he finished third at Sonoma. He said it again after finishing fifth. These finishes all have their own sort of, coolness about them. And this one is the fact

that they were basically on an island on Friday. If you saw Dale Jr.'s Twitter, you did not see a whole lot of optimism in it if you were reading between those lines. He was like, well, we were struggling. We don't know. We're going to figure something out. I got faith in Stevie, but they didn't seem all that confident going into the race. Yeah, I think Steve even tweeted he said that night, this is one of those races where you just hit control

alt-delete and start over. That was a great tweet. That honestly is the feeling that they had to actually start all over. despite the entire, you know, the weeks and months of preparation, they actually started over the night before or the night of, you know, the morning of the race and came up with a game plan that I thought was very good. The car was obviously much better. Strategy again, I know we sound like a broken record when it comes to Steve LaTart and strategy, but the fact of the matter is he again caught a great race.

They took a two-tire pit stop at the beginning to get from 19th to 10th. And I don't recall Dale Jr. really leaving the top 10 for the rest of the day. He didn't. Once he hit that top 10, a few more laps went by, and I don't think he left around the sixth place for the rest of the race, honestly. Right, right. I think a couple other things,

other than strategy, helped the 88 team, and that was phenomenal pit stops. Incredible pit stops, yet again by this team. I can't wait to bring in Joe Slingerlin and talk about that because those guys were on their game. Every time Dale Jr. came in for a four-tire pit stop, he came out ahead of where he came in. So great pit stops, and then a little bit of luck.

They're on the last pit stop when they had a green flag stop. They came in at lap 2.13, and then a caution came out. We're going to listen to that radio chatter right now. Where's the leader? Start with rights. Where's the leader, T.J.? Into the backstress. Still time. He's all down. Where's yeah? We've got to beat him to start-finish. Put the left on it, right? Yeah, he's coasting in three and four. Come on. Closing in three and four. Plenty of time.

He's slowly coming out of four here. slowly coming up that far. We've got to go. We've got to go. There you go. Forty one hundred. There you go. We beat the beach. He is just now at the line. 4,100. A lot going on in that radio transmission there. T.J. basically, is telling them where the leader is. They're on pit road already. They had already started a pit stop.

They needed to beat the leader out, or they were going to lose a lap. And Hogue, where were you guys on pit road? Right. They needed to beat them to the start finish line. We were about just a few stalls down from where that start finish line crosses. So they're not trying to beat them to the end of pit road, just to where the start finish line. our finish line is, so really they were pretty close. So you guys were two spots ahead. It was two or three.

It was right there. It wasn't far. And so they were able to complete the pit stop. Why this matters is because I think it was Dale Jr. Kyle Bush and Ryan Newman were all on pit road when this thing happened, when this caution came out. They go out, they complete their pit stops. Well, then everybody else had to come in.

So when it all cycled through, Dale Jr. is restarting. Third. Third at lap 219. And you know what? I'm telling you. Now, it wasn't a great restart after that. There's a third to eighth. Yeah, he went from third to eighth.

It wasn't a great restart. But I'm telling you, Dale Jr. He came back. He was in seventh, the lap 228, climbed to six when the 22 lost a cylinder. That was a big deal. The 22 was super fast. And then passed Kevin Harvick with four laps to go to finish fifth. Just an incredible run.

Let's hear from Dale Jr. Hey, everybody. It's Jr. Just sort of taking it easy on Sunday after the race. Real happy with the result this weekend started off pretty rough. We didn't really have a good car in practice and struggled with a lot of balance issues. Track was very rough for us. I think the way we had the car set up was making that even worse.

Steve and the guys worked real hard in practice trying to improve things. We really kind of ran some decent laps here and there in race trim, but nothing that stood out. So went into qualifying trim and nose-dived on speed. It's terrible how the car drove and how the speed was. And that made us concern more about our race trim package. I think we got pretty worried about it. Qualified badly and wasn't too upset about that, but talked to Steve after the nationwide race,

they said they were looking at a lot of things that made some sense, had some ideas. They got up the next day, got in the hauler. Him and the engineers went over all the information they had and put a plan together. Made a lot of changes on the car. It really pretty much changed everything we had. Went a whole new direction on the setup. And it seemed to really pay off. I could tell right away the car, the ride quality in the car, as far as going over the bumps, even down the front straightaway, was a hundred times better. We had better speed.

I didn't notice it immediately in the car, but we seemed to have pretty good speed once we got that track position against the guys that were up there running up front. I could tell if I could put a great lap together, we could run with them. That was basically the whole night. We sit there and ran lap after lap, trying not to screw up with the bumps through the corners. It's a tough challenge trying to put a good lap together, trying to get the car where you want it to be. There was a lot of seepage in some weepers water running down the racetrack throughout the whole race, trying to dodge those and get around those. Mainly in three and four was a bit of a challenge too.

I couldn't really get my car to work the high groove. I'd like to have ran up there. I thought Kyle did a good job of that in the 18, but I couldn't really figure out how to get my car to work up there. We ran the bottom or a lane or two off the bottom in three and three and a little. and four turns one and two was pretty pretty much the same for everybody it looked like everybody would need to get the left front down on that bottom groove get the car turning but we moved around in three and four all night trying to find some

speed and the car seemed like different lines depending on the set of tires it was on the car so that's all we did all night was move around searching and never found nothing that lasted and never found you know never got into a groove to where I felt like I was very confident So I'm still sort of searching what I need and what I think the car needs at Kentucky. What I take away from this event is that the guys, the team is good enough to sort of make up for that. When I can't help them, when I can't give them the feedback that I need to give them on Friday or even during the race, the team and the cars are good enough that we can sort of get through the weekend with a decent result.

And, you know, we'll go back next year and try again. So kind of fortunate to finish as well as we did, certainly after how things started in the weekend. I think it got to give a lot of credit to the pit crew. There was some awesome stops all night long. They gained a ton of track position for us. Steve's strategy as far as the fuel mileage goes was great. Also, in giving us a lot of track position, when to take two tires, when to take four. At that particular track, you could take two tires and still be relatively competitive, so I thought that worked out for us pretty good.

So real happy and glad to get out of there with the result that we did going on to Daytona this weekend. Should be a fun weekend. This is a mid-summer stretch. A lot of good racetracks coming up. So hopefully we can keep on digging. We need to get some more wins. Going to Victor Lane is fun. I'm ready to do it again.

So we'll see you guys at Daytona. Hogue last week he finished his third on a road course. This week I'm calling it. he finished his fifth on an obstacle course. Because the way the bumps were, they were violent looking. Maybe he's from my eye angle. I can't imagine being in the car. But the way that car slaps the ground right across the front stretch.

Just to see it, then I'd say it. Then I'll say it afterwards. I think him and David Reagan were going back and forth on Twitter. I'm talking about how they compared it. Their body felt like they'd been in a 12-round fight and how it was. Well, how about Blaney? I mean, if you come out with the bloody nose, that's not a bad analogy, to be honest with you.

Because Blaney says he has a bloody nose earlier in the week practice in his car because of the bumps, maybe it is more like a fight. Well, Kip told me, and I don't know if this is true or not, because I'm not out there driving on that track, but I guess they had a dip in that front stretch, and they paved it in, and instead of it turning into just one dip, it basically created a hump. So you're hitting two dips out there now on that front stretch. So it's kind of whop-am, whop-am. So it's actually worse than, I think, what they initially tried to fix.

That's interesting because the entire weekend of talking about the bumps. I never heard anybody actually explained why they're there. Like I said, that's what Kip said. I don't, you know, I'm not the driver out there. I don't, we'd have to confirm that with Dale. So you think they fix it? What do you think Kentucky does? I don't know.

Did they talk about that during the weekend? I know Dale Jr. said during the race, I'm not coming back here. And he was joking. He was sarcasm. He'll go back. Let's talk about that audio. Was he like on the nature trail at Dirtymo Acres? He's like Jack Hanna these days.

There's always something going on. Like him and Amy. I picture him and Amy just walking. walking through the woods and he's just right the whole time there's birds chirping i'm telling you man it needs to be a new drinking game on like what kind of animals that we can hear and we can do some predictions like he he could be sitting there talking about his top five and you hear oh oh oh oh you see we're already going off the rails here i'm going to get it back on amanda um joe slingerland he uh was gracious enough to stop by i have been wanting to talk to a pick crew

member for a long time on this podcast because these guys have been clicking them off this year. So Joe Slingerland, come on in. Let's talk to you a little bit. You know, guys, it actually had dawned on me that for as long as we've been doing DirtyMell Radio, we've not actually had a member of Dale Jr.'s pit crew on the podcast. Now, we've had members of the team. We've had Rob Lopes. We've had Latt, obviously, many times, Dale Jr. many times.

But not the actual over-the-wall guys. and those are the guys that are getting it done and I'm telling you especially this year this 88 pit crew has been phenomenal so I am absolutely stoked that we have Joe Slingerland in the studio with us today Joe is the rear tire carrier I'm sorry rear tire changer on the 88 pit crew

and I'm telling you guys they were killing it this past weekend I mean I don't remember a pit stop where junior came in and then lost positions I think he gained positions every pit stop that he made. I was looking through my notes here, especially you look at the first pit stop. It was a two-tire stop coming in 19th, out-tenth. The next two pit stops were four-tire stops,

and you gain positions every time on pit road. So, Joe, welcome to Dirty Bow Radio Studio. Glad to be here. Thank you for being here. And tell us about this race. I mean, you guys were on it. It was incredible. Yeah, it's good to have races like that to be able to go out there.

And instead of just maintain, we knew the car was so-so at the start of the race and to be able to help him get positions because passing cars at the track is hard, it's a little easier when it comes for a pit stop. So it was great to be a part of the race and contribute to his fifth place finish. I mean, you come in on race day, is that right?

Yep. Okay, so you come on on race day. Clearly, you know where we've qualified. Yep. And you know that I guess the car wasn't the best it's ever been throughout the weekend. So there was a lot of changing that happened overnight. going in. So you guys know of this. Is this right?

Yeah. Yeah, we know everything. So, you know, I know you're not making the adjustments on the car, you know, during all that time, but you know what, you know that you're going to have your hands full, and so you guys are going to have to be on top of your game. Yep. There is no room for error, basically. No. And then here it is you guys deliver.

I mean, is this one of the best, I don't know, you guys been delivering all year, but I'm saying this was, I don't remember any mistakes. Was there mistakes? Actually, there was. we had a two-tire stop where the jackman pulled a tire and the tire actually got caught in the fender well. Wow, okay. And then he pulled the tire, finally got the tire out. And when he got the tire out, it fumbled going down pit road.

So he was late getting back to the jack. And when he did, he used me as a post to get back to the jack and shove me in the back. But luckily, we didn't lose any positions. We came in sixth and went out six. This must have been on lap 155. So this is getting later in the race. You take that two-tire stop. You come in.

So without that, you're gaining positions then too. Yeah. You actually maintain that time. Yep. Wow. Interesting. I want to talk to you another, the next stop, which was, wow, I mean, how wacky was this? You guys make a green flag pit stop, four tires.

Yep. And then the caution comes out. Yep. Now, if you're me and a lot of people at home, because I saw this on Twitter, nobody knew if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Typically, you assume the worst and say, oh, gosh, now we're going to be a lap down. Yeah. As it turns out, we come out third.

when it all cycles around that. Now, when this was all happening, did you hear in your headset that the caution's out while you guys are actually in the middle of the pit stop? Yeah, we did. Yeah, we can hear all the communication between T.J. and Stevie,

and he was asking where the pace car was, because if the pace car was right behind us, we would just went down pit road and then got back out on the track and stayed on the lead lap. But where the pace car was still on the backstretch, we had time to get the stop done. That was incredible.

Yeah. Yeah, and how fortunate. Hey, you know what? We don't apologize for getting breaks like that, right? No, never. Every time you need a break at some point during the race, and everybody gets them. No disrespect to all the guys over the years that have pitted Dale Jr's car, but I can't think of a pit crew for the entire year that's been better than this one.

How long have you been pitting Dale's car? This will be the fourth year. Okay, so this is the fourth year. So you've been on pit crews, but I can't think, and maybe you correct me if I'm wrong. Has there been a better crew than this one as far as a consistent basis of terms? turning out good stops? As far as I know, not really. I mean, I don't want to, you know, boast myself.

But I don't, I mean, as far as hearing a lot of his comments throughout the years of, you know, being in the scene and everything, you know, you hear all the stuff, the rumors and what he says about, you know, people. And I want to say, and I believe that this is probably one of the best big cruise he's had. It's got to be. I can't think of another one. I mean, I think about when juniors had those really good years. You know, I'm not remembering a consistent basis of what you.

you see all these stops where he comes in and it goes out ahead of where he came in. And how do you guys measure success? I mean, because obviously you're going to go back to the shop and you guys go and look at tape and everything. I mean, how do you guys measure the success for a good race? Not losing any spots on pit road. So, yeah, maintaining all day is we're happy with that. And that's our goal is to maintain. We don't want to take him out of the position he's put himself in.

Right, right. just maintaining is our goal. What's it been like working for junior? If this is your fourth year and having junior is your driver, how would you characterize that? At first, when I first found out that I would be changing tires for him, was a little skeptical, but it's actually turned out to be great. He's, I mean, he's a really great guy.

I mean, you know, he talks to everybody. You know, he knows who you are and everything like that, where a lot of drivers just, this is my pick crow and he doesn't know who you are. I think it's actually been pretty fun. Where did you come from? I was changing tires for. for Jeff the first year I went to Hendricks so okay I was with that move when junior came over and Littart and all that stuff so okay got you so yeah I mean how long had you been changing tires for

Jeff just that was my first year that was your first year okay anytime there's change I guess that could be met with skepticism is that fair to say anytime for pick crew members I mean yeah you know what you're going to have and especially the performance he was coming off of I mean he really wasn't doing too stellar that's right you know when they were trying to get his you know career back on track and it was just always coming from jeff it was like man we got junior now but actually i mean it's it's been pretty fun i've enjoyed it i mean you think about the overall wholesale change i can't it seems like it worked out for everybody yeah jeff junior oh yeah both crew chiefs yeah all the crews i mean i think it's it's clicking huh yeah oh yeah let me ask you this i want to

get your opinion on something letart said something uh to me it may have even been on this podcast a while back and i think this was coming off the charlotte race where you know you had you're running top five and then there's the engine vibration that Junior's reporting, and so you're making pit stops. And then there was a, you know, I don't think we put gas on a pit stop, but we were really looking at the motor and trying to find a vibration. So then we come back in 30 laps later, make a vibration. And I was talking a little hard about it.

And he says, the one thing that I know that our team as a whole, and that includes Steve, Dell, everybody, is we need to do better under crisis, better decisions under crisis because I think there was a race or two last year. I think when Junior accidentally hit the, not the kill switch, but he was thinking there was a battery. Was it at Kansas? No, it was, yeah, we had a dead battery. A dead battery, right.

We had a spare one in the car, and we came in and replaced it. That's what it was. That's what it was. I was the one that replaced the battery, but yeah, all he had to do was flick to switch to the second battery, and we've been fine. And we lost them last. Yeah, so he says if there's one area we need to get better, if we're going to win a championship,

it's during crisis moments to make better decisions, and that's across the board. What is your opinion to that? I believe that. I mean, even, you know, as far as down to the pick crew and stuff like that, when it's, when something like that catastrophic happens, you know, how to deal with it, especially fixing damage. Some of the guys that go over the wall are just pure athletes. And me and the front tire change are clay are mechanics. And we're pretty much the only two on the car that are mechanics.

So we kind of know what to do. But as far as the whole of the pit crew, it's athletic based. Sure. So as far as what they need to do to fix fenders and stuff like that and not. you know, flip out, you know, just keep your calm, go over there and do the stuff. I think we could work better on that as far as fixing the car with minor damage. But how do you practice crisis situations? You can't.

Yeah, you can't. It's just how you react to it when it happens. And it's just we just, and everybody needs to do a little bit better job of reacting and not be so spastic. But you guys, do you simulate these, you know, wacky changes during a four-tire stopping? We do. You do that, right? Yeah. Especially, like when it comes in Martinsville and stuff like that, short tracks.

where we will get fender damage. Yeah. The tire carrier will stay over there and simulate pulling the fender out, the clearance it from the tire. All right, not including the fact that I have no athleticism in me. But why is it that me or a lot of people like me can't be on a top-tier pit crew on an elite level? What is it that you guys have,

and I'm thinking more so mentally than anything. I mean, listen, I can hit a 10-foot putt occasionally. Yeah. I could never do it on a Sunday at a gun. a national in front of a crowd. Exactly. There's a mental capacity here that you guys have to somehow have been able to maneuver. Maybe you're just born with it.

But what is it? What is you guys? Why can't I be on a pit crew? I mean, I don't know. It took a long time for me to get where I am today. I'm probably the best I've been, and I've been doing this for 13 years. And even when I was younger, I wasn't nearly as good as I am now, being a little older. But it's just, I still get the butterflies in my stomach.

We come in first, and we want to get them back out first. So there's still nerves involved. I mean, I really don't know as far as, like, the average person. It just takes a lot of hard work and dedication and practice repetition, repetition, and some things, like, I can't go and be a receiver. I mean, I have some athletic ability, but I can't be a receiver, quarterback, or anything. So I guess it's just something that either you have or you don't have. Right, right, yeah.

You say you're not one of the athletes on the team, but I'm telling you, I don't see anybody beating in an arm wrestling contest right now. I mean, how often do you work out? three to four days a week. Okay. And so what is the average, I don't even know how to word this. I don't want to say lifespan because I'm not talking about life. But like for an over-the-wall guy in staying at an elite level, top of the game,

how long does an over-the-wall guy go over the wall and still stay at that level? What's the average lifespan? I'd say at an elite level, I mean, I'd say 10 years. 10 years? Yeah. I know Clay Robinson. He's turning 41 this year. And he's the front guy.

He's the front changer. Yeah, he's a front changer. Right. I mean, I say hands down probably one of the best front changers on pit road. What is he doing? I mean, how's a 41-year-old? Listen, there's a lot of people that would agree with me that Dale Jr. has the best pit crew right now out there. And you've got a 41-year-old front tire changer.

How does that happen? It's just, he's been doing it for a long time, and it's nothing but his hand speed and the way he hits lug nuts. It's not how he gets up and runs around the car. It's he very rarely misses. hitting lug nuts and his hand speed is just I mean off the charts. Do you guys compare? Yeah, we do. And he I mean he beats me. I mean pretty much day in day out. I mean as far as consistency of hit number of lug nut hits. Yeah. Because when we get our breakdown sheet, there's how many, you know, what your hand speed was and how many lug nuts you've hit for each

stop. And he, I mean, consistently beats me. Like I can't. Yeah. And I try and I give him a hard time. You know, I'm like, hey, you need to slow down so I can keep up and keep up and keep my job you're making me look bad so you all joke with him about his age oh yeah we do okay good yeah yeah and i made i'm no i'm no spring chicken myself i'll be 36 this year so but i know but i mean listen you i mean 41 you're yeah no he's yeah he's got half a day he's got half a decade on you yeah oh yeah you could always word it that way you don't even say five you say half a decade you're half a decade older than i am yeah then the rest um it's me and him and then the rest of the pit crew is in their 20s wow yeah and so you and clay is clay the other one

that's a mechanic background Yes. Okay, so the other guys are all athletes. So they would have come to Hendrick Motorsports or this pick crew specifically from a sports background, right? Yeah, they came through the developmental program. All right. Okay, let's talk. Let's go through.

Kevin Harris. What did he do? He played football at Wake Forest. All right, that's right. Nick Covey. Nick Covey played football in Nebraska. Wow. That ain't no small school either.

No. Vermeer. Matt Vermeer. Vermeer played at a, he was a receiver at a college in Iowa, and I can't remember the name of it. Okay. Matt Terrell, the gasman. Yep. What did he do?

He played football, too, and I'm not quite sure where he played at. Okay. Hey, gasman, man, that's a big guys. Yeah, and believe it or not, he's probably one of the smaller gasman on Pit Road. Is that right? Yeah, he's about my height, six foot tall, and I'd say he's probably, I think, 220. I mean, he's not small, but he's not your average gas man. Yeah, you've got Goliaths out there.

Yeah, you've got some guys that are six, eight, almost 300 pounds. Wow. And considering it for a gasman. He's on the smaller side for gasman, but he gets a job done. That's interesting. I'm telling you. I'm telling you, you guys have been fascinating. I mean, you got a 41-year-old on the front.

You got one of the smaller gasmen on the back. Yeah. But you guys have been clicking it off. Hey, buddy. Thank you so much, Joe. Yeah, I appreciate it. Stopping by. Yeah.

You come by any time and you can correct all the things that we say wrong, the things that we think we know about, but we don't. We got a professional in. So thank you very much and keep up the good work. You guys are clicking them off, man. Thanks for having me. Hey, before we get into reaction theater, let's remind everybody about Spy's exclusive deal for Dirty Mo Radio listeners.

Go online to Spyoptic.com right now and check out Dale Jr's signature spy 88 collection. It includes, you ready here? Hogue, you ready? All right. The Dirty Mo, McCoy, Quanta, General, and Farah for the ladies. Enter discount code, Dale, yeah. Dale, yeah. Oh, I like that, yeah.

Now I see why Taylor enjoys us chiming in like that. It feels right. that's D-A-L-E-Y-E-A-H at checkout and receive 20% off your purchase. And by the way, I always want to remember this. It makes you happy. Hogue, it makes you happy. I'm always happy. It's not cue that song again.

It makes you happier. It makes you happier. Let's go to Reaction Theater. First off, 88 team, unbelievable. Took a car that was just dog shit and ran it in the top five. Big shout out to Stevie and the boys and Junior for running a solid race. On another note, Hoagie. man, I feel bad for you.

You're welcome to come down to my farm in Iowa and do some deer hunting anytime more in September. Maybe then you won't be so out of place with your orange shirt. I personally think you pulled off pretty well, buddy, but, man, you were kind of the talk of Twitter and even on the broadcast tonight. So, Hogue, I'll be your friend, buddy. Just keep your head up. You got people out there that like you. Dale yeah.

Did they talk about you on the broadcast? I don't know. TV or radio. I didn't hear him on TV. If they're talking about you and your shirt on a broadcast, There's a problem. We got to recheck our priorities. Unless, well, Taylor was on pit road for PRN.

Maybe, yeah, maybe he brought it up. I don't know. That was probably it because Taylor was lurking the whole time. Taylor did send me the picture from pit road. That was him? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I thought it was our buddy Michael Henry doing it.

No, no, it's Taylor. Great job, buddy. It eight this weekend. And I just, I want to compliment Mike Ho. What? He's the only one that's got the balls to wear a bright orange t-shirt. My timeline on Twitter turned into a, the Where's Waldo version of Where's Hogue?

But as long as everything that keeps going right, you keep wearing that shirt. Hogue mania. Hell yeah. Waldo tries to blend in with the crowd. I don't think that's what you were doing. It's going to be every Sunday. You watch. There you go.

Tiger Woods has his Sunday red. His Sunday red. Ogo has his Sunday orange. It's like a delgy. I am circling today on our calendar. That is the day that Matt Kenneth repaid us for junior records. him at Sonoma. We could have won that son of a

if it wasn't for that Matt the Brat, Kenza. We had a chance to go three wide on what did he do? Oh, I'm going to pass junior here. Great idea. Matt, guess where that finished you? Oh, wait, I don't know. You know why?

Because the best guy finished fifth. Way to go, Matt. Thanks a lot, bud. We'll see you next time. Let me tell you. The best guy won that race. That's right. Yeah.

Hey, in all fairness, I've never heard the best guy finished fifth. Yeah, I mean, no, the best guy. The best guy won the race, and there was no disputing that. No. Another planet. And congratulations to him. By the way, what about him cutting his hand wide open?

Oh, he forgot to talk about that. Well, let's do it now. How did he do that? All I read was he was opening the champagne bottle. How do you do that? I don't know how you do it, but if somebody's going to do it, it's got to be brad. That's all I could say about that. Well, if that is all right, it was only four stitches.

I am too, but I'll tell you something. That hurts. I mean, that'll hurt for a week. least yeah listen I've cut my hand not doing that I don't you know something you know manly probably manly like your neck injury I easy easy should we move on the next yeah before the f***in race I said on Twitter if Dale Jr. didn't finish B7 I cut off my godfie and send it to a third world country son that needed an extra finger Well, God, not only do I keep my fingers, we finish B5.

Suck it, motherfuckers. Hell yeah. That was the more and the more angry ones I've heard from Dato. I think this came in right after the race, so I think he may have enjoyed himself in the grandstands. Let me tell you something. I had a little fun with Dado during the race. If you follow us on Twitter, then you might have seen it.

But there's nothing he won't do. And so during the middle of the race, It was kind of getting a little boring. I needed to be entertained a bit. And so I told Daddo, he had tweeted a picture. I said, Daddo, go do a selfie with the guy behind you. This guy behind him was just some random fan that was sitting like one or two rows, you know, down from him. Of course, he did it.

That was easy. So then I said, all right, I'm going to take this up a level. I said, now take a picture you wearing his shirt and him wearing yours. No way. So he needed to swap shirts with a complete stranger. And of course he did it. Are you kidding me? He did it.

You know, how did I miss that? That's pretty cool. He's fun. Priceless. Oh, yeah. I love that guy. But anyways, good call there, Dan. Started 29th.

Really sucked. Finish fifth. Pretty good. Really happy with the way things played out. Steve, he thought a good race. Hey, met Mike Hoag over the week in, got my pitcher with him. He hooked me up with a junior autograph. I used him as a pick and roll through the crowd.

It was pretty sweet. That bright-ass shirt he was wearing. the day was so orange and my freaking retinas are still burning driving down the road. Hey, y'all have a good week. Dale, yeah. Dale, yeah. Do you remember this guy?

Yeah. I eat another thing. You know the Dale Jr.'s beard handle? Yeah. I found him. I said hello. I gave him a dirty mail radio sticker. What's he like?

It's pretty cool. Really? Yeah. Nice guy. Cool. For a car that was shit in practice and qualifying, they kicked ass tonight. Way to go.

Team 88, Dale Jr., Steve LaTart, T.J. and everybody. That was awesome. I would have loved to see more than just a top five, but for the car that he had to start with here, it was awesome. So way to go, guys. Keep it up. Dale, yeah.

Well said. Good call. And it's always in someone saying, I would love to see more in top five. You're doing things right. That's right. You know what I mean? Yeah.

I can't tell you guys how proud I am of the 88 team. Well, I heard that qualified 29th yesterday. I couldn't believe how far off you all were saying that the car was. to bust your ass and work so hard and get up to a top five tonight, unbelievable. If LeBron and his team gave that kind of effort, maybe they would have won a championship. Don't too soon? No way. Dale, yeah.

I've got a question. Are we so good now that even when Dale Jr. and Stevie say we're no good, we just assume that they're going to finish in the top five or top ten? I think so. I completely think so. Are we getting spoiled? Yes. Are we taking them for Brandon? But you know what?

I think a lot of people are also thinking their minds. It's about time. I hear you, man. Reaction Theater is open 24-7. All you have to do is call toll-free 1-855-740-1902 and leave us your voicemail message. You know, there's some people, Hogue, and Amanda, that actually save that number in their phone. And that's smart. That's smart.

You know, it's open 24-7. People call after the race, but the fact is you can call any time. Save it in your phone. Whenever you're feeling froggy, jump. Dial that number. I always get the email chime because I'm on that email, too, when a dirty-mole radio voicemail comes in, and I'm like, you hear that little jingle,

what the heck? It goes off any time. It must go crazy then after a race. Well, I don't have my laptop. Oh, I thought you met on your phone. I was like, that's just crazy. Coming up this week on Dirty Mail Radio, I want to get this out real quick,

because guess who Kelly has on her podcast tomorrow? Chrissy Newman, Ryan Newman's wife. So check out Fastlane family tomorrow Friday. J.R. 360, the podcast. I have no idea what we're going to be talking about that day, but we rarely do this early in the week. So you can check us out. Then on Mondays, we recap the full weekend for the Junior Motorsports nationwide and late model teams and Dale Sprink Cup series run on the Monday recap.

Presented by Spy, given to you by Amanda Troutman. White flag time. White flag. White flag. All right, you heard Dale Jr. today on this podcast. Now hear him talk to someone way more respectful than us. Eli Gold. That's right.

Dale Jr. will be on Motor Racing Network's NASCAR live with Eli Gold tonight at 7.30 p.m. Eastern. Go to m.r.n.com for more info. Well, I know I've got 7 p.m. I just figured to get the start of the show. My bad. You don't need to tune in just to hear Dale Jr. You can actually listen to the entire show if you want to.

They stream it. There you go. There you go. Del Jr. will be on motorracing networks tonight. Live with Eli Gold tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern. Go to m.m.com for more info. Happy. You hear that, Mike?

I'm happy. That's the victory bell ringing from the 4888 shop at Hendrick Motorsports. Actually, you don't hear it because they're two. a ring of the victory bell happens tomorrow, not today. Dale Jr. and the 88 team will be ringing on behalf of their Pocono victory three weeks ago. Chuckles, why are you laughing? Listen, if you're in the Charlotte area, I want to stop by Dale Jr.'s Whiskey River in Uptown, this is a great week to do it.

Whiskey River is doing a week-long promotion where all military members past or present can show their military ID and get 50% off their purchase of food. That's really cool. That is pretty neat. I actually just learned something. That's awesome. We're doing that. By the way, happy early July 4th, everyone.

P.S. Way too much emotion on that one. Now let's talk Daytona. Dale Jr. has two cup practices Thursday, qualifying Friday, and the Firecracker 400 to Saturday night on TNT. No pun intended there. That's pretty cool. Get it? Like Firecracker T&T.

Oh, I like it. That rider is a good one. Man, he must be. This week, on Friday, Dale Jr. will be at the Chevy stage at 4.15 p.m. If you were out at the track, it's a free appearance outside the fan area. And then we're doing another appearance on race day in the Sprint fan zone at 5.05 p.m. Also, pay close attention during that time, as Sprint will be announcing details to the 2014 NASCAR most popular driver.

That's right. That's a call to arms, Junior Nation. It's that time. And we've actually seen a little sneak peek on the format. I like it. Do you? I do. Are you making the announcement on the Sprint stage to go with them? Oh, I don't.

I think Sprint is going to make that announcement. Yeah, Sprintwell. What they're going to be doing. Format's different, but I like it. I think it eliminates the... But I'm telling you, it's on. The gauntlet has been thrown by the Reddit people. Yeah, well, the Reddit people can't sabotage it with this format.

I don't think they sabotaged the last one. I think they just voted. They had to vote. They looked at the rules. They made it happen. They got nothing else to do, so we got to make sure we have nothing else to do. Man, when you put two guys at ADD on this trying to run it, it just goes all kinds of directions.

Jeter will not be the nationwide race on Friday night, but Casey Cain, Regan Smith, and Chase Elliott will be. Junior Motorsports will be going for win number six on the season. That's huge, man. We've already had five wins. I know it. Our bonus checks better be hopping. That is all.

That is it. That is it. We're done here. Did we make it? Can we say that we actually made it through the entire show without Taylor's professionalism? Or Amanda, did we not really make it? We made it, whether or not it's going to turn out pretty. Yeah.

Well, if you listen to this entire podcast, You have no idea how much we appreciate you. More this week than any other week. So thank you guys for listening. Thank you, Hope, for joining me. Amanda, as always, great work. And you've been listening to the Dale Jr. Download presented by Spy.

See you. Thanks for listening to Dirty Mo Radio. Well, Mike, we survived another podcast today, and I hope all you listeners out there did as well. So now, guess what? You can go online to Spyoptic.com and pick out your own signature 88 collection, Dale Jr. sunglasses,

and receive 20% off. off your purchase. You want to know how? How? Go online and type in discount code, Dale Yeah. Dale yeah. D-A-E-E-A-H at checkout and you'll get your 20% off. You're a good speller.