The Dale Jr. Download - 61 - Daytona: Accidents Happen

Episode Date: July 8, 2014

The multi-car wreck wasn’t Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s only accident on Sunday. Junior rehashes Daytona; radio legend Barney Hall tells stories & ponders the future. 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. Good on the right rear? All right, there we go. Yeah, but good. Go ahead. Go ahead. All right, man.

It doesn't look as pretty as where we started, but it's still together. Don't look awful. That's the crew chief in Jesus right there. With Mike Davis, Mike Hogue, and Amanda Troutman. I am Taylor Zarzer. It is the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy. Spy, the exclusive sponsor of the Dale Jr. download is offering 20% off your purchase of any Dale Jr. 88 collection sunglasses.

Just go to Spy. Optic.com, find your favorite pair of 88 collection sunglasses and enter code, Dale yeah. Dale, yeah. Are you waiting on me still? Yeah. Of course I am. Dale, yeah. Do we need to start doing rehearsals for this?

No, it makes even funnier when she sits there waiting, but you do need to put that code in at checkout. The discount is also valid trackside at the Junior Nation souvenir hauler and right here in the Junior Motorsports retail shop. Do you think that Steve Lattart's goal, besides winning a championship, which is certainly a very big goal, do you think, guys, that his goal before the end of the season is to actually build a car on pit road? Like from scratch? Yeah, he's had some opportunities to come close to it, right? That car wasn't too banged up. At least it didn't look at after that first wreck.

But it turns out they had that broken splitter, and he had to get to work on it. I don't know what they make, four or five pit stops and basically rebuilds. the nose of that car. Around it, yeah. Yeah. The fact that Lattard and the boys work so hard to get him back out there, getting back on the lead lap. Really, from a point standpoint, it was a good day,

but more than anything, it just speaks to how committed these guys are to winning a championship. I mean, they will make the best out of every day. I mean, it's just, it really is. And I saw it up close and personal in Kentucky the week before that, with a car that couldn't do anything on Friday, that qualified 29th that finished fifth.

every week these guys will get the very best finish out of that race car including wins I got to be honest it has really been fun to watch you can make the argument that at least up to now we are getting some breaks to fall our way for instance even this

past Sunday the reason junior wasn't in that big wreck was because he just got the lucky dog to get back on the lead lap and as lucky dogs do you have to start in the tail end and that essentially that wreck happened on that restart that same lap and he was able to basically come to a complete stop.

That is a break. He went from 31st to 10th in one corner. That's a break that you got to get. And we have no problems. We've said it over and over again. We have no problems accepting breaks like that. I don't feel guilty about it one bit. We got lucky there.

And especially the way restrictor plate races can go for you. You either hate them or love them, and you hate them because you get wrapped up and stuff like that. Well, a tire hit the grill sitting on the pole in Kentucky last year. I mean, they go both ways. So there's no question about that. But I think that the 88 team probably saved about 20 points on Sunday. For sure.

Just with how committed they were to building a car, all the things they were doing there on pit road. We're going to hear what Dale Jr. has to say about the cup race on Sunday, carrying over from Saturday. Later on, you'll hear what Dale Jr. has to say about what he did in the car, or had to do in the car. and we'll also have a legendary interview coming up in a few minutes, and Dale Jr. has some comments about that.

But first, here's Dale Jr. about finishing 14th, about starting the race 7th, about the big wreck, 16 cars involved in that wreck, all the three red flags, the rain, all of that. Here's Dale Jr. on the cup race on Sunday. The race was going pretty good. We're just kind of sitting there, and funny thing, I was behind Jimmy, and we weren't going anywhere. where everybody was sort of three wide and three wide for what seemed like rows and rows and rows.

And I thought to myself, we're about to wreck. You're going to crash. This is ridiculous. We're three wide. We have 130 laps to go or whatever in this race, and we're running three wide for what. And I started to consider getting out of that pack. And then I thought about Talladega and how upset everybody was that I got out of that pack. So I kept my foot in it and we wrecked.

But that wreck wasn't that bad. We were spinning around. I felt like, I was like, all right, cool, you know, didn't get hit by anybody real hard. Shouldn't be no big deal. But apparently we got tagged in the front bumper by the 21 car, I think, or somebody, the 20 car. I can't remember when we were spinning around backwards. And it knocked a splitter up real high. So the car pushed like hell through the corner.

I needed a couple grooves to make the exit on all the corners because the car. was tight but so we couldn't fix that we tried and couldn't really get to splitter back where we wanted it the splitter bars and all that stuff was broke so it's going to have to battle that the rest of the race and I think that that would have been a real deficit to overcome to try to win so as much as I mean I'd love to be able to restart that race and maybe finish higher because I think we could have but we didn't have a car I don't think capable of leading or even getting up in there and being able to challenge for the lead it just would have it could have happened you never know We would have tried for sure, but a couple of them guys up front, you know, they had pristine cars that were faster than ours. So it would have been tough. But I know the fans wanted to see it restart. I was blown away by the reaction on Twitter.

I don't know blowing away is probably a strong word, but I was surprised by the reaction on Twitter, man. But I'm learning something new about Twitter every day. So there you go. A lot of people were angry that NASCAR didn't wait longer. Yeah, I mean, to keep from the backlash, if I was in control of the sport, yeah, I would have sat around there until 8 o'clock or so and then called it. But I do know one thing, and that's that NASCAR doesn't make these decisions on a whim. They have some connections in high places that can give them a pretty good idea whether we're going to be able to race or not. As unpredictable as the weather is down in Daytona, I feel confident that NASCAR made the right decision.

and I tend to stand behind them in most cases. So that, you know, that's the tough situation to be in. But, yeah, if it was me, just to keep from getting my butt chewed, I just sit around there too late and made everybody happy, made everybody wait. But they called it. I was happy for Eric. Eric Amarral has worked for us before, drove for us at Jeremiah Sports. I felt like we were a small part in getting him to where he is today.

So I take a little bit of pride in his victory, and I hope that he knows the whole company at Jeremy Sports is real happy for him. It's fascinating. He said, you know, he mentioned the Talladega deal where he didn't want to drift back and not race up there with the pack. So he kept it on the floor, as he said. And, you know, I don't want to get back into the Talladega stuff and all of that. But that was very early on in the race.

So nobody could have faulted Junior if he did drop back. I don't think he would have gotten any backlash. But what I do want to remark on, Mike, is how, how much I agreed with what he said about the senseless racing that was going on that early in the race. For the life of me, I don't understand why they were three wide that early in the race. And, you know, it's hard when you're, you know, watching a television in Charlotte to figure out whose fault it is. And everybody was talking about Stenhouse and Kinseth and whoever else. But I just, for the life of me, don't understand the three-wide racing that early on.

Well, but isn't it a catch-22 a little bit? If Junior sits there and admits that, you know, the backlash or the criticism that he got months ago at Talladega factored into his decision-making during the race, could that not be the case for other guys that hear, oh, this is boring racing, it's just single file until the last 20 laps? Right. Maybe they all hear what the fans say, and they're all, I mean, and I'm not, I don't know that that's what happened here. In fact, Junior wasn't the only driver that brought up the fact that they were racing way too hard, way too early. But they were three wide.

You know, it's a catch-22. It's damned if you do, damned if you don't. Are you going to race hard for an entire race and give the fans what they say they want? Or are you going to play smart and then have to hear about that afterwards? Yeah, I would rather play smart, but you're right, it is. It is a catch-22. The reason why I thought it was senseless, though, Mike, Tony Stewart said it best. They were a half a lap away from the caution.

I mean, it was a competition caution coming in a half a lap. That's right. So, listen, I get that you want to see action throughout the race. I don't need to see three wide racing when you're on the backstretch, half a lap away from the caution coming out. That really makes no sense to me. I don't care about entertainment or whatever. That to me makes no sense. That's a great point.

I forgot all about that. But the funny thing, now that I think about it, any time that there's a NASCAR, competition caution when they say it. Very seldomly do I remember actually getting to the competition caution. Usually something happens, and it may be just debris or something, I don't know. I think that there's more times they never even make it to lap 30

before the first caution weighs, and then you always hear, okay, well, this will be the competition causing. But yeah, they didn't make it again this time. No, they didn't because they were racing three wide. I just, I don't get it. Well, Dale Jr. was involved in it, and fortunately came out the other side, and it's on to New Hampshire. But before we go to New Hampshire, there's one more thing that happened in the car.

Now, Mike Davis in the last year and a half has sort of hinted at this happening from time to time. Here's Dale Jr. on what had to happen. He had to go. Here he is. Well, obviously, everybody knows we got rained out and had to run the next morning. Everybody was worried about weather on Sunday and heat and all that. So I was hydrating like crazy. And if you, I get asked all the time about what do we do if we have to go to the bathroom in the car?

Well, you just go. And it doesn't happen that often, maybe once a year, but it happened to me Sunday. So there you go. There's some truth, some honesty. But I warned my crew, I said, hey, this might be one of them days because I've been pounding water and hydrating all night. I don't know if I overdid it. But apparently I'm pretty healthy. So it's a plus side

Hogue just walked into the studio here We got to get Hogue's take on this That's perfect timing Yeah Hogue you're the expert in peeing in your fire suit Go ahead What have your study shown about the science behind that You better go find some orange Gatorade

So he can dump it all over his suit And that's what he did Yeah You know what if people I didn't think about that he is a white fire suit Yeah but people were tweeting me They're like whoa whoa Why did he just dump a Gatorade on his fire suit

We've never seen that And I'm like, well, I got one idea why that might have happened. Oh, yeah, he's sitting in the car. He's like, tells Adam, I need a Gatorade. Hey, listen, as our friend Jim Utter will say from time to time, you'll have that in the big sport of auto racing. That is awesome. Well, we have heard, I think it was Daytona maybe.

It might have been after the first podcast we did, Mike Davis, where he said something in the car to somebody, hey, man, sorry about that. And you started dying laughing. Yeah. Because you knew exactly what that meant. But that is something funny stuff. So Hogue, usually you give him some chocolate milk when he gets out of the car.

But an orange Gatorade this time. I made this smart point to ask him, I still don't understand how you go to the bathroom when you're going that fast. Oh, I get stage fright standing. You go to door. Yeah, you get stage fright. And then yet he's in front of 150,000 people. Door to door, 200 miles an hour.

Just letting it rid. That's a great question. Do you wait under caution? How do you do? I think you told me, guys, you wait for caution. Oh, good. Going 70 miles an hour. Dale Jr.

For the lead. Sorry about that, boys. We have an interview to do. Do we not, Amanda Troutman? We sure do. All right. Well, you know, it doesn't matter what stick and ball sport we're talking about. If I said who's the best voice of a particular sport,

you're going to get a great debate between several great broadcasters. If I said who's the greatest radio voice in the history of motorsports, there is no debate. Everybody comes up with the same answer, and he called his final race in Daytona on Sunday, and he is Barney Hall, and he joins us now here on the Dale Jr. Download. Barney, it's Taylor and Mike and Amanda. Congratulations, first and foremost to you, and we're honored that you joined us here this morning. Well, thank you a bunch. It has been a long time, 54 years, but,

But then it's amazing how quickly those 54 years went by. Having to wait through red flags, et cetera, did you feel any different there on Saturday and Sunday? I couldn't describe the feeling. It was just something that was missing. It's not a good feeling. It really isn't. But I've had some good years.

54, you should have some good ones to choose from out of 54. Absolutely. Absolutely, Mike. But, Barney, what are you going to be doing now? Well, I haven't really given it that much thought. Play-by-play. I can tell you interviewing drivers and getting perspective and sharing your own perspective, that is going to be some value in that that I even look forward to.

But I wonder something, Barney. You know, as I was watching and listening to some of your interviews that you did over the weekend, a lot of people brought up friendships and a lot of the drivers that you developed friendships over the years. I wonder, though, because I think people underestimate the difficulty of your job, even on the personal level. you developed your friends, and at the same time, you're calling and broadcasting in real time, your friends driving cars at high speeds. I mean, it's a dangerous profession.

And a lot of times, your friends walk out of that track banged up. Did that ever become difficult for you, you know, when you're calling this stuff real time and being the professional that you are, but knowing that, you know, David Pearson or somebody, you know, if you have a big wreck or something like that, did it ever become a difficult situation for you? Yeah, it gets really hard. The first five minutes after a big wreck like that happens, I think all of us racing right now, we realize there's been a big pile-up up in turn three and four or that in one and two. The first thing it goes through your mind is, God, I hope they're all all right.

And you just have to kind of suck it up, I guess, and eventually it does turn out the safety features at NASCAR mandates in these cars now. It's absolutely a miracle. and it does affect you when you're sitting up there trying to broadcast it, especially if it's with somebody that you had a real close relationship with. Well, I heard over the weekend that Dale Earnhardt, sometimes when he would win a race, would tell you to leave the gate open on your property, so he could come catch some catfish, I believe, the following day. I know that happened quite frequently.

Yeah, it did. Situations like that, and with Dale, there are just so many things. Was he a dirty drive? Barney? No, he would and try to test everybody. Well, Barney, before we play a message from Dale Jr., because you had a huge

impact on his career, how far back do you go with the Earnhardt family? I guess from the time, Dale, if we've got time, I'd like to please. We've got all the time. It was a big fisherman, and he loved frog out, look out, look out, and I said, what's on that limb

hanging out over the boat? Off in the boat, get away from the snow up to my knees. Yeah. I haven't forgot that. Yeah, to get away from one snake, now you're in a lake full of thousands of them. Yeah.

My goodness. Yeah. Let's talk real quick about Dale Jr. In a sentence or two, I mean, how would you describe Dale Jr. As far as how you know him, how you've known him over the years, and maybe even compare him to the way you knew his dad? Well, I think Dale Jr. came along at the right time. That's right.

Is this his best year so far that you can remember? Yeah, I would say it. Great stuff there. Let's hear what Dale Jr. had to say about you, Barney Hall. He left a message for us here to play here on the download, and here it is. We got Barney Hall calling in today, and he is retiring from the broadcast booth. He's been calling races as long as I've been alive, and it seemed like anyways. But he's the voice.

There's been nobody better, and there never will be another Barney Hall. I grew up listening to him call races. He called races so good on the radio you didn't even need the TV. sometimes you just turn on the TV and turn the volume down and then listen to Barney Hall tell you what was going on because the guy just simply had the gift and I'm glad that he was ours the sports better off and we're gonna miss him so thanks Barney there you go thank you man there's still junior yeah junior he he has so much respect for for Barney and really the entire you know team of at Motor Racing Network

and even the Performance Racing Network. Those guys have a huge commitment every week that people take for granted. Barney, what are your thoughts to hear Dale Jr. say that? Well, it kind of makes you feel pretty good because sometimes you wonder about these guys. They're in the limelight all day long, and we talk about what they're doing, how good their pits are and things like that. And it's just like I said a moment ago, until all this sinks in that I won't do any more play-by-play,

but I'll still be around with MRN to do some driver interviews and some special features and stuff, and I hope they'll tune us in on that. And the listeners, the drivers, the crews, the guys couldn't have been better to me over the years. I don't think I've ever had that much of a run-in with anybody. And about any time I needed an interview with them or whatever, unless they were just covered up and couldn't do it. But nine times out of ten, whatever you ask them to do, they did, including Dale Jr. be pretty easy to talk to.

I have to ask you, you know, Barney, there's so many wonderful things that we have learned from you in this interview and through the years. And countless people recall how much respect they have for you, including our own Amanda Troutman, who thinks the world of you. But if there's one thing I've learned from you through this interview and through listening to you for years and years and years, it's how much you love the sport. And that's the toughest thing for you to walk away from because you still have such passion for. it. Barney, when did that passion, when was that created? When you were, when you were young, did you know, you know what? I want to be involved in motorsports for the duration of my career. No, you like what you were doing. I got to know, who is the next best driver, like the young guy that you have your eyes on,

that when you saw for the first time, you're like, that guy's going somewhere. And also, who's the next best radio voice, you know, to sort of carry on the torch? The best driver and the best radio voice that will take us into the future. Boy, that's a tough question, especially going into the future and who's coming along right now that might be able to step in there and plug up a few holes. Actually, almost half or two-thirds of the young drivers coming. What about radio? A sheet of paper as long as I have, but just so many of the young guys that can.

Do you have any advice for them? Like, if they're going to make it in this sport, what do they have to do? Well, there's probably three. If you do those three, they're just about everything. Yeah, well, I think Dale Jr. is right. I don't think there's ever going to be anybody like you again, my friend. And I'm sure it was emotional there in Daytona and at the driver's meeting to get that standing ovation and all the people that came up and shook your hand.

And you certainly deserve it. And we're really thrilled that we're going to get to keep here and you do these interviews moving forward. We hope you have a lot of fun with that. Pretty sure we'll have a heck of a good time with that. We want to continue to hear the fibs. Absolutely. Regardless of what happens next. But, Barney, also, I want to get in line here.

and also tell you thank you. You know, from back in my days when I was in middle school and high school, my first experiences of NASCAR were not on TV or a racetrack. It was, you know, like Wolf Tever Creek and Harrison Bay and Chattanooga, Tennessee, you know, on a little John boat fishing, and I had a radio. Me and my buddy, we'd always have the radio in that boat. And we weren't catching fish, but we were listening to Barney Hall and Motor Racing Network, bring us the race.

And that was my first experiences of NASCAR. So, Barney, thank you. Thank you for that, for those memories and then many more that came after that. I just, I really appreciate it. Well, I appreciate you guys. There's not enough words. That's right. Thank you so much for doing this today, Barney.

And we look forward to hearing your voice again soon on the Motor Racing Network. And congratulations on all you've accomplished. It's a real thrill to talk to you. Well, I appreciate it. Throw me out of it. No. I think this will help. I think Dale Jr.

As soon as he hears that, he will be calling you immediately. And also, if he ever has a snake problem, we hear that you're the guy to call over. You took tips from the old man. I was that. That was that. Well, thank you so much, Barney. And, yeah, Jr. will definitely be calling you. I know Dale Jr., he'll take any advice he can get.

All right, we'll see. No hurt and taking it from the best. All right. Thanks for everything, God. Thank you. Well, Amanda, we have to bring you in on this conversation and get your perspective on the great Barney Hall. I know that you mean the world to him. I'm certain he means the world to you.

You worked with him for many years, and I'm sure this weekend was emotional for you, just like it was for many others. Yeah, I actually, I felt, I teared up. I hate saying that because I feel like a pansy. But I felt bad for him because just over the, the years that I've worked with him, he is not one to like the spotlight whatsoever. Like he can't stand it. So, you know, I saw them, they did that whole deal in the driver's meeting, which they should have done, which is fantastic.

T&T brought him on their broadcast. And I mean, just the, like my Twitter timeline blew up from all kinds of people about it. And all I could think was, oh, my God, Barney is probably so uncomfortable right now. But I'm so happy to see how many people loved him because I think I've been so lucky to know. him on a level that nobody, you know, probably will ever get to. He's, he's a family member to me. So I was happy to see that other people were getting a glimpse of how humble and how great this man is, not just in his career, because I don't think there's ever going to be anybody that could top this man's career, but he's just, I love that people finally got to see the humble, fun side

of Barney Hall. You know, when he was talking about how it is actually, I mean, he was being completely honest and candid that this is not a good feeling for him. What did he mean by that? Do you think? I think he just, he has, he doesn't know another life. You know, if you think about it, his good friends were people like David Pearson who retired years ago. And Barney's kept going, you know, and he's, he's seen so many things come through the sport. But I don't think he knows what to do with himself now.

He's always had free time, but he's always been at the racetrack at the same time, too. Yeah. So I think he's kind of in this limbo period of, you know, what am I going to do now that I'm not, He's still going to go to the racetracks. I did find that out. Oh, really? Yeah, he'll still travel some. You know, he's not going to do the play-by-play anymore.

That's what he's retiring from. But, you know, I think there's just going to be a huge void for him to fill, and he's just kind of in that space of I don't know what to do. Yeah. Does Joe Moore step into his spot now? Is that what happens? Yes. They kind of built that three-man booth over at MRN just, you know, kind of, I think,

in a way for somebody else to kind of learn from Barney as well. So we did that the past couple years when I was there, just kind of in preparation for Barney to eventually make his way out, which we, you know, unfortunately we all knew it was going to come at some point. Everybody's going to retire. Sure. But, you know, Joe's going to kind of step in and be that lead anchor. And then Jeff Striggle was the third booth man that they brought in over there. Well, there's no question that it is amazing. The impact that he has had on everybody associated with motorsports.

And, you know, I think the world of Doug Rice, who, of course, is the lead anchor for the Performance Racing Network. I think it's pretty cool that he sent out a tweet on Saturday night that said, thanks to the great Barney Hall. You've been an inspiration to every motorsports broadcaster. You have no equal. So it doesn't matter what company you work for. Everybody feels the same way about Barney Hall. And it's cool to hear what Junior had to say as well about the great Barney Hall.

Amanda, thank you very much for making that happen. Absolutely. Yeah, it was tremendous stuff. All right, before we get into reaction theater, let's remind everybody about Spies' exclusive deal for Dirty Mode Radio listeners. Go online to spyoptic.com and check out Dale Jr.'s signature spy 88 collection. It includes the Dirty Mo, McCoy, Quanta, General, and Farah for the ladies. In her discount code, Dale yeah.

Dale yeah. Okay. That's D-A-L-E-A-H at checkout and receive 20% off your purchase. use the discount code not only just on Spies website but the Junior Nation souvenir hauler at the track and also right here in the Junior Motorsports retail shop go online and check out this awesome limited time offer let's go to reaction theater quite in the wild world of sports was Ricky Stenhouse doing

going for the lead like that with left to 500 feet and the flag Trevor Bain what were you doing if you to stay straight junior wouldn't have a problem hopefully the guys in Steve Lepard done a heck good job getting junior back out there with only a lap down. Hopefully this thing will work out, and Junior will win this race. Dale yeah. Oh, he's calling during the race, Amanda. Oh, yeah, that's why I put him first.

Nice, nice. What he said, that's how I felt, whatever it's worth. Yeah. You know, real quick, I will say this, a lot of people are wondering, all right, so after all those pit stops, did they get the car back to speed? And I will say that it was really hard to tell because for the next 77 laps, laps, Junior was either a lap down or not even in the lead pack trying to get his lap back. And so there wasn't like a good template to go off of of seeing it whether he was going to be

competitive or not, whether they got that splitter fixed. As it turns out, when he got his lap back and was like, all right, now we're on equal footing. Now we're going to race and see if he can come through the pack. That's when they wanted him up. You know, and so who knows? We'll never know. But on the New Hampshire. All right, who's next?

We've got two comments. I'll make them click. First of all, good job to that ADA team today after that wreck. Managing a 14th place finish. I'm so proud of y'all. Hearing you guys on that radio, Steve Watt calling the shop, had my Race View audio on in the M-car, listen to y'all, making all them pit stops,

doing all that hard work and getting that car back to where it was. And that's amazing, dude. Nice job. Second comment is people ditching that they called the race. It is now 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, and it is raining like hell. has been raining all day. So what else do you want them to do?

Do you think they want to lose money and piss people off just because they want to do it? They have no choice but to cancel the rest of the race. Get over it. And let's go out and get them next week, Jr. Get her done. Go get it. Dale yeah.

Hell yeah. Hey guys, I have no problem with what NASCAR did on Sunday. Let me just ask this question. 90% probably more than that are at the track hours and hours before the scheduled start time each and every week. if weather is in the forecast for a PGA golf tournament, they move up all the T-times by four or five hours.

This happens probably five or six times a year. It was pretty dry Saturday, Hogue, was it not? It looked pretty nice to me Saturday afternoon. Absolutely. Why are you dragging me in this coverage? No, I'm just because you were there. I know, I agree. So here's what I'd like to know.

All day long it was nice on Saturday. So why can they not consider, hey, you know what? The forecast looks terrible. for the next couple of days. Let's drop the green flag. We're going to do it four hours in advance. I don't understand why that's not an option because it is in golf. And listen, the crowd's got to get there early in golf when they do that.

And there's TV in golf. Yeah. So what they do is they just, and listen, I know this isn't the most ideal thing in the world, but what they do for those golf tournaments is they run it on tape delayed. Hey, in Charlotte where we live, that's happened at the Wells Fargo championship. What about when the fans show up, you know, hey, I'm going to get to the race at four, what the race started at noon and they bought tickets and they show up and the race is coming to

an end. They're kind of surprised. Again, Mike, here's my response to that. I've never heard, with all the stuff I do in the golf business, I've never heard one person ever say, hey man, I missed the tournament. What happened? I've never heard one person say that. They all realize, you know what? The tournament's

starting earlier, I got to get there. And almost everybody that goes to a NASCAR race is already there for it. I just don't get why that's not an option, Mike Davis. I don't know. I just think you're never going to please everyone. That's just all there's to it. No, that's an interesting point.

I didn't know they did that in the PGA. And, you know, you hear people talk about that at the track a lot, and you hear the answer is, well, TV. TV's why you can't do that. And I don't know. Maybe that is part of the reason. I don't know. I'm not NASCAR.

But I do want to talk about this for a second. Taylor, did you have a problem with them calling the race when they did? None. No problem. Neither did I. I'm not saying that I don't, you know, discount everyone's opinion. and plenty of people do and they were upset that they called that race. But here's the thing I didn't understand.

All the people that complained as soon as the race was called, which was what, 3 o'clock, if I'm going to be on that side of the fence, I'm going to at least wait until 8 or 9 o'clock to make my argument to see if it actually was going to quit raining. And it didn't. Yeah, exactly. It maybe did for 5, 10 minutes, 30 minutes at most. But the fact is that if you're going to sit there and cuss out NASCAR and call them every name in the book and say you don't in it for the fans and all this stuff, at least wait to see if the sun comes out before you make that argument. Because in hindsight, it never did. You know, and you would have been there until now there's some people who say, fine, that's why they made lights.

Well, again, I think that there's a lot more into it. It's way more complicated than that. When you factor in the logistics, you factor in all these kinds, the work hours from the, the track workers and stuff. They're things that have to come into play, and whether we like it or not, it's reality. Yeah, I completely agree 100%. I have no problem with what NASCAR did on Sunday.

I thought that they did it perfectly. So good discussion on that. Definitely something to think about moving forward. All right, what do we have next on Reaction Theater? Dale Jr. has the best PR people in the whole world. The JR Motorsports Marketing crew is so awesome with the fans. It was so nice to meet you, Hogi Buns, and talk with you again at Driver Intros for the nationwide race. I can't get over the fact that we made you blush because you didn't want me to take the picture and rat you out to Mike Davis while you sign the hat.

But Hogi Buns, we love you. Thanks for treating my girls so awesome. Dale, yeah. That's a good fan. I can't even look at you. I can't even look at you. What? Yeah, he's like, look.

They were trying to take pictures. Will you take a picture with us? And then our hat, I said, no, because Mike Davis will get me. And now she calls in and we play. And Amanda, it's third call. Like, yeah, that's going to make the cut. I thought it was great that, you know, the junior motorsports PR team, marketing team is so fantastic.

Like, that's a good thing. That's why I played it. We take time out for the fans and they even gave me a little birthday cards. You know them, J.R.M. Fan 88. I know. I love those. I love her. Yeah.

Mike, Davis, you're going to have to come to a race when Hogue is also there. Because it's either you or it's him. You know, I mean, like, you got to see this up. close and personal. Hogue. I saw it with Moe and I in Kentucky. This guy is an

absolute rock star out there. It's hilarious. He really is. And I love that they don't even call him Hogue anymore. It's Hogi Bonds. Hogi Bonds. Let's not start that one.

All right, who's next? Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad called by NASCAR. Three o'clock in the afternoon and they call the friggin race. I am so disappointed, so disappointed. The 88 team, they did everything, they came back, were in the top 10, we came in for the pits.

We never would have pitted if there was any chance they were going to call the race. I am so disappointed with NASCAR. What an unspectacular ending. Well, to be clear, the reason they pitted was because there really wasn't a whole lot to lose. In fact, Steve said, if they come in, stay out. If they stay out, come in. We were running like 11th or 12th at the time. We came out, we lost two spots.

It wasn't going to make or break. You know, it wasn't going to, like, kill you on points or anything like that. So, you know, it was worth to gamble at that point in case it got started again. She's entitled to her opinion for sure. Absolutely. And it's coming from a good place. I mean, she wants to see Dale Jr. run more laps so he can try to win the race. And that's great.

But I just, I don't have it. It was raining. I mean, it kept raining. Yeah. I really don't have any problem with it. All right, who's next? That's total BS. Had it been the 88 car.

They wouldn't be called early, only because he was. NASCAR's always dogging Junior, ruining his chances. Keeping man down. There's some people out there. They're probably not listening to this podcast, but there's some people out there that would probably disagree with him about if the 88 was out front, they would still be racing.

I just want to give a Dale Yad to Mr. Barney Hall. He's a true legend, and I truly believe that announcing a race on radio is one of the hardest things to do in sports. and he never missed a beat. He will be missed. Thank you, Mr. Bernie Hol. How hard is it, Taylor? Oh, I was going to say.

You're in that business. What is the difficulties, and how is it unique? Mike, I think at least to me, it's the hardest. It is really, really hard to do the play-by-play of an Ascar race and try to consume all that's going on. TV tells the story for you to a degree. Yeah. Radio, you've got to tell the story.

You've got to provide all that action and all that drama. and you have about a hundred different stories happening at the same time on the track. It is remarkably difficult, in my opinion, and I have so much respect for Barney Hall and the amazing job. And he always felt so comfortable on the air. I mean, forever listening to him, he never felt like the situation was too big for him. He always was this just guy that was in total control of the broadcast, and I'll remember that forever. I can, as an Alabama boy, I can think of him talking about Davey Allison right now, and I'm 12 years old again.

I just, I'm going to miss him for sure. Did he ever get worked up, Amanda? Like, what would work? Because Taylor's right, he has a sense of peace about him and a calm on the radio that is, it's very, it's addicting. It's, you know, it makes you want to gravitate towards his voice. But what would get him mad? You know what?

I don't think I ever saw him mad. I've seen him panic before. Oh, really? one time it was one year and I can't remember it was like 2009 or 2010 or 2010 it was homestead and it was back when racing logistics was still around and we were supposed to take the bus over to the airplane they always had one of those big buses that took all the crew members and they somehow I missed their call and it was barney and i only on that flight well the bus left us and i have never seen panic like that and barney hall's eyes and all i'm thinking is oh crap

I've stranded Barney and myself. I've stranded Barney Hall in Homestead, Florida. So we run up to that Victory Lane stage that Speed does, or what was Speed. And Jimmy Spencer was on the show. And during a commercial break, here goes Barney. He scurries up on that stage, and he's like, well, Jimmy, we're stuck here at the track. He didn't get me to ride. Yeah.

So luckily Jimmy, because he was on that flight as well, let us get on the helicopter with him. we flew out. But that was probably the one of the few times where I've seen like sheer terror in Barney Hall's eyes. You don't want to get stuck in homestead. And to Amanda's point, I mean, and Mike, all of y'all can speak to this. There's a lot of chaos and panic going on with travel with NASCAR races every single week and rides, et cetera.

Ask Hogue about that. Yeah, Hogue left Newman a few weeks ago. No. Ask Hogue about his experience is post-race when you're trying to get out of the track. He hates, that's the part of that job you hate the most, isn't it? That right before the race at the car. Those two are the most stressful times of the weekend. Yeah, you don't want anything to go wrong for sure.

All right, what do we have next? Hey, I'm on my way into town to get my wife some ice cream, pretty much the highlight of the day because that race sucked. About the only bright spot was how good of a job Steve Lattard did on pit road, getting us back in it. And we probably would have been around had the race gone to distance, but as we all know, the weather is terrible down there. So good job, Steve and the crew.

Good job, Dale, fighting back for the lead lap. And glad Calbush is okay, but pretty fun to see him on his roof and JJ Rex. Dale, yeah. Well, I didn't enjoy seeing him on his roof. And I know it was kind of a slow roll. It wasn't like one of those high-impact deals, but I don't know. I just like it when those wheels are on the ground.

Yeah, absolutely. For sure. It was pretty crazy. and just a wild, awkward weekend. All right, one more. Dale Jr., Steve Lutart. You guys have a hell of a job getting that car back up there. Probably didn't have a shot to win,

but a top 15 will take it after, you know, the first wreck and missing that huge one the second time. Fact number two is beyond my comprehension how NASCAR can call a race at 3 p.m. in the afternoon when the Daytona 500 went into the wee hours of the Sunday morning. As a fan of NASCAR, I am disappointed. As a ticket purchaser of NASFAR, I am thoroughly disappointed. And most importantly, how can you tell your drivers to give 100% effort all the time

when you're not willing to show your fans, the people who supply your sport with the money, the people who make the sport go, that you're not willing to give 100%. If I call a race at 3 p.m. Maybe it doesn't go back green. Who knows? I hope something changes from that. I just don't understand what is the alternative. They'd still be there.

Like I don't get it But listen everybody's fired up about it But Mike I thought you hit the nail on the head I mean they wouldn't have raced again on Sunday But wait a second He brings up a point and I don't know the answer to it When did they restart the Daytona 500 It's like 10 o'clock or so wasn't it

It was pretty late in the evening Was it? Because I think it ended close to midnight or 1 o'clock What are we talking about this past year? This year? Yeah My only theory to that is that I think it was Robin Pemberton

and the media center said that they had them there Saturday working, what, 12 to 18 hours, that being the workers at the track. And then you got another day where you could potentially put that same amount of hours on them. And I think that factor then. Yeah. Yeah, I think you're right. I think that's part of it. But I think the other, the forecast when Dale Jr. won the Daytona 500 was better.

Yeah. There was no more rain coming. True. There was more rain coming. And they weren't halfway yet. That's right. That's exactly right. They were not halfway.

We could still be there. Just like Michigan. A couple years ago. It kept raining. Like that's the thing that people, we just got to mention here. It kept raining. Yeah. You know, so listen, I don't think NASCAR was happy about it, but there's nothing they could do.

The one thing I was NASCAR and I was thinking this is, again, I personally didn't have a problem with them calling the race. I think that they could have done a little bit better job than waiting until Pemberton addressed the situation like. I don't know, hour, two hours later, to sort of got in front of it a little bit, just from a PR standpoint, and, you know, maybe said something on the telecast. You know, they used to have Mike Hilton get on the telecast, you know, up in the booth and kind of explained something, a decision that NASCAR did. That wouldn't have hurt, you know, at least just to hear the voice instead of waiting until, you know, you kind of hear about it on Twitter or something after Pemberton's press conference, which came well after Eric Amarola's winner's press conference. So, I mean, this is, you know, a couple hours after the race.

By that time, these guys have already called Reaction Theater. People have already formulated their opinions. I mean, it's like that's one thing I probably would have done different. Yeah, I mean, listen, just a thought is about racing it early. Larry Macka tweeted it out on Saturday, so we should be racing right now. Golf has five different networks they have to cater to from television. And they still figure it out. They, when there's rain coming in the forecast, they tee off earlier.

They show it later on, but they're, you know. There's still all sorts of live coverage you can get online. And I'm sure NASCAR, with all their different television networks, could show it live and then show it again on the network they're supposed to show it on later. To me, that's something that should be thought about. All right, 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.

And we'll play the best each week right here on Dirty Mo Radio. Kelly Earnhardt Miller's coming up tomorrow. She'll turn the tables on a media member and interview Fox Sports One reporter Wendy Venturini. Cool. One of our favorites. Friday go in depth with characters of J.R. Motorsports on J.R.M. 360, the podcast. And on Mondays, we recap the full weekend for the Junior Motorsports nationwide

and late model teams and Dale's Sprint Cup series run on the Monday recap presented by Spy with Amanda Troutman. This is broken records, I know, for length of podcast, but so incredibly worth it. with all the great stuff from Barney Hall and the great calls and Dale Jr. and all his thoughts this week, but we got one more thing to do, and that's throw the white flag. Junior's not in town this week. He's resting and relaxing while we do all the work. And by work, I mean we're drinking beer this afternoon to celebrate Casey Cain's victory at Daytona, just like we drank beer yesterday to celebrate Kevin Harbanks win at Kentucky,

and Josh Berry's win at Southern National. So with us doing all this work, let's talk about what you can be doing to help us out. That's right. Sprint's most popular driver voting has officially started, and if Dale Jr. is going to win 12 years in a row, he's going to need your help. You can cast your vote at www.m.m., most popular driver.com, or Sprint.com slash speed. You can cast one ballot per email address per day. However, you can cast two additional votes per person per email address on Facebook or Twitter.

Fans, it's going to take every one of you vote for Dale Jr. That's right. I did it this morning. Yeah. Number two, when you're done by a $25 raffle ticket for the Winddale Junior's ride promotion benefiting the Dale Junior Foundation, Junior's giving away his 2014 Corvette Stingray, and he's only selling 8,888 tickets. If you're a Vegas guy like myself, you know those ain't bad odds. Go to www.WndaleJuniorsRide.com. It's that easy. Don't forget Dale Jr. is up for the Best Driver SB Award.

That too requires your vote. Go to ESPN.gov.com slash sbys slash 2014 to vote Dale Jr. as Best Driver. Number four. Check this out. Right now on eBay, Dale Jr. is auctioning off a fantasy football league experience with ESPN's Matthew Barry to benefit the V Foundation for Cancer Research. This is so cool. This is cool. This is cool.

So you're bidding on the opportunity to be an owner in Dale Jr.'s league. And guess who else is in the league? Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Casey Kane, Austin Dylan, Ty Dillon, Chase Elliott, Jamie McMurray, and Regan Smith, plus you get VIP access to the Watkins Glen Race Weekend where the draft will be held. Isn't that awesome? Yeah, you sit in the draft room with them. All those guys are going to be owners.

You're basically bidding on a chance to be an owner in that league and then come to Watkins Glen to have your live NFL, sit next to those guys and draft your league. That's an awesome weekend. Yeah. So for more, go to eBay and search for fantasy football in-person draft with Dale Earnhardt Jr. And expert Matthew Berry. Okay, I think we're actually racing this weekend. Junior Motorsports will try to make it three in a row Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Regan Smith and Chase Elliott will be running as usual, while Austin Terrio makes his return in the number five car. The race is Saturday on ESPN2. On Sunday, the NASCAR Spring Cup race will start at 1 p.m. Eastern and be televised on T&T. Dale Jr. will be back in his red, white, and blue National Guard colors. That is all. There you go. Good stuff, man.

A long one this week. Amanda Troutman, we have put you to work, but thank you for bringing the great Barney Hall to us here on the podcast this week. We certainly will recap New Hampshire next week. Looking forward to that. By the way, Hogue, you've got to go to Warren's Lobster House in Kittery, Maine. One of the best places I've ever been in my life. Very much worth it if you get a wild hair this weekend. For Hogue, for Amanda Troutman.

A wild hair. Yeah, or if you get one hair. I'm trying to get one word in. Forget the wild hair. If you get one hair, not a wild hair. Right before I was he ran to bass T.J., you had to throw that out of there. My bad, man. That was a Freudian slip there.

Peed that up nicely for us, Taylor. Where to go? For my man, Hogue. That better not make it. For Mike Davis. I've glad myself for evidence. For Dale Earnhardt Jr. For Barney Hall, I'm Taylor Zarzer.

This has been the Dale Jr. download. Thanks for listening to Dirty Mo Radio. Hey, Dirty Mo Radio listeners, thank you so much for listening to today's podcast. We hope that you enjoyed it. Now go online to spyoptic.com and check out Dale Jr's signature spy 88 collection. And guess what, Mike?

What's that? If you use discount code Dale yeah at checkout, you can receive 20% off your purchase. Shut up. It's the truth. Which one are you going to get? Farah. Me, I'm a Quanta guy myself.

Quanta. Quanta. I love Quanta. So go online now to spyoptic.com and use discount code. Dale Yeah, D-A-L-E-Y-A-H at checkout and get 20% off your purchase. That's incredible.