The Dale Jr. Download - 70 - Richmond: Game On

Episode Date: September 9, 2014

With the Chase upon us, Dale Earnhardt Jr. speaks openly to Junior Nation about his approach to the final 10 races and what he expects out of you (especially if you’re superstitious). 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. Door, 32 car, he's all right by the wall. Still there, bumper, still there, still there. Door 32 cars, Travis Cromple, what far to life, door. Hey, everybody's Jr. Just got home from Richmond. It's about 2 o'clock in the morning. And all the regular season's over and we're going to start the chase next weekend.

Quick note on Richmond, me and Steve were really. expecting a pretty fun race at that place because of the way the nationwide cars look like they were using the top and all that good stuff and you know it was kind of fun we actually ended up running pretty good for about 300 and the 400 laps the last two sets of tires didn't really agree with our car we didn't make many changes and we got really loose on the last couple runs and weren't able to maintain our top ten running but ended up finishing 12th and a little bit disappointed just about the overall result that I was telling Steve that it's pretty

damn awesome when we suck we run 12th when we first started working together we'd do everything we could have run the top 15th so if 12th's your worst day I think that can win the championship you know you're going to have to average I think the 8th 7th maybe even the 6th place finish throughout these 10 races to win the championship and if your worst night's 12th I think you'd be pretty pleased with that I think there you know a lot of comments about the race whether it was a good race not a good race boring not a lot of crashes not a lot of cautions

and restarts to pack the field together not a lot of passes for position as far as what I saw but you know that's you can have races like that I don't care you're not going to change the car you're not going to put some magic spoiler on there or change the horsepower

or do anything sometimes you're going to have races where a guy runs away, feel it gets spread out, where you don't wreck, and, you know, I know everybody gets kind of tired of hearing this, but fans once went to Bristol and watched Cali Yarborough lead every single lap of the race, and I believe that race went caution free. It might have had one yellow flag at Bristol. You're just going to have so many different kinds of races. We've had some great races this year that had a lot of action, and, you know, last night's race was a was a different kind of deal.

I enjoyed it. Anyway, basically, the regular season is over with, and now we're going to start the chase, and I'm really excited about that because we've been running real good this year, and everybody's been looking forward to the chase to start. They've been telling us all year long about how this is the year,

and they think we've got a chance, and they want us to win the championship, So no pressure, but we're getting ready to get started. First things first, we're going to have a 4888 party, you might want to call it. It's more of a chase kickoff lunch, kind of hang out, drink a few beers, you know, get everybody geared up and get everybody together for one big group hug before we start this chase. And then Tuesday I'm going to go over to HMS. We have a weekly meeting there every Tuesday. I'll see Steve and all engineers, and we're all going to sit around and talk about what we need to do and try to get our heads wrapped around and what we're getting ready to get ourselves into.

Hopefully, I think the team's ready. I hope the team's ready. I hope we're ready. We're going to find out. We've got a pretty busy week. All the drivers, myself included, are going to fly to several different parts of the country on Wednesday and do a lot of media. So you're going to hear a ton of media all over the country, I think. Like Casey Cain's going up north to Loudoun or Dover somewhere. I'm going to Los Angeles, of all places. I thought that was Jimmy's Market, but I thought he should have got the Los Angeles gig.

But I'm going, I should have got the Charlotte gig. That's where I'm from. But I got to go to L.A. and we're going to do some media there. And I think I'm going to get to go on Jimmy Kimmel's show. which I'm excited about. I've got a full day of media in Chicago on Thursday. I want to go over to the museum and see the T-Rex that they have there. I think it's names Sue.

What's the name? It's not Sue? It's Sue. All right. And I watched the documentary on this T-Rex that they have in a museum in Chicago, and I definitely want to check that out. And then we're going over to the racetrack and spend the night and get ready for practice on Friday morning.

We'll be right back at it again. And we'll run as hard as we can. Trust me, we're going to work hard as we can. And surely we can have a better result at Chicago than we had last year. As everybody remembers, we got off to the wrong start. Drown our chances of being a champion last year in the very first race of the chase. So we don't want to have that happen again. Everybody has the Project of Mojo going all week,

whatever your superstition is, get to it, and we're going to make this thing happen. So I hope everybody has a good week. Hope you enjoyed the download, and we'll see you later. Take it easy. Good stuff there from Dale Jr. You can go to spyoptic.com right now and check out the complete line of Dale Jr. Signature 88 sunglasses. And thanks to our partner, Spy, you can enter discount code Dirtymo Radio at checkout

and receive 20% off your purchase. Okay, I have so many things here. Let's start. Was that a cat in the background? Cat, yeah. I believe there was a cat at one point. Amy in another point, unless he was asking the cat what the T-Rex name was. He was confirming Sue.

Might have happened. Yeah. Confirming the name Sue, either to the cat, the killer, to Junebug, to Amy, to Hobb, to somebody. Somebody. Yeah. That's, that's funny stuff right there. And I love what he said about Cahill and Bristol. That's right.

let every lap, I mean, Bill Elliott and Darlington for crying out loud, I mean, it's another example of that. I mean, it was a boring race. Let's just be honest. It was a belt-wop. Yeah. Kislowski did put one on them, and good for him. I guess it stays in the Dirty Moe family, but those races are going to happen.

Mike, let me ask you a question. All right. Who would have won the championship last year with this format? This format? Yeah. Like the one we're about to do? The one we're about to do, yes. Who would have won the championship last year?

I'm going to guess, Dale Earnhardt Jr. That would be correct. Former service mechanic dealer. At Dale Earnhardt Chevrolet. From Canapolis, North Carolina. That's right. He would have won this set last year.

So I think that certainly people need to be really, really fired up. And if you want to be nervous, fine. But you need to be superstitious. You've got things you do, do it again. But I say all that to tell you that I am a lot of confidence going into this thing. Certainly Harvick and Jimi John, or Harvick and Kislauski. I've had incredible speed this year.

Jeff Gordon has. So has Dale Jr. But the one thing that I think that the 88 team has had more of than anyone else is consistency. And they had it last year, and that even includes what happened in Chicago. If they would have used that format last year, including what happened in Chicago, even without a win in the last 10 races, Dale Earnhardt Jr. would have won the championship. So certainly you want to win races. You want certainly a much better finish than Chicago last year.

But you look at how this team was prepared for the chase last year and how they run the first 26 this year. I mean, Mike, I think people need to be extremely confident. Yeah. Talk about last year. I think Dale Jr. would have won the championship in any format other than the one that they actually used last year. Right.

Either way you cut it, he could have been a champion. But that's the way it is. Chicago was a bummer last year. but he rebounded well I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit concerned and really for two reasons as we now get into this chase one is we've been locked into this thing since race number one so we've been kind of waiting on this

the entire year and juniors had this is his best season by far the last few races not been the best obviously you know you had 39th at Bristol which was a wreck 11th at Atlanta 12th at Richmond And that doesn't really concern me as much as it just seems like I think there are other teams with a lot more momentum going into this chase. And that concerns me a little bit. And also what concerns me.

And again, this is just full disclosure, our last four qualifying efforts, 25th, 20th, 20th, 24th. And I think that needs to be improved for Dale Jr. to really make a real run at this thing. I mean, a lot of people will sit there and we could have this argument. You may even be one of them that would say it doesn't really matter. You know, you don't want to give up the race speed. but statistically speaking, when Dale is qualified 15th or better, his average finish is 8. When he qualifies worse than 15th, his average finishes 12th. Not a huge difference, but certainly enough to win or lose a championship.

Yeah. Or to even advance into a next round. I mean, because that's what I think we're going to see in this thing. I mean, this is going to be just like any other style playoff that has this type of format. You're going to have somebody that's been a frontrunner all year that I expect not to make it out of the first round. I think you're going to have somebody that we have any, you know, your Amarola or your Amunddinger, somebody that we're not even thinking about that's going to advance kind of behind the scenes and quietly and next thing you know he's in the final eight. I think you're going

to have all of that stuff. I just hope and pray to the dear Lord that Dale Jr. and that 88 team keep its consistency all year and, you know, and don't run into any bad luck. It wouldn't shock, I mean, to the point you just made, it wouldn't shock me at all if Casey Cain's wins the championship. I mean, you know, Casey has really struggled this year, but won a race two weeks ago is in the chase, and it's a brand new season for him. Well, let me ask you this. Who is that one person? Is it Casey Cain for you that you think is going to be the biggest challenger? Out of the guys that emerged lately? Well, out of the 16. I mean, who do you think would be a...

Oh, okay. Let's take Bail Jr. out of the equation. Let's say, who would you pick as being a strong contender? Jeff Gordon. Good pick. Obviously, been running well all year. The guy I kind of got my eye on that I'm a little worried about is Joey Legano. That's a great one too, yeah. Well, the Penske, the Penske and Hendrick guys. And I'll include Harvick in that too. You know, they've been the class of the field through 26 races. There's no question about it.

You got guys that are, you know, clicking at the right time. Lugano's one, Kislauski's one. Harvick is one, although I'm still not convinced, and I'm not sure he's convinced that his pit crew is cut out for a chase style format, but they are super fast. But, like, Lugano, he's been sixth or better. in the last six of the last seven races. Think about that.

Six or better in six of the last seven races. Yeah. That's strong. There's a lot of different ways to look at this thing, and it's going to be a lot of fun to watch the next 10 weeks. But if you told me I can only rely on one thing going into this, then I would rely on consistent performance. And Steve LaTart, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and that team have had consistent performance really for three years.

I mean, yes, they would tell you they wish they would have won more races the last couple of years. But I say three, really four years. They would wish they would have won more races prior to this year, but they still had really consistent performance. And they had consistent performance in the chase also last year. And to the point you made, in an old pre-chase format, Dale Jr. would have won a championship last year. In the format we're about to use, Dale Jr. would have won a championship last year. So those things give me extraordinary confidence. Yes, hot streaks and all those things.

It's hard not to pay attention to them and what's going on lately. But if you look at the entire 26 races, Harvick and his pit crew and not able to finish all the races concerns me. Jeff Gordon even, to some degree, Jimmy Johnson. Those kind of things would concern me. Brad Kislauski even, those guys have not been able to be as consistent every week as Dale and our junior and Steve Littart. been. That's absolutely true because Lowski, when he's on, is ridiculous fast when he's on, but

he's not been nearly as consistent as Dale Jr. has. Yeah. I mean, listen, I'll be honest, completely honest. I want Dale and our Jr. to win the championship. Mike, you can relate to this. You certainly, as an Alabama fan, could relate to it after all that that program had been through between 1993 and 2008. The feeling you have when the team was climbing back to being nationally relevant and competing for a championship, just how nervous you were and how you were freaking out. I got to be honest, I'm so excited to feel that way going into the chase.

Because you don't know when you're going to get that chance again. Yeah, exactly. Hey, Dale Jr. even knows this is his best shot at a championship. He's not had a chance like this, and he knows he's got 10 races sitting in front of him. If he does what he did last year with an improved Chicago, he wins this thing. What did you think, by the way, when he said his average finish, if he can average eighth, that could win him a championship.

Do you agree? Yeah, and well, and to the point you just made about qualifying, to me, that's the thing that needs to, that's the one thing that this team obviously has to improve on if they're going to win a championship is qualifying, because I don't think any of us have any concern about Saturday nights or Sundays. Yeah. This team in race trim is checked out, and they have been all year. To your point, qualifying his got to get better, and Dale Jr. certainly would tell you that. So would Steve.

So would everybody. You can hear it in TJ's voice every time he comes on this podcast. That's the thing that has to improve. But yeah, that makes all the sense in the world what he said in his comments earlier to us. And by the way, I can't tell you, I do so many interviews with so many people in sports each and every week. how genuine of comments we get here on the download from Dale Jr. is just something I appreciate so much. It's good to know that in all this chase drama and all the anxiety that comes with it,

he still wants to go see Sue that he wrecks. Well, he just confirmed that that's her name. Yeah. That's absolutely right. Let me add one thing here, Taylor, and that is this. Of all that's going on, and no matter how this chase unfolds, the one thing I will say, and I know this to be 100% true, is that Dale Jr. is as focused as I've ever seen him.

And I know this, I thought of it last week when he and I were in a discussion about calendars, you know, or something, there was a request that we were looking at in the month of October. And his words to me was keep it off my schedule. I don't want any distractions. And I thought to myself, game on. Game on. God help you NASCAR Sprint Cup series. if Dale Jr. runs into some good luck, gets that mojo, gets that consistency,

because let me tell you something, I don't think there's going to be anything that's going to distract him from the big prize. That's great to hear. I got goosebumps just listening to you say that, because you know him as well as anybody, and that's, that fires me up, man, I am so pumped about what's going to happen on Sunday. I think that they're the NLF or National League football, whatever they call it. I think that might go.

I'm not real sure. I can't confirm, but I could care less about that on. Sunday, I can promise you. Just glued to what's happening in Chicago. All right, something tells me we might be talking about a dude on top of a fence when we go to reaction theater. Oh, yeah. We mentioned at the top of the show,

Spy's got an exclusive deal for Dirty Mo Radio listeners. Go online to SpyOptic.com and check out Dale Jr.'s signature Spy 88 collection. It includes the Dirty Moe, McCoy, Quanta, General, and Farrow for the ladies. And her discount code, Dirty Moe Radio. Dirty Mo Radio. All one word. At checkout and receive 20% off your

purchase. We appreciate your support of Dirty Moe Radio and Spy. Now go get yourself a pair of Signature 88 collection sunglasses today, right after this podcast, of course. Now it's time for Reaction Theater, and as we start, I just want you to know, alcohol is undefeated. Go ahead.

Boy, I'll tell you what, I've never been more excited about the chase coming up than I am this year. So I decided to find a little speech for you. It's Erb Brooks speech from Miracle. Great moments are born from great opportunity, and that is what we have earned here in this chase this season.

In years past, other teams have beaten us, but not this year, not 2014. This year, we outpid them, we pass them, and we shut them down because we can. This year, the 88 team is the greatest race team in NASCAR. This is our time. Their time is done. It's over. I'm sick and tired of hearing ESPN talking about how great all the other drivers are. All the other drivers of the chase, screw them.

This is our time. Now, go out there and take it, Dale. Dale, yeah. Dale, yeah. Dale, yeah. Dale, yeah. Can we get Dale Jr. to run lines all night long, like Kurt Russell, Her Brooks. Again, again.

You know what, that reminded me more of the speech in Rudy than it did Miracle on Ice. I tried to reenact that speech. I saw that. That was a funny picture you tweeted. Have you sitting on top of the bench or standing on top of the bench like you were Rudy? Yeah, that's good stuff, though. I love the creativity from that reaction theater caller. Right, who's next?

Dale Jr. is not running so good, Pete. What do you think we ought to do? He needs a caution. I think we ought to go down there at their fence and climb that some bit. That's a brilliant idea. Let's go to jail. my wisdom teeth removed yesterday and they got me on some pretty good medicine. So, hell yeah.

That's beautiful right there. Yeah, I'm telling you. What is that gas they give you when you get wisdom teeth pulled? Well, they put you out for wisdom teeth. Well, that definitely is worth like 24 beers. Yeah. I'll tell you, man. Which is probably what the guy had on top of the fence when he did that.

The stuff in the dentist chair and alcohol, they're all undefeated. There's no doubt about it. What's next? MD, this is S. Ortega. I just wanted to let you know you've been fun all year on Twitter. Number two, could you bring the guy that was on top of the fence to the radio, and let's ask what the DA was thinking. And by the way, I'm glad all four Hendricks cars are in the chase.

Bye. You know, it's funny she says that because when I heard them say there was a caution for somebody being on top of the catch fence, my first thought was, please don't be wearing a Dale Jr. shirt. And then I was like, please don't be wearing a Dale yes shirt. And then as it turns out, he was wearing no shirt. Which is fine. Which is right, right.

No, and then I was like, please don't have a D-A-L-E painted on your chest because then we know you too. You know, I didn't want it to be the Dale guys. When they said, oh, he's just wearing shorts and work boots, I couldn't rule out the Dale guys on that yet. It's funny you say that because I had to do a football game Saturday night. So all I could do is listen to T.J. Stevie and Dale Jr. on my phone. And I recorded the television coverage of the race. So all I got were T.J. LaTardin Jr. on my radio. And when they first said it, that was absolutely what you just said was in my mind.

Oh, God, he's got a daily shirt on. There's no, man. That was. That's the first thing that I thought too. But, Dad, no shirt. Thankfully. No shirt. I'm telling you.

Do you have an opinion on the guy? I mean, now that we've all seen him and do his thing and he's safe, I mean, what's your ultimate opinion? I mean, do I think he was funny? And, you know, they're sure there was a lot of humorous things that ran through my mind, but the word's stupid is pretty much the first thing. It pretty much pops in my mind. It just, that is, because of some of the things,

you tweeted about it, too, on Saturday night, because of some of the things that we've experienced and, unfortunately, in this sport in the past, with very tragic things that have happened when people do stuff like that, it's just stupid. Yeah, now that everybody's fine, it was humorous,

but pretty, pretty dangerous. I'm not, yeah, I was like, I'm not saying I condone it, but I was kind of doze it off. there a little bit that race up until that point. Yeah, same thing in Richmond. Something crazy is going to happen in that Richmond race. Oh, yeah. Just Richmond.

Just Richmond. Yeah, it's just Richmond being Richmond. All right, who's next? Hey, guys, driving across Colorado race just ended. I don't even know where we finished yet. But the thing I wanted to say is I couldn't be more proud of the team this year and how good we've been running. But now it's chase time.

We need to step it up a couple notches because I'll tell you what. I'm worried about Kislowski. I'm worried about Harvick, and I'm worried about Gorge. So, boys, step it up. Let's go. Dale yeah. Dale yeah. There you go.

I like that attitude. I like how fired up some of our callers are today about this. I like the pep talks. Yeah. All right. Who we got next? Where, oh, where can Dato be? Where, oh, where can he be?

Steve did not keep up with the tract. Data will have in that effect. Listen, guys, listen, I'm not trying to be too hard on Stevie. But come on. We're starting to get in that ninth, tenth position, all the time. And while that's great, four years ago, we want to win a championship. And I know it's hard because I'm frustrated with a 10th, 11th place finish, 12th, whatever it was.

But come on, we've got to be better. We've got to qualify better, and we've just got to do better. not being, I'm not trying to be mean, but let's do better. And TJ, note to you, couple things. One, when you say, hey, Stevie, you got it for a minute. Listen, just say you're going to the bathroom. We all know. I still don't know why you don't take a big empty two-leur bottle on Mountain Dew up there with you. So you can just do it right up there and not have to leave. And I swear to God, you don't cuss that much, but saying one bar for life on Travis Quappell and calling those guys, Moraons, for not catching up to the leaders on the pit stops.

Awesome radio. Hashtag seven beers. Hashtag day, yeah. Seven beers. Dale yeah. Hashtag seven beers, Delia. There you go. I thought he's about to be mean toward TJ, but he likes it.

Good. No, he's, yeah. And, TJ, hey, listen, one bars for life. You know, could TJ cause it like he sees it? And he does. You've got to appreciate that honesty. We get plenty of it here by everybody that is part of this podcast. Who's next?

All right. I'm willing to bet $10 that that one dude who climbed the catch fence. was one of the Dale guys. But man, what a sucky-ass race. Glad the regular season is over. And hell yeah, let's bring on the chase. Tell yeah. Dale yeah.

Hey, by the way, going back a caller or two there, the one that was wondering where Datto was. Taylor, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it Datto's speech that basically sent us into like, yeah, that changed everything? Yeah, and that was an inspirational, pump-up, motivational speech. It was.

Amanda, did he call? No. Daddo did not call. No. He did not give us our chase speech. I've got nothing from him this week. I wonder if we should even show up at the track. I mean, the guy has always claimed he wants to be a crew cheese.

Yeah. You know, Dado in 15, and he didn't even call in before the chase started. He lets the team down when they need him the most? Okay, Daddow. I see how it is. I mean, maybe he's just thinking, you know, maybe he's waiting for a bad day, which we all cheer against, obviously, and then he gives the speech. But, yeah, I wish we would have had it.

All right, last one. I watched a race last night going on three hours today. A little disappointed, but you know what? This is going to be the best week ever because it's time, and the 80s going to fucking bring it, baby. The way I look at it, dude, who cares about last night? We know that car. We know that chassis. It's lightning fast at Phoenix.

We get that thing dialed in in New Hampshire. We're going to be money. We're going to give Johnny Mansell. Johnny Mansell, if I get him with the money then, we're going to own that. I'm so strong. for the chase. Last night, let's just get the night over. Hurry up. Let's get on to the big show here. So proud of being 88, man. Regardless what happens, but we're coming for it, baby. Miami, here we go. Dale, yeah, baby, yeah. Love it. Love it. Reaction theater's open 24-7. All you have to do is call toll-free, like it's

1885-740-1902. And leave us your voicemail message, and we'll play the best each week right here on Dirty M. Radio. Wednesday, check out Kelly Earnhardt Miller's Fast Lane

Family presented by Charlie's soap. On Friday, take a listen to the J.R.M.

360, the podcast as the 360 crew takes you a little deeper into the personalities of the

J.R. Motorsports employees. And on Mondays, Amanda has the full weekend

recap for the junior motorsports nationwide late-mile teams and Dale's Sprint Cup

series run on the Monday recap. Presented by Spy. Let's throw that white flag. White flag

right there, white flag. Don't forget that available for a limited time only Dale Jr. Special Collectors Edition packs of goodies headache powders, and the package includes an augmented reality feature that is pretty cool. So go to your local retailer, get you a couple packs of goodies. As Dale Jr. said to start the show, the man's got a busy week.

He's at HMS today preparing for Chicago and their chase run. Tomorrow he heads to Los Angeles for Jimmy Kimmel, Fox. Your employer, Taylor, Sirius XM, is going to be on that tomorrow and other hits. My advice is just to follow Laura Scott at Hendrick 88 team. in Mike Hogue 88 to stay updated on what shows Dale Jr. And when he'll be on them all week. As busy as Dale will be, he'll still be making his college football picks for this weekend. So you can pick against him as well.

Go to pix. com to register and become eligible to win cool prizes that are actually autographed by Dale. On Friday, he and Martin Truex Jr. will participate in NASCAR fan Q&A at the Chicago Land Speedway Fan Zone. That'll be at 4.30 p.m. Chicago time. And the cool thing about this is the kids get front row seats and get to ask all the questions. So that'll be a lot of fun. As for the nationwide race on Saturday, Dale's not in it, but as Junior Motorsports teams are, Kevin Harvick, Regan Smith, Chase Elliott. Chase Elliott, they'll race at 3.30 p.m. Eastern, 2.30 Central on ESPN 2.

On Sunday, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series race from Chicagoland Speedway and race number one of the 2014 Chase for the Championship, Taylor. We'll start at 2 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Central, and it will be televised live on ESPN. And one thing I forgot to put into this white flag that I want to say now is that the junior motorsports late model teams will be going for a championship at Hickory Motor Speedway this week. Josh Barry enters the weekend with a 34 point lead over teammate William Byron. So they got the first, kind of like the nationwide series. They got the first two spots of the point standings locked up. They get their final race this weekend and hopefully Josh Barry brings it home. I am so pumped, man.

Sunday is, I've never been this pump for a chase, ever. It's our year, man. I really, really feel good about what's about to happen here. And the Dale Ye singing fella, we got to have you back to. We got to have Datto back. We've got to get everybody involved here. God, where are you guys? It's the chase.

Datto, dare you a guy. Come on. Kick in that ass. That's right. Yeah. We'll have all you guys, hopefully. Here in the next few weeks. Dale yeah, everybody.

Have fun watching that chase on Sunday for Mike Davis for Amanda Trowman. For Dale Earnhardt, Jr. I'm Taylor Zarzer. listening to the Dale Jr. Download presented by Spy. Thanks for listening to Dirty Moe Radio. Hey everybody, thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Dale Jr. download. Now go to Spyoptic.com so you can take advantage of their 20% off discount off of any signature 88 pair of sunglasses. All you got to do is enter discount code Dirty Moe Radio, all one word at checkout.

And you got yourself a pair of sweet shades.