The Dale Jr. Download - 82 - Daytona 500: "It was a great race until..."

Episode Date: February 24, 2015

Dale Earnhardt Jr. fell just short of winning his third Daytona 500; Fans are in an upheaval on Reaction Theatre; Dirty Mo Posse member tells of all-time greatest prank on Junior. 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. Made a poor move on that restart with 19 to go. That was all me, man. Y'all gave me a great car to get me back to some of the spots. I appreciate it. You're now listening to the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy. Check out Dale Jr.'s signature dirty-mo sunglasses from Spy and Spyoptic.com.

Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. just got home from Daytona. I'm going to sit back and relax. I have a couple cold ones. they went pretty good you all saw the race quite a spectacle it's pretty cool um had an awesome week real fast car we uh

had a great great week but uh j cole came out to the race uh brought some brought his brother and some family friends that was pretty cool we um did that photo shoot together and i was happy they came out i'm gonna have to go see a show now when they swing through charlotte I saw a lot of

celebrities out there with the they told the 500 they bring in a bunch of people artist and movie stars and rock stars it's pretty cool

didn't get to say hey to kid rock but saw a couple of guys in the band got to say hey to them and didn't get to see Vince Vaugh I wanted to shake his hand

he's pretty cool seems like but the way they introduce us there they walks out of this tunnel we don't get to say hey to all the celebrities that are there I did see Doug Flutty

got a picture picture with some friends of his. But that's one of the things that I get excited about when Daytona 500 comes around. Aside from the race, obviously, is, you know, there's going to be some pretty neat people there that you want to see you meet. But, anyways, we got going in the race. Everything was going great. Ran second to Jeff a lot.

Didn't really want to do that. Wanted to lead the running that race during the day with the temperatures that was. we had made the cars handle really poorly, which we all were hoping that would be the case. Everybody was real tight, especially with the wind blowing from the back stretch to the front stretch, the car is really, really tied off turn 4. When the wind gets in the door of the car there, you saw Tommy Stewart have his accident. That was just because of the wind, made his car really arrow tight there and shoved him across the track. But anyways, I didn't want to be running second.

I want to lead, get the best air I can get. That's where, you know, out front's the best place to get the best place to get the best there. But I couldn't get any great runs on Jeff and we were all sort of in line together and making that work for a while, so I was okay to sit there for a bit. Eventually we were able to get the lead and it seemed like after about the halfway point we tried to race into the lead as often as we could. I had a real damn good time in the race today. Racing during the day with that package, that little tank spool on the back. That's the way to do it. And the cars are moving around and handling the drivers are having to really work hard, positioned themselves to make

runs. We were all running three wide forever without a whole lot of problems. Typically, when the temperatures are cool and there's too much grip, we run over each other trying to do that. So it was a great race all the way up until about lap 181. Whenever we had that last restart, one of them last restarts was about 20 to go. I was in the bottom lane in third. and Jimmy was on the outside as the control car. And when we took off, there was room for me to move up behind Jimmy. And so I moved up behind him and I thought I was in line. But the guys behind me jumped to my outside

and the guys on the inside that I gave up the position for moved on the inside of me. So now I'm in the middle on a restart. We're not up to speed. This is a terrible situation to be in. And everybody just mowed by me. left me in the middle. So the next thing I know is about 20th to 25th, and looking at nothing but rows of three wide in front of me

with nowhere to go. I couldn't make it four wide. The outside lane wasn't moving. The inside lane wasn't moving. The leaders were up there pretty much blocking every lane that moved, which they were supposed to do, so nobody really could go anywhere. Finally, I guess with around 10 laps to go,

the 51 got loose in the middle of three and four and checked up the whole. side line and the middle line and that the seas sort of parted and I went and made a move I got to the middle got a good run on some guys and passed a bunch of people and then the caution came out for the 51 wrecking on the front stretch and I was 8th so that was a stroke of luck to be able to even get to that point because we were stuck three wide with nowhere to go running 20th and I was afraid that's where he was going to finish um the last restart our line went the inside didn't don't really know why that happened or how that, you know, sometimes the inside works, sometimes the outside works,

I was in the right line. Got all the way up to third and that's where we ended up. We didn't really get a chance to form a run on the 22. I don't, I think that Harvick said he was waiting to turn three and four to fall back and try to get a run off of turn four to the flag. I feel like that we probably should, if we were going to back up, probably should have been doing it around one and two and try to shoot down the back straight away. Anyhow, it was a good finish with a spectacular race car, so I'm a little bit disappointed

that we didn't win because a car, a car like that, you should be able to, you know, make the most of it. Definitely didn't do that, but one of the things I touched on with Twitter was I was impressed by how prepared the team was. Got a new crew chief of Greg Yves, new car chief, Travis Mack, got some new engineers, and over the all guys and they were all ready to go and everything went smooth every race went smooth we never had a problem on pit road never had a miscommunication and we can get better you know i see a lot of areas where we can improve as we get to know each other and understand how you know what each other's

looking for and what each other needs out there we can get a lot better on our communication but the team was really prepared that says a lot about not only gregg But Chad and that whole shop, you know, Greg and Chad work real close together, and that says a lot about them being able to prepare those cars and those guys for that week and what they're going to go through. So I was real happy about that. That lets me know that Greg's the right man for the job. So he's going to be a great crew chief just because he can get his guys together and get them ready.

Everyone stayed calm. We had some steady good stops. We had no loose wheels, and we didn't make nice. No arrows on pit road. I didn't drive through any boxes that I ain't supposed to. So all that rent really well. We got a couple days off, and then we're going to be practicing Atlanta Thursday,

preparing for the race this weekend. And I'm looking forward to getting rest of this season going. 26 races in the regular season, one down, 25 to go. Trying to make that chase. Let's get some checker flags and celebrate some wins. I'll talk to you guys later. All right, good stuff from Dale Jr. We appreciate his.

audio each and every week here on the Dale Jr. download with Amanda Wolfmeier with an awesome open, I might add. I love hearing her voice with the spy in there as well. Well done. Miss announcer now for the missus announcer I should say. The voice of dirty mo is that where we're at? There you are yes. I love it. Mike Davis, T.J. Majors. I am Taylor's Arzer and we're proud to bring you the download here each week and a third place finish. I know Mike is ultimately. ultimately not what everyone was wanting or shooting for, but man, what a car. What a 10 days.

I just, I marvel at how incredibly prepared everybody was, how great of a piece they had every time they went on the track. You think about what does it take to win a Daytona 500 and all the variables that have to fall into place to win a Daytona 500. All week you have to keep that car clean. You know what I mean? So you have to keep it clean in multiple practices. You have to make the right decisions at the right time.

You know, Dale's beating himself up over what he called was a poor decision with 19 to go. Man, this is go time. I didn't fault him for that. That was just, it was a racing move and he got hung out. Other people making the right decisions and not causing a wreck. You know, you ask like, yeah, we're disappointed in third. Well, I can tell you with 15 to go and we're back there practically in jail, you know, on the outside of a three-wide thing, of a pack of traffic, and you got nowhere to go.

At that moment, I would have taken third in a heartbeat because I thought we were, We were bound for 20th place or we were bound to end up on the back of a rollback. Yeah. You know what I mean? So I was really proud of the way Dale wielded it all, not just in the race, but all week. I mean, he kept that car. He knew what he had. He had a piece that could win the race.

It just to win the Daytona 500, so many things have to happen the right way. Yeah. Congratulations to Joey Lagano for sure. I know it's just, it was really cool to see. We all experienced this last year for the second time. A lot of people experienced it for the second time, but all the fans especially, last year saw how much it meant to everyone,

especially to Dale Jr. It meant the same to Joey Legano, and that's always cool when you see how much it means to somebody. The guy can wheel it, man. Yeah, he can't for sure. Say what you will about it. That kid can wheel it. You know, T.J., Mike's right.

It was a racing move. The decision that Jr. made with 19 to go, it didn't work out. It turned out to be the wrong move. The guy that led the most laps finished 33rd, so you just never know what's going to happen. Like Mike said, there for a while with 15 to go out,

I pretty much thought we were either going to finish between 18th and 22nd or we were going to have to maybe try to creep back to the line. Hopefully the wheels are still rolling on it. You know, I kind of expect that there to be a wreck at that point because people were getting really racy at that point. People make moves that. I think we all did. Yeah, people were making moves that you wouldn't do at lap 100,

but with 15 to go, you're going to take the chance. And, you know, I got to say, man, I really thought all that. guys drove a great race. Like Junior said. I could see the handling on the cars off of four. I could see them. Like I watched Tony's wreck happen and I've seen I saw numerous guys on the bottom and middle groove have to lift. When I saw the nose take off, I

seen them lift. And to keep from hitting anybody or wrecking people. And that was a great race. It reminded me of an old school race kind of. It was outstanding. Like how you actually had to drive it a little bit. And it wasn't just like in the duel. You know, it was basically the car is just glued to the track. I mean, you get all that.

You know, your car, the handling is not an issue at all when it's cold. And it was actually, it was fun to see them, see them guys driving and fight it a little bit. And that become a factor. You know, we were talking about we were adjusting. We were making adjustments during the 500. I mean, that doesn't, it's not very often you say that. So, but I thought it was great. Like Junior said in his audio just a second ago, the quality of racing in the last 20-plus laps with everybody three-wide, eight rows of cars, three-wide.

Yeah, I couldn't find a hole. I'm looking for somebody. I'm like, somebody's going to mess up here. Maybe this lap. It was remarkable, though, the quality of racing. And for all the people out there, no matter what sport, it is say, oh, things are too long. We don't have the attention span. It's about action.

It's not about how long something lasts. college football games are lasting longer and longer every year, and the ratings are going up and up. They were eight minutes longer, college football games in 2014 than they were in 13, and the rating was showing up. It's about action. That's what people want. And the action that we had was off the charts in the Daytona 500.

I feel the same way, and yet it wasn't a crash-em-up, bang-em-up type of race. Right. That's amazing. It's not about crashing. It's about action. And I never once felt like that was a boring race at all, even when it was single file up at the front. Yeah.

Dale was just a contender. Maybe they had a lot to do with it for us, but he was a contender. But, you know, honestly, T.J., I ask you this question. I enjoy when there's risk when they're actually having to drive it. You know, they're not just wide open. They're actually like, oh, man, I better get my nose out. I'm getting it tight. Where's this guy?

I mean, they're actually half in their hands probably hurt from holding on the wheel. But you think about going back to that last 10 laps or whatever. It was the 51. And I don't even know why the 51 got loose. But, like, without that happening, I, Honestly, there were no options for Dale Jr. He was going to finish where he was. Well, I mean, you never know.

Maybe the next left they come around and a guy in the second row, Rex, with somebody. Well, without that happening, if things stayed the same, like Jr. said, that would have been. We would not have advanced our position further than that row, probably. There's just nowhere to go. Talladega, you might, you have more of a chance to make something else happen if you get a little help because it's a wider. It's a little wider, yeah. But, man, you get four wide, and I don't even think we really had any four wide this year. You know, normally once or twice a race.

I don't know how you can. I mean, yeah. We've been for a wider at Daytona before, but it doesn't last very long, and it's normally just kind of an incident. You know, something just happens kind of quick and then it fades out. But the dog leg is really tricky. It's probably the hardest corner on the track because there's not as much banking there. And there's not, when they get on each other's doors there, if you're, like, on the outside, the air is huge. I mean, we saw, like, when you're entering the dog leg, like, how Larson wrecked was at the

unlimited when he went up got up there and he did he catch the two car or somebody he just got up there a little too far and like the the air took him and he clipped him i mean that stuff and if somebody's on your right rear quarter panel in there and they get too close it will pull the car on the inside around and it they will wreck like that and i think that's the kind of the case that happened with the 51 i think he kind of got pulled around a little bit and he turned right to correct it and you just get behind your steering so fast yeah and hey Amanda what i'm a man of what i'm about to do is a little bit dangerous. I'm going to give T.J. an incredible amount of credit because he deserves it. I don't want to give him credit for the uncomfortable comments he makes on podcast like these

because... Should I get outside the door so I get out here a little bit? But because, and Amanda would not allow me to give you credit for that. But she'll cut this part out anyway. So go ahead. You're the best spotter in the world, man. I mean, you really are. You are the very best of what you do. And anybody that listens to the audio every week, Are you being biased? It's probably, but I really feel that way. I really do. I mean, I do listen to other channels.

I try to before I say something like this. And there's plenty of guys that do a very good job, people that are your close friends. But your level of information is so much greater. And Junior covets it. That's the great thing. He wants it. But especially in a restrictor plate race, I just know how worn out you are right now. And it takes so much more to spot one of those races than it does anything else the entire season.

And you're telling him about what's happening, two and three cars in a different line right behind him, trying to see what advantage he might have, especially when he's at the front of the pack in first or in second, which he spent an extreme amount of time doing in the last 10 days. But you crushed it. I mean, you really did. TJ and Dale been working so long together. Yeah. That he knows what Dale needs.

And you know how he knows that? Because there have been incidences over the years where T.J. said something. Dale's like, man, TJ, I don't need that stuff. We've heard it. But honestly, that's a benefit for T.J. to know. Sure. Okay, he doesn't want that information.

And, you know, this is just a couple of guys that have worked together for a long time. Yeah, I think it helps being knowing him, too, away from the track. I mean, how many thousands of times we've hung out over the years, I mean, just anything. I mean, I know what he's thinking before it happens, and we don't have, we have, this is throughout the week where events happen and stuff, and we know each other's reaction. We don't have just a relationship at the racetrack.

We have a, you know, we hang out of weight, so we just have that. If I was going to drive, I'd want somebody I know spot for me that I knew. I've got to ask T.J., though. So you know everything Dale Jr.'s thinking. Dale Jr. knows what you're thinking. Does he win this race without that second to last caution when he's up in eight?

That was my next question. That was what I was going to ask. The second to last caution. Before the lap 19. He already made his move. Lap 19. If we don't get hung right there, do we win the race? You say, or?

Oh, when we're racing, you're talking before that. No, I'm talking towards the end of the race. I mean, the caution that set up the green-white checker. Oh. If that doesn't come out, Junior was an eight. Yeah, I would have liked. We actually were just shooting through the middle, I believe. We were following the four car who had a good run,

and I would have liked to see where that ended up. I mean, we might have come around the next lap and forth. And, you know, I like our chances. The closer we get to the front, our car was good. It's the best. It's all about, you know, you can't control what other people do, but you've got to have the right run at the right time. Where we were, leading, you can kind of manipulate what you want to do,

but, you know, you got to get the right push. Things have to work out behind you, too. It's not just what your car can do. You have to, you know, we could lay back and get a little bit of a run, but, like, it was going to be tough to pass that 24 early. And he was making it. It was hard to pass the leader all week. Yeah.

But the exception of the Xfinity race, which was sort of fluky, where Brad had that big gap between him and Ryan Reed, and it was just kind of a cluster. But if you look at the duels, the shootout, the car that took the truck race, the Arka race, all of them. The car that took the white flag was the car that won the race. And I don't ever remember being that obvious in other speed weeks, but it's like it was so hard to pass the leader that you really wanted to be out front.

Our duel actually got pretty close to get really interesting at the end with that 22 on the high side and that 24. What it is is the two guys race for second side by side. Neither one of them want to give up. They just worked that area. They're really good up there. That's why the good guys, you know, that's how the cream rises the top because they know how to do that stuff,

and that's why they will, they're going to make a lot of smarter decisions throughout the race and get there. So, but it was hot. I mean, that 22, if we don't, he made me really nervous in three and four. If he would have cleared Jeff in three, but Jeff kind of pinned him up against the wall and got on his quarter panel and slowed him down a little bit.

That was huge. That's basically what let us win the duel. Otherwise, I think the 22 would have got there. Last thing, you know how this podcast, you know it when this podcast is taken off? So Sirius XM sent me on assignment last week on Thursday to South Florida, which was nice of them for a golf assignment.

And I bought the wireless. That was the only way I could watch the duels or listen to the duels. So I listened to TJ in the air. Oh, okay, I got it. air. So I'm listening to TJ, basically, in the air. And then I land and I get to my hotel and there's five laps to go. And I go up to the counter and I said, hey, man, here's my, here's my license and here's my credit card. And they've got the race on in the lobby, which is great. And I said, here's my

license. Here's my credit card. I got to see the end of this. And the guy at the front desk says, Taylor Zarzer? And I said, yeah. And he goes, you're listening. And I had my headphones in. And he said, you're listening to TJ right now, aren't you? And I said, yeah. And he said, hey, man, I'm Ed. I love the Dale Jr. download. I listen to it every week. And the guy, because he took my credit card at the front and he goes, we're winning.

We got five laps to go. I was like, how cool is this? That's pretty cool. You're listening to a TJ right now. Are you? Hell yeah, I'm listening to TJ. That was pretty cool. So we made it.

We've made it, Amanda. We made it. Was it good? Was it good? Did it break up? Was it good? No, it was perfect. It was very, very good.

Junior, every once in a while. But you were very, you were very clear of the whole. whole time. So good stuff, man. And that's how you know you've made it. I got a question for you, Taylor. Taylor, you're an opinionated guy. Yes, sir.

TJ, you're opinionated, but you're reserved. Taylor's not reserved. I'm pretty reserved. I want to know from Taylor, straight up. Does NASCAR, did they do the right thing about throwing the caution there at the end of the Sprint Cup race? You know, I don't have, I know I'm an opinionated guy, and I don't want to let you down because I know you're very opinionated on this.

I feel like they probably did the right thing. I mean, I feel like, you know, there was so much carnage on the track. at that time that they probably did the right thing. I know that if Dale Jr. was leading the race, I think we would have all been going crazy saying throw the flag. Ryan McGee, who I respect immensely, we all do, sent a tweet out on Twitter about just what the backstress or what it looked like where the wreck was and everybody eating in the press box of Daytona

was saying you've got to throw it. I mean, sure we want to see it come under green, but absolutely. I think they probably did the right thing. I'm not saying it didn't suck when you have a race that goes to caution. all agree on that, right? Yeah. I'm not saying, but a lot of the feedback, a lot of the people that were irate about that after the race and that, you know, got on there and made their voices hard.

I'm not even sure if we have reaction theater callers that speak to this. We do. I assume we might. So the argument I hear is that, well, if they let them race the day before, back to the checkered flag in the Xfinity Series race, why can't you be consistent and let them do it in the Sprint Cup race? And my point is simply this. you can never compare wrecks.

I'm saying you can't compare wrecks in the same race. There are no two wrecks that are the same. And there's certainly no two wrecks that are the same on different days. There was a one car, two-car wreck in the Xfinity Series race. One car. And they drove off, and they actually drove back to pit road. The Daytona 500, as much as I wanted that thing to go green. Sure.

They had cars littered all over the place. Yeah, you saw it. It was bad. Yeah, there's a difference. Seriously, and a guy, I mean, if two cars hit off a two and they spin down on the inside, don't hit anything and continue, I don't think they throw the caution. But any time when there's contact and it doesn't matter how hard it is or not, when two cars hit each other hard enough and they're wrecking, you know,

and you have to throw it at that point. Kyle Larson going down through the grass and turn one. There's no debris. Not that big of a deal. Right. He got it sold down. There wasn't a threat there. And I thought actually to make a decision that quick and spot on like that,

they probably uh i mean brad probably isn't too happy about the nationwide race but or exfini race but he um you know that i thought they made a great decision if we're in that wreck the last thing i want is thank you is 20 cars come racing back around and del jr jr jr's sitting the track or got hit by a car and you know of course the guy's up second and third want everybody to race back but if your driver's in that wreck and you're sitting there you want and you don't know you want a safety worker there as quick as possible to make sure everybody's okay so safety first all the time. Yeah.

And not only that. I agree. I get NASCAR credit for this. That wreck happened coming out of turn two or in the middle of turn two. Yeah, right out of turn. Right out of turn. Now, they didn't throw the caution until our guys were in turn three and four. Yeah, it was, I called it in the middle of three and four.

So they did not do this gut reaction like, you know, spur of the moment, throw the caution. Oh, yeah. We want him to win. They actually, they assessed the situation. They let them run almost a half a lap before they did that caution. They gave it every opportunity to try to end that thing under green. I'm glad you feel that way. But when safety, listen, I know that cars, if they're coming back to the checkered flag,

then they're going to slow down. But you know what? You can't ask, you know, on a last time of day, you can't ask them to miss the debris, to miss, you know, possibly a car that nobody even sees down there. That's how accidents happen. They did not need another driver hurt this week. I'm glad you feel that way. I mean, I know you like carnage and qualifying for some crazy reason, Mike.

Qualifying, you just let them go. Single car incident, they don't hit anything. I agree with you. And what T.J. just said, safety first. Which is, listen, if you're all fired up about safer barrier or not being any safer barrier, or you sure as hell better one of the caution to be thrown. Thank you. Last year, there was a caution.

That was, they had the same thing as this year. They threw the cost for that, too. There was cars wrecking. You can't have people driving through there or not. They have to get the cars behind them slowed down. I mean, we could probably single-handedly thank Stephen Wallace for most of this, but well I can tell you this if they would have let that thing go green

and and just you know the 1% chance that somebody does get hurt on that oh you can't do it oh yeah the same people that are upset that they did that they threw the caution would be piling on NASCAR oh there's no question for letting a driver get hurt in that situation there were a lot of cars laying back

like way back still and if you don't call the caution some of those guys race for a living they're racing for their jobs and if they get one or two more spots it might be the difference between them running next week or keeping their job in that car. So if you put one of them guys in positions and the cost is not out, they're going to stay hammered down.

Daytona 500, man. Yeah. Good stuff. I'm glad you threw that in there. I am trained to be very entertaining and opinionated in a long-form program like this, which Amanda is very excited about producing this long-form program. You are extremely creative in 140 characters. I'm not.

I'm not very creative in 140 characters. That's why I don't tweet a lot. I do see everybody's tweets, though. You can tweet me at Taylor Z Radio. He'll just ignore you because he doesn't. No, I'm not going to ignore it. He sees it. He just doesn't know how to respond in 140 characters.

It's exactly right. But I was proud of myself for my tweet after the dual race when I said, hello, my name is Taylor's Ars. I loved it. I love Jesus, my family, and Dale Jr. mowing through an entire field of race cars. He was quite spectacular. Oh, my God. I had fun that race.

Yeah. And by the way, he was talking about safety after the race. after the race. TJ was still spotting when the race was over, by the way. Was I? Yeah, the car's on the track, and you were like, hey, watch out. I mean, he never stopped spotting, ever. I love it.

I will add one more thing to all this. Even if it goes green, I don't think Dale Jr. or Kevin Harvest went to the race. I don't either. I don't either, but I wanted to throw it out. They were not sucked up enough to make a work. No, they would have needed another. They wouldn't have another half a lap after that.

We are proud to have innovative eyewear brand spy on board with us here on download and if you haven't experienced their happy lens yet you need to go online to spyoptic dot com and check out dale junior signature spy 88 collection which of course has the happy lens it includes the dirty mo mo moy quanta general and fairer for the ladies inner discount code daytona at checkout just doesn't roll off and receive 20% off of your purchase are we going to switch this to Atlanta yeah well I was just wondering the powers it be haven't told me yet I don't know okay all right just going with Daytona baby all year long Daytona.

Yeah. Enter discount code, Watkins Glint. All right, it's time now for Reaction Theater. We had a good run today.

Junior was awesome. Greg Ives made a killer impression. We were doing so good. And Frikan NASCAR calls a caution.

What the what the f*** was that about? It was on the backstretch. Let us fucking race. We

were going to get to the line clean. Damn it, man. I think we would have had it. Congratulations, Joy LaGano. I hope Kyle Bush is okay. Good run, Junebug, and the 88 crew. We love you. There you go.

Somebody that disagrees with us, apparently. Yeah. Well, that's just because they want to see more racing. There's always more hope. It does suck that it ended under caution. Of course, Dele Earnhardt. Did it suck with Dale Earnhardt? Delirondon is only Daytona 500 under caution?

There's a difference when they're coming out of four, though. But, I mean, you've got to get safety vehicles out there. man, they made the right call. Yeah, they did. More on Kyle Busch coming up in just a second. Let's get to the next one. Okay, 10 minutes ago I called Reaction Theater, and I went on a big, long rant of tires in NASCAR.

And after one more bottle of intelligence juice, I've changed my entire thought process, and I have decided that I am starting the Safer Barrier Installation Company. And at $500 a foot, I'm going to donate $5.5 a foot. to the Dale Jr. Foundation, I should gross, by my calculations, about $80 million installing this safer. Once I get my first check from NASCAR, I want to drive the Dirty Moe Radio car at Texas Motor Speedway. That's my goal. Dale yeah, come on, Jr., help me out. Well, I love it. I think Datto needs more responsibility. Always. I'm always for

Datto getting more responsibility. Just one thing. Just one thing. We've all seen Dad, Dad, oh, know at Texas Motor Speedway. Have we not? Jock? Yes. I'm standing on with a cape. I don't want to put him in a race car.

With a Texas Motor Speedway. I do. A street stock or something. I want to put him in a demolition derby car to fare. I hope I get to go back to Texas Motor Speedway. I really, really love performance racing network. But every time I've been there, I've been working for them and running around like crazy. And he always taps me on the shoulder.

And he's having so much fun. And I'm like, God, I would love to hang out with this guy right now. Just real quick on the safer barrier thing. It has to be everywhere. on the track. Look, if you're going to make so much money, NASCAR's going to make so much money off television contracts, you can't with a straight face tell me there can't be safer barrier around the entire track. I appreciated Joey Chitwood and I appreciated NASCAR afterwards for saying we got an issue here, especially what Chitwood said. But to me, it's not the track president.

It's NASCAR. NASCAR, every single place they go needs to have safer barrier. Well, they don't usually have a wreck there. They had a wreck there. And Kyle Bush has a compound fracture in one leg and a broken leg in the other one. So put safer barrier everywhere. I don't care what sport we're talking about. It's 2015. Even the roof. With all the money you're making in every single sport. Yeah. Put safer barrier in front of T. Jay. So he doesn't fall off. Yeah, I want safer barrier everywhere. All right, who's next? Bull fucking shit race. NASCAR f***ed up the end. They should have never fucking pull up the

yellow flag. They should have let Kevin Harvick, Del Jr. and Joy Lagono race it to the line. Directing the back straight away. Bull fucking shit. They should have let them. go all the way to the finish line. Five beers. Maybe we need a line in three and four. In the middle of three and four instead of the start finish line on the white flag lap.

Maybe they got to cross this line in three and four before it's an official race. Okay. That's an interesting idea. You can throw the caution if you get to said point. Yeah, we'll just paint a line on the dead middle of three and four.

And if you cross that line, the race is over. Burn the track down as long as in the backstretched, fine. Yeah. No, you're saying before it's called in the first rate. In other words, until you get a line, you've got another green-white checker. Yeah. That way.

Instead of taking the white flag. Sure, that way, if two guys are race for the lead, man. Yeah, and I see what he's saying. They can finish the race. Who's next? Look, I know a lot of us are disappointed with third when we all feel like Dale had the car to beat today. I think it said a lot to me when I heard Dale on MRN after the race. And he put him to do that right after the finish like it ended up the way that it did.

It convinced me I needed to call in and say, Dale yeah. It's a long year, guys. So I hope everybody's ready for the ride because we're off to a great start. Everybody needs to keep that in mind. You know, he said it also on the TV interview on Fox as well. And I loved Samantha Bush and her post that she put on Facebook. And I loved your tweet. All I can think about is Kyle Bush. I'm happy for Reed and sorry for Keselowski and all this. All I can think about is Kyle Bush on Saturday. I was that way on Sunday. The amount of respect and outpouring a support. for him was off the charts and that was really cool. Yeah, I mean, even all rivalries aside and stuff, man.

I mean, you don't want to see that happen to somebody. Man, he's been, I don't, you know, I'm not really saying I'm a huge 18 fan, but he's been good for the sport over the years, man. He's been incredible for it. He's created a lot of rivalries, made us watch and made it interesting and stuff. He really has. All right, he was next. Well, this is the Dale.

Yeah, I've had about six or seven beers. I can't remember now, but Dale Jr.'s had a great couple weeks. to winning the duels and he finished third today that's really good i think you would have had it had not been for the caution but baby legano got the win i hope he enjoys it because that might be his last one of the year and junior's going to go win that championship i do drunk to sing right now so holla dude drunk to singhalla kicking that ass yeah i mean listen del yes singing man your opinion doesn't matter to it i'm not saying he does it but listen rick flair didn't come out there without his woo yeah del yes singing man if you're

going to call up, we got to hear a verse at least. I just love watching you laugh when he sings. I mean, God, listen, what you have to say means a lot to us, but I'd rather hear you sing. I agree. Who's next? Like to start off my saying, damn it feels good to have NASCAR back on Sundays. I had a hell of a car. Got shuffled and I think that kind of screwed us, but, hey, we still got three more plate tracks.

I know damn well, that car right there is going to win a race. before this year is over. And hey, what about all their other trucks? You know, down well, we're going to be good there, baby. Dale, yeah. I want to like to say, thinking about Kyle Bush, don't like the man, but I sure don't want to see nobody get hurt. Glad to see everybody doing good.

And we're heading to Atlanta to hopefully whip some ass, baby, over there. Hell yeah. There you go. I'm fired up there going to Atlanta, by the way. I know you guys, you know, have a big West Coast swing after that. It just makes so much more sense to me to go there next. Who's next? I don't know about you, but I boo the 22.

Oh, by the Lugano fans to bust out their clown shoes. If the yellow didn't fly, wouldn't be a win for you, but everything will be all right. When it comes case time and you lose. Jimmy Johnson, screw you too. Yeah, good race, Dale. Oh, my gosh. Does that guy have a neat name?

This guy, he's singing Taylor Swift, so I'm not going to throw that out. His verse is right. All right. We got to see. We got to see. We got to send that to JJ. He'll fall over if he hears that. Just throw a line in there just to say, screw you too, Jimmy.

Very well done, Mr. 22. Who's next? Yeah. Jimmy Johnson, draft with a f***ing teammate. Your teammate wants to draft with you. He will help you win the race. No, no, no. Let's draft with Joe Ligano.

That'll be fun. It'll make everybody happy. I love you, Dale, Jr. I thought I was waiting for, like, a bottle of Jack or something, but I didn't get that. Yeah. Yeah, two bottles of Jack. Yeah, something like that. Last call.

Wow. What a sucky finish to what was otherwise an awesome, awesome race. Man, when Junior got shuffled out there at the end, I thought he was done, but damn. E.J., I think you're the real winner this weekend. I mean, you got you. junior back to the front in Daytona. You helped him miss the big wreck in the expedite race. You helped Tyler Reddy get his first win in the truck series.

So, TJ, you the Ripple MVP. Hashtag two beers. I know I liked him. Send him a t-shirt, door bumper clear. Yeah. Make a new one for him. Yeah, you did. You crushed it, man.

You had a great week. And we're certainly all proud of you. We're proud to also have innovative eyewear brand spy on board with us. And remember that 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. Time now for It Takes the Nation presented by Nationwide. It is our second week of our new segment Takes a Nation, presented by Nationwide, and who do we

have in the studio today? That would be Christopher Allen. What's up, Christopher Allen? What do we call you? Tofer. Tofer. Now I know who you are. Just drop the Chris. Where did Tofer come from? Oh, man, we were in Daytona, probably 2002 maybe.

Went down before the July race, have a little fun, do whatever. We're all messing around, and here was some people calling me Chris, and they had, I'm saying some other names and whatnot, and actually, Junior tagged me with it. I'm not going to call you Chris. Oh. I ain't going to call you Christopher. We're just going to call you Tofer.

So this is Junior giving. Pretty much. Right on. What do you do here, Junior Motors. Carchey phone. number nine. Car chief number nine. You're car chief now. How about that? Graduated. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's a lot of responsibility, man. Yeah. Pretty fun so far. But not only are you car chief, but you are also, is this fair to say you are an original member of the

Dirty Mo Posse? I was. I mean, like, how many original members of the Dirty Mo Posse? Just so you guys know at home, Dirty Mo Posse being Dale Jr's original band of brothers, as buddies that grew up with, how long have you been a Dirty Mo Posse member? And how many original members are there? I'm thinking there's around six or seven. I came into it late. I came into it late in the game. You're not an original. Not an original, but I came into it around 2000.

Maybe the day you got a nickname is the day you became a Dirty Mo Possom. Could have been. Could have been that trip. That could have been my whole initiation. When and where did you meet Dale Jr.? I met him just right before. Actually, right after he started his first year, the Bush series in, Xfinity Series now. So 98?

Yep. Or before that, because he did do a part schedule the year before. It was the first year with the A.C. Delco car. Okay, so 98. We both had a mutual friend and made each other and just kind of hit it off. And it's kind of been history ever since. Well, you're a likable guy. Well, I try to be, you know.

You hit it off with just about everybody, right? Junior's no exception. You know, one of the things that I love about you is you pulled one of the all-time greatest pranks on Dale Jr. Years ago it happened. But it still, I don't think anybody's beating it. Well, what did you do? Well, it was a little bit of payback. Oh, it was a retaliation, I see.

Well, they antique myself. I'm laying in the bed, dead asleep, cold bucket of water, five-gallon bucket of water, just splash. I'm like, what the, what just happened? Yeah. And then, next hand, a bag of flour. Oh. Oh, yeah. So it wasn't just the water.

Hence, antiquing. Yeah, I got you. So, you know, there was three people involved. One guy, I turned loose, like 500. It's in his house. The guy got the sardines in the car, and I'm like, hmm, I don't know what I could do to do this guy, what I could do to junior. What do you do to junior? I mean, it's hard.

It's difficult. I had a friend of mine whose wife was pregnant at the time, take a pregnancy test, and then I just stashed it in his bathroom so he could find it. And he could kind of sweat it out for a little bit. And he did. And he did. He thought, he thought, uh-oh, I'm daddy. I'm a daddy. That was about the best one I could come up with him having somebody else clean up my mess.

What was his response to that? It was pretty funny. I don't know if I could say it on here. It was pretty funny. Did that make it even? Or did he come back? No, that was it. That was the last time.

He ain't messing with you no more. Well, I wouldn't say he won't ever again, but. I don't know, man. Like, you messed with his emotions at that point. It wasn't just a bag of flour, man. That was the only thing I could do. If I had done any other masks, you know, he'd had, you know, sunny or who not.

Whoever? Yeah. Hey, come clean this up. So give me one word answers here on people. I want to know what you think about it. One word answers or maybe two words. I'll give you another word. Dale Jr.

Dale Jr. is what? Good friend. Good friend. Chase Elliott is. Legacy. Legacy. Regan Smith is. Stand up.

T.J. Majors is. Nice going. I mean, I got to come up with a going on this one. Take a time. He is an entrepreneur, maybe. Is he? Well, you know, he's got a little t-shirt thing going on. He's all the time coming up with an hour.

How about this? How about this? Great dad. I would have said short. But then great dad would have probably been my second one. Short with a tall ego. Yeah. The Georgia Bulldogs are.

Awesome. Number one, bud. There you go. You know, for Dale Jr. to be successful, it takes a lot of people around him to help him. It takes a nation. And Tofer, you've been around him for a long time, not just on the friendship level, but also working with him. When did you start at Junior Motorsports? I started here when the doors opened.

That's right. So you're original with JR Emmer. I am an original JRM. So you've been around. Just last question. You could work other places. You have worked at other places. You were at Penske.

You were on the Cup deal at Penske. Why junior motorsports? Why are you still here? Primarily just because the way the place works and the way they treat you. You know, Penske, I felt like I was just a number. It's pretty cool to work for one of your good friends. Yep. And I mean, I feel like he's always had my back.

And I've had other job. But, you know, I just feel real loyal to this place. Good thing, too, because if you pull the prank that you pulled and you're just not one of the family, then I don't know if you're still employed after that, right? Hey, somebody needs to pull his card. That's right. Tofer, I appreciate it. And everyone out there, be sure to follow Nationwide on Facebook and on Twitter at Nationwide 88 for behind the scenes coverage of all things, Dale Jr. Nationwide is on your side, and they happen to have debuted one of the coolest commercials that I think I've ever seen Dale Jr. be involved with this past.

weekend. That was pretty awesome. Did you see it? I did. And it's got our buddy Sean and Sunny in it, which is kind of cool. But that's just a phenomenal job of nationwide on this commercial. And so very exciting stuff. All right, folks, that was the Take a Nation segment. We got it each week here on the download. Now remember, we got all these other podcasts going on. Mike and the gang done such a great job with it. Two-time Daytona 500 champ. Michael Waltrip is on with Kelly on Fastlane Family, presented by Wella Professionals. That's Wednesday. Then on Thursday, if you haven't heard it yet, Check out Dirty Moe Radio's new podcast, Junior Motorsports Up Front, with co-host Regan Smith and Heath White.

Reagan had an eventful week, huh? He did. He had a very eventful week. He was in the 41 in the cup car. Made some new friends. On Sunday, yep. Obviously, Saturday as well in the Xfinity series. He's sporting a good-looking beard as well.

Regan's got his race coming up on, or his show, rather, coming up on Thursday. You can also keep up with Alladale Jr.'s press conference. throughout the year on said junior presented by nationwide. Of course, don't forget about the Monday recap. Presented by Spies, a recap, the full weekend from the Junior Motorsports Exhibiting Truck and Late Mile teams as well as Dale's Sprint Cup series run in Atlanta. Now Mike Davis will get to sponsor it this week. Let's throw the white flag.

White flag right there, white flag. I actually was going to ask TJ. TJ, do you want to have a presenting sponsor for White Flag this week? Anybody you need to take care of? Anybody want to salute this. What company? Best Buy? Spy optics.

Oh, we're going to double down on the door bumper clear t-shirt when I make more. All right. So this white flag is brought to you by the door bumper clear spy optic t-shirt when he makes more. There you go. Del Junior's Daytona. Get yours when he makes more. Del Junior's Daytona gloves are now up for auction on the Dale Junior Foundation's eBay site. You can go there or you can go to Facebook.com backslash the Dale Junior Foundation.

The the is very important in this. It's just not Dale Jr. Foundation, Taylor. It's the Dail Jr. Foundation. All the links and info will be there. Dale Jr. is auctioning off a pair of his race worn gloves each month throughout the race season, and the proceeds will go to a whole bunch of different charities. All right. Not a lot scheduled this weekend.

You want to know why? Why? We thought we were going to win the Daytona 500. Oh. Maybe, like, the superstitious people would prefer us to go ahead and schedule stuff this week, and maybe, you know, we actually will cut up through there with 19 to go. If you and I can go to New York instead if you want. I mean, we ought to do it.

Just bust in on Letterman. Hey, guy. Oh, my bad. No, yeah. Hey, say, Joey, what's up? Anyways, Del Jr. will be testing at Atlanta on Thursday with the rest of the Sprint Cup series as they prepare for the race weekend. Just so you know, Dale Jr. will be driving the Kelly Blue Book paint scheme this week. He'll have a Kelly Blue Book appearance Sunday morning.

So, Taylor, if you want to know the value of your truck, just get Del Jr. to ask them for you. Okay. Or you can go to KBB.com. KB.com. I got it. It's a lot more simple than the region. The Dale Jr Foundation.org. KBB.com for Kelly Blue Book.

Got it. All right. Both Cup practices and qualifying will be televised on Fox Sports 1 this weekend. So 2 is the Exfinity Series race on Saturday. Junior's not in that one, but Regan Smith, Chase Elliott, and Kevin Harvicar. On Sunday, Fox will carry the running of the Honor Quick Trip 500 from Atlanta Motor Speedway. And lastly, about Regan Smith, if you saw yesterday, he was announced to be in the 41 car again this weekend at Atlanta. I might last a while.

They announced that it's just going to be for the Atlanta race for now. They're just taking it one week at a time, but Regan will be back in that car. Good for him. There you go. Cup racing for Regan. Good stuff from White Flag. DJ, my man, go get us a win in Atlanta. Appreciate you as always.

Thanks to Miss Amanda and thanks to Mike Davis as well as Dale Earnhardt Jr. I'm Taylor Zarser. You've been listening to the Dale Jr. Download. to buy spy. Thanks for listening to Dirty Moe Radio. Well, that's a wrap on week two of the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy. I hope you guys are enjoying our 2015 programming. Now head to Spyoptic.com and check out Dale Jr. Signature 88 collection of Spy sunglasses. They're pretty cool. They have the happy lens. And if you go there and punch in the code Daytona at checkout, you'll receive 20% off your purchase.