The Dale Jr. Download - 95 - Dover: Comin' In Hot

Episode Date: June 2, 2015

After an up and down day for the No. 88 team in Dover, Dale Earnhardt Jr. weighs in on the 14th place finish; Pocono President Brandon Igdalsky calls in; Junior's actual Nationwide Insurance agent Steve Cook joins It Take's A Nation. 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. Okay, well, we paint here, we're going to have no fueler. I want Travis Mac to go fix the right rear. No fueler. Get all you can get, Travis. You might want to get the trunk up. Step far, you got a Spider-Man mask on. You're now listening to the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy.

Check out Dale Jr.'s signature dirty-mow sunglasses from Spy at Spyoptic.com. Hey, everybody. It's Jr. I just got home from Dover. not exactly the result we won obviously 14th isn't very good but um taking stock in the whole day I think we had a really fast car we passed a lot of cars I think we passed probably more cars than most guys except for the first you know the leaders of the 7 8 and the 4 and a couple of guys run up front definitely had some speed we thought we had a couple good runs in practice

that we liked so we looked at the setup there and added a few things we thought that would help and took off and started the race. That first run we got lapped. I got kind of hung up behind a lot of cars and couldn't pass them. Really didn't have that good at speed at that particular point either, so I can't blame it all on the dirty air, but we just had to take some wedge out of the car to get it to turn and then I thought we had a really good race car. So from that point on, we worked real hard to get our laps back and we ended up doing that. Greg did a good job with his strategy and choosing when to pit and what to do. I also felt like we continued to improve the car so Greg was made some good adjustments. Eventually, trying to get on

the pit road there, sped in the first segment, just got in there real hot. I needed to put a lot more front brake in the car coming to pit road. I got down in the turn three lifting and got on the brakes and the car turned sideways and I couldn't get the car slowed down without spinning out. So it ended up coming there real hot and just need more front break and maybe lift a little sooner But trying to get everything we can you know we can be really aggressive with pretty much everything we do Since we have the wind and we're locked into the chase and sometimes that's gonna sometimes that's gonna bite us and it bit me to date After that we just you know worked real hard to get everything else we could out of the race ended up gaining a bunch more spots and getting back into the top

15 there but definitely had a much better car top five car for sure so starting in the back you know definitely made things difficult for us so I'm pretty happy with the speed in the car once we found out we were starting in the back I really rode off the result no matter what it was and just wanted to make sure we had good speed because that track is where we really stumbled last year in the chase so we need to run better there for sure later in the season and I think we got a good baseline or something good that'll work so you know I like the tire good year brought a little bit

different tire and I thought the tire did really good it's definitely not the perfect tire yet but they're going in a better direction I think so that was real positive it put down a lot of rubber something we don't really you know see it a lot of tracks it rubbed up really well and they were like real tire marbles and, you know, tire of debris out on the track instead of just powder or nothing at all. So that was pretty good. And, you know, Dover didn't have a whole lot of cautions. That makes it difficult when you get behind, trying to be able to get caught up and race some people for the lucky dog and stuff.

But it is what it is. I like asphalt racetracks a whole lot better. But I still had fun driving the car. You know, I hate a fowl up there. and screwed up coming on the pit road and disappointed to guys and we just worked so hard to get all that

ground back and get back on the lead lap and I sort of screwed it all up so that's difficult to deal with but you got to put it behind you to be able to move on to the next event and we're going to some tracks where I think we can do really well so I'm looking forward to it. I mean every week

I'm really excited about what we got going on because of how well Greg's doing and all the guys are really fired up. So we'll, you know, we had some issues with our oil line in practice at the rear end and the gear and they'll address all that stuff. At least it seems like we've got all the vibrations fixed as far as shifters breaking and stuff like that.

So you fix one problem, another one crops up and you fix that one. We'll keep on, keeping on. All right, enjoy the download, guys. Y'all take it easy and have a good week. Appreciate you, Jr. with T.J. with Amanda with Mike. I'm Taylor, and this is the Dale Jr. Download presented by. spy. I love how he always starts. Hey, everybody is junior.

I love just introduces himself. As he's sitting in the bathroom. I was going to say, can we rule out the fact that he didn't record that in the bathroom? No, we cannot rule it out. We could absolutely rule it in. I'm telling you, I've been in that house, and that sounds like the bathroom. It does. There's a little bit of an echo.

Echo, echo. And there, maybe not the most radio-friendly room in the home, but, hey, that's all right. Like you said, there's some really good news to talk about moving forward. there is the chance to win three consecutive races at the same place coming up this weekend, which is really cool. There's some confidence that I think everybody should have for the next time they go to Dover and how hard the team competed, how hard he competed, how hard you competed, T.J. yesterday to get as many positions as they could.

That's the good news. The bad news is, man, there was just a lot of adversity. adversity starting in the back, adversity losing a lap, trying to gain that lap back, and then speeding on pit road. There was a lot of adversity yesterday. I feel like I don't even know how we finish 14th.

I really don't. That's like a 25th place day. If you were to look on paper and say, okay, you're going to speed, you're going to start in the back, you're going to speed, you're not going to get the lucky dog for this many cautions and you did all that. I think that's crazy to be 14th.

No, he's right. Mike, he really is. Like, to TJ's point, most people would finish 25th. Right. And there was adversity. I mean, there was adversity even from the day before. Yeah. But, and I remember I tweeted that.

And a lot of people were like, no, it wasn't adversity. He just screwed up. Well, all right. So that's part of the adversity. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, he just told you. Yeah.

Fowled up. Right, right. It's one of them. It's okay. I mean, we can admit that. But here's what I started wondering. And I posed this question to you guys, and I even wanted to be curious to know what the fans think.

If you had to choose, okay? Would you prefer Dale Jr. be aggressive and get caught, let's say, two times speeding for a season on pit road, where you know you're basically kind of giving up a chance, certainly for a win, but probably for a top 10. So two times or just be passive where you know that you will not get any speeding penalties. And the thing I pose that question for is that a lot of people put onus on the pit crew if they get out, if they gain positions or lose positions. But that actually, that's a process that also. also includes the driver getting in and out.

No, I would much rather prefer him being aggressive. And he said that. We're going for wins. We already have a win. We're locked in the chase. We're going for more wins, so absolutely not. It worked out last year. We got more wins being the way, being aggressive than we did just ride around hoping it came to us.

We were better off going after it than we were sitting around waiting for it. I think you have to qualify your question, though. Do you already have a win when you ask that question? Or are you Martin Truex Jr.? And you are top five in everybody to death? every week, but you haven't won a race. See, now, I think that definitely matters, because if you're in our situation and we've got to win, I think you have the ability to be more aggressive.

Yeah. And if you're Truex, I don't think you do. Yeah, I mean, like, Truex. Let's just say that Truex is, he's basically locked in. I mean, I was going to say, he's getting really close to being locked in. He's basically locked in. Okay. He has the most points of anybody that hasn't won't race.

He could put an arrow in his foot hunting, and he's still going to get locked in. Which is possible. Yeah. But if he puts, if he gets, if he speeds on. pit road, then I think people that are on the 78 team start freaking out because they think, golly, man, we need a win. Right. You know, so, no, it is.

It definitely stings worse, obviously, if you haven't had a win. But, you know, I just kind of go. It's harder for him now, though. You know that, right? It's harder for Truex to get a win because he is on one set strategy. He can't, he can't vary that much like we can. Like, all these guys that have wins, you've got the four, the 488, all these other fast cars have wins.

Yeah. We can shoot for the. stars and we're normally on a lot of times we're on opposite strategies. You know what I mean? We have different scenarios and it's hard for Truex to overcome that. It's going to get harder too as it goes on. I think there's two things we need to talk about. One is the confidence that people have going back to that place moving forward because of how

competitive the car was. I think anyone that is level-headed and objective that watch the race would say they would agree with Dale Jr. That was a top five car in terms of competitive it was and practice how competitive it was, etc. All right, so I want to get to that in a second. I want to talk about the communication problems yesterday, though. T.J, what was going on with your radio?

I had trouble communicating. I have no idea. I have no idea what happened with my radio with him. I guess it lasted. I'm almost thinking maybe we talked on each other a couple times, but I don't, man, I didn't, you know, I tried, you know, had backup stuff ready, but nothing changed. Like, I don't have any idea. A lot of times, man, we go to these places, and I have a little, I can,

hold my radio up and it has like a little cell phone signal and if i can see that that means it's picking up something like there's something close to our frequency like it's whether it's you know the construction worker or the you know people out in the parking lot they're close and we go to places sometimes like phoenix i can hear people talking about cleaning bathrooms and they don't hear it but i'm that's probably because you're in the bathroom t j when you hear that that was a bad example so in fairness t j doesn't like to go into the bathroom to use the bathroom that's true That's why I like night races. But if that little thing shows up on my radio, that means it's picking up something.

And, you know, a lot of times if I key up and they're talking to, he might not. Maybe he's not getting it, you know? So that was a problem yesterday. Now, let's talk about Dale Jr. speeding, which he has taken total accountability for, and he was trying to get too much as he goes down there into segment number one. There was even some communication problem there. Now, it was kind of late on the lap when Greg said, pit this time. Do you think that had anything to do with it? And then during that stop,

Junior said a couple of times, on the jack, on the jack, on the jack, and he got no response. So I just wondered if there was any communication problems there. Yeah, I don't feel like there's communication problems. Obviously, there's still, you know, Greg's still learning. No, I don't mean, I just, I just mean, I'm not saying radio frequency. Yeah, no, I don't think, there's just a lot going out at them times. I don't think you should be able to tell the driver in middle one and two if you're pitting that time and he should be fine and i think that's about when gregg told us was we were going into one when gregg told us i think and um i because i remember checking the distance in the cars behind us and who and i was going to

have to try to wave off real quick and it wasn't a threat to us really of getting hit but like i honestly i felt like we would have that's our worst track for pitting and we didn't everything got rushed in practice with the with the gear deal and all that and we didn't get it didn't go to our playing. Everything kind of got rushed and it got scrambled and we were trying to get adjustments in on the car and we didn't get to a lot of guys, I don't know if you got to see Pratt. They show it much on TV but a lot of guys make four or five attempts at it and it takes that long to get to where you know where to slow down because you pit right off the racetrack. You don't you don't slow down and I mean this is probably the most difficult place to get to

pit road, one of them, you know, one of the, one of the hardest. And if you don't, if you don't make four or five attempts at it, you're not going to have a good point. It's hard to get them. And so many people in practice kept missing it. Like they took numerous attempts. I saw the five miss it a handful of times, the two had a bunch of trouble. And he's usually pretty good at getting the pit road. The 18 missed it too. He's one of the better ones. But they took them numerous attempts in practice too, and we never really got to get comfortable in practice for it. It was crazy, but I just want to clarify. I don't think there are any communication Proxing Greg and Dale or with you.

I just wondered about the radio frequency communication issue. No, I don't think there's one. Yeah, all right, well, good. That's good to know moving forward. Like I said, Mike, I mean, I don't, again, I don't want to be a homer here, but I hope they have that kind of, I hope they roll out the same kind of car that's that competitive, and they make the same sort of adjustments with the wedge like they did after the first run.

If they do, the 88's going to have a chance to win the next time they go to Dover. Yeah, Jimmy Johnson might have something to say about that. And for the life of me, I don't know why tires don't matter to Jimmy Johnson. It's Dover. That's another whole topic. Yeah. But yeah, that was the top five car. I think we all can agree on that.

And I saw some passes that Dale Jr. made. TJ, you want to speak to that? There was a three-wide pass. There's two three-wide ones. Yeah. The first one earlier was, I was like, that was awesome. Yeah. It was awesome.

But it's stuff like that's like stuff that gets all of us. Like that, you know, tells you that, you know, we might be 20. fifth right now, but I mean, we're trying. He's digging. Yeah. And that's what I like to see. I like to see Junior driving a good car that way. And then it makes me feel like, you know what, I'd rather see an aggressive Dale Jr.

Oh, yeah. On pit road, on the racetrack on anything. Dale Jr. has a chance to win for the third time in a row at Pocono. Brandon Igdowski, the track president at Pocono, joins us to talk about, Junior not going for a Pocono sweep. Jr. going for a three-peat in Pocono. Brandon, how are you? I'm good, guys.

How are you? Brandon, my man. We're coming to see you this weekend. I can't wait. Shrveling snow all winter waiting to get you guys back here. I mean, you know what? If Pocono Raceway's become our favorite racetrack to go to, is that because Dale Jr. was winning there?

Is that because Brandon Igdowski is the president? All the above. Okay. I got you. Well, we got some questions for you, buddy. First of all, I saw a... picture of you this past weekend and a pink shirt at Dover. What is the story behind that?

Actually, it's Dale's fault. Why is it Dale's fault? Of course it's Dale's fault. He was our team captain for the Dover versus Poconos softball game, and we lost. And that was the bet that I had with Mike Detoing, the president down there, was that the loser had to come to the other person's track and wear a t-shirt and do all kinds of awful things. Okay, way to be a team player there, Brandon, because, you know,

Did Dale Jr. go 0 for 4 or something? I mean, did he just not contribute? He played, no, he did a great job, but he was team captain. He always goes to. Oh, that's true. I guess so. I guess you've got to take some ownership in that if you're captain. That was actually a great day, and I know all the fans,

we had about a thousand fans in attendance for that, and he did a great job with the fans. He took time out of his schedule and sat there and signed autographs, took pictures, so no, it was great having there, and he was all concerned. He was going to be all awkward swinging the bat, And he got a single in his first shot, I believe. His finger was a double, so he did pretty well.

Can you be for sure that Dale Jr. didn't throw that just so you could wear a pink shirt? He may have. That's what we most people call that a bun. You know, it's still gave me the choice. He said, black, white, or pink. And I said, if we're doing it, let's go pink. There you go. Well, he did it.

You're man of your word, so you got it done. I wore it all day yesterday. So it was nice. Brandon, this is Taylor. I want to know this. when you go to Daytona or Talladega or Martinsville or a place in the South or the Deep South, we know what kind of reaction that brings to Dale Jr. winning. What kind of reaction is there at Pocono Raceway when the 88 crosses the start-finish line first

and does it in back-to-back races? What was that like last year? Exactly the same as it is in Talldega. No, honestly, it really was. I mean, the place he takes the lead, and it's like, you know, any track anywhere, the place that goes bonkers, and it was the same thing here last year, you know, watching fans' reaction, and then to see him do it a second time, and now to be, you know, trying to go for what only, what, two drivers have ever accomplished,

we've went three in a row. It's going to be quite a feat if he could do it. All right, so what are you going to do if he does it? I feel like if you went three in a row at a track, you start getting maybe statue discussions, Something has to be done. Something has to happen, right, T.J. I'll get a trophy. He's got one of those.

Yeah, I mean, like, that's a good point, Mike, because you've got to, like, Bristol Motor Speedway, and there's, like, the Rusty Wallace Grandstandings. That's right. Does he get a grandstand name after him? Yeah. The Dale Jr. Tunnel turn. The Dale Jr. Tricy Triangle. That's it.

Yeah, what are naming guys? We got an unnamed Stewart plan down in turn to run. I'll take that. That's a good point. point, though, you know, you got that solar field out there behind the track. Maybe that's, that gets Dale's name on it, right? He does like solar panels. He can have one. Okay, so he gets

one of the panels. It's like naming a star after the deal. We can make one whole row. Like, we'll take the 88th row and we'll name that in Dale Jr. What about a road? Do you not have any new access roads or something? That's a good point. We like, is there a road sign that when you turn into the tunnel? Can it be like Dale Jr. drive?

It's already Earnhard Road. Oh, okay. The road is already on hard road, technically. You know, listen, I mean, with all due respect to Dale Earnhardt Sr., who everybody loves. Can you just put a J and an R? Hey, I got it. What if you put a road sign entering the motorhome lot and be like, Dale Jr.'s lot? You know what I mean?

Just something. Just so all the competitors. Junior's way? Yeah, Junior's Way. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, call it in Junior's way. We're brainstorming here on ideas, but obviously we're pumped to see the 88 and hope he's back in Victory Lane and make some history there at Pocono.

Tell us about ticket information. I know you guys want to see a big crowd. and I'm sure expecting a big crowd this weekend. Yeah, so far it's shaping up pretty good, and the weather looks pretty good. So Poconoracet.com, our operators are happy to help anybody find the perfect selection of items. And I believe Dale Jr. is also speaking at doing a Q&A at our tricky triangle club, so there's a great little add-on package there for fans that come out for the races.

But picket-tricky, tric-tricky.com or 1-800 raceway, it's that simple to get tickets. It's tricky to say. It is so tricky, but that's pretty cool that 1-800 raceway is his number. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot. I gobbled that up like a minute, 800 numbers went from sale years and years ago. Well, I mean, listen, in Pennsylvania, O'EGdowski here pretty much has his run of the place. Yeah.

I'm going to say, don't be bad because, you know, I was born in Pennsylvania. Okay. You were born in Pennsylvania? Yeah, Western. Do you consider this kind of a little bit of a homecoming? Yeah, a little bit. Did Brandon, I think maybe a, you know, a cake or something for T. Travis James Major's.

Yeah, that's something we get. We win. How about a cake, man? You're from Western PA, TZ? That's where I was born, and I grew up near Buffalo, but I got all my families in Western Pennsylvania. I didn't even know that. Yeah.

Pocono, I mean, honestly, it's become one of my favorite tracks, too, to go to. It's just a friendly place to go. The area surrounding is nice. There's awesome little places to go around there. It's just been the infields fun. I mean, we cruised the infield a couple times. I remember when we drove through there? We did last year, as a matter of that.

It was pretty interesting, man. But it's an awesome place to go. And the racing has been unbelievable the last few years. It's really, I know that you've got to be fired up about that, Brandon, all the storylines you've had there, gosh, in the last handful of years. Yeah, it's been pretty great. And since the repave in 2012, it's just been unbelievable. Yeah.

I think with a combination of the new asphalt, dropping the 400 miles, it just really puts some, you know, some hard racing together, and given the fans a great thing. But yeah, you're right, this area is just, it's a tremendous area. And, you know, we've got two new huge resources that are opening up this year. And this whole, the whole Pocono Mountains are just floating right now. And it's nice to be part of that as, you know, this area grows and to be a big contributor to what this area means for the state and tourism and all that stuff.

But, yeah, I mean, if your fans coming in, it's not just about coming for the races. We've got, you know, all kinds of great water parks and adventure parks and all kinds of good fun stuff to take advantage of now. And I know you guys sneak out every once in a while and go play some paintball. So I think we're working on that for you guys for round three. So I just don't want to see anybody get hurt out there running around the woods. That's right. Well, let me just tell you something.

You mentioned the word resort. I wish you could have seen. TJ's eyes just light up. Where you got up, man? I'm talking like heart-shaped bathubs. You know, it's funny. All the resorts are opening up now are these big, massive water parks and convention centers.

And, you know, I joke that all the kids that were conceived in the heart-shaped tub and not bringing their kids to the water parks. There's obviously some connection with water for a lot of people that, you know, were originally hanging out here in the Poconos. One man that won three in a row there, the late great Tim Richmond probably would have loved the heart-shaped bathtubs. He might have. He might have loved that.

Well, we're wishing for a great weekend this weekend there at Pocono Raceway, 1-800 raceway for tickets as the tricky triangle presented by Dale Jr. will be on display and the resort presented by Travis James Majors. They'll also be on display this weekend. Brandon, thanks so much for joining us, my friend. I hope you have a great weekend. Thank you, I, see you this weekend. Brandon Nygdowski, the track president at Pocono, here with us on the show.

It's pretty cool, man. We've got guests lined up on the program. He's a great guy. He really is a great guy. He is full of energy. Yeah, he's one of those track presidents that just knows everybody in the garage, wants to just, wants to be out there talking to the fans. Everybody likes him too.

Yeah, he's a good guy. All right, I hope my wife is not listening to this next part because our anniversary is June 21st, which according to the world is the official start of summer. But Amanda has it written in here that last weekend was the official start to summer. Maybe it's the unofficial. It's the unofficial start Memorial Day weekend. I thought it was in the middle of June. June 21st is the summer solstice, I believe.

That's the longest day of the year, right? I get a lot of credit for marrying my wife on the first day of summer. But, hey, the last weekend was the official start of summer. That was totally by accident. Don't act like you, like, I want to marry you, darling, on the longest day of the year so I can enjoy it. I wish you could have seen my face. She said, we're getting married the first day of summer. I was like, what are you talking about?

It's like in May sometimes. I had no idea. Anyway, so now's the time to get yourself set up with a new pair of shades. Go online to spyoptic.com and check out all of Dale Jr.'s signature Spy 88 collection. It includes the Dirty Moe McCoy, Quanta, General, and Farah for the ladies. Once at checkout, enter discount code nationwide 88 and receive 20% off of your purchase. Are you taking her anywhere? I will actually be in Seattle for the U.S. Open, but the whole family's coming out.

After that, we're going to do a little west coast trip. I was going to send her to Pocono. You know what? Actually, we were talking about this the other day, and we might need some help in Sonoma. Because we'll be out that way for Sonoma. So we might come see you, T.J. I'll be around. All right.

Easy weekend for me, man. There you go. Yeah, that's right. You got some help. Sit on a hill. It's Sonoma. It's time now for reaction theater. Do you?

Yeah. Fall all day. In the end, came up 14th. Damn good points day. Wait a minute. Points don't matter. Let's get some more wins. Come on, guys.

Let's get this shit together and get him and win some more races. I know you can do it. You're the best damn team out there. Best crew on pit road. Best guy on top of that pit box. Maybe, T.J. You're the best spotter.

Maybe. Damn good driver. Best driver out there. Dare ya. Let's get out there. Let's kick some ass. On the upside, though, Hamlin, wrecked.

Biffel, wreck. Thank God. Can't stand those two. Some, grab both on wrecked. Come on, guys. Let's get it together. Get ready for Pocono. Let's go for a three-peat.

Dale, yeah. Hashtag nine beers. It's a tough day for Gibbs yesterday. Yes, it was. Wow, how about Hamlin's wreck? He was coming, wasn't he? No? I don't know.

I wasn't really where we were running at the time, so I couldn't really. He was coming. I thought he got past. I thought he was getting past. No, no, he was coming. Well, remember this was just after that restarted, and it got jumbled up somehow. Yeah. But I was shocked.

that he got wrecked. TJ's maybe the best spotter. I like that. Yeah, maybe. I'll try harder next week. Do you know I got a tweet during the race that said TJ's going to be the first spotter in the NASCAR Hall of Fame? Oh, God.

Hey. What do you want me to argue that? No, I mean, like, I consider blocking the people just because I can't have that. I can't have that on my timeline. You're going to block that person for being so smart. Amanda, can you imagine that it? Seriously, I hope TJ does make it into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He would have

He would have four inappropriate remarks just in his acceptance speech I would have a camera I would video Amanda Wolfmeyer just watching T.J. Major's giving acceptance speech. Yeah, Periscope. Amanda's foreface would be, oh my God.

I'd have to buy a suit, I think, wouldn't I? Embarrassing. Who's next? All right, you listen to me, okay? I am so fucking tired of seeing that 48 and victory life.

And I'm part of seeing the four behind him every week. It's one two all, every, every, every fucking week. One, two. Junior had a, you know, rough day, but come back top 15. Not too bad, especially considering all that that happened. But my fucking Jimmy Johnson, hashtag eight beers. Hey, listen, I think a lot of people out there probably feel the same way. It's, it's, they don't like how good those guys are.

They don't like how good Jimmy Johnson is. They're tired of how good he is. It has nothing to do with him personally. I don't know how you could dislike him personally if you got to know him. But it's just the matter of sick and tired of watching him win races. But they've been phenomenal. But I've got a prediction for you, TJ. You ready for this?

Yeah, let's hear. I'll make this bold statement. Oh, no. At the beginning of June. You ready? Here we go. Neither one of them are going to win the championship this year. Jimmy Johnson or Kevin Harvard.

Neither one of them are going to win the championship this year. Will they be in the top four? You heard what I said. I heard what you said. I'll remember that one. I don't. I hope you're going to. Right.

Yeah, I do too. Neither one of them, Amanda, are winning the championship. I'm on record. You know why? You know who's going to win it? And this is when I want to see. I want to be around Taylor. Kyle Busch will win.

If Calhubon was a championship, I will burn down Canapolis. I told Taylor before we started this show that if Kyle Bush wins a race this year, like we all think he will and gets into the chase, I think he will. I want to be around Taylor when that happens. I like, I don't have anything against him personally. It's just the fact that he's eligible for the championship is crazy. You know what? So that way, if he wins the championship.

My man, Slingerland was in here a few weeks ago. He's on my side on this. You know what? That means if I get in the Hall of Fame, man, I might be able to the All-Star race or something. Amanda, T.J. is not going to be able to get past this. I'm going to be able to the All-Star race, that shootout in Daytona, the Sprint Unlimited. I'm being at all. Do we need to get the Director of the Hall of Fame on next week to plead your case?

Yeah. You know, they have the eye-racing stuff set up. up there and they have me as a spotter on there too. So, okay. It's like I'm already there. Okay, you'll be in the iraicing hall of fame. I'm already there. Who's next? So every time that Greg makes a mistake or

a pit crew guy makes you mistake and get a loose wheel, everybody on Twitter and everybody on reaction theater, calling for their heads saying, oh, we've got to get rid of them. Oh, this week it was old Junior's fault. So I'm thinking next week we ought to boot him out, put him on the spotter stand, let Pete may drive a car. Yeah, I'm just joking.

No, you're not. But it was a rough day. I really liked the calls they made to keep him out those couple times. It worked out the first time to get back on the lead lap. It didn't work the second time. You know what, though? You're going to have those weeks. Let's go make it three in a row at Pocono.

Oh, yeah. We actually had joked around before about running the Pocono Raka race. In one of the old cars they would have laying around there, we would joke around about it and stuff. And I don't think I would let him spot for me. Why? I would rather have you do. it. Me? Yeah. I would...

I've spotted two cup races before. See, I would rather have... I'd rather have Taylor do it or you do it. Well, Taylor definitely would sound better. Amanda can do it for all I can. You're just worried about his concentration? What's the deal? I don't know if I could deal with listening. Who's next? Hey, Mama said there'd be days like this, there'd be days like this.

Mama said, hey, FAPFSA, Jr., the way to come back and battle five or six years ago, you would have just given up and rode around on the back. Proud of you. Dale, yeah. I don't know about that. I was proud of the fact they finished 14th. Like T.J. said, I mean, nobody wants to finish 14th.

But given the circumstances, they absolutely probably should have finished 25th. I'm telling you, if you were to put Doverdown and put everything that happened in that day, there's no way you would write finish position. 14th estimate. But one thing I want to tell you guys that you don't know about is we had our struggles over the weekend. We were fast and we had that problem in happy hour. But, you know, our, you know, junior took, say, he'd messed up.

But it doesn't, you know, we don't, we're not blaming it on him. We go down as a team too. You know, it's not his fault. You know, he made a mistake, but we're not holding him to it. You know, we're already ready for Pocono. You know, we fight all day as a team. You know, we had a mistake in practice, and it cost a little bit of time, and we had to change stuff and go to the back.

but that's nobody, you know, we're not holding anybody. That's all of us. You know, we're all at one. So that's one strong point about this group is, you know, we're all, we're a whole. And you can really tell with our group in the holler and stuff and the rogue guys and stuff. We are a tight-knit group, and there's no, you know, animosity or anything towards anybody. If somebody has a problem, we pick that person up and stick with them. It's really cool.

Who's next? I don't know how we can be lucky enough. to start last, go a lap down, go around and get back on the lead lap, see inside the top ten, and then shoot ourselves in the b-hs by titting early. We could have rode around. We had plenty of gas.

We'd have had everybody a lap down caution coming out there. No, we're going to pit with the leaders, because we're so smart. Now look at us. We've got a hole in our d'-de-and-we're three laps down. I'm a-k-a. I chose this call because I appreciate that he's, he's into this race, but I don't think he's actually correct.

No, no. We stretched it every time. We pitted when he was running out of gas. His comment was, I'm running out, here I come. I don't know how you can. We stretched it both times we had to. The second time was harder because there was guys that had the same amount of fuel that we did that were a lap and head of us.

Could he be talking about when they're towards the late stages of the race? The caution came out and they were talking about a wave-around, but then they didn't. But then they did pit because they couldn't do it. Could he possibly be talking about that when he pitt with the leaders? Yeah, we never had an opportunity again. No, I know, but you remember this. I do, too.

I can assure you that if there is anything that could have been done to gain more laps, it would have been done. We have a whole lap to figure out what leaders stayed out. And every time I watched it happen, I mean, I'm counting, I'm telling Greg, we had no opportunity to get a lap back. None. No, I know. Well, again.

Thanks for calling. Just remember. That car didn't finish 25th. It finished 14th because the driver was fighting his heart out in there and because it was a damn good race car. We didn't get lucky to get. He drove through the field not once but two or three times to get to the top. And the fastest car on the track, numerous laps.

I mean, it was just as fast as the 18 or the 11 or the 78. That was a fast race car. Who's next? Great effort trying to get back up there. Mistakes were made, but they battled hard to get that finish. My biggest question is, is the NASCAR rulebook written in pencil or what? Two weeks ago, that wouldn't have been a big deal. They could change the rear gear, stayed where they were.

All that hard work would probably put them in the top five. Instead, NASCAR, like any other major sport, has to change rules every time you turn around. It's no wonder people are always coming up with failing inspection and everything else because nobody knows what the hell's going on. NASCAR just decides on a whim to change stuff. But anyway, good job by those guys. Maybe next year, the midway through the year, the NFL will make it, Fieldgo work four points.

Well, they are changing the extra point next year. It's true. It's going to be a 32, 33 yard extra point next year. Yes, it's going to actually matter now. And a two-point conversion, they're moving closer by half a yard, I believe, when you go for two. Yes. They are doing that. And all of football, college and pros?

Just professional football. Really? Not collegiate football. Alabama would be horrible at that. They can't make an extra point. Amanda, I want your response to all. the rule changes. Yeah, Amanda.

I don't have a response. I was just trying to dig for some answers. Like super sleuth here in the shop. Did you come up with? Yeah. What did you have? With anything? Yeah.

What did your worst have to say? I came up with two things. I came up with the fact that nobody knows why NASCAR switched that rule out. It just happened prior to the 600. Probably should have called NASCAR, but I ran out of time. All right.

The second one is they stopped doing these rear-gear changes on the Exfinity cars years ago, of the impound procedures that they do. The reason why a Sprint Cup series did it is because if it's a lighter gear, there's less rotating, which creates more horsepower, which you would want in qualifying, then you can switch out the gear after qualifying is done to your normal race rear gear,

which can handle more wear than what that lighter one would. Wait, so was that the rule? But that was the rule changed from two weeks ago? Yeah, apparently. I'm not 100% sure on it either, but it makes sense, though. I mean, honestly, we should just run the same gear probably, you know, or not. I don't know if it was like if there's a tech reason, like if it makes it a little bit easier on NASCAR, just not having them switch those out.

It's one less thing. Like back in the day when they took Qualifying Motors away and you just train. But that wasn't the issue obviously that Dale had. That was just the overall why that rule has changed. We need to change ours to make sure. You know what I mean? We need to change ours because we leaked all of food out of it, ran it some. and we had a seal that was damaged and stuff

just to make sure. And it was, you know, obviously it was the right decision because we got back into the position to make a shot at the win. And then, you know, obviously we had a penalty, but it's part of it. Let's play one more. All right. Honestly, guys, we can't blame Junior for speeding.

But there's one person we can't blame. We can blame my done-de-friend friend to walk in the race with me. He comes over and Junior gets slapped. He has to go somewhere. When he leaves, Junior This pastor never fucking about him. He's running about time with Faxon in the damn leader.

Do you know what fucking happens? He walks back in my fucking door, and guess what? Junior's fucking speech down pit right. I kicked the fucking outside of my house, honestly. He's just bad luck. So we cannot blame Junior. We can blame my friend or Jimmy Johnson. We can blame him too.

I mean, that's crazy, man. That's funny. You don't want to buy scratch house with that guy, do you? Mike, you like that guy. I mean, if something's working, you don't mess with it, right? You wouldn't have let the dude back in the house, probably. No, I wouldn't have. That's a good point.

I wouldn't have. And I'm glad that this gentleman recognized the... That's a good story. I like that. No, yeah, supersatious. I'm not that superstitious of a person except when it goes to Dale Jr. And, you know, trends. No, I'm not, though.

Yeah, with Alabama. Yeah, I don't think I'm. I don't even know what I do. So it's just like everything's good. Here we go. Yeah. 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. We'll play the best each week right here on Dirty Mo Radio. Time now for It Takes the Nation presented by Nationwide. Welcome to It Takes the Nation. I'm Mike Davis, and I got with me today, somebody that you're familiar with and you don't even realize it because you've seen him on a commercial. I don't know that I've ever interviewed somebody

that's actually been on a Dale Jr. commercial other than Dale Jr. So Steve Cook, who is Dale Jr.'s agent, his insurance agent with nationwide insurance, Cook Agency in Canapolis. Is that right? That's correct. We've been there since 1960. 1960. And we're going to get to that.

But you appeared with Dale Jr. on the very first nationwide commercial that featured Dale Jr. Is that correct? That's correct. And I remember us shooting this. Let me give you my impressions for what I remember. And let me see if it matches up with how you remember it. You nailed it. You nailed it. You were just spot on. You got a little nervous, though. Were you nervous?

A little nervous. I was fine until I got in front of the camera. Those cameras change things, don't it? It's a game changer. Kind of wore me down. The lights. Let me tell you something. When Nationwide shows up for a production, this isn't a camcorder. Let me tell you something. They bring the whole truck of production equipment. It's no little thing. So I remember lights. We did this in the truck bay at Junior Motorsports. Do you remember your line? I do. Do you still got it? Do you still got it?

Do you still got that performance that you had? I sure do. Sure do. Since you were 16. It's pretty good. I feel like you could just go right in front of the camera again. Or call your local agent. Even the end, yeah.

Now, Dale Jr. had a lot of lines in that. So he probably needed a lot more practice than you did. He didn't need any practice at all. He got me through it. He said, man, just calm down a little bit. Just calm down a little bit. A little edgy. But he got me through it.

What kind of reaction? did you get from your friends in the community, your clients. Did anybody actually mention it? Oh, yeah. The first time I ran on air, I think it was 1 o'clock in the morning on some kind of sci-fi channel. Nation of what? Is that the demographic? I guess everybody needs insurance, right?

Some in the bed asleep, I think it was a Wednesday night. One of my friends called me up and said, dude, I just sent you on TV. and I hadn't taught as a guy like years. Wait a say, so you didn't actually have like a viewing party? You didn't know, like get everybody together. Like, hey, check this out. Well, I was told to kind of keep it quiet until it went on. That's true.

I could understand that. I could understand that. Well, wait, I remember that. That was a lot of fun. But the fact of the matter is, is that I remember initially people said to us, is that really his agent, and the answer that is? That's true. It's his agent.

Really is agent. Still are. Still are. Still are. Is he a good customer? He's a great customer. The thing about it is, that's a great family. He comes from a great family.

He's a great guy. And I'm not saying that just because I do his insurance. I've been around that family a long time. How did the relationship start? Well, actually, the relationship first started with my dad. He was in the business for years before me, and he started doing some things with Dale Senior with some insurance and things back when he was running the dirt cars.

And then Dale Senior comes in and says, I got this kid. We need insuring, like in a big way. Right. I think I remember the day that he came to my office and bought his policy, and I think he was driving a 65 Chevrolet. And for what I remember, I think it was different colored doors on it, primed up. He was just kind of messing around. That's when he was actually probably turned 16 or real close to it.

So I do have some memories of that. Now, if my memory serves me well from hearing the stories, there was an incident with an S-10. Now, I know that it's probably not, you know, common practice to discuss your customers' accidents, but that one's been pretty, it's been out there. It's been well reported that Junior had an accident in an S-10 pretty much like, I don't know if there's a day he started driving,

but it wasn't that long afterwards. Do you remember this? I heard a little bit about it, but I don't think it was that bad. It wasn't that bad? It wasn't that bad, I don't think. All right. Well, he actually has a pretty good driving record. Well, yeah.

He didn't never smoke his tires, in my office. Never leaving your office. All right. What about a block down the road? Did you ever hear anything? I never heard anything, but I think he was kind of cool when he came in there because he knew he got that insurance policy, so he's all right.

Well, Steve, I appreciate you coming and doing this with us on It Takes a Nation because we've been talking to a lot of people throughout this year with this segment on who've been influential in junior's life and his career. You've been influential in both because you've even been in commercials with him. So you helped him in 2009, but you've been helping him for a lot longer than that, just as his insurance agent. And so for that, we thank you. And it's good to see you again.

Well, thank you very much. I was delighted to be here. Well, thank you, everybody. And listen, remember, Nationwide 88 is your go-to-follow on Twitter and on Facebook. Just great stuff all year long. If you are a Dale Jr. fan, you've got to follow them. They keep you up-to-date. They even keep people that work for Dale Jr. up-to-date.

And I can attest to that. So thank Nationwide for that. Thank you, Steve, for being here. Remember, Nationwide is on your side. This is Tip Daniels and here's what's coming up this week on Dirty Mo Radio. Former Junior Motorsports driver Dana Capacrick will be joining Kelly this Wednesday on Fast Lane family presented by Wella Professionals. On Thursday, Regan Smith and Heath White will be back with another episode of Junior Motorsports Up Front presented by Dale's Pale Ale. You can always keep up with all of juniors at track press conferences on said Jr. presented by Nationwide, so be sure to listen in.

Dirty Moe Radio podcasts are available free of charge 24-7. on Dale Jr.com, iTunes, and all major podcasting outlets. Let's throw the white flag. White flag right there, white flag. It's a pretty busy week for Dale Jr., so thanks to everyone who made that happen, because I'm going with him this weekend. Oh, okay. Did you know that?

Well, I sort of found out when you said it earlier in the podcast. Oh, did I? I'm sorry. Well, I didn't think you were lying. You said, we'll see you this weekend, Brandon. So thanks to Tyler and everybody that took part of that, because juniors should be in a good mood by the time we go to Pocono, right? All right, so you're running everything

public relations-wise this weekend? Well, running would be... Okay, but you're back on it. I'm going. Okay. Today, Dale Jr. is doing production work for Chevrolet. They've got some cool stuff coming up, and if you haven't done so,

you can go to Chevrolet's Facebook page and catch six different video tours of Dale Jr.'s race car graveyard. It's very cool. Tomorrow, Del Jr. is doing production work for somebody I can't even tell you about because it hasn't been announced yet. Just know this.

It's cool. All right. It's cool. I hope so. On Thursday, Dale's doing some work for Wrangler. Not sure if you're aware of this, Taylor, but Wranglers are made with U-shaped pattern. Are they? Not like those ghastly old V-shaped pattern jeans.

Well, and Brett told me they're real, comfortable jeans. I'm going to try them. I'm supposed to go. I just love how we got alphabet, you know, going on in these gene commercials these days. I don't know. What letter you got in your jeans? You got a V in there? I got a V.

I got a W. How's that feel? Yeah. It doesn't sound like a B-me comfortable. I got an X. All right. On Friday, it's off to Pocono where Dale Jr. is likely to have his most enjoyable weekend of the year. Oh, you're right? Yeah, absolutely. Sunday's race will be carried by Fox Sports One in Motor Racing Network, so check your local listings for that. Finally, don't forget to rate and review us on iTunes. All Dirtymoor radio podcasts are available free of charge on iTunes,

Dale Jr.com, and all other major podcasting outlets. I'm just going to say, last two times Dale Jr. has won a race, he was singing Eric Church in the car. I mean, he sang Talladega in Talladega, and he was singing, Give Me Back My Home town. in Pocono. So what's Eric got? I was going to say, dialed up for him. Chief has another song with Keith Urban called Raise them Up.

So maybe sings that this weekend. But Keith Urban? Yeah. It was number one. We can't be singing that. It's a good song. How about drink in my hand? Is that bad to see while you're driving?

Yes. It is. Not up his gator. If you got some ideas on which Chief Song, Junior should sing this weekend, tweet them and let them know. Good stuff this week. We appreciate your support.

of the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy for Amanda, for Travis James, for Mike. I'm Taylor. And Dale Jr. We'll talk to you next week. Thanks for listening to Dirty Moe Radio. Amanda, now that you know what the correct start of summer is, now we can help people. I still don't believe it. No. I can go by my own rules.

That's true. You can. You can call it summer, but you didn't know that it was in June for summer. You thought it was after Memorial. Well, I just thought it was, I didn't even equate it with the official start of summer. I just thought it was the longest day of the year. I thought that was all we marked it with. Well, I know why you probably thought that.

Because you need your sunglasses. It's like 10 o'clock. Well, yeah. I wear them all year round because I'm that cool. Well, I think that, you know, what people need to actually go buy some spy sunglasses, preferably the Dale Jr. signature collection. And how do they do it? You can go to spyoptic.com and find your pair.

When you get to check out, enter discount code nationwide 88. and you'll get 20% off your purchase. As you say, boom!