The Dale Jr. Download - 99 - Sonoma: Road Trip

Episode Date: June 30, 2015

With new sponsor Windows10 on his car, Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored his second consecutive top-10 at Sonoma. Team engineer Travis Peterson joins the podcast. 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 Mo Radio. I'm taking a look at that left here again. The tire marks almost all the way in front of the tire. It might have barely got to it just a little bit, but I think you're good, man. Oh, well, if we were running modified, that'd be good. You're now listening to the Dale Jr. download presented by Spy. Check out Dale Jr.'s signature dirty-mo sunglasses from Spy at Spyoptic.com. Hey, everybody.

It's Dale Jr. Monday after Sonoma. Awesome weekend. had a lot of fun. It's a great trip. Sonoma race weekends becoming one of the more enjoyable trips that we take. I used to hate it, used to dread it. Over the last couple years, we've actually turned it in a pretty good time. We have been going in early and checking out San Francisco or some of the towns close by, Petaloma. There's a lot of beautiful places out there, a lot of great places to eat and hang out, a lot of nice people. And so it's really become more enjoyable, I think, since I branched down a little bit and realized there's more there than just

the racetrack itself. We've actually run pretty good the last couple of trips, which makes it all that much better. Last year, the car was extremely competitive, and I was real thrilled with Steve LaTart and everybody's effort last year to give it their best. You know, I talk about how that I don't really enjoy the road courses and that I don't have high expectations when we go there. and I guess I'm just trying to temper not only my own expectations but everyone else's as well at the same time you want to work your hardest you don't want to you know you don't want the team to go in there thinking that this is an impossible expedition so I was real you know happy with the effort that the guys put in last year and they put in the same amount of effort

this year we got there unloaded the car wasn't very competitive we had to balance this used. The car wasn't handling well, doing a lot of things we didn't like. And we worked changing on, change some things in the first practice. And right at the end of practice, we made a change that I really made the car come around. We picked up almost an entire second with this change and it really got the car on track. So from there on, I was a much more positive about our outlook and our ability to at least compete. Then we went through qualifying and ran a real good lap the first run, but everybody picks up the second lap. You know, he haven't been on the track all day long on Saturday, so a lot of these guys, myself included, are going to go out there

that first lap and make some mistakes or not drive the car hard enough in a particular corner or maybe overdrive it in a particular corner, and you're going to go out there at a second time and put together a better lap, and it's going to improve the time. The tires are still good enough to run that kind of speed. So you're going to see everybody pick up that second lap, which, you know, majority the guys did last year too. So we were gearing up and cooling off to go out and run our second attempt and went around the racetrack coming out of turn 11 on the front straightaway, going from first gear to second gear, then from second to third. And when I went to third, the transmission locked in second gear and wouldn't come out of second gear. So the shifter handle is just solid

and won't move in any direction. And I can't do anything but kind of motor around the track of second gear back to the garage and figure out how to get it out of gear. They have to jack it up and kind of bust the transmission apart to unjam it. We actually changed the transmission before the race, changed some of the parts and components in the transmission that would cause that kind of issue so that we didn't have that happen in the race. I mean, you know, it sucked that we didn't get to qualify as well as we thought we could because we felt like the last two years. We were poised to make it the top 12 last year and felt like we were again this year and had some issues in that second run. Both times.

Last year we got blocked by a lap car or slower car on the racetrack coming down through turn 9. We were about half a second ahead of 12th place at that particular time coming into the last two corners. And so it was frustrating for two years in a row not to really put up the time we think was comparable to how good the car was. But it was good to find out the issue with the transmission because that could have cropped up in the race and that would have been a huge issue. We had definitely lost some laps there. When the race started, it looked like for the first several laps with everybody on equal tires, I didn't really. I didn't see us with any really advantage. So we were kind of running around there trying to maintain with the people around us.

We passed a car too, but it looked like for the most part, everyone was very competitive. And then as the run went on, a lot of guys fell off. I didn't know at that time in the first run of the race where the guys were saving because that first run you can really beat the tires up. And as the race goes on, the tire life gets a little better. So I was wondering if some of these guys were trying to play smart and actually save their tires or try to protect themselves on this first run should it go quite a ways without a yellow.

So I was a little nervous about how hard I should run, but anyways I was going to take advantage of these guys and try to pass them if I could. So we started moving forward a little bit. I think we drove up into the top 10 from 20th, so, you know, felt good about that. And as the race went on, especially to, In one run, we moved up to second.

The car was very competitive. We passed a lot of guys. I know we were kind of off-cycle with a lot of people, but we were running down the leader. I saw him getting closer to us, the 41 car, who I thought was one of the best cars all weekend. So that felt really good. I didn't understand how good our speed was,

but once I started seeing us catch the 41, I realized that we might have been one of the better cars on the racetrack at the time. We were still dealing with some balance issues. I was real tight in all the slow corners in the center of the corner, turn 7, turn 11. Coming out of all the right handers, I was a little loose, left rear needed a little more grip, coming out to turn 10, the last S, turn 3A. All those corners going to the right, we need a little more left rear grip. We had some hiking meaning that as I would go down through turn 9,

the left front would want to come off the ground like six inches to a foot off the ground. That makes it very uncomfortable and difficult to get into turn 10. But overall, I could be pretty aggressive with a car. And I didn't have, you know, I wasn't really nervous about making a mistake with the car, the car getting out from under me. So I could be real aggressive with it and really throw it into these corners, which helped me put together a lot of good laps, I thought. So I was able to really use up that race car pretty good.

Toward the end of the race, everybody got back on the same cycle pretty much as far as tires go. We lost a little bit of our advantage because I think that we had played it well to be able to be on newer tires. when other guys weren't throughout most of the race. And once everybody got on the same cycle, we sort of lost that advantage and had ability to move forward. I had a great race with Stewart. A lot of fans reading their comments on Twitter, thought I should have moved him out of the way.

He was actually giving me, there's two options as far as moving a guy at this racetrack, and it's turn 7 and turn 11. And he was not blocking me going into those corners. He would give me the inside breaking zone, and I would get down in there on his inside, and he was smart enough to take a line that would give him good drive off and be able to beat me out of that corner into the asses and take the position back. You can't run over a guy that's giving you an option to pass,

and I just didn't have enough race car. At the time, we had a real bad tire rub because we got into the 43 and the 10 at the same time in turn 7. We had a bad tire rub on the left rear that was kicking a lot of heat into that tire, and I was losing a lot of grip and drive off. And so coming out of turn four, I needed to be right on the back of the 14, and I didn't have a grip in the left rear exiting that corner that he did. So when we come out of that corner, he would kind of squirt away a little bit and get two or three car links on me.

So when I would get into the braking zone of turn 7, I would use up everything I could just to get even with him, and that wouldn't put me in position for a very good exit. So it was real difficult. I really used up that set of tires there. and that tire rub was bothering us a little bit. Tony was driving awesome line. You know, he was running great laps.

He would put together great corners everywhere and wouldn't give me a lot of opportunity. Getting into turn 11, I never had enough, you know, position on him. I wasn't, you know, coming out of 10, he had three or four carlinics on me every time, so it wasn't like I could just drive down in there and booty my out of the way. It was all I could do in the breaking zone

just to get back to him. So I think it was a fun race. I ran hard with the five there. at the end of the race he bonds out into turn 11 on the last lap and tore the whole right side off the car but we survived both of us got got back out of the corner and down the straightaway and finished so that was good um ran uh i wrecked the hell out of matt kensis last year at this race and me and him had some pretty good side-by-side action so that was fun uh to race with matt clean without putting him in a tire barrier like i did last year so uh it was fun i had a good time i knew it would

be fun. If we can run every lap there, you're going to have a good time. And again, the car was very competitive. I realized early on in the race that Hendrick cars were some of the cars to beat. We all were kind of moving forward pretty well. That's about it. We, you know, we look forward to hopefully going to Watkins Glen and enjoying some good speed and competitiveness there. We qualified actually pretty well at Watkinsville in last year, surprising to us even. And we made some mistakes during our qualifying sessions as far as cooling off the brakes and stuff like that to give us the ability to do better each round. So we ran really good and made it into the top 12, but then we didn't have any brakes for

the last run. So hopefully we have that kind of competitive speed again this trip, and we can make the right adjustments under the, you know, in between the brakes to get the car competitive for that last round. Looking forward to going there because we had a good time. in Sonoma. So off to Daytona, halfway through the year. It's a good, it's a good time to get with the team. Talk about what you've accomplished so far, how you feel about how things are going, let everybody have some communication and input on that, get everybody's mind geared up for the rest

of the year. It's a long, long, hard run to the homestead. And we don't need to get complacent. We need to keep charging. We definitely need to get another win or two before this chase and continue to work on finding speed to separate ourselves from the competition. So that's something that you think about when you get to the halfway point of the year. It's definitely a time to sit down and communicate and reflect and make sure everybody's on the same page. We can't just motor through this whole season without taking a moment and get everybody together. And Greg's doing a great job. All the guys are, you know, we got a great team.

We got a bunch of good, good, hard. working guys that all get along and we'll probably look back on where we are today years from now and it'll really sink in and how good we have it at this particular time when it comes to the guys we got and how how easy it is to work with each other we have we're in a good we're in a good place we've got real fortunate so looking forward to Daytona looking forward to the rest of the year enjoy the download y'all have a good week dale junior starting things off here on the Dale Jr. Download, presented by a spy with Mike and Amanda. I'm Taylor. Guys, I feel like he forgot to talk about something that was a pretty major moment in the history

of his life. Well, he talked about it. He talked about it. I just didn't have it to talk about it there. No, no, yeah, right. Now, he tweeted. He sent pictures. You did a podcast with his mother, who, of course, works there. And Amy and Kelly and you and everybody else is. sent pictures. I just meant in his comments there the last time, since the last time we have heard from Dale Jr. on the Dale Jr. download a pretty significant moment in his life happened. And I'm glad you brought that up because the fact that Dale Jr. is now engaged. Don't even think that some people out there were looking at this race this past Sunday saying, I wonder if we can tell a difference. I'm telling you, they did.

And you know what? Engagedale was wheeling that thing. Was he not? He was. He was. And it's really cool to see how much fun he has there. And I think a lot of us that have followed him for years, especially people like you, Mike, that have been associated with him for a long time, almost sort of laugh or shake your head watching what he's doing at Sonoma with these top tens that he's had and almost won there last year. because there was a time where it was like, oh, Sonoma. It was the word UGH when you thought of Sonoma and you thought of Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Now it's like, all right, we're going to Sonoma. And you can hear all the confidence in his voice. I mean, that was a car that was on the move on Sunday. Now, it seems like I remember one of us feeling pretty confident in his road course racing abilities. Again, I'm getting tweets. I'm getting tweets about all this. Hold on. Let me just for the record clarify something, Amanda.

Now, you weren't with us in year number one. In year number one, we made some guarantees going into the season. How many wins, Junior was going to have, where he would finish in the points, etc. We made all kinds of predictions in year one. And thankfully, we've gotten away from that in year two and year three. Mike Davis predicted in 2013 that Dale Jr. was going to win Watkins Glenn. No, no, no, that's not what I said. Yes, it is.

No, I said before his career is over, I just feel like he will have a road course victory. That was the second thing you said. The first thing you said, and if you go, the great thing about Dale Jr.com is if you go back and listen to that podcast, you will hear yourself say he will win Watkins Glenn in 2013, and then you, and I said, I'm sorry, what? That's true. And you said, then you said, I feel like he's going to win on a road course. And I said, okay, well, he's making, he's gaining on. at Sonoma, but Watkins, Glenn, and ever since then, Amanda, any time Junior does well at

Sonoma, my man, Mike says, hey, Taylor, remember what I said about road courses? I said, I don't know. I remember what you said about Watkins, Glenn. No way to say. He's what I remember. But you got to say, I did say, and I stand by this, I still think the guy is going to get a road course victory before his career is over. And listen, I'm listening to Dale Jr. on this audio.

I'm hearing a competent guy. I'm hearing somebody that he looks forward to going to Sonoma. kidding me and Greg's going to give him a good car? I don't know, Taylor. I think, I think, you know, I listen. Nostradamus here might have saw something back in 2013. Thankfully, I was there on Saturday with my family, thanks to you.

We had a blast. We wore my dirty-mo radio hat, wore my spy sunglasses as well. And I'm telling you, if they weren't stuck in second gear, I know. Our guy would have had a top, they would have a top five qualifying effort. I really believe that on Saturday and really could have won the race On Sunday, it's hard to come from 20th and win that thing. But I'm with you on Sonoma, but I'm not with you yet on Watkins Glen.

Not yet. Well, Watkins Glen needs to get some attractions around that area to clearly make it worth his while to go out and venture out, apparently. That's what we need to do. That's fair point. TJ's going to have to do something since that's his home state. Like, could you fancy it up a little bit, you know, make kind of the Paloma of the East or Peloma, whatever it's called. What is that town? Petaluma?

Petaluma. Petaluma. Paloma. Petaluma is the name of the town, and my family and I rode through there. And I got to tell you, I know that the podcast is sponsored by Spy. We like to come up with creative sponsors

just for our own enjoyment for the white flag. I'm going to tell you, the white flag is sponsored by the Dolphin Inn in Carmel, California. Because my man, Ricky, who's the manager here, set us up and let me do the podcast from here today. This part of the country is, is jaw-dropping.

And Junior's right. I mean, for those of you listening that have never come out to the Sonoma race, you need to do it. There's so much space. It's easy to get to in terms of camping. And, you know, it's 35 miles from San Francisco. That's what I mean by easy to get to. It's only 35 miles from San Francisco. And there's so much to see out in this part of the country.

So I'm with him on that. You're at a place right now called Dolphin Inn. That's right? Yes. Look at you. Yes. Dolphin Inn. Downloading from the Dolphin Inn.

I'll hear you. Let's talk about this race, Mike. I want to hear some race chatter here. Let's go through some clips and dive into it. Junior did a phenomenal job of detailing what his day was like on Sunday. But let's hear some race chatter, and let's hear what happened on lap 21. Good job, buddy. drove all the way up to ninth place there.

I feel like everybody with us and behind us are going to come down for four tires and feel here. So that's the game plan. We're only about two to three away already. Yeah, and Mike, clearly right there, they had some confidence after the first 20 laps or so, and I guess motivated you to remember our friend that was wearing his coonskin when he was on television in Central Florida. Yeah, you noticed that. You know, I was watching Dale pass those cars. He went from 20th to the top 10 and 17 laps, which at a road course,

where they get strung out. Carter Johnson is the only person that could adequately describe what I was watching, and that was getting it, digging it like Dale Jr., getting hooked up. And so I thought about that, and I went and I YouTube it, and I screen grabbed it, and then every tweet I had for the next hour was better told by Carter. It's just, it was, you know, the Coonskin and a hat and all. Junior was digging. It's what he was doing.

He was digging. This is going to sound really sacrilegious. But I think from now on we should refer to things that happened before Amanda was involved as PA. Oh, yeah. Pre Amanda? Yeah. Like there's BC. Right, like BC and ABC.

Yeah. Yeah, there's PA. Pre Amanda. Amanda, I know that you shake your head a lot at TJ's commentary sometimes on this podcast. She's doing it right now. She's doing it right now just so you know. Mike Davis invited Coonskin on this podcast multiple times in your number one. Did he ever join?

Oh, yeah. He did. Oh, yeah. It was a couple of the funniest interviews we've ever had was with that guy. I got to tell you, I mean, I've interviewed every dignitarian sports, and the first time we had him on was one of the most enjoyable interviews I've ever done. Now, after interviewed two, three, and four, he wanted some money from Mike, I think, and we have not had him on since.

Or a job. He wanted a job, actually. He was absolutely, yeah, he did want to move to the Charlotte area and start. working for Dale Jr., but nevertheless, funny stuff. Now, I don't know if it's funny. Well, it's humorous in a way. When something happens on Pit Road, Mike Davis's Twitter is going to explode. Mine is, too, but Mike certainly is.

Let's hear some more race chatter here after losing three spots. All right. Not too bad, guys. Not too bad. I think we just spot or two there. I don't know if I need to help you. Everything good on your part there. just uh

left front didn't come out as quick as we thought I didn't know if I come off the break and it started spinning or something Mike uh you take it from there my friend because you know that people are going nuts so because it you know there have been some times this year they've lost spots on pit road and a lot of fans

have been upset well hey listen I'm not even going to make it exclusive to fans I mean obviously anytime you lose spots on pit road it's it's a frustrating thing and you get you get emotional about stuff that happens on pit road now What's interesting is we had Greg Ives in the studio earlier today. He's going to be on Fast Lane family next week, right Amanda?

Next Wednesday. And Tiff Daniels asked him about Pit Road and about qualifying and how, you know, the fact that they're qualifying in the mid-teens to the 20s, you know, how that affects their pit road selection. And it obviously hinders it. Pit road selection means a lot. There's a lot of things on why qualifying better has to happen for this 88 team. if they're really going to contend for a championship.

Pit road selection is one of those reasons, because where they're getting their pit stalls, it's not really conducive to gaining spots. They're not pitting where there's a good opening, and they're pitting around other cars that are competing on the same lap as them. And so this is not an excuse. It's simply a fact they've got to qualify better because if they do, they'll get better pit stalls.

And if you get better pit stalls, it's a lot more conducive and a lot more there's a lot more opportunity to get faster pit stops. There's no question about it. And that absolutely is true. That doesn't defend some of the mistakes that have been made, but there's no question.

If anything needs to improve, it needs to start with qualifying. Then it needs to get to pit road and from there and there and there. But it does need to start with qualifying. There's absolutely no question about that. Let's hear these next couple of clips here about being in

the window. The guys you were passing other, you know, different cycles here, we're second in our cycle. We're going to have to come down four tires on fuel. We're in our window to make it the rest of the way. You're actually really fast, so that's why. Yeah, so I was catching at 41. I'm surprised. I didn't know we were that good. One in front of us is in their window. There's probably about six of them in their window. There's probably about four to five of them that need a lot of lot of caution to make it, but it's really close on about five of them. So that leaves about seven. That snuck on pit road when it was good.

I don't know about you, Mike. My calculator is always on fire on a race like this on a road course. But those guys did a great job. It's kind of crazy, though, when you see the board and you see your run in second, then a few minutes later you're running 41st. It's pretty wild. It can scare you. But those guys did a great job of managing that race yesterday,

making sure they were in the making sure they pitted at the right time well you know somebody tweeted me during the race and said yeah that race was a major snooze fast up into the last 10 laps and i just i i for the life of me don't understand that because at road course races the the first pit stop that you make absolutely affects your entire race as far as strategy goes or at least it you hope it does i mean you know whether you're going to do a two stop race or or a three stop race and you know what's your strategy going to be do you catch one of those cautions do you keep you Are you in a position on the track where you can dip onto pit road before they throw that yellow flag? Because that changes everything for you.

So everybody I saw had those little breaks throughout the day. And then by the time you got to the end of the race, it is what it is. I mean, you know that one way or another you're going to have guys that stay out. You're going to have guys that don't. You're going to have guys that take fuel. How many tires? Jimmy Johnson, I thought, was screwed no matter what he was going to do. Like people were banging on Chad Gannows as he was the leader on the.

last caution. What are you going to do? You pit. I don't think you necessarily can give up the track position if you're leading the race. But then again, when everybody pits behind you, you are screwed. So, you know, but all these things play into, I think road course races are just really entertaining, really entertaining. I do too.

I really do. And I think Junior's right. I think we're really close to seeing one in the chase in the next couple of years. I think that there's a lot of momentum for them. The strategy certainly is a big factor. the activity. People have gotten tired of all the mile and a halfs. Let's just be honest.

Junior and Hendrick Motorsports have been phenomenal at mile and a half. Of course, a mile and a half tracks here in the last a few years. But I think the casual fan says, okay, I got too much of that. You know? Yeah. I want to see something different. I want to see something different. And there's so much activity and so much competition for spots, especially on restarts.

I think you're going to see a road course race in the chase here soon. And just a thought on Jimmy. Jimmy has two more wins than anyone else, so Jimmy can do whatever he wants. Yeah, that's a good point. Jimmy can be the most aggressive guy out there on the track. So it was a crazy day in Sonoma on Sunday, but a lot of fun and really enjoyed being there and seeing it up close and personal and qualifying on Saturday. One last thing I've got to mention before we get into a reaction theater.

This is not a shot at Kyle Busch. Kyle Busch is one of the best drivers in the sport, and I don't have a problem watching Kyle Busch win a race. I have a problem with Kyle Bush being eligible to make the chase when he missed 11 races, whether it was NASCAR's fault, an act of God, whoever's fault it was. In every other sport, when you are injured and you miss time, you know what, so be it tough. Them the brakes. You know, the Cleveland Cavaliers with Kyrie Irving, I bet could have beaten the Golden State Warriors. But the NBA didn't say, you know what, we think that if Kyrie was here,

the Cavaliers would have won at least another game. So, you know what? We're going to say there is going to be a game seven, you know, because Kyrie can't play. So we'll go ahead and make there a game seven since Kyrie got hurt. I just, I don't like to project things in sports. Let it play out. And for better or for worse, bad breaks, good breaks, let it play out. And the fact that Kyle Bush missed 11 races and is eligible for the chase is ridiculous.

I know he's 136 points out of 30th, but knowing Kyle Bush and the way he races, the next 10 races, I think he's going to make up that ground. I do too. And he'll be in the top 30. If he wins the championship this year or has a chance to win the championship at the end of the year, by the way, he's always been awful in the championship. Like, that's been the worst stretch of races he has every year are during the chase.

But if he has a chance to win the championship and misses 11 races, that's absurd. And it's not a shot at Kyle. At all. I don't have anything against him, Mike. I just have a problem with anyone being eligible that missed 11 races, no matter whose fault it was. Well, I did want to make a big deal of it because I knew how passionate you were on this point. I think I even tweeted about it. But honestly, Taylor, first of all, I'm with you. I think that he absolutely will make up that point deficit because he is that good.

And the people that he's racing against back up there in 25th the 30th place are back there for a reason. And it wasn't because they missed 11 races. So I have a feeling he's going to do that Because I just think he's that good He is an incredible racer I do too I didn't necessarily have a strong opinion About them making

Him eligible for the chase If he won a race And if he's in the top 30 in points I just like you know what They felt accountable They didn't have a safer wall At that point at the Daytona Where he made that impact

I get it But you know what you bring up a good point And I think you're convincing me And here's why If he does win a table championship. I will absolutely have a problem with that. So it's like, I'm okay with him getting in the chase because, yeah, but you know what, I'm not taking into consideration if he's still Kyle Bush. He's an incredible racer. He could very well win the championship. And then what? And I do

feel like then, oh my gosh, the credibility for our sport, you start naming, yeah, you write the rules as you go. All that stuff comes into play. And I don't like it when people take shots at our sport. I love our sport. But that would open up a can of worms that would be absolutely valid if it happens. And I know we don't like to speak in hypotheticals and would have let it play out. But I'm just saying if he does win a championship, I would have a problem with that. So I'm starting to come around. We are hitting the beach this weekend. And if any of you are heading to Daytona, you need your shades.

At the track, at the beach, in the bar, watching fireworks, you need a pair of happy lens. So go online to spyoptic.com and check out all of Dale Jr. signature 88 styles. Pick out your style, decide on the color, and head to check out where you can enter code nationwide 88 and get 20% off on the happy lens. Let's go to reaction theater. I'm not a Kyle Bush fan. In fact, I call him Kaka. And I call his brother, Caca Bro. But here I am watching him pass Jimmy Johnson, who I also can't stand. And I got tears in my eyes. And then I see his wife on TV, and I'm like sobbing, and I'm thinking.

Pulls into Victory Lane, and I'm like, holy crap, like, Kaka just won the race and I'm happy about it. I just don't get it. It's like really, really weird. So anyway, next weekend's Dale Tona. So Dale's going to win his second race of the year.

Junior Nation, Dale yeah. Did you get tears in your eyes, Taylor? When Kakao pulled his victory? No. No, I didn't get, I didn't get tears in my eyes at all. There was a little red in my eyes. I got you.

I did not get any tears in eyes. But I do understand it's kind of funny. This is, you know, this guy was the bad boy of NASCAR for a while. Dale Earnhardt was for a long time, the bad boy of NASCAR. And then all of a sudden he was the most popular guy in NASCAR. I'm not forecasting that for Kyle Bush. But it's funny how, as time goes on, people's opinions change as they go through circumstances, They get married.

They start having a family, and all of a sudden they become more elatable. Who's next? First time caller, but I am ticked off after that race. Tony Stewart wants to get out there and fuss and complain and cuss and fight everybody because they like to block him. But that's what he did the whole freaking time of Junior. And Junior's just that type guy, and it made it even worse with Daryl Walter up there in the control booth. He's scared of Tony Stewart.

That's bull crap. He blocked, held off. Junior until Kurt Busch to get by and was waiting for Harvard to get by. Just completely vent here. Thanks, guys. Y'all do a great job on the show. Thank you so much. Bye.

You know, I know Junior responded to a tweeter about that. Yep. And maybe there's something DW said that I missed. The impression I got was DW was just saying he didn't want to, he thought that Tony was better in certain turns than Junior was. but I didn't get the sense that D.W. was questioning the motivation or how scared he was or any of that. I just thought that it was good, hard, clean racing. Yeah, Stewart was blocking him.

Stewart's in real trouble of missing the chase this year. Obviously, he's going to miss the chase if he doesn't win a race. So he's got to compete for every spot. Well, it may not have been D.W. that said it. Everybody on Twitter was saying it was bothering me. And I just say, look, does anybody remember Richmond? Anybody? Anybody? Dale Jr. is absolutely not scared. I really found value into what Dale did.

I mean, how awesome is it to hear him explain in vivid detail about his race with Tony and Casey, for that matter? But, I mean, you know, it was aggravating because there was Tony and there was a big old long line of traffic waiting to get by and behind him. But he has every right to race that way. All right, who's next? I know there's going to be a lot of complaining about Tony Stewart moving, not moving over. but I mean I wouldn't want junior move over in that situation. Great race, great race. You know, we caught a couple bad breaks seemed like there with the caution,

some of the cautions. But, I mean, the cars are great. I mean, to come and run, have one of the best cars at a road course. Like, that's how you know the program's going in the right direction. Dale, he's just doing so good, life looking up. I've never been prouder to be a junior fan of my life. So home to the next one, and we'll get us a W here. really short. I think he's right. The reaction theater caller, Mike. I think that they are going

to get a win, and I think Dale Jr. is right. I think everybody's going to look back at this period of his life professionally and personally and say, wow, what an unbelievable time that was. Yeah, I had a joke all teed up on Twitter. If Dale would have moved Tony out of the way, and by the way, I think the caller was wrong. I don't think anybody expected Tony to move out of the way. I think they were wanting Dale to move him on his own. But if he had, I had a real good proposal engagement tweet ready to go if he had wrecked tony but he never did so i never got to use it we will wait for those tweets in the future who's next oh gregg guys gas car for that road course ringer this weekend pussyfooting around tony stewart and cost us too much time i believe

consecutive top ten finishes it for the road course ringer at sonoma like old mike said last year I think I'm going to go to Warkin' Glen and win the damn right. That's right. There we go. Yeah. Yes, sir. They remember. Old Dale Boris said Ron Fellows, Robbie Gordon, Earnhardt, Jr.

Yeah. Hey, have you noticed how there's no ringers anymore like there used to be? I know. What's the deal with that? I don't know. Amanda, do you have an opinion on that? No. She's not the best producer slash color commentator in the business for him.

For nothing, folks. It's a great movie. Man, I am just sick to my stomach right now, and it is not from the 11 beers that I drank. It's from Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch finishing one, two. Man, that is like a nightmare for Junior Nation. But, you know what is it? Junior getting another top 10 at Sonoma,

and finally popping the question to Amy. Congratulations, you too. I wish you nothing but a lifetime of happiness, and hopefully a few more wins in a championship. Dale yeah hashtag 11 beers Dale yeah and congratulations

are certainly in order and I know we didn't mention this earlier and I'll just say it here the thought that went into how he decided to propose and where he decided to propose is just that's about one of the most special stories I've ever heard

I think all of us tried to make our moment with our future bride very special and that's at the very top to go back eight generations where your family and fly to Germany need to go into that little church. I mean, that's really special.

Very, very well done, Mike. Yeah, it made me wish I had mine to do over again because that kind of blew everybody's. Any dude that ever took pride in how they proposed their wife, I think Dale Jr. just topped it. I think he's got us all on that now. All right, one more. Great race today. Sorry that Kyle Bush won.

Can't stand him. But let me just say that junior, you really should have wrecked smoke. I remember when you won at Michigan, he said, why do you think it is a national hall? they just because junior wasn't welcome to the damn right it was no respect for you anymore ever smoke there yeah well smoke's awesome fans a lot of people i feel like for a long time if they like junior they like smoke i don't know if that's the case right now i'm a little surprised that more people weren't talking about cane because kane actually showed a little frustration after the checker flag did he not he door banged him if i saw that correctly and i've

just, you know, a couple of guys having fun, maybe being a little upset the way they were racing at the end. But that's a road course racing. That paperclip turn, that turn 11, man, the fact that nobody had any wrecks there that day, I mean, I was shocked. But yeah, did anybody else call in about Kane? Amanda? No, I didn't hear any complaints about him.

Or compliments. If you look good, I guess they give you a free of you. Hey, here's the thing, though. Here's the thing. Reaction Theater's open 24-7. So if you want to call and gripe about him right now, you can. That's right. 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 Moe Radio. Time now for It Takes a Nation presented by Nationwide. Welcome to Takes a Nation. I am here with somebody who just stopped by to pay his rent. I'm not even kidding. Travis Peterson, I didn't even know you lived on Dirty Mo acres. I've lived there since I worked here.

So you happen to be the engineer on the 88 Cup team. You used to work in junior motorsports last year. What is the championship? Thank you, Chase Elliott. But you went with Greg Ives over to the 88 Cup team. I've got all this correct so far, right? It is correct. Don't say the engineer.

There's a couple other ones that work with me. I don't do. I'm not the lead guy. Well, I didn't say you were the lead guy. See, if you were the man, I would say you were the lead engineer with the 88 team. But we all know that you are not that guy. I don't want you to get me mixed up with somebody that's important. Okay.

So how many engineers do you do? This is the 88 team have? We have three. Okay, so Kevin? Yep. Kevin Mandarin. Kevin, myself, and Adam Wall. Adam Wall.

Okay. What do three engineers on a race team do to help the cargo fast? Well, you know, going over there, I wasn't sure since I was the Xfinity side was a whole lot different. And I was about the only guy for the most of the year. We had another guy come on, Ryan Schumann, who works here towards the end of the year and help out, which was great. So going over there, I was kind of surprised having three, how would he break up the workload? And it was basically just put a whole lot more focus on specific. things. You break up all of them.

There's so much because the crew chief's role is a little different when you get to the Cup side. They're more of a figure for the sport, more of a manager for everything. Where me and Greg worked more closely here on just specific setup stuff now. Myself and Kevin work closely on setups as well as with Adam, but we just break up all the different duties

from keeping up with springs to keeping up with all the changes in our big database database to running simulations, to everything, and it's all broken up and we all spend more time on each specific task. Is it safe to say, that since you're an engineer, you're smart. Are you a smart guy?

My family's called me a nerd since... Are you a nerd? For a long time. Are you a nerd? I don't always want to claim nerd, but I do well with computers and numbers, so I guess. You're a nerd. I mean, I just don't know any other way. Those are the two big qualifiers.

That's pretty much the way most people say it, so... Do you remember when I met you? I think I probably met you at that company Christmas party, like my third day of work. Well, you might have, but that's not when I remember us meeting. Okay. Well, I'm sorry. I guess... I remember us meeting because you were in a little bit of an accident.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, and so somebody comes up And you wanted to do a film on it Or a video Somebody came to me, they said We've got a J-R. 360 idea for you You know, you could have You could have had a whole gambling episode based on that

Because they all had bets on that That was cruel They said that we've got this engineer It was early in the year, wasn't it? I missed indie weekend That year Oh, well, it wasn't that early So it was a good way, I guess

Well, we went a while without me They said we got this engineer And he broke his arm You broke your arm, right? No, thumb. Thumb, you broke your thumb Because he was in a I got lucky, that's all it was.

It wasn't. Wasn't even a motorcycle, was it? No, it was. Okay, so he was sort of like... Well, you're going to make me on a moped now for this story? I thought it was a scooter. I did. Remember that.

He was sort of, like, the way I heard it, he was sort of like showing off to some girl that was out there in front. And if this gets you in trouble, we just won't play it. I'm really just talking to Amanda at this point. There was a lot of stories. There was a lot of stories, but the one I heard I stick with. And he was kind of like, there was a girl involved who worked up the road, and then he wrecked. He crashed his motorcycle, right?

Well, there is a little bit of truth to that. There was absolutely nobody on the road when I wrecked just to set that record straight. What was the real story? Well, okay. So, real story was, I was just driving to work. We had done down at Hendrick working on some test rigs down there, and I went to go back. And I literally, instead of just coming back to work, I was like, I'm going to get my bike because it's a nice day. To stop at the house because I only live like eight minutes from here.

That's why I'm here paying rent. That's right. And got my bike, rode into work, and I wrecked on my way to work in the business park. I had no idea what I hit at the time. I just was coming around the curve up here on the street, and the rear tire washed out from behind me, and around a curve by the time I saved, I hit the curb and flipped. Tolled the motorcycle, it was terrible.

Where does the girl come in? Was that all fabricated? No, well, part of it was real. It's actually a funny story. So I get, I come too, and I'm sitting on the curb at the time. Like, I guess I remember hitting the curb and standing up, because I'm like, this is going to hurt, right? and next thing I know I'm sitting on the curb I don't have one of my shoes on I'm holding my hand

my helmet's off I'm just sitting in the curb don't know what's going on and and a girl pulls up in a car and uh no somebody from somebody so this is funny in itself so Wade is one of the first people to the scene drives by pulls his car back around talking to me out his window I didn't get the car he's like hey man what happened I tell him I wrecked I don't know what's up and he's like all right well I'm going to call Ace, because I got to take my dog to the vet, so I got to go home. Leaves me on the side of the road sitting there, you know, holding my thumb. It's the size of the softballs. And, oh, my gosh.

And so Ace comes and gets me. Well, before Ace gets there, some girl drives by, sees the same thing, comes back. Oh, my gosh, are you okay? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. A guy's coming to get me. I'm just going to go to work. I got to go to work. I got stuff to get done.

I guess it was still adrenaline. I didn't feel the pain. I didn't really look at my thumb to notice how big it was. So she's like, oh, do you need anything? Need a Tylenol, anything? He's real, real friendly. And I said, no, no, I'm fine. I just got to get to work.

Thank you, though. So I hop in a car with Ace, and he's like, no, we're taking you the hospital. Okay, well, I come back to work that night because they leave for Indy the next day to drop off the stuff. I had my backpack that needed. And I come in, and there is, I think it was like a little sticky note note. And Tynell and Coke sit at my desk. I guess she actually went to the store, bought it for me, brought it back, and left it on my desk. So that's right.

So then they made a big deal. They said I was impressing the girl. or false. You're sitting there on the curb and you gave her your number. No, I did not give her my number. That's the story I heard. She left her number on the... There was an exchange of numbers. She left her number on the sticky note when she left

the stuff at my desk when I was in the hospital. Did you go back by that? Have you called it? Did you call her? I didn't really know what to do with it because I was like, this is weird. I met her in a wreck. I talked to her a little bit, like, just texting, but we never ended up doing it. It never went out on data. I kind of felt like I ordered her dinner just because she was so nice, but yeah well just you could always you know wreck your bike again and yeah I mean another girl

use it as a pickup line hey oh my thumbs broke you know you always joke they always wanted me to have like the bar story about something cool I was doing to like I wreck my motorcycle yeah so saving a kitty from a tree or something but there was a lot now that I've heard the real story there were definitely multiple versions I know this whatever the story I heard first and it was a little different than that I was like I don't even think we can do a jaren 360 on this first of all the guy like he literally is hurt. I mean, he broke his thumb. I know. It's past I miss Indie weekend. Right. And so we're pretty

low class and we don't have a whole lot of standards that we go by, but I don't like to laugh at somebody when they've been hurt. Oh, you wouldn't have been the only man. You could have done a whole episode. It was funny. They literally made bets on how many miles I'd have on the bike because it was brand new when I bought it. Oh, really? I bought it at the beginning of

brand new. I had been riding for a while before that, but I never had owned my own bike. You know, I was a job out of college. I was like, I don't go buy a motorcycle, right? I bought it brand new off the showroom floor and they said, all right, we're going to take bets on when something happens to it, how many miles you reach. And Pemberton walks in the hospital room, make sure I'm okay and goes, by the way, I think I won the bet.

We looked at the odometer on the bike before. I'm like, you've got to be kidding. You're not, oh. Gosh, I hope you're a better engineer than you are a motorcycle rider. Yeah, I don't know, man. I've ridden on two wheels a lot in my life, and I actually, I have a matching scar on my right knee from that wreck to match the one I got on my left knee on a dirt bike.

I could just see this conversation in the lounge of the 88. It's like, you know, Travis here talks to Dale and Gray. I think y'all need to run these shocks here, this stuff. And they're like, yeah, well, you're still the guy that wrecked his motorcycle with nobody around. What do you know? Yeah, no. It actually came up this weekend for, I have no idea why we're talking about motorcycles on the way of the plane. I don't know what happened.

But you can still say, yeah, and I still got her number. You know what I'm going to use that one? And I still got her number. Oh, well, dude, I appreciate. you stopping by and paying your rent. I'm sure everybody, I'm sure Brenda appreciates that. Yeah. She wasn't here.

She must be at lunch yet or something. You're still living at Dirty Mo Acres after all this time. I mean. I like it out there, man. It's nice. I like the neighbors are fun out there. It's a good environment. And I get to walk home after a wind party.

Everybody else has to figure out how to drive home or Uber or something. Yeah, I get to just, you know, stumble down the hill. It's great. And now I know where I can stumble down. Yeah, I got to pull out of a car. There you go. Thank you, Travis, for stopping by here, and we'll have you back some more. You pay you rent once a month, I'm assuming, so we can just count on Travis.

Plus, it's good to always have members of the Nationwide 88 team on this podcast. And folks, speaking of Nationwide 88, a few weeks ago, Nationwide launched a new video series that features Dale Jr. and Kelly, a couple other people. Amy, Reimann, Greg Ive, J.R. Rhodes. If you haven't seen these videos, you need to check them out on Nationwide. Facebook and Twitter pages. Both of them are Nationwide 88. Now, listen, these videos are really, really good.

I've been saying it for weeks. I just, I really think they're awesome. So you'll get to hear about Victory Lane celebrations, fantasy football, how Dale got into racing. You'll get to hear from Junior Nation, which is always fun for me. And you'll get to see some classic pictures of Dale growing up. This is all in this video series. So go check them out every Tuesday for the next nine weeks. If you miss the first few, you can go to Nationwide 88 on Facebook.

Twitter, get caught up, it's worth your while, and just remember this. Nationwide is on your side. I'm Tiff Daniels, and here's what's coming up this week on Dirty Mo Radio. On Wednesday, Kelly will be joined in the studio by Amy Ryman to talk about their trip to Germany and the big engagement, so you won't want to miss this episode of Fastlane family presented by Wello Professionals. Continuing with our German theme, on Thursday, Junior Motorsports Up Front, presented by Dale's Paleale Returns, with IT director and tour guide Martin Friedrich, who will join Regan Smith and Heath White in the studio.

And don't forget, you can catch all of Junior's at-track press conferences on said Jr., presented by Nationwide. Dirtymo Radio podcasts are available free of charge 24-7 on Dalejutor.com, iTunes, and all major podcasting outlets. Let's throw the white flag. White flag right there, white flag. All right, well, Junior's in New York today doing a round of media to promote the patriotic scheme on his nationwide Chevy, and NBC's return to NASCAR.

this weekend at Daytona. As a matter of fact, Steve LaTart will be coming back with and they're going to actually do an interview at the old western town on Dirty Moe Acres this afternoon. So that'll be something to look forward to. Tomorrow.

Really cool. Yeah, Dale will be doing a satellite media tour with our friends from Helmonds to promote the new squeeze bottle, Taylor. I know how you like to squeeze that mayonnaise out. They've got a new bottle. Just in time for the 4th of July weekend. He is scheduled to be on Sirius XM NASCAR radio

Wednesday morning at 9.10 a.m. There's your little plug. It's not on your... Your channel, Taylor, but it's on the NASCAR radio. So one big family over there. And he'll be talking to ESPN Sports Center. Be sure to tune in Wednesday because that interview will be airing at some point during the day. On Thursday, June will be riding shotgun in the number 88 hauler on the drive to Daytona.

Did you hear that? He's riding in the hauler to Daytona. Yeah, Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch. I don't know anybody riding their haulers to the racetrack. But Dale is, if you see him head. That's really cool. That's right. If you see him southbound Thursday, be sure to give a wave.

a honk or I don't know door bang him I don't know don't do that actually just be careful you know don't door bang the hauler no that's right don't door bang the hauler so you're going to hurt yourself a lot more than you're going to hurt them by the way if you try to door bang a hauler so listen on friday back to work with a pair of practice sessions both will be televised on nbc sports network Saturday qualifies at 435 p.m. Eastern time on nbc sports network Sunday the race is at 745 p.m. on bc letart's first broadcast I told the tart today when I was texting him I said you know what? I'm going to critique you every week, so you better bring your aid game to that. Because the Junior Nation, they will absolutely give you their opinion, and so they should,

now that you're up at the booth. So hopefully we have a strong car this weekend, and maybe we can actually do better than third. I've got to tell you, I'm excited about the NBC broadcast. I think they're going to be terrific. I think Lattart's going to be phenomenal. Burton. Dale Jarrett is going to be great. Chris Devota, that team, Ricky, doing the play-by-play. I think that's going to be a really good team on NBC,

so I'm excited to watch the old firecracker this weekend. Again, White Flag brought to you by the Dolphin Inn in Carmel, California. My man, Ricky, the manager helping us out today. Really, really appreciate him very much, and I appreciate you guys putting up with me here on the road. I'll be back in the studio with Amanda and Mike next week. I'm excited about that, and hopefully we talk about another win at Dale Tona.

For Dale Jr., for Mike, Davis for Amanda. I'm Taylor. This has been the Dale Jr. Download presented by Spike. Thanks for listening to Dirty Mo Radio. Hey, Amanda, guess what? What?

I got a tweet from a guy named J. Walker 162. He tweeted me last night and said that he picked up a fresh set of Dirty Mo's, the Dale Jr. 88 collection. He even tweeted a picture. See that? Oh, of the box, yeah. Yeah. I love it when people tweet and send us pictures.

of their new dirty mows. Do you ever get this? I think you get it more than I do. Well, I'll tell you what. You got to keep those coming. If you buy Dirty Mose, and hopefully Jody use Nationwide 88 as his discount code,

because you get, what do you get off? You get 20% off. And you don't want to miss that deal. You don't want to miss that deal. 20% off. You just don't get that kind of deal. So yeah, Jody Walker, thank you for sending us your pictures

of your new Dirty Mose. Fans keep it coming. Don't forget to use Nationwide 88 as your discount. It's at Spyoptic.com.