The Dale Jr. Download - Bonus Episode: Live from Ole Red with Alex Bowman, Will Compton & Steve Letarte

Episode Date: June 24, 2023

The Download has a special episode...live from Ole Red on Broadway in Nashville. Dale and Mike chat about the what's happened so far in the NASCAR season, old stories from when Dale raced plus some personal stories from the guys. Barstool's Will Compton joins to chat about how he became friends with Dale and what the future holds for his NFL career. Alex Bowman stops by to chat about Sunday's race and how he's doing since his back injury. Lastly, Steve Letarte chats with the guys as NBC prepares to begin calling the races on Sunday and the storylines from this season so far. 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.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Let's raise the class. All right. All right. This is our second year in a row doing this. Who was here last year? We got a few. A lot of first time.

A lot of first timers. That's right. With cheers, us all have a drink. All right. Not too bad. Man, they packed it out again, buddy. So right out of the gate, we're here in Nashville. obviously on Broadway having a lot of fun walking in here man there's so many

people having a good time I'm jealous but we are here because of the Ally 400 out at the Nashville Speedway and we got to thank Ally for bringing us all together Ally is not only sponsoring the race they are part of why we are back at Nashville Super Speedway to begin with their investment in that facility being able to bring it and it become part of the schedule. We've seen some really damn good racing out there at that racetrack the last couple of years, to be honest with you. That's right.

So I'm looking forward to not only tomorrow's Xfinity race, but the Sunday Cup race. Ally also sponsors the Dale Jr. download. They sponsor our guest segment. Yes, I have a drink to that. That's important. And that helps us out a lot. Yes, it does.

Yes, so we really appreciate everything they do. and yeah that's why we're here tonight so thank you ally we're having a lot of fun we got a couple of guests coming up on the stage one of my friends will compton is here tonight with but he's one half of busting with the boys an incredible podcast that's blown up over the last few years i became friends with will because he was a football player a linebacker for the washington commanders commanders and one of my favorite teams. And he's quickly became one of my favorite players, but he's also just a damn cool dude.

So he's here tonight. It's going to tell us all about his career, living in Nashville, and playing for the Titans there for a while, but also building bustle with the boys, which is incredible what he's done. Also, Steve LaTart is going to be up here tonight. Oh, wow.

Steve LaTart fans are here tonight. Steve's going to help us preview the race this week, We're going to talk about the season, how it's went. We're going to ask a lot of y'all, y'all's opinion about the season, particularly some of the accidents that have happened on the racetrack this year. So get ready, because we're going to put you on the spot. As a matter of fact, where is Travis Rockhold right now? So everybody look right here, Travis Rockhold, hold your hand up.

So Travis is a producer for Dirtymo Media, and he's going to have a mic, and he's going to do his best to get around this bar. Good luck, Travis. I don't know how you're going to do. it but if you want to we want to talk to you guys if you have questions for Dale will have opportunities to do that but you got to find him first yeah so we're gonna get Steve up here after a while he's gonna actually help us wrap up the show and we're gonna put a few of y'all on the spot so that's gonna be a lot

of fun I can't wait for that but you know just to get things kicked off the Dale Jr. download a lot of y'all probably do listen to the Dale Junior download and everything we do at dirty mode media Thank you. Just in case you don't, the Dell Junior downloads a weekly podcast that me and Mike do together. Me and Mike are best friends forever. And so it's been a really,

it's been a lot of fun with Mike over the years doing the podcast. But our story goes away, way back. That's right. Mike used to work with me during the Bud days. And basically, when I was a race car driver, and I was partying all night and sleeping in all day. He was the one that made sure I got to everything on time. We never got anywhere on time.

Yes, we did. We were notoriously late every time. And you were the one that always got to ask you. I got blamed for it. He always got the ass chewing about you. I was actually late for practice one time. One time, huh? Just one?

I do remember one time in particular. Atlanta Motor Speedway. Dale Jr. showed up to practice about halfway through. had sheet marks on his face. I mean, looking rough. And then, of course, the Uri's are looking at me. I'm like, hey, what's going on? But listen, this is back when Dale Jr. just didn't give a damn, really.

So, like, and then he showed up, and he'd be, like, top on the practice sheets. So it was, like, we had him covered in the egg. It was a fun time. We enjoyed it. Had a couple ass chewings here and there. We did. You were for it. He was, no problems.

And we chewed each other's ass every once a while. Yes. I remember one time I got so mad at Mike. I had to write his wife in a phone. apology. That's pretty bad. We're still kind of curious about that, frankly, Dale. My wife was like, why did he, I got the long, by the way, Dale Jr. doesn't write emails very long. It's usually like two words sentences, but that night, to my wife, weird,

it was like the Gettysburg address. I knew for sure your ass went home and that was the first thing you told her. You won't believe what Dale said today. You won't believe what Dale did. I thought, man, she probably thinks I'm a real asshole. I better apologize. me I thought you were a real asshole that didn't matter you'll get over it um I did get over it we've uh we've had a lot of fun over the years and and we still enjoy doing the podcast together I can't believe what the podcast has become we actually uh started a couple new shows this year one that I was well a few that I was actually really excited about but one that's gotten quite a lot of response and that's action is detrimental with Denny Hamlin uh oh uh oh wow

Yeah. Wait a second. Let's hear it. I didn't even hear any booze on this one. I didn't either. No, no, no. Y'all missed your chance. You don't get the boo on cue. Y'all like Denny Hamlin.

He's coming on. He's coming around. Yeah. I think they like him. I'd be honest with you. I think that I don't, I don't think that, I mean, I think that you can hate Denny, but still listen to the podcast. Am I right?

Yeah. Yeah. That's all we care about. Because Denny's going to say something crazy. And, I mean, hell, he said a few things that got his ass in trouble this year. Got him a penalty. He, you know, so at Phoenix, he wrecks Ross, puts Ross in the fence. And he gets on his podcast and tells everybody how he did it.

And then he got penalized and then went and appealed that penalty. And he said, I didn't wreck him on purpose. Yeah, I don't know. I thought, I don't think he should have been penalized. I think all that stuff's actually really good for competition and good for storylines. And so I kind of wish you hadn't to got penalized because then the drivers, they kind of seal, they kind of quiet up a little bit, quiet down a little bit for a few weeks. That's right.

But you know, you got to keep those rivalries simmering a little bit. That's right. And listen, if you had episode five is the first penalty in 30-moe Media History, that was Denny Hamlin. He has that award, and I don't think anybody's going to beat him. I mean, it was so funny because, so I've raced against Denny, and he's pissed me off before, and there's been times when I've hated the guy's guts. But he named his show, Actions Determental, and literally did actions detrimental.

Right. There was a penalty coming the day we named it that, right? Yes. That's right. I just thought that was really ironic. But it's been fun watching Denny sort of learn the ropes, right? Get his podcast and legs, and he really hasn't let off the gas any, even though he got to. himself in a little trouble he's still very honest the show is doing really good

Mike and those guys had a lot to do with the the actual studio so if you you know if you if you if you watched any of the clips on YouTube Mike and the guys had a lot to do with that you also started a new show with Steve LaTart called dirty mowedo anybody caught that podcast dirty mo do yeah have you made money okay yeah so you're winning money listening to those jokers well that's pretty good hey Steve we found one did Steve make it is here he's here somewhere I think I saw it well we'll ask him when he gets up here if anybody's walked up to him at the racetrack and told him hey you're an asshole your

information is terrible but anyways I've been trying to tell you for years that we needed to do that show I'm glad you finally listen I did I finally listen you that is true you were right yeah yeah we have phone with that show and for those that don't know and Steve will come up here and we'll talk about it when he does but dirty mo do is a sports gambling show so if you like to responsibly make bets on NASCAR primarily or anything then that's I think I think the show is good for for gamblers but it's also a good show to listen to if you just want to handicap the field so yeah they have a great way of sort of explaining like hey man I think this guy's going to have a great race and they'll give you good information on why I also want to talk about our own show Mike and what it is that we

both enjoy the most when we do the Dale Jr. download so I'm going to let you go first what is your favorite part about our show and be honest honestly I did not know he was going to ask me this so I'm on the spot my favorite part of the Dale Jr. download is when we get a guest who is sitting across Dale Jr. at that table and it's conversations that myself and probably all of you thought would have happened a long time ago. Maybe it's about Dale Sr. Maybe it's about being a teammate.

Maybe it's about something that you know normal people talk about, but drivers aren't normal people. Racers aren't real normal. They think differently. And so we've gone two decades and there's conversations that have not been had that are now finally happening. That's my favorite moments of the down. I think your favorite moment. I don't think you're telling the truth. I think your favorite moment is when you're

arguing with me. You seem to really enjoy that part. I don't. I don't look for arguments. I know sometimes that you'll argue a point that you don't even believe. I believe everything I say on that show. I do. I believe everything. It's just mostly things that you don't agree with. Like that time we were arguing about something and you brought up Kyle Petty like out of nowhere. I was right. I was right. I was right about that that was Denny Hamlin wrecking at Ross Chastin that's what that was it it was it Pocono last year that's right and he's like well Kyle Petty said it was was not a wreck or he didn't do it anything I'm like what do we just pick a names out of fucking thin air just just okay we win Kyle Petty you got me there

Mike you know what my favorite part is is when I think you just said it no no that was the fun part I think my favorite part is when me and you sit down and talk about being a husband or being a father. Whenever like, because I'm coming in there all the time, I'm all the time coming in there going, man, I'm not a messed up. You know, this, if you listen to any of this year's shows, you might have heard a little bit about how I fell a little short on Mother's Day this year. A little short?

Yeah. You didn't get her anything. Yeah. Listen, I am an asshole, all right? I admit it. Amy said, hey, man, I want you to bring this. I was flying to meet her somewhere, and she's like, it was a beach area, and she's like, I wanted you to bring this food, and I forgot that.

We go out on the beach, and I sit, I got everything laid out, and the tent's up, and the sun's happening, got the radio playing, and I lay back and crack a beer, and she turns around, looks at me, and goes, what did you bring for me? and I'm like, not a damn thing. I hope you like beer. And so, I mean, yeah, a big screw up by me. And, of course, she hits Father's Day out of the park.

She could have held it against me and give me a shitty Father's Day. I deserved it. But anyways, my point is, is that I'll come into the studio. And I made a bigger point this year to do this more often. And so I'll come into the studio, and I'll be like, man, this happened, and this is the way this went down. And it might be something with being a husband. it might be something about being a father. And I learn a lot, man.

I mean, I either learned that I'm thinking the right way and that I'm on track or I either learned that I've got to have a different point of view about certain things. You've got girls. I've got two girls. His girls are a little older. And so it's a perfect scenario for me to bounce things off of him. And he'll go, oh, I know what you're doing. I know where you've been.

I know what you need to do here. And so for me, that's probably most enjoyable part of it outside of winning arguments. Hey, who's got teenagers in here? Who's got like, you brought, no, no, I didn't mean who brought your teenager here tonight, but I guess that's one of us brought our teenager to the bar. Mom of the Year. Yeah. Hey, what is your name? What does she say? Melissa, well, Melissa, welcome. You're our new favorite person. You're here tonight. Melissa, and you're drinking water? Good. But my point is, Yeah, but, you know, I can't wait. You know, Del said a lot of times don't wish for time to go by, right?

Because, you know, every day's precious and obviously they grow up fast. But I can't wait until they get to teenage years. I mean, am I right? I can't wait because, like, boy, has he got something coming? It is going to be something. And I can't, I am motivated to keep the download going for at least one more years so we can have those episodes. I mean, I heard when I was, you know, when I learned that I was going to be a father, oh, boy, you wait, you wait, you wait, that's all I hear. You wait till this.

You wait till that. You wait till this. I mean, it's a damn handful now. I mean, I think it should get a little easier as it goes. Oh, yeah. It gets easier. Yeah. Absolutely gets easier.

Hey, I'm, teenagers, they're harder than the shitty old diapers full of liquid poo. Oh, boy. What's harder than that? Everybody agrees. Give me a couple shitty diapers. Hey, look, I don't, I believe what you're telling me, but I just can't comprehend it getting much worse than that, than that, some of them diapers, man.

But I am glad he brought this up because, you know what, we do, again, get to live out Dale Jr.'s parenthood on the show. And so that is actually a really cool thing that I think that people appreciate, I do. Well, my wife doesn't always appreciate it. No, no, she doesn't. That's your problem. And she's on Instagram. She'll see the videos.

Y'all put together these little YouTube clips, and they get on the Instagram, and she's like, hey, you didn't tell that story right. And I'm like, well, come on into the show, and let's hear your side of it. And that's the, you say that some of our best interaction and engagement with fans is. Hell yeah, when Amy comes on the show. The Amy stuff. Absolutely. Hey.

We need more Amy. I'm going off script. Who doesn't think Amy needs her own show? I think Amy ought to have her own show. Me and Mike might lose a few listeners, but that's okay. That's okay. We've been trying to tell you that one for years, too. I'm ready.

Or you get like, I twist my arm. I'm ready to do an Amy show anytime. Amy and I have even talked about the show, and we even have a title for it. What is it? I'm not telling you. Why not? It's called Gimme Dim Biscuits. Jimmy Them Biscuits?

Dem. Dem. DEM. Gimmy dim biscuits. Jimmy dim biscuits. This is the name of a podcast. That's a great name for a podcast. I'm not going to say anything bad about that.

See, I'm learning some of my lessons. Well, should we bring up our first guest? I would love to bring up because you know what? I just met Will Compton just a little while I ago, but I've been a fan of this guy for a long time, and I've got to be honest with you, I'm a huge fan of his podcast. And I've been a huge fan of his podcast

even back before it was on barstool. Yeah. But you guys, does everybody, know busing with the boys that's right do you also know that he's probably the greatest linebacker that's ever come through the league into the NFL the greatest and I don't even think he's retired right will you're not retired you still got some time left come on in ladies and gentlemen we got busting fans yeah anybody want a shirt inside of bus but hey hey for the buss and fans out there here we go look at him he's still

You got to get the punts that's in, where am I at right here? He still got it. You do still got it. That was pretty nimble. Nimble. He can do it. I did some covering the other day of Tideon you. I saw that.

Billy football. Locked his ass up. So what's the truth, Will? Is the dream still alive? What is it? 10 and a half, year 11? What is it? If we're playing this year, it would be 10.2

because last year I tried signing with Atlanta. and we had a gambling show going on at the time, or I did, bet the bus, and we were making a shitload of money if you followed my picks. But now I went to Atlanta, drove down, woke up at 4 in the morning. So I got ahead of myself. Two weeks prior to going to sign, I did a workout. Arthur Smith, the head coach of Atlanta,

sat me down after I did the workout. And he goes, Will, you know, we have a good relationship because he was the office of coordinator for the Titans a couple years ago. And he goes, crystal ball, perfect world, when would you want us to sign you? Because Arthur has been on the bus a couple times, so he knows that we're doing all this stuff, and he knows that I love doing it. He wanted me to come in, be a backup, be a mentor, linebacker, be like an old head. He's like, but when would you want to come sign?

And I was like, perfect world? I said, we can do a couple more of our tailgates because Bojangles is paying us a lot of money to do them. and if you came and got me in early November, I'd be ready to go. And he looked at it, he looked at his computer, checked the schedule, and it was like, we have a Thursday night game, I forget against who, but he's like, we'll come get you after that.

And sure it should have enough, dude, on that Sunday after all that, every week he'd check in, like, hey, make sure you're staying ready, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, yes, I'm working out. And, yeah, man, he texts me on Sunday, hey, pack your Chevy, drive down here tomorrow morning. I get up at 4 in the morning and drive down to go and sign with the Falcons, and I sit and we go over all this extra amendment, this extra side contract, because I had to separate from gambling and say that I'm not going to do anything, be part of none

of it. And they're like, the Falcons guy goes, okay, we're going to send this into the league. It should take 15 minutes, and we'll bring in, we'll sign, we got practice tomorrow at 130. And after that, eight fucking hours went by, and they end up calling saying, hey, if you want to play in the NFL, you're going to have a long way to go. NFL doesn't like, you know, essentially the NFL is a bad relationship with Barstool. They don't like, they don't like everybody.

They don't like Portnoy. And so they, yeah, they made it. They made it hard. They made a hard to sign. And then by the time that there was three weeks left, this was like two months worth of going back and forth. Told to me they wanted me to pay back money separate from Barstool, like terminate all contracts. They didn't want us to have a podcast. And then and only then I would have to agree to their terms to play.

By that time the Falcons unfortunately fell out of the playoff race And I was just like well I'm not fucking doing that Yeah Because this is we can make you know You got to have fun without banging our bodies Yeah you got a good thing going on now too It's just not like it's a blast We just fucking partnered with twisted T so we're fired up about that

Our first time ever rapping our So if anybody who's unfamiliar with our podcast busts with the boys Our podcast is on a Dale Jr. theme bus The 8 bus You had Dale on and it was a That one right there Yeah That was like that was by fucking

Quistin is too Like you didn't go find That bus down in you Yeah it was out in a parking lot Over in Wedgwood Houston Just in an abandoned parking lot Just sitting back there We paid two grand for it

flipped into a studio So we were doing this podcast On this day on our bus We just wrapped it for the first time When are you gonna get the damn thing Where it runs? The motor hadn't ran And that thing since you bought it

So you all literally They have to tow truck this thing Everywhere they go Is that right? It was just over at the Barstow bar just opened up. It was sitting out front. Like we got to get a towed. This thing needs to run, man.

We tried getting it to run, but they said like we needed a new chassis, like a fire truck chassis. Parts are obsolete, so it costs like $80,000 to get it going. I can't believe that. Unless you got something in your backyard. Somebody trying to rip you off, man. You are Dale Jr. We know a couple boys back in the shop. It'll get that thing running.

It costs no money. Hey, we can get a tow to you guys. We're going to start a fund tonight. Go fund me. We'll get that bus running. I did not know this, though. I did not know that the thing was already painted with the eight paint scheme when you bought it. It was a bus that race fans took to the racetrack,

and they just happened to paint it number eight Budweiser. Well, they found it and thought this would be a great studio. Okay. Well, be honest. You got to be honest. Did you know what that eight even meant or who it belonged to when you bought it? Yes, 100%. So Dale and I, are you familiar with how Dale and I got acquainted?

No, I'm not. I'd love to know. So when I was on Washington, you guys, like obviously some people are probably sitting out there like, yo, who's fucking Will Compton, how to him and Dale know each other? The boy, yes. So I played for Washington. Dale loves Washington. Yeah. My story, I was an undrafted free agent.

I was on practice squad of my entire first year. My second year, I got to start a few games. My third year I took over and became the starter when we won the NFC East. But when we're going through that year, we're kind of coming back. That was the Kirk Cousins. You liked that year. year. And we were having fun that year. And I got followed by Kevin Durant on Twitter. And mind you, I'm now starting in the NFL childhood dream. Like I'm like, yo, we're fucking doing it, boys. And

I see that Kevin Durant follows me because he was a Redskins fan. And I'm thinking, holy shit. Like, this is insane. Like I got my first sack, my first and only sack in my entire career. I hit like a dab. Like I'm always like dancer and trying to have. fun but I find out in an article, news article, that Dale was following me saying like, oh, he's got funny tweets or something like that. And I'm thinking, fucking Dale Jr. is following me on Twitter. I follow back. We go back and forward because I'm like, hey, man, big fan, blah, blah, blah. He's like, oh, I love what you, we'll love what you do. Yeah, I love your Twitter. And the next year in OTAs, Dale DMs me a photo of himself saying, hey, good luck at OTAs. Like,

this and I'm thinking, he knows how to take a selfie? And I'm thinking like, man, this is the coolest thing in the fucking, I don't know how much we can cuss out, but I know you're a father. Like, man, this is the coolest thing in the world that I'm interacting with Dale. And so I'm like, hey, thanks, man, blah, blah, blah. We fast forward, that's when you did your retirement. It was like your retirement circuit thing where you go to Richmond and you're going to do some laps and you go, hey, down in Richmond, Washington, that's where we had our

training camp. Dale DMs me again and goes, hey, I'm going to be at the Richmond track. I'm putting you on a list. It's like you, Ryan Carrigan, Kirk Cousins, like the big name guys, but he was like, I just want you to know you're on that list, so you need to tell somebody that you're on the list because I want you to come to the track and I'm thinking, riding the car with Dale Jr. But ever since then, man, we've been, I mean, Twitter friends, but then, you know, his fandom of Washington always surprised me because I'm thinking, dude, do you know who you are? Like, you guys, everybody knows.

Dale's like the most humble guy of all time. That's right. And I'm just like, hey, do you know you're Dale Jr., right? And you're a fan of me. So I thought that was the coolest thing. And then when he finally came on bussing with the boys, it just tied the knot for our beautiful friendship. I would say this too.

So this has been a decade into making. Me and him have probably texts back and forth around a hundred times that we're going to get a beer together. So y'all are watching us have our first beer. This is the first beer. Right on. Yes, sir. Right on.

We still got to get out to that secret town, you say you got. Oh, you haven't been there. No. Oh, man. Well, I envisioned us, you know, me coming into town, whether it's for busing with the boys, or coming out for the fairgrounds or doing something, and us having a guy's night out on the Broadway, you know, or getting a babysitter and hitting the street. Because y'all both need one, right?

That's right. Yeah. So we still got to do that. We do still need to get a drink. You still. We got to have a night. We got to have a night. You got to have a night.

I need a Dale's story. Do what? You're still in game shape? I know being a dad's kind of tough. You don't get to. Game shape is different. I work out. I still work out a lot.

I mean drinking beers. Oh, game shape. We got beer Olympics next week next Tuesday. Do you? We're doing a beer Olympics. Boston's hosting a beer Olympics. So we're going to be throwing some beer down. All right.

Well, that's good. You still got how much, you got a gas tank on you still? I'm good to go. Man, when I, I can turn it on any time. All right, all right. Hey. He can turn it on any time, but he need a long runway on the back end for him to recover. Yeah, I'm going to need a back two days.

But none of us can't. I got to check my calendar and make sure nothing's going on for a few days. Does Mike get after it? No. I don't get after around Dell. Yeah. Business relationships. Yeah.

I understand that. He's right, though. I can't get after it like I used to either. So you ended up playing for the Titans for a while. Obviously, you moved to Nashville. You're still here. So this town's left quite an impression on you. Absolutely.

Dude, Nashville, I grew up four and a half hours away in a place called Bontar, Missouri, or southeast Missouri. And whenever you get, whether one of the boys were getting married or you had a weekend with the fellas, everybody always wanted to come to Nashville. When I got to sign with Tennessee, St. Louis, the Rams had left. So it was either Kansas City or Tennessee or the closest teams. So I was always close enough home to drive home if I wanted and far enough away

to why I don't have to deal with all the family BS. But yeah, man. And once we got here, then Nashville is awesome. Yeah. Nashville goes hard, bro. So tell me the hardest you've ever went on Broadway. Like, at some point in this, story I better hear and then the sun came up.

Dude, you, so when I first signed and we got here, you know, guys know of some of the spots. And when you go out on Broadway, you can lose, you know, you lose track of time and you're right. Next thing you know, you are, the sun is coming out and you're at one of your boys' house in the basement wondering where somebody's going to sleep. And, but man, those first few weeks being in Nashville, we got after it. I'm talking like, you know, we did.

First, a lot of the boys on the team love to hit Whiskey Row. Sure, Whiskey Row, living the dream. You end up, you know, going around all of these different bars because Broadway you can get lost in. And it's just, dude, it gets grimy out here. And once you do it a few times, you start to realize when you've got to run gashes the next day and work out and everything else that it's not a sustainable lifestyle to go out on Broadway. And after you do it a few times, you kind of, it's like, you know, people, locals in Vegas, like, oh, they don't even go to the strip.

I feel like it's similar here. Like people local Nashville, not a whole lot they'll go out on Broadway, unless the big events are coming to town. Yeah. Like, CMA Fast or your podcast. This is so off. This is kind of connected to that.

But I remember during some Washington games, there was one specific receiver that drank a little bit during halftime, Take a little sip. Santana Moss. Yeah, I wasn't going to name any names. But Santana Moss used to just a little drink. They do two shots at Hennessy before every game.

What? Yeah. There's some guys who smoke and play the entire game. Unreal. Yeah, you listen to Pac-Man Jones. He would roll a joint every game. I don't see how dudes do that, bro. Wow.

That's a different animal. Everybody, like, hell yeah. But if they come back and catch it, Santana Moss was good. He comes in and gives two touchdowns a game or something like that. Give the man his shots, right? Yeah. He's going to argue with him. Yes, yes.

So you played in Vegas, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so Vegas or Nashville, what was the more dangerous town for a professional athlete? The more dangerous, Vegas. Yeah, of course, right? Vegas. It's not close. Right.

So I feel like you would have been conditioned for Nashville quite well when you guys. I went to Vegas after. Oh, you did? Yeah, after 10. So I went, once I went five on Washington, I went one Tennessee, one, Oakland Raiders, back to Tennessee, back to Vegas. Once you get in, you get in, you tell the coaches, smooths the coaches a couple of times. I'm a taste, they could have sent you to Green Bay.

What the hell are you going to do up there? Find a beer. Right, you're going to find a something. But, yeah, I mean, those are some pretty happy town. It's been a fun career. But then you land here, though. You moved here. you feel like this is what you're going to stay the rest of your life right for a while i mean we just

had my wife uh we're two years married we just had our first daughter she's 14 months old shout out cerule and bell um but yeah man we we love the community here you get a lot what yeah what the boy yes um we we do we like it here a lot man we have some good communities here Nashville is a good place, man. It's a happening place. And, you know, people, it's also a spot where you can get your friends and your family to come visit. So that's fun. That's

easy, too. Yeah. I want to ask you about Bustwood of Boys. I remember, if I remember correctly, your first couple of podcasts on a couch in an apartment. Am I right? Where did y'all start that out? We started our first pods on the bus, but we didn't have the furniture that we have now. So it was

stripped bare. Like, we were in a back gravel lot, no AC, no electricity. You had done no social media content similar to that prior to getting the bus. Like you literally started everything from scratch on the bus. Yes, yes. Why did you want to do that? Why did you want to do the show? So I've always had, like, I've always been a podcast junkie.

Like from 2000 and probably 14, I just always love podcasts, whether it's comedy, anything, man. I love podcasting. I listen to podcasts more than I do music when I'm on long drives or anything like that. So I always thought it would be cool if we would be able to stand up a podcast where you're bringing the locker room to life because the majority of the time, football players, you're wearing helmets, people don't get to, you know, when you're on a team, it's always about the shield. It's always about the logo.

And we have a lot of cool and unique conversations in the sauna, in the cold tub, in the locker room. And so I thought it would be awesome if those conversations could get recorded. So I talked Taylor into doing it because Taylor just signed the biggest deal in O-line history. So he was kind of untouchable as like a, you know, getting in trouble or anything like that. And myself, I was a free agent. And so I was like, I'm on the back end of my career. I need to figure out what I want to do now. That was something I wanted to do. I was nervous to do it. Took the leap. And obviously it's growing into what it has now. But that's how I started, man. I just learned. love podcasting. I was like, yo, let's

bring something to life to where it's like you're sitting in the locker room, a six-pack sitting there and people are hearing conversations and listen to athletes, guys like yourself, entertainers, musicians, artists, comedians, comedians, and open up and be themselves around us because we're not

corporate media holding the microphone of them. Who's your dream guest? You? No, no, no. He's already been on it. Who's your dream guests that you haven't gotten yet? Oh, man, I think it would be awesome to get it's Adam Sandler. I think Adam Sandler, I think he would be, he was always somebody I would write on a worksheet growing up if you could have lunch with somebody. I always wrote him because I just

think Adam would be so fun to hang out with Will Farrell. Have y'all reached out? No. Yeah. Well, you can't, you can't ever find out whether they would do it. Yeah. I feel like at some point you've got to figure out like when's the right time to take the shot. Yeah. Versus wasting it too early. I hear you. So y'all have, how long have been doing it? It feels like three years, but it's been four. Four years. And y'all's numbers today are astronomical. Like what y'all have become, y'all are sort of like, like you said, man, you brought

the locker room to laugh, life. Like as far as footballers go, NFL, like this is the quintessential podcast, that, you know, anybody that's a fan of the NFL, this is number one on their list. I appreciate that, man. I know y'all have made some big strides, man, and you've talked about that over the last several months about how far y'all have come. Congratulations, but, like, are you blown away?

Do you wake up in the morning and go, I can't believe this is my life. You wanted to create this second career, this career after football. You've more than exceeded, you know, as far as what I think all of our expectations and yours included were. Yeah, man, you know, I do.

I take a lot of pride on being like that overachie achiever, being like an undrafted cat, like getting it, like being gritty about everything I like to do. But yeah, man, I do. I wake up and I'm like, holy shit, like my 10-year-old self. Because anytime I go to Disney or anytime anywhere, like, you know, meeting you and still being around you. It's like, man, my young self would think this is so fucking awesome that I get to do this stuff, talk with these people.

So any, man, I got to play football. legit in the NFL. And that was, I was obsessed with wanting to do that as a kid. And like, you know, my wife, she was a cheerleader in the NFL. Like, as a young kid, I'm like, yo, I married a cheerleader. And, you know, it's just, yeah, it's incredible, man. It's nuts. It's nuts.

And it's nuts. I had old red right now talk with you again on the Dale Jr. download, bro. But, yeah, we appreciate you. Yeah, I'm going to tell you, you know, you guys are both part of a shift that's, I don't know if you noticed having them. Retired athletes or people that are not retired, still got a little left of the tank, but finding this relevancy in the,

you know, in the afterlife or the afterlife of the act of playing career. And I think it's changing the game and both of you two right here are part of it. So congratulations on your show as well, man. Mike, thank you, we love it. Thank you, man. We got to collab again, but, yeah, bro, athletes.

Yeah, all for them. Who saw that coming, right? I know, a bunch of dumbasses. Man, I appreciate you coming out today. It's great to see you again. We're going to get drunk one night and crawl off of our day. Y'all heard it. Tonight.

Y'all heard it. Yeah. Tonight would not be a good night for me. Was that the send-off? Yeah, we'll set it up. We'll get it going, man. Everybody, Wilcocton, right here. Let it hear it.

See you, pal. Thank you, man. All right. Oh, boy, how about this? Here, I'm going to switch out with you. What are we doing? Do you mind? Damn right.

Give that to Dale. Hey, I ain't driving tonight. Dude, thank you. So, I know that having Ally as a partner of ours tonight, I hope y'all appreciated hearing from Will. Will's a good dude. And I'm so proud of him and what he's been able to build with his podcast. I want to thank you for coming out tonight.

He was over, bar stools opening up a new place down the street, and he's out there for that and dropped in. That is a solid. But since Ally is one of our sponsors here tonight, would Bowman be in the house yet? He is. All right. Let's get him on up to the stage.

Ladies and gentlemen, Alex Balman Driver, the 48 Allies Chevrolet. Thank you guys. Good to see you, buddy. It's been a bit. It has. I'm excited to talk to you, man. Yeah, I'm excited to be here.

Yeah. So this is a weird thing. I don't know if I'll be able to articulate this well. I am just now starting my NASCAR season because I work for NBC and we don't work the first half of the year. Must be nice. So it's hard for me to look some of the NASCAR drivers in the eyes because they're halfway through the season

and they're pretty much in the middle of the grind. And I'm like, hey man, fresh off vacation how's it going yeah how's it going i've been at the beach for two weeks Alex what's going on i did take four weeks off so i didn't call it a vacation though yeah it was not a vacation but four weeks were taken off yeah so let's talk about that um you broke your back i did like how like of all things to do Alex oh yeah um not a good deal it's uh yeah so for those of you that I don't know. I broke my back on my 30th birthday. On your 30th birthday.

Yeah. What were you doing racing on your 30th birthday? Being a fucking idiot. Why weren't you? Yeah. You should have been in old red. Yeah. I was in the middle of Iowa in a cornfield racing a sprint car.

But yeah, I mean, I knew in my 30s my back was going to hurt. I didn't know in that capacity that quickly my back was going to hurt. But yeah. So crashed the sprint car, just kind of one of those deals racing. Did you know it right away? I am great at denying red flags. Like the red flag of like the bone snapping noise when I landed, it sounded like I was at the chiropractor.

No, I just popped my back. Everything's fine. It was not fine. Like I refused transport. I was like, I'm not going to go to the hospital, not doing this. I'm fine. It just hurts. And then I couldn't get my fire suit off.

And I was like, all right, maybe we'll go to the hospital. They'll scan it. They'll tell me everything's fine. And the doctor, he really got me. He's like, he came in after the x-ray and he's like, all right, great news. We can take your neck brace off. Nothing's wrong with your neck. But your back is broken.

So, yeah, I had a broken back. And it was pretty painful. But how do you, I mean, there's nothing you can do. No, you just got to let it heal. And so how do you know, like what did they say to you when they're like, hey, man, you're good to go? What is, what do you see that tells you, all right, I'm ready to rock, ready to rock, ready to race? Yeah, that was an interesting process.

Like, it became pain management a lot. At a certain point, they're like, well, it's healing. The bones growing back. As long as you can tolerate the pain, you're good to go. So, yeah, I mean, it wasn't, it's not, it's probably still not healed all the way. But it is stable. I didn't have to have surgery, which was nice. I didn't, like, lose feeling in my feet or anything like that.

And, yeah, so it's stable. It doesn't really hurt in the race car, but at the end of the race, when I have to get out, that's super painful. And then I'm sore for like a day and then it goes away. So it's not that bad. Got a four-week vacation from it. Put us in a shitty point situation, but we'll make up for it. The funny thing, though, is you were in a really damn good point situation when this happens,

so you're sitting right at the bubble, steal a shot to make the playoffs, pretty miraculous having missed four races. Yeah. I mean, I think that's phenomenal. And a 60-point penalty. That too. Yeah. It's crazy.

Like, yeah, I'm with you guys. Yeah. I'm not a cheater. No. I don't know. It's, you know, that's part of it. So, you know, I think without the penalty, we would have been leading points or second points when I got hurt. And obviously now we're right there on the bubbles.

So I feel like if we get back to where we're running before I got got hurt, we can get a win pretty easily. It has been a little bit of a struggle. I feel like you come back after missing four weeks of racing and you're four weeks behind some of those guys. So we haven't had a great couple races since we've been back. Not all of it's been our fault. We broke a transmission at Gateway and we had a really bad pit box at Charlotte. But yeah, we'll get back to it and make the playoffs and go make some noise.

You worked with, we both worked with Greg Yves. Gregory, the Riddler. All right, the Riddler. Was that me or you that came? I think that was me. It's such a good analogy. But we both got to work with Greg, and that was a lot of fun, and he retired last year from throwing the cup stuff.

And you got Blake Harris. So Blake comes from the 38 car. McDowell had an incredible year last year. When I heard that he was going over there, I'm like, perfect. Like, because you need to win, right? I want you to win. I feel sort of connected to your career, and I always want to see you succeed, right? And I'm thinking that's a great damn higher.

And so, yeah, and to that point, y'all had a fantastic first half of the year of Tilde injury. What's Blake like? Blake's a young guy. I think that you and him see eye to eye really well. Yep. I got to be around Blake when Josh was subbing for you. So that was fun for me to get to know him a little bit. But talk about Blake in that relationship.

Yeah, so that's been super cool for me. Like, obviously loved working with Greg, huge part of my career from the time when I filled in for you. all the way through, I mean, seven cup wins. And we had a lot of fun together. But Blake is super intense, like all in 100% every moment. And he does not care if he's going to hurt your feelings when he says something. He doesn't care if he's being mean. Like if it needs to be said, it's getting said.

If I'm doing something wrong, I'm an idiot. And why am I doing that and stop doing that? So, yeah, I think that's been. really good for me. Like I needed somebody to push me. And honestly, five years ago, I would have been so uncomfortable in that situation and like not wanted that. And I think now like I want that. I need somebody that pushes me. And it makes, I'm a bit uncomfortable with it sometimes. But it makes me a better race car driver. So I think it's been a really good relationship. When Josh was filling in for Alex at Darlington, I'm on the radio. I'm sitting on the back of the pit box. And,

And Josh is having a pretty rough day. And he come into the pits, and he kind of just walked the car into the pit stall really slow and easy. And got, that didn't put the car in the right place and they didn't have a good stop. And Blake said, hey man, I know we're having a bad day, but we're here to execute. I need your ass to execute. That means on pit stops, everything. Every time we come down pit road, this car is going to get a pit stop from this pits crew, and they're going to try to perform to their best.

And if you're not executing, they can't do that. that get your ass in the game and i was sitting back there going holy shit yeah and so like to that's blake i was like man is he's just being an asshole to josh no it's every week he's an asshole to everybody yeah like it yeah he's uh he's a lovable asshole though we love him uh he puts together fast race cars so that's all i can ask for maybe not so much today but uh maybe we'll be assholes of blake and it'll be faster tomorrow what do you mean about not today what was today like We just struggled a bit today. Because I don't know if you know this.

Winning the Ally 400 would be a good deal, right? Yeah. I actually said that on... You're telling me, brother. I actually said that during the broadcast today, during practice. I said, man, every year. Everybody here, Alex Bowman's under the most pressure of any driver because he's carrying the sponsor of the race on the side of his car.

Tough week for Alex, man. He's really going to have to come through and win this race. It is a tough week, Dale. If you only knew the half of it. Man, you've been on vacation. My mind's still at the beach. Man. I'm coming back, though.

If you only knew the toughness, but no, I mean, obviously being the Allied 400, it means a lot. We got crashed by a lap car on like lap 25 last year. I remember that. I would say it couldn't get much worse, but I'll make it worse somehow. So I won't say that, but I feel like it is a high pressure race for us. but we just unloaded way too tight. And I feel like as an organization, all the HMS cars were too tight, and we were like the tightest unloading.

So we just looked the worst through practice. And I feel like we have enough notes and enough teammates that got their race cars better. That will be better on Sunday. Don't know how we'll qualify. Hopefully we'll qualify pretty well, but we'll go from there. So the race, the practice today was during the middle of afternoon or during the late afternoon. Last year's race started during the day,

but it was pushed tonight because of rain, right? Toyota's dominated, but Chase Elliott wins the race. He starts hauling ass with 50 to go when it got really cool. Because of your tight situation, does the track get better as it gets later? You get more front grip. Do you think the track comes your way?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know how that goes. Sun goes down. All of a sudden, your race car turns. So I feel like that'll help us a little bit. And that's kind of what I told Blake today. Like we're 25th in practice. We look awful.

We should wholesale the thing. Like it's terrible, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, man, it's tight. But it's not like a dump truck. Like I can still drive the thing. It doesn't drive that bad. Like I can make it do all the right things. It's just slow to react and do those things.

And I feel like when the sun goes down, like we're small changes away from being pretty good. So hopefully I'm right. This is Friday night. I think we're going to support you. Yeah. I think this room right here is going to lift you up. Thank you guys. And give you everything you need to get her done.

Yeah, sounds good to me. It's a pretty special trophy. I'd like to take this one home for sure. Yeah, Nashville's a great town. You know, we celebrate our champion here. And now, you know, over the last couple years, we've been racing our product here and getting a win. And Music City is fantastic.

It's one of those racetracks that you, It's a town you want to have success in. Yeah. I'm proud of you, man. You've been working hard to get back. Thanks, man. I'm thankful that you're healed. I'm thankful that you're back behind the wheel.

I think with your pairing of Blake, you and him are going to have a lot of great weekends before the season's out, and you're going to be battling into playoffs, trying to win yourself a championship. Yeah. You're a hell of a race car driver, a great dude. I know you came a long way to be here with us tonight. Thanks, thanks to everybody to Alex Bowman. for coming out thank you guys appreciate you man thank you buddy Alex Bowman everybody give him a big one I swear we didn't talk about what we were

gonna wear tonight yeah me and Alex were kind of we're like-minded you all yeah yeah like-minded all right um Alex man he's a lot of fun I've been a lot of y'all may know but most of y'all may not but Alex drove for junior motorsports for many years trying to find traction and get his big break at the cup level. I saw some talent in that guy, and I was lucky to get him in our cars to be able to give him an opportunity to run up front. And he took that opportunity and he's obviously made himself a career at a couple levels. So I'm thankful for him to come out tonight.

Now our final guests are we ready to bring him up? Ladies and gentlemen, oh, are you saying no? Not right. He's coming. All right, he's coming. He's talking. I know what we can do. This gives us an opportunity to do something.

He's a talker. He's probably talking to everybody on his way here. Shocker. Hey, Travis, where are you? Oh, it's Mike's not working. That's not going to work. Somebody turns out. There he is.

There it is. All right. Travis, have you been scouring through the crowd seeing if anybody has a question for Dale? Yeah, there we go. Hey, Mike, Junebug. First of all, cheers from Denver, Colorado. I like you already, dude.

All right. Hey, Junebug, you talked about being connected to a driver's career with Alex there. If you can just touch on Josh Barry, not only making the jump next year, and then maybe if you can just tell us who's going to fill the void. Oh, man. Did everybody hear that question? I'll have it. I'll hang on.

He's getting bossy. Josh Barry got hired by Stuart Hauss. Hey, Josh Barry from Henderson, Tennessee. It's not far away from here. So there might be some folks from around him. It's hometown, but yeah, he got hired by Stuart Haas to replace Kevin Harvick. It's an incredible, it's an incredible opportunity.

And obviously if Junior Motorsports was going cup racing, we'd have did everything we could to put him in a race car. He would have been my pick to drive our first cup car. But if we can't do that, for him. Our drivers that drive at Junior Motorsports, Rick Hendrick gets the first ride of refusal. After that, they're welcome to go anywhere they want to go. And so, you know, Josh got a call. I tried to encourage it as much as I could, and I'm pretty excited about it, to be honest with you. As far as who fills the seat next year in the number eight car, Junior Motorsports,

there's a long list of drivers we're talking to. Jeffrey's one of the drivers we're talking to. I mean, if you want to name any of the guys that you think are really talented, they're probably on this list. But we're at the early stages. We've got to get that announcement with Josh out of the way, and then we can start moving forward on a few names and try to lock some people down.

Good question right there. While we're talking, Steve LaTartre made it to the stage. What's up? Everybody give it up for Steve LaTart. Steve is my good buddy, as you know. We had a lot of fun today doing our broadcast back in the booth. We did an extended practice and a cup practice together. I felt like we're in mid-seasons and form, man.

Yeah, it was easy. Smooth. Good to go. Great. I'm ready to go. I felt pretty comfortable up there. Did you feel good? Yeah, I mean, they invited us back tomorrow, so I think we're still good.

That was good. It was easy. It was fun. It's great to be back to the racetrack for some practice. We don't get to see a lot of practice, so that was good. Let's us handicap who we think is going to be better for the weekend. So it was good. Fun day.

Hey, Steve, I don't know if you were here earlier. But this man right here says he's won money off of your advice on Dirty Modeau. He believes in the system. We have a system. We have a system. That's it. That's your guy. I want to ask you, Steve, since you're doing this podcast, Dirty Modeau,

you're offering gambling advice when you're out and about are people coming up to you and saying, hey, man, I appreciate the information, or I hate you, I wish I'd never listen to that show. I lost 10 bucks. What are they saying to you? Well, you could tell by the pace of my walking what they're saying. If I'm walking really slow, they're winning. These are good ideas. But if I, you know, if the pace starts picking up

is because somebody's chirping about a bad pick or a bad choice. No, actually, the fans have been great. It's been a lot of fun to create the whole idea, the podcast talking about it. The whole idea is to make it entertaining, make it fun, keep responsible, as you said earlier. But we have. We've had a lot of fans in person,

a lot of people on Twitter and Instagram send us, man, we won this, we won this. We had a few, after some encouragement over some podcasts, I said, look, everybody didn't win everything. I mean, Travis's picks are awful. So, you know, I'm like, go ahead. Go ahead, your bike works. Oh, no, that's by design.

This is just like the podcast. Who's winning our little friendly wager? You are, you are. I agree. I agree. So with Steve up here, I thought it'd be a good time for us all together to sort of recap the first half the year now we're obviously not going to go race by race but we're just going to talk about a few

things that happen this year maybe talk about a few drivers right get everybody's opinion um obviously first thing i want to talk about is kevin harvick his final year um it is this last year we just talked about josh berry he's going to take over that car next year it's a harvard and me and uh me and lethar did we we have a responsibility i think going forward for the last part of this year to send Kevin Harbock out on a high note. Obviously, he's going to win some races, but I think it's broad, you know, as broadcasters being up there, man in the booth, making sure people realize what he's meant to the sport is very important. I mean, the guys won 60 race as a champion. I agree. He's going to win some races.

It's going to be fun to watch his transition. He'll start at Fox next year, so we'll get to see him as a broadcaster. I'm excited to see that Ford has picked up a little pace. seemed like starting at Charlotte. So I knew Kevin had the talent to win, but now I think he might actually have the equipment as well. So I'm hoping he has the proper send-off. We saw Stewart win late. We saw Gordon win late.

You won late. We'd like to see these guys around a long time get at least that one marquee win that they get a good send-off. So does he win? Absolutely. Where does he win? That's a good question. Phoenix?

No, no, no, no. No. Phoenix is, I understand, like, he's very good at Phoenix. I think he wins. So that's not a bad choice, Mike. I think he wins. We laughed at you like, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. I know exactly what I'm talking about.

Richmond. I know exactly what I put a little thought to it. I know exactly. Richmond. Richmond. Richmond. Richmond. All right.

Hartick wins. Richmond. We talked about Denny earlier. And we got a little mixed reaction, as you'd imagine. I think Denny's sort of the new villain of the sport. and because another driver is no longer the villain. Five episodes. Yeah.

Took them five episodes to get a fine. That's a record. I want to poll the room. Polling the room. All right. Do you all think that Denny wrecked Chastain on purpose at Phoenix? All right. Do you all think, do you all think, do you all think he should have gotten a penalty from NASCAR?

That's right. I'm with you. Yeah. I was overreach. I'm with them. Yeah, we're all together on this. For sure. Listen, here's the problem I have with the penalties.

Now you're just asking the drivers to be dishonest. Right. And now they get out, like, now I wreck you, then I get out and be like, no, I didn't. No, I didn't. They're doing that now, by the way. Like, I love Chase to death, but he hooked Denny, but he was the least smarter to be like, nope. Oh, absolutely not. That's definitely not what happened.

Since you mentioned it, let's go to that. So Chase wrecks Denny at Charlotte, who here thought that was intentional? Not intentional? Man, I don't know. Oh, come on now. Wait a second. Raise your... Wait, I want to see how many hands. How many hands think it was not on purpose? One hand.

Okay. Okay, a couple hands over here. Are y'all crazy? He turned the hell out of him. For sure. There was no doubt. No kidding. But I get it.

I get it. But that was out of character a little bit. But hey, man, guy put his foot down. I had enough. It ain't the last, it ain't the first time they had a run in. They had problems. Remember Martinsville, Phoenix, years ago?

So, I mean, Chase is like enough. Yeah, people forget that image in turn three after Hamlin shipped Chase. Yeah. It was like, oh, wow, you know, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do it. I mean, you drivers remember everything. That's what I've learned about drivers.

Like, they'll get out, and they'll start going like, well, you know, four and a half years ago, and you just get cross-eyed. You're like, I have no idea what you're talking about. Oh, we never forget. I'm holding a grudge from 96. With a particular driver. Oh, damn, Jason Keller.

He's long retired, but if I ever see his ass on the track, I was just going to say, so I, in 19, so when, so Carl Edwards, right, has not, Carl Edwards has not been to a. racetrack or even watched a race in 15 months. I don't know, a long time, right? We have this 75 greatest drivers of NASCAR deal at Darlington that brings a lot of us together. Well, that was a flex right there, wasn't it? And we're all, I'm sitting on this stage with the other 74 greatest drivers. And so Carl's sitting next to me, right? And so I'm like, damn Carl, I ain't seen you in Salon. What are you doing?

He's like, I'm building a boat. I'm selling over to Europe. I'm like, oh, okay. And so we're just talking and catching up, and we're jibbering about whatever's going on in our lives, and they're introducing all the drivers, right, to walk across the stage. And we're standing up talking, and we're shaking

hands with the drivers as they come by. We're standing there, and I'm like, yeah, Carl, blah, blah, blah. He's telling me about this boat, how he's learning how to sell. And they introduced Kyle Bush, and everybody in the stands started cheering. Everybody at Old Red booed, but everybody at Darlington

was sort of cheering. And Carl looked at me and goes, what the hell's all that about? And I was like, damn, you ain't been here in a while. Sit down, let me tell you what has happened. I was like, Carl, Kyle Busch drives for Richard Childness now.

Everybody loves him. All's forgotten, Carl. All is forgotten. He drives us several ways. It fixed everything. I laughed so damn hard. That was the best. But hey, my friend Tim Dugger, who knows Tim Dugger?

All right? Tim Dugger hated Kyle Bush, but he loved Richard Childress. And when Kyle went to Richard Childress, now Tim Dugger is a Kyle Bush fan. So I had this same conversation, and I could see the battle in his head. Yeah. He's like, well, he's going to be okay there. Like, he was trying to convince himself. going to be okay I see that battling a lot of people's head but why does the old red boo

Kyle Bush is what I'm yeah why are you guys the tough crap my Travis let let let him talk well we are we did invite a lot of Earnhardt fans here hey I well I want I want I'm glad to some people still remember that's right I was a big fan of your old man number three all right you go all right but what okay but what so what about Kyle Bush And I was also a Richmond when you hoped you were going into the free. Well, I got, hey, I got his ass back. I mean, damn, we can all forget about it. I do, I think it's.

Wait a second. When did you get him back? The next time I went to Richmond. Send him into one, backed it in the wall. How about that? It was less memorable, apparently. Del Jr. don't wreck a lot of people, but the one time he did it, you don't even remember. I don't remember it.

Well, it wasn't for the win, but we were leading. he was leading hey I made it well you don't remember it because I made it look so good I slid the left front you're like oh yeah he got on the brakes and locked them up racing deals that was I was there the day he wrecked I think it was Gilleland and like we were trying to make the playoffs that was funny that was great yeah we talked about we were talking Blake Blake Harris crew chief for Bowman yeah Bowman says he's an asshole sometimes he just tells him the truth. He's like, hey man, you're messing up, get your shit together. And Harris

was doing that to Josh Barry on the pit box at Darlington. I was like, golly, he's getting into Josh's ass. That was the only race that I can remember where Steve LaTartre literally had enough of my shit. He's like... Fact. That is true. I lost my shit. Yeah. So

how did... Oh, so we're racing along, qualified 16th or something. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. 10th lap in the race. There was a wreck. Yeah, but we qualified like 26th. Okay, 16th, 26. We qualified on like 10, Steve. Clint Boyer. We wrecked with Clint Boyer.

Clint spins out. Yep, fair. We're kind of all coming through there. I'm on the outside. And Clint kind of rolls down the track and I'm like, ah, I've run into him. Not your fault? Not my fault. Good with that. I don't, I'm in the car. I can't see the damage.

I drive away, come down pit road. They cut and carry on. And I don't know this, but they've cut the hole right front off the car. There's nothing but a tire. And so I'm running. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What did you tell me to? today about listening to me. What was the statement?

I don't listen to every word that comes out of your mouth. This night at Richmond would have been a perfect example because I explained exactly the damage that was on this race car. I go out there and I'm racing and I'm like having, my car's good. And so I'm catching people and I'm trying to bump them. And he's like, quit it. You don't have a bumper. You're going to knock the radiator out of it. I'm like, what? There's no bumper? There's no bumper. So we somehow make it into the playoffs. This is what happened. He stops on pit road, like everything's fine.

He gets out. He turns around and looks in front of the car. He goes, holy shit. You should have told me to look like that. We did multiple times, but you didn't want to hear us. Wait, we made the playoffs, so I got to do, I got a humble brag. We made the playoffs, so I got out of the car and you handed me a gym beam and a sundrop. That's for sure, in a water bottle.

And I walked around the car with that gym beam and sun drop, and I was like, damn, buddy. No wonder you were so annoyed Now wait a second You said one of y'all said that that was the only time you were mad at Dell I remember a Michigan Yeah but we won that race so it all goes away That's right

That's the only time being mad though it works out That was we were it was just a I don't remember what happened It's just a little disagreement in practice I mean he wrote about it in his book Well what happened was we were good And then they changed a tire and we were not good and we couldn't run any laps because there was a limit on the motor,

and he was very pissy about it. And he stomped up and down the hauler, and I kicked him out of the holler until we had our meeting after. Then we were good. We won. You just overlooked all that. You got to be a real asshole to get kicked out of your own holl? Hey, listen.

Michigan's been tough for you because I remember a day. I was Gordon's crew chief. He shows up with Tony Uri, and he goes off for Happy Hour. Do you remember this? Oh, yeah. So, you know, we all go out to make a five or ten lap run. We go out, make a run, come in, make a change, go back out. We do this three times.

I climb on top of the buck. He's just still running. I look at Tony. I'm like, what's he doing? I don't know. He won't talk to me and he won't come in. And you just run and run. Well, I don't know why Michigan was such a tough track for me in practice.

So what he means is, like, we're not running good. We're running bad, right? We're frustrated. We want to work on the car. But the engine guy says, you can't run anymore. laps on this motor the motor is a ticking time bomb and if you run another lap it's gonna blow up in the race it's out of laps and so we can't run anymore and I'm like Steve what kind of shit it's this we can't practice the motor and I'm raising hell and

stomping around he's like get the fuck out of the truck you're we can't do any we can't even think in here but with Tony Jr. me and him are like brothers and we'd fight and argue to each other but we got I was out there running around and I I was like, I guess I got, I guess we argued during my laps and got so mad at each other. And I just stopped answering his requests on the radio and I ran the car until it ran out of gas. I was really proud of myself. That'll show him. I showed his ass.

Hey, that'll show that old Yuri guy on it. I don't know, man. Jokes on him. I thought I did show him, but maybe I didn't. Let's keep, let's move on. So let's did we we talked about chase we talked about college Ross chastain what's everybody's oh boy thank you getting some thumbs down got like it love him all right so we we got some people that boo Ross

He's going to that thumbs down he's holding it does your opinion of Ross change if he wins more No yeah yeah see I think it does I think it does So or or if he apologizes less less apologies So you can keep Hitting things just don't apologize for it You like that? All right See I know Ross pretty good I can take him that advice

Tell him just to own him Ross used to rent from me so I know him really well I'll be like he texts me all the time he's like hey Hey man talk to some fans You need to apologize less Ross Hey didn't he fix that apology thing when he's deck Noah Gregson and the eye. Does that not fix that?

Yeah, yeah. Have we forgotten about that? I mean, come on. Listen, I hated it for Noah, but that, like, I leaned a little team Ross with a right hook. Yeah. Like, I could get behind that. I don't want to be a record guy.

They'd be like, man, I didn't mean to. I feel so bad. We had a, we had a lot of wrestling headlock kind of fights there for a while, so it was good to see some punches getting thrown. I mean, I thought Noah, the only thing I was disappointed is Noah I thought had a pretty quick comeback that got broke up. Yeah. I would have been, I would have liked to seem what Noah had.

He had a punch on the way. Oh, it was quick. He did. I think Noah can fight. From what I've heard about Noah's, Noah's childhood, he's been in a lot of fights, this guy. It's definitely been a lot of people who wanted to take a swing at him. Well, apparently, it's last to the lifetime.

I'm not much of a fighter. Are you ever going to fight? I'm not much of a fighter. Great question. Yeah. No. Come on, man. Like, yeah.

I mean, I'm, I talk a lot, so I talk my way out of a lot of dumb shit. I try not to get in a fight. Now, wait a second. Let me think. I don't remember, you correct me if I'm wrong. I don't remember any things where you about got in a fight. I do remember some post-race talking altercationy things. One with Denny Hamlin after the shootout.

You don't remember this. You wrecked him on the last lap. I wrecked him? Yeah, yeah, you wrecked him. It's okay. It was nine points. Do y'all remember this? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And he was mad at you. He's like, what are you going to do, wreck me for six? That was in the garage. Also, the Robbie Gordon thing, you can't forget, right? At Bristol, Robbie Gordon? Oh, yeah. Bristol, that's right. Yeah, I remember.

Yeah. So, I mean, he can get mouthy with the best of them, Steve. Yeah. I throw a good bird. He threw a bird at you. Yeah, right. You know, there's good birds and there's people who don't know how to throwbirds. are. There's some non-committed ones that are just...

If you've got to be half-ass, you've got to have some artistic quality to it. You know, like... That's right. Yeah, they've got to be a little bit of signature to it, for sure. I like... Personally, I like Ross. I know him a little bit, so I kind of like who he is, but I also think that he's good for our sport. I think...

Oh, yeah. I agree. Even... Listen, let me tell y'all, I'm on board with some of the people that boo Ross because I used to have to race against him in the Xfinity series, and he would piss me off. Him and Justin Algar had a race at Watkins Glen where it seemed like all they want to do was mess with each other and not move forward and it drove me crazy because neither one of wanted to let the other have the last word and so there's there's a lot of times where as an owner

Ross got under my skin but man when I'm in the broadcast booth I'm like hell yeah keep it up oh yeah you know because it gives us something to talk about but I do think you know I can't wait for him to find himself in Victor Lane with more regular right if we're going to talk about him as much as we want to we just need to get the old Ross back this new Ross is boring and slow what's happened I mean I'm okay with boring and fast but he's boring and slow I think he got his hand smacked a little bit of Darlington and they just had some bad looks since then he's fast this week we'll see he is fast he's good he's good practice yeah real good and they want to run good in Nashville

this is kind of their home home track for track house Steve who's the favorite this week Nope. Not Chase Elliott. Not Chase Elliott. I think it's going to be a Martin Jr. Martin Trace Jr. He was good. Churex was so fast today.

So fast. He was fast last year, but he wasn't the best car. He led a lot of laps, won both stages, but I watched that race last night. He was, like, Denny was faster than him the whole race, but he just had the track position, and he can run the high line at the fin. Reddick was.

good too we saw reddick run past i think true x reddick and in in byron's probably i think the dark course i think byron's pretty good so there you go he just gave you your picks where's our microphone where's travis where's travis Travis fire that thing up all right everybody Travis is going to stick this microphone interface you're going to tell us who you think's going to win the championship the championship oh the championship everybody in here is free to react to that call however you want all right you're on the spot all right ross Chastain. Ross Chastain.

What a call. Dark Horse. I hope it's Brad Kanzlowski, but it's going to be Ryan Blaney. Brad can't. Oh, Blaney. All right. I like that pick. Right here.

William Byron, baby. Oh, yeah. That's a good thing. Yeah. Yeah, breakout year. All right. Man, Travis, that's pretty limper right there. Rowdy Bush.

Rowdy Bush. Let's see. Travis. Casoloski. Kozlowski. Ooh. Wow. There's.

Man, I appreciate the commitment. Dedicated. Delicated. Willie B. William Byron. We got two Bairns. Okay. Ryan Bleenie.

Two Blaney's now. Ryan Blaney. I like it. Kyle fucking Bush. Man. Got a KFB thrown in. True X all the way. True eggs for another championship.

That's a good call. He's hot right now. Chase Saliers, he's finally going to get that win. He needs to win. He doesn't need to win. A couple of them things. One for sure. Number five, Kyle Larson all the way.

Kyle Larson vote final. Hey, I got to say, man, Kyle Larson had some big news today going to race in the cars toward Carolina. If anybody's from North Carolina coming through. Hey, so we're calling practice. We go to commercial, and he acts like we're still on the air, and he goes,

if nobody heard, it's the big news out of Kyle Larson today. He's going to drive the cars tour next Wednesday. Y'all ought to hear what we say during the commercial breaks. I wish they actually let you let you hear it. We have a lot of fun. Larson, if he quits getting wrecked every week. Oh. Wait, wait, wait, who is that a dig against?

Is that a ding? Who exactly is wrecking him? I want to know. I don't know. Whoever's wrecking him. Actually, let's ask you this. Did Kyle Larson get wrecked by Denny at Kansas? I don't think so.

Okay, there you go. It's an honest person. Honest, all right. All right, so let's, let's, let's, um. We got one more. Come on, give it to us. Truex. All right.

Oh, yeah. Wait, who is that? Is that the professor? That's the professor. That's the professor from Dirty Modo. That's the professor from Dirty Modo, if you ever listen to that radio or that station. It's the man with all the info. He loves tricks.

Man, he loves trucks. I'm going to go ahead and say that I picked him at the very beginning of year, still feel pretty good about it, but it's Blaney for me. Blaney. Yeah. Hey, the Ford's, the Fords are not the best right now. I know Toyota's kicking ass. The Fords aren't as good as HMS, but if who won, who won the championship last year

and at what racetrack? So the Phoenix who won a championship? Joey. Joey was nowhere to be found all year long, but he went to Phoenix and he was the best car that day, wins the championship. The guy that was good enough to pass him, Blaney. He was good enough to, I talked to Ryan about it. He's like, man, I could have passed him, but he's racing for a championship.

I think if they get to, I think if Blaney can get, well, he's, I think if he gets to Phoenix and he's racing for a championship, he's going to have the best car. That's a big if, though. It's hard to get there. You can make an argument against anybody, but I really think he's got a shot this year. I think it's Hamlin. Hamlin. Finally.

Finally. For that reason, right there. The more they boo, the more I'm going to say Hamlin. I'm going to keep pounding that drum for 19 weeks. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, because I think he's had the years where he was the favorite. And I think this year he's going to be off the radar a little bit. Yeah.

A little bit. Yeah. That's my pick. That's your pick? That was my pick. Your pick's Denny. Denny Hanlon. Jesus.

That's right. That's right. Bullshit, they say. Now we're talking. Finally someone with some sense. Yeah. I think Trucks got a better shot out of that camp. Yeah, listen, I'd love that.

I want it to be a veteran. Somebody on their last legs. I like, so I feel like Martin's in the best position because he is like, Martin don't give a damn. They're like, hey man, are you coming? coming back next year he's like, I don't know. And he's winning races. He's got like zero pressure.

Well, the win helped because they were racing like they gave a damn. Like he was driving all tense, making bad choices. James Small was making bad choices. Like, I've been there, right? Like when you lose long enough, you start questioning. Then they won one time. They got drunk together and they were like, oh, yeah, we'll do that. They'll be fine.

And now they won twice. I think here could be three. Yeah. I think that's the big thing. I will. I can't take Mike seriously in a hat just for the record. In a hat? He wears one every time.

Yeah, but it doesn't look like this. Yeah. I mean... What do I look like? I don't know. I'm supporting our friends and ally. What are you talking about? No, it's a good looking hat.

It just doesn't fit you. All right. Style tips from Steve Latart. Hey, Jeff Burton said I was the best dressed. He did, but he said I... What is Jeff Burton know about that? Yeah, and he said he was the funniest, so you can't believe anything he says. All right, man.

So, wait, wait, wait, wait, what do we think? What do we think is going to happen at the race Sunday? So let's go in, let's cover that real quick. What kind of race we're going to see? No, don't even say those two words. Damn, better not be no rain out. No, not a rainout. I think prime time's going to be great.

I think the concrete here widens out. It's going to be good. Toyotos look really, really fast. I think they're going to be the cars to beat. But I think William Byron is really good. And I really want to see what Chats. Chast'sane is car enough to win the race. So I'm waiting to see how Chastan is going to run.

In my opinion, it's Truex. I think Truex looks great. He's going to be really good. I'm more interested. Tomorrow's going to be good, too. I think all your cars look really good tomorrow. Oh, yeah. I forgot.

There's a race tomorrow, too. Yeah, I was actually surprised during practice to see the junior motor sports cars run so good. Look, I own the shit, so I want it to do good. We won 15 races last year. We won one this year, so we've lost a little speed. Some rule changes in all season hurt us real bad. we're trying to find it, but they showed up today, and they were the best cars. San Mayor's rolling.

Yeah, they're the best cars in practice. We'll see how it is in the race, but things look good for junior motorsports tomorrow. I think for me, Sunday, I love the wide racetrack comment. It's absolutely true. I talked about watching last year's race back. They ran side by side for multiple laps, battling for the lead. You can't do that at all racetracks. We've got to appreciate how great this racetrack is, and I think we're going to see a

fantastic race. The Toyotas were fast today. They were fast last year, but a Chevrolet ended up winning the race. When it got really cold, really late, everybody's car turned better, everybody's car started driving better, and it really changed what the field looked like and who the best car was. I think that happens again. This race is going to start late. It's going to end later, and while the Toyotas look fast on a middle of the afternoon racetrack, I think at the end of the day It could be a chastain. It could be a Larson. It could be a Chase Elliott.

And if we have a lot of yellows, it's going to be hard to dominate because I don't think it's going to be a no-brainer to put tires on every time. Because the tires don't drop off dramatically. So if we have enough yellows, the field could get jumbled up. Yeah.

Now, if it goes green, it'll be pretty straightforward. Yeah. The one thing, though, too, I liked about last year's races, there were a lot of comers and goers. Like, Kyle Busch jumps out there, gets the lead.

You're like, ah, his ass is going to drive away from everybody. He got loose, and they came back to him, and he, you know, you had a new lead change. We don't see that every week either. I really love what this track provides in terms of action and how fun the race is to watch. Way better.

Like when they announced it, I was trying to be positive. But I can think about the track we tested on and it was nothing like the track we see now. I mean, that puts on some good racing. Yeah, absolutely. We're excited about it. Is everybody going Sunday? Who's going?

Everybody's going to the Ally 400. I bet damn. Good to y'all. We're going to see y'all there. We look forward to it. Thank y'all for coming tonight. It's been a lot of fun. I hope you guys had a lot of fun here on Broadway.

I don't know how you can't have a good time at Old Reds and out here on the Broadway. Thank you to Mike for putting all this together for Dirty Mo Media. Steve, all our guests, Will Compton Bowman, and special thanks to Ally. It's a lot of fun. We did it two years in a row.

I reckon we'll see you next year. Thank y'all very much. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, y'all. Check out DirtyMode Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.