The Dale Jr. Download - Choose Wisely, Dale ... We're All Listening

Episode Date: April 10, 2026

Only have 30 minutes? Spend it the best way you can - with us! It's time for the Dirty Thirty, where you get the best half hour from this week's Dirty Mo Media shows. In Dirty Air this week, Dale Jr. talks about Rockingham and ponders why the Cup Series left the track in the first place — and the possible tracks you could replace it with on the schedule. Over on Door Bumper Clear, Mark Martin joined to talk about Corey Heim's incredible start to the season, but his ineligibility for the Truck Series chase. On this week's Bless Your 'Hardt, Amy took inspiration from Ella Langley and Theo Von's conversation on what flower they would be. Her pick for Dale was perfect, and his ... got there eventually. Last but not least, on the guest episode this week, Johnny Benson and Dale Jr. discuss their lingering concussion symptoms and the crash that lingered with Johnny the longest. Thanks for tuning in this week - we hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to check out shop.dirtymomedia.com! 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.

Hey, everybody, I'm Dillon Hart Jr. And this is The Dirty 30. The best highlights from all of our podcast this week, 30 minutes every single Friday. The Dirty 30 coming in charge. Let's get right to it. This episode of The Dirty 30 is presented by Arby's new Meat in Three Box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meets.

So going back to Rockingham, there's a, you know, after a great successful weekend, a lot of questions around should the Cup Series go to that race track. You know, I don't know. I think it would be a good race. I'd love to see the Cup Series back at Rockingham. Yeah. I don't think any of us knew in 2004 that we were running our last Cup race there.

One thing I like about Rockingham that is the entry of the corners is really tight. Like when you're side by side with somebody, it makes racing you're going into a funnel kind of I mean, there's going to be contact at times, especially when guys that's close racing. You've got guys that are going to be really good on the bottom, and you're going to have guys that are good up top. And I don't see how a cup car doesn't move around there with the right, you know, Goodyear's been doing a great job bringing tires. So I don't see, I think the race would be pretty good.

Yeah. I think it would be pretty fun. You know, you can go some places in the atmosphere just feels right. It tracks like you just, it feels like that there. Okay. Like it just, you. You feel like you're supposed to be there. I know that's weird.

No, it isn't. It isn't. You know, I just feel like there's still part of me that's kind of annoyed that we left in the first place. You know, but I'm trying to, you know, get over that shit. You know, just like, it's kind of like this falls into the bucket with like full season points and all that. And I'm just so exhausted with. Yeah, why would we ever leave there to begin with? I know.

And so I don't want to kind of beat this dead horse or rehash all of the hurt feelings over all that, you know. But yeah, I mean, I would love for us to go back there. And but there seems to be a battle, I think, NASCAR is kind of having within itself as a, at the top, the executive level of man. You know, we got this core fan base that loves Rockingham, loves full season points, loves all these things that are very traditional and connected to the history of the sport. But we also have doors opening to us that weren't open before,

like racing in San Diego is a great example, the Chicago Street course. Like those were not doors that were open 15 years ago. Oh my gosh. But now there's all types of opportunities and cities that are like, hey, come on over here, come do this. What can we, how can we have a NASCAR race? Where should we?

And so nobody's building any new racetracks. You know, and so they're like, well, let's figure this out. It's racing a stadium. Let's race on the streets. race here, let's race there. And so NASCAR has all these shiny new things and all these people that want to have

conversations. And they look over here and go, yeah, Rockingham, that's cool. But, you know, we did that. So they're in a tough spot, you know, of deciding, because there's not enough dates. There's not enough days in the

year. There's not enough. There ain't enough calendar. for all of it. And so something has to go. Yeah. You know? I mean, it's kind of a, I mean, that's kind of a good problem to have at some point. You got a lot of places to go, right? Well, it's a good problem unless you're one of the places that gets left out.

Yeah. And you got these contracts where these tracks already have probably have agreements for, so it's like how do you remove? Yeah. Well, I think that the agreements have shortened up to where they're one to three years. I don't know that they're that adhered to like they were in the past. The schedule is much more malleable and changeable than it has ever been. And NASCAR wants that. They want the opportunity to act fast. If an opportunity pops up, they want to be able to make that change and fit it in and shoehorn that in.

You know, I think it's a simple solution that actually might take some time, though, is to dial back some of the double dates. You know, that's what's kind of happened in the sport already is a lot of tracks that had two races has been dialed back to one. We've seen that be a success for a lot of race tracks. And so, you know, maybe there is another venue or two on the schedule that goes from two to one races a year to be able to add on, you know, tack on this new opportunity or this old rocking ham

NASCAR looks at the geographical footprint a lot I'm sure and says where are we racing do we need to race another event in the state of North Carolina instead of going over here where we are nowhere

where we have no race right not no races within a state or two they're going to go for that new opportunity every time but you know it, there's some racetracks that,

you know, the O'Reilly series goes to that I'm like, why, you know, I don't want to single anybody out, but there's a couple of racetracks

that we go to. I'm like, what are we doing here? Why are we at this? You know, Cups never going to come here. Why are we here? But,

uh, that's way out of the way. Yeah, there's a couple of them. Yes. And, um, you know,

I think it's, I think having the Xfinity series, or I'm sorry, the Raleigh series and the truck series at Rockingham is a really great compromise if we can't be there with cup maybe we can get there one day you know and maybe it's an all-star event just like north wiltsboro maybe it's the maybe our way back is through that kind of an avenue of having an exhibition there of some sort where would you if you could pull a second race from somewhere and put it at rock again i'd have to look at the schedule i mean you got

phoenix Vegas taledagas bristol i would pull a phoenix charlotte yeah I'd pull a Phoenix. Do we need to go to Phoenix twice? No. I mean, yeah. But NASCAR's going to go, whoa. We can't take one out of the market of the West Coast. What?

We already lost an auto club. Yeah. And do we do that swing. You kind of do the West Coast swing together when you go to Vegas. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I'm not. I think Phoenix is evolving, but.

I'm not a big. Phoenix was really great. Then they changed this configuration. I'm not a big fan of how they drive across the apron and shit. It was a really, really awesome, badass racetrack that didn't need to be changed. But we've seen that not only at Phoenix. I've seen it at other places as well.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't want to do the what-ifs or where, you know, I don't want to on any old racetracks. I know. I got, I like it. all of them yeah but well i don't know how they're going to get it into the schedule but maybe it's the same route that wiltsboro took um and i think fans would be perfectly fine with that um all right i'm actually really excited to hear y'all's opinions on this one um if corey hyme finishes the season

in the top ten in points he should be eligible to race for the truck series chase spot on spot off. Freddie? I'm going to say spot off because rules are rules and people would approach things differently, I think, but it's still, I mean, it's not going to happen because I don't think he's going to run enough races to be in the top 10. At the end of the year, he's kind of front-loaded this schedule, and I don't know that he's going to. He may be adding more for the rest of the year, maybe, but it's still. It's incredible, man. It's ridiculous that he's got two less races, two less races, Mark, and is leading the truck series points right now.

I mean, how impressive is that? I mean, just on itself, we talk about how great this kid is, but how impressive is that to just have two less races and be the series point leader? Yeah, it's unbelievable. And I'm kind of like you, the rules are the rules. I don't understand the rule. I say if you score enough points to be in the top 10, you ought to be able to run.

But the rules are the rules. So they made those rules, I think, for a different reason. And all that all the way goes back to the winner circle, back in the 70s, which was payout money when they had to get people to sign a contract that said that the Wood Brothers would show up at every race, for example, instead of cherry pick. I think it's outdated. Yeah, for sure. I mean, and they had it for the, like, the chase because they were worried about guys coming in and winning one-off races, which we all thought was impossible until SVG did it.

But, you know, that's why they had that rule. And now I think you can kind of get rid of it. The only thing I would say is, like, from a series perspective, I guess, like, when it comes to, like, Mark's point the payout and things like that, like, you want to reward those that consistently are, you know, they're supporting and racing every week. But then at the same time, that team technically is all the time. You know what I mean? Like, so I kind of could go either way on it, to be honest. Oh, he's driven for two different teams, right? No, it's the same team.

Same truck and a five trucks. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. But Tricon is there every week competing, even though Corey isn't. But what he is doing is he's helping the owner's points for those trucks, which pay out money at the end of the year as well. So I think it's 50-50 in the trucks. They pay 50% of the owners points fund and 50% goes to the drivers. So he is helping one side of it. Yeah.

And Mark, I wanted to ask you this, is Corey, not the best example of our business model is broken when it comes to the drivers? and like the fact that this guy doesn't have a full-time ride somewhere? It is, but, golly, you know, I also say it's okay to have to wait. I mean, yeah, I agree 100%. He should have a full-time cup ride, but he will have. It's in the, you know, it's going to happen, and he's gracefully waiting his turn. So I think that's good. Another thing that we didn't mention is, you know, you don't ever talk about it.

making money anymore but when I came along it was important if I finished tying a good paying race that meant something well Corey has just cashed in you know let's not you know overlook the fact that they you know won what 150 grand yeah in bonuses the last two two races yeah for sure and you were talking about the business we saw this week Nick Sanchez sits home because you know that team kind of is going through some tough times Well, that was, Nick Sanchez doesn't have a ride this year strictly because of money. Somebody came in, took his ride because that guy had more money.

And you look at, you match up what Nick Sanchez did at this point last year. Nick Sanchez is a driver. Patrick Starpoly is doing up to this point in the same car. Nick had four top tens at this point last year. Patrick's averaging like a 20 second place finish. You know, so Tommy or Mark, I can't, you got to help me understand at what point does the business model flip to where it can't. It won't. But I'm just saying it's like.

you're taking more money but you're not getting return on your investment you know like there's no money coming in I don't know how is the big is the window that big that you're never going to make it back by putting a good driver in your car versus taking an extra $2 million. No if every time and every time you gamble on that

saying man we're going to do better and we're going to run good the money happened yeah and shit happens and plus 90% of the time the money doesn't come and you're out of business right? That's the real problem is the money doesn't come. Right. You know, you win all that stuff, but you still don't get the money, and there's not enough purse money to make up for what you lost.

I mean, I've said it numerous times. I mean, the O'Reilly series is the worst business model out of all three series. Most of it's because, unfortunately, it's because of the engine program. And, I mean, it's a $900 million investment every year, maybe a little bit more on some other manufacturers just to put the key in the or that's the engine bill, right? So, you know, they, I think they run enough races. I don't think the truck runs enough races,

but you know what I'm saying? It's just, it's hard, man. The business model is hard. And again, that's what Michael Jordan was fighting for in the cup side of it. You know, during all the fights last year, it's just like we have to be able to self-sustain what we have without finding,

having a sponsor. The sponsorship should be added bonus to us, right? It should be what so we can invest and build better race teams and build better tools and doing the stuff. A lot of the teams are just getting enough, getting by every week, right? And you're seeing the 30 team shut down, right? The O'Reilly's thing, the 25 shut down. The five cars going to take a couple weeks off, right? It's just, it's hard. You're putting your key in the door with a dream, right? So to your point, Freddie, I get 100%. I'm 100% with you. Unfortunately, it's never going back.

It's just like, I mean, it's never going back. And, you know, I think back to 1987, I ran the full schedule with an open trailer, a cube van, and two race cars. You could do it then, you know, and you could afford to hire a great driver. like Samard or Tommy Ellis or something. But it's a different world we live in now. And unfortunately, you can't put that back in the bottle. You can't put this expensive racing vehicles and operation back in the bottle.

The other thing I saw this week that was really funny that kind of had me laughing was, do you watch anything with Theo Vaughn? Yeah, I see some stuff. So he interviewed Ella Langley, who were all like, what? Who's Ella Langley? What? Who is that? Who is it?

The little brunette that sings country music. Excuse me, you look like you love me? You look like you love me? I'm sorry. You're not an Ella fella? You're not an Ella fella? We listen to Ella Langley at least 14,000 times when we were in Texas. Is that the song?

She's from Texas Akinale? Yeah, then I know who that is. So he interviews Ella Langley and she brought her guitar and he's like, hey, you know, I want you to sing one of your songs. If you'll sing a song and she's like, okay, sure, you pick one out. And so he picks Dandelion. And before she ever got to play in it, he's like, I sometimes feel like a dandelion. And she looks at him like, wait, what? You do?

That doesn't align with you. I feel like you're more like a rose. And he's like, no, I'm more like a vine. You know, one vines that grows on your house that you can't get rid of. So they surmise he was like a cudzu. She was hilarious. I can't get enough of like watching where his brain goes. But it got me thinking, if I had to declare you a flower, what would it be?

and I feel like you're more like a fiddled fig tree A hell is a fiddled fig tree Well here's hear me out So like everyone likes a fiddled fig tree You know the tree that I have in the sunroom The big giant one? Hmm Sunroom

Which room is that? Oh my god Dale Hi I'm Amy Have we met before? I don't know we had a sunroom Okay It used to be a porch That is now like the Butler's pantry

Yeah the Butler's pantry Yeah So it's kind of like the plant room too. Okay. That big giant tree. Okay. That's a fiddle fig.

They are really nice to look at. Everyone seems to like them. They're very hard to take care of. Oh, shit. They're kind of fickle. Like, you can't move them. They like to stay in their place. If you water them, they're mad.

If you underwater them, the leaves fall off. Perfect. Yeah. So you're like a fiddle fig. Okay. Yeah. What am I? Oh, my.

Man, I mean, you're just pink rose. A pink rose? The basic pht flower? A pink rose? I don't know. Travis, what are you? Are you an azalea says you love the master so much? I'm an azalea this week.

Maybe like a cactus. A cactus? No, you're not giving cactus vibes. You like pink drinks. You're not a cactus. Let's see. You're an orchid. I'm an orchid?

Yeah. Did you look at my notes? That's my favorite. flower. Does that mean I'm an orchid? Do you know anything about orchids? Oh yeah. What do you know about an orchid? There, if orchids, when you get one from the store, you got to be real careful with it because, you know, it could get damaged and you could, you could, you could ruin it real easy on the way home.

And they need to be in the sun. No. By the window. And they, they, they, they, they, they, they, they. bloom and they're beautiful and then they go sort of dormant but then they kind of come back when the season you know when the season's right yeah they kind of bloom again like most flowers I suppose but when they're dormant they're pretty pretty normal you know there's just one it's just a little stick one little stick yeah when they're dormant you're supposed to leave

them alone yeah don't touch it don't touch it don't think about touching that's exactly you like when you're when you're when you're in a mood When you're in a mood like an orchid, you've got to leave it alone. Don't touch it. That's right. Don't even come over here. No. I try to sneak in a hug and some cuddling.

Nope. Nope. Nope. But Amy loves orchids, and so I think that that's not a basic bee flower at all. No, it's not a pink roses. Orchids are very, well, I just said that out of the first thing popped in my brain. Women love roses. But we do.

There's nothing around with roses. Orchids are very peculiar in particular. They're beautiful. They're unique and special and rare-ish. And so... They're kind of hard to must. They're hard to grow. They're hard to take care of, too.

It takes some effort. Yeah, it does. It takes some effort. Yeah. The big concussion you had no nine, I suppose, was it? Is that the only time? I'm sure you've been banged around and rung your bell multiple times. We all go through those?

Yep. It was by far the worst. I shouldn't have lived through that for one. Really? I can't remember the guy's name that. I think he was with GM and he was one of the safety guys. And he had passed away not long. I can't.

I can't. Probably about eight, nine years ago, whatever. Maybe not been that long ago. Anyways, I did have a computer in a car. And I just, like the aim system for the gauges, stuff like that. And NASCAR came and looked at the car after this wreck. And they took the computer. and he had said that he's never seen a spike straight up.

Well, the computer only went to 100 Gs, but it was straight up. He goes, it's always on an angle. He said, this thing was straight up. He goes, I can't guess. I can't even guess what that would have been after they came and looked at the car and everything. I mean, it was tore up. It was pretty bad. But I had broke a lot of stuff.

I mean, I was in ICU for four days. I meant there, I don't know. I don't think it was one of those touching gold things, but I mean, it was my lung, my kidneys, and all that were in pretty bad shape. Same with the, I guess, knocking my head. I was bleeding out of my ear and all that fun stuff. But I had my moments where I can't remember what happened yesterday. And then, you know, I got to figure out. I don't know if there's a way around that.

No. I mean, I'll say this. I'm not a doctor. and so I'm not, you know, for everybody listening. Like, I don't fancy myself as an expert of any kind. But, you know, I started, you know, going through the process of the symptoms and went to see my doctor in Pittsburgh. And from the moment that I realized that I wasn't all right,

I started analyzing myself daily. And I recognized or, or, you know, you know, when I would forget where I put something or forget why I walked across the room to the refrigerator, I would, I recognize that and I would highlight that in my mind as a moment. And I went to him, you know, I'm going to him through this process and telling him everything. I'm trying to be as transparent as possible. And I'm, man, you know, the other day I did this. The other day, this happened. The other day I turned my head and I felt this.

And I forgot this and forgot that. And he's like, he's like, you can't put everything. thing that happens in the concussion bin. Just because you forgot where your keys were doesn't mean that's a concussion-related thing. Some things are just going to happen. People forget names and birthdays and things they said they were going to do all the time.

Yeah. And I needed to stop analyzing every day and sort of tracking every day is this sort of, you know, trying to understand the, you know, the metrics of wherever, if I'm, am I improving. And so I kind of, you know, I am forgetful. Is that related to my concussions? Maybe not entirely. If you said, man, remember what you said yesterday? And I don't.

I don't get all that bit of shape about it because I didn't know. I didn't in the moment when I did it I didn't file it away is something very important because we get we've tuned ourselves to only file away the things that are critical and you know I don't I think that now there are some things that are real you know there are some symptoms and issues that are real and I'll tell you this I am I am not the same version. I'm not, you know, I'll kind of call myself, this is 2.0. There was the first, there was that one version before the wreck and now there's this

version. I think 100%. Right. And that, that, that I had to, that I just had to come to terms with, right? That not everything was going to, I wasn't going to be as sharp or as elite or as I wanted to be. And another thing I'll tell you too, and I think you can appreciate this. It's like when we're racing a car every single week, all of those senses are so perfectly finely tuned. They are. And when you get out of that rotation and you no longer do it day in and day out, you never, you can't, you know, when you do go back and get behind the car, you see that five or three or four percent that's not there. Yeah. That the other guys have,

that they, they, they're the guys that are doing it every single week. You don't have it. You don't. You don't. And you're not going to. And the one thing I don't have a problem is, is I should be in a car. Yeah. And I think it's, I think you got to concentrate so hard. Yeah. That forces you. It forces you to just stay on track, right?

I mean, sometimes under caution, you find yourself like, yeah, get back. I'd rather go back green now. Yeah. And, and so I did have that problem in a car. And I, and I don't have the problem if I, if I, if I trip, I remember reflexes are still pretty good. And so I don't know what area that it is, but I'll get a horrendous headache and that I never used to have before ever. I mean, it's probably just started in the last three, four years.

You would get that, but only for a short minute, but it got to feels like your head's getting cut off, you know. And then it kind of goes away. And I've had, I don't know how many times you walk across shop to get something and not know what you went over there for. Yeah, and then you get back. And then you go, oh, crap, what the hell? You know, what was I even looking for? And then I have to think of what I was doing. Because I may have two or three different things going on.

Yeah. And, you know, from building cars and all the machining, your heads always, always rotate. Yeah. And because I still always have this great ideas for some of the race car to do. But I don't want to put the energy into it now. You know, in terms of the, you know, the memory and head, you know, I feel like that, my doctor you know i i i had this really great vision uh most of my career and like uh 2010 always had really good vision and then i had the the concussions and stuff and when he sent me to an eye doctor

i'm like oh my eyes are great you know i don't why don't i got to see this eye doctor during this whole process but the guy started putting glasses on me and um uh i picked my mom's glasses up one day and i was like, wow, I didn't even know my vision was steering off in the wrong direction, but it is. And so now I wear glasses all the time. And he's like, you know, you were probably, I was like, I was so disappointed that, man, this wreck and this injury has messed up my vision. I really was going to have great vision all my life. I loved being able to read and see everything. And now I got to wear glasses and without glasses, I'm literally useless, right?

If I sit on the couch with Amy and I don't have my glasses on, she's like, check us out on my phone. Like, I can't see your shit. And so I hate that. But my doctor's like, you were going to get this way. He's like, this accelerated it a little bit, but you were going to do this. And so it's kind of similar with the memory and like, isn't my memory as sharp as I think it should be? No. But it was probably, you know, this is likely, you know, an aging process anyways.

Maybe it's a little more profound. But I do that too. I'll walk across the shop when I'm working at a shop. but when I'm working at the shop and walking across there for a particular bid or something like that and a tool or whatever and get over there and go, what hell was I? What did I need? Sometimes it comes back in five minutes, sometimes it's two days. Yeah.

And, you know, that's probably the best way to look at it. Usually nothing bothers me. I don't really dwell on it. Hey, this is Dellenhart Jr. And for all the latest Dale Jr. download gear, including the I'm old drink some beer t-shirt that we've been talking about here around the office, head over to shop.dardimomedia.com for all the latest merch. All right, that was another episode of the Dirty30, presented by Arby's new Meat in Three Box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's.

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