The Dale Jr. Download - Dale’s Daughter ‘Kinda’ Wants to Try Driving a Race Car

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

From bus doors getting destroyed to Michael Jordan's motivating words, and maybe even a future racer in the Earnhardt family - this week's Dirty Thirty is one for the history books. To start us off, Dale Jr. talks about broadcasting from an Aircraft carrier this weekend at San Diego, and the time he saw his bus have an issue live on TV at Pocono. Then, he and Amy talk about Nicole's ride in Justin Allgaier's car to victory lane — and how it may have sparked her interest in going racing someday. After that, the Door Bumper Clear crew discusses the Cup Series drivers' aggressiveness this year under the new points format. Over on Actions Detrimental, Denny Hamlin sets his goal for San Diego and Sonoma, and shares the words Michael Jordan said during a pre-season meeting with 23XI that sparked DH's tenacious approach to this year. Finally, Red Bull brethren and road course aces, Connor Zilisch & Shane van Gisbergen, discuss what they are expecting heading into the historic weekend in San Diego, racing on a Naval Base. That's all for this week! Don't forget to shop at 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 and Three Box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meets.

Next question is people want to know how excited are you to be calling the race from an aircraft carrier? That's a real deal, man. That's badass We're going to get on this aircraft carrier And we're going up in the tower And we're calling the race from the control tower And we can See some of the race track from where we're at

So we'll be able to get the vibe I would hope so Well I'm just saying like when we're I don't like not being able to see the damn race track I don't like that Yeah flat too hard to see And so

There's um And I just not so much and I know there's been this conversation on for a long time now about being at the studio or at the track and all that shit I'm just saying I want to be there to feel

the energy of the event happening right in real time yeah and that feeds into the like Chicago. Like Chicago was good. Yeah. Yeah. Well Chicago wasn't because we were in a radio stuff. Oh that's right. I was in a no.

The fuel event was good. Last year I was in a rented it was a shipping container. No shit. And we were two blocks from the racetrack. Looking at monitors. Oh, that's right. Yeah.

And I got, you know, Stefan? Yeah. So I told Stefan, I was like, Stefan, come and sit in this shipping container with us, and there's a monitor over here on our right. So we got the production in front of us, the real what you're seeing on TV. And over to our right, we had a big wall of like 12 monitors,

and they were just fixed monitors. on all the turns. And I was like, Stefan, you stare at those. And if you see a car stopped or if you see anybody hit anything, I don't give a shit what you see. You slap me in the arm and you tell me what it was. And so I think I'm going to try to get Stefan up in that aircraft carrier, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to get him the access we need.

Might be a little tougher. Because I don't like to miss shit, you know. I don't like there for a car to be sitting there for 15 seconds and us not know it. Did you do a corner at Chicago the first year? Yeah, radio style. Yeah, radio style. That's right. Not my favorite.

We did radio style at Pocono. I felt so terrible. Like, I felt like there's no way this can be good to listen to. Yeah. Oh, my God. I'm not a radio guy. I'm just not cut out for it. No.

Yeah. But you want to know a funny story about radio style from Pocono? Let's hear it. So I'm in the tunnel at Pocono. And I'm up on this perch. just outside the turn. And we're doing radio style. Here they come.

Coming at me. Four wide. Whoa. This guy's in the lead. There they go. And middle, when I had my bus there. And when the race gets about halfway, my bus driver's like, all right, I'm out of here.

Complete race. You're not spending the night. I'm going home. I'm going to leave early. Bye. My bus is pulling out of the racetrack. And we're calling the race. I'm like, here they come down the straight away, two but two, oh, three wide into the tunnel.

Such a such takes a lead. My bus driver drives out the tunnel, and he had one of the, there's the underneath the, underneath the bus at the bottom, there's these doors and there's these storage areas. One of those doors was open, and he went through the tunnel and ripped the door off. Oh, no. And so I'm calling the race, and I turn around and watch him drive out with the door dragging the ground behind him, hanging on by one. hinge. Did you commentate that? Yeah. No, but he pulls over, stops, gets out, walks around it, and I'm sitting there calling the race, watching him, looking at all that. I'm like, God, dang. And he was so embarrassed. Oh, I bet. But I'm like, what's he going to do? How's he going to? He can't

drive. I mean, there's in the storage unit now that it's exposed. He's trying to leave. He's got to figure out. So he got a piece of plywood, cut it, screwed it in there, and drove on to the next racetrack. I had to go straight from there to the next race. But I'm sitting there in the middle of calling that radio style while that's happening. Trying not to like lose it. Lose it. Yeah. Was that the camper or the motorhome? That was a nice one. Yeah. The fifth wheels, nice, but yeah, that camper was, that was tough. I was like, not right now. Like, we're right in the middle of this. Yeah. Yeah. Nicole also said, that she thinks she kinda.

This is, she made sure that you only know that she kind of wants to try to drive a race car. Yeah, she does. So she got to, I know you all saw her in the car with Justin Allgaier and Dale after the win on Saturday. And she gets out of the car in Victory Lane. And I pick her up and she goes, Mom, I really liked being in the race car. She like whispered it right in my ear and hugged me super tight. And then later she's like, Mom, I mean it. Like, that was so fun.

I was like, what was fun about it? Like the noise and everything. She's like, I don't know. I just liked being in the race car. And Dale didn't even consider this, but they get in that race car and it's hot. Yeah. Like really hot. I considered that.

My ass is on fire. Your ass is on fire. He even had a fire suit to sit on. My sole of my shoes melted and it's all over the school board of the car. That's what I was getting at. You could see the print of the soul of his shoes stuck to the bottom of the inside of that car. It was that hot. Wow.

I know. You just don't think it. Like, you know it's hot, but you just don't think about it. It doesn't register that also. Those guys are baking. There's not a seat over there. The pipes go right underneath that floorboard on the right side. So it's probably, you know, it's cooking.

I just thought Dale was so excited about the whole experience in the moment that he wasn't really thinking that part through because he was about to throw Nicole in. I was like, no. I climbed in there. I climbed in the car and I'm like, it's too hot for my ass. I can't sit on there. So I got to get on my knees or something, but there's no room for her to sit down. I want her to sit on my lap.

She didn't have a ton of clothes on, like she'll be a tiny dress on. Hollywood, who's our truck driver on the seven, took off his Nomex fire suit and put it underneath my ass so I could sit down on the floor and not get burnt. And then Nicole just rode on my knees. Yeah. And she got to hold the flag. She did. She held the flag and she didn't want to let go of that.

So I helped her hold the flag because the wind could take it. And she wooed all the way to Viculain. She screamed and wooed. She's like, woo. Were you screaming? Yeah. I was like, hey, honey, we're going to holler now. We're going to wave and we're going to see people and we're going to wave at them.

They're going to look at us. We're going to wave at them. and we're going, woo! And she did that all the way to Victory Lane, really, really good. And all that was great. She had a great time. Then we get in the truck and we're driving home. And this is a day later.

We haven't even talked about it. And we're driving into the driveway Sunday after the race. And she goes, dad, you remember riding in that car with that guy? I was like, Justin? She goes, yeah, riding in that race car with Justin. I was like, yeah, she goes, I wasn't scared. I was like, no, I didn't think you were. He didn't act scared.

She goes, no, I wasn't scared. I didn't plug my ears either. Yeah, she hates loud noises. I was like, no, you didn't do that either. She goes, I kind of want to try it. I'm like, what do you mean? You kind of want to try what? She goes, I kind of want to try to drive a car.

I was like, drive a race car? She goes, yeah, but kind of, just kind of. I'm not going to fully commit. And I'm like, well, I got, you know, we got little electric. We've got cards. We got a little electric cars and stuff. We got a little track. I said, we'll just get out there and putt around and you can kind of try it.

And she's like, okay. Yeah. So we need to do that. Yeah. It's before the, before it goes away. If you really want to see. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's just.

Ila's never going to go for it. She's too cautious. She's just not going to do it. And she's expressed that. Like she likes to dabble and play with her cart. She likes to take her little. everything around the track she's got wheels with, you know, but she's not going to be the one. But Nicole might. She might play with it a little.

She might play with it. What was it like for you, Amy, to watch Nicole have fun and... Oh, I loved it. I mean, I would have crawled in that car if Dale said, get in there with me. Or I would have crawled in there if Dale said, we can't get, like, I can't fit you go. I don't know. I would have done it. I don't like to pass up an opportunity for, like, that's like being in the huddle. You know what I mean? And so that was cool that he got to do that with Nicole. I really was excited for her. I was sad that Ilo was so overwhelmed that she wouldn't go. She does not like being put on the spot. And so in that moment where we're like, hurry, hurry, hurry, you have to make a choice.

You have to run. She's like, nope, I'm done. I'm not going. And she kind of locked up. And then she didn't want to get on the stage for a victory lane either. So she got bribed to get up there for a couple pictures by Aunt Jamie. And then, you know, she got down. But she doesn't like all that attention.

Nope. Last one. The new points format has made drivers less aggressive. Spot on, spot off. Freddie? I don't know where that's happened. Who thought it? Who come up with that?

One of those producers come up with that? You did. Jesus. Yeah, I don't see that anywhere I'm racing. I don't know about you. Yeah. If you don't notice my notes. I've got notes for all of them, but that one.

Because I could not figure out what that meant. You know, I think it's so crazy, especially this points format, you know, you almost have to be more aggressive because wins means so much. You know, we talked about this early in the year when they were put on the show sheet, like, after Tyler, I think won three or four, whatever was, three in a row there. And they're like, nobody's going to catch Redick. And I'm like, this points format, 150 points is nothing. You know, like Redick ran second yesterday and lost 31 or 32 points, I think it was, to Denny. You know, Danny made up, I think, over 100 points in the last three weeks.

So when you win, you know, you have, you know, it's a 76 point max. And then if the guy finished a second, that's 35 points. So if you go out and win every stage and win the race, you're making up 30, 40 points at a clip on him and then 50 or more on guys that are behind him. So I think that we're going to see a lot of flip-flopping. But I mean, for me, it seems almost more aggressive now than ever. Nobody's just happy to run back in third or fourth and go,

we're having a good points. Yeah, I feel like it's across the board. The further you go back, the more aggressive it is. Like comedy's talking earlier, you get back in the Hornets Nest. And E.J. Eric Jones actually made comments about how, much easier it is to race up front at Michigan and those places versus fighting for your life every lap, you know, back there 20th to 25th. I know I haven't seen any less aggressive because even though you win, you're talking about Exfinity or rallies right now, you know,

Taylor's won a race, but he's not guaranteed in, you know what I mean? So he's having to fight for everything that he has. Williams won a race. He's not guaranteed in, you know what I mean? So it's every race means something, every position, every lap means something versus, oh, I've won, I'm guaranteed. It doesn't matter to me. In the cup, though, I mean, seems like, and you've been on both sides this year of running up front and being in the Hornets Nest. You've been, you know, up front most of the time. But it's like what Eric Jones means is when you're running in the top 10, top 12, you

don't have to worry about other people around you anymore because it's just enough split out that now the team is just working on strategy, right? Now the team is just working on getting to the next stage or the next pit stop, making the car better. When you're in the back, you don't know what to do to make the car better. Yeah. Because you have, it's like the car is just junk. I can't not do anything.

I just, I just, I can't do anything. So the race, that's why it's a hornet's nest between 23rd and 33rd all the time, because they can't get out of their own way because you can't do nothing because you're just fighting for your life. And there's where most of the, most of the wrecks are not on restarts, but during the race, right? to just yeah yesterday i mean yesterday we were talking about you know we we we short pit that last run and we're not short pit but we were like on the front side of it at least and those guys are running along and i'm watching lap times and i'm going holy ss we're making up like a second a lap on

bell and he was like one of the guys that was half straight away in front of us or so when we pit and i'm like man we're gonna we had clean air we pit into a hole where we knew we had clean air which is important there and i'm like well we're gonna be we're gonna be way ahead of some of these guys that are running long and we're running like 53 20s 30s, and we're hauled ass. And then we run down a group of like three guys, 5420s. And I'm like, we just slowed down a second.

And now Bell's faster than we are because he's in clean air because everybody around him pit. And I'm like, well, you know what I mean? But it's just like once you get in that little hornet's nest, you can't go anywhere. Like your car tightens up a number or two.

And it's just, oh, now we're stuck again. But yeah, it's, but I mean, the only thing I'd notice this year is everybody's faster. It seems like,

or at least they're harder to pass. Yeah. Even every field. Xfinity or a Riley Cup, no matter where you're at, it's hard to pass. It's never, there's no, we started 38th yesterday and I'm like, what's usually we give goals? Like, what do we want to be at the end of the first stage? And we're like, 30th, we hope, you know, like, because we know it's going to be that challenging. That's about where you ended up. Yeah, we ended up like 28. You know what I mean? It's like that that's, that's a good start.

You know, then we can hopefully maybe get five more the next run, you know, and then if we're in the top 20, we can race from there. But it's, you know, and we were kind of heading there and then got tore up, obviously. But, yeah. Once you get back there, it's just, you're trying to get small gains. But how much of a wild card do you think San Diego is going to be in general? Not when you're up front. It ain't no wild card. Back there where I'm going to be running, wild card. Where's the stack up going to be?

I mean, you got a pole on a street course, though. I got three poles in a row on row courses a few years ago. Right. So what are we talking about? Maybe we turn back the clock this week. Listen, I know, listen, for my fans, I know it seems like I'm giving up on, I'm not. But I just at this point of my career, I'm telling you, my bandwidth is better spent, focusing on tracks that we have a great shot to win at and going ahead and winning at them, using that resource and that time to win at them versus going to a road course and working my guts out to Joe,

get five positions better. The math doesn't math that way. I just, I only have so much capacity. And I just, I don't have the capacity to, to work on my road course game at this point of my career,

nor do I want to. So I'm just going to go get my good finishes like I hope to go get. We just, Denny Brose could take, take a couple weeks off. Just, you know, take it easy.

We've got to, a good gap to third now it's not like you know what i mean like everyone just relax we got not not much to gain not much to lose we're okay we just we need this little summer stretch to take a breath reset focus on the next focus on the run to the playoffs up to that take two weeks off then we go in chicago where you tested and we're back off and running again witt smith five 18 wants to know what what's a win what's the goal for the road courses? Top 15s.

Top 15s. I think that, you know, that's good enough damage control for me. No, I'm not expecting to go out there around 30th. Like, that's unacceptable. But, yeah, I mean, I'm going to leave those tracks thinking, I mean, where have I been on the road courses this year? 10th and 15th? Yeah.

So, like, okay. It's just, it's not our standard of, expecting to go the track and win. I think a 10th, 15th place finish is going to put you in a great spot heading into Atlanta in the points. That's my hunch. But then we're going to have to get lucky, right? Is that don't get caught up in the wreck? But everyone's got to get lucky.

Everyone, you're right. But it's not like you're starting from scratch. It's not like, oh, well, who gets lucky or unlucky? You are erratic. It's, no, no, no, well, if you're behind. you have to get lucky and he has to get unlucky. You know what I mean? So it's not, you know, it's not totally straight up.

Yeah, unless you win. When you're behind. Unless you win, you're going to be it usually by a spot or two. So it really doesn't get you much. You have to win to get the true like win. What else we got here? Oh, Michael. He's the help motivate you in the off season?

Yeah. I mean, you know, know, he just, he was more speaking to the general crowd. He wasn't necessarily speaking to me. He wasn't challenging me, but I saw it as a challenge. You know, for context, for those don't know. He just, you know, he addressed the team in the offseason. We talked, you know, as ownership, we wanted to talk to 2311 about what our expectations were, where we want to see our team, you know, how we expect our guys to work together, all those things. and yeah it was just you know i think we're i don't know the full context i don't remember

exactly how it got brought up um it might have been talking about like adversity like you know these races never go his plan like so so what now what you know how to what's your next best move right um and so i forget the context but he he just brought up myself and it was you know It was right after all the bad stuff that had happened. And he's like, yeah, yeah, I'm interested to see what Denny does and how he were, you know, what does he do from last year? And, you know, does he respond or does he fold up 10 or something like that? And, you know, so at that point, I'm just back of the room.

Okay. It's, you know, sometimes things like that is what all you need to fuel you. but it's you know i i've got enough fuel inside of me anyway i i'm a competitor right i love to compete no matter what it is so um it feels good yeah it just it still feels like there's just a little the dials been turned up a little bit this year the last eight weeks have been pretty pretty phenomenal yeah it's been a one of the best runs certainly i've ever had do you think it's You and Gail just finally, like, as any, like, I have a theory that I think you guys finally, like, have, like, clicked. I don't know the things really have changed much.

You know, we interact the same as we have last year to this year. I mean, this really goes back to the starting at the playoffs of last year. You know, if you look at the results there, like, this started long ago. And do we need to talk about the earlier races in the season that? that we definitely should have won. So this is not, I don't think this is just a last month thing. It's been like this for a minute. So, and it's, in my mind, it started last year.

Like that, that, just seemed like that Vegas race was the moment that unlocked something else. Yeah, I mean, you know your stats this year. they're pretty insane. Well, and they are, and how about this? I'm not leading the standings. The 45 team, it doesn't get, I know that media is talking about us right now, rightfully so we've been winning, but do you know how ridiculous a, you know,

a five or a seven average finishes in the Cup series? Like, and how hard that is to do? I mean, the 45, it ain't like he's like running like shit, and that's how we've caught him. It's just, he's still running in the top five to top 10 every single week, like every week when he didn't get wrecked. So they're on just as a historical run is what we are. All right, don't forget about stopping by the online merch store, the zero to freedom line. Let's take a look at some of these shirts in the zero to freedom line. Look at that.

Good, clean on the front and on the back. You got the American flag with a bunch of the, looks like some Gen 5 race cars. Star Stripes and stock cars. And then another clean front there on the blue Dirty Mo and again, the Eagle. Zero to Freedom. Check it out at shop.dirtymodea.com. May the 6th. A couple of those new shirts will be on there for you guys to enjoy.

We're going to San Diego to race these cars that we're looking at. and I the the racetrack itself is pretty daunting and um but you two guys are probably the only two guys there may be a few more that aren't that intimidated by such a such a project but every time that we go to anything like this it's chaos our you know for all our series the trucks a rally for cup it's going to be chaos and I want to talk about that a little bit. We, you know, what, first off, kind of what's, what's been the preparation? I've heard some different things about drivers spending a lot of time in the SIM.

I know if you go do a SIM session for this racetrack for two hours, you're lucky to get 20 laps because it takes so long to get around there. And, you know, for a driver, I've heard Honeycutt in the trucks has run almost 400 laps on the SIM, which is insane. I don't know. That's what I heard from a Toyota official this past weekend. So, you know, and you have ir racing at home where it's available to you. How much time are each of you guys spending on SIM?

Is that going to be beneficial to you? Do you see it as beneficial to other guys? How do you guys prepare? Yeah, I did some R racing actually last night. That's probably the only SIM I've done and MX5 out of things. Yeah. Actually, Kyle got on last night and we were racing each other, but I went through a few virtual cars, that's for sure. It's tough, man.

Oh, I like that. Even the first corner is on the edge, that right. And then you come down that hill and it's bumpy and then head on as a wall. So, yeah, I've crashed there many times. Yeah, same. It's difficult. I've destroyed some virtual Chevys, unfortunately. But, yeah, it's challenging.

It's so technical. and I've been spending most of my time on irasing. I racing's done a really good job keeping the track updated and, you know, even better than what the OEMs can do with the simulator that we have at the GM Tech Center. So, yeah, iRacing has been really good. And honestly, I prefer ir racing over the Big Sim for this week just because of that. So, yeah, it's, you know, whenever the track changes, you want to be driving the most updated track possible. and iRacing's done a good job of that so it's uh it's it's cool i mean it's it's definitely tough

like chicago was tough but i feel like this track is even more technical than what that was i feel like that was a lot of 90 degree corners and just kind of stop and goes and a lot of the corners were the same and um i feel like this track's got some more character to it so i'm excited for it what about the um you know there's a couple of corners where you're coming you know around and and there'll be a tire pack right in your, right in mean dead in front of you. Like where, I guess,

uh, the broader question is, it's like, you know, every time we go to one of these tracks or every time we do something new, anything new. It's just a lot of chaos and, and problematic issues and people finding different ways to hit things and new ways

to hit things. And I just, you know, there's some areas that are kind of questionable that I'm a bit concerned about when we start racing through them, right? It's one thing to go out there and run by yourself. The whole track, right? So every corner I see on the track is different, unique, bumpy, challenging, like I can see. Yeah. What is? Conning at every corner almost.

Yes. And so with the next gen car and how, how that car ride, the ride quality of that, car and how unique it is to anything else that we do. Um, there are some really, really rough spots and. I think you saw that at Chicago, like the first year, a lot of cars were high and soft like the 91 car and then everyone's gotten greedy like it's gotten lower and lower and stiffer because that's how the car makes grip, but there's a huge compromise between getting the floor on the ground and ride quality.

So luckily it's an open practice. So we get to try some things, but I think it's a huge compromise. You're going to see some. bad handling cars. People getting greedy and running too low. Yeah, trying to run too low and, yeah, slamming the track. I went out there last week and I think it's, I mean, I lose count at five, but that back straight. Oh my gosh.

It's so rough. Yeah. Even driving the road car, it was rough. So it's going to be interesting to see how the cars go. Yeah. Yeah. So you've been out there? Yeah.

Last week we did a bit of promotion stuff and you got to run around the track itself. Yeah. And, well, no, half it's not even built. Right. Yeah, half of it's on a runway. They can't be there until Thursday. Have you been out there personally? I went out there two or three months ago.

How much did you get to learn? Well, I didn't learn a ton, honestly. I saw like three corners, but I didn't even get to drive on it or anything. I was there just last week, and it's amazing that we're going to race there next week. Because there's not much. Yeah. Would build tracks in Australia. It would be done months before they'd be building.

Here, it's a week out. Yeah, they're doing it the week of. And that's the thing, like they couldn't, because it's on an active runway, they didn't get access to that until I think. At some point this week. So, you know, they get five days to build it. And, you know, you've been practicing on this iraicing thing that you're relying on and treating, you know, like it's the truth. And then, you know, a guy with a forklift decides he's going to put the wall there instead of there. And all of a sudden.

A couple feet can mean. Yeah. What you just spent for what Caden Honeycut just did 400 laps of is useless. So it's kind of one of those things where you can't really rely on the simulator too much. You just got to go there and walk the track and see what it's like. Yeah. How do you think NASCAR handles cautions there? Because, you know, when we have a, if, you know, on the road courses, that's the toughest part about this whole deal is when the caution comes out, particularly race at the end of stage breaks.

It takes so long to run a caution lap at most of these road courses. and this one's the longest one that we've got. That's one thing I'm kind of curious as to how NASCAR might call this race. Would they maybe be less likely to throw yellows in certain instances? Let sit there and wait and hope and pray this guy can get his shit together and get moving or whatever, right? Do they hold that flag a little bit longer? I mean, I get so bored of some of these races we run under yellow. The cautions can be so bad.

I hope they... It's TV, Tom. I mean, NASCAR knows it too. Like, yeah, they'll be the first to admit that, yeah, the cautions are too long, but whether it's TV or, you know, if when I exploded a brake rotor at Nashville, they had to go out and find every single piece of brake rotor because if not, someone was going to run it over and get a flat tire. So, yeah, I mean, they always have a reason, I guess, but, man, when you're in the car driving

around under caution for 20 minutes. It's like, I mean, it's going to, but it's three and a half miles. It's going to be a six minute lap on the course. I know. And that's the thing they, and at stage breaks, we always do like a full lap and then one time by, two, like it's, it's going to be a long caution. I wonder, I'm surprised. I hope they just open the pits right away.

Right. I'm surprised that they haven't, I'm sorry. I will be surprised, I suppose, if they don't change some of their protocol a little bit around caution. And then do the choose after the second lap open or something, hopefully. It should be two laps of caution, Matt. Like open the pits right away Unless there's a crash right there

But you should be able to open the pits right away Stages are only 20 laps So we'll get eaten up pretty quick Yeah All right that was another episode Of the Dirty 30 presented by Arby's new Meat in Three Box Get more meal for your money at Arby's

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