The Dale Jr. Download - DJD Reloaded - Alex Bowman Joins, Dale Jr. Breaks News, and Ray Evernham's Untold Stories

Episode Date: February 22, 2024

Alex Bowman joins to talk about his runner-up finish in the 500, Dale Jr. stops by to break some news. Plus, Andrew goes Man On The Street down in Daytona and asks drivers/fans what they'd be willing to sacrifice for a championship. And hear some of Ray Evernham's untold stories. 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. This week at Dirty Mo Media. Winning a NASCAR Cup Series race is the hardest thing to do in all of professional team sports. Someone asked Dale, would you give up a toe if it meant your NASCAR champion? Any toe? Yeah. Oh, yeah, Pinky Toe, no problem. I'm not cut it off right now.

Really? Jeff crashed to 43 on Pitt Road at Atlanta. But Richard Petty was so mad that he came walking up. up to the trailer with a piece of the car and he said if he wants this so bad he might as well have it. Hey, welcome in to the Bojangles studio. It is time for another episode of DJD Reloaded. As you can tell from the top of the show, we got a lot to get to today. I'm your host, Carla Geppardt, alongside Casey Boat's your one and only host of Doorbup or Clear. Get to babysit those guys each week. You do a good job. Thank you. Do you get paid extra for that? No. Oh, I'm still working on

And who are you? Andrew Curlin, supervising producer, the Dale Jr. Download, host of Next Level. So, yeah. The hardest worker here? Yep. Man on the street. Yes, man on the street.

Yeah, we're going to get to that in a little bit. I've got a lot of job titles. Yeah, the business card. I need a few of them. You clean the studio after this, right? Yes, that's right. I'm going to vacuum the grass. I can't wait.

All right. Well, yeah, obviously, we've got a lot to talk to talk about, as it concerns the Daytona 500. William Byron, your winner over the weekend. A little bit of a controversial ending. We're going to get to that. But I actually want to start with a controversial comment. It was actually on your show earlier this week.

No surprise there. Yeah, Brett had some interesting takes on NASCAR as it pertains to professional sports in general as a team sports. Let's go ahead and pull up what Brett said. And then we're going to talk about the controversy after. Winning a NASCAR Cup Series race. is the hardest thing to do in all of professional team sports. Fair? Fair?

I mean, he's not arguing that. He won a couple of them. I don't know of anything in team sports that's harder to do. I think that's an interesting clip from Brett. Are we talking all team sports? Like, is it just winning a NASCAR race? Winning one race? He said...

And we're comparing that up to just anything else in team sports. That's what it sounds like. Listen, it's no doubt difficult to win a cup race, but I have a hard time getting behind that statement 100%. I mean, look at, we're about to get into the NCAA basketball tournament. You get 64 teams going for one victory. I mean, the odds of winning that are astronomical. You could maybe throw in even PGA, you know, PGA golfers, yes, it's individual,

but they have a lot of coaches. I mean, there are so many people. I was going to say, is that a team sport? You could argue yes or no. Yeah. I have a hard time. I think there's so many difficult things in the sporting world. I have a hard time saying that winning a cup race is the end all.

Be all. Maybe a championship, right? Could be a different conversation. Right. And also, like, look at some of the wild card races. Like, Daytona is a wild card race. Talladega is a wild card race. I'm not saying you don't have to be talented to win those races,

but sometimes luck and other circumstances can play into that. That's why I just have a hard time subscribing to Brett's statement. Didn't Denny say on the Netflix show, I think, where he can maybe get lucky and make a half-court shot, but any of those guys getting in the race car, they are not going to be able to win a race. I do see, I'm going to regret this, I do see Brett's point.

Wow. I do think that, you know, the pit crew, engineers, crew chiefs, there are so many factors that go into not only the race, but leading up to the race. I mean, it is, it can fall on even just one missed tire, lug nut that loses a race for somebody, right? Like, I don't know. I, gosh, I hate to say this, but, Brett, I do agree with you. I want to counter that point you made from Denny, though. And I don't remember the quote exactly.

So we could be, you know, arguing maybe the wrong thing. But like, like, does. Denny Hamlin saying that he could jump in an NBA game and do what they do and lead a team to a champion? Like is that the statement he's making? Like that's where I have a hard time with what he said there. Like you might can make one half course shot. Right. Sure. Multiple like Steph hurry does. Exactly. Yeah, I think with this, it depends on your criteria for me. Obviously, I cover a lot of different sports. I like the point about the NCAA tournament because the odds of that are so slim. On one side, if your criteria is from a physicality,

standpoint, like none of these drivers, pit crew members are going to be running a hundred miles an hour and hit another human being, right? There's a whole different language to football, to basketball, to really any sport that you play. From the other perspective, though, when you talk about a NASCAR team, you've got engineers, like the brains of the operation, right? Not many people are going to be able to compete with that. You've got the pit crew. You've got the spotters. You've got the drivers. All of that kind of coming into focus. And then you only have 36 races. So like baseball winning a World Series title is really hard, but you have a lot of opportunities, at least to just win a game.

You only have 36 races. So the percentage of you actually winning, but it has to be a lot smaller. So I can see from both arguments, but I think it depends on are you talking about the physicality of a sport, or are you talking about just every move that a team can make, like to your point, could possibly ruin your chance of winning? Well, I think also, and I feel like we talked about this a little bit earlier, but take like gymnastics. Yeah. And the end of the 500. I mean, gymnastics goes off of judges.

It's subjective. NASCAR, you know, they have rules. I don't know if I agree that it's necessarily subjective, but that finish, that 500 finish. It comes down to a human reaction of a button. Right. Right. So, I mean, I could see both sides. I don't know.

This is a- Anytime you let subjectivity into the conversation of a sport, it does. cause controversy and obviously conversations like we're talking about right now. And I don't mean to bash the talent or ability of these cup drivers and people who've won race because I know it is extremely difficult. But if the question is, hey, I challenge you to find something more difficult than winning a cup race in team sports, I feel like I could give you a few different answers. Yeah.

That's where I struggle with Brett Stain. Especially, you know, you don't necessarily have to be the most fit to get in a race car. but like my favorite sport's Supercross so when I watch Supercross they I mean you have to physically be fit but hand-eye coordination is also part of every sport too there's so many elements so I mean bold take for Brett but I definitely see it yeah yeah certainly some controversy out of DBC you you're not a very good babysitter it seems like okay well we'll have to pull some bloopers and see how this really is all right so we're going to continue this conversation now now with the runner up in the Daytona 500.

Of course, that is Alex Bowman. Alex, you're joining us now after a pretty controversial conversation. We're talking about is winning a NASCAR race the hardest thing to do in professional sports, is it? Oh, gosh. I've done it before, so it can't be that hard, right? Yeah, that's super difficult. I think there's just a lot of things that have to go right, especially at the cup level. everybody's so good

so many teams are so good but man I think any really high level sport or competition is difficult for its own reasons I think saying that

cup racing is the most difficult thing in professional sports is maybe a little tough right like I think obviously like the car has to be perfect team has to be perfect there's a lot of parts that have to go right but you know, I feel like every sport is kind of going to have,

have its things that have to go right as well. So, yeah, it's definitely hard, but I don't know. You know, Alex, you're the runner-up of the Daytona 500. Obviously, there was some confusion that happened at the end of the race. What was it like from your perspective of just waiting to hear the news? Yeah, I mean, I knew I was in front of them when the yellow light on the track came off. on, but I don't think that's what they go by, right? They go by the yellow light and the tower or whatever.

So to be honest, I felt like they waited a long time to throw the yellow light. And I think that's the reason that I wasn't more bummed about it than I was. It's like to lose the Daytona 500 by 6,000th of a second or whatever it was is definitely heartbreaking. but they could have thrown the caution probably a bit earlier and made that margin bigger, right? So that's just part of racing. All you can do is move on to the next one and try to win the next one. So it was a good day for us, you know, got good stage points and obviously a good finish. But, yeah, a little bit heartbreaking for sure.

I mean, I would say on social and media, a lot of people are thinking or saying or feel that you won the 500. Do you agree with that? Or, you know, in your head, obviously it's hard being with your teammate winning. But how would you feel about that one? Yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't have a trophy. So I don't get the same check that William's going to get. So I didn't go to New York. So I think he's the 500 winner. But yeah, I mean, it was close. Obviously, I don't have access to everything NASCAR has. And, you know, I'm just happy for William. That's an interesting situation where I think teams probably would have dug into it more if it wasn't two teammates. But at the same time, I'm sure NASCAR would have made the same call, right? Like,

they have whatever they make their call off of and it was going to be what it was going to be. So, yeah, social media is interesting. They all hated me for crashing the field down the back straight away. And then five minutes later, they loved me for losing a Dayton a 500 by an inch. But that's how the world works. these days and yeah I mean I don't I don't want to sit here and and seem like I'm bitter over that by any means I mean it was a great day for us and a great day for the company you know super happy for everybody at HMS wish I had a trophy but I don't and we'll try to go get one this weekend so you mentioned the crash on the backstretch did you did you start it it seems like it I yeah I didn't Honestly, when it happened, like I didn't, I thought when Brad changed lanes that it got William more messed up than it did.

You know, I so like halfway down the back stretch, I kind of got ping pong between the 99 and the 24. Like the 99 hit me as I was pushing the 24. And that's what kind of got me and the 24 pointed in different directions. And then we kind of spent the second half of the back straightaway like trying to get lined back. up. And as I thought I was lined back up with him, the six changing lanes. And I, I see William kind of move a little bit. And I lifted way before I hit him, but clearly just not enough. So yeah, technically I was the guy that started it, I guess. But one thing I will say is if it wasn't me, somebody else was going to do it. It's Daytona 500 with a couple laps ago, right? Like, that stuff

happens and hate tearing up race cars. And, you know, that's just part of Speedway racing. It was a push that didn't line up perfectly and happens every time. And this time it was on me. It was a relatively clean race up until, I guess, the crash that you started. So way to go. You made it more excited. But did that show? Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. No, I just needed. I knew the fans were bored after the, right. Yeah. a half second laps would be running in stage one. So I was just trying to stir the pot a little, you know, I like drama. You pretty much made Jack Gluck's poll.

Yeah, you saved it. Yeah. That's why they felt things were so great, right? I guess. Yeah, I do it again. Yeah. My question was, like, did that surprise you, how clean the race was? And I know there was some fuel saving that went into a lot of the early parts of the race.

Like, did how the race play out surprise? you? Not really. Speedway racing is who can save the most fuel to have the fastest pit stop to get track position at the end. And that's all it is anymore. Like you can't really pass the same ways that you used to be able to. You can't build runs the same ways, run stall out way faster. So track position is everything. So, you know, the fuel saving stuff, it did surprise me to run 5150s at one point. Like that's really slow. So I was really caught off guard by that. But obviously, you know, some people thinking they could make it to the end of stage one kind of caused that whole situation.

And yeah, I mean, I think the race kind of went as expected. I was surprised they got to the end of stage two clean. They got pretty dicey there for a minute. And I backed off at that point. We were in a great spot. Like we were maybe going to get one stage point. And I just didn't think it was worth it to tear the car up. So I backed out of it and rode around in the back for two laps and they didn't crash.

So that was surprising. Maybe it's because I wasn't in there. But it worked out for us. So now I was going to say, so now we go to Atlanta Motor Speedway and we were talking about Jeff Gluck's poll. They also put out an anonymous article. I got to know, are you one of the drivers that wants to burn Atlanta Motor Speedway down? Oh. No, Atlanta is not what I picked.

Which one did you? I think if you'd go back and look at my history at a certain race. track. It's fairly obvious where I picked, but I'll leave it for the social media sleuth to find that one, because it's really easy. Like, there's one place that it's worse than them all by a lot, and yeah, that's the one that I talk about. I'm trying to think of which one this is now. We're going to be researching. Oh, it's not. It's not hard. We'll figure it out. All right, Alex. We appreciate you joining us, and of course, good luck. at Atlanta this week and we'll be looking for any more crashes that you can start.

Yeah, thank you guys. I appreciate you being here. Yeah, hopefully I don't start any crashes this week and we'll have a good run in our Ally 48. It could be Brad too, so you really never know. That's right. The fans thank you for making it exciting. Yeah, I mean, we talked about maybe for the next speedway race, they should have like a counter

above every car and it's how many cars they've crashed at all the speedway races in the last five years. But I don't think they could get a long enough number for Brad. This could be a contingency award, right? Like most cars wrecked in the first three days, we can work on this. Yeah, I'm at 30 for sure. I crash about 30. Yeah.

Pretty much everybody. All right, Alex, thank you. All right, thanks, guys. See it. All right. So interestingly enough, we hang up with Alex Bowman, and we have another surprise for listeners right now as he just walks in. Dale Jr.'s here, guys.

Hey, I'm your producer. I'll go back and I'll finish. Uh-oh. Andrew's kicked out. He's getting benched. Thank you, Amy. Welcome to DJD Reloaded. Yeah.

Nice. I haven't been able to get on the show yet. So I know we're only a couple episodes in, but it's, I guess I, yeah, I was, sorry to crash. Oh, no. No, you crashed at the perfect time. That was a great time, yeah. Absolutely. You spoke to William on your show about winning the 500.

Well, we just got off with both. the runner-up finisher to share his thoughts on what his perspective of it and I mean to say the emotion of not knowing I think it seemed like William and Alex kind of had that same vibe of having to sit there and wait for a while and then fans are still saying that he might have won so yeah you're going to have those those fans right that are going to be on both sides of it and that's the only I think the only frustrating part about our sport is we do find ourselves in it inevitably falling into these places where there will be debate, right? And it's no knock on NASCAR.

It is just the way that the rules are stated and the cookie crumbles and all the other puns you want to use. But I, you know, once I sat back and watched the process and understood the choices and the reasons and decisions, I was comfortable with it. Of course, you want the race to come across the line. Everybody green flag, checker flag. all that but in the end it's got to be the toughest for Alex right it's the toughest situation for him and he will probably you know I talked about it on my show Tuesday there's a couple races in my life that

I just you you think you can get over everything in life right no matter how long it takes you eventually will come to some terms with it but there's a couple moments in my career where I just can't accept the result, right? It's just, I'm just, I just, I can't get behind the result. And it is what it, I can't change it. The rule, you know, the statistics, the, the, the, the, the, the, the history books are written. And, but, you know, I think Alex will always feel that way about this race is that, you know, it may, he may never really accept the results personally. He doesn't have to. That's not a knock on William or the win for the 24 team. And I'm certain that he's happy about all that. Alex's happy for his teammate. But it's tough. It's tough to accept a loss in that way.

And but you, you have to. I thought an interesting comment that Bowman said was had it been any other team that finished second, they might would have looked a little bit further into it because it was Hendrick Motorsports, finishing one too. Obviously they didn't. How much do you think another team would have gone to NASCAR in that moment? Well, the other team, if another team had won a competitor to HMS, they probably absolutely would have hammered the door at the NASCAR hauler or up in the booth. They would have demanded to see all of the evidence. They would have demanded, you know, to know to the very last, you know, crumbull of evidence what led to that decision. and that process does not happen with Bowman winning as a teammate.

I don't think that that says, you know, I think that, you know, that reaction that we may predict another team would have is consistent with how all teams react to situations like that. And when your teammate runs second, they're not going to cloud or disrupt the elation. celebration. You got Rick Hendrick out in the grass next to Williams' car with the entire team and his wife and everybody. You're not going to dispute. Yeah, you don't want to do, you don't want to do anything that sort of takes away from the moment. So Alex was in a tough situation, but

I know how he is and he handles those things well. And he's had some difficult situations in his career that are somewhat similar or prepared him for those moments. Yeah, but if it was another team, they would have been, regardless of the uniqueness or coolness of the moment for William Byron and how big that was for Hendrick Rutter Sports, the other owners would not have cared one bit. They would have hit the NASCAR and said, what, prove we didn't win this race, right?

Right. I think we won it. I mean, honestly, when I'm watching it, I'm like, Boma won the race. I think Bowman's ahead. Did he say that when the lights came on, he was ahead of him? I can't remember. When he saw it.

Yeah, when he saw it. But I guess it could go off of time stamp. it really varies. Well, yeah. I mean, apparently when I'm watching it at home, they'll look like Bowman's ahead when the lights come on. When NASCAR shows you their evidence, you're like, okay, yeah. Broadcasts too.

Yeah. So, I mean, who knows at this point, but really cool for William anyways. Absolutely. I know you have some news that just dropped earlier today. This is a very special day at Junior Motorsports. We were able to announce earlier that Carson, Cople, who's been racing, our late model stock cars for a couple years now in the cars tour is going to get his opportunity to move up he's had a chance to race in the truck series at Bristol last year

for spire which was a credible opportunity for him and it went very well and then but we have announced that he will race at Martinsville on April 6th so coming up really soon he's going to go race for junior motorsports in in the Xfinity series so I believe this may lead to other opportunities this year in the Xfinity series, maybe trucks, maybe ARCA, I'm not sure, but we're trying our hardest, our hardest to give Carson that opportunity to get into the, you know, the upper levels to continue his progression. So very exciting. I don't know that people realize just how difficult it is to create those opportunities in this environment that we have today. And I even think that Sometimes I take it for granted how difficult that is.

And I told Carson, you know, when he came to drive for us, his father, Travis, knows the industry. He knows the business. Travis Squappell's been up and down in this sport and seen it all. But I told them, I said, hey, we hung with Josh Barry for 10 years before we ever really broke through. I don't want that to be your story, but buckle up, right? because it could be a tough, a tough, long process. But fortunately, we're starting to have some opportunities to get him into Exfinity car. And very thankful for how all that came together.

And Travis and their family, they're great people, hard workers. Let's tell you something about Carson Quappell. Carson gets up in the morning, and he goes and checks in at the late model shop and works on his late model car for us all day long, every day. He's never late, always on time, works to 5 o'clock, and then he goes home, and in his dad's shop, he works on his own cars there for his brother and his father and so forth. They have a couple of pro-late models and super late models. The kid, he's 20 years old, and he's, you know, works on race cars literally 12 hours a day, and he wants nothing else. You see him at Millbridge, too.

Yeah. So he is, I've seen him work quite hard. I love the kid. I think he's grounded. Now he's young. He's going to, you know, when he turns 21 and, you know, he's going to find these other distractions in life. But I really do believe he understands how hard he needs to focus to stay on this path to become this race car driver he wants to be. I think people can understand and appreciate a guy who's consistently every minute of the day got grease under his nails because he's the one having to do the work.

So he's a hard. He's a tough little kid. great racer and I think he's got what it takes to get to the top. And you've been high on him for quite some time. What does it mean to you though in those moments where you're able to tell them about this opportunity, like to see the emotion and like what that means? Because you do know the hard work that he's put in to get to this point. What's the emotion of that just for you?

Well, I think for me it's for me I'm thankful because it's hard to get those opportunities and it's hard to produce them. I'm thankful. I'm really happy for travel. Travis and their family are sacrificing everything for their boys to have this opportunity to race and to continue to show what they can do. Both the boys have real good talent. Caden, Carson's brother. They're both very talented and they race in the cars tour.

It makes you happy because it's what's in your heart. That's what's supposed to happen. They deserve the chance and they're supposed to get it. And so it makes you very relieved and happy when it happens. with Josh Barry, he was much older, much more understanding of the chance he was getting. There was a lot more emotion, I think, with Josh, because for a long time, there were a couple years where me and Josh would have conversations, and I'd say, this might not happen. Think about what you want out of your life and who you want to be and what you could achieve if the extinity and the cup opportunity don't materialize, right? Start gearing your mind for that.

And, you know, so when it did happen for Josh, he was like, you know, he's still today, can't believe where he is. I was sitting in the booth or sitting in the suite at the France Family Suite in Daytona, watching the Daytona 500. And Josh led a lap. And I was like, my gosh, you know, what a path, what a journey to lead a lap at Daytona in the biggest race at the most elite level. a very emotional moment that I didn't anticipate for me but um carson's 20 he doesn't realize any of that right he's just like okay what do i what do i got to do to hit this out of the park what do i got to do to be great when i go to martinsville on april 6th uh and be great um he's not there's not a ton of emotion or i'm sure there's massive pressure but um he's so young it's just

like how do i not fail how do i make it how do i get this how do i do i do well enough to get more. With having you as a mentor, I'd say he's on the right track for sure. I appreciate you saying that. I've got to give his daddy a lot of credit. Travis, Travis has really raised two great boys, hard workers, their joy to be around. I love going to race my late model car. That experience is even better because Carson's a part of that.

And I get to share, you know, I get to do that with Carson. He's so much fun to race with and be teammates with. And so I want to say, too, there's a little bit of news that I want to. it to break on this show. So if Carson's going to race on April 6th in Martinsville, he's going to have to miss a Cars Tour event. He's a two-time back-to-back champion in the Cars Tour and could, if he had in Lights Out Season, still win the championship this year missing a race, but we had to find a feeling driver

for that. There's this kid named Mason Diaz. He ran second to Carson at North Wiltsboro when we brought North Willisboro back. That was a big night. and Mason really impressed me with his drive. I ended up running third in that race, and we were thinking about who should, you know, fill in for Carson and run through a lot of names.

But we were sitting on the grid at Florence, getting ready to start the late model race, the icebreaker a couple weeks ago, and I was parked next to Mason. We qualified side by side. And I got on the radio to our leader on the late model team, Brian and I said hey look for a driver for Hickory I think the guy next to me can do it and I've always thought a lot of Mason Diaz and his talent his family owns and operates Southern National Speedway and so when Southern National has races which that's our opener for the car store this year Mason works the track like he's a hands-on guy but he's also very talented as a driver and so I'm excited that he'll he'll get an opportunity to drive our car he's going to try to put together some more car races this year to be able to run a full season in the cars tour.

But opportunity, you know, for Carson, also presents an opportunity for a little, you know, a driver like Mason. And so it trickles down. And hopefully everybody has a great experience over this whole process. Yeah, what a cool moment for a couple of guys coming through the ranks. And, of course, that's what we love about this Thursday show is breaking some news just like this and having you stop by.

So we appreciate you stopping by. And I guess we'll give Andrew his seat back. I guess he can come back in. He's getting there anxiously. Well, thank you for sharing that. We're excited to watch Carson on the Xfinity race. And also Mason. That should be really cool.

Absolutely. Thank y'all. Thanks to let me come in, Crash. Hey, anytime. Anytime. All right, so totally unplanned that he stops by. But what a cool moment for him to share that news. And, of course, that leads us right into some Dale Collins.

We had fans. Perfect. I mean, again, totally unplanned. But a pretty cool way for us to get to these calls. Let's go ahead and hear from the first caller. I want to do that? Let's do it. Perfect.

DJD. I'm calling again. I made it on the show last week, but I'm calling about my reaction about the 500. Pretty successful 500. Congratulations to William Byron and Pigsawks on getting their first championship, or not first championship,

the first Daytona 500 win since Dale Jr. did it in 2014. I thought that was pretty cool. but reaction was man I thought there at the end of the race there was a lot of blocking that did need to be done

and caused my scrapyard because of it but all in all it was a good race and hope to make the show thanks certainly a lot of blocking yes I don't necessarily

think it was unnecessary though it was definitely not in it's the Daytona 500 that's what I'm thinking like at the end of every Daytona 500 we see this same thing. Like, last few laps, you want that trophy. I mean, they're going to do what they can. You could totally make the argument for the beginning of the race and that whatever lap six crash it was, that being unnecessary. We're being aggressive way too early. Sure. And I made a tweet

about, hey, are we being too aggressive of the early stage of the Daytona 500? And someone responded when that big crash, like, are you going to tweet about this one? I'm like, no, this is completely different. They're racing for the win. It's crunch time now. But yeah, that's my take on that call right there. And the first part of his comment, too, I do like the fact that the script, I think that's what Rick Hendrick said after the win. Like the script couldn't have been written any better for them to win, you know, 10 years after Dale Jr. did this. And of course, you know, their first one of the season of their 40th anniversary. But yeah, if it comes down to the 500, you got to just put it out on the line. All right. Let's go ahead and hear from the second caller now.

Just giving my thoughts on the Daytona 500. I watched the whole thing through, really excited for it, even though it was Monday race. And towards the end of the race, you know, there's going to be a big rest. But really, what I was thinking about was how the yellow came out and ended the race and it just kind of let air out of my tank, you know. Really wanted to see him race back to the flag, but I know that the yellow came out of the race. snap cards but really would

like to see you side by side finish or something like that I feel like he's very emotional it happens it's all right we didn't get to see

three flag finish this year I feel like that's how Bowman should be that is did Bowman call back I think Alex Bowman just call back and told him it's really how he felt I like feel bad for him

like he was very emotional about this don't worry don't worry next week is probably going to race just as exciting. Speedway race. That could very well end just like he did. But we can't have him upset two weeks. Yeah. So maybe you call back in a little bit of a better mood. He's also not the only person that feels this way. Right. Like, we understand. No, listen. I was, I think everyone wanted to see it race back to the green. It was just an unfortunate situation that we decided to crash, come into the white. We take the white, you know, caution.

comes out. I did want to see, you know, and again, this goes back to Alex Bowman. I did want to see that race play out without the big one. You know, how many times we could see a full pit strategy finish to a Daytona 500? We were gearing up for that. Green white checkered type of vibe. No, like I'm saying race that thing 20, 30 laps right to the checkered flag, all green. That's kind of how it was playing out to be. It was good racing at then. I was so that makes sense. I was excited to see how that was going to finish. All right, let's hear from our third and final caller today. Hey, DJD. Crew, I wanted to give my perspective on the Daytona 500 because it's one I'm never going to forget, and I'll tell you why. My name is Anthony. I live in Oregon, and the first Daytona 500 that

was ran in my lifetime was in 1997, and Jeff Gordon won that race in that number 24 car. and for whatever reason I became a lifelong fan of the number 24 car. Well, fast forward to 2023 and my son is born and I'm super stoked to finally have somebody to sit down and watch races with me. And of course, we did that throughout the season last year, but this was the first Daytona 500 ran in his lifetime. And when you know it, that number 24 car won again. So in both of our first Daytona 500s, whether we have a first hand recollection of it or not, the number 24 car won, and that's something that I get to share with my son forever.

And I just want to say thanks to William Byron for unknowingly giving me that lifelong memory that I'm going to tell every race fan that I've come across until I die. And I don't think you guys for giving me the platform to share it. So I hope everybody's doing good over there and have a good rest of the day. Bye. We're getting emotional after the day, $200, but I do love this, right? Like, this is why you like racing and storyline. Yeah.

It's awesome. And having the platform to share it, like, this is with the purpose of DJD reloaded. So. This kid's name better be William. Right? I don't know about that. Would Byron make, Brian could make a first name. Man, it was almost, it was almost perfect.

It's his first. The caller's first 500, 24-1, his son's first 500, the 24-1 in 24, but he was born in 2023. So close. So close. But hey, that's still a really cool story. Also, we're moms. We know it's going to be a while until this boy is able to watch a soul. And really understand.

All right. Well, Andrew, I ran into you in Daytona. That's right. In the garages. Very briefly. Briefly, because you had to, like, you were on a mission. You had to go ask a lot of questions. to a lot of drivers and fans.

I'm glad it was you and not me because I don't like to talk to people about like their feet and toes. It's just kind of a weird platform for people. I wouldn't say I like to talk about it either. You sure seem to enjoy it. It was a topic of conversation for you though. I mean, it was.

Should we hear the responses from those? Yes. So like, you know, to tee it up on the download last week, we were looking at Dale's old tweets. Right. Someone asked him, would you give up a toe if it meant you won a championship? And Dale said no. And I'm like, that is the wrong answer, I think.

So I have to get a bigger sample size. So we went to Daytona, and I never would have expected that I'd be asking NASCAR drivers about their feet, but here we are. And, yeah, I think we should hear some of the responses. Would you give up a toe for another championship? For another championship. I feel like I'm confident enough of my team. We can win them with 10 toes, so I'll keep my toes and work a little harder trying to get one. Now, you have a championship.

You have all 10 toes still, though, right? I do have all 10 toes. I have all fingers and toes so far. That is great. Which toe? Dealer's choice. Any toe? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Pinky toe, no problem. That's the right answer, I think. I'm not cut it off right now. Really? You guarantee it it would happen. The care center's right over there. They probably have the tools for it.

Just whack it right off. That's tough. I feel like I give up a piquet toe to win like five championships. But one, I don't know. That's tough. I mean, it's going to take some time to get used to walking around without your piquet toe. Would you give up a toe if it meant you're a NASCAR champion? No, Del made a good point.

Like, you just have a trophy and then he also got a messed up toe. Yeah, but it's a pretty cool trophy, man. Yeah, but who's going to remember? Yeah. Yeah? Yeah. Oh, easy, yeah. I pick her.

Whoa. Hey, you didn't even have to say that. That wasn't even the question. Just being honest. What a time. I think Dale did change his answer, though, right? Two championships and he would give up a toe. Tyler Reddick, man, is asking for a lot.

He needs five champions. Does he want it bad enough? I don't think so. I just, Martin Trurix was like, absolutely, I don't need a toe. Just like, no question at all. I'll take it. And, like, the pinky toe is actually pretty important. So he should make.

maybe reevaluate. But I once knew a college kicker that only had four toes, like he was born with it. So like, do you actually need? I would feel like. I mean, maybe like cut off the middle one because then you're kind of like even on both sides. Yes.

That someone, I didn't include it in this, but a fan did say yes and I would cut off like the ring toe. He thought about it. He put in rings on your toes. He thought about it. Yeah, he was thinking about it.

I'm, yeah, that's all I think I need to talk about feet. I was going to say, I feel like we need to move this conversation on it. very quickly for listeners. Obviously, on the Dale Jr. Download, we had a guest segment. We had Ray Irvingham on this week. So cool to listen to his stories and obviously his time with Hendrick Motorsports. But we actually asked him some other questions that you didn't get to hear

on Dale Jr. download. And of course, the first question was, what's your favorite memorabilia? And the second question was, do you have any fun stories about Mr. H when he was with Hendrick Motorsports? So let's go ahead and take a listen to what Ray had to say. A 24 car, we kept crashing Richard Petty's cars. If the 24 car was going to wreck somebody, it was the 43. And finally, Jeff crashed the 43 on Pitt Road at Atlanta, right before the start of the 98 championship race there. Crazy. But Richard Petty was so mad that he came walking up to the trailer with a piece of the car, and he said if he wants this so bad, he might as well have it. So I just looked at him and I said, would you sign that for me?

So he looked at me like, Ray, you're an idiot. But he signed it and I keep that right on my trophy case. Well, we did, you know, at Atlanta, we were not running well, but we had won the championship and everybody was down and we were way off. And so I said, we're going to have some fun and break it up a little bit, make people smile, make them laugh and enjoy the day. And I said, anybody who's not ever been a little bit, over the wall for pit stop raised their hand and Mr. Hendrick raised their raise his hand so he went

over the wall and got to clean the windshield and uh he he uh I think he really enjoyed himself that day that's pretty cool yeah we I want to see Rick Hendrick over the wall at a race I want to see all the owners can we get all the owners over the wall? And owner's pit stop like the pit crew challenge your owners have to be involved that would be fun Michael Jordan's jack in the car The goat of pit stops. You know, pit bulls fuel in this thing. Yeah. Another cool moment, too, about what he said is both of those moments actually happened at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which is pretty cool because obviously that's where the Cup series is going this weekend.

And I don't know, guys, what do you think of Atlanta and what it's got to offer? I know the drivers, some of the drivers aren't necessarily too excited. Bowman didn't seem to be too upset to go there. But, you know. I think it has turned into more of an unpredictable race track. Obviously, since we reconfigured this thing, is it a second week in a row where we have a wildcard race? I think it's a little bit more of a controlled wildcard, but I still think it's safe to say that we can call this a wildcard race. Yeah, for sure.

And I think, you know, the more wear on the track, there's a little bit more wear, obviously, than when they first repaved it. But let's go ahead and bring up what the fans thought, because we use the hashtag, don't hold me to it on who. you thought or who you think is going to win Atlanta this weekend. And so can we go ahead and pull up those tweets and get to those? You've got Scott from Texas. Blippy. Blippy. Give me Bliphy. Austin Cedric. That's a translation to Austin Cednerd. I can not look at him the same. Is that going to stick? I kind of feel bad. I kind of feel bad for Cendrick on that one. What about Ryan? Chase Elliott is mobbed after winning at his home track for the first time and over a year. bold

interesting our friend double oh says josh berry Kevin harvick won when he took over for dale senior at Atlanta Joshua win taking over for Kevin

that's a bold take that's a very hot take I don't see it happening but double o called it if it does end up happening we're going to pull this back up if that does happen yeah I support it

Tom Tatum got Kyle Bush obviously he had a pretty strong run in Daytona Bev Shannon Alex Bowman is going to win I bet Bowman Redemption after his runner at finish at Daytona. That's right.

And then Derricka, Justice, I apologize if I totally. Texas far away. Kyle Larson, which is another solid prediction. What's interesting about Kyle Larson is, you know, our friends at Dirty Mo Doe, Tampa Tim. Tim. I was talking with him earlier this week. And he is not so sure about Kyle Larson.

It would be worth listening to Dirty Moe though because he might have some good reasons as to why to stay away from Larson this week. So that's the tease. That's a little tease. You have to listen so you know who to bet on. Yeah, that's right. All right, well, who do you think is going to win, Casey? Oh, man.

I think Corrie LaJoy, he had, like, I mean, I don't know if you remember last year, but he had a strong, strong run, and I think he's pretty close. Even Daytona with a fourth place finish, I think he has a shot here. What about you guys? we're going to be celebrating a victory on Monday at door bumper clear give me t j majors and brad kislauski in the sixth car it'd be good to see him back in vidri lane it would be it's been a while has been a while fun dbc um because he'd probably be the most sober one compared to the other two even if he won t jay even if he won even if he won man come on do you know them they'll celebrate

yeah you're right everyone's going to celebrate for t j on monday you're right everyone's going to celebrate for t j on monday you're That's fun. All right, guys. Well, before we wrap up, of course, we've got a lot going on this week. I want to hear your pick, though, Carla. My pick? Yeah. Oh, man.

I don't know. You've got me thinking. I would say Larson, but then you were just telling me that Dirty Maudosa don't. You know, we need to listen, see what he has to say about it. Well, listen. Larson, you know, like I said, it could be a little bit of a wild card. Never a bad pick. All right.

All right. All right. That's my pick. And, of course, we do have a lot going on at Dirty Mo here. And of course, you've got the tear down. You've got actions detrimental. DBC, two episodes of the download and Speed Street. Those are already out this week.

So be sure to check those out on your podcast where you listen to those. And, of course, on YouTube. Dirty Modo, like we mentioned, that's going to be out later today so you can get some advice before placing your Atlanta bets. Don't forget to call the Dale call and get your voice on the show. This is the number that you need to write down, 704-584-9703. And we're going to pick the best calls each. week. Got anything else? Well, save that phone number to your contacts. Then it's just, hey,

I have a thought speed dial. I like it. I'm going to call this number. All right. Well, we will be back next Thursday to wrap up the action from Atlanta Motor Speedway. And of course, listen to all of your calls, all your thoughts, all your tweets, all of those things. That'll do it for us on DJD Reloaded. We'll see you next week. Have a great week. Check out Dirty Mode Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.