The Dale Jr. Download - Kyle Larson on Kansas & Greg Ives on Dale Jr.’s Most Memorable Radio Moments

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

In this episode of DJD Reloaded, we’ve got a loaded lineup! Kyle Larson stops by to share why he took to Twitter after his Bristol win and how he’s gearing up for Kansas. Plus, former crew chief Greg Ives joins the conversation, giving us an inside look at what it’s really like working with Dale Jr. behind the scenes—especially during those chaotic in-car radio moments. From laughs to high-pressure situations, Greg reveals how he stayed cool when drivers were losing it on the mic. And to top it off, Dale gets personal in Ask Jr., sharing his go-to sushi order. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

DJD Reloaded is getting a little Hendrick flavor this morning. But for two completely different reasons, we've got the winner at Bristol, Kyle Larson calling in to talk about that race. He missed his spot on the Dale Jr. download earlier this week. We got to ask him about that. We're also going to look ahead to Kansas Speedway this weekend, a race that he won earlier this year in dramatic fashion. And after the racing at Bristol, I think a lot of us realize just how much we miss Dale Jr.'s in-car banter with his team, which is also why we've got the crew chief, the former crew chief of the. the 88, Greg Ives, joining the show today. He got an up front and personal look into

what those moments were like with Dale Jr. in the car and under the helmet, we've got that, plus Ash Jr., and so much more. DJD Reloaded starts now. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Welcome into another episode of DJD Reloaded. We were going to do something different. No idea that a tradition was going to be started. The racing world is Conner Zillard's the oyster. Is he truly the next NASCAR prodigy? Hey, you did a cartwheel down the stands. Holding your cooler, your arm never bent. It was like watching the Olympian at its, and it's odd. All right. Well, like we said, we have Kyle Larson joining us right now. And Kyle, before we get started, I guess I just need to know, why did you miss Dale Jr.'s spot earlier this week? Is there a good reason for this? Is it because he

didn't offer you a pit road beer in Bristol? No, there's really no good reason. I don't know if I, like, Didn't see it on my calendar or it just wasn't on my calendar. But yeah, I didn't even know I missed it until Sean Edwards told me I missed it yesterday at like 5 o'clock. So I apologize, Dale. Apparently I'm not good on my phone. So I apologize. No, you're totally fine. We were just giving you a little crap for that.

But we will relay the message back to Dale. Also, are you tired of talking about tires and short track packages this week? Because I feel like you've gotten a lot of practice of that this week. Yeah, no, I mean, it's definitely annoying, I guess, is a good word for it. But yeah, just we had a good weekend and great to make it through the round of 16 on to the round of 12. And you look forward to a track that we know races or the car and tires race well at, you know, Kansas. So excited about this weekend, excited about another opportunity of a good, hopefully a good run and starting our round of 12 off correctly. Before we get to Kansas, just one more question on

looking back at Bristol and obviously winning that race. But why did you kind of end up taking to Twitter? Was it one comment that somebody said that really kind of stood out to you? Or was it just kind of a culmination of everybody's reaction after that one? I think just kind of a culmination of a culmination of everybody. You know, fans, NASCAR, like I said, in some of my stuff, like nobody really has the answers, so it's hard to, you know, point fingers at people. But, yeah, it just kind of burns me out a little bit because we talk about tire where, like, it's always been a thing at Bristol, and it hasn't.

You know, there's only been one race where we've had to. tire wear in the last 10 or 11 years that I've been going there. But, you know, we're baffled why we didn't have tire wear again. I think we should have been more baffled why we did have tire wear randomly the one time. So, yeah, I mean, I think Bristol is Bristol. It's always fast pace, really hard to pass. Even guys who have good cars that get stuck, you know, in the back of the pack after a pit road penalty, they're always at risk of going a lap down. So it's just, it's nothing new. I would say, yeah, sure, it's harder to pass now than it was with the old car, but it's still fast-paced.

It's still hard to pass. It's Bristol. But all of us drivers love it no matter what, you know. It's just a fun racetrack. And you kind of mentioned with Jeff Gluck's poll after the race that you felt fans probably would have felt different if there had been two overtime restarts in this one, even after leading 400 laps. Is that just kind of the state of the fan base right now? is the state of racing or just what we're kind of used to when it comes to the end of NASCAR races? Yeah, I don't know.

I think I said that because I've been a part of a lot of, not a lot, but some, some, you know, not so exciting races where somebody might lead a lot of laps or there's very limited passing and then, you know, we get a caution at the end and we have one or two overtime finishes. And then I look at the poll the next day and it's like the best, race of the year. And it's just, that's where I was coming out with Bristol. We could have, you know, I could have led four and 50 laps and had two green, white checkered finishes. And I could have won or lost. It had nothing to do with me, but we could have had two overtime finishes and in the poll would have looked totally different. And, you know, we would have probably different

conversations or less conversations about your tires and car this week. But that's just, I think just, it's the mindset of all of us. You know, we're all very short-term memory. You know, it's easy for us to forget about things that happened an hour ago, but what we see right in front of us could skew our decisions. Yeah, definitely. And it was funny. I know a lot of drivers, you included, don't really get to social media much, but it was kind of funny just to hear your opinion. And then for you to kind of give it back to some of the fans, I think somebody said, you know, you didn't race to in Bristol prior to 2008 and you said, well, you didn't either. And so that was pretty funny. But so if there are no answers into how to solve this, like what is the next step for the

sport? Do we keep going on the same path that we're going? Or is it going to take something else to happen to kind of spark some more change in this topic that we're talking about with short tracks? Yeah, I don't know. I think because, well, for one, I'm not a car owner. So I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't deal with, you know, say, I think it's easy for us to sit here and say, okay, well, the tires might not be the biggest, you know, thing that's going to change the racing. So, you know, we need to start changing stuff on the cars, you know, taking arrow away or adding arrow or doing this, doing that. But I think the team owners don't want to change the cars because that's going to cost them

a lot of money. So, I don't know. I think it's just a tricky situation right now. sure I think tires are the easiest thing to probably change and the thing that doesn't cost the team owners any more or less money if they do make a change. But I just don't think the tires are going to totally fix the racing on short tracks. So sure, I think, yeah, they can definitely come up with tires. I'm sure that can help. But it's just not every race is going to be a great race.

I think we just have to, you know, come to grips with that. And sure, we do want every race to be super exciting. But, you know, not every football game is exciting, not every basketball game is exciting or baseball, whatever sport you might watch. You know, you're going to have some blowouts every now and then. So that's just how it is sometimes. But, yeah, I don't know.

It's tough. Yeah, not every race is exciting. But I do think the next race is going to be exciting. And we talked about Kansas a little bit earlier, intermediate track, don't have to worry about short track package issues at all. We saw a very exciting race at Kansas. Is it even weird as a driver just thinking about, you know, the history of Kansas that this is the most exciting race on our schedule? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I've always enjoyed it for sure.

I think even with the old style car, I felt like it raced really well. But I think for the next-gen car, yeah, Kansas, it's. is definitely the best track. I think, you know, it's got multiple grooves, it's got tire wear, you know, the leader is just hard for the leader to get away from the field. So you just always have tight finishes, for one, but just tight racing throughout the whole race. So that race in the spring was amazing from the drop of the green flag till the very end, you know, having the closest finish in NASCAR history. So I'm sure it'll be very exciting again. It's hard to say if it'll be as exciting as it was earlier in the year.

I think playoff races sometimes people are more, you know, cautious in stuff to not, you know, make mistakes. So I think sometimes that can play into less intense racing, at least for the first, you know, half to three quarters. But we're in the spring. We were going at it from, you know, lap one. So we'll see. But regardless, it's going to be a great race. You're going to see cars run in different lines and coming and going and all that fun stuff.

Yeah, I know. I think in recent history, you haven't finished outside of the top 10 too much. And then you've got guys like Denny Hamlin also really strong there. Why are you two so good at Kansas? And we've seen some epic battles between you two on that track before. But what makes you two very, very good there? Yeah, I'm not sure. I think we both have very great teams for one. I think, you know, him and I are up front at a lot of the racetracks because I think you are our leaders of our team, you know, Gabe Hart and Cliff are just great leaders and have built great teams. I think Kansas just suits both of us well. We've both ran well there our whole careers with different cars and in arrow packages, horsepower packages, all that. So something about it just suits our driving styles. But yeah, currently, yeah, we're both really good. And Denny, I would say, would be the best there. his car is just is really, really good, and he does a good job of managing it. So he'll for sure be the one to beat, I think, this weekend.

But, yeah, we'll hopefully be up there giving him a challenge as well as our other Hendrick teammates. And, yeah, hopefully we can just have a good day. All right. Well, we appreciate you joining us and not missing your time slot today. And good luck at Kansas this weekend. Yeah, thank you. We're following Kyle Larson with another great guest, another face from Hendrigg motor sports. We've got Greg Ives joining us right now, and we're bringing you on because, I mean, you were responsible for Del Jr. for several years in that 88 car.

And you knew just about his colorful language, had to decipher some of his stories, his antidotes in the in-car audio, and just that communication. And I think, you know, listening back to Bristol this weekend, we were all kind of reminded of how much we missed Del Jr. in the car and just kind of where his mind goes during the race. But we'll get to that here in a second. I want to know, though, what does the life of Greg Ives look like right now? I mean, you're doing it all, right? Yeah, I mean, I was just in Bristol doing the Arka race with Corey Day with Hedriccar's.com. And, you know, it's pretty crazy. You know, some of familiar faces from the officials that I've worked with, you know, over the 20 years that I've been at Hendrick Motorsports.

But the quote of the weekend was, man, you worked your way all the way up to ARCA. So, I mean, I thought that was pretty funny, pretty entertaining. But, yeah, it's, you know, crew chief other racing, I guess is my title. So whether it's the Garage 56th car, whether it's Xfinity program, whether it's the ARCA program, you know, Chad and Jeff Andrews and Jeff Gordon, they all give me the assignment. And, you know, I try to go out there and execute it and make it as successful possible. Are you enjoying it? I definitely enjoy it. You know, it's a lot of fun.

And, you know, in the hustle and bustle of the NASCAR schedule and, you know, with the Gen 7 car and, you know, all that the challenges that brings, it's kind of fun to go back to somewhat of your roots as a racer. And, you know, last night getting the ARCA car done, you know, setting it kind of setting it up myself and working on the car and, you know, adjusting the weights and just going back to the basics of, you know, hey, I need a percent of crossweighted out. So what do you do? And teaching young engineers, I have engineers on the team or mechanics that never really had to do that before. So, you know, asking them the question, hey, I got to get a percent of wedge out. What do you think I should do here? And just trying to get their minds thinking about setup-related items, but also mechanically what do they have to do on the race car. And I think that's a connection that maybe engineers that just graduate from college who don't go to the racetrack,

who don't work on cars or, or, or, or, anything, you know, other than reading it from a book. So it's been a lot of fun teaching those guys and, you know, just bringing up the proper way and kind of similar way that I did, you know, starting in post race at Hendrick Motorsports and working my way up to ARCA. I feel like when we see you at the track, you're usually working with a 17 car and crew chiefing that. Do you like that or do you kind of like the teaching aspect of what you're doing? You know, at the same time when I'm crew chiefing. I am teaching at the same time. So, you know, there's, you know, our expedited program's pretty small right now with, you know, just three kind of full-time guys on it. So, you know, they're having to work hard and

learn a lot. So I enjoy that aspect of teaching and, you know, passing down some of the things that were passed on to me. So, you know, the crew chiefing side of things, it's, you know, it's still challenging, you know, coming up with the setups and, and, you know, doing the build sheets and setups and working through the DIL and all those other things. But I like the teaching side of things. And I think it brings out some different personality that I have versus the one that hides behind the computer. Yeah. And your personality being a crew chief, you mentioned, you know, as a crew chief, you got to work on the setup of the cars.

But today we're talking about how you deal with the drivers, particularly Dale Jr. So before we talk about that and get into some of the past moments that y'all have had together, let's go ahead and play some of Dale's audio from the Bristol race this past weekend. I have a cold beer for it. For guard the bird. So did listening to Dale this weekend, did it bring back some memories of him being in the car? Yeah, most definitely. You know, it brings back, you know, the personality of the radio button, right?

So, you know, I feel like that's when the driver was probably the most comfortable with, within themselves is when they're on the radio, whether they're having a good time, but relaying what they're feeling and what they're doing and maybe what action is going on around them. You know, it's, you know, Bristol is a pretty short track, you know, and attention span is definitely needed, but you can tell right there how, you know, Dale's attention span was very small and it made for some good radio conversations. But, you know, what was probably best with him and I, I didn't, I was factual when it came to pushing the button. You know, I was giving lap times. I was giving, you know, how many laps were left to the stage, when we're

going to pit, what we're going to do at the pit, you know, wasn't, there wasn't really a lot of fluff in my communication and conversation, very similar to what, you know, not similar, but opposite of what Steve LaTart was. So I think, you know, during that time when Dale had Steve, he probably listened and probably talked very more pointed. And Steve did all the talking. And I think the roles kind of got reversed when I came on board and how serious and maybe how pointed my, my conversations with him were. And he definitely, I feel that role of pushing the button made it, it made it very entertaining. But it's totally opposite of what y'all's relationship was like outside of the car, right? Yeah, yeah, most definitely.

You know, probably some people know this, but some people don't, you know, about our relationship starting when, you know, I was that race engineer on the 48, and he was, you know, coming in to Hendrick Motorsports the first time. And he, you know, we did this fantasy football league. And I was this really quiet kid, that engineer, I was just, you know, working away on the computer. And, you know, we got into some heated, uh, uh, uh, um, battles on the fantasy football, but that was a lot of fun. The little smack talk going on, and he saw my alternate personality, and then, you know, obviously when I came over here at junior motorsports

and him being able to work with me and, you know, come into my office and throw his feet up on the desk and have some conversations. Yeah, leave it a fantasy football to bring out the best in people, right? Yeah, for sure. Where does he rank maybe one to ten on some of the most spirited drivers, that you've worked with? I would have to say, I don't know which way you're grading it. We'll do 10 being the most.

Yeah, probably 10. Yeah, I would say the 10. You know, the drivers I've been with, you know, Chase Elliott, you know, how he's pretty factual on the radio and sometimes needs some, you know, conversation to tell him he's doing the proper job and those type of things. And then, you know, I had Jimmy who just kind of listened and did whatever was told of him. And then, you know, Regan Smith was probably pretty spirited on the radio. He's probably not number eight. You know, he, he would, you know, get on the button a little bit and either complain about the car or, you know, celebrate about the car, you know, either or. And then, you know, like I said, Chase.

And Alex, you know, he was pretty quiet on the radio as well. So I would say Dale was probably up there as my number 10 or the most animated on the radio. Do you have a preference as a crew chief? I don't have a preference. I think I like the ones that do talk a little bit rather than me have to get it out of them. I think like I was kind of referring to like when Steve and Dale were together, you know, Steve would talk a lot. So maybe Dale was a little more quiet. And, you know, for me, I was a little more quiet.

so maybe Dale talked a little more. So it's definitely a relationship that, you know, you have to have some adjustments to. But, yeah, I don't mind either way. I think, you know, the latest experience with Corey, you know, he's more about learning, not talking. He's more about learning because he, yeah, if I ask him, you know, what's the car doing this and that,

he'll tell me, but the whole time he's, he's driving, he's trying to figure that out. So he's not going to come on the radio and say, hey, this thing's super tight because he's not sure if it was his input or his arc into the corner. So he's trying to learn as we go. And, you know, ARCA's pretty, uh, technology's not there as SMT, like the Cupside. So I can't really tell them other than what I'd see visually. So it's just one of those things where, you know, as you're growing as a driver and

getting that experience of understanding what to do and how to feel it, you're going to be a little more animated and talk a little more on the radio. I was thinking of like a coach, right, and how you coach different players on a team that's based off their own personalities. And I'm sure that's the same thing as a crew chief. It sounds like you've worked with a lot of really calm drivers. Which one of them has the quickest fuse, though, because we all know that they have it in them. Yeah, I'd probably say Regan had the quickest fuse of them all.

You know, I think whatever his personality, I think some know. his personality, but he definitely had a very quick fuse. But, you know, nothing meant ill by it. And to be honest with you, I'd rather have somebody tell me than fester it for too long. So, yeah, I'd say he probably had the biggest views. I think Chase probably had the longest. Chase and Alex probably had the longest. You know, Chase was one of those that really, you know, he was growing and learning as well.

And I wouldn't say he doubted what he was doing, but he questioned like, hey, maybe I'm tight because I'm carrying too big an arc, and I'll be like, no, you drive the way you want to drive, and I'll try to fix the car. So, you know, that's the relationships that we had to build and figure out amongst the drivers. And then, you know, obviously with Dale, the older driver, you know, I talked to him about pit road or doing this or doing that. He's like, man, this is how I've done it for years. So getting me to change that, it's probably not going to happen. So we moved on to something else. So maybe the age of drivers kind of comes into.

play. Do you ever feel as a crew chief that you have to get in character almost when you're in a race? It sounds like you're maybe a little bit different outside of the race with your relationships with your drivers. Yeah, most definitely. And especially as your conversations get exposed, I guess, or broadcasted, you know, people read a lot into relationships when it comes to the competition or the spirit of competition. and not that it's one way or the other, but you definitely have to change that mentality because if, you know, I talk to Dale or Chase or Alex the same way I would as he would sit in here, there may be a change of, oh, he maybe doesn't respect his abilities as much,

or maybe he doesn't respect him as much, or, you know, why did he tell him to do that? He should already know it. So, you know, you definitely have to, you know, change that up a little bit, But, you know, I wouldn't smack talk fantasy football the same way. I would talk to them on the radio at the Daytona 500. So I guess that's what I mean maybe by a little bit of the respect level there. Something banter and fun versus, you know, out there on the racetrack,

you have to adjust their mood and their style and kind of have that sense of feeling when they need that pump-up speech versus when they need to just have some quiet on the radio. Do you ever wish, I know the in-car audio is really big in the sport of NASCAR, and I mean, that's provided so many great moments looking back in history. Do you ever wish, though, that maybe it wasn't so public? In a way, yes, but, you know, I think I've learned a lot because of it. You know, just kind of thinking back the in-car cameras and post-race audio transcriptions, those type of things that you would go back and you learn, you know, how did I see?

sound to the driver. You know, did I sound confident? Did I sound convincing? Did I sound like I was going to fix the car? Did I question whether I should pit or not? So, you know, you kind of go back and you learn and you study yourself in order to make yourself better and put yourself into the driver's shoes. But also, you know, the in-car camera, you know, the video side of things before SMT came along, you used that to understand what the driver was feeling. You know, why was he running high? Why was he running low. What incident did, you know, he just lose lap time because he got, got loose or was it because he just didn't do the line properly?

So that was a, you know, big game changer, I think, in a lot of people's profession as a crew chief is just studying themselves and understanding how to get better. You know, also, I was never, I drove late models before, and I never had radios. and when I started using radio, I found it sometimes distracting. And more I got used to it, you could talk to me the whole time, and I didn't have an issue with it. But I always kind of kept that as a driver like, man, I didn't want to talk to him unless I saw him. So when he came off of turn four, till he entered turn one, I tried to talk in that short span because I didn't want him to be, one, battling with a car in a key situation, come over the spotter saying,

hey, you're clear or you're not, and then have an incident. So I was very particular on where I wanted to speak and also do it so that I'd have to repeat myself. So if I talked, it was between the exit of four, entry of one, and that way, you know, he had some time to really concentrate on what I was saying and maybe try to retain it. Because, you know, they're in the corner and they're having to feel the tires and the inputs. I very much feel that, you know, listening and feeling can affect each other just as same with your sight. So I was taking a hearing test not too long ago and, you know, I was sitting there trying to listen to the beeps.

And, you know, I felt my phone buzzing and I heard the AC going and all this distractions. And I close my eyes. I'm like, why am I closing my eyes to hear? But you're just trying to heighten your sense and, you know, your throttle, your foot to your pedal. you're steering to your seat of your pants is all very, very heightened feelings that these drivers need. And I always felt like if I talked to them right before they got to the gas, it was going to affect that lap time. And I never wanted to do that. That reminds me of like when you're lost and you have to turn the radio down. Just figure out where you go. Why did I just turn the radio down, right?

But something that you might not really think about when it comes to your racing prep and just kind of what you're thinking about, what the drivers are thinking about. We shared the in-car audio from Bristol earlier, but now we're going to share the in-car audio from your time with Dale in the 88, so let's play that quick. Tempard track bar is helping you, right? I don't know, let me ask you. Track bar, are you helping me?

Blam, flam. Brow, straighting me out. Does that take you back? Yeah, you know, especially that hello? You know, because Dale was very, very, you know, like I said, I didn't, I was. I was factual. I told them what I needed to hear as far as, you know, the critical information. But when it came to, you know, that type of stuff, you know, hello, are you guys here?

Yeah. You know, you didn't see that. And I didn't probably see it, you know, the TJ or whoever spotting on the roof would have. But, yeah, it's, you know, and I always get ants asked about the track bar. Yeah. You tweeted that. Yeah, I tweeted about that. But, I mean, even prior to then.

And it's like, you know, what was you meaning there? And I kind of go back to, you know, the reason why I ask that is because if that adjustment's not working and then I need to try something else, you know, that's going on in my mind. Also, you know, when they had the adjustable track bar, they would move those things inches at a time. And they're like, oh, it doesn't do anything. Right. So, and then I move it an eighth of an inch or quarter turn on a pit stop. And they're like, oh, you killed the car. This thing is terrible.

Yeah, I just moved it, you know, this. much and versus this much. But ultimately, yeah, that was the point behind that question. I got really a different reaction than I was expecting. But all in all, it's been fun to hear it over and over. And then, you know, obviously at Bristol, I heard a little bit of my, the answer to that question and it didn't help him at all at Bristol. I know it's probably hard to think back. But what's maybe the funniest interaction that you've had with him during a race or maybe the most unexpected thing that he's told you? Um, you know, obviously when it was, uh, football season, he definitely wanted to know, um, you know, the scores of the game. Um, but, uh, yeah, it was, you know, maybe a little bit about, you know, the hello side of things. Like, he'd be like, hey, man, why isn't nobody, nobody's talking to me, talk to me. And then you start talking to him. He's like, quiet down, because I'm trying to drive here, you know, so that sometimes the, the, the, the, the, the moment push of the button, he's asking for one thing. And then, you know, you know, two laps later, uh, TJ or I would, I wouldn't be talking.

talking about, but TJ probably would be talking too much. And then, you know, Pocono always comes to my mind. You know, he's kind of talking about the car and what he needed. And he was saying that he was, you know, too loose off the corner and his right rear was too blown up. He always talked about blown up or balloon tires or basketball tires. But he's like, man, my right rear is just too blown up. So I took a half pound of air out of it. And then the next run, he said he was tight. And he asked what adjustment happened. and I was like, I just took a half pound of air out of my right rear tire. He's like, never touch my right rear tire.

I'm like, okay, how's the track bar? Right. You know, like, so, you know, sometimes when you're trying to make the right call and in the moment, he, he called you out. So how do you do, so how do you handle those moments? Do you say what you think? Do you communicate in a different way back when you're thinking something else? To me, I always just feel like it's just pushing the bunch of. and letting off steam and then let's move on.

That type of thing. It's like, you know, I don't take it negatively, personally, any of that. You know, I know sometimes that's just their outlet of communication. And, you know, and sometimes when you're struggling in the race car, you need, you need that outlet to let it go, you know. And, you know, the drivers are under such scrutiny of, you know, why are you not winning? Well, I just finished second. Well, why didn't you win?

You could barely get beat by 1,000 a second, and the scrutiny is you should have won. So I understand that. And sometimes they just want to let the fans and the people know, like, I'm struggling out here. And, you know, yeah, I'm sure, you know, my crew chief and my guys didn't want to have me struggling, but I'm struggling to make lap time to get a feel for this car.

You know, maybe I'm just not into it today. So they use that radio to, you know, have those conversations probably not directly, but somewhat subtle conversations with the fans and other people that are listening to just say, you know, hey, maybe it's not my day or maybe the car's not there or, you know, vice versa is, you know, man, you know, this thing's really good. You know, we're going to go out there and win and ultimately either do or have something that comes up. We know at Bristol, Dale had some issues with his helmet, with his glasses, lots of things kind of going on inside the car. What's the maybe strangest requests he's had for you during a race that you kind of had to roll with?

Probably not the strangest, but the probably most surprising. So Bristol, I can't remember what year it was, but maybe it was 15 or maybe, yeah, I think it was 15. Peyton Manning's in the pit and they're all having a good time. We qualified well. Yeah, I thought we were going to have a good car. all of a sudden lap one you know you know i'm just getting on the box getting ready to go signing in my computer you know getting a view of where we're at and all of a sudden he's like he's like i can't go

i'm like what do you mean you can't go he's like it just won't go it's in engine protection mode and he pulls down pit road uh we're on the exit of two and he pulls down pit road and we came in there and we had to shut everything off and and basically reset the ecu to get it running and We went three laps down. I have Peyton Manning sitting right behind me. I got Dale all animated inside because he doesn't know what's going on. Right. And basically what happened was the brake looked like it was spiked with the throttle.

He was warming up his tires and there was a lot of brake pressure with a lot of throttle input. So it thought it had a hung throttle. So that was probably the most surprising thing he's ever came on the radio because I just wasn't ready. Right. You know, I wasn't ready for something to be wrong. Something to be wrong on the pace laps. So, but ending to that story, I think we finished second to Carl Edwards and came back from like three laps down. And, you know, ultimately, you know, it ended up being a good day, but it sure didn't start that way.

Did Peyton Manning stay for the whole race? I think he stayed for a little while. Okay. And then I had some reports that he asked, like, well, how did they end up? And, you know, they told him, well, he ended up second came from three laps down. and he was he was impressed you know like man I probably should have stayed around for that because you know Dale you know getting out of the car and going down and you know those type of races are a lot of fun they're not fun with to start with but overcoming them with strategy and fast race cars is a lot of fun and you know Dale was sitting on the wall kind of kind of he's just like man I really had to drive for that one you know so it was it was a lot of fun to go through that but yeah it didn't start out that way. listening to his past in-car audio you were kind of laughing in the moment when he's saying all of this at the racetrack i feel like you're probably even killed but are you like are there moments where it's kind of hard not to laugh or or just give some kind of response yeah i mean there's times when it's you know it catches you off guard a little bit because um you know it can help change the mood you know if if you're you're in a good mood it helps a little bit it helps a little bit you bit more to be a little more lighthearted, but, you know, it definitely changes the mood within

the pit stop, you know, let's say we have a bad pit stop and the driver comes on and not cracking jokes, but, you know, very encouraging. That really does help. But yeah, when, you know, some of those surprising things happen, like, hey, did you see what happened? Why didn't I get out of boy for that? You know, you're kind of like, because I didn't know I should have. You know, like, you know, like, you You just, you know, it felt like an awkward moment. And, you know, I thought I was supposed to tell you lap times and when the pit and how the car is doing and how it adjust it. You know, so it's definitely a, you know, different dynamic when it comes to somebody that's lighthearted at the time within the car. And, you know, just because it's such an intense environment.

And you can kind of see, like, how they could get, I wouldn't say bored, but, you know, they're pretty monotonous like okay you know i need somebody to talk to me and and now i don't you know because it's getting intense do you have a favorite race from your time with him um i would say you know anytime we went to the july uh Daytona race where we won and and had a dominant car and um anytime we went to the speedway races we had a really fast car you know with from you know Steve Berg and everybody at Hendrick Moorsports. So, you know, those were one of our favorites to go to and have some fun. And when you cross the line there first, and you're not caught up in the wreck.

But I would say that's probably a good one. Talladega, our first win. That was pretty neat. A little story behind that. My daughter broke her elbow or arm right above her elbow, like the Saturday before the race. And, you know, I got the call and, you know, kind of told Dale about it. And he's like, you know, I can, I'll fly you home, you know, so you can be with her. And I know I would want to be with her.

And I was like, you know, I called and I talked to my daughter. And she's like, absolutely not. You're not coming home. And I'm like, what do you mean I'm not coming home? She goes, you're going to win the race tomorrow. Aw. So that was kind of by her request. Yeah.

Like, how are you going to win the race if you're not there with Dale? And so I was kind of like, man, he could win with anybody and he doesn't need me. But her as a little girl. How old was she? She was seven. Seven. So she thought so much of me that I believed so much in me that nobody could win without me. So I thought that was a pretty cool special time.

And she might have been a little older. 15, 2015. I can't remember. It's hard. I had to think back. Yeah. Yeah, she was nine. She was nine. You've done a lot of things in your career,

Xfinity Series Championship at Garage 56, working with Dale Jr., so many great drivers. Is there one accomplishment that you're most proud of in your time with Hendrick? I think just getting out of a small town, right? So, you know, getting hired at Hendrick Motorsports. When I was 16 years old and I was a rookie in the late model series, they asked me where I wanted to be in 10 years, and I said Hendrik Motorsports. And, you know, they all kind of laughed at me.

I wouldn't say laughed at me, but, you know, like, we're in the upper Michigan, right? We're not really around NASCAR. We're not in Charlotte where, you know, NASCAR is, you know, right around the corner. It's, you know, 17 hours away. And I think that's probably my feel of accomplishment because I knew once I got there. I was going to make my way up to our way. Yeah. So. Last question, and we'll let you go. There's crew chief Greg. Now there's dad that's watching your son

Parker race. Is there a difference there? Like, how does, like, how does that work for you? Yeah, I mean, it's, I think there's still the engineer crew chief side of things, watching the car, looking at the data, critiquing the driver, critiquing the crew. You know, we have, Rich Guterres, who helps a lot. My wife is huge. They call her boss lady, but she's hugely involved in making it all happen, especially when I can't be there. They're actually in Newcastle this weekend, championship race for the USPKS series. So I'll be in Kansas running the Arka race.

But, yeah, so, you know, with him, he's very, he reminds me a lot of the calm drivers. It doesn't get worked up about a lot, very calm on the race. track, very calculated and smooth, and does a lot of things right. And he's still a 10-year-old kid, right? So he does grow up here and there and make mistakes. But, you know, we just learn from them. And it's nerve-wracking. I mean, I'm... Way more nervous than when you're... Yeah. I mean, I'm way more nervous and, you know, just, you know, I just want him to do well. And, you know, if this is something he wants to do, great. If not, then we'll try something else. But But, you know, right now this is his passion, and I want to support him as much as we can.

But it's a lot of fun to see them. You know, it's fun to see my kids, you know, grow up in a little different environment, whether they're playing softball or going to college now, my oldest is doing. So it's been a lot of fun. It's a great journey as far as, you know, my family within the sport. And, you know, at Hendrick Motorsports, that's a huge problem. part of it. So, um, but yeah, I mean, you know, I don't get to talk on the radio to, uh, Parker and he doesn't get to respond, but, do you wish you could? Um, no, no, because I, I, you know, I, I think, uh,

you know, all the greats, you know, and just like I said, you know, if they knew in the pit and they knew how I was going to need it to adjust the car, that's all I needed to know, because these drivers were, the, the drivers that are great are do it without any type of guidance, you know, so it's a lot of fun. Well, we wish them all the best this weekend. That sounds like a pretty big deal. Yeah, huge, huge deal. We appreciate you coming on and sharing all those stories.

It's been fun. Yeah, I appreciate it. And, you know, I always enjoy thinking about the past and hopefully keep making a future here at Hendrick Motorsports and Impact here at Junior Motorsports. Once again, we appreciate great guys for joining the show. Just really appreciate his kind of insight and all the great stories he had for us today.

And now it's time for a quick break, but don't go anywhere. We got Ash Jr. next. And we're live. All right. It's Sass Jr. presented to you by the Cars Tour and Gilles Club from Pasadena, California. And Dirty Mo Media.

But actually, Xfinity. I was going to get there. Okay. All right. I got the Xfinity read right here. It's Finity Mobile. Yeah. Yeah.

The Expendity mobile customers, y'all know about this. The exclusive access that you get Wi-Fi hotspots all over the country. take NASCAR on the go with Xfinity Mobile. We're all walking around. I mean, you know, we used to be like, hey, going to watch the race, or I'm going to watch the, you know, NFL, whatever's going on.

You have to be plopped down in front of your television. But nowadays, man, we're walking around looking at this stuff on our phones, and Exfinity Mobile has the speeds that you're going to need to come in clutch to be able to take in all that action wherever you're at when you're on the go. So they're also a proud premier partner of NASCAR.

Thank you. And we have some questions. TJ's here. I'm here. The rest of the guys are in the room and we got some questions ready for you guys. I think he forgot our names. I did not. It was often, right? Yeah. Someone congratulated me, by the way, I'm getting married this weekend. You know, that's the third time I've been recognized, but it wasn't me. Yeah, yeah. Hey, man. Some random dude. Yeah. That's funny. Anyways, um, hey, there's some people in chat chiming in about the commanders. They're very excited. Pamela is excited. Pamela's excited. Xfinity Racing is excited about the commanders. We talked about that a little bit on the front end of the show.

Yes, but this first question is coming from Double O Music. What is your favorite role on Hell Let Loose? I still play. Yeah, I played actually two nights ago. Hell Let Loose is a first-person shooter, World War II era, and we've played sometimes, TJ. Yeah.

But I like automatic rifleman. Yeah. Cool. He's got a little more faster rate of fire, and I don't know why I feel like that gives me an edge, but it probably doesn't. All right. I'm kind of, I'm one of those that, like, a lot of people go straight toward the objective.

I kind of like to go way, I'm a flanker. I'm flanking. I'm like acres away. That's usually most of our game plan. I'm a flanker's flunker. I, uh, if a match goes to the end, it's an hour and a half. So you have lots of time to do this flanking. Sometimes when you're flanking, man, you'll see some other guys that are doing this.

Some other guys are flanking. Hey. No, the enemy's And you're like, hey, hey, hey, I'm glad I'm flanking because I call you flanking. But the worst is doing that and somebody getting you and you dying out there. The commander comes over.

Hey, junior, what are you doing way over there? Oh, that's right. Because they can see where your guys are. The commander's cussing at you. Get in the match, man. You're wasting your drama. What are you doing now there? And then when you meet somebody, you're like,

I caught the flankers down here. What do you think I'm doing? Down here catching the other flankers. It's fun. Don't tell me how to play. Oh, man. I hate that. You can't drive the tank.

It's impossible to drive the tank, too. I hate that. That'll make me flip the switch when somebody tries to tell me how to play on hell at least. Oh, man. Yeah. What are you doing over there? Get in the match. It's over here.

We're trying to do this. You're over there doing this. that what are you doing you imagine how it was real life though we're all over here like i bought this game i bought my game you didn't buy my game i bought my game i'll play where i want to play that is the best i think excuse i heard yeah i do the same thing so i'm not i can't complain about it too much speaking of gaming this is kind of related but unrelated but tim dougar said he just rage quit in the middle of the national championship game in y'all's league he did and i saw him saturday and he shot me the bird, so I guess it goes for college football team.

He used his one bird up on you. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. You get one bird a date. He's actually rejoined to the league again. Is he officially? Yeah. Is he back in Alabama? Yeah.

Oh, he's not going anywhere else for sure. So, yeah, he's back. He'll quit again. Oh, yeah. He'll quit again. And then here he'll come back a couple months later. Hey guys. I'm back. So disruptive.

It is. What is the momentum we get? This next question is from AJ. What is your favorite sushi roll? Buh. T.J. You don't like it? No sushi.

Buh. T.J. You don't like sushi. No, the only sushi roll. I don't even think I, the only roll that I will eat is a cucumber roll. Just cucumber. Just cucumber. So no fish.

No fish. Nothing from the water. Do you eat any fish at all? Like, ever. Like fried or? Yeah, like, fish sticks. Fish sticks. Gotcha.

With ketchup. All right. Well, Dale, what's yours? Nothing exciting. I'm pretty boring. Creature a habit. I go to the basic tuna roll. I like it plain.

I don't like the spicy tuna, man. Oh, that's mine. It's pasty. I love it. It's like minced is what they call it. A little. I don't know. I don't want my raw tuna ground into a paste.

It's already daunting. I don't care what spices are in there. I don't care what spices are in there. We're chumming it. Wait, we put spices in it. Oh. I like that. I don't like the crab meat.

The fake crab. Oh, yeah. The imitation crab is horrible. It's like a mozzarella stick. Yes, it's like that stringy cheese. Someone here is asking what's your favorite cheese, Zach. So we'll go. I love me a good Parmesan.

So what is, I think that Parmesan comes in little tiny squares. Maybe. Okay, I'll just say feta. I like feta. All right. Fed on salad. That's a great ad. I've been getting held back to the sushi for putting, like, getting the cream cheese on it.

Philadelphia roll. That's my go-to. Interesting. Cream cheese. Yes. It's fine. The difference in flavors here, taste profiles is interesting. What is the cream cheese?

Cream cheese don't even have a flavor. Cream cheese is like nothing. Yeah. It's just like white nothingness. Now, if you give me a bagel, I mean, it's like, that's what Mike Davis used to do. Oh my gosh. With that for breakfast, and that's what he would get.

He'd get a plain bagel with cream cheese. Oh, no, everything. Cream cheese has no flavor. Does it? What is the flavor? Explain? Cream. Yeah.

Give me a, it's like creamy. Give me the profile. I mean, like, I know what it tastes like, but I can't describe it. How do you describe what anything tastes like? You're like a triathlete. You're eating cream cheese that has no flavor. You're just like piling on calories for no reason. If you're going to eat calories, like get some pizza or something, get something that tastes good.

If I'm going to eat a lot of calories, I'm going to damn sure make sure I enjoy it. I'm not going to just eat cream cheese. God. Cream cheese. It's just to me, every time they have like a sauce or something, you're just to thicken it up. You used to thicken up a sauce.

You just don't... Big cream cheese. I'm not a big cream cheese, I will never understand why anyone would think cream cheese is a good addition to anything. I don't know. I've never thought that I need to do a deep dive on myself

and figure out why I like cream cheese, I guess. We got some smoke cheddar fans in the house. We've got some cottage cheese fans. Cottage cheese is as bad as cream cheese. Oh, it's worse. It's a little bitter, so it does have a flavor, but not a great flavor. Not a good one? No, I'm not doing cottage.

If you're going to be a cheese, who's raising their hand for cottage cheese? I don't know. Or like ricotta. Ricotta's disgusting. Oh, no. Oh, it's so disgusting. It ruins lasagna. It's a texture.

Oh, I hate the texture of it. Like bad milk. Yeah, cottage cheese, no. Absolutely not. Ricotta all day. I can eat with a spoon. You don't hear much about cottage cheese these days. I'm falling out of favor.

Kind of worried about that. It needs a new PR rep. Cottage cheese, kind of shuffled to the back burner. If we're worried, cottage cheese is going to lose a date. I love this. Yeah. We've got to fix the cottage cheese package before we lose a date. What do you even use that on?

What do you put cottage cheese on? Anything? I don't know. People eat it with like three. Can we take the diffuser off the cottage cheese? It's an air problem. It's a cottage cheese has got an air problem. They keep trying to fix it with the lid.

Holy shit. Slap some rubber on it. Maybe that works. Oh, man. PJ1. We got to do one more. It needs PJ1. This is too fun.

All right. This is from Ethan. He's genuinely curious to know from you what makes a race fun. Like, Larson had fun dominating. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that fun for everyone else? Like, what makes a race fun? All right.

So I can appreciate a great ass whooping if a guy, shows up and yards the field. It should be appreciated with that said. That's not the race I want to show up and watch. Sorry, I mean, I think he's saying as a driver. Oh. Oh. As a driver, yeah, I want to lap the field.

Okay. Yeah. Right? Yeah. I want to like just pass everybody and lap the field dominate. Isn't there fun and racing other people, racing hard? I'm racing them while I going by. Okay.

Race for a second. Yeah. I want a lap field. Lead every lap. Yeah. Just crush them. Everything. Yeah.

I think that's fair. But I wanted to finish my thought. It's fine. It's fine. I, um, if I'm watching a race, a good race to me is one where there's, there's real, there's contact and drama. Yeah. And angry, uh, you know, somebody feels wrong.

Somebody's like, you know, there's a hero villain kind of thing, underdog, all those things. Any of that. But contact. Kind of like the end of walking's going. Yeah. That was perfect. That's the perfect example. I like that.

Yeah. Nice. All right. Well, people are commenting their favorite cheese, cottage cheese and pears. Yeah. That's what someone said. Don't get me started on pimento. Pimento's great.

Oh, wow. All right. Oh, man. It's got a strong profile. Yeah. Some pimento, yeah. Mashed taters is a cream cheese powerhouse. I don't know what that means.

I don't know what that means either. I think people like to put cream cheese on the mashed potato. Oh. You know with me? Sour cream on a baked potato. Yeah. I've never seen cream cheese on a baked potato. Baked potato, I just, I need butter and that's it.

Yeah. Someone put in all caps, pepper jack. I respect that. Hell yeah. A peper jack. Ricotta, someone said, with this emoji. Take it back. All right, that's a good place to end because I just can keep naming cheeses all day.

So this is, you probably have to cut me off. What about the cheese in the can? Spray cheese? Yeah, spray cheese. Cheese whiz. Is that really cheese? No. Sure.

Whatever you want. It's not cheese, but we're going to give it a pass because of how tasty it is. Of course. Man, when I was, you know. They're going to get a waiver. When I was single, I would get the writs rolled in a sleeve. Yeah. A sleeve of the ritz.

Oh, and just spray the cheese on the couch with the television. Saturday night. I was good for a while. Dude, to see this and go hell, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Listen, he would go through, like, when he gets on to a certain eating thing, it's got no chance. Like, the whole, like a sleeve of crackers. It's like the, like Amy said about the song.

A sleeve of crackers hates to see Dale Jr. No, it's not just that. One time, like, he had. It's like, when I'm, you're all in. I'm going to, when I like something, it's like, I'm doing that for a week. Uncle Mike left a whole bag of Reese's peanut butter cups in the freezer of the bus one time. the little ones. I can't do that.

And he'd come back the next morning. In my bus, in my freezer. On the coffee table, there's a mound of rappers. He ate every single one of them. And he has co-driver Brad Burroughs was with him. And he comes back out so mad. He's like, Brad, guess what happened to those Reese's? They're gone.

He was so mad. Listen. All the, on your bus. Upstairs in the kitchen here at Junior Mergers Sports, I'd be looking in there. People write their names on shit. I'm like, I don't care. I don't care.

Oh, you're one of them. What? You can't do that. You can't do that. My God. You got anything in there? Andrew, you got anything in there? Not in that fridge anymore.

Going right up there. Not after this. I won't eat. I will not eat someone's leftovers that they brought for lunch. But if somebody's got a brand new. He's so messed up. If somebody's got a brand new soda in there, I'm like, I'll find another one.

This is, this is, this is come right in the store. What? Yeah. I thought of it. We live in a society, Dale. Yeah. Come on. It's chaos up there.

You make it chaos. Apparently you put your food in the community refrigerator. Dale just walks in the refrigerator and like, this is my, these are my lunch options today. Sorry, Jerry. I don't want to eat anybody's leftovers that they brought in. That's gross. I don't want that. I don't think they want you to eat their leftovers.

I am here to take your soft drinks and insult your leftovers. over the Stales convenience store. That's what we're going to put on the fridge. Whatever you have, open it and then put it back in there because then he won't take it. That's it. Open the can. I'll be starting, I'll leave y'all shit open. I'll go up there and open up somebody's Tupperware and be like, how's it? I mean, how you like this?

Do you eat it? He takes one bite, doesn't like it puts it back. If you have Tupperware. Then when you go there to get it out, you're like, hey, it's open. That's what I was saying. Do you eat it? Oh, no. Do I eat this now?

Do you eat it? Do you eat it? If you go in there and you put it in their clothes and it's open, do you eat it? Oh, no. There's no shot. What? No. Like if you put it in their clothes.

Now I don't think I will. And you go in there and open it, do you eat it? That's right. Do you, Andrew? Do you eat it? Don't mess with me. Probably still, because what else am I going to eat for lunch? No, I'm good.

Someone else's been tampered. God, yeah. I'm going up there to tamper with everybody. How about that? Tupperware. How about that? Yeah, yeah, I did see that. How did they go out of business?

Everybody needs Tupperware. Yeah. How do you ruin that? I don't know. Well, I don't know how you, that seems like a pillar of industry. Yeah, right? It's such a necessity. Like, Mike, I'll go, I go to my house right now, open a cabinet and there's, there's just, it's stacked full of these containers.

The headline is so funny because it's like Tupperware out of business. It'd be like shoes out of business. What are we going to do now? No shit. Like, yeah. There used to be Tupperware parties where people would go and like order. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. My goodness. What's the next? What a failure. Paper. Gone. I mean. You get on QVC, it was Tupperware, you know.

Yeah. Gosh, that is funny. Our thoughts are with you, Tupperware. Yeah. Wherever you're at. No one. And we're saving food. All right.

Oh, we got to end this thing. Yeah. This is supposed to be short. Yeah, it was. It was. All right. Y'all had fun. I enjoyed it.

Thanks for tuning in. Hope you'll tune in to the rest of the show. We had just as much fun recording all of that. and we have David Hoots, a longtime chief steward of NASCAR, coming in to talk to us this week. And I can't wait to talk to David, see what he's been up to.

And that's for tomorrow for our ally guest segment. But we'll see y'all later. Enjoy it. Thank you, Exfinity, for everything you do for us here at Dirtymo Media and the Dale Jr. download. As always, that was super fun. A segment of Ash Jr., we appreciate Dale and the fans for making that so great

and answering all of those great questions. from our fans this week. That'll do it for us on DJD Reloaded. This Thursday, we'll see you back here next week. And before them, we hope you enjoy the race at Kansas. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.