The Dale Jr. Download - Kyle Larson's Daughter Absolutely Roasted Him Over His Racing

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

Happy Friday! Let's not waste any time here — we've got Dale talking Rookies, Jeff Gordon chatting with Kelley Earnhardt Miller about her dad, and Larson listening to a fan-submitted song. We open the show with Dale discussing Corey Heim's eligibility for the Rookie Of The Year being, quite frankly, non-existent. Dale has an idea on how to revamp the process of awarding each year's driver. Next, Kelley Earnhardt Miller hosted Jeff Gordon for Business of Motorsports, and he discussed the advice Dale Earnhardt gave him, his lifetime contract with Hendrick, and bringing in Jimmie Johnson. The usual comic relief comes in Door Bumper Clear, who FINALLY had Kyle Larson join, along with his spotter, Tyler Monn. We couldn't pick just one moment, so we have two: Kyle on talking smack with his daughter about racing and a call from a fan who wrote Larson a song. And lastly, Dale had the weekend with the girls and went to Kannapolis, where the conversation turned to his dad's statue and where the girls might be in understanding who he was. That's all for this week! We will see you next time on the Dirty Thirty. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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

One of the things that came up in the conversation this week was Rookie of the Year eligibility. Corey Hym has been deemed ineligible for the rookie of the year next year. And they talked to Brad Kisalowski and maybe a few other drivers. And Brad recalled back when he raced coming into the NASCAR series, he ran more races that he had a part-time schedule. He had an opportunity to run a lot of races that would deem him ineligible. he valued the opportunity to be on the track over the eligibility for rookie of the year, so he ran the races, foregoing his opportunity to race for rookie of the year.

I got a different take on this that maybe a lot of people hadn't even thought of. Would anybody really have a problem if Corey Heim was awarded Rookie of the Year in this season? No. I mean, if you come in, regardless of how many races you start, I know currently, I believe the rookie of the year is a points-based system on the results of every race. And that's always been a part of it. But I'll go back to 1979 when my dad won the rookie of the year. He missed four races due to some breaking his collarbones, missed a handful of races. broke his collar bones at Pocono.

He did not beat Joe Milliken in the final point standings. And it was not assured that Dad was the outright rookie of the year. They had a committee or a panel of people that would vote after the last race in Ontario that year on who would be the rookie of the year. So it was a bit of a point system, and that sometimes would produce the clear-cut, obvious rookie the year. But then you would have these other ones where they would battle and be really, really tight, and the committee would then make a decision, or they could weigh and sway the result. And they gave it to my dad over Joe Milliken, even though Joe had more overall points

and was higher at the end of the season in the point system than dad was. Which I'm fine with. Either way, that's fine. My point is, is like, maybe we need to get back to having there be some voices in the room. It's not some, and maybe there is still some of that involved, but let's not just look at results. Let's not just look at top fives, top tens, and all those things. Let's just sit down at the end of the day and go, all right, man, who's more deserving of this award this year? and I'll be honest with you

I wouldn't have a problem in this particular instance because of the fact that he's came in here even though he's ran a very partial schedule he won two of those races and he's a legitimately a rookie of the year he's I mean a rookie he's I take that he's a legit rookie right now

so he qualifies in my book and I could I could understand and would not have a problem if they said Haim is your rookie of the year and so do we need does the guy have to run every single race if he has an abbreviated schedule

even if it's 8, 10, 12, whatever if he goes out and wins two of those races holy shit. That's pretty dramatic. Who are the rookies this year? It's just zillage. Oh then that's what are we doing? And next year, I mean if it was Corey next year who's it even going to be next year?

Is he even going to be one? Jesse Love. Just Jesse? Just Jesse. I mean that's like Well, that's the problem with the rookie of the year. year is a lot of times that there's only one driver so it's like and that's okay look i mean every year we had a really great class in 79 you had a harry gant you had a couple other guys um and so i sometimes you're going to have really amazing classes sometimes you're going to have one single guy i understand and that's okay it it just is it's just going to have to be okay all right

But maybe we need to, you know, kind of rethink the eligibility. I don't love the idea that, you know, you could run 15 races and still be eligible the next year. I think that that 15 race schedule was your rookie year. That's a lot. You know, and or 10. He's, Corey Himes, a rookie this year in my mind. This is his rookie year.

he's running off races now that he's won two of them. I like the idea that I think the limit's seven. I'm not quite sure. But I like the idea that like, hey, man, if you run over seven, you're now eligible for the rookie of the year this year. Yeah. All right. If you want to run more than seven, if you're going to make a count.

If you're going to stay under seven, then you move that eligibility to the following season. But if you run more than that, by all means, make it count, go out there and make an argument. for yourself as this year's rookie of a year. And he would, in my mind, likely win it. So, you know, that's kind of where I think that should be. I also want to say, could they please consider bringing the yellow stripe back?

Like taking the yellow stripe off the cars, that was such a, I don't know, that was, to me that mattered. I don't, when we took the yellow stripe off the car, the yellow stripe was always your signifier but also I mean it was it was it was it was very symbolic to you know to be being able to remove that right I've sort of I've earned this opportunity to take this what I was going to take this off right you put the time in yeah and now we don't have that identifier out there and it's just oh no man I don't I don't I'd never I've never understood the decision to get rid of that

And if we really want rookie of the year to matter, let's put a banner on the windshield even. If it ain't a bumper sticker, it's a banner on the windshield. Fine. But something that's an identifier for that particular driver on the racetrack. And for the fan at home, it's not for, you know, it's also a little bit for the drivers and competitors on the track. That was actually the reason why the yellow bumper was added or the stripe on the bumper.

So a driver would know, hey, this guy is a rookie in front of you. Be careful. because you would go to Daytona, you would go to some of these races back in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. There'd be a shit ton of freaking rookies out there, especially in the Bush series. You'd have a ton of yellow bumpers out there, and you needed to know to be careful around them fools,

you know, because a lot of these guys had never ran in a big track like this. And so there was a real reason that's, that reason has certainly eroded away in, recent years. And so I understand why they were like, you know what, do we need this? But I think for the fan,

I love the identifier. I love, especially when there's a great rookie crop, right, especially when you got four, three or four guys out there that are legit contenders to try to go win it. Yeah.

Or, you know, when you do have that Corey Haim that's running that, you know, seven or 10 or 12 race schedule, I want the, I want the identifier. on his car.

I think it'd have been cool. He goes out there with the banner on the windshield and win San Diego. That's what I say. If he has that bumper or something, that banners in every photo for the rest of time. And then if you watch the race 20 years from now, you're going to be like, I forgot he was a rookie.

Yes. The winning die cast. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Lots of good reasons to bring it back. Some sort of signifier. But I feel like that that, you know, that's kind of my take or where I stand on it.

It's not really a whole lot. lot far removed from where we really are today. But I feel like in my scenario, at least Corey Heim gets a chance to win the rookie of the year in one year or the other. You should have to like apply for us, what it may it sounds like. Well, he is, because of the way the rule is now, he has made himself ineligible to ever try to win it. In my situation or in the idea that I applied,

he at least has a shot at it one year or the other, right? Which he should. Which this year, I think you would give it to him. I think he, oh, how do you not? If he was eligible this year? How do you not? Yeah, you would. He's won two races.

But you were involved in the days of sports image and action. And when your dad, when I worked for your dad at the time, and you my dad was very involved right i mean if he he pretty much gets the credit for um you know the boat of licensing and and having your own trademarks and your name and everything and he's the one that that taught me that exactly you had a great on track rivalry but you guys worked in the background on different business opportunities different opportunities and that kind of thing do you have a story um that you know you might remember a piece of advice or something of that nature uh i don't remember exactly the timing

of it and and it was a things were just different then right there the race weekends look different the amount of testing that we did and travel to tracks was different we would if we were all going to one location and you know maybe we'd take a group of guys on shreders playing or rusty's playing or dale's playing i didn't have a plane at that time and so so you know you had more opportunity to spend more face-to-face time and and usually we didn't want to talk about the race cars, right? You know, and so we mainly talked, and I guess it was just, maybe Rusty and Dale would talk about things. They knew that I was a driver, you know, they knew that I didn't come from that kind of background, so we didn't talk about geometry and upper and lower control arms

and springs and things. So, but I do remember it was one trip. I don't remember if we're on a plane or at a test, and I think that that I was close to a renewal of a contract after my rookie contract. And I think I don't remember if I just had heard him talking about licensing merchandising, but I believe I brought up, hey, y'all, I'm probably going to be signing a new deal. What should I be focused on? And he was, he didn't skip a beat, you know, likeness, you know, control your rights. And if you can manage it, manage it. And so I was like, ooh, okay. He didn't say anything about money. Because I think at that time, he was making far more on the merchandise side than he was

on the driving side. And so that was where a lot of the focus was. So that's what I did. I went back and made sure that was in my deal. Rick was like, I don't care about the merchandise and business. I've lost too much money in that. So you go right ahead. And that was probably one of the best things that I ever did.

And then, you know, he and I own some property across the street from Charlotte Motor Speedway, which that one was unique. I mean, I didn't see that coming. That kind of came through my dad. Yeah. You know, they were looking for a piece of land to put the action performance building. And, and there was a piece of land, but they didn't need all of it. And so somehow, you know, he found out that Dale might be interested and we went into partnership and owned it. And it was an awesome deal. It was an awesome deal. You know, something I was very proud of. That's cool. Sometimes you just get drug along and things turn out to something that you didn't expect or be surprised about, right? 100%. Now, he did talk me into buying a boat, which I, you know.

Maybe that was good. Maybe that was bad. Well, it was good on the same reasons why he told me I should buy a boat, which is you're going to have the most fun you'll ever have, you know, the piece that you have and just, you know, you work so hard. Again, he forgot to tell you about the money part. Yeah, but he forgot to tell me about the money part. I seem to be a theme. All right. So you sign up with Hendrick in 92. You're rolling through there seven years in,

and you become an equity partner with Hendrick Motorsports. What do you think that you and Mr. Hendricks saw in each other that seven years into a relationship like that that you'd still be here today? I mean, thinking about that back then. Yeah. That doesn't happen. I've tried to think about it really doesn't. And I tried to think about other driver and owners throughout my career in this some sport and

is not a lot of that, you know? Yeah. And listen, it puts chills in my spine right now thinking about it because of the relationship that I have with him and it's so special. And I don't take that for granted. You know, you got to remember I, you know, I won the first championship for Hendrick Motorsports. We had a tremendous amount of success very early. and then, you know, Ray got the opportunity to go to Dodge.

Rick was at home sick at that time. He, you know, was understanding kind of the dynamic of what was happening. I went to visit him at his house and, you know, I said, hey, you know, I'm sorry to bring this up, but I want to talk to you face to face about, you know, what Ray is doing. my main focus is more of who's my crew chief going to be right and what's the team going to look like and I relied on race so much and we were so close but I also respected his opportunity and I think at that time I'm not so sure that Rick knew exactly where I stood I think he was like hmm is is Ray and Jeff going to Dodge which I never had any intentions of that as much as I loved

Ray I was like no no I want to stay with Rick and Hendrick Motorsports So I had that conversation with him of, hey, you know, Ray's leaving. I know I want to be here. I want to be here forever. And he said, great. Well, let's do a lifetime deal. And I was like, seriously? And he's like, absolutely. He goes, I don't want you to go anywhere. And I said, well, man, that was easy. Of course, what came along with the lifetime deal was trying to structure, you know, how do you do a lifetime deal with- In 1999? Yeah, in 1999, with many years left. You're still driving and you don't know what it looks like. And honestly, I look back and I think this is why he and I are so close, is because I didn't ask for a whole lot, but I did bring up equity. And he said, oh, sure, half of nothing is still nothing. So go right ahead.

I mean, he jokes about that. But no, I think, you know, we structured a very fair, I think people would be shocked if they saw what my driver contract looked like. Like everybody, there was no guarantees, right? We work in this world of guarantees, got to have this, got to have that. I have no guarantees. If the car did well on track, if the car did well with sponsorship, then we, you know, I did well.

I participated in that. And luckily, that was the run that we went on until I retired, honestly. So, and I think that we both understood that it was something we did together. We made it work for both of us. and I was, you know, honored them to be an equity partner. I mean, equity partner. I, that piece of it sat there. Yeah. Just kind of dormant almost. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah, because a couple years later, you become car owner of Jimmy Johnson. So I'm thinking in my mind, what's the difference, right? Yeah. Equity owner versus becoming a car owner on the 48 car. So, so what did that look like?

So that, that's when things changed a little bit. You know, Hendricks, a big company, right? engine department. A lot of things were under different LLCs and LPs and all those things. And so mine was pretty much the 24. And then when the 48 came along and I was pushing for Jimmy and the fourth team, you know, he said, okay, well, you know, are you going to play a role in this? And I said, yeah, let's put it under the same LLC. He's like, fine, you know, you know, then you are going to be responsible.

And I said, absolutely, I get it, which was probably. probably dumb for me to say. Now looking back, understand how difficult sponsorship is, right? How difficult it is to make money at racing. And so luckily right after that, we made that happen, brought the 48. So it was a 2448 LLC. And then we got Lowe's, you know, and kind of the rest of this history, right? We had DuPont that eventually became Exalta.

We had loads. So we had great sponsorship. And then Jimmy. You had so much good stuff just going on in Hedrick at the time. And Jimmy crushed it, you know, so, and, you know, the meteorites deal had just gotten improved in 01 with Fox and NBC. And then, you know, Jimmy was doing extraordinarily well. We were doing well.

And so, yeah, it was a really good deal. Talk about watching the kids race. How has that been? Yeah, it's fun. Yeah, it's always good seeing your kids enjoy something and do good at it. And this year we start our own team. So that's been a lot of fun. It's hard to believe you trust Clinton Boyles that much.

Yeah. Now, him and Carson do a great job. So, yeah, it's fun. Owen, dude, he's racing. I mean, the adults he's racing with and kids, like, they're really good. So he's been getting a lot better this year. Audrey, she's been killing it in the junior sprint. So at what point they're going to have to start racing each other?

Audrey's eight, Owens. I mean, it'll be, I mean, a couple years from now. Has that going to go? would be great. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, no, Audrey, she talks a lot of smacks.

What is Cooper? She seems way more cutthroat than Owen is, like way more. Dude, Audrey's playing, like, ice hockey and shit. Like, she's hardcore. Me and her go at it, like, every day. Because, so I'm watching, I'm watching, we're at dinner. Yeah. The other than night, Saturday night, and I'm watching Milbridge, and she was light at the scales.

But, so I'd start last in the heat, and, like, she's lagging back on the start, running this crappy line. and all this and only passed like a couple cars and I'm just like you suck like a lot he's fired up he's like she enters the low then she slags the middle

I text Caitlin I'm like put her in the cadet series because she sucks right she's running like a cadet kid out there so they face timing and she's sitting and I'm like what are you doing like come on you're better than this she's like well you suck in NASCAR

you know an eight year old yeah she's like she does not play yeah she's like don't talking you suck too so but yeah like backing up to Knoxville the week Iowa I was winning you know because all this time I've been you know she'll have a tough race or I'm just hard on her to be hard on her she's like well I've got more wins than you this year and blah blah so I went on that heater

I'm like what are you going to do you got to have to win to catch me um so yeah that's good I like bantering with her and and she can take it and I think she'll she'll give it back and like we'll I watch her at Millbridge. Like, I'll see her in a crowd of kids. And she's, like, kicking boys in the shins. And, like, I mean, she holds her out. Yeah. Yeah, no, she's tough.

But she's good because she can, like, she'll be going a little bit too much at me. And she'll think we're, like, joking. And I'm like, no, I'm not, I should. Okay, sorry, sorry. So it's good. But Owen, like, he's more sensitive. So you've got to be soft with him. That's good.

All right, I got one more. This is from Caleb. He wrote a Kyle, Larson's song. Oh, my goodness. It's been a while since I've sent a song into DBC, but I heard my favorite driver was going to be on the show this week, so I had to write one.

There's a guy who's really fast, so short he can barely reach the gas. You know that I ain't talking about Reddick. He likes to drive it on the fence. His car is blue, and he's of Asian descent You know Chinese

They can't talk about Denny That's a good song That's a good song That's right of Tyler's Alley Yeah You can definitely You could learn that

By the weekend Drum that on the guitar too Yeah I'd be good at that Maybe by the end of the year After the end of the year You do a You could write him a song Based off the year

Okay Yeah Yeah, base it off the year. That was our last one? That was it. Dang, I got to say, they were a little more mild than I was expecting. I thought we would have some hung money calls. People told Dave Larson as much as they do, Joey, I guess.

Joey got killed, really? Yeah, Joey did not have a good day here. It was fun, though. Hey, this is Dela Hart Jr., and for all the latest Dale Jr. download gear, including the I'm old drink some beer t-shirt we've been talking about here around the office, head over to shop.dirtymomedia.com for all the latest merch. What day did you go to Canapolis? Oh, yeah.

We went to Canapolis before Sleepover. Okay, Friday. Friday. So Friday we got up and Sean, his two boys, my girls, we went to Canapolis. We ate at a little restaurant that we like in that area right next to the ballpark where the cannonballers play. I think it's called 101 Steakhouse or something like that. So we had a great lunch. We went down the road to the Cardiacs.

I bought a Mickey Mantle in Cardiacs, which I was pumped about. I had it on my list, been looking for that card. And I bartered a little bit. I was like, what do you take for that man? He's like, what do you offer? I said, I about $50 less than what you're listing it for. I said, that's about what it's going for. So it was fun to barter a little bit.

Cardiacs. The kids got some Pokemon cards. Some what? Pokemon? Pokemon? Pokemon? Pokemon?

How do you say it? Pokemon? Pokemon. Yeah. And Sean, his boys. Yeah, sorry. Yeah. They got cards.

And then we scrolled up the street just a little bit to an ice cream shop to get fudge. Yes, I did find fudge in the refrigerator. So I knew that they had gotten some sweet treats. So I was like, them in this fudge shop. Yeah. So they got ice cream. And the lady.

in there said thank you because we've, I'd mentioned the shop on, I guess, our show here. And so right in downtown Canapolis, there's this great little ice cream shop that sells amazing fudge and ice cream. But, um, and they have all the little soda pops and all that stuff. Yeah. They were, they were so happy and nice. Yeah, that's nice. Yeah. Now, I love going to Canapolis. We didn't go to the statue. I was just going to the statue. Statue was a, Pictures. Statue was a half a block away, and we didn't go to it. And that's okay, you know.

I think even half a block away, you feel the energy. You feel the energy. Do the girls actually understand who that is when you take that? I'm not 100% sure that Nicole does. I think Ila has an understanding at 8. But still very, they still like to learn and grasp, right? I'm sure for both of them on that whole. Yeah, yeah. I don't think they understand a lot of the whole just of the big picture.

I wonder, like when I tell them, you know, that dad's, my daddy is not with us. My daddy's with in heaven, you know, my daddy's, you know, I wonder what they think in their minds, like what that means to them. Well, they know Junebug went to heaven and they know Mimi's in heaven. Yeah. And so. I wonder what that even, I don't remember as a child what I thought about all that. Yeah, I don't either. Especially, well, I mean, not at Nicole's age.

I think I like kind of has an idea. I don't think anybody was telling me at eight years old, your granddaddy Ralph is in heaven. I'm sure they did. I mean, I know, but I don't remember it like imprinting on me. Like, wow, that's all, you know. You're like, okay, he sounds like he's doing good. Okay, yeah, whatever that means.

What's the next? Yeah, right. You know what? I got a funny story because we were on our trip and Christy says, Lawson asked me the other day, and I don't know what they were doing. I can't give you any more context than that, but Lawson came up to her and she goes, you know, have you ever met a famous person?

And Christy's like, like what kind of famous person? And he was like, you know, anybody like, somebody famous, somebody like super famous. I want to meet a famous person. And how many times have they hung out with you? And Lawson has no idea either that you were famous. No clue.

Wow. He has no idea that Poplar Dale was famous. He has no idea that you're famous. And that's... So we went to... This is why it came up. We went to school orientation. And he just started going to the same school as the girls.

So there's race car drivers everywhere. And he's like kind of geeking out. He's like, oh my gosh. There's so and so. Oh my gosh. There's so and so. I was like, are you okay? He goes, I'm kind of, kind of geeking out.

There's race car drivers everywhere. And he doesn't even look at you like that, which I think is amazing. Yeah. But he has no clue that you're a celebrity. That's like, who was it? Like Blake lively was saying like her kids didn't know that Taylor Swift was like Taylor Swift. She was Aunt Taylor to that. Yeah.

Just like a random person. Yeah. So back to our girls not knowing, I feel like that's fair, but, you know, even Lawson doesn't get it. And for them, like, to understand, like, a statue and, like, what it all means. Like, that's not normal. Like, not everybody's grandfather is erected in statue in the middle of town, you know. Yeah. So it's kind of fun.

I love that you take them. I think, you know, it's nice that that area is, you know, it's thriving. It's pretty neat. And I want to go to, I've been telling you this, I kind of want to go to a baseball game. Yeah, you want to go to a Braves game, though. Well, I'd love to go to a Braves game, get a real authentic, you know, Major League Baseball experience.

Just regular game. Pro trip? Not a, don't need to be the biggest, baddest game seven playoff moment or anything like that. No, that would be too stressful for Dale. Yes, that would be too stressful. We don't go to Washington games either when it's like a big game. We go when we know they're going to win. We go when it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. Preseason game or like, you know, when it's lower stress. My favorite Washington games to go to are the preseason game. games. Yeah. Because there's no pressure. I know that feeling. All right, that was another episode of the Dirty30,

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