The Dale Jr. Download - Road Course Rants, Cheating, & Boob Signings

Episode Date: August 15, 2025

The Dirty 30 brings you the best 30 minutes from Dirty Mo Media every Friday — the funniest, wildest, and most jaw-dropping highlights from your favorite shows. This week, Dale Jr. gets real about why NASCAR’s identity is rooted in ovals, and the short track and road course problems with the Next Gen car. We revisit the “Boys, have at it” moment with Robin Pemberton that changed NASCAR forever, hear the untold story of a race-fixing scandal, and learn the ingenious (and slightly illegal) cardboard trick that helped them win at Watkins Glen. Plus, Amy’s redneck party outfit request leads Dale down a rabbit hole of hilarious autograph stories — from prosthetic legs to fan encounters you won’t believe. Ain’t nobody got time to watch everything — so we put the best of it right here.]  And for more content check out our YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMediaDirty Mo Media is launching a new e-commerce merch line! They’ve got some awesome Dale Jr. Download merch on the site. Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com to check out all the new stuffFanDuel: Must be 21+ and present in select states (for Kansas, in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino) or 18+ and present in D.C. First online real money wager only. $5 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets which expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or text HOPENY in New York. 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 at you. Let's get right to it. Jeff Gluck on the tear down was talking about there may be too many road courses. A lot of people responded to the social media posts. Don't get rid of road courses because SVG is dominating.

and just go out there and get better. That's not what Jeff Gluck was saying. No, it's not. Nobody's mad. Nobody wants to get rid of, listen to this. This is really important. Nobody wants to get rid of road courses because SVG is great. If, I mean, if I was trackhouse and anybody that worked there, I'd want more road courses.

Let's run 20 a lot. Yeah, man, I'm a win. I want 12. So nobody's wanting to get rid of road courses because SVG is great. I look forward to going to road courses to see if he can be beat. What I think is Gluck's point is that the car struggles at road courses. It has since it's came in. As I've said in the past, this is a, you know, this car has a lot of sports car and

EMSA V8 supercar technology with the underbody arrow, independent rear suspension, all kinds of things, bigger tire, big brakes, and it does all these, it does everything our old car did way better, stops better, just all these things better. But because mostly, well, I think mostly because of the arrow, the car just doesn't race very well on a road course. And it races like a sports car or like IndyCar. It races the way those cars race, but we expect those cars to race that way because that's how they have raced for decades.

In NASCAR, you know, we expect more passing. We expect lots of passing. We expect lots of battles. We expect a faster car to be able to overtake. Overtake with no problem. We expect contact. We expect door to door. that's our expectation because of the last 75 years of what we've seen.

And so when we come up on a road course now and we don't see what we expect, we're not willing to allow this type of product to be normalized or we hope, right, that this won't be normalized. And so I think Jeff Gluck's just saying, you know, why don't we don't we dial back to road courses. You know, same reason why maybe, you know, a lot of people are calling for the roval to go away and the oval at Charlotte to be back to two races.

Well, the people are asking for that because the Charlotte race is one of the best races of the year. The car performs well on the mile and a halfs, so why not get rid of the roval? We would, if you're going to Charlotte at the end of the year, you pick A or B, what do you think people are picking? They're picking the oval. no nobody's going man give me that roval they want the oval right now right now that's what they want

maybe in 10 years this car's amazing on road courses and we want more road courses back the great thing about it is we can have that we can do that it the series and the schedule and everything can ebb and flow as according to how the supply and demand right there was a demand for less mile and a paths. We went to more road courses. We steadily went away from short tracks. We got a short track back in North Wiltsboro. Four road courses. Where are they for you? Sorry? I could run four road courses next year. What are we picking? Well, I wanted to say that my opinion on how many road courses we should have is going to be in the minority. I know that the way I feel about it is probably only about what 10% of the fan base thinks.

I like two road courses. I like Sonoma. I like Watkins Glen. Traditional. Yep. Our identity was ovals. Our identity was short tracks. It was Daytona.

It was Charlotte, Atlanta. That was what NASCAR was. And Richard Petty will tell you, you know, road racing, really, road courses really wasn't what NASCAR was about. And now I know that that's the minority. So that's why I don't really talk about it too much and I don't go on social media because I know that's not realistic in the environment we have today.

There's a ton, there's a whole generation or two of race fans below that have come into the sport since I've been around that may want something different, that make up a large majority of our fan base. I realize I'm 50 years old and there's a, you know, there's a lot of 40, 30, 20 teenage kids that are big fans of the sport now that make up a huge part of the fan base that may want something different. And they don't look at NASCAR the way I look at it. They look at it and they see in a different identity. They see a different history. They see a different sort of.

It's all they know. Yeah. And so that, you know, I'm understanding that, you know, my, my person, opinion may not be that popular, but I'm okay with four. Obviously, we've all seen the clip with Kyle saying the car is producing. Cars good. Which, yeah. I don't know, man.

I mean, Kyle has, I really, really respect Kyle. Think the world of him. And I appreciate his opinion. But I would just disagree that the car doesn't produce what I expect. Again, going back to 75 years, I know Kyle's been around a long time. The car doesn't produce the kind of racing. that I know we are capable of at road courses and short tracks. The car does not produce the type of racing

that I think should be our standard and I know what we're capable of at road courses and short tracks. And I would not stop at trying to achieve amazing great racing at those style of tracks until we achieved it. I wouldn't stop trying to get there. And I don't think we're there. And I think it's mainly due to the race car, right? So in your opinion, what is the ratio?

Like, I don't think it's, I think it's more car dependent now than it's ever been. What, like, I think when we do have races where the driver means more, they're better races. Like the Bristol race with tire, the driver came into play more. To me, the racing got better because you had, there was so much stuff going on. There's some racetracks where the underbody arrow is problematic. There are just some racetracks where the way this car is in dirty air creates problems for the drivers. They can't, like, to your point, we go to Bristol, right? I want to see a guy.

If a driver wants to go down into the corner and run into the back of somebody in the middle of the corner and move them up the track, I want them to be able to do that. You can't now. They can't do it. and so in most cases when they try to drive down in there and get behind that guy and get to his rear bumper they lose all that error and the underbody can't get the down forcing and they lose all the grip and they just they go up the racetrack and so they have to run offset and they can't run behind each other i don't like that i don't love it i don't want it and i don't think like watching

these guys like to me the the car is majority of the problem the car is majority of the equation on who runs really good. It's not that this guy is just a way better driver. And then nothing to get, these guys are all really good drivers, but at most of the, most of the tracks where the, we're having these challenges, all the passing happens on restarts. That's it. There's minimal passing after the field sort of organizes post-restart. We get about two or three laps of good battles and action. And so a lot of people in our industry are like, well, we just need more restarts. No, that's not the answer. We need a car that can overtake at lap 15, lap 20, lap 25, not get aerotight and so air deficient behind a slow car. As vice president of competition,

you're in charge of rule enforcement, among other things, I'm sure. How was managing the integrity of the sport while also managing the respect relationship, the friendships that you still had in the garage. How tough was that? It was tough, but you have to put yourself back and sometimes you got to make sure it's more black and white. You got to like, you know, penalties got to increase. We were getting pressure from upper over management, like, you know, clean some of this stuff up. Yeah. You know, and that's how you, points is how you do it. Money doesn't mean anything to anybody. No. You know, shame to say, but it's about the points. And, and, you know, some of the stuff is, is, when it's pretty blatant, you know, there's cheating to just go fast

and then there's cheating to compromise the integrity of a car or something or something. And those are dangerous. When y'all find out and discover that something like that has happened under your watch, I imagine you go through a range of emotions. Yeah. Of angry. But also at the same time, like, almost dumbfounded, like how, Yeah. There's those what the f*** moments.

Yeah. How could you be so? Yeah, you're sitting, you're sitting up in the office. You know, and it was always Mike and I in the office, sitting up in the office, and they come and they get you and go, oh, Jesus, sakes. Yeah. You know, the big one was at Richmond. What was it Richmond? Richmond was the race fixing thing. Oh, yeah.

You know, you got to itch. You got to scratch your elbow. You got to. I was right behind him when he spun itself. Yeah, yeah. That was tough. I knew what happened, but everybody did. Yeah.

I mean, they're parking, you know, they're bringing cars in and they're working the system on that with Brian. Yeah. Yeah, you know, and they're doing all that. And so it was, you kind of didn't see it from the tower. No. You wouldn't have known it was happening in real time. Right. But all the radio communication, all that stuff comes out.

And what people don't understand is we record every. radio transmission from every team. Damn. To have it. Yeah, that's, I'm talking 15 years ago. Yeah. Right? So the, so that's the race that's the cutoff.

So I leave out of there about one, two o'clock in the morning. We're going to ride home all night, dodge the deer or whatever it takes. So about 10 o'clock in the morning, the phone rings. And it's, and it's Mike. Helton. I said, you okay? He said, yeah. I said, what's going on?

What's going on? He goes, we got fricking trouble. I said, what? Well, when the 15th born and this happened, and we got to do an investigation. I said, oh, okay. So Chicago is the big week, media week, and this, that, and the other.

I said, all right, well, when do you want? What do you think? He's like, go up, you got to get, there, go Monday. So Monday at 9 or 10 o'clock, I'm in a fucking airplane going to Chicago. You know, I think I was by myself. They just put me up there. So I was in a room bigger than this room that they rented for me. And the TV people came in and they replayed stuff and replayed stuff. I was in that room for eight or ten hours the first day. And, and they replayed stuff. I was in that room for eight or ten hours the first day and probably 16 the second day. I didn't go to anything. I ate

breakfast, lunch, and dinner in that room. Listen to all the radio transmissions, all that stuff. By yourself? Yeah, I was by myself and some of the guys would come in from the network and they give me a hand with whatever. Right. And Hoots came up. You're the one doing the investigation. Yeah. And Hoots too. Yeah. Hoots came in, you know, helped and, you know, it's like, oh my God, and you put this thing together. Well, what they didn't, you know, so now you're like fixing a race, but what they didn't understand, and there's no reason for them to understand it, we're right in the middle of negotiations for Fandul and Betonon Games and whatever.

Oh, shit. Right? That's a big problem. It's the worst thing you could do at the worst time. Sure. so it was going to be freaking monstrous huge yeah

so did that torpedo that I don't no I don't think so it didn't help but you know so you come to the conclusion of yeah

you know what happened yeah who makes the decision to to add Jeff into the no no decision was ever made by one person

oh for good reasons. One may have a bigger voice. Sure. And it's good for your sanity. Sure. For a lot of reasons, right? But all that decision like to pull one out and put one in or whatever. So we pulled some out. We wind up with one extra guy. Yeah. With Jeff. And then, but, you know, you went to four races or whatever it was in those days and you did your elimination back down to whatever. Yeah. You know, it was kind of no harm, no foul. You know, he wasn't having one of his better years. You know, I think his back. was bothered them and stuff. But that was a decision by a few people. Sure. Right. Yeah.

And so right, wrong or indifferent behind us, but it was one of them, what a freaking week that was. You coined the term boys have at it. Oh, my God. Or have at it boys. In 2010 during a preseason media tour. So it's the end of the media tour. We're wrapping up.

All the drivers are there and owners or whatever. most of them. So we were upstairs in the conference room and it's Brian, Mike, there's a few other, a couple others in there and Brian's like, you know, he's like, we're getting beat up. It's too sterile. You know, it's too, you know, Jimmy Johnson was the cleanest guy ever, right? And it's like, you know, it's getting too sterile. We got to quit doing something. How do we do this? He said, I don't know. He's like, well, you know. You're like, well, you. You know, it's getting too sterilely. We got to, we got to quit doing something. We got to quit doing something. He's like, well, you I was the closing remarks. Yes.

Nothing on paper. I was like, you know, hey, if you guys had a great off season, go get them, you know, yay team. So he says, look, we got to, we got to, you know, just say something. Yeah. It's like, I'm a mother-ass. I go down, I leave that and go down, and I'm the last guy and there's, you know, others talking. I get up there. I don't even remember anything that I said leading up to it.

I was in a daze I believe it reciting, thinking and you know I said, you know, I said, hey, you know, whatever, you know, guys, you know,

we've been holding you close and this, that, the other, so. Turning you loose. Boys, have at it. Have a good time. Yeah.

And that was it and I walked off stage. And that just exploded. Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes, in a good way and sometimes in a bad.

Yeah. Oh my God. It was crazy. I want to know about the great innovation around winning at Watkins Glen. Oh, God. He had a fast race car. Kyle had drove for the Wood Brothers, and he'd been in different teams and cars, but I don't know that we really gave Kyle's ability a ton of credit until the Sabco deal.

But talk about the win at the Glen and how you made that happen. So we go up there testing. We're running. I just can't get through this. I can't do this. I need to run wide open. There's no reason to not run wide open. So I'm like, okay.

So they're putting up garage doors in the building before it was just open. Right. And I see all this freaking boxes down there. So it's an all right. So I go cut these four inch wide strips and they're like a 316th thick, you know, almost a quote, whatever.

And I started and I went and did the whole valence. If you look at a picture of that car had a valence, you know, those days they had the valence on. So I widened the whole, I did the whole thing wider. I just taped it on there, duct tape. He goes out and runs. He's like, oh, man, he said, do you even believe it's better? He said, okay, go get more cardboard.

And I tape it on. And we go, I mean, we were literally four inches more wide. I mean, it was out there. Yeah. And he's like, he just mad at from turn two up to the S's. It was so good. You get up to the chican. A lot of times he just pushed the clutch in

And never let the clutch out and coasts through the Chican and then third gear, whatever and off and go He's like, this is perfect He's like, it's good So we get all that done Work harder on that than springs and shocks That made the springs and shocks good Whatever they were

So we got back home He's like, okay smart ass Now what are you going to do? You got a cardboard all over this thing So I knew of a company in Florida Did fiberglass work we cut the whole nose off. I put little brother Roman in a pickup truck with its nose in this.

I think it was Harry's Glass. And he drives at Jacksonville or whatever it was. And I said, make a mold, do this, do this. They made a whole new nose for us, right? In a week. Bring it back, put it on, put their ducks in it, and all this other stuff. and then really the ducks were so big there was it it said one time i had a quote it said we only had gp on it but it was g dash pr ix right so it wasn't grand prix right so somebody was bitching

and like we're hauling ass and you know if Kyle's hauling ass or something wrong right it's one of them things in practice and uh and so they come over they come over and um they're like They get tape measure out and measure the valence. Because of the G.P on there, they thought that the nose was narrow. Because back then, everybody just narrowed stuff up and whatever. And they're like, yeah, this thing ain't narrow. Geez, they don't walk away. So it was freaking cheated up, right?

Oh, yeah. And it was good. One day is Bunko Day for me. The theme this week was Redneck America. Every month there's a theme, and this week it was redneck America, so it was perfect for the party barn, and everybody's dressed up in their flannels and their cutoffs. And I don't really have a lot of American flag or red, white, and blue clothing to, like, add a flare to my outfit. And so I add on some ripped jeans and a white tank top and an orange bra, because, like, it's kind of rednecky to, like, have your bra really stand out. Through your shirt.

I did some Googling. So, like, those are kind of standard image. as I saw. But before I left the house, I asked Dale to sign my boob so that I really had that extra like, umph to my outfit. Yeah. And he looks at me like, I can't wish you just asked me to do that. But I'm intrigued.

And so, like, I'm like, I know you've done this before. Yeah, that's not the first time. We've talked about it. Yeah. Just get a Sharpie right before I leave. And I want you to sign my cleavage. And so he was very excited about it. Signed it very large.

And then throughout the night. I ended up putting my flannel over because I just got embarrassed as to what I had done. You went there without, you were? I went. You kind of got cold feet. I kind of got chickened out.

I mean, everybody that I knew, they all saw it. But, you know, like, we're not partying hard. We're playing our game. And I don't need my boobs hanging out over the dice. You know what I mean? The girls don't care about that.

So I ended up with my flannel on and it got all over the inside of my shirt. But I know that you've signed some boobs before, which is why I ask. right yeah so um surely back in like the day of the race tracking there was a lot of the race tracking back when we were a race tracking back to when you're race tracking um yeah so uh my my um are you okay yeah yeah it's um yeah so which story can i tell her this this takes me back to so when you're when you're 15 16 17 all the way up to about 20 21 and I'm not sure what it's like in a in a

I don't know what it's like for women but man when you're so you're in you're in racing you're you're around your dad you're around his buddies and there's always sort of some hazing going on some they're always like they always like they always trying to throw you into situations that'll make you uncomfortable that they know will make you uncomfortable. I remember, I think for my 18th or 21st birthday, one of them too, they had a lady cop show up to the shop. Just like the Days of Thunder? At the Deerhead Shop, yes. So at the Deerhead Shop, which a lot of Earnhardt fans will know about the Deerhead Shop. So I was working. I was working in the deerhead shop and dressed in my had black work pants had a white

Dale and Hart Incorporated Dale Jr. shirt I mean I was all about it and and I was racing probably late models around this time I don't know I was young but it was my it was a it was a four it was an important birthday 21 18 something like that and they had a lady cop come in there and a lady cop yeah and put me put set me down in a church right in the middle of the floor in front of everybody. So that was one that was... You're sitting in a chair? They set me in a chair just like this.

And then what happened? She stripped. You said you signed tittyes. You didn't say she was stripping. No, no, that's not the titty story. I'm just setting up the titty story. Oh, gosh. That was...

That sounds like a Days of Thunder. It was. It was very Days of Thunder like. It was a setup. And it was really embarrassing. And all the guys, because they're laughing. Yeah. Right?

Because they seem, I'm turning red as crap. And the girl is okay with the clown show happening? She's not embarrassed herself? No, she's zen on it. She knows, she must know that, you know, this is going on. And she, I don't know, man, what she does. Did you get a picture with her? I have pictures of this event.

So yes. And I cannot freaking wait to see it at this inside. Not like me and her. Like, hey, let's grab a photo. I have a couple pictures of it happening, and they're terrible. They're like a little five by eight and they're kind of blurry. Yeah, but you'll be able to sit.

I mean, she didn't get naked. She just kind of had a little dance. But it was so embarrassing and awkward. And then, and so like Tony Sr. and dad's buddies, you know, they would kind of put you in these scenarios that were awkward like that. And we were racing somewhere. this was 97, 98, right at the front end of racing with Tony Senior and them guys. Yeah.

And there was a, there was a lady that was excited about meeting me or meeting and Earnhardt of, meeting and Earnhardt of any kind. He's being so careful. He's like, oh, God. And she asked for me, they want, they, I was in my hotel room and they knocked on my door. They were, it was, you know, six, seven o'clock in the evening, and they were all out coming back and forth from dinner or whatever. And there, there was race, you know, a race fan there or whatever lady. And she wanted, they were like, hey, it's knocking on door. Dale.

I opened door, and there's a lady standing there. She's older than me, but not a ton. And they're like, she wanted to meet you so bad. She's a big fan of yours. And she just pulled her shirt down and said, I want you to sign my. She just took her titty. out? Yes.

Not like signing your cleavage, like at the racetrack, tastefully in front of other people. And they laughed and she was laugh. You know, they all thought it was hilarious. What a hooker. Did she get them, did she get it tattooed on her boo?

I don't know. I mean, stuff like that's happened to. So that was, that was, I was, I felt, you know, it was awkward.

I bet it was. And, yeah, what do you do there? Yeah. What do you do? What do you do? Yeah.

And then what's the, end game there, right? You know, you sign it and you're like, okay, I'm going to close my door now. Goodbye. Yeah. Like, it was weird. And they laughed and they just thought it was hilarious. You know, look on my face and they knew I was feeling uncomfortable. I can hear them cackling. Yeah. And she was, you know, she was all about it. She thought it's hilarious. But the, have you signed any children? No. No, we did that. I think there was,

I think that was something that happened in Talladey nights during one of the things in shot. I know they always kind of exaggerated all the things. I sound some prosthetic limbs, so I was at Indianapolis and a guy walked up and asked me to sign his leg, and he pulled it off. And it had all kinds of,

it wasn't awkward till he pulled it off. Well, you could tell. He was, it was fine. He had all kinds of stickers and things on it. was a race fan, big, his prostate, maybe that was like his race leg,

you know, to more that on, wear that to the race track. That was his flare leg. Yeah. So, it was, I always like doing

that kind of stuff. I don't mind that. People do ask you and have asked me to sign skin. And there's not a pen that writes on skin well.

And sometimes it's some, you know, it's some kid that just has nothing else, and they're like, just sign my hand or whatever, you know. Yeah. And it's going to wash off and they know that and they don't care. Then there's other people that are like, sign it, I'm going to get it tattooed. Yeah. And I'm like, don't do this. Man, I don't think that's a great idea.

But if you really are going to do that, let's like, why don't I write it on a white piece of paper where it looks good, take it to your artist, have them do, put that, you know, because when I try to sign skin, it just, it just, it just, it just, it's. The last time it's not totally dry. There's a little sweat involved. But it just doesn't write good. It doesn't. It's like the worst. It's like some of my worst autographs. You looked pretty good on me the other day.

You did. Well, it's important for the surface to be firm and, and, no, I'm kidding. I think his time. That's my. Yeah. What did you say? Yeah. You're right.

Yeah, he did take it. You're right. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Instagram. Instagram, Facebook, X, and TikTok.