The Dale Jr. Download - Roval Redesign with AJ Allmendinger, and a Wild AskKenny Takeover

Episode Date: October 10, 2024

Will the Roval redesign lead to chaos? AJ Allmendinger gives his take and explains why he thinks practice won't guarantee perfection for NASCAR Cup Series drivers this weekend. Next, we introduce you to JR Motorsports’ newest late-model driver for 2025, Connor Hall – a rising star with big things ahead. But that’s not all – Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Track President stops by to explain why they decided to reconfigure the Roval and shares all the exciting events happening this weekend, with a focus on making fans the top priority. And for a special treat, we’ve got a wild edition of Ask Kenny featuring Kenny Wallace, who filled in for Dale Jr. while he celebrated his 50th birthday. Kenny offers first-date advice, recounts a memorable Daytona story, and much more! 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.

We're going to get your rovo ready on DJD reloaded, and we're going to do so with a driver that's pretty much made the course, his playground. We're talking with last year's Cup Series winner, AJ Almendinger, who's going to stop by us in studio to talk about all the changes coming to the track for drivers this weekend. We've also got track president, Greg Walter, stopping by to talk about all that the fans can look forward to at the Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway. And if you haven't heard the news, Connor Hall is going to be driving for JRM in their late model program in 2020. So we're going to look ahead to what this next year might look like for him. And you already know that we had the great, great Kenny Wallace filling in for Dale earlier this week as Dale is out celebrating the Big 50. Happy Birthday to Dale, by the way. But that also means we have a special segment of Ask Kenny to get to and a whole lot more.

Let's get to it. 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 Conor Zillit's 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 an Olympian at its, and it's pod. Welcome into another episode of DJD Reloaded. I'm your host, Carla Gepphard. And today we are talking about the Charlotte Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway. That's this weekend. NASCAR comes back home. And now I'm joined in studio by Guy.

If you are a fan of the Roval, then you know exactly why he's here. You've pretty much dominated this race. Doesn't matter if it's at the Xfinity level or the Cup Series level. Four wins, dating back to 2019 in the Xfinity. You didn't win last year because you didn't race in it. Do you think you would have won if you had raced in it? I'd like to think so, but I made up for that on Sunday. Sunday was a lot better.

That's right. So you got your Cup Series win last year. And now we're going back to the Roval. You're racing in both races this weekend. and how do you feel about it? Yeah, we're going to have a bit of a new challenge. I don't know if they change a racetrack because of me or what the reasoning is, but I think the new layout is going to be interesting.

I think it's going to cause a little bit of chaos at times. Green-white checkers could be insane going into the hairpin there in the final corner. So, yeah, it's, I think for all those reasons, just trying to get, I don't think the setups change a lot. You've got to kind of do a couple of different things. but at the end of the day it's still the rovel it's still kind of a racetrack that'll use up the rear tires and you've got to be patient with that of how you use your tires

so you know it's strange the Xfinity side of it this year I've just been for whatever reason slow in the road courses or slower than I'd like to be let's put it that way I haven't definitely contended for the wins so probably at least confident I've been going into a roval on the Xfinity side of it but that doesn't mean we can't show up there and be fast and go do the same thing. And on the cup side of it, I feel like we've had really good pace.

So I'm looking forward to Sunday. I heard you say that earlier this week that you felt maybe a little less confident there, but you do feel more confident in the cup race? I mean, strangely, like, believe me, neither of them are going to be easy to win. But if I had to choose one of the other, I would probably choose the cup race over the Xfinity race of what I'm more confident in. But, yeah, it's just on the Xfinity side of it. I've just struggled trying to get the car from being so loose.

We'll talk more about the changes, but what about this track has kind of suited your style over the last couple of years? I don't know. I just, from the moment we got on it, I just kind of really enjoyed it. There's not anything specific like this is the reason, but I've just really flowed with the racetrack. I think we've been in every different condition possible there on the Xfinity side of. We've been in hot, been in basically hurricane-like. of rain. So we've

kind of experienced everything. I just love the racetrack and it's a lot of fun. You know, you got to kind of bounce the oval portion of it out with the infield portion. I think we've done a good job of that

and just, you know, some things at times when we haven't been the fastest have fallen the right way, I stole a couple of those wins. But yeah, I just truly enjoy the racetrack. So the reconfiguration, the biggest changes, obviously,

we've talked about, a lot of people have talked about in the industry all week, of turn six and seven, some minor ones in 15 and 16. Is this going to be a lot different than what it was before? I think restarts and the end of the race will be a little bit different for sure because just even start with the back chican, the final chican, we would flow so much speed in there that you had to be kind of right on somebody to get to them.

You know, for instance, last year, I think I came out of the back chican. I was probably three to four car lengths ahead of William Byron, and never even checked my mirror. Just said, okay, as long as I don't overshoot this corner, I'm going to win this race. Now with how tight it is, there's kind of the opening to sail it down in there and move somebody. So that will be different. And then for sure, the hairpin on restarts and at the end of the race, kind of it's a corner that just lends itself to bonsai. Right. So if you're the guy in front, it's going to be difficult because you're going to have to defend.

But if you defend, I mean, it's a tight corner. So it leads on to the straightaway. And you're going to kind of lend yourself to have to be defensive there. But if you leave the door open, somebody's going to come flying down the inside. So I do think it changes. I don't think it changes like the middle of the race when everybody stretches out. But restarts and at the end of the race, it's going to change it a lot. You mentioned dive bombing. And I don't mean to put you on the spot. But if you're thinking about your competitors in the field, maybe in the Cup series, Like what driver are we concerned with and just kind of going for it and not really caring who's around?

Well, I mean, I think it comes down to trying to understand what everybody's racing for. So if you know that somebody's on the cut line or somebody that's in the playoffs has to win the race, you know that, and we've seen it, that kind of anything goes. So they're going to take the chance to have to do it because that's their playoffs. That's their next round. That's their championship. So I always try to be smart and understand, especially on the cup side of the Xfinity side of it, we're kind of in that.

I mean, we're in the playoffs right now, but it's easily with guys like SVG, Sam Mayer won the race last year. They're outside of it. We know that they can come steal a spot. So we have to kind of race through the stages of trying to get stage points, but figuring out, do we have enough speed to win? And then we have to kind of figure out, okay, if we do have enough speed to win, do you give up the second stage? because I don't think you're going to see somebody come from 10th or 12th in the final stage and come win the race unless just full-blown chaos ensues.

But on the cup side of it, I try to figure out basically, okay, who's racing for what, and what does that mean for me and who do I have to be really defensive with? Or if somebody's going to make the playoffs and they know they're going for the win, but they don't want to take the chance, you know you can be probably a little bit more aggressive. What's the consensus in maybe both garages? Do the drivers like the change? Do they wish that it wasn't happening this year? I honestly haven't talked to anybody about it. There was a point during the year that my crew guys had to tell me it was changed. I hadn't even paid attention.

I was like, wait. I feel like there's a lot of drivers that don't pay attention to that. What are you talking about? I guess I wasn't keeping updated. So I don't, I think we're all going to, it's, it's, it's, really comes down whether you like the section that used to be there. So that's the worst part of it for me. The section that they took it out was just the most fun to me.

So that was a section that I truly enjoyed. I thought I was pretty good at. If you didn't enjoy it, then you probably love the change. Practice is going to be really important, and there's going to be some extra sessions of practice for both Xfinity and the Cub. I mean, how do you prepare for this? You haven't had on track time here with the changes. I mean, this is going to be pretty important.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, nowadays, with all the technology, we have simulation. We've all been on it trying to figure it out. Now, in real life, it is different, especially when it's to repave, because as close as them, you know, scanning the racetrack can be, it's still different in the grip levels of what it is. You know, the rest of the racetrack, we'll go, okay, on sim, like, okay, this is too much grip, not enough grip, but in this section, what we've been basically simulating, you have no idea if it's real. So practice is going to be really important. But the toughest thing with the roval that I've always thought, especially, I think Xfinity especially, we practice at 10 a.m. By 4 o'clock, the track is so different between a lot of rubber being on the racetrack, the sun beating on it. It's not going to be overly hot, but still at 10 in the morning, it's going to be about 60 degrees out.

Track has a lot of grip. So what you end practice and qualifying with will be a lot different when you go into the race. So I think practice is important, but also kind of on the Xfinity side of it, falling back on your notes and knowing what the track's going to do. So outside of that and outside of the track changes, what's another challenge of the Roval that when fans are watching, they might not realize as a challenge for drivers? Yeah, I think what we have to do for the,

not so much NASCAR 1 and 2 Oval, because especially now we're going to come on it with a lot of just no speed compared to it. Even what we used to do, we'd come, you know, flowing a good second speed gear through there and you get on the banking, but it wouldn't really mess with the car. You still have to set your car up for NASCAR 3 and 4 because you're flowing a lot of speed through there. I mean, we're in 4th and 5th gear when it comes to the Xfinity and the cup cars. So the cars move around a lot. It's a challenge, especially with the cup car, because if it starts bouncing off the stops, you try to run the car still low, but it starts bottoming.

out. I mean, it can really affect the car. So, yeah, I mean, that's, that's probably a difficult area of the race car that maybe fans don't really necessarily understand that we have to set up for that corner still. You said that all the drivers are, you know, partaking in simulation to kind get ready for this. For you personally, though, do you rely more on past data or just your experience when going into this one? Yeah, I really just try to rely on experience. You know, simulation right now is very interesting in the fact that, you know, some weekends you can run it and you unload the race car and it's exactly the same. He thought, okay, this is perfect. And then there's certain weekends you unload what you've done from simulation and it is completely off.

And there's no rhyme or reason, unfortunately. We don't really know. There's so much that goes into it with tire coating and grip levels of the racetrack and aerodynamics and things like that. You can't fully rely on simulation, but it helps. But in a situation like this, at a track that I've been very comfortable at, you just watch old races, make sure, okay, little stuff.

There was something that I went and did simulation. Then I thought, man, that's not right. I went back and watched my end car. I thought, okay, that's what was different about it. So just really try to rely on my experience. Whether that's good or badder. I'm not really sure sometimes. I mean, I think it's probably a good thing.

You have a pretty busy Saturday ahead. I mean, just like break down exactly what you're going to be doing Saturday. Oh, I'm going to be, I've been trying to sleep a lot up until then, yeah, because... Sleep all day Thursday? Sleep all day. You know, you're ruining my sleep right now. I could have been sleeping. Sorry.

No. Yeah, so, I mean, basically, pretty simple, from about 915 on until checker flag falls on the Xfinity race. I'm either inside a race car, standing by a race car, or getting ready to, you know, change suit. to go to the next race car, there's not a moment of any pausing, really. So it's fun doing double duty, but the Saturdays are hectic, especially this weekend because there's literally no time in between things. So yeah, just hope it's going well.

So you're smiling as it's happening. That's right. And don't get your sponsors mixed up. Yeah. Well, that's why, you know, we have Skylar sitting off camera. That's her job. That's her. She's an amazing job.

Bob at it of like, hey, no, switch suits. Okay, no, this is what's on the car right now. I'm like, okay, all right. Yeah, keep your head straight. You get as old as I do. You start forgetting things pretty easy. For sure. Well, we appreciate you stopping by and good luck in both races this weekend.

I really hope to talk to you again during the weekend. Yeah. That would be good. That means you won. We told you at the top of the show that Connor Hall is joining Junior Motorsports in 2025 in their late model program. We now have Connor joining us right now. You said you're currently in Virginia.

or you're driving back right now? Yeah, so I live in Hampton and we're racing in Tract County this weekend with the car store. So it's a nice six and a half hour drive. So we're going to knock it all out today so I can be there ready to test tomorrow. Nice. And a big announcement this week, like we mentioned, what does this opportunity mean for you to be joining forces with junior motorsports next season? For me personally, I think it's just a lot of hard work kind of paying off.

and, you know, every kid on the planet that, you know, races, go-carts or whatnot, obviously one day dreams of getting an opportunity to race for an organization like junior mirror sports. So for me, it's just kind of that, like it's maybe finally starting to happen a little bit, moment. But other than that, I just want to use it as the biggest learning opportunity I can and, you know, go in and work with Brian and slim in the shop and just become the best race car driver that I can be.

And you've already had quite a bit of success in late models as well. What do you think the biggest challenge is going to be in that transition for you? Hopefully there isn't a big challenge. I would like to at least with personalities and all, hopefully it will be pretty seamless. But I think the biggest thing for me will just be, it's obviously it's a new everything. I think the only thing that will be the same is really my spotter. But at the end of the day, I feel like I've done it long enough to where, It's still kind of a late mall stock car.

It's just I need to understand how the guys on the team work and how, you know, they function as a program and just trying to fit into that as seamlessly as possible. You had kind of said earlier in this week that junior motorsports was one of the best late model programs in the country. What is it about JRN that made you say that? I mean, one, the name is just synonymous to, like, huge success in the late model business.

But two, I just, I feel really, really good about the people. pairing with me and Brian Schaefer, the crew chief. I just think that, you know, obviously he's won every, probably every major late model race known to man in the last five years. So to be able to work with a veteran like him and just be a part of something as big as junior mirror sports, I think is what makes it such a big deal to me. You are following in the footsteps of Carson Quappell, who's now moving up into the Xfinity series. You're kind of taken over for him. just kind of sitting back and looking at his path and now the fact that he's moving up,

does this transition for you make you think about the future and what could be in a couple of years? I mean, as a wishful thinker, sure, I think that everybody wants to make into the next step, but I think everybody is also so guilty of always living for the next moment and not living in the moment. So one thing that I want to really focus on this upcoming years, I just want to win as many races as possible. I want to work as hard as possible and just really try to like find a home within junior motorsports. And if they think I'm worthy of an opportunity that presents itself in the future, I'm going to 100% go for it. But I told Dale and Kelly and LW that the goal of me wanting to join junior motorsports wasn't to exploit the fact that they have a direct path to the Xfinity series for. someone like myself.

And just mainly just to use the opportunity. Like I said, I want to be better every race track we go to. I want to understand the car is better. I want to be a better athlete outside of the race car. And I think just being a part of the Chevrolet program and the Junior Miser Sports Group is going to really help that. Have you gotten any advice in this transition that you're kind of taking with you to the next level right now from anybody?

I've talked to Josh a little bit about it. But that was mainly just I had a couple of questions about like how they do certain things and whatnot. I would say right now it's still pretty green. I haven't, you know, it hasn't really like sunk in, I guess, to where people are really starting to like, hey, this is something you should probably do or whatnot. But I think the number one thing that was like taught to me was when I got my first truck start this year, they said it's still got four tires. At the end of the day, it's still a race car.

Like, everybody's going to tell you to do 100 different things. Just kind of live by your instinct and go from there. So like I said, I feel pretty good about the race car driving part of it. I just want to make sure that, you know, being a cohesive unit and a productive member of Junior Motorsports part works out too. Yeah, sounds like some solid advice. We'll let you get back to it and get back on your trip. But we appreciate you joining us today.

Thanks for having me. appreciate Connor again for joining us on Thursday for DJD Reloaded. Up next, we're heading back to the Roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway to sit down with the track president Greg Walter. He'll join us next. Well, he is the man in charge of one of the most iconic tracks on the NASCAR circuit. We are joined now by Charlotte Motor Speedway President Greg Walter. Greg, it's Thursday. I know it's busy because we've got fans filing into CMS probably as we speak right now, getting ready for the big weekend.

that is the Roval, an elimination race for the NASCAR Cup series and the Xfinity series. But I guess I just will start off with how's it going? And are you excited about the weekend? Incredibly excited about the weekend. The weather looks amazing. There's a lot of talk about the new track configuration. I would be remiss if I didn't talk about our friends and neighbors up in the mountains who are suffering right now. We have a lot of fans in the Greenville-Spartenburg, Asheville Market.

So they are on our hearts and minds, and we're sending a lot of relief up that way. But it is race weekend. And so we got folks from all 50 states and 14 different countries coming out here. So it should be a great show. A lot of anticipation about this new track configuration. Yeah, you mentioned that. And I think a lot of people within the industry have been talking about this. We had A.J. Almendinger in here earlier talking from a driver perspective of what this is going to mean.

But I guess from your perspective, why did we make this change? Why was it important for y'all to do that? Well, you know, we have this culture here of being constructively discontent, right? How do you go from good to great, great to remarkable? And, you know, after a while, you know, what we know about our athletes in the sport is that they're adaptive. Every time, every week, they make changes to try to be better to define that other half second of improvement in speed. So they started to figure out the roble. That first year, when it was an unknown, you saw the action out here, some of the iconic fans.

finish all the drama that was going on. So it was time to move to cheese again. And, you know, the only person that likes change is a baby with a wet diaper. So a lot of drama, a lot of confusion. But, you know, it's funny. We've seen some of the drivers out here come out here to take a walk. Oh, I'm just out here taking a walk around the course, but they're all down there at turn seven to see how that's going to impact them.

So it's fun, right? But at the end, it's about the fans and putting on a good show for the fans. And so if we move the track around, the intention is, that it creates a better show. There may be a lot of hand-wringing and people being anxiety-filled about it, but our heart is to put on a good show for the fans. And the fans are going to get a front-row seat to the changes in turn seven. I mean, is that going to be the most entertaining turn of the race, you think? Yeah, but let's not forget that, that front stretch to cane. So, you know, when Marcus put that in, that was designed to be like a baseball metaphor, you know, bottom of the

ninth basis load to two outs. And so we've seen some iconic passes there. But what we realize that the drivers have figured out, it feels like a snow slalom. Like you come in downhill skiing. So pushing out that apex point, it is a harder left-hand turn and then a harder right turn back. And in road courses, breaking zones equal passing zones. And hopefully what we've done is create two new passing zones. Yeah, that'll be exciting for fans and them kind of partaking and watching this race. But Charlotte Motor Speedway is also known for their fan experience. And so we would not want to let you go today without talking about some of the things that fans can experience at the track this weekend and some possible, some new things that maybe hasn't been around. So Friday's always, we wanted to go old school, right?

Fall feels like a homecoming. And so we've got the old-fashioned hauler parade out here where we have the haulers coming through as the head into the infield to set up. We've got music playing. We've asked the truck drivers, you know, what their favorite, like, rollout song is. We got fireworks after that. Joe Gibbs Racing has got a fan fest going on in the afternoon. And even that morning, we have a STEAM program. So we have area, you know, elementary and junior high kids out here learning about racing and all the science that goes into it.

Saturday, we've got historic stock car racing going on here. That's the first time they've ever been out here so you can see some of those old school cars out here racing. And then Saturday night after the Xfinity race, we're going to have a good all-fashioned throwdown in the infield with a camper party. And so, yeah, it's going to be a great time. It's very relaxed. You know, it's about having an environment where people are just having fun.

And that's what we want to do. And then Sunday, we got Eli Young Band, Tim Dugger, who's always a fan favorite on the grass. It should be a great time out here. Is there one thing that you personally are excited for fans to experience? Wow, that's like trying to pick a favorite child. You know, I really, this turns seven, we have worked really hard on getting it right, the angle, the how wide it is, where the rumble pads go. I'm hoping that delivers for the fans what we hope it will that is going to create some iconic passes, some of those video moments that we come back to year after year because they're just so incredible.

So that's our hope. It is that the new configuration delivers what we hope it does. Well, we're certainly looking forward to it. And I know a lot of fans will be out of the track. I'll be out there as well. We appreciate you joining us, Greg, and we'll see you this weekend. Love the hat. My gosh, a visit for sale out here.

You were the first to get one, so I'm glad you're wearing it. I feel very special. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks so much. I look forward to seeing out here. We're going to head to break. But when we come back, it is one of your favorite segments of the week.

This one has a little bit of a twist. We're sitting down with Kenny Wallace, the great Kenny Wallace, for Ask Kenny. That's next. All right, Kenny, this is a segment. Normally, we do it with Dale every week. It's called Ash Jr., but obviously we got to change it up because there's someone new sitting in this chair right here. So it's time for Ask Kenny. Okay.

We got some questions for you. Should we start with this first bullet point? I think we should. This is a good one. So this was one of our favorite questions we asked Dale. I think it was last year in the download. Best first date advice. Wow. I know this is going to sound crazy. Make sure you brush your teeth and your breath smells really great.

Okay. It's a mouthwash. Make sure you got. Buy her a toothbrush. Great hygiene. Start out right. Pay for everything. Don't do this new thing whereby separates. I'm old school. Pay for everything and compliment her. You look, Nice. Pay the bill. You know, just be right. You know, also you got to read her too. Some of these girls like bad boys. Mm-hmm.

You know, but that's my advice. And what is it, like dinner or an activity or? Stay with what you can afford. Be you. Don't set a precedent that you can't keep up. Like, I think I took my girl to Ponderosa. You know? The chocolate fountain, you know.

Like, honey, we middle class. I love you. You know, you look nice. Give her a nice little kiss. No tongue. Not right away. Not on the first day. That's a second date activity.

Right. All right. Hit us with the next one, Donald. All right, Kenny. We also asked Dale one of these, and it sparked a insane conversation. But what is your phone background? Oh. Well, I'm going to look good on this one.

How do I find my picture? How do I do that? Because my phone background, it's hard to see. Hold on, no, let me do this. There it is. That's my phone background. Oh, there you go. That is my last NASCAR race in 2015 at Iowa.

And look how much my wife loves me. I was like, baby, this is it. This is the last time I'm getting into a NASCAR race car. And she looks so good. She had her hair. My middle daughter, Brandy, is cosmetologist. And she had her hair up in a really neat ponytail. So yeah, that's my phone background.

It's a beautiful picture. That's really cool. That's awesome. Is that the phone for your lock screen too? Like it's the same background? Yeah, my stuff's all the same. I don't even know how to change it. Everybody goes, man, you're really good on social media.

I'm like, no, I'm not. All I know how to do. Oh, man. Well, I've got one. And on the heels of Talladega, you were a major role in the 1998, 1997, Dale Earnhardt pass coming from the back. You pushed him. 2000. 2000.

I'm sorry, yes. You know, that great race that we all remember. What do you remember from that? Well, just take us through it. Yeah. I remember Jimmy Ellage was my crew chief. I remember he called for two tires and the pit stop went really bad

and he said, damn it, just give me four tires and I had it up in first gear and when I pulled off pit road I thought I'm the last car on pit road. I looked in my mirror and I seen Dale Senior with those big old bubble goggles and I keyed the button right way. I said, what is Senior?

What's he doing behind me? They said, oh, he had a bad pit stop too. 10 laps to go. And I remember my car was fast. That was, you know, when I drove for Andy Petrie, they had fast cars. I was Kenny Schrader's teammate. And man, I got halfway through the field. I was slicing and icing on my own.

And I got picked going into turn one. Senior gets by me. And, of course, you all seen this, one of the most famous pieces of footage. You know, the man in black was wearing white gloves that day. He put that big old Paul up there, and he's like, help me, Herman, help me. I'm like, no problem. And at Millis second, I'm thinking, Dale Sr. gave me my very first NASCAR ride. I drove the number eight, GM Goodrich Chevrolet at Martinsville.

And I'm thinking, I'm going to pay him back. But I didn't think we'd win. and we went through the Trival, and we came up on John Andretti in the 43 Richard Petty car. And John Andretti's car just floated. It like went out of the way. Later on, I asked Senior, I said, how did we get by him? And Senior shrugged his shoulders. He goes, you know, you're automatically loose when you go through the Trival at Teledega.

You're turning left. You got to turn left. And I guess we just made John Andretti loose. And that was it. It opened the door up. And what I remember is the white flag in the air. I remember Junior and Skinner going at it on the bottom lane. Junior about wrecking.

And at that very moment, that was the moment I had to run. And I'm like, I'm going to pass him. I'm going to go for it. And I don't know. I have never really roughed myself up over it. But I looked in the mirror and I'm like, who is that behind me? I don't recognize that car right behind me,

and I'm thinking they won't go with me. And I'll be the idiot. I'll be the first driver to pull out and try to pass Dale Senior, and nobody will go with me, and I'll finish 30th. When the race was over, I realized it was my own teammate.

Joe Nemichick with a new paint job, and I didn't reckon. It was usually blue and white, Oakwood mobile home. And he had a Jack Daniels' paint scheme on. So we go on down, the back straight away and a senior starts that moving and uh i tried to follow him later on senior sat me down and he said next time that happens i'm going to give you senior so i'm going to

give you senior i'm going to tell you what to do don't try to follow me because i thought my god he's so damn smart and it was nice him to tell me next time that happens don't zigzag with me just stay straight. And we come around and, you know, and listen, I'll admit it. Jokingly, it was the most famous second place finish in history. Jokingly, but sadly, I'll take it. And I'll brag on it for the rest of my life. And here's why. That was the last win of his life. You know, people still taught me a little bit to this day. They want to, they want to shame me. Oh, you know, Anybody could have done that. You was on seniors' coattails. So

you know, it's like Junior says, anything you do with an Earnhardt, fans are going to jump your ass that you're on their coattails. I couldn't help it. I was running second. And that's where we were. But what made it incredible is we came from it was dead last. I don't

want to hear it was 17th. There was nobody behind us. People are like, you came from 18th. I'm like, look, pal, there was nobody behind us. I call that last. So we came from last, you know, and obviously, you know, I got halfway through there. And then when senior went like that, I'm like, you got it. That was my take. That's beautiful. Man, gosh, really cool. That's awesome. Hearing your perspective on that. Let's see. Do you remember who won

your first race, your first cup race? I do, I think. Okay. Hold on. It was that, do you want to hit where it was? I know where it was. It was Wilkesboro. Yeah. Davey Allison wrecked me by mistake. I don't know who won that rate. Oh, hold on. Yes, I do. Brett Bodine. Brett Bodine. Wow. Yep. The only reason I know it is because once again, I'm controversial. I think I brought out the caution that created all the confusion. No, Davey Allison hit me in the ass. Not my fault, Bub. You know, whenever you want to be a smart ass, you say Bub or Powell. Bub? That really, yeah, that really irks me. Yeah, there you go.

Todd Gordon, I made him his first crew chief job too. And he kept calling me Bub, and I said, you call me Bub one more time. Quit calling me Bub. But come to find out, Bub is like, I guess it's okay. It's an okay thing. It's like, you don't know my name? I'm Kenny. Exactly, right, yeah.

I'm Kenny, not Bub. Sport. Hey, sport! Yeah, like you're a child. Do you remember where you finished? I don't. I know I wrecked like hell. 26. Damn it.

I was running good in that race. Running really good. And Davey claims his brakes went out, which I'm sure they did. I mean, he piled drive me because, you know, Wilkesboro, you're going downhill into one. I mean, I was spun out and didn't know it. I was like, what a way to start. What is the most cherished item of memorabilia you have. from your career.

Wow. That's deep. Deep cuts here. I have a lot. But they say go with your first instinct. It's just a simple everyday trophy from my very first Xfinity win at Volusia. Volusia is very sentimental to me.

It was my first win, and I remember in Victor Lane, looking at my wife and giving her hug, and I said, I said, it's finally over. because I was so worried that I would not win. And I won in my third year at Volusia when it was asphalt. And then years later, I went back there. And I'm like, they did what with Volusia?

They put dirt on it. And I won my very first time back on dirt. That's awesome. So, you know, I'm listening. I got a lot of really cool stuff. But just, I mean, they always say go with your first instinct. And it's just a trophy. Nothing special to it.

But it was a big deal for me. It's amazing. Last question here. Is there any race that you lost that you've replayed in your mind that you know you could have won? Oh, God. All day long. It was, there's two of them. I'm going to go with the cup race first.

Okay, we're at Loudon. Jimmy Lodge is my crew chief. Or no, maybe it wasn't Jimmy. Maybe it was Newt Moore. I can't remember. It was a gas mileage race. and here I come. I'm going to win this race.

And if you look at it, I finish second to Jeff Burton. And I lost by 50 yards. But what happened, I was going to the inside of Mike Skinner to pass him. And he chopped me, whether he meant to or not. And he chopped me so bad at that time, the apron was the apron. And I get down on the apron, and I'm, and I'm, I'm getting ready to spin out, and I bang into his door, and we go all the way to the wall. And the caution never flow, which is shouldn't have, and I lost that cup race by maybe 25 yards, 20 yards to Jeff Burton.

That one right there. Because, see, I never won a cup race. You know, it bothers me. You know, and I had three second place finishes, you know, run second. You know, when Steve Park got hurt, we jumped in. the Penzoa car, set quick time in the Penzoa car and Joe Nemechek, once again, Andy Petrie, they short pit. They win the race here. I'm coming, but I run second. And then the third one is, would have been my first Bush Grand National win at Nashville Fairgrounds. I almost put the

field down a lap. That's how good I was. In 89, 1989, my first year. I mean, we are. We're doing it. Come in for the pit stop and the jackman dropped it off the jack. And I run third. That's tough. When you know you had the car. Oh.

And listen, sometimes I condemn myself hoping it makes people feel better. I never want a cup race. But I should have. I'm not sour about it. But damn it. You know, damn it, man.

You know, that Penzo deal, that pens, see, every time, what was there saying? They called me Super Sub for you kids. My nickname was the Super Sub. Never good enough to get the big ride, but every time one of those guys got hurt, I kicked ass. When Ernie Irving got hurt, you know, fifth at, Fifth at Martinsville or whatever, you know, when Steve Park got hurt, quick time. I mean, it was really a strange phenomenon. where every time somebody got hurt, I hauled ass in their car. That inevitable.

That is the real reason my career went to 905 NASCAR races because I showed up. It was sad. You know, I'm embarrassed, but when they got hurt, I hauled ass in their car. You know, Dale Jr.'s not hurt, but you have been the Super Sub this week on Ask Kenny, and I will say you kicked ass. I had a lot of practice that being nervous. You know what I mean? And I came through for me.

I still think I can do way better, but I did all I could do. Well, I just can't have to see what the new show. Kenny and Kenny, maybe. That's straight, but maybe. We'll be waiting for the fans. Maybe's in the time. Mike Davis and his team and Dale Jr. Dale Jr., he's a great artist.

So, you know, Dale Jr. is famous for all the designs, designing cars. And Mike Davis, you know, you guys got actions, detrimental, you know, the tear down, all that. So I'm interested to see what you all come up with. Wow. What a segment from Kenny Wallace himself, some great but hilarious first dating advice. And just a big thank you to Kenny Wallace for filling in for Dale earlier this week. We look forward to all that he's going to bring to Dirty Moe and a little later. And happy birthday to the boss man himself, Dale Jr. Half a century of greatness today and a lot of people out there want to wish you well.

Hey, Dirty Mo fans, I don't know if you've heard or not, but we've got some exciting news coming your way. Two legends of the NASCAR garage. Ken Schrader and Kenny Wallace are teaming up for a brand new podcast right here at Dirty Mo Media. And we kind of need your help. The two have more stories than you can count. And of course, their unique personalities are guaranteed to bring some big laughs. But there's only one problem. They need a name for the show. So what do you think it should be called? We want you to drop your best ideas in the comments, tweet us, hit us up on social media. And who knows? your idea might be the one they go with. Well, that's going to do it for us on DJD Reloaded this week. Again, I'm your host, Carla Gebhard. And as always, we appreciate you for listening.

See you back here next week. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.