The Dale Jr. Download - To Punch Or Not To Punch ... That Is The Question

Episode Date: March 20, 2026

We managed to jam-pack this episode of the Dirty Thirty with highlights from SIX of Dirty Mo Media's shows this week. Our hosts need to stop making it so hard to pick with these banger moments — this show is only thirty minutes, guys! First up, Denny Hamlin predicts where his final win total lands and talks about what it meant to have his family in Las Vegas for victory number 61. A day later and possibly a dollar shorter from an extra night on the strip, we hear from the fans of Door Bumper Clear in Reaction Theatre, where Wood Brothers Racing President Jon Wood shares what he would personally do to will Josh Berry into some better finishes. After that, legendary wrestler Magnum T.A. describes the circumstances surrounding the car wreck that almost took his life, and still affects him to this day. In Dirty Air this week, Dale Jr. reacts to the news that Carson Hocevar will run a throwback scheme of his dad's — and it just so happens to be Jr.'s favorite paint scheme of the Intimidator's. Speaking of favorites, our favorite power couple came back from spring break, so you know Dale & Amy have tons to discuss about skiing, falling, and laughing all the way. Lastly, Jeff Gluck interviewed Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to get some insight on what goes into (and comes out of) throwing a punch, after Daniel Suarez & Ross Chastain almost got physical on pit road last weekend. Now that's a show if you ask us! Enjoy the show and tune in next time to hear the very best from what Dirty Mo Media has to offer. 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. This episode of The Dirty 30 is presented by Arby's new Meat and Three Box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meets.

Hey guys, welcome to Action is Determental after Las Vegas. We've been on this train of Get to 60 wins. for a few years. Now you're at 61. You kind of know where the checker flag is on your career. Right. I thought that realistically it was, I think I'm,

I don't know, I think I'm going to fall in 67. That's where I think it ends more than likely. If it, you know, go in the next year, more than likely is 67. Maybe that's just,

you know, by the numbers. That's not any, oh, feel this, I feel that. That's just where the numbers land averaging what I average. Three or four wins a year. Yeah.

What did the embrace with your mom mean? Yeah, that was great. I mean, she went to Daytona. I don't know about any others. I can't remember. Really can't remember. She did go to Atlanta. But, you know, none of my family,

mom, dad, you know, fiance and kids. None of them were at the 60th. West Coast races, it's really hard with the kids because you got school and stuff the next day. It's just impossible.

And my typical rule of thumb, if I can't get them home by 7, 8 o'clock on a Sunday, you know, they're not going to go to the race because I just got to get up, got to go to school. the next day. So, you know, while it's cool to be able to FaceTime them, like we probably did in Victory

Lane at Vegas in the fall, it's just nothing beats when they're actually there because they get to, they get to create that memory. They're not going to remember watching 60 on TV because I can assure you, three minutes later they were probably gone and doing something else. You know what I mean? The memory was them riding in the car and Molly picking up the confetti in Victory Lane and throwing it. Like that's where the memories kind of get made is when you're in that moment.

So it was really fun that I had everyone there for this latest. Yeah. And that hasn't happened ever? I don't remember. That's a good point. I don't know that I've ever not, I have, but I can't remember the last time of. we had everyone there at the same time right see they're my mom it's my mom it's my mom travels as much as jordan does but not always the same weeks right but i also mean taylor molly have

never ridden in the car to taylor has they have once before yep oh that's yep that's why in the group text i said in the group text i put i said we just passed tech we're good yeah and that's what I said in post-race media says Taylor's got to enjoy this and the one time she did they took the trophy from me five hours later like that was bull-h-h-you didn't think like Taylor I can't have you get in this car I know I just you know especially Molly she hadn't got to do it before but it was so cool because like I didn't I didn't tell Molly to hold that flag out like she just she just naturally did it so it was very cool I love their reaction They got in.

When they got in, they were like, oh, my God, it's hot in here. Like, damn right it is. Hey, what's up, everybody? Welcome back to door bumper clear. It's time for reaction theater where fans can call in and voice their opinions from this weekend's race. Hey, I saw Freddy doing a video the other day or promo or something. And he didn't have his hat on.

And I thought, my God, I thought Wolfman Jack was dead. But then I got to look into that full head of hair. And I thought, my God, I was. wish I had that hair. I had that much hair and that beautiful head of hair. I'd be getting more ass and a toilet seat. Somehow I knew that was coming. You kind of like broke the internet with that photo of you.

I mean, I don't know what the problem is. It looks like the baby Grinch. Tell them why. So my dad had a superstition when I was growing up that every year on opening night, you had to have a fresh haircut and a new pair of sneakers. That was their superstition. Whatever it was, him and Tommy Ryan had the same. same thing every year. So I never seen Tommy clean.

So, um, this, every, right before we leave for Daytona, every year, I always go get a haircut the day before. And that's like been my good luck charm. And we've always run fairly well, never won. So it's obviously not that good luck charm. But, uh, so this year, uh, couldn't go. The girl canceled the day before, whatever. So I was like, oh, no. Um, I'm not going to get a haircut before Daytona. And then my what lovely wife, Megan knows how superstitious I am. She's like, well, what are you going to do if you guys run well? You know, like you're going to have to keep, not be able to cut your hair. And I was like, well, that's not, yeah, whatever, it's fine.

So here we are six weeks later and I'm second points. And now I'm not going to be able to cut my hair for a while, apparently. So hopefully, I mean, hopefully I don't cut it for the next, I don't know, six months. We'll see what that looks like. That would be great. I would imagine. I'm waiting for, I think I'm, I've decided, I think, like, if we don't have a top 10 points day is where I'm going to draw the line. And so hopefully we keep it up.

Top 10 every race so far. We finished 11th at Coda, but we had stage points. It was like we were like 7th or 8th and points that day. So you're going to count that one. Top 10 points. If we're in the top 10 points. Did you get new shoes? I get new shoes all the time.

The company I work for has a pretty good shoe. That guy's got, yeah. I think guys got sneakers. So a haircut is the secret. Oh, here we go. That's how we have. John's going to leave here and shake. When we go to these meetings, the analytics meeting

I'd shave my legs to not be where I'm at right now. Everybody heard that, right? Let's see a video that. Absolutely. You're shaving your leg. Top 10 this week. Don't shave his legs. You heard her here first.

When we go to these analytics meeting, they're talking about all these numbers. I'm just rubbing my hair. I'm like, guys, I don't know if you know this is where it's at. You can talk about whatever you want. As long as I don't cut this, we're going to run good this week. All right, Austin Powers. We've won a Riley race and you start putting people into the corner like your Dr. Evil or

Salton. Should you be penalized for that? Yeah, baby, yeah! He's talking about Sheldon Creed. Calling him Austin Powers. Are these real calls? Yeah. Yeah. That's Dawson. You guys got quite the production. I don't know.

Yeah, I did see. I didn't know what led up to that. Like if it had happened multiple times in the race, it looked like a little bit of overkill to me. I don't know if you saw it, but the 54th or a little bit of a block and Sheldon kind of just went in there and wiped them out. I don't know that that was necessary, but again, I don't know if it happened five, even if it happened five times in the race. Like, I still don't think you need to wreck the guy to get your point across, but whatever. I don't, you know, maybe he didn't mean to do it.

I don't know. Maybe he probably hates that it happened like everybody else does, but. I hate that that happened. Yeah! You say sex, you say sex. What do you say? Chase sex was. F you, he said.

Yeah. He must be happy. Chase for the second. Oh, Denny beat him. Oh, no, wait. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He mad that Denny won, so he's talking to the Chase sexual. Oh, okay.

I think I, I think I pieced it together now. Can you play that again? Sure thing. I didn't hear what he said the first time. Yeah! You shaked sexual. You! Yeah, he's a Denny fan.

Yeah, yeah. You know what a Chase sexual is? I don't. It's a Chase Elliott fan on Dope Clear, apparently. They've named themselves over here, so it's a, that's a, Like you said, our crowd is a little different. I mean, I'm talking about shaving my legs. Yeah, yeah.

Not one to judge. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You've been here an hour and now look at you. Here we go. Yeah, we're about 34 bushlights deep. And we're just wondering about the race, you know. I would say hung money has stepped on his pecker for the third race in a row. And what would you say about Denny Hamless?

I think, I think Denny Hamless, he had a good race. you know but you know I wish you a little Kyle wants to have a little good race after yesterday but you know it's okay that is what reaction theater is for that's reaction theater right there getting hammered drinking 34 bushelights did they know then he even won but that sounds like a mid race that was a midrace call i think we've went right after speed had we got a great guest coming in stepping outside of the racing industry for a minute Terry Wayne allen also known as magnum t a Talk about the accident. 1986, October.

You're on your way home from a match. Do you remember that day? October 14th. I was coming about, I wrestled Jimmy Garvin in a lumberjack match in Greenville, South Carolina. And Dick Murdoch rode back with me when I had a 9-11 turbo Porsche. It was my dream car from when I was a kid. I'd bought it. I'd had it about four or five months.

And it was pouring down rain. and it was just horrible out and we get all the way back to Charlotte and we stopped at the Beniggins was like the watering hole where we all hung out and when we got back to town and we got back before it closed

and I lived literally 10 minutes from there and I said good night to him I was heading home he was coming down Sardis Road and back then that was a two lane road over there were Charlotte Christians

school is and there was a little dog leg turn in the two lane road and it and there was a dip in it and it was raining so hard that the water had gathered really heavy and so i'm running i'm running faster than i should i'm running like 55 miles an hour and a 35 but in that car it felt like you weren't moving right and i hit that water in a hydroplane and i've hydroplane so many times i can't even tell you you know other times in my life but i've never done it in a rear engine car and when I let off the gas and went to turn into it to catch it, it didn't catch. And then I, then my, like in a millisecond, I said, you know, so they told me you had to drive these things out of a problem when you got it.

Well, when I got back in it, it spun the tires, a turbo kicked in, and I spun the other way. And I broadsided a telephone pole, you know, no telling with the whip that it made how hard I hit it. But, I mean, I hit it so hard and knocked the half shafts out of the motor. Damn. Motor never turns off. I compression fracture, my head on the roof. My C5 vertebra explodes. Can't move anything from my neck down.

I'm driven down in the floor of the car. And, you know, there I lay for what seemed like forever. A young man who was a student on his way home found me and called 911. And they used to jaws of life cut the top of the car off and take me to, they couldn't air lift me out because it was raining so hard. And I got to get to the hospital. All of a sudden I got this, you know, this surgeon standing there me telling me I've got a million-in-one shot of ever walking again.

Damn it. At, you know, like you said, on the precipice of the biggest time in my life, career-wise. When do you start to realize, you know, what you got, right? I realized when he told me, because first of all, I didn't hurt, and I didn't have a cut on me. I had a little scratch on my head, but I just hit my head on the roof, and like I said, the pressure drove me down. And so I wasn't in pain, but it was a horrible feeling.

You know, I didn't know why I couldn't move. Yeah. You know, I always thought if you broke your neck, you were dead. I didn't know you could break your neck and survive. And so I wasn't putting it in all together. But I was five months in the hospital. I was 30 days in ICU and then another four months in the hospital in rehab and Charlotte. And it was just the most brutal battle of my life, just trying to get back where I could breathe off a respirator.

and, you know, started getting some movement. I had a decompression surgery done within eight hours of the accident. So I had fragments in my cord. My disc was pushing the old shape up against the cord. I mean, they didn't know if I was going to make it overnight, much less anything else. So it was really touch and go. And, you know, I mean, they snuck Dusty got the Doug Dillinger,

who did our security, was also a Charlotte police officer. And he made him a way to get Flair and Arne and Tully and them up to come see me because they didn't have those going to make it. Right. And they all came to see me in the ICU. Do you remember that? Do what? Do you remember them?

Oh, yeah, I remember it well. And I couldn't talk because I had a trache. And it was the most helpless feeling imaginable. Yeah. Can't move, can't talk. You can blink. And you see the pain on everybody's faces looking at you. The worry and concern.

I'm sure. Golly. You know, you talked about how long it took you to start a rehab. What are some of the milestones or some of the breakthroughs, I guess, that you recall having where you're thinking. Well, immediately after the surgery, I could bend my left arm. So that was, you know, that was, so I got some immediate return, you know, instantly. I think, and so moving my arm, and then the first time they set me up, Oh, goodness.

I felt like my whole body was full of, just made out of jello. Because all those muscles are turned off, even if you have returned going back to them, you have to re-educate them and do all kinds of things to get things working again. So, you know, it was that, it was being able to, you know, feed myself at first, then sit up. And then I think two months in, I actually was able to take some steps in five foot of water. and that was a big thing. But my right side was much weaker than my left.

I have what they call it as a brown support injury, meaning my motor nerves were damaged on my right side, but I can feel better on my right side that doesn't work as well. And the same thing vice versa. This side works better. It's still not 100%, but it's all functional to a degree. And I just started to wrap my head around what it was I could actually do. Everybody kept saying, oh, you've got to come back.

I was trying to figure how to come back to life. I wasn't even thinking about it. I knew what it took to do what I did in the ring. I had no earthly thought in my head that I'd ever be able to do that again. Right. Next question. People will know your reaction. Have you seen Carson Hosefars' Darlington car?

I saw us like the unofficial fan photo from inside the garage. Oh, so yeah, I haven't seen this. Check this out. That's hilarious. So, look, this is my favorite Dale Earnhardt paint scheme. It's the 1981 car, and it gets no love because 81 was a lost year. Dad started the season driving for Rod Osterlin. Rod would sell the team to J.D. Stacey, which dad would race for four races before leaving

to go to RCR and then at the end of the year leaving there to go to Budmore for two years. So the 81 year is forgotten, lost, unappreciated, but the car is underrated. That yellow nose with those old vintage stripes is just, in my opinion, straight, badass vintage. It stands out. Yeah. And so I've ran that scheme a time or two. You ran Daytona. Yeah, we did.

And so we ran it on Martin Trix's car at Darlington. he won the championship in the chance two deal. I was so pissed off. We had, I'm like, I got Martin Trex Jr. In the car that is my dad, my favorite scheme of my dad's, right? We're going to Darlington with a chance to clinch. And I'm on the pit box. And I must have been practicing or something because I didn't see the car before they put it on the grid.

But he pulls out on the racetrack to do his pace laps and they've got blue tape on the valance. and so it's a yellow nose and I'm like I don't know why that's hilarious to me today that I was so annoyed by that but I was madden hill

that Bono Manion had put blue tape on the valence of the yellow-nosed race car I wanted yellow right and I was like they did a poster for this car too

did you see that they remade the poster for like the race yeah and they actually like it's I thought the deep detail was actually really good because I think they changed back then it was the

the backstretch was the front stretch right and they actually changed and made the poster there it is yeah so if you look at dude yeah well so that's how it looks now in the old they have a comparison of the old one somewhere it's right here buddy it's right here posters right on the wall we see the i like to see the grandstands you can't see it but you can't see in the camera shop but yeah um I thought the detail was dude that's awesome so this is awesome I love this design I love this paint scheme. They had to obviously slide to 77 back a little bit, which getting that number back to the center of doors where it belongs is awesome.

Mark Martin's shout out. The other thing that I love is, and I said this on social media, so some fans out there believe that throwbacks are gone. Like the idea of running throwbacks are gone. And so I'm reading on social media, and as Bob Pockris and some other people were talking about how they're going to celebrate some of the past champions and legends of the sport at Darlington, fans are like, well, I wish the, I wish throwback weekend was still a thing. And I don't know why they got rid of throwback weekend. and man

and then there's other people that are saying that throwback ran its course nobody could do a throwback anymore or any good so I just find it I don't know where people got the idea why not that anyone said you can't do throwbacks or we're not doing throwbacks

NASCAR basically I don't know if their messaging wasn't good enough or whatever but what probably should have been said was we're shifting our focus away from the idea of focusing on the throwback paint schemes were shifting the focus actually to the physical people

and legends that had drove those cars. They have had a lot of people come into Darlington in the past, so this is not nothing new. They celebrated the 75 greatest drivers of the sport on stage on the front straightaway there last year or the year before. And so, you know, they've had a lot of you know, uh,

uh, uh, historic guys come to this particular race for years. Yeah. Every, every time I say that. Yeah. So that's what they're,

they're going to shift the focus toward that. No one ever, ever, ever, ever said, we're no longer doing throwbacks. And I think that that was something that kind of got lost in the whole conversation. Teams are still doing them, obviously. A lot of truck teams, exfinity teams, cup teams.

It's just no longer going to feel like this. sort of forced campaign that you're kind of scorned if you don't and you're criticized if you do. Now if teams want to do them, they can do them. I've busted my ass on the ice too.

Yeah, we did fall a little bit or a slight a little bit of ice. I fell down on my left knee. Well, you're lucky. I am lucky. My kneecap is not in a million. That was day three as he was heading up towards where we have all the skis just hanging out on the little rack. So it's like, there's like this patch of ice.

And he slips and falls into it. And the only person with him is Isla. And she loves it when people fall down, like loses her mind laughing. Yeah. She's like, she's horse laughing at him as he's like on the ground trying to figure out of his kneecaps broken. And he turns around and he goes, you know, I'll laugh with you. But can you make sure I'm okay first? Yeah.

He was so mad at her for laughing at him. It was like the third or fourth day. And Ila had never skied before. I had only skied four or five times in my life and it had been six years since I'd skied so I was a little nervous about it but it came right back and Amy got to ski as well but I'm really

really proud of Ila because she's learned to ski well enough that we get to go ski together down the greens and a couple of blues and stuff so I'm super pumped and it's just me and her and she I'm trying to get there's this there's this giant storage container where we

keep our skis at night and it's right next to the snow I mean it's all very convenient but between there's just a little strip of about two foot of of a sheet of frozen ice it is like three inches of water that is solid as a rock and I didn't see it because it's between between I mean it's like gravel you know gravelish pavement snow and Ila's right there and I'm looking at her watching her as I'm walking toward her to like talking to her hey all right I got him still here we're coming and I put one foot on that ice went straight down on my knee. And on, and it, I thought immediately, I was like, I don't have, like, I've, this is something

hurt. I've busted my kneecap. I've done something. It was, I went, every bit of me went down on that ice on the top of my knee. And, uh, big tree fall hard. So I was thinking, for sure, I'm hurt. And there were so many people walking by. And I know, not one person was like, hey man, you're or not one person, you know, if you see somebody on the slopes out there, you usually kind of ski over and go, man, y'all good? You know, you need some help getting up, or is everybody okay? Hell, this is on the base at the ground. I mean, this is 8 o'clock in the morning,

and everybody's just kind of showing up. They, every, all the people walk by me. And, I mean, I'm laying there in real pain. It must not have been as dramatic looking as you felt like it was, you know what I mean? They're looking at me. Well, I guess they could see that you weren't crying. Oh, my God, I was in pain. It's still sore now.

He has a big bruise on his leg. So he did it in a yard. I start laughing. And I'm like, I'm not going to get mad at that. I get up. I'm just thankful. Like, am I going to get to fucking ski today? Do I got to go get my knee looked at?

So after a few minutes of figuring out, the knee was fine. I said, Ila. I said, I don't mind laughing because that's funny. But check on me first. And then we'll laugh. I'll laugh with you. And she was like, She's like, all right.

Whatever. Yeah, she's not going to do that. She loves it when people fall down. But we had a damn good time. We had a damn good time. The girls did ski school for like two and a half days. So we had plenty of time to like ski, especially the first day. We went really hard the first day.

Oh, my God. First day, we get on the damn chairlift and go up. I fell off the chairlift. He and I are on there together. It's just the two of us riding along. And I'm five three. I'm not super tall. So like chairlift is like an active thing for me.

I have to get my mind right, get ready to jump off, basically. Well, his skis tapped mine. He didn't do anything wrong. But, like, his skis tapped mine as he's jumping off. So, like, it threw me back in the seat a little bit. And so my ass wasn't coming out. And so I rode, I started going this way. And I just jumped off.

They had to stop it. I'm like, oh, my God, this is how it's going to go. This is the tone we've set for me being on skis. It's going to be a disaster. So let's hear now from a man who knows all too well about the consequences. of a NASCAR fight and bringing Ricky Sinash Jr. who I talked to just a few moments ago. You were the last driver to throw a punch in NASCAR.

And the explanation from the drivers we've heard over and over since then is about the steep fine you've received. And you pointed that out again this week. So what is the truth do you think? Like are these fines actually preventing drivers from having physical altercations? I'm not sure where Daniel got his $50,000 from, but I wish that's all it was. No, I mean, it's definitely, you know, in your mind, you know, for me going forward, you know,

definitely would be in the back of my mind before, you know, I pulled a trigger on that again. So, and I'm sure, again, I'm sure everybody else is thinking that as well. Obviously, you heard Daniel's words, you know, watching the whole thing, just from clips that I've seen from, you know, people posting. I'm not sure anything warranted, you know, a punch. I'm sure they had a disagreement, but, you know, obviously their history goes, you know, way back being teammates and things like that. So, you know, I had, you know, I guess kudos to NASCAR, you know, because I definitely think the fines are in the back of everybody's mind. Well, I'm a little bit torn on it, right?

Because I think everybody wants to see, you know, you see the impact that, like, you. your moment goes viral, right? And like you see all this, we see the Kyle Bush, Joey Lugano stuff replayed nine years later all the time. We went to Vegas last week, you know? And it's like, okay, clearly these are moments that give publicity the sport,

but also I'm aware that drivers could get hurt. I mean, Brad Moran says this week, hey, like there's concrete on the ground. Some of the drivers are different size. And so he kind of indicated that outright fighting is still found upon, pushing and shoving's okay. What's your reaction to them trying to protect you guys? I mean, I don't think it's protection in my opinion.

I think we all can handle ourselves out there. So, I mean, we drive race cars at 200 miles an hour. You know, getting an altercation after the races. Safety is definitely not a concern of mine. I guess it could be used for them as why they, you know, finest for it or, you know, why it's frowned upon. So, yeah, I don't know. I didn't see his comments, but, yeah, to me, it's not about safety, really.

I guess it's more of, you know, what they feel like they want the sport to be. And, you know, if they opened it up, I don't know if you have less altercations or more, you know, because, you know, there's definitely drivers that probably wouldn't go confront somebody. if they knew for sure that it was kind of wide open and game on. So I don't know which way it goes. So if you're not allowed to fight technically or you're going to get fined for it, you're not allowed to intentionally wreck someone, you're not allowed to use your car as a weapon.

How are drivers in 2026 supposed to send a message if another driver did something that they feel is not acceptable and will not be tolerated? You got me You know, I don't know I mean, I think With this car You can definitely still put people in bad spots

You know, kind of like I guess, you know, Daniel and Ross off the term two You can get close enough to them That, you know, they get tight And probably hit the fence You know, not near as You know, you can't manipulate the other car Near as much as you could

With the old car as far as, you know, getting them loose. and getting their left or quarter or bumper, you know, through the corner like we could back a few years ago. But you can still put drivers in bad spots. And you will continue to do that, you know, weekend and week out if you have the opportunity. You know, I guess, you know, sounds like Daniel's going to, you know, race for us a little bit differently. Week in and week out. You know, and I don't know if that's the case or how he'll do that.

But you can definitely put drivers in bad spots. still. So, you know, I guess you just continue to do that and not give an inch to them, you know, for weeks on in, I guess. I don't really know what else, you know, you could do. All right, that was another episode of the Dirty 30 presented by Arby's new Meat in Three Box. Get more meal for your money at Arby's. We have the meat.