Dale Earnhardt Jr. Is A CFB25 SICKO + March Madness vs March MATness

Summary

Podcast Summary: Bussin' With The Boys – Episode: "Dale Earnhardt Jr. Is A CFB25 SICKO + March Madness vs March MATness"

Released on March 25, 2025, "Bussin' With The Boys" hosted by Will Compton and Taylor Lewan dives deep into the intersection of sports, betting, and personal anecdotes from notable athletes. This episode features an in-depth interview with NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr., exploring his experiences in racing, team management, and his passion for college football betting.

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1. Channel Growth and Upcoming Merchandise Launch

Will Compton initiates the discussion by highlighting the show's growth and the importance of subscriber engagement:

[05:42] Will Compton: "We've learned that 30 to 40% of our audience is not subscribed to Bussin' With The Boys. So make sure you're subscribed, leaving comments throughout the episode."

The hosts announce the upcoming launch of their merchandise store:

[03:30] Will Compton: "We've been building our merchandise store that is coming this Thursday."

2. March Madness and Betting Strategies

The episode delves into the intricacies of betting during March Madness, sharing both triumphs and setbacks experienced during live streams.

Taylor Lewan discusses his initial challenges:

[05:45] Taylor Lewan: "This is my first time really diving into March Madness. So I didn't really know how to go, like, do you start firing bets right away?"

Will Compton emphasizes the importance of managing betting units:

[06:19] Will Compton: "You have to wait for the game to kind of unfold but to get your juices going... and when all of us are riding on the over two and a half points in the first minute... those are the ones that were getting me fired up."

They share experiences of winning and losing bets, highlighting the emotional rollercoaster of sports betting.

3. Wrestling Insights

Taylor Lewan and Will Compton explore the world of wrestling, discussing standout athletes and memorable matches:

[10:55] Taylor Lewan: "Ken Griffey Jr., see that guy, and that's it."

They reflect on the generational talents in wrestling and its cultural significance.

4. In-Depth Interview with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to an extensive interview with Dale Earnhardt Jr., where he shares his journey, challenges, and philosophies.

a. Racing Experience and Reflections

Dale reminisces about his racing days, emphasizing the importance of perseverance:

[17:22] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "But I'm like, hey, you know, that's my chance to win. That's how I'm going to beat..."

He discusses a pivotal race at Martinsville, detailing how unexpected car damage paradoxically became an advantage:

[75:02] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "The fact that my car's out in the wind actually was an advantage over the long course of the day."

b. Building and Managing Junior Motorsports

Dale elaborates on founding Junior Motorsports, his successful race team that nurtures upcoming talent:

[114:17] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "So my sister and I run Junior Motorsports together... drivers come through our program and move on to the Cup Series."

He highlights the financial and logistical challenges of expanding into the Cup Series, emphasizing the high costs involved:

[140:27] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "To race full time in the Cup Series, you might be able to do it on $20 million a year... it's a hundred million dollars to probably get started."

c. Betting and Gambling in Sports

Dale shares his strategies and experiences with betting, reflecting on both success and caution:

[18:10] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "My futures parlay got shit on when St. John's lost."

He advises maintaining low betting units to manage losses and highlights the psychological aspects of gambling:

[05:55] Will Compton: "And I was telling you, Will pulled me to the side. He goes, listen, you want to go smaller units because it's a long burn."

d. Personal Stories and Anecdotes

Dale recounts personal moments, including interactions with fellow athletes and humorous tales from his racing career:

[91:18] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "Dave Butts, the lineman for Washington, walks up and he goes, hey, introduce himself... and he's like this is my helmet from 1984. I immediately recognized it was a game-worn helmet."

He emphasizes the value of teamwork and the emotional ties within his team:

[84:12] Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "And so when you come to get help and service and get your car adjusted, they're gonna be like that guy."

5. Listeners' Interaction and Shoutouts

The hosts engage with their audience through shoutouts and encourage participation:

[32:19] Taylor Lewan: "Shout out free shout out goes to when you were a young pup and you're just laying in your room..."

They also discuss their live interactions during the podcast recording, adding a personal touch to the episode.

6. Sponsorships and Advertisements

Throughout the episode, various sponsors are prominently featured, including Bud Light, FanDuel, Albertsons, and Safeway. The hosts seamlessly integrate these advertisements while maintaining the flow of the conversation.

7. Conclusion and Future Content

As the episode wraps up, the hosts tease future content, including their extensive interview with Dale and upcoming betting strategies:

[56:00] Ryan Seacrest: "So I don't know."

They reaffirm the launch of their merchandise store and encourage listeners to stay tuned for more engaging content.

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Notable Quotes:

• Dale Earnhardt Jr.: "I'm going to miss watching my guys work. I'm going to miss trying to fix that puzzle with them." [99:00]

• Will Compton: "Do not face identity theft and financial losses alone. There's strength in numbers with LifeLock Identity." [57:03]

• Taylor Lewan: "What you love about True Classic is their T-shirts fit snug and right, giving you a perception of better physique." [165:07]

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This episode of "Bussin' With The Boys" offers listeners a blend of sports insights, betting strategies, and heartfelt stories from Dale Earnhardt Jr., making it a must-listen for sports enthusiasts and betting aficionados alike.

Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's stock up savings time now through March 25th. Spring in for storewide deals and earn four times the points.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Look for in store tags to earn.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

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[Will Compton]

Pro Savings days are back at Lowe's with limited time savings on the supplies pros need. Get up to 40% off select major appliances plus save an additional $100 on every $1,000 you spend on select major appliances. And don't miss your chance to activate and earn three times the points on select DeWalt and Klein tools Lowes. We help you save valid the 328 selection varies by location while supplies last. See associate or lowes.com for more details on qualifying items.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hey, it's me, Paige desorbo and I'm.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So excited to share my new shoe collection at DSW filled with my favorite styles and trends for spring.

[Taylor Lewan]

Because if you know me, you know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm kind of obsessed with shoes.

[Will Compton]

And by kind of obsessed I mean head over heels. You're going to love these shoes. So snag super cute styles like cute.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Flats, fun heels and cool sneakers from.

[Taylor Lewan]

The Paige to Servo collection right now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

At your DSW store or dsw.com.

[Ryan Seacrest]

All right, we're good.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Be like busing with the boys hanging with the fellas betting on a game no woman's going to us what you do and I've been over here just.

[Will Compton]

Drinking beer and making that noise baby.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm hanging with the fellas Busting with the boys bro.

[Will Compton]

Welcome to Busting with the boys. Busting fans tier ones. We have an incredible interview with Dale Earnhardt Jr. If you're here for Dale and you're not familiar with our show, we are a show that bring the locker room to life. We're a show that is about being for the boys. You can be for the boys by making sure you are subscribed to our channel. We've learned that 30 to 40% of our channel of our audience is not subscribed to Bust with the Boys. So if you're listening on audio right now or you're watching your boy right now on YouTube, make sure you're subscribed. Leaving comments throughout the episode. And another tidbit for the tier ones out there that have been waiting for the merch store to drop. It is dropping this Thursday at 10am as you guys know, we went independent. We've been building our merchandise store that is coming this Thursday. If you want to be a tier one, you want to sign up and you want to get a discount code for shopping, just go to bwtb.com you will get a discount code. You will get it notified when the shop opens up on Thursday at 10am Shop till you drop it. This is a fun episode, about four hours long. We we do an hour of bantering on the intro. We talk March Madness, basketball, wrestling, NFL free agency, severance talk, all of it. And then The Dale Earnhardt Jr. Interview kicks off. But shop till you drop, make sure you're subscribed and let's be for the boys, big hugs, tiny kisses, let's go.

[Taylor Lewan]

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Bust with the Boys. This is episode 321. As always, our presenting sponsor is the Great FanDuel Sportsbook. Bus with the Boys is presented by FanDuel Sportsbook. FanDuel is America's number one sportsbook in the world. Well, America, now let's talk about this. This weekend we had ourselves a couple of streams. Thursday we kicked it off.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Seem like the boys for the most part stayed around 50%, maybe a little more. I think a couple units were made here and there. Then we get to Friday. Now I'm just going to say this real quick. Had an amazing time. But Friday, first three bets, what we.

[Will Compton]

Do were riding high.

[Taylor Lewan]

Bank riding high.

[Will Compton]

Confidence thing goes up way too high. Unit goes up a little bit more because like today's the day.

[Taylor Lewan]

Today's the day we found, we finally found a little crack in the armor of Las Vegas, Nevada.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Turns out Vegas is never wrong. And the boys went plummeting down to earth like we did.

[Will Compton]

We had a rough go. We started second guessing ourselves a little bit. We started talking about bets a little too much. However, I will say the the best part of March Madness for myself is that over two and a half in the first minute.

[Taylor Lewan]

Dude. Yes.

[Will Compton]

When we learn those quick bets because again, it's fun betting spreads. It's fun betting totals and points and everything else. But you have to wait for the game to kind of unfold but to get your juices going when all of us are riding on the over two and a half points in the first minute. Somebody on Friday found the first four minutes over 12 and a half points in the first four minutes. Both teams to score a goal in the first minute or first two score goal. Race to five, race to 10, 15, all the way up to 70. Those are the ones that were getting me fired up. And you mentioned on Thursday we started off the dog of the day promo that Vandal has. We got to share in the one million dollar jackpot because McNeezy was the lowest seed to win on Thursday. We lost on Friday with lips. Lost on Friday with, lost on Saturday with McNeezy again. Tried stick a stain with McNeezy, but tough sledding. I was, yeah, I was fired up. When the dog of the day hit. When their promos going on and their dog of the day hit, I was, I was fired up. We have a baseball one coming up which we'll tell you about.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

But we'll continue to talk about our fun that we had on the stream.

[Taylor Lewan]

I will say this is like I, I said this is my first time really diving into March Madness. So I didn't really know how to go. Like, do you start firing bets right away? Am I keeping my, my unit up where it usually is?

[Will Compton]

And I was telling you, Will pulled.

[Taylor Lewan]

Me to the side. He goes, listen, you want to go smaller units because it's a, it's a long burn. This is a marathon you're going to have to deal with here. So when we started hitting that two and a half in the first minute, the 5, 10, 15, the first half, total points, all those things, like, you're keeping small units, but it's like you're interested in enjoying the entire time because it's not about how much you win. It's about the vibes of the boys. Yeah, yeah, the vibes.

[Will Compton]

And you want to keep the units low. Again, responsibly, low response. You know how many, how many you're just throwing out there. Like, there are moments where it's like, I don't even know what, what's next on the, on the docket. I don't even know what's next on the bet slip. But fortunately, when you keep your units low because you're throwing out so many different bets, you're able to kind of stay in the game.

[Taylor Lewan]

I set a personal record for myself on Thursday. I had over 70 bets according to my fan Sportsbook. That's just, that's just nuts.

[Will Compton]

You jump on it. It just reminds you how long you've been on the app and how many bets you place.

[Taylor Lewan]

It gives you that little reality check and it's just, it's just kind of fun. Now, Friday, I started bumping the bets up a little bit because we had that three. We talked about it. Started hitting so fast. Caught myself in a little bit of a spiral. It was going down. I was going down the drain a little bit. All good, all good.

[Will Compton]

But that's the, that's the issue, the.

[Taylor Lewan]

Reason why you keep the units teeny tiny, right?

[Will Compton]

Because when you're, when you're losing your bets, you get, you start to want to chase, right, what you've lost. That's why you got to keep them low so you're just not in a full blender throughout the entire weekend.

[Taylor Lewan]

My brain can't sit there and just like, be like, okay, I'm taking Florida minus six and a half. I'm taking Michigan minus one and a half. And then just wait the entire game for the result of my bet. Like, I need to, I need to feel something the entire time we're working around. Yeah, but baseball season, it's opening week. This week.

[Will Compton]

It is opening week.

[Taylor Lewan]

And FanDuel is giving all customers the chance to take a swing at $500,000 in bonus bets every day from March 27 to March 30. All you have to do is use your jackpot profit boost on a player to homer. And if they go yard, not only will you get your winnings on your home run bet, but you will also get a share of that day's $500,000 bet jackpot. So just go to FanDuel.com Bussin and look for the daily home run jackpot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

21 plus and present in select states.

[Will Compton]

For Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Casino or 18/ and present in D.C.

[Will Compton]

Opt in required bonus issued as non withdrawable profit boost tokens.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Restrictions apply including any token expiration and max wager amount.

[Will Compton]

See [e-mail] Gambling problem. Call 1-800-gambler or visit rg-help.com Call 1-888-789-7777.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Or visit ccpg.org Chattinconenetic Hope is here.

[Will Compton]

Gamblinghelplinema.com Call 800-327-5050.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

For 24.

[Will Compton]

7 support in Massachusetts, visit www.mdgamblinghelp.org. in Maryland, call 1-877-8-HOPE NY or text.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

HOPE NY 467-369 in New York.

[Taylor Lewan]

I listen, I, I haven't dove into baseball in a minute. I told you guys about when I went to the, the World Series, you know, the first game of the World Series and I left early when all the action really started taking place. Like, that's. That's. I don't know a whole lot about baseball, but this. The opportunity to bet on homers. Every time that guy steps into the batter's box, does his fun little superstitious, does the cross couple wipes here and there, moves his hat a couple of times and swings. You need that?

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

You need that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Dude, I. I wish you. I wish we were back in the big Mac days. St. Louis Cardinals. You got Big Mac land because of Mark McGuire. He was just hitting dingers every day, but betting on a home run and it landing in Big Mac land. Everybody in the section gets a free Big Mac and the Cardinals. And not to just go off course and just talk about the St. Louis Cardinals, but when they're in the playoffs, Big Macs were a dollar, and your boy would house, like, three Big Macs.

[Taylor Lewan]

I don't doubt that, bro.

[Will Compton]

Me and Logan. Me and Logan. I know Logan always makes his way on this podcast.

[Taylor Lewan]

Always makes his way on the show.

[Will Compton]

But we just ripped down to McDonald's. Cardinals would go on, like, they'd have, like, seven game series like it was all time. So I'm fired up about this. What is it against this jackpot profit boost token. You use it, and then if. If that guy homers, everybody splits. $500,000.

[Taylor Lewan]

Everybody who bet on that guy to homer in that game will divvy up $500,000.

[Will Compton]

I gotta give a shit. I gotta find that. I gotta find the guys. What's his name? Aaron Judge. That's a big bastard. You had to bet on him going.

[Taylor Lewan]

Y'all, Aaron George had a tough playoffs this past year.

[Will Compton]

He's.

[Taylor Lewan]

He was coming off. He's a little slow, a little sluggish. And I only know that because I started following the Dodgers after I had that big fumble of going to that game.

[Will Compton]

Maybe Otani. I know he's a very popular baseball.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Matt Holiday's kid. Jackson Holiday's a Cardinals guy, right?

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ryan Seacrest]

His son plays for the orioles.

[Will Compton]

Oh, no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

19.

[Will Compton]

What a legend.

[Taylor Lewan]

I love fun names. Fun names like Mookie Bets.

[Will Compton]

Baseball, too. I feel like a lot of, like, their offspring has made their way into this next generation. I feel like baseball more than any other sport. You see, like, Tatis. Who else?

[Taylor Lewan]

Ken Griffey Jr. See that guy, and that's it.

[Will Compton]

Junior Holiday. I know there's more. My brain just. Yeah, my brain's just not firing right now.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, hockey's the same way. I feel like that's Just the sign of us getting older. Like with the people we used to watch. They had kids when we were watching them, and now they're becoming. Their kids are becoming professional athletes as well. Yeah, generational talents through and through. Yeah, generational.

[Will Compton]

Have you got. Go ahead, Jack.

[Jack McPherson]

I was talking about the over two and a half points. One of my friends after Friday when we finished streaming, and one of his buddies who's a big gambler, said for baseball season, outside of this coin that you're gonna do, we might have found a new baseball over two and a half bet. But it's apparently you bet the under on runs in the first inning because they got these guys coming out, you know, they're starting pitchers, throwing gas.

[Taylor Lewan]

Just. It doesn't really wait for him to get tired.

[Jack McPherson]

Yeah, but apparently that's. This is one of those bets that we can maybe play into as well. So just like betting the under on runs in the first inning.

[Will Compton]

There we go.

[Jack McPherson]

Maybe we'll test the waters later this week once opening day starts. Is that Thursday?

[Taylor Lewan]

I believe so.

[Jack McPherson]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

This week? This week.

[Taylor Lewan]

This week.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Could be any day this week, honestly.

[Will Compton]

You guys check the bracket challenge?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Do you know who's in first place?

[Jack McPherson]

Are you.

[Will Compton]

It's Taylor.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, no.

[Will Compton]

Taylor's in first place.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hey, let's go. Let's give a round of applause for that, huh?

[Will Compton]

You're. You're bracket right now. I think.

[Taylor Lewan]

I think I have like two losses.

[Will Compton]

It's like 99.9 percentile in the. In the world.

[Taylor Lewan]

Are you serious?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Your.

[Will Compton]

Your bracket is ranked in the top 3, 000 people right now. In the world. America. The world.

[Taylor Lewan]

Let's go.

[Will Compton]

I opened it up. I'm like. Because I knew I was in second last week, like after the first or second day, and I was fired up, but I just, I. I jumped on again this morning and I just see Taylor sitting at the top and I'm like this.

[Taylor Lewan]

Something about fantasy, man. Something about fantasy. I just get it done, dude. Well, my bracket's about. Unless Michigan shows up in a big way. Because when I was doing my bracket, I kind of obviously was guessing and texted a couple of guys, but when I got to Michigan in this part, I have them beating Auburn and then the. In the lead eight. I was like, okay, this is probably where Michigan goes. I know. Sherm kind of gave me the whole no one will be surprised if Michigan makes it to the sweet 16. So I was like, okay, we'll get him to sweet 16, then I'll, you know, try to take the bracket as serious as possible. But then the way my bracket worked out is Michigan in the lead, eight plays Michigan State. And so my ego won't allow Michigan to lose in Michigan State, even though I think they beat him every time this year, bro. You know, Michigan's in the final four in my bracket. It basically makes it the final form in. In real life, we're living. And also, I know we've. Obviously, we're just gassing up. Fanduel. But that futures parlay, I put Michigan in the sweet 16 and Arizona in the sweet 16. That's hit. And all I need is Florida in the Elite Eight, and I need Houston, the Elite Eight. And if those two hit, I'll hit that parlay.

[Will Compton]

My futures parlay got shit on when St. John's lost.

[Taylor Lewan]

Really?

[Will Compton]

I was bummed when they lost. Y'all are all in St. John's yeah, I hit that.

[Taylor Lewan]

I did a little ghost bet last night with New Mexico and Michigan State. I wanted New Mexico first to 5, first to 10, first to 15. I soloed those, and then I parlayed it as well. And that hit, and that was like, plus 300 odds or something like that. Apparently, New Mexico was in it the whole entire game. I came in, I was like, hey, what happened with Michigan? Michigan State or Michigan State and New Mexico? And the boys are like, yeah, New Mexico was up at half or right around up at half.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, we had.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I. I found a bet for Saturday.

[Will Compton]

Every team to score over 60 points. Bro. Mitch dropped that in the group chat. That was so fire.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Plus 1000. It hit so plus 1000. I think I was like, oh, this is. Everybody's gonna. The biggest worry is McNE State to just score 60 points against whoever they were playing.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The final game of the day, it's Tennessee versus UCLA. UCLA has.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's why y'all were texting about UCLA.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

58 points.

[Will Compton]

They had four free throws and, like, with.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, with. At 56 points. They went one for two on both free throw attempts and finished with 58.

[Will Compton]

I was so dog, I went to bed just being like, yo, Mitch delivered a winner to the boys. Plus 1000. Every team on that day to score over 60. And every team was hitting, bro. And I was looking at ucla, Tennessee, I think, around halftime, and I'm like, they're on pace. Like, this one's gonna hit. Like, these are two quality teams that are gonna. You know. Again, he was talking about McNe State. Like, that's kind of the only one you were worried about. And I woke up the next morning and saw that the bet didn't hit. So I open up, you know, I'm like scrolling through And I see UCLA has had 58 points. Four points in the first eight.

[Taylor Lewan]

No.

[Will Compton]

It was nuts, man. It was nuts. But Mitch, that was going to be a big time winner for the group chat of the boys. Just throwing that one in there.

[Taylor Lewan]

And then I was operating though, with.

[Will Compton]

The, with the parlay, dropping the links in. And then I did it again yesterday.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was only plus 230. This time I sent it to you guys.

[Will Compton]

I was like, look at the, look at the odds. Now it's only plus 230.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I, I put $10 on it and it hit.

[Will Compton]

But it's not as big as, like, obviously you hit that plus 1000. Every team hitting over 60. That would have been fun. And right now in our bracket challenge too, we have three of us tied for second place. Jp, I saw you sitting at the bottom.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Man, I got a problem.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Every single dude, every single March Madness, I do this where I, like, I just get so enthralled with the, with the upsets. I'm like, man, this is going to be the year. And I have to be the guy that called it, and I'm never the guy that calls it. And I end up lasting like all of my brackets. And I saw this year only one underdog won in like the first two rounds, which does not go well for me. And. Yeah, so from now on, I think I'm just gonna hit auto pick.

[Will Compton]

I'm gonna hit auto pick and let.

[Ryan Seacrest]

It take the highest seeds and let it, let it go.

[Taylor Lewan]

You know what I've noticed with these brackets and just betting in general is like, the more you look into bets, the more times you're wrong. I feel like it's like an intuition thing. Like, you just gotta be like, okay, this. Okay.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Then when you start looking at.

[Will Compton]

In the fall.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

You look at the data, but in the, we get in the fall. I mean, at least it was for me this year. In the locker room, I started looking into all these different things. The weather, all this. And then your brain just gets confused.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Maybe it's just my brain, because paralysis by analysis. Yeah, paralysed by analysis. But no, but it's not paralysis because I'm making the bets. I'm just losing.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, but you're, you're looking so much into it. You're paralyzing yourself.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, I gotta fly by the seat of my pants on these things because with this bracket, I really had no idea What I was doing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

First time up until Saturday and Sunday. Hit, like, the first two. Like, Thursday and Friday. They were pretty boring.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. I saw a couple tweets. People were saying it's like the worst first round.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Of March Madness.

[Will Compton]

I don't think there was any, like, comebacks in this first couple days.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. When people got separated. The one. I mean, watching Michigan as tightly as I did the first game versus UC San Diego, they were up by like 13. And I think they were down in the second half at one point, end up coming back and winning. And then Michigan was down against. Who was it? A M. Down by like 10 points. Came back and won.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That Florida game was nice, too.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, that one was close.

[Taylor Lewan]

No doubt.

[Will Compton]

St. John's was close. I remember I was watching the ending of that one, just hoping they were going to get back in it.

[Ryan Seacrest]

You saw Coach Calipari's quote. He was like, they had. They had us in the coffin. They just forgot the nails.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. It's like, dang.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Calipari versus Patino is all time.

[Will Compton]

I know, I know. I love that old. That storyline. And then one of them, I forget which coach, but their daughters fired up, like, right next to him the whole game.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

And they were just within that three, four points and just could not close it. Even when they had a chance at it. They just weren't able to close this the distance.

[Taylor Lewan]

But Friday for us wasn't all bad. Like, you got yourself a nice little present from Clay Matthews.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, Clay. He delivered. He delivered an incredible photo. We can throw it up here, but just getting trucked by Rubkowski. And I remember that play, too. Like, you just see, I'm pretty sure.

[Taylor Lewan]

You'Ve talked about that play multiple times.

[Will Compton]

Just seeing him in the A gap, knowing it's just me and him, he just. Low man wins. And he bulldozed me. However, he did fall down and I got the tackle and I was in his ear, and I did let him know, like, hey, that does go down as a tackle, but nice hit.

[Taylor Lewan]

Now, when you're in that situation and you know it's just you and him and this is a big cat that's probably going to try to run you over. You thinking, hey, just get him down. Oh, you're not worried about getting run over in that situation?

[Will Compton]

No, no. I got to get him to the ground. Because even before it was happening, I was like, this dude's about to give it to me. And just, you know, you're trying to get as low as possible and try.

[Taylor Lewan]

To wrap until you know you've lost a battle is when you see it coming, you're like, this is about to hurt really bad.

[Will Compton]

And they were an 11 personnel, and he's just a solo back back there. And you see the puller, and you go with the puller, and you're just thinking, like, they're handing this boy the ball. They're handing this big boy the ball right now.

[Taylor Lewan]

And it's just you and him.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

And a couple of blades of grass. The boys give you hell on that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Or you.

[Taylor Lewan]

You work through that. All right.

[Will Compton]

No, you tackles, you catch a little heat. But, yeah, I got him on the ground.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right.

[Will Compton]

I mean, they might have gained 2 yards, but he's on the ground.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. You look at a couple other guys that are chirping, you're like, you wouldn't have got him down.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

He would have ran your ass over and got six more.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. But I. I love that he wrote me a little note. Clay delivered. Love the gift. Shut up, Rubkowski. He was a stud.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Clay Matthews. Delaney came through. We were just. We were just in it, watching games. Your soul kind of gets sucked out of you when you're just sitting there watching games all day long. Because when I got out of him, we were home over the weekend, like your boy. You know me, I was jumping into the madness.

[Taylor Lewan]

Wrestling March Madness. I did see you tweeting about it. Shout out Nebraska, dude.

[Will Compton]

Shout out Nebraska. It's been their best performance in the NCAA Tournament in the history of the. Of the program. They had three guys in the finals. Brock Hardy, he lost, and surprising, too. But Jesse Mendez, he was a beast from Ohio State. He was the defending national champion, but Hardy had beat him in the big tens. And Hardy started off strong. He was up on him 5 1. Debatably. 6 1. They kind of went to the. They kind of went to the review to see if he got, like, an ext point in a near fall because he put him on his back after he took him down. So he's up 5 1. Jesse Mendez comes back and beats him. So that one stuck sucked, and that's what started it. But then Taylor and Lovett, they both won theirs, and it was. It was all time like, Nebraska got second at the tournament. Coach Manning got coach of the year for the NCAAs. But it was fun, bro. Did you see. Did you see that heavyweight upset when.

[Taylor Lewan]

I was with you is when I saw wrestling. When you. When you force us to take one of the TVs and turn it on to wrestling is the Amount of wrestling I watched this weekend, bro.

[Will Compton]

Who is it? White Hendrickson. Yeah. Gable Stevenson. Wyatt Hendrickson. So this is the heavyweight bro. When I was young, we went to the NCAAs. When it was in St. Louis. I got to see Brock Lesnar when he was a heavyweight wrestle against the cat from. Brock Lesnar was at Minnesota. This cat was at Iowa Gophers. And Brock Lesnar wins like 4 to 2. It might have been in overtime too, but you just see, that's Brock, bro. And he's just back there doing his like Brock Lesnar jump. And I just remember as a kid, and I was like up in the nosebleeds too, like, yo, this dude is a badass. But the heavyweight matchup this year is Gable Stevenson versus Wyatt Hendrickson. Gable Stevenson, just for some background, Olympic gold medalist. Is he a two time, I thought Pan American. Is that the same thing?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I thought it was a two time.

[Will Compton]

He's been a gold medalist. Like he's won the worlds. He's like a four time world champion based on age. He's been winning world since he was like 16 or 17 years old. And it's like a five time all American. He's like, he's the best. He is the best. He hasn't given up a takedown since 2020. Given up a takedown? You know, they take him down, they wrestle, they take him to the ground. Ref's like three, two, whatever. Yeah, he hasn't given up a takedown since 2020.

[Taylor Lewan]

Okay. He has given up what? He has him on a takedown and.

[Will Compton]

They like, when they're neutral, they're both on their feet. He has not lost or given up a takedown since 2020. He hasn't lost since what, 2019. He goes on like he's won the gold medal. He's older, so he kind of came down. He's like a 24 year old wrestling in the, in the, in the championships. But he tried the wwe. He didn't get in the wwe. I think it lasted like one match and they kind of like, hey, this isn't working out. He tried, like I forget the cat that played for the New England Patriots, but a wrestler that went to the New England Patriots and played and had a little bit of a career transition from wrestler to football player. Gable tried that with the Buffalo Bills, didn't make the squad in training camp. I think that was last year. But anyway, he goes back to school and again, the best wrestler in the world. And this dude, Wyatt Hendrickson beats him in the last seconds. And the Place was pandemonium, bro. Because again, this is the best cat in the world. Like no one's thinking that White Hendrickson is going to upset him. And I think too what? No in White Hendrickson, he's like a second lieutenant Air Force is what he.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Like transferred from air force to OK state. And I also think he's 24 too. So people were trying to get on Gable Stevenson. You go lose to this college kid, yada yada yada.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, these are grown ass men, dude. And obviously you have the COVID year. So people are probably getting their extra years because 1.

[Taylor Lewan]

When does covet years end?

[Will Compton]

I don't know. I think it might be this year. This is like the last year we're.

[Taylor Lewan]

Like coveted will have because there was.

[Will Compton]

One, there was one cat, I think it was Sorachi from Penn State. He's a five time national champion. The only five time national champion of all time. But yeah, White Hendrickson, he stands up, he wins. He goes and salutes Donald Trump. But the place was electric because nobody. That was, that was one of the biggest upsets, if not the biggest upset in wrestling history. And in the heavyweight division, like it was just. It was crazy, bro. It was awesome. It was awesome to watch.

[Taylor Lewan]

But your boy was so you talking about your relationship with wrestling. Like you go back and you watch this and you're like all about it. You dove into all the information. This guy transition Air Force to okay State, this guy went to the wwe, all these things. But then when I talk about you as an individual wrestling, you're like it always starts with I hated it.

[Will Compton]

I did hate wrestling. Yeah, it's.

[Taylor Lewan]

Is it really?

[Will Compton]

Oh yeah, bro.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Practice is harder or losing. Because I've always heard like cutting weight is the hardest part. Like that's like the, the worst part of the whole thing.

[Will Compton]

Cutting weight sucks. Practice sucks. Like these dudes are just.

[Taylor Lewan]

Why does practice stuff. You just keep going. You're just going.

[Will Compton]

You're drilling for two hours at a time. You're drilling. The workouts are crazy. The coaches are psychopaths. Like one time like because little bro Cody wrestling at Nebraska, like one of their workouts one day was they had a 45 pound plate and the coaches just drive them like a few miles off campus. They drop them off, they have a 45 pound plate and they're like get back to campus. These dudes are just grinding all day long.

[Taylor Lewan]

They're just embracing this.

[Will Compton]

And you're living, you're living at this height for months out of the year. Yeah, because you're just, you're just low. You're just, you're wrestling. You're wrestling every day, all the time.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's amazing how wrestlers just understand the. But jb, did you wrestle?

[Ryan Seacrest]

No.

[Taylor Lewan]

What? Like, how do you know about this? Like, you talking like you did it.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Well, so our high school. I know it sounds crazy being in the Southeast. It's like one of the best wrestling programs in like the country. They've broken records for most state championships, most regional championships. And it's like similar stories where in high school, the coach took them to like this arcade place. It was like, hey guys, like, no practice, whatever, whatever. And then he leaves and they're like, wait, how do we get back? He's like, you run back. Made him run back. And so. And I didn't even wrestle this guy, he could. He like, you know, taught science or something. And he had on a state championship ring. And I wasn't listening one time and he turned it around and he asked me a question and I didn't answer it. And he was just like, boom. Like, slaps me on the back of the head. With the ring turned inside. He's like, you gotta, you gotta do better. I'm like, I don't even. Like, you just slapped me in my head with this ring.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, shit.

[Ryan Seacrest]

So how he treated the actual wrestlers, crazy.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I just respect the sport. I. I respect the culture of it. I respect like what goes into it. So when I see these guys win in their celebrating with their families, like just knowing, having the close up lens that I have with wrestling because Cody was so good at it. And I did it up to sixth grade, quit, had to do it again my junior year because my parents forced me to. Like, I just know the culture so well and I know like what goes into it. So it's just fun to see because it's like any movie, any boxer, MMA fighter, any behind the scenes stuff that you see with these guys, like these wrestlers, like eat breeze, sleep, die for wrestling. And you always know, like throughout the entire year, you know, like where you're ranked in state, you know where you're ranked in the nation. And you just know every duel you go to like who's who in the zoo. Any tournament, like growing up, it'd be like the Triple Crown winner. Cody won the triple Crown one year where it's like Cliff King, Tulsa, I think Reno or something like that. But you go to these massive tournaments that are national tournaments because.

[Taylor Lewan]

And you and Cody, you wrestle around.

[Will Compton]

The state and you go to all these tournaments. You're kind of, like, ranked in the state, but when you go to these national tournaments and there's so many people there, like the wrestling parents, the families, everybody's there. And yeah, then you. You're like. You're like, hey, Cody's got to wrestle somebody from Pennsylvania. Will's got, you know, I'm wrestling somebody from Minnesota. You're wrestling all around the country. And so I just know the culture of it, and so I just respect it so much that when I see it on and I see how much I follow Cody and watching Nebraska wrestling and Jordan Burrows, he was a. He went to Nebraska. He's like the. Considered the goat of wrestling, one of the goats of wrestling. So I've just always followed. I've always loved it. Like, I know my dad's always tuned in. So when we were on the phone Saturday, we're kind of chopping it up about, you know, who's going to be in the finals tonight. Cody's fired up because he's like, yo, this is the best rep Nebraska's ever performed in the tournament. So it just. It like, fires me up. That's love watching it. Oh, Cody was a monster. Cody was a senior national champion coming out of high school, so senior nationals.

[Taylor Lewan]

So Nebraska was like, oh, we got ourselves a dog. Like, we're probably going to win a national championship with this kid.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. I mean, those are the types of caliber guys that are going to wrestle there. And it was like, you know, when we get recruited, we drove to Mizzou, Iowa, Nebraska, in one week. And Cody and I are both getting recruited at each spot because he was a dog at wrestling. Like, he wrestled for team Missouri. Pennsylvania was always really nice. New Jersey, Iowa.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. What is, like, the number one. Number one state?

[Will Compton]

Probably the Northeast. I mean, you got. You have Iowa, Pennsylvania.

[Taylor Lewan]

I was gonna say, like, Iowa or Minnesota. I feel like Minnesota's always got. Or like south.

[Will Compton]

Minnesota's got a lot like the. Yeah, the north, the Northeast. Like, those are the dogs of wrestling, like Penn State. Even though Nebraska and Oklahoma State performed really well in this tournament. Like, the upset, White, Hendrickson, they had some guys kind of upset some dudes in the finals. But Penn State is, like, far and above. Like, their head coach is Kale Sanderson, which is one of the most accomplished wrestlers of all time, and he just has this program that they just breed a college wrestling team winning year in and year out. Like, everybody's talking about Oklahoma State, Nebraska, how well they did, but they weren't even close to getting the national championship. Because Penn State just wins like every year.

[Taylor Lewan]

What. So you know, like, like with footballers, like, oh, height, strength, whatever. Like the, the attributes that guys have to be a good football player. Like, what, what are good attributes for a wrestler? Psychotic. You gotta be a psycho.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. I mean, your mentality, it starts there, but dude's mobility, flexibility, their strength. Like, these guys can deadlift like over 5, 600 pounds and weigh, you know, they're, they're weighing around like 160, 170.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're, they're doing like. There was a guy, I think a year or two ago, won the national championship on torn. Two torn ACLs.

[Will Compton]

Like, that was Spencer Lee. He's been on the bus.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, like psychopath type.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's been on the bus.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like those, those are the kind of.

[Will Compton]

That's what makes good wrestlers, is people.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That do not have any regard for their body. Like, like, oh, it's just, it's just my knee, it's fine. I'll get it fixed later.

[Will Compton]

And they're just skill, their skill set, like the way that they're able to change levels. Like if you were to watch like Jesse Mendez, the guy who beat Hardy for Nebraska, he wrestles for Ohio State. Their ability to like change levels and like mess with your head and the next thing you know they're on your ankle. Like their riding ability, it's like, you know, when you're on top, it's. And you were asking, why doesn't the guy just stand up if he wants to get out? And it's like, well, some of these guys are incredible. Just controlling the hips, throwing in legs. Like wrestling on top. It's. It's a crazy sport, bro. It's like, who, who. What's the dude's name from Arizona State who had the one leg.

[Taylor Lewan]

Well, that was a while ago.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I forget his name, but he's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Got, he has a movie coming out about him.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's got a movie coming out about him. But it's like you don't even need both legs to be great.

[Taylor Lewan]

What's crazy is. Yeah, what's crazy is.

[Will Compton]

I heard this dude just.

[Taylor Lewan]

People, this guy's cheating.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Anthony Robles. Yeah. Yeah. You're saying she.

[Taylor Lewan]

Well, people were getting pissed because. Because he was missing a leg. That's obviously so much weight taken off.

[Will Compton]

So he's going to look.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah. And so he would be. He should be in a higher weight. So people were getting pissed off that this guy was winning.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Because he's so strong. Like, that's crazy.

[Taylor Lewan]

His balance, too.

[Will Compton]

Cody could clean here. He could clean and deadlift more than me, like throughout my college career.

[Taylor Lewan]

No.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, like these do. These dudes are strong with their grip.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, Cody seems like he had that mentality big time. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's. That's a real. Yeah. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Hey, if you're watching right now and you love. And you love the wrestling talk, the March madness talk, everything going on about, do not forget to first to subscribe to the YouTube channel the Boys. We are almost. We are nearing 600, 000 subscribers on YouTube. Yeah, it's big time. We hit 600k, that'll be massive.

[Taylor Lewan]

That'll be huge for the boys. That'd be nice. That'd be nice to have. Should we take a time out?

[Will Compton]

Oh, bow timeout.

[Taylor Lewan]

You want to take a bow Timeout.

[Will Compton]

Let's take a bow. Time out. Let's take a bow timeout, boys. We do have you. Mitch, I know you love the boberry waffles. They were incredible. We have an entire box for the boys.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yep, entire box. Try the new chicken and boberry waffle. It's both sweet and savory. We put the Bojangle spin on a classic breakfast. Introducing the chicken and boberry waffles. Our signature Cajun filet between two warm Bo berry waffles with a boberry honey glaze drizzle. Pop that thing open, Kim. If you're a fan of chicken and waffles, but always felt like you were missing some bold Cajun flavor and sweet boberry goodness, then it's your lucky day because Bojangles new chicken and boberry waffles are available now. It's a bold Cajun filet you love topped with boberry glaze and a sandwich between two delicious boberry waffles. It's only available for a limited time, so. So get to Bojangles and order yours today.

[Will Compton]

Passing back, boys.

[Taylor Lewan]

Bang. Knock that out. These things are, by the way, like, we did ourselves a little custom ad for Bojangles last week. Garrett, great job on that, by the way. Delicious stuff. Delicious. It's just the smell in this room already.

[Will Compton]

I know.

[Taylor Lewan]

Smells incredible. What you got there?

[Will Compton]

A little. They dropped off a little bow box for the boy. Oh, more.

[Taylor Lewan]

We got more.

[Will Compton]

Let's get a little Nat Geo on everybody. Let's zoom in on Mitch and let's see how big of a bite he can take down. Yeah, that's kind of my favorite part. Mitch.

[Taylor Lewan]

Mitch. And last time I saw you kind of half cocked it. I want you full cocked on this One up. Cock it up, baby.

[Will Compton]

Go to do a. A bigger bite as possible. Take a little off and do a double bite to see how much more you can get in that one bite.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's pro.

[Will Compton]

Two big bites rather than one massive bite. Two big bites in the same breath, though. It can't leave your mouth.

[Taylor Lewan]

All right, there's one.

[Will Compton]

Wow.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's a good bite. That's a good bite. And there's still so much left.

[Will Compton]

You seem like inches way down the sandwich. Mitch. I feel like you could have a wrestler's brain. You don't have that. You don't have that dog mentality like that.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's saying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wrestled in middle school.

[Will Compton]

That's right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I got beat by a girl.

[Will Compton]

That's right, bro. There are some badass women in the sport.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

She was on my team. She beat me, and I went home and cried.

[Will Compton]

You went home and cried.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Said mom and dad, I'm not built for this.

[Taylor Lewan]

I'm not built for it. Sounds like very few humans in the world are built for this. Oh, what a catch by Jack.

[Will Compton]

And, you know, these boys are different. Like you. We talked about it before the. The. The college parties with wrestlers. It's just a bunch of dudes, shoulder to shoulder.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hey, nobody playing all the beer games.

[Will Compton]

Shirts off, bandanas on.

[Taylor Lewan]

Bandanas on top of the head. And then it always ends up in the yard. Always ends up in the yard.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Cheers, brother.

[Will Compton]

Cheers, man. Thank you, Bojangles. What do we have coming up?

[Taylor Lewan]

Let's do a shout out. No. Free shout out. While the boys are enjoying their boberry waffle. What were they called?

[Will Compton]

Shout out. Bow Free shout out.

[Taylor Lewan]

Chicken and boberry waffle. Shout out. Bow Free.

[Will Compton]

Shout out that one, jp. Jp. That's what I'm talking about.

[Taylor Lewan]

Go and start us off, kid.

[Will Compton]

I'm gonna throw it back. Some nostalgia.

[Taylor Lewan]

Throw it back, kid.

[Will Compton]

My shadow. No. Free shout out. My shout out. Beau. Free shout out goes to when you were a young pup and you're just laying in your room and a fan's on on the ceiling, and you're able to grab that one blade and track it all the way around and you lose it. And you keep trying to find that one blade, but when you connect and you find that one blade, it's euphoric.

[Ryan Seacrest]

That might be hall of fame.

[Taylor Lewan]

That might be. Dude, that had me in such a blender as a kid. Like, I was so obsessed with finding the one blade when it was off. One time I took a marker and I put a green line on One of the blades. So when I would lay. When I lay on my bed, I try to find the green line.

[Will Compton]

I love how you did a marker and not just like a piece of tape.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah. I was just ruining the house. Knowing what I know now about homes, I would have never have done that.

[Will Compton]

And then when your brain can't keep up with one, you just think to yourself, maybe there's a level to where the. The human mind just can't comprehend. And maybe I'm there. I gotta slow it down a little bit and start tracking it. You think to yourself, I wonder if everybody else can do this, or am I the one guy who can track the blade going around.

[Taylor Lewan]

I love that. Shout out. No, Free shout out. I will also do a nostalgic one, and it came to me on Friday.

[Will Compton]

Shout out. Beaufree. Shout out.

[Taylor Lewan]

Shout out. Bro. Free shout out.

[Will Compton]

Bo.

[Taylor Lewan]

Shout out. Bo. Free shout out. I'm sitting outside. I set the entire campsite for the kids in the backyard. This weekend, try to do it. Last weekend, there was a big storm that took place. It ended up we had to pack it all in and go back in the house. Still wasn't a bad deal. But this week we were able to go outside, get the campsite going and everything like that. And I had a little fire pit. Watching my children, like Neanderthals, discover fire is one of the most fun things to watch because it takes you back. As a kid, when they see the fire, it mesmerizes everybody. Even as an adult, you. You sit there and stare at the fire, the dancing, the smoke coming up, it comes into your face, and you say, white rabbit. White rabbit. White rabbit. And then it goes away. And you think, yo, how the does that work? Like that? It's just magic. But my kids would grab sticks and they would put the stick in the fire and they'd pull it out. And to see the transfer from fire to the stick blew their minds to the point where, like, it was like an hour and a half of them just getting sticks catching on fire, blowing it out, doing fun designs, and putting it back. So shout out. Bow.

[Will Compton]

Free.

[Taylor Lewan]

Shout out. To the discovery of fire.

[Will Compton]

There you go. And also, new special Lucky out on Netflix.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, Shout out. Bert Kreischer and his special Lucky out on Netflix. Now. I think it's like, number two in the country. It was going, yeah, it's.

[Will Compton]

It's doing well. It's doing well.

[Taylor Lewan]

I love that. I love. I love that Bert gets so much love. Because every time Bert's on the show, there's always a nasty comments people being crazy about Bert. But people, I mean he still pushes numbers. He still does his thing. He's the man.

[Will Compton]

Everybody watching right now. We are wearing some gear. We are wearing some merch. Our merch. Our merchandise store officially launches this Thursday. So as you're watching, you're listening, you can get our merch this Thursday 10am 10am is when it drops 10am Central Time. BWTB.com if you haven't already go to that site right now. Sign up and you will get a reminder in your email whenever the store goes live. And you'll also have a discount code to shop with that discount code when you do support the boys, when you do buy the merch. We have our girl dad, dad stuff. We got our bus wiser collab going on. We got a lot of cool stuff that's going in the store. I can even show. I can even show a few pieces right there. This will all be live on Thursday.

[Taylor Lewan]

Something about the wrestling community too. With this one right here. You cut the sleeves off of that boy. Getting the gym with that.

[Will Compton]

That's solid support the boys be for the boys. Go. Go buy our merch, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

And then fun. Hey, if you like this sweatshirt, don't worry, there's matching sweatpants to go with it. Dude, that fires me up that we have a whole sweatsuit team. Sweatsuit.

[Will Compton]

Sweatsuit.

[Taylor Lewan]

Just in time for the weather to get warm. But get it now, get it now because Spooktober is only 191 days away. That weather's gonna break sooner than you think.

[Will Compton]

Have you guys been leveling up your life since the Ashton? The Ashton hall video has been going viral.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, 100.

[Jack McPherson]

Apparently that guy got evicted. I just saw on Twitter what everybody's.

[Will Compton]

Praying on a downfall.

[Jack McPherson]

Apparently he got evicted from his apartment and apparently he's five'five so I'm not hating.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm just.

[Jack McPherson]

I'm just reporting facts that I saw on Twitter. And no, I mean that guy, he's teaching us all life lessons. But that's just what I'm seeing on Twitter and I hope it's not true.

[Taylor Lewan]

The most incredible thing to me about that guy is when I watch this video, he gets to the pool and he goes to dive in the pool at 7:36. There's not a splash until 7:40. The ability to stay in the air for four minutes is incredible. Absolutely incredible. This guy is different, man. He is different.

[Will Compton]

Shermer's telling me, Sherm, you think it's satire.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If it is satire, it's some of the best satire I've ever seen, but.

[Will Compton]

Sadly, I'm not sure it's satire. I think he's for real. I think he's for real. I think now that it's going so viral, I'm sure there'll be some satire with it.

[Ryan Seacrest]

So I don't know because the one that set me off was his basketball one. When he's putting up shots and the guy's just standing there in the suit, hands him that classic blue water bottle. And then at the very end of the video, he goes and hands him a big slice of watermelon. And then it cuts. I'm like, okay. I think this guy watermelons insane. So I'm okay. This guy, he's. He's trolling us.

[Will Compton]

He might. I think he's been doing it for a while and now started to catch fire.

[Taylor Lewan]

So he's probably. This guy's been around.

[Ryan Seacrest]

I think it's going to be. There's on pace to be the most viewed video on Twitter.

[Will Compton]

When I real. Yeah, on Saturday or yesterday when I was looking, I saw it at like 500 million views on X. 500 million.

[Ryan Seacrest]

And then he's there, like dropping all these other videos of people doing it. They're like the spawns are popping up everywhere.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Ryan Seacrest]

And those other people are more serious. Like Christian McCaffrey. His. That guy was like being dead serious, I think.

[Will Compton]

Oh, yeah, Yeah. I think some of these guys are dead ass serious.

[Ryan Seacrest]

I'm gonna release one tomorrow.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's good to see Christian McCaffrey buy in, though. It's good to see him buy into a trend like this.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Did you see that guy, the one that Garrett, the dude that originally went famous for it last year, Drew, he kind of stepped back up into the spotlight. He was like, hang on. Yeah, he went. He made a Trader Joe's run.

[Will Compton]

Well, you know how he's probably seen it pop off so much, so much bigger than the one that he had. He's like, I gotta get back in this thing.

[Ryan Seacrest]

He was like, I'm just trying to remain humble. Yeah. No, that's another guy that's. Yeah. If all these guys linked, it's over.

[Will Compton]

Spider Man.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Goal is to get invited to that link up.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Jp, you got one dropping tomorrow.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Yeah, I got one dropping tomorrow. I wrote out Nice. My stuff today. I mean, I do this every day, but, you know, it's good to have it written.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. You have the structure in place now it's time to show the world.

[Taylor Lewan]

Sometimes when you do something so Much. You don't need to have it written down, but it's good to have it written down. For this situation.

[Will Compton]

I might have to. I was thinking about one for trash day as well.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Have you noticed anything with the banana peel on your face?

[Will Compton]

I will say it felt like my skin was a little softer after I did do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay.

[Taylor Lewan]

Apparently, back in the day where you put a banana peel on your teeth and it's supposed to whiten your teeth. Teeth.

[Will Compton]

I was seeing. I was seeing on the Internet, you.

[Taylor Lewan]

Take a pill and. Yeah, you put it on there. No, no. Yeah. You actually have to try to ingest the entire banana.

[Will Compton]

Like bananas. Apparently, they got some nutrients that help, like, cleanse your skin. Yeah, it's apparently the. The big thing to keep. To keep zits off your face, really?

[Taylor Lewan]

Apparently, allegedly.

[Ryan Seacrest]

She's crushing very many black people with acne.

[Will Compton]

That is a very good point.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Black don't crack, dude.

[Taylor Lewan]

Black guys really do have the best skin tone.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They.

[Taylor Lewan]

And they were the only ones that were focused in the locker room on their. Their skin routine.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

I mean, you see them after they're doing all the suds, everything. White guys go in there, get in the cold tub, and be like, that counts.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. You start to question, am I going to shower? And then by the end of the year, like, all my hair is, like, getting, honestly, kind of chemically burnt off of my legs.

[Ryan Seacrest]

We got split ends on his leg hair.

[Will Compton]

Then, you see, I'd see Rashawn Evans, he'd have a jar of, like, coconut oil, and he'd just be putting that.

[Taylor Lewan]

And just lathering up Delaney. Delaney was always a cat. After he'd get out of the sauna, he'd have, like, these gloves he put on his hands to bathe himself with his own, like, soap.

[Will Compton]

Dude.

[Ryan Seacrest]

I learned about the gloves, too.

[Taylor Lewan]

The gloves are crazy.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Last three years, I was like, you've got, like, gloves in the shower.

[Taylor Lewan]

Wild. Maybe out there, and you just, you know, you just stared Delaney.

[Will Compton]

Here we go. The AI overview. Yes, banana peels can offer some potential benefits for skin, including acting as a natural exfoliant, soothing irritation, and potentially reducing the appearance. The appearance of wrinkles and dark circles.

[Ryan Seacrest]

We got to get it to 10,000. That was my favorite.

[Taylor Lewan]

Bananas, man. If you can buy stock and bananas right now, it's about to go up.

[Will Compton]

I will say that, Ashton Cat. I mean, these. These folks out there are specimens.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Specimens.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Ryan Seacrest]

His huddle. His huddle dropped.

[Taylor Lewan]

Bummed me out a little bit. Is he actually 5?

[Will Compton]

5.

[Jack McPherson]

That's just what I'm seeing on Twitter. You know how Twitter can be.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think he's five'nine he played college football somewhere.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Alcorn State, I think.

[Taylor Lewan]

Imagine him. Imagine him coming down the middle in an A gap, wide open.

[Will Compton]

Break him.

[Taylor Lewan]

You get him down.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

If anything, if you prove in history you'd get him, that'd be a tackle. But breaking him. I don't know about that. I do not know about that. What else do we got, boy? Oh, it's time for me to.

[Will Compton]

You want to talk about it yet?

[Taylor Lewan]

No. It's time.

[Will Compton]

Let's see what else is on here. Jameis Winston to the New York Giants.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yep. Two years, 8 million could possibly get 18.

[Will Compton]

I'm kind of bummed about the Giants.

[Ryan Seacrest]

For his sake or.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, for his sake. I don't like him going to New York. I'd rather him go to, like a potential winner, you know, Tennessee. Yeah. Neighbors. But, bro, New York is not. You got Washington, you got the Eagles. I mean, Dallas, they'll be probably competing with a little bit, but New York's going to suck this year.

[Taylor Lewan]

Washington, their backups. Marcus, The Eagles. Who's the Eagles backup?

[Will Compton]

It was King.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Ryan Seacrest]

They let it go.

[Taylor Lewan]

If you're Jameis Winston, you want to go to a place that has some question marks at quarterback so you have the opportunity to play.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, but the Giants.

[Taylor Lewan]

I get you. He just.

[Will Compton]

He just did that with the Browns.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. And he did well. Ish.

[Will Compton]

I mean. Yeah, but they sucked still.

[Taylor Lewan]

If you can get on the field and play. I guess if you can get on the field and play. Keep the dream alive. Epic snow game against Aaron Rodgers went.

[Will Compton]

To Pittsburgh and left without a contract.

[Taylor Lewan]

That. That's standard. That sounds about right.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

I think. I think at this point, with Minnesota saying, hey, we're all good on that. The Steelers is the best move for Aaron Rodgers.

[Will Compton]

He'll be in the black and yellow.

[Taylor Lewan]

He needs to be in the black and yellow.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, he will be.

[Taylor Lewan]

Did I read this correctly that Colorado and Syracuse are seeking permission for joint practices in a spring game?

[Will Compton]

Yes.

[Taylor Lewan]

How do we feel? That is actually electric.

[Will Compton]

I like it.

[Taylor Lewan]

I like it, too. I like it as well. I think they don't play this year. Right. That's awesome. That's what you want, then get in there. Practice. Practice each other. That's a good move by Dion. That's a great move by Dion.

[Will Compton]

And who's the. Who's the head coach for Syracuse? Well known guy, you know, I forget his name.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He went from Georgia.

[Will Compton]

He came. I was gonna say he came from Georgia. Coach Fran Brown. Brown. He just tweeted him. Dion was talking about it, talking about joint practices, and Coach Brown tweeted at him, saying, like, let's get it going.

[Taylor Lewan]

That would be.

[Will Compton]

I like the move. I feel like it's a way. Like, I get the new generation of Nil. Not like the Portal, everything else, but just competing in the spring and just keeping your guys hungry. I love the move.

[Taylor Lewan]

It'll be interesting for those players that young to be able to go into a joint practice and see how many fights take place, because it's going to be. Yeah, it is going to be tough to not start swinging on fellas during that spring practice. You know, there's not a game for years. It feels like months. Yeah, it's brutal, at least in the NFL. Like, you're in August. Like, okay, a couple weeks from now, we're playing a real game. But to do that in the middle of the spring would be tough.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

I like it, though. I like that move. All right. It's the point where I try. I put my phone.

[Will Compton]

Severance finale.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Severance finale.

[Will Compton]

You talk severance finale. How the camera's not on that one. Camera's not on that one. Should we. Should we have Taylor get out?

[Taylor Lewan]

You want me to get out? I'll go sit where G's at again? I'll go pee. You guys do your thing. But let's keep it on a Timer.

[Will Compton]

Come on, JP, get to the chair.

[Jack McPherson]

JP's pissed.

[Will Compton]

And shout out everybody in the comments saying they love the severance talk. You guys heard me last week. All I needed was one. But many came in because everybody's tuned into the most popular show on tv.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Where do we start?

[Will Compton]

You hated it.

[Ryan Seacrest]

I didn't hate it. The episode was entertaining, but there was parts of the episode that were frustrating and that I did hate.

[Will Compton]

What's the biggest thing you hate?

[Ryan Seacrest]

So when Mark is talking to himself, I was made aware of something that pissed me off even more after the fact. It was a really cool scene, but I felt it dragged on. And then when he's trying to explain to his innie, like, that reintegration is real, why wouldn't he say, hey, you know your best friend Petey from work? He reintegrated. I met him on the outside.

[Will Compton]

It's a great point. He's kind of in the moment. You know what I mean? He's kind of scatterbrained, focusing. They're both just kind of focusing on themselves.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Yeah. And then I don't know what's funny too.

[Will Compton]

On swapping back and forth where just going in and out. I think it'd be so funny. You're just sitting there getting frustrated with yourself because Mark S was bringing up some points like my man. I'm a person too.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

But for like two months. Any Mark. Any Mark.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Barely a person.

[Will Compton]

I'm with you. I'm with you. It's kind of like. But you can't talk to him that way for sure. You can't. Like, hey bro, we are the same guy. Like you're going to be so happy because we're together. But in in any's mind he doesn't have to leave. Like, why do I have to trust you?

[Ryan Seacrest]

We saw the power of the P and on full display.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Horniness1 Bro.

[Will Compton]

That's what made me most sad is when he very end when he goes to Heli. Jack. You think it's Helena.

[Jack McPherson]

I I, I'm 99 sure. That is not Helly just because they they had made the point to have their goodbye in the office and they're like I'll see you at the equator. And then all of a sudden the one look that Heli or Helena gives is like that's not the look Helly would normally give. It's that real devious kind of like I'm up to something. And so why would they say their goodbyes only for her to show up right at the very end and then run off. And also me and Cooper talking about this when Milkshake comes up and he's talking with Kier like that creepy wax figure. Like that wasn't just from recorded audio. Coop makes the point that he thinks the consciousness of Kier Egan is still alive.

[Will Compton]

100 and so.

[Jack McPherson]

But I think that they're gonna take Helena and make her the CEO and like the board has existed always as like the consciousness of the proprietors. Like where you saw in season one when they get to go to the perpetuity wing.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Yeah.

[Jack McPherson]

So I don't know.

[Ryan Seacrest]

And to Jack's point with Heli and Helena she was. Oh crap. What was I I was reading this though. I'm losing it.

[Will Compton]

Don't we. So there's no part of us that thinks Helena wants to. Oh, what's this thing to fail?

[Jack McPherson]

I don't think so. Because I mean every time they've shown Helena like outside she's very.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Jack McPherson]

Very heavy on Lumen. Like she there's nothing that they've shown from Helena's perspective that she is like doesn't enjoy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Jack McPherson]

Question.

[Will Compton]

She's kind of weirded out when Jame, her dad is sitting there when she's eating the raw egg.

[Ryan Seacrest]

But remember. Yeah, but Heli.

[Will Compton]

When.

[Ryan Seacrest]

When Helly. And when. When Helly and Mark are having their conversation about like the equator, she's like, hey, we're gonna die down here. They're gonna kill us off once they're done with us. There's no need for us. So why would Helly show back up at that end scene if she believes we're gonna die down here anyways? What's the point?

[Will Compton]

Yeah, no, that's a good point. Because part of me too, after when I was talking with Charo, I was like, they had that moment by the computer. Helly. Why wouldn't she just say, no, you have to go right, like, hey, Equator, like you were saying earlier.

[Jack McPherson]

And she gave that huge speech to the marching band where she's like, yeah, lost people. Like, you don't want to be next. And then all of a sudden it ends with her being like, we're gonna stay down here. Also, it. Does the marching band exist in Lumen? Are they hired to come down or is that their sole purpose and they've just been living this life? No, like, right, marching band.

[Will Compton]

The marching band scene was iconic.

[Jack McPherson]

And the. The serious. The Bulls theme song. When they played that for Milkshake to come out, my jaw was on the floor. I was like, what. What is going on at this point? It was such a stressful episode. The whole.

[Ryan Seacrest]

So stressful.

[Jack McPherson]

Like, what is gonna happen next? And I. I want to know if Milkshake's gonna end up turning.

[Ryan Seacrest]

He has to turn.

[Will Compton]

I think he. I think he turns.

[Ryan Seacrest]

The reason he has to turn is because I don't know how you make 10 more episodes off of how they left it.

[Will Compton]

It. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Ryan Seacrest]

And that's another part that bothered me, that ending.

[Will Compton]

I'm like, wait.

[Ryan Seacrest]

I just can't. I can't picture them being able to do a whole 10 more episodes.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Jack McPherson]

To run with now. Because they could do a whole gym storyline where I think Coop was saying it. Where is it going to be flipped where Now Gemma was always the main character and they're gonna show her trying to rescue Mark.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Jack McPherson]

Is Helena now maybe she goes away from Lumen, but she's fallen in love with Mark S. And she wants to take him cuz she found Mark in the real world after she had slept with him. And so I don't know if they're going to want. Like, there's so many, like, different ways they could go about it. But I did see in an interview, people were really upset that Gemma thinks that that was Mark. Not Mark S. But her actress confirms that she knows that that is Mark's innie and not her husband. When she's left at that door, I.

[Will Compton]

Loved how they were getting severed in and out, like, all the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Jack McPherson]

Then all of a sudden, Ms. Casey's back, and they're like, dude, that death, too, with what's his name. And then all of a sudden, God, and he's.

[Will Compton]

I know, because I'm like, how is he going to wiggle through this?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

And then the gun goes off. But also, how about Brianna Tarth just beating his beating.

[Ryan Seacrest]

And after she took some licks, too, like putting them up on the wall. Yeah. Oh, dude. But I guess also going into the next season. So what? Mark leaves Lumen. It goes out into his Audi life and sees Gemma and is like, oh, hey, you're alive.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Why would he. Why would he go back down?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's no way they let him leave now.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because of that point. He's in there, and then.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Yeah. They're just gonna drive me insane.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What if they.

[Will Compton]

This is a crazy one.

[Taylor Lewan]

I just thought of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'll get. I'll ask it in a second. But what do we think about Milchick? Do we still think he'll turn at some point, or is he confirmed op.

[Ryan Seacrest]

I think he was moved by Heli's speech, too.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. He's just. There's bits and pieces that keep putting bad spots. He does. And he stays true to his profession. But even with the. The Egan, the way he was talking to him in the speech, and he kind of stayed heady about it. Like a claymation. You're five inches shorter and you hear the other consciousness laughing in the background. Yeah. But I think. I think he eventually turns.

[Ryan Seacrest]

He has to.

[Will Compton]

He has to. He's right there. The way he gets treated, it's just too. Yeah, I think it'll. I think it'll happen if he doesn't.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Turn in the first two episodes of the third season. I'm not watching, bro.

[Will Compton]

You can't do that.

[Ryan Seacrest]

I will boycott.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'll.

[Ryan Seacrest]

We need to go to Lumen. I'll stay out there with a sign because it's a real place.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Free mill. Check.

[Ryan Seacrest]

And that's what people don't understand, man. Like, this is going on.

[Will Compton]

This is actually happening. You guys sleeping?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You did show me a clip earlier today of Adam Scott in Parks.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Parks and Rec. Explaining the separating work from work from home.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's crazy.

[Will Compton]

You know, just lumen and severance. They've been playing just 8D chess since 2014. Dropping easy, dropping Easter eggs.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Until next time.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, until next time.

[Ryan Seacrest]

It'll come out sooner.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, they did say it'll come out sooner if they're granted a third episode.

[Will Compton]

But they're granted a third.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

All right, we are going to get into the Dale Earnhardt Jr. Episode. This is a long, awesome, fun interview. We break down a lot of stuff within the racing world and Dale Jr. His love for college football, 25 and his video game crew and his friends. Like we break everything down. This is a really fun episode. Appreciate you guys for tuning in again. BWTB.com go sign up our merch drops this Thursday and crack open a cold Bud Light. Thank you for tuning in. Big hugs, tiny kisses. We interrupt this episode to bring you tick tock. What does a mechanic, an auto shop owner in Georgia, a taco restaurant operator in Arizona, and a life saving medical innovator in Tennessee all have in common? They're all small business owners and they're all thriving on TikTok. Across the US over seven and a half million businesses, from family owned shops to entrepreneurs are using TikTok to compete and grow. In fact, 74% of businesses on TikTok say TikTok has allowed them to scale their operations, increasing sales and expanding to new locations. And that growth means jobs. Today There are over 7 and a half million US mil. Over 7 and a half million US businesses on TikTok employing more than 28 million people. And that number keeps growing every day. Small businesses thrive on TikTok. Learn more about TikTok's contribution to the US economy at TikTok economic impact.com Back to this episode.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's good man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Bud Light.

[Will Compton]

Boys, we have Dale Earnhardt Jr. On the bus. This interview is brought to us by the one and only Bud Light. We have some cold ones here. We're cracking them open with the boys and I. I tell you what, it feels special just cracking a cold one with Dale Jr.

[Taylor Lewan]

Cheers.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Cheers.

[Will Compton]

Enjoyment made easy, easy to drink, easy to enjoy. Bud Light is always brewed with four simple ingredients for a a clean, crisp taste. Bud Light is the official beer sponsor of the Boys, the NFL, the NFL Draft, Tight End University and the boy George Kittle, UFC, Shane Gillis's shout out, the boy, Shane Gillis's 2025 tour and other partners also include Peyton Manning, George Kittle, Baker Mayfield, Emmett Smith, Shane Gilly, Post Malone and Dustin Poirier. Fellas, yeah, we're Here we are.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Here.

[Taylor Lewan]

We did it. We just did the reveal of the bus. The bus looks fantastic. A little backstory on that. It was obviously wrapped before, and then we had some guys come on, come in, shout out, Wick customs. They came in and they were kind of giving us a hey, this 50. 50. When we start to take this thing off, it could just ruin the entire paint.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

So seeing it for the first time, it's pretty pristine.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

I don't know, but the eight out there has got a little wear and tear.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's all right.

[Taylor Lewan]

But I kind of like it. Yeah. A little character. It's nice, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Bus looks great. It's good to be back. Thanks for having me back. I'm excited about Yalls new partnership with Bud Light. I've worked with Anheuser Busch for years. Still. Still got a relationship with them here, The. The diecast car.

[Will Compton]

And you're butt heavy, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah. So we do. We call them blue coats, red coats.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Blue coats and red coats, but the butt heavy. Yeah. So. But I enjoy. I enjoy plenty of Bud Lights in my lifetime.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So it's cool you guys got that relationship. So glad that that's kind of what has allowed you to kind of get back to your identity and bring the bus back and all that. So.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, man. Thanks for coming out, too. Like. Yeah. I was telling. When you were over here taking a Tuesday, he came in and he had all these gifts. I'm like, yeah, you're like the best guests. Like, you're. You're flying in for the boys. You're coming with gifts.

[Taylor Lewan]

Very rarely do guests come and they bring gifts.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Us giving out stuff.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

But, yeah, I was like, really running over here. Take my little afternoon Tuesday. And you were like, pulling up, and he had, what, multiple helmets in your hand? A bunch of stuff. I was like, oh, man, he's bringing some cool stuff. I don't think it was me. For us. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

The helmets weren't.

[Taylor Lewan]

The helmets weren't, but I got these. There's dope koozie. Your dad made these.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I. So I remade my Dad's Koozie from 1981. And back in 81, that was a koozie, like the foam boat float in the water kind of thing.

[Will Compton]

Thick.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So I had a company remake those for me because I just love the nostalgia and all things with Earnhardt from back in the day. And. And I brought you some more modern, the Bud 8 Koozies that we had made. Just some gifts. Some drink, some. Some Fun. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

I wonder when. Because we were talking before this, this started. Jack McPherson had a nice little tweet about the 2004 Bud Light can. Like, when are we going to bring these back? We need to talk to Bud Light about what does busting with the boys have to do to bring back a vintage can.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

But just in general, like, I feel like the 80s and 90s, that vintage type, type of style needs to make a comeback in some way. And we might be the podcast and you might be the individual as well to help us get that done.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I think it's. I mean, it's recognizable. All those, all the logos, they kind of change and evolve over time. Some people come in and put a new, modern take on.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

On. On Bud Light or something like that. But it is kind of cool. Those cans can become collectors. You know, Bud Light always does this annually where they'll. Where I live, they do Panthers cans, Carolina Panthers cans. So it's all black with the Panthers and all that stuff. And. Yeah, they did that for Washington one year. I still got a case of Washington cans. Right. That I'll never drink. And so it's kind of cool all the things that they do. But it would be cool to throw back or bring the Frog Bud label.

[Taylor Lewan]

Bring the Frogs back, bring the OGs back. Like, I feel like if you did a callback, a couple of those commercials, people standing applaud in their living room. So pause it, be like, let's just get a run of applause.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So back in back when I was working with bud, hardcore was 2000, all the way up until 08. And I was at the national sales convention every year where they would unveil the commercials before anyone else got to see them. And Bud and Bud Light specifically had the best super bowl commercials. You know, you mentioned the Frogs and the Lizards, the WAZA guys. I mean, every year we would go to these national sales conventions. There would be probably 50 celebrities. Everybody they were working with was there. Singers, bull riders, actors. And we all sat in the same, same spot. There would be 5,000 people in this room, like bottlers and retailers and all their people, all the Bud people for all of their brands. And we all sat down and we're like, can't wait to the commercial part, right? We're gonna watch all the commercials. And they were great because they were really, you know, it's funny as shit. Some of the best commercials, remember the Bud bowl, the, like the football bottles out there playing during the super bowl, they had like the Bud bowl, like as A kid that was cool as I know. I wasn't even up to drink.

[Taylor Lewan]

I was ripping. There was one they did for the super bowl that was like a bunch of horses playing football. And then.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

And one of the guys, one of the cowboys out there is like, that ref's an ass.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Nope. I believe it's a zebra. And I thought that woulda.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, what a commercial. I'm a, I'm a teenager watching the Bud bowl and I, I'm like, I'm watching a Super bowl and I'm like, I can't wait till the Bud bowl comes back. I want to see if Bud Light wins. You know, you're like legit, like bought in thing. That's just a gimmick, right?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, but dude, it's. So when you first start, when you get into NASCAR for the first time, everyone always has a presenting sponsor. Yours was Budweiser. Was that like pretty clear cut, easy to get done?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Or was like. Were other people trying to get you before?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, I don't know. I was, I was, I wasn't involved. I was so young and my dad was doing the wheeling and dealing in the background and he. The Bud deal that we did, that, that at that time in 2000 was 10 million a year. It was the biggest deal that anybody had. They were coming from Hendrick Motorsports where had been for quite a while. And, and so that was pretty unique because Hendrick Motorsports is. I would drive for them down the road. They're real well respected company and so to kind of pull a brand like Bud from them to, to. And that Bud was taking a chance on me to, to. To be good. And so it was really cool. I remember August Bush rides into our shop on, on with the Clydesdales and the, and the dog on top of the Buddy, you know, the big wagon and the stagecoat, whatever that thing was. And they roll into our shop and they. He comes down, hops down. August Bush, the guy that owns the company, shaking my hand and man, I remember going to the brewery and, or the business downtown in, in St. Louis and walking through there and just being amazed to be connected to such a massive iconic brand. Back then, did you ever get to.

[Will Compton]

Influence like a decision with your, them sponsoring you? Well, anything creatively?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, not really.

[Will Compton]

The car?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, no, no, no.

[Will Compton]

So hey, bring the vintage cans back.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, the one thing. So they were funny because they're, they're. There's some healthy competition between Bud Light and Budweiser and all their other brands. Like they, they compete inside the Business and kind of like teammates race racing, teammates competing in each other. But it's healthy, Right. Raises everybody up. And you don't want to get beat by your teammate. You want to be the best teammate. Right. And so there's a little healthy competition inside the business with Bud Light and Budweiser. And so I went to them one time. I didn't know about that. I went to them one time, I said, you know, it'd be cool. I was like, what if I drove a Bud Light car one race? I always drive a Bud car every week. What if I did a Bud Light car? I think that'd be cool. And they're like, like, hell no, you're never running a Bud Light.

[Taylor Lewan]

Shut it down immediately.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, they were like, no, it does sound crazy.

[Will Compton]

I think of it as just like Budhead.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're all just like the big together, right? Yeah. Right.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. We met with them in New Orleans during the super bowl and I think I said something about Bud Budweiser and Bud Light to one of the guys and they kind of looked at me like, we're not gonna do that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And they're. The other thing that I, the other thing I learned from them that was really, I've, I've hung on to this. I don't know right or wrong. I thought this was, hey, they're successful. So I'm gonna believe in this idea is they, they rarely wanted to change the car. The way the car looked. They loved the continuity and that you could look out in the field from the grandstands and immediately see that car. And it looked the same all the time. And they, they love that continuity, the car being the same. Whereas today, you know, there's, there's different sponsors, different. Your, you know, your favorite driver's driving a different looking car every week. And it's, it's tough to sort of follow along and, and there's no, there's no equity built up in a, in a, in a low, in the look of a car. Right. But man, when I drove Budweiser, like, you can show fans this car and they, they're like, right away that, that triggers their nostalgia and they're like, oh man, that was my car because I ran that car and it looked like that for five, six, seven years. And we never changed it. They just, we would bring them all kinds of ideas and we did some one off stuff with baseball and other people here. You know, they had an all star car and they, they did some music stuff with different bands, but for the most part, like they didn't want to change the look of the car too much. I adhered, like, I kind of like believe in that idea of building equity and continuity in a. In a brand, in the way it looks like I don't mind modernizing a logo, but it's got to have. It's got to still look like the original.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's got to have some type, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Just like you're saying, like, if a casual fan goes and watches a NASCAR race and they're able to point out a vehicle that they've seen, to get seen before, that's like, on them. Feel like they're more a part of it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Okay. I know they feel like they know a little bit more about the race now. Everything. But if you're changing colors, like when we're at your shop.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Seem like you guys had a different.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Lots of paint scheme, modern nascar. Today, everybody runs a different looking car because you need so many partners, so many sponsors. You can't have like one sponsor that can fund the entire season. So we have to run a different sponsor almost every other week. But, like, if you look back in the history, everybody remembers the black three car. Dad had the same sponsor for many years. Jeff Gordon in the Rainbow 24. You remember those cars because they were in that same car every week, every year for multiple years. And they built equity and value in that. They still lean into that today. So we do, too. I ran this car, this little late model stock car. I ran it at a place called Florence, South Carolina last November, and, man, we unveiled the idea that we were going to do this and people went apeshit and just ball right into it. Right. And all the people started, you know, everybody on social media sharing stories about their experiences, watching, you know, the. The cup version of that car back in the 2000s run and where they watched it race, and it was really a great experience.

[Will Compton]

Dude, that is awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Did you ever have, like, in your racing days where you might have finished, like 12th or middle of the pack and it felt like a big win?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah. So there's this one race I always talk about, so it's always great to celebrate the wins, obviously, but I'm sure y'all had games where maybe the overall outcome wasn't what you were looking for, but you had. There's. There's moments. Right. Maybe it was a sack or an interception or something like that, or. Or you just had a great game that nobody's going to remember but you. There was a race at Martinsville, North Carolina, or Martinsville, Virginia. Probably 2000, I don't know, four, 2005. We start to race, big crash in turn one. I'm in it. And tear the right front off of my car. And the damage, the back of the car. There it is right there on the screen. So by time, we got the car kind of repaired and able to get back on the track. That's what it looked like. I'm out there getting ready. It's like five laps into the race. It's a 500 lap race at this tiny little bullring. And I get back out there and I'm like, God dang, this is going to be a long day. My car's wrecked. It's not going to be competitive. I'm going to be in the freaking way all day. This is going to suck. We get to running and running along there. Nothing's really happening. But as the run, as the laps start clicking off, start passing a few cars, start going by a few more guys. My car is feeling good. Guys are getting worse. And I'm just starting both. I drive through the field, all the way up into the top 10. I'm like, shit, we're good. This is going to be. This car is great. And got, yeah, drive up into the top 10. I spin myself out right here underneath the 12 car. Have to go right to the back of the field again. Drive right back to the front. Ended up finishing like fifth, fourth or fifth in the race. I'm in this. I'm in the photo as we're coming off turn four, battling for the win. I'm there, I'm there, right? And you know, I just always. I got a. Somebody made me a custom die cast of that car. It's like the size of this thing that I have in my collection. I got a little modest collection of custom shit. And so somebody made me one of those. And I'm like, this is like my favorite race. I didn't win because of all the shit that went wrong and how bad it should have been. But we just didn't stop trying. And the car actually was badass. So the, the fact that the fender's missing, it kept the right front tire cool and allowed the tire to really outperform everyone else who had a tire that had a big fender on it that was in there getting cooked by the brakes and the engine and everything else. And so the fact that my car's out in the wind actually was an advantage over the long course of the day. And that's why the car, I think, actually ended up being really more competitive. Than it should have been.

[Taylor Lewan]

There's obviously rules and regulations of, like, how cars are supposed to be set up and all that, but you ever, like, think, like, I wonder if there's way, like a tearaway kind of like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The pants we talked about?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. If it's, like, a disadvantage, maybe just, like, hit the wall real quick and it just kind of clips off. All right, maybe, boys, it happens.

[Will Compton]

That's the cost of doing business with the pads. You take out certain parts of your shoulder pads to be.

[Taylor Lewan]

Michael Bennett used to do that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, there is. There's a. There's an advantage. If you lose the tailpiece of the car, NASCAR won't let you run that. NASCAR makes you come down pit road and reinstall the tail. If the whole tail comes off. So the back bumper, if that. That back bumper being on there creates a lot of drag underneath it. Air comes from under the car and gets into the back bumper. So if that were to come off, that's kind of an advantage in some scenarios. And so NASCAR makes you reinstall that. But we. After this happened, I joked with my teams for the rest of my career, like, hey, when we go back to Martinsville, you know, if the. If the front fender falls off, it's okay. Like, don't.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know if there's a reason why nudge.

[Taylor Lewan]

Like, hey, the footballs are actually better when they're deflated. Not telling you what to do, but if we could have a little.

[Will Compton]

Why is there driving into the wall?

[Taylor Lewan]

There's a process acting a little weird, huh? Yeah, just. So when you went back there, you're kind of hoping.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I just knew, and I. There's. There was a picture of a guy named Harry Gant, and he won that race in 1981 at Martinsville. And he had the right. He had damage on the right front. The right front tires exposed. He won that race again in 1991 with the right front fender completely gone. Same guy. And then probably a handful of years ago, I think Martin Triggs Jr. Or somebody else ran really well with. With a lot of damage and some in the right front tire. The left front top, right front tire, I think, exposed. And so, I mean, it's kind of common knowledge now, but you can't. You can't build a car to where the shit will just fall off for you.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Catch you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. It would be tough to do that.

[Taylor Lewan]

When you have success the way you do. They're like, I don't know about you, but, like, in the football world, a Lot of guys are superstitious. Some guys lay their stuff out, they listen to certain music and stuff like that. Did you have like a game day ritual that you would hit every single. Every single week or you just got. You just woke up pissed? Excellence.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I. My superstitions were all the general, traditional, common knowledge superstitions like walking under ladders, breaking mirrors. The number 13 in racing, people used to say the color green, that was like a widely hard adhered to superstition. The color green was bad luck. Now, that didn't make any sense to me because there were green race cars. Money is green. There's green. You know, there was. There was moments where green didn't seem to bother my luck. Right. And so I didn't really buy into that. Peanuts. For some reason, peanuts around a race car, there's people that are old. Old heads kind of believe peanuts is bad.

[Taylor Lewan]

Okay.

[Will Compton]

Like just having peanuts around.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Don't eat. Somebody's eating them. Get away from my car.

[Taylor Lewan]

Doesn't matter if they're shelter unshelled.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So these are pistachios.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Yeah. Let him go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But that's a bit of an older wise tale, but man, I was one that kind of believed in like the traditional stuff and like. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

So what's the weirdest superstition you've ever seen from a different driver?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The. I think the. The ones you hear about, I don't even say they're even hard to believe, is like race car drivers wearing the same pair of underwear every race. Like they got a specific pair of underwear that they have to wear that day. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Or.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I don't. I've heard some kind of strange stuff like that, but nothing too crazy, to be honest with you. I didn't, I. I was more worried about like, don't eat anything that's gonna fuck your stomach up, you know?

[Taylor Lewan]

Or like, have you ever gotten the.

[Will Compton]

Bubbles, like a bubbly, like bubbly gut. Bubble gut. Like bubble guts?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Bubbling up.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hold those cheeks tied in.

[Will Compton]

So you had it. When you're out there racing, I mean yourself.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I never shit my pants.

[Taylor Lewan]

Have you missed yourself?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah, brother.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hell yes, you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So on the hot days, you got bubble guts, bro.

[Will Compton]

There's no. I mean, you could hold it in, but it's going to. You have a slight release. Like, let me try to get some air out. But you're like, there's no room for.

[Taylor Lewan]

I think, I think for like the normal population people, you're very aggressive with getting the air out of your butt. You'll take A chance that most people. I remember being in the airport with you and being like, I gotta go to the bathroom real quick. I just myself, you know, I feel like you kind of don't possess the quality of thinking like, oh, poop might come out here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There is an art. There's an art always finding the limit. There's an art to getting the gas around the poop.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And getting that out.

[Will Compton]

I agree. But when you got bubble guys, it's kind of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, no, no, no. So, like, the shit's coming. You're gonna. Right. But if you can get the air around the. That buys you a little time.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. You just. Yeah, that's a.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's, you know, that takes the pressure down.

[Taylor Lewan]

Your ship's going down. You got to get some weight off to slow the. The ship from.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It buys you about 10 minutes.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Wrapping around the turd almost kind of pushes it back up a little bit.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It just takes the pressure down.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's basic science is what you guys are talking about right now. That's hydraulics.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So if you're. I was pretty good at just, you know, making. I could fart if I needed to. I could probably, you know, I can relieve the pressure without my pants. And so I never. My pants.

[Will Compton]

Okay, but with bubble guts, you were able to hold it in.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I mean, the problem is, is, though, do you. I mean, this is funny. We're talking about this, but do you know, does I. My problem was is that when the. You know, whatever the moment is, right. Whether you're in a race or you're driving home and you're like, holy, I gotta get to the toilet.

[Will Compton]

It's coming.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Your body knows when you're near that toilet.

[Taylor Lewan]

Isn't that crazy?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Cuz, like, you. You're like, all right, I made it into the driveway. I'm going to be fine. And then as soon as you get near the front door, it's like, no, we got to go now.

[Taylor Lewan]

Got a sprint.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's like the. The time is now.

[Will Compton]

And you fortunately just get your pants down right in time. Like, as you just start going into.

[Taylor Lewan]

There's now a couple of those situations where you're literally flying by the seat of your pants where you're, like, unbuckling and kind of like doing this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This.

[Taylor Lewan]

This hip maneuver.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

To jump onto that toilet just in time is. You're hitting toilet the same time things are coming out.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's a wild deal.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Your body knows. It's like, hey, man, you're not fooling me. You're near a toilet. Yeah, it's happening. I gotta go.

[Taylor Lewan]

But pissing yourself, that's status.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So this is the thing with pissing yourself.

[Taylor Lewan]

Can I. So yeah, I basically, I want you to explain this but then I also want to know probably on a percentage on a race, how many have wet pants.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

To be clear, we're not shitting ourselves regularly. Yeah, but we do, we do pee on ourselves sometimes. This happened to me probably half a dozen times in my career. So you, the inside of a race car is a good day. 120 degrees, 125, 130. As on a bad day, 150 degrees, super hot. So when, when you know, you know beforehand. Like on a Thursday or Friday, you're like, it's man, Sunday race day. It's going to be 95 degrees. It's gonna be so miserable inside the car. And so you start thinking about that and you start hydrating, right? You're trying to do a little extra hydrating. You get up in the morning, you're drinking water and everything. And there's a lot of things that are happening right before you get into the car. Driver's intro and a couple other things. Handshaking and gripping and grinning. Photos that, that are, they're the roadblocks to pissing. Like you can't get to the john and so you, you don't get to use the bathroom and make sure you're good to go before you get in the car. You hop in the car, you buckle up, start your engines, you're in, you're committed, right. You're going to drive this thing off pit road and start this race. Then you're like, shit, I got a pee. And it's, I got a three and a half hour drive in this car. I got a piss. You can't focus if you're holding a pee. You can't like you, you know, you're miserable. Caution comes out, you're like, you're, you know sometimes when you're driving in the race, green flag, there's enough debt focus that it can take your mind off of it. But you're, you know, caution comes out, you're like, like it, I'm just gonna piss. And so it's kind of hard to piss yourself. You over it is trying to like, yeah.

[Will Compton]

Relieve.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's like doing it in front of somebody.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know what I mean?

[Taylor Lewan]

You have to be fully relaxed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

The minute you try to flex hitting a turn, you gotta strain a little bit. Like it closes about.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You have to do it under caution. I don't think I've ever been able to piss driving in. In green flag conditions because you're focusing so much and thinking about driving the car, you know, but there's the times that it's happened, you just can't get. You're not going to get to the finish. You're not going to. You're going to piss yourself. It's going to happen. You got to. You got to accept the situation you're in. It's not a big deal because you're sweating your ass off. It's miserable in there anyways. It's, you know, it's already gross.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so when you go, the only problem is, is so you get done. And I always had white suits, right? And so I'm like. So I'm thinking, like, I got this white suit. I'm like, I'm. Shit's going to be obvious right? When I get out, people are going to look at me and go, fucking pisses himself obvious.

[Will Compton]

Like water boy sheets over there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so what I would do is I would. I would say if I had pissed myself, I figured it out. I got. I'd say, hey, bring me an orange Gatorade. When I get done here, when I pull up, when I'm done, I pull up onto the pit road and I'm going to get out, like, bring me an orange Gatorade. And I would pour that orange Gatorade all over to, like, blend it in so you couldn't see.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, that is some dehydrated piss.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, it's. Change. It changes the color of your clothes.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so I get. I'm just, you know, I don't want people to go, dude.

[Will Compton]

And so pissed himself.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I would kind of blend it in, and then I would get out of the car. And then you have to tell the interior guy. There's a guy that's responsible for the interior of the car. That's his job. He works on that part of the car all week long, and he's got to clean up the interior, and then he's got to get it ready for the next race. And so he's. He's. That's his role. And he's your buddy because he knows everything about what's going on inside that car with you, and he knows everything you touch. And you and him talk all the time about, let's move this knob. I can't reach it. Or, let's put this over here. That'd be more comfortable. And, hey, man, I need to change my seat it just don't feel right. And so you and him are close, Good buddies, texting pals, right? And you got to tell him, man, hey, man, I pissed the fucking seat. You know, you're. You're gonna. Monday morning, I'm sorry. You know, you're gonna take this seat out and it's gonna fucking smell. I'm sorry. You know what? You. You can't. I mean, you feel bad. You kind of want to go and. And help him get this seat out. Sometimes that's not possible. But. Yeah, he has to pull the. There's an insert. The seat has a foam insert that's. That's made perfectly for you. So he just has to pull that out and then, you know, steam it down or hose it or pressure wash it or whatever.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hang it up. Yeah, but that's tough.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Telling a guy, look, you gotta. You gotta put up with this.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Have you ever puked yourself?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Never while driving? No. No.

[Will Compton]

Like, you just. You got the helmet on. You're just like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So that was.

[Will Compton]

I'm not feeling right. You start puking down here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So there's some guys, actually.

[Taylor Lewan]

Pretty badass.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know some guys that have done that, and I can't imagine being so miserable that yours. You got a full face helmet on. Right. And you may be comprised. I mean, when you've got a puke. A lot of these guys are puking during the race while they're. They're battling, right. Running in eighth place. And all of a sudden you'll see. I had this one guy that was driving my car, and he's racing along, and we're having a good day. He's running like seventh or eighth, and it's coming down to the end, and he just kind of goes high and loses a couple spots. And I'm like, what the fuck is going on? He was throwing up. He just got sick. And he's like, push. Pushes his helmet up just a little bit, and he's like throwing up all over himself. And it was like shredded chicken, whatever.

[Will Compton]

Oh, he'd ate some Chipotle.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Something that just was bad news. And it just was everywhere. When he pulls in after the race, it's just everywhere. It's one of them things, you know, when your kid throws up, it just goes everywhere.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And you're like, ah. You know, you're the one that has to clean it up. You're looking in there and you're like, God dang, man. That's just. It's everywhere. You don't touch anything because it's all over the place. But so that luckily never happened to me because I was specifically like my morning meal. I usually wasn't a breakfast guy. So my meal before race was bread and, and. And like ham and mustard. And like, this is basically. I wasn't gonna.

[Will Compton]

Ham sandwich.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. You ain't gonna grill me a piece of chicken.

[Taylor Lewan]

Separate. Yeah, bread is bread and then I'll have the mustard on the side.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm not gonna do like a grilled chicken. I wasn't gonna risk. Risk, you know, eating something that wasn't cooked properly or just you just. Even though it was like a highly, highly unlikely you were gonna have a problem, I just wouldn't risk it. So I ate something very basic and just get something on, get the foundation in there and then. Then go to work.

[Will Compton]

Like, just like rookies being super nervous about their first NASCAR race. Yeah, you're kind of getting in the elements are kind of getting to. You just start to get a little dizzy. Like, yo, I gotta puke. Yeah, the guys would puke. Like, guys puke before games.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know guys, that Noah Gragson drove for us, and he's in a cup series now. He had a situation or an issue where I think he was holding his breath a lot at the end of these races. And so if you. You know how, like, if you guys maybe like went a little bit too hard in a sprint or something and you get done and you like, your body, like sort of has this sort of moment where it's like you fucking overdid it, you know, and you get a little sick. Maybe. He would hold his breath, I think, late in these races and he would win these, you know, he. He would win a race, get out, you know, and you get the other thing, too. I wonder if this has happened to y'all guys in football. But there's Noah. He's a wild one.

[Will Compton]

So nice area.

[Taylor Lewan]

We're going to zoom in on him real quick. This guy's got a.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's a wild man.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's got an attitude about him.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He does. He's like a modern day Tim Richmond.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's got that Paul Swan with the zip down.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, Paul Swan.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, he's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's great. We're in a sport that succeeds on personality. He brings a ton.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So he would get out of the car and I think he held his breath a little bit in the last few laps trying to win these races. And then he would get out and expel all of this energy over being excited. And then it would hit him and he would Just bend over and throw up right on the front straightaway, holding the checkered flag. He's like, yeah, look, there he is. That's. That's. After winning a truck race at Martinsville. He's throwing up on the track.

[Will Compton]

How do you get to where you're holding your breath at the end of the race? Like, you're just so focused, so you're just, like, not breathing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I think that you. Because when you go into the corner, you sort of every. But when you go into a turn, you, like, flex every bone, every muscle in your body. Like, you just. You're. You're pushing against the seat, you're pushing against the steering wheel. Like, if the steering wheel is made of aluminum, man, you would just probably twist that thing right off the steering shaft. And so, like, every time you go into the corner, your legs are going against the leg braces, and you're just. Every muscle is just flexed all the way. And you. You. You know how, like, guys, if you ever go up in with the. With the Blue Angels or any of those guys, they had those grunting practices when they get into the GS. Yeah, you do that, too. Not because of the same reason they do, but you just. You go in the corner just driving this car, and so, like, you don't breathe for a minute, like, for a brief 15 seconds, right? Then you might breathe down a straightaway. Then this corner comes again, and you hold your breath. And I think that he was probably doing that to an excess. And then he gets out, wins the race. Gets out and goes, yeah, you know, and just goes. Expels all of this excitement. And then his. And then he goes. You know, he just gets sick. I mean, I wonder, like, if, say, take yourself to, like, you know, a moment in a game where you're playing hard. You're. You're using. You're. You're. You're using all of your energy, right? You're pushing yourself almost to that limit. You know where that limit is, where you can ride all day. And you're right there. And then you have a great play that you expelled a little more to get that play to happen, right? And you. You're like, fucking, I. I went a little hard there. And then you maybe celebrate, you know, and. And there's this sort of. Your body sort of says, fucking calm down, man. You know, you're about to throw up. Up.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Or have you ever had that happen?

[Will Compton]

I've never had it, but I know guys. Guys do throw up. Like, I mean, when you're exerting all that energy.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Even. Even with workouts, guys would be puking after, like, GPP or something when you're doing, like, work capacity.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, I never. I. I only threw up. I don't remember ever throwing up in a game. I know what you're talking about, though, with, like, the, like, exertion of energy. For me, it always came like long drives, and you think you score, and then you're getting hyped with the boys, you're celebrating. Then there's a flag or they actually call it back and you have to do another plan. You're like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, oh, yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Because your. Your body has a sense of being like, okay, it's over. I've expelled rest right now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Because you know you have a break coming up that's perfect. And it's like, oh, no, no, no. You got to go one. One or two more plays.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's perfect.

[Taylor Lewan]

But I've never ran into a situation where I threw up. We had a. We played a game in London, and I think. I think it was 2016 against the Chargers. And my left guard got hurt. And then Corey Levin shout out my. The boy who just actually resigned. He didn't think he was playing. So he's having pints in London with the boys. Like, he's. He's enjoying London a little bit. And I remember, like, right when he got in the game, we had like, an. Play drive. And we're in the middle of the field, and we're in the huddle kind of waiting. I think it was like a TV timeout or an injury timeout or something like that. And he just starts puking. I'm starting rubbing his back. Hey, you gonna be all right? Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

But there's nothing worse than. I can't imagine the feeling of being in the middle of a game.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I'm not a puker.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't. I can't. Like, I can.

[Taylor Lewan]

I had one situation.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I can get hammered drunk. And yeah, I. I feel like I want to throw up. And I know that I will feel better if I do. I had a stomach bug last week. Week. And I'm laying on the couch like, God, if I could just throw up. But I ain't got it. I'm not like that.

[Taylor Lewan]

You don't ever.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Can't. Can't do it.

[Will Compton]

We had some bad oysters in New Orleans, and it was like, I'm laying in bed and I'm thinking the same thought you are on the couch. Like, it, man. I just gotta throw up. And I'll Just sit there and gag myself until I don't think.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I can't see even trying that. I don't. I've tried to do that back in the day. I just can't. It's got to come out the other end.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, I mean, he goes, that's so.

[Will Compton]

You'Ve never, you've never puked?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not many times. Like I, I did get real up one time and I remember the last time I threw up puking Rally Dale. Yeah, I remember last time I puked drunk. That was a long time ago.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

The drinking. The drinking always gets me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When we do beer Olympics, I do.

[Taylor Lewan]

I can hold myself for a while.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I can't do.

[Taylor Lewan]

But once I know like the game's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Over, I'll even tell like I'm. I'll go on a trip with some buddies and I'll tell them like in a text message before we leave. I'm like, don't even fucking talk about shots. We're not doing. I got, I drink. I drink beer all day. I know my thing. I got a. I got a damn plan, right? Yeah, I know how. I know my pace.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. And especially you get up there when you're getting older, you don't be matters.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Don'T throw a shot into the middle of the day or, you know, 8:00 at night after we've been going for eight hours. Don't be throwing a shot in there because that, that ruins it.

[Will Compton]

That's terrible.

[Taylor Lewan]

When you've been going for eight hours. I am a villainous friend to have when you're. When you're out.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Because I'll start to get a little, little cooked up. And then when I put the on switch on, I want to go. Yeah, but I don't want to go alone. It's not fun to go alone. You want to bring your boys with you. So I'm definitely the guy that's like, I will always buying shots. I'll buy out. Like, I'll buy like, hey, let me get 20 of them and I'll just start dishing them out. Yeah, I'll go to. Will you take it? I know Will is big on like, I got you, buddy. And then 1, 2, 3. Or he'll like sit in the corner. Yeah, so I gotta stay on. I gotta stay on. Will.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm watching, I'm watching. Yeah, I can see. Yeah, somebody's. Somebody's getting a frickin shot. They're getting shots. Fuck.

[Taylor Lewan]

You got that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'll chug my beer so I can spit the shot in the beer.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's my point.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'd rather chug a full beer than to take that shot. But usually, like, there's a couple sips left in the beer, and I'm like, I'll see it coming. I'll be like, all right, I'm ready.

[Will Compton]

To take this shot.

[Taylor Lewan]

Put it in your mouth. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, dude.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. The. The whole. The drinking thing. Eight hours in, the boozing with the boys, though, and shots get brought up. It's kind of. It always sounds like a good idea. Idea.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. But if you're drunk, there's really no.

[Will Compton]

You're not really in the mindset of saying no anymore.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Real maturity is realizing, like, around 11pm you stop drinking.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Like, you're like, let me try to. That's when your brain starts to be like, hey, there is a tomorrow.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

If you're lucky enough, there's going to be a tomorrow. You know, that's when it becomes tough, man. You. You were talking about, like, all this stuff that happens before the race. So I won't speak for Will, but for me, like, the most anxiety I would have before a game game would be jogging out. They're doing announcements. You do, hey, how we doing? Everyone's kind of dapping up. Guys are in the corner praying. Then all of a sudden, the national anthem happens. And when that national anthem happens, it's like my heart rate is probably higher than it'll be the entire day. Like, I'm just thinking about all the possible things that could go wrong. How. Like what these plays are, these specific ones. So my anxiety is so high.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

What's it like for you when it's like, you're doing the announcements and then you have to go shake the hands, kiss the babies? Like, I can't imagine being social before competition. Is that a very difficult thing for you?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Very difficult. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was our sport, Pratt. Our sport prides itself on being really accessible. So we. We did it because it was like a. We're boasting on our sport. Right. In our industry.

[Will Compton]

How.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How. How people can come up and shake our hand or say, hey, hey to us right before climbing in the car. But it was hard mentally to, like, really listen to a conversation. If somebody. Somebody wanted to tell you a story, like, hey, man, we met once.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, that's how it always is.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm like, I can't really tune in right now. I'm gonna sit here, wrinkle my forehead, nod yes. I really don't hate when people, too.

[Will Compton]

Are like, hey, you. Do you remember me? Yeah, like, oh, we've met before. You're just thinking, bro, I'm about to jump in this car right now to go race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

You want me to recall, remember the time that we met?

[Taylor Lewan]

People gotta have a little awareness. Like if you're about to go jump in a car and do 500 miles.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It'S like, yeah, any, all of this, all of the, anything happening like in that two hours before the race, before you're climbing in that car is. Feels like just a big, big obstacle. And you cannot wait to, to get in the car because you can't be reached. You can't be. No, you're, you're in there and you're. No one's coming in there with you, right. And you finally like, get some. And you're sitting on your ass, right. So you're like relaxed. You're in your seat that's custom made for you. Everything feels good and comfortable and sometimes on them, hot. I don't know if you, you guys ever did this. Thinking about the hot days that we had, I would get a water bottle, multiple water bottles, and poke a hole in the end of it and I would soak my entire suit before I got in the car. And so my thought process was my body sweats to cool me down. If I'm already wet, I'm already kind of beating it to the punch and it's still going to sweat, I'm still going to burn, you know, lose some water. But I'm, but I'm like, it don't have to rush to do that job or get that started in the first hour of the race. Right. And so if I soak the suit now, it's not poor. It's just wet. The whole thing's wet. Like you put it in a bucket and ring it. Wrung it out, man. I'd get in the car and I'm pretty comfortable even on like a 95 degree day. And as soon as I get moving, any kind of air moving, it's like coat cool and.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And like it's like to take the.

[Will Compton]

Water bottle and just squirt it all over before a game.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

I feel like when you first start sweating too, like, like if you get in the sauna and that first five minutes when your body begins to sweat, you have like an irritation. Almost like you're like. Yeah, kind of itchy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

And then finally you get into a good sweat and you feel good. So I like that move. Yeah, I like that move. Diving that. That's so the point. You sit in the Car is when you feel, like, relaxed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Taylor Lewan]

Because for us it's. It's the first hit. Like, let's get the first play done.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. You get your first play of the.

[Taylor Lewan]

Way, then you feel, let me, Let me put my hands on somebody real quick. How are we really feeling today? That's when, you know, started what kind of day it's going to be.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Because you get the first couple plays and it's like you might maybe mess up on the first three plays of the game.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's a different. That's a different mental warfare right there.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How long. How were. Do you remember games where you were, like, struggling to find yourself, to fall into that, like, comfortable space?

[Will Compton]

Not like a. Not like a full game?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yes.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I mean, I guess for an alignment, it feels a little bit. It feels a little bit different because I feel like you're kind of in sync on doing the same thing. Like, if you're blocking well, you're blocking well. Well, but I like, between, like, if you have a bad run play or a pass play on defense, it wouldn't really be something that it just like consumes you, like, goes into your play the rest of the day. But it's more so like it's that play that's just sitting in your head the entire time. You go back to the sideline so you might make a play. You're not even really caring that you made a play because you're just thinking about what you missed before.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

For me, how coach is going to coach you when you get in the film room and everything else?

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, yeah, that. Yeah. I wish there was a way to, like, combat that because I feel it goes through every player's mind is like, what are the coaches going to say about this on Monday? And you're in the first quarter of a game and you're like, oh, I can't wait to get past to worry about that. Yeah. For offensive line, it's very like, there's a lot of precision that goes into it, especially with pass blocking. So for me, it was like feeling out the speed of the individual. I'd watch them on film, like, okay, this person's faster, they're. They're a little slower, but they're more power. It was really just like feeling them and understanding like, hey, what is. What does my tempo have to be against this person all day? And that first couple of pass plays, whether it was in the first drive, luckily, hopefully you don't go three and out. But if you have like a good like 6, 7, play drive in the first. First series, and you're able to kind of put your hands on them and feel it. That's when you feel a whole lot better. The tough is that first third down, like, the first thing you brought up. I remember we were playing the Saints. This had to be like, 20, 21 or early, like 2020 or 19. And we played the first series, and I overset a guy, duh, big guy from you, from University of Texas El Paso, but I overset him. And that was the first third down of the game. And you just get in your head, you're like. And we got off the field after that, and you have to think like, okay, what did I go? What went wrong there? How do I have to fix this? Don't be sure. Should I get out a little bit more? And then you start second guessing all these things you're doing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

From a technique standpoint, that was always, like, just the mental game that was going on.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

While playing, I didn't think about that. Like, that's crazy because, like, when I'm watching a game and there's a three and out, especially the first drive, you're thinking about the. The. Yeah, the. The confidence of the quarterback. Damn. Is this the. Is this a omen for the rest of the day? Can we stop the other team from putting points on the board, getting behind you? Don't even think about, like, the individual. Other individuals on the field and how they're. You know, Because I can't see the details and go, damn, though, my. Oh, Lyman feeling pretty shitty about that. Right? Because he did this or that. And the other. You don't even think about those guys walking off the field and how that affects their. Their confidence.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, it's a. It's an interesting. That's. We talk about football, obviously, the football podcast, but like, 11 guys in the field have to do their job. And especially with the offensive line, like, it is such a. A mental game that goes along with the physicality of it, especially in pass, bro. Because that's how you get paid.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

The less sacks you get up, give up, the more money you make. And so, like, those are like. It's like run block for show, pass block for dough. And if you can get in there and. And really just feel confident early in the game, it makes everything so much easier.

[Will Compton]

And you just know, too, just being a competitor and being an athlete with the nascar, like, if you take a turn wrong, it's more about, like, you having the goldfish memory of thinking, all right, this is correctable. I got reached on this run play. I was in a bad position. I took a bad first step. Like, you just got to correct the process. And you were like, yeah, you know, your preparation to be in a better position. But if you end up letting that stuff consume you, like, oh, I'm taking these turns wrong, or, oh, I'm just not playing well today. And then it just kind of consumes your entire being and you have to.

[Taylor Lewan]

Slowly start stacking and stuff.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, you have to be able to put. You have to be able to put those, like, plays behind you if you're going to get out of whatever that said run is. Because usually it's just like a technique thing.

[Taylor Lewan]

But when you. When you're talking about, like, you don't think about the offensive lineman. Like, when I watch NASCAR being a casual thing, like, I know how to drive a car. I can drive stick. But I'm not thinking about the technique that you guys are going through. I'm just seeing, like, hey, they're breaking pretty hard in that turn, it seems like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But, like, what are, like, moving forward, this guy. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

What are, like, the small pieces of game that you would, like, kind of focus, like, what were, like, kind of your mental hurdles you had to go through?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, yeah, the. In the conversation we were having, you're, You're. The car is a really big part of the success or failure that you're going to have that day. And so your guys at your body and it's your preparation and all the. Your. You go out there and if you're talented and, and you've prepared and you know your opponent, you go out there and it's you. Right. But in the. As a driver, you kind of. A lot of times are at the mercy of the ability of the car, and if it can do it or not. And you'll go and start those. You'll start the race and run like a handful of corners, and you're. You're judging the car. You're going, is this damn thing any good? Is it going to be better? Is it. Is it better than that guy? I'm catching him. I'm Caught him there. Yeah. Okay. I'm doing this right. It's doing that right. And. Or it's sucking and you're out of control and you don't have the grip and you're losing positions and guys are on your ass and breathing down your neck. And your confidence in the car determines whether you spiral down or continue to do well. And so as the. In the very first handful of laps, a Driver is really just judging this car and, and critiquing the car and okay, if it's not great, we're gonna have a chance to fix it on the first pit stop. Pull down pit road, tell the crew chief everything you can to get. Give him all the information you can to make so he can make the best choice to fix the car, improve the car. He gets a chance to improve it. You go back out there. All right, did he fix his son? We're going to start the group, we're going to get the green flag and start, continue the race. Either it's improved and you're happy, hey, great job, man. You fix my problem, I'm better. Or he didn't fix it at all. It didn't. It didn't make a damn bit of difference. And now you're like, doubting the ability of your team and yourself to even make the day better. And sometimes it doesn't get better. Sometimes you just have a car that doesn't do what you want it to do, and you got to drive the son of a gun for three and a half hours, and it sucks. But some days you start with a bad car, make it better, and you have a great day, and you're proud of that. You're proud of your guys and you're. Some days you start to race and shit's badass and it's awesome all day, but you're always reliant on this car to, like, do things. And you can be the best race car driver, smartest guy, know everything you need to know. And if your car sucks, you can't overcome that. Right? You can't will that car into being what it can't do, too. Yeah, yeah.

[Will Compton]

With your drivers. Have you ever been like, in the, with the crew on race day? Like, are you went from driver to the stuff that you do? Obviously you do media stuff. But have you ever experienced, like, you know, taken the chance to be like, put yourself in as like a coach.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like Coach Earnhardt a little bit? Not a ton. But we ran the Daytona 500 this past February for the first time as a team. So my team that I've owned as an owner runs in basically kind of what is what, what I'd call the college level. And we have four full time teams and they race on Saturday before the big boys on Sunday. And so that's what we've been doing this February, this past February, we entered a car in the Daytona 500, which is the biggest race of the year for the, for, for nascar. And I was I had a. I had a lot of fun because I was way more plugged in, way more vocal. I was on the radio during the races talking to the driver, and I worked on the car a little bit in the garage, and, like, it was just. I was able to be more. I was able to be more hands on. And I don't necessarily coach. Coach the drivers all that much. It's hard. I was talking to one of my drivers this morning about a race coming up this weekend, and I'm sitting there and I'm, like, trying to explain some things that are unique about this particular racetrack. And you're just wondering, you know, like, how much of it they're picking up because they're young. And I remember being young and, damn, you could tell me all kinds of awesome freaking information, but I might not be, like, processing it and taking it in. I just got to go out there and experience it, right. And see the wrong and the right and. And. And adjust and fix and, you know, just learn by doing. But so I try to coach, but a lot of times, man, they just look at you with this bewilderment, and they're like, young and like. Yeah, I know what you mean. And you're like, I'm not sure you know what I mean, you know, and we'll see. But, you know, my dad, you know, tried to help me a little bit with some advice and driving, and it was really good. And so, I mean, I try to. I try to talk to my driver sometimes, but a lot of times they just got to go out there and see it and do it.

[Will Compton]

We interrupt this episode to bring you neutral vodka seltzer. Have you tried neutral? If not, you are missing out. It is the best seltzer that I have tried that is on the market. It's made with real vodka and real juice, and that's what makes it so delicious. It comes in a variety of flavors. Pineapple, watermelon, to name a couple. And they also have a new. They also have new flavors, lime and strawberry. And it is the perfect drink when hanging with friends. Boys games are popping off. Baseball, basketball. Whether you're at a bar, grab yourself a cold neutral. The sun is coming out. Spring is upon us.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The.

[Will Compton]

The grills are coming out. The boys are in the backyard. Bring yourself some neutrals. Have a fun time with the friends and bring the vibes to life. Neutral. Keep it tasty. Is there ever a time where a driver comes in and you got to get hard on them?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I mean, you know, there were some. There's Definitely times when they're, they're just not, you know, they're. They're making. They're doing things that are detrimental to their success. They're getting frustrated and arguing or fighting with other drivers or doing things on the racetrack with the car physically with other drivers. That this. You're hurting yourself, you know, and you're deleting your. You need to have your focus on trying to win this race today. And I know you're pissed at this guy and you want to get his ass back, you know, but, but that, that you can do that, but it's going to keep you from trying to win the race.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so there's some times when they, or, you know, maybe they're not putting in the, the week, week to week work. The work, studying, prepping, taking, you know, physical care of themselves or things like that. Sometimes you might get on a driver about his focus, like week to week focus, because they gotta. It's competitive, man. The. Everybody that matters toward this guy's career, every. Everybody that matters toward a young driver's career is paying attention to the things he's doing and it's the details and, and is he studying? Is he working out? Is his, is he got himself in great shape? Is he all around drinking beer with his boys all night long every, you know, during the week. Do we know where he is? Right. On a Monday night, on a Tuesday night, you know, and so they're the, the people that matter are paying attention. And that's what I try to tell them. Like, you know, if you're. Everybody's watching, right? Everything you do. So do the. Right.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

You know, in your mind, what does a weak routine look like? That you're like, okay, that's a good routine to have. Well, you race on Sunday.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, they race on sun. They race Saturday or Sunday, but they're gonna be in the sim, which is basically. We don't have practice. We can't. We don't have a lot of practice where you actually go to the racetrack and take the car out and run it around. So we have simulators, Big G multimillion dollar simulators that you climb into and you drive in a, in a virtual world. And the manufacturer, Chevrolet, Toyota, Ford, they spent millions of dollars on these simulators. And getting a couple hours in one is very valuable. And anytime you get an opportunity to do that, you do it. And there's got. You got to volunteer to be in that simulator. Right. To be able to work on your, your craft. You can work on the setup of the Car new ideas, run and practice different lines and stuff like that in the simulator and it transfers over into the real world. So on Monday morning, I think you either need to be working out. There's a group of drivers that work out together. All of the Chevrolet guys work out together. They have a Chevrolet program where there's this coach that, his name is Josh Wise and he, he coaches all of the Chevy drivers on. They do reaction time games and shit. Where the light on the wall and they're doing games.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, those are awesome, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're doing all of that shit and they go, they'll go jump in the lake and swim across the channel and do ridiculous things. And he never tells them what they're going to do. You just show up and you might go ride a 20 mile, 40 mile bike ride. Just be ready. And so that's Mondays, that's every morning, Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning. And when you're not working out or doing those things with Josh, they need to be in the simulator. They need to be meeting with their crew. They got to meet with the crew chief. Go over last week's race, what went right, what went wrong, what did we learn? Go over the next.

[Taylor Lewan]

You watching film?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Then they'll watch film of last year's race. They'll watch the whole race. They'll say, okay, here's, here's, here's eight guys that tried eight different strategies and this one worked really well. We may do that. So, you know, get the driver's mind kind of prepared on what kind of strategies might pop up during the race. So he knows what you're asking him to do when you're telling him to come down pit road and get tires and fuel. And so then that's several hours on a, on a, on a Tuesday or Wednesday. There's tons of meetings. And yeah, I mean that, that's, those are the most important things. And drivers need to be there in person. I know they can zoom in and they can, they can kind of, they can kind of half ass it a little bit. And I know there's places they got to be too, for sponsors. There's requirements for them to be out and doing things. Y'all know what I'm talking about there. But being present and being in person and filling out, we give them note, you know, the teams give them a note, a big sheet or one sheet or to fill out after the race, like fill that out. Be, be, be precise, be descriptive. We're going to lean on that note. Next time we go back to this Racetrack in six months. So give us everything you can give us, right? And so those guys. Sometimes I remember being half ass about some of that shit, like filling the notes out going, I was annoyed the car didn't fucking turn. That's what I wrote down. Right?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I need to tell them, like, why didn't it turn? What did it feel like? What did. I think the problem was with the car, specifically the details of the. Of the car's mechanics and try to give them some route to a way to solve that problem. Right. Instead of just being frustrated and mad about it.

[Will Compton]

Now do you get. Do you get. You kind of come unglued or get the parent voice going on with some of these guys? You're like, you have a very calm demeanor.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I don't know. I don't get too mad. I want to.

[Taylor Lewan]

So sometimes, I mean, that's the perfect Dale explanation. Like, stays calm in every situation.

[Will Compton]

However, there's been a couple times now passing through his head. I want to.

[Taylor Lewan]

And, you know, he's thinking about one guy right now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's a couple. There's a couple times.

[Taylor Lewan]

A couple.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, no, there's a couple times when they're there, things didn't go well in the race. And I mean, you know, you could go into the room with, with when they're meeting the teams and the drivers and the crew chiefs, you can. You could go in that room and you could slam your hand, beat, you know, fist down on the table and, you know, what the hell are y'all doing? Why'd y'all do it that way? Why you don't ever let that happen again. They don't. People don't. People don't absorb that, right? They don't go and fix it. They go, damn, we gotta ask you today, you know, or, damn, Dale was mad. And, and, and they don't. They. You gotta. You gotta go in there and, and say, hey, why did. You know, why did that go that way? Why did. What are we. What are we going to do about that? How are we going to fix it next time? Or. I know, we all got a plan, right? Y'all got a plan, right, to fix that?

[Taylor Lewan]

Do you ever listen to the plan, right?

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Are you ever listening to the driver? Knowing that you've had your experience on the road and you're listening to a driver and you understand the team, like, what they're doing for the car and everything else to where a driver comes out and they might be complaining about the car, they're saying something in a Way to where it's like, hey, bro, you're full of. Right now. You just need to figure it out, you know, X, Y, and Z. When you're out there on the road, you're trying to blame too many other things.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Things there. I think the one thing that happens, and I know this because I did this, is a lot of times the driver has one line of communication, and that's the crew and the team and the crew chief. Right? And. And so when you're mad as a driver, you have only one. One line of communica. Like, anything you say, right? This car's a piece of. I'm doing all I can out here. I'm busting my ass, y'all. This thing drives. Like. All of that information is going directly to the people that actually put that car together that actually are there to help you and the ones that will fix it if it gets fixed. Right. And so a driver gets. We get confused because we're in that car. We're hot. We feel like we're on an island. I used to say I felt like a castaway out there. Like, I'm all by myself, man. Y'all don't have an idea what's going on. I'm all out there by myself fighting this damn thing. Y'all don't know what it's like.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I'm like, this car is a piece of. Biggest piece of.

[Taylor Lewan]

Ever drove.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That is the worst thing to say. These guys are the ones that built it. They brought it to the track. It's their car.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, you can't call a car a piece of. To the people that brought the car and fixed it and ready. Readied it for you and so. And you. You. You can't. You. You can't sit there and rant and cuss about. I'm busting my ass, you know, they know already that you're busting your ass. They're watching it. You don't have to tell them. You don't have to, you know, And I did this. I did this like I can. And so I'll hear a driver today, he get. They get. They. They. They need you to know, like, they're giving it all they got, man. They are. They're suffering. They're. They're hemorrhaging confidence, you know, and they're getting insecure. The car's not good. They're hemorrhaging all of these things, and they need you to know they're. They're fighting and they're hard work. They're Trying. They're trying to make this car that you. You built work. And they. But we have a terrible delivery, and we end up really saying things that are detrimental to that relationship between a driver, crew, and crew chief. And so sometimes I will have to say, or. Or I remember something I did, and I'll hear another driver say it, and I'll go, hey, you got to remember these guys are here to help. Help. They're the ones that are going to fix it. They're the ones that you gotta. You gotta talk to them in a way that they want to fix your problem. And if you piss them off or you talk to them in a negative way and not, you know, not a supportive way, you come down pit road, they're gonna be like that guy, you know, and so when you're. You're coming to get help and service and get your car adjusted, they're gonna be like, screw this kid. You know, he's just a punk.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so, you know, I learned that the hard way a few times, and I thought, you know, oh, I know these guys well enough to tell them their car is a piece of shit, but it's never a good idea, right?

[Will Compton]

Because there was somebody that pulled you aside, the big, hey, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. How'd you learn that lesson?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was your old man, Tony Junior, my cousin Tony Junior, My. My uncle Tony Senior. I worked for them on the Bud car back in the 2000s. And they told me, they said, hey, you called the car piece of. Don't do that. All the guys that build that car and work on that car listening to you. Not only the guys that are in the pits and were at the racetrack that day, also all the guys that are sitting at home. The guy that painted that car is sitting in his house on the couch watching you run, hoping you win. And it's gonna paint your car next week. He's the one that heard you call that car a piece of this. You know, all the mechanics that are not travelers that are sitting at home with their family, you know, all of that information, they might not hear it in the moment. Moment through the airwaves or through tv, but they're going to get that information. They're no use.

[Taylor Lewan]

Word travels quick. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so, you know, you just don't want to get this reputation within your own team of somebody who just kind of comes unhinged in the toughest moments and that and that and is. And is. And is combative or abrasive. Right. In those moments. But it's hard, man. You're out you feel like you're out there by yourself, and you feel like that nobody knows how hard this is but you. And you feel like you're. You are feeling a sense that you're letting your team down, but your reaction, in your words, are, guys, I'm doing every thing I can with this thing. It won't do anything. Right. And what they hear is, the car sucks. I'm. I'm not the problem.

[Will Compton]

And you're thinking, too, the audience is watching the race or seeing me not perform as well.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's just gonna be.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. They're sitting.

[Will Compton]

They're blaming. They're not seeing that because the casual.

[Taylor Lewan]

Fans not thinking about everything that goes in the week before. They're thinking about this driver, that car. Yeah. The car's got to be perfect at the top of the line. Yeah. This.

[Will Compton]

This week.

[Taylor Lewan]

And Dale's really down this year, huh?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Getting it done.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is he. There's what they call you YouTube this, but there. There's what they call radioactive and that. There's. Every driver has multiple YouTube clips of themselves that fans have put together of all of their worst moments. Moments. Beautiful. There's some good radioactive. Like, hey, this one's funny. This is 88 minutes of Dale Jr being funny on the radio during a race. And then there's like, you know, here's five minutes of him being a complete asshole to his team, you know, and.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And there's your drivers just completely coming unhinged, just screaming curse words into the middle distance over the air.

[Taylor Lewan]

What.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, you got to mash that button because if nobody hears it, it don't. You don't get.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The relief.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Taylor Lewan]

So there's a no talk button you have in the car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You got a button that you mash to talk to the team.

[Taylor Lewan]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And, like, you could be in there mattering hell, and you could scream. It don't feel good. You got to mash that button so somebody hears you. This sucks. You know? And that's the worst thing, right.

[Taylor Lewan]

When you smash that button, that's the same thing that the fans can. They can buy the headphones, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

So people are. If you're talking shit. So all these YouTubers, you consciously went and be like, people, Someone needs to hear this right now.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I gotta get this off.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I gotta get this out of it.

[Taylor Lewan]

I feel good just saying in the abyss, I need somebody. I need to hurt somebody's feelings today over this situation.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then the. The TV sometimes takes it and puts it on the. The actual broadcast, you know, and Then now it's there. It's, you know, common knowledge. And then you gotta. You get up. You get up Monday morning, you're like, damn, I shouldn't have said all that.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. The next day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

After you make a couple of actions you wish you didn't, I said, there's.

[Will Compton]

I'm sorry, Steve. I haven't listened to a damn word you said. The last.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There was one. There's one clip on there where I. I'm driving around, and I had. Had a couple of loose wheels, and the wheel fell off. A wheel. I'm. Didn't get the wheel tight, and the wheel come off the car and wrecked hard as shit at Atlanta. And then we're. We're at another track, and I got a loose wheel, and I was so mad. I was like, y'all like, the loose wheel. The wheel comes off at full speed. You just fly into the wall, and it's nasty. It's a hard Rick. And I. I come over the radio, I was like, if this wheel comes off, I'm hitting every one of y'all in the hand with a hammer. I was like, I don't know how to make y'all understand. Like, this is. This is not fun for me to be out here wondering if this wheel's gonna come off or not, and I'm gonna fly into the fence out of control.

[Taylor Lewan]

What is that? Is that, like, a inexcusable mistake, though, if you go in?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, but it's keeping. It happens. It happens. It happens rarely, but I was like, y'all got a damn stuff. You can't leave my wheels loose. You can't.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And that was my only way to, like. I thought that was a great analogy. Like, I'll hit y'all with a hammer, and I see that clip. I'll see that clip on you on YouTube, and I'll be like, God, that's stupid. Why did I say that? That was so rude. And it's a crazy shot. Necessary.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, it's a crazy shot to say, I'm gonna put. I'm gonna hit your hands with a hammer.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I bet the guys going to the. I mean, imagine the guys standing there, even though I know that they're my guys, right? We're a team, and I know they're probably standing there going, well, right. He gonna hit me with a hammer, right?

[Taylor Lewan]

Is there. Is there, like, with the wheel being loose, is there, like. Like in football, there's, like, basic one on one that the coach will get up and be like, lawan, like, this is Basic one on one football. You can't be doing this. Is there something like, in the pit crew standpoint, they're like you. This is something so basic that you should not be messing up, that they deserve an ass cheer for that. Gotta fill with gas.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Taylor Lewan]

What are we doing?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. I mean, there's everything in. Everything that I can think of is like, it's a human error. It's a. It's a poss. It's a possibility at any moment.

[Taylor Lewan]

Very forgiving individual.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I mean, some guys are like zero tolerance, but, I mean, I've lived it long enough to know that there's. To have zero tolerance is an expectation is not. Not realistic.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

When you were.

[Will Compton]

There's his.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that's the line.

[Will Compton]

If the wheel comes off and I hit the fence real hard, I get to whack every damn one of you with a hammer.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

That is hilarious.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Is there. Is there a specific individual that comes to mind from, like, your generation of racing that, like, was, as in just a known hothead with his pit crew?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I mean, I. There. There's some guys that were pretty. Kurt Bush has some good radioactives on YouTube. Kyle Harvick was pretty, Pretty vocal about his team, like he demanded he was. He was one of the guys that would. Would publicly say, hey, our pit crew has to improve, you know, and he would talk on the radio that would end up on the broadcast about his team needing to be better on pit road. I did. I wanted to say all those things. You know, I have felt those things and wanted to say all the things that they said, but I was. I didn't want it to get into the broadcast.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I didn't want it to be fodder for the media. Yeah, that layer. Right. And so there's times slipping your finger off the bottom. It was times I slipped up, but for the most part, I don't have too much radioactive out there.

[Will Compton]

That's funny, dude.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

If you could change any rule in nascar, what would it be?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Just any rule. I mean, I. I wish we could figure out a. A new package for the. For the Daytona Talladega racetracks. I would probably work on the rules that affect how the cars race at those two places, Daytona and Talladega. So we go to the Daytona 500 and the cars. Yeah, the way the races, sort of the way you watch the races, you guys might not pick up on it, but some of the details of how the cars race and why they do. Some of the things they do are Kind of. It's not as great as it used to be, or it could be better than. Than what it is today. And I think it. It's. And I don't know the answer, the specific, like, technical thing that needs to change, but I would love to be in the process of how we can make the cars do different than they do there, how they race together. But I. I'll be honest, man. Racing right now, the race, I'm no, like, I'm. I'm.

[Taylor Lewan]

I'm.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm a critic of the sport. I. I hold them accountable when I believe I know what's right.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But things are really good right now. Things are really, really good.

[Taylor Lewan]

I did not think that's the direction you were gonna go. Yeah, I gotta do. Oh, he's about to put.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I gotta be honest.

[Taylor Lewan]

I was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We ran Daytona and I was there, right? We had a car in the race. I was really frustrated with the way the cars raced and the way this. The. The product on track. Product. I was frustrated with it. A casual fan would have watched the race and not seen the things that I saw that bothered me. So there's that. But I saw things that I'm like, I wish they would fix this shit. Everything. From that moment on, all the races that we've ran have been fantastic, spectacular. And the. And we have this sort of very informal poll that goes up on Twitter after every race by a guy named Jeff Gluck, who's in. Who's a journalist in our sport, very respected. It's the good race poll. And it's. It's a yes or no. Was it a good race? And there'll be thousands and thousands of people that vote on this poll every week. And it's very informal, just for fun, but our. We've been doing this poll for debt for. For years. And so, like, a really, really good day is a high 80. That's like a really great. That's like. Everybody's happy with that, right? Everybody. Like this. And so our races have all been trending in the really, really good high 80s and 90s. And, you know, there's rarely a race where people are just like, if that sucked, you know, 50%, 50, 50. Yes, no. And I know that's very rudimentary, but I, you know, hey, it's. It's a. It's a small glimpse into the public opinion of something. I know it's, you know, on X. It's not the entire world on X, but it's a. It's a. It's an idea yes.

[Will Compton]

But you might thinking, oh, man, these are the few things that I would change. I wonder if other people are catching it, too. You go and just be like, hey, was this a good race? You see, like, 85.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Like, hey, fuck, he loved it. That's. So the racing's. The racing has been highly complimented. And so when that's going, sometimes you got to go, hey, maybe I don't fucking know what is best all the time, right? If fans are loving what they saw Sunday, may. Maybe, you know, I'm. Maybe I am a. I am a traditional. I am nostalgic. I am like one of those people that go, oh, those are the best. You know, the 80s, the 90s, so, so awesome. And you can't. You can't never put the toothpaste back in the tube kind of thing. So sometimes I have to kind of check myself with my. My nostalgia and my. My hanging on to the history of the sport so tightly and go, look. You know, it's more. It's more modern. It's different than I remember it. But people today, the fans that are tuning in love it.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, they love it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so I'm. I'm bullish on the sport and think it's headed in a really good direction.

[Taylor Lewan]

I feel like more men. More men than not are guilty of that, though. Like, finding the nostalgic piece of billiard. It used to be great. Then you go in any genre, any category of anything, and someone's going to have an opinion about. Back then, it was better because of X, Y and Z. You brought. You brought a couple times targeting. Bring it back, bring it back. The old kickoff rule.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Ch. That needs to be changed immediately, you know?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

But anyway, you talked about you. You're. For the first time your team had a car in the Daytona 500. I feel like that first off deserves a round of applause. Like, that is massive. And we kind of did just brush over that. Dude, that is huge.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Awesome. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

So congrats on that. Like, what is. What is the process of being like, okay, we feel good enough to put a car in the biggest race of the year in all nascar.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So Traveler Whiskey was a. Was a brand that came. Came to us. Yeah. And so I got a shout out. Traveler Whiskey. Shout out High Rock Vodka.

[Will Compton]

Take it easy.

[Taylor Lewan]

Shout out neutral seltzers.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So I. They came to us and they were like, hey. They came to another program at Hendrick Motorsports, and then they were like, hey, we kind of want to do the Daytona 500. Hendrick's like, hey, we. We don't have any room. We're full inventory. And so. But my. My buddy Rick Hendrick, he's like, I know my friend Del Jr. Wants to enter the Daytona 500. It's a dream of mine to enter a car as an owner in that race once. Just to go. I wanted to go to the track and do all of the things as an owner and push a car out on the grid and go, there's my car, and there it goes into the race. And so they hooked us up with Traveler, and. And we took Traveler to. To Daytona, and it was really emotional. We weren't locked in. So there's cars that have franchises or charters, and they are locked into the race. They. They know going down there, hauling their car to the track that they're in. There's a handful of cars. In this instance this year, there were eight or nine of us that weren't guaranteed a spot. We were gonna have to earn it it by either qualifying really well or running well in what's called the. The duel, which is on. The duel is two races, and if we do well in the duel, we lock ourselves into the race. So in the duel, we're running. We didn't qualify well, so we couldn't lock ourselves in that way. So now we got the duel to run, and we're trying to. Okay, we're gonna go out here, and we got to beat a couple of guys.

[Taylor Lewan]

What's your. What's your stress level?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Very high.

[Taylor Lewan]

Fire doesn't go well. Oh, you're like, this is our last shot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was embarrassed. So we. You. In qualifying, all of the industry is on pit road. All the. All the engineers, crew chiefs, everyone that matters and everyone that knows anything about the sport is standing on pit road. All the cars are lined up, going out, qualifying one at a time. And you. You're with your car, and you're pushing your car as it's getting closer and closer to the front of the line. And, right. You know, you get down to the end and you push your car off, it cranks the motor, pulls away, and he's going to go run his lap. And you stand there and you watch him run his lap, and there's a couple of big, giant Jumbotrons, and you're watching a little bit on the Jumbotron, and he comes by, and you look at the lap, and you're like, that ain't fast enough. And now you got to walk through that entire group of people that all know that you didn't make the race yet, right? And it's embarrassing. You know, you got the equipment that you think is good enough and something y'all didn't do. Right. Like, didn't help the car run the lap time. And so it's a. It's a bit tough kind of walking back through that whole mob of people toward your garage, like, we failed. And so.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, like, we. We weren't good enough.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Like, everybody looks at us like, damn.

[Taylor Lewan]

Junior, just great driver.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's kind of.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Who knows, man?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. It might be similar to going into the tunnel at an opposing stadium after a loss. Right. With the fans going, get out of your. You know.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Philly.

[Will Compton]

Or just, like, say you're a middle school or high schooler and you're going to see if you make the team or not. And all your boys are standing there and you're like, hey, is my name on there? It's like, you should check it out. Maybe I didn't see it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What a feeling.

[Will Compton]

That's a tough.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Kind of similar.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

You've had that happen.

[Will Compton]

No, no.

[Taylor Lewan]

Okay.

[Will Compton]

I was going to say, sounded like.

[Taylor Lewan]

A movie scene to me. I was like, that's crazy if that's happened.

[Will Compton]

But you know how, like, before you even go up to look, it's like, man, what if I don't make it? Like, I'm going to feel so stupid. Stupid. You just kind of have an idea of probably what it feels like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

It just seems okay.

[Taylor Lewan]

If you weren't good at sports, what would it be like? If I sucked at sports, that's probably a bad feeling.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So we ended up qualifying in the duel, and we ended up racing our way. So basically, we're. We're in one of the duels. There's two. They split the field in half. So we're in a duel. There's about 20 some cars in that race. We only have to beat, like, two guys. Guys. There's two guys that we just got to finish ahead of. And we are in the race, and they're out. And so coming. Coming. This duel's like 50 laps, and we're coming to two laps to go, and we're not in. We're. We're behind those guys and the car. The. The field's a big blob. All tight together. Within one second, they're just all together. Run around the racetrack through two and three wide. And I'm like, justin's our driver. I'm like, damn it, Justin. You got to figure this out. I don't even know what he's going to do. I don't know what he could do.

[Taylor Lewan]

You've seen this to yourself.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Thinking in my mind.

[Will Compton]

Are you saying this to him?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. I thought you hit the button.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And. But he just, he just figured it out. Like in the last lap, he just, just figured it out, got the run and, and diced around and. And when we crossed the finish line, we're ahead of the guys that we needed to beat. And so that was when it was like almost, you know, any. That was the moment where if you talked, you were going to have a hard time not crying. You ever been in those moments? Like, oh, yeah, I'm not gonna cry as long as I don't have to talk.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, once I start talking about this, it's gonna get hard not to cry. Right. And so I got. We're doing some media and I'm like, I know I got about 10 words before my voice is gonna crack. So I was trying to say something like, we're in the race. Yes. And before I started, like losing it.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But it's just that emotional. And you want. I've lived this, I've lived this sport my whole life. This was a dream of mine. And we had finally really. This is like on a Friday, I believe. And so that night we're like, we get to race on Sunday. We don't have to go home. It was either, you know, the way that race turned out was like we're loading our up and we're going home or we're gonna race on Sunday. And so it was a big relief. The next couple of days, man, we're in there looking at our car sitting in the garage and we're massaging on it and fixing it and tweaking it and messing with. I'm on, I'm hands on, I'm working and piddling with the car and we're just, just went all proud and getting it right and. And then yeah, we pushed it out there for qua.

[Taylor Lewan]

For.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

For the race on Sunday. Went through the whole pre race ceremony and just the pride of being out there and then getting on the pit box and watching your car pull off pit road and you're like, we're doing it.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Moments here.

[Taylor Lewan]

Was that a win right there?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Like we did you. It didn't matter. It didn't matter. Goal I've always wanted.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I told my driver, sounds like you didn't win ninth. Yeah, I told my.

[Will Compton]

I said no, it doesn't matter.

[Taylor Lewan]

Doesn't matter.

[Will Compton]

Nice.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. If you're wondering, I Told my driver, Justin, I said, I said, hey, you know, this is the way I am with Justin. I'm like, all right, man. Look, I don't. Let's not worry about, let's not worry about like a top 10, top 15. That'll be a great day. Let's not even have that conversation. I was like, let's cross the finish line when the checkered's waving. I don't care where we're at. That I want, if we, I just want to sit here and watch the race and my car be out there. And we won't have a, we won't have like a high hopes or a. Or oh, darn. You know, we'll just say, hey, man, if we cross the finish line when the checkered flag waves, if our car has finished the race and we've ran all the laps, we're blessed. And so it's coming down to the last couple of. We're making it through all the problems. We had a couple of dust ups and gotten a few scrapes, but we're our car. We're patching it up. It's still pretty good. And it comes down to the last lap and there's a big wreck on the back straightaway, and he missed the big wreck. And we're standing there like, all right, we're, we're, we're. He's coming around like, where are we going to be? And he crossed the finish line and you look at the score monitor and his name goes ninth place. And you're like, shit, top 10. That's awesome. You know?

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not only did we come here and like, get in the race, but we ran ninth out of all. Out of the 50 that tried to run it, that came here.

[Taylor Lewan]

This.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're ninth. Like, we're a brand new one race team. We're like one race sold. We're like, we're like, brand new.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Every time your team has been in the Daytona 500, you guys have been top 10.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Like, that's. How many other, how many of the programs can say that?

[Will Compton]

What do you think when, when Dale's giving the little speech to Justin, you think Justin's probably like, Justin's probably trying.

[Taylor Lewan]

Not to piss himself. It sounds like he's, he's full.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Justin's an older driver like myself and. But he, Me and him both get nervous easy. Like, we, we. And so I can tell, like, I need to talk this guy down a little bit. He's nervous as shit. He was so nervous. And he told me, he told me, like, he told me. He's like, dude, I was terrified in this moment. In this moment. I never been that nervous in my life. And I'm. We've raced for championships. We won championships in the Xfinity series last year, and we've raced together for over a decade. He's drove for our team at Junior Motorsports for a long time, won a lot of race. And he's. I'm like. He's like, dude, I was so nervous. So much pressure, so much responsibility. Being the driver of your car for the Daytona 500 for the first time. He's like, it was awful. And so I knew that, like, in that moment, I was like, hey, no, let's not even worry about where we're going to run. Let's not even set a goal or an expectation and worry about being pleased or upset. Let's just say, hey, cross the finish line, checkered flag. Let's feel good about that. And that's it. I don't. I don't want anything else. I wanted him to know, like, I don't want anything else. You go out there, you have your own expectations. That's you. But you don't worry about me. Don't feel like everybody here in the pits is going, hey, all right, come on, Justin. When are you going to pull the trigger? Let go. You know?

[Will Compton]

Hey, that's a hell of a speech.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Speech.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I just wanted to let him off the hook.

[Will Compton]

That's a fire speech.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Now, Justin, he's been racing review for so long. Has he ever wrote racing the Daytona 500 before?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

A long time ago.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Long time ago.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Okay. I mean, that's got to be what a feeling, man. And for him, I mean, that give. I bet receiving. I pictured that speech is him, and he's already in the car in my head.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not yet, but.

[Taylor Lewan]

No. I'm just telling you where my head's.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Moments ago.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's like they're about to start the race, and before he tails off, you're giving him this. Like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, this was. It was literally right before he climbed in. And I was like, just don't worry. You just go out there and do you, man, I'm not. I have zero expectation. But I do want you to finish. So don't. So, like, don't get wrecked. Don't get wrecked early. Don't. Don't wreck out.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right. And there was that one last little part of the race where there's a.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Big, big crash and he weaved through.

[Taylor Lewan]

Really?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Other than that, it was pretty smooth, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's A couple dust ups.

[Taylor Lewan]

Couple dust.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

A couple close. Couple close calls.

[Taylor Lewan]

You mentioned dust ups a couple times. I kind of want to pry a little bit more.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, there's just some wrecks that happened where he had to kind of knife through, and. And maybe he got dinged up a little bit on the corner of the car, got beat up a little bit, but it was still in relatively good shape when we finished top 10, baby.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We'll take it. That is cool. That paid good, I bet. Yes, that matters now.

[Taylor Lewan]

Is this whiskey? Is this whiskey company sticking on?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, we. We only had plans to run that one race. That was it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Have they called since?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're excited and happy with everything that happened. We'll see what happens. It's a dicey thing, so there's some. We had a little damage to fix, but we did. We fixed it. It's a die. It's a little bit of a dicey thing because me and my wife started the High Rock Vodka, right? And that's ours. We have equity in it. And we're. And Traveler came on to Travers like, hey, we want to help you realize this dream. So I had to call my friends at High Rock Vodka and say, hey, y'all mind if I do this thing with this whiskey? And they're like, well, it's not really a vodka, so it's not competing directly. And they're like, we don't want to get in your way. We don't want to get in the way of you realizing this dream. This is really how. This is only gonna. It's only gonna happen because, you know, the. The Traveler came in with the. With the check that it was going to take. It's gonna take a lot of money to go to Daytona. And so they High Rock my rock. Folks were good.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

To let me do that.

[Taylor Lewan]

We can bleep it if you want, but how much does it cost to get into the Daytona?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

To race in the Daytona 500, you're gonna need three quarters of a million dollars.

[Taylor Lewan]

Okay. All right. Three quarters of a million dollars. All right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Minimum.

[Will Compton]

You got that math?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yep.

[Will Compton]

We wanted to say it out loud.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah.

[Will Compton]

We can just leave it, you know, bygones be bygones.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No doubt.

[Will Compton]

Having the Earnhardt last name, you're obviously involved with a lot of different things off the track, on the track, everything in between. What is the first thing you kind of dove into to where it felt like. Like this is mine. Outside of having. Carrying the. Because you carry the legacy of your old Man. And you have the Earnhardt name, your Dale Earnhardt Jr. The son. What was the first time you realized and felt like a sense of pride? All right, this is a thing that I see is like, something I've done, probably.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Junior Motorsports, the race team that we have, we've ran in the Xfinity series, which is, again, that's the kind of the college level. We've ran there for seems like 18 years, a long time. We've won 90 races, five championships. Me and my sister run that together, and she's hands on. My sister is. She is a. She's tough. Really, really tough. Businesswoman, savvy. And. And so, like, in negotiations, she never loses. That's. That's her. And so she's tough. She knows what the value.

[Will Compton]

That's badass.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. She knows the value of everything and understands what. What's realistic and just sharp. And so I'm very fortunate that. That I. That I got her as a teammate. And so we have ran Junior Motorsports together. Our dream, or our idea. The idea was that me and her would be involved in dei, which was my dad's race team, Dale Earnhardt Incorporated. Our thought was that that would be what. What we would do all of our lives, right? And. And so a lot of things happened. Dad passed away, and. And we ended up leaving the team over the course of the six or seven years. And so that didn't happen. And we started this other team and started it with one race car. Four. Three or four employees. Very modest. And we've grown it into a really successful deal. We love being at that level where we graduate people up into the top series, right? So drivers come through our program. Crew chiefs, mechanics, engineers, even people in our office, marketing, licensing, they all come and work at our business, get educated, get it. Get a great experience, get. Get a reputation. And then they get a call from a Cup team. It sucks to lose great people, but it's also like a big reward. Like, we're doing it right. We're doing something right. Where people are wanting to hire are good people. And so when. When a driver gets a phone call, they'll call me. I remember one guy called me, and he's like, I got some tough news. He's like, one of the cup teams called me, and I got to do it. I was like, that's not tough news. That's what we. That's like winning a race. That's. That's a victory for you, for me. That's why we did this. I did this so that you would get this chance. Not that you're going to be a career Xfinity race racer for me. Right. Hopefully, if everything works out, most of our drivers are only there for a year or two, and they move on to the cup level and race on Sunday. And so that's a fun thing to do. I can look in the cup field today, the field that runs on Sunday, I can look in that field, and there's at least a third of the field that raced for me on Saturday.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's big.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

At some point in their career, there's mechanics, crew chiefs, tons of people in the industry that have came through our race team to get to the top level.

[Will Compton]

That's badass.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's fun. So I'm proud of that. That's mine.

[Taylor Lewan]

So do you ever want to get your race team into the Cup?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I do.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so to race full time in the Cup Series, you need a charter, which is basically a franchise. Look, think about it as like a franchise. You. There are only three dozen of those. Nascar. There's a rule between. There's an agreement between the teams and NASCAR that there is only a certain amount of charters. So to acquire one, you got to buy one from somebody and they're selling for anywhere from 25 million to 40 million bucks. And so you got to buy the charter and then you got to buy the cars. They're $350,000 a piece. You got to have an engine program. You gotta, you know, you gotta upscale employees. So to. To race full time in the Cup Series, you might be able to do it on $20 million a year. So it's a hundred million dollars to probably get started. Right?

[Taylor Lewan]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

To buy a charter or two and then have the funding annually to run at that level, you got to have a massive commitment from corporate America somewhere to be able to fund the team annually and long term. And so our. Yeah. To. To go from where we are now in our business model is a massive jump and a huge commitment. Scary.

[Taylor Lewan]

Sounds like. Yeah. I mean, $100 million to get started is wild.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

You've been close. Is it anybody?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Like, we've had some really fun come.

[Taylor Lewan]

Out of the woodwork.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We've had some really cool conversations with some mass. We' we had a conversation with a. Met with a. With a. With one of the largest or most popular sports franchises in the. In the. In the country. So, I mean, there's interest out. So the interest that I believe a team like mine or a person like me to be able to get in there, it's going to have to be, it's going to have to be like an investment firm or a current, like a current entity that's owning sports teams. Right. And so, yeah, I think of a couple.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, I can see a couple of my eyes right now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And so there's been, there's interest, there's. And, and the, the, the investment firm thing is kind of new, but it's getting, it's gaining some popularity. There's been a lot of. There's been a lot of these sort of groups that have started to invest in. In race teams. So, like, certain race teams have taken on investors and sold equity in the ownership of the program. So that's kind of promising for somebody like me that's like, hey, I've got the. I know how to run a race team. Kelly and I know how to operate this thing and be successful. We know how to do it and not lose money, and we know how to be successful. We have a lot of equity in our, in our name and our reputation. And so we're. I think, I feel like we're very appealing for anybody that's like, hey, I'm brand new to this. I don't know anything about racing, but I think owning a charter is going to be very valuable. So the charters have doubled in value annually. So, like, if you bought a charter six years ago, you might spend six to $12 million. Now they're worth $40 million, 35, $30 million. I believe charters in 10 years will sell for 80 to $100 million a piece. So, I mean, I think in. If I was a person that had that kind of money to throw around, buying a charter or investing just in a charter, got. Getting some equity in a charter would be easy. An easy. Yes. Right. Because that is not going to lose value. It's. Think about Dan Snyder bought the Washington Commanders and whenever, whatever year 89 or whatever for 600, $800 million and sold it for 6 billion. And so NASCAR charters are similar as they are a franchise, a sports franchise, and now they won't ever get into the billions or maybe not even into the, you know, you know, 500 to $700 million range, but they will increase in value from. From 30 to $40 million. Now, I think realistically it's 150, $150 million value. I would put that on. I would, I would say, I would confidently expect that to be the value of one in 10 years. And so why wouldn't you, if you had that kind of money, invest in it now? Because it's sounds like you need some.

[Will Compton]

Some bus with the boys backing.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Get a little bank of buses open. High interest rates. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

This is our team back here. That's awesome, man. Congratulations.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, hey, it ain't happened yet.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, it hadn't happened yet.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, that's true. Congratulations on it happening in the very next. The near future.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That'd be nice.

[Will Compton]

Knowing just very surface level stuff about those conversations. I know it seems like it's very hard to just even be in those rooms and have those conversations. Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, I've. We've had some fun conversations with some people that were interested in, but it's got to be perfect. You can't. I'm not a risk taker with my finances.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so, like, when I had kids, I was like, all right, I gotta be a little smarter. Like, I was gonna bounce my last check. That was the way I was gonna live. Right. When I was a single dude just raising hell and doing my life, I was like, I don't want to. I ain't leaving behind. But then when I had kids, I was like, now it ain't mine no more.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This is all theirs. Right. Right now. Now I'm spending their money.

[Taylor Lewan]

Massive curveball for them sitting there, getting the will read out to them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. By the way, he didn't leave anything.

[Will Compton]

Your guys's facility is so badass. It is like, going out there. There's people. Like, there's people out front waiting for you to just. Just get done with work. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

You bring up the equity of the name, and it's like, yeah, we walked in. We were there on a Tuesday.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

And there's a bunch of people just went out there to catch a glimpse.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Do you think he's in there right now? And we just walked in. You would have thought we were royalty.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wonder, like, oh, I'll say this. I'll say. I'll admit this. Your. Your podcast and your. Your brand is incredible. And do people not know where you are physically right now? Did they not? If they knew where you were, they too. And if they knew when you recorded, if it was. If it was a consistent. Like, hey, we record every Tuesday. There would people be standing out there like one.

[Will Compton]

We appreciate that, Dale. I don't know. I mean, there have. There have been.

[Taylor Lewan]

There's been a couple of people. Oh, it's not up there anymore. We had a Tannehill sign like somebody broke in on one of our old places. We were at. Broke in and didn't steal anything, but left a guest.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Nice.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Like I think they were wrapped, too, right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There.

[Will Compton]

He would go to work. There's another cat he'd be going to. And he'd noticed that when the. The door slid up, he'd see the bus inside. He's like, so I know you guys have been here, and I was just waiting to get like, an off day or something. He would just go and just sit and wait.

[Taylor Lewan]

Ran.

[Will Compton]

Just kind of guessed.

[Taylor Lewan]

Ran. When he was the GM for the time. He just sent somebody over here one day.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

He just randomly.

[Will Compton]

What's up?

[Taylor Lewan]

And we're like, oh, hey, how's it going? Rand told us we can come by.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, okay. No text or nothing. Just, like, showed up.

[Will Compton]

But it is. It is cool, though. It was kind of. It was cool to witness just people. I think that was during one of your guys's weekends, too.

[Taylor Lewan]

Well, the race was in Charlotte.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, that was. That matters.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Everybody comes into town, but they know we record on a specific day. Yeah, they know that.

[Will Compton]

Is that each time you record Every Tuesday.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

You got people sitting out there waiting.

[Taylor Lewan]

They know you're just in there. But even your studio is awesome. Like, you. I love the setup. The back, all the viewers get to see the portraits. But then there's the window with your dad's car sitting right out there, and you can see all the guys working. Like it's a. It's an awesome setup up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Thanks.

[Will Compton]

Super clean, too, right?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. The race shop right now, it looks nothing like that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, not mine neither. My house is a mess. But the race shop's got to be nice.

[Will Compton]

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[Taylor Lewan]

Because we get tired.

[Will Compton]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Everymore?

[Will Compton]

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[Taylor Lewan]

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[Taylor Lewan]

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[Taylor Lewan]

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[Will Compton]

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[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hell no. I regret buying cars. That's like crazy. You know, everything with wheels, as soon as you buy it, it depreciates like half as soon as you drive it off the lot. But I shouldn't say that being in the car business. But oh man. I bought a Callaway Corvette. That was kind of a thing back in the day. Callaway Corvettes. I bought one of those and I never. I was so. It was the dumbest thing. I had it for a while and finally sold it for like a fraction of what I paid for it. But my buddy had a motorcycle and dropped his motorcycle on the nose of this cowboy Callaway Corvette and it. The. The foot peg went straight through the nose. And he. Luckily he owned a body shop fix it up for me, but. Just a bad experience. But no, I mean I had a, A Biscayne that I maybe should have hung on to. Kind of a. Kind of a rare car. That's my Callaway that the bike fell on. That's it.

[Will Compton]

Oh, that's it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes. I was stupid to buy that. I did not need it. And it had this like. It had this little weird noise in the, in the rear one of the wheels, a brake caliper, something like tick. It wouldn't go away. That I wasn't smart enough to really fuck with. But to be in your mind, like.

[Taylor Lewan]

When I green truck that green truck.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This is my daily driver. That green truck right there. And it's a 48. And I did a lot of. Oh, I did a lot of my own work on this truck. And so it has a. It has a modern Vortech engine in it. It's nothing crazy or special, but like I put them rails and wood rails on the back, but in the inside of this truck. Truck. I think it was kind of during COVID I decided to cut gut the inside and redo it myself. And I put some pictures on the Internet and stuff of me working on it. But I did a lot of woodwork inside and put new inserts on the seats. And my two year old grabbed a Sharpie and ruined the brand new insert. So I had to take the seat back out and redo it. But I did the. The console in the floorboard is. I made it out of sheet metal from one of my Bud cards. So it's like got Budweiser, like a half of the Budweiser logo in the floorboard of the console.

[Taylor Lewan]

Dude, that's awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's just really kind of a grunge truck. You know what we call a grunge.

[Taylor Lewan]

Truck, but is that the best daily driver?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, that's the Biscayne. Yeah, I kind of wish I'd have kept the Biscayne.

[Taylor Lewan]

There you go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's kind of a cool car. That was like 20 years ago. I sold that. But I don't know, man, I. I always was weird with my. I was, was. I was. I did some foolish stuff with money. No, I'm not gonna lie. But I also was kind of oddly tight. And my, my. The buddies, my buddies that I race with back in the day always joked with me about being a tight ass. And so, like, I, if I. I got like 12 cars, right? I'm a guy, I'm a car guy. So I'm gonna have a little collection, right? And I'm okay. That's okay. But I got 12 cars, and if I see something that I liked and I still do this today, like, if I see something, I got to be willing to sell one of my 12 and buy it. Like, I won't buy it and add to it. I'll be like, do I want it bad enough that I'll sell one of these? And if I will, I'll sell one of these. All right, man.

[Will Compton]

Got one from the Rock.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We had fun. That was good. All right, you're out.

[Taylor Lewan]

A lot of different car owners out there, but I want to give you a try.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There's. I got an umbrella and everything's got to fit under it. And if it don't, you know, I'm not. I don't want to be. I don't know. I shouldn't. I'm probably overthinking it, but I was just. Didn't want to be ridiculous and have, like, cars everywhere because it wore it. But it bugs me to. To have a car that I don't drive. And that one time I get in it, it battery's dead. Tires shake because they're square because it's been sitting too long or the brake shake or something. It doesn't drive well. Right. I'm like, all right, I don't have. I love this car, but I'm not driving it. It's not. It's not doing itself any good. I'm selling this. Yeah. I'm getting rid of it.

[Will Compton]

What's been your biggest impulsive buy? Impulsive? Where you've splurged, too, where you're like, that was it. That was. That was dumb.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, man. I mean, the Callaway Corvette was stupid.

[Will Compton]

That was another one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was. That was over 100 grand. That's dumb.

[Taylor Lewan]

I feel like it being a car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Green truck. That other green. That. My square body. I want to brag on that, son. Look at that thing. Look how bad that is. Look at that freaking. Look at that damn plaid insert on that seat. Yeah, that shit's badass. I love that truck.

[Taylor Lewan]

Square body trucks. You can't be.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're coming back in a big way. Oh, they're back.

[Taylor Lewan]

They're back, are they?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

You got to send me the newspaper clipping because I haven't seen that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, if I take this bad boy out, it. It turns some heads.

[Will Compton]

You know, Dale's just driving to see. Watching everybody.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah. It's always the construction workers, too, on the side of the road. They just kind of do this and they give you the eyes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know that I have like a. I don't know that I have a. A bad regret on. On, like a big, big time financial thing. But this is one thing my wife and I talk about is she'll be like, hey, our couch is destroyed. Like, we've. We've, you know, kids and dogs and all this couches just up. It's time for a new couch. All right, let's get in. And she'll show me, hey, how about this one? And I'll be like, damn, that's, you know, a couple thousand bucks. And she's like, that's what couches cost. And I'm like, that's a lot of money, man. I can't believe couches cost that much. You know, every. Your wife will show you stuff. You're like, there's no, there's no way that's like a normal price for that, right? That's way too high.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And. But if a new. So I'm a gamer, and I'm a PC gamer. Gamer. And so, like, if a. You know, the 50 90s just came out and there's like a massive shortage. And so I'm sitting there going, I'm looking at ebay. And I'm like, God Dang, they want $5,000 for that 5090 Nvidia card. My buddy knows a guy at the Micro Center. Maybe I can get one from the Micro Center. Nine days. They're coming in nine days. They might get me one in nine days. I'm like, like, like feigning on this, like, yeah, this, you know, or new monitors, you know, I gotta get this new monitor, man. The refresh rate or the, you know, it's a. It's over. It's like 200 and, you know, whatever megahertz I gotta get, that's better than what I got. And that's gonna be like a thousand dollars. I got triple screens on my racing rig. Triple screens. So, you know, a thousand dollars a monitor. And I'll be like, amy, Amy, I'm thinking about building a new computer. Gonna get me a 50, 90 new. New CPU, new motherboard, new case. And she's like, how much is that gonna cost? I'm like, I don't know, $4,000, $5,000? And she's like, and you want to raise hell about this couch, but you'll just go buy it? You. You would. I would literally just go buy this and not even tell her. Right. And. And. But I want to know how much the cows cost.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So that's how I operate.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, you. That sounds like every guy ever. You're telling me the story. I'm thinking of multiple conversations my wife and I have.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

All the time. About things where I'm like, dude, Charl.

[Will Compton]

Brings up a couch. I'm just saying, I feel like, what's.

[Taylor Lewan]

Wrong with this couch right here?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I feel like such an. And we might have talked about this on the show, but, man, when I. When we were going, when we were booking, we did a planner for our honeymoon and we went to Hawaii. And when that lady came in, you know, the planner plans this trip, right. We're Going to stay in. We're going to be in Hawaii two weeks, and we're going to be at this place, this hotel and this hotel.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When that lady came back with the quote, I was like, ain't no way. I was like, what room are we talking about here? I gotta see. I got. They got to be other rooms. And I'm go. I go to Amy and I'm like, why can't we go? Why can't we do these rooms? These rooms are way less. Wait, we'll be in the room? Yeah, we're just gonna sleep in the room. She's like, come on, this is your honeymoon.

[Taylor Lewan]

You're doing this once, literally preaching right now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It was awful full. And I look back on it now, I'm like, it really didn't matter. But, man, I was turning my guts looking at that price in those rooms.

[Will Compton]

And I'm like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm like, we don't need this. We can stay in this room if there's. And it's nice. I don't know. I was. That was tough.

[Taylor Lewan]

I always hit it with budget stuff, man. Like, when we. I built my house, I, like, had a budget, and I was like, I gotta go. I gotta pee, too. But, yeah, we have a budget. It's like, hey, this is going to be. This is how much money we're going to spend to build this house. So I would go to the people and be like, hey, when we're looking at fixtures, show me what's in the budget. Low end, high end, but it has to stay in the budget. And every meeting I would go to, whether it was like, I don't know, plaster on the walls or something like that, they would show me two things or three things. But then they have one in the corner over here that wasn't on display, but it was right there. And either me or my wife, probably more times, not me, would be like, what's. Well, what's that one? What is that right there? Like, oh, you don't want to know about that. That one's actually outside the budget.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

And then there's always this game that you play. It's like, okay, well, if we do that, then we can move a little something over here. It's just how, like, the male mind compartmentalizes how to spend money.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

At the end of the day, you're doing it the same way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

But it's just finding a way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We have to justify.

[Taylor Lewan]

Gotta justify. Yeah, it is. It's a. It's a pain in the ass.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I remember when so we have. We have a banquet for our championship at the end of the year. This is back when me and Amy were. Were. Were just gotten pretty serious. And I'm like, all right, man, we're getting ready to go to this banquet. I'm getting. Whip out my tux. I'm wearing this. I wear the same freak. If it'll fit, I'll wear the same Damn tux for 12 years. I don't give a. I don't need new tux. I'm wearing this thing once a year. And so. But she's like, I'm gonna get a gown. And I'm like, all right, yeah, we're gonna get you a gown. We're gonna get a gown. I ain't never bought a gown. You know, I don't know gown prices.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And she comes with this gown price. And I was like, what the hell? What the heck? I mean, it was crazy. I would have never even came close if I had to guess. And, man, I'm on the phone with my sister. I'm like, you believe this? And she's like. She's like, that's what gowns cost. I'm like, for real? She's like, yes. I was like, all right. I was like, damn, man, that makes.

[Taylor Lewan]

Me feel better when you know, like, what it costs still when you first see the price, like, what the hell are we doing here?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then she gets the gown. We go, she looks amazing. And I mean, again, like, this was years ago. I. I feel I. I know I was. I know I was foolish, but she looked amazing. And we get back, and I'm like. It dawned on me. I was like. So she's like, I'm gonna put this away. And I was like, you don't wear it again. She goes, no, never wear it again. I was like, you know, you don't sell it. Because she would sell some stuff from time to time. She had a little. I was like, you don't sell again. I can't sell it. She's like, hell, no. I mean, selling this gown. I'm like, man, I don't understand this at all. Like, you. You know, you spent all this money. You wear it once, and then you're going to put it away and keep it in wedding dress gowns, gowns, ball gowns, and stuff like that. I was blown away. The first time I paid for a gown, it was another big, giant wake up. It was like the couch story where I was. I called. I called back up. I was like, hey. I called my sister. I was like, this Down. She's like, yeah, that's. That's reasonable. I was like, horseshit.

[Taylor Lewan]

There's no way you brought the tux thing about having just like one, one tux your whole life. And when, when I was playing, I was 316 pounds. Like, we'd always, you know, every Sunday guys would want to get the fits going and stuff like that. So every couple of years I would go get a couple suits, but I would always go to my suit guys and be like, hey, when I obviously, like, eventually I'm gonna have to retire and lose weight, like, I'll be able to bring it all in. Right? I can still wear these and like, oh yeah, no problem. And Now I'm like 60 pounds less than I was before. And I brought these suits to people and they're like, there's no way.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Can't fix it.

[Taylor Lewan]

You can't. So I've spent an absurd amount of money on clothes that just sit in my closet. I look at them like, I could never wear this again. I had a bunch of my buddies that were still playing. I was like, hey, come over to the house. I said, like, this part of the closet. Besides like this suit and that suit, the suit I got married in. And then I have like a custom one that has like my daughter's names on it. They're like bedazzled or whatever. I was like, yeah, that suit too. I was like, you guys take whatever you want. And they just ransacked the whole thing. It was like ruse and Raidens came over and did all that. But it. Some of the money you spend.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Just on dumb. Like, I look back, I'm just like, what was I buying suits for? Who cares? Yeah, for what?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

A photo when I got it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Posting the Instagram.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, when I got it.

[Will Compton]

That's what it's for too.

[Taylor Lewan]

It is exactly what it's for.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

For.

[Will Compton]

Cuz you don't even. I don't know how you were, but I never even fully put the suit back on. Like, even on game day.

[Taylor Lewan]

No, once you get the photo. Once you get the photo to get on the plane. Yeah, you like loosen the tie, you untuck it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh my God.

[Taylor Lewan]

No one talks about suits. Like, you see, like these people. Like you go on Pinterest, I want to get a nice little suit. So you start looking like ideas. And you see all these like suave gentlemen with like the suits perfectly laid out. Out. When I put that, when I put that on, it's like, it looks good for 45 seconds and then it starts like, Wrinkling up at the top or I get a little. Yeah, a little sweaty. So I move it. It's never tucked in long enough. It's just a pain in the ass.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

My biggest problem with pants or suits is the calves. Like, I can't. It can't. My calves are. I don't know. I. I have problems with the. You got the pant lid being too tight. Yeah, brother.

[Taylor Lewan]

We have opposite issues.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so when I.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So.

[Taylor Lewan]

Looks like them boys haven't seen the sun in.

[Will Compton]

He stays in translucent. Oh, let me get the sun.

[Taylor Lewan]

Turn the lights down a little bit. Yeah, you got nice calves, though. Got nice C. Me, I got. I've always had these prey legs, man. National Geographic getting chased by lion leg.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I get a new suit, get it dry clean. Now I can't wear. Wear it because it's got a hold of my cab, man. I can't. It's uncomfortable.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's another two.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is push it down.

[Will Compton]

Are you. Are you jeans all year round, even in the summer?

[Taylor Lewan]

I mean, he answered that question for us.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think I'm in pants all the time. But I mean, as white. As white as I am, you got to be careful on the color of short you wear because it can make the whiteness even whiter. So you got to be like a very tan kind of off white.

[Taylor Lewan]

But you know Dale, when he takes shirt off, like his face and his. Yeah, his face and like from the shoulder down, he's got a tan. He's not out there even in things out in the summertime.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I'm in as a broadcaster. I gotta wear. I can't wear jeans, so I wear a lot of Lulu.

[Will Compton]

Lululemon.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Oh, I've seen that. They've had some. Some stuff come in about how their material lowers your T levels.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The hell? T levels?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Testosterone.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No.

[Taylor Lewan]

You know what you should. You should look into is True Classic. Hey, Will, can I ask you a question?

[Will Compton]

Ask me.

[Taylor Lewan]

Do you. Dude, what do you love about the True Classic brand?

[Will Compton]

What don't I love about the True Classic brand?

[Taylor Lewan]

That's fair.

[Will Compton]

The first thing that comes to mind is their T shirts. They fit snug. They fit right. And your boy. I got a little extra growing going around the. What do they call it? The muffin top?

[Taylor Lewan]

The spare tire.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, the spare tire around the right above the belt. True Classic. It grabs you perfectly in your chest, grabs you perfectly in your arms to where it gives you a little leeway down by the low tires. So it gives you a perception of stuff. Oh, this Guy's body compass went down. That is what I love about True Classic. Their jeans, also nice, snug, but you can also have a looser option. And they're very breathable, so you can bend. You could hit low ass to grass squats if you wanted to.

[Taylor Lewan]

Absolutely.

[Will Compton]

But those are the. Those are the things that jump out. When you ask me what I love True Classic, what would you say you love about True Classic?

[Taylor Lewan]

My favorite thing about you. I love what you say about the T shirts, and I love how there's no branding on it. I think a lot of times people get mixed up with the biggest bold letterings on things. If you want to keep it true and you want to keep it classic, the best thing to put on your body. No branding.

[Will Compton]

Keep it simple.

[Taylor Lewan]

Keep it simple. The kiss method. That's what I love about it. Dude, I love these jeans. You would talk about Astrograss. Like, I wear these babies every single day.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

I got mobility out the yazoo.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's. You can't mess around with these bad boys. And the shirt, you said it perfectly. Like, you. You take your shirt off, you look yourself in the middle and be like, okay, yeah, I can see where I've let myself go in a couple areas. You put the shirt on, then all of a sudden you're like, maybe I. I can have that cheeseburger. Maybe I can have those little sneaky treats in the pantry lately at night when I've had a couple of extra vitamins.

[Will Compton]

Yes.

[Taylor Lewan]

Because this T shirt makes everything just look a little bit better, dude.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, it does. Simple. Look good, feel good. True Classic. Back to this episode.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right.

[Taylor Lewan]

True Classic. They have a new material that just came out that is rivals Lululemon. Like, it's got that stretchy but, like, still fits good kind of feel. And their stuff is elite.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's like the. The. The new. That's the. That's, like, kind of been the saving grace is the jeans and all the. That stretches. Yeah. So it kind of. Because my body changes all year. Like, I'll. I'll go up and down £10 all year long.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Up and down, up and down. Holidays and like that once November hits.

[Taylor Lewan]

And so November's. That's when. Yeah. You gotta buy the pants one. So I need.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I need my. To be able to work with me.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Move a little bit.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. He would be incredible with True Classic stuff on.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

I mean, that's his style and his flow.

[Taylor Lewan]

There's, like, no branding on it. It's very clean.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I like that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I Kind of like. Like, I don't like a tapered pant done. They got that.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Kind of the. I go for the loose.

[Will Compton]

You do seem like a big time boot cut guy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I'm bootcut.

[Will Compton]

Boot cut only.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I can't wait for long.

[Taylor Lewan]

Make you get that baggy cowboy look.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

I mean, I ain't gonna be no queer.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

You guys got your tight tapered pants.

[Taylor Lewan]

He looked at me. Looked me up and down. The first time he let me go. What is this guy up to?

[Will Compton]

It's like, oh, you got to check out these.

[Taylor Lewan]

What you wanted metro sexuals with them pants on, jeans. Yeah, yeah. You. You big boot guy, though. You like the boots?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No boots. I just like wide.

[Taylor Lewan]

Fair enough. Yeah. In case you fall off a skyscraper, you can parachute down something nice. I feel you got to stay safe out here.

[Will Compton]

Got to stay safe.

[Taylor Lewan]

We need you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

When you sit down and your pants come up and you see your ankles.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, Same like. No, I'm. I'm with you, brother. I'm with you.

[Will Compton]

Now, if you got some good calves, though, and you got some good ankles.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You see my legs? I don't need nobody to see my ankles.

[Taylor Lewan]

You don't need none of that.

[Will Compton]

You don't need anybody seeing them legs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know. What am I gonna do? It's too late. I'm 50 years old. Like getting a tan or any kind of place. It's. I'm past the point.

[Will Compton]

Like, when you go to Hawaii, are you wearing pants on the beach?

[Taylor Lewan]

No. Yeah, they make it. They make a special swimsuit for him.

[Will Compton]

He's like, honey, come on.

[Taylor Lewan]

You know. You know, Dale walked into his wife house, like, his house, like a year ago with the pants that you can unzip. Sweetheart, look how nice these are. These are pretty crazy, right?

[Will Compton]

He probably wears pajama pants, too.

[Taylor Lewan]

Probably put on some nice pants. You do strike me as a guy with the buttons, too. Like the button pajama shirt.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, only on Christmas. Yeah, you gotta do that.

[Taylor Lewan]

How elite is the matching family pajamas for Christmas?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really?

[Taylor Lewan]

That is nice.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We've got a couple of sets of matching pajamas, but I don't know the brand, but.

[Will Compton]

But yeah, it's the. The matching pajamas for Christmas.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What do you mean, pajama pants? What's wrong with pajama pants?

[Will Compton]

So you wear.

[Taylor Lewan]

You wear them?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Taylor Lewan]

Ain't nothing wrong.

[Will Compton]

We just say. We know you do. There's nothing wrong with them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, I don't know, man. That's. I didn't know. You just.

[Will Compton]

You showed Us. The leg. It's like, okay, he doesn't show his.

[Taylor Lewan]

Legs because legit light bulbs.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If I'm not leaving the house, I'm not putting. I'm putting sweatpants on or pajama pants.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Big sweatpants guy. But I'm saying when I sleep, it's either. I'm just in my underwear. I got shorts, shirts on.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. I'm underwear guy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm an underwear guy.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Through and.

[Will Compton]

Okay. I thought you. That's why I thought, oh, I don't.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sleep in pajama pants.

[Will Compton]

I would. I would have guessed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You can't. Like you.

[Taylor Lewan]

I still. I'm still not sold in the button thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If you get in this. If you get in the bed, sure.

[Taylor Lewan]

What are you pulling up on this computer?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You get in the bed with pajama pants on, they go. They rise up to your knees. You got to be. You're always pushing them down. I can't have that. No, that is a.

[Taylor Lewan]

That is a fight, man. The pajama pants.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Should we dive into the most important thing of this episode?

[Taylor Lewan]

Can I please, Pete?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I might do it. Take a leap.

[Will Compton]

You need to take a leak. Go ahead. Pause.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You. Wait. I'm gonna show y'all my. Yeah. It's awesome. Preparation. That's where. What is it? Where preparation meets opportunity.

[Will Compton]

I didn't bring this up to you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I texted him on our flight to Vegas. I'm like, he's journaling. And then you posted on Discord. You're doing your playbook.

[Will Compton]

And I was like, dude, that's awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Like, hey, we got to get a game in. And you're like, oh, no, no, I don't play.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would. I would. I just wouldn't. Didn't want to make it. I didn't want to. I didn't want that to be the dominant thing about this. This. This. In this meeting, brother.

[Will Compton]

I love simulation. Like, the fact that you. You're simulating the game, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, we play it, man.

[Will Compton]

You play.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I play the games.

[Will Compton]

Oh, so when you're winning, you're. You're controlling the user.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, sir.

[Will Compton]

I thought you were saying you don't play.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I don't. I meant, like, I didn't. I don't like. Like, I don't. So this is. This is. This is how I do. I will play in this franchise with them. I'll play them.

[Will Compton]

Are we recording, Mitch?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Okay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't get on there and go. I'm just gonna jump in a random game with some Yahoo online.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't do that. It's weird to me. It's weird. I will race on the Internet against anybody across the country. The, you know, 20, 30 dudes.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I can't. It's weird to me to play like a one on one.

[Taylor Lewan]

We talk about college football 25 years. Would you want to talk about this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Entire podcast a little bit? We.

[Will Compton]

So Dale Earnhardt Jr. Is the most recent national champion college football coach in his league.

[Taylor Lewan]

Okay. I was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, so I don't know if everybody can see this, but this is my gift from Charlotte. It, you know, 49ers, UNCC. I am in a 23 person league. Friends, buddies, people I know, some people I don't. And I started as a one star with Charlotte and recruited him up to a four and a half star and beat Michigan, who's a buddy of mine. He was my best man. He's the best man in my wedding TJ majors. He's. Michigan won three in a row.

[Will Compton]

Row.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Natty's in a row. And I beat him in the last national championship and so unseated a dynasty. It's a fun.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Confirm college football sicko.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's fun. And he's a better. He's a better user. He's better on the stick. So he's. He's. He. And there are other people in the league that are just a little better on the stick. Right.

[Will Compton]

Michigan.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I recruited, worked hard. So I was going to bring you my sits in my iPad. My own personal iPad. Right.

[Taylor Lewan]

So, hey, literally halfway through this podcast, I was looking, I was like, why does he have an iPad?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, well, it's the only way I can really help you understand, like the work that goes into this. So I have a spreadsheet on my dynasty and this is my offense. All right.

[Will Compton]

And so like this is your depth chart.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Yes. Depth chart. Red is seniors, juniors, you know, it's color coded for players. And these are all my red shirts. And these are scouting. These are guys I'm scouting. This is how many points I've got on them. Where I am in the scouting. First.

[Taylor Lewan]

First.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, second in scouting. And so there's defense. All right.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. This is a full.

[Taylor Lewan]

This is, this is a manifesto. This is a Connor Stallion's manifesto.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That is my depth chart. Right. And that's how I have stuff on.

[Will Compton]

The game where you can see the depth chart, but you need it on a one screen.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I need to be able to take it everywhere.

[Taylor Lewan]

This is Dale showing why he's been great at whole life I need to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Take it everywhere I go because I'm always thinking about this, and I'm always like, oh, I got to move that guy. He's. He'd be. He's so offensive. Or the outside linebacker, speed rusher is broken, right? They. In the game, they can't. They can't improve. So if you've got a speed rusher, outside linebacker, you got to move him for him to really realize his potential. So maybe there's something like that going on and you're like, I'm gonna move into defensive end. So I got this with me all the time. Time. This is probably the real money of the whole. This is all the success. So this is my playbook. So these are all run plays. These are pass plays, RPOs, screens, right? And so these numbers is the average yards per you use. So if I've used the plays 100 times or 30 times or how many times I've used to play, this is average yards on that play. And so this is where the play is in the situation. So first down, these are all the. First. These are all the run plays in first down, this play.

[Will Compton]

So this is your call sheet.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's my call sheet. And so I will. And like, you know, there's a, you know, I don't know, 40 run plays. All of these aren't in my playbook. I do a custom playbook, but this is how I customize it. I run all these plays, I play multiple games, and then I'll look at the average yardage that I get for all these plays. I will then rank them in their ability to gain yards, and then I will customize my playbook. And to make sure that when I'm, you know, on a 1st and 10, I've got it suggesting to me, I use suggestions only, which is kind of a. No, no for most people. Most people don't think suggestions is the way to go, but I use suggestions. But I have my custom book tailored to suggest to me the exact play I need that's probably got the most. The play that's got the most probability to get the first down. And there's, you know, and then on second short, second medium, second long, all the situations, right? Going for two, goal line, pass, whatever, it's going to give me at least, you know, five or ten of the best, most highly successful plays for that moment. And every six or seven games, I go through and look at all my plays and. And make sure to update the average yardage per use. And because that moves it in, that moves the Play up and down the list. Right. And maybe there's a new play that I, you know, the other thing I do, I got on my, on my YouTube, I've got this long curated playlist of videos. I follow about three or four, five content creators around NCAA and I watch all their videos and I write down everything that they're learning and all the tricks, the cheese, whatever you want to call it. And so there's all kinds of quirky broken things about the game in recruiting and player progression, stuff like that.

[Will Compton]

Follow Kurt Bankert?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Probably not.

[Will Compton]

He's a quarterback for the packers, but he breaks down college football 25.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really, I need to follow.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I think you'd like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I follow these guys that are making content daily and always finding something new and unique and how to make the best coach build and whatever. Right. And so I write all this stuff down and have all this information ready to go and make sure I'm doing everything I need to be. Do doing to be successful. And so when I go play my buddy tj, who's probably going to beat me one on one if we just sat down and both took Alabama, I got to be all, I got to be ready with everything I can bring him right to beat him and Michigan, he's, he'll come up to the line of scrimmage. Every damn players got a star under it all. You know, he's, he's recruiting better than anybody else with his pipeline. So I mean he's got blood college amazing players and he's good.

[Will Compton]

Your squad's got the.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But I got, I got, I'm doing the work.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

You're doing what an entire football staff is doing. This is one individual.

[Will Compton]

So that is.

[Taylor Lewan]

And so you won the national championship. You don't play.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I do play.

[Will Compton]

He does. He corrected that. I guess that's what he now means is I'm like, what if we got a game? And for him it's like, nah, we. There's no. I don't sit down and play the football game and I pick my favorite team and we play against each other.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I won't.

[Will Compton]

He's thinking that iPad goes like he plays at his spot, in his spot only because he's got everything dialed in right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I play this dynasty and nothing else.

[Taylor Lewan]

Like, I don't do away games.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't sit down and do. I don't sit down and do a one on one with some random. Right, right. I'm not into that. It's weird.

[Taylor Lewan]

Make it to your league.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I play my league. I go and play my league games. That's what I Play. And there's 23 of us in there and. And some of us. I got two teams. I got Stanford, too. And so I just started using Stanford just to kind of kill the time between advances, because sometimes our advances are four or five days, so there's a little bit of dead time.

[Will Compton]

I was gonna ask, like, what's the cadence with this league?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, every four or five days is an advance and somebody commissions it.

[Will Compton]

And there's like, TJ's the commissioner, MI, four hours.

[Taylor Lewan]

So before we started. Yeah. The podcast you will. Was saying that you don't play, but you actually. I do play the game on the sticks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I play the game. We don't send the games. But I don't play outside of this dynasty. Like, I don't play just pickup games with regular folks. I mean, I think it would be fun, but it's. I don't know why.

[Taylor Lewan]

It's way too valuable.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's weird to me to. It's weird to me to play one on one in any kind of console game with a stranger. I don't know why that's weird to me, but I do like being in, like, group activities, like where you play with, like, in. On my PC games, I play a game called Hell at Loose, and it's a World War II shooter. So you got to squad up with six guys and y'all all got to be doing your jobs and like that. So put them on Will, and then you got to go. You go race.

[Will Compton]

Sounds fire. You're gonna play pubg.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I played pubg back in the day, but I'm. I'm on Hell at Loose now. But on iracing, right, you race against 20, 30 dudes on iRacing. On my sim. My SIM rig. I do that anytime. I don't mind doing that. But this is. This deal here. And I'll. I'll say this like. And you guys can probably appreciate. Appreciate this.

[Will Compton]

I mean, I've already appreciated everything that you've laid out for us with that iPad.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The detail.

[Will Compton]

You have a full call sheet that tells you situation.

[Taylor Lewan]

There's a massive respect factor that's taking place right now with what you've done here. Yeah, that's crazy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The. The re. That's. It's unnecessary in. In if you're just. I know it's unnecessary, but I need to do it because I love the. I. I love the. The details. I love the data.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I love the information. And like, when I would. When I was working out and trying to stay in shape as a race car driver. What I enjoyed doing was road bikes. I hated the freaking ride. I hated the 40 mile ride. I dreaded it. What was hanging out there in front of me was all of the data I got from the ride. My average watts, my, you know, all of the information that I would get from my, you know, my technology and all them, all the crap you could put on the bike to tell me how I did compared to my last ride. That's what I rode for and that's what made me want to ride, was to see if I was faster or better. And, and that's, you know, and I think too, like, as I've retired from racing and I don't have that consuming my brain all the time. Like these little hobbies are what keep my mind sharp at like 50 years old. Like I need, like I need this mental gymnastics that's in this, you know, that's this bullshit that I'm playing with my buddies, right? And I take it way too far, right? And, and, but I'm like, hey, you know, that's my chance to win. That's how I'm going to beat dj, is to be like, make sure that I am playing the, I'm calling the very best play every single moment I can possibly call for myself. And I know this because I've looked at all these plays and I've ran them and I've, and I've listed them and I've got them right here. And I've created this, this very, you know, custom playbook. And so, yeah, it's fun.

[Taylor Lewan]

You need to take this to the next level.

[Will Compton]

We need an inspiring.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know what the next level could be. I mean, I think it's already taken.

[Will Compton]

When I was racing and it was the 40 miles and I dreaded it. I hated consumed me. But all the technology, all the details, the process, the loving it, and he's like, that's what I get out of college football. 25. He's like, I don't have that anymore. And you know, when I'm coaching. What's the, what's the mascot for Charlotte? The 49ers.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The 49ers.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

When I'm coaching those boys, the Charlotte 49ers, and Golly Samuel, he's elevated his GPA and now he can play and he is eligible this Saturday. That's what I get out of.

[Taylor Lewan]

When I got a guy who's on the outside linebacker spot, I know he's reached his maximum potential. So I move him into Defensive end. I get to see that spark in his eyes. And we've had jumping to the next level.

[Will Compton]

We've had one on one conversations. I'm like, no, you belong on the edge. And he's trying to tell me I'm a standup backer and now I need to trust this data that this is giving me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I found.

[Taylor Lewan]

I showed him the sheets. He doesn't believe in the sheets, but eventually he did believe in the sheets. And what happened? He's a five star now. He's a blue blood.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. And now he's a champion.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Because he listened. Because he took the coaching. He's a champion.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I have it on. Good.

[Will Compton]

Does Amy think all this?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

She hates it and he hates it.

[Will Compton]

And I got to know your cadence. So you're every. Okay, your games, your weeks are four or five days long. Right. But you're clearly, you're. You're every day.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm, I'm every. Every other day probably in the, in the. I'm in the, you know, in the. I'm in the war room every other day working on this, you know, those off days too.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's thinking to himself, I want to be back in there so bad. There's real life work in front of.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Him where he's like, not real life work.

[Taylor Lewan]

I gotta get this.

[Will Compton]

Not real life work. It's the time home.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

He's like, all right, we're going to be watching this TV show tonight. I got to stay invested.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Thinking of the three that was last night. I was like, all right, we're not doing, we're not doing it tonight. We're just going to watch the show.

[Taylor Lewan]

Got to, you got to be there for my family. Y'all gotta get on the simulator real quick. I guess I should work on my cars.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I do have a game that I've got to play against. App State. App State's my, my co pilot. He's with me here in Nashville. He flew the plane. He landed the plane here today. And his name's Alex. Alex and I played Alex a couple seasons ago and beat him really bad. And so I, I spent the time on the next flight that we were flying somewhere and wrote him a basic. An ebook and gave him list. I gave him my play book.

[Will Compton]

You wrote him an e book?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wrote him an ebook mail. Emailed it to him. I'm like, here's everything I do with scouting. Here's everything I do with plays. Here's, here's. I'll show you this dude.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's Connor Stallions. Of 25.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then I sent him Psycho. I sent him my place, I sent him my playbook.

[Will Compton]

He wrote his buddy an ebook.

[Taylor Lewan]

He wrote his buddy a manifesto on how to become a better 25.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And he's dominant now. And now like when I play him, it's like I know I gotta have my together because he's gonna call the same I call and I got. I don't even. I don't even know how to stop some of the. I call.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, you would regret.

[Will Compton]

You'Ve transcended.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know, man.

[Will Compton]

Like if I was playing myself, could I even beat myself? Oh my God. And it's so funny because the passion oozing from him, he really asked himself that kind of question.

[Taylor Lewan]

He saw how good he was doing. He's like, have I, have I done it? Have I cracked the code?

[Will Compton]

He said I wrote. I've given him everything that I know. And now I'm going to be playing against him and he's going to be calling the same that I call. And I'm wondering, can I even stop myself? And you see the look in his eye, like he's got Daytona this weekend.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh my God.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh my God. Oh, that's a great question. Do you have a picture of the war room?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, it's just my house. I mean, it's just my game room.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, but no, no, no, it's just.

[Taylor Lewan]

You got to have a court.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, no, no, it's not know. It's just a room with a couch and a tv.

[Taylor Lewan]

You got a cork board with some sort of. There's none I can't have attached to pictures.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And there can be no physical evidence.

[Taylor Lewan]

He prints out the smart.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Can be no physical evidence in the room.

[Taylor Lewan]

God, you got to stream this.

[Will Compton]

What time of day that this has happened for you? Like does we know when it gets to all right. Kids go down by 7:30.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

She knows kids go to bed about 9:00.

[Taylor Lewan]

I mean, I can't imagine you putting down your kids at 7:30, 8:00 or they go to bed at night. Can't imagine that. Like the pregame jitters. They want you to read the book, they want you to tell the story. And you're thinking, these kids have no clue. Hey, it's week one of the big season.

[Will Compton]

Hey, and great point. This brings it all back around. Dale sent me his children's book and I'm reading it to Rue and I'm thinking, this is the longest book I've ever read. So he ain't reading his books to his boys.

[Taylor Lewan]

This is a wrong, this is a ruse.

[Will Compton]

This is a long time. Sweetheart, we're gonna read.

[Taylor Lewan]

He made this book for his boys in his league that he knows his kids and now they can't focus. They gotta read this long ass book.

[Will Compton]

Sweetheart, we're gonna read. Go dog, go.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, it's about eight pages. Eight pages, dude, those are the best ones too. When you're kid, you tell your kid go and pick out a book and they bring back those real.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh my gosh.

[Taylor Lewan]

But the pages are like that thick. Each is only about eight of them. You're like, hell yeah. Okay, well we only one tonight though. Okay? Only one.

[Will Compton]

I meant to do a write up on Twitter about your children's book because I remember being in one time just be like, oh, oh, don't sweetheart car. She'll be. She wants to go back and see the cars in the garage.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

There are some books that are. You're like, damn, I should take that one out of rotation, you know, Everyone.

[Taylor Lewan]

Should buy that book though. Hey, everyone out here listening, please buy the book.

[Will Compton]

You see a little one go walk over to the shelf and like, God, why didn't I grab that. That one right there. Trip to Victory Lane.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

My, my, how many pages that thing?

[Taylor Lewan]

What's that novel look like?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

My, my six year old Isla is the long book person and my little 4 year old is like the cardboard hard, you know? Cardboard? Yeah, open it up. It's like three words each page. I love it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hell yeah. My seven year old's in Harry Potter right now. Yeah, we're busting out Harry Potter, but it used to be a chapter a night and I. You haven't seen me read on this podcast yet. But it's, it's slower moving than most. And so I go to like the five pages thing. My four year old, she's the same way with like the little pop up books and she wants to put stickers on a page. I'm like, we'll do one page. Page.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

And I always let her do two because I'm that kind of dad. And then we get out of there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're. It's no man. I'll be sitting in there in the middle of the book going, damn this book. You know, and then I have to remind myself, I'm like, what an. You know, yeah, I'm. I'm gonna miss this. And you know, and I'm like, guess just, just. I'm telling myself, I'm like, shut up self. Just read the book. Just enjoy the book.

[Will Compton]

Get in one day. You're gonna wish you were back in this moment, them just sitting under your arm.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

My little 4 year old is smart enough to know I'm. I'm half ass in this, Right?

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

She, you know, and she's like, what's the deal with this guy? Yeah. Right.

[Taylor Lewan]

How is he passionate about this? Yes, I am.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Where's the voice inflection?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, yes. Yeah, yeah.

[Will Compton]

You got to change the voices, too, for all the characters. I really enjoy doing.

[Taylor Lewan]

I don't read.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I do.

[Taylor Lewan]

After you do that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I do that because I have to. I have to do the audio for our book.

[Taylor Lewan]

You know what's messed up?

[Will Compton]

Oh, yeah, she do.

[Taylor Lewan]

In books.

[Will Compton]

I love.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I get into it.

[Taylor Lewan]

You know how they say, like in books there's like the quotes or like somebody's talking and it says like Darla said. It's like so blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Darla said.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's annoying.

[Taylor Lewan]

Darla says in the beginning. So I know to change the voice inflection.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

For that. Because I started going across these lines.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's right.

[Taylor Lewan]

I'm like, what voice am I supposed to be doing here? This is Darla. And I feel like I have to go back and read as Darla now.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

And those are made up.

[Will Compton]

Sure. I'm glad you brought up the info on the children's book. I saw the age range is 4 to 8. I'm like, okay, so Rue's got a couple years. I shouldn't even crack that.

[Taylor Lewan]

Right. If anything, it's inappropriate.

[Will Compton]

Thinking like, oh, man. Super nice.

[Taylor Lewan]

Coincidentally, all his buddies in the league, their kids are all between four and eight. Yeah. That's how this all happens.

[Will Compton]

You get freed up around nine.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Will Compton]

So you'll play from nine until I just.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

A game's an hour. So, like, if it's. But you ain't just with Alec. I know. So you got recruiting every week. Yeah. You got to go in there and go, all right, man, I got a big lead here. I can spare some points and put it on this other guy where he's in second. And now I'm at a five and a half star or four and a half star. So I'm going up against some big schools trying to beat, you know, Michigan and other people. Michigan got two wide receivers from me already in this round. We're in like week four.

[Taylor Lewan]

Become the thing in this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're in week four and they got two, like mid-90s speed wide receivers. And. And. But I got one guy, you know, so there's this one guy I think.

[Will Compton]

I might win so you'll play till about midnight?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Midnight? Yeah, I'm looking at my, I'm looking at the clock. But then, man, you get up and you're like, I'm gonna go sit on the couch and eat some junk food or sometimes, man, I just can't go down down.

[Taylor Lewan]

Well, yeah, you have a big game, you got a big game.

[Will Compton]

Don't say he's coming down. It's hard for him to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hard for me to calm down.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, you get done playing a big.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

60 minutes of football, when you win, win really good. Yeah, I get nervous.

[Will Compton]

Eat some food, send your boy a.

[Taylor Lewan]

Message like, hey, yeah, how'd that go for you? That go the way you wanted?

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Something I, I be to. To get to the, to the, to get to the national championship against Michigan. I beat Texas State by with a last second field goal.

[Will Compton]

Texas State. So there's somebody else in there good at recruiting.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dominic Corelli's his name and he's pretty tough.

[Taylor Lewan]

Dominic.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's got a fast quarterback and he knows how to use it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Sounds like he's involved with the mafia with that name.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So we almost didn't even make it to the Natty because how many years.

[Will Compton]

Has this dynasty I won?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Year 29. 2029.

[Will Compton]

It took you 29 seasons?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

2029. So four years. Four years.

[Will Compton]

Okay, okay, okay, sorry.

[Taylor Lewan]

And so you've unseated a Michigan team that's won three national championships in a row.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, he won one with South Carolina and then somehow or another he don't, he don't do his recruiting or used to not. And his team took a. And so you gotta, I gotta, I.

[Will Compton]

Gotta, I gotta work a lot, bro.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's got a job. Yeah, he's got a job. Yeah, I know, man. My time's lit. My time's limited, man. I can only, I can only put this much, much into it for short period of time where I have to, I have to pull the plug, go do something else. Yeah, we used to have a Madden league back around 2012. He was in that too. And it was full 36 or however many 32 full member. Everybody had a team. I was Washington and I got this, I got this fictional running back. I'll never forget his name, Nick Hubbard. Insane. I pulled him off of free agency, was like a 68 overall, but he had 97 speed. 98 speed and a lot of strength and a good, good, a good, a good trucking ability. And, and so I. His. His overall was so low because his, his awareness sucked. But if you're usering the player. Don't matter if they got bad awareness. So I blew this dude up. He was nasty. And I destroyed the league for three years in a row. Won three, three super bowls in a.

[Taylor Lewan]

Row and got that kick.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And then I was like this is boring. I'm out. I quit.

[Taylor Lewan]

Now is this is funny?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sure.

[Taylor Lewan]

Would you pull up the game the hell or high water. What was it?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hell let loose. That's it.

[Taylor Lewan]

Hell let loose.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Dude. It's fun as hell.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's kind of called. Dude. It's really slow. So there's. It's kind of like Call of Duty but Call of Duty but slower. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Slower pace.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. The. It's like one shot dead. You got to really kind of. You don't. You know you're going to die a lot if you move too fast.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So you gotta. Gotta be methodical. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

You respawn a lot or if you get one life and that's it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, you can respawn.

[Taylor Lewan]

Okay.

[Will Compton]

Dale was gooning with us on pubg one night.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I. I like hell. I like the. The. The. I like the real historical.

[Will Compton]

Real. What you talking about? That's like. I like the history 100 on an island.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I like the historical. I like the historical like World War II era.

[Taylor Lewan]

So PUBG just had a time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I used to play 30s. You'd be good a crap ton on this thing. I used to play pubg on an iPad because like you could take it anywhere.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And play anywhere. And it was not bad on a mobile. It's pretty good.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. But pubgs a lot of fun.

[Taylor Lewan]

Do you ever play Red Dead Redemption two?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Give me your take on that game.

[Will Compton]

Did you play it all the way through?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't think I finished it.

[Will Compton]

Oh, dude.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's a lot.

[Will Compton]

It is a lot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You got to have the book. Did you get the book to finish it? Cuz you got to. I mean the. Sometimes you'll get in some of the scenarios and you're like. I really don't know what the to do right here. Like the book tells you every little.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I guess maybe all the side missions. But I mean I was.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

If you're trying to find the treasure map or go skin and animals or something like that. But if you're just playing the storyline, I encourage you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think I did the first one, Red Dead Redemption.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

And then that was a good storyline.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I. What I want is. And it may exist, but I don't know. I got into red Dead Redemption 2 on the PC and I want to, like a. I want to. I want a world that's existing all the time that you can drop into that's a wild, wild West. And, like, you are. You're a character, and you're always developing that character. I know that you can jump into online play on Red Dead Redemption, but it's. It's kind of cool. It's kind of quirky. It's not, like a authentic realistic experience. Right. You run around shooting people. They shoot you, whatever. But it would be cool if they could figure out a way or if there is a way to, like, have a. Have a character that's everlasting. Like, that's your character. You drop in, you play this guy. You're this guy. And you go, you know, put your ass to bed. Get up. And, you know, next time you log in, you get out of bed, and you go run around and do some stuff. Stuff.

[Taylor Lewan]

And so does that make any sense to you?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No.

[Will Compton]

It does. I'm just thinking, like, I wonder if there's anything in VR. And then I'm thinking, like, VR, buddy. You might get consumed by this.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Dale, of all the people, I would never expect this, but I think, Dale, ready, player one.

[Will Compton]

Have you seen that movie?

[Taylor Lewan]

He put the thing on, then all of a sudden, you're in that world, and you're. Your real world kind of goes to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

This world. Because I'm the same way. I could definitely fall into that trap.

[Will Compton]

He's like, you get up, you take your. You take your ass to bed. And I'm just thinking, you played Harvest.

[Taylor Lewan]

Moon before, but I. So in this Red Dead fantasy you have, it's a Western game, but you can, like, build a home, buy land, all these, so you can essentially live a real world. So there's a game called Ark. I tried to put Will and the boys on it. They weren't really having it. But essentially, you start out as, like, a level zero, and you're like a caveman. You're living in Priest in dinosaur times. And you can. You're essentially just, like, trying to survive for your first 50 levels. But you can learn to learn to make tools, learn to build structures, learn. You know, you can start farming things, and eventually you can get so good at Ark that you can have, like, technological advances where you have, like, jet packs or flying on things. There's dragons. And that is a world that is everlasting. The way you're saying you can live in that, and people can come to your world and take all your stuff, and you basically have to start all over.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's kind of like day Z. Or was it days we played day Z for a while. That's kind of. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

My whole thing is you build that thing up and you die and you get taken over. It's over.

[Taylor Lewan]

The Asian clans coming.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So that start over. Day Z is like the zombie apocalypse. You. You launch into the world and this thing's been around forever and it's kind of. It kind of goes through these certain periods of popularity and. But you land on this big giant island and you got nothing, right? You gotta. You gotta eat. You're like, your guy will die if you don't like feeding food. And you, you know, you steal from people and you build houses to hide your in. And it's kind of the same way, but it doesn't really progress beyond like the technology. Bare basic technology that you have is what you have.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. This one, this play.

[Will Compton]

Skyrim.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, that was a great.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's a fun game. I. But we need to go back to Red Dead Redemption real quick. You need to go play too. You need to play it all the way through. You need to play the storyline and fully invest in Arthur Morgan. To me, this is the greatest game ever.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay.

[Taylor Lewan]

When I got my ACL refixed in 2021, I had eight days and I played the entire game in eight days. I had nothing else to do. I sobbed at the end of the game. No joke. Tears streaming down my face. It's me and my wife. And I cried. And then there was a break in crying. And as I was going to sleep that night, I started to re. Cry about the game. That's. How.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How did your wife take that?

[Taylor Lewan]

She was like, yo, what the. These pain pills must be way different than anything I've ever taken.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm already getting a lot of about buddy in NCAA football. I'm playing.

[Taylor Lewan]

I'm not sure it affects how she.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Might react if I cried.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Over a game?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Arthur. No, just from the other room.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That might push her over the edge, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

There's no coming about it now. To be honest with you. I'm getting emotional thinking about Arthur Morgan right now. Well, and I know there's a bunch of tier ones right now saying, oh, you need a double stream. I'm going to double stream. It's been a busy couple.

[Will Compton]

Oh, bro, you need not just. They can't. They shouldn't leave you alone. You said something. You haven't even answered them.

[Taylor Lewan]

I actually have. You need to focus on my Twitter account. I have.

[Will Compton]

I actually still talk to Billy? You talking to him every day, Bill.

[Taylor Lewan]

I don't talk to people every day, but I sent a little psa. I said, hey, I know. I said I was gonna do a double stream. I've been made aware. And it was right above the tweet you made. Oh, no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Where are y'all?

[Taylor Lewan]

I will eventually do a double stream.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're streaming your game?

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, we'll Stream Tuesdays around 11. But what's that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What platform?

[Taylor Lewan]

I think I'm just doing on YouTube. Right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

YouTube. Or Twitch.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not Twitch.

[Taylor Lewan]

No, I. I don't think we've dove enough into it. We should definitely dive into that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know much about it. Oh, really?

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah, because we were. When we goon on pubg coop, he does it from a PlayStation.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Got to do it. That's what we have in our. Our college football league is a big discord. That's how we communicate every day. Day. And everybody's in there running their mouth and bullshitting about that. Don't even matter about stuff. That's their life.

[Will Compton]

I'm going for a job interview today, guys.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're like, all right.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, good luck.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, Good luck.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, that's. That's a.

[Will Compton]

You better strap the up. Job interview, man.

[Taylor Lewan]

Are we. We feel good.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. We need to ask him the Bud Light question.

[Taylor Lewan]

Do you have that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes, I.

[Will Compton]

What he would do anything for. Yes. Our Bud Light question segment. And again, stock up now on Bud light. Head to Budlight.com locator to find a store near you. But our Bud Light question. There's talks. What people would do for a Bud Light. What would you do anything for? Like, what is that for? So, for example, Steve Rinella, he gave us a. A great story. He's like, by the end of my life, like, I don't care. I will do. I will move heaven and earth to create this little docu series. And I won't say what the concept is, because he told us afterwards. He's like, I can't tell you guys, but I will get this made. I don't care how many views it gets. It doesn't matter. Like, I want this story to come to life somewhere, somehow. He would do anything to get this docu series created. What is something that you do anything for?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

My life has been amazing. There ain't. I don't know. I mean, I don't want to say that. I mean, obviously, the traditional things I have to probably say. Some people on that are watching this don't go, what the wrong with this guy, with my wife and my kids. But outside of, like, I would. I think I would probably. I mean, those. The things that keep popping in my mind are like getting my wife, getting my kids through college, or because my life has been. I've already done all the things. I've already done everything. Everything. I did it all. I did everything I wanted. I don't. There's nothing sitting in front of me where like, shit, I hope that happens. Not even the cup stuff. Like, if the cup thing happens.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, I was gonna bring that up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I was gonna say, yeah, I don't want to do. I wouldn't do anything for that. You know, I'm kind of. I'm kind of 50 and good, and I want, you know, I want to watch. I want to be. I want to be more excited, invested in what happens between, you know, now and my kids graduating school and moving out of the house. Right. Are they going to play sports? Is it going to be dance? Whatever the hell it's going to be. Right? What are we going to. What are we going to get into? And my goal, I think, is all of that. Whatever that is in that whatever happens between now and them graduating college, which I hope they do, all that's fine. They choose. But, like, I want to make sure that they are, when they leave the house, right? To be adults, that they are equipped with all the tools. And so, like, I would do anything in the world to make sure that that is what situation they're in, you know, I mean, yeah, there ain't nothing in front of me personally, professionally, that is. That's that I'm like, oh, girl, you know, gotta get it.

[Will Compton]

It seems like, yeah, it sounds. It seems like back to back titles and costumes.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna say he took a generic answer and made it beautiful. The way you just explained that for.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Your kids, dude, I'm gonna tell you right now if the. I got a. On my podcast this week, we played a clip. TJ's My Podcast Co host, my buddy that I beat with Michigan. We played a clip from the coach of the UNC 49ers congratulating me. I got the helmet, a jersey, a hat. I told him. I told all my buddies in our discord. I said, hey, I just booked a spot on busting with the boys to go talk about the national. I told him that two weeks ago. And they're like, that fires me up. Yeah. And so I've been running this into the ground and TJ is over it. And so, like, if I don't beat his ass this next time it's going to be held, book the spot on.

[Will Compton]

Bus with the boys to go talk about the Natty.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If I don't win, he is going to.

[Will Compton]

When does the next season start?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's already started. We're like three or four weeks in. So I think we'll play this, you know, we'll play the national championship probably in about, about four or five, four weeks maybe.

[Taylor Lewan]

Oh, it's a short lived celebration and then there's a tour of celebrating your national championship in the middle of your next season.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so he's, he's, you know, he's the favorite to do to, to win next, the next Natty and he's already probably behind the scenes planning his celebration because he has some connection. He has to, he has connections at Michigan. Does he know some people? So it could be rough but I told him I'm like live it up man. Who would have thought Charlotte taking them down.

[Will Compton]

I would not have thought, you wouldn't.

[Taylor Lewan]

Have guessed that I would have lost a lot of money on fan.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Before we end, before we end this, I just wanted to. I brought this helmet. Now we didn't talk about this and there's really nothing to it. There's not a story or anything other than, you know, y'all both know that I love Washington and when I went to in 2015, I had an appearance to go to the College Football hall of Fame and I'm standing there to. I'm also meeting a make a wish kid there. That particular day we were going to tour the facility, right and look around all the cool in there. I'm standing there and Dave Butts, the lineman for Washington walks up and he goes, hey, you know, introduce himself. I was like, I know who you are. And he handed me this helmet. I want you to have this. So it was a big surprise that he was going to be there for me and somebody had set that up. And so Dave Butts walks up and he gives me this helmet and he's like this is my helmet from 1984. I immediately obviously recognized it was a game worn helmet. And he's, he's like I want you to have it. And so people ask me all the time like. And I thought to bring this today because people ask me all the time, they're like, what's your favorite piece of memorabilia of outside of racing? And so this is it. This is my favorite piece of. That I've got right. Of all the, all the Washington. I got helmets, tons of helmets. I collect helmets. I got. I got 180ish college and football helmets. Right. Of all types of teams. And this is number one out of helmets or any other piece of. Of uniform, signed jersey, anything. This is my holy grail. And Dave gave this to me, and I thought y'all would appreciate it, being players, knowing what this probably went through. Knowing what Dave. Right.

[Taylor Lewan]

Do you mind if I can.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I. I thought I needed to bring that. I wanted to bring it for, like, maybe some. Some inspiration.

[Will Compton]

That's different. Different world.

[Taylor Lewan]

Different world, yeah.

[Will Compton]

I mean, that is sick.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He was so.

[Taylor Lewan]

Logo, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Will Compton]

I know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean, it's back, man. They kind of thought, hey, we're bringing it back. It's nice.

[Will Compton]

Have they been bringing it back?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They talked about the logo can come back, and they're going to use the logo in some marketing and some things because the. The family that designed it was like, hey, you know, this is. This is something we'd like to have.

[Will Compton]

Have happened.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I think there's been some conversations around the logo itself being used in some.

[Taylor Lewan]

Bring the logo back, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't think the logo was ever coming back to the helmet. Right? But, yeah. Yeah, pretty neat, man. I just.

[Will Compton]

Washington's in a good spot, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They are. Oh, you kidding me?

[Will Compton]

Great spot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They're in a great spot.

[Will Compton]

It was fun watching them last year just make that run and. And beating the Lions. That was crazy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It had been.

[Taylor Lewan]

They performed the entire game, too. Like, they were.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I hadn't ran around, and I was in Texas at my wife's. Had some friends and family. We were visiting, and I was running around in this. In. In this person's living room like a maniac. The. You know, during the game, Amy's invested. Amy's into it. The kids are into it. They wear jerseys and. And they got the little cheerleader uniforms. And my little girl Isla, six years old, is like, hey, Commander's playing today. Are we wearing the jerseys? We got to wear the jerseys. I'm like, yeah, let's get the jerseys. And so, I mean, the fact that they're good, the fact that they're winning is all, like, happening at the perfect time for me because my family's. My girls are kind of impressionable. And when they were winning those games at the end of last season, I. It brought me back to my childhood because when, you know, they hadn't. They hadn't really kicked real ass since 91. I was. I remember where I was when they won against Denver in the super bowl, against the Bills, against Miami, and I remember physically where I was standing or what I was doing, and. And I hadn't been that happy and been able. It was so nice to be happy and, like, really, truly, genuinely cheering about your team going that deep into, you know, the postseason. I know I'm overstating it a little bit as a. But I'm a fan, right. So I'm biased. But, you know, you. You played there, and you know the history and the legacy of that team and what that means to the fans that. That go to those games. And, oh, yeah, all the teams you play for, you know how passionate the fans are. And God almighty, we've been waiting a long time. I mean, there's other teams that have been waiting a long time, too, but damn, it's been tough.

[Will Compton]

I know just the story of Washington Snider, the ownership cloud that's kind of been there. You root for them, but you're like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

They couldn't do anything right. Owner off the field, it was always bad news. You, like, nobody wants to play for us. Look at all this going on. All the. We can't escape. Escape.

[Will Compton]

Like, and then they get new ownership, new coaching staff, and it feels like.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Turned around and insanely quick.

[Will Compton]

Players in and them have the success that they've had so quickly.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It turned around insanely fast. I've been watching free agency.

[Taylor Lewan]

I will.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm looking at my phone every day following JP And a couple of those guys going, hey, man, what's the update? Who is it, John? Yes. Like, who's it? Yes. I'm like, who? Oh, man, those are my guys.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I'm like, like, what's the news? You know, Let me know. Oh, you know, because we're all fired up about our GM and all. We think he walks on water.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And. And we're like, hey, man, they're gonna. Now that. Now that we've shown everybody in the league that what we can do. And everybody's excited about Jaden. It's all these players are like, I want to go there. Yeah. Well, let's see it. Let's see it. Here's free agency. Let's see who signs up.

[Will Compton]

Don't you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's neat.

[Will Compton]

Dale is. When he's just a fan.

[Taylor Lewan]

Fans. She sounds like a passionate man in general.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

The thing I love you talking about, though, is, like, your kids getting fired up watching the games with you. Because my. My oldest daughters started to hit that with Michigan, like, this year. Like, she. Every Saturday. Like, we'd have the game on or whatever during the day, and we'd either watch it casually and I would go back and watch it, or like she would sit down and watch it with me. And when we played Ohio State this year and we won, I remember she was in the other room because she was doing something her, her, her mom and my youngest daughter, like, sprinting in the room. Like, we're all high five. Like, they were like truly about it, which I thought was like the coolest moment. It's like, yeah, I didn't meet my wife when I was at Michigan, but like, she knows, like, I enjoyed playing there and stuff like that. And I've like recently become like a bigger and bigger fan and like really dived into the culture. And to see my 7 year old be about it and then hear you talk about your kids about it, putting the jerseys on, all that's very similar. Yeah, it's like this is how fans are built.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yep.

[Taylor Lewan]

This is like organically how fans are just made and it's awesome.

[Will Compton]

Teaching Rue the go Big red chain.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

That football, like. Yeah, we're gonna watch football today, sweetheart. We're gonna have that on. We're gonna be watching Daniel Tiger Daniel.

[Taylor Lewan]

Tired kick rocks for just 12 hours. All right, we'll get back to it tomorrow.

[Will Compton]

A little bare face.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah, this is me and my daughter. I took her to Northwestern and so that's the game before Ohio State and I mean they dropped like a 50 per our north last year. And so when was kind of dialed and I talked to the team before too, so I was like, maybe something's in the air. And yeah, technically they're undefeated since me and my daughter went to that game.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So me and Amy, I don't want to. You know, me and Amy were at the Chicago game where they had the Harold Mary. Oh, insane.

[Taylor Lewan]

That was so wild.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We were sitting there in this. We. We got.

[Will Compton]

She a fan? Is she a yes football?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, she's. She likes it because I like it. And there's not been a lot to there we are. We got to go down on the field probably about. Probably about 20ft away from us. You know that moment, right? Everybody's gone. The whole stadium's empty. Jaden's about 20ft away doing an interview. And I would get to luckily get to say, hey man, I'm a big fan of your badass. You know, and so that was a cool moment for us.

[Taylor Lewan]

I wonder if Jaden even understands how big of a deal that is. Like, Dale Jr. Came up to you. He waited for you to finish interview.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He has other things in his mind. That are big deals, right? Yeah, that are cool. And. And his generation and the people that he. He, like, holds at a certain level of, you know, celebrity status or whatever. But we were. I wore my Riggins jersey. I'm like, they. They let me go sit in the owner suite. Like, that was automatic. When Dan was there, when Dan on the team, I was getting invites every week. And then the new. New people come in, and I'm like, man, I wonder if I'll get that invite.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And so they sent one, and we're like, all right, we're going. We didn't know where we were sitting, but they walk us in there and like, oh, hell, they done re. We redid the whole thing. The whole. Whole owner suites, like a whole different color now. And we sat down on the front row, watch a whole game and ain't looking good. Everybody's leaving. Everybody's kind of leaving the. Even their owner suite. And he's like, what we doing? I was like, we ain't leaving. I was like, you know, even if we lose, we're going to lose. We're going to stand here a few minutes, soak it in. We'll just wait.

[Will Compton]

We got stand here a few minutes.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We ain't leaving. We ain't leaving. And we're standing there and. And, you know, he heaves the ball up in the air and, yeah, we're watching. And they caught that pass and that, and what people were left, it was like pandemonium. Like, Amy, I'm watching. I was, like, watching Amy go crazy, like, loving that, because I'm like, you know, my wife is a, you know, a big Commanders fan now, and I don't know, man, that was a. To have been there and seen that in person. And I remember, like, watching the one guy go down the field, number 23, that was taunting. Yeah, I'm watching it. I'm like, here's an opportunity. This. This fucking guy is not paying attention. I wonder if anybody else notices this, like, you know, because he went viral. Yeah. And so I'm thinking, man, this. This. This might be a chance. There might be a chance here. And of course, you know, y'all know how it went down. But God almighty to. Y'all have probably seen the Hail Mary moment or the. The buzzer beater. Y'all seen that because y'all are in sports so much in college, high school, NFL. You've probably been part of those moments, right? That was my first, like, real, like, buzzer beater, like prayer. That's one in a million. Yeah, you Know, and then for us to go on and do what we did the rest of the year. Right. Because that was kind of early in the season, but I mean just incredible.

[Taylor Lewan]

But especially it's like Caleb Williams, who was the first overall pick, there's like obviously that like already busted this big.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Long run off in the second in the third quarter and I was like, here we go, falling apart. Our defensive held them up, God, for so long and now it's like they found the holes, they found the kryptonite. They're going to. Damn. Just destroy us. Destroy us or they, you know, they're going to win the game.

[Taylor Lewan]

Damn.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, we got it.

[Taylor Lewan]

That is so awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That was a fun season last year. I hope this year's good.

[Taylor Lewan]

I hope so too. Because you worry about, you worry about the sophomore slump. You. That's always a worry.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's always a little bit of a deal.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We've done some good getting some.

[Will Compton]

They'll get better through the draft and.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We only got five picks so I don't know what that means and I don't. I keep hearing that Washington just picked.

[Will Compton]

Up somebody for agency. Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The, the left tackle from the.

[Will Compton]

That's right. That's right. Tunsil. Yeah, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I mean there's good too. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

He's got good footwork.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Good. Yeah, yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Good footwork. What's that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Good lungs.

[Taylor Lewan]

Good lungs. Strong lungs. The strongest lungs in the game actually. Yeah, but they gave him, they're, they're going to break him off. I don't know if he signed a new contract yet, but they, they. Houston got a whole bunch of picks so they're going to have to pay him.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Big time.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh yeah. Well, they got to pay Jaden two couple years.

[Will Compton]

The, the good thing is they have Jaden on the rookie deal and just get other now and see if they.

[Taylor Lewan]

Can wait at least two more years.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Two more years. Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's funny to watch them work, man. They're the, the free agency, you know, besides the left tackle from Texas, the players that they bring in, you're like, don't never heard of this guy. Who's this guy? What's the story? And, and their story's really not like he's dominated, you know, it's kind of like, well, he's a, he's a, he's a journeyman, dependable, he'll get in there, he'll do the job, you know. And that's what they did last year. They had all these one year deals. I don't know about this. Like you guys. But he, you know, I'm watching, I'm like, it's, it's, it's strange because everybody's, everybody's now signing like one year deals on these, you know, these, you know, these veterans that are in like the 76, 60, 70% mark of their career, they're kind of, they got a little left in the tank. But I mean how is that the way it's always been? Because it feels like, I remember it felt like for years when free agency came, Everybody signed like 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 year deals. And now everyone is doing these like 1 year, 2 year, little rinky dink week. You'll play here this year, maybe not next year.

[Taylor Lewan]

The journeyman, I think has become more and more casual now than ever. This is, this, this free agency has been very unique in the sense that the market keeps getting higher and higher. Just in these like this pocket of this couple of weeks, like Max Crosby was the number one, you know, highest non paid quarterback of all time and then a day later, Miles Garrett, then a day, then like, you know, now he's like the fifth highest page paid. So it's really interesting to see these like markets like these cap setting contracts happening. But a lot of times like you get through the first wave of that free agency, which is like your, your top guys who are able to get away from their teams, you're going to pick up and then you get like a lot of the guys that have like, you know, they're signing usually the one, the two year deals. Yeah, it's like, is he going to work out? We know he's got talent. Can he really get it done?

[Will Compton]

So I think too there's not as much of a market because the structure, when the new CBA and everything else went, the minimums went up for rookies, it kind of squeezed that middle class a little bit more because the rookies, they'd be on cheaper deals. So you would see more 3, 4, 5 year deals of like middle tier guys. But over time it's like the, the floor has raised for the rookie deals and it's like we're going to have this rookie for three or four years. You don't necessarily pay the middle class as much. You can kind of put all your eggs into the guys that you want here long term and guys will take those one or two year deals because they're essentially trying to be on prove it deals to where they haven't seen the guarantees that they would like in a full contract. Because if you're a good player and somebody's offering, let's just say, you know, three years, $30 million, but only, you know, five to 10 guaranteed or something like that. Then that player probably thinks in his head, I will just do a one year deal, get a guaranteed contract as much as I can and then hopefully try and hit a lick the next time around. Because the middle class is kind of getting squeezed out because you'll just sign guys on 1 year money minimums or 1 year for lower money. But you don't see those like middle tier contracts being laid out as much.

[Taylor Lewan]

And well, we'll just structured out with a 3 or $30 million, 10 million guarantee. Like that's, that's a three year deal, but really it's a one year deal. Right, like that, that's a prove it deal.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Or it was of the past because of this whole we'll just said the middle class getting squeezed because really all you have is your guarantee. A lot of these guys want to look at like the total contract number. Like these guys are making whatever 200 million dollar contracts. Oh, it's awesome. But then it's like, well, you only got this much guaranteed though. The guarantee is what is the most important thing, not how big the number is because they could walk away from you or they could backlit the contract and all these different things. So there's a lot of like shenanigans and like savvy things that take place during the free agency market.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's pretty fascinating to watch and we'll see how, how it plays out for my team.

[Taylor Lewan]

Is there any like free agency type stuff in NASCAR or. You're pretty, just built in. We're going to pay you the X, Y and Z a year. Yeah, it's pretty bonuses based on if you win.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's, it's. They're not really a free agency now. There's some drivers that will become available or their contract comes up and they probably know they want to move to a different team and they probably. Or they're getting calls from like there's no tampering rules or anything. So like an owner can call a guy and say hey, how many more years you got on your deal? Or would you, can you leave your deal? Can I buy it out? Can, would you want to come to my team? I want you as my driver. What do we got to do? And so you may be able to pay that team money to get him out of his contract early.

[Will Compton]

Does that happen very much?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It has happened in the past. It's not a very common Thing. But, I mean, there's no real rules to our. We don't have a free agency.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Period or anything like that.

[Will Compton]

Ever poached somebody or gotten somebody?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I've not. You know, my team. My team's kind of like taking these rookies and these up and comers and we've got more. We got more people.

[Will Compton]

True. I guess.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. We got more people kind of coming to us than we have seats to have race. You know, the people. But in the top tier cup level, it's probably a lot more cutthroat and a little more competitive. Trying to.

[Will Compton]

How many times when you were a driver did you get called from other ownership?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Once in my career. So like I was. My deal, it. DEI at my dad's company was ending and I had two or three teams come to. To court me or, you know, pitch me their deal. And I. And I knew I wasn't gonna stay where I was at, so I was, I was all ears and went and met with everybody in each team and kind of took the one deal that I liked. But that happened once and I was happy to. I was happy where I ended up and wanted to stay there till I retired. And I was lucky enough to. To do that.

[Will Compton]

That's awesome.

[Taylor Lewan]

I know we're wrapping up, but like in football, when you're playing or any sport in general, like, there's things you hate doing, but then when you leave the sport, you're like, man, I missed that practice, like with, like, that's what you miss.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Practice. Yeah, I hated practice because practice was a lot of times, like testing was. Testing and practice are very similar. In testing, you go to a racetrack in the middle of the week, way before, weeks before you're gonna race there and you're by yourself. Usually there might be another team there, but usually you're by yourself and you're out there running alone and it's you and your team. You go out, run five, 10 laps, come in, make a change, and it's very monotonous and boring and you're just running and running and you almost get bored of telling them the feedback. Okay, yeah, that made it a little better. I didn't feel anything. We're just doing nothing here. I'm just spinning my wheels and. But the team's got a process and they're, they got a plan for those two days you're testing and they are going to get through that plan and learn everything they want learn and then go home. You don't realize that as a driver you're just bored to death running by yourself. When you practice on the race weekends, everyone else is out there, but it's the same thing. You're practicing, changing things. Your team's learning. It's not a race. There's no checkered flag. There's no winner, loser. You're just making laps, and it's like an hour, whatever. And I hated it. I thought it was boring, and I hated to get ready and go do it. And it was getting in the. The way of whatever I wanted to do, But I wanted to race. Race. The race was fun. I was excited about the race, but the practice was just kind of boring. But right in the last year, I was sitting in my car, and I think I was at Kansas Motor Speedway, and we're in the middle of practice, and I sat there, and it just dawned on me. I was like, one. There'll be a day in a very short period of time where we won't. I won't ever practice again. And I was like. And I was watching my guys. They were meandering around the car, changing little things, jacking the car up, Gonna adjust this, gonna adjust that. And they're just moving around, and I got to watching them. I'm in my garage stall. It's every other car's in their garage stall. People are pulling in and out, going running laps, and the. It's busy. And I was just sitting in there. I was like, yeah, I'm gonna miss this part. I hated this part, and I should have appreciated it more, but I'm gonna miss. I'm gonna miss watching my guys that I love. I love these guys. They're my guys. I'm going to miss watching them work. I'm going to miss coming in here and taking this car to them and saying, hey, can you fix it? I got. This doesn't work right, or this doesn't turn good, or it doesn't str. It doesn't steer right, and they're going to try to fix it. I'm going to miss trying to fix that puzzle with them and work on it. And, you know, I think I knew I was going to miss driving in the race. I knew I was going to miss the competition. Right. But it was the prep work that I thought I hated that I end up missing as well.

[Taylor Lewan]

Beautifully said.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Thank you.

[Will Compton]

Yeah. Do you ever remember those times, like, I can remember a few situations where you're kind of sitting there and you're kind of taking it in, just being like, as much as this sucks, because practice did, like, training camp, you know, There would just be them days where you're just in the middle of the season or whatever, but you're just sitting there taking it in the breeze, taking in the scene, the heat. If it's training camp here, it's like, one day, we're not even going to be able to do this anymore.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

I feel like it was always, like, during camp, like. And you. Like you for getting those beautiful situations where you got a small group of boys and everyone's just fed up, and everyone just wants to vent and talk about how this is just. All this we're doing sucks. And, like, you let everybody vent, and you're sitting there, whether it's like, we're all sitting in the cold tubs after, like, dying. Like, a couple guys were cramping in the corner, and he's just like, this is such a hot day. We got to do it again tomorrow. Everyone's just complaining. But then eventually, that conversation would turn to. Someone would bring it up, be like, it's crazy. This is not gonna last forever. And that's, like, a moment you have. You're like, holy. Like, yeah, this is kind of. These are. These are the good old days. Right now you're in it. Just sucking. Is the good old days, because it is the stuff, like, practice sucks. Like, Camp August. I wake up now in August, and I smile to myself knowing that there's. There's about 2,000 guys out there dying.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

And I'm just in this cozy bed right now. Oh, this is. I might go hang on my kids for a minute before I go to work. Like, something like that. That's kind of nice. But then there's, like, a PC. It's like, man, it would be nice to have, like, 53 guys that are just, like, embracing the suck together. Everyone's handling it a little different way, but we're all feeling the same thing, which is. This is really hard, and we're doing it together.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's the beautiful part about it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I agree.

[Will Compton]

Dale. This has been awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, it's fun.

[Will Compton]

Thank you so much, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Man, we had a little marathon here.

[Will Compton]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. How long was this episode 2:45.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn right.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Good work.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well. Yeah. What's. What's the average these days for you guys?

[Taylor Lewan]

We said, well, 130 mark. 90 minutes is solid. Like, 90 minutes, I feel like, is our average.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's good. All right.

[Taylor Lewan]

Maybe on a high.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'll take it as. I'll call it a success.

[Will Compton]

So much fun. Thank you for the gifts.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

I hope everybody enjoyed big Hugs, tiny kisses for don't forget to subscribe.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Congratulations to Bustin man and the success. The new partnerships with Bud Light. FanDuel. Hey, I'm on Team Anheuser Busch. We work with Fanduel over at Dirty Mo Media.

[Will Compton]

Let's go. So yeah, some more. We need some more bus with the boys. Dirty.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I need an Xavier win tonight. I know that that's going to get my parlay here.

[Taylor Lewan]

Who do you got win in the national championship? Michigan.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The you March Madness.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Well, have you done a bracket yet?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No. I'm a Tar Heel fan and I know they're in a bad way, but they just.

[Taylor Lewan]

They played last night. Yeah, they did.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's one. They were one leg of my parlay. It was Alabama State, Carolina and now Xavier tonight.

[Taylor Lewan]

You know, Fando, you can put futures bets together as a parlay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Really?

[Taylor Lewan]

I got myself. I. Plus 18 13. Plus 813 if you want.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I hate staring at that damn thing. I did that with Caitlin Clark's average points for a rookie year. And I'm like, golly, every time I log in, I'm like, it's there. It's a staring me right in the face because it's not over. You know, you got to wait months for this thing to finish out. And I'm like. So I like, I'm on the quick.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

But the futures parlay with. With FanDuel and obviously this is. This is actually while March Madness is still going on.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

But you can parlay futures of like teams getting to sweet 16, the round of 30.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay.

[Will Compton]

Final four.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

You can parlay it together. And I got a plus 3000 if you are interested.

[Taylor Lewan]

3000.

[Will Compton]

I saw that 3300, something like that. You saw. You beeped it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, I saw it on social media. I. I know what you're doing.

[Will Compton]

You like it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know what you're doing. I. I did. I. I got on a parlay that you had during the NFL season and it was a rough one. I don't even want to admit what we bet. Not the amount of money I had one unit. But like the. The teams we were betting on, I was. It was a. Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now you know what I'm talking about.

[Will Compton]

I know. Yeah. Because we were texting. Yeah, yeah.

[Taylor Lewan]

The fall, you'll see more of those parlays as well.

[Will Compton]

Yes. Playoff with those parlays.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Like, damn, dude.

[Taylor Lewan]

Will and I got to this point late in the season. Last year was like, the higher the plus odds, the better the parlay was. Yes. Yeah. Like you're nine legs plus 10,000, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's ridiculous. But if it hits, that's no way to live.

[Will Compton]

You're going to be pissed.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's no way to.

[Will Compton]

Look.

[Taylor Lewan]

You bought an iPad showing your college football 25 breakdowns of everything. Yeah, we can put together some spicy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Parlays like my, my spicy parlay. And I might get clowned for this, but like I'll go in. It was right before March Madness, and it's kind. You can do this now with the ones versus the 16s, but I like stack all the ones, you know, the ones to beat the 16s. So I'll build like a plus 200 with like nine. Nine legs.

[Will Compton]

See, that's a crazy way to live, in my opinion.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But those are almost automatics.

[Will Compton]

But you're getting to plus 200 odds with a nine leg parlay.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And they all should win. I am, I would say in the past month, I am probably 18 and two with seven or more legs in my parlay days in basketball alone.

[Will Compton]

Hey, I was gonna say.

[Taylor Lewan]

I'm gonna have to call Dale.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'll show you. I'll open up. I'll open up. My, my.

[Will Compton]

Where's the iPad for that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'll open it up.

[Taylor Lewan]

If you took half the effort as you do with that, that game as you. You be a billionaire.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, you got to get careful because, I mean, you got to do like 400, 450, 500 odds on seven or nine parlays to get to like plus 100, 200, 300 or something like that. But if it's, you know, it's gonna usually play pay out. Yeah, that's probably not a popular way.

[Will Compton]

To do it now. You just said 18 and 2 the way you did it. And I'm trying to criticize like I'm 2 and 18.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, you're betting just. You're at plus 10,000 odds, buddy.

[Will Compton]

I've, I've won a few games.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's kind of number parlays.

[Will Compton]

I'm. Like I said, I'm betting straight up. Yeah, parlays.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm.

[Will Compton]

I'm.

[Taylor Lewan]

We had a. We do a thing on our gambling show.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I want to join. I want to tell some of your bets, man, but you're gonna gotta clean it up a little bit. Come on.

[Will Compton]

We will. We'll clean them up. We'll get dialed in for football season.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Let's go.

[Will Compton]

I'll even run them by you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Let's go.

[Will Compton]

Yeah, I put.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Hey, I'll get on. I. I'll tell you best. I ain't care. I ain't scared.

[Taylor Lewan]

There you go.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Will Compton]

Appreciate you, dad.

[Taylor Lewan]

Appreciate you, brother.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Appreciate y'all, man. It's fun. Thanks for having me.

[Taylor Lewan]

Yeah. Big hugs, tiny kisses, three hour pop.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Damn right. Hey, it's Ryan Seacrest for Albertsons and Safeway. It's stock up savings time now through March 25th. Spring in for store wide deals and earn four times the points.

[Ryan Seacrest]

Look for in store tags to earn.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

On eligible beverage items from Tropicana Lemonade or breakfast favorites like General Mills Cereal, Coffee Mate Creamer, Quaker Cereal, plus many more. Then clip the offer in our app for automatic event long savings. Stack up those rewards to save even more restrictions apply. Visit Albertsons or Safeway.com for more details. This Valentine's Day, celebrate every love story with Pandora. Whether it's romantic, platonic, familial or a gesture of self love, Pandora's versatile designs let you express your unique connections in meaningful ways. Each piece tells a story of love or friendship that transcends materialism, turning every gift into a heartfelt message that connects hearts from best friends to significant others. Pandora helps you honor the bonds that make life richer and more meaningful. Make the feeling last from first sight to forever on Valentine's Day and every day. B Love Shop Pandora Jewelry today in store or [e-mail] it's tax season, and by now I know we're all a.

[Will Compton]

Bit tired of numbers.

[Ryan Seacrest]

But here's an important one you need to hear.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

$16.5 billion.

[Taylor Lewan]

That's how much money in refunds the.

[Will Compton]

IRS flagged for possible identity fraud last year.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Here's another 20%.

[Will Compton]

That's the overall increase in identity theft related to tax fraud in 2024 alone.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But it's not all grim news.

[Taylor Lewan]

Here's a good 100 million.

[Will Compton]

That's how many data points LifeLock monitors every second.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If your identity is stolen, LifeLock's US.

[Will Compton]

Based restoration specialists will fix it, backed by another good number, the million dollar protection plan. In fact, restoration is guaranteed or your money back. Don't face identity theft and financial losses alone. There's strength in numbers with Lifelock Identity.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Theft Protection for tax season and beyond. Join now and save up to 40% your first year.

[Taylor Lewan]

Call 1-800-LIFELOCK and use promo code iheart or go to lifelock.com iheart for 40% off terms apply.