604 - Dale Jr. & The Teardown Live from Daytona with Helio, MTJ & Allgaier

Summary

Podcast Summary: Episode 604 - "Dale Jr. & The Teardown Live from Daytona with Helio, MTJ & Allgaier"

Release Date: February 13, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 604 of "The Dale Jr. Download," hosted by NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr., listeners are treated to a live session from Daytona featuring a dynamic lineup that includes racing analyst Jeff Gluck, reporter Jordan Bianchi, NASCAR driver Justin Allgaier, and special guest Elio Castroneves, a renowned IndyCar champion. The episode delves deep into race strategies for the Daytona 500, Elio's transition into NASCAR, and broader insights into the evolving landscape of the sport.

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1. Race Strategies and Daytona 500 Qualification

The episode kicks off with a discussion between Dale Jr. and Justin Allgaier about the challenges and strategies involved in qualifying for the Daytona 500. Despite a near miss in the previous night's qualifiers, Dale remains optimistic about securing a spot through various scenarios.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. [04:12]: "We still got a really nice, clean path forward."

Justin emphasizes the importance of proactive racing and the need to stay aggressive to maximize their chances of qualifying.

Justin Allgaier [07:54]: "You can be one of the few guys that smash the gas, leading and taking that track position."

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2. Guest Spotlight: Elio Castroneves Joins Daytona

Elio Castroneves makes his debut on the podcast, sharing his experiences transitioning from IndyCar to NASCAR's Daytona 500. Despite being new to stock car racing, Elio discusses the challenges he faced during practice sessions and how his previous racing experience aids his adaptation.

Elio Castroneves [17:06]: "The car felt really good, and I didn't realize this is the first time I ran with other cars around me."

He highlights the significance of drafting and the differences between IndyCar and NASCAR racing dynamics.

Elio Castroneves [21:54]: "I gotta earn the trust, you know, I gotta be there."

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3. Drafting and Teamwork in NASCAR

Dale Jr., along with his guests, delves into the intricacies of drafting and fuel-saving tactics, especially with the introduction of Next Gen cars. They discuss how these strategies have evolved and the delicate balance between aggression on the track and strategic planning.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. [08:13]: "You're putting yourself in the best position fuel-wise."

Elio shares his insights on building trust with fellow drivers to optimize drafting opportunities.

Elio Castroneves [21:54]: "I gotta earn the trust, you know, I gotta be there."

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4. NASCAR's Legal Landscape

The conversation shifts to the ongoing federal lawsuit involving NASCAR, with Jordan Bianchi providing an overview of the potential outcomes and their implications for chartered teams.

Jordan Bianchi [30:09]: "Ultimately, there's going to be some settlement of some sort."

Jeff Gluck adds details about the trial schedule and the complexities of the discovery process.

Jeff Gluck [31:11]: "The trial's scheduled for December 1st. So this judge has been pretty strict like this is. We're going to keep this thing moving."

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5. Audience Interaction and NASCAR Insights

The live episode features an interactive segment where Dale Jr. addresses questions from the audience, covering a range of topics from team strategies to personal experiences in racing.

• Success Benchmarks and Future Plans: Dale Jr. discusses the immediate goals for his team and the potential for expanding into more Cup Series races contingent on funding and performance.

  Dale Earnhardt Jr. [37:15]: "If we don't make the race for whatever reason tonight, it's absolutely going to motivate Kelly and myself that that's not the end of the story."

• Favorite Paint Schemes: Reflecting on NASCAR's rich history, Dale Jr. shares his admiration for classic paint schemes, particularly the iconic "Gray Ghost" driven by Buddy Baker.

  Dale Earnhardt Jr. [43:44]: "That's probably my favorite. We ran that in the car tomorrow at Charlotte, I believe."

• Driver vs. Owner Mindset: Transitioning from a driver to an owner, Dale Jr. opens up about the mental shifts required, emphasizing the importance of delegation and managing anxiety.

  Dale Earnhardt Jr. [38:57]: "I have to remind myself that it's not on my shoulders and I walk around feeling that anxiety, probably unnecessarily."

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6. Closing Thoughts and Future Prospects

As the episode nears its end, Dale Jr. expresses his excitement about future broadcasting roles and his gratitude towards the participants and fans for their unwavering support. The episode wraps up with lighthearted exchanges and reflections on the upcoming races.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. [46:56]: "I'm looking forward to getting back in the booth. I miss it. It's fun."

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Conclusion

Episode 604 of "The Dale Jr. Download" offers an engaging and comprehensive exploration of NASCAR's current dynamics, race strategies, and the personal journeys of its drivers. With insightful discussions, expert analyses, and heartfelt interactions, Dale Jr. provides listeners with a nuanced understanding of the sport's evolving landscape while spotlighting the unique challenges and triumphs of transitioning between racing disciplines.

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Transcript

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. Maybe I'm just one of the old guards, man. Drink, smoke some cigarettes. Go kick ass.

[Jeff Gluck]

My name is Jeff Gluck. I'm along with my co worker, Jordan Bianchi. Yeah, you're never wrong.

[Jordan Bianchi]

Not saying never, but just doesn't have it.

[Justin Allgaier]

All.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right, everybody. Dale Jr. Dale Jr. Dale. Dale.

[Elio Castroneves]

Dale Jr.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. How's it going? Well, I was. I was going to introduce our guest, but he came on out here first.

[Justin Allgaier]

I did. I just told me to tell me about.

[Greg Ives]

He jumped the gun. He jumped the gun.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He did.

[Justin Allgaier]

I did.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, everybody, thank y'all for coming out here. Thanks for coming. We've been telling you all about this, and I was wondering if anybody would show up. But I'm Dalen Hart Jr. And we're here with 30 Mode Media for a live episode of the Dale Jr. Download. And I have with me two great friends, Jordan Bianchi and Jeff Gluck. They're from the tear down, as you know. Hopefully you listen to that show. They're the only group that does their show immediately after the race. So their fresh opinions about what they just saw and what's going on in the sport is so valuable to us as an industry. And I'm so thankful. I've watched these guys work and write and do what they do for so many years and have respected their job and the effort they put into it. So I'm lucky to be able to sit up here on the stage, talk to him a little bit. Justin driver, the number 40 Travelers Whiskey Chevrolet. We got a big job tonight.

[Justin Allgaier]

Great job.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Justin Allgaier]

Yes. We've been. You've already been texting me. I've sat down with my spotter, Joey Meyer, which is also your pilot.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Justin Allgaier]

And Greg. I've been sending messages this morning. We've done a lot of research over the last night.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I.

[Justin Allgaier]

It's hard because it's like 6, 100 is what would the difference of making it or not making it? So it's been pretty. Pretty disappointing all night last night, but.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I want to get. I want to get to that. I want to. Before we go any further, wanted to introduce Andrew Curlin here, redhead on. On the corner. Thank you. A couple gingers up here.

[Greg Ives]

That's right. It's cool.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Amy says I'm a ginger. I do not buy into that.

[Greg Ives]

You don't?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Not really.

[Jeff Gluck]

I mean, you might have been, but.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Now I'm not anymore.

[Jeff Gluck]

Right.

[Justin Allgaier]

So my beard is red, though, but my hair is not that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, Amy said I was a ginger at one point, but.

[Greg Ives]

So does that mean I'm gonna graduate, too?

[Justin Allgaier]

Listen, you get old enough, you get gray hair, it works out great. It covers all the red.

[Jeff Gluck]

I mean, but you do sunburn easily, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I do.

[Jeff Gluck]

So that's probably half of it right there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gluck]

I mean, speaking from experience, we're happy.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm on the edge, the fringe.

[Jeff Gluck]

Just join us. Just join us.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Just join you.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I kind of like, you know, being just a little bit ginger. I don't.

[Jeff Gluck]

I don't think you can be halfway in.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't know. That's all. He's full ginger.

[Greg Ives]

We need your full, undivided support down.

[Denny Hamlin]

You got to.

[Greg Ives]

Come on.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

This is the. That goes on when we're in that studio and we forget. We're forgetting right now that we're in front of a live audience, but.

[Greg Ives]

And live on in.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Live on in that studio, we get to do anything we want. I guess we could do that here today, but, Justin, let's get right to it, man. We wanted to qualify in last night. That would have been so nice. But, you know, like you say it was, you know, just a. Just a tick off from being able to do that. But we've. We have to kind of, like, recalibrate our mind a little bit from being disappointed to thinking, wait, we still got a really nice, clean path forward. There's a couple different ways this works out, and I'm glad I've got these couple of experts up here, Jeff and Jordan. They could tell me whether there's even more scenarios that I'm not thinking about. But basically, if Truex, who I've talked to, he's in the bus next door to me in the bus lot. He said, hey, we're going to race. If things get a little weird, we'll dive out and take our spot, but we're going to try to race hard in this duel. If he happens to finish, the best out of all the open cars will get on in on time. If Jimmy were to do that in the second duel, that's another route for us to get in on time. Obviously, the best route is for him to just go out there and beat them all, and that would get us in on time.

[Justin Allgaier]

That sounds like the easiest plan, right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No pressure.

[Justin Allgaier]

No pressure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. And so, I mean, there. But there. And then Helio, who. Who will come up here later. He also has the provisional to fall back on. I talked to Justin Marks last night. He said their intention is to go similar to Truex. They're going to start the race draft work, try to try to get a great result, get his. Because Helio needs that experience.

[Justin Allgaier]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's critical to Helio for his Daytona 500 run. But if things again get real hairy at any point late in the race, they may just bail out. And so we're really in the best duel, I believe to be in because there are two drivers that could potentially at any moment just say, you know what, I'm not going to run any hart to now we're. There is a scenario where we're only racing two other cars. So, yeah, that's the way I'm looking at it. Am I, Am I am. Is it glass, glass half full or.

[Jordan Bianchi]

No, that's a realistic view.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Is that realistic? Yeah.

[Greg Ives]

Let me ask you this or go ahead, Jeff.

[Jeff Gluck]

How much does track house care about the money? Because if Elio gets it needs the 41st spot, they don't get any money, do they? I mean, they already have the sponsor, so are they going to go out and risk their car?

[Justin Allgaier]

I asked this question already and I got a. I got a very good answer, I think is that they don't get any points or anything. It's like they didn't even attempt to make the race.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Justin Allgaier]

So if they go to somewhere else in the course of the year 91, they would then be effectively behind everybody else that has attempted the day 200, 500. So it, it gets a little bit weird. I also don't know, like, I think there's a lot of question marks on this open provisional. If you take it, do you get another one? Like, is that car then eligible for another open provisional? Like, there's a lot of questions that I think everybody's looking for answers for that I don't know that we have at the moment.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, well, I think so. I did text you about 30 minutes ago.

[Justin Allgaier]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And asked you if you'd watched the duels from last year.

[Justin Allgaier]

Did you started?

[Jeff Gluck]

Okay.

[Justin Allgaier]

I text you back, I said I started. I haven't completed them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

But so Truex told me last night, he's like, you know, they tend to get stretched out, thinned out once if there's a green flag fuel cycle, you know, that breaks the pack up a little bit. And so, you know, I guess you have to be mindful from the very moment that that race starts that you can't just kind of be idle.

[Justin Allgaier]

Right, right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Because at any moment it could get split up in terms of there may be a lead pack and a second pack and you don't want an open car to be in that pack and you be in the wrong pack. Right. So I mean, you got to kind of be. I don't, I don't want to say aggressive is the right word, but you got to be on the offense all the time. Yeah.

[Justin Allgaier]

I mean, I think it's interesting when I look at the list of drivers, you know, there's 14 chevrolets in, in, in duel number one. So that obviously is great.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Have you talked to all of those guys?

[Justin Allgaier]

I've been politic and I feel like, I feel like a politician in politic and hey, I need, I need drafting partners. You know, it, it, it is difficult because everybody's got a different agenda. Right. We're all, we're all trying to fight for something different in this, in this duel. You know, no different than practice yesterday. You know, half the field went out and just went straight on the racetrack. They started drafting, do whatever they need to do. We on the other hand, were like clean qualifying lap, go make the single car run. And I don't know that it helped us any, to be honest with you. But you know, I think that the duels have this like, different allure to them than, than maybe what they did in the past where, you know, starting position meant so much.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Justin Allgaier]

You know, so I don't, I don't know what to expect there. But I have been politicking. But on the other side of it, you have so many different strategies now. You know, with the ability to understand the fuel savings and how much people are saving and doing in different ways. There's different packs, you know, different groups are going to pit at different times. So I don't know, I don't really know what to expect. You know, when you look at those, those groups, you could be in the wrong group or the right group and not really have a choice. Right. You're just pitting where you, where you're, where you're in line.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So yeah, I was, I was thinking, I was thinking about that. That the idea or the truth that we can all see what everyone's doing. Not here. Yeah, well, I mean, all of the crew chiefs can watch everybody's throttle and they all have a great idea of who's in a really good position fuel wise. And it's sort of, it sort of drove the product and the racing into this unique style of, you know, riding around trying to save fuel. Right. Trying to put yourself in the best position fuel wise. And that even matters or will even rear its head in the duel. We, you know, we got an email From Greg Ives talking about, all right, if we get this mileage, this is our plan. If we get this mileage and it's like tenths, you know, a tenth or two of of fuel or gallon of fuel per lap. And so it's crazy how like scienced out they have the strategies in this race and we'll watch it play out on Sunday where these, these drivers are trying to do everything they can to be on pit road. The least amount on that last stop. Right. Taking the least amount of fuel.

[Jeff Gluck]

But what's the temptation? Like, Justin, okay, you're gonna be a situation where, yeah, you could. Because everybody's gonna be fuel saving. You could be like, I'm going up to the front.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Jeff Gluck]

And then you step on it, you blow past everybody because they're all run half throttle or something. But then you know that you're going to pay a penalty for it on the last pit stop. Maybe that's not guaranteed.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's not guaranteed. So we were on the Dale Jr. Download Dirty Air with Chase Elliott and he said that, he said, you know, some people are starting to get certain people are starting to shift that way toward just, just throttling up and going and saying, you know what, I'm gonna go up front and hope that the cautions may fall in such a way that, that, that I will be fine. Right. I won't be at a disadvantage on the fuel. And.

[Justin Allgaier]

Well, he said in that same interview that he saved you all day and was stuck. And when, when Alan told him to go, he's like, where you go there three wide in front of me and there's nowhere to go. So it's really true.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So there was an Indy 500 probably about three or four years ago, and Penske, I think it was Penske that won in the Penzol car. Who was that?

[Justin Allgaier]

Would have been McLaughlin.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, no. New Garden.

[Jeff Gluck]

New Garden Will Power.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No. Castro Nevis. Castro Nevaeh, maybe. It might have been Castro.

[Justin Allgaier]

We got all.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No, no, no, no. It wasn't Castro Nevos. It was Simon Paginot. Yes, Pagino. So they named all of them.

[Jordan Bianchi]

We're gonna get there eventually.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So in the Indy 500, if I never knew this till I started going for NBC in the Indy 500, all of them are. Are dialing their cars for fuel, Right. All race long, they're like, all right, we gotta. You can do this mapping and you can do this with your car. And they're all watching this and trying to make sure that they're going to be on Pit road at the right time. That whole race, they were telling pageant, dude, you're going too fast. Got to doubt back. He's leading, right? And he's like, I ain't lifting. I ain't lifting. You know? And they were like, you got to lift. You're going to. We're going to be short on gas. He's like, I don't care. I'm not giving up the lead. And he ends. The caution fell perfectly at the end to allow him to win the race. Right. And so this new style of plate racing, it was really beneficial toward the individuals who began racing this way. Right. And it was an advantage to the few that started doing it. But when the entire field is doing it, the advantage is lost. And now the shift happens where to your point, some guys will go, you know what? I'm going to get on the other side of this. I'm going to. I'm going to be one of the few guys that smash the gas, leading and taking that track position and. And hoping to get the right yellows at the end. And I struggle with this.

[Justin Allgaier]

You give up, like, two seconds a lap. Yeah, right. Second and a half, two seconds left to save a second. Two seconds, three seconds on pit road. So if I'm giving up 50 seconds over a run, what is an extra couple of seconds on pit road? That's my theory. I don't know if y'all agree with me on that one.

[Jeff Gluck]

So you're going.

[Justin Allgaier]

I don't know about that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

If we get. If we get this car into this race tonight. I am lobbying for the rest of the weekend with Greg Ives to let him mash the gas on Sunday. We going. We're going to the front. If we lose the Daytona 500, it'll be because of fuel mileage and because.

[Justin Allgaier]

I think we would both be okay with it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I would rather lose the race because the cautions didn't fall perfectly then because I was sitting in 20th and it was time to go and I couldn't go.

[Jordan Bianchi]

Yeah, Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So anyhow, what do you think?

[Justin Allgaier]

I feel like if that's the case, you, fans need to lobby to all the other drivers, then to help us get in tonight, we'll go for it on Sunday. If that's the case.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, I don't really. I. You know, as a. As an observer and a fan broadcaster, I hate. I don't hate. Strong word. I don't love the manufacturer groups getting together and, you know, having a plan. But today I'm. I'm down, so I've never Been on this side of it, so now I get it.

[Justin Allgaier]

All right, well, but I think this is different, right? Like this is, this is a different scenario because at the end of the day at Daytona, Talladega, you cannot do this alone. Yeah, right. Like that. This is the one style of racing where we, you couldn't, if you could just go out there and make laps by yourself, it'd be a really weird teammates here. You need teammates. And I think that we're in a unique scenario where we don't have any teammates. Not, not physically. Right. And so you have to try to make friends and, and to be honest with you, I've made enough friends over the years in this sport that if there's another manufacturer of cars, I feel like we have friends in other cars that will help us tonight. You know, even though, even though it, it doesn't benefit them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I told Justin that, I said, you know, I think that out of everybody in the garage, you're probably the most well liked guy when it comes to the other competitors. So hopefully that.

[Justin Allgaier]

I think it's the other way around. I think it's, I think it's this guy over here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm not driving the car. I'm not in the car. So we're going to lean on you. Hopefully you're, you're still buddies with all these guys.

[Jordan Bianchi]

Start cashing in some.

[Justin Allgaier]

Most of them I haven't raced with long enough to, to have issues with and Ross and I have. If somehow weirdly enough, we like everything we've done over the last like six months, like anything NASCAR related, whatever, we've ended up being paired together and now he's a junior motorsports coming in at driving the nine.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So we become Nemesis.

[Justin Allgaier]

Yeah, we've become buddies and we used to hate each other. So you know, it works out good. He's a Chevy and he's a Chevy.

[Greg Ives]

And speaking of friends we do have. You're talking about having some friends. Friends in the duel. Elio Castro Nevis is here.

[Justin Allgaier]

So Justin, I got to go.

[Greg Ives]

You got to go. You got to race.

[Justin Allgaier]

Prepare for. He is my enemy tonight.

[Greg Ives]

Oh gosh.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. Cuz we're like, can you depart this side of the stage? Helio is coming.

[Greg Ives]

You guys can't hang on.

[Justin Allgaier]

I will say this though, he does have the provisional, so maybe we're not as big at enemies.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm going to try to spend the next 15 minutes convincing him to.

[Justin Allgaier]

On that note, I will leave.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Thank you. Appreciate you. All right, let's bring him on out here. Any 500 champion great all around guy. I mean, when you get to know this guy, he is so much fun. We're so thankful that he's here. What do you got there, man?

[Jordan Bianchi]

We made a request yesterday.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What do we got here?

[Elio Castroneves]

First of all.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Elio Castroneves]

I will tell you why.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh, man.

[Greg Ives]

Oh, gosh.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right. I had to take mine. I didn't know.

[Jeff Gluck]

Thank you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Appreciate it. Thank you.

[Jeff Gluck]

Listening.

[Greg Ives]

He brought Wendy's, guys.

[Jeff Gluck]

Oh, my gosh. He wants us to dip the fries in the Frosties.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I might pass on that one.

[Greg Ives]

Take this.

[Justin Allgaier]

Yeah.

[Greg Ives]

Oh, there's fries, too.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Look at this.

[Jeff Gluck]

I was off fried food and sugar for my New Year's resolution.

[Elio Castroneves]

Well, so there was a story behind this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I had.

[Elio Castroneves]

I just learned yesterday. I actually. The Frosty with the fry, I had no clue. Is that. Is that a thing here?

[Greg Ives]

Yeah, yeah.

[Elio Castroneves]

You guys dip the fry on the Frosty. Is that correct?

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah, we have to. We have to. It's a special occasion.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Some do, some do, some do.

[Elio Castroneves]

Because I'm black and white, man. Sweet is one thing, salty is another thing. When you put it together, it doesn't look good.

[Jeff Gluck]

You do the sweet and savory together.

[Jordan Bianchi]

Sometimes when you combine them, you make bad decisions and good things happen.

[Denny Hamlin]

Is that what it is?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Take some.

[Elio Castroneves]

So, okay, so is that what you do?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Are you gonna give it a try? Here we go.

[Elio Castroneves]

All right, let's go, guys. Let's see if the Brazilian guy here would take this. Oh, my goodness.

[Greg Ives]

What do we think?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No. He said no.

[Jeff Gluck]

No. Can't do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's like, no.

[Elio Castroneves]

This is horrible. What are you talking about?

[Denny Hamlin]

Come on.

[Elio Castroneves]

I'm sorry, everyone, but this is not. I like. I like this only. Here we go. Now, I'm talking about much better, but thank you, Wendy's, for. For this amazing product, which, by the way, is really, really good. And so what's up?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What's up, man?

[Elio Castroneves]

What's going on here?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So, Helio, I want to know, man, You've. So yesterday when you got out there for practice, that was not your first time driving a stock car, obviously. How much of that experience from your past can you lean on to give you any idea what you're getting yourself into?

[Elio Castroneves]

Well, you know that I had a little bit of a half a day in Talladega. We talk about in half an hour, by the way, he gave me great tips, which is really good. I'm glad I had that conversation with you. And I'm glad I had at least half a day in Talladega because, man, I was. I was cold brown before the practice start, how this is gonna happen, you know. But went out there and yes, it felt really comfortable. The car felt really good. And I didn't realize, you know, this is the first time I ran with other cars around because up to that point it was just myself and my goodness, the difference in speed behind some people, it really threw me off a little bit. In fact, qualifying, I was so upset. I was like, man, I didn't think the time's gonna be that bad, but it was great. So far, everything has been great. You know, the Project 91 and trek houses, they've done this before. So it's really good to help me have the tools to acclimate and make sure everything goes smooth so far.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What has the conversations been like today around your race tonight? I think talking to your car owner, crew chief, they're going to let you race. They're going to. This is an. I know that you had the provisional in your pocket, but you also badly, badly need to get as much experience in the draft as you can, right? You're going to take advantage of that tonight.

[Elio Castroneves]

Yeah. So we didn't talk much yet because the meeting is going to be. I think the garage will open 4:00. So I haven't talked to much of the folks I did speak with. Actually. I'm going to be. Look at this guy here. How much? How much?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that later.

[Elio Castroneves]

I love that guy, by the way. I met him so long ago. We used to be teammates at Penske Organization. You know, he was the Xfinity or back then, whatever. Nationwide. Nationwide. That's right. And we had a great time together, flying together from Charlotte to other races. So. But coming back to the conversation yet, I. 4:00 or 5:00, they're going to be open. I'm going to be doing the ARCA practice. More experience to understand the whole drafting thing. So you guys understand, you know, in IndyCar is a little bit different. So when you behind someone, the car in front of you, basically you dictate your own. Your own destiny. Right. The car in front of you, basically, the draft is so huge that sucks you that you can make the move, whatever you want right here. As you know, more than me, of course, you need someone behind to dictate your faith, correct?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Elio Castroneves]

So you kind of like need to whatever, be nice to everyone or have great teammates or something like that to happen. So it's very different for me to understand this, and that's why I'm doing ARCA so that I learn a little bit more about this process, which is a process, by the way. So gonna take a little time, but I'm glad I'm doing that.

[Jeff Gluck]

Has anybody told you about ARCA brakes?

[Elio Castroneves]

I felt it. What breaks do they have?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Brakes?

[Elio Castroneves]

Oh, man.

[Jeff Gluck]

Even if they do, they don't use them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, some of the cars are equipped with brakes, some are not.

[Elio Castroneves]

It's tough.

[Jordan Bianchi]

Spotter's optional.

[Elio Castroneves]

I know, I know. We did a practice here a month ago, and first time when I came to the pits, I really. That was a cold brown big time. I was like, oh, my God, this is gonna be a problem. But get used to. So that's why it's important for me to be out there as much as behind the wheel, you know, doesn't matter what car it is. It's always good to learn and understand.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How about the cup car? And, you know, you drove race cars all your life in oak cockpit. For the most part in the cup Car, it's. You're. You're surrounded by not only the headrest and the seat, the roll bars, the winch, every. The roof. It's. There's. It's very limiting in terms of how much you can physically see. And you're relying a lot on the mirrors.

[Elio Castroneves]

Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Spotters. How has that been to get used to?

[Elio Castroneves]

No, that's. That doesn't mean I've been racing sports car. So at least that gave me a little bit of a understanding what I need to do. And it hasn't been that difficult, especially with the camera. I'm glad you guys went to the. The cup cars.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You like camera?

[Elio Castroneves]

Oh, that's beautiful, man. I can see that. I understand what's going on. And instead of keep looking up, you know, so. So far, it's been. It's been good. Yes. There is some restrictions. You know, you find out I haven't run yet with people around me, to be honest. So today actually probably going to be the first time with arca. And of course, in the race, it will be another scenario. So every step of the way to being new, literally like a new discovery. So it will be interesting.

[Jordan Bianchi]

It's like french fries and frosting.

[Elio Castroneves]

It's like this. I hope it'll be a different experience than this.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah, it goes together a little bit. I mean, how do you get people to trust you? Because so much of drafting feels like, hey, I know that guy. He can take me to the front. You know, I'll follow him. They're gonna look at your car and.

[Elio Castroneves]

Be like, I Think that's gonna happen a lot. When people look at me, it's like, no, I'm not gonna be around this guy, you know, so. Which understand if it would be in IndyCar situation, I would say the same thing. But I feel that I gotta earn the trust, you know, I gotta be there. It's four hours of racing. Of course tonight will be. How long is it? About an hour and a half?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, probably so.

[Elio Castroneves]

Yeah, so probably gonna have to earn a little bit on that as well.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So.

[Elio Castroneves]

Yeah, I know my, my limits, I know what I need to. And yeah, there was a lot to do. So hopefully with putting all the experience that I have in racing and again coming back and learning, I feel this is going to be a great mix.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I wanted to ask you why was this important to put on your resume? Like, what is it about Daytona 500?

[Elio Castroneves]

I mean, you're talking about one of the biggest race in the world, you know, and only two guys were able to win this race, which for me is the gods of racing, right. Which is AJ Foy and Mario Andretti. And they were the only ones that were able. They are the only ones in the planet that won Indy 500 and Daytona 500. So I don't think there are many opportunities for someone, you know, to do that unless you guys gonna go to Indy 500 and try something like that. So why not try something the opposite? Yeah, it might be a long shot, but in the end of the day I feel that I have an opportunity and let's go and get it.

[Greg Ives]

You said you know what you have to prove. So what is that?

[Elio Castroneves]

Well, in terms of the trust with the other guys.

[Greg Ives]

Yeah. Or you know, tonight in the Daytona.

[Elio Castroneves]

500, I think I need to. Just for them to understand that. Yes. Just because it's a different car for me, just because I don't have the experience, but I understand the game and if I, if I able to prove to everyone out there. So when you come on Sunday, they said, okay, you know what, this guy have a good car or he understands what's the game, so we can play together. That's the way I see it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Can you give us a, can you give us a description of what the garage, what the culture in the garage is like comparable to IndyCar versus NASCAR?

[Elio Castroneves]

You know, it's been nice. I haven't been much. I've been in my truck over there. It's been nice. Everybody's been really cool showing me a lot of the different scenarios people don't realize, but racing in general right now with the technology that we have today. Today, it's. It's pretty. It's pretty similar.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Pretty, pretty good.

[Elio Castroneves]

I've been just mesmerized with, with the cars, the noise and the whole thing. It's. How difficult is for me to get in the car with all the hands device. I'm like, whoa, man, this is tight. Even that I'm a small guy, so. But it's being. It's been an incredible experience so far.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You do you put your helmet on after you get in or before?

[Elio Castroneves]

I always put before me too. Right. I don't know.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think that's easier. It's easier. I can't do. I can't. Attached to Hans in the car, man.

[Elio Castroneves]

I had a many times trying to. I mean my hands couldn't fit and the mechanic wasn't able to get it. Let me get out there. So it's, it's being a very funny situation. So please, please, when I'm getting in the car, don't take pictures. Okay? It's. It's not good. It's not good.

[Jeff Gluck]

How do you look younger than like. I mean, no offense for yourself. Well, okay. How do you. Okay. I won't throw you under the bus. I'll throw myself under the bus. You're. I mean, I feel like you just look ageless. I don't get it. How's this possible?

[Elio Castroneves]

I'm 22. What are you talking.

[Jeff Gluck]

What's your secret?

[Elio Castroneves]

Well, definitely not eating fries with, with a Frosty.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Don't tell Wendy's that.

[Elio Castroneves]

Well, they have good salads. I'll get the Frosty. Nah, look, they got good salads. Here we go. The way, the way I see it's. I think the passion with the sports when you do it. Something like this. Some, some people call work, but I don't. Or it's not work. When you have fun, right? And, and, and you making a lot of friends. You. You surround by great people. So when you do that, I think you have a long life.

[Greg Ives]

I, I think I want to hear your pitch to him about.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Oh yeah.

[Greg Ives]

You were telling this whole time he's got a car, he needs to qualify Daytona.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I got a car.

[Elio Castroneves]

Nobody's going to listen. No worries.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Just for you.

[Greg Ives]

And yeah, everyone turn around, plug your ears.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So the way we see it with the 40 car.

[Elio Castroneves]

Well, first of all, I didn't know you had the car, by the way. So when I saw you around the car and Justin, I was like, yeah. Oh, no kidding.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's good. So, okay, so you're in our Race our duel and you're going to go out there and try to gain all that experience at what point? What needs to be going on for you to go, you know what, I'm going to just take the provisional. And that leaves us with only just two guys to race.

[Elio Castroneves]

I don't know. You tell me when you think.

[Jordan Bianchi]

That's the point.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I don't. Yeah.

[Elio Castroneves]

I'll wait.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Where is your pit sign? I need to find that.

[Elio Castroneves]

I'm all the way in the beginning, man.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Get down your road.

[Elio Castroneves]

No, but in the end of the day, I'm gonna be following, obviously. My what the guy's gonna tell me.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And again, what is your radio frequency?

[Elio Castroneves]

I don't know. Three, I guess. No, but in the end of the day, I understand the situation, but yes, I'm going to try to race as hard as I can, as strong as I can, learn as much as I can. But yeah, I'm sure Justin, he has a lot more experience in these cars. Probably he's going to be so far ahead there won't be a problem.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. I got to ask you one last question. And I know that you're probably not thinking beyond the Daytona 500, but you know what, what would be a dream scenario or what would be your, your, you know, your, your wish if things go well, this, you know, and you have, you know, you have a great experience. Right. You really enjoy it, you're gonna wanna come back, you're gonna want to race more, right?

[Elio Castroneves]

Yep.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You're gonna. Is that something that you want to try to pursue?

[Elio Castroneves]

And I would love to do a road course, you know, that would be super cool to understand. I was. Especially with the sequential gearbox. Now for me, it fits right in my. In the way I used to do. And the car is actually braking really good. So, yeah, I would love to. To do more experience and in the road course, I think it would be great.

[Jordan Bianchi]

How about Bristol?

[Elio Castroneves]

Oh, I don't know.

[Greg Ives]

You're like, what about Bristol?

[Jordan Bianchi]

They say Martinsville drives like a road course, man.

[Elio Castroneves]

I still learning how to get out of the garage. I'm not even going to know how to. I don't think they have a pillow in there or pit box there.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right.

[Elio Castroneves]

So it'd be a problem for me to get out of there. So. No, right now I feel we've got to be realistic. I'm obviously going to focus as much as I can, but would it be great to have another opportunity? To do the road course would be awesome.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, we're thankful you're here. You've brought a lot of eyes to the sport by entering this race and a lot of good cross promotion between IndyCar fans coming over to see what you're doing here. And we're thankful for that, regardless of us competing on the track. I wish you the best, man. I want you to have a great time. I want you to want to come back. I want you to leave and go back to all your friends and say, man, that is a great sport. Those are great people. And so we're hoping for the best for this weekend for you, bud.

[Elio Castroneves]

I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Thank you.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And thanks for the food.

[Elio Castroneves]

There we go. Take it easy on the fries, all right?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right.

[Jeff Gluck]

So appreciate it.

[Greg Ives]

We want to hear from you guys, the fans. So I. Hey, thank you so much. Elio Castronavis, one more time. We want to hear from you guys, the fans. I'm gonna go get a portable microphone and think of some good questions. All right. For these guys up here while I go do that. I'm sure we would love to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We can just shoot a little bit.

[Greg Ives]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Can you say that on Siriusx?

[Jordan Bianchi]

You can say whatever you want.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Okay. All right. So what's the big story? I mean, I listen when we've talked about doing this deal, they're like, who do you want to be on stage with? And this was who I asked to spend this hour with. And I love how you guys always had the scoop even before I hear the scoop. And so, like, what's the big story going on in the garage, at least in the last 24, 48 hours?

[Jordan Bianchi]

Boy. Well, I mean, there's a federal lawsuit and nascar, you know, had a brief they filed yesterday, and that's getting a little more stickier.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. What do you. What do you think is the outcome, the overall outcome of that?

[Jordan Bianchi]

I mean, ultimately, there's going to be some settlement of some sort. There's too much of this pie that can't be divided in some way where cooler heads prevail. I would. It doesn't make any sense to go to the mattresses on this and go to war and tear this down. This sport is going forward.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It's.

[Jordan Bianchi]

It's making money. Let's figure this out.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah, I mean, to me, you know, right now, the trial's scheduled for December 1st. So this, this judge has been pretty strict like this is. We're going to keep this thing moving. It's under appeal, the preliminary injunction. NASCAR right now wants the teams, they have this preliminary injunction to racist charter teams. They want to take that away. They Wanted to say no. You guys are going back to open teams. You shouldn't have gotten this. And then you'll have to also pay us back all the money. Obviously, the teams want to be as chartered teams till they work something out. Right, but how does this really end? Because they're getting toward the process where the discovery happens. And the discovery for those you don't know is like, turn over your text messages, emails, and, you know, your expenses.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you believe that there's really some dirt? I don't know.

[Jordan Bianchi]

We don't know. It depends on who you talk to because, I mean, this is a private company and they have kept their books strictly behind closed doors for 76 years. So maybe there is something in there that they don't want to see. They are a business. They are a private business and their job is to make money. So if anything, then there's probably going to be teams like, well, they're making way too much money. Is there like some dirty secret? I can't say.

[Jeff Gluck]

Well, even if there's not, do you want somebody to read your text?

[Jordan Bianchi]

Oh, God, no.

[Jeff Gluck]

You know what I'm saying?

[Jordan Bianchi]

Oh, God, no.

[Jeff Gluck]

So you get to the point where you're like, all right, do we want to keep going with this or can we figure something out?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

You know, when we're strictly talking about in the garage area competition, what's top story? What's the one thing I guess you're most excited about?

[Jeff Gluck]

So for me, okay, I look at this very much as like the status quo season, right? This is the first year of the next gen where there hasn't somebody hasn't had a new car. There hasn't been some big rules package change. They're not trying to do something different with the short tracks. You know, they got the option tire, the softer tire and stuff. But that's not going to be a huge change, right? So, like, is it going to be the same faces? And if not, who could disrupt that? I look at two things, right? I look at Chase Briscoe jumping in the 19, because if that meshes well, then all of a sudden you have somebody that could win three, four races. It's a new guy up front every week, a new face. People are, you know, I think people, you guys know Chase Briscoe, but we, the general, the broader public hasn't really heard from him that much yet. They haven't really gotten super familiar with him because, you know, he pops up, he wins here, you know, maybe another year he wins here. He's somewhat relevant, but he's not out there all the time. He is one of the most down to earth people. I mean people say he reminds them of you, like just normal person, you know what I mean? Like he stops and talks.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Everybody.

[Jeff Gluck]

His PR person is telling me I got to keep Chase moving because he's always stopping and talking. Every fan having a whole conversation. So you know, if you got a guy like that winning all the time, that could change the dynamic of how people look at the sport. Also Spire Motorsports is the other one.

[H]

Right.

[Jeff Gluck]

They've made a ton of investments. They got three drivers who could win their way into the playoffs. Yeah, I don't even know who to pick out of those three. I mean I picked McDowell to make the playoffs. But Hosavar is lightning fast. You got Justin Haley paired with Rodney Childers. That could be a great combination. So if you're looking for some disruptors out there, maybe one of those pop up and then all of a sudden you're like, okay, like now it's a little bit mixed up. Even though the rules didn't change.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Sure.

[Jordan Bianchi]

Let me see what happens with Joe Gibbs Racing. We talked a lot about them last year. They won a lot of races, but those were early in the year after the end of June. They haven't won since. Now Chris Rebel led a lot of laps. Denny Hamlin led a lot of laps. But the reality is they did not win races. Two of their four drivers last year did not win races. But that's not necessarily a Toyota thing because we saw what Tyler Redick did. There's a lot of questions right now about Joe Gibbs Racing. We got Martin Truex Jr. Retired Chase. Briscoe's coming in. Denny Hamlin's future is. How long is Denny going to be there for? He doesn't have a big sponsor this year. They've had some sponsorship issues the last few years with Kyle Busch and M and Ms. Leaving. It just seems like right now there's just a lot circling about this team that isn't necessarily good. That's hard to reverse that. It's hard to reverse course and gain positivity. Listen, Chris Rebel is an all world driver.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

He's going to win a lot of.

[Jordan Bianchi]

Races and I think he's going to contend for the championship this year. But the rest of that team has some serious questions.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, for sure. I do like the Chase Briscoe conversation. I do think that he's a really, really good person. And we all, you know, I don't want to get into the details but he lives some very tragic and tough moments in his personal life publicly in front of us. Right. And I remember that post race interview on the front straightaway at Darlington after winning the Xfinity race and how, you know, how he was able to handle that and go out there and perform his job. Drive so spiritedly was. It was insanely impressive, and it was a lot of fun to kind of see him continue to mature. And he's won races at Stewart Haas when no one else was winning races with that stuff. Right. So there is an idea of Chase Briscoe being way better than any of us I had an idea or clue about. Right. And I think that this is his year to go out there, and if that is true, to prove that, and.

[Jordan Bianchi]

He is stepping into a team that is incredibly hungry to prove it themselves. This is no disrespect to Martin Truex Jr. But James Small and the rest of the team want to show they're more than just Truex. They want to show that if you put a driver in this car, we can go win races. And I'm trying to say this delicately, but Chase Briscoe is a little bit more of a new school driver in terms of the technologies that he uses to do that, and he's already starting to implement that a little bit. This team is just so eager for that, and I'm really curious to see what they can do. It does feel like they're going to win and they're going to win early and that ball is just going to keep rolling.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I agree.

[Jeff Gluck]

Well, and I want to know what the impact of that would be, because I think nascar, you know, has a big star power problem right now.

[Jordan Bianchi]

Huge.

[Jeff Gluck]

The drivers are not as relatable as they used to be in your era. I mean, so many of you out here are Dale Jr. Fans.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right?

[Jeff Gluck]

And part of Dale Jr. S appeal is he was relatable. Right. Like, you could feel like, all right, like, this is. This is something I would say if I was in this position, like you were. You were such a down toe person for a superstar. And right now, I don't think a lot of these personalities out there are super relatable to the fans. Where Chase Brisco, I mean, like this guy, literally, he said, you know what? I'm going to try to make it. He drives down North Carolina. He sleeps on couches. He sweeps shop floors of an ARCA team. He begs his way into an ARCA test. You know, he parlays over and over and over. One door just barely unlocks the next one. He has the backstory he is a down to earth person. I just want to know what is the impact of that if he, if he's able to actually win. Because there's drivers in the series who have personality, but they're not necessarily the ones winning all the races all the time. And I think we're, you know, NASCAR hasn't seen lately the combination of somebody that's winning a lot and somebody that has a personality and that's what makes a star. And that's what I think fans have been looking for.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Well, let's take some questions from our fans. We've got a couple microphones out in the audience right here. Andrew, Right here. To Andrew.

[Greg Ives]

Yes, I like how they picked the shortest person to go out into the crowd, but yes, our first question here from Brendan.

[Jordan Bianchi]

I'm Brendan from Nantucket, Massachusetts.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And my question is, is there a benchmark of success for this weekend and would that parlay into more cup starts this year for the 40 car for junior motorsports? So I'll be honest, man, the, there has, this is the, this is the race. This is, this is all there is. There is no, you know, there's no extra, there's no other component beyond the Daytona 500. There's not been one word of conversation around anything past this race. It could happen. It might happen. If we don't make the race for whatever reason tonight, it's absolutely going to motivate Kelly and myself that that's not the end of the story. You know, we're damn sure going to try harder to come back here and at least finish the job. Right. And so, but, but can it turn into more cup races? It could, but it's, you know, it's got, we are going to have to get some phone calls, some very lucky breaks to help us fund what that looks like because it's not and it's not easy to go race full time or even part time in the Cup Series. And I'm very, you know, I admire the Carl Longs and in some of these other teams, BJ McLeod that'll come and race sporadically because it's such an undertaking. And we want to be, you know, we want to get here, we want to get into this series and get into the Cup Series and we'd love to be there full time. And that's, you know, none of that's ever changed. Certainly coming here and except experiencing this weekend makes us want it even more. But yeah, there's, you know, we're not thinking past Sunday. There's, there's not, there's Not a plan beyond that. But there's not, not to say it couldn't materialize.

[Jeff Gluck]

I mean, Dale, there's also this open exemption exemption provisional. Now if you ever want to use.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It here, come on back. I joked on, I text Jeff Gordon and Rick, I said, hey, we ought to go ahead and apply for next year. But I think, you know that I, and, and as is as much of a joke that is, I think that literally some creative things could possibly happen. Maybe not with me, but other people to be able to take advantage of that.

[Jordan Bianchi]

We got one more question out here. It looks like.

[Greg Ives]

Yes, we do. It's with Michael, who is wearing, by the way, an original Dale Earnhardt Wheatie shirt. So that already gets bonus points. Michael, what's your question?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, I'm Michael from Billerica, Massachusetts. My question, Dale, is obviously you've had a lot of success here at, as a driver winning two Daytona 500s. As a first time owner, what is the biggest change in mindset between being a racer and now a new owner in the series? Having to remind myself that I'm not the one driving the car. You know, I get up in the morning, I get up in the morning and look at the schedule and I get nervous all over again, just like I would as a driver. Oh, man, you know, I got practice, I gotta go, I gotta go talk crew chief, I gotta do. We gotta think about this, think about that, and prepare and prepare for prayer. And I don't have to remind myself, like to back off, you know, and not. I don't have to get that worked up. Justin's the one that's going to handle that role. And I can relax, you know, and I can, I'm gonna do everything I can to help us prepare, which is very minimal. But it's out of my hands, right? Whereas when I'm driving the car, it's all in my hands. I feel like it all on my shoulders, right? But so it's, I forget as an owner that it's not on my shoulders and I walk around feeling that anxiety, probably unnecessarily. I was so nervous last night standing on pit road and man, it was a kick in the gut when we didn't run the lap we wanted. But you got to kind of regroup that and change that mindset, right? And say, all right, we got another shot, you know, tomorrow's another day. And. But again, wake up at the morning and it's not in my hands. I don't have control over the strategy or the car or the decisions. We're going to make tonight. I'm going to sit there and hope it goes well. And that's all you can do.

[Jeff Gluck]

I mean, one. One difference between driver, owner, at least famously, before the latarte era, you would sleep as long as you could until practice, then come roll in. Now you're here at 6am what time was your alarm set for yesterday?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I think that drives home the fact that this. We know in our hearts that this could be the only race that junior motorsports ever enters in the cup series. It's absolutely not what I want, but it could be. So, yes, I'm not going to miss the car getting unloaded. I'm going to be there as soon as it comes out of the truck. I want to be there when it goes through tech inspection, which I was. I want to help push, you know, I want to be there, watch it get pushed out onto the grid for qualifying, which I did. And so, yeah, I just want to experience all these things because if I don't ever get to do it again, I don't want to have missed anything. And also, the team that we put together, they're kind of like a bunch of volunteers. We went to a lot of different places to get all these individuals that we thought would really be the people we needed for this trip. The car chief on the car is B. Hoover. B. Hoover worked on my xfinity car, the AC Delco car, back in 98, 99. He was a mechanic on the bud car back when we ran in the bud car through. Through the early 2000s. So, I mean, all these individuals I have unique connections with, and they're all going to be here on Wednesday at 6 in the morning. And I was like, I think it might be important if I'm there too. So they see me and go, hey, he's with us. He's serious about this. I'm going to be serious about this. Let's get this weekend started. Off on the right foot, and that's what I thought would be the best thing to do.

[Jordan Bianchi]

Will you be giving a motivational pep talk before the duel tonight?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I got xfinity drivers to talk to. I'm gonna be talking to Justin. I've been talking to Justin all week.

[Jordan Bianchi]

You gotta fire him up.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm just gonna, you know, I. I absolutely will have. Have a conversation with him and Greg and the whole group. And, you know, we have all the. It'll be something along the lines of, look, all the resources are here. Good car, good driver. We got everything. Let's go out there and just do what we know we can do. And, you know, I believe that if you, you know, will it into existence, it can. It's possible. If you go in thinking we don't have a shot or the odds are against us, I mean, you're setting yourself up for failure. You're making it harder than it has to be.

[Jeff Gluck]

Davey's got a question there. Andrew's got a question in the crowd.

[Greg Ives]

Yeah, right here with Chris, who's, by the way, rocking your National Guard hat from the last time you won the Daytona 500 here in 2014. Chris, what's your question?

[Jeff Gluck]

Hi. So I have my question for Dale. I'm Chris from Los Angeles.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I know you've been pretty passionate over the last couple years or.

[Jeff Gluck]

Yeah, last couple years with teams not wrapping or painting the side skirts. And I saw that this year that they're painting them or wrapping them.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So my question is, what's been your.

[Jeff Gluck]

Favorite paint scheme that you've personally designed? Help or run?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's a great question. So the side skirt or the rocker box or whatever you want to call that thing on the next gen. When the next gen came out, the manufacturers, they assume that there needs to be some branding on these cars that represents them, and they stake claim to parts of the car to do that. Right. The headlights and all that stuff or decals that we used to run back in the day. Well, on the next gen, it's the rocker box, and there was this kind of decal that would wrap around the rear bumper and so forth, and everybody had to run that. If you wanted the manufacturer support and you were any. Any kind of a partner with one of the manufacturers, you were. You were. You had to insist on running it. And they, you know, it looked awful. It doesn't look good. And, you know, the cars look better when they're wrapped to the. To the floor. Right. And so I think they kind of loosened up on those rules this year. Not. Not, you know, some of the manufacturers or all of them maybe have told the teams that it's not necessary to. To leave that space for the manufacturer. And some of them are able to now wrap the box, which I think is cool. Cars look better. My favorite car. My favorite car that I ever drove is also my favorite car that's ever existed in nascar, and that's the Gray Ghost. Buddy Baker. Yeah, Buddy Baker drove that car. Others did as well. Bobby Allison raced it. But Buddy Baker ran and won the 80 Daytona 500 with that car. And, I mean, a car, you know, I love things that get their nicknames naturally and not, you know, I don't like nicknames that are like self imposed or, and, but so that car developed this reputation and people call it the Gray Ghost and it's got a, it's got a lure and a real story. Like when I name that, I mention that car. Several people know what I'm talking about. And I love cars that have names. I mean that's cool in itself but beautiful car, silver and black pinstriping, awesome. And so I was lucky enough to be able to talk our sponsors into letting me do that a couple times in my career. And so that's probably my favorite. We ran that in the car tomorrow at Charlotte, I believe and man, that car looks so good for a car tomorrow. That's hard to do but hard to make that thing look good. But we did and that was a lot of fun when we could do things like that.

[Jordan Bianchi]

I think we got one more question out there, Andrew.

[Greg Ives]

We got time for one more quick, quick question because Martin Truex Jr. And Cole Pern are here. So Wayne, what's your question?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm Wayne from Bossier City, Louisiana. Dale, all your fans love seeing you whether it's behind the wheel broadcasting at the Indy 500. What's your plans this season for broadcasting? Thanks. Which tracks? Thanks for asking. So I'll be doing all of the Amazon and TNT races. So basically all of June and July there's a 10 race stretch starting with Amazon at the World 600 and I'll be, I'll be going for 10 races with Latart and Adam. Adam, Adam Alexander in the booth. I haven't worked with Adam but everybody tells me that I'm going to love it. He's going to be awesome. So we're already talking and getting together, having lunches and starting to form our plan for our shows. And I'm looking forward to getting back in the booth. I miss it. It's fun, fun. I, I'd do it for free. It's, it's pretty cool. I'm going to watch the races anyways. I don't, I, I miss the racetrack when I'm not at it. So it gets me to the track and gets me around what I love and so I enjoy doing it. I'm glad that who, you know, whoever, whoever out there enjoys me being in the booth. You're keeping me there, so. Thank you. As long as you guys like it, the networks will keep me employed and I'll get to keep coming to the track and enjoying what I Do.

[Greg Ives]

Well, as I said, Martin Truex Jr. And Cole Pern are here, so why don't we bring them up on the stage?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gluck]

What's up, man?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, man, this. This is going to be a lot of fun. I know. I know my buddy True Rex and what he's been up to, but Cole has been mia Ran off to run some kind of a resort on the other side of the country.

[H]

A different country.

[Denny Hamlin]

Where I might be in the same country soon.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Where. All right, so you. You at the peak of your career. Thank y'all both for being here. Yeah, I know you guys are busy, but thank you for being here at the peak of your career. You decided I've done what I wanted to do. How hard and was that to do? How easy was it to do?

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, it's hard and easy at the same time, I think, you know, hard from the standpoint. All the relationships you have and that side of things, you feel like you're letting a lot of people down. But, you know, I got another team at home that is really important, and that makes it really easy, you know, getting spend more time with them. And as your kids get older, it just gets hard, you know, like, to.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Be away from them. Yeah.

[Denny Hamlin]

And being a crew chief and then trying to be a crew chief at a high level is a 24. 7 job, and there's not much place for much else in your life.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Where's the resort?

[Denny Hamlin]

Golden bc. So, yeah, it's not. It's a resort, but it's like backcountry skiing. So there's four with four lodges that you helicopter into, and then you're kind of there for a week.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Tricks. Have you been. No, No.

[H]

I can go now, though.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I'm not raising anymore.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah.

[H]

I'm not racing, so I could do it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And that's going well.

[Denny Hamlin]

That's going great. Yeah. No, everything's. Yeah, everything's going really well.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Private. I wouldn't say privately is the right word, but on the. You've been still advising, like, staying plugged in into what Joe Gibbs Racing is doing. You're not, you know, you have it completely disconnected.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, it's been great. I work in the aero department and do, you know all the arrow mapping? So when we go to the wind tunnel, we gather all that info, and then that info, info kind of needs to get collected into some type of form that the simulation can use, and that's what I handle. And it works out great. I get to work with people that I know really well, and I think that's what enables it to make it work?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Trix, I called you and asked you if you were going to run the Daytona 500, and you kept giving me bullshit answers. How long did you know you were going to do this?

[H]

Officially?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

No. Yes.

[H]

A while.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Why didn't you tell me, man?

[H]

Well. Well, it was. When we were talking about it, it was a different situation because I knew I couldn't drive your car.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, right.

[H]

And. But it wasn't, I guess, a little bit longer after that.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Did you know that Cole was going to help you?

[H]

When did we even start talking about this?

[Denny Hamlin]

I feel like it was maybe end of August last year.

[H]

Yeah, it was pretty early. Yeah, pretty early.

[Denny Hamlin]

It wasn't very much talking. It was like, hey, do you want to do the 500? And I said yes. Yeah, that's about it.

[H]

Not sure if he's really sure about his decision yet, but yesterday went well, so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Denny Hamlin]

I actually had more fun yesterday than I thought it would, so it was good.

[Jordan Bianchi]

How'd you, like, in here at 6am.

[Denny Hamlin]

That was all right. Yeah. I don't know. It just. It's a good way to just get a full slap in the face of it.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Right? You don't want to use a way.

[H]

And he got sunburned, too, right?

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, I know. I mean, skin has not seen the sun like it was yesterday. So.

[Jeff Gluck]

So are you literally. You know, you're, like, in a lodge. Like, people are skiing outside, and then you. You're, like, on your laptop, like, doing aero stuff for JGR and sending it back. You're like, all right, back. Back to the slopes?

[Denny Hamlin]

Not quite, but I could do that. Yeah. I mean, I definitely have. I mean, we have Internet up there, so it works. You know, with starlink, that's the beautiful thing. You can kind of have Internet anywhere, so it works. Works pretty well.

[Jordan Bianchi]

Is this, like, in the middle of nowhere?

[Denny Hamlin]

Well, I mean, yeah. I mean, you.

[Jeff Gluck]

I mean, you said you have to helicopter in.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, you have to helicopter there. And, like, each Lodge only has 16 people.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you helicopter there?

[Denny Hamlin]

What's that?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Do you helicopter there?

[Denny Hamlin]

Me? Fly? No, I just ride.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

How do you get in?

[Denny Hamlin]

Oh, no.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Denny Hamlin]

Helicopter. Yeah. Anytime you got to go there for anything. Yeah. So if you got. If you got to fix something, you can't just run to the hardware store to go get it. You know what I mean?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's the.

[Denny Hamlin]

That's the crazy thing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I guess you probably have a hell of a tool. Tool closet. Yeah.

[Denny Hamlin]

And you just have to have really detailed lists because it's like, you know, you Just can't. It's just really expensive. Expensive. If you forget some little thing that you need.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Greg Ives]

Hey, I want to bring one guy up here on stage. Denny Hamlin got here a little bit early, so let's say we bring him here. We've got a teammate.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

We're gonna need a mic. We got a mic. Oh, you're gonna give up your spot? Andrew, that's kind of.

[H]

Get out of here.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

All right, Danny, how's it going? Hi. So Denny gets here a little bit early, so we're gonna drag you out.

[H]

That's nothing.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What.

[H]

Who are you?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah, right. How miserable is Cole right now? I mean, he just. We just left the meeting, and I heard him mumbling and grumbling and throwing F bombs from 20ft back, like, what the am I doing here?

[Denny Hamlin]

I did pretty good. I lost my cool a little bit.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Wait, you've already lost your cool?

[Denny Hamlin]

I just did 15 minutes ago.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

His patience level. You know what? You forgot all the stuff that you hated when you said yes to this. You were like, yeah, great. And you get back here, and you're like, oh, damn, I forgot about this part.

[Denny Hamlin]

Well, it'd piss anybody off. You've been in a meeting, the same meeting three times, and we're going through it again, and eventually you're just like, I can't take this anymore. That pissed anybody off?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah. So you're racing in the duel tonight. I talked to you, Truex. You are going to run as hard as you can until it gets a little weird. What needs to happen for you to say, hey, man, I'm going to back out of this?

[H]

I'm not sure. I mean, I think early on, it's. It's usually pretty chill. Hopefully we can get up there. If we can get up towards the front in a decent spot, it usually gets pretty calm. So try to get up to a good spot before that first pit stop and then see, you know, kind of how it's playing out. If we get a couple cautions and some restarts at the end or something, it could get wild. So we'll just try to use Denny's strategy of if they just start getting wild, you can kind of see it, try to back out. I usually don't back out at that point in time, and I'm in the crash, so hopefully, yeah, fingers crossed, we'll. We'll be safe.

[Jeff Gluck]

I think there's 11 Toyotas in the race that. I don't know if that's a record, but it's got to be close.

[H]

It's the Most we've had.

[Denny Hamlin]

So, so that's why we gotta have so many meetings now.

[H]

Hopefully it helps.

[Jeff Gluck]

But yes, surely. I mean you know, in the past it's like man, we gotta, we. We have to have everybody avoid the wreck to be, you know, linked up at the end now I mean you can lose a few and still be in decent shape. Teammate wise, it feels like. So I mean is that going to be play a factor in this race?

[H]

I mean potentially it could. It just depends on how the race plays out. If there's seven or eight of us left at the end, then yeah, it's going to be great. But you just never know how it's going to play out.

[Jordan Bianchi]

You are retired now. Effectively you're not racing anymore this year. Do you give a damn about hurt feelings or anything? Because you're just here to win and.

[H]

If you piss somebody off, don't care about feelings, don't care about points.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So I was, I saw some of your post, I saw some of your interviews. You were talking about the provisional.

[H]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

And I was like we get, we. We get retired Truex now. So I like when he comes around because we actually really get to hear what he's. He used to never give an answer. He just say I don't care, whatever. Now he's like telling us what he really thinks.

[Elio Castroneves]

Yeah.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Usually Denny knows this. Usually this happens right before you retire. But it's like it took you retiring for you to start. Really.

[H]

Yeah, I mean that. I don't know. I think that one. Maybe I would have said the same thing last year. Yeah, I think so.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gluck]

He said it was a slap in the face.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[H]

Yeah, I mean a little bit I think. Yeah, for sure.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

It ended up being a non issue, I guess.

[H]

No, no, not for us. But it will be for someone else I guess. You know, at some point.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So Denny, what is the plan tonight? What? You're locked in. You got a charter? We're going to do whatever they tell us to do.

[Denny Hamlin]

Right Cole? Right.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yeah.

[Jeff Gluck]

Which, which meeting? So it told you what to do? Which are the three meetings?

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I.

[Denny Hamlin]

It was the same thing every time.

[Jeff Gluck]

Oh, I see.

[Denny Hamlin]

Yeah, that was the problem.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

So Dale, I got a lot of flack because I said you wouldn't be as successful in this era of next gen. Super chose your words wisely. No, no, hey, I blame Mike Davis and them boys back there on the headline. How can you make a blanket statement like that? Because successful. That's wrong.

[Jeff Gluck]

I could hear.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

That's not what I said. You did. That's not what I said.

[H]

It's what I heard.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I. No, that's what the head line. They chose to put up the rest of your. I said you would hate it. I do hate. Yes. I said. I said I would. You being told who you can draft with and who you can't and when you got a pit and all you would hate it. Well, why don't you just not do what they tell you? Cuz then you're being a bad teammate.

[Jeff Gluck]

Then the people for one.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

What are they going to do? What are they going to do to you? My. My point is you were great and your dad was great. Cuz you didn't give a who you used. You used anybody on the track to succeed. Right. And, and that's. And that matters. And, and the ones that I won. I, I pro. He was probably mad at me at some point or Cole. Like I.

[Denny Hamlin]

In, in fairness though, I was sitting in that meeting today in 2016. We started this.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

Yes.

[Jeff Gluck]

We're to blame.

[Denny Hamlin]

Like we're victim of our own cre.

[Dale Earnhardt Jr.]

I know. All right. I want to keep this going on. We're going to end this show though, right? Dale Jr. Download is going off the air. Coming up next, SiriusXM NASCAR. Check out Dirty Mo Media on Twitter, Facebook, Tick Tock and Instagram.