The 2025 Dirty Mo Mega Show: Dale, TJ & Freddie React

Summary

The Dale Jr. Download

Episode: The 2025 Dirty Mo Mega Show: Dale, TJ & Freddie React
Date: November 6, 2025
Host: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Guests/Co-hosts: T.J. Majors, Freddie Kraft, Andrew Kurland, Travis Rockhold
Producer Crew: Andrew, Travis, Tim, Dalton, James

Overview

In this special "Dirty Mo Mega Show," Dale Earnhardt Jr. teams up with spotters T.J. Majors and Freddie Kraft to reminisce, debate, and roast each other while reacting to producer-selected “best of the year” clips from across Dirty Mo Media’s many shows. Instead of the usual big-name guest to cap off the season, the episode is a rowdy highlight reel and honest roundtable about everything from NASCAR drama and podcasting surprises to notorious podcast moments, the growth of new shows, and burning debates—plus hilarious live call-ins and a lot of Christmas tree stress. The episode concludes with a heartfelt behind-the-scenes appreciation for the team and guests that made 2025 memorable.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Kicking Off the 'Mega Show' Format

• Dale: Decides to switch tradition by wrapping the year not with a guest but with a clip reaction party featuring T.J., Freddie, and Dirty Mo staff.
• Dale: “I wanted to do something different this season... we're gonna play some clips... and have some fun today.” [02:20]

2. Welcoming New Dirty Mo Cast & Shows

• Tommy Baldwin’s Debut: His raw, intense presence—getting in trouble and calling out fellow competitors—wins fans and brings edginess.

• TJ: “You need that edginess... who knew he was going to come in and kiss NASCAR's ass all year?”

• Family Christmas Show Teaser: They joke about bringing random families off the street:
  “I want people to get to know people. So I'm going to go to Harris Teeter... bring some families in and have a Christmas show.” [06:51]

• 'Bless Your Heart' Spin-off: Dale and Amy’s podcast offers unscripted life moments, from “boobies and buffalo shrimp” jokes to family chaos.

  • Dale (on being open): “It's a slippery slope... Amy's an oversharer sometimes. I'm like, I don't know if I want everyone to know that about me.” [12:28]
  • Memorable moment: “Boobies and buffalo shrimp. That's really me. Every day, all day.” [08:19]

3. Guest Highlights & Recap Reel

Carl Edwards’ Long-Awaited Appearance

• Emotional Insight: Carl explains why he left racing, referencing both the physical risks and emotional impact of championship heartbreak.

  • Carl Edwards: “There was a bigger plan than mine... I thought, damn, I don't know if spending a whole year of my life... for one restart is worth it.” [15:11]

• Dale reaches out, gets a 4-page handwritten letter:
  “That letter gave me closure. I still have it.” [18:03]

Denny Hamlin’s Antihero Era

• Dale: “I wouldn't say he's the villain; he's kind of the antihero... it's been a lot of fun watching Denny embrace that role. Nobody's done it better.” [24:54]
• Team discussion: Whether Denny could become “most popular driver,” fan psychology, and the ongoing need for strong personalities in NASCAR.

Cletus McFarland: Crossover Sensation

• Dale: “You know, we were talking to an entirely new audience... Cletus was incredibly kind. He picked up the tab for a dozen of us to celebrate.” [34:35]
  • Memorable act: Cletus bought the podcast team lunch after his episode broke Dirty Mo records. [37:24]

4. Spotter Life & On-Track Woes

• Crash avoidance stats:
  • TJ: “The one stat I was proud of... When we crash, it's terminal. I'm not gonna let my guy ride around limping all day; when I wreck him, we're done.” [43:00]
  • Freddie: “Freddie says, throttle up!” [43:17]
  • Dale: “If you gas up and pop the guy in the left rear quarter, you’ll drive through it... I think about that in highway accidents.” [44:24]

5. Throwback: Bold Takes & Hot Debates

Jimmy Spencer on NASCAR’s Rivalry Problem

• “We are not the water cooler talk anymore. Monday morning we're not the water cooler talk... NASCAR needs to get these drivers to realize that these fans want to see something.” [46:01]
• TJ: “Podcasting helps show personality... but some drivers have to stay buttoned up by sponsors.”

Kenny Schrader: “Numbers Don’t Matter”?

• Schrader: “A number on a race car is totally useless anymore.”
• Dale (animated): “I don’t agree... I have this emotional tie to my number. The number is important; it’s an identifier.” [52:58–54:45]

Fashion Emergency: Ears in the Hat?

• Dale: “Every time I see somebody with their ears inside their hat, I can't trust them... It’s a West Coast thing.” [56:09]
  • Live call-ins: T.J. Bell, Sheldon Creed explain their ‘ears-in-hat’ ways—worn for comfort, small heads, and habit.
  • Dale: “You look normal with your ears out... I think your insecurities aren’t real!” [62:33]

6. The Lighter Side: Rapid Fire & AMA

Stroller Shopping after Daytona

• Ryan Blaney: “It’s like shopping for your first car... How does this thing handle? How does it fold?” [65:07]

Holiday Decorations & Tree Trouble

• Freddie: “They're putting my lights up right now.”
• Dale: “I got a love-hate relationship with the tree. I like getting it, but not putting the lights and shit on it.” [98:01]
• Holiday preference: “The best week of the year is between Christmas and New Year's.” [101:11]

Podcast Dynamics & Life Off-Season

• Freddie & TJ: Discuss routines, post-season blues, and quickly missing racetrack energy.
  • Freddie: “You get to the end and two weeks into the off season, you're like, I want to go back to the track. I was wrong. This is not good.” [95:04]

7. Behind the Scenes: Producers’ & Team Reflections

• Andrew: “The amount of guests we've been waiting for... like Carl Edwards, Casey Kane, Cletus... There were a lot of moments where I thought someone really needed to hear that.” [129:58]
• Dale: “Every season, I think we’re running out of good guests... But looking at this year’s list, we did our best job yet.” [128:20]
• Heartfelt tributes: Dale, Freddie, TJ, Travis, and Andrew celebrate producers, crew, guests, and unsung heroes, with lots of inside jokes and friendly ribbing all around the table.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Quote / Moment | Speaker | |-----------|----------------|---------| | 05:24 | “Who knew he was going to come in and kiss NASCAR’s ass all year?” | T.J., on Tommy Baldwin | | 08:19 | “Boobies and buffalo shrimp. That’s really me. Every day, all day.” | Dale Jr. | | 12:28 | “Amy's an oversharer sometimes... I don't know if I want everyone to know that about me.” | Dale Jr. | | 15:11 | “There was a bigger plan than mine... I was just along for the ride.” | Carl Edwards | | 18:03 | “Carl wrote me, handwrote me like a four page letter.” | Dale Jr. | | 24:54 | “He’s kind of the antihero... there’s nobody that’s done it better.” | Dale Jr. on Denny Hamlin | | 34:35 | “He picked up the tab for a dozen of us to celebrate. That’s the kinda people you want to be around.” | Dale Jr., on Cletus McFarland | | 43:00 | “When we crash, it’s terminal... when I wreck him, we’re done.” | T.J. | | 46:01 | “We are not the water cooler talk anymore... NASCAR needs to get these drivers to realize that these fans want to see something.” | Jimmy Spencer | | 54:45 | “If he’d erased the 25 car and won seven championships... that would be value to him.” | Dale Jr. on Kenny Schrader’s take | | 56:09 | “Every time I see somebody with their ears inside their hat, I can't trust them.” | Dale Jr. | | 65:07 | “Not only does it… how does this thing handle? How quick can you fold it up? Like that?” | Ryan Blaney | | 98:01 | “I love getting the tree, putting it up. Don’t love putting the lights and shit on it.” | Dale Jr. | | 128:20 | “I feel like we did one of our best jobs in all the years we've done the show.” | Dale Jr. |

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening and format explanation: 02:20
• Tommy Baldwin/Dirty Mo newcomers: 03:32–06:11
• Bless Your Heart/Amy on podcasting: 07:38–14:13
• Carl Edwards episode reflection: 15:11–22:05
• Denny Hamlin “villain” arc: 22:48–29:25
• Cletus McFarland’s impact: 30:31–37:30
• Spotter debate—crash avoidance: 41:14–45:07
• Jimmy Spencer on lost rivalries: 46:01
• Kenny Schrader/numbers debate: 50:19–55:47
• Ears-in-hat debate & live calls: 56:09–64:00
• Rapid fire/Blaney stroller shopping: 65:07–68:29
• Off-season/holiday chat: 94:00–99:51; 101:11
• Becoming Earnhardt series reflection: 79:00–88:32
• Producer/season reflections: 119:45–134:50

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Podcast Tone and Style

• Casual, candid, self-deprecating, and both sentimental and mischievous.
• It’s a mix of nostalgia (for both racing and the podcast’s past), sharp industry critique, and mutual ribbing among friends.
• Special blend of behind-the-curtain podcast tales, live drive-by call-ins, off-color humor, vulnerable confessions, and racing history.

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Summary Takeaway

A fittingly offbeat, heartfelt Dirty Mo season finale: Instead of one last bombshell guest, Dale Jr., TJ, Freddie, and the Dirty Mo gang relive their favorite guest moments, debate NASCAR’s identity crisis, share fresh fan stories, and roast each other with warmth and humor while letting listeners peek behind the scenes. This episode is less a traditional interview or roundtable and more like a boisterous family holiday meal—full of laughter, all-access banter, and sincere gratitude for the journey and the people who shaped it. The “Dirty Mo Mega Show” is a love letter to racing, its personalities, and the power of podcasts to bring fans and industry together—one buffalo shrimp joke at a time.

Transcript

[Andrew]

On November 14, the now youw See.

[Dale Jr.]

Me movie franchise is back. The Four Horsemen of Magic, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and Isla Fisher are reuniting for their biggest heist yet.

[Andrew]

This film delivers everything fans, surprises, stunning practical magic and a few twists. It's the most fun your whole family.

[Dale Jr.]

Will have in the theater this fall.

[Andrew]

Now you see me, now you don't. Rated PG13 only in theaters November 14th.

[Dale Jr.]

Get tickets now. Family owned Community Coffee just released a new flavored coffee, Grandma's Sugar Cookie. It joins spiced pumpkin pecan pies. Community's limited time flavored coffees available now. Grandma's Sugar Cookie has the nostalgic flavors of sweet buttery holiday sugar cookies fresh out of the oven. And spiced pumpkin Pecan Pie satisfies fall cravings with warm seasonal flavors of baked pumpkin pie and cinnamon and nutmeg. Save 25% on these limited time flavored coffees with code [e-mail] that's DALE, 25 for 25% off [e-mail] he's probably hungover for sure. Hello? Hey, Sheldon, it's Dale Jr. Hey, Dale, how are you? Hey, I'm on my podcast and I'm with TJ and Freddy. I got a question for you.

[Freddie]

All right.

[Dale Jr.]

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. Back in for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. And it is a Wednesday. Well, it's actually technically a Thursday guest show. We went round and around how to, you know, finish the year on our guest segments. And typically we have, you know, pretty bombshell guests to start the year and another big guest to end the year. But I wanted to do something different this. This season. We've had real good success with our Dirty 30, and we've done some highlight stuff in the past. And that's what I want to do this week. We're going to play some clips. I got T.J. and Freddie here. They're going to be a part of the reaction with me. I don't watch every show. We've had a lot of great things happen this year. There's going to be some clips that we're going to run that I haven't seen. I've asked all our producers to pull from basically what they thought the best of would be from all of our shows. Andrew's here. How you doing, Andrew?

[Andrew]

What's going on?

[Dale Jr.]

Andrew's going to help us sort of tee up the clips. I don't know what's coming. And then we're all gonna react and have some fun today. Toward the end of the show, we'll have a final word from some of our producers. Andrew Tims, Travis. There's some things that I want y' all to hear. I want our listeners to hear about our work and what all went into this season. We talked about doing a bit of an ass junior. A live ass junior.

[Andrew]

We can fire one up.

[Dale Jr.]

Why don't we do it?

[Freddie]

Yeah, why don't we?

[Dale Jr.]

We're gonna do a live ass junior. All right. Cause I like doing those.

[Freddie]

They are pretty fun.

[Andrew]

Those are fun.

[Dale Jr.]

They are fun.

[Freddie]

They are fun.

[Dale Jr.]

That makes me happy.

[Freddie]

Oh, he's already live.

[TJ]

Is nerve wracking.

[Dale Jr.]

That makes me happy. I got my way.

[Freddie]

Yeah, that's that, guys.

[Dale Jr.]

All right.

[TJ]

Figure it out.

[Travis]

Andrew.

[Andrew]

You know what I love about that intro is you're like, usually we have awesome guests to finish the year, but this year it's Freddie and T. Well, I figured.

[TJ]

I thought there was a fat Joe coming when he said we have a big guest the end of the year. And I was like, he's gonna say something. But I appreciate him letting it go.

[Freddie]

I was waiting.

[TJ]

I was actually.

[Freddie]

Thought you were going to chime in.

[Andrew]

Travis is also here.

[Dale Jr.]

Travis.

[Freddie]

Hey, Travis.

[Dale Jr.]

Travis is here. Carpenter, James.

[Freddie]

Carpenter, James.

[Travis]

C.J. how are you?

[Dale Jr.]

All right, boys.

[Andrew]

Well, should we jump into some.

[Dale Jr.]

Let's go.

[Andrew]

Let's do it. This first one. We have some new characters on the DirtyMomedia roster this year, including the legendary Tommy Baldwin, who. It didn't take him long to find his stride and also find himself into trouble.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Not enough of you mother.

[Dale Jr.]

I only went down there to check on him. Jake walked by me and said, hey, man, I think the left rear went down. He told me to go F myself. I said to go F myself. But when I said that and no big deal, it was like I wasn't even worried about him. I didn't care about the northern thing. They all tell each other. I didn't care about J. Crumb at the time. I was. I was glad he was okay because it was a hard hit, but I didn't even care about him at the the whole time. But see all these guys in the gray shirts? They're all Jamie Tomato's guys that don't even work on the car, right. They got a T shirt showing up and now they think they're part of the team. This guy with the hat, I don't even know who he is. So all these guys, this big guy, big doofy guy, right? He thinks who he is and then they start running their mouths, right? So now everybody's got the guy in the tow truck driving. He starts choking me later on, right? It's like, what are you guys doing? They start running their mouths and. And that's what pissed me off.

[TJ]

Tommy was going to throw that headset till he realized he owned it.

[Dale Jr.]

He owned it. 250 right there.

[Travis]

Awesome.

[Dale Jr.]

Awesome stuff. That was, you know, when we. When we brought him in, I wasn't really sure, Freddie, about what to expect, but he's. He's fit, right. The freak in to what we do.

[TJ]

You know, I was the first person when Mike, we talked about redoing that show kind of a little bit. I said, well, I really won't want to do with Tommy, like, if I'm going to do it, because you need that edginess. You need that little bit. And I was. Who knew he was going to come in and kiss NASCAR's ass all year? But we'll get to that later, I'm sure. But, you know, he's just. That's him in a nutshell. That's Tommy Fiery. Wants to beat everybody up if they say anything wrong or. And he just came in, hit the ground running this year.

[Dale Jr.]

I didn't expect him to be interested in, you know, the, The. Not only the work that it takes to be here every week. Sit down and really articulate what your thoughts are. He's got a lot of things going on. I was very surprised, I guess, to know that he would even be interested in the, you know, the commitment that it is to podcast.

[TJ]

Yeah, I mean, I. It was a. Like an immediate yes. I thought the same thing. Because he's competition director at Rick Ware Racing. He's got both his boys racing all the time. You know, he's got two or three modifieds he's got to prepare every week. So I was like, hey, you want to do this? But it's every Monday morning, 9 o', clock, you know, whatever. He's like, yeah, I'm in. I was like, okay, well, let me run this by bike then. And we're good. And yeah, he jumped right on. And like I said, he's. He fit right in.

[Freddie]

Did you see how many guys he was getting ready to fight himself by himself?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

And I. Tommy came on DBC one time, and within the first three minutes of the show, I think he called Kyle Busch a bitch.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

Right away, like. And I was like, okay, Tommy doesn't hold back. So I knew when his name came up for dbc, it would have been a good fit.

[Dale Jr.]

What is the plan for DBC through the off season? What do y' all do? Y' all gonna do any shows?

[TJ]

We're gonna do Christmas episode. We got a really fun plan for that. I don't know that we have Nile down yet, but it's going to be. Bring some families in and. And have a.

[Dale Jr.]

Families.

[TJ]

A Christmas show kind of episode, like Tommy's Wife.

[Dale Jr.]

You're going to have, like, husbands and wives and children in here, somebody else's family.

[TJ]

We're going to find them out here on the road.

[Dale Jr.]

Random families coming in.

[TJ]

Families are coming in. I want. I want people to get to know people. So I'm going to go to Harris Teeter up here.

[Andrew]

Some people in the produce section, DBC and family.

[Dale Jr.]

Just doesn't seem like what has happened, what's to come.

[Freddie]

Normally, Tyler just brings fireball, like Tyler Reddick brings fireball.

[TJ]

Reddick's our little elf, but.

[Freddie]

He shows up. He always would show up with a whole thing of fireball.

[TJ]

He's got a candy cane full of fireball bottles.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, Jesus.

[TJ]

Yeah, but we're gonna.

[Dale Jr.]

Little elf. That's funny.

[Andrew]

In addition to some new people, we've added some new shows to our roster as well. Actually, what this Thursday show normally would be is bless your heart. And there's no shortage of fun moments. Dale, you know it's coming.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm ready. Go. Boobies are right. Boobies are crazy. Boobies are crazy. Boobies are great. Yes. Well, that's easy. Of course they are. You said the word boobies. I was like, yep, know that one. Dale's the love of my life.

[TJ]

You're the love of my life.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. One more. You close? I don't know the first word. Tacos. Dale's the love of my life. Dale. Dale. Dale's a love of my life. Buffalo shrimp. Buffalo shrimp. Did you hear me? No. Damn. I got that on the brain, too.

[Andrew]

Sorry.

[Dale Jr.]

Boobies and buffalo shrimp. That's really me. Every day, all day.

[Travis]

Geez.

[Dale Jr.]

That'S been a lot of fun. You know, me and Amy have talked about doing a podcast for. For a long time, you know, and she sees what we do here, and she's been curious. I mean, for years, been curious about it. Just not sure exactly what that show would look like. And I don't know how. I don't even remember the conversation, but we were like, hey, why don't we. Amy actually came in on. On DJD on Tuesdays a couple of times, and how that was. How she did. And how that was received was really surprising because it's a racing show. She don't give a shit. She's like, yeah, whatever. She's got her opinions, you know, but she, you know, she's kind of, you know, she's not a hardcore fan. She's more casual. And she.

[Freddie]

A playoff for 36 race.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, she's definitely a 36 race fan. Yeah, she loves 36 ra season casting her vote. So I. But we were taken aback by that and everybody loved it. And. And I think it was because you didn't get to see her a lot and not. She wasn't really out there too much. Unless you followed her on social media, on Instagram, you weren't going to really know too much about what she had going on. So people were just curious about it. We had to talk her into it. She wasn't all about the commitment. You know, talking about Tommy and the commitment and the work coming in here every week. She wasn't sure about that. And so, you know, we even went in about two or three weeks and did the show. We did about four or five shows. And she still was not 100% whether she wanted to keep doing it or whether it was really what she needed to be doing. But we. Here we are, whole season behind us. We had fun. I'm going to tell you right now, I don't know, especially this past weekend, man, and it's awkward for you guys, but, dude, every time she comes in here, man, she is stunning. And this past week, this show, I mean, I could barely freaking think straight.

[TJ]

Jesus.

[Dale Jr.]

She walked in the room, I'm telling you. I know, it's weird. It's weird. I'm sorry. I just had to say.

[TJ]

We don't know to sorry.

[Dale Jr.]

Say the truth.

[Freddie]

Are you in the doghouse?

[Dale Jr.]

I always got a foot in the doghouse.

[Freddie]

I was just wondering if you had more than a foot this time.

[Dale Jr.]

You and I live that life on the fence, brother, you know?

[Freddie]

Yeah, you might have. I usually live with two feet in the dog house most of the time.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Your dog house, though, has a SIM rig and Xbox. Mine doesn't. My dog house don't.

[Travis]

Dale, you like sleeping on the couch.

[Dale Jr.]

My dog house don't even have finished. I don't even have insulation or wood paneling on the walls. Yeah, well, I can see bare studs in my doghouse. Tj, I'm jealous. You'll see this guy's.

[Freddie]

I've seen his doghouse. Is your doghouse if you ever get in trouble. Yeah, we can run as a pack.

[TJ]

I mean, but you talk about the commitment. Like our show, everything's kind of laid out for us over the weekend. That bless your heart show, you guys kind of got to come up with every week. Like, you don't know what you're going to talk about.

[Dale Jr.]

Right. So this week, clearly. Exactly.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

We, we have games. We have games and all kinds of. That we do. That's all predetermined. But to your point, I'm literally writing in my notes. We have a note that we share. All of us on Bless yous Heart are in it. I drive, I'm driving. I drop Isla off at school and drive straight here to do the show. And I'm literally writing in the notes what I think we should talk about that moment. So we have a little, probably about a 10, 15, 20 minute piece where we're bull about life and just that's been going on. For example, today, Amy, we hate. We hate. We're not doing the show this Thursday. We did the show Tuesday instead because today Amy forgot to take Nicole to school. Really? Like that. Like, there's nothing more to it. We were sitting at home this morning around and laughing and playing and the kids were playing. And I was like, well, I'm gonna go do this podcast. I'm a little behind. Let me text the guy. She's like, holy, I forgot to take Nicole to school, like. And yeah, she's stunning, though. Nicole was 30 minutes.

[TJ]

That's why they were late this morning.

[Dale Jr.]

She was yesterday. Yeah. So, you know, that kind, those are the moments, you know, that we kind of flag and say, hey, let's, let's talk about that on the show. But I've enjoyed it. It's been great. Amy's been amazing. I've loved people being able to get to know her better. It's a slippery slope. It's, it's, it's, you know, it's a little nerve wracking putting yourself out there. You guys are used to it because you're both at the racetrack. Your personalities, you got a job, but you also are personalities and you do a lot of different work, like the podcast and different things. That was completely new for her. And my instinct is to kind of protect her, but we took a chance and put ourselves out there and we're having fun and trying to be, trying to know where that line is too. Sharing too much, you know, information sometimes. And Amy doesn't know where that line is. So Amy, Amy's an oversharer sometimes. And I'm like, holy, I Don't know. I want everyone to know that about me. But, you know, clearly, clearly, boobies and.

[Freddie]

Buffalo shrimp aren't across the line.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, she know, you know, she's very aware of my love for buffalo shrimp and boobies. And so that wasn't a big revelation. That wasn't a big revelation.

[Freddie]

New shirt.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, we have already a shirt.

[Travis]

Thanks for paying attention.

[Freddie]

Sorry.

[Dale Jr.]

Whether I'm at a racetrack or I'm. I'm at the damn grocery store. It don't matter where somebody walks up to me and says, love your podcast. That one with Amy.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, right. I've been getting. I love your podcast for years. Right. Because of the Dale Jr. Download. But now it's only. Bless your heart.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Getting that feedback. I'm sure you guys, too. Do too, Amy. When Amy hears it, she gets so nervous because she forgets that people actually listen to. And she goes, oh, damn, they know. And her mind starts running in the back. Like, what did I say? Yeah, that's pretty funny.

[TJ]

There's only one time it's a downside is with a DBC fan, specifically is I'll be at a bar during the weekend, during a race weekend, and then just shots start showing up. Because, like, shot. And I'm like, I got to work tomorrow. Or like, I'm like, all right, we got to cut it off with the knock.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

I mean, we went to the Lionel deal, and here you guys want me.

[TJ]

To do a shot with him before the race? I was like, hey, bud, can't do that today.

[Freddie]

Yeah, that happened.

[Andrew]

Well, this next one, we've had a lot of highly requested guests on the guest show for the Dale Jr. Download, and the one we've been chasing for years and years and years, we finally got this year, Carl Edwards.

[Freddie]

What I realized is that. That there was a bigger plan than mine and that all that stuff played out just perfectly, and I was just along for the ride. Let's just go to the next year. Let's go to 2017.

[Dale Jr.]

Right.

[Freddie]

Let me just be real smart. Let me just think this through. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go and I am going to continue. I'm going to put everything in my life second in the backseat, and I am going to go start in a Daytona, and I'm going to drive the hell out of this race car like I've been doing for 13, 14 years, and I'm going to run this thing all the way the end. And then I'm going to get to Homestead at the end of 2017, I'm going to do everything just right. And they're going to throw a caution with five to go, and we're going to put all this on a restart. And I thought, damn, I don't know if spending a whole year of my life and all the things you give up and possibly give up for, you know, one restart, like, I don't know, that's part. Yes, that's a big deal. You have to weigh that. And so. So, yeah, I guess, really disappointing, but it actually helped me to say, hey, you know, this is the reality, this is how it could go and is.

[TJ]

It worth it to you?

[Dale Jr.]

You know, I saw this clip yesterday. Somebody put this on social media in reference to this season and Denny Hamlin's experience in Phoenix, which is, you know, almost identical.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And so that's where Denny is mentally when he says, I'm not sure if I can, you know, I can't even think about a race car today. We're all pretty sure that he'll run next year and all those things. But, yeah, this is where the emotion comes from. I don't ever make assumptions about injuries. You learn in the broadcast booth that that's an absolute. No, no. When you see a crash, you would never go, he might have done this, he might have hurt this, he might have broken this. You don't ever do that. And I was so curious about why he walked away the way he did. And I wondered, you know, with my own experience going through what I went through with head injuries, that dominated my thoughts and thinking about his experience at the end of that race at Homestead in 2017, I suppose, where he hits the inside wall and goes up and slams into the outside wall, gets piled in by a few different guys. He had a lot of bam, bam, bang, bang hits all in that moment. And then the way he got out of the car and the way he reacted, walking down pit road, going up on a pit box, shaking somebody's hand, it just was really odd sort of trigger reaction to everything that was going on. And so I reached out to him. This was five, four years ago. I reached out to him in a text message. Carl wrote me, hand wrote me like a four page letter.

[Andrew]

Wow.

[Dale Jr.]

And explained to me, you know, what was going on and what, what was happening. And so I knew every. And it was everything that he shared with us on the show. And so I kind of had an idea, at least I had some closure because that the way he walked out and shut it down was just without any real, you know, explanation. Puzzled all of us, right? And I wanted to know. I wanted to know whether I needed to know, I guess, for my own peace of mind, whether he had had some sort of physical event or whether he had some concerns about his physical health or whether he truly was heartbroken by the. The caution and the. And how that took away this, you know, this sure thing that was laying there in front of him. And so. And maybe it's some of both, but he comes on the show and everything he told us was everything. And it was in this letter. I still have it. Still have that letter. And I found it yesterday looking for a birth certificate. The, you know, the way he. And we did, we did. We asked him to come on the show forever. And I didn't know why he was not available and why he wouldn't come to do the show and where he was and what he was doing. And we all had these jokes about him being a prepper and having some, you know, being underground and, you know, all these things. Right. Or farming. Right. Whatever. And fortunately, I think, you know, and I say this as a compliment to Carl. Fortunately, fortunately for all of us, he came back. He went, and I see this with a lot of veteran drivers. He went to the 75 greatest drivers in Darlington. We were all invited. And he came to that. And he was blown away that anyone missed him or even worried about him or wondered about him. He was blown away. He had no idea. And you hear, and we have guys come and sit down at this table that have been out of the game or out of the racing deal for a while and they like, you'll tell them, man, we've been wondering where you've been. People are going to be happy to hear from you. People are going to be happy to hear what you've been up to. And they're like, no one, no, I've not gotten that sensation or idea or that's so foreign to me. Or I can't believe that. Or wouldn't think anybody would care because it doesn't feel like anybody gives a. Nobody's calling, nobody's texting you, but they are wondering where you're at and what you're doing. And so that was what brought Carl back. He was like, man, he loved that response. He was glad people wanted to see him. And he's like, I, I'm gonna come. And he's come back and he done tv. And we learned during this experience of him doing TV that he's not a prepper. He's not got some big base underground. The dude Just been doing life sailing. He. He sent me a picture. His son, they have this sailboat and, you know, sailboat has a lot of, you know, the space on a sailboat all has to be used very smartly. There's not a ton of storage. And way down in the berth or, you know, in the belly of this boat, his son has a sim rig. Oh, hell yeah. And it fits in this perfectly confined space. It's like so, so smart. And his son races on his little sim rig when they're out sailing. Wow. And his son loves racing, and he was very careful about. Right. Exposing his children to the public and very concerned about the ramifications of that. And his son's now old enough and he's very comfortable to bring him around. It was just really awesome to have Carl around and we got to know him better working with him on the TV stuff, and hopefully we'll see even more of him going forward. We've been trying to get him forever. And it lived up.

[Andrew]

It did.

[Dale Jr.]

It lived up to the expectation.

[TJ]

Do you think Andrew knows that we can see all the clips on here that he's supposed to be surprising us with?

[Andrew]

Or do you have that. Do you have that good of eyes?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, well, yeah, it's not that hard. It's a big screen. It's like a 52 inch, 55 inch.

[Andrew]

Darn it.

[Dale Jr.]

Travis. What? You seem like you need to tell me something. Damn.

[TJ]

I can't get it off your chest.

[Dale Jr.]

You look so disappointed.

[TJ]

I don't think.

[Dale Jr.]

Is this show that bad?

[Travis]

I don't think I've ever met anybody that will judge someone's facial expressions and just react off them.

[Dale Jr.]

You know why you and Denny are such good friends? You're both so misunderstood.

[Andrew]

Oh, well, speaking of that, here's a clip of Denny talking about how he's the villain.

[TJ]

I've somewhat taken your villain role.

[Freddie]

Way to go, buddy.

[TJ]

Way to go. I.

[Freddie]

One thing that I gave him my manual.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. I feel as though. Is it fun, Kyle?

[Freddie]

It's somewhat fun to me. When you see when you can. When you can win, when you can be winning, when you can have the clout to be able to back up what you say. Yes, you can do it all. You can act the fool all you want. Right.

[Andrew]

Because you can back it up.

[Freddie]

I have nothing to back it up right now. So I had to put the black.

[Dale Jr.]

Hat on the shelf and pull off the white one. I. I'll never forget, we were there.

[Freddie]

For the NASCAR 75 greatest drivers thing. And Carl.

[Dale Jr.]

Carl's like, what Happened?

[Freddie]

Yeah. We were on the stage, woke up, all of a sudden, Kyle is getting.

[Dale Jr.]

Cheered, and I just get.

[TJ]

I mean, just booed out of the place. And he says, wait a minute.

[Dale Jr.]

What. What happened since I've been gone?

[TJ]

You know, Kyle's. Listen, the good guys, like, yes.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, it's. I mean, it's been a lot of fun watching Denny embrace that role. And I don't know anybody that's done better in our history and the whole sport. I can't think of a better sort of. I wouldn't say he's the villain. He's kind of anti hero. Would you say? What would you. How would you. I mean, it's not a villain to me. He's more of an antagonist. And, yeah, probably, dude, it's. He does it. There's nobody that's done it better. Nobody like most people. So, like, Rusty Wallace wrecks Dare Waltrip in the Winston immediately. Rusty is the most booed guy in the series. I mean, initially, he goes overnight, becomes one of the most hated guys. And, you know, there was moments when, like, dad wrecks Terry Labonte at Bristol, and it's like an instant shift. I don't know that. I think dad was a little taken aback, but most people that are even Kyle, like, most people that fall into that most booed driver in the garage, they don't want it and they don't lean into it. Right. And it's a frustration more than anything. It's a source of frustration. It's not a. You know, we've talked to Kyle. He said so in this on our podcast years ago. He wants to be liked. He doesn't want to be booed.

[Andrew]

So Kyle wants to be liked. Denny, do you think this will change things for him, how the championship went? Will he get more cheers?

[Travis]

Does he get booed at the Clash?

[Dale Jr.]

No.

[TJ]

Yes.

[Dale Jr.]

No. No.

[TJ]

They were. Ask tj. I mean, did you go to the race Sunday? So Sunday the PA Announcer announces bad pit stop. Awful pit stop for the 11. Didn't realize they just put four on. Everybody else put two on. The place erupted in cheers because Danny had a bad pitch.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, man.

[TJ]

I mean.

[Travis]

But that's. I think, seeing the heartbreak, though, I think. I don't think he's going to get the boot.

[Dale Jr.]

Travis. Travis so badly wants him to be the most popular driver in the sport.

[Travis]

That would be hilarious if he does, but I think it's bad for the sport.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, then if he doesn't get booed. Chase wanted it.

[TJ]

Chase one.

[Travis]

I know. I'm saying, like, I want him to.

[TJ]

Get way to Rooney.

[Dale Jr.]

You probably didn't know that. I know you were paying attention last night.

[Travis]

He recorded it, but he didn't go to the banquet.

[Freddie]

Chase is also going to win it next year.

[Dale Jr.]

I think it's bad for sport. I think I actually recorded a.

[TJ]

A.

[Dale Jr.]

Thank you.

[Travis]

Way to go.

[TJ]

Nice job.

[Dale Jr.]

So I need. No, no, no, no. Shade. Yeah, no shade.

[Travis]

But I think it's bad for the sport if he doesn't get booed next year.

[Freddie]

I think Chase recorded next year. Is already this year, too.

[Dale Jr.]

He's got him lined up.

[TJ]

He's gonna be wearing the same shirt in a video for like five years.

[Freddie]

Y.

[Dale Jr.]

You're right.

[Freddie]

Travis. Travis.

[TJ]

So than anybody for my 2025 award, he didn't even.

[Dale Jr.]

He didn't even date it. Evergreen. It's an evergreen. Just run that one again.

[Andrew]

Thank you for the award.

[Freddie]

Thank you, Chase. Well done, Chase. Good idea.

[Dale Jr.]

So I, I, I was surprised. I'm surprised to hear that because I felt like that with everything that was going on, everything that I saw was. Everything that I saw on social media at least was, man, I was pulling for Denny. I'm not even a Denny fan. I was pulling for Denny. I really wanted that one for Denny. So you don't think that I. You know, I feel like when he. When he first started leaning into this villain stuff, say, for example, when he gets out at Bristol and says, you know, says, I beat your favorite driver, whatever, everybody, it angered his haters, right? And anybody that was kind of on the fence fell onto the one side that didn't like him. Right. And his fans loved it. Right. But he already had them in the tent, right. So when he first started leaning into it, I felt like that he was angering, you know, the mob. As time went on and he. And we started, he started letting everyone in to, hey, man, I just enjoy it. I enjoy with y'. All. And then we had, I guess there was one weekend recently, he gets out of the car and he says, I ain't gonna give y' all today, man. You know, and it's kind of like now there's this sort of agreement.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Between him and the mob. And there's this sort of like, appreciation and respect. Even though maybe I don't. I'm not a Denny fan, I still respect him. I think, you know, and I think what he is is a personality, is a. Maybe fans are starting to really. Even though maybe they don't like him or don't pull for him, maybe they're not. He's not their Favorite driver. They see the value in that, the personality. Because. Good Lord, we need. We need more of that.

[TJ]

What? Are you gonna say something?

[Freddie]

It's just like Austin Hill and that fan.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

At Talladega, like. Yeah.

[Andrew]

Oh.

[Freddie]

You know what I mean?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

It's just like that.

[Dale Jr.]

That little one on one between them.

[Freddie]

They love it. Like. Like, it's just that guy goes there for that moment.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, that's right.

[Freddie]

He normally doesn't do much on track to like.

[Dale Jr.]

Like he's a very clean racer.

[Freddie]

He doesn't.

[Dale Jr.]

Very clean.

[Freddie]

He won't wreck people.

[TJ]

No.

[Freddie]

And things like that.

[TJ]

You guys watching the Kansas race or would you skip that one?

[Dale Jr.]

Sorry. To wreck somebody.

[Freddie]

Well, but he doesn't go Bubba.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

He put Bubba in the fence.

[Dale Jr.]

His own, the win. But I mean, like, Bubba had a little room.

[Freddie]

Bubba could have lifted.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, yeah.

[Freddie]

I mean, I don't. I don't think Denny, like, he doesn't go out there and just turn somebody. Like, Kyle has a pretty good past of just wrecking guys.

[Dale Jr.]

Kyle Busch?

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, I think Kyle. I mean, I think. I think Kyle Busch's villain or. Or, you know, his, his. All his stuff for me was more about what he did. Not so much driving. It was like, you know, flip, you know, coming down pit road and giving the bird to the official and walking away. Walking away from so many interviews, like, you know. Yeah. Just so many interviews. I mean, so many times he didn't, you know, he refused interviews. And those were the things that I think really kind of his driving. Kyle's driving on the track was sensational.

[Freddie]

You know, but he wasn't scared to turn people. He did a lot of that. But you're right, he did.

[Dale Jr.]

I can't remember a time that I've seen. I went, damn cow bush wrecked him on purpose. Can you. Somewhere that was not on purpose. He's got up, he's underneath me and got loose.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[TJ]

He didn't wreck you on purpose, Hornaday. That was the only time I got.

[Freddie]

Well, that was bad.

[Dale Jr.]

Was that on purpose, though? Yes.

[TJ]

Yeah, that was Horny running the fence and he hooked him.

[Freddie]

He got offended for, like, multiple races.

[Dale Jr.]

I remember what all happened that day. I just don't remember if it was really intentional.

[TJ]

Yeah, that was intentional.

[Dale Jr.]

Okay.

[Andrew]

All right, well, this next guest was a big one this year. We got a million views on YouTube. Cletus McFarlane, who was highly requested. We got him in after his big Daytona race. And Dale, he actually had some questions for you in the interview.

[Dale Jr.]

I had a couple questions. I want to ask you too, you know. Yeah, let me just pull them up. So I don't. I love it. This is rare. Nobody ever has any questions for me. What do you think of the. The quote, do it for Dale? I love it. I was like, I just hope he's never forgotten because he left such an impact on the sport. And so that kind of thing is the staying power. That is the reminder to me like, that he's. He resonated with people. Now that you say that, I would.

[Freddie]

Say that he has the most long.

[Dale Jr.]

Standing, legendary status of any real motorsports driver, maybe. I think he does. And so when I hear things like that, it's like, yeah, yeah, he still matters.

[Freddie]

You know, I think it's a great saying.

[Dale Jr.]

It's like a lifestyle. My buddy Justin Keith said it to me one time and I was like, dude, for Dale. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty awesome. You know, we were all kind of introduced to Cletus McFarlane over the course of the past year or so. Don't know that. I knew a ton about the guy. Obviously, you know, when he got involved in buying a racetrack and started having some races, you start to say, hey, what's going on down there? And. And then he wants to get involved in driving in the ARCA series. And now, you know, he has these races down in Florida. He has a lot of our guys that come down there and are part of that. It's been really fascinating. We knew that his audience and his supporters, people that are, you know, devoted to what he's doing, were going to be curious. So we were talking, you know, it was pretty fun, I think, for us to be. To know that we were talking to an entirely new audience, and that was exciting. Of course, we saw that in the numbers, and Cletus was incredibly kind. And this all snowballed into, you know, he came and did the show and then we went out to Talladega. Funny thing, man. I wanted, you know, I wanted to go to Talladega and sort of. He's. He's gonna race at Talladega. Ran Daytona. He's gonna race at Talladega. And I saw the Daytona stuff and all of his comments and I was like, hey, man, I might, you know, I know he loved it. I know he enjoyed it. What if we take him to Talladega and kind of give him a little bit of 101 on that place? And, you know, it was a. It was an opportunity, I think, to try to see if we could help him go into that race and enjoy it even more, because of his new education and understanding of the facility and what it means and what it's about. I thought he might find that kind of stuff fascinating. He wasn't quite as interested in the history of the track as I thought he might be. You know, the sort of wise tales and speculation over the property and what it used to be and how it may be cursed and all of these things. I thought that stuff would be right up his alley because it would certainly be something that his listeners or, you know, people that support his channels would be like, oh, man, I need to know more. What's this? Right. But he's all about going fast. He really is. He's all about going fast and having fun, and he's all about cars and car culture. So we show up to the racetrack at Talladega and he's got that drag, he's got that Dale truck.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And so we. I got a chance to drive that. I wasn't really sure if I was needing to do that, but. Because it's a lot to control. It's. I mean, it's 140 mile an hour. It's not, not as fast as some guys go in a straight line, but it's as fast as I'd ever went in terms of acceleration. That thing's not automatic. I mean, it's, it's easy. It's not like, you know, you mash a button, go, and you're done. It's. It's a handful. And the back straightaway is not quite as smooth as you might think, especially down low where we were running. But it was a great experience. And then he's, you know, I know he's trying to create content. His mind is always working on how, what can I do today, what can I do every minute? I don't want to waste an opportunity. He's really, really smart and always sort of proactive on creating content, which was fascinating. And I'm a witness to this over this course of months while we were interacting with him more. And he just, he. He says, hey, man, I'm driving through the area. I need to stop by. And I was like, all right. Well, it's like 6 o' clock in the evening. He's like, I'm. I'm real close. Can I come by? And I was like, ah, you know, I. Maybe. Are you gonna be around tomorrow? You know, what, what's the. What's the rush? I'm kind of hanging out with family, getting ready to eat dinner or whatever. No, no, no, I need to do it now. I'm like, all right. So I tell Amy. I'm like, amy, Cletus is coming by. He wants to meet me, so I'm gonna have him meet me up at the farm shop. Really? Yeah. Is he okay? Yeah, yeah. I know, I know. It's kind of. Kind of. He seems. He seems urgent. We pull up there, and he's got. That's when he brings the swans. And I was like, damn. And, you know, that was cool. He didn't have to do that. I know he was creating content at the same time, so I know he's. You know, but it's still pretty. Pretty neat, you know, he creates content while at the same time sort of being the good guy, you know, And I appreciate that about him. And he's good for the sport. He's good for us. He's in. He's. We're all curious. You know, we watch. I watched his in car, his ARCA race at Bristol and tried to really, truly see what he's learning as a driver watches. Watch his entry, his line, how he picks the throttle up and how he really evolved as that race went on was really interesting to me. Yeah. So I know I'm going long here, but he's. It's a. It was cool. It was. It was a big show for us. Big deal for us.

[Travis]

Yeah. We. We went and got margaritas to celebrate it.

[Dale Jr.]

We did.

[Travis]

And I think you posted a photo of it. And somehow he. I don't know if he text Biffle or how he found out.

[Andrew]

We were at, like, I think the menu. Looking at the menu.

[Travis]

He picked up tab.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

Which also tells me Mike was gonna pick up the tab. Mike still owes us drinks.

[Dale Jr.]

That's true. That's the kind of guy he is. So the Dirty Mo Media group of about a dozen people went to the local Mexican restaurant for lunch to celebrate our numbers around the Cletus interview episode. Yeah, I sent him a picture. I sent Cletus a picture saying, hey, we're all celebrating this show. I'm just saying thanks again for all the. You know, for the cause. He understands what the numbers mean. That's what he's working with every day. I'm like, thank you. He didn't. You know, he got more. We got a lot more out of this than I think he did. He didn't need us. And so I was like, hey, man, here we all are. So, so thankful for you coming on the show. And he did. He looked at the menu, called up the place, bought the tab. I mean, it was in minutes because there were seconds because we were about done. We're getting ready to get up in about another five, 10 minutes. And so pretty spectacular. Just, you know, that's the kind of people you want to, you want to be around, you want to surround yourself with. And we still communicate today. And so it's a, you know, he'll be around. Assuming he's racing ARCA next year, maybe some trucks, we'll see. But pretty exciting. Pretty exciting that he was part of what we did this year. Dirtymo Media and Junior Motorsports are proud to partner with Registics. If you sell discount appliances or merchandise, you need to get in touch with them. Registics works directly with retailers and manufacturers to get you the best deals from the leading home improvement brands. Whether you're looking for great deals on truckloads of customer return, scratch and dent appliances, self pull inventory rigistics, they can help you out. Like jrm, they're a team that knows what it takes to win. Registics invest in long term partnerships instead of focusing on one off sales. They're invested in your success and they know that when you win, you all win. Unlike the other guys, when you partner with Registics, you can trust that they'll do what they say they'll do. For reliable inventory and fair and consistent pricing, visit registics.com that's R E G I S T I X.com Fall weather changes fast.

[Travis]

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[Andrew]

All right, this next clip, I'm really excited that we have two spotters at the table for this. Dirty Modo is a segment on our Dirty Air show every Tuesday, which is awesome. And Russell the Professor has a lot of special stats, one of which is crash avoidance.

[Dale Jr.]

The other guy I like is.

[Travis]

Is Byron.

[Dale Jr.]

He's statistically the best at accident avoidance.

[Travis]

Is that a stat you keep?

[TJ]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

You know who's not good at that?

[Freddie]

Me.

[TJ]

That's correct.

[Dale Jr.]

My top job, though, the spotter, is to help guys. I don't disreg the record low. Hey.

[Freddie]

What?

[Dale Jr.]

We've been doing this for 20 years, but this last month and a half has been a good run.

[Freddie]

No, I'm talking about this season. We've rebounded pretty well in the last couple we've raced.

[Travis]

This is gonna be a 26 race scale.

[Freddie]

But I haven't wrecked him. I haven't wrecked Brad in the last month and a half.

[Travis]

So wait, wasn't he caught up at.

[Freddie]

A wreck last week? No, we finished ninth at Richmond.

[Travis]

But he was caught up in one though, right?

[Freddie]

Yeah, we drove through it. Made it through.

[Dale Jr.]

Drove through it. Is.

[Freddie]

Did we lose position?

[Dale Jr.]

Literal definition of what happened.

[Freddie]

I mean, were we in it? Did we lose spots?

[Dale Jr.]

No, we're in it for sure.

[Freddie]

We didn't even pit.

[Dale Jr.]

There was a bottom groove, completely clear that nobody told him to go through, but clear up, hit it, keep going high. Racking up high. Keep going up there. Locker down, locker down. What do you think, dj? That was fun. I love having moments like that on the show. That was fun for me. Do you enjoy that there?

[Freddie]

Yeah. There's no denying the beginning of this year. I mean, it was a bad. We started first five races like I was done before halfway, most of them.

[Dale Jr.]

So it was kind of like the commander season.

[Freddie]

Yeah, my season before halfway. Yeah, that's what it felt like. This year's been rough, man, and a lot of it. And Freddie knows this. I mean, we, we. You don't really have. I mean, you're in it, you're in it. Sometimes you can do something about it, sometimes you can't. And a lot of things this year just lined up where a car sitting broadside in front of you track and you hit it and you go to the next one.

[TJ]

The one thing, the one stat I was proud of this year that I saw for us was we. We miss a good majority of crashes, but when we crash, it's terminal, you know? So I, like, I'm not gonna let my guy ride around there limping all day. Like, when I wreck him, we're done. You know what I mean?

[Dale Jr.]

We're getting the hell out of here.

[Freddie]

Mostly spotters say when they see your car spinning, they're like, all right, lock it down. Freddy says, throttle up.

[TJ]

We don't want to live around all day. Let's get out of here.

[Freddie]

Yeah. Yeah. That is.

[Dale Jr.]

That's crazy. I. You know what I think about? You ever drive down the road and there are some moments in some crashes that, where. When you know you're about to have impact with another car, actually throttling up is best. Is best because it. The force that you'll feel and how that force will travel through the vehicle, you're gonna have contact with it lessens some of that. You know, you. You. If you slam on brakes and hit the car, the whiplash and the forward momentum of your head and all those things is going to be more severe. You're going to strain all these things, your neck be sore. But if you gas up and pop the guy, you know, in the left rear quarter panel or whatever, he's going to spin around, but you're going to drive through it, and the forces your body goes through will be different. Of course the car is going to suffer the damage. I think about that in highway accidents.

[Freddie]

Oh.

[Dale Jr.]

And I'm like, could you imagine trying to get out of a car and explain. Explain to. Once, you know, you're. Say you're in the courtroom, and they're like, your throttle position says you gassed it up right before you t. Bone missing. Ms. Margaret, how do you explain yourself? Well, you know, I was worried about the centrifugal forces on my body, so I, you know, I did what I thought was best for me in the scenario.

[Freddie]

Yeah. I mean, Margaret's neck. I mean, damn.

[Dale Jr.]

I mean, I was gonna hit her. I was hitting her in the rear quarter panel. She was gonna be fine.

[Freddie]

Sir, what is a rear quarter panel? Yeah, that. I don't. I mean, I don't. I haven't felt. I haven't felt a wreck from the roof yet. Have you, Freddy?

[TJ]

I've never felt one of you don't lift.

[Freddie]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pretty good. Most time when me and Freddy see Rex, I mean, we're probably like, oh, just close your eyes. It'll be over in a second.

[TJ]

Well, there was one.

[Dale Jr.]

Was it the.

[TJ]

A couple years ago, Martinsville. Didn't you have you went. Both of you went through some big melee down the front straight away.

[Freddie]

Yeah, that was all right.

[TJ]

Like you were trying to expand your race in Martinsville. I forget where we made it through.

[Dale Jr.]

We made it.

[Freddie]

There was 13 chances.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, I was.

[Freddie]

Oh, you.

[Dale Jr.]

It felt like days of thunder.

[Freddie]

It was like there was cars everywhere and smoke and stuff.

[Dale Jr.]

Fire. It was going through the smoke, Harry.

[Freddie]

Yeah, that was. Yeah, we should have been in that wreck somehow, but that's awesome.

[Andrew]

All right, I want to hit you with some rapid fire bold takes from some shows this year images. Safe to say he was pretty bold on DBC not too long ago. Jimmy Spencer.

[TJ]

Oh, geez. Give me your state of the union for what you feel like in nascar.

[Dale Jr.]

We are not the water cooler talk anymore. Monday morning we're not the water cooler talk. And I think that the drivers need to learn a lot as far as trying to get the fans involved. Trying to get the die hard fans to say, you know, like why do people like the Cowboys? I mean why do people like a baseball team?

[TJ]

The Yankees, whatever.

[Dale Jr.]

I mean the Yankees and Red Sox.

[TJ]

They hate one another. They really don't. But it's a rivalry. We don't have that today.

[Dale Jr.]

It's. It's pitiful. NASCAR needs to get these drivers to realize that these fans want to see something and not. Well, we had a good day today. You know, the, the Toyota. No.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

That son of the Spun me out.

[TJ]

You know, or whatever.

[Dale Jr.]

Remember Rusty and Earnhardt? Earnhardt. Rusty threw a bottle of water. We called him Rubberhead. All kind of stuff. It was awful. It was awful.

[Freddie]

Yeah, it was awful.

[TJ]

Old Spence, he was something on there. Like, I mean that was probably one of her less bold takes on there, I think. But you know, when you have Jimmy Spencer on, you're gonna get Jimmy Spencer's versions of things and sometimes they may not be the same as everybody else's version, but he is, he is one of a kind and says whatever the hell comes to mind.

[Freddie]

I think sometimes we do like controversy though on the track. Like you know, any most time Martinsville normally brings some of that. We've had some misses there and, and there's usually some good. The all series that run at Martinsville usually and leaving there with somebody mad at somebody.

[TJ]

But I think that we need to like I think what he's getting at, he didn't. They kind of talked his way around it but like just wanting to see personalities more. And I think we've all Said that on all of our shows, like you don't get to see a lot of these guys kind of stay buttoned up. And that's. I think the podcast helped with that and you know, outside media stuff that they do with the DAP stuff was helping a little bit. But, you know, I feel like these guys just don't kind of put themselves out and sometimes they can't sponsor related wise or whatnot. But like you want to see more from them, they want to see more of their personality versus the just a buttoned up driver kind of corporate version.

[Freddie]

Do you think because of, and I know this, hold on. Do you think because of the way the points are or the way that we race now that we, instead of that race just crippling your season, you think you have another chance to win next week and you're in? Do you think, you know, putting more emphasis on a longer point system would make these guys angrier at these moments. Like if you do get wrecked and you have to, you don't, hey, man, what if I don't like, I can win next week and still be in.

[Dale Jr.]

I could tell you that everything we've done to move away from the 36 race schedule has been, has been a.

[Freddie]

Detriment to this type of what he's saying.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, everything, everything, everything we've done to move away from the 36 race schedule has not had the designed or desired results. And it's, it's, it's made the, you know, it's made the bad days easier to get over or get through or not. Not as, not as bad.

[Freddie]

I'll win next week.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. And so, yeah, so when, when something bad happens on the track or a driver does you the wrong way, it's much easier for you to put it behind you. You're annoyed, you're mad, but you know, it's not detrimental to the year. But when it was detrimental to the year, you were mad at that guy and you carried that grudge until you felt like you got even. Whether it was a year down the road or six years down the road, you were mad because that guy cost you an entire year in your head. Right. Whether that was the reality of the situation or not. But I'm going to tell you this. We can make up. We can ask a million questions about, you know, different things and different topics and the answer would be yes, in terms of how going away from the 36 races full season has been detrimental or negative. And that's one, that's just one of a million. I was thinking about big old Giant Beach.

[Freddie]

I was thinking about a lot of. I was thinking about the age of some of the guys in the sport now. They don't have any idea what it used to be like. Like that. This is all they know.

[Dale Jr.]

I'd love to throw them back into the fire.

[Freddie]

That's what I'm saying. Like, a lot of these guys have no idea what that system would be.

[Andrew]

Well, another hot take from a show this year. Herman Schrader, Kenny Wallace. Kenny Schrader started their show up this year. It's been awesome to watch them grow and bring the opinions. And this one, when I saw this clip, really surprised me. So I'm curious to hear your guys take on this.

[Freddie]

A number on a race car is totally useless anymore.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

What do you have a number on a race car for? You don't need it for scoring. That's all electronics. Smack, dirt, car, one single digit. It'd be a one if everybody didn't have ones. Just because it doesn't mean anything. It just takes up space that you could have sponsor names on. You know, you bring up a good point that you preached to me years ago, and it caught me off guard because I have this emotional tie to my number 36. I'm like, I'm 36 for so many reasons. And it kind of hurt me when you said, a number doesn't mean anything. Now I'm saying this with love, and I'm laughing. You were the first person to say to me, a number doesn't mean anything. And you just explained it. I don't. You know, I love Kenny Schrader. He's family. But I don't agree with that. And I don't like that he, you know, Kenny feels that way. I don't like that he swayed Kenny because Kenny was right. Kenny ought to have this personal connection to 36. I got a connection to 888 03, 31. And I'm. You know, I feel like the number does matter because it's an identifier. And if you, you know, you look at. Look, if numbers don't matter, why are they on football jerseys and they're in other sports? Every player has a number.

[Travis]

Well, I don't think you say numbers over in every sport don't matter.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, I'm just saying, like, no, he didn't. Travis, thanks for.

[Travis]

I don't know why you're bringing NFL into this.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm just saying if. Because every. They're an identifier to the player, to the race car driver. They're identify you Go. My guy's number 88. I want to wear that number. I want to wear that jersey. Hey, my casual buddy. That's at the racetrack. There goes number 88. There goes number seven. That's my guy. Don't pull for 18. Don't like that guy. Whatever. Right? And you don't go with a yellow car with blah, blah, blah on it. What the. You know, there's three yellow cars out there. You know, it's just. It's an identifier, and it needs to be in the middle of the door and, you know, or wherever you want to put it right between the tires, which would have been a great, you know, compromise, but the RTA or the. You know, the teams wanted it to be regulated to a specific space. The. You know, this frustrates me because the number. Is the numbers important. What are we doing? You know, it's always. Why is. The numbers have been there forever. Why do we want to. Why do we want to minimize it or, you know, they move. They went away from the DASH series. Went away from numbers pretty much entirely. And you had sponsors and is weird nicknames, and, you know, there goes the. There goes the Hulkster or whatever. Yeah, they. They. In. Was that you.

[TJ]

Were you the Hulkster?

[Freddie]

I was the Hulkster.

[Dale Jr.]

And one of the final years of the DASH series, they took the numbers off the side of the cars, and you either put a sponsor there. You could put a nickname. You know, you could have like a. You know, kind of like a. Very similar to monster trucks. Right. You know, you'd have a theme, and it canned. It was terrible. It basically was the last. You know, it was the last dying breath of the series. And, you know, I just don't agree with that. I. I don't know where that comes from. From. From Schrader.

[Freddie]

When I see 25, I think a Schrader, like, that's. I associate him with 25. And then I know, what if I go to a dirt race and I see a 52. That's probably Schrader's dirt car.

[Dale Jr.]

He would have a completely different opinion if he would have. You know, this isn't a dig. He would have a completely different opinion if he would erase the number 25 car and won seven championships with it.

[TJ]

Yeah, he would.

[Dale Jr.]

Everybody in the world would go 25 Kenny Schrader. And he would be. That would be equity to him. That would be value to him that he would absolutely work off of and utilize and. And. And turn into profit, you know? Right. He would lean into that. He would have A completely different opinion. I mean, he has today.

[Freddie]

I still think of it, you know what I mean? Like, I'm. I just.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, yeah, we do. I mean, we can sit. We can sit here and pick a number and name tons of drivers that we connect to those numbers.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[TJ]

You know, I think the one thing. And I don't. I agree with you, Dale, that like, I think it's idiotic to say, like, not idiotic. I shouldn't say that because Kenny should gains enough respect. But, yeah, obviously it's identified, but I think we do need to do better. And as much as you love pain schemes, like some of the schemes we come up with these days, you can't even read them. I'm on the roof every week, watch a practice. You see a cardio on the back stretch and you're like, I. I don't even know who that is. You know, because we don't do a good enough job making the numbers stand out on somebody.

[Freddie]

You know, the reason for half these schemes are a certain way because of, you know, attacking things like that they color certain parts of the car different colors and things, trying to, you know, help get through the tech process. At times we need to do a.

[TJ]

Better job of just highlighting the number more because, like I said, you can't see it.

[Freddie]

There's are. There are some cars that it's very hard to see on the different paint schemes every week do make it challenging as well. Like, it's hard to see.

[Dale Jr.]

You ought to be a broadcaster. Sure.

[Freddie]

You ought to be a spotter.

[Dale Jr.]

It's equally. Well disagree that it's equally tough.

[Andrew]

All right, last debate topic came from Bless your heart. So, you know, this one's going to be outrageous. This was actually one of the top Bless yous Heart clips. So this got a lot of traction, a lot of people weighed in, and I'd be curious to see what the rest of the group thinks.

[Dale Jr.]

You were thinking about fashion faux pas on the way to the shop, if you want me to tell you the truth. So I was trying. I was putting my hat on and my hat was pushing my ear out a little bit. And I was like, man, I hate that. And so, because I don't like. I like my hat to go all the way down on my head, but not put my ears out. And I was thinking, that must be why some people put their ears inside their hat. But every time I see somebody with their ears inside their hat, I think immediately, oh, man, you've never seen a man put on a hat like this and have his Ears inside. When I see somebody do that, I'm like, man, I can't trust them. And I see it quite often, especially on the. On the west side of the country. There's a lot of people over there doing that. California. Especially the California. California.

[Andrew]

So is it acceptable to tuck your ears in?

[TJ]

You know who does it? I notice it all the time. T.J. bell is the first one that comes to mind. He does it all the time for me. And I always look at. I'm like, damn, I don't know. I could do that. I don't know how you do it.

[Dale Jr.]

It doesn't seem.

[TJ]

I wouldn't be able to be comfortable.

[Dale Jr.]

Like, Cole Custer has done it. I've seen Cold Custer. Maybe Infinity series.

[Freddie]

Riley maybe.

[Dale Jr.]

Maybe no Xfinity series. Creed.

[Andrew]

Shelton Creed.

[Dale Jr.]

Yep.

[Freddie]

Yeah. I don't know if your hat, your spouse should go to your ears and stop at the worst.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, no, but, like, you don't. You're.

[Freddie]

They should go. No, like, right here.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, yours no, like, it can go behind your ear. That hat I was wearing, right?

[Freddie]

No, I don't mind.

[Dale Jr.]

That's too big. That hat on this clip is too big.

[TJ]

Too big.

[Dale Jr.]

It's too big of a bucket. It should not. You're to your point, TJ it should not. Sit down. Sit on your ears. It shouldn't.

[Freddie]

I said that's the lowest it should go. That's like the bottom out point.

[Dale Jr.]

I didn't. But again, yeah, the ears in the hat. I don't. I don't know what that is. I don't know why guys do it. I don't know. I would like to hear from someone. Let's say, let's open the lines of communication here and have Shelton Creek come here and go, this is why I do it.

[Travis]

You know what I mean? I want to know.

[TJ]

Maybe he doesn't want to hear.

[Travis]

He doesn't want to listen to people back and forth. I've seen pictures with it, with and without.

[Dale Jr.]

So maybe when you get one, say you're a guy like Creed or Cole Custer and you get one and you're like this. Some bitch is too big. I got a haircut. Nothing fits. I'll just tuck my ears in. I don't know.

[TJ]

Do you think you have to order them bigger, though? Like, I mean, like, if you're planning on doing.

[Dale Jr.]

No, I don't think they plan on it. I think they just tuck them in when the hat's too big.

[Freddie]

You want me to just call them, put them on speakerphone, ask them, hey, man, straight Up. Why do you tuck your calling?

[Dale Jr.]

Who are you calling?

[Freddie]

T.J. bell. Right away.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, T.J. bell.

[Travis]

When we go ask a fans too.

[Dale Jr.]

They do it. Let's ask T.J. bill.

[Freddie]

See it. See if what he says calling somebody.

[TJ]

But yeah, I order damn 7 and 5, 8 fitted hats. And every one of them is different.

[Dale Jr.]

Everyone. What you doing?

[Freddie]

We just got one quick question. Just so you know, you're live on podcast right now. Why do you tuck your ears inside your hat?

[Dale Jr.]

Because I've always had a small head and hats never fit me correctly.

[Freddie]

Okay. Is that the only reason?

[Dale Jr.]

That's how it started and that's how I'm just always wearing my hats.

[Freddie]

Is there. Why do you think others do it?

[Dale Jr.]

I mean, it's a West coast thing.

[Freddie]

That's what. That's what Del Jr said. It's a West coast thing, so. All right, well, me, Freddie and Dale Jr. Were talking about it on a show here, and. And your name came up, so I said, let's just call him.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, yeah, it's west coast thing. Plus, when you keep the bill flat, you can hold your taco while you're peeing. What are you saying?

[Freddie]

Say that again with the flat bill.

[Andrew]

When you go to the bathroom, you.

[Dale Jr.]

Just put your taco up there and hold your taco while you're. Bring my taco.

[TJ]

Bathroom off.

[Dale Jr.]

Good, good, good. Hot dog.

[Freddie]

Good visual there.

[Dale Jr.]

Whatever you're eating.

[Travis]

All right.

[Freddie]

Appreciate it.

[Dale Jr.]

Thanks. Put your cheeseburger.

[Freddie]

All right. See ya.

[Dale Jr.]

Should we try.

[TJ]

Should we go to the bathroom with a flapper?

[Dale Jr.]

No. Should we try cold?

[Freddie]

You would get cold. Yeah, you could get cold.

[Andrew]

Custer does it.

[Travis]

All the photos show him not.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, he's done it before. What about Sheldon? I don't know if I've got his number.

[TJ]

He's gonna be like, why is it. He's probably sleeping. What time is it?

[Freddie]

He might be in California.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, here we go.

[TJ]

He's probably hungover for sure.

[Dale Jr.]

Hello? Hey, Sheldon, it's Dale Jr. Hey, Dale, how are you? Hey. I'm on my podcast and I'm with TJ and Freddy. I got a question for you.

[Freddie]

All right.

[Dale Jr.]

Why do. And why do you wear hats and tuck your ears in the hat? Have you ever seen me with my hat? Like, my ears outside of my hat? No, I don't like my. My. I have, like a little head and my ears are just not big enough. Yeah, like, then they just stick out and they look funny. You think it looks funny, so you look. And it looks better with the ears tucked in. And I think he looks normal to, like, stick outside of my hat. Yeah, I got some pictures here. You got the ears.

[Freddie]

You look normal. Yeah, you look normal on these.

[Dale Jr.]

And the ears are out. Your ears are normal.

[Freddie]

Dude, you're 100 normal.

[Dale Jr.]

A West coast thing. I don't know. It's west coast. That's what PJ's gone inside. What is the West. Why do people do it on the West Coast? They think it's a. It's a. It's sort of a look.

[Freddie]

Who pioneered this?

[Dale Jr.]

Who pioneered. I wear, like, flat bills, mostly. Yep.

[Freddie]

Have you ever put a taco on it while you peed?

[Dale Jr.]

He's not gonna know that reference. Like, the hats are bigger, like your normal, like, little baseball cap? Yep. All right, well, you're just curious. I had a real. I had a take on it. I did, you know, per. I had a. I had a personal opinion about it. And. Oh, well, it just. Guy with his ears in his hat. It's like. I just have a hard time trusting that guy. I. You're not. You're an anomaly. I trust you. You're an anomaly. You're not in that group. But I. If I don't know the guy, I'm like, man, why are you doing that? Because the hat's designed to go on the other way. I will say, though. I will say, though, that you wearing your hat normally with your ears out. You got regular ears.

[Freddie]

Yeah. You look normal.

[Dale Jr.]

You got here. You know, I don't know what.

[Freddie]

Your.

[Dale Jr.]

Your insecurities around your ears. I think it's. It's not. It's not real. Look, I have my ear out right now, and it looks goofy. No, don't agree.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Does everybody here agree that they look normal with his ears out?

[Travis]

Normal?

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

You look. You look hundred percent normal.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. We were just curious and I appreciate you answering the phone.

[Freddie]

You look not normal with the men.

[Dale Jr.]

Yep. When you see you're done, you can come help me move. I'm moving right now. Are you.

[Travis]

Oh.

[Dale Jr.]

Where are you moving to?

[TJ]

Sorry, phone's breaking up.

[Dale Jr.]

Is it a single floor ranch? Are we talking stairs? It's a deal breaker. It's. We're just.

[Freddie]

We're living Statesville, but we're moving further north.

[Dale Jr.]

Like out into the country. Gala, man. Everybody's moving further away. You know, there's some land over where I'm at, man. Cleveland. It's way too expensive over there. No, Cleveland.

[Freddie]

It's expensive.

[Dale Jr.]

Very undeveloped.

[Freddie]

It's expensive. You're right.

[Dale Jr.]

Tiny little town.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

All right.

[Andrew]

Thanks, Shel. Thanks, man.

[Dale Jr.]

The move goes good. Thank you. All right, buddy. See you.

[Freddie]

See you.

[Dale Jr.]

There you go. I mean, we really didn't get.

[Andrew]

They're consistent.

[Travis]

He's thinking Dale Jr's gonna offer.

[Dale Jr.]

Stop it.

[TJ]

So it's consistent. Small head, west coast. It seems like the.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

This is what triggers him.

[Dale Jr.]

Small head, big hats.

[Andrew]

Small head, big hat, west coast.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Wow.

[TJ]

I mean, I can't imagine. Oh, man. Dale Junior's calling me. Why do you put your ears in your head?

[Dale Jr.]

That's funny to y'. All. I don't get it. I don't understand.

[Freddie]

It is the most random thing.

[Andrew]

When was the last time you called him?

[Dale Jr.]

Never.

[TJ]

Probably a couple years.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, right. Yeah, it's been a few years.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[TJ]

Whenever. The last time he wrecked a car here, it was probably.

[Freddie]

I mean, his conversation tonight, his. His off.

[Dale Jr.]

I think I called him to tell him a couple years ago to tell him to keep trying, man. He's eventually going to get a win.

[TJ]

You should have told him again.

[Dale Jr.]

All those second place finishes, like, man, you just keep digging.

[Freddie]

Call him back, tell him that's rolling.

[Travis]

All right.

[Dale Jr.]

Roll a clip.

[Andrew]

What are we feeling? What are we feeling?

[Dale Jr.]

Just play. You're.

[TJ]

You're DJ back there.

[Andrew]

The teardown has the ability to, I think, get a lot of good stuff out of drivers, stuff that other journalists can't get, and they. They're not afraid to ask the weird, random questions. And this is from Media Day with Ryan Blaney.

[Freddie]

You got done with Daytona, and then you immediately went stroller shopping.

[Dale Jr.]

I did.

[Freddie]

Oh, you know, I. That was my Sunday.

[Travis]

Oh, you spend a Sunday off. You have so few Sundays. After he won.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, after you win.

[Freddie]

That was my off day. We went shopping.

[Travis]

And your Sunday fun day consisted of stroller shop.

[Freddie]

Yeah. Well, we planned on doing that regardless. Like, my wife and I already planned, like, hey, if we get the race in on Saturday, you know, we. We have to do this. This is a big one, right? It's like shopping for your first car. It's our first stroller and car seat and stuff. Like, you want to get a nice one? You know, I was feeling generous, right? Just got to win.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't want to ask how much.

[Freddie]

Like, oh, it is bonkers how expensive these things are. But Googling that. But also, you know, a big thing to me was, all right, not only does it. How does this thing handle? You know, how does it drive? How quick can you fold it up and unfold it like that? And how easy is it to unfold and fold? And so I was like, time and like bam.

[Dale Jr.]

And then bam, this thing's open and.

[Freddie]

Like gianna, like, how do you like it? Do you like how it folds and unfolds? And is it easy for you? And so there's so many different levels to it.

[Dale Jr.]

It's crazy. Absolutely spot on. The.

[Freddie]

He's right.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, he is. And you know, you, when you get two things really get tough because then those bit, those double strollers, they don't fold up. They're heavy as shit. It doesn't do anything you like. There's some real rinky dink, cheap strollers. They're the best. The ones that, that fold up this way and you just throw them in and you know, it's literally like a.

[Freddie]

Chair, like a folding chair.

[Dale Jr.]

It is as simple as it can be. And yes, I remember that we don't do strollers anymore, but so you.

[Freddie]

I don't know if you know this. Telvin in our football league just had a baby, so he has a stroller. I saw this and. And it rocks itself when it's in park.

[Dale Jr.]

What the hell.

[Freddie]

For the. For the. Yeah. I never saw that before.

[Dale Jr.]

Isn't that something? We're gonna, we're going to, as we get older, see all this like, new, young, new technology for kids and be jealous. Like strollers, like, it's like little Tesla strollers.

[Freddie]

It's driving itself. Yep.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. I'm excited for Ryan to go through that experience. There's a lot of people that are, you know, that we get to see go through, you know, all those, all those milestones and you don't want to wish your wife, you don't want to wish your life away. You don't want to wish your life away. People tell you that, man, because you'll listen. You don't, you don't understand. When you get, when you get kids, you'll be sitting there and you'll be like, I'll be so glad when I do this anymore. There'll be these things, you know, whatever it may be, right. You'll be like, oh, I'm so glad when this is over, this part of it. Right. Or pacifiers and like get rid of these pacifiers. I can't wait for. But you got to remind yourself not to like wish it forward, you know, because it's going to come.

[Freddie]

And they, yeah, you're going to wish it was there.

[Dale Jr.]

I was, yeah, I was like a 7 year old going on 10. And we're like, golly, sucks.

[Freddie]

I've noticed.

[Dale Jr.]

Slow down time.

[Freddie]

I've noticed now that Isla and Stella they get. They used to come. Hey, what are you doing now? Let's go play. Now it's like, I'm going to go play with Stella. I'm going to go play with. Is like, we've been replaced.

[Dale Jr.]

Yes.

[Freddie]

So. And it does change you for Ryan. I'm excited for Ryan. I think you don't know it until you go through it as a dad. I went through it. I mean, I'd leave the basement early sometimes and you'd be like, oh, that's bull.

[Dale Jr.]

You gotta gave him so much hell.

[Freddie]

He called me. I don't know if you remember this, but you called me almost right after you had Isla and you were like, man, I'm sorry I gave you all that them times. I know. Like, I understand it now. And it's like just something you can't explain to people until you go through it.

[Dale Jr.]

And you do love when the day comes and you can get rid of them strollers.

[Freddie]

Yeah, those things can be.

[Dale Jr.]

And the car seats.

[Freddie]

Car seats.

[Dale Jr.]

We're all booster now. We just shifted into just booster only.

[Travis]

Big stuff.

[Dale Jr.]

Those big damn car seats. Getting them in and out of cars.

[Freddie]

Oh my gosh, man. Yeah, it's so hard to get some.

[Travis]

Of them in, out.

[Dale Jr.]

A champion has been crowned and now is your chance to bring the excitement home. Celebrating every pass, pit stop and photo finish with a collectible car from Lionel Racing, the official die cast of nascar. Built for fans who live for the chase, Lionel Racing die cast are the ultimate trophy. Each car is precision crafted featuring authentic paint schemes and hand applied decals. Plus each 1:24 scale die cast is part of a limited edition run, making each piece a must have for true collectors. No matter if your playoff favorite took home the championship or not, Lionel Racing has the diecast that reps your favorite playoff driver. And now you can get free US shipping when you purchase the cup series diecast of a NASCAR playoff driver. Just go to lionel racing.com use promo code playoffs. That's promo code playoffs@lionel racing.com on November 14th. The now you see me movie franchise is back. The four horsemen of magic.

[Andrew]

Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and.

[Dale Jr.]

Isla Fisher are reuniting for their biggest heist yet.

[Andrew]

This film delivers everything fans, surprises, stunning practical magic and a few twists. It's the most fun your whole family.

[Dale Jr.]

Will have in the theater this fall.

[Andrew]

Now you see me, now you don't. Rated PG13 only in theaters November 14th.

[Dale Jr.]

Get tickets now.

[Andrew]

Let's see. This next clip is from dbc. Connor Zilich. I Think it was a few days after he had his incident getting out of the car at Watkins Glen. Came on DBC to tell it all.

[Freddie]

I mean, the last thing I remember, I was. I was split on the door. So I had one leg in the car, one leg out the car. And the last thing I remember is.

[Dale Jr.]

Thinking, I don't know why, but I thought I was gonna break my femur.

[Freddie]

Like, I was. My leg was stuck. I thought I was gonna get caught in the headrest. And just. I thought. I thought I was scary, man. Like, I thought I was done. And then apparently, the first thing I said when I. When I came back to life and, you know, was.

[Dale Jr.]

Was resurrected is they said Michael Campbell.

[Freddie]

Actually Justin's PR guy, he was walking with me. I was on the stretcher, and I, like, I start turning the corner and coming back, and I was, like, talking gibberish, like, just yapping away. And you were in the race, too.

[TJ]

Which I've seen you do this before, before the fall.

[Dale Jr.]

Thanks. And he goes, well, I was basically.

[Freddie]

Not yelling, but I was. I was talking to the medics, and I was like, I'm good.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm good.

[Travis]

Like, I'm.

[Dale Jr.]

My shoulder hurts a little bit, but that's it.

[Travis]

Like, I'm. I'm fine.

[Freddie]

And they're like, no, like, we're putting you on the stretcher. I'm in this neck brace, and I'm walking. I'm getting pulled away on the stretcher, and I'm like, apparently, the first thing. The first words that came out of my mouth that were legitimate were, God.

[Dale Jr.]

Everyone'S gonna think I'm a. Yeah, that was a tough one.

[Freddie]

That was scary.

[Dale Jr.]

Yep.

[Freddie]

So scary.

[TJ]

He came on the show that day, and I think he was still probably medicated from the pain that he was on there. Like, I'm like, we're gonna have to cut this whole show out. He's like, he's letting it fly today. That line there, I was like, we're definitely got to cut that one out. But, I mean, I was glad you came. I. I. We had. Josh came in, because I'm like, there's no, Like, Conor was a scheduled guest for that week goes and falls out of the car. So I'm like, all right, he can't do the show. And so we get Josh to come in and fill in for him, and then Connor just walks in the door, and I'm like, all right, buddy, sit down. Have a seat. Let's go have some fun today.

[Dale Jr.]

He is so he. I was standing there, watched the Whole thing happen. Went to the hospital, went through the whole. I was, you know, able to see all of it. And I'm thinking, he comes out of the hospital and I was telling his. You know, I was telling his people. I was like, you know, we're going. I'll wait. We'll take him back if he wants to go home tonight. He had planned on staying and going to the race the next day. I was like, you know, probably ain't doing that. He's not. He's got to get surgery Monday. He's gonna be, you know, ain't gonna want to move. He's not gonna be very comfortable. And he's like, I ain't going home. Me and Jesse got a hotel room. I'm going to the race. I'm doing all that. And they. And his parents were like, yep, that's what he's doing. Like, he made his mind up. I was like, man, if I was his dad, I'd be like, the, you are, boy. You're going home. This is what you're doing. Get on that plane. But they were like, yep, he does what he wants. That's what he set his mind to. So that's what he's doing. And he did it. And so I turn on the. You know, I turn on social media. The next morning, he's walking up down pit road in a sling like. Like, you know, like, his arm ain't broke. He still ain't had the surgery. And he's walking up down pit road, you know, just chatting it up with people. And then comes on the show days later, like. Like, he just. No, it didn't.

[Freddie]

Did it even happen?

[Dale Jr.]

It didn't register to him, I guess. Like how. Like, damn, dude, let's just sit down.

[TJ]

Just calm down a little bit.

[Freddie]

Yeah, we all. I mean, you just had a ridiculous looking.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

Bad accident.

[TJ]

And then you, like, you think about it like that day, you know, we're all talking about. Obviously we were driving out of the racetrack. The. And then somebody's like, holy, Conor fell. So then you're talking about it. You'd, like, talk to some of the guys over there, and they're like, it's definitely a collarbone. It's definitely this whatever. So then you start thinking, like, all right, he's going to be out. Daytona for sure. He's going to be out probably the next three. Like, he's not going to want to run Bristol. He's not going on the road courses. And, you know, you. Oh, he can miss Bristol and still transfer out the next round. He's got so many points. And then he only missed Daytona, right? And he was like, back racing, winning the next week. And I was like, this kid's incredible.

[Dale Jr.]

He is. And you forget sometimes he's still a kid. You see last night at the banquet, he's on stage singing.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Him and Jesse karaoke with Jesse. And, you know, a couple days before, he's standing on pit road and as low as he's ever been, probably in his professional career at least, and just so heartbroken. And then, you know, he can just kind of just like this situation with the. With the shoulder. It's like 24, 48 hours later, he's like, I'm good. You know, it is what it is. And he's on about his, you know, carrying on about his life. And the other thing, too, is, is like to see him jump on a stage and karaoke in front of the industry or whoever's there at that. At that party. And I. We have a lot of cool people coming up through the sport. I don't want to minimize any anybody. Our two champions in the truck and Xfinity series, Hyman and Jesse are great examples of some great personalities come up through sport. But Connor is this, like, you know, Connor, his willingness, right. Just to jump on that stage, right. And just do a little karaoke, his willingness to come on this pod, your podcast, just a couple days after that. He's surprising that somebody didn't say, nah, let's not do right. But he's like, no, I'll get on there. I'll talk about it. This is my experience. And he's open. He's. He's the one that's the driving motivation behind that. He's like, I want to do it. I want to get up there. I want to tell everybody what happened. I feel foolish. I want to get up there and I face it head on.

[TJ]

I texted that night, and I said, don't worry about. Obviously, I said the next day. Actually, I didn't think that that night, but the next day, I was like, hey, don't worry. We're gonna get Josh to come in. Don't worry about nothing. We're not, you know, you're all good. He's like, no, I'm coming. I'm like, all right, well, you. Like, the medicine has not worn off yet.

[Dale Jr.]

Like.

[TJ]

Like, just relax. Like, just. Why? We don't need you to come in tomorrow. You're fine. I appreciate. He's like, no, no, no, I'm coming. I'll be there. And I was like, all right.

[Freddie]

He does a great job to be young. Yeah, I know. He does a great job. Like making this is why it's so popular too, is because people gravitate towards this too and see like he's doing a lot for himself when he does.

[Dale Jr.]

This, building his brand.

[TJ]

I said the other day, I said, he's the most complete prospect I've ever seen. Like I wasn't around for Jeff Gordon coming up or whoever, but like, like when we sat down last year, you were there. He, after he won the Rolex or whatever it was. 17, 18 year old kid, whatever he was. At the time we came in, I.

[Dale Jr.]

Didn'T know him well.

[TJ]

He comes in and I'm like, you don't think this kid's 17 when you talk to him, you know, you sit there, you're like, this is a polished veteran you're talking to essentially. And he's 17 years old. It's like, wow, what the hell.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I agree.

[Andrew]

There was news that broke after we recorded both of our shows this week, both DBC and the Download, that Zillich was supposed to take part in a world endurance challenge hypercar test in Bahrain but didn't because he didn't win the xfinity.

[Dale Jr.]

Bahrain.

[Andrew]

Bahrain, sorry.

[Freddie]

That's why he was crying. I get it.

[Dale Jr.]

That's what it was. I don't give a. I don't know what that that is and I don't care. I mean it was important to him. I heard, I saw everybody on social media like, oh, this is. Can you believe this? This is.

[Freddie]

Still.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

What is the hypercar? Is it like a. It's electric car? What is it?

[TJ]

I don't know what it is, honestly.

[Dale Jr.]

You know, I didn't even know.

[TJ]

I didn't get involved. I just know that like it was about points for a super license or.

[Dale Jr.]

You got it.

[Freddie]

You can't just, you can't just go over there and drive the car.

[Dale Jr.]

Get it. But I mean, I, I get it.

[TJ]

Yeah, but he's got like a prototype Rolex car.

[Dale Jr.]

Okay.

[Freddie]

But he has that background. So he's connected with that. That still.

[Dale Jr.]

He's still going to run. I think he's still racing in 24 hours of Daytona. Yeah, look, I self. Look, I mean I selfishly don't want him going over and doing.

[TJ]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

I want him racing cup. Some, some, you know, road course. Stay here.

[Freddie]

Connor.

[Dale Jr.]

Some Wicks Wick stuff in the United States.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

You know, like the 24 hours of Daytona. That's badass. No, I'm. I think I think it's. He's a complete package. I love if he can be a bat. If he can be a superstar in. In nascar that does go. Do you know the mons and those type of things. And is successful. Is a valued asset to a team. That's badass for us. Yeah.

[Freddie]

We claim them. We drafted.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't know what the hypercar is.

[Freddie]

We drafted Connor.

[TJ]

They're really rambunctious cars.

[Dale Jr.]

I guess so.

[Freddie]

They're a little wilder than the. Than a normal car. You know?

[Dale Jr.]

Like they.

[TJ]

Too much sugar.

[Dale Jr.]

Too much sugar.

[Andrew]

I want to get one more clip.

[Dale Jr.]

Okay.

[Andrew]

Becoming Earnhardt Season 21980 Boys over the summer Slow down.

[Dale Jr.]

Drum roll. All right. This is the part of the show that I've been anticipating the most. We got Tim's here.

[Andrew]

Tim's who worked very, very hard on this project. Lots of late hours. Lots.

[Dale Jr.]

I hope so.

[TJ]

You stole them off DBC for two months.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Yeah. And then I had to.

[Dale Jr.]

I know.

[TJ]

That was the worst two months we had.

[Dale Jr.]

Roll the clip. Let's go. Yeah.

[Andrew]

So this is from becoming Reinhardt.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Something evidently wrong with Cale Yarborough's automobile. As he backs way out of the carburetor, Dale Earnhardt looked like he was shot out of a gun as he gunned by Caleb Yarborough on pit road. With the hood up and the crew is under it.

[Dale Jr.]

I feel like we won the race. We just didn't get paid for it. That's what Kel says.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Dale Earnhardt, Bobby Allison side by side at 3 and 4. Dale Earnhardt on the high side. Bobby Allison on the low side. As they come out of turn four, they'll be running side by side. Dale Earnhardt shoots past Bobby Allison and takes over the lead in the Atlanta 500.

[Dale Jr.]

In an article in the stock car racing magazine, Goodyear engineers are telling Jake Elder the tires on dad's car were so worn that there was no way he could finish the race without a pit stop.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

This is the time of the race where the driver starts hearing everything going on in a car. He feels every vibration, he hears every knock. And he just counts the laps off with the starter.

[Dale Jr.]

Elder said after the race. If you want to be a superstar, sometimes you have to take chances. They were down to the fabric, but I figured those tires had another 10 laps in them.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

And he has a big watermelon friend. Underneath that handlebar by stash. Dale Earnhardt, the rookie driver for just a few years back, now becoming a very big, strong veteran and a horse to be reckoned with. Many of the fans on the back, down the back. Straight away, raising their fist and salute to Dale Earnhardt.

[Dale Jr.]

Dad was able to charge to the front and lead the final 29 laps. And he's going to capture his first win of the season in the second of his cup career.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

North Carolina, last year's rookie of the year comes off of turn four. He's handed to the start finish line and he gets the ticket flag.

[Dale Jr.]

This 500 mile journey changed dad's early morning demeanor once he pulls into victory lane.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Dale, congratulations on victory. Your second year on the super speedway here, boy, you did it. I ain't believing we did it, but you know, this crew worked hard and it, you know, it just was a long day. We ran hard all day, had good pit stops. You know, it was just a super day. Well, you sat back there, seemed to control yourself. You finally made your move, just move right by Bobby Allison. Had you been holding back all day? No, I was running as hard as I could go. Bobby slowed down. He had problems and luckily Kill had problems too. It ended up we're by ourselves at the end.

[Dale Jr.]

He goes on to say this. I could get used to this. Beats the heck out of any other feeling I've had recently. This is going to be dad's first of nine total victories at Atlanta. Now that's a record that still stands today for the most wins by a single driver at this track.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Dale, congratulations once again on the radio.

[Dale Jr.]

Network and everybody at Universal Racing.

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

The sweet chase. The victory for they'll earn heart From Atlanta International Raceway at Hampton, Georgia. This is so long for now from the Universal racing.

[Dale Jr.]

The becoming Earnhardt series is in its second season. That was a little taste of this past season that we recreated with the 1980 championship year. We started that series around the 1979 season. It's a very important project to me. I put a ton of work into the first year. The second year, it was a lot of collaboration amongst a lot of people. And Alex, you came in and did a ton of work on the sound design. And really, I mean, I loved season one. Wasn't sure where season two was going to go. I was actually concerned about whether we were going to put enough assets into it for it to rival the first year. But you lifted this series up to a new level. I loved how you made every moment feel important. You, you matched the sound design with what was happening in reality in dad's career. Incredible job. I'll say this, man. When we were doing season one, it's a huge undertaking because we would create every episode and Then we would listen to it and we would make monster changes. So many changes to every single aspect. We were so particular and every episode of season one just never, we were in a crunch and it just, we, we were feeling rushed and we just never really got to a great place with every episode. But it was, it was still good and comfortable. We would get episodes for this particular season and there'd be no changes, minimal if any changes. You did such a super job. Everybody involved. Just wanted to celebrate that for a minute and thanks for putting everything into it because again, this is really important project to me and I'm very proud with what we ended up with.

[Freddie]

Yeah, thank you for the kind words. Yeah, I gotta shout at MRN too. They gave us all the radio calls and that really brought it to life. And a lot of the stories that you hear, the candidness from your dad and Kale Yarborough and even Darrell Walsher with his storyline throughout the series was really brought it to life and was amazing. It was really fun to go back and listen to something what, 45 years later and it, a lot of it still kind of runs true to today's very thing too. So it was very, very fun to work on.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, it's a great project.

[Freddie]

Those radio calls, man, they're cool. I love hearing them, man.

[Dale Jr.]

I listened to the, I listened to the radio call for this past week as I was, yeah, I was going out in my garage. I was out in my garage quite a bit. So for the, for this championship weekend, I listened to the radio call more than I watched the television call, man. And the, the vibe that you feel from Bags and all those guys on the radio, it's the same as it was back then. That's one thing that's sort of been very consistent, I guess of the many things, you know, our sports always evolved and always changed for better or worse, but the radio call has always had the same energy and intensity and sound and vibe to it.

[Freddie]

I like that.

[Dale Jr.]

I do too. I love it. I think I summer. That's why I feel like some of our best play by play guys, some of our best on air talent that we've had in our industry has come from radio because they know like when you're, when you're doing radio, you got to paint a picture. I always talked about when we were spotting for me, like, I don't. I want you to do such a good job. I don't got to look in the mirror. I want to, I want to know what it looks like in my mind. You Paint the picture for me. And that's what they do is, you know, analyst on the, on the radio.

[Andrew]

I know you've. You've been thrown in turns and like tried to do play by play. They threw me up on a roof for the roval. Just, just practicing qualifying to try and do play by play. Oh, my God. It is. It is not easy.

[Dale Jr.]

So yeah, hearing that's terrifying.

[Andrew]

Hearing all those guys. They're just so good sounds so natural. It is. It is not as easy as it looks.

[Dale Jr.]

I agree. Yeah, that's. That's a lot of fun hearing those old calls. And I'm not sure what the future is for the Becoming Earnhardt series. I would love to continue it, you know, and I don't know where. I think there would be a point I feel around the 90s where we would, we would. I would lose interest because I lived a lot of that. Right. And the point for doing becoming Earnhardt in 79 and this past season was for me to learn more, which we did. And it we. It was like excavation or it was like, you know, it was like, you know, uncovering, unearthing, unearthing. You know, it was really. That was the experience and that's. And it's been rewarding as hell. We've learned. And a lot of the things that. That I love won't even be Earnhardt stuff. It'll be like, you know, Lenny Pond got busted for soaking tires or somebody things.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

You know, Neil Bonnet got struck by a lightning dart in 1980.

[Dale Jr.]

Twice, I think. I think twice.

[Freddie]

I think twice. Yeah.

[Andrew]

What did he even make the show?

[Freddie]

Because so many things that happened.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

I was unearthing.

[Freddie]

That was incredible.

[Dale Jr.]

There was a deal during. There were. So I was. I was overdoing the research on the 79 season. There is a ton of stuff that didn't make it. And there's one story where Neil Bonnet basically lands the 21 Pure lady ride from when David Pearson and the Wood brothers split. But at the same time he's getting these opportunities possibly to go run Indy 500. And he kind of had to make a decision in Dover to which. Which route he was going to go. Right. And he. He ended up not going to Indian doing that and stayed with with the. But those. And there's like a cool story that I had no idea.

[Freddie]

I would never would have thought that right in.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Just. And there was a in 79 to the McQuarrie tire comes in in there like Harry Gantz sitting on the pole at Pocono in the 47 car. That car was good, but not a pole winning car. J.D. mcDuffie, one of the back marker independents, goes to Bristol and sets on the pole. It'd be like, you know, it'd be like the 51 sitting on the pole. Could you imagine if that happened? You know, what the. Yeah, you know, but those tires would fall apart in the race quickly.

[Freddie]

They were.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, yeah. Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Jr. Here. You've probably heard me talk about my Chevrolet dealership in Tallahassee, Florida. Part of the Hendrick Automotive Group, we've got a huge selection of new and used vehicles, and we specialize in commercial trucks. In fact, we're proud to be the number one seller of crane trucks in the country. Whether you're upgrading your daily driver or growing your fleet, our expert team is here to help you find exactly what you need. But just don't take my word for it. Here's TJ with a recent customer review.

[Freddie]

The dealership was extremely clean and put together. They offered refreshments and were patient with young kids. They worked with us with all the requests we had and got us out the door with a good deal. I would definitely recommend this dealership and ask for Stephen Smith.

[Dale Jr.]

That's the experience we aim to deliver every day. We've got hundreds of trucks in stock offer free delivery anywhere in the continental US and we're part of the top rated dealer group in the country. For online reputation, check out our full lineup@dell junior chevy.com Chevrolet together. Let's drive.

[Travis]

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[Andrew]

We're going live. We're live.

[Dale Jr.]

Hey, Everybody, it's Dale Junior here at the Dell Junior Download. And we're live for a little ass Junior on a Wednesday. But we wanted to get on YouTube and go live and see what you guys were up to. I want to thank Xfinity for the past 11 years sponsoring the Xfinity series. It's really grown into something special. They've backed young drivers, told their story, really created opportunities for them to get up through the Xfinity series into the cup series. And it's all, you know, they brought all of us along for the ride. You the fan. We all got to be a, you know, passenger on this train for the past several years, and we're very thankful for it. The series name may be changing, but Xfinity is going to stick around and the next lap is going to be a great one. Can't wait to see what they continue to do to support our sport and everything we do here at DirtyMome Media. So let's get right to it. You see any great questions on there?

[Andrew]

Yeah, actually. This is funny. The first question is from Kelly. When are we going to see a joint DBC DJD podcast? And Kelly, that's actually kind of what's happening right now. Freddie and TJ are here.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't. I don't count it.

[Andrew]

Oh, you don't count it.

[Dale Jr.]

I've asked Mike about that. I've told Mike we should all. We should have like a roundtable one day where we all get in the room and argue.

[Andrew]

Oh, okay.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, I mean, there's every nothing's fun debate is certainly the most fun route to take. Right?

[Andrew]

Yeah, I agree.

[Dale Jr.]

You know, on. On topics happening.

[Freddie]

I feel like we could get Tommy France pretty wound up with you.

[TJ]

I told him yesterday, this is what we're gon it. I told him yesterday. I said, I'm not coming back from Homestead next year. Like, I'm going to Key West. So we're going to do DBC in Key west at some point. So you just come on down and.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, can you book me on that show?

[TJ]

I'll see if I get.

[Dale Jr.]

Hey, I'm looking for a reason to get to Key west anytime I can. Well, I have to. I've had to get creative. I had to go there for Tim Duggar's birthday recently. That's how desperate you are. Desperate we are.

[Andrew]

Had to go.

[TJ]

Had to. He's saying he's had to figure out a reason again.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, we got to figure out reasons. And we're scraping the bottom of the barrel.

[Andrew]

It seems like Freddie kind of answered this next question for next season, but Ben wants to know what are your guys's off season plans now that the season.

[Dale Jr.]

Tim's probably watching this.

[Freddie]

Is that Kennedy? Ben Cannon wants to know what you're doing.

[TJ]

He wants to know. He wants to know what I'm doing. I'm gonna be calling a bomb threat. This. This year's off season plan.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Yeah. Because you told us next season's the 27.

[TJ]

Yeah. I'm going to a bachelor party for silence. Tyler Courtney in a couple weeks. I'm going to Tyler Cordy's wedding in a couple weeks. After that, we're going to. Me and Eric Jones. Eric Jones, a big Detroit Lions fan.

[Dale Jr.]

He.

[TJ]

They always take a trip to a Lions game. Well, it turns out the one they picked this year, they're playing the Giants. So I'm gonna go to that one with them in a couple weeks. That's about it. For. For what I can.

[Freddie]

You got high hopes for that game or not?

[TJ]

Well, I used to. I like the problem with the Giants is I don't care. I know they were going to not be good, but they were going to be fun to watch with scatterbow and. And dart running around. And now we've lost scatterbo darts kind of on his own. So they're not as fun to watch anymore. But I mean, they're neighbors showing. They're showing some signs of life at least, which I appreciate.

[Dale Jr.]

Appreciate.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[TJ]

Where are you going? Anywhere.

[Freddie]

Not really. Been kind of. Kind of quiet. Yeah. Quiet for a little bit. Go work on my college football team. Gotta take down him.

[TJ]

Where we at now? National championship game coming up or we've already had one.

[Freddie]

We're getting there.

[TJ]

So have you had one since he beat you?

[Dale Jr.]

I'm going. I'm going to. To the beach for Thanksgiving.

[Travis]

Oh.

[Dale Jr.]

With Tim Duggar and Tara found a.

[Andrew]

Good reason to go to the beach.

[Dale Jr.]

He's probably gonna bail on me now.

[TJ]

Really scraping the barrel. Bottom of the barrel for Thanksgiving is it?

[Andrew]

You guys travel 38 weekends a year now. I know Dale you like you used to, but you still are on the road a lot. Like when that is done and you're just like home. Is that a weird feeling to be home for that long? How do you get adjusted to that?

[Freddie]

I mean, you by the second week, you're like, when are we racing next week?

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Really? Yeah. You'll get so they'll be like, there'll be like 10 or eight or five races left in the year. You're coming toward the end of the season and you're like, I can't wait till this over with.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

And you get to the end and two weeks into the off season, you're like, I want to go back to the track. I was wrong. This is not good.

[TJ]

This.

[Freddie]

This happened, like, right now, like, after leaving Phoenix, I feel like I'm. I have to think about Phoenix the whole off season now. And, you know, obviously it wasn't. It was overshadowed, but you got to think about your last race. Like, on, like, when Covid happened. Ended up winning the race before COVID with Logano. And we went weeks and you're just riding that wave like the high. And if you end the season on a low note.

[Andrew]

When.

[Dale Jr.]

When we were standing on pit road after the race in Phoenix Saturday night, I was ready for Daytona 100%.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

I was like, get me to the. Get me back to track.

[Andrew]

That's like the only way to fix that feeling.

[TJ]

I'm lucky enough that I continue to race for majority of the offseason. Feels like I'm going to go race this weekend with Jimmy blew it and his son. And Jimmy's out for the year with some injuries or some medical stuff going on. But. So his son's driving a modified this week, so I'm gonna go to Caraway Spot, the Northstar Shootout for him. I've always been doing the Turkey Derby for Jimmy at the Thanksgiving weekend. So I continue to race it almost till December almost every year. Sometimes do the Snowball Derby in December. So I'm. By then. I'm usually done with it, but then like you said, by January, either I want to leave or my wife is ready to kick me out of the house at that point. So it's. It's time to get.

[Travis]

I'll do.

[Freddie]

I've done a little eye racing with. With Jimmy and them. They have a little group from that area and they're a little rough to race with.

[TJ]

I do modified guys, junkyard dogs.

[Freddie]

I honestly been. I've been racing with Boo Boo Dalton a little bit on there. He's been on there running.

[Dale Jr.]

It's really fun.

[Freddie]

Yeah, it's pretty fun, man. We have a good time. But Boo Boo, we only got. We got a trip coming up next year. I think me and him are going on a. A little trip. So. Our group family trips. So that's really all we got planned.

[Andrew]

This next question is from a good fan of ours. He tunes into just about every live stream we have. He's awesome. Double O wants to know, do you guys have your Christmas lights up already at the house?

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Yes.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, wow.

[Freddie]

They're putting mine up right now.

[Dale Jr.]

Amy. Yeah, Amy gets that service that comes by and puts those white lights around along the frame of the house and that's what we got. Yeah, we got them up. Oh, dang. Yeah, they come on every night. I'll be sitting there playing video games. That is.

[Freddie]

They're bright, man. Like, these things are bright. We do, like, the same stuff.

[Dale Jr.]

Like, mine are actually the same service or something similar.

[TJ]

Is it? Is it?

[Freddie]

Yeah. Amish. Jon Stewart. Yeah, he. They were actually literally putting mine on when I left this morning. So are you gonna. I don't know if it's cool to be the first guy in the neighborhood to turn them on. Like, when is it in the spirit, brother?

[Dale Jr.]

Let's just do it. Yeah. I love this time of year, everybody.

[Freddie]

Yeah, me too.

[Andrew]

Yes.

[TJ]

I came home to. I came home to my Christmas tree up.

[Dale Jr.]

It was up. Damn. What's your.

[Freddie]

What's your favorite holiday, Freddie? Other than Thanksgiving?

[TJ]

Thanksgiving, buddy.

[Dale Jr.]

We still have all our. We're still. We're still collecting and putting away Halloween decorations. That's. And Amy said she's not going. She's not going early on the Christmas stuff, but I don't believe it.

[Freddie]

Oh, yeah, she's going. She's going to go early. I'll start texting pictures of the house with the lights on and stuff.

[Dale Jr.]

I'll get her good about the tree. I got a love hate with the tree. I got a love hate relationship with the tree.

[Andrew]

Is it a real or fake tree?

[Dale Jr.]

This is the thing. So that's the thing. This is more for. This is more for. Bless your heart than anything.

[Freddie]

Let me text Amy Tower to listen real quick.

[Dale Jr.]

So I, you know, I, I like the idea. I like going and getting the tree. I like taking the kids and then picking out and us finding it and all that stuff. And then I will. We'll throw it in the back truck. I take it home, I carry and I put it out. I'm. I can do it. Yeah. But Amy gets. We got these boxes of these lights and Amy gets these lights and she is so particular about weaving them in and out of the branches. And I'm just like stringing around you. 15, 15 minutes and we got them up and she's like oh no. We gotta put. It's gotta go here and twist and it's gotta twist around and so taking them off is another like nightmare. Massive nightmare. And when you're. You're yanking and pulling and busting around tangled mess, dried limbs at this point that it covers the floor in this, in the, in the needles and man trying to, you know, trying to keep water in the damn thing and all that bullshit. It's just. I don't know. I love getting the tree, putting it up. Don't love putting the lights and shit on it.

[Andrew]

You sound like my dad. There came a certain point where he ended up breaking. He's like, I'm had it with the living trees. It makes a mess. We gotta keep up. So now we've got a fake tree. It's got lights on it. You just push, pop it out.

[Dale Jr.]

You know, we, we had the living tree. And then there's another tree that goes on the piano. There's another tree that goes downstairs and the bar. I mean it's like you know that the one. The tree in the bar is still up. It's. It never went down.

[TJ]

It doesn't come down.

[Freddie]

Heck yeah. Once you ride a lot the way you usually can sleep it up.

[TJ]

We had two fake ones and I remember one, we had a fake one that I was. I don't know, it wasn't great and. But she. There's no lights so she always wanted a pre lit fake one. So then. Yeah, the, the fake one. Now I come home one day from somewhere and it's in like we have this big window in front of our. On our second story that you roll in. And I'm like that now there's a tree upstairs. I'm like, what is going on?

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[TJ]

And that tree has never come down in three years now it's still been.

[Freddie]

How many trees do you. You put two up to?

[TJ]

Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

[Dale Jr.]

She does. I don't.

[Freddie]

Yeah. I think I'm going to replace the tree in the front window with one of those leg lamps. A real. Yeah, I want to do it like the real one. Like the life size one.

[Dale Jr.]

You know, I think that's awesome.

[Freddie]

I want to do it.

[Andrew]

D.C. long in the chat said put a humidifier behind a tree. Saves the, the needle mess.

[Dale Jr.]

Humidifier behind it. I guess our tree goes in the middle of a foyer so there's no behind. That's not going to work. And you. That's a great, that's a great advice corner. That's badass advice.

[Freddie]

But you still got to refill the humidifier.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Charlie Brown tree.

[Dale Jr.]

I shouldn't complain now. And I love the experience. The kids love it.

[Freddie]

The tree always looks good when you go in your house right there. Like, it does.

[Dale Jr.]

I just. I love this time of year. I do. It's my favorite time.

[Freddie]

Sounds like it's.

[Dale Jr.]

You know what. And I've talked about this, too. You know what the best. What's the best week of the year? The best week of the year, hands down.

[Freddie]

I mean, the.

[TJ]

Between Christmas and New Year's, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. It's just weird.

[Freddie]

It's just that. Yeah.

[Andrew]

I like to build up to Christmas. Like, to me, like, the 23rd, 24th are like, almost bigger than Christmas Day.

[Dale Jr.]

That's traveling. That's like when you're going to see the family. We go to Texas. We do. You know, that's. We're still. We're hustling.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[TJ]

Last year we went getting kids and.

[Dale Jr.]

Bags and this and that and the other.

[Freddie]

There's a lot going on.

[Dale Jr.]

We were like, take a million presents to Texas. You bring a million presents back.

[Andrew]

It's like, oh, man.

[TJ]

We were Christmas of the cranks last year. Me, Meg, Tim and Tara went to St Thomas on Christmas Day we left.

[Freddie]

Dang.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm telling you, that. That week between Christmas and think in New Year's, it's like, you know, your personal. Its own personal holiday for everything.

[Freddie]

Whatever you want to do, you like, don't.

[Dale Jr.]

You don't have to do.

[Andrew]

And it's nice.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

This is a great time.

[Dale Jr.]

This is my not do week. Don't bother me, don't do.

[Andrew]

All right, well, this is also a great time to just sit on the couch and relax. Norton wants to know he needs some good go to TV shows right now.

[Dale Jr.]

Anything.

[Andrew]

You guys are binging.

[Dale Jr.]

I just watched a lot of YouTube.

[Andrew]

Just a lot of YouTube. Just classic dude.

[Dale Jr.]

No, I mean, I just. What other. I go. I switch on, refresh the algorithm and see what I like.

[Freddie]

It's good at coming up with.

[Dale Jr.]

I watch a ton of college football videos.

[Freddie]

I can tell.

[TJ]

Like this video game.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Like how to be better.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

I married to the game.

[Freddie]

Yeah, but it's your hobby. I mean, it is what you like. Yeah, it's something to do.

[TJ]

I started watching a show called Task on the way home the other day. It's on. I think it's on hbo. It was pretty good. But I do watch. I watch YouTube. I find myself. The problem is you turn on YouTube to watch one thing, you Get. And then you're there forever.

[Dale Jr.]

I am. He's still watches shows. I used to watch shows with her, but I don't watch shows anymore. Yeah, I watch YouTube, and she's not into YouTube, so, like, when we're in the room together, you know, she's watching shows. We're not gonna. I. I've tried. You ever sit down on the couch and you're like, I'm gonna throw up a YouTube clip. She's gonna love it. Find one. So I'll be watching YouTube clips of. I was watching this one. You YouTube clip of this guy. And he animated. He animates the. Like, when the pilgrims came to the. To the coast and formed. What is the Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock, right. And all that. Yeah. And so I got sucked into this thing, man. I'm watching. And it's like an animated. It's a map, you know, and there are things moving around on the map and how they. How they interacted with all of the. The natives and all this stuff and the different, you know, challenges, whatnot. And I'm like, you know, I'll get. I'm. I'm watching this, and I'm like, why am I watching this?

[Freddie]

And you think I'm random.

[Dale Jr.]

Stop. Why? You're like, I'm learning. No, I watch a lot of military stuff on there.

[Freddie]

You know, you go to sleep to that military stuff sometimes.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, I like to learn. I like to be educated.

[Freddie]

And I'm random. I watched this animation of the pilgrims coming over, like. And I'm random.

[Dale Jr.]

What did I say? You random.

[Freddie]

No, you always say I come up with the weird. I always have the. Like this.

[TJ]

You are weird.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm gonna send you. I'm gonna start sending you the clips that I find interesting, and you can grade them on a abcdf.

[Freddie]

I'll end up getting hooked on, too. Then my algorithm will be the same thing.

[Andrew]

One of my favorite tweets is, like, I ended up falling asleep some baseball highlights and woke up to, like, which Star Wars Jedi chairs the most comfortable.

[Dale Jr.]

So. So this guy. So I was looking at this. This clip. This guy makes this. It's this animated cheap little, you know, map of how all. You know, timeline, chronological of. Of the pilgrims coming over here and establishing their colony and whatnot, right? And I would not give a. About this until I found it on YouTube. And I look at it, and I'm like. And the one I just finished. I finished it, and I was like, okay, I got to know what happens next. I go into his page, and he hasn't made one in two years. And I'm like, wait, I don't get you hanging. I don't. The next.

[Freddie]

Oh, no.

[Dale Jr.]

And apparently, like, the one before that, the chapter before that was made four years ago. So I think he makes one, like, every two years.

[TJ]

He works his ass off.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm like, subscribe all wait around for two years for the next chapter.

[Freddie]

Boy, when it hits, though.

[Dale Jr.]

It'S like making. Waiting on your favorite band to make another record.

[Freddie]

That was me yesterday with the trade deadline. I kept refreshing, waiting to see what the Bills are.

[Dale Jr.]

Dude, the Commanders didn't do crap. I mean, I don't know what we.

[TJ]

Had to sell, but old jets had a big day yesterday.

[Dale Jr.]

They did believe that.

[Freddie]

I know. And if they weren't, the Bills weren't their division. I wanted to get some players, but, yeah, I was sitting there, scroll waiting, waiting, waiting, and nothing.

[Dale Jr.]

I subscribe on YouTube to tons of tons. Tons of racing stuff, obviously.

[Andrew]

Dalton, by the way, just came in and told me the guy we were talking about yesterday, the commanders.

[Dale Jr.]

Yes.

[Andrew]

YouTube page, he gave us a donation. The YouTube chat bullcrap.

[Dale Jr.]

Right now.

[Andrew]

So just this, the moment, was it just now? All right.

[Freddie]

Oh, wow.

[Dale Jr.]

Carter.

[TJ]

Carter.

[Andrew]

What was his name is.

[Dale Jr.]

W. Is. What is. He's a Commander's fan. Wsh. Carter.

[Andrew]

Wsh.

[Dale Jr.]

Carter, Man.

[Andrew]

Thanks very much. That's awesome.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, we gave him. I seen. So that's a great example. Carter's, I think, 16 years old, created his own sort of podcast, sort of. You know, he goes live on YouTube. He does about two or three pieces of content a day around the Commanders, and it's. It's that. That's kind of the. I've ebbed away from. From TV and typical, you know, news like getting sports from ESPN or what have you. I've ebbed. I've went away from that to something like YouTube. Because what I. What I want is specifically tell me everything that happened with the Commanders today, because I didn't have time to get on social media, and I don't have time to do this and that. Another. And so this. This Carter kid does a really good job of, like, gleaning everything from social media posts and comments from coaches or practice or whatever happened that day. Right. And. And you can just go watch his 15 minutes or whatever and learn everything you need to learn and you're called up. And. And he does a great job articulating everything. He's young, but he does an incredible job.

[Freddie]

Think he's good at college football?

[Dale Jr.]

I don't know. He might Want to join the league? Be fun, but probably kick our tail.

[Freddie]

Probably. I'd be worried about that.

[Andrew]

Awesome. One more question.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

All right. A lot of people are mentioning Cletus in the YouTube chat. I know we had him on the show earlier this year. What do you guys expect out of him next year? And like, like in arca, like. Yeah. Foresee him racing further, like.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andrew]

I mean, I was racing.

[Dale Jr.]

So colleagues got this Gong show going on. They got all these race car drivers that are part of this deal that they've roped into it. You know, we got.

[Freddie]

Allegedly.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, allegedly Bubba Pollard. And I know Huffman.

[TJ]

I think Huffman or may not be there.

[Dale Jr.]

I would say. I would say if they're, you know, if they. If you ain't heard anything from him, your buddies are missing, they're not entered in the races that are happening right now. That's where they are. And so I think he's part of that. And I think that knowing what I know from the Dodge thing is your talent is going to matter, but it's also going to matter how much your reach is. Can you, you know, if you can demand a lot of attention, which Cletus absolutely does, when he does a live, you know, live stream while racing, you know, there's 40, 60,000 people watching that. That right there is going to weigh heavily over Dodge's ultimate decision. I don't know that Cletus is in that deal or not, but I would imagine he is.

[Freddie]

He don't answer.

[Dale Jr.]

He's pretty smart, but he may continue to run arca, whatever he does. Look, man, I mean, there's no rules to this. There's no. There's. There shouldn't be anybody. I'm gonna. Look, I'm gonna talk from a traditionalist standpoint. You know, you got a guy coming in and he tried to race arca, and I watched his in car at Bristol and I see a lot of the things that he doesn't know. But as the race went on, he adapted and he learned and he got better, Right. And he started to understand where and how to push the car. And so a ton of this stuff is completely, completely foreign to him, but it's not out of the question for a guy his age to say, hey, I want to go race. And that's where I'm going to start. I'm going to go right into an ARCA car. I'm not going to run a street stock or a mini stock or a late model or anything like that. I'm going right to arca and I'm going right to Daytona. I mean, that's not a new thing. That is not a new thing. If you look back over the history of the series, even in the sportsman series or the bush series, you had guys that had zero experience, very minimal experience running these races or attempting to qualify these races, often with detrimental results. But, hey, he's. He's here, he wants to do it, and I'm all for it. I think it's. Yeah, why not? And he has a great attitude about it. And if that's what he wants to do, that's what he wants to do. I think it's. I think it's good. I would. You know, of course, there's a more traditional route into the sport to become a great race car driver, but this is the way he wants to go.

[Freddie]

And I don't think it's a bad path for him to start there.

[Dale Jr.]

He's cut some corners, but, you know, it. It's what he wants to do. I think it's fine. So, yeah, I agree. I hope that he. Whatever. I hope he races more arca if he gets his truck. Deal. Great. I'd love to, you know, love to see him continue to be part of it.

[Andrew]

Awesome.

[Dale Jr.]

I'll be interested, though, because he's. Listen, this has got to make. The other thing too, is. And we're getting in the weeds here. He's got to make it make sense financially because he can't. He's not going to walk away from what's working. Yeah, he's got a lot of the good. He's got a lot of things working for him financially that have nothing to do with racing.

[TJ]

Yeah, whatever. It's. What. What's the truck suggestion? 22, 30 races, which I think wherever.

[Dale Jr.]

He goes, they're going to, you know, the click, the follows, the views are going to follow.

[Freddie]

Where are they running the Gong Show? Do you know where that's. Is it?

[TJ]

So it's allegedly Virginia somewhere, not even running a truck or nothing because they can't skirt the testing policy. So it's going to be, I think, a lot of maybe go karts or late. I don't know exactly what it is, but, you know, so it's going to be GoPro.

[Dale Jr.]

They're gonna be over GoPro running all.

[Freddie]

Day long somewhere in Virginia. Maybe.

[TJ]

I don't know. I really. I think Virginia. I think.

[Freddie]

No, South Boston. I don't know.

[Dale Jr.]

Why can't you just say, I don't know, man?

[Freddie]

That's what they say.

[Dale Jr.]

You said Virginia. What are you doing.

[Freddie]

That's. That's rumored. It has. Where it's at.

[Dale Jr.]

What are we doing? Are we breaking some big news?

[TJ]

I don't know.

[Dale Jr.]

You're just speculating.

[Freddie]

Allegedly.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, there's.

[TJ]

I know there's NDAs and stuff. For now. We didn't sign any.

[Dale Jr.]

So we're good. Yeah. I mean, I'm not.

[Andrew]

I'm not.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm not chained down. You say whatever you want. I haven't heard anything about where it's going to run, but I did hear there's some. Something about late models. So, I mean, it would. But, yeah, I think it'll. It'll be interesting to see how that goes. It's going to be a produced thing, right? They're gonna. It's gonna be made for TV or whatever. Wherever it goes, Wherever it lives.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[TJ]

I mean, I think they're. What I've heard is they're basically. It's like a reality TV show. They're gonna all be in the same house together.

[Freddie]

Like, no electronics. I mean, I don't know.

[TJ]

It's gonna be. So if your friends have disappeared, that's. They're at the gun show and.

[Dale Jr.]

How long is it?

[TJ]

I would say a couple weeks. I think they blocked off like two, three weeks.

[Freddie]

Yeah. Weather. Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Doesn't. Honestly, man, I mean, I don't want to say. I hate to say that. Doesn't. It doesn't sound fun.

[TJ]

Do you know, like, that's what I was going to say to somebody like Bubba Pollard or like, somebody like, you're going. You're going to leave your family for two or three weeks, you know, or.

[Dale Jr.]

Or that part. I think some of them are fine.

[TJ]

Some of them will be fine. But like, there's others that have. Like, I'm sure they. Somebody. I guarantee somebody who's got a wife and kids and they're like.

[Dale Jr.]

But. But if. But learning about how they're all going to be in the same house together.

[TJ]

Like, you know, you would want. I would be like, I don't want to do that.

[Dale Jr.]

What are we doing? I want to go try out and see if I'm good enough. Just tell me if I got the deal or not. I don't want to go hang out with these guys for two weeks. What the hell is that?

[Narrator/Voice Actor]

Right?

[Freddie]

That does sound like a lot.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[TJ]

And there's a. I think there's a lot of people. Like, I think there's like 15, 20 of them or something like that. Like, God bless.

[Dale Jr.]

I don't know. Oh, man, it sounds. I don't Want to hang out with them?

[TJ]

I don't want to hang out with these guys.

[Freddie]

Okay.

[Dale Jr.]

Car or Danny part of it.

[TJ]

You got to figure out how good you. How well you work in a crowd.

[Freddie]

Yeah, maybe that's part of it.

[TJ]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Well, that's a good place to wrap up as junior.

[Freddie]

He's done hanging out with us today.

[TJ]

I've got none of these guys see.

[Andrew]

A bunch of familiar faces that have been with us all year long. Eric, Ally, Pamela. A bunch of. A bunch of people on the YouTube channel. Did you just call out? Appreciate.

[TJ]

Was that his girlfriend he's calling out?

[Andrew]

Did you just call her out? Did I What?

[Freddie]

You did.

[Andrew]

She watches a lot of them.

[Dale Jr.]

Oh, my gosh.

[TJ]

Who? We just called out Andrew's girlfriend for watching online.

[Dale Jr.]

You did?

[Andrew]

I tried to be.

[TJ]

He tried to be coy about it. He slipped it. There was three names. He put that one in the middle.

[Freddie]

Look at how red his face is.

[Dale Jr.]

What is he doing? Hey, Amy. Hey, Amy, if you're watching. Love you, honey. I believe home Later. Island's iPads above the aquarium.

[Andrew]

All right, I'm ending the stream.

[Dale Jr.]

You're looking for it. Hope you got Nicole to school on time. What are we doing?

[Freddie]

He just got busted so hard.

[TJ]

I. When he said it, I was like, there's no way, right?

[Freddie]

Sorry, Andrew. I didn't mean to bring all that says thank you.

[Andrew]

Shout out. Carl.

[Dale Jr.]

You're. You're in, buddy.

[Andrew]

Huh?

[Dale Jr.]

You're already in. You're. You're. You're already the relationship. You're already there. You're good. You already have it.

[TJ]

Yeah, well, he's trying to get this over.

[Dale Jr.]

Thanks.

[Freddie]

Are you in the doghouse, Andrew? Is that what it is?

[Dale Jr.]

I mean, can't end until I read this Xfinity line, so it just.

[TJ]

So.

[Dale Jr.]

We'Ll just keep on embarrassing. Andrew.

[Freddie]

Andrew. Do you want to use the Xbox or the SIM Raid?

[Dale Jr.]

His face is.

[TJ]

Is matching his shirt at this point.

[Andrew]

Thank you, Freddy.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Good job, boy.

[TJ]

ISO on Amber. Who's switching back there? ISO on Andrew.

[Dale Jr.]

I'm moving the camera. I'm moving the GoPro.

[Freddie]

What were you gonna do? When were you gonna bring it up to her? Later on the night or when you get little? Were you gonna text her? She's watching live, but were you going to.

[Dale Jr.]

She's live.

[TJ]

She's live.

[Freddie]

Were you gonna lay in bed and be like, hey, where you. Did you hear me call you out late earlier or.

[Dale Jr.]

Probably.

[TJ]

I can't believe you missed it. I'm disappointed in you.

[Dale Jr.]

I wasn't paying attention. No surprise there.

[Andrew]

Damn it, T.J. no surprise there for me.

[Dale Jr.]

Like to be zoned out. Yeah.

[Freddie]

T.J. sorry.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, hey, sorry, Ally. We've had a lot of fun today. Thanks for everybody tuning in. Don't go anywhere just yet. We. Our show today is a lot of the highlight reel and clips. It's kind of like a Dirty 30. We have a Friday Dirty 30 of highlights from the week. And this is basically highlights from the season. A lot of stuff that a lot of I don't watch every show, every episode of everything we do. So we pulled from everything we got with our producers said, give me your best clips. We're going to watch them, we're going to react to them. And we talked a lot about, you know, just our own personal experiences this year. And Freddie's never really been at this table on the show. So that's been fun having you do this today with us, Freddie.

[TJ]

I appreciate it.

[Dale Jr.]

So I hope y' all will check it out. And we're not done. We got, we got a lot of. I just was agreeing to a lot of episodes of Bless yous heart and Dale Jr. Download throughout the winter in, in the rest of November and December, we'll have a lot of episodes and shows coming out. So stay tuned, stay plugged in, subscribe, follow all of our social media so that you know when we're putting out stuff over the winter, giving you a look into our experiences over the holidays. Hope everybody's doing well and appreciate you tuning in today for this this YouTube live. Thank you. Xfinity and racing and Lifespeed is not an option unless it's Xfinity Wi Fi. Cause it's the best. We love Xfinity Wi Fi. I'm a customer and it never fails. Always online. I've got a place, you know, I've got some videos and some cameras at this house. So, you know, always kind of check in. Back when the kids were young, we had, you know, baby cameras and all that stuff and always wanting to look, look and see what they were up to. And it never failed, never dropped, never went down. And it's past dependable Internet always locked in, price locked in for five years. No contracts, no slowdowns, no nonsense. Thank you, Xfinity Wi Fi. Thank you, Xfinity, for everything you do for us here at DirtyMomedia. We'll see you. Hey, everybody. You want the latest Dell Jr. Download apparel? Visit shop.dirtymomedia.com we're always adding new stuff all the time, especially like when we say something silly on this show. We'll put it on a T shirt again. Check it out at shop.dirtymomedia.com Getting caught.

[Travis]

In awkward situations can really make you sweat. For me, it was being shown on national television during Ohio State football games in the college football playoffs. I'm nervous or upset about how the game is going and then they show me on tv. Thankfully, while the world knew I was upset, I didn't have to worry about them seeing me sweat because I had that taken care of. Thanks to Dove. When you upgrade to Dove Men plus Care, you can conquer almost any awkward moment. Dove Men antiperspirant Dry Spray helps neutralize odor, killing bacteria that thrive on stress. Sweat Keep your cool all day long with 72 hours sweat and odor protection. Get comfortable with uncomfortable Pick up Dove Men plus Care dry sprays at your Target, Walmart or Amazon. This show is sponsored by Better Help. As the seasons change, shorter days don't have to weigh you down. This season, Better Help encourages you to reach out, check in on friends, reconnect with loved ones, and remind them you're there. A simple phone call sometimes works. Maybe a text, a letter. Whatever it is, reaching out never hurts. Just like it takes a little courage to send that text or grab coffee with someone you haven't seen in a while. Reaching out for therapy can feel difficult, too, but it can be worth it. It can leave people wondering, why didn't I do this Sooner? With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is one of the world's largest online therapy platforms. BetterHelp therapists are fully licensed in the United States. BetterHelp does initial matching work for you so you can focus on your therapy goals this month. Don't wait to reach out. Whether you're checking on a friend or reaching out to a therapist yourself, BetterHelp makes it easier to take that first step. Our listeners get 10% off the first month at betterhelp.com/dale Jr that's better. H E L p.com dalejr so one.

[Dale Jr.]

Of the things I wanted to do at the end of the show here is looking at, we keep, you know, we keep a really, we keep an informal document of our, our guests. You know, and so I'm looking at the list right here and I'm just wanting to run back through in my mind about some of my favorite episodes. You know, we had Casey Kane on here. It was great to really catch up with him. We've had him before. We mentioned Cletus McFarlane earlier in the show. Carl Edwards earlier in the show. Lake Speed was a Great episode. Casey Mears. And now Casey's back in racing back, competing again. Edwin McCain was a great episode.

[Andrew]

Honestly, that might have been my favorite of the year.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah. Well, you love music and you love the artists and the stories behind it, so I can understand that.

[Andrew]

I thought it was, but it was just his willingness to be vulnerable and honest. He was so good in that regard.

[Dale Jr.]

And when we. And you'll know this when we reach out to people and say, hey, will you come on the show? And they go, oh, yeah, I'd love to. And I'm like, all right. But I'm going to ask you about these difficult times in your life, if they've had them, if they've had these struggles. I'm like, hey, I want to talk about that. And so we kind of clear it. And, I mean, Edwin's amazing, great guy, funny. But that was the part that we wanted to talk about and wanted to hear about. Right. Is how he kind of came back. I knew this. I knew roughly a little bit about his struggles and so forth and how he'd taken control of his life, but I was hoping that he would share. And he did. And I think that being transparent like that, as difficult as it may be sometimes to admit how foolish you were, man, it helps people.

[Travis]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

I still think about that interview.

[Dale Jr.]

Yes, it helps. He helped some people.

[Andrew]

He did.

[Dale Jr.]

It's great to have Rick Allen on the show. And now Rick's back at work. I don't want to take any credit for any of that, but Rick came on here, and I don't know that people knew he still wanted to work and was available. Right. And so it created opportunity for him almost immediately, especially outside the sport.

[Travis]

You think, oh, he's just racing now. He's calling football. Like, I love putting a game on my. I know that voice. That's Rick Allen.

[Dale Jr.]

Yep. I enjoyed the show where we had the three girls, Laney, Jade, and Isabel. Yes. Talking racing. Ron Howard. I forgot. I mean, I don't know. I didn't forget we had Ron Howard, but I'm like, you forget?

[Andrew]

This is all the same year.

[Dale Jr.]

Damn. We did do that. You know, Ron was great. We did that remote. I get nervous about the remote shows because it just doesn't. You know, I love this room and the energy and the table and all that. I get nervous about doing the remote shows, but that one went great. Let's see. Josh Schneider, my buddy Josh.

[Travis]

I like the Robin Pemberton.

[Andrew]

Oh, the Pemberton.

[Dale Jr.]

I was gonna get their boo weekly.

[Andrew]

Oh, he was so Entertaining.

[Dale Jr.]

And then you know what? Recently Boo got his champions card.

[Andrew]

Did he really?

[Dale Jr.]

And there's a. I put it on my insta story. So, you know, he's, he's got a PGA card again. And Boo downplays the. I love this guy. And he's done this ever since he, he popped onto the scene years ago. He downplays like his, his how much he wants to be doing this. And he's like, you know, he'll say in interviews, there's this really, really great YouTube clip. Go look it up. YouTube, boo weekly interview where he, he shot one off the course record. And they're like, man, you almost broke the course record. He's like, I had no idea. I'm just here to make a little money. And when I make that money, I'm gone, man. You won't see me again. I'm good a go hunting. And, and everybody's like, really? He's like, yeah, man, I'm just, I'm just trying to make enough money to go home, go hunt. And it's a good impression. Well, that was his whole, that was his, that's his whole attitude, right? But he gets this car, right? He's been trying to claw back and he's, he's sort of in a great place, it seems personally. And he's got some real, he's just, he's, he's got himself sort of somewhat healthy again, working really hard. And there's this video, there's this video that was on his Instagram where they tell him as he's walking off the course, the final 18th green of this tournament he had been playing and they're like, man, you, you have. The result from this tournament is enough for you to now have your PGA Champions card. And he gets emotional.

[Andrew]

Wow.

[Dale Jr.]

He's like, man, I've worked hard. It's been a long road. I can't believe this. He so having that card, I, I mean, you know, it must, it must be hard to keep a hold of that thing, right? But man, that was so awesome. Boo's a great guy. Great friend of the, of the, of the, you know, the Earnhards and all that. Santino Ferrucci was, was interesting, great show. Interesting. Some of the feedback we got on that one.

[Travis]

We still need him and Connor to get lunch with you.

[Dale Jr.]

Never going to happen. Yeah. Robin Pemberton, he came back twice. You know, Robin wasn't like, Robin ain't a star driver. He's not like, you know, old man, we got a multi time champion. Let's do Two shows. We got Dale Jarrett. Let's do a one and a part two. I wouldn't have pegged Robin as a person. We were going to do a two parter. He sits down and we start talking. And he was. So we start to. We knew. Right. He was in all of these freaking chapters in terms of being a crew chief and then how he worked with NASCAR and all these very critical moments of the sport. And he was so good at articulating what was going on. And we all. I think that's what's fun about this show, too. We were kind of mid show where we all were like, we got to bring him back. Yeah. Got to get him back. This. This is good. This is too good.

[Andrew]

We haven't even scratched the surface.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Travis]

But what I liked about him being a newer fan is I could learn so much about the sport with just him alone. Like, it was awesome.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

I got a chance to BS with him out in the lobby before part two, and we were talking for maybe 30 minutes, and it just. About racing and about old times. He's already telling me stories and it was so awesome.

[Dale Jr.]

He's sitting on the.

[Andrew]

Genuinely loves it.

[Dale Jr.]

He does. And he's sitting somewhere idle.

[Andrew]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Right now.

[Andrew]

Like, we need to get him on TV as like a rules analyst or something like that.

[Dale Jr.]

I mean, he could be a regular on BBC. I mean, he just has value. Right. And he's just sitting somewhere idle right now. And he's very happy to tell his side of the story or his experiences. And he's not controversial. You know, he loves the sport. I think he's got. He's got some value in some form, whether with. With us or something else. But Chad Musgrave was interesting. I got a text from a. From a driver, current driver, that. That was like, I call bull on that. It's always fun. You'll get. You'll have these guys come in, tell their story, and then you'll get a couple texts from people that they talk about in their story. And sometimes they're like, yeah, that was true. Or sometimes that is absolutely false. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, man, I'm not. I'm in. I'm not in the middle of it.

[Andrew]

Aaron Plessinger.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, he was great. I got a text from him the other day.

[Andrew]

We're basically saying every guest's name. That's.

[Dale Jr.]

Deb Williams was fun.

[Andrew]

That speaks to how good the year was.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah, Deb Williams was fun. And I got a letter from Rudimen's wife. I got a note from her after.

[Andrew]

He came on this show about how.

[Dale Jr.]

Good that was for him and how thankful she was, he left.

[Andrew]

And I, my thought was, I'm so, It's so great to hear from him. Like, I'm so glad he came in and did this.

[Dale Jr.]

That's just a good. That's one example I think of.

[TJ]

He's a perfect example of like, he may not have been the most popular driver at the time, but there's, I guarantee, a hardcore David Ruderman fan club. Just like there's any. Like, a lot of people like to cheer for the underdog. So, like, if there's. Every driver has a hardcore group of fans that love him or love them and they want to hear from them, you know, whatever, 10, 20 years later, like, that's the group you want to talk to.

[Freddie]

One thing about Rudiment too, is people don't know this is. He was a very successful short track driver, like coming up through the ranks. He was. Was running up all pro series.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

And stuff like that.

[Dale Jr.]

Dad.

[Freddie]

He is one. Yeah. Big time. He has won a lot of races throughout his career, like big races.

[Dale Jr.]

So I thought Steve o' Donnell was great.

[Andrew]

Yes.

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Steve coming on here in a new role and came on here and gave us a lot of. He was great and we've talked since. He enjoyed it. But yeah, the, the. We start every season and I'm like, ah, who we're going to have on this year? You know, we're not, you know, we're running. I feel like we're running out of people who are going to have on. And I look at this list and I'm like, we did pretty damn good. I would take this top. I would take this 20, 25 list of guests and I would put it over some other years, you know, it ain't, you know, even though it feels like every season getting guests in here that are going to be intriguing and interesting is harder. I feel like we did one of our best jobs in all the years we've done the show. And you know, you create new friendships like Plessinger, Amy and them went to the, went to the race when they were in Charlotte, got to meet him and I knew him. So having talked to him through the show, I felt like, man, they're going to get taken care of. My kids are going to have a great time. And now me and him are, you know, we text back and forth.

[Andrew]

I see David Green at the racetrack all the time. And now it's like, now that I know him and he's a familiar face, I'VE been able to wave and say hello, so pretty awesome.

[Dale Jr.]

Well, you know, we. I enjoy doing the show, and we have a lot of fun, and we're. We're not done yet. We'll see what next year brings. But this was a good season. All right, let's give one final word before we close the show from each of our producers who's worked on the shows over the years, starting with Andrew. Guys, what stood out to you?

[Andrew]

Yeah, I mean, the biggest thing was I was trying to find moments for the guest show, which is primarily what I worked on this year. The amount of guests we've been waiting to hear from for a while, like Carl Edwards, Casey, Kane, Cletus, we booked, I feel like a lot of awesome guests. And it was cool that, like, like we talked about in the show to let people share their stories and share their truths. And there were a lot of moments where I left that show. Like, wow, Someone really needed to hear what this person had to say. Edwin McCain, for example, has just a crazy story about overcoming a bunch of odds and addiction and rehab. And I'm like, dang, that was so good. So lots of great guests. Lots of guests. I feel like we've been waiting to have this year. Steven Steffen. Want to give him a shout out for booking everybody. He does an excellent job. That's true with all that. So, yeah, no, it was an awesome year.

[Dale Jr.]

Travis is back at the table. Travis, what's your big takeaway from the year?

[Travis]

TJ's one liners suck.

[Freddie]

Your Twitter sucks.

[Travis]

We'll start with Denny's. It was a fun ride, and I enjoy being new to the sport. You're getting an expert opinion every week immediately after those races. And being in, you know, getting his vantage point, I think is invaluable for the sport. The six wins were fun. And then with your show, I think just to go in the back, in the back and forth, you know, guys, just shooting this, I think it was a fun show being a part of. Actually. Here's the highlight of the year. When Dale won his national championship.

[Freddie]

No one's laughing at me.

[Dale Jr.]

I am.

[Freddie]

There's an asterisk. There's an asterisk by him. I'm sorry, an asterisk.

[Dale Jr.]

An asteroid matrix. Fair and square. Oh, he took a one star program.

[Travis]

And lifted him up.

[Dale Jr.]

Lifted him up. Literally.

[Freddie]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Taller.

[Freddie]

He edited it all.

[Dale Jr.]

He did.

[Freddie]

He added height and weight to all these guys. Like, you play his team.

[Travis]

That's a good strength program.

[Dale Jr.]

Added an average of one to two inches to every player. They're growing kids. They're 18, 19. Yeah.

[Freddie]

Why not? Yeah.

[Dale Jr.]

Did you really do that? You don't think. Yes. And I. Nobody was stopping stopping me.

[Freddie]

Dominic Corelli text me after like the. In a second. He played him like in the second season. He's like, man, his team looks gigantic. When I.

[TJ]

Everybody's seven three.

[Dale Jr.]

Everybody was anywhere from six one to six four.

[Freddie]

Yeah, that's two one or two short of normal video. I've got it too.

[Dale Jr.]

Trust me. Take it. Take us there.

[Freddie]

Show us true friendship.

[Dale Jr.]

Yeah.

[Freddie]

He had a 99 tight end that never even saw a snap. He was 99.

[Dale Jr.]

He even played red shirted tight end. Came into his freshman red shirt year at 99 overall, 6 foot 7. I told him not to get that good. I can't help it. The game did it.

[Travis]

That's a good. Just a weight program. You got them in there.

[Dale Jr.]

I can't stop the game from trading whatever it codes.

[Freddie]

Strength and conditioning was fa. Fabulous at unc.

[Dale Jr.]

He hung out with the offensive lineman during the off season. Big boy guy with learn how to block.

[Travis]

That's a team player.

[Freddie]

He wins a championship. Next thing you know, we got calls. Hey, call, come call some plays at practice. And I win eight of them. I don't even get a hat. I mean, Jesus.

[TJ]

Sorry. It's your problem.

[Freddie]

Damn. Oh, well. On to the next one.

[Travis]

So that was my highlight.

[Andrew]

Yeah. Long, long winded wave. Yeah.

[Freddie]

My highlight is anytime Denny calls you. Trav. I love when he does that. Trav, just calm down. Trav, it's gonna be okay. Stop bullying me. You're bullying me right now.

[Travis]

Kind of like you lost on Sunday. It'll be okay. It'll be okay. Te.

[Freddie]

I think. I'm pretty sure you lost on Sunday. There's a reason why you haven't recorded. It's okay, Te.

[Travis]

I. I should have made that move. I didn't need you to tell me I messed up.

[Freddie]

Oh, no, you didn't hear that.

[Andrew]

Hey, few more shout outs to D, who's in the room every week taking photos, cutting all the social requests and clips.

[Dale Jr.]

So shout out to D. I think you got to keep going, man. I got to keep going.

[Freddie]

Keep going.

[Dale Jr.]

Now you have to settle everybody in the building. No, no, no. I don't think I. I don't think you've celebrated him enough.

[Freddie]

Yeah, celebrate.

[Dale Jr.]

What else? What else?

[Andrew]

Well, he is here the longest. He runs probably the most hours at.

[Freddie]

Anybody come say hi?

[Andrew]

Working on this show?

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[Andrew]

Look, I mean, he is on any given Wednesday, Tuesday, he's Here until seven, eight o' clock at night, here early in the morning. So hard worker, taking. Taking some good.

[Travis]

It makes it feel like the show's ending, like for good.

[Andrew]

Well, I don't know. This is our final. This is.

[Dale Jr.]

Is the last word's a very critical, important personality. Cuz he often. We often see eye to eye on a lot of things. When I can't. When you two knuckleheads are off off doing whatever you're doing, thinking what you're thinking, taking your takes wherever you go. Me and Dalton usually see eye to eye.

[Andrew]

Freddy, any last words?

[TJ]

No. Thanks for having me. Obviously it's been a while since I. This ain't the same table, right. This one's smaller than the last one we used to do the show at. But no, this is fun being back with you guys.

[Dale Jr.]

Still bigger than first chance.

[TJ]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Andrew]

It's not a competition.

[Dale Jr.]

It's not. This table's better.

[TJ]

Yeah, their table looks cool.

[Travis]

The top doesn't even.

[Freddie]

Yeah, doesn't even.

[TJ]

Like the top is a little shaky over there.

[Freddie]

Well, James must not have made that one.

[Dale Jr.]

James didn't have nothing to do with that. Yeah, but he can fix.

[Travis]

James says he doesn't want to associate with DBC. Dale Jr. Property.

[TJ]

I don't listen, there's a lot of people.

[Freddie]

He asked for a charger in this thing, wanted a hole drilled in it. James hooked him up.

[Andrew]

Carpenter James.

[Freddie]

It's actually in this table over here, so I mean, it looks perfect too.

[TJ]

Well, shout out to for us. Anyway, Tim's upstairs and all the people that with do tbc, that. That they've booked a lot of great guests this year, obviously. So it's been fun.

[Travis]

Brickyard the highlight.

[TJ]

Yeah, from what I remember, it was fun. No?

[Freddie]

Yeah.

[TJ]

Obviously the highlight of season for us is the Brickyard and man, we were close. I. I tell everybody, you know, you think about it, we are one car owner and a. And a five run out of gas from being in the final four.

[Freddie]

Kansas isn't your favorite. I thought Kansas would be the top of your list.

[TJ]

Not at the top, but I mean, you think about how close. You talk about how close things work out and little things change everything. You know, if we can finish a deal of Kansas and then the 5 doesn't run out of gas, the Bubba's in the final four and you're like, wait a minute.

[Andrew]

What?

[TJ]

So it's just all circumstantial. Man race.

[Dale Jr.]

All right, y', all, great show. Appreciate it. Hope everybody enjoyed it. Stay tuned. We'll we'll be coming back at you through the off season. Until then, we'll see you. Check out DirtyMomedia on Instagram, Facebook X and TikTok. Our state has changed a lot in the last 140 years. We know because MultiCare has been here guided by a single making our communities healthier. That comes from making courageous decisions, partnering with local communities to grow programs and services, and expanding healthcare access to those who need it most. Together, we're building a healthier future. Learn [e-mail].

[Travis]

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[Dale Jr.]

If your identity is stolen, our US.

[Travis]

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