The Dale Jr. Download

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405 - Marcus Smith - NEW Details About The All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Oct 25, 2022

Show notes

Back in September, the stock car racing world was turned upside down when the announcement was made that the 2023 NASCAR All-Star race would be held at the recently revived North Wilkesboro Speedway. On this week’s episode of The Dale Jr. Download, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis sit down with the man who helped make the decision, CEO and President of Speedway Motorsports Incorporated Marcus Smith. Devotees of The Download will recognize that this marks Smith’s fifth appearance on the show, and his yearly check-in usually provides great insight into some of the upcoming projects in the NASCAR world.

Much has changed since Marcus’ last visit in May 2021, most notably the passing of his father Bruton, who was a major contributor to the racing world and founder of SMI. Marcus reflects on the difficult process of coming to terms with his father’s declining health but is thankful that he lived a long life of 95 years. He also explains how his father got his start in car sales by running a used car lot on his mother’s front lawn. Though he was eventually shut down by city officials, his knack for the industry eventually led to him forming Sonic Automotive, the fifth-largest automotive retailer in the country.

The interview addresses the rumors surrounding the reconfiguration of Texas Motor Speedway. Dale and Marcus unpack the September Cup race held at the Fort Worth-based track and discuss what can be done to help boost attendance while keeping competitors and teams happy. Marcus explains that with the current grandstand set-up, there are limited changes that can be made to the track’s actual configuration. However, alterations can be made to the speedway’s profile, much like the recent reshaping of Atlanta Motor Speedway. In fact, with the help of iRacing, they’ve been able to model potential changes and test through simulation to see what effect they’d have on the racing product. The process was essential to the work done in Atlanta, and the results found in the trial runs were comparable to the actual Cup races held this season.

In addition to the changes made to the racing surface at Atlanta, there have been talks of bringing a casino resort to the grounds in an effort to build up the area similar to that of Kansas Speedway. Marcus explains that in order for the plans to go through, there needs to be an amendment made to the Georgia state constitution that would allow for sports gambling, and encourages listeners and supporters of the speedway to be vocal to their local representatives.

Another huge topic of discussion was the status of the Nashville Fairgrounds project. Those following along will remember that Dale and Marcus have been huge proponents in bringing NASCAR Cup racing back to the famed oval. Marcus makes clear that while they have been seemingly stuck in place for a while, progress is being made on the initiative.

A glimmer of hope in bringing relics of NASCAR’s past back to life has been the return of North Wilkesboro Speedway. Dale and Marcus reflect on the huge success of the recent CARS Late Model Stock Car race at the track and fill listeners in on the changes and upgrades being made to the facility in anticipation of next year’s All-Star event. Aside from additional seating being brought in, improvements are being made to the facilities, scoring system, retaining walls, and traffic flow.

The conversation also touches on NASCAR’s ongoing television contract discussions and what it means for the tracks and the Race Team Alliance. Tune in for insight from one of the great minds and innovators in the motorsports industry regarding what it takes to run a speedway and what all parties can do to help the sport grow as a whole.

Check out northwilkesborospeedway.com for updates/details.

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405 - DIRTY AIR - Dale Jr. Announces A Return to Driver's Seat THIS YEAR Oct 25, 2022

Show notes

New week, new format for The Dale Jr. Download. In order to provide Download listeners something to tune in a tad sooner on podcast days, the Dirty Air segment and Ask Jr. segment will be released on their own.

The duo started the segment with big news! North Wilkesboro must've given Dale the racing itch because he started the segment by announcing that he will be racing again soon and provides all the details where you can catch the action.

Mike couldn't pass up the opportunity to ask Dale about his WWE experience at Monday Night Raw in Charlotte. Dale attended the event as a fan and is on the lookout for a WWE superstar to root for.

The full episode of The Dale Jr. Download will drop on Tuesday, October 25, with an announcement-filled interview with Marcus Smith. What has turned into a yearly check-in provides Dale and Marcus the opportunity to break some news around the North Wilkesboro All-Star week.

In #AskJr presented by Xfinity, Dale, Mike, Hannah, and Alex discuss what happened to the possum found at JRM after Las Vegas, how the podcast got started, and Tony Stewart's NHRA debut.

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404 - Erik Jones - Fired by Joe Gibbs Racing; Beating Kyle Busch; Racing After His Father's Passing Oct 18, 2022

Show notes

When the dust settled on the 2022 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. got to fulfill a broadcasting bucket list item: declaring that the No. 43 was the winner. On this week’s episode of The Dale Jr. Download, he and co-host Mike Davis sit down with the man who helped make it possible, the Petty GMS driver of the No. 43 NASCAR Cup Series car, Erik Jones.

Erik’s start in racing came when his mother read in a magazine about children competing in quarter midgets. Soon after, his father, Dave, bought a car, a book on set-ups, and the Jones family racing operation was off and running. At the age of 12, he graduated into the pure stock class and explains that after his first outing he was told by tech officials not to return due to his on-track aggression.

Erik got his first big break in his racing career when he got the call to shake down Kyle Busch’s late model at the Nashville Fairgrounds. The connection came through spotter Brandon Lines, and even though he had limited seat time in a super late model, he was able to produce impressive lap times at the famed oval. When Erik scored his biggest victory to date later that year in the Snowball Derby, beating out Busch to do so, a lasting impression was made. Not long after that Busch and executives at Toyota Racing were lobbying on behalf of Erik, and the efforts led to an agreement with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Once he was sitting in the Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 51 truck, Erik’s meteoric rise through NASCAR’s national series began. He notched his first Truck Series victory in just his fifth attempt and went on to win the series championship in his rookie season. He also made waves in the Xfinity racing pool, winning six times through 2015 and ‘16. Erik explains that since he was having on-track success, he didn’t apply himself as much outside of the race car as he could have. When he arrived on the Cup scene in 2017, the unprecedented grind put a magnifying glass on his lack of preparation.

Erik’s transition into the premiere division of stock car racing was made difficult by another factor as well: the loss of his father in 2016. As the racing season began, his father was diagnosed with stage-four melanoma. Erik would fly to and from Michigan while competing full-time in the Xfinity Series to spend as much time with his father as he could. He and Dale relate to the process of having conversations with a parent in their final stage of life and having the opportunity to be completely honest and open with them. Erik explains that competing in the Cup Series was a shared dream for him and his father, and his perception changed in the wake of his passing.

The conversation also covers Erik’s release from Joe Gibbs Racing following the 2020 season. Erik gives great insight into the vulnerability and embarrassment a driver experiences when being let go from a race team. He recalls the painful ordeal of having to tell his family and friends as well as having to finish out the season with a crew that he would be leaving at the end of the year.

Erik channeled positivity through the low point and eventually became excited at the prospect of a new start. That opportunity came in 2021 when he signed on with Petty GMS to take over the famed No. 43 ride. After the challenging process of having to start over, the team has turned around in the 2022 season with Erik scoring a major victory at the Southern 500 and being in contention for wins week in and week out.

Through it all, Erik has been resilient through the ebb and flow of the racing world and it appears that his brightest days still lie ahead.

DIRTY AIR

Response to the Ben Kennedy episode

Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson’s dust-up at Vegas

Kurt Busch retiring from full-time competition

Cole Custer’s future with SHR

ASKJR presented by Xfinity

Dale’s updated final fours for Cup and Xfinity

Innovation fishing tournaments

Repaving of Rockingham

New iRacing Championship trophy

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404 - DIRTY AIR - Bubba Wallace vs. Kyle Larson; Ben Kennedy Aftermath; Dale Jr. Reacts To Kurt Busch Retirement Oct 17, 2022

Show notes

An early-bird, Dirty Air-segment solo special for Dale Jr. Download listeners eager to hear Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s take on current events, including the drama from Sunday’s South Point 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

But first, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mike Davis start Dirty Air by addressing criticism about last week’s interview with Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s SVP of Strategy & Innovation. The two DJD hosts respond to social media kickback claiming they were too lenient on Kennedy, grandson to the late Bill France Jr. and widely considered to be NASCAR’s next top guy. Did they let him off the hook with softball questions and easy outs?

The conversation then pivots to the topic of the hour – the initial mid-race wreck involving Wallace, Larson, and Christopher Bell, as well as the retaliation, shoving match, and post-race interview that ensued. Earnhardt tries to predict what NASCAR’s response will be by drawing from past examples such as Chase Elliott vs. Kyle Busch at Darlington in 2020 and Noah Gragson vs. Sage Karam at Road America earlier this year.

That wasn’t the only news from the weekend. Kurt Busch announced he will no longer race full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series as he continues to heal from concussions. This topic was especially personal to Dale Jr., who also had his racing career cut short due to a head injury. What will Kurt do next? Mike Davis has a thought, and Dale Jr. loves the idea.

Lastly, on Dirty Air, Earnhardt unpacks the whole saga at Stewart-Haas Racing, where Tony Stewart expressed anger towards NASCAR over the penalties levied against Cole Custer’s No. 41 team, and Gene Haas reportedly made comments to media about Custer’s future. What does this mean for Custer? What about Ryan Preece? Earnhardt weighs in with his usual unfiltered opinion, candor, and honesty.

The full episode of The Dale Jr. Download will drop on Tuesday, October 18, complete with Dirty Air presented by Filter Time, Ask Jr presented by Xfinity, and a deep conversation with Erik Jones, driver of the Petty/GMS No. 43, in the guest segment presented by Ally.

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403 - Are Charter Prices Too High?; Ben Kennedy on the Future of NASCAR Oct 11, 2022

Show notes

As NASCAR gets ready to celebrate its 75th year of existence in 2023, its premiere division the Cup Series will set out on its most versatile schedule to date. On this week’s episode of The Dale Jr. Download, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis sit down with one of the visionaries responsible for the swift transformation the sport of stock car racing has seen over the last few seasons, NASCAR’s Senior VP of Racing Development & Strategy Ben Kennedy.

Born and raised in Daytona Beach, Ben is a fourth-generation member of NASCAR’s founding France family, the son of Lesa France Kennedy and great-grandson of Bill France Sr. While he is only 30 years old, he has been around the sport his entire life in many capacities, from working odd jobs at Daytona International to being in the driver’s seat and owning his own race team. His unique insight and experience have allowed him to rapidly rise through the NASCAR executive ranks, originally taking a position as the General Manager of the Trucks Series in 2018.

With the incorporation of the Chicago street race and the Clash at the Coliseum, as well as returning to North Wilkesboro and the Bristol dirt race, the stock car racing mainstay has gone leaps and bounds from its original vision in 1948, while keeping its fundamentals in place. Ben explains that much of the decision to hold events like the street race or the Coliseum was based on wanting to connect to city centers where NASCAR has a large fan base while doing something out of the box, original to the sanctioning body itself.

During his time with the NASCAR Operations team, Ben learned a lot about NASCAR’s international fanbase and what efforts are being made to help grow it. While the majority of racing circuits overseas are road course configurations, the team began looking into building temporary oval tracks in stadiums or arenas to help display stock car racing in its original form. He explains that this is what put the L.A. Coliseum on their radar as a potential venue to house such a production.

He also goes on to talk about the conception of the Chicago street course and how the team settled on Grant Park as a location. The team originally visited Soldier Field as a possible setting for the Clash event. But due to the current configuration of the field, the potential racing surface would be far too small, thus leading to the event being moved to Los Angeles. However, thanks to Grant Park’s ability to facilitate a large number of spectators, as seen with Lollapalooza every year, the focus turned to creating a street course. With the help of iRacing’s scanning system, they were able to bring a realistic render to life and test it with a cast of NASCAR Cup stars last year.

Earlier in the interview, the trio discusses what Ben’s life was like growing up in Daytona and his interests before entering the motorsports world. In 2007, Ben tragically lost his father Dr. Bruce Kennedy in a plane crash, and he and Dale were able to bond over the shock of losing a loved one suddenly. Ben first got behind the wheel of a race car at age 14 when a family friend signed him up for a go-kart course held at New Smyrna Speedway. Ben fell in love with the sport immediately and in the years that followed he quickly progressed through the local Central Florida short track divisions into the regional NASCAR ranks, before finally arriving in the Trucks Series. After having a breakout season in 2014 and making his Xfinity Series debut a couple of seasons later, Ben retired from racing at the end of the 2017 season to begin his journey through the business side of the organization.

DIRTY AIR

Dale’s birthday activities

Was the caution for the sign the right call?

RTA and NASCAR discussions hit a wall

Buster’s Trip to Victory Lane

ASKJR presented by Xfinity

Birthday memories

Can iRacing bring a former track to life?

Another OEM entering NASCAR

Favorite childhood vacations

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Bonus: Speed Street Final ROVAL Expectations w/ Corey LaJoie Oct 07, 2022

Show notes

Conor Daly's NASCAR Cup Series debut is upon us and Speed Street returns for another episode to break down his final preparations. First, Conor and Joey talk about some IndyCar news with Colton Herta extending with Andretti Autosport, Arrow McLaren SP setting their number lineup, and discuss a couple of tracks set for repaves. Then, they talk with the driver of the No. 7 Spire Motorsports car in the NASCAR Cup Series, Corey Lajoie, about some final tips for Conor about his upcoming race, setting realistic expectations for a small team, and the difference between his "flow" and a mullet. Finally, the guys answer some fan questions.

Follow @SpeedStreetpod and @Dirtymomedia on Instagram and Twitter.

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402 - Dale Jr. Talks Next Gen Safety; Ned Yost Shares Never Heard Dale Sr. Stories Oct 04, 2022

Show notes

In 400-plus episodes of The Dale Jr. Download, guests have brought a lot of Earnhardt stories to the table. But on this week’s edition the mold has been broken as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis welcome longtime MLB player, coach and team manager Ned Yost.

After being drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in 1974 and playing in the majors for a handful of years, Ned retired during the ‘85 season. When he was at home in Mississippi figuring out his next move in life, he received a call from the Hank Aaron that would change the trajectory of his life forever, inviting him to be a coach for the upcoming pitching prospects of the Atlanta Braves.

It was during his time with the Braves organization that he first made the acquaintance of Dale Earnhardt Sr. Ned and friend Jody Davis had made plans to go deer hunting and Davis invited Dale Sr. to come along. Ned and Dale Sr. became fast friends, bonding over their love of hunting and the outdoors and Ned would become a confidant for the Intimidator for years to come.

Dale Jr. and Mike pick Ned’s brain about the transition from being a player to a coach, and he explains about how his time with Ted Simmons on the Brewers helped teach him the nuts and bolts of the game. When it came time for Ned to try his hand at team management, he leaned on his experiences of working with Bobby Cox, longtime manager of the Braves. And when he needed to turn a losing organization into a winning one, he depended on the lessons he learned from a brief stint of working on Dale Sr.’s race team in ‘94.

Ned recalls the instance that occurred during the ‘94 MLB strike, where Dale Sr. invited him to come on the road with his Richard Childress Racing No. 3 team as they chased their seventh championship. While Ned merely worked as a “rehydration engineer”, he gained first person insight into what it takes to win at the highest level. The education came in handy as he went on to win his first World Series title with the Braves the following year as a bullpen coach.

Another lesson that Dale Sr. instilled in Ned was that you never leave a winning team for a losing one. Ned explains that during a hunting trip in Texas, Dale Sr. was talking about his ongoing contract negotiations for the following season. When Ned suggested that he drive for his own start-up D.E.I., Dale Sr. explained that they weren’t ready to win yet. Ned pondered eventually having to leave the Braves to get his shot at managing a major league team and Dale Sr. implored him to stay put, explaining that winning is everything.

The time came for Ned to leave in 2002 when he was made team manager of the Brewers. Ned breaks down the time it takes for a young organization to grow confident in their ability and start winning consistently, about a two-and-a-half-year process. Unfortunately, he was let go by Milwaukee before this concept came to fruition, but he found another opportunity to prove the system when he became manager of the Kansas City Royals in 2010. Ned would have the last laugh, as the Royals would win the ALC Pennant in 2014 and the World Series championship in 2015. The first thing Ned thought of was his old friend and how proud he would be of the persistent road to success.

This episode has many never before heard Earnhardt hunting stories, as well “the rest of the story” of some of the most memorable tales told on The Download. Listeners should tune in for unforgettable insight into what it takes to win not only a World Series but a NASCAR Cup Championship, as well a better understanding of who Dale Earnhardt Sr. was away from the race track.

DIRTY AIR

Before Ned joins the show, Dale, Mike, Alex and Morgan chat about:

Tame Talladega

Drivers speaking out

Improvements for the NextGen car

What can be better about driver’s headrest

ASKJR presented by Xfinity

Funniest experience with another driver

Which racing pioneer Dale wants to interview

NASCAR Cup Championship patches

Deer hunting trips for the rest of the year

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401 - Texas Tire Problems; Christopher Buescher Talks New Energy at RFK Sep 27, 2022

Show notes

Current events are on the docket as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis unpack the turbulent happenings of NASCAR’s weekend in Texas on this week’s episode of The Dale Jr. Download. Not only that, but they’ve brought in a guest who was very much a part of the turbulence, recent Bristol night race winner Chris Buescher.

Dale and Chris have had some friendly banter over the past few weeks after Dale mistakenly referred to Chris as “Christopher” during a race broadcast. As the misstep reoccurred, Dale began to embrace the name change-up in an effort to catch his fellow commentators in the same spur-of-the-moment confusion. Chris caught wind of the joke via social media and took it in stride, even going as far as to change his profile name on Twitter and the driver name decal on his Roush Fenway Keselowski No. 17 car.

Dale explains that he first grew to admire Chris when he bested then JR Motorsports driver Chase Elliott in the 2015 Xfinity Series season points standings. They discuss Chris leaving his hometown of Prosper, Texas at the age of 15 to move to North Carolina to pursue a career in motorsports. Chris credits his upbringing from his parents and knowing he was there to work and race.

A huge part of Buescher's journey was a friendship he forged with Ken and David Ragan, which stemmed from a black flag incident during the Summer Shootout Legends car event at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Chris recalls getting in trouble for rough driving during the race and being sent to Ken’s office, who was managing 600 Racing at the time. After the Shootout, Ken explained to Chris’ family that if they were serious about racing, they needed to move out east. When they established that they were not in the place to do that at the time, Ken offered the spare bedroom in his house to Chris.

Chris talks about getting involved in the Roush Racing development program thanks to help from the Ragans. His first step up the ladder was the ARCA Series, where he raced out of Midlothian, Illinois with the Roulo Brothers Racing outfit. He also discusses adapting to a stock car after transitioning out of Legends cars, and how he knocked the nose off his car on a start in one of his first races at Salem Speedway.

The story of Chris making his Xfinity Series debut is a wild one, as he was tabbed last minute to fill in for Trevor Bayne in 2011, who went on medical leave. After forgetting to plug his phone in overnight, he was awakened by Gary Roulo who informed him “get your stuff, we’re going to the airport”. In the car, Gary explained the situation, and soon Chris was at Richmond Raceway getting fitted to hop into the No. 16 car with no practice laps or simulator time.

The interview also discusses Chris’ time with Front Row Motorsports after winning the 2015 Xfinity Championship and his rain-shortened Cup victory at Pocono in 2016. Dale asks about the culture change at RFK since the arrival of Brad Keselowski. They also discuss the NextGen car’s tire issues and what changes can be made to Texas Motor Speedway to help better the racing there.

With only a few races left in the 2022 Cup schedule, Chris is optimistic about where the RFK Racing organization is heading, and he’s looking forward to capitalizing on the momentum they’ve built in the past few weeks.

DIRTY AIR

Before Chris joins the show, Dale, Mike, Alex and Hannah discuss:
NASCAR’s eventful stop in Texas
Denny and William Byron have a dust-up
The NextGen tire problems continue in a big way
What to do about Texas Motor Speedway?

ASKJR presented by Xfinity

This week the fans asked questions about:

Dale’s reaction to Jimmie Johnson retiring from full-time competition in 2023
Which underfunded driver would he like to give a shot in a JRM ride
Smaller steering wheels vs. bigger
Where Noah Gragson’s Waffle House tradition stems from

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400 - Dale Jr. Reacts to Bristol Night Race; Tony Glover Shares Some “Innovation” Sep 20, 2022

Show notes

Everyone in stock car racing dreams of being on a Daytona 500-winning team, but how about three wins in five years? For Tony Glover, that dream became reality in the early 1990s, and on this week’s episode of The Dale Jr. Download, he joins Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis to discuss the pieces of the puzzle that made it possible.

Glover has been a part of racing his entire life. He attended his first race at three weeks old. Tony recalls his earliest memory in racing, which consisted of his father Gene flying out of Cleveland Speedway in Tennessee. The trauma of seeing his father’s crash did little to deter his love for the sport though, and by his teenage years, Tony was cleaning parts and turning wrenches.

After spending many years on the road crew chiefing for his father’s late model program, which yielded the 1979 NASCAR Sportsman National Championship, Tony accepted a position at Petty Enterprises. Tony explains that the year he spent in Level Cross, North Carolina was the equivalent of a four-year college education. But, when his grandmother became ill in ‘83, he decided to move closer to home to spend time with her. As fate would have it, Larry McClure and Tim Morgan had just bought out G.C. Spencer and established their Morgan-McClure outfit in nearby Abingdon, Virginia and Tony was hired to work as part of the pit crew.

Tony shares the story of how he became a crew chief for the team when Spencer, who had stayed on in the chiefing role, quit suddenly during the teching process at an event at Nashville Fairgrounds. This bumped Tony into the position and he remained there for the duration of his time with the outfit. They discuss the revolving roster of drivers Morgan-McClure had during the ‘80s, which included Lennie Pond, Tommy Ellis, Joe Ruttman and Rick Wilson. Tony explains that when Rick departed for RahMoc after ‘89, his choice to fill the seat was the hard charging Ernie Irvan. And while Phil Parsons would start the ‘90 season in the cockpit, after a few failed outings Irvan would eventually get the seat and help put Morgan-McClure on the map.

The Irvan-Glover combination was quite successful, bringing home seven Cup wins including the ‘91 Daytona 500, but would only last a few seasons as Irvan would depart for Robert Yates in ‘93. His replacement was a driver Tony was well acquainted with from his years in the late model scene: fellow Tennessean Sterling Marlin. The new pairing won in their first outing, the ‘94 Daytona 500. When they followed up with a back-to-back triumph in the Great American Race in ‘95, they had the entire NASCAR garage looking in their direction.

Dale and Tony get into some of the innovation on the plate-track cars in the Morgan-McClure stable. Tony talks about the revolutionary X-pipe exhaust system that was brought to them by Boyd Butler, better known as Dr. Gas. The story of how they kept the technical advantage a secret is incredible, including a non-disclosure agreement and wrapping the car in blankets in the garage. Ultimately a crash photo on the cover of Stock Car Racing Magazine leaked the guarded secret to the world.

In ‘97, the desire to move up in rank and a little white lie from his wife convinced Tony to move on from Morgan-McClure and take a management position at SABCO Racing. Tony shares experiences from his years there.After a dismal season in 2011, Tony was released from the team and sought out a position at NASCAR through Mike Helton. In 2013, he became the overseeing technical director of NASCAR’s many touring series, a role he continues to fill today.

DIRTY AIR:

· NASCAR’s big weeked at Bristol

· NextGen parts failures

· Dirty Mo Fan Experience recap

· Chris Buescher’s big win

ASKJR presented by Xfinity:

· Impressions about the 2023 NASCAR Cup schedule

· Downtown Chicago’s worries about upcoming street race

· SAFER barriers at North Wilkesboro

· Brandon Jones to JRM

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399 - Real-Time Reaction to Kyle Busch News; Greg Biffle Reflects On Career Sep 13, 2022

Show notes

On this week’s episode of the Dale Jr. Download, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis catch up with one of his longtime competitors from the NASCAR Cup scene, Washington’s Greg Biffle. After a successful career in NASCAR that spanned nearly two decades, Biffle quietly exited the sport following the 2016 season.

Biffle originally hails from Vancouver, Washington, where he spent his formative years working in an automotive machine shop that was owned by his father’s friend. As he became a teenager, Greg discovered his love for driving and going fast and it wasn’t long before he found trouble behind the wheel. In an effort to focus his need for speed into something productive, his father Jack suggested they attend the local Friday night street stock races at Portland Speedway. After their first outing, Greg was hooked and immediately purchased a 1974 Ford Torino to convert into a racecar.

Upon building his second street stock, Biffle began to have success at the track and along with it began getting noticed for his fabrication skills. This attention grew into a chassis fabrication business, and Greg went on to build over 50 race cars over the next few years. He also used his earnings to go late model racing and found victory lane many times at both Portland and Tri-City Raceway.

The story of how Greg got into NASCAR came when he decided to take the show on the road: heading south to Tucson, Arizona to participate in the NASCAR Winter Heat Series. It was there that he met and befriended NASCAR Hall of Famer Benny Parsons, who was impressed with the unknown racer’s performance. As the story goes, weeks later Parsons was conversing with Jack Roush in the garage area at Michigan International Speedway about Roush’s NASCAR Truck team. Parsons recommended Biffle to Roush, and soon after he received a call from Geoff Smith, who was president of Roush Racing at the time. After a lengthy chat, a contract was faxed over to Greg and the next two decades of his racing career were in motion.

Greg and Dale speak on the decline of Roush Racing and the factors that led to the team getting behind the competition. Greg explains that the team failed to progress with the direction of the sport and that it took them a long time to catch up once they were behind. The lack of winning equipment ultimately played a role in Greg leaving Cup racing in 2016, which he explains was a year earlier than his contract stated.

The interview also touches on some of Greg’s rivalries over the years and the stories behind them. Greg details his dust-up with Jay Sauter at Richmond and the monetary fine and points penalty that fell on him because of it. As a result, when he and Kevin Harvick made contact at Bristol a year later in 2002, he knew he wanted to avoid a fight at all costs. They also discuss his famous feud with Boris Said at Watkins Glen in 2011, and how a perfectly thrown water bottle exploded into a huge blow-out.

Since leaving racing in 2016, Greg has made use of his time by owning and operating a rock quarry as well as a humane shelter. He spends a lot of time outdoors fishing and boating. He has also made time for some racing, including his successful return to the Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports in 2019 and running in the 24 Hours of Lemons. While he still loves auto racing, he has learned to enjoy his weekends off and these days Greg Biffle is making the most of life.

DIRTY AIR

Before Greg joins the show, Dale, Mike, Alex and Hannah discuss: