Dale Jr. Download Generates Fun at JRM Fan Days

Ron Lemasters | JR Motorsports | 5/30/2018

Dale Jr. Download Dirty Mo Media News

On the occasion of JR Motorsports’ annual Fan Days at the JRM campus, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his Dale Jr. Download podcast posse did a rare live show for fans attending the event.

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (May 30, 2018) – On the occasion of JR Motorsports’ annual Fan Days at the JRM campus, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his Dale Jr. Download podcast posse did a live show for fans attending the event. The show featured the same unbridled enthusiasm displayed when the show is done in the Axalta Racing Studios inside the JR Nation Retail Store...only right out in the open.

With a fairly raucous crowd in front of the impromptu stage in the cul-de-sac, Earnhardt Jr. and co-hosts Matthew Dillner and Mike Davis talked Fan Days and the latest class of inductees to the NASCAR Hall of Fame before the weekly #AskJr segment took over. There was also a brief peek at where the show will be heading soon...

On Fan Days:

“I’m so glad that people want to be here,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “It’s a big racing weekend, with Indy and Formula One, and the 600 brings a lot of people in town. Having this Friday of no track activity is great for the sport, and it gives you guys an opportunity to tour some of these places. This gives you guys some things to do when there’s nothing going on at the track.”

On the NASCAR Hall of Fame:

“It’s a really good class,” he said. “I was excited for all the guys who got in. All those guys who were nominated (but were not voted in) are going to be in the Hall of Fame at some point. Davey Allison and Alan Kulwicki going in together was interesting.”

#AskJr Questions:

Paul from Maine told Dale Jr. that he grew up as a fan of his in a rather unique manner. “You were my car seat when I was a baby...I’m only 23,” he quipped to general laughter. He then asked Dale Jr. for a shout-out to his mother Eileen...which he obliged. ”Thanks for raising a fan! That’s what it’s all about.”

One gentleman named Diego had an interesting story on how he got to Fan Days. It seems he rode the Greyhound bus from Atlanta, Georgia to Charlotte, then hopped on his trusty bicycle and pedaled all the way to Mooresville for the event (which was probably faster than driving a car up I-77!). Diego asked about Dale Jr. and Amy’s three-week-old daughter, Isla Rose.

“It’s going great,” Dale Jr. replied. “Isla’s been a lot of fun, we’ve learned a lot. It’s been three weeks now, and I’m trying to help Amy as much as I can, giving her opportunities to rest and take some of that off her hands. I try to stand there and be available. I try to feed Isla when I can, if Amy will allow that (laughter). Neither one of us are sleeping all the way through the night.”

There were some specifics, to be sure. “She does not like a wet diaper,” the proud papa declared. “She’ll wake straight up out of a sleep and want it changed. The number of diapers used is amazing. It’s a lot of fun. I’ve never had anything in my life have me so excited to wake up and go and see. It’s love...it’s hard to be reserved about it.”

Chase from Chesapeake, Va. hit a hot button with a question on the NCWTS, NASCAR Cup and NXS cars running more traditional short tracks, like South Boston.

“I’d love for there to be more short-track races,” Earnhardt Jr. answered. “When I want to get a racing fix, and go online or look for videos, I always gravitate to the short tracks. You can watch full videos of short-track racing all across the country. I want to watch these old short-track series. I would be super excited for the Truck Series or Xfinity Series to go to South Boston or Myrtle Beach or somewhere like that...it’d be so much fun. I may be wrong, but I think they could have the same size crowd at those tracks as they have at some of the 1.5-mile tracks. The action is going to be interesting, you know you’re going to be entertained, so that’s a no-brainer. We do need to get more short-tracks into the schedule, tracks five-eighths of a mile or shorter.”

Answering a query about taking the NXS cars off the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway and putting them back at the five-eighths-mile oval at Lucas Oil Raceway (formerly known as Indianapolis Raceway Park), Earnhardt Jr. remained true to his convictions.

“Everybody that I talk to thinks they should be racing at (Lucas Oil) instead of the big track,” he said. “The only people that don’t like that idea are the team owners, and I’m going to take myself out of that owner box for a minute. When I listen to all the owners, selling a sponsor for that race is easy for them if they are at IMS. When they’re at the little track, it’s harder to sell that race. They did make some changes to that race (at IMS last year, with the new aero package that will run again this weekend at Pocono) that made it more entertaining, and I hope we can continue to go down that path to where we make that race so entertaining that we don’t wish we were back at the little track.”

To hear the complete story from the live show, click here.