Thanks for being a standup guy Jr...
Dale, Jr.
“I’m going to work really, really hard with my guys,” he said. “I promised them that these last several races through the last half of the season that no matter Chase or not, we owed it to ourselves to race hard and work really hard. It would be foolish and uncharacteristic of my team to kind of skip along and ride it out. No matter what the results are, I want my guys to feel when we turn the last lap at Homestead that we worked hard and we had great integrity.”
LOL Strippers and brake fans?? I missed that while rebooting the computer.
Best Radio Chatter:
Dale Jr. climbed into the Bud/Elvis special before the race while it was parked alongside a pit box that was being sprayed with a strange fruity-smelling liquid of some sort. (Teams spray all kinds of concoctions on the pavement inside their pit box to make the maximum traction for the cars and the crew members as they service the car...)
Dale Jr: “What did you guys put in here?!? It smells like a stripper...”
Dale Jr. struggled with the car in the early going, but really lit up when the handling improved. The race was red-flagged twice to clean the track following multi-car accidents, and Junior discussed his car during the first red flag on lap 244 while sitting in second place to Jeff Gordon.
Dale Jr: (to the crew): “I need a lil’ bit more racecar and I can win.”
Tony Eury Jr: “10-4. We’ll work on it for you.”
Jeff Hammond (on the team radio while announcing for DirecTV Hot Pass): “Junior, I don’t know if I’ve seen you drive this hard before.... How will you get by the 24 car (J. Gordon)?”
Dale Jr. : (joking - perhaps) “You should have been watching my whole career. I’ve always driven hard! We’re gonna keep on tryin,’ and we’re so close to havin’ a car that can win. If I get by the 24, we can stay there. We’ll run away with it and we won’t have to worry about that...”
The car was fast, but vibrated badly under heavy braking. To try to help the situation, the team would remind Junior to turn off the brake fans during caution periods and then back on before going green...
Eury Jr: “Stayin’ out.”
Dale Jr: “Yes, sir.”
Eury Jr: “Brake fans off, Dale Jr..”
Dale Jr: “I can remember that but I forget to turn ‘em back on if you don’t remind me. We need to look into that though. I don’t think that’s what the problem is.”
Eury Jr.: “Yeah, you’ve been hard on ‘em (brakes) all night. All four rotors were glowing red early on.”
Dale Jr: (surprised/alarmed) “Why didn’t ya tell me that?!?!”
Eury Jr: “Because you were doin’ good. And the last time I seen that with you, you went out and beat Mark Martin and won the Busch race (in 1999).”