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Dale Earnhardt Jr. Balances Racing & Family Life · Kenny Wallace Media

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  I heard a lot about this racetrack and I'd heard so many
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  great things about our staff from the Cars tour, about their
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  experiences here and so I was excited to be able to have the
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  opportunity to come and and give it a shot.
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  It reminds me a little bit of Myrtle Beach and East Carolina
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  Motor Speedway and it raced really fun.
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  I think I definitely want to come back and and and give it a
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  shot. I think the best thing about the
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  whole experience for me was so that my family could come and
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  they had things to do. So we're so close to the coast,
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  you can go to the aquarium and the kids and and Amy and all
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  them have some opportunity to have activities and stuff
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  throughout the weekend including being at the racetrack itself.
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  So this was kind of the perfect mix of of of prioritors,
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  prioritors, prioritors, sorry Prior or?
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  Priorities. Priorities.
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  Prioritizing. Prioritize.
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  Oh man, I can't even say it. The record state this is 1:30 in
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  the morning or whatever. Cut that out.
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  But when you're trying to prioritize family and racing
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  like I am, like I can only run so many races and I can't, you
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  know, I can't just run. I love I mean I love to run the
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  whole cars tour but I got 2 little girls and all kinds of
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  things going on in my life and so this kind of is a good mix of
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  being able to to to bring them somewhere where they can go
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  experience the weekend and and and and there's things to do
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  around in Jacksonville and so forth.
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  So that was a good thing for me. They came and and and and we're
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  a part of this and I get to have fun and do what I want to do and
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  do something for myself and be selfish but but my family gets
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  to have a great time too. So that that's probably the best
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  part about it for me and I think it was a good night for the
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  series, good night for the track and had a great race.
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  I I heard that the, you know, the race looked pretty good on
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  flow, so checked out all the boxes.
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  Was this one of those races where because of the timing of
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  Landon getting sideways in front of you, that you never got a
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  chance to even implement the strategy that you guys have come
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  up with? Yeah, we we qualified bad, which
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  I'm I'm just still trying to figure out what the secret is to
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  getting these cars to run fast and qualifying we race fine, but
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  I just don't know what to do in qualifying that that can find
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  more speed for our car. I think I'm just driving too
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  hard. But anyhow the race starts and
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  and I was in the back and so I had a really good I had a choice
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  to ride if I wanted to. There's no point in really
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  driving the car to the front and using it up.
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  So we sat there for a while 40 laps into the race decided that
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  maybe we'd try to gain about 10 more spots.
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  I think each, each, you know, I call them stages, but we have
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  the competition yellows at lat 45 if we don't have a natural
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  yellow. And so I think, you know, I
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  needed to get about 10 spots in that first little stage and then
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  another 10 spots in the next stage.
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  And I would have been set up pretty good to try to race the
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  last 50 laps or so as hard as I could and see if the car would
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  last to get a top ten or top five finish.
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  The car was good enough to do that.
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  And I was trying to hustle by landing because I was kind of
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  stuck behind him on the inside. And I felt like if I didn't try
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  to pass him on on the bottom three wide, then I was going to
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  let all these people buy me that I'd actually tried to position
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  myself in front of. And when you're running these
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  tire conservation races, you gotta, you gotta, you can't give
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  up a lot of spots when you're, you know, when you're that late
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  in the race. And I felt like that that was
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  going to undo all the things I was trying to accomplish.
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  And so I got a little antsy and just tried to, you know, make
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  make too much happen. Going 3 Y is never a good idea
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  and I sit there and see it happen all the time in the Cup
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  Series or Xfinity Series. And there I was tonight making
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  the same mistake. But anyways had a good car and
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  just got to figure out how to qualify better so I can put
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  myself in a different situation to choose what I want to do
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  strategy wise. But I'm having a blast and can't
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  wait to race again. I got a couple more races lined
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  up this year and we got some pretty cool stuff happening
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  outside of that with this car we we announced Sammy Smith's going
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  to race at Wilkesboro with the cheerleading sun drop, and we've
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  got another cool announcement coming for the Wednesday caraway
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  event. I think people will be excited
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  about. And then I'll drive the car
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  again toward the end of July at a race.
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  And then I'm going to probably run Darlington, the Darlington
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  weekend with the car store again.
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  So we got a lot going on. We're excited about it.
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  Dale, this is your first race on the new Cars Tour tire.
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  How did you feel like it worked tonight compared to the old
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  tire? Did you feel any better about
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  it, or worse about it? Yeah, I actually love the tire.
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  I mean, the ST2 is a bit more durable and so, you know, I love
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  the, you know, the tire conservation races and this tire
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  is a little tougher, so you can run into a little bit harder.
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  I think that, you know, there's, you know, if there's thirty cars
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  out there, there's going to be about, you know, a dozen drivers
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  that don't really understand how to save and keep the car off the
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  right rear. And so that works in my favor
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  because I feel like I really know how to keep the right rear
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  underneath the car for the whole race.
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  And so this tire kind of works against that.
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  So it's made it tougher for me to try to, you know, try to
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  figure out how to get the car, move the car forward because the
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  tire's just tougher and and guys are able to beat it up a little
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  bit more in the race and it plays into a few drivers hands
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  in our series. Mini tire rail for example is a
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  guy that runs hard all the time and this tire is really going to
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  benefit him and we saw that tonight.
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  There's a few other drivers, you know, I guess at the end we'll
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  see less riding less, less. You know, yes the pace was slow
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  for the 1st, 45 laps of this race, but it was probably a
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  second faster than it was last year.
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  So you know that's the goal when me and and and Jeff Burton and
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  Harvick and and Justin are sitting around talking about how
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  do we, you know, what do we need to fix.
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  So that was one of the things those guys really wanted to work
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  on and this tires helped us move in the right direction to get to
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  get the cars racing, get to get the competitors competing and
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  racing earlier in the race. Yes, there's going to be races
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  where you're going to have to ride and save a little bit, but
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  we certainly made a step forward tonight as a series, I think,
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  with the SD2 tire. You have guys like Butterbean
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  tonight and Connor Hall both kind of told me that they
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  weren't exactly fans of the Tire.
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  How do you get them to buy into the tire and get them on board
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  with? You Well, it is the same for
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  everybody. So you know they're when when
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  they win the race, they're going to be happy no matter what you
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  know. And when it doesn't go their
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  way, it's easy to point to what you what you changed, or what
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  the series might have changed. And definitely the tire is going
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  to be near the top of that list. So they'll all figure it out.
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  They'll they'll learn what this tire needs.
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  And not only just, you know, as far as from behind the steering
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  wheel and how they can use the tire and how much they can abuse
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  it, but also the setups and advantages that this tire might
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  present. Every tires you know it's, it
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  should be similar in construction, a little bit
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  harder compound, but air pressures and all those things,
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  there's a sweet spot that's going to have to be found and
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  it'll be a little bit different than the 45 that they've known
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  so well for so many years. But I I think for a series as a
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  driver, listen, I admit, you know, I want a tire that it's
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  going to wear out fast because I feel like as a driver man, I can
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  take care of it better than anybody, whether that's true or
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  not. But that's the way I feel right?
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  And so give me, give me a tire that mother boys can wear out
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  and I'll beat them. That's the way we all feel.
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  Great interview there from Matt Weaver.
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  Check him out at Sports. Not talking about Dale Earnhardt
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  Junior making his 2024 Cars Tour debut at New River All American
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  Speedway near Jacksonville NC Dale Junior finishing 14th in
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  the race for the Kenny Wallace YouTube channel.
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  I'm Charlie Marlow.