Mike Davis has opened up about the real reason behind stepping away from co-hosting Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s ‘The Dale Jr. Download’ podcast, admitting that the role no longer played to his strengths as Dirty Mo Media continued to expand. Davis stepped away from the show’s co-host at the end of 2023.
The Dale Jr. Download podcast was launched in 2013. For years, Davis sat alongside Dale Earnhardt Jr. to make the show NASCAR‘s most popular podcast. The former co-host now serves as the president of Dirty Mo Media, helping grow the company into one of the sport’s leading digital media platforms.
Thanks for the submission!
Davis made an appearance on the latest episode of Dale Jr. Download podcast and speak about his decision to leave the show. He explained that the increasing demands of running Dirty Mo Media and the changing nature of Download Show made it difficult to balance everything at once.
“I don’t know how many years Dale and I hosted the ‘Download’ together, but it felt like it ran its course for me. The company growing and also all the other shows and the pressure and all that stuff, all of a sudden started mounting for me. And next thing you know, I don’t look like, I’m looking at Dale across the table and I’m like, I don’t feel like we’re having a whole lot of fun.”
Davis noted that the podcast gradually transformed into a platform centered on Dale Jr.’ race breakdowns and in-depth race analysis. Davis felt that it was moving from his strength. He went on to say:
“My strong suit is not to unpack a race. And the Dale Jr. Download had really evolved into being a real good Dale Jr. unpacking races still is to this day. So again, I just felt like I wasn’t at my strength there. I would rather go back and build the company and run the company. And there was a lot of things happening for us. And it just was too much to try to do it all.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. reacts to Ryan Blaney’s overtime thriller win in the rain-delayed Atlanta race
Dale Earnhardt Jr. praised last weekend’s thrilling Atlanta race, whose nature kept fans watching until early Monday morning, despite a three-hour rain delay. Ryan Blaney secured a dominant victory after beating Bubba Wallace and Carson Hocevar in an intense three-wide battle on the final lap.
Taking to X, Dale Jr. expressed his excitement over the thrilling Atlanta race and wrote:
“Damn that was a long day but worth it. Glad we got to see the finish. Atlanta Motor Speedway can’t be beat. What a show.”
Watch the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season next at North Wilkesboro Speedway on Sunday, July 19, at 7 pm ET on TNT Sports.
Edited by Yash Soni