by Bobby Markos
When it comes to choosing guests for the Dale Jr. Download, Dale and the Dirty Mo crew have a wish list of potential visitors. After recording 354 episodes, Dale was finally able to sit down with a personality who he’s been wanting to talk with for a long time.
On this week’s episode of the Dale Jr. Download, Dale and co-host Mike Davis welcome road racing expert Jordan Taylor into the studio. While Taylor’s racing record speaks for itself, with two IMSA Weathertech SportsCar Championships and 24-wins to his name, he is also known for being a social media juggernaut. Dale and Mike dive right into that, and open the conversation up by asking Jordan where his personality comes from and his approach to creating hilarious video content. Jordan admits that he actually grew up shy, and still considers himself to be introverted, but growing a mullet when he was younger and making videos of it helped him come out of his shell.
We get the inside scoop on some of Jordan’s most popular videos, like the elliptical lady, the pink-haired fan from Le Mans and his driving goldendoodle Fonzie. Jordan explains how he comes up with his famed clips, and some of the praise and backlash he’s dealt with.
Jordan fills listeners in on his family, father Wayne and brother Ricky who are also accomplished road racers. His parents came from South Africa originally, and spent time in England in the late-80s while Wayne was pursuing his racing career. The pursuit brought the Taylors to the United States in 1990, where Wayne Taylor Racing has become a mainstay on the IMSA racing scene. The interview also covers Jordan’s start in racing, which saw him rise from go-karts to the Skip Barber Racing School, to starting in the Rolex 24 at the age of 16.
The episode is one of the funniest to date, with Jordan’s charismatic personality on full display as he shares a disastrous dating story, an Instagram hacking turned gift-card scam and a recounting of a surprise colonoscopy. Listeners can expect to learn a lot about one of auto racing’s brightest personalities.
Also on this week’s episode, Dale previews getting back in the driver’s seat for the upcoming Richmond Xfinity race. On Ask Jr, Dale discusses driver BPM data, commentating on vintage races, what track he wishes he would have won at, the Daytona Beach & Road Course on iRacing and tips for saving tires on iRacing. All of this and more on this week’s episode of the Dale Jr. Download - available on this website and all major podcast platforms.
Additional reading about our guest:
Born in Orlando, Florida, Jordan Taylor is the younger brother of racer Ricky Taylor and son of Wayne Taylor. Jordan entered the racing ranks through go-karts and attended the Skip Barber Driving School. He started his professional career in 2008 by competing in hihttps://shopjrnation.com/dept/dirty-mo-media?cp=80193_107163s first 24 Hours of Daytona at the age of 16.
In 2012 he made his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut driving for Corvette Racing, who he had impressed during a 2011 private test at Sebring. 2013 saw him join his father’s racing team co-driving with Max Angelelli and together the team won the Daytona Prototype Championship with five victories.
At Le Mans in 2015, Taylor won the GT Pro class. In 2017 Taylor drove in the IMSA Daytona Prototype class to the season championship, while winning the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring and the following three races in the process. He followed this up in 2019 with another Rolex 24 victory. 2020 brought about another change for Taylor, as he changed over to the Corvette Racing full-time factory driving position and won his second IMSA Championship.
As of the recording of this episode, Jordan won the GT class at the 2021 Rolex 24 and has three additional victories on the season, where he is currently the points leader.
-Dirty Mo-
