Bussin' With The Boys - Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Episode Date: April 20, 2020

Recorded: April 9, 2020 Where do you even begin when describing Dale Earnhardt Jr... The stud professional racecar driver, team owner, author, philanthropist, broadcaster, podcast host, and, of course, son of The Intimidator, Dale Earnhardt Sr., sat (digitally) with The Boys for a heartfelt talk that we've been planning for a while. Topics include if men had to get pregnant, some Redskins talk, expectations for the NFL Draft, what would you change about Joe Burrow, how Dale owns an entire western town, and the impact of Kobe Bryant's passing. Then, Dale opens up and tells his terrifying plane crash story in more detail than ever before. Finally, to end on a lighter note, intern Zach (the biggest Dale Jr. fan on Earth) drops in to ask a few questions of his own. Enjoy! Want to be featured in an episode? Share your questions, feedback, and whatever else using #ForTheBoys / #DontGiva and TAG US @bussinwtb on all platforms. Have a song submission for Pickin' With The Boys? Send an acoustic original to [e-mail] and we might throw it on our platform. ----- SHOP: https://store.barstoolsports.com/collections/bussin-with-the-boys FOLLOW THE BOYS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bussinwtb/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BussinWTB Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BussinWTB/ Website: https://www.bussinwtb.com LISTEN iTunes: http://bit.ly/BWTB_Apple Spotify: http://bit.ly/BWTB_SpotifyFor more, visit barstool.link/bussinwtbSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsClyce on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you're you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slica Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. The boys. Yo, it's the boy. Zach, the intern, not Will. He's taking the day off and has given me

the extreme pleasure in introducing today's guests. Let me just go ahead and tell you, today's guest is one of the most anticipated ones since we've started this podcast. The boy, Dale Earnhardt Jr. sat down with us today and had a awesome. conversation. We talked a lot about Redskins football, football in general. Then we dive deep into his plane crash that he had back last year and kind of how his outlook on life has changed and how that event changed his life. Then me being his biggest fan, I get to ask him some of the questions that I've always wanted to ask him. And it's just a really cool moment for me. So without further ado, here's NASCAR's most popular driver and my personal hero, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

I'm on baby duty this morning. Mama's pregnant, not feeling too hot. And Dale, what's up, man? Sounds like my house. Yeah, it's crazy. They're pregnant, too. How far along is going to be? Well, Taylorins do July 16th. So we're right around the corner right now.

And this whole craziness going on, I don't even know if I'll be able to be in the labor room or anything like that. What is your wife do? They're going to do in October, but I've read a lot about some of the challenges that women that are pregnant are facing men. They're, you know, the father's not able to be in there sometimes, and they're even not even having the same doctor they've been working with. It's just crazy. It sucks.

I can't imagine. Go ahead. I was just going to say, it's just super stressful for us. Imagine for the wife, it's got to be over the top. No doubt. It's definitely, you feel super helpless sometimes as you're not. not like you're just like hey I like I know you don't feel good but you haven't felt in the wild like what can I what can I do and it's like a lot of times you can't really do anything about it

and my daughter my daughter's going through a phase right now she's two and a half and she's going through a phase of like trying to figure out boundaries yeah so she's trying to make her decisions all time and for some reason she's made a decision that she's not a fan of dad at it right now and so like we're in this tug-of-war battle like she's always wants mama right now and mama's like kind of doing her like turn like nest and do her thing so this morning I've been running up down the stairs, her and wrangler and all that. How did she? Two and a half.

She's about to be three in July. Mine's, I got a two month old. She'll be two in April 30th. Oh, yeah. And she's, April 30th right away. Yeah,

she's pretty, me and her pretty tight right now. I'm hoping that stays, I'm hoping that stays consistent. Well, are you guys, oh, go ahead, well,

I was going to say, are you guys, well, just, I'm just kidding. I was going to ask, I was going to ask, since you guys are,

both pregnant are like the appointments you guys are having now like I don't know anything about that we don't have you don't have or do you guys get on the phone and they kind of tell you hey we can't yeah all and not all and not essential stuff for not you know for for for every for our for our safety for their safety you know they just said it's not critical don't come in dang yeah yeah our our OBGYN was basically like if you unless it's emergency pretty much don't don't contact me or don't come in yeah right And so it's, I mean, you know how it is too when we're pregnant. I hate what people say, you guys are pregnant. I like, you and I are.

We did the fun part and now it's, they got the hard part, right? Yeah. But it's one of those things that's like, you know, everything feels different and weird and their body's growing and morphing all the time. It's just like, can't feel comfortable. And if it was, if it was us, like, if men had to get pregnant, we'd go to stay. We'd be complaining like crazy. You couldn't even talk to me.

I get sick, it's game over. You can't even, you can't talk to me at all about nothing. So I will say selfishly, right when this all went down and they told us that our visits were all canceled, we were two weeks from going to get blood tests to make sure things okay, plus find out the sex, and we haven't done that. So it's been driving me crazy because we wanted to find out. We wanted to know. It's freaking me out, wanting to know, you know.

more than more than anything of like finding out the sex it's like that blood test if you know everything's kind of progressing that way that's a big load off your shoulders for sure yeah I was big on wanting a a little a little boy because I don't know you know you know you just you're you're just what you know you're dude you want a little you I know I want to you stereotyc just want to throw the ball around with my buddy not saying can't any person that watches this podcast I know when they can't I dated a softball player in college, but like, I don't know, man. Like, it was just, it was something I really wanted. And then, you know, one day I was like totally cool with it.

I was like, you know what? Actually, I'd be totally fine with another girl. And then we found out the sex. We weren't going to find it out. And I'm having another girl. So I'm a girl dad. I'm like Kobe out here, man. Yeah.

I would be okay with another girl, too. I was, yeah, I was so much fun. And Amy's amazing. So just having more versions of them on the, on the property, it'd be awesome. No doubt. You hope to have a boy? I really, you know, either way, I don't have any feelings about it yet.

I'm sure once we find out, and if it is a boy, I'll have all these thoughts and things that I never even expected. If you do, will it be the third? No, no, no, no, no. We already have a name. No, we got a name, man. The name, yeah. So we had a name for a boy before I was born a couple years ago, and it's such a cool

name and I was like well if we have a boy any other you know that's the name so I like it I will keep it a secret but yeah girl names are tough man we couldn't the girl name took forever to figure out the girl the girl name is an R and came a lot easier than the boy names because you don't know that's interesting I got a buddy who's got the coolest name for a son you can steal it if you want because you don't know him but I can't steal it and I want it real bad his name is Stetson and I thought I was like that name is badass man that is a great that is a cool name That's awesome. Yeah, if we were going to have a boy, I want to name it Whalen.

Whelan? Yeah, after Whelan Jennings. Yes. Everybody might have loved that. Yeah, dude, I think those old country names are awesome. They're strong, they're powerful. They set the tone. Yeah.

You're setting the tone with that background, man. You got the hell of basically one step above the leather helmet on the redskins right there. You know who's hell of that is? That's 1985. Dave Butz. Oh, really? Oh, really? Check this.

So are we recording to me? Are we podcasting? Oh, dude, you're busing with the boys. That's how we do. Sorry. Sorry. We just get in. Well, I don't want to ruin the story.

I want to say it for the podcast. But I went to, I had an appearance for a racetrack. So Talladega Motor Speedway sent me over to the college football Hall of Fame. And so I went over to that building, huge building. I'm sure you guys have been there. and I collect helmets and I have probably, I don't know, about 80 to 100 helmets, different college teams, and probably about a third of the NFL. And I was at this appearance walking around in this college football Hall of Fame, really cool place. And they got this huge rack of helmets on the wall.

And they surprised me with having Dave Butts come in. and he, I knew it immediately when I saw him and he comes walking up and he's got this helmet in his hand and I look at it and I'm like, why in the hell is he carrying a helmet around and it's beat the hell? And I was like, that's a real helmet. And he walks up to me and he handed it to me. He's like, here, once you have this. And I was like, oh man, you've got kids. Certainly your boys or somebody in your family wants this.

And he's like, nah, they probably won't appreciate it as much as you. I said, well, listen here, I'm going to keep this thing. And if you ever want it, you tell him boys, they can have it right back. I'll get it right back to them. But I'll be the keeper for a while. So I don't have a lot of game worn or game use stuff, particularly from, you know, the 80s or 70s, some of that historical stuff. Dave was a great lineman for the Redskins on the hogs. Hodge's offensive line is what they called it.

And Dale Hogs, man. Yeah, so I was really appreciative that he did that. Got some Elvis Presley stuff over my shoulder. My mama was a huge Elvis fan. And I was a little boy, she would keep me on the weekends. Dad would go race, and I'd stay at my mom's house. And she had Elvis playing all the time in her house, all the time, just 24-7 Elvis Elvis singing long.

So I'd be an Elvis fan over that. What made you know of Redskins? Yeah. Well, so when I was little, I guess around 19802, the first game I really remember watching was the Redskins against the Miami Dolphins and Super Bowl. and my mom and dad divorced in 78 and she moved to Norfolk Virginia, Chesapeake Bay, nothing but Redskins fans up there. So when I go visit her, everything was Redskins. If you went into a store, all the sports stuff was Redskins, decals, whatever, in the convenience store.

Everything was Redskins logos. And so she would buy me helmets and uniforms. I still have like these jerseys and these old tiny little helmets with the plastic guard on them. from when I was like 12 years old getting these gifts for Christmas. And we didn't have a team in Charlotte. We didn't have a team in North Carolina. It was basically, we had a lot of, in North Carolina back then, in the 80s, we had a lot of Falcons fans, Redskins fans,

and they were Cowboys fans all across the country. And so it was kind of a mixed bag. But when the Panthers came, at that point, I was so invested. We had won Super Bowls, Joe Gibbs, all that good stuff was happening. and I just couldn't change, man. And I'm still as die hard today, I guess, as I was any point, even after everything we've been through over the last couple of decades, it's been real hard.

But when you're in, you're in, man. I can't imagine undoing all that investment, emotional, personal investment, and trying to pour it back into something else. I really won't, you know, people always ask me about the Panthers and whether I pull for them and I do. and because the you know a successful sports team in Charlotte I live 30 minutes from downtown and a successful sports team in that area man's great for everybody great for business great for everything and so I want them to win a lot if the skins can't win I want the Panthers to win

it'll be the Titans so you can't be mad about that I was actually very upset Yeah, we, we, we, it's been frustrating, but, you know, we got a new coach, Ron's coming in. You fired up? You know, I always say that every offseason's a reason for new hope, right? And when you're a Redskins fan or a fan of a team that's been notoriously kind of struggling to put it together, every year is like a time to wipe the slate clean emotionally and personally and, and, and start new. And I love to, I mean, every day I'm checking my phone for any piece of news. I can't get enough, I can't soak up enough information, just opinion articles, whatever it is about who

we're, what we're going to do in the draft or how things are going with training camp, what the positional battles are and all that stuff. So year round, you're a fan, right? And trying to find positivity and hope and anything you're reading about the team and the changes they're making. Jay Gruden was a great coach, a lot of fun. I enjoyed him as our coach, but yeah, I mean, after a certain period of time when you're sort of having the same results, maybe it's time for everybody to do something different. And so I feel like, if anything, maybe he was just as relieved as we were

to be making a change, to try something else. And Ron seems to be so respected by the people that he coaches and kind of a tough defensive guy. You know, we need somebody to come in. to the organization in all organizations need that I believe in ruling with iron fist you know when we talk about NASCAR and rules and rule breakers and cheaters you know nothing wrong with cheating getting creative but if you get called I want you busted hard I mean I want you I want the sport to come down on you hard man you know and set an example it's more about perception you know

putting that perception out there that we run this show you know and that's what you can say it you can say shit on here, bro. Yeah, that's what we need. We run this shit, dude. Run this shit, man. That's what we need in our coach. We need our coach to be tough and he's tough. Ron, I don't think takes any shit off anybody. So we'll see how it goes. You follow all the draft stuff right now. Obviously, you guys pick number two. You're seeing Chase Young. You're seeing Chase Young everywhere. Yeah. Were you excited about that? You know, I am. You know, and, you know, we've picked it two before. and with Robert Griffin and all that was, you know, going so well that first year. Things were awesome.

Team looked amazing and then things kind of went south. But, you know, so we've been here before. We've been at number two before with opportunity and I think all the Redskins fans out there are kind of tempering their expectations. Of course, I think if we draft Chase, we're going to be happy. we'll just see what kind of player he becomes in the NFL. The rumors about maybe, you know, the interest in Tua or anybody else for that matter, obviously sound and look like smoking mirrors.

But, you know, and I like our quarterback that we have now, but I think Tua is, you know, if he's healthy, if the hip is good, and if he can go out there, I think, you know, he's going to be a great quarterback. And so you can't pass on great quarterbacks, right? you can't give up the opportunity to draft a great quarterback. And so I don't know if I'll have a problem with whatever they do. If they trade back, I'm open to it. I feel like we got all new guys in there running the ship.

You got the front office changed. You got the coaching staff changed. So I think if we had the same people in the same positions as we did last year in the years before and they traded back, I'd be disappointed. But now I'm kind of like, hey, maybe these guys know what they're doing. Well, there's a lot of depth in the draft too, especially like we see. Super heavy in the draft. Offensive tackle is super heavy in the draft.

Because I'm like obviously playing the NFL is one thing. But like once you have your team and you kind of like you've been playing on it for a little bit, you always like that the free agency and the draft. Like it's an exciting time of the year. It's like a new transition. Like you said, it's like new hopes. For me, I'm looking at all these boards and seeing what the draft's strong and all that. And I've seen a couple of things saying that Chase Young might go one overall.

He's that talented all that. So if Chase goes one, were you thinking Joe Burrow or thinking Tua? If you had, I mean, I'm not saying. That's true. That's true. It's not saying Tua. Yeah, you're saying a lot of Tua, but there's that chance. You're only one big away from Burrow. Right.

I think you would take him. Which one? Which one? Joe. I think you take Joe because. Yeah, you take Joe. Yeah, because of the health. Strictly because of, you know, the health concerns with Tua,

there are just so many question marks. Unfortunately, you know, considering, you know, know, how everybody's locked down, nobody can see anybody. We can't really, you know, nobody can move around because of the virus stuff that we, you know, coaches and evaluators aren't able to really get their eyes on these players and sit down and spend time with them. That's hurting, I think, to it this particular point

because he wants to prove to everybody that he's healthy and ready to rock. But Joe, I like Joe a lot, but what do you guys think about his personality? So, you know, he's a brash guy. Ain't afraid to lay it out there, be himself. How do you feel that guy that, that's awesome in college, in a college atmosphere. How do you think that transitions over to the NFL? If you're drafting, if you're a personnel guy or you're a coach

and you're drafting him, do you just let the guy run and do his thing? Do you kind of rain him in a little bit, tell him how to maybe add a little professionalism, a little polished to what he's doing? Will you go to take this one? I'll go after you. Now, are you saying it from a way that he's like edgy out there outside of playing and ball? Yeah, kind of like a Jim McMahon kind of guy.

You know, he kind of reminds me of that as personal. a little bit. Yeah, I mean, in my opinion, I don't think you should ever, you shouldn't micromanage him. So you got to let him be himself and let him lead with his personality and stuff. But there's some things that you have questions about off the field. Like, yeah, you just have some guys around him or you just mentor him along the way. But you got to let him be himself because you want to be as comfortable as possible the moment he steps in the door. You know what I'm saying? And then say he stepped into the tightest facility. Like Taylor, like all the boys and the leaders and stuff would be around him. That he would be himself. But I know Braves,

and those guys, everybody would kind of add some, that professionalism that you're talking about. But you definitely don't want to try and change him because that kind of makes him who he is. He kind of has that swag about himself, that confidence that he plays with. But that would be, that's what I would do if I was a coach. Yeah, there's a lot of times like being professional is a good thing. I, myself, Dale, I am not a professional person. I don't know how a professional approach. Right.

And a lot of ways. But I do think, like, being you is what got you into the position. were. They're just like you for racing, just like me, football, well for football. Like, those are things that, like, being ours, like, you got to be yourself. And just speaking from personal experience, when I was at Michigan, my senior year when I was at Michigan, they told me, hey, you need to be, literally use the words vanilla. You have to be Mr. like, all-American, clean-cut, like, you know, business guy the whole time. And I was, I was drinking the Kool-Aid, like, no one's business.

I was drunk on Michigan. So I was like, absolutely, I'm 100% in it. And so I did it. And really along the way, like, lost myself. I really wasn't like the same person. I, if anything, my ego got bigger. I thought I was better than I was. I thought I was bigger than I was my last year.

And it kind of ruined that senior year for me that could have been way more special than it actually was. And then I come to the Titans, and it kind of a similar thing happened to me, my second year. I was stoned into a leadership role right away, and they were telling me how to act and be myself. And my career was somewhat on the rocks. They were talking about replacing me

in the draft with Lammy Tunsell, which is big God, he's got extraordinary lungs and had that video go on the draft because it all worked out for me in that way. But, I mean, after that, after that, my second year, I realized, like, you, you got to be yourself and people can take or leave it, but if you're 100% yourself, you cannot be mad with the result that you get, you know? And there's, but there's a level like, you can't just be off the rail. You can't be Joe exotic. I don't know if you've watched a documentary. Yeah, I have. You can't be Joe exotic, but you can, you can have your flair, you can have your things that make you you, and then still be a team player, be the guy that can come in.

Because I kind of like a quarterback that's like, for lack of a better word, it doesn't give a shit. Like, I'm going to sling this thing. I'm going to throw in there. Brett Farber is that way. Jake Cutler, you know, you always picture him with a cigarette hanging out of his and he doesn't give a shit like anything. And one of my friends, I used to be super close with Zach Mettenberger.

He was the same way. He came in. We were playing the Patriots. Marcus Marriota got hurt. We were playing the Patriots like, week 11 my second year we're two and 14 there's it one no it's three and 13 year we actually got better than the year before and we're going to pick at one but we were playing the Patriots get absolutely donkey not even a chance and Marcus gets hurt just salt in the wound and I'm kind of like leaning down in the

huddle and I and someone comes in and I start to I'm starting to smell and I start I start smelling like skull wintergreen or like Copenhagen the winter green I'm like I know that I know that smell and I look up And I'm not joking, Zach had the same face mask as the one behind you. He had the bar down the middle. He had the one strap across the top and he had a fat lip. I swear to God, it was that far outside of his left. And first play, throws it to Delaney Walker. Delaney is running across the middle.

Stiff arms a guy. Hurdles a guy. Like, just absolutely barreling through the entire Patriots defense and scored. Still lost by 21 points, but damn it, I'll remember that forever. It was one of the coolest damn thing. I've ever seen in my entire life. And he just didn't give a shit. I mean, obviously his career is not where he wants it to be and all that.

But, like, at the same time, you know, it's a del vest store. You got a lot of, though. The situations like that, guys in the locker room go in, they're like, man, you see that? That's pretty cool. And he, you know, and I mean, you kind of respect those types of things. You still got to perform and do all that stuff. But Joe's got, I think he has the talent. I'm not a quarterback guru.

I don't know shit about quarterback. Yeah, yeah. Well, what would you, if you're, if you're the head, Coach, what would you want to do, Dale? Well, there's, you know, as a broadcaster in racing, I love our guys to be, you know, really colorful, and we got to have the villains, we got to have the heroes, we got to have all the players and all the personalities,

and the, I guess, controversial guys even kind of have a place to bring awareness and interest to our sport and get people watch. So I kind of want that, and I like players that are that way. I certainly was a fan of vanilla players throughout the Redskins histories. I like John Riggins. I liked him because of the way he was as a person and how he didn't give a damn either when he was, you know. Where we go. You know, when he was playing, he kind of did his own thing.

But I also like guys like Daryl Green and Art Munk that were role models and just workman-like. And you can depend on him. Art was going to run the pattern. He was going to catch the ball. He was going to get a first down. Ryan Kerrigan. Yeah, Ryan Kerrigan. is another great guy that's a great role model.

But I like the bad guys too. I like the guys that are Mowdy. Dexter Manley was one of my favorite players. He was pretty rough around the edges. And so as a coach, I think, you know, you definitely want your guy to have some personality and bring some, you know, bring some color to the locker room, I imagine. Just as long as you're succeeding on the field,

studying and doing your job, right? Doing your job and working hard and understanding everything that is required of your position, I suppose that you can be whoever you want. I think that's why people, I mentioned Jim, man, I think that's why he worked, his deal worked. He was out there, he was colorful, but he won, you know, and he played well, and he was tough.

You know, he could, he could play in some pretty difficult situations. We're going to hold that thought, and you guys know the drill you understand it. By now we're going to read a couple ads. The good news today is we only have two ads not three so you're not going to hear me ramble along talking about cutting my balls while i'm shaving and stuff like that but our first ad comes to us from hawthorne and right now we're going to talk about a night some first experiences i'll go first about cologne and smell good

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Dude, you're a huge football fan. This is like an entire football podcast right now. That's what it's become. Our podcast is Loki become a football. Oh, I knew he was a, I knew he was a Skins fan, but I didn't know, like, the depths right here, dude. You're all about the sport. I've just been paying attention throughout the years.

I had Russ Grimm as my offensive line coach. Wow, really? He was a hog. Yeah, it was like two years ago. That guy kept, he had a refrigerator in his office and he had, it was full of bud light at all times. And the only time, dude, he is, he was like the most legendary, like guy you would run through a wall for.

And some of his stories, I mean, I can't tell really any of them on a podcast, but he was, he was an unbelievable guy. And he like, our office line in 2015, 2015 our office line was statistically one of the worst in the entire league. and then Mike Malarkey brought in Russ Grimm pretty much the same guys like literally no one different I think we drafted Jack Conklin in the first round that year it overall and statistically turned into the number one offense on the league and Russ does not teach technique he does not teach like you know stepping over a bag and waddling up to a linebacker what he teaches is camarader with

the boys like he teaches you to be like you are playing if it's next to you find out what you play for individually and then play for these guys and you're good and I've never been a part of a tighter whole line than maybe 2016 that that whole entire group was just like always together banded brothers mentality like got down and dirty and then pretty much all that had to do with Russ so I can't imagine him back in the day being a hog all those guys out there just killing people I think they're like a turnover margin plus like C5 like it was a It was an absolutely ridiculous number like that. Will, like the turnover margin was insane.

Like, didn't he send you a photo of like his, doesn't he have like a fake limb or something like that? Oh, yeah. He ended up losing his leg. He cut his foot in the middle of the year. And he never took care of it, ever, not once, actually. Like, they literally would tell him, hey, Rustic, you got to walk on this treadmill.

He'd be like, well, you know, I walk from here into my car and bag. That's enough walking for me. and he was this old school guy, man, couldn't tell him nothing, and he ended up having some medical stuff go on when we were playing the Patriots in a divisional round where he couldn't really stand up or anything and ended up losing his right leg. But I called him up in true rust-grim fashion.

I'm like, hey, man, like, how are you doing? You're all right? He's like, yeah, you know, it's all good. Sox or buy one, get one free now. I only have to pay 50-10 shoes. Like literally not a care in the world. sent me a picture he's out he's out at the pool got his leg all bandaged up with some girl picking up like you know picking up a drink for him and turd butts out there he's just like double thumbs up

you know and he's just the man just lives his best life he he lives the way um i don't know like if you had all the money in the world and didn't care and it was just like whatever's going to happen happened he is he is an all-time guy i can't say enough good things about ruskrip he made me a fan of the hobbs him and clint dittier came out to the race in the mid-90s and I got a picture of me and them too standing in my dad's racing hauler. That's awesome. Yeah, as soon as you mentioned the name, man, that picture comes in my mind. And I remember the first time I saw, you know, Joe Gibbs became an owner in our sport

and has become extremely successful, championship owner. And I knew that he had owned drag racing cars and been in motorsports before. and when the word came that he was going to own a race team in our sport, you know, I got really excited. And I remember the first time I saw him at a racetrack, and I was screaming at him and hollering at him like a huge fan, which I was. But, you know, I just couldn't believe I was seeing him in person.

It was like seeing, you know, your favorite celebrity walking around, and there's Joe Gibbs walking around at. Atlanta Motor Speedway is after the race, and he's walking down through the pits. Everybody's kind of cleaning up, picking stuff up, and getting out of there and getting ready to go home, and there he is. And I was like, Joe Gibbs, Joe Gibbs!

I couldn't believe it, me. Yeah. And now. You had starry-eyed. I flipped out, man. You fan-boy. You fan-boy. I love that, dude.

Dale were you that way when I came to the racetrack and rode with you? She. Shee. It will. Will. Man, it's been crazy. And ever since... He just ignored your question.

He ignored those. It's been crazy, man. It's different now. Like, I've been... Joe Gibbs, though. He's different, huh? Back then, I'd never even met a player. Yeah, I've never even met a player.

I've been watching them guys on TV on a whole life, and I mean, to meet a player would be insane. And here's the coach, the guy that leads them. And ever since then, I've been able to be around the organization a little bit and spend more time and get to know some of the guy. I'll tell you one thing, man. This is, I don't mind. I don't care.

It's embarrassing, but who cares? I was Gangelo Hall. Oh, D. Hall. Shout out D. Hall, dude. Yeah. I was at a game. I don't even know. Can't remember what game it was,

but I was walking down the hall, and the D-backs are all huddled up, doing their thing, right, you know, 20 feet from the field, getting ready to go out for the game. And I know, I can imagine, like what that moment's like you know those guys are tuning in to each other they're getting their zone they ain't nothing going on as far as they know outside that bubble and I come walking by

and DeAngelo Hall looks and goes what's up junior and I was like I can go home now it's going to get any better I don't care if they went by a hundred it'll be better than this moment right here that's pretty awesome yeah I mean he was a beast and such a cool guy But for him to acknowledge me, and even in that moment when they're really getting ready to buckle down and things couldn't be more serious, just flew me away, man. I couldn't believe it. I've had a couple of other experiences like that. But, man, for a fan, Dee Hall's all time. Who you are?

Huh? Dee Hall is all time. It was my first year that it was the year we went to the playoffs and we lost the Green Bay. But when we made that run and clinched the division against the Eagles, I had sacked San Bradford. and I did this funny little like gentleman's dab thing. And like the next week, Dee Hall sent with his kids and they're playing a board game. And his kids like, oh, I'm doing the little company.

They start dabbing and Dee Hall sends it to me. And I was just thinking like, man, you know, De Angel Halls text me what his kids are doing that's imitating me. And I thought it was like the coolest thing in the world. But Dee Hall's all time, man. Yeah, he's a great guy. Sorry about all the Redskins talk, Taylor. I know, man.

What else you guys want to talk about? Honestly, I kind of love it. It's interesting just to learn about that stuff because, like, I mean, Tennessee does have history coming from Houston and all that, but like, residents are one of those teams to have, like, one of the most rich histories of all the NFL teams. So it's fun to learn about you growing up.

And, I mean, obviously, I'll learn a little bit about it with Will. He put there for so long and had so much success there. And his, you know, coming from an undrafted guy, you got it, buddy. You're putting your friends on the podcast, so I'll be nice. You, I mean, just be able to be undrafted and then to come and, you know, have the story he did, like Will's, you know, five foot 10, 197. Now he's going to bring me down. He's a white guy.

He's bringing me down. He's a white guy. It doesn't belong to the NFL, but he's been doing it. You know what I'm saying? This will be your eight for him. And so I don't doubt that we'll be on our team this year. Will, would you ever go back to the Redskins? I would.

You know, there, yeah, I mean, I do. They're like, there's been that salty bitterness, but it has, it has nothing to do with, like, my starting point. Like, the Redskins is where I started everything. You know what I mean? Like that's where I have the majority of my relationships. That's probably why I got bitter when I left because you're so close to an organization. But yeah, I for sure would.

If they threw their hat in the ring, I would for sure consider going back to the Redskins. Yeah. Does all the turnover make that decision easier? I mean, there's a couple of decisions that like, you know, happen that you're kind of like, okay, they're going toward a better direction. I won't say exactly those decisions. decisions, you probably know. Yeah.

But, but yeah, man, you just knew how hard the guys worked in the locker room and how hard actually a lot of those coaches worked. And so when stuff wasn't happening, it's such a hard place, too, because D.C. is like this media frenzy of creating bad stories and stuff like that. You don't really get it as much. Taylor, picture, like 10 Paul Kaharski's in D.C. Not that Paul Kajarski, I'm not saying he plays the good villain role in Tennessee. But it's more like people have real agendas and vendettas with tearing some of the Redskins apart sometimes.

And so it's like that all the time, like when RG3 was happening and her cousins, like, I won't go down all those rabbit holes just because we have a podcast with Dale Earnhardt Jr. But that's what I think so interesting too is you're telling these stories. And it's just, you know, you have your own status in the NASCAR world. And to hear stories about you talking about Dee Hall and even though you didn't talk about any of stories with me, but like the old hogs and the Redskins. It's just cool to kind of hear that stuff. Everybody's, I don't know, everybody gets excited, and you seem to love football and the Redskins,

and it's fascinating. Yeah, well, I appreciate it, man. We're going to make our memories. We've been telling each other for a couple years now, we're going to drink some beers in Nashville. Dude, I know, and no one ever believes me, and I'm like, dude, I swear to- We all have.

We've all been that group text talking about that, so I'm super fired up for the three of us. Taylor, like, I want, I actually want to do the group chat, but I feel like you would think I'm like weirdly flexing. So I have this weird battle on my head, not to say too much. You know, Dale, you and I will meet,

we'll, we'll get each other's numbers from each other. It'll be fine. It'll be fine. Dale, it'll be fine. I'm doing it right now. Anyway, anyway. Taylor, hey, here's actually a good pivot point since we're talking about our new blooming friendship right here,

this trio. Dale, you have, you're known to have a western, a full Western, with a saloon where you actually host parties. And we talk about our friendship, but I've yet to receive that invite. Here's an opportunity. You invite the boys the next time you have it. Take Taylor, he'll get a private jet, he'll fly me and him to Charlotte,

and we'll go to one of these parties. Tell us about those parties. Well, I have to tell you, the Western Town is a legit Western Town. It's got a saloon, a big giant saloon, hotel, rooms upstairs, got a bank, got a sheriff's office with two jail cells, got a church. I've actually had my friend of mine used that Western Town church and all that to get married. Had about 100 people down there. It's got a straight, it's got a road down the middle, the whole thing, right? And I was, I used to live across the street from my dad's race shop, and I had a part.

I had a club in my basement of my house and we just would trash it. I mean, just you could, your floors, your shoes would stick to the floor by the end of the night or the next day trying to clean up the place because it was so messy. And so when I moved to this new house and this new piece of property, I said, I want a place to party. We're still partying. We're still partying. Raising hail. And I want a place to do it, but I don't want it near my house.

Because I would, I would smoke cigarettes. I'd let everybody else smoke cigarettes and they're still in and crashing and tearing up stuff. And it's just like it would ruin. the whole house, right? And so we built the western town, built a saloon. And I saw Willie Nelson had bought this piece of property. I'm watching 60 minutes. And Willie Nelson is on it. And he bought this piece of property that had a western town movie set on it with a bunch of facades. And he finished out the saloon so he could go in there and hang out. And I thought, that's a great idea. That's what I'll do. So we drew it on a napkin. And we hired a bunch of local contractors. They came out here and they

built it and and we put power to it and we've had it down there for 15, 16, 18 years. It's been down in a long time and we used to party all the time like every week after the race on Tobit Wednesday and then we'd chill out. But these days, we don't party down there as much as I wish we did, but now it's like we have it and now we use it like for family day for our company outings and I've rented it out for commercials and music video shoots and stuff like that and but the beer cooler still down there is still cold they're still beer in it there's still liquor on the on the bar and anytime you guys want to come over I guess when I have a party I have to let you know and hopefully you can make it out you know Taylor that sounds like your speed

dude yeah hold on I'm fired up Dale I'm from from Cave Creek Arizona all right 5200 people in that town. It's literally a small town. There's no franchise allowed in it. We let a dairy queen in the 80s and that was a huge deal. The whole town gathered around for that thing. Very fired up. It's like Bonn-A. But to own, well, yeah, but it's got like a nice charm. I know what you mean. Yeah, yeah. I don't want to compare. I really don't want to disrespect that place. We shouldn't. We just shouldn't. And so you own a, like, just owning a Western town. I don't know. I don't know. I are a bus and I'm very proud of that. But that's where, that's how it starts. run you what's that oh oh dude i'm i'm i'm 100 percent i don't know if you know this but we have a

bus with your with your number on it of course i know it's pretty killer it's pretty killer i love to say it's the reason why we bought it it was too grand that's why we bought it um but the character that came with it was beautiful it doesn't want at all i have a bus on my property and it's the same as y'all's it's got a couple uh dinets in it um we put some old old bench seats like out of an old Chevy Seville and stuff like that in it to sit and chill. And it's like a bar inside the bus. And we painted it like the Bull Durham bus from the movie Bull Durham. Yeah, it's a great movie.

A great movie. $500 bus. All we got into it. And it's a great place to sit and have a drink. But that's how it starts, man. You get a bus. Then the next thing you know, you want something a little larger. You want something a little different.

And I went with the Western Town theme. I don't know what you guys would go. You know, Taylor would for sure do that, dude. I can see him loving that idea, dude. Yeah, I know. I think a western town might be the next move. I'm going to start looking for places. I'll probably buy the whole town of Bontara, Missouri, and go make myself a western town. We started with basically just the square footprint of the saloon. Yeah, we just started with the saloon. I mean, it's just a square room. And that's what it started as. And we over a period of several years just kept adding things to it. I'm like, well, we got to have a mercantile shed. So we built a mercantile shed. And then we had to have a dock. We had to have a, we had to have a dock. We had to. have a, a place, a barber, you know, Western Towns, got to have the barbershop, man.

Got to have a barbershop. It's just a facade. It's like a, it's like the front of it. It's like two feet deep inside the windows and you just got all kinds of stuff sitting in there that makes it look like a barbershop. It's not real. But the saloon's entirely functional. Have you been to Catalina Island in Arizona, in California? I haven't. Okay. So I had this great, I'm in California right now. I'm in, I mean, it's neat as you can actually see the island from where I'm at. Weird flex. I was stupid. But it was stupidly to say.

Hey. But so I had this great idea last year. It's like Valentine's Day weekend. I'm like, you know what? I'm going to take my wife to Catalina Island. So we go, we get a helicopter. The helicopter takes Catalina Island. That's part of the story.

I'm not actually trying to flex again. And there's actually two parts. Just turn to do a two-part story. So buckle up, Dale. And we're flying with this guy, and this guy's telling all these crazy stories to it. us and he starts telling us about how he was a pilot for a bunch of athletes and he was a he was he was Kobe Bryant's pilot and he would fly Kobe everywhere all the time and long story short like

of that story there's two there's no one coming up that was the pilot that was with Kobe when he unfortunately passed away oh man it was it was crazy it was a crazy game but he was an unbelievable he was an unbelievable guy from a little bit of time we got to know him but we flew to catalina and in the front when you first flag you're like wow this is the cutest town I've ever seen in my entire life it's like this tiny little island they have Buffalo it's beautiful

and then you get like one block in and you realize like it's just a it literally is like a stage prop set like everything is nice in front and then you get like you get like one block in it's kind of like you know like there's stuff all over the ground things are kind of dirty it's a little rough

and we were there in the wintertime so it wasn't like tourist time yeah it was it was a got a little hairy there for a second, Dale. It was a little sketchy getting out of there, got a little nervous. What about the buffalo? So there's this buffalo hanging out? So on the island, some guy took him from Idaho or whatever and brought all these buffalo to Catalan Island to film a Western movie. And once he finished a Western movie, he's like, well, it costs more to take

these Buffalo back. He just left the Buffalo there. And now they're like, and now they're like indigenous there, I guess. Like they can't go back to the cold. They've like, they've like a generations of like born and now these now these buffalo are just like well we're just cali buffalo now we just chill out here on this two mile like radius island it's a it's a weird it's a weird setup because it's very it's all based on tourism and but there's a high school there's like an actual town in there and they'll like to get on ferries go to long beach to play football games ah yeah yeah it's a it's a weird setup not even airport or nothing but yeah that's my story about it's kind of a western town the second business for the

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Shout out to boy, Dale. It's immaculate. I can't wait for you guys to finish this episode. Yeah. Yo, Taylor bringing up the Kobe Bryant's pilot. You actually gotten a recent crash back. What was that in August? Last year, yeah, sometime.

Yeah. Can you tell us about that a little bit? And then can you also tell us probably how you guys probably sat back and reflected after seeing the Kobe news and thinking you were in something, you know, similar or something that could have been, you know, similar? Yeah. Well, you know, the, you know, where do I even start? We were in a, you know, we were in a bad accident and very scary. you know, we, I've flown all my life. And I think, you know, I look back and I flew, I wrote in King Air Prop Plains and

Brazilians, Prop Plains and just anything. I never questioned it, right? I got on it. Here we go. We're going somewhere. I don't even care. I never questioned it. I got on every plane, whatever.

I never looked at it and went, I don't want to get on that. I figured it's good. We're good. I trust what's happening here. No matter what. it was and we fly as race teams we we fly private even on you know even the team planes are privately owned aircraft we rarely ever ever flew commercial and so um you know for all these years you know i just took it for granted that i was you know put my trust in all the people that either you know

were the mechanics on these planes or the pilots on these planes and and the history of the plane itself so I got a brand new plane from Cessna. It's a really nice plane. We're flying it, and we've been flying it a while, and we've landed it into that airport before, and it was a great day, clear day, and we're flying on in there, and I remember being a couple miles from the airport,

looking down the ground, everything's going just like it's supposed to go. And we came down into land, and we landed, we bounced, basically. When you land a plane, you kind of want to land the rear tires first, obviously and then bring the nose down. And when we landed, we landed sort of flat and a plane bounced back up in the air.

And when it landed the first time, it shut all the blinds. And so now we can't see out. We just know we bounced up in the air. And I don't know if we're 10 feet in the air or 150 feet in the air, right? But I know we got to get down on that runway and it's not a really long runway. And we don't have a lot of time to be bouncing and taking up, you know, taking up time trying to get the plane on the ground. So we came down again just as hard, if not harder.

And the landing getting on the right side broke. Again, the blinds are shut. So you've got no reference of what's going on outside. You don't know what's up or down, left and right. You just kind of in this tube moving. And so I could tell the plane that was tilted when we came down the same time. And I thought in my mind, I'm like mechanically, we're broken the right side gear. and now we're on the wing.

And that wing dragon and that tail, that stuff dragon sort of turned to plane, started to turn the plane. And in my mind, again, the mechanical and arrow race car driver mind starts thinking, now the plane's turned. The plane's turning with the wing, the left wing up in the air.

And that's probably going to try to create some lift and bring the plane up in the air. And, you know, and cartwheel the plane. So, you know, you're thinking you're going to be, you're going to die. You know, you're thinking in that moment that this is, this is how it's going to happen. And so you're, you know, in a lot of situations when you're race,

for example, you're racing a car and it's dangerous and you're crashing. You never think ever that, you never give up hope that you're going to get out in one piece or you're going to, you know, you never think about getting injured. But anytime trying to put this in, trying to articulate this, but, you know, know you assume risk. You know when you're running at a guy and you're going to tackle him and you're lined up for a really bad angle and you're going to hit this guy really hard and it might hurt you. It might hurt him. But you're taking that risk. You assume that you know it. You know you're not going to die. You don't ever think in your mind you could die, but you might hurt yourself and you might hurt him.

But you got to take, you know, you put yourself in that position. You do that with racing. You never do that with airplanes. And so here we are, and the plane starts to turn, and I'm thinking it's going to lift, create a lift like the way it's positioned, and it ended up going off the runway, which broke the left side gear and got the plane back on the ground to where it wasn't going to create lift underneath it and then it got really rough. We went down into sort of a ditch ravine area and when it hit that, that was extremely violent and we slid a little bit further and it came to stop. And I started hollering for Amy. The whole interior of the plane doesn't isn't recognizable anymore. panels and things are

are missing and loose and in different places. Everything's moved. And, you know, just trying to, in that moment, you just sort of think, am I broken? And I got my daughter, Ila, and I got

a look at her and check her and she's screaming. And I'm thinking, God, please don't let nothing be wrong with her. Please don't let nothing be wrong with my girl, right? And so I look at her, I look at her real quick. And I said, you know, as far as I can tell, just this split second, you know, she's going to

be okay. I hand her to Amy. Amy's trying to get her barons. And I was like, Amy, check I love really good. Just that's all you need to do right now is look at her and check her legs, arms and check her head. Is she going to, you know, she got any kind of bruise on her head or head or anything. I don't know.

And so I gave Amy that responsibility in that moment. And then I, because I wanted to find a way out. I wanted to figure out how I knew we had a hatch in the back. You know, we got the door. The plane's kind of leaned over. I'm thinking, I don't know if we can open the front door because that way the plane's position, probably not going to be able to get that open. So I'm thinking, get that hatch in the back open.

Let's create an opportunity to leave. So I went back there and I'm seeing smoke coming out to toilet. And so black, dark, thick smoke. I'm like, all right, I hollered up to the front. I was like, we're on fire. We've got to go. Y'all need the pilots were up there doing all the, they're trained to, do a series of things when they're in the situation.

They got to fire off the extinguishers. They got to shut this down, turn them. You can't leave motors running and carrying on. So they're doing all the things as fast as they can to get everything to where the plane is as safe as possible in the circumstances that's in. So they're up there doing that, right? When I saw the smoke, I was like, yeah, come on, man, we're on fire. We've got to move a little faster.

I couldn't get that hatch open. and I'm trying to like, hell, I'll get that hatch open. I can't get it open. That smoke's getting worse and worse. We went through a chain link fence and it wrapped around that door and it wouldn't allow the door to open the way I needed it to. So we're trying to get that open. And I happened and I turned back and I holler at the other pilot.

And I said, I can't get it open. So Amy hollers that even says, try the front door one more time because we had tried it and couldn't get it to move. And it goes up there at the front door and turns a handle and kicks it and it popped open about two inches, I mean two feet. And so we climbed up the stairs. So the stairs are now up the stairs, when the plant, when the door opens up, you know, you walk up the stairs. Well, now we're walking, we're climbing up the bottom of the stairs to get out of the plane. And so the lead pilot goes to get out of the plane.

Then he's like, hand me the baby. So I go up there to hand him the baby. now I get out of the plane and I'm still a bit I can't in the entire time all this is going on I still am not 100% sure that Isla is okay um during this whole process I'm still wanting I still need more information about Ila my little girl you know it's like dominating my thoughts and um I still with my head injuries and the issues that I've had with that, I'm thinking, man, she's not even two years old yet. She can't, I can't have her dealing with stuff like that.

And so anyways, I'm just, I need to know. I need to see her, right? And so I took a step to go because he took off running. The pilot I gave him out and he takes off running. I climb out and I'm like, come back. I got to see, you know, I got to check out. Damn, he's running. and I can hardly walk.

My back is tore all to hill. Damn. And I could hardly move. And so he took off and so turned around and I'm helping Amy get out. And the damn grass was on fire underneath us. It was crazy as hell. It was like in the movies. And then we had to pull our dog out and then our second pilot come out.

It was just a really, I haven't talked about it. I relived it in a long, in a while. but it was very, very scary, you know, and then you're riding to, didn't they put Amy in her own ambulance with Ila, and then I'm in an ambulance by myself, and I still don't know if I was 100% and I'm really tore up emotionally. The guy riding in the ambulance did the coolest thing ever. He calls the other ambulance on cell phone and puts my wife on the phone and gives it to me,

and so I can talk to her, and I said, you know, finally I was like, Amy, you got a chance to really look at Ila and see what's going on with her. Is she okay? And, you know, so I kind of finally got some relief of because that was so stressful. And, you know, Amy, I've been in race car crashes, flips, just really bad stuff, caught on fire, done all kinds of crazy stuff in race cars. So when you crash a car, even really badly, the first thought that you really have is well we got another car in the hauler because we take two to the racetrack it's a backup car is what they call it i wonder how good that backup car is is it as good as the one i just crashed that's your first thought you don't think about damn that was a close near-death experience

you don't never even think about stuff like that you just think man i got to get back on the track how good does the other car let's go you know load that load to load the crash one up we'll get the one out let's go and um so i was seasoned and when it happened I got out you know all that happened as soon as I knew everybody was okay and everybody was healthy I went into okay what's this uh you know how what what's the next move what do we need to do there's got to be some rules regulations steps we need to take uh yeah the financial ass you know fall out or whatever you know I'm starting to go into that mode you know and and and man I really in a week was back on a plane or even sooner was back on a plane

plane flying. Now I'm a little bit more nervous about landings and so forth, but I got right back to it. Amy, on the other hand, had a harder time with it. That was like completely life-shattering or altering for her, and she still struggles today with getting comfortable to fly. Now, I admit, I cannot put my daughter on a plane right now. I still ain't, she, she, she remembers it happening. When we take her own planes now, she has a reaction when we take off when we hit turpoles. when we land. She used to not, you know, but now she has a reaction. She remembers something about that day. And now as she gets older, five, 10, 20, 40 years old, she's not going to remember what happened to her when she was younger than two years old. But for now she does, you know, so I don't

like taking her own planes. I don't like putting her through that stress. I feel selfish because I'm taking her where I want to go. She has no idea where we're going. No idea. It's not her wish to get on this plane and go to wherever we're going on our destination. And I feel selfish for doing it. So I don't like putting her on planes because she doesn't enjoy it and it stresses her out. So that's the hard part for me. Otherwise, I'm comfortable. I've already gotten another plane. I'm back. I still kept one of my pilots from that from that incident. And I'm back in the air. I'm back going. We went to therapy I believe in therapy you know I believe in talking to somebody you get problems we all got stuff we got to deal with I got stuff for my childhood that I still need work on and and probably don't

put enough time in but so we went right to a therapist to say hey is there anything you can do we're ready to to work so me and Amy did a little bit of work there which helped us she continues to do some work with some with some with some folks to to help her understand how to comfortably fly and get back in you know in in the flying on a regular basis but she's way behind you know me she's probably where any anybody else would be given the situation but I think you know when when you hear about you know you I don't you know I don't know how to I don't know how to articulate the emotions when you see something like that happened to Kobe.

I think the initial reaction that you have is that, you know, there's lives destroyed and people's hearts are broken. I kind of relate it more to losing my dad than our plane crash, right? Because, you know, Kobe lost his life, his daughter and other people on the plane. there's people here that are hurting and sad and just there's a hole and man it never you're never gonna feel you're never gonna it's never going to be the same you know and so that that that that part is um that's the worst part is that you know that their hearts are so broken and uh you know and and i don't you know, I always, you know, I feel like, I feel like that, I don't know, I always feel like, I don't know, this is a defense mechanism, if it's BS or what, but I felt like when I got here, my destiny was already made. You know, when I was born, I know I'm responsible for the decisions I make, and this might be getting a little bit in the weeds, but I feel like that, I'm.

I'm just going to live my life and whatever's destined to happen to me, however I'm supposed to go, is how it's already decided. And so that, I think it's probably BS, to be honest with you, but it leaves me without responsibility of it. You know, I know I need to make why I decision to do what I need to do for my family. I don't need to do anything stupid. It's going to put me at risk. But, you know, I, it's the only way that I, it's the only way that I, you know, I'm. can live without fear, without worry. I lost my mom last year to lung cancer. And for, for the last probably six or eight months, I have done nothing but worry about dying and

leaving my daughter too young, you know, man, am I going to be around when she's, if I died at 67 or so like my mom, my daughter would be 22. I mean, how would that affect her? God, I got to live longer, you know. And so stupid. I know that's silly. And my wife is annoyed to death by my, by the way I am. I'm just weird. But I.

So real quick, I don't think what you're saying at all is BS. I think it's almost a uniquely beautiful way to live life because, I mean, yes, you don't want to leave your family truly. and I kind of very similar in the way you are as like, I'm kind of just, I don't want to live in it and the fear. I don't want to go, if I go out in the ocean for whatever reason, I don't want to think, oh, what if a shark gets me? Some things that are statistically probably not going to happen. A plane accident, for instance, like statistically that's not going to happen to you,

you know, and it's, I think the way you're living is a lot of ways that people should try to live because you don't live with barriers. You don't live in a situation where, I can't do this or I can't do that. If anything, it seems like it amplifies, because I hear the emotion in your voice, it seems like it amplifies the love you have for your family, the love you have for your daughter,

the love you have for your next kid is like you're making, you don't know how long you're going to have. And I think that's the crazy thing about Kobe is like, I mean, I grew up watching Kobe. Like everybody talks about Kobe, LeBron and Michael Jordan. And it's like I never never really saw Michael play, you know? And obviously LeBron played like Kobe was like a figure like an untouched figure, like a Greek god type of guy, that we see so, so little in the sports

world. And for someone like him to go in a situation that's so sudden, it really puts things in the perspective. But it also shows that like, if you look at the way Kobe lived his life, if you look at the way he handled himself, what he did in such a short time when he was retired, I think he won what he was nominated for a Golden Globe or an Emmy or something. I think he won an Emmy. His family loved him. He had four daughters. He had,

he was, he did so much with, with quality that, like, the quantity doesn't matter. I mean, we can all live lives to 80 and be shitty. Or we can,

you know, or we can be lived to 40 and be an incredible person, you know, and that's, that's the decisions we make on a day-to-day basis. So I think, I mean, I understand why you would think that's BS,

but in a lot of ways, I think it's a beautiful thing. And I try to live my way, well, It's trying to, let's not fear the unknown of the possibilities. Now, I'm sure it's very different when you've been in situations like that plane crash, like some of the car crashes you've been watching situations like your dad. Like, I can't imagine those things.

And then to watch a situation like what happened to your dad and then say, I'm going to, I'm going to race. I'm going to keep racing. I'm going to keep doing this. That says a lot about your character and how much you do believe that you're, you know, on an arrow from point A to point B, you know, and without anything, it in your way. That's the way I feel. I feel like that my destiny is already chosen and I live that way because I don't want to live in fear. I don't want to I don't want to avoid opportunity and

avoid experiences out of fear and I don't want to certainly imprint this on my, this fear on my child, you know, and create, you know, fears and unrealistic things for her. So but I do you know that there's I'm just now getting sort of free of I was really way free of the the plane incident that for me has subsided pretty good and I don't it doesn't affect me in my day to day it took a while me and Amy would sit around and just tell each other every five minutes man I just thought about it man I just thought about it man I just thought about it man I just thought about that moment we were doing it all day long every day. And we don't anymore. It doesn't come up in my thoughts like it used to. My mom's death, that's starting to subside a little bit, that worry of dying, that fear of man, did I take care of my body? Did I do the things I needed to do to give myself the opportunity to see my child grow up and be who she can be? All that worry is starting to subside a little bit. It sucks, though, how those events in your life can certainly grab a hold of you and steer you the wrong way or get your mental state sort of locked up for a while.

And that's why I believe in the therapy, you know, just going and if you need it, if you need to talk to somebody. I mean, there's some really, really good therapists out there. Me and Amy met this one lady named Jane, and I was a real, real bad boyfriend. just not, I dis-ed-ed-I just was, I can't, I had no concern for Amy what made her happy. It was about me, what I wanted to do in the moment. And, man, I was selfish, so selfish. I don't know why she hung in there, but she did. But we met this lady named Jane, man.

And James fixed it, fixed me. She fixed my shit, man. She made me the man I wanted to be and the husband I wanted to be. and the husband I wanted to be. And me and Amy would have never made it had we not met Jane, you know. And I think I'd been through therapy when I was a kid, but I'd never really believed in it like that until we met Jane. When Jane did what she did for me and my wife and our relationship, she basically

guaranteed me a happy life in marriage, something I had wanted, but didn't know how to obtain. And ever since then, man, I've been a believer in it. If I feel like I need a little tune up, I'll call her up. That's awesome. Yeah, that's, man, I appreciate your insight. You have every reason in the world to kind of have those defense mechanisms up or worrying because of, you know, all the experiences you've been through with losing your mom, your dad, the plane crash, like being a father, a husband, all this stuff. So I love, I think the insight's awesome here. And we definitely appreciate you being so open about and candid with everything.

Like that was. Yeah, man. Like Taylor said, you can definitely see the passion and the emotion and everything behind what you're saying. I know we're running out of time, but we would be terrible bosses to our young little Zach who's listening behind the screen right now. Everybody's a huge Dale fan in the racing world. This man, Zach, he did not sleep last night. And I know he would, we have to bring him on to say a couple things. maybe ask about ir racing or your Hall of Fame.

Nudge, like he's all about it, bro. Zach, get on here, dude. Zach, he? There he is. There he is. Let's go, Zach. Okay. Yeah, no, I appreciate you talking to me.

I don't know if they hyped up enough, but I'm a huge fan. And I admire you a lot for the person you are, the racer that you are, just your social presence, you as a business person. So, yeah, so it's an honor. to finally meet you after 20 years, I guess. That's very nice. Yeah, that's real kind, Zach. You got a question for him?

Yeah, I guess I got a question too for you. And now I had to really think about this. It took me a while. But I guess I started watching, like, I guess my younger, like, teenager years. And that's kind of like when, like, Steve Littart, you and Steve Lutart got together. Yep. So do you feel like you as a person or like you as a racer, like, do you feel like, do you feel like like did he have an overall effect on you as a person or a driver?

I mean, I mean, you definitely started having success again. Yeah. Five wins, 36 top tens or 36 top, yeah, 36 top 10 something like or 74 top ones. You had 36 top fives. I mean, I like Steve Littart a lot. I thought you all really good together. Steve was my crew chief in the last several years. of success that we had at Hedron Motorsports in my career.

One Daytona 500 in 2014, but probably about six, seven races there in a short span of time. And then he went to broadcasting. And I cried. The moment that I heard that he was going to leave at the end of the year, I cried, a grown man, I think 40 years old, roughly. And I called him and I was like, dude, this rumor can't be true. and he's like, ah, dude,

I got to be home. I can get more time with my kids. I got to do it. And I was like, but we're just doing so good. How can you leave? But anyhow, we became the best of friends,

and we still are today. And he was one of the reasons, big reasons why I went into broadcasting because now I get to hang out with him again. I'm back in the booth with my buddy. But Steve's approach to crew chiefing, he's basically kind of like a coach. He was a cheerleader.

So there's a lot of ways that guys go about this. When I raced with Tony Erie Sr. earlier in my career, we called him Rosie because his cheeks were always red and he was always mad. And he would just chew your butt. And he hardly ever praised you, but man, you can make a mistake and he was there on you. And he intimidated people, right? And people wanted to bust their butts to not get in trouble. that's why he ran his show and it was effective.

Steele of Tart was the other way around or vastly different. He was a cheerleader. You know, we run a good lap. He'd say that. He'd say, hey, that's a great lap. Keep going. Or if we were having trouble that day. You know, he was always positive.

Man, we're going to turn us around. And he was one of the first people. So most crew chiefs, most crew chiefs car owners, they believe that they have built you the best car and they believe that if it's not going well, you need to change something. And that's pretty much how most of them people approach it to the driver.

They put it on the driver like, hey, man, what are you doing wrong? And Steve Lartre was the first guy that ever told me after a race, we've got to get these cars better. I had never heard that in my life. and he goes, man, we just got to get the car better. It's not good enough. I'm like, damn, you saw that too? That is so nice to hear because you can't drive a slow car fast.

I mean, it's a slow car. And so there's these moments where, you know, he just was so good. And, dude, I would get out of the car and I'd go, I'd be like, man, that guy believes in me. He believes I can do it. I'm coming back next week and I'm going to give him my best because he, He believes in me. He thinks I can do this. And man, it's so good.

He was just perfect. And, you know, he's a great friend. We still communicate a lot. But, man, I'm glad you asked that question because I love praising old Steve. I enjoyed watching all. I enjoyed watching all. I enjoyed watching y'all. And I think that announcement about him leaving came out before the Daytona 500.

So then y'all won the Daytona 500, and that probably just made it all the more. special. Yeah, it was funny because he went into that final season, knowing that it was his last, and he called that whole season, the strategy, like a wild man. You know, usually if you're nervous about making a mistake and losing your job, you're very conservative. Well, he knew he wasn't going to be working there next year. So he called the strategy for each race really aggressively, really loose. Like, hey, man, let's do it. Hey, let's put it out there. We'll stay out here. We're not Pitt, stay out there. This might win. Might not. We're doing it. And we won, we won both coconut races. Both of them. Both of them. Marksville. On this wild strategy, he would have never

did that strategy the year before that. And he knew he's like, hey, now, okay, I'm not here next year. So let's go. And it was awesome. I was like, dude. Is that the year that you also ran out of fuel on the last lap at Charlotte? Charlotte. I don't know. I think that might have been 2000. It may have been the year before. Yeah. No, I remember that. I remember. You wanted to win the World 600. It's so bad. And last lap you're leading backstretch, I think you run out of fuel and you're like, it comes over the radio, I'm out of fuel. It hurt. Yeah. We did that. Remember it the Vegas that happened too? Yeah, you almost one Vegas, man. Yeah. I know you can always look back like, oh, it's so close.

Yeah, so close. It's good to be close, though. Yeah, you can say it's good to be close and you look back on them. But it's been really cool watching you out on eye racing too. I started eye racing back in November and then all this has started coming up now. So it's cool to see you back out racing again. I was on the service since it started in 2008, but then I took like a seven-year break and I came back in November too. So me and you came back right about to say. Oh, yeah, right.

Okay. Yeah. It's fun. He's rocking a bus with a boy's car. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I can graphic design so I created a busing the boys car. I'm going to make sure I put your name down and so I can send you a friend with Okay, okay. Let's go. Let's get the busing with the boys car, dude. Yeah, I got to see this car anyways.

I'll send you one. I got a picture of it right here because I sent it to Will. Let's see. That's crazy, Zach. That's crazy. You and Dale, don't text me. That's wild. It blows my mind, man. Hey, Taylor, when you got off the phone the other night, I forget what brought it up, but Zach was sitting there and he was like, y'all want to show you, They run like TV. The irising thing looks like a legit NASCAR race. Commentators are talking the whole time. He's got a full on bussing with the boy's car.

And it looks real. It's crazy. Which one are you? I'm in the three car. Oh, boy, that looks good. Let's see. Oh, yeah. All right.

I like it. I like that font. Yeah. Look at that. I like that number font, man. Yeah, it's a throwback three. Yes. So, yeah.

But no, I race in a league. and they've got like commentators and everything. So, yeah, no, I'm starting doing that. It's really cool. It is fun, ain't it? So. I'm going to be doing that here in a bit. I got, we're going to run, there's an indie race on, yeah. Yeah, this Saturday on NBCSN, and I got to go practice at 3 o'clock for that.

But I'm looking forward to it. I'm a little nervous. I haven't spent a lot of time in the Indy car. I know. Do you ever want to do the Indy car double? No. No, that's too much work. Yeah.

That'd be fine. You got to fly. You got, you know, you've got to be in, for Indy, for the Indy 500, you got to be there all month, right? They get this whole thing, right? And not only do you got to practice and drive the car, qualify race, but they have all the obligations, requirements, media, fan engagement, all that stuff happening all month long, parade.

You got to be in all that stuff. Plus, you have it happening on the flip side at the Coke 600. This whole thing during the whole weekend, I mean, the back and forth. It's too much. I couldn't do it. Yeah. I remember watching Kurt Bush do it and like everything that he went through and I think Sesson has like sponsored him and like flew him back and he got like IVs as soon as he got

done with the Indy 500 to get back to Charlotte. As grumpy as he is, I can't believe he did it. Yeah, he's an interesting dude. But I really appreciate you like talking to me and like taking my questions, I guess. No problem, buddy. I'll see you online. Man, we'll race. Yeah, definitely.

That'd be awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Y'all, I'm glad this having because Zach got. to ask a lot of the good racing to turn it somewhat into the racing theme. But Dale, we appreciate you, man. You got it.

Thank you very much for this conversation. Thank you very much. Whenever everything gets back to normal, we'll have to get you on that bus, dude. I know. I'm going to come to Nashville. We're going to drink some beers. We're going to run down the street.

Act a fool. We'll get in the bus. We'll do a podcast. Love it. Love it. All right, man. Hey, thank you very much. You guys have a party.

You guys have a lot of the next day. It'll be great. Me and Zach will be there with coffees We'll be waiting for you here. Oh, no. All right. Thank you very much, man. It's very cool.

All right. Thank you, boys. Take it easy, man. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick.

And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions.

Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform. We do some retirement homes.

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