Bussin' With The Boys - Dale Earnhardt Jr. ll

Episode Date: August 4, 2021

Recorded: July 13, 2021 | Dale Jr came on via Zoom during quarantine, but we finally got him to come to Nashville and hop on the bus that bears his number, and he didn't disappoint. They dive right in with some conversation about what it was like to have Dale "The Intimidator" Earnhardt as a father, what it was like living up to expectations and carving out his own legacy in racing. Then, they get into some phenomenal race stories from Dale, overcoming injuries, how Will and Dale became boys (which doesn't make Taylor jealous at all), and the full story behind Taylor's beef with Josh Norman. Another 2-hour banger, boys. Too much to even put in the description. Enjoy. ----- BUSSIN' MAIL: Send a video to The Boys! bit.ly/BussinMail ----- EARN YOUR WOLF: Want to be featured on our Instagram Story? Screenshot this episode, tag @bussinwtb, and share it to your Story. The Boys will take care of the rest... ----- 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 ----- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS: Chevy Silverado: The Strongest, Most Advanced Silverado Ever. Georgia Boots: Head over to https://barstool.link/GeorgiaBoot and use code BUSSIN for 20% off Roman: Go to https://barstool.link/RomanBUSSIN you can get your first month of Swipes for just $5, when you choose a monthly plan Cigars International: Go to https://barstool.link/BussinCigars and use promo code BOYS for 10% off plus free shipping! Cannadips: Go to https://barstool.link/Cannadips and use promo code BUSSINFor more, visit barstool.link/bussinwtbSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

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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, S&L'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. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. 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 SportsClace on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12

and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. I've never thought of myself as a legend. But it's a junior wins the 46th. Daytona 5th. I wanted him to be

proud and happy. That was way more than important than a trophy. He was going to build one of the best race teams that this sport would ever see. Imagine getting a belt from Dale Earnhardt.

In some of the toughest moments, you're just like, I want to disappear. If that never happened, I'd probably race way on into my late 40s. 2015 hits. Well, how'd this happen between you two? You know, every team needs that sort of clown, right? That's class clown.

Have you ever gotten that, like, mental to where you're like, I'm going to wreck this car? That was one. And this is one I don't tell. Welcome to another episode of Bussing with the Boys. I'm your host, Will Compton. You're the co-host, Taylor Luan. My co-host, I apologize. He is at training camp.

we have a special This is this pod is In my opinion on the Mount Busmore We have Dale Earnhardt Jr. Flew to Nashville on a private jet, Crazy Flex. Dea flew in, landed about 3 p.m., drove over, got here about four,

wrecked a pod with us for about two. How long is the pod blast? Over two hours. And let me tell you something, guys. You guys are going to want to pull up a lawn chair because essentially what we're doing in this episode is sitting around a bonfire or a little campfire

and Dale Jr. is just telling us story after story after story. If you're not big in the NASCAR culture, the NASCAR community, this is going to be an incredible episode. If you're big in NASCAR culture and you know everything there is to know about Dale Earnhardt Jr. There are questions and stories in here

that I believe you have not heard. Our boy Zach Patton, General Patton, he was in the back, has listened to everything known to man about Dale Earnhardt Jr. and had a couple very detailed, insightful questions that, of course, Dale dove in on. But this pod, dude, when we got the bus and we knew as a Dale Earnhardt eight bus, clearly you want the Joe Rogans of the world on, but Dale Earnhardt, Jr. was on that short list on getting him on the bus, and I can't believe we got him here.

I can't believe he flew in. We talk about our friendship because that's what we all were friends. Everyone learns about it. but also before we get into the episode Dale Earnhardt Jr., Mr. Chevy himself, we are brought to you by the Chevy Silverado, the strongest most advanced Silverado ever. The Silverado is strong, advanced, dependable,

hardworking. The Silverado is dependable like the people who drive them. Dale Earnhardt Jr., and you. The design is big, bold commanding. A partner with grit and determination, anything is possible, and the Silverado is a partner in that, tailgating, hauling, towing, off-roading,

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Also, before we dive into this episode, we have some merchandise that we've released. This hat that I'm wearing that you guys see, Smashville, those smash hats that are out there in Nashville representing the hockey team, we got a maiden, are the boys version of it. Our Hawaiian shirts are the boys, live dudes, neon sign themed. We also have the USA themed, Red, White, and Blue, America, Bussing,

and for the boys. You could go get them at the Barso Merch store. that's barstoolsports.com slash merch. Anything else, Blas? Any other house cleaning, housekeeping? Yeah, Feeding Nashville, the concert happened. By the time you listen to this,

the concert happened yesterday, I'm sure it went miraculous. Unbelievable. We're going to have more under the hoods dropping for behind-the-scenes footage with Tyler Hubbard from Florida, Georgia Line, and then also the concert itself. Speaking of Feeding Nashville,

we also have a shirt at the Barstool merch store that it's like if you're not for the boys, you're against them, those bad shirts that we have. they are we we redid them and did if you're not for the city then you're against them so every dollar that is raised all the net proceeds are going to go to feeding Nashville so if you want to buy a shirt uh be charitable go buy the uh if you're not for the city you're against it obviously you don't even have to be from Nashville if you want to buy it rep your own city uh but all proceeds are going to net proceeds are going to feeding Nashville so let's dive into this episode

uh it's an absolute banger you're welcome for it Go follow, subscribe, rate five stars, leave comments for the boys. Was I supposed to wait? Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers, cheers.

Cheers, boys. Hey, I think it's like one of those situations. Like, you know how you said you wish you would have? Like, that's one regret you had. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, I'm not going to miss the opportunity to crack over to be with Dale Earnhardt Jr. No question. And I'll have a little drink.

Yeah. First question, how does it feel to be a legend, Dale? How does it feel to be a legend? Yeah. I've never thought of myself as a legend. I was the son of a legend. Now, I do know that. It was kind of amazing to grow up in that house

and see all the things that he was doing and all the people that pulled for him and cheered for him and going to races and going to Victory Lane and being this kid that just had all access. You could just go through any gate, through any part of the track you wanted to go to. and I ran around those tracks like they were a playground and let's go watch the cars racing one and two for a while.

Let's go down to turn three and four and watch them. Let's go into the garage area and look at the car that just wrecked. You could just do it all. Go up in the suite. Let's eat the food. You know, and then when dad wins, we go to Victor Lane. Yeah. So it was pretty awesome.

And I just always wanted to, I wanted to race, but I didn't know how. I didn't know, like, there's no, like, college level. There's no high school racing, you know. And so I'm like, well, how in the hell do I race? Like, I'm 15, 14 years old. I don't know how to start. What do I do?

And one day, me and my brother, I was probably 14 or 15, 15 years old. Me and my brother, Kerry, he's older than me. We're hanging out around this picnic table in my dad's shop. he had a picnic table and where all the gossip went on. And he threw down this newspaper and it was a Charlotte Observer Sports page and they had this picture of this guy with this streetstock car. And my dad said, you always ought to read this article. And it was about a news series.

They were starting at a tracking called Concord Motor Speedway is about 30 minutes up the road. All we had to do was go get a street, a car out of the junkyard and put a roll cage in it. and we could race. And so, safety first. Yeah. Yeah. That's that roll cage, man.

You're solid. It's, I mean, all these years, I'm thinking, like, I couldn't crack the code. It was this complicated,

impossible thing. And dad just said, right there's answer. Do that. Yeah. You know, why do you think it was, like,

cracking the code if you, like you say, you're the son of a legend. And I, like, obviously, what do you can say whatever you want about yourself?

You're obviously a very humble guy. What you've done for the sport also. whole, Earl and Hart family is. And that's very cool and you're very humble guy. But like,

why did it seem so difficult for you to get in it knowing that your dad was who he was. You weren't one of those kids that was like, I can get in there because I'm,

you know, my dad. Or like, why isn't he showing me where some of these races are? He obviously knows or something. It sounds, yeah,

he just puts a paper down. He's like, yeah, just do that then. Looks like you can do this. Dad, dad would always say, I knew,

he would just say, like, I wouldn't talk. I wouldn't always. like in his, I wasn't always going, hey, what do I do?

How? You know, I was just, I wasn't, I wasn't with it. Yeah. You know, I was just going to school

and trying to get seized and going home and doing whatever my friends were doing. And I loved racing, but I didn't maybe show it as much as he wanted me to. And he would always say,

um, you need to show some initiative. Like, man, he used initiative all, like that was the word. Yeah. You need to be determined,

show some initiative. showing no initiative yeah and I'm like what does that mean how do I show you initiative right what does that even mean to you

and he's like when I was your age I was in a shop sweeping a floor I was cleaning tools up putting them back in a toolbox classic dad I'm like

damn that sucks that sounds sucky that don't sound fun that's a long ways from driving driving's up here sweeping the floor is like way down here and I got to go all the way through that

product like what all the things that have to happen before I finally get to drive you know it just seemed like it was so far away and he was less than impressed you know with my initiative and my passion for it right

I wasn't outwardly expressing that to him and he didn't think that I really was even into it But he's like, well, I'm not wasting my time unless you start showing me that you're into it. And he made it sound like, well, you got to do all this other stuff before you ever get to drive. And I'm like, wow, I'm never going to get it. I'm never going to get there. He just made it seem like it was a hard, it was impossible thing.

Sounds like a Mr. Miyagi type of thing. That's what I was just saying to wax on wax on. Why do I got to clean these tables? Finally, you're bitching and complaining it. Show me wax on wax off. And you started doing it. Seems like one of those like classic tough nose. dads that were kind of like hard to please like there was always that tough love with the

yeah the son and the dad yeah he was uh he was pretty tough um and um he that he you know his nickname at the racetrack was the intimidator um and he was absolutely terrifying you know at home and i mean i remember uh i said i dropped i said Either I said the word shit or I dropped an F-bomb at my buddy's house. I thought it was just me and him. And I'm playing on this. He had this wicked little video game machine like before Nintendo. Right.

And I was playing this little football game on it. And something happened. And I said shit or F-bomb or something. And his dad happened to be walking in the front door. And he looked at me and he goes, you need to get home. And I was like, yes, sir. And so I went home. And a couple hours later,

Dad comes pulling in and this, my buddy up the road, his dad and my dad were great friends too. Well, he had told Dad what all went down. Dad comes walking in the bedroom already pulling the belt off. Oh, damn.

Not even, and I'm looking at the door and he's getting, he's had, the way the rooms laid out, the way the rooms laid out, he's kind of got, there's a point to where, on his way to me,

I can get to, the door. Which is only going to make it so much worse. I got, I got to the door and out the front, out, down the hall and out the front door, across the front yard, across the street, and out into this hayfield. And, and over this erosion ditch and dove in the ditch and just laid there for like six hours. I picked over, I picked over that ditch.

And I'm like, he's, he's. He'd come out the front door and he's looking around. He goes back inside and I'm like, man, I ain't getting a whooping today. Yeah. Not happening. Not today. Yeah. And because, I mean, you know, he was that kind of dad, you know, that belt.

He didn't, I got a few whoopens, not many, but when that belt come off, he was on. He was so upset. Yeah. So what happened when you got back home? No whoopin. Like, I calmed down. He cooled off. Yeah.

And I don't, I don't think, I don't think I ever got one after that, you know, but. But, you know, there was, I remember the whoopens. Yeah. Right. There weren't many, but the ones I got, I remember them. And I know exactly what I did wrong. I never forget that stuff, right? Yeah.

And imagine getting a belt from Dale Earnhardt. Yeah. It's pretty name. The intimidating. It was tough. That's awesome. So when you went back in the house, what was his, it was like, hey, I was going, have some supper.

Let's sit down. Like, let's talk about it. Was there a lesson or what's the deal? He was a, he was, we had a conversation about the word I used and, and how do I, how, how, how I need to behave. And, and that, uh, I better not make that mistake again. Right. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

You know. Yeah. Any kids listening. All you got to do, run out the front door, laying in a ditch for six hours. Let your old man cool off. And it's going to be. I do. I got a story like that.

but it still ended up at the end. Oh, for a lot. Yeah. It was like hours after and he was waiting for me like, all right, well, we're going to do this. You just got to. Yeah. I don't know why, but I hold some guilt for making that escape, but I just had to do it. Why do you think you hold guilt from it?

I don't know why. I feel like I didn't get what I deserved kind of thing. I don't know what, like I skipped out on a on a deserved punishment, you know, and I never. And I think that's why I remember that story is because I, I, I, I feel. feel like, you know, but you know, it is what it is. I didn't want it. Yeah. I didn't want it.

No question. It seems like you got exactly like you learned a huge lesson. Yeah. The first story you told in this bus, right? Figure that out, right? Yeah, it didn't take any comments for you to get in your head to that, that specific story. I was listening to the Joe Rogan pod. This was probably like a couple years ago.

Oh, yeah. You were talking about like a bucket of shit story. It was like a bucket of something. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I was, so talking to, you know,

when I'm talking about a not showing my dad initiative, so, you know, to be clear, like around 1980, around 1997, 98, I,

I, I think that I started to do the things that he hoped I would do in terms of making him proud, right? Every parent, every parent wants their kid to rise to the occasion, excel in whatever it is they love, right?

And I wasn't doing none of that. And I was a C-stute. I hate cutting you up, but what were you doing at the time? Like, if you were so into racing, would you just kind of hang out with your buddies and doing whatever? Yeah, me and my buddies walked around the neighborhoods, shooting birds with BB guns and being idiots, right?

and I played video games and didn't want, you know, I did want to go hang out with him. I did want to go to the shop, but when I went to the shop, I hung out my buddy down the street and we got in trouble, right? We went to the Dairy Queen or run. I didn't mess with cars. I wasn't sweeping the floor or cleaning the tools, right?

And so now if he wanted me to go to the race, I love that. But when I got there, I'd take off and go hang out my buddy. And we was going to go eat some junk food or cheeseburger or, you know, and he'd never see me. I was having fun, you know, and he wanted me to be interested in the cars, be interested in learning how to work on,

seize any opportunity I could to work on them, to learn about them. And I was just not doing that. And I was just a decent student in school, really not even decent. And I wasn't an athlete. I had no achievement, none. you know, year on, year on, year on, of just not getting anywhere.

And I used to draw a lot. And I used to draw race cars a lot. And I think that he and my stepmom, Teresa, thought that, man, maybe he's into being an artist or something. So they, so this is kind of, they, I came home from school one day. And I walked into my bedroom and there was a bunch of, of art stuff like papers and pens and all the things right if you were going to go to college right for yeah they had all the stuff they bought it and i'm like what is this and they're like well we thought you might want to we think we would encourage you to go to uh this art school it's a local

school and we think you really enjoy it you know we don't know what you're thinking about when you graduate from high school where you're going to go what you want to do but maybe maybe this is it i'm like hell no i don't want to be an artist what gave you all that opinion Yeah. Like, I want a race, man. Like, where is you? What in the hell? Right?

I was so upset. What do you not get? Yeah. And, uh, anyways, um, finally, finally, um, you know, I started to do well and actually, you know, starting to get some races where I ran pretty good. And then dad came around, you know, and he, me and him started having conversations where, where he was less preachy. He was less disappointed.

And it was more like, so what happened in the corner down there? And you spun out. Did you realize what you needed to do there? You know, kind of those things where we're starting to tutor and talk and I'm learning. That's very cool. I must have been a really cool,

like, for you to see that development for sure. I went down to Myrtle Beach and I was racing and I would, I would, the same guy for like three weeks in a row, I would get underneath him. And the guy didn't care. If he was,

if he had a car underneath him, he was still coming down to go in the corner to the bottom. And he cut you off over and over and over. And that was the way he raced. We didn't even get mad. The rest of the people that race there were like, that's the way Ed races. Just be ready.

If you're going to pass him, you better be up to his door. Drive aside when you get in the corner or he's coming down. And so every time I would get underneath him, he'd come down and I'd spin out. And I'm like, I don't know what to do. I cannot pass this guy. Yeah.

And I keep spinning out. And my dad's like, all right. he's not going to my races. Dad didn't go to my races, but I would tell him about it. And he's like, next time he comes down, as soon as y'all are about to have contact, slam on the brakes.

And it plants the nose of your car and keep the wheel straight. Don't turn the wheel. And it'll spin him out. And damn it. I mean, literally, I'm in the same situation the next weekend, and I did that thing. And it worked the way dad said it would work.

And so, I mean, from that moment on, we started having, you know, the conversations I wanted to have, you know, with him my whole life instead of just hearing about how much trouble I was in or how I'd pissed him off about this or that and the other, how I needed to do this better or be. How excited were you to tell him about that situation once he did it? Pretty excited. Yeah, I bet, man. Yeah.

That's pretty cool. It was good. It was good. There was a lot of little moments like that early in my career when, when, you know, I wasn't just his son. You know, because when I, when dad, when I, when I was around my dad, it was at the shop or at the farm, all of that's kind of the same place. And he always had his guys around, his buddies, the employees or whatever. And they were always, you know, 5 o'clock, everybody met at the picnic table and they drank beer.

Then they're going to go right around the farm and look at deer and just talk and BS. And I was just always the son, right? I was just always tagging along and they, I wasn't in the conversations. and I wasn't, they weren't asking me any questions or what I thought about this or what I thought about that. I was just there,

keeping mouth shut. I'm talking about unless somebody talks to you kind of thing, but then it changed when I started racing better. Did you understand that naturally or were you told that at one point? That you were like, hey, you're not,

don't really talk unless you spoke of it was. Just kind of way it was. Just hear that. Hey, don't talk unless spoke. Dude, it was like. Listen,

it's kind of, it can be like that sometimes. It's a look. Your, your parent or your dad gives you. Yeah. You know, you know not to, you know, you didn't get too, you didn't get too fully yourself. Yeah.

Right. Yo, I hope you guys are enjoying the episode. As you're watching this episode, don't forget to like and comment. Don't forget to do real comments in the YouTube boys and leave real ass reviews. But shout out Georgia Boot, the world's most comfortable boot. Are we able to, are we able to go get those boots out there? JPL or Blas, are you guys able to go? We can just do it right now.

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Barstool. Georgia Boot. It just all makes sense. Head over to GeorgiaBoot.com and use code Bustin for 20% off. Do you feel like winning, like in your mind, like you're thinking, all right, I know I can be a good racer. like, and once I win, I'll start getting like, you know, maybe the old man will start noticing and we'll start having that relationship.

Was that something that was kind of like a motivator to earn that? Or like, always? You're like, finally, now I'm going to get a relationship with my old man. Well, I'm winning now. I started seeing the racing creating that relationship. And so I wanted to do whatever I could do to get more of that relationship from him. And so I started, you know, we, you know, I, you know, I, winning. and all those things were not to be so cliche,

but I wanted him to be proud and happy. That was way more important than a trophy or anyone else patting my back, right? And so he was absolutely the main motivation for me early in my career. You know, when he passed, that was gone. I mean, it was gone. And I had to figure out another thing. to motivate me right. I had to find other things that they got me out of bed and got me

fired up about racing. But for the longest time, it was trying to impress him. Man, I mean, this guy's done everything. He's won all these championships and he's hard to impress. Yeah. And you're doing the very thing that he's the best at. You can't do really, what can you do that he's never seen or thinks it's cool, right? But everybody thinks like, oh, you're Dale's son, and, like, you know, thinks he's awesome. And so, yeah. So there's a big feeling of, like, did you feel like you were in his shadow your whole life?

No, I didn't. I, um, I always read about that. I always seen that written, you know. And, uh, I felt, I felt like other people saw me in his shadow, but if I was,

it was a hell of a place to be. Yeah. It was awesome. Hell yes. Yeah. I mean, no lie. Like,

I understand. And I'm, I'm, I'm first to admit, like being his son opened tons of doors wide open and made a lot of challenges for an average guy trying to get in a sport much easier for me. And I had like a built-in fan base before I ever accomplished anything on the track with my last name. People, they were expectations, but they also was support that I hadn't earned at that point.

Yeah. So the benefits, you know, were way better than what negatives came with it. Yeah, absolutely. I said no, I mean, when you go into, I've never, this has never been a situation for me, right? My dad didn't play football or anything like that, so I never had to, like, felt the need to overcome or impress him that way. My dad played college ball for a second, but, I mean, when you spend your whole life kind of feeling out, like, how can I get dad to notice? just how good I'm doing at these things. I didn't know if once you got into NASCAR,

if it was like, I don't know, this, this thought of like, I want to, did you ever want to up him? Did you ever want to beat him? Like,

I want to be my own person. Yeah, I want to be my own. Shadow's a tough word to use because it sounds like, I don't know, it sounds negative. But I'm saying like, once you're in that thing with him,

there was no like, that's dad, dad's got to win. Like you wanted to beat your dad. We went to Japan. I had raced in the, the Xfinity series, which is kind of like college level or it's like AAA, and the next steps to Cup Series where Dad's at.

I won a championship, and so I got an invitation to race in an exhibition in Japan with Cup Racers and Dad. And it would be the first time I'd ever be on the track with him. And when I got to Japan, we flew all the way over there, and I'm sitting on Pit Road, and I'm waiting. on dad because I want to follow him out on the track because I'd never seen him from that vantage point. It was like following, I mean, I don't like to compare him to other icons because I don't know how

people feel about it, but it's like walking behind Muhammad Ali as he goes to the ring, right, climbs in, you know, that's a hell of a vantage point. that a lot of people would love to have. Being in the ring when Rick Flair climbed into it, right? Being able to see that moment when he climbs in with that robe on at a big event across some dusty roads, right? I mean, just that moment of that energy. So I know it was just practice, but I'm never seen the Black 3 car. I've never seen the intimidator, Dillingham, never looked out my windshield and seen him, right?

raced against all these other guys. And so I remember that he pulls out on the track and I followed him out there. And I mean, I'm doing nothing. I'm like not in game mode. I'm not in focus of what my car is doing. I'm just like, I can't believe that. Yeah. It's him.

I can't believe. That's so cool. That's so cool. You're like out like that. I'm like kind of smiling as he said. I'm like, man, that's fucking awesome. I couldn't believe he was in there steering that car. Couldn't believe it.

And then two days later, like we practice, qualify, two days later in the race. we're running, we're banging doors and, and I'm pissing him off and he's mad. You do a little extra for him too when he got to him? So this is how it kind of worked out. I ran really good and he, he ran like 6th to 8th the whole day.

It's an exhibition and he's just kind of going through the motions. He didn't have a great car and he knew it. And he's just kind of like, hey, we're here to put on a show. And it is what it is, right? I'm like, hell, no, man. I'm here to win. This is it. Yeah,

wheel this car to victory, right? This is my chance. And so I'm racing my guts out way over my head, but I got up toward the front and got up to second at one point and I bounced off the wall being too crazy. And anyways, late in the race, we're both running around fifth and sixth. And we had a caution and I had a chance. Everybody has a chance to come on and put a set of tires. And it's a little bit faster with new tires.

and I said to my crew chief, Tony Jr., my cousin, too, we're about a year apart, really close. And I said, hey, man, let's come, let's come, get some tires, and see what happens. We ain't going to win like this. Let's put some tires on and see what happens. So he's like, all right, we ain't got no tires, but your dad's got us set in his pit.

I'll see if I can get them. So our pits are side by side. Yeah, side by side. It wouldn't be an issue if he gave it to you or not. Our pits are together, right? Yeah, yeah. We've got the same sponsor. It's this Coke.

We had this Coca-Cola Reduction thing. We did the photo shoots together. We're like this team, right? Yeah. And so Tony Jr.'s on the pit box and he's like, hey, to Richard Childers, whose dad's calling. He's like, y'all got enough pit and get them tires.

Richard's like, we ain't coming. Dale ain't coming. He's just going to finish this out. Yeah. Well, we're going to pit. You might have we have those tires. Take them. No problem.

Okay, here we come. Down pit road. Put them on. Dad don't know what all this is going on. And I don't even know where the tires come from. I just come down pit road and get tires. And so I go back on the track and I lined up like 10th and there's a real short five-lap sprint to the end. And it's you got to go.

It's you can't lift. You can't take, you can't check up for something. You got to go. What does check-up mean? You can't lift. If there's something happening in front of you and you check up off the gas or lift off the throttle, it'll take you another lap to build up your momentum and it's a lap that's gone. And if with five that, with five laps to go, you just.

just don't have time to be waiting on things to happen in front of you. You just go for it, right? So the green flag drops, and I got things happening. I'm passing a couple cars, and I get to dad really quickly. I get up beside him down the back straightaway, and we go into turn three and four. And I'm going by him. I have the faster car, the new tires. He saw me coming.

He knows I'm quicker, and we're coming up off a turn four, and he's hanging on my right rear quarter panel as we're coming off the corner. And traditionally in a situation like that, you want the guy that's in dad's position to just let you go. You're faster. You're coming through. But if he stays there, I can't really finish the corner. I can't get all the gas down.

It's going to slow me down on the straightaway. We're going to run down the next straightaway side by side when I could be trying to pass the next car. It was going to hold me up. And so I squeezed him into the wall. And we hit. and his nose slid up under my bumper and now he has me in a bad position

and he knows it and so he's picked my rear tires above the ground and he's steering my car like a forklift down the straightaway shaking bay he could have just let you go he should have let me go should have or could have but he didn't

yeah yeah he's like he's like I'm like dude you only you're like you only got an inch on me and you could just let me go and I could be on my way and we banged and then he's got me lifted up off the ground and he's turned me sideways down the straightaway and my car's doing this to the flagstand and he lifted and let me go but he was mad right and so but i thought it was over i go on i pass another car too and finish like fifth or something and uh he's eight he's a couple spots back so the race is over and i'm like that was badass and i beat my dad

yeah you know me yeah 100% yeah and he knows i'd be him i was This shit just happened, right? And so it was really cold, but I remember they had, it was in the middle of the winter. They had inside the track, these little rented cubicles, like trailers, like you see on job sites. And each driver or team had one,

and me and dad were sharing one. I go into the one that we have. It's cold as hell outside. I go in there and I'm going to change clothes. and I sit down and I'm changing clothes and there's this big fold, folding leg table in between, uh,

in front of me. And I'm sitting there and I'm pulling off my shoes and my, taking my, taking my uniform down. And dad comes in and sits down and I, I just look at him and he isn't making eye contact with me. I know he's not, he's mad.

He's bad. I look at him and he's bending over and pulling his shoe off. And I go, and so as soon as, as soon as I looked down, he threw his shoe, fucking hard as he could. And it went right over my head as I leaned, bend down to get, get one of my shoes off. If I hadn't a bent down, it had hit me. Yeah.

It hit the wall behind me. It was like, pow! Yeah, yeah. And I looked back up, and he was bending down to get the other shoe. And somebody opens the door and says, hey, junior, they need you out here for an interview. And I'm like, thanks. I'm going. Yeah, out of there.

Hey, she's the front door back from child. I'm looking. Yeah, he's not a dead. We, we never talked about it. He never talked about it. Never talked about it. Really?

Never talked about it. Sounds like your father really didn't say a whole lot. He kind of just the intimidator. Just like a caveman grunted and pointed out things. You got it. Yes, sir. You need a bud light. We interrupt this episode for another ad read from our boys at Roman.

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silly fast and it's wild to race and so I just knew I'm like, I'm going to tear up a bunch of stuff today. It's just going to happen. There's no. I'm going to wreck. You're going to wreck my car. This is a 500 mile race in this tiny bull ring. And I'm young and dumb.

Yeah. I'm going to make a bunch of mistakes. Yeah, you're just going to make you out there. You just want to go fast, get after it. Just, do you, how much do you, do you love that movie or hate it? Sorry, side of it. I like it. I got a story about that.

All right. I love it. Stories for days, baby. I love it. Hey, listen, you're the best interview ever. It's like, it's like I'm sitting here and I'm really just enjoying your company. I wish there was a fire pit right here. We're like smiling as it's going.

And like eventually it was looking at us. I guess it's over. Yeah, 100%. Sometimes you get guys on here. Taylor and I'll stop and look at each other. Me and Will will be talking. Hopefully the guy comes into it. Yeah, like three word answers.

Yeah. You're like, all right. Well, this is going downhill fast. But no, sorry, keep going. I don't want to kill your body because I'm loving every second of this. We're at Bristol and I qualified in front of dad. And beside me is a friend named Elliot Sadler. And he's on the inside and I'm on the outside.

and dad's behind us. Well, me and Elliot are talking, just about to get in our cars. Dad walks up and goes, all right, boys, bristle's tough, long race. Take it ease now. Don't tell your stuff up.

You can wreck your stuff early. Long day. We're like, yes, sir. I mean, I still think in my head, I hear you, but I am totally going to ruin this. You knew you were conscious of the chaos that was about to go down.

Yes. And so, all right, first lap, we're going down in the turn. Green flag comes out. We're running about three or four, corners and we go into term one and dad runs in the back of Elliot Sallor. Elliot Sallor gets loose and like sideways overcorrects of the racetrack right into me. Wow, me and Elliot go smashing into the wall.

Race is over for me. That's it. And it was dad's fault, right? So you're got the boot when he's coming back in to put it. I come down. Well, they drag me in Elliott's cars into the garage and my team goes to work on my car. we end up fixing it and we fix it and repair it and we go back out

and we're like 100 laps down like all these laps have passed right as we're working on our stuff first time dad comes by he comes by me and I just turn the wheel to the right and just lay like lay my right front tire all down the side of his car

and he's going by and he sent a message what are people thinking when they're watching this like look at these two spatting family members getting after he sends this message is like you better tell you him to cut it out. He's going to find another right home. So can you talk to other drivers?

But he sent his, he sent a message via his team to my team to tell me to stop it. To give him a telephone. Yeah. They can tell you whatever they want. Yeah. And so, but we had, we had other moments kind of like that. But, I mean, you know, the funny thing about it being in a race car is that, you know, the race car turns into, for lack of a better word, a bit of a weapon. sometimes you get so angry and you're like, I can take this car and run into your car. Right. That's saying, I'm going to do that.

Boom. You know, before you have a thought to, you know, before you have a moment to think twice about it and calm the hell down, sometimes you do that on the racetrack. And even if it's your own dad, you know, like, oh, you did this to me. Yeah, yeah. Hunter laughs down.

Where we're seeing the race when. He's like running top 10 cruising along. He's about to ruin his race. He's about to ruin the race. He's out there cruising around. Like, hey, man, sorry, but I've already forgot. You know what happened? That's hilarious.

Aside from your dad, have you ever gotten that, like, mental to where you're like, I'm going to, I'm going to wreck this car. Another guy. Right, like a different guy, a different person. Yes. Has it happened? Yeah, Kyle Bush wrecked me. Say a name.

Yeah, that's what we need. Yeah. It gives you the rivalry. Is this a known rivalry that you're talking? Yeah. Yeah. So, Kyle and me were really big rivals at this particular point in my career. and he uh what point is this

2008 and you guys you guys are big rivals is it a dislike rivalry or is it like hey we're on the track we don't like him don't like him Zach was probably back there like you're an idiot Taylor like you have no idea I know he's like a cowboys like rivalry so he's he was he was like we

was just we just didn't like each other and so was there an incident no so you guys at the bar from your side of the story Ricky Bobby Bobby and the guy he may try to make you say you love craps or some shit like that You know what I'm saying?

Broke his arm. So, yeah. So first off, let me tell the Ricky Bobby store. Yeah, I love to hear it. All right.

Ricky Bobby and Talladegay's comes out or it's coming out, right? And we're going to get to see it before it goes to theaters. And we're in Sonoma racing in California. And they're like,

yeah, you're going to go over to, um, what's the name that place? Um, George Lucas's ranch. Mm-hmm. Oh,

fucking Star Wars? Skywalker, Skywalker Ranch. Holy shit. You're going to go over to Skywalker Ranch and watch it. And we're like, damn, all right. Yeah. That's cool.

What does that mean? So we drive in and it's beautiful. And this is all the guys are going there? My team. Me and my team. Okay, yeah. Was you in the movie? I had a little tiny thing.

Yeah, a little thing. You asked for an autograph. Right. How was that? How many takes? How many times? Three to five. Really?

Yeah, wasn't that meaning. Professional. Yeah. I like that. That or we just weren't going to get any better. Yeah. We're getting progressively worse with these take. Okay, let's just shut it down.

So I, you know, we're driving into this place and they're like, yeah, they make movies here. There's a bunch of movies. So we're walking in the building and there's all these movie theaters and there's all these little rooms for editing. And they basically sit there and watch the, they work on these films from the point of view of the, of the, of the, of the, movie goer, right? And so they're editing and creating these films in that atmosphere of a movie theater.

And which was really cool. It was a big complex. You would you might imagine they're sitting in front a computer in an office, right, editing this film. But at some point, they actually get into a movie theater and complete the editing process or whatever and do

all the audio and all that. So anyways, it's really neat. And we sit down in this one theater and there's probably about 30 seats in it, probably about 10 rows of seats. And maybe there's more than 30 seats, but it just was a small miniature sort of size theater room. And we sit down and I choose a seat sort of in the middle. Right.

There's only... You're front of the theater guy. You're back of the theater guy. Middle. Oh, middle. Middle road. I'm like, I don't know if up there's better or back there's better. I'm just going to go right in the center.

Yeah. And there's only about 12 of us. We're only about 10% of the seats in this thing, right? So a lot of empty seats. And right, and right, and we're sitting there waiting, you know, and right before the thing comes on, George Lucas comes and sits down behind me. And watch Tallinnah night.

You're all right. I'm being chill. Yeah. I was one shock to see him, right? And had never thought I'd ever meet the guy. But what is he doing watching Tallinnon nights? Right. Yeah, exactly.

Why does he care to watch this movie? There's millions of movies he can be watching. Yeah, yeah. But, and I'm watching, I'm kind of side eye, and I'm like, and he's chuckling at that. That's pretty, I think that's funny too. You know, we're like, the same sense of humor. You might be best friends after this. We could talk about the movie and maybe he kindle something.

He's not even like listening in the movie. He's just listening. Waiting for him to laugh and you laugh a little harder so he knows. I'm like, damn, he thinks this is good. I think he's good too. I mean, I like it, but damn, he likes it. It was weird, man, but it was, and he, you know, after everything was done, you know, he was very nice to everybody.

hey yes thank you for coming yeah it's always that's cool it sounds like that's an awesome it was insane that is so bad that you get to see like a like a Yoda like figure none of that was happening

there was no this hasn't in his pocket with the Skywalker ranch you know what I mean you don't know if like some the actual Star Wars No not the actual star I'm talking about just a figure sitting there It's not like a no

Yoda's not a real thing like a no yeah no yeah no Yoda's not a real thing I'm aware I was trying to help you be aware of that I don't know if you had a thing no I know how you are but your Star Wars Yeah, I wish it was real.

But I'm sharing the enthusiasm with both of you right now. I'm not a massive fan, but I know him. Yeah. He is. I know. Yeah, absolutely. Being a filmmaker has got to be one of the most difficult jobs to do. Because you're literally praying that people like it.

And if it's like your hopes and dreams are on other people's opinions, God, that's got to be a tough life. And when you're like making a certain decision that you might think is cool for a scene and you might have just one opinion next to you. Like say, say I'm making something I'm like, I think it's dope. And I'm like, hey, what are you thinking of this? You're like, yeah. but maybe this and your one opinion's like oh man maybe maybe everyone feels that way yeah and then you change you like well i was gonna do this everybody's like oh you should have kept it that way

you're like fuck you are you a quentin tarantino fan yeah uh yeah well he just did a he just did a pa with rogan they were talking about a specific scene i whiz of that true romance yeah yeah true not true romance reservoir dogs yeah the torture scene in that have you seen that movie yes and that the scene where he cuts the guy's ear off and stuff like that and quentin was like we this is happening And a couple guys were like, hey, listen, if you put this scene in the movie, you put your margin for the people that are going to come watch it. Because it was like after like the 80s or night, like some decade. Yeah, like the 80s where everyone was always a superhero thing. Yeah.

Yeah. That was a good problem. I haven't listened to the whole thing. Yeah. Big fan. Charles, like, who is this talking? I'm like, it's Quentin Tarantino. Yeah.

This is my favorite director. Yeah. By far. Sorry. It's amazing. Yeah. It was a good movie. Yeah.

Good movie. He makes a lot of good films. What story were we headed to before the, uh, Rickie Bobby. Oh, Kyle Bush. Kyle Bush, the rivalry. You were trying to kill him. This is the most told story. I tell this one a lot.

Oh, you do? We'll dive into it. You know, I've learned. Tell something. I want to know. I learned that you got a new audience every time you're in front of the mic. So, it's never the same. Have you ever told your side of the story about why you hate him?

Why you hated him? Yeah. So I don't know. What about today? Maybe we'll tell a little different. Do we still hate him now? No. Oh, you don't hate him?

No. He's great. All right. Oh, well. He's great. Why do you guys? go to dinner? No. Okay, so he ain't great. Well, he's fine. That's better. There we go. Now we're getting somewhere. Now we're getting somewhere. Yeah. So anyways, he's, we're racing

against each other. He races for Rick Hendrick and I race for, for dad. And he was a rookie and he did something at a racetrack. And I said to the media, the Kyle made a mistake and he'll figure it out. And he took offense to that. He's a rookie. How, how you've been in the game for eight years now. Maybe not that long. This is before that. Okay. But I've been doing it for six years maybe.

Okay. And, but anyway, somebody asked me a question. I just said, you know, he made a mistake and he'll figure that out. What was the, what was the mistake? It's like he caused a crash or something or he, or a couple guys ended up crashing because of something he did. I can't read. Yeah.

I don't even remember. It's not a big deal. Mm-hmm. And we went to, uh, that set our, that set us on that path. All right. He took offense to that. and we weren't friendly from that point on. But we didn't say anything about each other.

He wasn't digging me in the meteor or nothing. And so there was a race at Texas. His car crashed and there was a miscommunication between him and his team. He left the track and the car got repaired and they didn't have, where's he at? They need to put him back in it to go finish a few laps. And they saw me in the garage. and said, hey, will you get in this car? We got like, eight laps to go.

We just need you to go out there and run them the rest of this race. And I'm like, absolutely, I'm diving in this thing head first because I want to feel what kind of engine they build. It's like, man, you never get a chance to drive another team's car to feel the things about it. What kind of car do you drive? He drove Rick Hendricks car and they build their own motors and we build our motors and I just, you know, they're very good. They win a lot.

And I'm like, yeah, damn right, I'll drive it. And so I drove it. a few laps and when it was done they were like hey man appreciate doing this solid and uh we'll see you and that was it nothing there was not i didn't it wasn't it wasn't a in spite it wasn't a spite Kyle but he was mad again right i drove his car right it's like i took his took his girlfriend out and yeah you know me and so hey listen that's a big reference there well it was he wrote that thing he wrote that thing he wrote that thing he had a seafood dinner never called her back that type of It was a, he, he, he, he, I'm an old school guy where relief driving is a cool thing.

Yeah. And, and, and it happened all the time in the 70s and I'm totally a throwback and nostalgic and that's freaking, yeah. So I've never been asked to relief drive for somebody. Damn right. I'll do it. And, uh, and he wasn't, he ain't from that school. And so he was like, nobody drives my car, but me. Right.

And so, anyways, him is, him and his, him and Rick. are having some difficulties on his contracts and whether he wants whether he's going to continue to drive there or not and they decide that that's not happening so they've made a choice and now rick's going out to find a driver and he offered me a deal and i took it and so Kyle viewed that as me taking his job and Kyle then was now cast into free agency and had to take whatever the best option so he didn't have a car yet they decided not to do a contract, went to you, got the contract, and he's in free agency. And he gets hired by Joe Gibbs.

This works out tremendously for him in the short run and the long run. But he was upset at the time and was like feeling rejected by Rick Hendrick. Rick's this ultra freaking respected guy in the sport. And if you get rejected by him, there must be something wrong with you, right? And he carried that. And so when we started racing the next year and I'm in his car and he's in the Joe Gibbs car, it was me against him. That's the way he saw it.

And that's the way I kind of saw it. We're racing at Richmond. We're running first and second in the points the whole year, pretty much. Great storyline. He's winning quite a lot. He's winning a hell of a lot of races too. Things are going well for him. I only won at Michigan.

I had a great year, but I only won the one race. I'm leading at Richmond, and it's like four or five laps together. and I'm running the top of the racetrack. I run the high side. Kyle's right behind me, and I'm going to give him the bottom of the track. He's got more than enough room.

And we go down into turn three, and he gets loose and collects me. I wreck into the wall. He goes up the track, and he loses the lead. Another guy ends up winning the race. And in my mind, I'm like, I understand he got loose.

It wasn't like he just went in there and turned right and hit me. What is going loose means? Loose means like when he turned down, in the corner, his rear tire started sliding, like if he was in water or ice. It was not, it was an accident, right? It was like, he went in the corner, hoping that his car was going to stick and he was going to pass me. Yeah. Right. But his car didn't stick and it's the back slid and he had to turn right to correct it, which drove him up the track into my door. And it turned me around when we hit. And, but it also cost him the race too. And so, he's a good enough

race car driver to know how to intentionally, if he was trying to intentionally crash me, he's good enough to just go in there and move me out of the way and going and win. So I know that it, you know, I know just watching by how all that went down that he didn't really intend for that to happen, but he was absolutely unapologetic. And, of course, I mean, he wasn't going to say, I'm sorry, that was wrong. I shouldn't have done it. That was bad for me. And, and, and I don't ever want to.

He just let it. He didn't even say anything, right? And kind of played it up a little bit. And now I got it, I got the media coming to me going, yeah, he's got wrecked by that guy. He's, he's your arch rival.

He's your enemy. You and him. Now the media is in love with this. Right. The media loves it every week, right? They're going to him. Hey, Dale said this. What do you think?

Well, hell with him. Yeah. Hey, Kyle just said 10 minutes ago to hell with you. What do you think? Yeah. And they just going at us every week, right? And we have these obligations to the media. Right.

The obligation you had to be there. And so they knew they were going to get a sound bite. And Kyle was not great at biting his tongue. And so if he says something, now I've got to say something. Right. Is there a fine system put in place with NASCAR? So you can say whatever you want. Yeah.

Like Ricky Bobby did. Listen, that's the staple of this whole podcast. We're really hanging our hat on this. We go back to Richmond later in the year in the back end of the summer. and the it's early it's midway through the race it's not near the end it's not in the same scenario

but Kyle's leading and I'm running second and I went into turn one and tried my hardest to put him in the wall and he's I ran into the back of him and he slid up the track and backed into the fence and spun down the track

he ended up being able to finish the race but that was maybe be the one, I can say I probably intentionally wrecked somebody less, I can't count them on two hands, I maybe count it on one hand. Right.

In 20 years of racing. And that was, that was one of them. And I was, I was in the situation. You won that race? No. I don't know. I don't think so. But, um. Yeah, probably not. You know, buddy's back there going from that then. So, I was in, I'll be honest, man.

I was in the situation where like, if I didn't wreck him, I felt like everybody was going to go, oh, you're soft. Right. If you don't, you know, here you are. Here's your, here's your opportunity, man. Y'all media's painted y'all into a corner as the arc rivals. And he says dirty shit about you and you say shit about him. And now here's your chance, man.

You're going to talk to talk and walk to walk and all that. So I was like, I don't, I can't not. Man, that media put you in a little bit of a deal, huh? They did. They put you in a little bit of a deal. A.A.M. We're back. Hey, comments, comments, comments, comments in the,

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That website is Cigars with an S-International.com and use promo code boys. Comment on YouTube. Yeah. So how many exchanges with Kyle did you have in, like you and I talking right now? Like face to face. Did you ever look at him? Hey, Kyle, fuck you, buddy. No.

Do you mention if there's Twitter back then? Oh, shit. There was a, um, there was one. So, and this is one I don't tell. Let's go. We, and Kyle's, you can get Kyle's version of it. It might be different. Tell us welcome on this podcast.

Yeah, he's welcome. Now you, this is your second time on. Now, this isn't a, so he's got to know that we're fans. This is called Bush Bus. You should have him on. No. We were at Phoenix, and this is around. PIR.

Yeah. This is around 2014. Things aren't going well for me. I'm having a down year. pretty frustrating year and it's practice I'm going down the back straight away and I'm slowing down and coming into the pits

and I get to the apron and Kyle's going Kyle's behind me and he's coming by and I guess I was too close to the racetrack he didn't like where I was at and it was a peeding and it was bothering him

and his focus and his ability You're too close to the racetrack I moved you're in the pits No, I slowed down and got on the apron to come into the pits, and he's coming by me on the racetrack. And he didn't like something about what I did. He flipped me the bird. In the car.

Yeah, out the window. Through the net. Yeah, he sticks it out in front of the net like this. He's like, hey, if you made. Did he get the full handout? Are they big enough to fit your hand out? Or you saw enough of a knuckle to know that's the thing. Oh, yeah.

I knew what it was. All right. And I pull into the garage and I just, it just, it just sent me over the edge. So, hell yeah. Pressed off there. I can't wait.

So calm. Like you think nothing's going to bother this guy. Practice him. You pull a belt out. You pull a belt out. He's out of here. Yeah. The belt comes off.

We're on. So the practice ends and I debriefing my team and I'm frustrated with my car. It's just been a bad season. And then that happened and I went, I'm going to go to my hauler and I see his holler. I'm like, I'm going in there. Oh, shit.

And if he's in there, will confront him about it. And I walked up to, I walked up into his hauler, which is an 18 wheeler trailer. And you would walk to the very front of the trailer and there's a lounge. And in the lounge is Kyle. And it's crew chief. And I know his crew chief. 2B1.

And I said, Kyle, if you ever flip me off again, I'm going to rip your head off. And I'm going to beat the hell out of you. And I just said everything I could just say in that moment. and he's sitting there going You told me you were to kill him? Yeah. We had to talk about that the other day. We really did because with Conner's telling, you know,

what's his name? I'm going to kill you. Taylor says he gets a subject. I just don't think that's that big of a deal because it's like, I don't know, it could happen, but you're not going to kill the guy. You're going to knock him out,

hopefully. I don't know. He saw him with the car being a weapon at some point. You get out there. He's not in the right. No question. The emotions get the best of you do. So you tell this guy.

I'm telling him everything I wanted to tell him. And I, I'd never do that, right? That's that a character for me but it was to a point to where I was done I needed to tell this guy to knock it off right?

The words in the media, the bird, the disrespect is just got to come to an end. You're going to respect me and you're not going to look at me the way you're looking at me and perceive me the way you perceive me. You're going to respect me when we're here together at the racetrack.

And so I said what I had to say and I turned around and walked out. He didn't say a word. God, that must have. That probably trapped your ass a little bit that he didn't say nothing back. I didn't want him to respond to me. You just said it and turned around and you walked out. I didn't want him to respond to me.

And his crew chief didn't move. And like it was what I wanted it to be. Yeah. You know, I feel like that if I didn't want anything to happen to where it would have gotten physical, it probably would have easily gotten that way. it's good that nothing happened to where it became physical. Is Kyle a big dude? He's tall.

He's tall. Hey, Tony. He's not, no. Okay. I mean, yeah, you're okay. He's taller. He's taller me.

How tall are you? Five, ten and a half. Ten and a half. I love that. I love the half. I love the guy. Five, ten and a half. If you're under six foot, you say a half.

There's a lot. You get the detail. No question. How big a are you? You're looking back on it. he stood up and said, all right, I'll kill you right now. We would have had to have found out who was going to be right. Hell, yeah, I like that.

So you think you could have taken him? I don't know. Is Tony at your side? Are you back there? That story where you got in his car, you had a stint like crooked. Yeah, he was pretty skinny. Yeah. I don't know.

We're rolling him. I'm not. I don't have enough sight sending him. I don't even know, Kyle. We're rolling his ass, dude. I don't know what my ability is. Yeah. That's understandable.

I mean, no one can really fight unless you're a fighter, right? Like, all of us can sit here and talk about whatever. But the end of the day, we fight for, we might be rolling. There's buttons all over this chin. You know what I'm saying? You're cracking. I might be standing. You roll around for 20 seconds.

We're all, we're all, we're both tired. We're like, all, hey, guys, get up. It's over. That's a 20 seconds. I used to think I can fight. We all did at one point, right? At one point, we all thought. Hey, we still do.

Come on now. We're on camera. Listen, I don't know. Once I started getting kids, I was like, I don't know, who am I fighting, dude? I don't need my daughters to see me fighting somebody with you know. Practice, no problem.

Yeah. It felt good though. I was glad to do it. Got it off your chest. I think it changed our relationship. So, you know, years later, he texted me one day and he's like, hey, we're at a racetrack somewhere.

He's like, hey, I want to talk to you about some race. He owns a team and I own the team. He's like, I want to compare some things that y'all are doing with what I'm doing on my business side. How far after? Probably four years after the rich, Richmond incident. Okay.

Four or five years. Okay. Four or five years. So you guys, lines of communication after that, and the media kind of stopped. You guys obviously didn't talk. So he just had your number.

You guys are both kind of transitioning in the business world and you guys are kind of like, you know, respected at this point. And then we started communicating. And then I had him on my podcast and we talked about Richmond. Oh. Really? We never talked about it.

And I said, hey, come on my podcast and let's talk about Richmond. And let's talk about that day, what you went through, what I thought, what you thought, what,

let's be honest and be clear. and everything beyond that. All the dirt we threw on each other in the media. Yeah. And we talked it out. And he told me, and you know, you can get him in here and talk about that. But he was like, man, when I came into the sport and y'all were, we were, D.E.I, Dill and Hart incorporated the team.

I was driving for the time. We were courting him. And Rick Hendrick was courting him. He ended up going with Rick. Right. So we were, I would see him in the garage when he was like 18 and go, hey, man, you're coming to drive for us? Yeah. He's a sodding.

after, you know, young kid with a lot of talent. And I'm like, hey, you're coming with us? Yeah. And he's like, I don't know. Right. We'll find out. Yeah. And so he was like, he was like, yeah, he's like, do you guys have agents in the game or

you guys kind of wheel your own thing? I think it's probably his parents more than anything. Really? I imagine. I don't know. I doubt he had an agent. Yeah. But he's like, man, back then, I wanted to be your friend.

Like you were, you were the bud guy. You were the, you were the fun guy. He was like, I wanted to be in your group. Right. And I'm like, damn, I didn't know that. He's like, yeah, I hated how things got, took off with us and how we went down this other path. He's like, because when I was coming into sport, I was thinking, man, it's going to be cool if I can hang out and drink beer with me. Yeah.

I was the beer guy. Yeah, we're having beers now. Yeah. How cool is that? Having beers? No, having beer. How cool is it like to have somebody when you're in the game long enough, look up to you? We talk about that sometimes is like when you play something long enough, you have kids. that are growing up and going into your world that are fans of you.

They're like, hey, you're so-and-so, you're just like, yeah, listen, I'm just, what are you talking about? You know what I'm saying? That's, I mean, that's a cool feeling for us. It's pretty cool now. Yeah. You know, I don't, I don't, not, it wasn't that cool to hear that from my peers, if any of those were to ever say that.

But now that I'm done and I'm, and these like 20-year-olds, they're coming into the sport. And I guess because I'm 46, and I feel like I'm getting old as hell that they even knew who I was. Yeah, that's like rad. They're like, man, I used to be a big Dale Jr. fan and I was five.

I'm like, well, that makes me feel old, but it's nice to know that, you know, I'm not aged out. Like these kids that are coming into the sport don't know who the hell I am. Right. Yeah, it's super cool. Yeah.

So we go back to the beginning of the podcast, legend. Just let your name keep you living on. You're returning. They'll be an age. I see you're returning back to the racetrack. Well, I do run one a year. I run one race a year to scratch the itch and to smell the smells and hear the sounds.

So when I'm a broadcaster for NBC and I, when you're up there in the booth, all right, if you're a player and you go into the broadcast booth, you can tell the broadcast and the viewer everything that the player's thinking, right? Because you played it. You just played there.

You were just down there, right? Well, the second year, the third year, the fourth year, the fifth year, that gets harder because you forget exactly. You're turning in anymore of the broadcaster guy. Yeah. You're not the player anymore, right? And you're further from that.

And man, I don't know if I know exactly what that guy is thinking right now. I forget that energy. I forget that sensation or that emotion. I forget that pressure. I forget that nervousness, that fear, that anxiety,

all those things, right, that you have in those moments, right? And so I get in the car once a year and run one race to be reminded of all those things. So when I'm in the booth, it's right there. When I need to pull that file, it's right there.

Right. When I need to draw in that moment and go, I know what that's like. I know exactly what he's thinking. It's all fresh. That's awesome. Well, what if you win? Then that's badass.

Yeah, but if you win, are you going to sit there like, you know, let's get another run at this thing? No, I'm done, man. I, you know, I ran, I raced for 20 years. I had some head injury stuff, some concussion stuff, and I felt like

that I was going to the well too many times. I felt like that I was taking some risks unnecessarily. So I'm getting ready to get married. And at the end of 2016, we have our first little girl shortly after that. And this is like, I got his whole new life, you know, and maybe racing ain't important anymore.

And maybe, you know, when I got hurt in 2016, I had, I mean, I had like, I had recognizable symptoms, you know, just, when most people get a concussion, you guys know this, right? So when guys get concussions, they're self-diagnosed, right? you don't, I don't see it.

I don't see your concussion. Right. Right. I had like these visual cues that you could see. Right. I had balance issues and visual. Oh, it was bad. I had issues speaking and thinking, you know, pulling words out, you know, just

turn to form normal sentences and not being able to think of a simple word that I use every day, right? Yeah. I had these issues that were frightening, man. Frightening. And I thought to myself, like, I don't want to ever put myself back there again. And going to the racetrack and running every single week, you're going to crash. You cannot run a whole year and never hit anything. You're going to hit stuff.

Right. And if I'm just hitting stuff all the time, I'm never giving myself any chance to get beyond this and get past this and get away from it, right? and so yeah going back and running that one race is a risky decision I'm particular about where that race is at as far as the track and and what's the potential of a of a hard wreck there you know and it's a it needs to be a track I'm I'm comfortable with yeah and so you know I and I don't go out there and race over my head like I would if I was 25 or 28 like with reckless abandoned, right? I go out there and measure the risks and I have a great time. I get to experience

it. And for the time being, it checks all the boxes. Have you done like anything post-Ret racing that is like beneficial for brain stuff? Have you gone and looked at anything like IV therapies, different stuff like that? No. So I haven't. And the only reason I think is because I haven't had anything that's triggered me to have concern. And so, you know, when I had the problems that I was having in 2016, I'd already been to Pittsburgh to see Mickey Collins, who's a guy that works with a lot of... You see the main guy for the Steelers?

Yeah, he's the Steelers guy, Penguins guy, but he also worked with other racers. He's worked with a lot of people that I know. But he's worked with tons of football guys. Yeah, I've worked with them before. Yep. So, you know, he helped me in 2012 get through a, I say small concussion, but he helped me get through an issue that didn't last long. It went away in a relatively short period of time. And so he, with that experience, you know, I thought, you know,

oh, man, I got this under control. Well, I got in trouble and put myself in a bad situation in 2016 with a lot of crashes and a lot, getting sick after a lot of crashes. I'd be well in about three or four days and think, well, you know, I'm healed, you know. But I kept, I'd hit the wall three weeks later, and then three weeks after that, I'd hit something, and I kept layering all these concussions together.

And one day I started getting worse and worse and worse and didn't know what it was and why I was happening. And I was just going down. Yeah, I hadn't wrecked. I hadn't wrecked in weeks. And I'm, so I didn't, I was like, what's happening to my, what, what's happening to me? I didn't wreck.

What is this, right? So finally I figured out that I needed to go see him. And we spent eight months fixing it. Wow. Yeah, it was. Did you do anything that was like out of the norm of what the usual concussion protocols? Everybody's experience seems to be different.

And whether my treatment in 2012 was much different than in 2016 because the understanding of how to treat a concussion, had changed. So when 2012 happened, they were like, no TV, no cell phones, dark rooms, sleep, silence, quiet, nothing. And in 2016, when I was like, man, I do not want to go through that. No rooms, no rooms, no TV. I don't want to do that, right? That is awful. And so I was dreading it. And when I got diagnosed, he's like, okay, here's what you do. What triggers your your symptoms. And I'm like, well, going to the busy places,

the grocery store, or I'd say, you know, if I went to a concert, anywhere where there's, where there's complex environments, it freaks me out. And he's like, go do those. And I'm like, oh, okay. And, uh,

go party. Go have your time. Yeah. So, yeah. So I, I, drink a beer. I have, I'm,

so they pulled me out of the race car. Um, and now I'm at a concert. And my team, my people, my crew, my brand team and my race team, they're like, you know, you can't drive a race car, but you're off at a concert. Yeah.

You're trying to get over a concussion. What are you doing, you know? And so I would take all the people that I could take to see Mickey when I would go visit him so he could explain to them like, hey, this is what we're doing. And he's in big trouble. And so, you know, and it was helpful. But it took a long time to get over that.

and I you know so I think I retired probably about if that never happened if that never happened I'd probably race way on into my late 40s and I and I think that if I hadn't had got married and had kids even with that incident in 2016 I might still be racing today yeah because I wouldn't puts new things in the perspective something different to live for so right so when I had only myself to live for, I would probably put myself back in that same situation. Risk, you know.

My doctor would tell me, even after 2016, he's like, you're fine, you're at no more risk than the other guys out there. And I'm like, wait, but I'm damaged, right? I've had this injury, and it seems like I would be at risk to get it more so than the guy racing the car behind me. He's like, nope, you're good.

You can go race. He's like, now you can get hurt, but so can he, but you're not going to get it easier than him and I'm like, okay. So without my wife and kids, I probably would have just went right back to it. And I probably would have got sick again.

I probably would have got hurt again. And who knows where that would have sent me, right? But yeah, when I got married and had kids, I was like, I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to be at home sick. Can't walk, can't stand, can't talk, can't see. and have a one-year-old kid that I can't enjoy, right? Her milestones.

I can't be in the moment. When you're in a concussion, I'm not telling you guys anything y'all haven't heard or no. When you have a concussion, you're in a fog. You're not in the moment. You're not in the room. You could have the most important people in your life in a conversation around a table and you couldn't be a part of it.

And start doing the look-off in the zone. Yeah. It was awful. You worry about CTE? I think, you know, I do. It's a, I don't worry about it for me. I can't live the rest of my life thinking, man, what's going to happen to me? I think that some people do live their life like that, worrying about their future.

But I'm just going to, today's good. Let's see how tomorrow is. Tomorrow's good. I'm just doing it day to day. You've also dealt with a lot of trauma also, just like that plane crash you talked about in the last podcast. And Will's a Hayes flying in, it's like,

I bet every time you get on a plane, it's, there's got to be a little something in there. There certainly is. Yeah. Start taking off. And you just start roaring a little bit. You're like,

oh, let's get this thing off the ground. Yeah. Grab the arm. But if you live your entire life thinking, oh, the next flight I take, you can't do that.

I can't not fly. Yeah. I've got to get back on a plane because, There'll be things I need to go do that are important, right? Right. Like Bustin with the boys. Like Bustin with the boys.

It's very important. This is a very important thing. You're very welcome for being on. I fought through the anxieties to be here. Yeah. I hope you guys are enjoying this all-time episode that is going to belong on Mount Bussmore. And I think you would all agree. But need a shout out.

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A, candidate of CBD, baby. Go there, 50% off. Use code busing. You coming to Nashville, like, transitioning into that, you're a big pioneer in bringing NASCAR to Nashville. Man, I'm working hard at it. Seems like everyone's really excited about it. Yeah.

Everyone that, even people that aren't, there's just a casual fan, are excited. I think people just want as many sports as possible here in Nashville. Absolutely. I think so. I always say that, you know, the rising tides lifts all the ships up. And we have IndyCar coming to run the street course at Nashville. We got NASCAR at the Nashville Super Speedway.

There's a lot of, there's a push to get Nashville to the fairgrounds in town. It's short track. And so, and Nashville, man, has changed so much in the last 10 years. when NASCAR left in 1984, it was a different town. And what it is today, it's where we want to be, right? We celebrate our champion here. We've had our banquet here for the last two or three years. And to me, that's a very critical, important day for our sport.

That's where we celebrate everything that happened that year, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They could be more important. And the day you crown and recognize and celebrate your champion and all the winners and all the accomplishments. So that we do that here is great for us. It's a hell of a fit. It's perfect.

And, you know, everybody, we loved Vegas. Everybody partied hard and had a blast. But damn, I mean, Nashville is as good or better than Vegas. It has a similar vibe, but also, you know, it's Nashville. And the other thing, too, that I want to say is that music component. Like NASCAR and music, particularly country music, but NASCAR and music is a good. marriage and we can utilize that in ways we never were able to before yeah we would have you know the banquet is a big giant you know theater um you know banquet banquet banquet table event right

there's 500 people there and we were it's like pulling teeth to get anybody really bad ass to come play you know and get and really raise our level right yeah you know get people going damn do you see who naskar had at the banquet plan yeah you know it was good but But now, you know, you got so much to choose from here in Nashville. Yeah, they're all over the place. Damn right. So we had the banquet last year, man. I was like, I was telling all the drivers, I was calling them up.

I was like, hey, all your country music friends invite them to the banquet. Have them sitting at your table. Even if they don't play, have them there. So when the camera goes across the room, they see, you know, this famous musician and this race car drive, right? Our whole. It brings the brand up. Yes. Absolutely.

Yeah. It brings the brand up. Have is there, um, is there a difficulty with the brand of NASCAR in the last like 10 years, like keeping everything going in a trajectory you guys wanted to go in? Well, the, uh, you know, we had an amazing run in the 2000s. Mm-hmm. Things were crazy. We were, I mean, souvenir business was multi-million dollars.

All the drivers were making money in souvenirs alone. Driver salaries were going through the roof. sponsorships were going through the roof. In 2008, I think we had over $40 million on one car. Really? Yeah, Rick Hendrick was probably near $200 million for his team sponsorship across four cars. Yeah, I mean, it was bonkers. You know, and the numbers aren't like that anymore.

The, you know, the ticket sales aren't like that anymore. They've started, you know, for over a decade, we've been pulling seats from racetracks. You know, if you can't sell these These seats, they've got to go. And so when, you know, instead of having 180,000 people at a race, you're now thrilled, now thrilled. You're happy. Yeah.

You have 60 to 80,000. Really? Yeah. It's that much of a difference. Yeah. For some places. Why do you think that is? Is it just the way NASCAR is viewed in a different way?

I don't think so. I think it's the way people consume content these days. I think it's, you know, there were a million different variables that made it more difficult for fans to choose to go to a race. Hotel rooms, the cost to do it all, right? Right. The ticket prices went up. Hotel gouging.

You know, everything got more expensive. And it became, instead of being, a fan instead of being able to go to, like, multiple races a year, came down to like, which one do we go to, right? because they can only afford to do this once a year. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so that got to me more difficult. And I think that we might have lost sight, too, of how to entertain someone for the,

how to entertain somebody for that weekend. So if you're, I want you to come to a race. I mean, it's great if you walk up and buy a ticket and come to the grandstands, but I want you to drive an RV. And I want you to rent a spot. And I want you to be there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and I want you eating concessions all three days and, you know, pumping money into the economy around the racetrack.

And that got harder to do. You know, that got harder to get people to come commit that. And for you to come do that, you need more than just the race on Sunday, right? You need a concert on Friday night and Saturday night. You need some racing on Saturday. Some of the, you need multiple forms of motorsport at the same venue. Yeah, like a AAA league or something like that, have a voice play on Saturday. And that's going to bring you in.

So it's, I think we're getting back to that. I think we're getting our promoters. Our promoters are promoting and getting creative. And for lack of a better way to describe it, they got to bring in that sort of carnival atmosphere and that, you know, that entertainment atmosphere. They got to have, you know, they got to have other things for people to do

than to drive there and sit around for two days to wait on this three-hour race to happen on Sunday. Right. Sounds like Nashville is the best place for that to happen. Yeah. Nashville will be a big city, bro. It would be awesome. I think however many people you can get is going to go, especially that first one. But if you guys do it right, I mean, the concerts and all that.

We ran out at the fair, we ran out at the Speedway. And everybody, the industry, meaning crew members, all the people that work in NASCAR, drivers, wives, all the industry people and the fans all got entertained for a week. You know, I mean, we came into town. We went to Broadway. they had parties and out at the track they had parties. The sponsors were holding parties in town, big events. Everybody was getting taken.

It was great. And that stuff hasn't been happening for years. We just thought, oh, we just, the race is all we need. I don't need to spend $10,000 for a concert act here Saturday night. So we're kind of getting back to being more of an entertainment business. And the race is the, you know, the main course, but you got to have everything else to have. and all those things. Yeah.

Pretty savvy in the business world. I was transitioning from like NASCAR juggling the business and becoming the businessman that you're obviously being, like being a part owner in the NASCAR Speedway Circuit, whatever it's called. I apologize. No, it's good. I've been, uh, well, the NASCAR speedway circuit. I'm just saying, uh, just saying a bunch of words that sound like the right.

It's all good. The NASCAR Taledega race. Yeah. Yeah. I used to tell people, like when I first started racing and it was just, I was just making a paycheck from racing alone. And I used to tell people that I wanted to find my foreman grill. So George Foreman had the grill. And in anyone in any athlete's eyes or any race car driver's eyes, you know, you want to be George Foreman.

Right. You want to have this thing beyond your racing that's going to be a big deal, be a national thing. Right. Whatever that is. Right. Right. I love the George Foreman Grill. I did, too.

I thought it was great. And he sold the hell out in things. And whatever your George Foreman Grill is, right, it can be anything. And so I was just always like, I'm going to find something and it's going to land. I'm going to land something. I'm going to make. It's whether I create it or it comes and falls in my lap. Yeah.

And so you try, you know, not everything. Some things are silly, but you try about everything that sounds good, right? And some stuff doesn't work. I've done candy bars and different things that just don't work. Not enough. Tater chips. Chocolate, what's the deal in the candy bars that didn't work out? I mean, getting some shelf space.

They didn't get in my hands. Getting shelf space in a damn store. I don't care what kind of food product you are. is competitive. Yeah. Like you just don't walk in and put your tater chips on the tater chip aisle.

Tater chips. You know what I mean? In all the stores across America. Yeah. It's competitive. And you got to earn that. And so, or be with the right people,

but a lot of our things didn't work, but a lot of them did. And the secret to being successful at anything is people. and so like having some like I don't know how to run a restaurant right but I own a restaurant that's in we have Whiskey River which is in airports we got one in Charlotte Riley and Fort Lauderdale and we kill it but I don't make the choices because I would run it in the ground right right got to know your strengths what you can to do I got some people that I partner with that

absolutely know how to run a restaurant. And that's why it wins, you know. And so, you know, when you just can't go in there thinking, man, I know how to do this. I know how to run a nightclub. I'm going to be the best nightclub. Yeah. You know, you're never going to make it if you're not a nightclub owner.

You know, if you weren't born into it. You can just think he can do everything, right? You got to put the right people in the right place. Yeah, George didn't build that grill. He did not do it. He did. No way he built that grill. No.

You think George was in the basement? Maybe. You don't know George, dude. I do actually know George. I don't know, George. I was going to be, I just stay quiet. Let him tell you anything. Yeah. Yeah.

This I actually wanted to talk about. What is, how'd this happen between you two? Let's like, what? Because I've heard, I've heard a gentle story about. A gentle story. You reached out. Wills, he, you know, he flexed on me a couple times. It's, it's tough sometimes going around Dale and I being friends.

Yeah, there's no question. I mean, I'm literally, I feel like the third wheel here. but I do want to know between the two. How did this whole thing work out? It's a natural thing, man. It was natural. He can, he can, you know, chime in whatever, how I remember it. We were on our run.

That's when we won the division back in 2015. And that was the year I started taking over the job. And we were playing well on the back end, the back end of the season. And we started stringing some games together because we could never win like two games in a row. It was always we'd win one, we'd lose one. We win one, we'd lose one. And then we started stringing together, I think, like, maybe three or four. And we were having fun on social media.

And Dee Hall and I were close. And he was tweeting back and forth with Kevin Durant. And I, you know, being myself on social media, I'm like, I tweet at both of them. I'm like, hey, D, all introduce me to KD, but be cool about it. And then he, like, laughs. He's like, comp, I'm sure he knows you, man. He's a fan of the team because KD's a big fan of the Washington football team. and KD responds like hey Komp I know who you are man he follows me and stuff and I'm like you know I play that up that KD follows me

Yeah yeah yeah exactly and then in an article the next day I'm seeing like the media you know put together the storyline of what happened and I saw that Dale was following me too because they're like oh KD wasn't the only one who followed will like Dale had followed me or something I like look at a key fan is that how you saw this thing go down well he's a he's a he was a Washington guy too huge Washington fan yeah yeah he washington fan and I was always like active on social. And you thought this is the guy I'm going to follow. I was active on social.

Let's take a pause here. Yeah. Okay. You're right. You're right. So I was like, nah, let's shelf that for a second.

So you're obviously a huge fan of the team. Yes. To be, you know what I'm saying? Whoa, damn. Back 2015. I was playing well.

Yeah, playing well, but the first. That was back of my day. That was back of my hey day. We played each other that year. Yeah. We won.

I know. I'm very aware. It was a horrible day. It wasn't fun at all. You called me like white guy or something on the field. It was you and Alex Boone. You guys were both. They called me like some like white guy out there.

But Boone was like messing with me. I remember going to you and like, hey, we played each other in college. And you're like, all right. Oh, my God. I'm not going to the white dude with the Compton on his back. I'm like, you can't. This got to be the same guy from Nebraska. So, okay.

So 2015 hits. Well, how did you get to that man's Twitter? Watching him play. He's playing good. Are you serious? Yes. I mean, just like you saw.

make a couple tackles and you just gave him a follow? I think it was more like, um... Is that old teeth? Look how thick the old neck is back there, too. You had a thick neck old neck, dude. I looked so different. Dale's like just bored as hell. Like, yeah, dudes all the time.

We couldn't even drive the race car that day for real. Oh, really? Yeah. But yeah. So you just started following that day, or was it... Did you see the KD thing? I don't... I think it might have been that day.

I don't, I think it was that day. I can't remember. I mean, I just, you know, I would, don't talk me out. I just was like, man, this guy seems pretty cool. And we needed, you know, our team needed some personality. You know, when you're a fan, you gravitate toward the guys that seem to show some personality, right? Yeah.

There's the workman type guy that you appreciate, like, you know, that scores a total. touchdown hands the ball of the ref and goes back to the bench, right? You like that too. Right. But, you know, every team needs that sort of clown, right? That class clown. Jesus Christ. God, I don't know how to sit it better myself.

The funniest part about that is I know, you know, every team needs sort of a clown, and I just see that part being in just some fucking trailer that we postings. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. You're just a fun. You're enjoying yourself. Things are going well for you, and you were, you were embracing that. and you were sharing that with fans, right?

That fired me up because Dobson back there was my, he's been my strength coach pretty much my entire life. And I say this. Okay. All right. I am a fan of the team. And if I can interact with one of the players, I mean,

I'm no different than the guy next door who isn't a race car driver and on TV, right? I'm just like him. Right. And if I'm just as excited about, you know, getting on social media and interacting with Will is this guy is.

I get it 100%. And so people think people that do stuff they think that I'm like, yeah. Right. Like George Lucas. Like you're not a fan of anything. Yeah. Like me and George Lucas is like, oh, he's really nice. It's like, oh yeah. I mean, we're all human beings. Like we all like want to hang out. Yeah.

Have fans of things. Like things. Yeah. So he's playing for the team and I'm like, dang, that's cool, man. Because we, you know, He was cool enough to be, you know, engage. Which is crazy. Because I'm thinking, I'm like, because I knew Dobb was a huge Dale Earnhard Jr. And I'm like, yo, I can't wait to tell Dob that Dale and I follow each other. We're kind of friends.

Yeah. And he followed you on social media. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And so. Taylor checks phone. Is he a phone. The next year, we were about to go to OTAs. Dale tweets like, hey, good luck in OTAs.

I'm like, we're fucking. We're boys, man. And then we get to go, we get to race at the Richmond Speedway. Is that, is that, is that the track? Oh, yeah. We get to go to Richmond Speedway and it's just, yeah, that's how it happened, dude. Literally like Twitter and football. And we just kind of stayed in touch since.

Really? Yeah. We text every now and then. Oh, that's super nice, guys. I'm really glad this is developing something that you get some both hang your hat on. All over the guy, it was just a clown. And he, you know, every team needs a, you know, a clown. He goes, he goes, he goes, you got the hard workers, you know.

and then, you know, every team needs like a clown. Yeah. That day you guys went driving, like, were you guys kicking it up? You guys couldn't drive the race car legit. We couldn't drive the race car. Yeah, he was like, we get to choose like four or five players to come out to the speedway. Like your names on the list, like make sure we get to go out because it was during training camp. So you went, so you go to the same and they say, hey, you're doing like a retirement round or something, right?

Something. Yes. And you go to, it was Richmond? Yes. Yeah. Go to Richmond. That's where a training camp is. Washington Reds at the time.

Washington football team players. Yeah, so I was going to go to training camp later that day. Yeah, but we had, we practiced early in the mornings. Right. And so we had to wait on y'all. And yeah, I think I put you in. It was me, Kirk, Morgan Moses, Ryan Carrigan. And I don't know if there's anybody else, but we got to go.

You put on your list or you put Will on your list. I put all those names on this. Okay. Gotcha. Morgan Moses, huh? Offitz and Lyman. Yeah. Bet you follow him on Twitter.

Hey, I checked and you guys. It's like, hey, Dale, how much more bacon I throw you now? Let me get that follow, baby. But, yeah, it was an awesome time. And I'm sitting there thinking, like, you know, we finally get to meet and hang out. And we take, like, you know, I do like a little Snapchat, little Snapchat selfie with him with the dog tongue and stuff. And he drives around the car and I just, you know, I'm trying to have a blast. Yeah.

I'm like a kid in a candy store. No question. You know, I see Dale, this, the most humble human being. I like to tell people. No question about it. Dale has no clue that Dale's Dale, right? Right. And I'm like, you know, screaming and stuff. You see him just driving the car, just kind of like laughing.

He just seems like he's happy to give you this experience. Yeah, yeah. He's like, this dude's really happy for this guy, man. I was nervous as hell. Were you really? Yes. What, like, what are you nervous about? Because you see how he's on Twitter. He's driving with Will Compton.

Maybe what you mean. The boy. He's with the boy in the car, dude. You got, they're, you know, they're in the middle of their prep for this season. Oh, we were hyped up too. And fuck. They're hard bomb there. Their minds are on whatever that is, right?

Staying healthy and just getting the work in. And they are getting, you know, asked to go out of their way over to do this thing. It's like a field trip. We got to miss some of a training camp. All right. I don't know that. So you know, in your mind, like, this is the greatest day. I'm like, please keep driving so we don't have to go back.

Yeah. I don't know all that. You're like, hey, good day. I'm sitting there going, man, I hope they like, I hope they want to be here. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's what I'm saying. Dude.

But then you went and, like, ran a route against Jano, right? Yes. Yeah, Josh Norman. I remember that. We're buddies. How did that, you catch one on them? I did. That's back when Jano was like Jano.

Yeah, he was like the dude. We came off going to the playoffs the year before, went in the division. Kirk was now taking the hell, you know, leading the way at quarterback. So we had like, it was like, you know, it was a good time to be a Washington football teammate. Yeah. So Kirk? Yeah. So that was off.

grip so we're walking we're walking around i'm just like i don't even know where i'm supposed to be and uh you know i'm trying to be out of the way but there's no obvious place that this is out of the way and their players doing their own thing and um uh josh was oh jesus josh is are you showing the josh thing this is me and josh norman do you remember that I bet he thought you were an asshole, dude I was like, no, I'm like, who's Josh Norman? I was Kyle Bush to you right at that moment. He's in the night.

What's he doing? Why is he going after this guy? Well, we were, so this thing, we were in four-minute drill at the end of the game. This is like the game, like, December 23rd. It was like Christmas time. And, uh... What's the upset for? Well, okay, so Josh...

He did his little bone arrow, show. So we did, four-minute drill, obviously, at the game. You did the bone arrow? I did the bone arrow at them. I know, that's why I did it. trying to make it this thing and then they so Derek runs the ball left smart move gets a few yards and Josh tackles him and gator rolls his leg and I'm not like like listen Derek's my boy but even if Derek wasn't my boy like we're not going to play those types of games so I go up getting

Josh's face and we kind of go at it for a little bit we end up winning the game on like a pick six it was like a I think Butler picked it off and ran it in when we didn't need to it was like 15 seconds left in the game so like Josh was mouthing off to me and And I just beeline for the sidelines. He's sitting there. And I like, Josh, he looks at me. I go, get the fuck off my field, dude. And he like, he's like, what was that?

And I kind of put it back again. And he threw his helmet at me. Didn't move, baller move. And the thing goes right by me. And he slaps my hand. You obviously saw the video after that. Slaps my hand and all that. But we've tried to get him on the pot a couple of times.

Like to me, everything on the field is like, it's all, everything's a show in my head. Yes. Like, we're just, we're playing football. This is entertainment. Yeah. Like, I want to beat you up. You want to be up. But after it's over, I don't care.

You know what I'm saying? So we get into it, but that he was definitely pretty upset about that. And then this year he's playing for the bills and then Derek did we did him. Oh, that was my guy. I love J-Den-O-2, but yeah. Flew through the air. That was tough. That man is still in the air of the day, this day.

What's that? Boom. Do-do-do-do-do. And he's like still floating off. That's awesome. You guys are, you guys had a little deal there. That's nice. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm happy for you too. Yeah. We're not being judged right now. No, not being judged. it's just interesting to get the perspective of other people because I don't know I feel like Will is probably super nervous to meet you too

Drive getting in there Oh dude I was fired up like Oh you're fired up Yeah I mean I was a little nervous but I was like fired up too Just just like I wasn't like a big NASCAR guy growing up But knowing like Dale Jr like you just know Dale Jr. Just the name Dale and R Jr. Yeah

And you know people like Dobson and a couple like family members back home that like you know Love NASCAR like love Dale Jr. So I'm like stoked to show Dob. I'm like, dude, check this shit out. And, but yeah, I was, I was like fired up to meet him. I'm like, yeah, I'm about to ride in a fucking car with Dale and R. Jr. Yeah, that's cool. Now we're drinking a beer on the bus for the second time.

Yeah, bro. It's beautiful. Yeah. That's awesome. I love that. That's all I had. You're looking for me to add on anything else. You even look the way.

You're like, yeah, it's awesome. We just want to celebrate our friendship. Yeah. It's beautiful. It's nice to be a part of just to be around it. It's like, it's, it's infectious. It's infectious.

Zach, what you got? Yeah, Zach, anybody, Dobson, you guys been back there, I'm sure. Six to midnight the whole time. It's all right, let's do this. I've kind of got two questions. We'll start with the first one. Okay. Easy, Zach.

So I didn't really grow up. I mean, I'm 22, so your dad wasn't really alive, like when I could remember racing. But I was listening to the Thai Norris episode of him talking about the most popular driver award. What kept your dad from winning that, like, for so long? Oh, man. People now, I mean, know your dad, but they don't know. Bill Elliott. He was the one who was winning that award way back then.

Yeah. I mean, Bill, so the most popular driver award, when dad was alive, went to Bill Elliott. He won it 16 times. I think he holds the record. And Bill was popular. Now, he was a popular driver without a doubt. But, you know, I can say this, I think, without being too disrespectful. but we always felt like that they had bots before bots were bots, right? They had a, I'll be, I think, you know, to be clear what it was is that they organized. Like, you know, when the vote was going on, you had to vote through an old news letter.

and his fan club would organize and be like, all right, everybody's that time of year, let's go, get your votes in. Yeah. And, you know, dad didn't do that. Dad didn't like, all right, everybody, it's that time of year. Let's vote for me. Right. And his, and Bill would win it without fail every year.

He would win it. And in my opinion, you know, if you polled NASCAR fans in, you know, dad was more popular. It's arguable, right? It is absolutely a debatable thing, but in my mind, he was absolutely a bigger star, much more, you know,

mainstream, outside the NASCAR bubble kind of guy, you know, was in films and would cameo here and there. And, but Bill won the award every year. And they organized. You know, he is fan club

and Dothamville, the city where he's from, They got everybody on board when it was time to get the job done, and he would never lose that award. And it was something, I don't know, that Bill was actively out there going, I need this. Yeah. They have PR teams back then? Yeah. Sure.

Yeah. So that, it was, there were, there were, the right people knew that it was good for Bill to win that award, right? And so they organized and helped make that happen. And, you know, I don't think, you know, it was any illegal or wrong. I don't think they did anything wrong, but they just were, you know, they were very dedicated to getting that year after year after year.

It's a good question, Zach. It was. If your dad was known as the Intiminator, what was it Bill Elliott? Bill's nickname was Awesomeville from Dawsonville. Awesomeville from Dawsonville, Georgia. Hey, listen. Put your dad should have won every one.

Awesome Bill from Dawsonville. That's tough. Listen, as a casual, casual fan, I don't. know who that is. Yes. He could be a great guy. He's probably what your dad is.

Sure. You got to refrain, you got to frame this in the 80s, you know, awesome. You know, the, it was, it sounded absolutely spot on in the 80s. Right. Yeah. Awesome Bill from Dawsonville. That's people, oh, we. It's got a nice jingle to it.

Let's blow that in. Aided up, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Today, it might not sound quite as, uh, might not. It sounds dated. Yeah.

That thing. That name's getting. drug on on Twitter. It sounds like if you heard a little round table like hey let's

think of a nickname for Dale and you said awesome Dale from wherever he's from I'd say hey will you gotta leave the room for five

hey well get the fuck out of you're fired get him out of here right now yeah I don't know but the intimidator lives on forever

I suppose that name is awesome I suppose man I feel I feel like I have to I feel like I have to have to have bills back

I mean yeah I get that you can let us be the oh yeah you guys Yeah, you guys, everybody shoots honest and everybody shoots straight in here. But I think that, you know, it was a, in the 80s, it like seemed to make sense, right? A lot of things in the 80s.

Right. Coming after, you know, the 70s. Yeah. Yeah. And like the 80s, like even if you look at the movies like Friday, like Friday the 13th, it's like, no, no, no. And like they have like the 13. And it's like probably a swing and a miss now, right? That's like you can do that on any computer now.

Yeah. Exactly. That's true. Exactly. Yeah. I see what you're saying. Keep getting us to the other side. Keep getting us to the other side.

being like, that is a badass name. That is nice. Now that I think about it, right, just flip it. I can do whatever I want. I can just flip sides whenever I want. That's a latte from yesterday. Zach also brought up that you had a funny story for accepting the award on behalf of your dad. I did.

So the banquet at that time was in New York City. And my dad is passed away earlier the year before. And Bill, Elliot, bowed out of the voting that year and said, do not vote for me. Really? And so dad won it that year after his death. He goes, and so at the banquet,

they have a dinner or breakfast the day before the morning of. And they give away these special awards, right? And that one of them is the most popular driver award. And dad's, they want me to accept that award for dad, right? The night before, I'm hanging out in the lobby or in the hotel somewhere at the Waldorf Astoria and Kenny Schrader and a couple other guys, the race car drivers, peers are my dads. They're like uncles to me, right?

They're old enough to be my dad and they treat me like I'm their son. And they're like, hey, we're going to hogs and heifers tonight in the meatpacking district. You've got to go with us. Hogs and heifers? Yeah. Is that a strip club? What is that? No, it's a drink.

No, it's a strip club. Hogs and heifers. It's a dive bag. That place sounds awesome. It was amazing. Yeah. in the meatpacking district in New York City. So that's all I remember.

I don't know. I don't know if it's still there, but I don't think it is. But anyways, it was a tradition for them every year. And so I'm like, sure. I'm wherever you're growing, I'm going. I love you guys. Yeah. I can't believe you asked me.

And so I go and we drank and I sat at the bar and the bar's closing or they're leaving. It's one or two in the morning. They're leaving. They're like, hey man, let's go. And I'm like, I'm going to stay. and thought that was a great idea. And so around 6 o'clock in the morning, the bartender's closing, and she's like, hey, man, you know, we get your cab?

And I'm like, yeah, I guess so. And she's like, where are you staying? I said, I'm sending me to the Waldorf Astoria. So the cab sent me home at 6 o'clock. And the banquet, the breakfast for the most popular driver award is at 8 o'clock. I go upstairs and climb in the bed, and I mean, I am hammered. Yeah. And so the general.

manager for DEI, my dad's company, Ty Norris, comes up there. And he's like, hey, the banquet or the breakfast is happening. Come on. Yeah. And I'm like, I ain't going down there. Fuck that. I'm not doing it. He's like, no, you got to go do it.

It's your dad's award. And he's like, I'm like, I always got to accept everything for him. You know, ever since he's passed away. Yeah. I got to go up there and get all the things. Yeah. And everybody wanted to honor him and acknowledge him. for right or wrong,

I got frustrated with it, right? I probably should have been thrilled and absolutely honored to do every single thing, but I wasn't. And I didn't take it that way and I didn't do it right or wrong. But so I'm like, screw that. I'm tired of doing this.

I ain't going down there. And obviously I'm drunk. I'm not thinking correctly. And that's probably weighing a lot on this whole thing. So Ty says, you do what you want to do, but you're going to regret this shit for the rest of your life. Your dad's never won this award,

and you're only one person can accept it for him, and that's you. And he turned around and walked out. And I got up and ran out of the one and said, hey, hey, he's heading down the hall. I'm like, wait, all right, I'll give me shit on. Yeah. So I put on my suit, and I walked down there

and walked up on that stage when they called, when they said, you know, they present, I walked in there. They've been holding off. Like, put this award goes, you know, goes earlier in the set, right? Yeah. So they're putting this off, put this off. And finally I walk in the room and they're like, okay, he's here. Do the award.

And so the award happens and I go up there and I don't remember anything about it. But Ty said, I spoke well. That is awesome. I walked off the stage right back to the double door exit and right back up to the room. Oh, that is all the time. I tore all the shit off and fine back in bed. Good thing you did that, man. That's awesome.

I know. I'm glad I did. I would probably, that would be some, that would be something. you'd regret. Oh yeah, your boy was right. Then he just, I love how he just turned around and walked out.

Yep. Just set the scene. Good for him. Yeah, it was good. Zach, was that your second question? No.

So this is, I guess, more or less athlete mindset. Maybe Taylor and Will can relate to this, but they may not know this, but you went on a four-year losing streak. What was your mentality like during the middle of those four years where you were just not winning?

Do I, like, I was going, I was saying to my, I was saying to only a very, very few individuals that I wanted to quit. Like, this is miserable. This sucks. I don't want to do this anymore. How can I end this? How can I get out of this? How can I stop this? I just don't want to.

And I didn't have the, I didn't say it to like my car owner. Rick Hendrick or my team because I was, I knew one that I wasn't being honest with myself. And obviously I didn't want to destroy the relationship. Rick wasn't giving up on me as an owner. He gave me a whole lot longer leash than he gave other guys, right? So he,

because if other guys didn't get their stuff together and run well, he'd they, he sent them down the road. And he hung on to me for way longer than that, right and I knew that and there was part of me that was thinking if I keep coming back it'll it'll turn around right it's got to turn around but there in there you know in some of the toughest moments you're just like I want to disappear I'll even if I regret this and I just feel like a failure I'm just I'll just fade in I'll fade into the beach somewhere and nobody

will ever have to worry about it um I'm glad I didn't right I'm glad I didn't take that That would have been the easy, cheap way to do it. But I was glad I stuck it out. We got back to winning some races and had some things to enjoy, you know, at the back end of the career. And that was really, really good. Yeah. Steve Lattar came in and brought a whole dude.

Right. So, yeah, is that? Who's that? Who did you say? Steve Lattar, that was the crew chief that came in in. I changed crew chiefs. Yeah, I changed crew chiefs. That was like the thing.

That was like one of the big pivots. So I changed. So I changed crew chiefs. So things were bad. Four year losing streak. Not a threat, right? And people in the garage and you know, you know guys on teams that you may even look at like this, but they're not a threat. Right.

Never going to be anything you got to worry about, right? They're not competition to you. And you thought you reviewed that way? Yeah. In the garage. That's got to be a tough feeling to have. God, that does. That is brutal.

Especially for, like. four years you're like yeah what the fuck am i doing so i changed crew chiefs and this guy that came in his name's steve letart he was kind of kind of rejected by the driver that was driving for him a little bit at least he viewed it as i'm not wanted by this guy and he came to me and he said i think me and you are both looking at our last chance he said that to you yeah and he's like we're going to do this and we're going to make it work or you know if you don't do what i need you to do then it ain't going to work. And so he's he looked at my approach and my prep and said, you know, you're going to need to be at the truck an hour before practice starts. I was just showing up

right on time before. Yeah. And that was good enough. And he's like, I need you there an hour early. I need you to stay as late as I need you, whether it's four hours, 10 hours, whatever it is. You just don't leave till I tell you, you're clear. And he just had all these rules. And I'd never had anybody placed that in front of me. And, um, I was like, oh, all right, if it's my last chance and it's your last chance, I'll follow every rule. I'll do everything you asked me to do. That's... And dude, we did it.

We got better. It took a while now as a process, but we got back to Victory Lane and we won a handful of races and Daytona 500. I won a Martinsville clock. I mean, we had some great years where we ran good, top fives, top fives, top fives, contending every weekend. It was awesome. That's amazing. Then he caught, and then, so things are at their best, right?

Everything's, everything is amazing, right? 2014, going into 2014. So we're in the middle of a great, we're doing good in 2013, and I got a, I got a rumor, so I told me a rumor that he was going to take a broadcasting job with NBC. And I was like, how could he do that? the hell you went out you you can find him about it no so i got this rumor on the way into charlotte murder speedway we were racing there in may so i've got this crew chief right and he where we're doing well and when we don't do well instead of looking at me and going all right man i need you to try a little harder he looked at me and he said i got to build you a better

car and i'm like holy shit i've never heard that right always heard that i made the mistake I needed to try harder. I wasn't dedicated. I wasn't focused today. Never had a guy told me the car I built you wasn't good enough for you. And I got to do better. And I was like, this dude is shit. And he was a massive, awesome cheerleader.

Always cheer, always like, come on, man, we can do it. Come on, stay in there. Always cracking the whip. Come on, come on, we can do it. You know, if you're talking, you're hearing this over the radio. It's pumping you up every race. Anyways, you know, he's taking this job. as a broadcaster and I was devastated.

And so we ended up, you know, I go to him and I'm like, dude, I heard this thing and he's like, yeah, I wanted to tell you. But, you know, sorry you, sorry the rumor got to you before I could get to you first. Yeah, that's a bummer. Yeah. Yeah. And so we ended up, his final year was 2014. We won, I have four races maybe, something like that. And then he went and did TV.

And so I raced a few more years and had some more fun. And then when I got ready to retire, I went to the booth where he works. Really? Yeah. I said, hey, man, you cool? If I come to the booth, they're offering me this job. He's like, come on. Yeah, that's awesome.

Now we're back. I love that. It's cool. I love to hear that for sure. Yeah. Those two years after he left, was there like a nervousness transition, like that support system's kind of gone? No. So there was some, there was this process.

prospect Greg Ives was his name, he's a crew chief, bright engineering mind, and I'd talk to Steve, and I said, okay, I said, man, you're leaving me, you got one job. Outside of us going through this final year together, you got one damn job. Like, every time there's a void in this team, you don't try to just fill it, you try to put a better person in that position. If we lose a guy for whatever reason, he gets fired because he doesn't, doesn't do his job or he gets hired by somebody else.

You always try to bring in somebody that's even better. It's not, you never bring in a guy that's the same or worse, right? You always, anytime you have an opportunity to fill that void. I said, now it's your turn to fill your own void, dude. Yeah. I was like, find me that guy that's better than you. I was like, here's all the names I'm here. And here's the people that we could go after.

And he's like, that's the guy. New right away. And I'm like, I like that guy too. I'm glad you feel that way. That's cool. Yeah. It was helpful. That's very cool.

Yeah. I love that. That's hard transitioning from anybody. Like having the support system and that's cool. He was so cool about that. That's one of the tough things about, I don't know if, that's one of the tough things about life is learning that not, you know, you're going to fall in love with people. You're going to make these amazing friendships with people, whether it's your wife, your best friend, your dad, your, your cousin, your buddy from high school. but none of that stuff lasts forever.

That was such a hard lesson to learn, and it's still not easy to take, right? I mean, I had this guy that was like a grandfather to me when I first started racing, and we had to split up because of, for me to learn more about my cars, I needed to work on them, and that meant him driving an hour to work every day.

He's like, I'm not driving an hour to work because the cars were at his shop. I was like, I need to work on them every day. I need, I can't drive, you know, I can't go down there. He's like, we just had to split. And it was a, it was like a death, man, like, because he was like a granddad to me. Yeah.

I love this man. And, and, and, and, and I think, you know, splitting with Steve at that time, um, those are difficult things to deal with in life, but you got to realize that nothing lasts forever. Nothing lasts forever. Yeah, man, that is. That is so true too.

It's like sometimes like, just think about like almost being done with ball, Like, damn, like this chapter that you've worked, you know, up to 23 years to play a, you know, sport that you, you know, you know, you know the average career's light. And then to play and then, you know, now you know, like, it's almost final and over. Regardless, if I want it to be or not, it's just crazy to think, like, you know, something you think is going to be forever, knowing that it's not. And then it's finally here at the finish line or, you know, it is, it is nuts. And then friendships. Like, you know, Taylor was mentioning it on. You were talking about like seasonal stuff.

Like, it's just crazy that, you know. There's friends in your life that are like seasons. Like you, there has this big vertical leap and you're like, God, this guy's the best. And then for whatever reason, it kind of just fizzles out. But then you make like two or three that are like lifetime friends. Sure. Yeah. Yeah, of course.

The best are the ones where you might not hear from them for a long time, but you can pick it right back up. That's how me and my boyfriend high school are, man. They don't give you that. They don't give you that. that feeling or that vibe that man you should have stayed in touch the whole time why haven't you been calling me yeah they don't care they're just like glad to hear from you yeah you got a buddy who you can get off the phone with and a month later call back and pick up on the same conversation those are the those are the ones that last forever yeah that's awesome the uh boys when you when you

when you were talking about your dad and like kind of always wanting him to like give you that that approval and like when you started racing you started to see that you guys when he went from preaching to, okay, you're kind of working together as a tutoring. When he did pass away, where were you guys at in your relationship? Was it really everything you wanted it to be? Yeah, it was amazing. I was, we, I was this, I was this, I don't know how to put this in the words and articulate just right, but man, he was looking at me like, this is going to be part of the future of my business, right?

I mean, it had to be. I'd won, you know, over a dozen races in the Xfinity series, two championships back to back and was moving into the Cup series, had won the All-Star race as a rookie, one at Texas and Richmond, and I had this potential, right? I had this prospect of success, and he was building this brand-new race team to be the best in the business. They called the shop, the garage mahal.

I mean, you know, this whole thing was, just big. This whole dream and vision of his was really becoming a reality. Dad could walk into the garage up to the best motor builder, no matter who you work for and say, I want to talk to you about coming to work for me. And that guy would more than likely say, I got time to talk to you. You know, he would, that person was never going to say, oh, good where I'm at. Yeah. Thanks, Dale. They were always going to think about it, consider it. That was Dale Earnhardt asking him to come to his, and he was going to take them and spend as long as it took

to convince them that this was the future and they were a part of it. And he was just amazing at that. And so what I guess I'm getting at is that he was going to absolutely build one of the best race teams that this sport would ever see, most successful race teams that this sport would ever see. He had the ability to get all of the people that he needed to build the best, fastest race cars, and you weren't going to beat them. And I think that he was looking at me as a corner piece to that puzzle.

You know, those are the ones that you put on the table first. Yeah. Right? To build it. And I think he was looking at me as like one of those more, one of the key pieces that was going to be part of the future. That's awesome. That is really cool.

I don't know how you guys build puzzles, but I'm the corner piece. Yeah. No, I get. This is usually far. I'm thinking you're the heir to the throne. As a dad of a three-year-old, we're doing the puzzles. Yeah. I'm trying to teach you about the corners.

I'm like, get the corners out first. Be like this. You do the corners and then outside. Work your way in. That's right. Listen. Both of you are fathers of two daughters. Yeah, you're two daughters.

How old are they now? Three and eight months. Gosh, I have mine's just turned four and then I have one that's turning one in a week. Yeah. It's awesome. It's, it's, it's cool to see their different personality. Because you have one, you're like, okay, they're all like this.

Right. And then you have the next one, it's like, listen, this is way different. Yeah. You know, but it's very cool being a dad. That's awesome. It is. Yeah. It's crazy how different they look.

You'd think, I mean, I'm not, this is different for every parent. Some parents, their kids do look similar, but they, these two that I got, man, they appear to be complete opposites and their whole vibe with, they give off is, is not the same. Yeah. And, uh, but it's fun and it's good. And, um, but it's so challenging to try to, uh, My three-year-old, and you're probably dealing with this, too, is pushing the buttons, right? And she's testing our limits.

Right. And, boy, she says some things that she doesn't know are rude, right? That is the hardest thing. I saw Taylor's oldest win almost choked Taylor to death. I went into. Remember that she didn't want to get out of the pool? Yeah, it's time to get out of the pool. Oh, yeah, you're at the house, man.

She's like screaming. It's tough, man, because, I mean, my childhood was. wasn't the best. And so like for me, it's like, I want to make sure that you guys have everything you need without being spoiled and also appreciate the things you have. And it's just, you just don't want to be like that kid, whatever in that situation is that's got to act like that. And so teaching them that conversation, like what you're saying is is when they just say things to you and it's so rude, but they don't know it's rude. And like I'll be talking. My daughter will be like, stop talking. Yes. I'm like, dude.

I'm like, what did you just say? Mom's not around right now. You probably deserve it, though. I went into Isles, go ahead. Sorry. I went into Isla's room the other day and she's laying in there and I'm like, I'm like, Hey, you good? She's like, get out.

Yeah. And I'm like, you're three. Yeah. What the hell? Why don't you want me around? Yeah. It's not supposed to come until you're like nine, 12. Yeah.

Like, get out of my room, dad. But she's three and saying, get out of here. And the most random things they'll be so mean to you. And then the next minute they'll like kind of crawl over. over and snug on you a little bit and turn around and just give you a kiss and you're like, it's all right. Whatever.

Yeah. My kids are awesome. My kids are awesome. I'm going to definitely be that dad when they start doing stuff like, see what my kid did. Hey, always tapping them. Yeah.

Hey, you see what they just did there? Always got the video on your phone. Yeah. He's taking videos all the time. Do you wish you had a boy? Um, no, because I, um, so I was,

thinking about my own life, thinking about growing up in, you know, thinking about growing up in my dad's house and how much people expected and thought, man, you know, you're just automatically going to be this

rock star race car driver. You're just going to, you know, you're going to follow right in your dad's footsteps and do everything he did and more. And I might not have been as self-aware of all that when I was a kid, but I definitely wouldn't want to have to watch. my son be a subject to that right and so um i didn't want a son i wanted i wanted

another girl the second time if it was going to be a boy i was going to do what you know i was it was going to be fine yeah but um i'm selfish it's always going to be fine yes it's almost like there's some other option like you know if i know boy came but i'm just that's what i'm trying to be okay i'm trying to make that clear yeah um i i because people People aren't supposed to wish for one of the, just, you know, one of a healthy baby, right? And so I feel, I feel, okay. So my wife is badass and my little, my first girl is, is giving me all this love, right?

And I'm like, damn, I'll take some more of this. This is great. Yeah. My whole house just bubbling over with, you know, it's pouring out the windows, right? just, you know, and I think a little boy would come in there and just be like, um, Tasmanian devil, right? Just a terror. Yes.

Yeah. And just creating all kinds of difficulties, but. Would you name them the third? Um, no, hell no. And so, damn, deal, take it easy. I'm the third now. No. No.

Hell no. That'd be awesome. No. The junior's the thing that's like, all right, well, you got, get it going. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then let's get it started. Four. Yeah.

It's like, oh. I feel like, I'm trying to have paintings hanging in on some royalty wall. With my lock and white ladies of them in suits and stuff like that. Handelbar mustache and stuff. It was the first and the second thing. Yeah. I was worried that I would screw up the boy.

Yeah. That I would, I felt like that I wasn't parent material in terms of being able to treat, teach them right and wrong and manners. And I don't have that. In my mind, I'm thinking, I don't have that ability.

I'm not a parent. and I don't know I'm never parented. Right. I'm probably going to be pretty bad as it. So is everybody before they have their first kid. Exactly. Yeah,

but we all yeah. I'm looking at my wife going now she's got it. Oh no question. Even though she's probably sitting there going I don't got it. Yeah. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm looking at everyone. She knows what she's doing.

Yeah. And she can keep these girls in line because she knows girls. Right. I don't and and and I can't screw these girls up. She's not, Amy's not going to allow it. Right. She's going to raise two perfectly amazing girls.

and I will have nothing to do with it. And if not, it's on her. You know, my Jesus on the pressure too. Well, if a boy, it was no, there was no, it was sure to be a mess. Yeah. That was the way I had it in my head. I hear you. That is absolutely not the reality of the situation, but that's like in my mind.

That's the way I think. I think I'm a weird. Do you think your patients have gotten a lot better? Like for me, whenever my kids like, I'm sure they're coming at me. Yeah, they had to have gotten better. Whenever my kids coming at me, my first go to thought is like, how do I handle the situation so you're not traumatized for the rest of your life? Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? Like, how do I handle this situation the right way? I think my patients have gotten a whole lot better. I mean, I've, I have gotten to the point to where like, Aila is trying to do something. And I'm like, you're not going to bother me. Yeah. Like you're trying to get me upset. You're trying to trigger me.

You're trying to get this reaction out of me. And Ila, I'm not going to not bothered by what you're doing. right there and keep on going yeah right and so i think i have i didn't have that in year one year one and a half two but i've i've kind of i used to let her bother me man she could hurt my feelings my little two-year-old could bother hurt my feelings like my wife right right you know and i'm like what i feel like it's almost worse when your two-year-old does it though because they're so pure i know and i'm like how are you able to have that power over me yeah and so like you you work that out right I finally, for the most part, work that out.

Now, she's going to have new tools. As they get older, they come at you with new things they say that are like, wait, that hurts. That's a new one. Yeah, yeah. And we'll deal with that when it happens. But it's, you know, it's interesting. I'm hands-on, man.

I take aisle to school, pick her up from school. Like when Amy, when we had our second one, that first year, I was, I was, my job was. Taking care of Isla, get her up, get her dress, get her to school, pick her up from school, spend the rest of the day with her, get her, get her bath, get her teethbrush, get her back in bed. I mean, boom, boom, boom, every day, man, I'm down. I wanted to change diapers and I dove right in, did all the things. Once you get the diaper thing down, it's kind of like, it's kind of easy. Done to it. Oh, yeah.

Yep. Teach you. I know, one day. I got you. Hopefully soon. Yeah. We'll start doing the whole thing. Yeah.

The teddy bear. Get it going. Dob, you got a question? it's been the longest pod we might have ever done rightfully so i mean this is what we needed like dale on the you know the dale bus i know what do you think of the bus yeah like i was honored like that y'all chose to do your pod in this bus uh was really cool to me that's awesome it was when he got here i asked i'm like what do you think he's like it's cool man i'm thinking like come on i mean yeah this is like your numbers i mean you guys this is your fucking the cool thing is

like we didn't paint this. Like this is right. This is all this. Yeah. There's a story about this bus. I've come across five or six different people. It's like, oh yeah,

my buddy's on that bus. And then somebody else's buddy. This thing's been around forever. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Coffee. Good deal. I think it's bad.

It was 25. Trader probably. Yeah. A drinking buddy. Oh yeah. He's cool. He flew out here. He's going to hang out with a buddy afterwards.

Schrader is the one who drug me to hogs and heifers in New York. There it is. Yeah. find a strip club in all of New York. It's not a strip club. Hey, you want to know it's cool? If Amy listens, it's not a strip club. You want to know what was crazy about that?

It's like, we're in the middle of New York City and a hodive bar. And they had vast car crashes looped on all the TVs. Yeah. And I'm like, I never thought this, this is what I would see. I was like, this is the best bar in the world. And I thought it would be in, like, you know, Tallinniga, Alabama or, Daytona Beach, Florida, but it's in New York City. How cool is that?

That's awesome. Yeah, it was pretty awesome. I love that. I sit there and watch that all day drinking beer. I love that. I love how much you love beer, too. Crashes on a loop. Yeah.

You only drink two, though. I watched for the wrecks. Yeah, he did only drink two beers, but we were, I mean, he was one entertaining us all time. I think you guys are only on your first. I'm on two. I'm on two. I'm not to have accepted at all.

Hey, do y'all know this little trick I hear? What's that? So you're college, right? Y'all drink plenty of beer in college. Uh-huh. Y'all never seen that. No. So this is so when you drink a lot, you don't drop it.

See that? And also. So it's a grip. You're creating a grip on the can. Also, it speeds the flow up out of the beer. Oh, if you want to speed the flow up, you just give a little. Okay, here we go. You just give a little push.

Yeah, I ain't doing that. Like, beer 12, you're going to lose a thumb. Yeah, I was going to say, I might get cut. I might cut my thumb. Yeah, don't try that. Don't do that right here because it's absolutely going to cut your thumb off. He just starts bleeding everything. Yeah, it just starts gushing out.

Give that a go one day. I saw a guy. I went to hang with my sister. I was 15, 16 years old, and I drove down to her college at Wilmington and sat around a table, playing president and assholes with a... What's president and assholes?

Nobody's ever heard of president. Maybe Dawson. I was going to say maybe older. Dobson's back there. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. There's another name for it. No question.

Yeah, I know. It's king. Okay. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Circle of death. Well, there was a... We caught a president and assholes. There was an asshole and there was a president.

Yeah. But, and there was this guy dent in his cans. And he was like, so I can count how many I've had at the end of the night. But he's also telling me about the flow. Yeah. He doesn't drop it. Yeah, there's a little.

How does it help with the flow? I don't understand that. You have to try it to see it, but the beer flows over this hump. Tony, hey, Tony, man. Tony goes. I'm not a scientist. Okay. Tony's back there.

He's just. The beer goes over this home. The beer goes. over the home. Try it. We got a fucking can right here. Why are you no hesitant to give this a go?

Well, I am prepared. You're not going to drown. I promise. It's not going to come out so fast you can't handle it. Chug that. Chug it. Take the whole thing.

It's too fast. It's way too fast. What do you mean? Just just try to finish it. You have to see the speed. You have to see the speed. You have to see the speed. You have to do half.

I'm just going to do a little bit. I hear the bubbling. It's already not worth it. I don't know, man. Okay. Did you hear the, Did you hear the bubbling the whole time? Yeah.

I feel like it was kind of the same speed. Same speed. See, if you vent it, of course it's going to pour out. That thing's pouring no problem. Super fan. And you're not going to get the... You're not going to get the phone with something.

I think we can see it if you did it. I know you can't, but I feel like the best, the best person to do this example is definitely him because he could, he could hold it. We can actually watch the flow. No balls. I can open the throat.

Yeah. I spend a little time in juvie. It's not a big deal. Anyway, I'm not just kidding. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. I appreciate you coming on the bus.

Yeah, this is, this is awesome. I literally, it's a lot of times you sit there with somebody new and you kind of do this around about we're trying to feel each other out. Yeah. You came on, you telling stories. My mouth is just open listening. You know what I'm saying? It's like grandpa sitting around a fire.

Yeah, just telling tales. Oh, war stories. Yeah. And it was awesome. I've been looking forward to just for a long time, man. I'm glad you guys had me on last year. And, you know, it's a, I love the bus. I love what you guys are doing.

I do podcast, so I kind of keep up with what you guys are up to. We are all kind of learning from each other and taking things off each other that we like. And not to force ourselves on you, but we, you know, we should probably get on the Dale Jr. We could probably come on there. We could probably come on the last podcast. You're on this whole Western town you have. Yes. We're still waiting on that call.

We're still. I don't know how that works. You just want to show up at the door with a stick and a, you do the same thing. hey, it's 24-7, you can come whatever you want. It feels weird, right? Yeah, well, I don't know him like I know you. One day, my and Will are texting, we'll sort it all out. Yeah, I'll figure it out, right?

Yeah, we'll text. You guys figure it out. Just call me. I'll be on a Southwest C-30. I'll be on that thing, no problem. Dude, I feel like you'd probably enjoy just the way you're out there talking about your truck. I'm like, I'm sure they both know what each other's saying here.

Oh, listen, I'm going to sit there and talk for six seconds, and he'll go, and I'll be like, you lost me. You know, like, I like the way trucks run. I love beautiful old vehicles. And that's, we'll go check it out. I can change the oil. Yes. I can get that done for you.

No problem. Maybe. Depends on the car. All right. Subscribe, rate review, barstool, sports.com slash merch. That's where you can get our merch. YouTube channel subscribe. Hit the algorithms.

Comment below. Do all the fun stuff. I'm sure NASCAR culture might be killing us for the Bill Elliott for the Bill Elliott stuff. Probably more about. Bill out now. You were, how do you think? More about what?

I'm killing you more about what you called the series. Oh, shit. I didn't even know that was that bad. The Circle Track NASCAR racing series. Yeah. Seriously. Just getting drug out there.

Hey, it's better than, right around the same thing as awesome Bill from Dumerville or whatever. And we just went in on me. He goes, listen, I'm going to have us back. We're like, oh,

NASCAR culture. We're assholes. Whatever. NASCAR culture is killing us right now. Yeah. Is Bill still around? Yeah. He's still doing his thing.

Was your dad and him rivals? I'm still trying to do this. What am I doing here? They were so long. I'm thinking of my head, you probably want to go to kids. I know. My kids got to go to sleep soon.

And I think as long as he's asking a question, I guess we're good on time. Taylorin's cool. Yeah. Those kids have been missing their dad all day. You know what I'm saying? But your dad and him were cool. Yeah.

They were good. Yeah. That's very cool. They had a few run-ins, but everybody does. Then with the intimidator. Who was his big rival? Go YouTube and watch the 1987 Winston All-Star Race. Just that's one, if you're going to watch a race about NASCAR history.

That's the one. Go watch that one. There's others, but that'll be a good one for you. All-Star Winston. They called it the Winston. The Winston. Yeah, because Winston's cigarettes was a big deal. Cigarettes was a big deal back then.

I think they kind of still are. Yeah, but not like, I mean, they're on every sign to like, hey, smoke cigarettes. Like, it's all good. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, and whenever NASCAR stuff comes in that... Go ahead. I'm sorry. I had that beer, didn't you?

He's on two beers. Yeah, hey. We used to have a guy on our team called two beers because he would get like this after a couple of years. You and two beers. Struggle to put thoughts together. I tell my buddy Chris is, man. Yeah, my had a buddy named Chris back home.

He, the first thing to go is his speech. And you're like, fully functional. Just words aren't coming out for the poor guy. Chris Arnold. It's my cat, man. I love him. But when NASCAR comes to Nashville, we obviously need to be communicating because we need to have this bus somewhere visible. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? For sure. Right on the track. Right on the track. Right on the track. You know, we'll do a podder. You do your thing in the booth. Us, Tony, we'll all hang by you.

It's been most wrecks ever because there's a bus in the middle of the damn thing. But appreciate it, man. Hey, I'm excited to finally be on the show and can't wait for folks to hear it. Get that feedback, man. Yeah, we need that in NASCAR. What's the name of your podcast? The Dale Jr. Download.

Dale Jr. download. All major podcast platforms. Let's go. We're always in the same realm in the rankings. Are we? As the Dale Jr. download a little more consistently above us, but there's some times now. We're all in the same realm. We're competing against all day.

Where do you guys? Oh, he's going to be a competitor. He's our Kyle Busch. Because he's in the sports category. Yeah, he's our Kyle Busch. You get any better ratings than us? We'll fucking kill you. All right.

I got to. go. I got to walk out of that, right? That's like, wait, that's a great ending for this podcast. Appreciate you, man.

Thank you so much. Thank you guys. Thanks for the beer. Big shout out to you guys. If you enjoyed this episode and love and support Bustin with the boys, go to whatever podcast platform

you're on and subscribe to us. Leave a review, rate five stars. If you're already subscribed, unsubscribe and re-subscribe again. It helps the boys climb the charts. And again, we can't,

we wouldn't be doing this and can't do this without you guys and all of your support. We also have a YouTube channel if you like, if you'd like to watch our show or these episodes, they're on YouTube at Bustin with the boys. We're also on social media at Buston WTB. You can follow us everywhere. Go buy our merch. You guys know that whole deal. But thank you so much. We are forever grateful for you. The biggest of hugs and tiniest of kisses for the boys, always and forever. Hey guys, it's us and 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. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

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