The Dale Jr. Download - 229 - Texas Terry

Episode Date: August 14, 2018

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Terry Labonte discuss the NASCAR Legend’s noted run-ins with The Intimidator at Bristol, cancelled hunting trips, and what, besides playing Fantasy NASCAR, he’s doing these days.  Dale Jr also debunks Bigfoot and opens up about a 'paranormal' encounter. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again with another episode of the Dale Jr. Download with me, as always, my co-host, Mike Davis. Hey, buddy. We got Matthew Dillner. What's up? How's it going? We got a great show. ZipRecruiter is back. What?

I believe that, yeah. We've got some Ask Junior questions. We'll obviously talk about Michigan a little bit. We had a pretty full weekend. And we got Texas Terry Levani. Texas Terry Levine. That's our guest today. Love it.

He's a three-year-old second-year-driver out of Texas has moved to high point North Carolina to get into the heart of stock car country. Terry Lerbony gets a checkered flag. His first grand national speedway win. The checkered play comes out and Terry Lamar has become the 1996 NASCAR Winston Cup champion. Winston Cup champion. What an intro, Matthew. Good job.

It's a memory's in that intro. Yeah, we're going to get right to it. Yes. Terry Levonty. How's it going? Man, what an honor to have you here. Man, nice to be here. Yeah.

Good to see you. You too, man. So what brings you to this part of the neighborhood? Well, I don't know. I got invited to come up here. I said, man. Oh, yeah. We have to Texas.

Texas, man. So, yeah, for real, like, where you've been up to? Where you've been spending most of your time? No, I spend most of my time in North Carolina. Right. Yeah. So in the High Point, Archdale area down there, and we've got a business over there. So I said.

stay pretty busy doing that. What's the business? Well, we're in a kind of experiential marketing company, and we do a lot of different things. Involve in some IndyCar stuff. We Schmidt-Petersson Motorsports in Arrow as a sponsor. We do a big hospitality tent for those guys, so we go to several IndyCar races.

You yourself go? I'm going to go to Sonoma, be my next one. Nice. Yeah, I've been to a couple of them, so. What do people say when they see you at an IndyCar race? There's like a guy. I know you. Not from here, though.

You lost. Yeah, yeah. So, anyway, it's fun. So we do probably 2,000 events a year or company there. So we're pretty busy. 2,000, yeah. Yeah, got a lot of stuff going on. So it's like a real job.

I know, right? That's kind of what I'm really planning on this, but it's okay. That's awesome, man. That sounds good. I mean, everybody, I think when any of the time our legends and the guys we idolize, retire, not a lot of them, not everybody kind of sticks around, you know, Like you, you kind of go off and do your own thing and get involved in something completely different. And we really don't, you know, everybody's always curious.

I had people ask me this weekend during the race what Carl Edwards was up to. So I just sent him a text. I said, hey, bud, how you doing? And so we had a little conversation. But we're always thinking about you, always wondering what you've been up to. So I'm glad you're on the show. We finally get to ask you a lot of questions. I've been dying to ask you.

Terry, I'm going to taste that. We got questions. I mean, I want to tell you. Real questions. We got questions. It's, it might not. just be a coincidence that Bristol is this week and you're here in our studio because you want a couple races at Bristol but you also kind of famously lost one 19 years ago today I don't know if

you know this but he didn't mean to wreck you he just meant to ride out of cage that's all he meant to do just in case you're still upset about it you don't need to be because he didn't mean to wreck you but we do got questions Dale's been wanting to ask you a lot of things so we are glad you're here yeah glad I'm here yeah I want to go all the way back to 1984 so I was 10 years old, but I still remember it. I don't know why this stuck with me even at that age, but you guys winning that championship in 1984. That was a bit of a, I mean. It was a little bit of upset. A little bit of upset. Yeah. So I didn't know how to describe it, but that's, I felt like I remember going to Bristol as a little kid, even at 10 years old, and I'm like, who is this?

Bleeding the points. You were leading the points pretty much all season. We were right there at the top of the points all year. We started out, Daytona Strong, won the race at Riverside. I think we took the point lead in July, June or July, probably June, I guess, and with the win at Riverside, and then we won Bristol later in the year. And just had a great year. Dale Edmund was our crew chief. He joined our team in 1983, and then, you know, took us a little while to get everything, you know, kind of going the right direction. And in 84, we just came out strong, man. Your owner was who? Billy Hagan. Yeah, that's right. Okay. That was the race. I was at that Bristol.

race. It was the Bristol night race. Do you remember your dad spun me out? He spun me out in that race too. God, what is this deal with you and Bristol? I was passing for the lead. He spun me out and I went, okay. So, anyway, we came back and we won the race, but it wasn't real spectacular. It wasn't real spectacular. He was leading too. I remember watching him spin on the front straightaway out of nowhere. And that Bristol night races back then were insane. I mean, just hard. You can't explain it to you. Oh, God, they were awesome.

It was the real freaking deal. Yep. And I remember that night, like after he wins the race, I think it set in on everyone at the track, everyone in the industry, like, they're for real. They're not going to screw this up. Like, they got a real shot at win this championship. And so that just kind of always, we talk about your Hendrick Motorsports days and a lot of people remember you from there. But that was an incredible season. It really was, and I remember going to Riverside for the last race of the year, and we won the pole for the race.

And I was running the race there, and it was Bobby Allison, Tim Richmond, Jeff Bodide, and me, and we were kind of all running at the end. And I remember Dale Edmund coming on the radio. It's about 10 to go. And he said, and we were kind of racing for the lead there. I mean, you know, running hard. And Dale says, okay, Terry, it's 10 to go. And Harry's running 7 or 8, and Harry Gantz, who I was racing for the championship. So he didn't tell me just to back off and take it easy,

but he was trying to tell me to back off and take it easy, you know. And so I did. So I think we finished, I can't remember, we might have finished third or fourth in the race or something, and we won the championship. But it was a great season. I mean, it was just incredible. Our cars were awesome.

Yep. You were always, I think probably maybe one of the first great road course racers that we had in the Xfinity or in the Cups series. Like we had ringers come in, but then you had Rusty and, Ricky Rudd, but all throughout your career, you always really did stand out at the road courses. I remember not long ago, you took the 96 car that, yeah, and ran second or third at Sonoma. Right.

Oh, that's right. Yeah. And that was kind of like a one-off deal. Like, you just, you're like, yeah, no problem. But you always did have a knack for running the road courses. How did that, how did you get that kind of experience and talent from there? You know, they had a short track race. Well, it wasn't a short track race.

I had a race at Texas World Speedway, and it was on the road course, and it was for guys with short track cars. So we went up there with our Camaro. I'd never run a road course or nothing. And this friend of mine took me around the racetrack in the pace car, and he showed me how to, he was a road racer, and he showed me how to do it.

He says, what you need to do, and I'm like, okay. And so we ended up, we did pretty good. And so that was my first time I'd run a road course, And, you know, of course, went to Riverside, and I went out there to the Bob Bondron School. Yeah. And had a guy named Bill Cooper with my... Yeah. Yeah.

He's awesome. Yeah. So in 98, I'm getting ready to go racing in the Xfinity Series and running a road course at Watkins Glen. I went to Bondron, Phoenix, and Bill Cooper was my... And, dude, I'm telling you, hands-on with Bill Cooper, you're going to be a road course specialist when you're done. First time that we were at Sonoma, okay? That's where we went to the Bondering School, was at Sonoma. and so Billy Hagan, who he had some sports cars and ran the 24 hours of Daytona and 12 hours of C-Bring, stuff like that.

So he went too. So we had these little Nissan 240 Zs or something. So we go around the track there. And so we followed Bill around the track. And so then he said, okay, go out there and run. So I went out and ran and he had my lap times. So he gets in my car, the car I just got out of it. Oh, gosh.

three seconds faster. And I'm like, I'm clocking him. And he said, write down my lap times. I didn't write down the right time. And so he comes back in, he looks at it. And he said, I didn't run no faster than that. I said, no. And I was just messing with him, you know.

So I was there for like three days. So finally the last day when I left, him and I, well, we could run together, you know. How much faster was he in real life do you think? Like he? Oh, he was two seconds, yeah. Okay. Yeah, he was really two seconds fast. Man.

He was a bill. Was he just an instructor? He was an instructor. Did he ever race? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So he did race. He was a road race.

Yeah, yeah, very good. I just didn't realize, you know, like thinking about that, too, how good of road racer you were in NASCAR. You won, like, your class in, like, 84, with 12 hours of Sebring and 24. Yeah, 24 hours of Daytona. Which a lot of people in NASCAR don't realize that. Yeah. Yeah, that was fun. Yeah.

It was, like, fun for three or four hours. That's a long race, 24 hours. 24 hours. You ran the 24 hours? Yeah. Wow, I didn't know that. Yep, sure did. Won our class and I think we finished, I can't remember, fourth or six overall or something. What class were you in? It was GTO. GTO. GTO was a Camaro, yeah. It was fun. Yeah. Mike touched on some of the, um, some of the finishes you had at Bristol. Obviously, Dad was involved in several of those. You and him had a pretty good relationship throughout y'all's careers. I thought y'all were pretty good pals. Y'all hunted together. Yep. I think y'all even hunted together right around those Bristol races that were.

We didn't go after that one race. He said a trip got called off? Yeah, he decided he didn't want to go. We were going to my place in Texas, and he said, I don't think so. He didn't want to be around at you and guns. Y'all had a trip scheduled for after that Bristol race. We had really talked about it, you know, but not, we didn't really have anything officially, you know, scheduled. Now, are we talking about the time he wrecked you in 99 or are we talking about the one in

in 95? 99. Yeah. He sent you back into 95, but he sent you packing across the finish. Yeah, I wasn't too mad about that. He helped you. He just eased you across there. So he canceled the trip.

I would have thought you would have canceled it in 99. Well, we just. That is probably best not to be together. We just didn't go. Yeah. A few weeks. Okay. Yeah, forget it.

Let me ask you. Like, he mentioned something about the Rattelous Cage. Like, and I was looking at that the other day, you know, prep and knowing you were coming, watching that interview. Back then, did you believe him? Be honest. Yeah, you can be honest. That he didn't mean to wreck you, but he meant to rattle your cage.

You know, I told somebody that, and he looked at me and said, you're the only person that believes that. But I will tell you the whole story, though. I was sitting there wrecked on the back straightaway, and my car was nose in the wall, and I thought, dang. So I put it in reverse. I had it running, and I seen him coming down to back straightaway here, and I thought, you know, all right?

That number three is going to Victor. lane but this number five is going to be stuck in the side of it when it says by and i had a time perfect i mean i had it time perfect and i sat there and i popped the clutch and that car moved about a half inch and tore reverse gear out oh no it didn't move oh it just kind of let all the let all the win out of it oh you were going to get it oh yeah oh i know it so i just oh well got out and just walked to my transporter but uh that's how it ended so it's probably a good thing the reverse gear tore out of the car Yeah. But, so if you, if you guys didn't go on it, when do you, when do you go back and talk to

Dale Earnhardt about a situation or an incident that happened? Like, does it, do you give it a week? Does it two weeks? Y'all are buddies. So that's got to come into it. Well, we, I don't know, we just kind of, I don't know, we just got over it. But it was funny the next weekend we were at the, at Arlington. And we seemed like we started like seventh or eighth.

I mean, we started right close to each other. Yeah, of course. That's not always that works. You know, we're a driver introduction. So we kind of both walk up there about the same time. And John Hendretti's standing there and he looks at me and he looks at and he says, I'm in the wrong place. But I think that kind of broke the eyes right there, you know.

So just racing one of those deals, made some cool highlights. And I wouldn't trade it for anything. What do you remember about, you know, maybe, what do you remember about your relationship with dad or even other drivers in the 80s? Like, when you were trying to really kind of get some traction and you're winning that first championship, What was it like hanging out with those guys? You know, you really didn't hang out that much with the other guys. You know, and, of course, a lot of the guys were kind of older than I was, too, you know, that you're racing against.

But you didn't really hang out that much with anybody. You know, your dad and I would go fishing and hunting some. And we made a couple trips out to New Mexico, elk hunting, went down to the Bahamas fishing and things like that. You saw them with the racetrack all the time. So it's not like you spent a lot of extra time hanging out with them. What about your brother, Bobby? Do you spend a lot of time with him when y'all are racing together? Oh, we did, yeah.

We always parked our motorhomes beside each other. And, you know, we were always pretty close. We were actually two of the brothers in racing that actually liked each other. How rare. So, yeah, we got along good. And he was fun to hang out with. And so I still talk to him all the time. You know, he stays busy doing stuff.

Oh, he's, uh. He's been overseas running the Euro Series. Yeah. He ran the full season this year. Yeah. So he would travel back and forth. Yeah. And, yeah, I told him, I said, man, you are getting to travel the world and, you know, have a little fun.

Race at cool places. Zero expectations, just going and cruising. Oh, he'd send me his pictures, and they had champagne and stuff in the transporter and drinking champagne. I said, would you y'all, do you all run good today? And he said, no. He said, we have champagne every day. I said, okay. Well, cool.

I know that sounds like an incredible opportunity. I was real happy for him to. So do y'all still get together on? on family reunions is, uh, oh yeah, it's Christmas big with the Labani's Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, yeah. Get everybody together. Do y'all travel back to Texas, see any family there? No, we used to do that all the time. And, uh, used to, we'd go to my ranch for Thanksgiving. Yeah. But we got grandkids down. They're too small. And it's just not a kid friendly place.

So we don't, uh, last time we did that, I said, we're not doing that anymore. But, uh, we'll kind of, we might split up a little bit for Thanksgiving, but we'll be together for Christmas, you know, here in North Carolina. Oh, okay, cool. You know one of the coolest things, just as you're talking, I remember where I believe Bobby won the race, you won the championship. Yeah, Atlanta. Yeah. What a cool moment to have, just in a coincidence, to have Bobby win the race. If I remember this correctly, y'all even did a virtual lap together.

I mean, you can't script those things? No, I don't. No, no. It was awesome. Yeah, it was really incredible. And I remember going there, and I think Bobby won the, he won the poll. And I think I qualified third. Jeff Gordon was second.

and I was racing Gordon for the championship. So I talked to Bobby the night before. I said, I mean, I need to lead this race, you know. And, of course, Bobby, he just dominated Atlanta back then. Yeah, he did. And so he said, okay. So we started off, and I run a second. He motioned me by, let me lead a couple of laps there, and he passed me back.

So I got my five points. But he ended up, he won the race, and we won the championship. That was a cool moment. It was really awesome, yeah. Boy, you guys have mentioned some race tracks between Riverside and Atlanta, you know, thinking old Atlanta. Yeah, that was... I love the old Atlanta.

Yeah, I never got to run that. Oh, God, it was... I loved it. The old Atlanta was cool. I've heard some little rumors that they're thinking when they repave it that they may consider change in configuration. And I told them, I said, man, if you ever go back to the original, that would be amazing. We got a couple guys going to come out of retirement for a race or something. I'd have to go play.

Drink some champagne like Bobby. Go for an infinity test and hop in for a few laps of something. Maybe after about 10 years, when they asked for a lot of... really ages out. Yeah. Not that first year. You know, what is it about the 80s NASCAR and 90s NASCAR that you think we're missing the most right now?

Like, because we look back at those times of such fond memories. Is it the racetracks? Is it the competition? What was it about 80s NASCAR, 90s NASCAR that just, I wish we had back. What do you think? Gosh, I don't know. You know, and it's hard to say. I mean, if you look at the racing today, it's really good.

It's great. It's good racing. Yeah, it is. You know, and I think the thing that people have lost. is the fact that you don't have sponsors today like you used to have back then. Like your dad was Mr. Goodrich, you know. Yeah. He was GM Goodrich car.

I was the Kellogg's car. Rusty was the Miller car. You know what I mean? And you had everybody was really identified with those cars. And those sponsors did really good jobs promoting, you know, their teams and their drivers and advertising and everything like that. And I think now when you go and you've got a guy that's got like 10 different sponsors for the year, I really think the fans.

the fans lose some of that. You know, they can't, exactly. So they go to the racetrack and it's like, what car is my guy driving this week? You know? So I think our sport has hurt some from, from those changes. Yeah. That's a good point.

Yeah. Like, you know, the red bud car was what he drove. Exactly. He used to drive me crazy because I would tell Budweiser like, man, I really just want to drive a Bud Light car one time. Or can we change up and have like a special paint scheme for this race or that race? And they're like, no. Yeah.

No, we got to be red. We got to be a red eight car. That's right. And I'm with them on that. And you, Piedmont Airlines, Kellogg's. Dude, the Piedmont Airlines car was to... That was you, right? That's right, yeah.

You wrote... When you retired, I thought about this. I think we had that... You had that special paint scheme at Talladega, and I got to interview you about it. And then I was thinking, like, you were one of the last guys, competitive guys,

to race against Pearson. Yeah. And petty, you know, and bridge that generational gap that was even, you know, span across, you know, with all these different careers, you saw the sport change so much in that time. You ever reflect back on and what you've seen and the changes that the sport happened and wish you could get back to a specific thing within the sport?

You know, I just feel fortunate that I was able to race during the time I raced, you know, and I got to really to race against those guys. Yeah. You know, Richard Petty and Kale Yarbrough, David Pearson, Bobby Allison, you know, all those guys. guys and then I got to race against Tony Stewart, Dale Jr., you know, Dale Senior and Jeff and Jimmy and Harvick, you know, some of the guys that are stars today. But kind of the span I had was just, I think, a great time in our sport and I wouldn't trade her for anything. I asked Mark Martin what he thought the best, the funnest cars to drive in his era. And he said maybe the early to mid-80s was probably the funnest as far as how the cars drove.

Do you have a particular? You know, I like my 96 car. You're 96? Yeah. That one drove pretty good. Were we still on bias fly? What year do we go to? We went to radials in 89.

89. So, yeah. So you'd prefer that over those bias fly, that kind of. The bias flies were, they were good. They were fun. I mean, it was like, the car was sideways, but it didn't really feel that sideways, you know? And, you know, you'd see some of the old tapes at some of the races and the guys smoking the right rear tire, you know. And, and it was fun.

They were fun. The radial tires were. Took a little while to get used to them and for them to get them dialed in every place. But, you know, I didn't have as many tire issues with the radial tires as they did the other tires. You know, guys wouldn't come in and say, I had a bad set of tires. Well, bad set of tires meant that you started out with a three-quarters inch staggered. It's inch and a half now, you know, the right rear got hot and grew and stuff like that. But the radials didn't really change that much.

Dale, Jr., I'm curious. You know, you talk about noticing Terry in 84 when you would just go watch the race, but when did you actually know Terry? Was it when you got the cup? Did you mean, when did you guys get to know each other? I never, I mean, Terry's pretty quiet and I'm pretty quiet. I'm real shy, especially around, you know, the veterans, the guys that were older than me. There's the guys that were my dad's age and so forth. I kind of, you know, just kept my mouth shut.

Do you remember going out to eat at New York? No. Well, there was a couple times. We went to eat up in New York City. We're up there for the banquet, and Dale had these reservations at this fancy restaurant. You can't even read the menu. It was so fancy, you know. And so Kim and I and Dale and Teresa, and you were there.

And so we were sitting there eating at this restaurant. And I remember Dale Jr. He was just sitting there. He didn't say nothing. He just sat there the whole time. And your dad asked you about something. He said, I wish we could have gone to Burger King, you know. But that was really the first time I'd been around him, I think.

Yeah. And you weren't very old, you know. Yeah. 10, 12 years old, I guess. The two things that stand out to me about, knowing or talking or seeing Terry for the first time. Of course, I'd watch him race forever. But I remember going to St. Louis in 1997 to race in Xfinity series

and pulled out on Pit Road for practice and saw his car. You know, it wasn't a big deal to see the Exfinity regulars. I was going to the race to see them and knew I was going to race against Daly Sadler and whoever else. But when you'd see a cup guy, you'd be like, oh, my goodness. And you were there. And it was St. Louis, which wasn't a companion in a family. event. Right.

And so it mirrors hotter. That was the hottest place. Yeah. And so that tripped me out. I remember pulling on Pit Road and that was sort of like a light bulb goes off where like, oh, this is the real deal serious big time. It's ain't lay models at Myrtle Beach no more. And then after dad passed away, I was still wearing an open face helmet.

I wasn't wearing any of the head restraint stuff. And dad was pretty hardheaded about all that stuff. And so was I. So I was going to be whatever dad was. He was hard. If you didn't like something, I didn't like it, that kind of thing. I think most sons are that way. And it was Friday night in the bus lot, and Schrader came over to my bus and said,

hey, come here. I want you come sit in this bus with me and talk to the guys. I'm like, who? He's like, just come on. So I go in there, and it's him and Terry, and I think Rusty was in there. It was a handful about five or six of the dudes, you know, the real dudes. Yeah. And I sat next to Terry.

he's like, sit it. You know, Traders like, sit down. You're thinking you're in trouble at this point? I don't know what's one. They're just in there hamming it up, talking, doing, talking. I don't know stuff goes on. You know, I'm just sitting in my bus, you know, playing video games. I don't know what's going on.

I'm oblivious, and they're all hanging out, right? It's a road course, walking's in. The guys kind of, you know, enjoy those weekends and didn't take them quite as, you know, literal as most race weekends. And I sat down on the couch next to Terry. And I ain't said a word to Terry in my. life as far as I know, you know, unless he asked me something.

But he looked at me and he said, hey, you need to start wearing one of them head restraints. And I was like, I do. He goes, yeah, we want you to be around for a while. And I was like, wow, I mean, I wasn't there another 15 minutes. And I went out that night, got up the next day and I went and talked to Tony Jr. and Tony Senior. I said, I'm going to get me one of the Hutchins devices. That's the first one.

I didn't wear the Hans one first or wore the Hutchins devices. I said, I'm going to start wearing one. They were like, why? I was like, Terry the line said I should wear one, so I'm wearing one. You know, Terry says to do it, I'm doing it. Wow. And those are the two moments that I remember the most. That in a full face helmet.

Yes. Yep. Yep. He said, get in a full face. All it took was Terry the Bonnie to tell you that. I mean, you know, sometimes you can't, you're not clever enough to do that stuff on your own or you get a little hardheaded about things. And when somebody you respect.

Says, hey, this is what you need to be doing. So that was great. Terry doing that helped meant a lot to me. meant, you know, that the guys cared and the guys look after you. I think they looked after all the drivers like that, all the younger guys, and probably give him tons of advice. Do you remember that, Terry? Yeah.

Okay. Do you? So this is, oh, yeah. He'd never, like, we'd never talked, and he hadn't ever said anything to me before. To that, that day, I mean, I don't. I knew if he's a hardheaded like his dad. Yeah. Somebody had to tell him, yeah.

I wonder what the conversation was like before he came in. We're like, all right, look, who's going to, who's telling this guy that he's an idiot and that he needs to wear a. Like Terry's like, all right, you drew the short straw. You had to deliver the message. I don't even know, man, but it was funny. Boy, that's what we miss. We missed the old guard like Schrader. And, you know, like the guys that you just said were in that room or in that bus right there.

That's what we missed. We miss those personalities. Oh, boy, yeah. My gosh. Schrader wasn't the person. The Raider was the person. I remember with Richmond one time, and I took some, got some of that yellow police tape and put it around my motor home to keep Shrader out.

So don't come in here. Thanks, my goodness. Let me ask you something, you know, while we got you here, I was looking the other day through a bunch of old stuff and I saw, you've always been a humble guy. You're kind of known as that, you know, quiet champion, you know, and humble nature. You know, and then I looked at that 1980 interview when you won the Southern 500 and you nipped piercing across the line there. And it just seemed like you were like kind of uncounted.

comfortable with, you know, the fame. Did you ever get comfortable with the fame of being a race car driver? Oh, I guess I never really thought about it, you know. I mean, you don't really think about the fame and being famous or anything like that. I just, you are who you are, you know. But you just beat David Pearson. That was your first win, right? That was my first win, yeah.

Your first and last win at Darlington. At Darlington. Both Southern 500s at Darlington. Yep. Oh, I didn't realize that. I remember the last one because I was in between him and third. place. I was a lap down. I broke her, uh, spun and, uh, stripped an axle.

And that pretty good car. We had a late restart and I lined up on the inside and jumped in behind him and was running my tail. I had my tongue hanging out trying to just, you know, just going as hard as you can go. You don't know any better. And, uh, I mean, I wasn't holding anybody up. But I think he, he, you come up to me like the next week or something said, man, I was glad you's in between me and the next guy. That's awesome. Keep in that. Who do you watch? Do you watch racing? Do you watch NASCAR

racing much and if you do like who's got your eye which drivers got your eye these days gosh you know yeah do you watch me races um you can be honest i don't watch them like i used to right so uh i don't know who do you pull for who's the guys outside i'm sure you pull for the hMS team you know just company wise for them do well is there any particular drivers that you really appreciate or respect well i'm in a fantasy racing deal really yeah so you know what texas terry does fast fantasy. So it kind of switches around a little bit from week to week. You millennial. You know, I think one of the guys I think that is so talented is Kyle Larson.

Yeah. I think he's really talented. You know, watch him run and it's like, man, how's he do that? Sometimes, you know, and of course, you know, the guys like Harvick and Truix and Kyle Bush are all, you know, top of their game. But that Larson, he's, I think he gets more out of a car than anybody, you know, as far as his car might as, I'd be quite as good as some of the others, but he tries to make up for it. He's fun to watch, I think. There's a lot of the guys are really good, though. You know, the Hendrick guys, you know, Bowman, I think he's good. Yeah.

I think he's really good. So, yeah, Rick Hedder, what about Junior Johnson? You drove for him probably four or five years, maybe? Three years. Yep, yep. All right. I mean, like one of the most compelling characters, I think, in NASCAR history, what was that like? And do you have any good junior Johnson stories?

It was good. It was a good experience. We kind of went from, that's when Jr. went from two cars down to one car. And he was trying to. Chevy to Ford, too. And he went to Chevy to Ford one year. So a lot of changes going on there. But finished third and the points one year and fourth one year.

Really disappointed we didn't win a championship because I felt like we should have, you know. We had pretty good seasons. We just never got a championship like we should have. Yeah. I was always surprised that his program and organization remained as competitive as it did, considering his approach. You know, his approach was so old school and how he ran his company and his business, but it stayed competitive pretty much until he decided that he was done. I mean, even through – because, I mean, he's racing as an owner in the 50s and then 60s and 70s,

you would think that that approach, which I don't think it changed a whole lot, you would think that approach would sort of – it's not timeless. Right. So I was kind of surprised how competitive – Yeah, the technology changes, you know, and you're trying to do things the same way. so long. It's got to be so hard. And he had some good people that worked there, you know, and they had good equipment.

You know, they spent the money at great, great engines and always had good cars and stuff like that. But technology, you know, finally. Call it up. Yeah, catches up with you. And with the shocks and things like that and setups and the computer stuff that they were starting to do, you know, and they kind of were probably behind on that stuff. I got you.

Yeah. One last thing I want to ask you before we move on. Bill Illett's going to run an Xfinity race this week. I think, right? Is that this weekend? We're Rhode America this weekend. No, we're Bristol. Okay, yeah, Bristol then, Rhode America.

Next weekend. So he's going to run, and I was... No. Yeah, I know the answer to that. I was... Yeah, yeah. I'm going to tell you no right now. Well, okay, the fans would want to know the answer to that.

I already knew what it was. I always wondered when I was getting ready to retire, I would text Del Jail at all the time. say, man, I'm going to come talk to you. I'm going to come up there. We're going to sit down. I'm going to talk to you. You're going to tell me everything I need to know about retiring and all that good stuff. And I never did carve that time out. But I've always been curious. And I know every guy's different. When you approached the decision or the time to retire, how challenging or how simple or what was that experience like when you got to that point in your career and you're like, you know what? I think it's time for me to do something else.

And once you made that decision, was it like seamless? Was it, did you have this one? year was the first year kind of weird. You know, I've always been kind of crazy how people go through that. Yeah, it was weird. Yeah. What year do you actually constitute as the year making the retirement decision? Because you had several years of just doing three or four races a year. Yeah, I retired like three times.

Yeah. Yeah. That retirement tour stretched out over about eight or nine years, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so back to his question, though, like when you finally made that decision? You know, it was really funny. I was going to retire, and then I went to Pocono, and we finished, like, third or something. I just really ran good.

And so I was going to retire at the end of the year. And so I went to the shop the next week, and I was talking to Rick. I said, hey, I don't think I want to retire. I still got it. And so then we ran a limited schedule for two years at Hendrick Motorsports. That's right. And so that was a good way for me to kind of... Like cold turkey?

Don't really just quit all at once, be able to step away and just run a limited schedule. And I like that. I like that a lot. Yeah. Yeah, you and Mark Martin, y'all really liked that. That was a full-time thing. That blew me away, though, that Mark did the limited, then came back for full-time for a few years. Right.

Because the commitment is such a commitment. Had it wore you out the full-time. Oh, my. I'll tell you what, it's hard, you know, you know, to do it every weekend to be on the road. And, you know, you leave on a Thursday and get home on a Sunday night. And it's kind of a grind, you know. And then you have sponsor commitments during the week, you know. And so it kind of catches up with you, I think.

The season is so long, too. Go back to your point. Did you already tell Rick that you were retiring and then change your mind? Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. And so, and he was receptive to that. Yeah.

He wasn't like, dude. I mean, what am I going to do, right? No, yeah. No, he's all right, let's see what we wouldn't do. So how did they, I don't remember, how did they? So we ran another car, the 44 car. The 44 Kellogg's was even the sponsor of it. That's right.

That's right. That was that, that was four and a half cars then? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Then you went and did that the other deal, the Texas sponsor, is it DLP? What was that? No, I did that the same time when I was running the limited deal with Hendrick. You were doing that at the same time. Yeah. Roger Stauback and Troy Eggman. That's right. Yeah, that's right. Called me.

Hall of Fame racing. And I was at my place in Texas, and I was standing out in my backyard because my phone went work in the house. And so they called me and wanted to know if I'd drive their car like five races for them. And so I ran the road course, the two road courses for them. So I hung up and I thought, how cool was that? I was just standing here talking to Roger Stalbeck and Troy Ake went on the phone. You know, both of them together. Right.

But I did that at the same time I was running the limited schedule with the Hendrik car. So you were running. So what made you finally say enough, not even the four race, five race schedule a year? Like, I'm done. Well, I got to looking around the garage area and most of the guys I was racing against were younger than my kids. So I said, probably time to quit. I got you. Do you miss it?

Not really. Yeah. What do you miss? You know, I miss being around the people. Yes. I miss being around the people. And the guys on your team, you know, when you hang out with team members and, you know, it's just fun, you know. And that's, that's the, to me, that's the toughest part is not being around those guys every weekend.

And it's kind of the competitive nature of everybody, you know, and it's just, that was always fun. Yeah, that's exactly what I said. That's him. You know, I can deal with. with not being in the car. And when I watch the guy's race, it's hard to race. You know, it's hard in the car. It's hot.

It's uncomfortable. And you don't really enjoy it. You're not out there like, you know, skipping, you know, and singing along. You're putting so much pressure on yourself to compete. And it's almost a miserable existence most of the time. Sometimes it is. Yeah. And so, you know, I can do without that.

Now, I get to see the guys race every weekend as a broadcaster. And I go, yep, that's, that's hard to do. I respect them and it's not a easy job, but the people. Like you said, being in the industry people, everybody in the garage, everybody that works for NASCAR, all the media, you get to become friends with those people. That's right. Yeah. It's so hard to just not see them. So I'm lucky.

I feel fortunate I get to go to the track and I have a reason to be there. And I didn't want to not go to the track, but I didn't know how to go without a purpose, you know. Right. Will you go to another NASCAR race? Will you go to a track? I know you're going to the... We'll probably go to too tough to tame, won't you? No, I'm going to go to Bristol.

This weekend. Yep. Really? Yep. All right. Of course we knew that. What's your obligation? You got any obligation?

What are you going for? I don't know. The Speedway called me. Wanted me to know if I'd come up there and do something Friday night and Saturday. Some hospitality stuff. How many times? What's the over under on how many times the rattle the cage will come up? Ten times?

20 times, you think? A couple times, I'm sure. He'll remember it just like it was yesterday. You'd rather them remember the 95. Yes, really. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I got wrecked that one, too, but at least I won. He won that one.

But the 99 one, though, like, the thing that was so special, I was, I just started, you know, as a cocky little camera guy. And the thing I'll never forget is the fact that it was like, man, it was like, you know, the deal happens. Earnhardt climbs out in Victory Lane. There's some booze. And then it's like, we're waiting. I run to your trailer, my brother and I, and we're going to interview you. And we had to wait a little while. You did a cool down, which is smart.

Yeah. And still 15, 20 minutes after. The fans were still there. Yeah. And it was packed, and it was raucous. And you just don't see that in many sports, let alone our sport. Last time we're 20 minutes after a race. It's like, wow.

Last time we saw that was Martinsville last year. Yes. I mean, it was insane. It felt like the 90s. Yeah. You talk about what we're missing or what's missing. That's it. Like when we were Martinsville after that race with Denny and what down with Denny Chase,

I'm sitting there going, wow, this is just like the 90s, man. This is exactly what the sport was like in that moment, that energy from the crowd. I didn't like it. I didn't enjoy it that much. I didn't like dad getting booed. I could tell he was uncomfortable with everything that had happened. I thought Terry was a gentleman and a professional and how he handled it in his interview. Yeah, you would have been, so you would have run in the Xfinity race the day before.

It was awkward. Yeah. You know, as a son, it's like just like when you're owning a car in Xfinity series and when your guys goes and wrecks somebody, you're like, oh, darn, you know. Now, I'm kind of guilty by association here. It was a weird deal. But I remember y'all talking about having, you know, y'all were going to go hunting or something and that not working out. And I didn't know all the details. Can you settle something for me about this hunting?

Because to be honest with you, and I've said this to a few people, it seems like everybody went hunting with Deller and Hart. And I'm like, I guarantee everybody you meet. If they knew Deller and Ack, they were hunting buddies with him. Everybody was a hunting buddy with Deller and Hart. How many hunting buddies did Dill Earnhardt? have. I don't know. But you were one of. And was he like Rambo in the woods? I mean, like, I haven't hearing all these tales. He could really, he could just wrestle a bear

down with his bare hands and this time. What was Dale Earnhardt like? Punts out of deer. Not really. It was just, you know, a normal guy, you know. I mean, I remember out there in New Mexico, this hunting little tent thing and that are, we brought these horses in for like four hours to this camp thing. Wow. And these guys had like, yeah, 14 pack meals. They hauled all this stuff in, had the camp set up. What? And the guy, the guy met a cook out there.

And the guy was cooking. He was nervous. And he said, man, I'm just nervous. I said, why are you nervous? He said, well, I've never been around Dale before. I said, well, you don't have to worry about anything about doing anything wrong because you can tell you how to do everything. Would he do that to you? Seriously, because that's what I also hear, Dale, you sit there.

You sit there. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, he'd tell everybody. Really? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

I was riding in the car with Jeff Burton after the race and walked in his Glen and we were riding in the airport, and he's like telling me this whole story about how when Jeff and his wife were going to the Bahamas, dad had basically met him at his bus. Made he met his bus on Saturday night, laying in the floor of his bus on Saturday night, reading out the itinerary that dad had prepared for him for his whole week. You're going to eat at this place. You're going to call this guy.

You're going to have a reservation for this place. You're going to see this guy at the dock and he's going to help you get your boat over this marina. And it was just, he was always that way. Yeah, like a funny story. After the Bristol deal, the next spring we were down in the Bahamas and we were in a motor yacht. And we pulled into this marina, right? And there was your dad's boat, his Sunday money and the intimidator. And so we pulled in there and parked.

And so I walked over and I think the guy's name was Terry, Captain Terry. I think. And so I walked over and talked to him, and he got on the phone, and he called your dad and told him that we were there. And he was coming down the next day, and something came up, and he couldn't come down for another day. And so we were leaving and going to some other island. And so he said, we all take the fishing boat out and go fishing. That's okay. So we got on the fishing boat, and we went out there and went fishing.

And so we were coming back in. And I told the guy, I said, hey, pull up there to the dock, you know, put fuel back in it. I get the fuel. And he looked at me. that's okay i think he owes you that yeah that's okay yeah it's on the house yeah yeah don't worry about it well that's good that was the easy trade off you lost the car out of that lost the race but you didn't have to pay for us too you got a few that's right there you go got a fishing trip that's a fishing any good no we didn't catch the thing

we didn't catch nothing oh man well that's great that's good stuff thank you well i appreciate you coming on man yes sir thanks a lot enjoy it It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much, Terry. My pleasure. My pleasure. I think you are the first legend. Oh, really?

You're the last legend. You're the first legend. Yeah. Awesome. Seriously, have we had a NOSCA Hall of Fame? We've not had a Hall of Fame on yet. Really? Yeah.

Wow. I feel privileged. Thank you. Here you go. All right, let's do an Exaltta Race Center update. This is your Exalt to Race Center update. I'm Matthew Dillner. NASCAR's truck series kicked off a big weekend in Michigan on Saturday in grand fashion.

Brett Moffett just-edged points leader Johnny Sauter across the line to pick up his fourth win of the season. Also on Saturday, the Xfinity Series had a barn burner at the Mid-Ohio sports car course. Junior motorsports driver Justin Alleyer pulled a spin-in win as he recovered from a mid-race incident, bolted on four fresh Goodyear tires with nine laps to go and charged fast Austin Cindrick to pick up his third win of 2018. On Sunday, Kevin Harvick notched Cup Series win number seven in dominant fashion in the Irish Hills of Michigan. The Bakersfield, California driver won both stages, the race, and led 108 of 200 laps. Now to the short tracks. Sam Mayer was the only JRM late model driver competing this week.

The Wisconsin native rolled two top 10 finishes in twin features at Virginia's South Boston Speedway. Up next in the NASCAR world is a big weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. Wheel and Modifides in Trucks on Thursday, Exfinity on Friday, and the cup cars under the light Saturday night, making a big ticket in Tennessee. This has been your Exalta Race Center update. Exalta is the official paint partner of NASCAR, developing, manufacturing, and supplying coatings to all types of vehicles and industrial applications. For more on Exaltta, please visit ExalttaC.S.com.

All right, so let's talk about this race weekend. We had a pretty busy weekend. Got the Xfinity guys racing. One. Mid Ohio, Justin Algar is like Ron Horner Day on the restarts all of a sudden. Listen, one of the best recent. I've seen. I mean,

that guy passed, I mean, past three cars on a road course. Everybody talks about the pit call to take tires. That was great.

But Algar made the most of those tires on that restart. I was so proud of him. Yeah. You can't waste a lot of time. And he had been doing that all day long from the

very drop of the green flag. He was using that keyhole was an opportunity to go the outside and get on, you know, get guys trying to get to the bottom and jacking everybody up on the bottom. He would just shoot to outside

and take as many spots as he could. And he'd have the drive off and the preferred line coming on exit of that keyhole. So he was, doing that all day. He kept continuing to do that one time. That sent him out in the dirt.

Almost caused some issues because it covered the grill with grass, but he was able to get that off under the next caution. I saw him, you know, do this before. The restart stuff, we've seen it before. He won Chicago last year that way on an incredible restart. He's just a guy that's just, he never is out of it in his own mind. That's what I like about it. Tenacious.

I mean, you guys have been saying this. The thing about it is, you know, you race all day. long and you get you get it sort of ingrained in your mind like I got a fifth place car whatever I got a third place car that guy is the fastest he is the fastest and this guy's faster than me and ex guy's faster this is this is a car I got and sometimes a lot of times you will almost convince yourself that it's not your day yeah it's Austin Center's day in that case right he had him covered but that is never just an Algar's attitude ever even when he's been riding 10th all day, if he's got a late restart, he's got an opportunity.

That's his mentality. That's something like you're born with. That's a personality trait. That's not something you learn. That's not something that that's just a real awesome, freaking awesome trait to have in a race car driver. We certainly appreciate it because we won several races, at least two that I just mentioned, because of it. Thank you, Justin. Also, I want to give a shout out to Jason Burdett and that whole team.

They give him great race cars. Yes, they do. That seven car is so consistent across the board, week in and week out. For the last several years, even before Justin was here, Jason Burdette has done an incredible job as a crew chief at junior motorsports. Jason Burdett, longtime NASCAR guy, been in the sport, been in Cup forever, was the car chief of yours? You give him the break to be a crew chief. I know he had done a crew chiefing with a couple of other things, but this was his biggest break. Boy, he made the most of it.

Jason Burdette used to work on the 88 quality care car for Del Jarrett. Dale Jarrett, he went with Dale Jarrett to Michael Walshup Racing when they got rid of their crew chief at one particular point in the season. Jason Reddette actually became the intern crew chief for the remainder of the season for Dale Jared in the Cup Series when they were at Michael Waltrip. When Dale Jared, I believe, retired, I think Jason went to Hendrick Murder Sports and has been there with Steve LaTard ever since. I may have a few of the details wrong, but my point is that he's had a very, very long career.

He's been around the sport for an extreme long time. He's really, really level-headed, never gets up tight, never gets loud, never gets worked up. Great guy to have on top of pit box when things aren't going right or, you know, things kind of get hectic. He's a guy that's going to keep it together. He's proven himself. Yeah, he certainly has proven himself. So at this point, like, you know, knowing why you started junior motorsports and knowing that you like to give people chances to make a name for themselves and whatever it is they want to do, what is your ambitions now for Jason Burdett? Is it to keep him here and having him continue to do it?

Is it to get, go send him on the cup? I mean, it's so hard when you want them to go chase their dreams, yet they're so good here. Oh, yeah. I mean, part of you doesn't want to see them leave because they know that they are improving the company. You know that they are a direct part of the performance. But that's the nature of our business is that we have a lot of turnover. And usually that means those guys are getting better opportunities. We don't have turnover because we have such poor employees.

we have a turnover because they are getting graduated into the next level. And so I look at that as cool as a race win. If somebody called up and said, we want to hire Jason for a cup car, crew chief next year, Jason's excited, wants to do it. That's like winning a race for us, for me anyways. Everybody else thinks it. It's like, no, this sucks. Right.

I mean, and part of me knows that. Well, it goes both ways because look at Travis Mack, you know. So Travis Max, you know, back year at Junior Motorsports, you know, after his brief stint over there at the 95 car. And it's, you know, him getting let go over there turns out to be a big win for this organization. It's a blessing for us. And there's a couple guys in that office or in that shop that are getting second chances, you know, are people that we believe in that someone else didn't believe in. So that's what I'll, you know, we like about this opportunity in the Xfinity series.

People say, hey, you're going to go cup racing? Well, we can't do that in cup racing. We can't do, we can't work. Our business model will not work in the Cup Series. We'd have to change that. We'd no longer be a place where people could come to graduate up to the next level. So we love that opportunity and that's why we do it. So anyways, back to Algar.

Excited for that. Harvick wins the Cup race at Michigan. Pretty awesome. Keelan and Victor Lane. Keelan riding in the car. Keelan waving the checker flag. That was amazing. I mean, if you're a father, if you got to know that that was pretty special for that kid,

pretty special for the father. Yeah. Right? I maintain the position. I like to keep the kids out of the cars and out of victory lanes, and I've got hit in a face with everybody's kids in victory lanes and driver intros. And it feels like a big picnic at the big after church picnic these races. But I'm glad that everybody else likes it.

You don't like kids in Victor Lane? Damn, I'm glad. I hope you didn't see any other pictures of me and my dad when he was winning races and I was in Victory Lane with him as a kid. I never told you this, Dale, but it always bothered me. My God. Mike, the kid hater. You were off in the corner.

You weren't trying to. The hell I was. Yeah, you weren't. He was sitting there with this Jimmy Means hat. I was front and center, man. Yeah, I just feel like I kind of wish that this was stayed with the drivers. I mean, listen, I ain't going to name any names because you got drivers. Let me say this.

They're bringing their pets to Victory Lane, for Christ's sake. That's out of control. Let me just say that he's won seven races this year. This is the first time that we've seen this. Keelan asked him, hey, dad, if you win, I want to ride in the car. Hey, dad, if you win, I want to get the flag. This isn't something this happens every single time Harvick wins. Yeah, I tell him there's a rental car with his name on it.

And he can take the flag with us. I am the only one that feels that way. I'm the only one that feels that way. I had a lot of fun calling the race. You know, Harvick dominated it. We had another dominant win, much like Kentucky, but still there's a lot of interesting things that happened during the race. Torexty, yeah. And the 13 car, Ty Dillon, I believe it was a battery that he hit.

I think it was. It is. It is. Now, you know it is? You said it is. I've seen some evidence. Well, I talked to Landing Castle today. And?

And? Well, I was listening to the race on MRN. That's still. Hold on. I'm getting to it. And then they were saying that the battery came out of landing castles. That's what we heard. Rusty Wallace was saying that it was a battery.

Yeah. A backup battery. And they thought it came out of Landon Castle. Landa was here today. And I said, hey, did that battery come out of your car? He's like, no, no. It came out of the 99. His teammate.

So one of those cars. Anyhow, we have the video of it coming out of a particular car. Nice. It was incredible that it done so much damage, but also that the car just goes straight into the corner. I'm like, he didn't even look. I mean, he's turning the wheel, but it didn't look like the wheels were turned. It was so weird that he just had no control. troll and hit the wall so hard.

A ton. Again, yeah, a pretty exciting race. We had a lot of other things going on outside of the race. That was great. We had other things going on this weekend. We had a watch party. Watch us, watch NASCAR. We did this thing with Exfinity where people could...

Yeah, 2.5 million views, but... If you tuned in for one minute, you recounted as a view. We all know that. So if you want to... Before everybody trolls us, we know that. The... I don't want to be getting trolled. Yeah, still a great number.

You know, Exfinity can... can be excited about that. I don't know whether we'll do it again. I don't know whether it was fun. I was really tired. Honestly, I didn't sleep well the night before, and I wanted to go to bed. So the whole time we're doing that, watch party,

I was dying to go to sleep. Yeah. You would have if it would have been anywhere. Well, as soon as we got up out of there, Justin wins the race. Okay, great. It's over. Thanks for everybody watching.

I went to the bus, put on pajamas, got in bed, went to sleep. At 5. At 5.30, 6 o'clock. Put your pajamas on and go to bed. Damn right. I went to sleep. So I'm sorry if I was boring or didn't talk enough.

It wasn't as funny as the other guys. You say that as if you've heard that. Yeah, there was some people are critical of me being so quiet and boring. There was one thing I would have done different. And that was, you know, you had those screens on everywhere. I assumed that those were going to be showing the race. So at least if you're watching you guys. There should be a race box.

You can at least see what you're reacting to. Oh, yeah. I agree with that. Maybe that's what they'll do next time is as for the viewer, the viewer sees us and the race going on in. So they can go, you know, if they're not watching the race, they at least have it all there together. It was a, you know, it was just an idea. Hey, would people like this? We tried it.

Other than being tired. Did you like it or no? I like getting together with everybody and watching the race. If they want to film it and put it on social line, whatever. I like doing it. I like the activity of us sitting around and watching it. Did you feel? I felt uncomfortable.

extremely uncomfortable watching my car win in front of all these people as I'm an NBC employee. And why is that? You know, it's just because it's a fine line. I can't, when I'm working the booth, I cannot cheer for my car. Right. You know, and I mentally try to be unbiased. Right. And I'm thinking about that as I'm a broadcaster for the Xfinity series.

I want to do those Xfinity series broadcasts because I want the opportunity to get better. but I also know that I'm an owner and I have to be careful how I present that to the people that are viewing. In that case, I felt like, well, I'm still working for MBC, but now I'm weird. I cannot cheer. I'm not supposed to cheer. I'm supposed to be off the clock, but you're not off the clock. There's no way you're off the clock. I don't think it's good.

I don't think it's good for people to see both sides of me there. Yeah. I hear you. This week, we're going to be a watch party and I'm going to go out of guy. and then next week I'm going to be in the booth and we're going to be like, that 9 car, that was a big mistake. You know, I can't do both, right? I can't be both.

But if people like it, we'll do it. You kind of lived the whole weekend outside of a comfort zone, I'd say. Friday, we went into the infield. Fans, we went and surprised some fans. That was pretty fun. So what did you? Oh, you didn't see that. No.

NASCAR America on Friday. Yeah. We went into the infield and walked up on campsites and said, Hey, how's it going? Just rarely. Yeah, we had our mics, and it was me, Jeff Burton, Coppedi. The first one we walked up on, this guy had this bar, and he'd been bringing it for like 19 years.

And from Wisconsin, Green Bay Packers fan, he had the bar fully stocked, all kinds of people out there, just serving people. That was pretty fun to see, like, I want to go out there and see the creative things that fans do to make the weekend fun. And a guy building a bar and serving other people that are just random strangers is creative.

There were guys out there with big giant grills and piles of food and just making food on the regular, just constantly making food. And you're like, who's going to eat this? Oh, the people just come by. They just come by and get a plate all weekend. Oh, okay. You know, just random strangers. Yeah, yeah, all this will get eat.

That's cool. Yeah. Seeing that kind of creativity, people making bars and tarps and tarp buildings and so forth, you know, this just tent city that kind of comes together for the weekend and gets taken back down. seeing the ingenuity that people have inside these old buses and things that they've been driving to the racetrack for year, you know. And they're big on the buses, school buses. Old school buses.

Old school buses. And Michigan is one of the most underrated infields, I think, on the circuit because everybody talks about Talladega and whatever. Michigan and Watkins Glen now, they'll throw down in those infields now. Pack them out, throw down. Every campsite we went to, there was like a 300 to 500 to empty pile, you know, can of pile of empty beer cans just every single campsite. Yeah. And it was Friday.

So. Getting after it. Yeah. There is just some, there's some really cool stuff there. If you're into, you know, if you're kind of like a picker or there's some old pop-ups like this one, 1974 pop-up, you know, like the one that you have. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it looked it.

I mean, it wasn't like a brand new, you know, restore. Right. And there was this guy in this pedal car that he had just made that week and put a little number nine on it like, or like, not doing it, Chase Elliott. It was just the creativity. Yeah,

I got you. It's fun. And obviously, the fans are just freaking, so excited to be there. They got their favorites and they want to talk racing. And so that was pretty cool. Kyle Petty's the perfect person to take out there.

He's all, you know, he's a lover of the history, knows the history well, knows exactly what to ask. And he's going to be curious about the same things I'm curious about. So it was fun listening to him interact with the fans and questions and things that he would get out of them. They've got these things called Fan Friday that they're doing at some of the racetracks for the NBC NASCAR America Friday show.

So we'll be doing that again throughout the rest of the season. We'll see how that goes. I think it's time to do an ad. All right. I mean, honestly, with ZipRecruiter coming back. Not in a million years, Dale. Across a million galaxies. I have ever thought that we'd get a trilogy.

A trilogy out of the ZipRecruiter deal. Yeah. Can you believe it? You feel so good about it. You made it a little theatrical this week. Yeah. ZipRecruiter's back for the trilogy. This is it.

ZipRecruiter, if you don't know, everybody doesn't listen to every single show, but this will be the third time we've had ZipRecruiter on the show as a sponsor. And the first time, we botched it completely. The second time we didn't do any better. Third time's a charm. And they're back again. So I don't know what it is about these guys, but we love them.

ZipRecruiter is... ZipRecruiter. Yeah, he's pretty good. Three times. We're three in a row right now. It's very hard to say. So it is basically a job site. You go on there and you just put it on your resume.

Like, hey, I want, here's my resume. I'm looking for work. Mike's looking for somebody to feel a role in this company. And I am. And he is, which you've used ZipRecruiter to do, to look for people that can feel this position. So go to ZipRecruiter.com slash Dale Jr. That helps us. Absolutely.

helps us get ZipRecruiter excited about being back on the show again. ZipRecruiter will send your job to over 100 of the web's leading job boards. They don't just stop right there with a powerful matching technology. They scan thousands of resumes to find people with the right experience and invite them to apply for your job, right? Mike, how's that experience been going? Well, so this is a thing with ZipRecruiter. So, like, we have a couple of positions we're going to be hiring for, and I posted one this

week or this past week. And it sends me the people that they think I. need. I don't have to go sit there and weed through a hundred different applications and resumes. It's like, this is what I'm looking for. These are the traits I need out of this person. This is what I'm going to pay them. Are you satisfied with the resumes that you've been sent? Absolutely. Absolutely. I don't know how we're going to pair it down to just one, to be honest with you, because there's a lot of qualified people. You know what? There's a lot of people to tell us, they told me, I don't know, you're not going to find it. There's nobody good out there anymore. Please, I'm telling you, they're looking in the wrong place.

There's plenty of good people out there. We're going to have a hard. hard time trying to get down to this one. I have been very pleased with the way that's working, and I got my work cut out for me to try to find the perfect fit for it. Well, with results like that, it's no wonder that ZipRecruiter is the highest rated hiring site in America. And right now, my listeners can try ZipRecruiter for free at this exclusive web address. ZipRecruiter.com slash Dale Jr.

That's ZipRecruiter.com slash Dale Jr. ZipRecruiter. dot com slash Dale Jr. I think you got it. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Nailed it! You nailed it! Wow!

I'm going to Disneyland. My gosh. That's how you do it. That's how you do it. I don't even know what we're talking about anymore. Dale Jr. gets a raise. They probably won't come back now because we did it so well.

I know, right? It's time for Ask Junior. I got a question. You have a question. question for me, hit us up on Twitter using the hashtag Ask Junior. All right, Ask Junior people, of course, chiming in on social media using the hashtag Ask Junior. Larry Roberts, who has been bugging me for like this autographs show sheet. I don't know if I'm going to give you that, but I'm going to give you this, the number one question

on Ask Junior. If you could interview two people from the sports world, all across sports, who would it be? All across sports. I would interview. I would interview. I would. I would probably interview. Oh, my gosh. Dead or live? Or live, right? Let's go alive. I'm Tiger Woods.

Okay. And probably Charles Barkley, maybe. I think he'd be fun interview. Can I answer one? Yeah, why not? I'm going Floyd Mayweather. And I'm going that there's a guy named Alex Honnold, who is the one, he climbs those mountains. He climbs.

If you'll listen, he climbs mountains with. no safety thing and he climbs up the wall like with his fingers. Okay. Really? And he puts him in the cracks and he goes up these big mountains. Interesting. Yes. Oh, dude, it's crazy. Me, I'm narrow-minded. I'm a racing guy. I want to interview. I interviewed him like 90.

No. I talked to him every week. Oh, man. Junior Miller. It was like 99 the last time I spoke to him about Alex Zanardi, who I think is the most interesting athlete I've ever met my entire life. But all right, let's roll on. Of course.

Okay, from the book of awkward. Let's go to this line of questioning. Chris Lehman started this out, and I saw this question. I'm like, I can't use it. But then another question came up. He said, do you believe in Sasquatch? Then all of a sudden, Amelda says, it's like they know each other, have you ever had an encounter with the supernatural ghosts, Bigfoot, etc?

All right. I don't believe in Bigfoot. Not that there wasn't some type of creature like that at some point in the existence of the earth, but currently today there is probably unlikely that there is a big foot out there in the woods. Debunked. I think that it's fun to daydream or have a little, you know, have TV shows and all this, all this things.

It's fun to imagine. All right. It's fun to let the imagination go. And sometimes I'm, you know, sometimes I'm guilty as everybody of watching TV shows that are looking for Sasquatch. I don't know what that means, but no, I don't think he's out there. But I'll watch the shows. No, good and dang well at the end, you still will not have found a Sasatch.

I mean, I'm probably not going to find out first on the show. It's probably going to come on a headline on the national news. Right. Yeah, but they have found this guy. That's a good point. But I'll still watch the show. I hear you. Just because the shows are typically pretty fun.

Have I had an encounter with a ghost? I do believe in paranoia activity. Wait, paranormal. Paranoid. I mean, we've had some paranoia on this show before. Paranormal. Tell me about your paranoia experiences. That's so bad.

That's awesome. All right. I do believe in that stuff. I think that our personalities and our souls have so much, we're so much more than just blood vessels and bones and muscle, you know. Yeah. And I feel like that it's quite possible that in certain situations when we die, our bodies die, that maybe there's a spirit capable of continuing on. And in certain situations, not all the time.

But so, you know, haunted places, sure. I believe that there's quite possibly some haunted places in this. I don't think I've ever encountered a spirit or seen a ghost with my own eyes. Have you? Yeah, man. You have. Pocono, 1999 working for TNN. Of course it was at a race track.

No, it was the No, it was the Pocono Manor Hotel, which is kind of known for being haunted. You saw the ghost. Hold on, but I had the TV on. You heard a noise. And I'm in the bathroom. All of a sudden, the TV turns off. I go back, turn it back on. Same thing happens over and over.

Finally, I take the batteries out of the remote. The remote stuck, blah, blah, blah. We're fine. The guy next door is remotes doing it. I'm in the darn bed. And right after that happens, I'm laying in the bed. it's at night and the light in the closet goes on. I get up to go turn it off and it turns off.

So I'm like, all right. It turns off on the way to turning it off? Yes. I ain't going to lie. This sounds like paranoia. This is paranoia activity. This is what this is. You were right the first time.

Paranoia experience. All right. Well, I might have, you know, I might have seen some paranoia activity, but I've never seen a ghost. You know what I thought you were going to say? What? You don't. you remember you told Mike Wallace in that interview you got pulled out of a car. All right.

Okay. Okay. Okay. I forgot about that. All right. Yeah. Okay. This is a little dark, a little morbid and heavy.

But when, and I don't care, whatever people want to think, they think of a freaking, you know, a looney. Whatever. When I wrecked in the Corvette in 2004, it's a moment. It called fire. Somebody pulled me out of that car. And I thought that it was a corner worker. and because I felt somebody put their hands under my armpits and pulled me out of the car. I didn't get out.

I don't have any memory of myself climbing out of the car. And I remember sort of moving, like in motion, like going to lean forward and try to climb out of the car. And then something grabbed me under the armpits, pulled me up over the doorbars, and then let go of me. And I fell to the ground. And there's pictures of me laying on the ground next to the car. I know when I got to the hospital, I was like, who pulled me out of the car? Like, I got to say, you know, thanks to this person. Because it was a hand, you know, it was physical hands grabbing me.

I felt it. And there was nobody there. You were telling that to Steve Chris. Steve Chris said, you got out of the car yourself, though. I was like, well, he's like, you got out yourself. I'm like, no, I didn't, man. Somebody pulled me out. I remember them pulling me out.

And he's like, this is in the hospital when I woke up. Because they gave me so much morphine I passed out for like 12. 12 hours. I woke up and I had McDonald's sitting in front of me because Steve Chris knew that I'd probably want something to eat. And I was like, man, who was that guy to pull me out? I got to say, you know, after a couple hours, it kind of started to remember all that stuff.

I'm like, I need to talk to that guy. Man, that's the freaking guy I need to say thanks. He's like, nobody pulled you out. What are you talking about? So, yeah, that would probably be the closest thing that ever, you know, as far as anything. The closest thing. I'd say, no, I'd say that's better than my darn light remote control. His remote control experience.

If it's real, you know, I just, you know. Well, it is. Real. Somebody pulled you out. You said it. There you go. Asked you your question. You got you an answer that you didn't think. We're going to.

Lamus. Lamous. Who was it? Lamos? Laman? Laman? Laman? Laman?

Laman? Laman? Chris Lehman and Melda. You said this is going to be, I thought it was funny because you said this is an awkward question from a guy named Laman. Real quick. Yeah, we have one more. And our friends at Nationwide are bringing us this one.

from the nationwide children's hospital. We have a special Asked Junior Question. It's our nationwide Children's Hospital Ask Junior Question of the week. Check it out. Hey, Del. I want to know how old you are, and what's the fastest you went in a car? I am how old I am now. I'll be 44 in October.

The fastest I ever went in a car was probably 220 at the end of the straightaway at Michigan, when they repave that track. We would average about 204, I think. Maybe it was 201. I don't know, but we were doing 220 at the end of the straightway. Gosh, Almighty. Yeah. I bet that you felt every mile per hour in that.

It was fun. Was it? It makes me think about how fast we could go if we went unrestricted at Talladega. How fast do you think? 240 probably. Wow. Really? That's like an indie car kind of stuff.

It would be in the 30s. Yeah. Elha there bringing the questions. Elha. Great question. I look forward to doing the Nationwide Children's Hot. hospital. Yeah.

So it's great kids up there. I've only been up there once, and I only got to meet a few of them shooting you two years ago or whatever doing it. And you meet some of those kids up there, and they're so, so full of energy and just happy to see you and ask questions. So that's kind of cool to do this. We'll look forward to that. All right.

You want to go white flag? White flag. Put it out. White flag right there. White flag right. All right. This will be a quick one. The auction for the 36 pairs of race-use skeleton glove signed by the respective.

driver that wore them and Dale Jr. ends this Wednesday, August 15th, which, by the way, depending on when you're listening to this, that could be tomorrow as you're listening to this, or it might have actually already passed. If you are listening to this when Dillner puts this out immediately, this would be a Tuesday, you have just a little bit of time, get to NASCAR Foundation.org slash Dale Jr. and bid on your favorite pair of gloves. All proceeds benefit the Dela and Amy Earnhardt Fund at National Children's Hospital. Dale, real quick, you were on social media this past week, kind of surprised about what Chase Elliott's gloves got up to. And I know you were talking to Chase and Mr. Hendrick about it.

Like, it was like a $10,000 or something? Yeah, I mean, I was bidding myself. Oh, were you? There for a little while. Yeah, I want the gloves pretty bad, but I feel almost, I feel bad, you know, trying to bid against the guy who really deserves them. And that's Chase. If it ends up with Chase or Rick, that'll probably be where they go and it'll be pretty cool. So Chase and Rick are actually bidding on them.

I'm pretty sure that they may be bidding against each other. They have at least. God help the person that bids against Rick Hendrick, because let me tell you something, he starts calling the bank. I mean, when he wants something at an auction, by God, he walks out with it. Oh, Chris Lehman there. He's not going to win. He might not win that one.

Also, there was some conversation on social media this weekend about those gloves and being affordable next year when we do this, which we're going to do this next year. The gloves are going to start at $20 a pair. Okay. All right. They started at $300 this week, and that is not the wheelhouse. a lot of these race fans to be able to afford that. So we're going to start them at $20 a pair next year.

There you go. The fans will have an opportunity to bid on some of the gloves if they can, you know, and wherever they go, they go. It's for a good cause, but we're going to definitely start them much cheaper next year. Dale Jr.'s book racing to the finish is the perfect gift for any Earnhardt fan. So go to Dale Jr.com forward slash book to pre-order your copy. That again is at Dalejutor.com forward slash book. Catch the Dale Jr. Download TV show on Thursdays at 5.30 p.m. Eastern on NBCSN.

We won't actually have a podcast or a TV show next week. We're taking the week off next week, but then we'll be back the week after that. So that's what's up, guys. Good show. Terry Lamarney was here. Man, it feels good. The ice man. Enjoy your week.

See you. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo.