The Dale Jr. Download - 242 - Jeff Gordon: "I'm the Opposite of That"

Episode Date: December 13, 2018

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits down with Jeff Gordon to talk candidly about his career, their rivalry and trying not to be intimidated by The Intimidator.  Dale and Jeff take fan questions and share untold party stories.  The DJD guys also discuss Christmas gifts and the onesie fad. 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.

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This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. We got a special edition of the Dell Jr. download, man. December edition. I got my co-host, Mike Davis, here. Hello. We got our guests here. You know, we don't invite just to anybody off the street.

All right. You know, it's got to be somebody that carries our way a little bit. Especially we're going to do, like, a one-off for the month of December. You've got to have big guests, and I think we got a good one. This is a treat. Yeah, so let's welcome in. Jeff Gordon. Thank you.

Treat for me, man. We've talked about this for a long time. I know you've wanted to be on the show for a long time. I'm glad you're here. This works out great. Fans are going to love this. We've got a lot to talk. about so let's get started.

The winner in Victory Circle all day long. It's an incredible day. Who knows what's in store for the future? The winner is Jeff Gordon. The championship goes to Jeff Gordon. Man, good job. And that's your show, everybody. Yeah, all right.

Take care. Dillner with the intro, that's a good one. And it needs to be good because we've got an awesome guest. Jeff, we got so much to unpack here. This is going to be a lot of fun for me. Well, I appreciate you. That takes me back to Vallele, my upbringing, you know, a little hip-hop action there, a little beat. This is you.

Gets me in the mood. Don't break dance. No, no, no, no. No, no. No, no. My body doesn't do that anymore. Well, go ahead, Dan. I don't even know where to get started.

So the first time I heard your name, I was watching, there was a great show called Thursday. Night Thunder. Yes. And they would show traditionally the races at IRP in Indianapolis Raceway Park. And Sprint cars on asphalt, it was an incredible show. And I know that a lot of people in our world, in the stock car world, watched it. But that's the first time I ever saw you. And I know that you've been racing forever.

But I've always been kind of curious. Back then, it was traditional for most of those guys that ran sprint cars to go into open wheel. and you went into stock cars. Now, how does that happen? How does that conversation happen? Or was there a point where you had to make a decision? Or was stock cars always the path? Yeah.

It's so interesting being here with you on this subject right now because this Hall of Fame thing is around the corner in February. And so, you know, when you start thinking about Hall of Fame and having to give that dreaded speech at the Hall of Fame and I start sweating, thinking about it right now. But it takes me back and I start following the path of the key moments in my life, my career that got me to NASCAR.

And Thursday Night Thunder was one of them. And you wouldn't have traditionally thought that that would have been the path. And I can tell you, that was not my intention at all. I mean, I don't want to go too far back. But we moved to Indiana. My stepfather and my mom moved to Indiana because I was racing sprint cars. I was racing them at a young age in Indiana, Ohio was pretty cool and open to letting a young kid like myself. And there was a couple others that were racing.

And all of a sudden, it became my life, man. All I wanted to do was race these cars. And that was when I started racing professionally where you go to the pay window and they give you a few hundred bucks if you did, okay, you know. But you have to understand. So it's funny, you mentioned this because I wasn't thinking NASCAR at all. Actually, I was thinking a world of outlaw sprint cars. I wanted to be a world of outlaw sprint cars. Really?

I mean, like, my heroes were Steve Kinzer and Doug Wolfgang. And I got to race with those guys when I was like 14. It was insane. But I realized, and I was kind of a scrawny kid. I realized that I don't know if I'm going to be a professional world of outlaw driver. I could be a good sprint car driver talking about the wing and stuff like that. Because physically, man, those cars were tough. And so there's a few races, you know, where I was fast and I fell out of the seat a little bit.

And I just was like, man, I'm going to have to step up my game here big time. And I never was, maybe once or twice I was in the kind of equipment that I thought was competitive with those guys. And I finished top two or three in a couple world of outlaw races at tracks that I knew really, really well. So anyway, I get this ride with this awesome team that I'm like, this is my break, man. This is going to do it. And I don't know if I just felt the pressure, if I just didn't have what it took. But I started wrecking the hell out of this thing and costing this car owner a lot of money. It was a big operation.

And we were racing an All-Star and World of Outlaws. And so I guess I was probably 16, 17. I knew I was still in high school at this time. And I got fired. And it just so happened right after I got fired, somebody, my stepdad, who was in the racing business. And he said, listen, Bob East, this guy that builds midgets, he wants you to get one of his midgets.

And he's got this guy who wants you to meet, and you might be able to get a ride, but it would probably be on pavement. And I'm like, pavement, man, all I've ever done was dirt. I don't know pavement at all. And it was, so anyway, went to this race, met this guy. He had just fired his driver. I was looking for a job. And he was getting this new beast chassis.

And the next thing I know, I'm getting asked to drive the car, putting my seat in it. And in May, we go to what was the night before the 500, which was a big midget race at IRP. And it was live on ESPN. And I went, new track record, won my heat race, won the race. Just dominated. And this is what you're talking about. This is where you noticed him. Yeah.

And then that turned into a weekly. It was a weekly. That was actually the RC Cola one. And then the year after that was the white diet Pepsi car. And we just, we won everything and everything. He did. And I remember. So there's a guy named Larry Nuber that I'm sure you're familiar with that used to broadcast your dad's races for ESPN in the booth.

in the booth and he was you know kind of he didn't do a lot of stuff at this time but he did do these Thursday night thunder and Saturday night thunder which it turned into races and he loved NASCAR and so he was trying to help me get my foot in the door some indy car teams but man it was like where's the money where's the money we're not hiring American dirt track drivers right now we're hiring people from South America people from Europe who were road racing And I think my dreams of being an IndyCar driver got crushed around that time because it really was no doors opening up for a guy unless he's bringing a bunch of money. And so because of that, Larry said, well, the only thing I know to do is knock some doors down in North Carolina for NASCAR. And of all things, I still, this blows my mind.

And I know this is we're getting way off track. You're getting too deep into the weeds on this one. But you know, nobody gets anything going for them if they went to Buck Baker driving school or one of these Richard Petty driving schools. This is exactly the kind of weeds we like to get into this on the podcast. So I go down there that Larry set up through ESPN, they brought some cameras and said, okay, we're going to film Jeff, taking this school and in pursuing NASCAR. Okay. I hadn't met anybody. At Rockingham.

And nothing. I land in Charlotte and go to Rockingham. and I'm out there driving these school cars, right? I'm like, man, this is cool, I like this track. I like to go fast. And the cars, even though they're school cars, they got after a little bit better because it was a smaller track.

And there's this guy with this Bush Grand National car making laps around there. And I'm like, what's that? Now, he's not part of the school separate. And whatever, somebody said, you know, Buck Baker, you know, Jeff Gordon, I meet Buck. I'm like, what's that? And he's, oh, that's, you know,

this guy that's going to race some Bush Grand National races. You should meet him. Like, great. And all of a sudden, the next day, I show up and Buck says, hey, he says, it's okay if you want to drive his car. I'm like, okay. Now this guy, Hugh Connerty, which we'll invite him to the Hall fame because this guy, not a lot. Yeah, this is it right here. This is that intersection of life right here. And now, I'm not going to put him down, but he's a larger man than I was. I was pretty scrawny. And we had to stuff all these pillows. You know, You know how it is. Somebody gives you a ride.

I had the seatbats probably had a gap of about six inches on it. I didn't care. I was like whatever it took to get in this car because it was an actual real race car. And I got in there and I hauled ass for, I don't know, 10, 15 laps or something like that. It wasn't much, just a few laps. Hald ass. Got out of it and everybody was, oh, man, you did really good, really good. And Hugh came over to me.

He goes, we need to talk. And I was like, okay. So he said, let's go to lunch. So go to lunch and he goes, man, I realize in that moment watching you go around the track, I don't belong in this car. You were second faster than I was. And I probably need to do something a little different here. I'm having fun, but I don't need to go race it.

But I'm scheduled to do three races at the end of this year. Would you like to drive it? I'm like, hell yeah. I didn't know him, his car, nothing. But I'm like, yes, I do. I know it's insane. And come to find out, that was Leo Jackson's son-in-law. And he knew Andy Petrie.

Andy Petrie knew Ray Everingham, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all the stuff. Steve Barkdahl was at his shop. And all of a sudden, I'm going to the test. My first test in Charlotte just a few months after that. And Ray Everettam is the crew chief. Wow. So that's how I'm saying that deal with. And this is the white.

That's that white 67 outback state house car. So I wasn't really going to be a NASCAR driver. pursuing it. It just happened. He's going to school. I graduated. It's a whole of the few times I graduated. But how do you get the opportunity to go get in that car at Rockingham and not anybody else?

Because we brought some TV cameras, I believe. We had ESPN's backing because they wanted to do a feature for Thursday night Thunder or Saturday Night Thunder, I think, at that time. You know it was Thursday night and then it moved to Saturday night, which was a mistake in my opinion. But then, yeah, because we had the cameras, I think Buck, you know, silly. You, you with the cameras. There was one other race car driver, like a late model driver that was there.

And I don't know, for whatever reason, Buck singled me out. So you go to, I remember at Rockingham, you sat on either an outside pole or. Yeah, Dave Meaders on the pole. I was on the outside front row. You guys, don't forget anything. No, I forget a lot of shit, but not that one. No, not that somebody wins the pole and you didn't. No, no, no. Well, the thing is, his name was recognizable from the Thursday Night Thunder.

And then when he goes to Rockingham in that car that everybody knew that that wasn't a good car or that wasn't a top car. That was kind of a piecemeal effort. And he goes to the racetrack and sets on the outside pole. And that was a bit like, oh, man, this guy, this guy could be the deal. You know, there weren't a lot of surprises back then. It was always the same old people. And so here's this new guy that wasn't. a stock car racer.

I don't even remember how, did you run all three of those races? Because I don't remember the other two. But you might not remember me and Rockingham after lap 23 either. He ran good, though. He was in the top five. I was so loose. I kept telling him, we got to free the, I was, you know how Rockingham you get real tight, getting down the center one and two?

So I kept going, free the car, free the car. And I'm coming from open wheel cars running 40 lap races. And so, you know, we've, freed the car and they dropped the green and this thing was crazy loose and I held onto it for 23 laps and then I spun out. So that actually wasn't the first race. The first race was actually at Charlotte. We tested at Charlotte and we were fast.

We were really fast. And we went and qualifying got rained out. So they had that hooligan race. Remember that thing? And in that race of all people, I chopped down on Randy Baker, who was one of my instructors at Buck Baker. and I don't want to say I spun myself or he spun me, but I wrecked. And so that ended that race weekend.

And then we went to Rockingham outside front row. And then we went to Martinsville, I think, and blew up. Yeah. So that was it. Yeah, it was my one shot and it opened up and up doors. So that one, what was it that got you that next opportunity with Bill Davis? Okay. So, yeah, I love all that.

I mean, because I'm so reliving all this. helping you for your speech right now, by the way. So, all right, so obviously some things happened with my phone ringing with other sprint car and midget opportunities, even though I was in a good place there with Raleigh Helming the midget. But I got this call one day and it was, hey, you need to call Lee Morse. And Lee Morris ran the Ford performance and auto racing part of NASCAR. He said he might have an opportunity for you. I'm like, cool.

So I call Lee, and I get on the phone with him, and he goes, hey, you familiar with Bill Davis racing? I'm like, no. He goes, well, you remember that Carolina Ford Dealer's car? Yes, I knew that car because that thing hauled ass with Mark Martin. And so he said there might be an opportunity there for you, but you got to go test in Rockingham. Now, this was, I did the race in October, and this was end of October, November, and he said, you got to go test in Rockingham, December. I'm like, oh, I'm there. Yeah.

And so I went there, and of course the track was fast as can be because it's so cold, and I hauled ass. I mean, I was just like, bah! And the car drove amazing. I knew after that, you know, the car didn't have much power, which Mark always, you know, made up for power his whole career. But man, did he have that thing flying through the corners. So I guess I did well enough in that where Bill Davis. And so I met Bill literally at that test at Rockingham and went and he. right after that said, yeah, man, we want to do this.

And so he hired me for the next year to go run the full season in Bush Grand National. Luckily, Mark was doing his own deal with Roush, that Win Dixie car. So that was why that door opened up. You ran one or two years with Bill? I ran two. So 91 was my rookie season in 92, was when we had the baby Ruth car. I mean, we went good out here. Now, that was great.

I think that that was one thing that I always appreciated about you is those two years in the Xfinity series. What was then the Bush series is you paid your dues. You had to earn that opportunity to get into Rick's car eventually, and this didn't all just happen overnight. You had to prove yourself time and time again. Do you remember the first time we met? Well, I remember North Wilkesboro. I don't know if that was the very first time. I think that was the very first time.

That's my. That's the way I remember it. I just remember, and I don't remember if there was a late model thing going on there, and then the cup cars were there, and we were on pit road. Maybe the cars were lined up for qualifying or something, and your dad kind of pulled you over and introduced me. The way I remember it is, or pulled me over, probably.

Dad and you had been out on the track, and I don't know whether that was something that y'all did or he would do with you from time to time, but maybe he had taken you around the track or talked to you about the race. or something. Interesting. Let me tell you, and you know this well, but you can imagine a young kid like myself the influence, you know, somebody like your dad had on me.

So if he said, come here, I said, sure, where do you want me to go, you know? If he said, let's go out on the track, I want to, you know, show you something, I'd be out on the track. I mean, I would do whatever he told me to do pretty much. So y'all pulled up to the interest of pit road and this pace car got out. Both of he got out. Some official jumped in, took a car. off and y'all were walking by and i was sitting on pit wall okay and had all our late model stuff

everywhere every there's late model stuff everywhere everybody's you know late model teams i remember they're being cars on pit road every cars everywhere gas cans tools and uh dad saw me and he brought he got y'all he starts turning i'm like yeah and so you know i thought he's just going to walk home by and ignore me but uh he turned he's coming over there and he goes i want to introduce you to Jeff Gordon and he said, this kid's going to be, this kid's going to be somebody. And I was like, yes, sir, nice to meet you, Jeff. And then y'all walked on. I was like, man.

Well, I remember you're pretty quiet, polite, and that was about it. It was really? Now, the next real interaction I remember with you was when I came over to your dad's shop. Yeah. And the bush, you were, you were getting a car ready to go to Watkins Glen. Yeah, yeah. And I was, at this time, now I'd gotten to know your dad a little bit better. and I could, you know, push back on them.

And I was getting hard time about that car that you were driving. And so this is what really impressed me about you because, first of all, you know, you were working on the car or, you know, very involved with the car, which I didn't do a lot of that. You know, and the midget sprint car stuff, heck, I mean, they're simple. You can build those cars. And my dad made me do that. But when I got to stock cars, I didn't know anything. And I was, I got into a fortunate situation where I didn't have to do a lot of it other

than just drive it. But so, you know, here's that car, you know, that room that your dad had with all the antlers and stuff. And so walked in there and I just remember that gear shifter, man. You had a gear shifter. Like, I mean, that thing was two, three feet long. And I saw, and the car was just rough. It was beat up.

It looked like you'd run that thing 10 times and never taken it to the body shot. Is this why you were giving his dad a hard time about the car? I said, you can't put him in that. I said, he has no chance. chance in hell in this car. I said, well, man, I see Taj Mahal, right? It said, spend some damn money on your boy, give him a good race car. He's, oh, he needs to earn it.

That's what he told me. And so I think I was up to that day. We're talking business stuff, you know, souvenir sales and all that. And then you went and ran that race and hauled ass. You were good. Yeah. I said, damn, if he can drive that thing, and he must be good. This is a bush race or a light model race?

This is a bush race at Watkins Glen. Did you win it? No, no, no. This is in 97. Oh, this was before the... Yeah, I got it. Yeah. This is in this white number 31.

I don't remember who we bought the car from, but it originally was an old Steve Grissom Channelock car. Well, that explains all the damage. Right. So it had been, it had been rebodied a couple times, and this guy that had it was, it wasn't even complete, but it was cheap. And so, we got it going really. I raced a couple times. Had a lot of bugs and blow the motor that day. I probably ruined the motor on a shift or something.

But you run good up until. Yeah, we qualified great. Top running sixth or something when the motor finally broke. Eventually ended up getting, you know, getting the opportunity to drive the ACDol car, which changed everything. But I think dad took your advice because, or you must have, you must have made an impact on him because I ended up getting one of the hand-me-downs from Tommy Senior in them, one of their blue ACD over cars that Steve Park was driving at the time.

And I took that to Michigan, and that's when I had my Rockingham moment. That's where I had that day that I ran so well and Dale Jarrett and everybody was going over to my dad going, your little boy out there is doing pretty good. I was beating on Dale Jarrett's bumper. And I was like, oh, I'm going to hit him, but I don't want to hit me back. Something about Michigan, because, you know, Jimmy Johnson and I, we had that experience. at Michigan where he was in a car that was okay, not as good as mine was, I'm sure, because Ray Everingham and I own that team, he was running right with me and passed me on a restart.

So, man, this guy's pretty darn good. Came back and told Rick Hendrick about it. So that is a race that I wanted to talk to you about. This has to be 1999, Michigan. You're in the blue 24 Pepsi car that you and Ray owned together. You decided to, I thought this was. So I'm racing in the Xfini Series, 1998. And a couple guys would come down and race with us, Terry Labani, a couple cup guys.

But not Jeff Gordon. But Jeff Gordon makes the announcement going into 1999 that him and Ray are going to build a team. You're going to run a handful of races. I think you decided to run six or seven races. And this was really exciting. Extremely exciting for me, all the other guys that compete. Jeff Gordon's the best guy in the cup is coming down. We're going to get a chance to – you know, we're tired getting our ass kicked by Mark Martin every week.

We'll see if we can handle Jeff Gordon. So, uh, oh, you, and I can tell you for five races, you handled my ass just five. We were terrible. We went, you did. You struggled with that car. And, um, but then we went to Michigan. And we and you, uh, run, run close. Yeah, we ran up in top five, I know, all day long.

Well, there was a particular point in the race to where we were running first and second. And you would, you would lead a while. Those cars were really loose out front. Oh, yeah. Right. That's how racing used to be. You know, those 90s. And so in this one race, you would lead like five laps, and I'm like, man, he's going to drive away.

But I could see you getting looser and looser and looser, and I'd kind of come back and pass you, and then I'd get out front. And as soon as I'd get in front, I'm loose as heck, and then you go back by me, and we did this for like 20 or 25 laps. And then the race cycled, and I ended up winning the race. And I was like, man, I might have, you know, I might have proved something to Jeff Gordon Day. I'm sure you did. Yeah. And then I remember going to Phoenix, the race you won. And we ran second.

Oh, okay. Clenched the championship that day. And so this was sort of my first memories of racing with you. You know, the first couple races y'all had in that car, y'all struggled with trying to get the speed in the car and it was bad. And then, you know, we had those two races at Michigan and then Phoenix, which was, that was great for me, great for everybody that, you know, got the chance to race against you.

Then we went to Japan. Oh, yeah. And raced. But you were out front all the time. I didn't get to race with you. me and dad listen I'm still mad about Japan because we went there

I think y'all had that one we had that thing one we were so good so good you know what what stands out to me a couple things about Japan this was when me and rusty kind of had a little bit of a rivalry and that you don't you might not know a whole lot about

that but you know the way it kind of worked out is in 95 when I broke out and had that championship year and me and your dad went in battle rusty kind of looked at it as this is my place, right? I'm the guy that's going to go up against Dale Earnhardt, and I'm the one that, you know, hopefully will come out on top,

and my career is going to go, and then all of a sudden, who's this little punk kid, you know, that came along? So Rusty had it, you know, a little bit of a rub with me, and me and him got racing so hard in Japan that it ruined it for us, and I think your dad ended up winning the race or Rusty won the ride. I can't remember, I think it was your dad, and I was so pissed off at Rusty. Steve, because he was like, no, no, you're not going to pass me because I'll do anything to keep you from winning this race.

I don't care if Dale wins or anybody else wins, it's not going to be you. Because there was these huge moments in the sport at that time that were just standout races, whether it was the Brickyard 400, whether we went to Southern California in Fontana or Japan, that you just felt like, man, if I win this race or if I stand out in this race, this is going to elevate not just the sport, but me and my brand or my place in the sport. So Rusty and I, yeah, we laugh about it now. Well, you know what I stood out in his mind? He had a shoe thrown at him. Did Rusty throw a shoe at you?

Because that's how Japan ended for him. Did you know that? He threw a shoe at you? His dad did. Oh, your dad did? Oh, no. I don't remember that. So unless you had a shoe thrown at you.

It didn't widely. Why did you have heard this story? This was at the Oval, the last time we ever went. Went to Japan. Oh, at Motagie. Yeah. Yeah. You're up front running with a Skinner.

God, now you're showing the whole other race I'm pissed off. I was doing okay. And I got up there with you guys and then smacked the wall trying too hard. But that dropped me back toward where dad was. He's running seventh, eighth, eighth all day, just terrible. There weren't that many, you know, really capable cars. And he had basically resigned himself to finishing where he was going to finish. They had another set of tires in the pits.

Kosh came out with like 10 laps to go. Tony Jr. said to Richard Childers, where pit stops, pit stalls side of the side. He goes, hey, you're going to borrow that. You're going to use that last set of tires. And Richard was like, no, he goes, well, we're going to use them. Dale Jr., come down on pit road. We're going to put these tires on this car.

So I come down to pit road, and I put tires on my car. I got to restart, and I drove by Dad. When I drove by him, we're coming off a turn four, and I'm going, I'm thralling up. And I'm like, you know, let me have it. And he was going to stay on my quarter panel. Of course he was. You obviously did not get a lot of time racing your dad.

This was the lift. He thought he treated fairly, right? This is my first race. I'm just glad it wasn't just me and 90% of the rest of the field that he race. This is my first race with that, right? And I'm thinking, you see that I'm passing you. Don't, if you're on my quarter panel, I can't stay full throttle. I got a couple of laps to get these guys in front of me, and I ran him in the wall.

But it kind of This kind of reminds me a Daytona in 1997. Off turn two, yeah. It's exactly the same. But he was so mad at me, and I went on, and I'm like, man, I beat Dad. And a couple of, yeah, if it is sixth or something, this is awesome. I got your intimidator right here. And you know we had this little cubicles where he could change clothes in.

And me and Dad shared one of those trailers. so there's real rental mobile trailers. And so I go in my, you know, I go in there and I'm changing. Greatest day year in life. It's been a long trip. Long way over here. I'm happy. It's worth it.

And dad comes in and he, I just saw a look on his face and I was like, oh, he don't want to talk. I'm changing. And I, he's taking his shoes off and I bent over to tie my shoe or something. And a freaking driving shoe went right over the top of my head. And I not, I wouldn't look. looking at him, so it would have hit me slapping the face. And it was coming hard. This wasn't no toss.

It smacked the wall behind me. And I was like, man, he is pissed. He didn't say a word. Somebody peaked in the door and said, hey, you got five minutes to do an interview? Yep. I got longer than that, actually. I got all the time you want. He never said, he didn't say anything to me all the way home.

He was so mad. Well, I'm going to tell you what. It's rare that he was the one that was mad. Usually it was always the other people that were mad to him. I mean, I'll never forget racing at Michigan. And, you know, I don't know what year it was, but it was a time where we had raced enough to know how one another drove one another in the race and practice. And I'll never forget, we had an awesome car.

I don't know if we're on the polar up front, fast cars, final, I think Happy R. And we start to roll off, and Ray goes, now listen, you just go out there, run some laps. We've got a good car. You don't need to mess with anybody and stay away from Dale. Because he just, you know, we just, whether it was where we were at in points or whatever it was, of course, it didn't matter where your dad was at in points. Normally you roll off pit road based on where you are in points. Your dad could be 20th and points.

He was the first car on the track. So I don't know what happened this day. I just remember he rolls out there and he's about a straightaway ahead of me and my car was just badass. And I'm, and I catch him. And I'm thinking, okay, Ray told me to stay away from him, but I'm going to blow right by him because my car is so good and he was not that good. Well, I don't know, maybe he was checking up and waiting for me or whatever it was. We come off a turn two. I get inside of him and I drive in a three and I said, well, my car's really good in the three-hour drive in there pretty deep.

He'll lift. Uh-uh. He drove right in there on my door. Suck that thing around. I've never hit the wall that hard in Michigan. I mean, that was a hard. Like, luckily it was more of a backed-in hit. destroyed the car and ray was just pissed at me i told you stay away from him i'm like man dude i just i caught

him from pretty far back i thought i was going to go right by him he goes you'll never learn you're too young you know all this he was mad and i think i saw your dad like the next day at driver intros i was like jesus christ man what happened he goes i don't know just drove in the corner and i guess i guess you thought you were going to out drive me in there and my jeez i just stayed on now I don't know what happened. What you talking about? What compassion from the Intimidator. That's something.

That brings up... That makes up awesome stories. It does. That brings me to a topic I wanted to talk about. Y'all had a bit of a rivalry on the racetrack. But y'all also did business together. So you come into the sport, y'all don't have a relationship.

Y'all don't know each other from the past. What point do you or he come together and decide that y'all need to work together outside of driving race cars? Yeah. Well, you know, your dad had a very unique way of building and maintaining relationships in the sport, even with people that he had, you know, issues with on the track. I mean, I mean, he and Terry Labani are great friends, right, went hunting,

fishing together, but they had their incidences like at Bristol. And, you know, I know how, because Terry was my teammate, I know how mad he was. And then I think a week later, he's off hunting with him. I'm like, what, what's that all about? Right. So, you know, that, your dad just had this way of, all that was on the track. What's happened on the track? stays on the track. That has nothing to do with anything off the track. And where our relationship started growing is I was with Motorsports Authentics, a company that built diCats, or not diCast, but souvenirs, did the track side stuff. And then we worked with a different company that did diecass. And then your dad, you know, had Hank Jones. And at that time, it was when

the diecass market was just starting to blow up. And I think I remember one of the first times me your dad interacted was he asked me about going and signing autographs at Greenville Pickets. Yep. And they would, and he told me about it. He was like, man, big crowd, tons of people. And so I went there, crazy lines of people. I went there just blown away. And of course, they were all there for your dad.

But I had a pretty good, you know, falling at that time too. So, and I couldn't believe he just, he was there for hours, man. And upon our son and autographs. And luckily, I was only. slated to be there about three hours so I got out there but um and there was some money involved you know it was a business deal so so I did it and it was a good one and so we'd kind of talk again after that and then the souvenir stuff started to build up and I think he's he probably like he was so in tune with this stuff and and you probably you may have been you know but your dad was so

in tune with the stuff he would know who's selling what every weekend who's who's you know where his sales are yeah where the other drivers are he knew it all And I think my stuff started getting up there. And so instead of, I'm sure there's a little bit of rivalry there or competition, but really instead of that, he embraced it. And he was like, man, listen, I think we got something here that we can grow. And then at the same time, Fred Wagonalls has come along with action. And so because I'm with this company and he's with this company and he's getting ready to go to action,

I think Fred was, hey, we need to get more drivers. and somehow I was on that list. So he talked to me about it. And it was one of the best business decisions I ever made because that was a company, not only did they do a great job with the die cast and took it to hold on to the level, made a bunch of us a lot of money.

And it's a public company, so we got shares of the company. Of course, you didn't want to hold on to those too long. Luckily, I held on to them just the right amount of time. So, you know, that was a great business. deal that me and your dad did together, I was very appreciative. And I think it worked out good for him, too. So after that, you know, then I didn't mind going to him talking about contracts. He, he was the first one that came to me. And, you know, things were different back then. And we would get on

planes. We'd get on, whether it was his plane, I think at the time he had a king air before the jet and Rusty's plane. And we'd go hop and go to these places to do sign autographs or do sponsor events, maybe it was a Chevy deal or whatever it may have been. We were doing these things. And we were together. So you get on these planes and you start talking. Shrader, your dad, you know, a bunch of people, Kenny Wallace, Bobby Labani. And so you just start these conversations. And I can just remember being on these planes with different guys like Dale Jarrett and your dad and talking. And you start talking about, you know, I was young. So, and I'm not afraid to ask questions. And I just say, you know, hey, what about your contract? And, you know, how should I go ask for this? And he

told me right away, you need to get all the rights to your likeness. And if you can get your licensing deal too, he goes, you need to get that. And so a lot of things he was doing, he talked me into doing it. And I went and asked Rick Hendrick, and Rick Hendrick didn't want have anything to do license, merchandise, souvenir sales. He was not interested at that time because it wasn't making a lot of money prior to that. And I got a hold of that. That was another deal that worked out really good for me. So I had a lot of faith in your dad because he gave me some great information and then I and then I benefited from it. Did you guys ever have a very specific conversation about owning this perceived rivalry between the fan bases? Or did that just kind of happen?

I guess our assumption would always be that you guys recognized, hey, we can make money off of. Yeah, I wasn't good at that part. I just wanted to drive and race kind of like some of these guys today. You know, I recognize it later in my career. But at the time, I just wanted to go out and drive and win and perform. form on the track and then the stuff would come along with that is the way I looked at it. But, you know, Dale would do things. Honestly, he would go and do, we'd be lap five or ten of the Daytona 500. He'd take us three wide. And I was just going, what the hell?

But he had this ability to know he's got all these fans up there. They're just going to love this. They're going to eat this up. And they did. And he also knew his car and his abilities and his teeth. team was good enough that even if that actually cost him some positions, it was worthwhile he would get it back. And he normally did, especially Daytona and Talladega. So he just did stuff like that. He had this ability to read what the fans were kind of asking for. Did he ever

invite you hunting? We talked a little bit. He knew right away. You ain't sued me anything. That was not Not my thing. Even though I grew up, my stepdad was, you know, still to this day a big hunter, and we've been hunting a few times since. But it just was not. My visions of hunting when I was a kid was early morning and really damn cold and wet. It's true. I was, show me the late afternoon or late night hunting. I'm going to go home with him.

That's kind of, yeah. But what he did do was talking me into buying a boat because, you know, he started talking about his love for boat being on the water and and he started talking to me about man you know i like it because we got a tough schedule we work our butts off and this is my way to escape you know unfortunately he passed before i got my boat but uh i i thanked him on one hand because it's some of the greatest moments but what it was costing me is the part he left out and i was cussing him at the same time and i would have loved to have had that conversation with him to tell him about my boating experience and compare notes.

That's cool. Hey, I know Dillner, we need to get to a pristine auction ad. Let's do that because we've got some scenarios. I'm dying to ask you some significant events that happened in Dells' career that you were either directly or indirectly part of. And we've been talking about them on this podcast all year. I'd love to hear your vantage point on some of these. So let's do a pristine auction ad and we'll be right back.

Mike, it's a holiday season. Yes, yes it is. And that's, you know what that means, right? Buying gifts. You know it. I mean, have you? Buying gifts. So shopping for your friends, it's not always easy to do.

No. Trying to figure out what your friends need, what you want to, trying to come up with ideas. I'm still trying to figure out what the hell to get you. Yeah, right? Same here. Yeah. So a really cool way to do that is to go to pristineauction.com. Oh, yeah, we can do that.

So imagine this. Imagine going to pristineauction.com. It's online auction store, sports memorabilia. you can bid on and win authentic sports memorabilia from the comfort of your home. So basically, they're providing the gift ideas for you. And if I haven't thought about that. If I'm shopping for you, I don't want to be discomfeworthy. What do you think about it?

I know you're an Alabama fan. I just go on there and find some Alabama stuff. I'll be happy. I've been looking at it all wrong. I've been looking at stuff for myself, man. You need to start looking at 10. Eight by 10. I know you love eight by 10.

So, and the great thing about it is so affordable. because all the bids start at one buck. They get $1 where they're going to start. And I'm not going to tell you how cheap I am. No, no. How about how I'm going to tell you how I'm willing to go either. But you don't have to wait around. It's daily auctions.

They start at a buck. They end quickly. Come in, bid on what you want. You don't have to wait around for days for this thing to finish. Aside from the daily auctions, they also have 10-minute auctions if you're in a real hurry. Or if you just don't want to put a lot of effort into buying your friend, Mike, a gift. You take 10 minutes. Boom.

It's over. You got your item. It pops up, 10 minutes, rapid fire, best part. It's so damn affordable. You have to ask yourself, is this person worth more than 10 minutes of my life? I don't think so. I don't even have to tell you whether it was a 10-minute auction or a daily auction. Right.

Just, you know, be happy with the gift. All right. They guarantee that the items are authentic and everything you purchase comes fully authentic. Oh, man, I can't get through it. I had it. I thought I improved my phonetics. Authenticated. comes fully authenticated by only the most trusted sources.

I've signed for Pristine. I trust them and you should too. I've seen a lot of the drivers, a lot of sports figures as well signing for them. If it's on Pristine, it's autograph, it's the real deal. Let me tell you something, if you get me a Christmas gift and it's not authenticated, I'm giving it back.

Well, if it's coming from me, Mike, I got it at Pristine, you know it's the real deal. Some of these deals are pretty insane. So when we looked before the show, there was an 8 by 10, which, you know, Mike loves them. It was 8 by 10 of Richard Petty from his last race, Atlanta, 1992. Man, if it could fit in the shoebox, you'd be all over that one.

Car was on fire, but Richard Petty signed it. I even saw an old chance to Mark Martin number eight. Or Martin Truex. I mean, sorry, Martin Drive for you at Chance 2? Old Chance 2 Martin Tricks Jr. The Richie Evans paint scheme was on there. It's some cool stuff to bid on there. Check it out, pristineauction.com.

You'll be hooked. It's free to register, free to bid, and you only pay for the items you win. So that's pristine auction. Spell, P-R-I-S-T-I-N-E-Oction.com. And when you register, be sure to select Dale Jr. Download podcast from the drop-down menu in the How Did You Hear About a section. Go to the How Did You Hear About a section. Click the drop-down menu, select Dale Jr. download podcast.

That lets them know that we. We sent you. And so we just pretty much solved. Everybody's Christmas shopping conundrums or issues. And you know what? That Richard Petty photo, it's Jeff Gordon's first race. Yeah, of course. But what's your favorite part of Richard Petty?

Nobody liked seeing Richard Petty drop out and a ball of flames there. But the Incar was a highlight will always remember. Yeah, yeah. Give me the fire extinguisher. With another word in it. Yeah. All right, Jeff. So I'm going to throw out some of these scenarios.

I hope I can remember. Oh, are you kidding? You remember who out qualified John? Well, we got John Edwards in the room. He might be able to refresh my memory. You'll remember these. Okay. I'll go in an order here.

2004, Aaron's 499 Talladega. Oh, now I remember that one. Yeah. I remember that one. The fans showed their appreciation in ways that only they could at Talladega. Yeah. What do you remember about that race? Well, I don't remember a whole heck of a lot about the race itself.

I do remember the finish. And, you know, that was one of those days where I was so glad we didn't have to race back to the line that they froze the field. Because he was good that day. Oh, he was good. Yeah. He was really good. I mean, I remember being pretty good, but I don't know if we were as good as you were. But I don't remember what led to, you know, that shift.

I mean, we're side by side and, you know, you're shifting here and I'm shifting here. and obviously you were passing me or going to at least get your nose ahead of me when that caution came out on the last lap. And I was sitting there going, I think I was ahead, I think I was ahead. And when they told me I was ahead, I was like, yes.

And then all of a sudden I realized, oh, there's going to be a lot of pissed off people in the grandstands. Because, I mean, listen, you always had an incredible following. But I don't know. I look back at those days and where the sport was and the enthusiasm and the trendiness of NASCAR and how it was just blowing up and you were such a huge part of that

and I played my role in it as well but to have me and you kind of going head to head like that and for it to come down to a controversial finish it was one of those times where I was like I don't know if I want to win this race or not because I also want to get out of here live and so after that you know how

Talladega when you win the race back then you had to go up to the Unicale suite which was not I mean the Grand Sands are The suites are right here, and you've got to walk upstairs right in the middle. Oh, they were going crazy on my ass. I mean, I honestly, we had to have a lot of security. So you had to walk up through the fans to get?

Yes. Lower, yes. And they've already been throwing beer at your car. No kidding. And so, yeah, security, yeah, that's an understatement, I guess. But when you were in the car and they're throwing beer at you, what are your thoughts? This is the greatest day in my life? I mean, you have to understand.

And I came through, so in 1995, people were cheering me at the beginning of the year and booing me by the end of the year. Because at the beginning of the year, I was just starting to win more races. And it was, okay, who's this new guy? He's on the circuit. And, man, he's off to a good start. And then it was me and your dad, right? We're going for some of those wins. And we were both winning a lot of races, but we were winning more.

And then we were heading the points. And so once we were heading the points, it was. It was, uh-uh. They didn't, they didn't, they may have cheered for me the year before, earlier that year. They weren't cheering for me then. So I went through a lot of trying to figure out why fans booed me or, you know, cheered against me or whatever. And I, and it was, at first I didn't get it and understand, but then I was like, okay, their guy is Dale Earnhardt, you know, and I'm the opposite of that in competition at the same time. So I got it.

I started getting it. So leading into this moment at Talladega, I was like, there's no way I'm going to win this battle with the fans because they want you to win. But I was still damn happy that I won the race. So when they started throwing all this stuff at me, that was almost, I started realizing the booze were like recognition of what I accomplished. So when they started throwing shit, I was like, yes, this is awesome.

And not that I encourage people to throw things out on the track, But that is the essence of NASCAR in those days. And you wish you had moments like that today that they cared that much for what was happening. You know, I've got other events. But let me just ask you a question since we're talking about Talladega. Am I wrong in saying that you guys didn't necessarily always look for each other to draft with? Or was that just me? So the way I look at it is his philosophy was different than my philosophy.

It wasn't that I didn't want to draft with him. It was, I just think that when he wanted to go, he was a momentum guy, right? It was, man, I got the momentum, I got the run. I'm going to just take it wherever it takes me is the way I always looked at it. And if I check up, whether it's for a teammate or for, you know, this guy, even though I might not want to hang him out, it's just I feel like this is going to take me. And me, I was probably a little bit more, no, I think right now I want to stay in this line. I don't want to, you know, do that. And so I think it started building the appearance of we didn't really want to work together.

I think what really was we were just kind of selfish, both selfish in what we want and we both accomplished enough success to know that, well, this has worked for me in the past and this has worked for you in the past. Why should I change it? That's fair. All right. Good. 2007, Dale Jr. announces he's leaving DEI.

This is a two-part question. He's leaving DEI. I'm curious what your thoughts were. immediately then, and then also a month later when he said he's coming to Hendrick. Well, first I was like, wow. I mean, that was a big deal. I remember that being a very big storyline in the sport. And so I was, I mean, of course, on one hand, and I don't want to get too much into some other stuff, but I wasn't surprised.

I mean, I felt like, you know, what he was bringing to the table at DEI, I don't know if everything else was aligning to give him the best opportunity to. to showcase what he was capable of doing. And there were some other great opportunities out there, Hendrick being one of them. So when I heard that, and I don't remember all the openings, you know, driver lineup, what we had going on at that time. I think Kyle Bush was sort of involved with that, which he, you know, still hates me, you, Rick, and a bunch of other people for some of those things, which really had. Which really had nothing, nothing to, it had nothing to do with you.

It had everything to do with him. I mean, at that time, he just wasn't, he's not what he is today. I mean, he was a great driver, but man, he just had a lot of other things that he needed to learn and mature. He said as much right here on this couch, even, we had a bit of an intervention on that. So, so I was excited because, you know, I'm part of the business side of Hendry. So I saw a great opportunity that was going to help us grow our organization because, I mean, the sponsors literally were standing in line. By the way, this is never, I used. probably talked about this on the show. I don't know. Never in the history of the sport has it ever been like that. And I don't think it ever will be. And I got to just taste enough of it being partners with Rick and in HMS to where literally sponsors are lining up at the door. What's how much? Sure. We'll pay. Oh, oh, that's not enough. Okay. Yeah, what do we need? I mean, they, they were in this bidding war against one another. It's unreal. And, and, and, you know, to your credit, that was, that was bad. That was bad.

ass, man. Rick never told us that. Oh, yeah. I think you did okay. I think you did okay. So, so, you know, I was all four. I was all four. I did, the only apprehension I had is that I was a little, not that we had a big rivalry, but because of your dad and me, the way people were perceiving that, like, Dale Earnhardt Jr. can't be teammates over at Hendrick with Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson. you know, I don't know how you describe the differences, but it was just too much ying and yang from the perception. I knew you, and I was cool with it on all those levels. It was just I wasn't sure what the fans were going to think.

Is it true that you called him and told him, don't be messing with Rick Hendrick? You know, like don't be playing him. I always heard that before. Not from Dale, but I'd heard that, like, as he was trying to decide, and I think Rick was getting excited. I think we heard it from Rick, actually. That Mr. H and Marshall, they were getting excited at the prospect.

They thought really could get Dale to come over. I don't remember a whole lot about that. I just remember you got pitched hard by Joe, right, and wrote you the big check that you didn't cash. Thank you. I appreciate you. That's cool. But I don't remember a whole lot other than that Rick wanted it to happen really, really

bad. The last thing I wanted to ask you about was 2016, and you are now getting to enjoy the fruits of being a retired broadcaster. You had your first year of your broadcasting. Now you get to enjoy the second half of the season to go off wherever you are. And then he suffers the concussion. And I just love to hear what your immediate thoughts were when Mr. H, I'm assuming, made a call to you, asking you to go back into the call. Yeah, I mean, I've talked about a little bit before. But so, So, yeah, I was super excited about the summer of 2016 because, so, you know, I met my wife in New York. She likes to travel and go places, and she introduced me to a lot of things that I had never experienced before. And I love that.

I love going, whether it be, you know, to Long Island, to the Hamptons or south of France. She's from Belgium and go to Belgium. And so we had this trip plan to go to the South France. And we were having a great time, awesome time. And the ironic thing is we were at this restaurant, and it was, man, we were having a fun time, drinking some rosé and all that stuff. And having lunch with some friends from America that know a little bit about racing, but not a lot. And they're saying, oh, man, how is it? How is it?

You're not in the car anymore. I'm like, yeah. And they said, but, you know, are you still involved with the team? Yes, I'm, you know, a partner and with Rick. And they said, well, what if one of the drivers, you know, had an issue and couldn't drive? Would you still get back in the car? I'm not joking. This happened.

And I said, well, I really don't want to. I'm good for a while. I don't have the itch right now. I'm enjoying life. Obviously, I'm here. I mean, I can't describe the setting because it was fun and exciting. And a lot of cool things were happening. It was a big party.

And I was not thinking about racing at all. And I left there, went back to the hotel, and my phone rang. And it was Rick Hendry. And it was that day. No. Yeah, it was that afternoon. And he said, And I knew when Rick calls, he knows I'm on vacation, it can't be good.

It's never, never, you know, hey, how are you? I hope you're having fun. Because he's usually getting on my ass for having fun, not calling me to check on me. He said, well, what do you think about driving for, we need you for, to fill in at Indianapolis this weekend? I say, ha. You know, I just laughed. I thought he totally, because he, he's a prankster. especially towards me, he gives me a hard time.

He does. He busts on my ass all the time. But that's his love. And so I love it because he does it. And so the crazy thing is because we just had this conversation at lunch. And Ingrid's saying right in front of me, she's like, what is he calling for? And about a month before that, she made a comment, kind of miss going to the racetrack and seeing you compete. Yeah.

And she goes, I do miss that a little bit. So I didn't even ask her. he when he finally was like no no I'm serious I'm with Marshall Dale you know his his head injury is not going to allow him to come into the you know and I asked I think I was quizzed him a little bit what all's going on there and then he said no I'm serious we really would like you to drive the car and I didn't even hesitate after that it's the brickyard it's Rick it's you and I'm like yeah man I'm there and so we left it a day or two early from France, sobered up a bit, and then got back and it was, it was on, man.

I mean, it was driving simulator, getting with Greg and getting fitted. I mean, I never prepared for one single race as hard as I did that race, because I didn't want to look like an idiot. I know. That's kind of how he felt when he made that one race back at Richmond. I think he had more anxiety about this Xfinity race in Richmond this year than anything I could have ever remember, you know, before a race with him. And that's just because I think you guys have this instinctual thing that, man, I'm going to go back out here.

And I haven't done it. I might have a little rust. Yeah. People ask me all the time, what drives you? Is it winning or not wanting to lose? And I tell people all the time, I think not wanting to lose drives me harder than just the win factor. When I do things, I want to do it right.

I want to know that I put everything into it when I get out of it. If I failed, it wasn't from a lack of effort. I think he's got to go pick up his kids. I do, man. Does something mean you can appreciate now these days? You know, Dale Jr. being the dad and all. Oh, I can't wait until you have two, man. Listen, I want you to have two.

I want you to have one in fifth grade, one in second grade. I want you to see the interaction of that. And then going to carpool. Oh, yeah, buddy. I know there's, I've been to carpool with my buddies before. There's some tricks you can pull. Oh, my gosh. Listen.

You ain't going to see me sitting in back in the line. I'm going to pull down around the corner and they're going to walk over to the car. Oh, yeah, no. The funny thing is I'm not the rule breaker like my wife is. My wife's a rule breaker. She's always getting into it with somebody because, you know, they told her not to go here.

She's pulling up there. So I'm usually the one that tries to be there in events. But also, I don't know if you know this traffic on 77 going back to Charlott. It's crazy. It's insane. It's insane. I want to have what time is it? No, we're good.

We don't have to go yet. Inger's not going to be calling us ladies. So her girlfriend, who's been trying to have a baby for a very long time, her baby, she just went into labor. My wife just left for New York. So that's why I'm on duty right now. Well, let's knock this out. Before you go, we'll at least kickstart our Ask Junior Live segment. It's presented by Nationwide.

We'll do this lab on YouTube. Fans are going to write in. They've been anticipating this. We've been promoting this on social media so they know you're here. Cool. It's time for us. Junior. I got a question.

Presented by Nationwide. We have our guest, Jeff Gordon here. Mike Davis co-host. Jeff Gordon is here. Man, I tell you what. Happy to be here. This is awesome. Jeff's just got a few minutes before he's got to split out.

He's got to go get in the carpool line. Things we always knew we would say about Jeff Gordon. He will be there soon. He will be saying the same thing. So he's going to be able to stick around for a few minutes. And let's get right to it. Matthew, you got a question lined up already? Yeah, we got some stuff lined up already.

Somebody actually chiving in using asked you in your long-term business relationships. They wanted to ask a question about your trips to Formula One races and your relationship with Team Principal Toto Wolfe with Mercedes and what the prospects are of you maybe having a relationship with them. Yeah, so what drove all that is, well, these folks right here, Exalta. So Exalta, being a global codings company, they paint not only just the F1 Mercedes car, but for Mercedes, you know, the street cars.

And so they have a relationship with them where they have a sponsorship where they do about five F1 races a year. And obviously I miss Monaco, unfortunately, because we're racing that weekend, but I get to do two or three. So I've done Singapore with them and Mexico City a couple of times, just did Abu Dhabi. And it's cool. You know, there's so much respect for our sport and those competitors in our sport when you go to Formula One. Because even though they're at a very high level technically, the people are racers. And so it's cool. I like that.

Now, Toto, you know, I look up to him because I admire him. He is, you know, there's a few people like Toto that admire like a Rick Hendrick. But Toto is, he's a racer. He can drive himself. He's, I don't know if he's an engineer by trait, but he understands all the engineering. And he's a really smart business guy from knowing how to take a company. public and things I got. So I love spending time with him and hearing and watching him work and how he runs the team. And of course, I want to learn because one day, you know, I want to be more involved

with Hendrick Motorsports on that side of it. I'm enjoying TV. I'm enjoying traveling, all those things, but I love being partners with Rick Hendrick at Hendrick Motorsports. Actually, speaking of ownership, Eric Unger wanted to know your guy's relationship, of course, or as drivers now. But do you, you know, in the past. Do you have any advice for him as a car owner? Because, I mean, he's a car owner winning championships here in the Xfinity series. You know, you've been involved for so long in the ownership of car. Yeah. Well, when I look at racing and ownership, I go, and I look around here, I go, damn. Are you sure? I mean, it's such a tough business. And the job that you and Kelly have done and your group here is pretty phenomenal. You know, I would not be an owner.

if it weren't for Rick Hendrick. I mean, and being there for such a long time and the contract that I signed that, you know, helped me be an equity owner. I want to be partners with Rick, you know, in the business. I certainly would never want to go out and do this on my own or nor would I even be capable of. But, you know, and I know you get asked a lot about taking this to the cup level, and I'm pretty sure I know the answer that you don't have any desire. No, not really.

I think that, and we're partners, too. I mean, I partners with my sister, partners with Rick and this whole thing. And that certainly takes a lot of the stress out of it and a lot of the pressure off of it, really having to share that responsibility with somebody that you believe in and it knows what's all. Now, I do want to say real quick on that, because I'm always so interested in what's happening from the business aspect. And I've got to say, Jim France and the France family and the involvement that they have right now, Steve Phelps, you know, I'm seeing some momentum. of some things, what's happening with the RTA.

There's just some cool things that are happening with, and it all got started, I think, talking about Comcast, right, coming in and buying NASCAR, whether that was ever reality or what was going to happen. But what it's generated is some concerted efforts where people are coming together to try to take the sport to the next level from a business viability standpoint. And that's what I'm excited about. If it could do that, you would see me be far more involved. But right now, if you look at the business model on paper, you're like, no, no, it doesn't make sense.

We're lucky to have racing more as a hobby and do it at the level that we do it because of our partners. Do you know that that's actually one of my observations when we first started with NBC was that how NBC and Fox are actually working together to promote the sport? Yeah. There wasn't a competition or sense of that. That was the first thing. And the example was they sent him to the Super Bowl to go promote the Daytona 500, which was the Fox race. Well, I can tell you from the Fox side of things. And I know Sam Flood and some of the folks in BC.

But I can tell you that it's a constant circle where we hope that you guys have a great end of the season and that we can try to figure out how to promote over the offseason to keep the momentum going. And how the Daytona 500 kicks off with the ratings and the viewership and attendance. that trickles down through the rest of the season. And if we have a good first half of the season, it rolls in a part of the season. We're each other's biggest fan. Yeah, definitely. This is a question I really wanted to ask, and I'm so glad somebody chatted it on

and asked you to ask it to ask it. Matthew Jackson wants to know about this speeding ticket that you maybe enlisted Dale to help you out on getting out of. What? Yeah, remember when I kind of. So when Dale first signed on with Hendry, Motor Sports and it was official or maybe it's the day before it was official. I don't know, but Rick told me.

And I don't know if he gave me your number. I already had your number, whatever it was, but I was driving to dinner. And I said, I'm going to call him. And I didn't have the hands-free set up in the car, so I just call them. So I'm driving along on the phone. We're talking. I'm congratulating you and welcoming you to the team. And it was cool, you know, you picked up and we're having this conversation.

And all of a sudden, I got blue lights in my. you know, rear window, I'm like, uh-oh, I'm getting pulled over. So I wasn't sure if I should stay on the phone with Dale or not, but I said, no, no, stay on here. I may need you. And luckily I did because first the guy says to me, you know, you're not supposed to be on the cell phone. And then second, he's like, and you're speeding. And I just said, and I never do this, but I said, this is the moment.

I got to pull this off. I said, I know, and I'm sorry. You don't happen to be a Dale Earnhardt Jr. are you? And he's like, yeah, why, but what does that have to do anything? I said, well, I got him on the phone. I was congratulating him on something. He goes, what? And I just handed the phone off and you spoke to him for two seconds. So that's how the news broke. And got me out. And got me out of it. I mean, I would have at least, you know, made him take me for a steak dinner or something after doing that. Well, that was this, I was just trying to make a great impression on my new team. He made the greatest impression on me. This guy is the senior authority. already over there. And so that was that worked out for me. It was so funny and random. I don't know if you thought I was screwing with you at the time or what, but it was so crazy random. It was pretty random for sure. All right, going right into that, I mean, being teammates with him for a while, J.D. Mollis wants

to know the best. We all have Dale Jr. stories that we like, you know, whether they're on track or off track. What's your favorite Dale Jr. story from your interactions with it? Well, my best story is when we weren't teammates. You know, I, I remember you were living across the street from what did you call, you know, DEI, right? He was living over there. And I guess you were, you would have been in Bush Grand National at that time. And he had a heck of a party. And then, and then, so I remember that party.

And then you come to it? Oh, yeah, came to it. Oh, the New Year's Eve party. It may have been a New Year's Eve party. In the shop? The one in the shop. No, I didn't, oh, you know what it was? I think you guys went to the shop and then after you came to the house,

your, you know, your place that you had there. And so, I don't know, somehow I ended up there. And I was like, man, this guy knows how to get it after. And then I came to Whiskey River one night, and that was another big time. That was a long time ago. That was a big big, that was what? You mean the Whiskey River western town? The Western town.

No, the West. I've been to Whiskey River. Not too. I mean, I called that Whiskey River. It's what it's called, yeah. And I went there and had a few. beverages, quite a few. And I remember, I'm like, man, I need to go to the bathroom. Where's the bathroom at? Oh, yes, right over there by the creek. There's that out. There's that outhouse. I walked in and

I opened up the outhouse. Luckily, I didn't have more momentum. I would have fell out the other side because it's just open on the back side. I'll never forget that. You take a leak into the creek. One more, and I think this says a lot about Dale, you know, and how much you care about sports. When we had some meetings up there at your place with Mike Helton and Jeff Burton and some folks in the sport, and we had some conversations about, you know, things that were going on, what we could do better, what they could do better. And you kind of, you made that happen. Well, that was before the driver's counsel. Helton grabbed a handful of drivers that he wanted to just have conversation with,

and we would have these conversations at certain locations, and one of them happened to be at the western town one time. And so I was excited because Jeff Gordon and all these guys were going to come to the western town, and I said, Amy, I'm going down to western town. I'm probably going to be an hour. It's pretty important, you know, Helton, Gordon, all these guys, I'll be back. And I think we was down there for like six hours. We were there a long time.

After the first hour, and we really, we got into the meat of the content we want to talk about. I mean, this is us talking about, man, should we have double-file restarts? Oh, wow. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, should we quit racing back to the flag? You know, we're talking about all kinds of.

Yeah. And we're making these decisions, not, you know, maybe not making them officially on paper, but we're really discussing them with Helton about some things we could do to some things. NASCAR had a bunch of great ideas they wanted to run through us. These are all the decisions that just. him and his dad used to, or just his dad used to have with Bill French, Jr., that just happened, made the path of the sport. Now it took about eight of us to make this happen.

After about an hour, we started drinking beer out of the beer cooler, and then we ended up sticking around. I think I started right away. Amy was so, it ended up being like five, six hours. She was so mad when I came back up there, because I didn't text her like, hey, man, still down here, everything's good. I think I kind of had a similar experience. Because I think I told my wife, yeah, I'm just going to go up to juniors for a couple hours.

That meeting great for the future NASCAR. Terrible for relationships. Serble for the liver. All right. Pocono Raceway, they chimed in a few weeks ago and they just said hi. Finally, they came in and have a question. I like it. They wanted to know, okay, mono e mono.

Jeff Gordon versus Dale Earnhardt Jr., Pocono, who would win? I think Jeff would beat me until the repeat. Oh. I like the rep— I was good at the repave after the repave. Listen, I was terrible at most repaves. I did like the old polka no. I like that place and had a lot of confidence in it.

And I don't know, the last couple— Listen, it makes me thinking, you know, when I drove your car, Pocono, and I had that seatbelt, damn issue. But Greg set up a nice car. You guys had a nice, you know, set up there, and I enjoyed it. But I guess, okay, I'll take me early, you late. That's a good question. Listen, I've got to be honest with you. I'm a little concerned that we're going to get him back in trouble with his wife.

If he doesn't pick up his kids. All right. That would be a problem. I mean, seriously. We'll stick around. We're going to finish up Ask Junior Live here on YouTube. We're going to let Jeff take off. Jeff, thanks for it.

Hey, man. Enjoy it. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. And by the way, everybody watching, we had a lot of things that you probably are asking right now on the YouTube. We addressed them already. and so you'll just need to listen to the podcast because it's a good conversation we've had with Jeff.

Thank you, Jeff. All right, buddy. Fun. Good stuff there. We'll fire off some more questions. Yeah, we'll take a couple of questions. And keep asking Jeff questions. We'll answer them.

As Jeff Gordon. Go ahead. I'm happy to. Well, heck, now that Jeff's out of here, Grothouse, who seems to be our favorite food guy, wants to know Christmas and holiday season coming, Honey Bake Ham on the menu? I don't know.

I don't know. We've done pretty good. this holiday season with not overindulging at the uh at the table holy moly it's so hard i did good at thanksgiving i'm christmas i'm going full full send mode man i'm i'm i'm gonna have i'm gonna have some money bank ma'am whatever's there yeah i mean i'm good i'm good with it chase mithini uh we're we were just talking to jeff gordon obviously he started his career in sprint cars have you ever even thought about getting in a sprint car ever i mean i'm curious you're curious is as a driver would all cars drive like, but I don't think I'm ever going to do it.

If I ever drive anything outside of running these Xfinity races each year for junior motorsports, I might, would consider doing some sports car racing on kind of a low stress, low expense scale, not like, you know, not going high in full sin, just going to do some, you know, maybe some of the vintage stuff or, I don't know, just some club racing. That stuff kind of interests me going out and running. that 24-hour lemons race. Something like that. Bobby did that.

He just did it. I know Biffel's done it. Boris said a couple guys, you just build a car and go with your friends and just race. They don't even have to be real drivers. Mike, you can run a couple laps. Biffle's got that Triple B ranch

dirt race, man, I've been up there a few times for that thing and holy. Kurt Busch was running one year with a Christmas tree ratchet strap to the top of his car. You can't have fun doing that. Forget about it. It's no sense to do that. I mean, why not?

Race with a Christmas tree on a car. Dale, I'll ever get the go-karts out of the snow? A dirty moh, acre? Oh, in the snow. Yeah, now, the go-kart thing is long gone. We used to have, so what this is about, used to have 18 go-carts. Used to have two, three tracks,

a road course paved, an oval paved, and a dirt track. and I grasped over the dirt track, sold all the go-carts, got out of the go-car business. The last time I think we ran those, I think Steve LaTart was my crew chief, and we just had gotten so wild. I was thinking, man, we're either going to get hurt, or I'm just going to have to keep rebuilding these go-carts because we had to fix about six of them after we crashed them all so bad.

And so it was getting pretty expensive and dangerous. And we ran go-carts out at my house for probably 10 years, 12 years had a lot of fun and decided to give it up but i still have the paved road course and the paved oval and guys will bring their kids out to that paved oval and let them run their go-karts so rodney childers has brought his kids out there brettes brought his kids out there tart la tart jason berned our crew chief here with jason a guy with jason britt brought his son out there when he was three to run his little go-cart just all day long just running laps so many kids have been out there to sort of get their first laps under their belt before they take them anywhere else or to a race or anything like that.

It's just a little oval. It's perfect for like little champ cars or something like that. And so that's a lot of fun to be able to offer that up to my friends. Junior 3815 says, hey, Dale, do you have an opinion on the ongoing debate and short track racing on motor options for the late model stock cars? I mean, you're a late model stock car guy. What's the best option you think for the health of the sport? Yeah, the cheapest option. I mean, whatever is the cheapest. Just go to, nice cheap option that brings down the cost of the business, cost to racing. When I race late models in 1994, 1995, 96, and 97, I needed roughly around $50,000 to $60,000 to run a full year.

That's buying tires or a set and a half tires every week because you've got to have, you know, every once in a while you've got to buy another set for practicing, paying for the motor, which is 10 to 15 grand, building the car and all that. So now today to run the same outfit, even less races actually. Today we don't even run that many races. We run maybe 20 races a year. To run 20 races in late model stocks to buy the same car, engine, tires, and all that. We're not buying. We're not doing anything different than we did back in the 90s.

It's $150,000, $200,000 to do that overseas. It's ridiculous. So, you know, anything that brings that cost down to make this more affordable, just for normal people. I mean, whatever we can do to make that happen. It's good for me. I'm the owner. I don't want to spend all this kind of money, but I love racing.

I want to be in the, I want to send cars to the racetrack. I love being an owner, but I don't want to spend this kind of money. And I don't want to have to try to find this kind of money. I remember 10 years ago, I had four late model teams. Four late model teams going to the racetrack every weekend. Wow, I forgot. That's crazy. We did.

Yeah. And there's no, I mean, that would take half a million dollars. to do today. It's just, it's crazy. I'd love to race more. You know, when I say race more, send more cars to the racetrack. It just has become harder to do

as the costs went up. I mean, the tires, when I was driving in 90, mid-90s, or $100 a piece, plus $20 to mount if you, if you didn't want to mount yourself. So $400 was a tire bill.

I mean, it's ridiculous now. I don't know what tire, what is the tire now? I think tires, for late models, $200 a piece? Yeah. Roughly about that, yes. Wow.

And it's the same thing. It's the same, who's your 45 that I was running when I was in the mid-90s. It's the same tire. It's more expensive for some reason. Brendan Carroll, hey Dale, he says, I screamed when I saw that you're going to be driving the pace truck for the Daytona 500. I'm so excited to see you at New Hampshire next year as well. New Hampshire, all right.

Well, I'll see you there. I am excited about driving the pace truck and the Daytona 500. I mean, this is one of the cool things that I didn't even think about when I retired is getting the opportunity and getting the request. to do these type of things, to be the Grand Marshal at Daytona 500, to drive the Pace truck at the Daytona 500, to drive the Pace car at the brickyard. These are just cool perks, I guess, that have kind of come along with having 20 years in a sport and putting in everything you put in.

I just bought the new Silverado, and so I'm excited about it. I'm excited to be a new truck owner. We're going to take that truck, that Silverado, and that's what's going to paste the field. So usually it's a paste car. It's going to be a paste truck. And that's a great way for us to showcase what a great truck it is. Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're taking that truck?

Not my truck. Okay. I mean, I will. Yeah. I really don't want to because they strap the lights to it and all that. I don't want to do that to my truck. But it will be a, it will be a Silverado. A 2019 silverado for sure.

So if you're into Silveradoes, they got a real nice. All right, Lala, chiming in here and wants to know what was Island. reaction to being in the snow. You know, she didn't really like it. Ila loves warm weather, warm temperatures. During the warmer temperatures earlier this season, earlier this year, if she's upset or crying and there seems to be nothing to fix it, if you just walked outside, she quit it immediately.

Walk back inside, back to being upset. She just loves warm air, warm temperatures, and so she does not like being outside in the cold or sitting in the snow or anything like that. When her room temperature gets like 68 or 69 degrees, she's uncomfortable. She'll even wake up out of her sleep. She likes to be around 74 degrees in her room, which is warm, uncomfortable. I don't like that. I like it cold. Babies love that. I can't sleep if it's over. I got to be chilly. Yeah, I got to be cold. I want to bundle up in there and cuddle, you know what I mean. So, but she don't. She likes to be hot. That's why we keep it hot in the studio, by the way, so you don't

cuddle with Mike. You ain't got to work about that. It's working. It's working. Mike's grateful. All right. I want to thank everybody for joining us and ask you in your live on YouTube. It was awesome to have everybody and appreciate it. Yeah. Presented by Nationwide, of course. That's who brings us all to us. Coming to the end of the show, Mike, let's talk about some of the things that's been going on here lately.

We had, so we haven't had any shows in how long. A few weeks. A couple weeks. We had Thanksgiving. Yeah. Yeah. We've had a show since Thanksgiving. We have?

Have we? I don't know. No. No. No. So, everybody have a good Thanksgiving? Yeah, man. I didn't have any KFC or gravy like that now.

Did y'all see that KFC sent you these like big giant onesies? Yeah. What's with you in onesies this year? I don't know. I guess that those are just really normal. People just see you, they think the onesie. Do I know? Everyone in this room could probably have a closet full of onesies.

And I just don't, I'm just, I'm just, I'm just, I'm out of the loop. I'm not on the onesie train yet. If you get a onesie. It swept the nation, but I'm, I'm going to be. You're one of the last ones to know. If you get a onesie auction going on on pristine auction, I'm all over that for you. Merry Christmas. Thank you.

Yeah. But that's, the Thanksgiving went well. Good. It's giving them went well. Very uneventful for me. I thought we had a show. But that's the way Thanksgiving's need to be. They need to be uneventful.

And we got Christmas coming up. Everybody getting their shopping done. I've been doing my shopping. I feel good about it because I used to not shop at all for nobody, ever. I just tell Kelly, whatever you're buying for mom, put my name on the card. Man, that was easy. Oh, yeah. I was super, super duper lazy.

But now I got in the habit when I started dating Amy is I wrote down a list of people that I want to buy for. And I keep it in my phone. And every year I do a little Christmas shopping. Plus, doing my own, you know, doing my shopping for my wife and my daughter. God, that's so hard to the wife. Well, I'll tell you what me and Amy do. It's not hard for us. We do something that's pretty cool that makes it easy for both of us,

is we started a photo stream in our phones that we both can see and share. and edit. And if I like something or I want something, I'll put it in the stream. I'll take a picture, screenshot of it, whatever. I'll go to the website. I'll even also tell the information. I want, you know, this is the size or this is the parameters I'm looking for.

That's good. She does the same. So, you know, if something pops up, just the other day. A couple things popped up. She just put on there, found, likes. I mean, boom, I buy it. So it comes to me. I wrap it, put it under the tree.

And so when we get ready, when we open up, gifts on Christmas. Yeah, there's no surprise. We know what we're getting. We have an idea. But we also are getting what we want. Yeah. Now, what I'll do to try to put a little twist on it is when she sends me somewhere in

particular, I'll do a little extra shopping in that area. Oh. I may see something that I go, this is something like she might wear. Accessorized? But it's my favorite colors. Yeah. Because she doesn't know it's coming. Yeah.

That's a great idea. So she's not, I'm not just kind of, you know, copying and pasting here. No, no, I got you. So that's clever. That's what we do. And it's been fun shopping for Isla, just talking to Amy about it. You know, hey, what are we going to get her, you know, having conversations with your wife about that? That's been fun.

So my shopping's going well. How about you guys? No, I haven't started. Yeah. You haven't started? Erica's been buying stuff like that on Amazon like it's going crazy out of style. But I haven't done my shopping on her, so I'm in trouble. You know what?

Shopping's done in our house, but you know what I found out something? Which reminds me, man. Did you invest in Amazon, remember 10 years ago and I told you? That was a good plan. I mean, how freaking ridiculous is that? Like, five years ago, I wasn't buying crap on Amazon. And now I got a box showing up every other freaking day. I mean, think about this.

You put out a book, and 80% of the sales of that book is on Amazon. I ordered a copy from Amazon. Insane what Amazon has become. That's actually, that's going to be a Christmas present. Guess what? I found out a Christmas gift I'm getting early. And I wanted to get this for my girls. And so it's a gift for me, but it's really for my girls.

And it's that Oculus. Are you going to get the Oculus? Already got it. Oh, man. Have he tested it out? No, no. Just in his bus. But that being said, that's going to be a home run.

My girls don't know anything about that kind of thing. And I think they're going to go. This is the thing. And you guys probably know what I'm talking about. When your family gets together, you know, the cousins and the aunts. and the uncles and stuff, and you do Christmas and you do the whole thing, there's always the person that's got the cool gift.

There's always the cousin that had that one gift. Like somebody had the Nintendo or somebody had the whatever, you know, whatever it was. I think the Oculus is going to be the cool gift. I want to share a little bit of information with you about that too that you need to be aware of, such as your girls. On the app, it's either there now or it's coming in a future update shortly where you will be able to sit with your iPad next to them or your phone. and see what they're doing.

Wow. So as a parent, that's pretty critical. That is. To be able to know where they're going, what they're looking at, what they're doing. So you can watch. And it's also fun for people in the room who aren't wearing the headset. Because when I put it on, my wife basically says, you might as well not be here. Because I'm not.

Yeah. I'm flying a plane. I'm in Egypt at the pyramids. So, yeah. So the person that's not actually wearing it can actually see what you're doing. That's awesome, man. My wife. You know what?

She did great. I'm going to take a little credit. You should. I'm going to feel some warmth from my heart. Yeah. Even if you don't want me to, that I helped you sort of give this incredible Christmas. It's just the best Christmas that your girls are going to ever have. She's putting from Dillardt Jr.

On the gift just because you have part to do with that. As everybody once saw, you know, I had my experience, but it was so much fun. I said, I just want my girls to experience that. I thought it was so cool. Yeah. I got to go find good games and that kind of thing to do. It's easy. The way you convince your wife, my wife, so as long as I can, I can't tell her to do something,

I can't ask her to do something for the girls if it's just a colossal waste of time. So you have to take the angle of, oh, you can teach them all kinds of things through VR, right? You can have them travel the world. It's educational. That's why I want them to have this. Yeah. Meanwhile, I'm trying to, you know, figure out what World War II. two game I'm going to get, you know, how I can, you know, have a little fun myself.

But yeah, very cool. I'm excited about Christmas. It's a great time of year. Anybody traveling? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Going to Florida. Florida. Yeah. Okay. What's in Florida? My wife's family. Gotcha. That's nice.

It's not beat Florida. It's redneck Florida. Oh. It's basically South. It's in Jasper, Florida. I'm not complaining about Florida, baby. I'm not putting Texas down, but that's pretty nice have, you know, inlaws live in Florida. Yeah.

I'm rolling up to Kansas. We're going to Texas. You're going to Texas? Just for a couple days. That would be fine. Yeah. Yeah. Now, are you, you know what Amy got you?

Does anybody else get you something in the family? Mom and my sister Kelly are also on the same stream, so they can see the stuff I'm putting up so her, Kelly, and Amy kind of coordinate. I think Kelly's a good gift giver. She's just going to pick something on my list. Is that right? Okay. All right.

So let's go on, move on to the white flag. Yeah, let's go. White flag. Keep coming, bud. White flag. White flag right there, white flag. Mike, you got the white flag. It's funny, I've got the white flag.

And as I open up this white flag, well, I don't actually. He dropped the white flag on the track. A buddy Kyle McGowan did that one night at a racetrack. You know what? We're on the topic of gift giving. There is this other gift out here that you can get your loved ones or somebody in your life that you feel like needs to read about it. It's Dale Jr.'s racing to the finish.

You can go to Dale Jr.com support slash book or wherever books are sold. And I'm not even kidding, guys. That's a really good gift. Am I wrong? I mean, come on. You give somebody that book? Give them a book. I got books that I, you know, if somebody give me a book for Christmas, I would think

that's a great gift. I've got a buddy of mine that's been struggling with some concussion stuff and struggling with it. And I purposely ordered it just to send to him. And by the way, hopefully he doesn't listen to this. We just had our best month. Maybe this isn't too shocking being that we're, around the Christmas season, but we just had our best month of sales.

Racing to the finish, Delgir.com, for it slash book. And really, I just, I want to spend the rest of this white flag just thanking our partners because this is our last show of 2018. What an incredible year it has been for not just the Del Junior download, but with Dirty Mo Media. I've got to throw Exalta right there at the top of that. Exalta makes this thing happen. They're the Exalta studio that they have, they bought in three years ago with us and have, we've had a tremendous year.

We've got Matthew on board. This has been a good year with Matthew on our team. We just hired Leah Vaughn and social media for the Dell Junior brand team. So this is, I'm grateful for Exalta. I'm grateful for Chevrolet and nationwide. Pristine auction has really kind of bought in. So thank you to all of you. Merry Christmas for that.

This is like a Christmas speech. Well, this is incredible. This is our last one. Mark Rizwald. Way to completely crap on the moment, too. Well done. But thank you, everybody, for that. And I hope everyone has an enjoyable holiday.

I'd like to add quickly, we weren't planning to do a December edition of the podcast. I'm glad we did. Jeff was a great, gracious host or guests on the show. We are going to have a January edition similar to this one. And we don't have the host chosen just yet. We've got the host chosen. You're not the guest. I'm sorry.

I keep saying. I hope that. Is something we got to tell us? Yeah. Har-har-har. Hard, har, har. Throw back to fourth grade. Damn it.

I'm just letting everybody know that we're going to have another show in January, and this one will have to do for December. But I miss doing it every week, and it's got me excited, though, about next season. It has been a great year so far, and the production on this show has been incredible all year. It's showed up in our listeners. We've doubled pretty much our listener account.

And with Leah coming on, all the social media push that we're going to be able to do going forward is going to be incredible for us. So it's awesome. Appreciate it, everybody, and have fun. Everybody enjoy their Christmas. Yep. Merry Christmas, everybody. Happy New Year. I didn't get a rum front of that guy.

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