The Dale Jr. Download - 254 - The John Force Jr. Download

Episode Date: April 30, 2019

Hang on tight as Dale Earnhardt Jr talks to the legendary drag racer John Force in this out of control interview. The 16-time NHRA Champ talks about near death experiences, his tireless energy, tragedies that saved lives, seeing Elvis at 1000-feet, kissing Dale Earnhardt's ring, the whereabouts of Jimmy Hoffa and the way he overcomes his lifelong battle with depression. Dale Jr. also reveals genealogy secrets, talks Talladega and some left behind Odd History.    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 for the Dale Jr. download. My co-hosts Mike Davis. It was at the drag race all weekend. That's good because our guest, John Force, has to be a drag racer. So we're going to talk a lot about that. John's going to talk a lot about that. I don't know if we'll get to talk much. Yeah.

If he is what we think he is. That's right. Let's get to it. For more than 40 years, he has been the strongest force in drag racing. Some may even call him a legend. With over 11,000 horsepower in his command. This driver has been panged up, beaten, busted up, upside down, and on fire from Indy to Australia. And he still climbs behind the butterfly steering wheel of his funny car to get battle with those.

One third his age. Now, Dirty Bow Media brings drag racing's unstoppable force to the line. The 16-time NHRA world champion, John Force, takes the Dale Jr. now load. The time. Matthew produces sound elements every week, and they keep getting better and better. I hope you appreciated that one, John.

Who are they talking about? I didn't even know who that was. I'm a man, I'm going to see more famous people here. I'm having a ball to date. I don't know. Beating, battered, on fire. I mean, did that cover you? Is that you?

Is that me? I mean, you've been... I wrote the book I'm being on fire. and a few of funny covers. Yeah, I hear you. Hey, you know what I really want to talk about? Yeah. That new baby girl, I just saw her photo because my daughter, Courtney and Graham, they always

show me all the photos. Yeah. Like, they really know you. And I tell everybody, I know Junior, like, we're buddies, we hang out. And I really don't know him. But I knew your dad real well. Yeah. And, but I know everything you do because I'm a big fan.

I'm a big follower. Yeah. No, she's great, man. She had her first birthday party. Her birthday's tomorrow, but we had the party on Saturday and got Amy's family. Texas flew in. We had 45 adults and 22 kids. Mike was there.

And we had everybody in the pool. We hired a lifeguard being responsible. I'm sitting there. I built this pool 10 years ago. And I would have never thought that it would be full of kids. So that was, you know, times have changed. And we all grew up. Took us a long time to get there.

But we've grown up and matured. But she's amazing, man. Changed my life. I tried to remember. What is her name? I tried to memorize it. What is it? I.

I love rose. And most beautiful, all babies are beautiful. Yeah, right? But it's pretty cool. She got her looks for mama though, right, Jr.? I think so. I think so. I don't know, man.

It's crazy. She's a lot of fun. Every day they get, I mean, the first six months was real hard because you kind of feel the guy, you know, the man in a relationship feels like we can't, there's nothing we can do. We feel kind of useless in that sort of time frame. But now that she's gotten older and we can do a little bit more. we can help. But I'm pretty hands-on. Were you pretty hands-on as a dad? They get personalities,

and they grow up, and it becomes a whole different life. But let me tell you, wait until you get to them grandkids. Now, that's a long ways away. I know. But my granddaughter, Autumn, she's 13. She drives junior dragsters won her first race last year. And Jacob and Noah, they're racing junior dragsters. They're five and six, but Noah won game ball for football last week, and he held up. He's in home, And my wife's watching him and Ashley was out here filming with her production company. And in the middle of it, it was so awesome. And I said, I'm going to win this four white here at ZMAX. I'm going to do it.

And I'm going to get the game ball. And I wanted to call that out. And then last night he said, Grandpa, you didn't get the game ball. You didn't do your part, right? No, but I didn't go to the Burns Center. So it was a pretty good weekend. Good for you. How many times have you been to the Burns Center?

How many times have you gotten injuries from those? crashes in which town. Yeah, right? Oh my goodness. But I've been out here 100 years. I was out here before you all were born. You know what I'm saying? And I don't know why I'm doing it. I still ain't figured it out.

I don't need the money. I mean, everybody needs money. But I mean, it's like I get to be with my kids. You know, Brittany's driving top fuel. And then Courtney married Graham Rahal, an Indy car driver, and they ran off with my driver. So I'm in her car right now, and it's pretty fast. If I wasn't so fat, this old race car.

I got 100 pounds on Courtney, but it's really great being with her team, karate and Daniel Hood. My son-in-law runs that car. That's Ashley's husband. So, you know, it's just, we're just all family, and it's, I really love this place. This gets you in racing mode sitting here. You like it? Yeah, it's new for us. So it's still kind of new for us, too.

We did it this year. So we knew you were coming. We need a dog up. We need some drag racing. and memorabilia in die casts in here. I got some. I'll send some. You will? And a bill will come right behind it.

Still got to pay the bills, right? Just kidding. So if Isla comes in 15 or 16 years and says, Dad, I want to run for junior motorsports, I want to do this. What advice do you have for him on how his response should be? Well, you never know where children, what your kids are going to do, grandkids, but you want to give them that opportunity someday if you can. you know, all my family races.

I mean, we've never worked at McDonald's. I worked at Taco Bell in the early days and foster frees. But my kids don't know the normal life, and their husbands, we're all racers. And who knows what they're going to do, but you want to have that opportunity. But like I tell them, you want to get rich, better get NASCAR. Oh, is that right? Is that right? That's what I tell them.

So, okay. I mean Greg raising. I am so my feeling right now I mean she's I was only one years old but I'm hoping that she doesn't really want anything to do with racing did you ever have any feelings one way or another with your girls if did you hope that maybe they didn't want to get into racing when Ashley when Ashley turned 16 I went out to Pomona I had a few bucks and I bought her a car I'm with Chevrolet so let me get this clear but I bought a Mustang. red convertible, and I thought, this is what she'll love. And I went home and gave it to her, and she goes, what's that? It was a 64, 65 Mustang. And I said, what do you mean? What is that?

That's a classic car. No, Dad, and she wanted a Chevrolet pickup truck. Yeah. A girl. I said, okay, so we got her a truck, and that's how we went on down the road. So she loved cars, and then along came, you know, Brittany. they all loved the cars, of course they lived at the racetracks week after week. You know what I mean?

And then along comes Courtney, and she really loved it. And in the middle of it, they just go down the road, and then next they're in super comps going 160, then they're in A fuel, going, you know, 260, now they're going 3.30. And it just evolves. But do you live in that fear every day, that gutache? Not just when they're crashing and on fire, but when they're losing out there, Brittany lost yesterday in the advanced auto parts car,

and I was sick over it, yet I had to get my head back into the race. I don't know where they're going to go. I wish they'd all be doctors. You know what I'm saying? Take care of me, which is coming here any day at my age. Yeah, I think that's the same way I feel is like, man, I really, I just know the heartache and how hard racing can be on you emotionally and how hard it is on your family and stuff. And I'm like, man, I hope she doesn't want to ever go into that kind of stuff

or get involved in it. She may. But the weird thing for me is that I've retired, kind of retired, and she'll never really experience my career because, you know, I quit racing full time. But it'll be interesting to see if she still wants to know or wants to be a part of it. Oh, she'll know planning. Yeah.

Okay, all you got to do is turn on the TV. So you guys just got done racing at Charlotte this week. weekend and I appreciate you staying over. I got your video and I sent it out on social media. I hope you don't mind because I wanted to tell everybody he's going to be on my show. Mike went to the race this weekend and never had been to a drag race before. Never been. He didn't get to go down to the tree. He had his little girls with him and he didn't want, he couldn't make that work, but he got to see everything else.

Yeah. And one of the things that, and I went to the to the drag race at Charlotte a year ago, a couple years ago. And one of the things that, you know, you guys do so well is accessibility. And Mike can talk about that, but literally, you know, the fans can get access like nowhere else. And it's incredible. And I know you guys, y'all work hard to sort of make yourselves accessible and connect with your fans. And has it always been like that. Yeah, that's what NHRA has to offer is every ticket's a pit pass. Yeah. You know, NHRA I love it. I'm hooked on it.

has tried to kill me a bunch of times. You know, the hot rod's not NHRA personally. They didn't try to kill me. They'd like to kill me too. The front office did not. Okay, got it. But it is, you know, we know NASCAR's huge. We've watched it grow.

It's amazing. And we're your little brother. We're trying to chase you guys. But it is something in the pits, hospitality. And, you know, I had a fan say, I want you can go to the races and get run over by John Forrest in a golf cart. And I like, that ain't funny, but I've nicked a few out there. But no, it really is.

It's quite a show. The ground shakes when you're standing there, sitting in the stands. And, you know, 10,000 horsepower, cars going 330. We never have to go around corners like y'all, unless we're on fire. You know what I'm saying? And then we go around corners through walls. But it really is a great show. I really love it.

But I love NASCAR. I love IndyCar. I love them all because I'm a car junkie. Always have been. Yeah. It's just incredible to access, like you say, man. You can basically get a pass and walk anywhere you want to go. And you guys build.

So our hospitalities in our sport, we have the garage and we have the car and the garage and the truck and the team and they're working on the car there. And then the hospitality is outside the track. You guys do it all together. So like if I go over to your hospitality, I can see you, your car, your team working on the car. you guys warming the car up, all of it right there in the pits. And I like how consolidated it is and how friendly it is. You talked about going through walls, being on fire,

and it got me thinking. Mike talked about this experience during his weekend. You guys break a lot of stuff. Even when you run good, even when you finish a run, y'all's motors, and particularly the motors, go through hell, like throughout a race weekend. So y'all change? They'll rebuild the engine between everyone.

Let's rephrase that. I know I never answer a question. I never answered a while ago. But the point is, my checkbook goes through hell. Okay? And I'm telling you, they tear them down, they put them back together, and they start them up. And I've watched them, people in hospitality just tip over from the smell of nitro. Hey!

And they're just in there like addicts. You know, they're wanting to watch it, trying to eat their food. You know what I'm saying? but it is quite a show and then watch them take the cars out, run them, and then they come right back and they're sitting right there

watching you tear them apart, put them together. It's kind of a different style than NASCAR and any car. But they all have their personalities and it's pretty cool to watch. I went in a bay one time I had a sponsor said,

I've got to, force, I got to get a picture with Dale Earnhardt. And I said, okay, we'll go over and get a picture. You pay them millions of dollars. He said, oh, no, I can't just go over there. So I didn't know Dale either.

I said, the guy was sponsored me. So I said, I got to go there. So I walked over, your dad had pulled it into the garage. And I'm standing there, and I said, you know, he had his helmet on. I said, Dale, I said, I'm John Forrest. I want a championship. And he goes, yeah, I know you are. And I said, I don't know how to ask this, but if I don't get you a picture,

you just stand up and get a picture with this guy, I'm going to get fired. Okay, the guy's got his girlfriend with him, and he wants to impress her. And I really need you. And he took off his helmet, and he looked at me, and he goes, let's make him sweat. And that's when I knew. That was the first time I ever spoke to your dad, and I realized that he was just a real guy. Yeah. Like, he was just like us, but he knew the drill.

And I had so many good times, you know, with those guys in the early. I didn't ever get to know him, but it was pretty cool. Yeah, I think that there was a common respect between you and dad. He's the John Forrest, NASCAR. You're kind of the Daler and Heart of Drag Racing 16 time champion. I mean, if you win one more, like, I mean, when is enough championships? I guess there aren't enough. There's no such thing as too many championships, but 16?

Well, I want to eat. I want to keep eating. And I like them chivalets I got at home, and my wife won't let me come home. She loves me. She just don't like me. But I live on the road. It is my home. You know, I go through the airport.

In Dallas, I know everybody. That's where I get my hair cut, my shoes shine, and get my coffee. It's just a way of life. I don't know anything else. It's really kind of sad. I mean, I got a nice place up in Lake Tahoe. We get there twice a year. You know, the gardeners are there more than me.

And I got a nice home, but I can't get to it. But my home is, I grew up in a trailer house with five, brothers and sisters. My kids didn't know what a TV, you know, one of them little tables you put in front of the TV. Yeah. Hover those called them. I'm sold. I forgot. Yeah. Yeah. TV dinners. Yeah, they didn't have any idea of what that was, you know, and they're all now big tables. They went in my trailer house, I kept my mom's trailer house when she passed, and they went in there and they looked at that. Oh, and I'm sorry to hear about your mom. Yes, sir. But you know what, how I look at it? Now they can really help us. and take care of us from heaven.

That's make things perfect. That's right. You kept the house that you grew up in? Yeah, the trailer house. And we finally had to cut it up because it just got bug ravished and everything. But my kids went in there and started crying. It was documented on TV. And they were bawling their eyes.

I'm like, this is where you live? Nobody gets. Well, you become, you know, you get up and you got your girlfriend's picture on the dash of your car. Yeah. My first car ever was a 54 Chevy. You know what I'm saying? When I drove for Ford, I used to say it was a 54 Ford. But I started with Chevrolet.

That's where I came from. I don't get this right. Campbell will be kicking my butt by late today. But, you know, I started in Chevrolet. I won championships. Then I went to Ford, and then Chevrolet took me back. But along the way, you know, your car is your football helmet in the back seat, your girlfriend's picture, your Playboy magazine under the seat.

Can I say that on the show? Sure, sure. So in the middle of it, you become a gypsy. We travel to the logging camps, and my dad was a logger, and we go back to haul cattle in the winter in California. So we're always gypsy. So I live in the biggest trailer court in the world with all my friends and racing just a car is what you do. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And somehow that just becomes part of your life.

You don't know. I don't know where I'm going in the next deal. I keep crashing. I can't take much more. Hey, I read your unbelievable. I thought it was. You're talking about the book. I thought it was. No, no, I'm really, I got an education.

And you know what? I really, you know, tried to figure out, I thought it'd be all about racing. Right. You know, but it was really all about the things that happened to race car drivers. And people don't get it. But they got it when I read it, because I've, I've been doing this for 100 years before you were born, son. And I look at this, I said, oh, God, I never realized so many things. You know what I mean?

Yeah. And I called up my shrink. I said, I need to be committed today. I'm over this thing. But you learn so much from that of what you go through, what we go through, and fans don't need to know. Get a chance by the book. I'm not trying to plug the book. No, go ahead.

We won't stop you. It was great. Thank you. I got it. I took it. My daughter said, Courtney joked. Every morning, Dad, we went to Tahiti.

I don't do vacations. I'm like Trump. I ain't getting into politics here. What I'm saying is. If I go to an island, I want to build a racetrack. He wanted to build a hotel. And we went to Tahiti this year, and it was painful for me. But my grandkids were there, but I got up every day.

And I went down and I started reading the book because I needed something to do. And, man, my daughters will tell you, I got hooked on. it and it was I went back I went back and started underlining things so I could remember you know how things happened and it was just really cool and my daughters they make a joke like you know because I have insomnia when I go to read I've been working on the Bible for 50 years and I'm almost done but I get in there and I fall asleep yeah but I never fell asleep during your book and I read it it probably took me every day I'd spend a couple hours and I said by the pool they got to picture me in the fool with the book. They did. We saw it in the fool. Oh, they did. They tweet everything. That's,

you're really good at that, Jr. Thanks. I'm saying Junior, because that's what it said on the bill, and I said, where's Dale Earnhardt? Where's the junior? Where's the, yeah. But it was really cool reading it and the education that I got. And it don't matter if you're a race car driver, truck driver, or a truck. You need to read this book, America, because it will teach you things that will help you in life go down. And it took me a complete different road than I imagined it to be. Like, expand on that.

What did you expect it to be? And then what did you take away from that book then? Well, I just thought it'd be all racing. I thought it was going to be about junior racing and all the stuff. And all of a sudden it started talking about things that happen, things you learn, you know, and what you went through.

I don't want to get into all that. You know what I mean? But it's amazing that you get, back in that car and your adrenaline will drive you where you have no fear. Yeah. We'd run off a cliff if they'd let us. You know what I'm saying? Because that's what we do.

And then one day you wake up and you go, no, that ain't what we do. You know, I always tell you, don't worry. They got music they play on the start line. It's either Jesus take the wheel. You know, the other one was take this job and shove it. They played at every race when I got ready to start my car. And then Jesus take the wheel, and now they got one, I don't want no rocking chair. And the problem is half the fans in the stands say, never heard these songs.

Who is this guy? But, you know, you get caught up in like, you know, I'm something special. I'll live forever. And tell you, I've laid in them hospitals, broken legs and arms, and laying there in this, you hear the doctor saying, well, if he ain't going to die from old age, he's going to die from this and you think what do you mean dying what are you talking about we're superman this shit no but then you wake up and that's why in your book man it woke me up then i start thinking you know this is serious stuff and i've been playing this game like coming here today this

ain't me i'm a different personality i'm going on an art show i'm putting on my nose and i'm coming here and i'm going to have some fun and this isn't you you're saying there's no way i think that we are seeing the real job we're going to let you get in here in a minute would you want to get in our show Meadale show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, you guys jump in. Honestly, I think this is the John Forst download, to be honest. No, but I love it.

But, boy, when I read that book, I said, okay, wait a minute here. Let's think about this about, you know, what's, I always said, the monster's in the front seat. He'll blow up and he'll get you. But I never believed it. You know what I mean? And, boy, he got me a bunch of times. Now I think about that monster. Now I say to my crew chief, hey, how?

How is your morning? Are you feeling good? And he goes, I don't know how I'm feeling, but he hit the fire bottles at 200 feet. Okay. So none of those times you ever thought about maybe hanging it up? Every day now since I read the book. Oh, no. Oh, Lordy.

No, that's not what you're supposed to leave with the book. No, but I love it and I do it. But I, you know, there's reasons why I stay in the sport. Okay. And I've never said this before, but I'll say it because I'm, hopped up on coffee. But we lost a young driver, Eric Medlin. Right.

And three months later, the cars had gone through a transition of starting to lose. We lost Coletta. We lost a number of drivers. And it was all about put another engine in. We can do this. You know, and, you know, we're warriors. But that's all, that ain't the truth. That ain't the way the world really works.

And I thought, I crashed. and should have killed me. Same thing. Harmonics and oscillation. Chassis is breaking apart, flying in the air. My daughter got it together in. She won the round ahead of me. And she went over and said,

Dad ain't in the car. Where's the motor in the front half? And I was back stuck on a guardrail. And in the middle of all of it, you started realizing that things can go ugly here. And you're not Superman. You know what I mean? And you get through it.

And I'm getting it. getting sidetracked. I don't want to get into bad stuff. But I looked at Eric and I thought, there must be a reason for me that why would the good Lord take a beautiful kid like him and keep a guy like me? There must be a reason. And things change when we lost your dad, broke my heart. And I remember the, when you watched the funeral, you thought it was a president. You know what I'm saying? The cars packed in, you know, and, because they loved him like they love you. That's just the way it is.

And in the middle of all of it, there must have been a reason for me to build safety. And now I got chassis shops and all this stuff in Indian motor programs. And it ain't me. I ain't smart enough to build nothing. But it's working with the military, working with NASA, working with the pro organization,

learning from NASCAR and trying to take things. You know, you look at the neck restraints and a lot of stuff that come out from the loss of your job. dad. A negative became a positive that have saved so many. But then I thought I must have a reason. And part of that is to help grow our sport. I want to grow it. Because I, people go, you know, I didn't build this sport. I learned from the Don Prudoms and the garlets and the Shirley's and the Raymond Beatles and the Bernstein's. And I said, I learned from them. They taught me how to drive. They taught me how to interview, how to find money. You know what I mean? How to get drunk.

They taught me all that, see. But then along the way, now there's. a middle generation that I went through of the Baysmore's, the Hoffman's, those guys. And now I'm into the third group of these young kids coming up. And they're great drivers. They're all beat me up every week. My son-in-law set another record. Robert He won. The only guy to ever beat me four times in a row.

Okay. But it was, and I love him to death. He's just great. He's president of my company. But in the middle of it, I want to help these young kids see where it's going to go. So there needs a reason for me to stand around. My daughter said, get in my dragster. I don't know anything about a dragster.

I never drove one. I stay in a funny car. So I know that thing. And if there's anything I can do to help the sport, you know what I mean? That's what I'm going to do, try to help them and educate these young kids and build our sport because we're in a tough economy. It's nobody wants to buy one race car anymore. You've got to sell them to three different people. Corporate America is tough.

The world's changing. Yeah. Well, people love you because, you know, obviously because you win, but people love you because of who you are. And the energy and the personality, what drivers coming up today, I mean, eventually you're going to hang it up. You're almost 70 years old. What drivers do you see in the sport today are going to be the personalities that will feel your shoes?

I mean, they've got to be talking about some big shoes to feel. I know you're not going to be bragging on yourself, but personalities are critical in sport, particularly in motorsports. court. Who are the drivers that you think can feel your shoes and the ones that's going to turn the fans on? I'm doing okay in the points that the last couple of years I've been struggling. I think they all filled my shoes already. But I love these kids. And yeah, we have arguments, we have fights, things that go down, but they really love what they do and they want to be the best. But there's already the stars, you know, naturally Robert Haidt, my guys won championships.

Winning Championships helps. It builds that the fan. base, you know, everything that you do, helping selling sponsor products. I know I ain't pitched one sponsor here, and I don't know if I'm allowed to. I'm being real careful. But what I'm, but what I'm saying is, is that, don't worry, I'm wearing my uniform. Yeah, right. Okay, so he's got a TV camera. You got the cameras. But, but, you know, you, you take a Ron Caps. He's a champion. Like Robert Height, he's a champion. Ashley, that drove funny car from me, never become the champion, but become a huge name. And one of the biggest. sellers in products. It's just built in, but, you know, she had the forced name.

A lot of, she drove a funny car like her dad, a lot of that. Courtney built her name, came up the ranks, unbelievable winning races. Brittany's already won a championship. So certain, but there's so many, like Matt Hagen, you know what I mean, he's one champ, Beckman, Caps, naturally, the Petrogon Brothers, one's in the TV box. He says, I'm having a life. I'm making money. money. I'm still a big star and I ain't trying to kill myself every day. Okay. I mean, he went to TV as well. He knows all that. Oh, yeah, yeah, but, but some of us still, they'll never give me a show. I don't know. We give you a show. I think, I don't know. I think you're wrong about that.

I'll say all the things will scare them to death. But, but I'm really lucky. I've got sponsors like Peek picked me up and advanced auto parts and auto club and these guys, Chevrolet. You know what I, at my age, you know what I mean? And I mean, they were telling me to quit when I turned 50. Then when I Oh, okay, this has got to be over. And no, I'll go another year. And now I'm going on a hundred. I'm embarrassed to say my age anymore. And next year, next week, I'm going to be 100 in Atlanta.

But I don't know where to go. I'm just kind of lost out there. You know, you guys with NASCAR going in the TV box, Gordon went. All of that has a way. I don't have a place to go. And NHRA probably had enough of me. They want to run me off. But I love what I do.

I'm trying to help, but new stars are growing. Torrance, the kid that won the championship, J.R. Todd. These guys come out of the box and they say things and people go, oh, they're rude, they're crazy. And no, they're not. They're beautiful. They're speaking out from the heart. Because you've got to talk from the heart. And if you don't, it all just becomes fake.

And that's how I get in trouble. That's why my attorney, we sat down to do a show one day. And my attorney said, okay, we're going to film. you for three hours because we were going to put it out there to have a talk show with John Forrest. Build a studio, everything in my shop in California, you know, with couches like Jay Leno, the whole deal, right? And after me doing two hours of tape and I thought, I'm on a roll today. And my attorney said, okay, we need to, this is a bad idea. Really?

Yeah, you got into politics, you got into comedy, you cuss more than a trooper. You know what I'm saying? And he said, no, you're going to say something here and you're going to get shot. Yeah. And so we just kind of said, that's the end of that. Well, you had your own reality show and it was fantastic. Yeah. Driving force, that was so good.

Did you like that? Yeah, it was fun. I got to spend a lot of time with my kids. But you know what happens is because of budgets and we made pretty good money, but because of budgets they started scripting shows. Oh. And pretty soon they're going, I can't believe. you're yelling at your daughter like that.

No, that's me yelling at the dog. He just pooped in the front yard. And they would take the dog scene and they'd put me with my kids. And my kids were very emotional. And then we were filming at Gainesville when we lost Eric. And I felt like I should have been on the starting line. You know, we were testing on Monday, but I'm out there making movies. And I thought, that's it.

We stopped the show right there. And it's time to go down another road. And they want us to go back. They talked to us, but racing is such an overload. Don't have a life. I go fishing with my grandsons, and they go, you don't know how to fish, you don't know how to fish. You don't know nothing but a race car. Yeah, you don't have any hobbies, right?

You don't have any hobbies. I tried golfing once. I'll never forget I was on a golf course. They'd come over. I hit the ball from the T and it went to the right. Wrong way. No, Tiger Woods couldn't have done that. And it bounced off the golf cart.

And the starter, Wally Parks of NHRA, him and his wife were sitting there. He didn't even see the ball. Oh, it just missed him. They said, get force. And that was with Winston in the old days down at Rockingham. So they said, you drive the beer cart. So me and Bob Fisher, my buddy, we got on a beer car. We drove it all day.

We were so drunk. And I don't drink anymore. I actually quit about nine months. And my last craves doctor said, you need to stop drinking and start thinking about this stuff. Okay. So in the middle of it, in the middle of it, in the middle of it. of it. So we went swimming in a big old fond. And a guy come by on a tractor and said, get out of that water. There's moccasins in there. I'm from California. Like you think you're

at Disneyland everywhere you go. Almost got eight by a gator down in Florida a couple weeks ago. Because I don't live in the real world. California is all, it's all fake. You know what I mean? Everything you see is, if it's a gator, it's put there on a rail. So did that answer your question about hobbies? You ended up with almost getting eaten by a gator. There you go. That's good. That's good.

Oh, that's the true deal. No, no, I have no doubt. I was in a restaurant once in Florida, me and my brother Louis, and we looked out to win, and we go, look, there's a gator walking across the back of the restaurant. So we all ran around, ran there, and a guy went out and said, are you nuts? I said, well, how could they let a gator just walk around here? and then tell us that we're afraid. You know what I mean? No.

They said, you better be afraid. Yeah. So, hey, that might be exciting. If I'm going to go down, if it ain't in a race car, I'm going to, I want to tangle with a great white. Hey. I surfed as a kid, and let me, sharks are all around you. We never thought about none of that stuff. In 1974, when I went to Australia with my funny car, I'll let you guys get in here in a minute.

I'm really sorry, but I went down there and I saw a great white shark. Oh, cool. Yeah, at Barrier Reef. Yeah. And I'm telling you, the Jaws movie wasn't too far off. Oh, really? Yeah. And.

Is you in the water? Oh, man. I'll tell you what. I used to joke before I was sponsored with Chevrolet. You know, I think could have eight of Volksmen. Of course, now I say a Chevrolet. But I mean, geez, they're really big, you know. And I saw E.T that year.

So, but since I quit. Not a shark movie. No, no, the movie. Okay, no, I got it. But since the... It's on Alien? You guys never even heard of these movies. No, I have.

I'm trying to correlate E.T. with sharks. Oh, those are movies in 74 that came off. Okay, so now I got it. And the exorcist. I got it. Oh, man, I got a real problem. 74 was a good year for movies. I sat in my bedroom hugging my teddy bear waiting for the exorcism to come in.

So, no, that's a lot. You know, that's what we do. You used to do movie reviews, didn't you? Wait, we're now. God's talking to me and it's a woman. That's right. It's a woman. It's your wife.

Your wife is asked. Leah's back there. So he did movie reviews? Yeah, you used to do movie reviews. Why did this stop? This is good. Man, hi girl. Oh, you went, not that I don't love racing and I've made plenty of money, but you moved up.

Well. Hey. Got out of drag races and went to NASCAR, our big brother. Yep. Listen, I mean, over the weekend, I was out there with Leah and she was, she was just as much a celebrity as anybody else out there but I also asked her

because we had such a good time and said, man, you left this to come to us? I wouldn't have done that. This was too much fun. But anyways, that was, you know,

speaking to Leah, she had, and you've been talking about having to hang out with all these kids and, and, you know, you got them racing for you.

And she has a thing that she does with us where she tries to give us millennial words and see if we know what they mean. And I think John needs to be the one to educate us

on millennial. because, I mean, he's around them, right? Is that what we should do? Yeah, I feel like, you know, we'll find out if his daughters ever taught him anything. Okay, let's hear. What do you got? Oh, don't wait a minute. I just came from a hospital, and they gave me a test. Really?

And they showed me this horse with a horn on its head. And they said, what is that? I said, it's a horse with a horn on its head. I couldn't think of the word unicorn. I think they flunk me. They said, you can't flunk these tests, and you can't pass them. You know what I'm talking about. And I said, wait a minute.

What is that? You're going to flung me because I don't know what a unicorn is because I had a blank spot? Anyway, I had a bunch of blank spots. Give us a word. Let's hear it. Me and they don't know these words. All right. So the millennial ls use this term called ghost.

They ghost someone. Do you know what that would mean? When someone ghost someone. Now, see, like those tests I took, I could get real smart and try to figure out what they mean. and then you outthink it, and you don't answer the question. And they said, won't you just answer the questions? And I said, yeah, but I'm trying to figure out what you want, you know, so I can pass. And they said, you don't flunk or pass here.

I said, well, what am I doing here? I already know I'm nuts. Why am I sitting here with you guys? Okay, what is the ghost, but I remember the movie with Demi Moore. There you go. It all comes back to movies. Is that what the millennials mean? No, when you ghost someone, it means you, like, completely disappear after hanging out with them,

and, like, you show them interest, and then you just, like, Houdinium? Then you just like stop talking to them after hanging out. That's what it means when you ghost someone. All right. Well, that's what we used to do in the bar in Rockingham in the old days. After you got drunk, you didn't remember anybody. You ghosted them.

You ghosted them. But I don't drink anymore, I quit. What else you got? Anything else? When you have the tea, what does that mean? When you have the tea, T-E-A. Oh, when you have the tea? When you have the tea?

Yeah. Do you know what this means? When you have the tea? Yeah, when you have the tea, do you know what that means? Wait a minute. starting to feel like a porn show here. I ain't going, I know what it meant in my day. I ain't going down this road.

I don't even, yeah, I don't know what that would mean. It means we have the gossip. Oh, like you have a tea with each other. Yeah, you see that gift with like Kermit where he's drinking the tea? Yeah, like he's got the, he's got the gossip. Oh, my, I think a tea leaves and, yeah, that one down. No, I didn't know that either. No, that's interesting.

So when you go to the track in Atlanta. That's what that gift means, the Kermit dream. the tea gift. I didn't know that the whole time. It's like, you know, he's got the tea. He's got the gossip. Okay. Never heard that ever in my life.

Look, I'm getting, I read your book. I got educated and I'm sitting right here. Go to Atlanta this week and go to Robert Hyde or to Brittany and just use a millennial word and see if they can follow along. Ask him if you got the tea. Yeah, ask him if they got the tea. Never heard it. All right. Don't do that then.

Do you got any more, Leah? Yeah, I got one more. Do you know what a dip dot is? No. Yeah, dipping dots. Yeah. We eat them all the time. We had some yesterday under the John Forst grandstand, as a matter of fact.

Not quite the same. So dip dot. A dip dot is somebody who's not being very smart. They might be an idiot. Really? Somebody's acting an idiot. Yeah. So you're a dip dot?

You're a dip dot. I'm a dip and dot. I like that. Let's take a quick break here from John Forst to talk about. some of our partners. This one's been around for a while. One of our favorites, pristineauction.com. Prestineauction.com is an online sports auction website

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The best part, though, is it's affordable. Every auction on Prestine starts at one buck. Every single auction starts at a dollar. Before the show, Dielner, you had an item you bid on? Yeah, I bid this morning. It's a red boot, like leatherish boot. It's Rick Flair's wrestling boot. It's signed by Rick Flair.

I'm trying to get it for the studio, man. I think it's up to $60-something. Oh, my goodness. I'm in a war right now for a boot. I never thought that's a thing. That is actually a pretty cool item. That is. So, you know, you think what could be on there?

They actually have unique items like this boot. There's different types of auctions as well. They got the daily auction. No waiting around for multiple days to bid and win. Like on some sites, there'd be seven days you're sitting there waiting on this item to finally close. They also have a 10-minute auction. So it's fast, rapid fire. Get in there and get that item.

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That lets them know that we sent you. Thanks, Pristine Auction, for supporting this podcast. Now go support them. You've got to admit, Bruton Smith did spend some money. Yeah. And then he built Four White out there in Vegas. and we packed them in out there. It was just unbelievable.

And it is mass confusion, trying to figure out a starting line. Crew chiefs running back and forth because there ain't enough time to watch the car ahead of you and reading lanes. You know, I was going to ask you that because, you know, again, I was experiencing it for the first time and I was just, it was so awesome.

But I was also talking to fans in the grandstands. And they would say, if you like this, you need to come back in October when it's back to, you know, the way it ought to be, the two lane. And so what is your take on that? Yeah, but you guys have, you know, you have ovals, you have road courses, you have a mixture. Let's, wait a minute, I know exactly what that T means.

Don't be throwing that at me. No, what do you think? Wait, where TCOC mean? No, this is a family show here. Okay. But don't be getting me to walk up to somebody and say that. I'm able to look at me and say, let me tell you something. All these country folk out here, you know what I'm saying?

they know exactly what we're talking about. Just call them a dip and dot. They're saying they're just trying to make old force, go back and say something really stupid. Just call them a dip and dot. You'll be safe. But okay, so the two lane and the four, it's just another type of,

you're cool with it, you like it because it gives a variety. Is that what you're saying? What was the question? About two lanes versus four lanes, because I know that a lot of the drag racing, you know, the purest in the grandstands, and like Matthew, you're one, and you were explaining stuff.

I think it's a great spectacle, but I prefer traditional, old I want. It's the first time like I've ever sat in the grandstands. You know, I worked in this sport, and I hadn't seen the race from that perspective. And as somebody who knows these cars and knows the racers very well, it was extremely hard for me to follow. I appreciate that they're trying to do something different, and they did pack the place

in there. But I think I'd be interested to see, you know, the standard normal drag race as a fan. Who in that room is Dirty Mo? What is that? I'm probably the... Matthew. Okay. of the two in there. Definitely not hurt.

Bruton Smith invested his money, him and Marcus. They built the four wide. I think originally it was that if you had an oil down, the show could keep moving, run it to the other lane. But I think in the back they wanted a spectacle. They wanted something different.

And they throw it in and they packed them in Vegas. They packed them at these shows over the year. But it's getting tougher to get fans. They can see everything on TV. They can see everything on a phone. The world has changed. You know what I mean? It has really changed. I mean, content is a word I never knew what it meant five years ago. And now everything. We're going down to film a deal, you know, to plug sponsors to put up

social media. And you're the best at it, Dale. You do it all the time. I'm amazed. But I just got rid of my flip-flop phone. You know what I'm saying? And I'll talk for 10 minutes and I'll go, John, it only plays for six seconds. And what are you doing? Well, I can't say what I want to say. And then I can't take those words back that you say when you say something stupid. And I do that all the time. But, you know, my daughter goes, okay, dad, let's shoot something for advance right here. Look up at this phone. I said, okay, world, we're coming.

We're doing content. She put her hands down. She said, what are you doing? I said, I want to tell them what they want us to do at advance. They want us to do content. And she goes, yeah, you're supposed to do content and not say it's content. It's supposed to really be. happening. Well, honey, you and I are standing here holding this phone over our head. Think how

stupid we look that people think we just happen to be standing here with a phone hanging out there. But it's the world we live in. It's all changed. I mean, you got to look at what's going on in the world. When I was a kid, we went to a pharmaceutical, and my mom and a doctor would say, the guy there running the place, well, here's what you need for a headache. You know what I mean? And then along came the K-Mart's and the Wal-Mart's, and they had everything. You know what I mean? And now comes the Amazon's. The world's changing.

All the little Monpaw stores are drying up. A lot of the K-Marts are drying up. The world is changing, and we've got to adapt. And that's what we've got to do with our sport. You know what I mean? Because pretty soon, no one will want to own a car. Well, don't tell Chevrolet that, but people are looking at Uber's. They can go, you know what I mean?

And we got to re-educate them. bring them to the races, get them back in the fight. You know, so that's what I'm trying to do. I agree with you, but let me just tell you something. You're still doing it right, and that is because I want to show you something. We got to get you. All those things are right, but, you know, yesterday I take my daughters over to you. You got a big crowd.

That was your daughter. And you still, you don't remember. Did I meet you yesterday? I didn't say anything. I just thanked you for the picture. Did we get his reaction on film? What, no. The way he thought I didn't recognize.

did we get him? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm saying, but you also did this. I had two daughters, and you were strapping in a car, you were in that staging lane, and you waved at my little daughter. And from the rest of the weekend, they were asking, when is John Forst race? When is John Forst race? And when you race and you made the finals, they were ecstatic.

And then when you race in the finals, they were still trying to process, because up until them, the top two advanced. They're like, do you know, does he still advance? I'm like, that was the last race. And they're like, well, will they put him in anyways? Because he's John Force. It was just that picture. And I told Dale last night, I said, this wasn't hard to get.

He had a crowd, but this is in between your round two and your round three. You got your team out there turning over the motor. That's still what it's about to me. I think that the content and all those things that happen, you still got to do this. And you connected with them and they're John Force fans forever. But that, you know, I learned in the early days the first time Fred Wagonall from action took me to a race. He took me to Daytona. And I remember walking up there, and I saw Dale Earnart, as much as he was,

all about cars, always took the time for the fans. Richard Petty, standing with a line of people. You know what I mean? Rusty Wallace, these guys were just like, you know, they're gods. You know what I mean? And there's only one God. We know that. But they were, in that world, it was unbelievable.

And I learned from that. It's all about it. It's all about, and I'll have people come up, hey, when you sign this picture, and the guy's standing there, and he's holding his baby, and I go, boy, the kid was used to be blonde. And he goes, no, that was me. My dad was holding me. Now I got, I got grandpas coming up.

Oh, wow. What do you mean I held you as a kid? I don't want to hear this. You know, oh, man. But I've been out here a long time. And, you know, and I still want to help my sport. I love NHRA and don't think we don't have our fights and our battles. But I believe that's why God put me on this earth.

It must be a reason. You know what I'm saying? I mean, he must have a plan or this don't make any sense at all where I'm going because I don't have a clue. And here I am. You have an Elvis mural in your office. Yeah. And you left tickets to Elvis at a race. Or do you still do that?

I was, I grew up, I was all about, I was country music, but I was a California boy, but my family are from the Indian Reservation, and this ain't like that Warren lady that said she was an Indian, so I ain't making that it. And I don't do, I don't do politics. Okay, but what I'm saying is my mom was born and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, she's off Indian Reservation. And my sister, do you just make this up? No, Cindy, I don't. but it's what I believe and going down the road.

What was the question? Elvis Presley. Oh, but I grew up on, because I'm an Oki, you know what I mean? And I grew up in my little town in Bell Gardens. Everybody in that town was from Arkansas and Oklahoma. You know what I'm saying? And so, you know, I love music, but the Beach Boys were big. The Beatles came along in the 60s.

You know what I mean? I mean, I didn't shake Kennedy's wife, but I was with a group, I mean, Kennedy's wife, Kennedy, not John F., because he, you know, we lost him when I was in ninth grade. But in 10th grade in high school, I went up to East L.A. Junior College, and Bobby did a parade down through the town, and all, we parked on a street illegally. We all ran in our Chevalades, and they all ran up there, and the girls all shook his hand. and then he went downtown and he ended up was assassinated but how did I get on that?

I don't know. I don't know. Elvis, but I did Elvis Presley. You know, I did songs when I was in fifth grade. I'd go on the stage. I had long hair. I didn't have sideburns.

Yeah, I'm ending. I've got no hair on my body. So anyway. But I did Elvis impersonations. Really? And I come in second in the show one time. But yeah, I just, was a big fan of Elvis.

So when I got to put my car in Graceland with Rusty Wallace, it was the coolest deal and to go to Graceland, and I just followed him. But then the Beatles, and of course, then it just all evolved. But I'm still to this day. I still saying Elvis. But you left tickets for Elvis at a race.

Yep, wanted him to come. And I bought one of the last tickets. A fan actually got it. I bought one at auction, but a fan was going up to Maine or somewhere. where a big Elvis deal up there in the north, and he had a ticket because Elvis was killed or passed, and he gave me the ticket, and I got it in my museum.

And it's just stuff that matters to me. I got Marilyn Monroe, you know, on my wall, and John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, I'm just a collector of stuff like that. I have had, I've got an Elvis room in my house, a whole room. So I'm a big Elvis fan, too. I was little, when I was a little boy, and dad was off racing. He's still a little boy.

I know. Okay. Yeah. Well, my dad would race, sometimes I'd go stay with my, his mom, my mama, and Martha, huge Elvis fan. And she played Elvis all the time. So I became a, and she had figurines, you know, the little wine bottles, head pops off and all that.

She had a house full of Elvis stuff. And so I became an Elvis fan. And I've always had a room in my house that's dedicated to Elvis. And so I wanted to know more about. your fandom for Elvis and leaving tickets. Had he been, had he passed away, or were you leaving the tickets after he passed away, thinking that he was still alive?

I saw Elvis at 1,000 foot at Memphis when I was on fire. And let me tell you something. I crawled out on my hands and knees. I thought I was dead. And I remember I was praying to God, like, let me stand. Let me get up out of this thing. I'll go back to church. I'll quit.

I'll finish the Bible. That was 40 years ago. And I crawled out of there. and I stood up, my TV guy said, what did you see? But my brain snapped right out of that fear mode, just like you guys do. And I went, I saw Elvis at a thousand foot,

and they made a book out of it. And I never got a penny from that. Somebody wrote a book. I saw Elvis at a thousand feet. But you just grow up with people that you love. I was never a Beatles fan, even though, you know, I loved some of their songs. You know, Giddigan's Bible, everything religious I read.

Did you ever see? I go to my hotel room and I'd fall out. Yeah. Did you ever see Elvis play? No, never did. Of all the, two people, well, three people I want to meet one day. Seriously? Okay, I want to meet your daddy again.

I want to meet Elvis and Jesus. Yeah. Okay. Three good ones right there. Somebody try to beat that list. What was your favorite, what was your favorite, I guess, version of Elvis? Was it? I loved his gospel.

Me too. The music that he sang. and you know I'll still go into a crowd of people and I'm trying to get them up and you've got this big crowd you've done it and some days you go

I've got to find myself you know you know you talked about a lot of things in the book that you're very truthful in the book when you talked about you know I'd go places sometimes and it was just overload you know

the masses of people with your fan base I can't even imagine it but but you said and then at the end but now I realize how much it really meant to me. You know what I'm saying? That you were stepping out of the seat

and what those people meant that time in the press room and with the drivers and stuff. And you're still here, so you're still doing it, and the fans still got you. Who's got a bitch? I ain't got no complaint. He's still here. So in the middle of it, you know, I'd walk into a crowd.

I did a show once in, I can't even remember where, but it was snowing, and I went into this. this deal and there was a giant line and your dad was standing on the stage. Okay. And I thought, oh my God. And I looked over and there was two drunken Canadians standing in mind. And I thought, I got to go over there with two people and my sponsor are all there looking. And I got over there and okay, started.

And somebody applauded. I said, thank you. Thank you very much. You know, trying to give the old Elvis, trying to get a little attention because everybody wanted your dad just like you when you're out there. And so I'm standing there. And then all of a sudden your dad. goes, force, and I never even knew him. He said, get over here. And so, I went on and he goes,

okay, everybody, John Forrest is here. And everybody started applauding. And my sponsors go, wow, they all know you. They didn't have a clue who I was. But your dad saw that moment that he really cared. That's why I knew he had a big heart. He was going to take this little guy that nobody cared about, but he knew I needed that sponsor. And he was bringing me over there and put me in his line and we signed autographs. And that is a picture I have in my museum today that I got down on the stage and I kissed his ring and it was the most awesome deal and I've got the photograph of me down on my knees kissing your dad's ring and he's laughing like get up stupid you know what I mean but but when I was inducted into the uh hall of fame for driver of the year

uh I was a first drag racer to ever get it your dad comes through with his entourage everybody was dressed in black I heard about this walked in like oh man even security would not question him. You know what I mean? And you don't realize that now you're the same way, Jr., that with what you're, you know, we look, but that's the era and what you accomplish, like your dad, that's so amazing.

And even Don Perdom said to me the day, he's still my hero. Don Furnome was out there, NHR, he's got rules. Can't be on a start line throwing sponsors off. No, don't throw the sponsor off. And in the middle of it, somebody had questioned Don Ferdone,

do you have a pass to be up here? Oh, God. Oh, man. Don for Dome. You don't, it's like talking to Jesus. You don't question. Right. Or like an Earnhardt.

You don't question the situation. And I went over and I said, that's Don for Dome. And Ferdone said, hold on it for us, stand here. He wanted to hear this guy because he was going to have this security guy thrown off to start. Because you don't talk to Don Ferdon. He's still my hero. I'm still chasing him. I'm still trying to walk like him.

These guys are my heroes. Gartlets, they don't understand. where I came from, that it was all about them. I lived it. You know, my wife says, I think you love them all more than me. But you do. You know what I'm saying? Because they were a way of life just to want to be like them

and hear the chair of the crowd. And I'm still trying. I'll get there someday. You know that happened to Richard Petty once when he was going into the track. Have you heard this story? And one of the gate guards said they needed a credential in his response. It was a few years ago. And he said, this is my credential.

I get TV cameras that'll say to me, John, would you take off your glasses? And I said, first of all, would you ask Richard Petty to take off his glasses? Right. Why are you asking me, what am I dog meat here? That's awesome. So, you know, everybody knows that you're 16-time champ. I'm ready to start the questions. Yeah, me.

That was warm up. You got, I mean, you've done it all. You've won some of your races. but a lot of people don't know, especially younger fans, that it took you eight years to win your first Fondy car win? Yeah, now I'm trying to win 150. Right. And I said, oh, man, how many, I've been to a couple finals, three this year, I think.

And I thought, I hope it ain't like the bridesmaid. It's going to take me nine finals to finally run a race. Because I never won races for 10 years. You know, my daughters all come along actually in the first year, Courtney, Brittany, I don't get it. A female, you just get in these. cars like you think you know what you're doing and they don't even understand what's just I remember going to a driving school with uh with uh Chevrolet and and and all the drivers were lined up some of

the NASCAR guys and and actually was up in a front car is years ago when she first started and and uh the guy come back to me and he goes uh your daughter's crying and man i immediately okay some NASCAR guy said something i don't care how big they all tried to beat me up didn't have baseball game in Charlotte one year. Oh, what was that guy's name, Richie Little or something? I don't. That race car driver. Somebody.

Chad Little? Chad Little. Richard Little. Richard Little. Richie Little. Richard Littles, Roxanne. Chad Little, going to beat me up because I was catching and I was heckling everybody. And I, you know, me big mouth.

They all come out of the dugout was going to beat me up. Really? Yeah. And I end up hitting a home run in that game. My adrenaline was so wired up. I was the next to bat and knocked it out of the fart, never had a home run of my whole life. then I did it. Okay, what were we talking about? I forgot. See, I hit my head. I can't remember that.

About how long it took you to win? Yeah, going through the first eight years your career were out of the win in the finals, and, you know, obviously you became this one of the greatest of all time. During that, I guess during that eight years, like, what was, was it frustrating trying to figure out, like, how to get the, how to get the where you are today? You dream of an interview when you win. Austin Coil was with me. I give him credit. People say, you're the winning this guy in history. No. and coil, my crew chief was the one in the sky mystery. I went along for the ride.

I did my job, but he was a guy that, and now we're going after $150. You know what I'm saying? But you don't even want to think about it. You don't want to get it in your head because what's it going to do? Okay, it's over after you've been sick for 10 races, worrying about it. And now I thought I was here this week. I was doing everything to fudge that old Christmas tree. These kids are just killing me on the lights.

And so what are we talking about? Man, I did hit my head. What are we talking about? You're right on track. You're trying to win $150. Oh, he said. Yeah. And the kids are beating you at the tree.

Oh, man, they're killing me up there. And I get in the trailer and I go, oh, man, okay. Just walk out there and get some of that monster energy and take a drink of it and get wound up. And I said, yeah, and then you're going to have a heart attack running around. It's great stuff. But I'm a wired up guy already. but I drank it when I needed it fires me up right but in the minute and it was great sponsor I know it's your series sponsor and and they sponsored my daughter for a number of years but but in the middle of it where are we in the middle of okay more coffee I'm losing it how have you have you always had this much energy your whole life have you said virginity no no no I lost my virginity a long time ago I can't I can't hear either

I'm going deaf. Have you always had this much energy? Yeah, but I've always been, you know, when I was a kid, I had to go in and in a truck stop. And, you know, in football games, you know, I had to always hustle and he had to tell a story. And they told me my grandpa was hung at the hanging tree in Oklahoma, and I'm sticking to that story. What do you get hung from? Stealing horses, I thought that'd be cool. No, tell him lies.

You know, I always joke, and I can't joke about this, but I used to say, the two, because in our town, Nixon is very famous in Yorba Lenda. They got museums there in his house. He grew up in and all this stuff. And I always tell them the two biggest bullshitters come out of Yorba Lennon, President Nixon and John Forrest. That's my time to think. But I always been high energy. When you were a little kid? Yeah, but I'm a coffee freak.

And my doctor says, you got to stop. How long do you think your old heart's going to go down? this road. Don't care. I do care, though. See, when I joke about it, I really do care. Sure you do. I want to be with my grandkids. That's what I want, and my daughters go, are you over us, Dad? You know what I'm saying? And I told Courtney, I'm over you since you ran off with Ray Hall. I mean, I spent all this money making you a superstar. And the next day, she says, Dad, I'm getting married. And the only thing I'll trade trophies for is them grandkids. And it changes your life because they just love you all the time. They need.

And it ain't like, oh, you can pass them back, you know, when it's over. And the problem is we were so busy chasing our dreams and trying to put shoes on their feet that you don't raise your kids. And that is sad. And now I always said, NHRA took my kids away from me. But now they're back. They're back with me racing until Rahal took off with one. So Ray Hall, I love you. And I love his daddy.

Yeah. You know, I said, I was there when you won the Indy 500 and the Budweiser. car. And then Robert Hype, my son-in-law, he's the most truthful guy in the world. He goes for us, you weren't there when he won the Indy 500. I said, well, why do I believe that? And he goes, because you were racing that weekend. I know the schedules, and you weren't at the Indy 500. And I just hey, you know one night I'm doing the Long Beach Grand Prix, right? Yeah. So I went to drive in school with Tony George and a bunch of the movie stars. And I was entertaining a lot of the movie stars, right? Crystal Bernard, remember she had the show wings and all those kind of shows.

And anyway. This is a celebrity race. Yeah. You're in a celebrity race at Long Beach. Yeah. For the Indie race. Yeah. And so they took me down there.

And all the celebrities got on the stage and started telling jokes, but everybody was drunk at the party. And pretty soon they started getting rude. And we had all these foreigners there from the Grand Prix from other countries. Yeah. Whoever they're with. But great people. great people, right? Okay, Trump says he's going to fix it all with Russia and everything. Okay,

okay, I won't go there. So what I'm saying is they said, for some of these people are getting a little out of hand, and we don't know if these people can handle it because, you know, there's certain rules. You don't dance with their wives. You don't, you, so first thing I'm thinking, wait a minute, I've been drinking too. You want to throw me on the stage? I said, this ain't good timing so I you know I went up there and and and I told them you know I'm famous for certain things right and I'm looking for trying to come up with some stuff you know you know bad jokes like I rear-ended crystal Bernard in practice well that wasn't funny you know so so you can believe that but I actually said it and then I made the all-time Mario Andretti

you know, like you guys, a god. So I said, I remember going into the bar, okay, and I looked across and I saw Mario talking with a couple of his guys, you know what I mean? So when I was on the stage, I said, you know, yeah, last night, me and Mario were in the bar last night, and having drinks. And so I thought that's pretty cool.

Everybody's a flod, and they thought, oh, was Mario right? And I remember walking out to the curve, and these two big gorillas walked out. to me, he said, Mr. Forrest, I said, yes, sir. And they said, we're with Mario Andretti. And I said, yeah. And they said, we'd appreciate you weren't in the bar with him last night. I said, I never said I was with him. I embellished. I never lie. What I said was, I was in the bar. Me and Mario. But you insinuated you as with him. Oh, no, not if you hear what I said. I'm smarter than that. But I was in the bar with him. And not with him, though, I said, I got it the first time.

And they said, well, next time, we're going to break your arms and legs, don't do it no more. They didn't use those words, but they made it clear. And then years later, when I met him and got to know him, you know what I mean? And then it was all in fun, but you just don't talk about people that you don't know from that world. So, but I could come down here. I think it was Junior Johnson's house because I sang the song, you know, Thunder Road, you know, lightning was his engine and thunder was his road. It's a famous movie. And the kids today, you know, I'm telling Sarah, our PR lady coming over here, she's

looking to me like, don't give him any more coffee, whip me right into a Dunkin' Donuts, give me a half a donut, let's go to work. But that is the world, there was a question leading up to that. There was. I don't remember this point. Finish that. Hey, a scenario here, a hypothetical. and you finish it on how you think it would end.

If a NASCAR driver, a drag racer, and an IndyCar racer went into a bar. Dot, dot, dot. How does that end? Fist fight. Really? You ain't going to get away, especially a NASCAR guy. Indy car guy, they might kiss you. But they'll slug you before it's over.

Oh, let me, I know them guys. They are different personalities. I went to a show once, and I had to do a show, and I'm standing with my guy, and I said, what's wrong with this picture? And I look over at this line and they're all lined up, you know, to get these Indy car drivers. I won't even say names to get their autograph. And everybody in line, they got little umbrellas and the girls in high heels. And I look over at my deal.

I said it looks like a homeless situation. It looks like you're all trying to get in a bar. Those are my fan base. And that's the way it was. But let me tell you something. Them Indycar guys, man, like NASCAR guys, you're all. physically. Look at me. I got a big old tub on me from drinking. And I don't even drink beer, and I still got one. Look like a truck driver. And I love you truck drivers. I am a truck driver.

But what I'm saying is, better get a plug for Freightliner while I'm sitting here. Okay. Go ahead. But in the middle of it, they just, you guys, you live in the gym, and I do since my crash. I go to the gym. You know, my wife will say, you've been five days in a row. You're going to wear yourself out. I go their number one for depression. I fight depression. Okay. I never read his book, but I read all about Robbie Williams. When that little problem thing went down,

because that kind of stuff worries me, because I've had depression since I was a kid. Wow. You know what I'm saying? And I fight it every day. But I get up, and I get up in the morning, and I go, something's wrong. The sky is falling.

And I run straight to the gym. I go straight to coffee. You know what I mean? And, you know, for about a month, I told my wife something's wrong with me. I can't get up. And she goes, well, I don't know what's any different. I said, well, you change brand of coffee?

She goes, no, I went to decaf. And I said, don't ever do that to me again. Don't ever do that. So, you know, people try to calm me down. But I get in the gym, I get on a treadmill, and then my depression goes away, and then I'm happy again. All you got to do is be happy. That's interesting.

Yeah. And I'm going to go out of this building, and I'm going to lay down on the grass. and have heart attack because my heart's about to quit. No, you're going to do that. Wouldn't that be something if I went down on the junior show? No. We could be famous. Don't do that.

Hey, when you were talking about the celebrity race, did anybody ever ask you to run IROC when IROC was running? Yeah, I was going to be in it, and then Pontiac fired me, right in the middle of it. I'd won the championship, and they heard rumors I was going somewhere else, and I wasn't. It was just a rumor. And I'm pretty loyal.

I stay where I'm at. They got to fire me before I leave. You know what I'm saying? But I grew up in a Chevrolet. My mom drove a Buick Wildcat. It's the first car I ever drove in a drag race. And I actually went on a date and ended up at Lions Drag Strip. And to impress a girl, I went out and drove him, won a trophy.

And then I won my second trophy in a corvette. And I had a high school. I drove fuel allards, front engine dragsters. Nobody knows that, you know, where I came from. But, no. What was the question? I rock. I did it again.

I was wondering if you'd ever. They took me out of Iraq and everyone said they said you were going in I rock. Well, first of all, they probably put me out there. They said, you realize, force, be careful. When I went back, Baker's driving school and they had some celebrities there that was with the media. They said, no, force, when you go out here, be careful because these drivers are real valuable and we don't want you to crash somebody. And I thought, well, what am I, dog meat?

I went up with Polaroid years ago to Boston to do a show. And they said they're going to be with two of the most famous basketball players, the Celtics. I think it was Larry Bird or Jeff Bird or somebody. And you're going to be with the other guy. No. Jeff Burton. No, not Burton. Yeah, Larry Bird.

You're going to be with the basketball player. And there was two big rivalries going on. And you're going to take pictures. I thought, well, Sarah, am I in trouble? See, she laughed. She had enough of this. She's back there. She's back there.

They said, hey, here's what we're going to do. you're going to be out front of a Kmart. So I thought, okay. And I used to stand in front of Kmart's at 10 in the morning until 8 at night. That's how we did sponsorships in the early days, right? So here I am. Here I am in front of this place. And I'm standing out front, and the fans are lined up a mile to get their pictures with Polaroid.

One of them little cameras spits out a picture. And right in the middle of it, I'm waiting. I'm going to meet these basketball players. And they came up with two cardboard standups. No. And put them next to me. And the fans went right by me and stood next them and took their picture. And I thought, okay, but that wasn't the bad part.

The bad part was when it started to rain. And they said, get all these stars inside. And they grabbed the two mannequins and took them inside and left me standing in the rings. And I said, something's wrong with this picture here. And they said, no, them cardboard standups are really, can't get them wet, they're really valuable. And that's been my life. And I'm still on the low end of the totem pole. That's not true.

Not true. That's true. But at least now I know about the I rock answer. Yeah, I never got to go. Did you ever want to do laps? Oh, I did it. Like, you know, turn left, all those things? They told me that when I ran, Buddy Baker, I'll never forget this.

I rode with Buddy Baker. Yeah. From the racetrack in Charlotte, I think, to his driving school. Or maybe it was, I was in Rockingham. Yeah, the driving school would be at Rockingham. Yeah, Rockingham. And I went from where he was. drove me in a pickup truck.

I think he was still drunk the next day. Oh, I shouldn't say that because I love these are real country folks. And then I met his dad and you talk about a terror? Now, I could be wrong. I could be talking about the complete wrong family. But I remember one of them media guys

burn up one of his cars. And I saw the old man going across the racetrack and he was furious. Like you abused our car and they yelled and screaming. I thought they were going to fight. NASCAR guys will fight on a drop of the hat. And so, well, Lindycar guys, I ain't taking nothing,

but at least they'll kiss you before they slug you. I like that. I'm just heckling you guys, because my son-in-law is out there, and I want to piss him off. Ray Hall loves me. He just don't know it yet. Oh, yeah?

He just don't know. You guys get along, pretty good. Oh, boy, he's a different animal, and I remember when she crashed. Our family had stayed at Lake Tahoe, and he was flying home and she had a bad crash, but I was getting ready to sign advanced auto parts to get that contract sign.

So we took her to the hospital, MRIs are doing all these head tests. She's okay, no broken bones. So I walked in there and I said, Doc, first of all, no one knows this, but I said, how is she really? Oh, she's fine, she'll be okay. And just needs a little rest because my baby. I love her, you know what I mean?

I'd give my liver tomorrow. Except I think maybe it had too much bud along the way. So in the middle of this, I went in to the hospital room. I said, okay, they're going to get you out. I said, we're in Seattle. The media's outside. Your fans are lined up.

They were really worried about the girl. And I said, okay, here's what we got to do here, Courtney. And then Graham had flown to a race, and he sent his jet back to get her. You know what it's like to be, John Forrest, you're finally feeling you're somebody, and I finally got moved up to business class from C-27, on Southwest, and you're sitting there, and you look over and my wife goes, hey, there's Brittany, Courtney, and I look out the window, and there's her and Ray Hall coming out in the private jet, and they're waving at me, and I'm thinking, and I upgraded.

Okay. So anyway, he sends his jet back to get her, and I said, okay, look, you've got to walk out of this hospital. If you go out in a wheelchair and we load you in a car, they're going to say that something's wrong with you, and this contract is being signed as we speak. and Courtney, whatever you say, Dad, she is a trooper like all my girls. And she got right up and she walked outside and it was a little hard on her. I could tell. I didn't realize it, but I thought she was okay.

I walked out all of them. I got tied telling big old eyes and stuff. Somebody give me a beer. And I quit drinking. The doctor said I had to. They said that mind will never, your brain floats around and water up there and you can't keep it full of alcohol. Okay. And now I'm just a mess.

No. No, I don't believe that. I need a drink right now. Okay. So in the middle of this, in the middle of she walked out. So when I get to Lake Tahoe, her crew chief was Ashley's husband, Danny Hood. And everyone's moping around. And finally, no one would speak up because our family knows we're racers.

And Danny walked down and said, if someone ain't going to tell you you're an asshole, well, you are. And you made your daughter get up and walk out that door. And it was our one little three days in Tahoe. you know, we get next to Christmas, right? And I was really embarrassed because I realized what I'd done. And Ray all never said a word. That's her job.

I get it because that's how his dad would be, get that money. And I went and got my car and I cried all the way. I'll go cry now because I love my kids more than anything. And you think you love that baby? You ain't had a chance to fall in love with that baby. It's coming. It will run your life. It will run your life.

I beat up school teachers. I've done everything. Don't mess with my kids. And I want them to be taught. I want them to learn. I tell my crew chiefs, you be tough on them. You drive them, you push them. And the girls, what are we talking about?

I don't even remember. What are we talking about, I know. It was about Graham and Courtney. Just Graham, how Graham fits into it. So I've actually got to know Graham because me and him both are sponsored by National Guard at one point. so we did a few appearances together and a huge fan of yours. Then I got to be a fan of your girls as they were racing and doing well. Graham's a great guy, a lot of fun to hang out with.

I don't know him like you know him, but I enjoy him. I think he's great. And it's a unique pairing because of, you know, she's a racer, he's a racer. She's crashing. He's got to be there for her. He's crashing. All the things that you go through in motorsports as a driver and emotions and stuff. them having to support each other going through those motions.

It must have been pretty difficult at times. But I think now she's – so what's she doing now? She's not driving. She's under contract with advanced auto parts. But they've got a lot of deals. He's got a great agency that takes care of him. So they're working a lot of stuff because she's a driver. He's a driver.

But they lived on the road. They never got a chance. Bought a new home on the side of a mountain. They're going to start a family. Well, y'all ain't allowed to talk about that. Not allowed to talk about it. Oh, man, I get in trouble. You can't talk about it.

I can't. But I think that was his plan years back. Yeah. And she wants to have kids. Yeah. But I don't talk about it because the fans are like, why'd she quit? Is she pregnant? You know.

I'm selfishly hoping that she races again one day. Do you think she ever will? I know she loves it. Right. I know that she's under contract. She'll work in Indy car. She'll do drag race and stuff. They'll have her in the booth because she's a big star out.

there. But she had to make her move just like Ashley. You know what I'm saying? I got those two grandsons now. And women have a window. And Courtney's just a kid. But, but, you know, Graham has his plant. And he, you know, he's into car businesses with his dad. He's got his own shop in Indy where he does car wheels, mufflers, all this kind of stuff. And he really is a smart guy. And he lives on the phone. And that was one of the the things I never lived on a phone. I was like, I ran to a pay phone the other day. My phone went debt and I forgot how to make it work. Like people don't use pay phones anymore. What has happened to America? It's different. But I ran there and I was like, wait, I used to do this.

I had numbers and couldn't figure it out. I know it. So anyway, the world has changed. And if we don't adapt, we'll be a dinosaur. And too late for me. No. I'm already a dinosaur. But, I'm going out swinging. Do you have anybody's phone number memorized? And don't get me wrong when I joked about IndyCar guys that'll kiss you. But they're all beautiful. They are. You know, like NASCAR, they all got physiques.

Like, what happened to drag racers? And don't get me wrong, Ron Caps, Hagen looks like the Hulk. You know what I'm saying? And, you know, we started, I don't know when he started, but I went in the gym one day and he don't look like he looks now. And I went in the gym and he was working out and I was working out. Well, about 10 years has passed, I still look the same. And he's like, body beautiful.

He's a big dude. If somebody set me in front of a pay phone and said, call somebody, I'd be at I, I'd be at, I can't, I don't have anybody's number memorized anymore. I remember when I was, you know, 15 didn't have, you know, didn't have a, wasn't using a cell phone all the time. You had people's numbers memorized. Yeah. And now I couldn't even tell you what my wife's cell phone number is.

Do you, do you remember phone number? No, the truth is. So you were at that pay phone. Did you have a number in your mind? Totally. I used to rehearse. I used to rehearse. I mean, I could sit here and talk about the last 20 checks I wrote and what the number was on them.

And now I don't deal in money. I went by a Bank of America the other day. And I said, I used to live in the parking lot to run in at the last moment and cover a check that was going to bounce. And I lived that life. I knew everything about it. And now it's all changed where people. just run all that for me. And I run out of the office. Somebody gives me a script and I go. But same thing with phone numbers. I knew everybody's phone number. And now it's like I struggle.

You know, you know them tests? Okay. John Forrest, what hospital are you in? One of them. I said, I don't have a clue. You really don't. No. Someone gave me a schedule. Somebody drove me there and dropped me off. Going to hospital, go up to elevator three, and going Okay, and it wasn't important to me to know the hospital. They didn't get it. And I am scatterbrained. I'm nuts. I can't remember shit half the time.

But I was always that way. You know, and my mother dropped me on my head. It's in my baby book when I was three months old. You know what I mean? It's in my baby. She was drinking and partying and dropped her kid. Okay. It happens.

So what I'm saying is, and I love my mom and this day, I pray to her every day. I talk, you know what's funny when my mom and dad, that's why I said, you know, mom is looking down on you, take care of you. I used to say, you know, I got to go over to see my mom and dad. I still haven't covered the checks they gave me. I got to pay them back, and I got to go see them. And now I talk to them every day. Every day.

You know what I mean? Because they're right there with you, if that's the way you believe. And that is how I believe. And if I'm wrong and I get to heaven, there ain't no heaven. There's just a big old rock there burning. I'll say, well, so what really matters? But I'd hate to be at the furly gays. and say, you know what, you never believed?

No, I didn't. I tried to find you for 100 years, and I couldn't. I ain't going to get into that religion. And you never spoke to me. And I talk to you all the time. But I ain't taking that chance. That's right. That's right.

Insurance. So you joined Twitter about, what, a year ago? I don't know. Yeah, but people do it. Sarah does it for me. Yeah. And she tried to clean it up. My kids do it for me all the time because I'm not good at that.

Yeah. You know? People always ask. One of the worst thing ever happened to me is I discovered porn hub. And I talk about an addiction. I got to get rid of it. I got to get rid of it. Okay, sorry.

I'm sorry. You can cut that. No. Oh my goodness. At my age. People always ask me all the time. Like, what was your dad think about Twitter and Instagram or, or. computer. I think I just learned my answer.

I'm standing behind my race car trailer, and I see these five boxes, and one's got a woodpecker in it, another one's got something. And I said, what the hell is that on the back of my trailer? And they said, well, that's all the, whatever they're called. Social media. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Social media that's on your phone. Well, how do you? Then I spend two days trying to find out this certain thing, Instagram or something. I don't know what it was.

and then my Kelly, the girl runs my office in India, I said, Kelly, I can't find it. And she goes, that's because you don't have it. Right. Well, how do you figure this stuff out? How do you learn how to run a phone? You ever going and say, I'd like to have directions on a phone?

You know what I mean? And they don't tell you. Well, how do you learn? Just do it. But my grand, I can't turn on my TV at home. You know what I'm saying? And I keep going back to apologize and I was trying to, oh, you NASCAR,

Indy car guys out there that I love, I want to tell you, I'm just trying to heckle Graham, because he really means a lot to me. And wherever they go, I know he'll take care of her, and that's important to me. I ain't going to be around long, but what I'm saying is he really is a good guy. And his dad is really a good guy. And his partners that he's got, you know, Ray Hall and Letterman, no, I meant Letterman and Latterman and Lannigan and those guys are just, they're really good people. And you know, your sponsors become your partners. Sure. They become your friends.

And a lot of people don't think it. They think, we just do it for the money. You know what I mean? But pretty soon, you know the families. You watch their children grow up. You wait till that baby. She's only a year old. Wait until they start getting that personality.

Wait until they say, dad, da, da. Oh, you have to run. I'm trying to get her to say it. You'll run and hide. I practice every day. She hasn't got it yet. You'll run and hide and cry. It'll make you weak.

And it becomes a, and now my grandkids, come along because I miss so much. And now my grandkids, I just, I wait for that phone and I tell my wife, okay, now you send me pictures, right? Okay, how do I find them? John, push the button on the far right, and they'll

pop up, and that's how I live. And I don't know why, I just never learned it, but see, I'm so caught up in the world I live in, running all the time. Sarah'll tell you, all the way over here, I told her we're, and I don't know, she's just a kid. She's 20 years old or something.

But where did NASCAR come from? We're driving down all these streets. And I started telling her about Thunder Road. She never heard of the movie. And I said, yeah, well, I did a deal. And you look at Junior Johnson and their dads and stuff, they ran alcohol. You know what I mean? In the back roads, and they hopped up their shivis and their fords,

and they did all that. And then they outran the cops, and that's how they made a living. And pretty soon they become good, and they went on racetracks, and stars were born. And that really is how I believe it was created. Of course, I live by the Ten Commandments with Charleston. I watched it the other night. And then they had a real show about religious during Easter Sunday and all that stuff.

And in the middle of it, I thought, well, that ain't the way, because they're telling it real, how it happened. That ain't the way he parted the red sea. He opened up the Pacific Ocean, and it was a little old waterway that he waded across. I said, no, you're screwing up everything I believed about how this thing works, the burning rock. I've been searching for it my whole life, and I'm going to find it, Jeff, right in it.

And Austin Coil would say to me, for us, you ever looked out the front windshield, open your eyes when it's on fire? That's the burning rock. It's trying to tell you something, and you ain't listening. Goodness gracious. Okay. When's y'all's next race?

We're heading. I'm staying on the road. That's why I'm so. Robert Heights stuck with me. We're in a car. We're going to go to Atlanta on the way. But I got to come here and spend the days out of the race. You're driving to Atlanta? Yeah, we're going to drive. What's John, what do you like as a passenger in a car riding down? Terrible. Everybody hates me. Ask Sarah. She's ready to quit right now. Because I get into, I talk for hours. Talking. And my family, my family say the most painful thing is watching John in a drive. through, you know, because I hate it when you're going and say, I'd like to have a hamburger plane, please. Would you like tomatoes? Well, because in certain restaurants, I think Wendy's charges you for tomatoes. I don't know if they do or not, unless you're, but certain things cost you cheese and all

that. And I said, what part don't you get about? Plain. You know? And my wife goes, why do you want to fight with them? They're just doing their job. You know what I'm saying? So where's your next race?

You asked that. We're going to Atlanta, and we're doing a big thing for Coca-Cola with Mellow Yellow. This weekend. This weekend. This weekend. Commerce Georgia. Oh, yeah. I race every week.

I used to match race every week. It just got to where you couldn't run on these schedules and the teams. When did you quit match racing? I still match race. We go to Bill Bader's night under fire. Pack them in every year. Really? Yep.

Two race cars. I race with my daughters one week. This year, it'll be with Robert. He'll have a car. I drive everything. can. I'm trying to stay in the game. Hey, I'm 100 years old. I raised when cars had spoke to wooden wheels. So how many, how many weekends will you work? Well, I used to do, well, I work every weekend. Right. But I work in a car. I'm sitting in the parking lot and the

priest at the Catholic, and I thought I was Catholic. I just found out I'm not. Okay. No, no. I would love to ask about that But I want to make sure we get the question You're here. I didn't know right, yeah. No, but I was born Lutheran And so was I. Well, I was Lutheran and went to church.

Mom was, I remember my brother Louis said, my brother Louis, crazy Louis, with me all weekend here at Charlotte. And he cried when I didn't win. I said, Louis, we know the drill. We've done all this stuff, you know. But I remember, when they were passing the money down the little basket to put the money in,

we used to make change. And my mom caught my brother Louis making change. They would take money out of the plate. Well, no, we'd always say we'd put in 10, but we'd take out of 20. And my mother caught him, and boy, I remember beating him up right in the church parking lot. But then when I got married, my wife was Catholic, and I was married. My daughter, Adra, is our financial officer. And that's my granddaughter Autumn, but my daughter, Adra's been with me from very beginning, right out of college.

And all my kids, my kids are all educated. I went to college till noon. I went to play football. And then my dad said, well, you're getting married. Did I tell you that? I said, I am. And anyway, married this beautiful girl that I'd grown up with. And we had Adra.

and then I was driving a truck. I was an 18-wheeler. You know I was doing a show, and I was a Teamster, okay? And oh, life was so good. And I ain't against Teamster, I'm all for it. But sometimes companies get so big. They did it to give you everything in the old days, medical for your kids, a vacation with pay

and hours where you wouldn't be overworked. The companies were kind of the bad guys. And then it switched, and the unions become the bad guys. It started. So I'm standing out in front of Garrett freight lines, and the president walked out and said, well, we're done. Me and Louis, we were driving truck that's in the 60s, 68 or 69. And I was 18 and I was a teamster.

And you've got to be 21 to be a teamster, but they snuck me in. So here I am standing there. Yeah, I was there when they buried Hoff. He's underneath the New York Stadium. Oh, come on. Oh, he's still there. Yeah. So what I'm saying is in the middle of it, they said, I said, Louie,

what are we now? And he said, well, now we're not Teamsters. We're independent truckers. So without thinking years later, I go to do this big show in Kansas City, the National Truckers Association, this big O deal.

And I'm a Teamster, and I ain't even thinking, I'm up on the stage, and I got 5,000 people. Truck drivers are wives, and I'm entertaining, but nobody's laughing. God damn, this is a tough crowd.

I like tough crowds. But what I do. don't realize that everything I'm relating to is I'm a trucker, but I'm a teamster. And they're in the pen of truckers. They ain't teamsters. That's a war there. You know what I'm saying? That's right.

And so I'm going on and on. And my brother Louis goes, he's sitting right in the front row, and he goes, what's he doing on his lips? And he's saying, no, teamsters. He even said Hoffa. When he said, hafa, I said, I get it. And I said, so here we were standing in front of Garrett Freight lines. We're all union guys.

And we all got fired. Trash cans were burning with fire and all that. We're all fired. And I said, and everyone's looking like, well, what happened? Well, I looked at my brother Louis and I said, what does that mean? And Louis said, we're independent truckers. And the crowd stood up. I got a standing ovation.

In the last minute, veiled out of that. Bailed out of that like you wouldn't believe. Dale, they answer your question. They race 24 times a year. Yeah. Plus his match races, right? But not as many in the old days we used to race like you guys did in the early days in your dad. We were running Monday nights, Wednesday nights.

Oh, multiple times. Just to eat. Wow. You know, and that's the way it was. But now the world's changed. Corporate America's come in. And we've got to watch corporate America. It's getting tougher, but we try to cut better deals.

And I wish I would have backed up. and I talked about the miniccar guys. I love all of you. I'm sorry. But they know I love them because I got a lot of friends over there. Well, man, we... Except for Mario. We are glad.

Okay, okay. That time you're walking to do a bar. Okay. Okay, I'm warmed up now. You're ready to do this show. We're glad you came, man. We are hoping that you'll come back. We know that we know you got a busy schedule.

And we're going to be pulling for you in Atlanta to get $150. Yeah. Thank you for staying over, too. Pretty, yeah. Did I stay over? No. I thought you were cutting me off here. Last night.

Last night. You know, you didn't need to be here in North Carolina today and you stayed for us. No. That means a lot. No, this is important to come here to be on your show because I'm building my fan base. A lot of my fan base is in the graveyard. I go by and see them in every town I go to. But there's a whole new world out there and they're coming and the people love your show.

And I'm just really honored. honored to be a part of it. And I saw the picture for the first time. They showed me babies before and I don't even think about it. But my daughter, Brittany, pulled it up on her phone and said, here, because Courtney sent them all to her. And she says, look at this baby. And it was just beautiful. And that is the most important thing in your life. And you think you know that now and you're doing everything. But you won't know it until they get that personality and they start talking. And then when they say, I love you, Daddy and Mama, now I'm going to cry right here on your show. Because that is really that all we are is an extension of our children.

You know what I mean? We'll change sponsors. We'll move on. Life will change. We'll be superstars. Whatever. But in the end, it's our children. And that's why I'm staying by my kids to the very end.

I call out it's Courtney's race car here. And because that really matters to me. Courtney's love of my life. So's Adra, so's Ashley, and so's Brittany. And Brittany out there, I did this whole deal, Britney. Okay, I designed a new T-shirt, and we're calling you the last samurai. You're the last force that's left. You saw that movie with Tom Cruise?

And she goes, Dad, you know, what about my sisters? You're acting like they're all gone by calling me the last samurai. Okay, I didn't think about it. And then I went on and replied what some reporter wrote in a page. paper at Houston. I said, this girl wears NHRA championship ring, not a wedding ring. Oh, did I get beat up for that? She said, Dad, I have 40 proposals to get married because you said it on one show. So the listeners, we love you out there. Thank you for being on our show, the John Forrest Jr.

Now, I get one shot. That's right. And you know what was funny? True story. Then I'll shut up. And you can cut all this. coming out of the hotel, a guy said that to me. That's the name of your show. Yeah. And he called it out to me, I'm going to watch you today on down foot. Awesome. And he said it going by.

What hell is he talking about? Oh, yeah, I'm going to a show. Like, I don't know how you get the word out, but just a guy walking by in the hotel. We get the word. Yeah. We get the word out because we have great guests. Yeah.

And that little woodpecker. That little woodpecker. I never cussed. I did good. You did all the way through the show. I'm trying to keep my job at Chevrolete. Will you come back? Oh, yeah.

I'm going to wait out here until you call me back in. I love this facility. It's beautiful. Thank you. And what you've built and just honor to be here with both of you. Thank you. And the Earnhardt name, I go back with a million years because I loved your dad. Yeah.

And I have my heroes, Richard Petty, you know, Rusty. I come from that school of people that, oh, we had fun. Yeah. And there's stories that I'd love to tell, but they tell them on. me so I'm shutting up. All right, John. Thank you. Thanks for coming, man.

Honors mine. Yes, sir. Man, that was a pretty interesting interview. I will have to say, good luck to Matthew Dillner being able to get this out on time tonight. We're going to need some coffee. Or this week. Pretty interesting guy. And the thing about doing interviews with our guests, Mike, is that.

that we don't have to feel like this urgency to have the greatest interview ever of John Forst, although they are all great. We just get a little snapshot of who he is, and we'll get John back just like all our other guests in the future, and that's going to be a lot of fun. We got a new partner, and I'm excited about this one. Sometimes, you know, Matthew will send me the partners ahead of time, the reads for our ads,

so that I can be familiar with them. And when this one popped up in my email, man, did I get excited? I think it was like 15 seconds. I got a response from them. I knew it would too. All right. So it's ancestry. And if anybody has been following my career or some of the more dedicated supporters,

they know that I have done a lot of work in my own genealogy. And I used ancestry to do that. It's incredible. I was able to accomplish so much, and it helped build me. I eventually, you know, got elicited the help of some people to really make sure that the information that I had was real because I was going to go to Germany, and I wanted to make sure that I was going to the correct locations at the correct churches, for example, to be able to ask my wife to marry me and so forth. But all this started at Ancestry.

I was able to build an incredible foundation of my genealogy on ancestry alone. And it almost becomes a game. You get addicted in trying to find these hints and this information and build that puzzle. Well, now they have even more to offer. Where do you go? Look at this. They say my show. I bought two hats, junior hats, to take back to money for me.

And they won't take no money. No, no. Oh, man. No, it's cute. No, I don't come to ask for free stuff. The ladies were really nice. I did a little commercial in there and I said, this is where I do all my Christmas shopping. Sorry, I interrupt.

We're going to send this back when we get our... I don't want nothing free, and they were very nice. But I wanted some ass. I got your daddy's t-shirt. I've carried it in my trailer forever. It's my good life. All right. Thank you, John.

No problem. I don't think we've ever had a guest come back to during an ad read. Yeah, so John wanted to buy some hats in the souvenir shop and they wouldn't take his money. so he brought us a $100 bill. I wish I'd have got him to sign it. Now that would be a fun thing to put up. Let me, let me, well, now they got more to offer, Mike. They got ancestry DNA.

It's a DNA test that you take and you send back to ancestry. And it gives you so much more information and gives you not just about the places you're from. It connects you to the places in the world where your story started using precise geographic detail and clear-cut historical insights. You can even trace your ancestors' journeys over time. following how and why your family moved from place to place. For example, the Earnhardt came from Germany, escaping religious persecution over, and they sailed in 1744 to Philadelphia,

jumped off the boat, pledged their allegiance to the queen or whatever they had to do, and they were given some land. I won't go into too much detail, but... But this is incredible. I mean, you know this based off of all, yeah. So this will, you know, you'll be able to understand some of the, when I'm doing

my genealogy, I'm like, well, I know they moved, but why? Why did they, for example, why did the Earnhardt travel, migrate from Philadelphia down to Salisbury, North Carolina, and Concord, and Canapolis? What was that move all about? Ancestry DNA can help you kind of piece together some of them holes. It's easy to do

within days, they mail you an ancestry DNA kit, all right, which includes full instructions and a saliva collection tube. You mail it back, and it goes to the lab and the journey begins. Ancestry's unique features and record collections can give you a more complete picture of people from your past, like the events that shaped them, how they made a living, even how long they attended school.

All right. Go to Ancestry.com slash Dale Jr. today for 20% off your ancestry DNA kit. That's ancestry.com slash Dale Jr. For 20% off your ancestry DNA kit, Ancestry.com slash Dale Jr. I have my kit. I'll be doing this with you. I'll get on board and see what we can learn. I love that.

Yeah, it was great. I've done a lot of research on my own, and that's the one thing I've never done. I know. That's like the final piece of the puzzle, the DNI kit. I got to do that. I want to do it. Door bumper, clear. Hey, this is TJ Majors, and this week on DoorBurper Clear podcast,

we're going to talk about increased downforce, increased horsepower package at Talladega, cautions on the last laugh at Talladega, and Carson Ellage, partying on Talladega Boulevard, which I do not endorse. Listen and subscribe the door bumper clear on major podcast platforms. All right. So, yeah, we got our open segment,

man. We're just going to have some casual conversation and this is sponsored by nobody. I can remember to do that. I probably remember to get our sponsors in. Anyways, you know, Mike, you went to the drag race, had a lot of fun this weekend, learned a lot. You're going to go back.

Oh, yeah. I'm dying to get you to the tree. so you can feel that. Obviously, in the grandstands, you can feel the ground shaking. Imagine being down there and the burning and the nostrils of the fuel and all that, and the eyes watering, and it's crazy. When I took Amy down there to the tree and they launched, she took off running because she thought something bad was happening.

She thought things were going wrong, but that's just how it is. I had a birthday party. Ila turns one on the 30th, and we had a birthday party for her, two big bouncy houses. Rainbow-themed birthday party. We had 20-something kids there all in the swimming pool, hired a lifeguard, felt great, no anxiety. We had a good day, had a smash cake.

Everything went as planned. I didn't think that was going to happen. You know, you had the first birthday party. I've never thrown a birthday party. I really didn't even throw it. Amy threw it. But the chances of something going wrong, something breaking, something bad happening,

someone falling, getting hurt, whatever, didn't happen. You were there? So was Matthew. Matthew. Matthew is there. That's right. Listen, I've been to a few one-year-old birthday parties before. I'm going to tell you something.

That was a party. That was your wife needs to be commended. Because that was a lot of fun. You know what I like most about it? And this is just one of those peculiar things. Once you've been enough birthday parties, you know that you'll appreciate this. There was no expectations. People could do what they wanted to do.

There was no agenda. There was no, now everybody, come over here and watch Iowa Open Presents. You know, and we were like, you know, It was, you want to go to the slide? Go to the slide. Even the parents could go down to slide, you know? And if you want to eat, there was, man, the food was there. It was like the desserts.

It was an amazing party. Thank you. I'm telling you, man, it's so nice. And you'll be so glad to hear this. I mean it. I mean it. Matthew, you felt the same way. Yeah, my kid didn't want to leave, man. He got his little turtle swimmy thing on and he enjoyed the heck out of the pool.

Yeah. So the party was great. Got some great photos. We unveil our Darlington car over the weekend. That's right. And so I think a lot of people had a pretty good idea what it was going to be. We actually have that car here, a new die-cast prototype of that car on the table, which makes me even more excited about it.

But this car is the paint scheme that my dad ran in his first race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1975, his first cup race. It was owned by a guy named Ndegree who actually raced this car. for whatever reason. Norman agree is Ed's son. Norman was the crew chief on the car. Norman worked side by side with dad during this experience in 1975. I had a lunch with Norman. Oh.

Yeah. And so I sat down with Norman, and Norman works right now at Stewart Haas Racing. So I called Tony Stewart. I said, hey, mind if I have lunch with Norman? I'm going to do this car. I don't want to bother you. I know he's an employer. I might actually use him some of the rollout or whatever.

Anyways, Tony's cool about it. I went and got Norman, took him lunch. I'm like, hey, all right, let's talk about this car. He brought some pictures. I'm like, I want to get it perfectly correct. I want to make sure the paint scheme and every little detail is just like the car on the racetrack. It had white wheels, so I'm excited about that.

I'm having me some white wheels. And it had Ed and the good. Green's name on the door. They didn't even put Dad's name on the car for the race. So as you'll see on the Dacass in the car with our race at Darlington, you'll see Ed Negree on the door. That's hot. Because that's what was on the car when Dad drove it.

Basically, Norman and Dad were kind of hanging out. Norman, I don't know, you know, dad was kind of in and around their shop at different points in his life. He's hanging out there one day sometime in 74, I imagine, or in 1970. This car is sitting in the back of the shop, and dad said, hey, Norman, you should tell your dad that we're going to take this car and go race it. And he's like, yeah, right, my dad's going to laugh that off and tell me I'm crazy. I'm not trying to piss my dad off. Come on.

So dad hounded Norman enough to where he finally went up to Ed, his father, and Ed said, yeah, all right, you guys want to take it, race it, do it. So dad and Norman took the car to Charlotte. They made the field and qualified. I don't know, somewhere in the back and ended up finishing 20 second. Ran all the laps. Not competitive, but anyways, if there's some video of the race, you see Dad getting lapped on the back straightaway, and he looks like he's about 10 miles an hour slower

than Richard Petty and those guys that Richard driving his charger. This was actually a Dodge Charger that Dad drove in 1975, but he's out there running his first race. And I didn't know what it looked like on a modern version of our cars today, but I thought it looked pretty good. I did the photo shoot a couple weeks ago. It was hard for me not to release any of those photos because you know how excited I get.

But we were able to officially announce the car, and I hope people were pleased with it. And I hope it helps educate people not only about Dad's first race and 75 at Charlotte, but about Norman degree and about Ed degree. It makes people maybe dig a little bit into who they were and how they were connected to Dad's story. Ed raced for a lot of years, had a lot of different drivers driving his cars as well. So it'll be fun sort of sharing that story and growing that.

We had a really, really freaking good race on Sunday. Now, you know, Junior Motorsports had a tough day on Saturday. The Xfinity race was fun to watch. But I don't know if you were at the drag race, Mike. I watched the last 40 laps. Okay. I have not, it's been a long time since I've felt that way while watching a race. I don't watch a lot of races in my life.

I was driving in them, but I remember how I used to get nervous and excited about when I would watch races as a kid watching my dad race, right? I felt that feeling on Sunday. While we were watching segment one and segment two, I had this like excited. I had this like I could not wait for the finish. I haven't felt that way in a long time. And, I mean, even I have to go back to before I drove cars as a fan watching my dad race, I'm sitting there watching dad run a race, and I'm going, I can't wait for the finish. You know, this is going to be awesome.

Are we going to win? Right. Who's going to win, you know? And I'm watching this race Sunday, and if you looked away from the TV for five minutes, you would look back, and the whole field would be the complexity of who was leading, where the guy that was leading was. I mean, there was so much happening, so many positions being changed. I'd look up at the TV and somebody's leading two or three,

I'm looking at second, third, fourth, who's an outside line, all that good stuff, glanced down, glanced back up, and the whole complex, all that's changed. Leaders in 10th, you know, some other guy that wasn't even up there was leading. It seemed like that it was so much, I wouldn't say easier, but there was so much more opportunity for the drivers to make runs, take runs, be aggressive with runs, many more, and when you present opportunity for those guys, they want to use it. They want to go get the lead.

What makes a great plate race? Well, a great plate race is when everybody wants to lead, when the cars present the opportunity for the drivers to try to lead, all right? If you can't make runs and you can't make passes by yourself and the potential of you losing many, many spots trying to make a pass, you're not going to make a move. You're going to stay in position because you're going to be in fear of losing a lot of spots with the with the high risk of pulling out and trying to make a pass so we eliminated that we had guys being able to do anything they really wanted to do getting these crazy good runs and the more

that happened as the race went on the more aggressive they got and the more confidence they had in making moves and trying to make passes then guys are like hey I want to lead I want to lead the the more guys in that pack that are thinking I want to lead right now the better is going to be for the show I thought we saw a ton of that it was so much fun to watch and I'm glad because again this week, the tandem conversation fired up. Boy, that was fun, huh? So many of our fans, you know, think back on different packages, and a lot of them really enjoyed the tandem racing.

And I'm probably going to get called out for this, but when I look at a lot of those guys' profiles, they're fans that have been watching in the last 15, 20 years. These guys hadn't, you know, these aren't fans from the 80s or the 90s. These are fans from the thousands of young. younger fans, right? That's right. If I think about it, if I look at the sport in that time frame, I can see their point.

Tandem may have been probably the best package in those 20 years or 15 years. But I know that it's possible to create good pack racing that's not really tandem racing so that every driver has a chance to drive up there and do their own thing and race for themselves, be selfish. And I saw that Sunday, man. I was so grateful. So happy. And hopefully that translates over to Daytona in July.

The teams definitely take these rules and learn and adjust and make their cars better and make their cars harder to pass. You know, that's what they're supposed to do. Hopefully the way the race looks and feels and the way it is to view doesn't change going forward. But, man, I liked what I saw. Bravo to NASCAR too, because they were kind of – there's so many unknowns. Giant spoiler, ridiculous-looking spoiler, cartoonish. Tapered Spacer. Tapered Spacer.

They changed rules, didn't they? Mid. Tapered Spacer was, made it a, you know, they were running some damn speed. Yeah, had a little more power, a little more throttle response. That helped create the runs. Mid, you know, they had more speed, I think, than they anticipated. So they put this little Wickerbill on the spoiler at the last minute. They basically gave the teams a piece of metal and said, here,

shape this into a Wickerbill and put it on your car. that felt to some of the drivers that felt to a lot of people, not just drivers, I think that, man, are they prepared? Are they ready for this? They know what they're doing? But honestly, man, it turned out to be great. It turned out to have a great show.

And I'm sure there were a lot of people at NASCAR that were nervous going in this weekend as to how this was going to play out. Good stuff. Fun to watch. I will just add one thing. And that is, you know, I did leave the drag race to come home to the final

laps of Talladega and as much fun and as much we've talked about how great that my weekend at the drag strip was, it made me really appreciate then to be able to come home and watch Talladega and, you know, especially when, you know, you leave the four-wide nationals in the, you know, in the quarter mile straight sense and then you go home and they're racing four-wide at Talladega and it makes

you really appreciate both of them. The purity of it, I enjoyed watching those last few laps at Talladega because I realize you can really, as I may have even come a little bit closer to Dillner's side of being such a like a car enthusiast of the weekend. You talked about the Xfinity race on Saturday. I mean, there was a lot of racing. And it made the weekend at the dragstrip made me appreciate what we have with NASCAR and with Talladega and with what those drivers did in the last few laps. It was crazy. I, you know, I didn't get to follow the whole weekend. But the last few laps was, well, what you described is what we feel. feel at Talladega every time to me.

It's watching Talladega all these years. It's nerve-wracking. Yeah. It's just crazy. It's like, you know, and it's how we feel. And so you're seeing that now because you're, you know, you're detached from that driver's seat. And that's kind of cool for us to hear. The racing almost kind of calmed down slightly as they got toward the end of the stage,

which is kind of the opposite everywhere else. The incident, it kind of ramps up toward the end of the stages. But you can't take stage racing away from the plate track. not an option, but I was just surprised by that. The other thing that I don't like, I don't love, is how the manufacturers work together and how the teams work together. And I know that that's in their best interest. And I was, as a driver, wanted that.

I wanted help. I wanted to be able to depend on guys, you know. But I don't love all the Chevroletes in one line working together and then the fords trying to, to me, I want it where it's every man for himself. everybody's out there just trying to do everything they can and being really, really selfish, and every driver wanting to be in front. So I don't know how you untie that knot with the teams and all working together, but that's just kind of where the sports went, the direction the sports went.

Chevy wants to win. So Chevy's going to get all the teams together and say, hey, if Toyota and Ford are all going to work in unison, we have to do that as well. I get how it's got to this point. I don't love it. The teammates working, you know, somebody asked me on Twitter, when did you have the most freedom? Well, when I had less teammates.

You know, and that's the honest truth. If you have less teammates, sometimes that guy is not where you are, you know, in the field. And you don't have to worry about helping him because he's nowhere near you. And you can do whatever you want to do. But when you got four teammates, then chances are you're going to be within proximity of one of them at some point. And you have to think, okay, what I'm getting ready to do. Does that hurt him?

Does that bother him? Does that help him? maybe I can do something that does help him instead and entirely different than maybe what I want to do for myself. That's not a fun way to race. But that's kind of how some of them teammates are, they're kind of putting that box. I think if you're at the end of that race,

and I mean, I won a lot of races working with Michael. But I didn't like it. I didn't want to run second to Michael. Right. He didn't want to run second to me, you know. But we did win a lot of races working together, and I think that that's what helped Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman right there at the end.

You're sitting there leading the race. race, you'd love to have a teammate behind you. But as the race is going on in stage one, in stage two, all the manufacturers kind of working together so much. It wasn't something I really like to see, but it's inevitable. I got a question for you. Did you have any additional anxiety over seeing your car, your old car, being up there vying for the wind? Did that add anything to the excitement? I don't mean anxiety in a bad way. I mean, seeing Bowman up there right behind Chase, your old team, would that do to you? I've had some anxiety over the struggles that Alex has had.

I feel invested in his career and helping him get this opportunity. And so I wanted to work. And it's not worked the way that we thought it would. He's not been as successful as we had hoped. And he would say that himself. I know he's frustrated. He said so after the race, that this is where we're. we need to be. This is how we need to run, and this has been a tough start of the season.

And so I was hoping that he would win. As a broadcaster, I try not to pull for anybody. I try not to hope for any one driver to win the race. But for Alex's sake, and for Rick and nationwide and everybody that's part of that program, for Greg, yeah, for all the guys on the team, I love seeing them happy. You know, I want Alex to be successful. I want him to have a great career. I want him to get that one win, get that monkey. off his back. So I was pulling for him. Great win for Chase Elliott. It seems like the fans loved it. He's the new fan favorite, most popular driver. That was certainly evident by the reaction of the crowd after the race. So that's great for the sport. Great for him. Speaking to nationwide,

we got a new segment for our show. And I think this is going to be a segment, repeating segment, right? Correct, Mike? Well, to the next month. I mean, for the next four weeks, we're going to do something. We, you know, we had, first of all, Nationwide, does something very cool, every Memorial Day race, every World 600, and they put a fallen soldier's name on their car, right? And you ran with the fallen soldier's names on your car. And they've done this for four years, and they got another one. And we had the privilege, just a few weeks ago, Dale, of this particular soldier, John Tummelson, he had Navy Seal.

His sisters were in town. And they came here. And we surprised him. They got to meet you. You spent a lot of time with them. But we did, we wanted to know more about John Tumelson, and we want you, the listeners. to know more about John Tummelson. So when this name and this special paint scheme runs on Memorial Day or for the World 600 here in a few weeks, you know the story and you know him. And so we're going to do

this on the Dale Jr. Download for the next several weeks and let his sisters, Joy and Christy, tell us about John and all that he did. And it was really a privilege to meet them. And I know it was cool for you to meet them and hear the story. But I think that it's important for us that the listeners of the download get to know John as well. All right. Here we go. This is Christine. I'm the oldest. Joy is two and a half years younger than me. And then bicentennial year, July 1st. Well, on July 4th, we actually left the festivities of downtown Rockford

and went to pick up our baby brother and bring him home. Growing up family was always important. So my dad was from a family 14. So he had 14 brothers and sisters. My mom was from a farming family. So again, close-knit, you know, everybody had to work. together. We knew as kids, we didn't plan things on Sunday. Those were days we'd go to one of the grandparents and have dinner and that type of thing and just always had each other's backs and

family was always the cornerstone of everything we did. We knew when dad had a good contracting year because he'd surprise us with toys. We'd always know by how good the Christmas was. And so one year he got Christy and I a snowmobile. We had to share and then John got a three-wheeler. And so he would tear through town. One of my favorite stories was he and his friend, Justin. They were a little mischievous and about, I don't know, later that evening after they'd been hanging out, my parents get a knock at the door from the sheriff's department, that there were some windows broken out of a construction site, and there were three-wheeler tracks, and everybody knew that the two boys that had three-wheelers in town were Justin and John. And so, you know, my dad, being in

construction, you know, was upset. How could you do that to somebody else's property, and so made him go and apologize? So, yeah, he was a little mischievous, but, well, it was, well, Both my parents were very hard workers, and so they instilled that work ethic into us. I think that is very much encompasses all of us, but especially John and where he got in his career. So when he was 12 or 13, he went to school definitely for the social aspect of things, and so my mom was like, how can I get him to be more studious? And so she wanted to encourage him to read. So family friends suggested a book.

He was really big into martial arts, and so told my mom to get this, or told my dad to get this book by Richard Marcinco. And so John read that book, and from that moment on, he knew that he wanted to be a Navy SEAL. Somehow he found every Navy SEAL workout that he could possibly find and started doing workout. How old was it? 12, 13. So John started doing Navy SEAL workouts when he was 12 or 13. Uh-huh. He wrote papers.

He did art projects about the Navy SEALs. I mean, it was read books upon books, upon books. It was just kind of everything you did. I don't know that I ever believed otherwise. I agree. And it was never, I think I want to be a Navy SEAL. It was, I am going to be a Navy SEAL. Great information, great story.

We'll hear more of that over the next several weeks. Mike, ready for the White flag? Let's do it. Keep on the bud. White flag right there, white flag. All right. Dale Jr., you've got a big week ahead of you. Friday, you're being inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame.

Excited for that? Yeah, I really don't. know what to think about all that. Yeah, it's kind of a, it would be a little bit of an overload. But this is the Hall of Fame run that now begins. So, uh, yeah, right? I mean, that's going So you're predicting multiple Hall of Fame. I'm predicting more than this one. Okay. I'm really nervous. That's Friday. And then Saturday, as most people do after being inducted to the Hall of Fame, they go to the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. So you're going to be doing the broadcasting with NBC Sports of the Kentucky Derby. Tell us all you know about horses. Yeah. I'm nervous. I'm

I'm nervous about it because I got this, I had some skin cancer removed from my neck, and I got these stitches in my neck, and I'm supposed to be at the Kentucky Derby, and I'm worried about somebody coming up and grabbing me by the shoulder or wrapping there. Like, me and Rutt are going to hang out, and I know Rutt's going to grab me or put me in the headlock.

But I'm, I don't know. I want to get these stitches out, but that's, like, all that's laying right on top of each other. Like, I'm supposed to get the stitches out at the same time I'm supposed to go to the Kentucky Derby. Oh, wow. Yeah. How's that going to work?

I know. Yeah. Now, feel my anxiety. Hence the reason you're bringing it up. Yes. Got it. Don't know how that's going to work. Trying to figure that out.

But yeah, I'm going to Kentucky Derby. Wife's been once. I'm excited. She says it's the greatest thing ever. She had a lot of fun when she went. I still got to get my outfit. You know, I was just thinking. Well, no, wait a second.

It's more so because he's going to be with Rutt. I didn't know he was going to be with Rutt. Last year, if anybody watched a seat. It doesn't matter what I wear then because. Ruts is going to be flamboyant. Yes. Yes. And he was at the Kentucky Derby last year.

and did not hold back at all on his outfit. I went to the Kentucky Derby last year. It was the wettest one in history. It should have been the most miserable day ever. Coolest thing I've ever done. So you'll enjoy it. Okay. That makes me feel better.

So good luck with that. I'm going with you, so we'll have a lot of fun doing that. You're going, Mike? Yeah. Oh! Hey! What's up? It's doing fun.

That's right. I won't pat you on the shoulder or anything, though. Don't grab me by the neck. Don't grab you by the neck. Speaking of NBC Sports, though, our show, I want to look over at our producer Brian right now because I think the Dell Jr. Download is back to its normal TV slot this coming week so you can watch this episode with John Forced Tuesday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on NBC Sports Network. Also, we've learned that our Willpower episode will air next

Friday, May 10th at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. That's on a Friday. That's a Friday. Yeah, Friday, May 10th because our Willpower episode did not make air that week because I guess a hockey playoffs or something. So that's that. Let's see what else. To see bonus content of this podcast, video clips of John Force. Good luck, guys. I love my team. You have your work cut out trying to get that all put together. I think it'll be actually easy for them to throw clips together trying to put the whole thing into one podcast. That's true. The clips will be great because he was a sound bite one after the other. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Follow Dirty Mo Media on social media, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

You'll find us at Dirty Mo Media. And I've also, we've got some new Apple reviews this week. Let's read a few. The Streaking Runner. says, I listen to the podcast when I'm running. Y'all are great companion to run with, and you make the miles fly by. So I wish we had that same effect on us. But anyways, Cap City 08 says, I'd recommend this podcast to race fans old and new.

Secondly, I got curious about filter time because of you guys. So I signed up. I will end up saving $120, which is the cost of the tickets to the Martinsville fall race that I will now go to. So there's Dale Jr. and Blake Cook saving the sport all through air filters. and now they're going to Martinsville with that leftover money.

NW NASCAR fan says, I love this podcast. Now that Junior is not behind the wheel, we still have a way to listen to him rant and yell on the radio. I never thought of that. You and your microphones. You need them. You need something. You need an outlet to be yelling at.

You used it certainly as a driver. So there's that. And then here, Junior, you'll like this one. Jeff Chandler says, I have been in the sport as a tire changer in mechanics since 1985. I worked on Jeff Bodine's number five Levi-Garret car. So I lived the, quote, getting wrecked by Earnhardt years. It caused me not to like Earnhardt very much, which naturally led me not to be a fan of Jr. during his career.

But after listening to just about all of the downloads, I have come away with a very different view of Dale Jr. I agree with many of his views. And since I was at the racetrack for many of the stories that you guys tell, it is a nice trip down memory lane. By the way, Dale, your dad and I finished on a good note. I'll tell you that story in a couple from the rough years if you're ever interested. Thanks again, Jeff Chandler at Joe Gibbs Racing. Wow, that's awesome. Thank you, Jeff.

Yeah, very cool. That is, man. Yeah, so what episode was that? Oh, it was with Richard that we were talking about those years. One of the best compliments you can get is from your peers or anybody, like any of those guys that have lived it. That's right. That's right.

So very cool. Thank you, Jeff. Lastly, I just want to again thank this week's sponsors, Pristine Auction, Ancestry. Nationwide, also big thanks to Cadence 13 for all that they do for us. And that's it, Dale. All right, we got some odd history here. We actually got two. Can I use them both?

Yeah, go for it. All right. Well, yeah, one's great. Two's better. Jimmy Ingram finished 15th at Dover in May 1980. 15. All right, Jimmy Ingram, not a big deal, right? But it was 27 years, eight months, and 17 days since his last cup race.

1952, Southern 500. That remains the record for the longest gap between two. Cup starts. Okay. Pretty interesting. Yeah. Also, at 1986, with 56 laps remaining in the May race at Dover, Jody Ridley driving for Raymock.

Oh, yeah. He crashed. Ridley was brought to a local hospital via ambulance to get checked out, and after an examination, Ridley found out that his team had left Delaware without him. But they had his clothes. They had his wallet. All that stuff was in the hauler, and Ridley was stranded at the hospital. Eventually, Bobby Allison showed.

up to say, hey, how you doing? You feeling okay? A couple hours later, right? Races over. That's nice, right? Bobby coming by. Yeah. Well, Allison asked if he could help in any way, and Ridley said, yeah, he needed a ride home.

So I think that's how he got back to Charlotte. That's good. Yeah, pretty cool. Back when drivers would crash, go to the hospital, and other drivers would come see them before they went home. Man, I can't imagine anyone actually doing that now. Right. I mean, I really, everybody, they'll send them a text, maybe.

Yeah. They ain't going to come visit them. Right. Pretty cool. All right. John Force would. John Forge was a lot of fun. And I hope you guys enjoyed it as much as we did.

Thanks for listening to the Dale Jr. Download. Appreciate all our partners. We'll see you next week. This bit of bad assery was made by Dirtymo Media. Dirty Mo!