The Dale Jr. Download - 260 - Coach Joe Gibbs: Redskins n' Racing

Episode Date: June 11, 2019

Dale Earnhardt Jr. hangs out with his hero, NFL and NASCAR Hall of Famer Joe Gibbs. The two discuss their beloved Washington Redskins, a legendary "fruitcake" running back, being John Madden's gopher, slingin' oranges at players, and recruiting Dale Jr with Pimento cheese. They also get deep about the legacy of his late son, JD Gibbs.  DJD tackles rain-delay whiners, F1's controversial call, Deegan's bold move, Jr.'s claw and the greatest shirtless win in Motorsports 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.

Let's get going. I'm ready when you are. I'm ready. I mean, we've been listening to y'all talk about snuggies and pins. I mean, we're ready. This is a production of Dirty Mode meeting. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of Dale Jr. Download, Mike Davis here.

We've got Matthew Dillner, Leavon. Awesome guests coming in. Joe Gibbs. I'm a huge Redskins fan. We're going to talk football. We're going to talk racing. Let's get started. Back to the line.

Washington Redskins football coach, Joe Gibbs. knows how to win championships. I'm sure a lot of people in the sports world were surprised when Joe Gibbs announced recently that he would field a NASCAR Winston Cup team in 1992. I'm going to try and give the guys everything his face and cheer for him. He's going to make it. Dale Jarrett's going to win the Daytona 500. How many people get to participate in two Super Bowls?

There he goes. He's winning a Super Bowl with stock car racing. Robbie Lobby. Bobby LaValle is the NASCAR Winston Cup champion for 2000. So first off, you're here. It's Monday morning. The race in Michigan rained out yesterday. It's postponed until later this afternoon.

And you flew all the way here to do this podcast. Now, you can... Just to come down here to see you. There's got to be another reason. Hey, listen, I was going to sleep up there and have a good time and everything. They said you got Junior has got to do a radio show. He said, get your butt down there. And you're going back.

Yeah, I'm going to go back this afternoon. You're going to learn a lot about Joe Gibbs as you listen to this podcast and what an amazing person he is. But that right there says it all to me. For real. No, seriously, thank you. You come all the way to do this. That means a lot.

I had to laugh. There were two guys outside. I said, I'm going to go inside and tell Junior to get his butt out here and sign his stuff. There you go. To kick it off, man, I did not know. I should know this. I mean, I should know everything about you being a big Redskins fan of him. but I did not know you were born in North Carolina.

I had no idea. Absolutely. So you ended up going to high school and college in California. So how long were you in North Carolina? I was until I was 16. I was born in Moxville, two years there. Then we moved up to Asheville, Inca. My dad was a sheriff up there.

So that's why you were moving? We moved up to Asheville. And then when I got to be 16, we moved to Southern California. then honestly southern california you would have loved it it was drag racing hot rods honestly it was a great time in late 50s and early 60s everybody had a hot ride and stuff and i got hooked on cars that's where i got hooked on cars in immediately yeah why did why did you move to california we were starving to death and wasn't happening in north carolina it was i think the average income was about two thousand dollars a year or something so we We decided we had an uncle that left and went to California. He got a great job.

And so everybody following him out there, really. That's interesting. Wow, for real. And so you're in high school, played your quarterback. Yep. And you went to college. You went to, how do I pronounce that? Cerritos.

Serritos. Yeah. Junior college. And then you went to San Diego State University. I wasn't smart enough to get into college right away. I had to go junior college. Worked your way up. That's all right.

Physical education was your major. Were you playing football at either of those schools? I was. Okay. So were you starting? I was just good enough to start. That's about it. I told honestly, the only award I ever got in sports was most improved.

That probably speaks to a work ethic or something. I mean, I think you're underselling yourself. You immediately went. So how do you go from, you graduated and became an assistant, for San Diego State immediately? Well, it was really crazy, and this is an interesting trivia story. So graduated from college, you know, and I felt like, hey, I love sports. I went into our head coach who was Don Corrielle.

A lot of people, you guys are too young, but a lot of people think Don Correel should be in the Hall of Fame. He wound up coaching and pro ball and everything. And so I said, hey, coach, I'll just volunteer for nothing. Can I work? Start working as an assistant coach. And he goes, yeah, today it's called a graduate assistant. A lot of kids do it.

So this is the crazy thing. He said, I think you need to start on defense with my defensive coach, who was John Madden. Oh, really? He was the defensive coordinator. Yeah, so that's how I got started coaching. I really was the gopher. I used to, he had Wednesday nights classes that he took up in Fullerton. I used to drive him up to Fullerton.

He'd sit in the back seat. John? John, smoke a cigarette, eating peanuts and read the paper, and I would drive him up there. Oh, wow. So you really were the gopher. I was the guzper. You were the Uber driver right then. Believe me.

And I tell the story. This is a true story now. So it came down towards the end of the first year, and they were going to have an alumni game. And so the head coached came to me and said, you got all your buddies. Why don't you coach up the alumni team and play us? And teams used to do that in college. So I said, do you want me a coach to try and win? Or is it, you know, you're just going to set me up?

He goes, no, no, no, he's cute. Fully, he had a list. Don did. And he said, do the best you can there. He says, whatever you want. And so I work on things, coaching with my buddies. We go down about three weeks working on this. Two days before the game, John Madden came to me and said, I want all of your plays.

I said, I'm not giving me any plays. He goes, I said, I want all those plays on my desk by this afternoon. Dang. Or you're done. It's one of those deals. So I wasn't going to do that. So anyway, he played the game and it didn't go real well because we were pretty close, like 1310 or something. After the game, I walk up the stairs, go to see Pat, my sweetheart.

Madden walks over and goes, you are fired. Wow. I went like this. I went, I don't make anything. How are you going to fire? And so I go in the next day to Don Correll, and he goes, I mean, yeah, to Don, and he goes, hey, I said, as a coach, I said, John fired me last night after the game. And he goes, you fellow, come over and work with me on offense. And that's how I got the offense.

Really? But I haven't been for Madden, and I'd probably be coaching defense someplace. Why did they put you on defense in the first place? You were a quarterback. No, it was just, I was just begging for a job. They were just putting anywhere. Were things rough with John for a while? It was rough with John for a while.

I'd say for a couple of months there. We were kind of strange relationship. But then after that, he's doing the TV stuff. I'm coaching Redskins. We got to be friends again. But John was very smart. And I've had a lot of respect for him. And, of course, he did a great job with the Raiders.

Yeah, for my generation, he's kind of like a godfather of football because he made this amazing game that we played forever as kids. So when you grow up playing John Madden on every day, you know, do you think, man, this is the guy. Obviously, I didn't grow up when he was with the Raiders as a coach, but pretty interesting your connection to John. You won the, I don't know if it's true or not. You won the National 35 and over racquetball championship in 1976?

I got hooked on, I got hooked on racquetball. I moved to St. Louis, and in St. Louis, racquetball was really huge. And so I got the playing there locally. Had you ever played? Oh, yeah. Well, I played handball first. And the old days, in the old days, guys played handball. You guys wouldn't even know what that is.

And then these guys started showing up with rackets. And so it ticked us off for a while. But then I said, okay, I started playing racquetball, moved to St. Louis, the coach there. and in St. Louis was a hotbed of racquetball at the Jewish community center there. Most of the kids that grew up in there, that's where the great racquetball players came from. And I got in a relationship, look it up sometimes, Marty Hogan, who, when he was 15, I begged him to. I called him up one day and I said, please, please let me come over and play, you know. He's a cocky little rat, you know, and he goes, nah, I'm not going to do that.

And I'm not going to waste my time. I finally got over there. We got to be friends, played racquetball tournaments all over the place. Me and him would go. And he would tell me, he goes, I'm going to be the greatest racquetball player in the world. And I go, shut up, Marty. What are you talking about? You wound up being the greatest racquetball play in the world for about 10 years.

Really? Yeah. So how do you find time in between doing, because you were talking about you were hired to go coach at the Cardinals, right? And St. Louis. How do you have time between coaching? Because you're up until four in the more. morning working as a coach, sleeping a couple to a couple hours a night. The crazy thing was I got

in a relationship with the local construction guy and Don Coriel, and we built a racquetball club. And so we all went in on this deal. And so I'm kind of part of the ownership. I would work in football on Monday nights, and I would tell he got ran the club. You stay there to one in the morning. I would come over at one, and we'd play from one to three. What? What did your wife? I need to learn. She was a home in bed. She was in bed, sleep. And then I got hooked on it, and then I started playing tournaments. How good was. Come on. Now, don't be bashful. I mean, if you're winning championships here, 35 and over championships, you've got to be good. I mean, how good would it? 35 and over, figure it out, you know. I mean, it's not the young guys. The young guys are really good. The pros are really good.

but that was amateur too, and they had pros in those days. And it was a big deal for a long time. But it kind of, you know, it kind of drifted away. I loved it as a sport. You don't still play? It's really fun. I don't. You probably still have it, though, if you ever do.

I'm trapped. Believe me, I don't have it. Both of my kids, Koi played when we were at the Redskins when we were up there coaching. And so I went to play him. This is, you know, about 10 years after I quit playing. I played him one time down at the beach. I went in there, and I figured I'm going to wipe him out. You know what I was no deal.

He ran me from one of that place up. The next day, I was sore from top to bottom. My butt hurt so bad. I said, man, I may never recover from this. So I went back to the treadmill. Treadmills where you're the champion now. I got you. Who is the player you enjoyed coaching the most?

People ask me that. And honestly, lots of times I'll start off and say, Otis Wonsley, Pete Crona, and Greg, and they'll go, who is that? And they were special teams players that meant so much to our team, such great hearts. I mean, you're talking about guys covering 50-yard punts and tackling somebody or breaking the wedge. On the football team, those are guys sometimes that are really appreciated by even the stars, you know. Is those guys a paying a price and meant so much to the team. And, you know, that's the greatest thing about team sports and football.

I love that aspect of it, that everybody's kind of, it's a place where you learn to sacrifice for the other guy. I used to tell, in football in particular, I used to say, you guys are the luckiest people in the world. You're getting paid to hit somebody. You know what I mean? And it's physical, and the practices, and some of the stories and things that happen in practice, some of the funniest things that have ever happened.

still remember those. We had a reunion here five years ago. For what? And for the football team, for the Super Bowl years, the 11 Super Bowl years. We had 92 guys come back. And I thought I was the only guy that had that emotional attachment to everything, and it meant so much to me. Every guy that got up almost got emotional, it said it was a great time in her life and all the things we did, you know, about getting to Super Bowls and stuff. It was really a, it's a, it's It's not as much, I mean, I was standing out on the field after our last Super Bowl. I really remember this. I was standing out there and waiting to do the interviews, games over with, we won a game.

Charles Mann was standing next to me, her defensive end. And he looked at me and he said, you know, coach, it's not as much having won it. It's journey getting here. Those practices, you know, the losses, the blood, sweat, and tears. You know what I mean? It's a grind, you know. And to be able to do that, I think he's right. I think it's all the things that you remember on a team like that when everybody's – and just some teams get it.

You've been around good teams. Some teams that will grab it, you know what I mean? And the next year, we had our worst year after a Super Bowl year. You can't say it's going to happen the next year. It's that certain feeling, and some guys and some teams grab it. Man, I kind of had a confidence of saying, hey, our guys are going to handle it. I knew that our guys would rally. We had a group, too, of about 10 players that I kind of called our captains group there,

and I would meet with them. If we had a problem, I'd go, this is your team. Fix it. And I would say this. They would. They'd fix it. I'd lay it on them. It wasn't going to be me.

It was always great coaching, man. It sometimes. I was about to ask you, in hindsight, what was it that your team lacked that next year that deprived y'all of that it factor? But is it the nucleus of captains and the accountability that you could probably point to? Or are you able to tell, even in hindsight, what it is that either you have it or you don't have it. Well, there's a lot of things to go against you when you win a Super Bowl. First of all, it goes later in the year because you play in the Super Bowl.

then everybody's celebrating for a month or two afterwards. You get started a little bit late. And then the next year, it's the way everybody looks at you. All they have to say to their team is we're playing the Super Bowl team. So they look at you differently. They play you differently. And you kind of put all that together and you don't really grab it. It's kind of hard to, you know, we've all played on teams and been a part of teams.

I think that's one of the things that I worry about our young people, our grandkids now. They got all the devices and everything, you know. But it's relating to people, being on a team, sacrificing for the team. You know, those are the kind of things we don't want to lose in our society. And so I think that's what team sports give us all the team sports. I'm a big, big fan of the underdog, the underdog story. So do you know, can you tell me a player that you didn't think when you got him on the team, he was going to make it, but he did make it?

Yeah, I had a bunch of those. I went to work out Neil Lomax out in Portland, Oregon, and I always remember this, the quarterback, and so I go out there, and there's a kid out there. He's about 6-3, about 2.35, you know, and I'm going, hey, it's tight-in. I'm sure he can't run.

He ran like a deer. And I said, well, I'm sure he can't catch. And so we start throwing stuff. He's catching everything. So I go to the phone and call Bobby Beth here, a general manager, and I said, hey, there's the tight-in out here. It looks pretty good.

Look up the stats. And he goes, they didn't have a time. in. They were in a run and shoot. And I went, what are you talking about? He said he looked up, he looked him up and he goes, he was a split receiver. This guy gained like 30 pounds in like, you know, two months or something like that. Clint did he or came and played for us for six years, really. And there's all kinds of stories like that. One of my favorite stories, after the draft, you have a, you know, in those days, you've signed a bunch of free agents. Okay, so that's a big recruiting deal, because they could go anywhere because they're not drafted.

It's who gives them the most money and everything. So we were going through that the very first year I coached there. I kept walking down the hall and there's a huge kid sitting in there just reading a book. And so I figured, you know, we're trying to sign him. So they brought him in to me. I had just, we had just signed another offensive line when we drafted Russ Grimm. and all these guys. I said, no more offensive lineman.

So they brought this kid in. I figured he's a defensive lineman. And so he sits there, and I start talking to him, Joe Jacoby. And so I'm talking to him the whole time. No, I spent 10 minutes selling him on. We play a 4-3. We're going to be. All this guy's stuff and everything.

Never said it to work. We finished it, and I go, Joe, I says, well, you think. And he goes, oh, coach, I really like it. He said, I'm just waiting for my agent to tell me. we'll get this done. So he walks out. I think we signed it for $5,000 or something. So later on, and today they handed me the sheet, and I saw Joe Jacoby, offensive alignment. I went nuts. I called our general manager back down there, and I said, hey, can we get out of this? This is how smart I am. He goes, no, we're committed

to this guy. Jacoby goes out there, offensive alignment right from the very first start. Free agent. This kid, I mean, plays his rear off, goes to Pro Bowls. He was with us for four Super Bowls. That's a good example. And today, one of the greatest guys. He's here in Charlotte. And so those kind of relationships and all the things that happen there, you know,

and that's kind of over and over again, but just a couple of the wild stories you get, the free agents. I, you know, obviously was a big fan of the team in the 80s. Dave Butts gave me one of his. helmets at appearance like a couple years ago. I think it was the 84 helmet from 1984. First game I watched with the Redskins was 1982. You ever won a Super Bowl against the Miami Dolphins. That's the first game I remember ever watching ever. And, you know, my mom lived in North Virginia, Chesapeake Bay, Redskins territory. I'd go up there twice a year to visit her everything I got at Christmas had redskins logo on it um I cried through the loss of the

Raiders the next year in 1984 I did I did too I did it was the hardest my dad uh had the habit of pulling for whatever team that I wasn't pulling for oh so whoever the redskins played he just pulled for him just to be in spiteful yeah and he had a good night and um I watched you guys beat the broncos in military school in 1988 yeah I mean you remember where you were and and and what you were in those moments. You retired in 1993 with a 140 and 65 record. In 1996, you were inducted into NFL Hall of Fame. In 2004, you decided to come back after all those years.

What was the reason? Why did you, I mean, I know it was a good deal. You're shaking your head. No, honestly, you know, I never gave it a thought for a long time. Right. Nobody would have ever guessed you were going to do that. Loved racing. We're knee-deep in racing.

I'll tell you what changed there was, J.D. and I, when we started the race team, Coy was still in school. And Coy was playing football at Stanford. Coy was, a lot of people don't know this, he was a four-year starter at Stanford, started the second game of his freshman year and never came out of a middle linebacker. And so I would go West Coast to watch him play, you know, and then come back to the races. And J.D. and I, you know, and the team, all the guys started the race team here. So I think having got out of football, spent 11 years,

Coy all of a sudden said, Dad, I think I want to coach. I don't think I want to go into the racing. Coy was paranoid about following his brother or me. He wanted to do his own thing. He was going to coach. So I started thinking about all this. And so I sat down with my wife, I always laugh about this in the library. And I said, Mom, let me ask you.

I need to talk to you about something. She goes, yeah. She goes looking at me. And I said, listen, you know, the race team's doing good right now. J.D.'s running a race team. She goes, yeah. He said, you know, the grandkids have never seen us, you know, in coaching. He goes, yeah.

And I says, and Coy's kind of wanting to go into coaching. So I go down for a way, he's kept saying all these things. She was looking at me kind of funny. And I said, what do you think about us going back to coaching? And she goes, you're going to ruin your good name. And I told her after the first year we went, six and ten, I said we're halfway there. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness.

I think, I mean, for Redskins fans, I don't even remember what the records were over those years. We were in heaven with you on the sidelines. But I don't think anybody would ever bet a million dollars that you were going to come back, especially after all those years. How different was that experience as a coach a decade later? Yeah, well, what you learned and pro-speople? Everybody always asked me, what do you think has changed about the NFL? And I said, everything, with the exception of human nature.

Human nature never changes. The same things excited us 2,000 years ago that excited us today. People react the same way. The money may be more. The drugs may be more. Whatever, it's the same things. And so I felt like, you know, I knew that football all had changed, a hard cap and all the different zone blitzes and all the things I knew I had a big learning curve there

but I felt pretty comfortable it's the same thing in racing and you know you've experienced that you get the right people together you're going to look good you know what I mean they're going to make you look good if you're the right if the football coach picks the right 45 guys he's going to make you they're going to make you look good and so coy wanted to go back to coaching and so me and coy we took off and went back to the Redskins. And JD ran the race team here and won a championship in the middle of that. They didn't need me. JD was doing such a good job.

And so it was kind of an exciting time. I wanted to stay five years. I signed a contract for five years. But the fourth year, our little guy, Taylor, had leukemia. And I came back in the offseason that fourth year. And they did a video at his birthday. And I realized him watching a video, I was never in it. I was gone.

And he was going to the hospital all the time and getting his shots and all that. And so I said, hey, you know, I think it's time for me to come back. Yeah. And so from a family standpoint and Taylor's standpoint, I came back at that point after four years. We went to playoffs a couple of times. I felt like we had them going back in the right direction. Absolutely. I think all the Redskins fans loved it.

me in particular. What players do you still speak to regularly today? I think we had a charity event here. We got a prison ministry and we had a charity event golf tournament. So quite a few come back for that. Jeff Bostic, you know, Jacoby lives here now. I see those guys. Clinton Portis will come through over now and then. A new generation guys. Quite a few. You know, I try to stay in contact with and try and help if there's anybody that's got any kind of issues going. But, you know, it's hard because everybody's chasing all over the place. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Redskins fans have gone frustrated with Dan Snyder and Allen and lack of playoff appearances overall success with the organization. I'm one of them. You're a hero to all Redskins fans. I've gotten to know Dan over the years. Yeah. Given the chance to sit down and change the mind of one single fan about Dan Snyder and the owner of the team, what would you say?

Here's what I'm going to give this. straight scoop, this is right from my heart. When I went there, that man did every single thing he could do to try and help me to win games. When we lost games, it was my fault, not his. And there would be free agency. A lot of people miss this. And free agency, it starts at 1201 at midnight. That Dan Snyder was right with me, and we'd start calling players.

In that very first year, we signed about five guys in that free agency. everybody wants the Redskins to be involved in free agency because they know Dan will do what, make a deal. He was right there with me, and we did sign about five or six players that I think. So he was great in free agency. Never once, I'd just say to every fan out there, never meddled with anything, with football, never meddled.

Now, he was there to give support, talk about things. He would laugh because I'd come down the hall in the morning. I'd slept there, you know, overnight. I'd have my white socks on. They'd be half on, half off, and I'd be coming down a hall. He'd start laughing when he saw me. And he's got a great sense of humor. I'm just saying, for whatever reason, I would say to any red-skinned fan,

Dan deserves to have a Super Bowl because that team means so much to him. That's what you want with an owner. He's not interested in the financial making money. That guy's interested in winning. So that's kind of what I would say about Dan for everybody out there. What's the cause of the frustration from Redskins fans? Well, just a lack of wins, lack of playoff appearances, the frustrations. Every year is a year for hope.

And just like this year, you look at the team and you go, well, we drafted this young quarterback. That's going to be exciting through the mini-camp training camp and through the preseason. We've done a great job over the last couple of years drafting for the defense. So you get excitement, you get hope. You go into the season thinking, man, maybe 10 wins this year. Maybe we might get into those playoffs.

We had some bad luck last year with injuries. Seems like that's been the issue over the last several years is injuries and staying healthy. And I know that's a challenge for all teams, but when you look back in the last Super Bowl you've won was 1991, it's frustrating. And so, you know, Dan takes a lot of the abuse from the fans and he takes a lot of responsibility in the media from that.

Bruce Allen as well. I mean, those guys are the ones in charge. And so it's been a bit frustrated. frustrating. But I've gotten to know Dan, and man, he's a really incredible guy. And like Joe said, he just wants to win. Like I was the same way as most fans, in my opinion of Dan, until I got to know him and got to be around him. I'd go in there. And I haven't not been around him as much as as coach has, but I would go to the preseason games. That's my favorite time to go. Nobody's there, especially like the third preseason game. You get to see the second, third, fourth string guys out

there trying to make the team really hustling, trying to play football. And Dan's the only, the only one in the owner's box sitting there watching that game. And he is plugged into every single play, every player. I'm watching fourth, I'm watching guys that aren't going to make the team. And he knows their name, what their story is, what they're trying to accomplish, who they're trying to beat, who they're trying to, you know, who they're trying to uproot in the debt chart. And he's just invested.

And he does, he does, to a fault, does everything he can in free agency or what have you, to try to put players on that team that can win. and you know you can't you can't fall a guy for wanting to win so badly but he's incredibly generous him and his wife do a lot of great things in the community yep and um well we you know he's invited you to sit with him during the games to a few games and you i was so fortunate one time you took me it was a monday night game against the cowboys and i believe you were actually there as well in dan snider's box and so we got to see dan snider during a game yeah when you say he's passionate and when you say he's invested

Oh my gosh. He is a fan. I mean, like, he is, like, I don't, I don't recall seeing him sit down. I mean, I recall him being, you know, I don't know about loud, but just into every single thing. And that was also a really emotional game because the Redskins pulled it out Monday night. The atmosphere was just bananas. And he was just in the middle of that emotion as well.

So we saw Dan Snyder in a game. Well, he's a, he's in a sense. the American dream. He grew up in D.C. as a fan. His father took him to games. He made a lot of money as a businessman and owns the sports team that he's loved in his entire life. One other thing that people don't realize is he, for the players, during some of the hurricanes and all that kind of stuff, gave players his planes. It said, go to your family. We had a death by one of a player's young baby out on the west coast he gave his plane to the players and said go he's got a heart like that um rinaldo win works with me now in prison ministry and all that well we played a game in

Tampa playoff game he broke his forearm went to the hospital dan sent tanya to the hospital she stayed there with him overnight and brought him back to the complex next I mean I'm just saying I think, you know, and some of that, a lot of that stories don't get told. And I think the other thing, when they first got there, he had, he got the reputation of going after a star, you know, and paying money in and all that. Because he wanted to win, he's passionate. And so people kind of hold that against him, too. So anyway, y'all need to back off of him a little bit. I'm now, I'm a fan, so I hold him accountable.

We want to win. We want to win championships, but I know he wants to win just as badly. Little Redskins trivia for you. Uh-oh. Oh, well, you're trying to stump the coach? I'm going to stump the coach. Believe me, it won't be hard. I'm going to go easy on you.

I'm going to go easy on you. What was the Rossin and Redskins originally called? Hmm. Wasn't it? Wasn't the Indians or something? No, I'll give you some hints. George Preston Marshall purchased the NFL franchise. Yes, he did.

In the city of... What? Chicago or something? Boston. Boston? In 1932. Man. Contract to play at Bravesfield, home of the National League Baseball team,

and went by the same name, the Boston Braves. Oh, wow. They had to play there one year. He didn't like that. He moved the team to Fenway Park the next year and changed it to just the Redskins. They didn't have, they didn't like affiliate with any city. And then in 1937, the NFL proved the team's relocation to Washington, D.C., and they've forever been known to Washington Redskins ever since.

They talk about the Redskins name. everything in my house is redskins. I said, Dan, if you change the name of that thing, I'm going to kill you on the spot. Because, hey, just to everybody, you know, we go so want to be so perfect. I go over here, my kids are playing, grandkids are playing. And I guess one of the football teams down here, down south, I go down there. They're Redskins. They're on the field.

The other team was. They're the Redskins. I got tired of listening to it and reading about it. So I text Dan and said, just change the dang name. Just change it. Washington Warriors, whatever. And he's like, he's like, capital, never. And then he started sending me all these stories just like that of all these high schools and colleges all across the country.

He's like, he's like, I'll never go change it. So don't even worry about it. I'm like, I'm just tired of hearing it. Hey, coach, before we, I know we got so much racing to go. But you mentioned something in one of your football stories when you were talking about Joe Jacoby. And you said that you went nuts. over something. And I'm having a hard time visualizing what Joe Gibbs going nuts even looks like

or what causes Joe Gibbs to go nuts. Give me an idea what nuts in your dictionary is. I think everybody, here's what happens in football, this tip you off. So guys that call plays on the sideline, most of the time you're going to find they're thinking, concentrating, they're not running up down the sideline, yelling and screaming and all that because it's like taking a test. you're thinking about the next play and everything. And so I was always, because I did call the plays,

I was focused like that. Everybody said I was milk toast. You know, you got no personality. This guy's got nothing. And which that may be true too. But anyway, I think, you know, if you kind of watch now the coaches that are more, you know, out there yelling and screaming and up,

but chances are they're not calling the plays, you know. And Bill Walsh, if he watched him, you know, it's a test. You're on the sideline. So I think I got that personality from that standpoint. I think the players, they would probably tell you stores differently. Obviously, I get wound up. There was an article in 1986 in the news about a game you were losing to the Philadelphia Eagles 14 to 0,

went into the locker room and knocked the oranges and cups of water off into the table. Is that right? Clint Didier took an orange to the shoulder. People always remember that, but I will. say this, I did. I was so upset. We were going to the playoffs. We'd already wrapped up a playoff deal. So we'd go up there to play them, and it was still really important, and we were just, I mean, it was pitiful. I mean, we're walking around out there. We weren't hitting anybody. I went out of locker room, and I turned around. It was funny because there was a box of oranges there.

And guys are coming in the door, and I am slinging those argy. Oh, yeah, I'm bouncing off helmets and everything. You're chunking it at them? Yeah, at the players. It is, they always, Jacobi and all of them always bring that up. Yeah. Because it's the one time I did, you know, kind of,

I would get upset and everything, but I didn't go that far. What was really funny, so then you got to make the adjustments. I went around the room where the assistant coaches were, Vains were sticking out my neck, and I remember Don Bro, who's our staff, one of the greatest guy.

He goes, Joe, you're going to have a house. I heard it that. I couldn't even draw something on the board. I just said, that was a halftime speech. Go kill them. And we did. So that was good. Is there anything in this world today that is capable of getting you that angry?

No, yeah, sure. I get upset with racing stuff and different, you know, when what's so important about racing, we got sponsors, you got the race team, you got everything you're trying to keep, you got the people at work for us, because I know you feel that. same way about the people that work here. We got guys that have spent 20 years with us that built a race. Jimmy Maycar has been there 28 years. We got people that spent their entire life, working life, building the race team. That's such a huge responsibility. Every time we get together in there in the room and I see the people, I go, you know, our Christmas party and everything. Oh my gosh. You know,

we've got to make this thing go. So there's huge responsibilities there. So when things get something that would set you off, I get upset. Last question of Redskins trivia. This guy became the NFL's all-time leading pass receiver on October 12th, 1992. Well, I could take a guess at that. Art Munk or? Art Munk. So Art Munk was my favorite player.

Yeah. What was so good about Art Munk? Art Munk, okay, was like E.F. Hutton, you know, that commercial. Would not talk. We didn't talk that much. Very quiet. Didn't talk to the press that much or anything. But when we had those captain's meetings and he did speak, everybody went.

They would listen. He was the consummate pro. I mean, really well-trained. That guy, he could run backwards on a treadmill as fast as much guys were on. And it was big and big. And as a consequence, you know what held him up, I felt bad about getting into the Pro Bowl. He should have been quicker than what he did. But we, with our three receivers, we were still used.

the inside receiver, even though there were smaller guys, we were blocked on the edge sometimes because we always wanted to be able to be in trips to keep people from blitzing us. You know, and force you to throw a break off. You want to be able to block them. We put our receiver in motion. Well, Art Monk was that guy a lot because he's bigger. And so a lot of the routes he caught were inside routes. Where that's not as deep, you don't get as many yards per catch. So I kept trying to tell people, this guy's sacrifice for team and when you put him outside he could run now this guy could run he was big and one of the things i loved about him is when you needed a first down you got every time i mean he's

just dependable automatic wait wait i got another redskins question yeah i mean humor me and tell me a rigging story i got so many rigging stories give me your best most my best one's a long one i don't know if i got time to have we got all day okay here here's d hey we don't have michigan to get All right, okay. So I get the job in 81. Okay, so everybody came right to me and they said, you need to get John Regan's back here. Big foolback, you know,

he set out in a contract a few years, the year before. And so the second week after I got the job, without saying anything to anybody, I got me a flight to Lawrence, Kansas. And so I land over there. I go now the very first, got me a room car, and I go with the very first gas thing. I said, can you tell me where John Regan's lives?

Everybody knows where John Regan's lived, big, All-American and Kansas. Kansas and everything. Here I go out, down the dirt road, pull up and back of this farmhouse, knocked on door. Right away, I knew I had a chance to get John Riggins to come back because Mary Louie's wife answered the door. Her hair's up and rollers. The kids are running through the house and she told me she wanted to come back. The only way you get a football player to do something is find him or get his wife to come. So I said, Mary Lee, you got to get me an appointment with John Regins in the morning. And so I go back to the motel, got up the next morning, a little red light son. You

got breakfast at 10 o'clock. I'm putting on my best stuff. I'm thinking about sale. I'm going to sell this guy. You know what I mean? I'm coming back and playing. Out down this dirt road, pull up and back of the farmhouse. The first time I laid my eyes on John Rick is he's walking across the courtyard there with a buddy. They both had camouflaged outfit on. They'd been hunting that morning. And he had a beer can in both hands. I said, well, I can tell he's impressed with me. So I started in with the light stuff and trying to make nothing. I'm getting nothing. We're going for breakfast.

It was like this. He was over there. I was here. Mary Lou's serving breakfast. And so I'm getting nothing. So I just said, I'm going to start my sales pitch. I'm going for this. I said, John, new coach, okay, new offense.

I'm going to put you in the back field. I'll give you the ball ever down. I'll never ask you to block. I'm a salesman. I'm telling me a truth, dude. Right, right. He's a whole back show, right? I'm going as hard as I can go.

Nothing. All said about five minutes into this thing, he leaned across the table, and the first meaningful thing he ever said to me, he goes, you need to get me back there. I'll make you famous. And I went, oh, my gosh, he's an egot maniac. This guy's a nutcase. I'm going to get stuck coaching a fruitcake for 10 years. And so I'm taking myself, how do I get out of it?

this. How did I get out of this? And I went, honestly, I did. I went, I'll trade him. He's an egomaniac. I'm not going to coach this guy. He's crazy. I said, I'll get a first round draft. Joe's fun. This is perfect. I finished the sales pitch, got in the car, went back to Washington, D.C. Two days later, I get a call from John. He goes, coach, he said, made up my mind, I'm going to play next year. And I went, yes. Get him back. Trade him for a first. This is perfect. and he said the only thing I won't put my contract is no trade glosses. And I tell everybody this day, I said, somebody was licking out from me because that man was not an egomaniac.

He was very smart. He was a great team guy. And if you wanted to play a big game, you want John Regans on your team because that man would play big and a big game. That's awesome. You know, as he's telling that story, it makes me want to ask almost about the time that they were trying to recruit you to go to Joe Gibbs Racing. After you had announced in 2007 you were leaving DEI, you know, Dale Jr. was talking to everybody that wanted to talk to him. Do you recall? Do I recall?

Oh, you recall. So we hawked the entire place. We were all together, took him to see Dan Steider and the Redskins. And I said, man, we got to have a chance at this guy. And, uh, he's. So now that we know that Coach Gibbs has these other conversations going on in his mind, I'm wondering what those conversations were when you were sitting across from Dale, because I don't know. I mean, you wouldn't disagree with this. You have a way of underwhelming the situation usually. I mean, like, what do you mean?

You know, Rick Hendrick tells a funny story about how he went through all that, you know, like the sales pitch, and he, you know, gave you this, you know, number that he was thinking, you left it right there on the desk. Well, the meeting I had with Joe is the reason why the meeting with Rick went that way. I have met with two people. I met with Joe and I met with Rick. And I happened to meet with Joe first. And as far as I can remember, you said, why don't you come out to Washington?

We'll meet at Dan's house. And I'm thinking, that's awesome. I don't think I'd ever met Dan before. And so we go out there, and I remember when we got there, we went to the back, we went in his backyard and we're sitting around this table and they had these um tomatoes stuffed tomatoes with pometa cheese in them and they were amazing and I couldn't stop eating them. And I couldn't pay attention to what Joe and them were saying because I was wanting to eat more tomatoes.

I'm trying to give him millions of dollars that he's eating tomatoes. I ended up, instead of walking away for the contract, I walked away with a recipe for the stuffed tomatoes. See, you have, see, again, that's my point is that you spend all this time preparing your recruit. That's right. And your recruiting pitch. And then it's things like tomatoes that he walks away with. I agree.

I agree. I want to let Joe tell his side of it. But we ended up, me, so we're talking for a while. He gave us a sheet of pay them with terms on it. I'd never been in any kind of negotiations before. I'd never negotiated with dad and Trisa. They just said, here, this is what you're getting paid. and you're going to, that's the way it is.

And so me and Kelly are in Washington. We get this term sheet. We go into this private room. Joe and them said, go take a minute and talk about it. We go in there. And I went in there and I said to Kelly, I said, what's on that paper? What's the number? And she told me, and I said, we got to get out of here.

I was like, this is way bigger than I ever even imagined. Like, this was, it made my head explode. And I said, I said, you know, I can, can't even, I can't decide this today. We got to go home and talk about this and I needed to, I was, my reaction was to run in the other direction. It's crazy. I know, but, that's crazy.

Well, it was all so big. You got to remember, like, when I was racing at DEI, everything was so small. Yeah. And that's just, that was fine. You know, that was the way it was. I didn't know any better. But all of a sudden, it was just way too much coming out. I'm at, I'm at Joe Gibbs, my hero.

we're at the owner of the Redskins house. They're wanting to pay me a lot of money. And I just needed to step back and get a bigger view of it. So we walk out of the room and Kelly's like, yeah, of course, we're going to calm down. We're going to go home. We're going to talk about this. We still got to go meet with Rick. I said, yeah, we've got to do that.

We got to do that. I just got to get home and talk about this. This is crazy. I can't believe this. So I try to pull it all together because we're going to go back in there and say, Joe, hey, we're going to thank you. This has been amazing. We're going to go home. This is awesome. We're going to talk about this. And so Dan looks at me and goes, what? You ain't signing it? Because he's so, I think Dan's so used to, like, players walk in the room. Here's the contract. They sign it and they leave.

I was like, no, Mr. Snyder, we're going to go home and have a conversation and sort this out and go through this. We've got a lot to talk about. And he is in the business, and correct me wrong, Joe, but he's in the business of taking other smaller failing businesses or older businesses and revitalizing them. And he was in the middle of doing this with some restaurant chain and started offering me percentages of this company. And he's like, yep, it's not worth a lot now, but down the road, you know, it's going to be worth X amount of dollars. Johnny Rockets.

Right. I thought it was Johnny Rockets. And he's like trying to tag that on to the agreement. And I'm like, man, you know, that's awesome. I appreciate it. And I'm like, God, I'm spinning my tires backwards as fast as I can to get out of that building. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and,

And it just was so overwhelming. I was, it was like winning the lottery. You know, you freak out. Yeah, but most people take the money still. Well, I don't turn down the money. That shows you what kind of guy, Dan, I had not talked to Dan at all about doing anything like that. But when you walked out and didn't take what we gave him, which we thought was a heck of a deal, Dan just started in.

He was going to get Junior. Oh, you didn't know he was going to offer all that. No, he was going to get Junior to sign that thing before he left. He was going to do that for me. And I just appreciate that so much. He would have probably thrown a chunk of the Redskins at him if he had an assworth. I was talking to these guys yesterday about it. I said, if Dan had offered 1% of the skins, then he would have had a deal right then there.

But I went to, that's easy to say today. but when I went to Ricks to sit down with him, maybe a week or two later, he slid that paper across the table, and I slid it back. I said, I don't even want to look at it. I wasn't there with Kelly. She wasn't there. I was by myself. I said, I don't even will see this number.

The last time I saw any number like that, it destroyed me for about a week. I said, you and Kelly figure it out. I said, you know, I want my side skirts painted. If you would have just said you have full authority to paint the side skirts, whatever you want, you'd have had him. If I'd let him design the car or drive. a hot ride up there. I probably could have had a chance. No, Rick, Rick, I understand that with Rick. You had loyalty to him and he, Rick helped me get

in the sport. And so, you know, I understand all that. But it was a big disappointment for us. We made a full bore run. I'll say that. We gave it our all. It turned out all right for you guys. Did you guys think that Hendrick Motorsports was going to be the place he'd end up, though? I mean, like a lot of people, if I remember this, people would have assumed two places, Joe Gibbs racing in RCR. Yeah. I guess at that point I was probably a little bit, I knew when he got focused on Rick that that was the other choice. That's probably where he'd go because of loyalty and everything, the background and all that. We had a lot going for ourselves, but we didn't have that where he kind of grew up with knowing Rick and everything. Man, it was an amazing day for me.

I still think about it just to even have that opportunity to go there and sit down with you guys. Let's take a quick break from the Joe Gibbs interview. Why? Because I have a question for you. Ever wonder where your family comes from? More than you'd know. You can discover more about them and learn about your story as well, like I have, by combining the ancestry DNA test with billions of historic family records. You can even trace your ancestors' journey over time following how and why your family

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I built my tree. I don't know, man. It's been 10 years, it seems like. I mean, no joke on that. I've been working on my tree forever, and I've had a ancestry account forever, and I was just working on it the other day. You get hints all the time that are coming in. That's right. And sort of kind of your tree's always sort of getting more robust and more information about each individual person.

And so now I got this DNA kit. It's in the mail. It's activated. I'm waiting on the kit to get to them, them to start to figure that thing out. It's going to take a little while. It's like six weeks or so before you get the information back. But once I pair that DNA kit with the tree, it's really going to give it this three-dimensional feel. Sure.

And help me. It's just going to be more interesting, more in depth. So I'm excited about those results, having the tree and the information from that and now the DNA kit itself to sort of verify and backup a lot of that. You know, a lot of those notes and a lot of the factual information that I've got in the tree. The DNA kit will sort of, sort of, you know, solidify all that. With this special, I think I'm going to try it. Well, you should. Everybody should for a limited time now through June 13th.

Go to Ancestry.com slash Dale Jr. today, and you can get your DNA kit for $69. That's Ancestry.com slash Dale Jr. for $69. This does not mean that Greg Biffle's the next guest on the download. Ancestry.com slash Dale Jr. You once owned a drag racing team, HRA, six seasons, over 30 wins, successful. Why did y'all give that up? I told them, I said, I think we hold the record for blowing up the most stuff. We kept it in Indy.

That was my love, really, when I grew up in Southern California, it was drag racing. I had a, I started off with hot rods, and then I had a gas coop. It's a drag racing, and I had a gas, dragster, and then I had a top field dragster. Thank goodness, I blew the thing up before. and then I got my first coaching job. But that was kind of, you know, my first love. And so when we started the NASCAR team, obviously, you know, we got started with that. And then after about three years, we started the drag racing team.

And it was an Indian and everything. I loved it. I think really what happened is, you know, it's not-for-profit the way they run things over there. And in those days, it wasn't very well run, really. and so all of our sponsors they were in it with us was norm millard interstate batteries and mcdonalds and all that they eventually wanted to go back to nascar because it was bigger crowd bigger attention bigger everything did you race ever uh the only thing i i did a little drag racing right okay that's about how'd that go yeah it was fun i loved it if i had a choice probably

growing up so my our listeners were probably imagining like what kind of car well i I had a dream in drag racing. Sometimes looked up, Gary Gabblich, and I used to hang out up at the, one of the guys that had a big drag racing deal. I used to hang up at their house. Gary Gabbledish drove their car, and he, by the way, he set the land speed record at one point. It's 680 miles an hour or something. And so I hang up at their place, and they helped me, the Sandoval brothers, helped me build my top fuel car. and so I would have had a, if I had a choice, I would have said, I probably would drive a top fuel car and be in drag racing.

That was going to be my dream. How old? Like when you were a teenager? Yeah, I was like 22, 23. And I used to work, I worked night shift in the offseason, out of school, and put all the money in cars and the drag racing. Making money, how? I mean, because this would have been about the time you were a grad assistant, right? No, well, it was actually before that.

And I would work in the summers. Then whatever I got, I was just pouring into hot rods and stuff. That's crazy. In those days, it wasn't like today, you know what I mean, a thousand bucks. You could buy a lot of stuff. And so anyway, it was a fun time for me. I honestly think I grew up in the greatest time. Southern California, hot rods, our cars all had names on them, nicknames.

And it was high school sweethearts. and it was just the music was awesome, the 50s music. Everything was great. And I enjoyed that life so much. And then playing football. So it was like a dream world. We talked about me and you talking, getting together about driving for you at one point. Is there any other drivers that we don't know about or some drivers that you might,

you tried to hire at some point in your career? Your team's been around since the early 90s. Yeah. I remember I remember I first came down here. The question was, okay. you know you got a football coach trying to come in a race and so a lot of guys are kind of going hey this guy's a nutcase but I remember Elliot I went to Bill Elliott because everybody thought that would be a dream deal you were going with Elliot and I remember the discussion I had with him it was really funny for me because he said his question to me he goes how much money you got in sponsorship that was his question you know the reason and I told him

because that was with interstate batteries and norm I thought I had plenty of money He goes, Mm-mm. That ain't going to make it. So right away, I think I spooked him off on that. But, you know, we were, the great thing was, Dale Jarrett was willing to take a chance to come with us. But the bigger, probably a huge deal as a part of that,

was Jimmy Maycar. Jimmy Maycar was at Penske. That already won a championship. And this guy was a crew chief and killing it. What's he going to do going with a football? coach. And so after we got Dale to agree, and Dale had not won a race at that point, two weeks later, he won at Michigan. Michigan. Got it. Man's got it. But he hadn't won a race. Dale said, let's go talk to my brother-in-law, Jimmy Makar. I said, honestly, I said, we got no chance

on that. What are you doing? I said, but I'll go with you. And we sat down and talked to Jimmy and Jimmy for some reason said, hey, I'd love to build something from scratch is really what we were talking about doing. And I owe a lot to those guys because they got us started. JD obviously came on board. That's a great story because JD had just graduated from college. He had two buddies, okay, and Dave Alpern and Todd Meredith, same age. All graduated at the same time buddies. all the way through school.

They all came down to the race team. And honestly, they were just wandering around. Jimmy Acar was trying to find places to put them, get them out of the way. And they fooled around with this or that, and go-kart racing and stuff. And that's how they started. And it was crazy what happened because JD wound up being president of the company, ran the whole thing for years and helped build it.

Dave Alpern's our president today after JD got sick. But he started off in licensed product. And that was his world. And then Todd Meredith was operations. And it was crazy the way it all worked. And they built the race team, you know. And then so the way that all started was kind of a miracle thing. But we had 17 people.

We're over in Harris Boulevard. I mean, if that was a miracle thing, what was the game plan for you then? Like, how did you think that was going to go? What I thought was going to happen, I would continue to coach. J.D. would run the race team along with Jimmy. with Maycar, and I would continue to coach. I went one more year, and what had happened is Coy was playing at Stanford. In order for me to see Coy play, you know, I needed to get out of football.

I'd miss J.D., a lot of his college playing. He was at William and Mary. I felt like I didn't want to do that again. And so I would go West Coast because most of Stanford games is West Coast. I'd red eye back to the races, and I felt like I did that for a year, and I said, hey, look, now it's probably the time for me to step out, and I could really spend time with Koi, watch him play, and then help with the race team. And so anyway, that's kind of how the whole thing started.

I want to fast forward a little bit to some more current events, and during the 2010-2011 season was a difficult one for you guys with Kyle. He was going crazy, flipping all officials on pit road and wrecking around the Hornaday and so forth. Really? There was a lot of crazy stuff going on. He wasn't throwing oranges of people, but he was going on. How close were you guys to having to make any kind of major change or decision with Kyle at that point? No, I think it was just, I don't know what's the right way of putting it.

Kyle has such a passion for everything. And then we got started with that when he read. Rect Hornady and everything. It was a huge deal. And so I think it was something we just fought through. Yeah. I think we were all committed to getting through it. The question is, I think what would have changed things had our sponsors said, we're done. And we were able to work our way through that. And to be quite truthful, Norm Miller stepped into gaps some with interstate batteries to help us. Norm's always really liked and got along great with Kyle. They've been kind of buddies.

But I think our sponsor of the fact that Mars was willing to stay with us and said, okay, we're going to work our way through this. Here's the things you're, you know, they were obviously you get, they were upset about things, but we were able to work through that. I really appreciate that because today, the relationship that Kyle has with them and the family and Mars and M&Ms and everything. And I think Kyle has really grown to appreciate that too. Because here's the thing that's different.

I talk to the young drivers and I tell them, I said, what does Denny have? He has FedEx. Worked real hard at that. It's 11 years. I said, what's Martin have? He's got a relationship with Johnny Morris. Huge deal.

You know, and auto owners. Long term. Okay, what's Kyle got? It's got Mars. Listen, if you're in this sport, wake up, get going. You need to make sure that you keep your sponsor happy. Go after them, text them, all the things that it takes. And sometimes young guys, you know, they're, hey, I'm driving a race car.

That's it. This sport is different, and that you've got to have a great sponsor. Well, I was about to ask you, what's the secret in keeping sponsors happy? You seem to do it better than anybody. Listen, I love that aspect of it because here's what. what you here's what is different also about our sport. Let's say that M&Ms is going to sponsor the Redskins. They're not going to be the M&M Redskins and I don't care what you say. You can put as much money over there as you want if you ain't getting it. Okay. But in our sport it is the M&M's 18 car

and Kyle Busch and they're in the sport. It's three and a half hours on the car this afternoon they're going to be three and a half hours on it. They're in the sport. They're such a key part of it. They're a partner. And when we win, man, I'm calling those guys from the Winter Circle because they're a big part of our sport. And let me say this. I love that aspect of our sport. I love that. You got to work your rear off and you've got to have people that go with you.

And the fact that we won that first Daytona 500, Norm Miller, that was one of the greatest days of my life in sports. He had a huge Dale Jarrett T-shirt. I still remember we were laughing. It had his face on the front of the T-shirt. and my coy and J.D. are rolling in the infield on the grass. We didn't even know where the winner circle was. We're wandering around like a bunch of getting you on to me. Those kind of stories.

But Norm, our last contract we just signed with Norm will take us through 30 years. Norm's spent with us for 30 years. Wow. And the sponsorship part of it, I love that. And it's trying to keep them, you know, you want them to have value in this. So the great thing, our sports got. going for itself. We have 38 weekends. Okay, so that's social and digital, you know, you know, what everybody wants, content. We got it. Okay. Yes, there's a crowd and all that,

but then it's B2B. All of our companies working together. It's social and digital. Showcar program. Everybody, it's got to be a huge, you got to put it all together so that a company says, we're getting value for this. Right. And so I love that aspect of it. It is different in our sport yet it's one that I got some of the best relationships in the world with the sponsors and the fact that it does require so much of a commitment from a sponsor you wind up talking to the top people in the company so I talked to Fred Smith he just spoke at our summit you know the head of FedEx you know who would think I'd ever get to talk to the head of FedEx you know what I mean and so I think all those things about our sport is I love that our fan base is

just the most dedicated fan base in the world. I mean, we got Fan Day at Joe Gibbs Racing. There's guys stay overnight. I take them donuts in the morning. You know what I mean? They're still out there. All they're going to get is autographs. Where does that happen?

Yeah. And so, anyway, I love the family atmosphere of NASCAR and everything we get through as a group. Joe Lugano won a championship last year. He was the driver for you at one point. Yeah. You guys, you have any personal regrets on missing out on his growth maturity.

Absolutely. You know, we'd love to win that championship with him. I think those are the things that the things about sports, particularly this sport, you're going to make a lot of decisions, okay? Some are good. Right. But I think what had happened to us there is we went four years, you know, with Joey. And so that was a long time.

And we just felt like, you know, at that point that Matt might be a good fit for us. And so we made that change. And, of course, yeah, you always look at that and say, hey, people always say, you know, Joe's a moron for me making that decision. But all of us kind of make them over there. We all kind of work together real hard at our race team. And so anyway, you kind of make decisions like that. But that's the fun thing about sports. You don't know what's going to happen.

How shocking was Carl Edwards sudden retirement? I was completely, I would have to say, that conversation might have been my top five. as far as shocks for me in life. Really? Yeah, they said, hey, Carl's outside. It was after the season. I figured he's going to come in and wish me a happy offseason and a good Christmas. And he comes in and sits down and he goes, Joe, he said, I think I may have in with mine,

I'm going to step out of racing. And I went, what? I was sitting there and I go, you do realize that every young guy your age wants to drive a race car and make a ton of money. Are you sure you're doing the right thing? And never really ever got to the, he would not, he says, I'm not going to share with you. I'm not going to share with anybody the real bottom lines. But I think with his wife and him and the kids, I will say this right now, I feel good about it from a standpoint.

We still talk every now. Last time I called him, he was on his boat in the Bahamas. I said, well, you're doing pretty good. So with Christopher Bell's successes in extending his moved to cut on the horizon, what are the current objectives for you as the owner to make all those pieces fit? I mean, it's a great problem to have. Yeah. So many talented guys.

And also, I guess, how much influences Toyota have over those decisions? You want to move Christopher up. You've got four cars. You've got four great drivers in those cars. Yeah. So how do you make that work? That's one of the challenges you got, particularly in bringing along young guys. And it's happened to us before.

And, man, you get caught up in that. What's the right? decision and and there are options there. We're kind of considering everything and you're trying to work your way through them. And of course, what we just talked about, sponsor, how's the sponsor fit on all that? You know, it gets to be really complicated. You brought up Toyota. The great thing about Toyota, honestly, we don't go, we don't make any decision. We're constantly talking back and forth. You know, and I think that we have a great partnership with them.

They're heavily invested in the sport. Love it. They're also a technical company. They love the technical aspects of things. They seem to be extremely involved in that driver's career from the beginning. You look at the truck series with Kyle and how Toyota uses that team and plants drivers in those cars sort of that are grooming, and that's what they've done with Christopher. So I would assume they have a pretty heavy influence over.

Christopher's future. Yeah, but it's a real partnership from the standpoint. We're the ones that have to get the sponsors, and so the race team is hard after it, and then we've got, but they're always so good. We just work together on everything. It's common sense, really, and some of these problems are really, if you remember back where we took Eric and we wound up, he wound up going to 77, you know, over at, um, over front row over there with everything that happened there. Those are tough things to go through and work through, but that's the challenge of our sport, too.

You know, we can, you can say what you want, you're not going anywhere unless you've got great drivers. Let's face it. I've learned that. And so, you know, we want to have great guys in the cars. Yeah. And they make you look good. And so, but it is a challenge,

and you've got young talent coming out there. And so. It's a great problem to have. Yeah. Oh, man. Going into Hall of Fame. You're also going in the Hall of Fame and NASCAR Hall of Fame with your drivers, Tony Stewart and Bobby, Labani.

I mean, that's got to be, not only, I mean, imagine getting an opportunity to go in the Hall of Fame, right? That's got to be cool, right? And he's going to go in a second Hall of Fame, by the way. Yeah, right? Yeah. I think it's probably his third, fourth, fifth, sixth hallfame. You've probably been in a lot of Hall of Fame somewhere. No.

But what's that going to be like to share that experience with two drivers you won championships with? You bled, you cried, you sweat, you did all that with those guys. You lived racing with Bobby and Tony. A million stories of both those guys. And they were a key part of building our race team, you know, when you get a great driver like that. In those days, you only had one car, two cars, and you're building stuff. And so for them to gamble and their careers and come with you,

and there's all kinds of stories. I still remember Bobby when it looked like Dale was leaving. And so now we all kind of settled on Bobby, and he's driving the coffee car. Yeah, Maxill Davis. And so anyway, I'm in a garage area, and I remember going like this, I went. I pointed at him like that, and I went. And he goes, he turns out he looks to see who I was talking to. You know, he's licking over his shoulder going, who's he talking to?

And I went, no, you. I want to call you. And so we get Bobby and then, of course, Tony coming on board. That was, I could write a book on Tony. Oh, yeah. Everybody. About the original, a lot of people know the background, a lot of things, but originally getting him and chasing him down.

Okay, and all the things he had to do, the flights I took to go get him and talk to him and try and convince him and all that kind of stuff. So that was quite an experience. and to get him on board. I will say this, that a lot of people don't realize this, but they were where he was before,

they were wanting to put him in a cup car. And what he said was, I'm not ready for a cup car. And so when he came to us and we finally worked out the deal, okay, he said to me, he goes, I'm not ready for a cup car. I'm not going to embarrass myself.

He said, I want to run X-Fenity, okay, for a year. Now, a lot of guys would say, nah, put me in a cup car, I know what. We put him in the X-Finity. I don't know if you remember this or not. He didn't win a race,

and that man not only would wreck once, he'd wreck three times. And X-Fentity, and we'd come in and fix it and go back out and wreck again. But anyway, we got through that year, and then the second year, you know, he stepped down to the cup car

and just took right off. So, I mean, he was in Xfinity the same year you were, right? Okay, so this would have been 98-99. Yeah, but we didn't want to win a race. But you can see... He ran great. Yeah, I remember.

You could see on. Some of those races were, you know, he was. Yeah. So you spent a lot of time helping others. You co-authored the book, Game Plan for Life. You also have a website of the same name, offering tips and stories on health and fitness, relationship, career, life purpose. You founded Youth for Tomorrow, an organization in Virginia,

focused on offering aid to trouble teams. What's your motivation to helping others? I mean, you got enough on your plate. You're busy. Yeah. How do you find the time? What's your motivation to make such a difference in other people? I think once you give you life to Christ, you kind of realize,

and when you're studying his word, that it says very explicitly in there, someday we're going to stand before him. And the only thing that's going to be at our feet is what we've done for him. Now, I've been blessed. I'm realized, you know, average person, most people in life never get one dream occupation. I've had two football racing. small family business.

But I think also, what is going to be the most important things that we're going to leave on this earth? And I thought a lot about that. And really, if you stop and think, what's the most important thing for me and Pat is going to be our kids, our grandkids, and the influence we've had on others.

It's not going to be the races, one, and football. It's going to be, you know, I use it as an example. I had a little spiritual father in Fayetteville, Arkansas. When I was coaching there, took me under his wing. A little Sunday school teacher just wrote me notes, prayed for me, talked to me. Never played a sport in his life, I don't think.

And George had been gone about 20 years, and I had a meeting with the business guy in my office, and he goes, hey, wasn't George Darrell, your spiritual father? And I said, yeah, he was. And he says, well, Coach Moore at Appalachian State said he was his spiritual father. So if you think about that, what was left from, George, not his house, not his money, not his occupation. It was what's left in me and what was left in Coach Moore.

And so I think the influence on others, I think that is, you know, what we're going to leave on this earth. And, you know, so I, the youth home was a kind of a wild thing. It shows you how God can work. Oh, I didn't do that. But here's, I sat down with four guys at breakfast. And I was working with inner city kids as they were going through the prison system. It felt like that was somebody I could relate to.

And so until my kids got to be teenagers, then I realized I didn't relate to them. But, you know, so I was working with that group and sat down at breakfast one morning. I said, we ought to build a youth home. I always have these big ideas that I'm not going to do it, but I'll have big ideas. And it was a guy in there but the name of Don Meredith, not the footballed non-meritus, but. Don was sitting there and I said, why don't we do that? And we got together and had a banquet, raised a little bit of money. And I went and set it down in front of a guy that had a big construction company in D.C.

And he goes, we're doing this. And today we got a youth home. That thing today is 120 kids on campus. We have intercity kids, sex traffic girls, Mommy and Me program, counseling, a Hispanic program. we have 120 kids on campus and we're counseling 1,500. That thing took off. And then when I came out of football, I felt like that, you know, a lot of people would say to me, hey, look, you know, I try and relate to people with the Bible.

They're going to, if they're going to say anything about the Bible or, you know, question it, it would be in one of three areas. Hey, Joe, that thing is written 2,000 years ago. I'm interested in modern day life. Or they'd say, hey, Joe, that thing is strange. language. You know, it's hard for me to understand. Or I'm interested in specific things that help me live today. Where's that in the Bible? And so we did a research. It came back 11 things. I wrote the book. I got 11 experts that spent their life studying about those topics. Finances,

health, all those things are in there. And my story wheezed through there. And so then I started speaking. And then a crazy thing happened. I had this guy came to him and said, hey, Joe, I gave my life to Christ in one of your very first speeches, and he said, I just want you to know I'm in a, I decided that God wanted me to teach in prison. He took our prison. This guy had never taught anything in his life. He said, God impressed upon me. So he started going up to Salisbury Prison. And from that, we took a program that was in Louisiana where they take lifers, guys that are not getting out, work with the seminary, take them through a four-year study. they get their pastor credential and then transfer them through the state and they work in different prisons. We're doing that here with Southeast, and it is unbelievable that that could happen. God can do crazy things.

And so we got our second class, our sophomore class, is going through it right now. So it's really, I think those are things that can be here, you know what I mean? And it's, you know, really that's the question for all of us. what are we going to leave on this earth i know for me it's going to be with jd and him getting sick and now the fact that he's going to be with the lord from that that made a huge impression upon me too coy and i coy moved over coy wanted to work in motocross and do other things but coy after his brother got sick came over he's working with me in nascar and for our family you know it's a huge deal. Corey's so important over there. But when JD went to be with the Lord, I think about his

life. I have a stack on my desk of literally hundreds of people that have written me notes about what JD did for him. A little girl wrote me a note and said, I have a tough time walking. J.D. saw me in the lobby and took me on a one-hour tour of the race shop down below. He wound up in hospice for two days and when I was up there with him and when he was sick and the people came to me and said you do realize JD when he was healthy used to come through here and talk to all the patients there's so many things about JD's life that he I really think he wouldn't impress me about him after he's gone is I need to be more like JD he reached out and touched people and and I would like to tell that a little story if I can, if I got a minute about what happened there with JD and the Daytona 500.

So for racing fans, I think everybody would appreciate this. So JD's running a race team, and he went to buy some late model stuff up in Manassas, Virginia. The driver up there was a kid named Denny Hamlet. So JD goes up and he said, hey, Denny, we bought the equipment, his parents about giving us. up racing because it was so expensive. And he said, hey, Denny said, I think I can get you in a test. In those days, for Chevrolet, they would do tests. And so eight kids show up for the test. Danny killed everybody. J.D. said to me, he said, hey, Dad, said, I think we need to put him in a truck. Let's see what he'd do at a truck. He finished 11th. The truck wasn't very good.

J.D. said, let's put him at Darlington in an Xfinity car. We'll find out what this kid's made of. and he finished eighth. And JD says, I think we need to sign this guy. And I said, go for it. Let's sign him. Signed Denny Hamlin. Denny's number was 11. JD's number in high school when he played quarterback was 11.

Okay, so that starts the story. And so when JD got sick, it was a five-year struggle for him. And the way he handled everything was the way he handled everything else in life. and so when jd went to be with the lord it was january 11th okay so the next big event's at daytona 500 we started getting ready for that and the racetrack said we won't honor jd what lap should we honor him on and we said the 11th lap so everybody stood up on the banner wall think about this denny had not won a race the year before you're racing the Daytona 5th You know how hard it is to win that thing and so that race starts now the other thing that

Denny had done had put JD's name over the door with him at JD Denny that race starts it comes down at the end of that race is kind of a miracle thing a lot of people would say well that just happened that didn't just happen I think God was a part of that weekend overseeing that and Denny wins the race with those restart arts and everything at the end. Kyle was second. Eric was third. It's only the second time that's ever happened in sport. And I think a lot of people saw that and realized God was a part of that. And JD's legacy today, he has a website that when we did his service, that service was a testimony to the Lord. J.D.'s four boys got up and read from his date.

I have a lot of people that went to that website that told me it's life-changing for them. That website is jd.gibbs legacy.com. There's over 3 million people now. I've gone to the website and a lot of people, it's 50 minutes long if they watch a lot of people watch the whole thing. And I think he's had huge impression on a lot of people's lives. So JD's impact on a lot of people and then JD's dream was to have an inner city ministry for young life. He grew up in young life. Melissa was big in young life, his wife. His kids, they used to go back to the camp and everything, but young life didn't have enough money to have

inner city young life. His dream was to have young life in inner city and through the donations and then all of us getting involved, we're going to have young life in inner city now because of JD. So that legacy and the impact and that story about Daytona, I appreciate you, let me tell that. But, you know, in life, things that change and change your life never dreamed of, you know, that's the turn it would take for us, me and Koi and the whole family now. His boys run real. Two of them are playing football at App State. One of them is racing full time. We had one little guy that tied the whole time that, well, it's not his son, it's Corey's son, but out of his four,

Two of them are playing football and two are going to finish school. They're interning. One of them is interning in the engineering. It wants to be an engineer at Joe Gibbs Racing. The two oldest want to go into business like their dad did with the race team. So we're kind of pointing towards all that on Koi's side. We got the one little guy that's racing, Ty. I only got one grand girl.

I just went to the horse show. You want to talk about some money? how much it costs or how much it wins no those girls but she's into all that so anyway I got to create you mentioned Ty you went to the Myrtle Beach

to see him win and you described that as one of the finest moments of your life yeah and especially in motorsports yeah and he's now he's racing K&N

he's racing his late models and he's racing he's racing in ARCA he's only 16 so he can only run the short track so I think he's got three seconds or something there

but anyway he's always wanted to race That's all he's wanted to do in life. I had a laugh. Matter of fact, we decided to homeschool him. He didn't care. Honestly, Ty didn't care a lot about school. I'll tell that on him.

Anyway, he just wants to race. So we're homeschooling him. And every day about 10 o'clock, he'd show up the racetrack. And I go, school, what's it? And he goes, you know, I'm working on the race car. I'm going to go with a simulator. And his dad told him, he said, you better be a race car driver. You're going to be drywall in the rest of your life.

That's so true. Coach, I mean, we just talk about how much you're helping other people, but when you talk about the loss of JD, who helped you through that? I think our family, you know, Pat, is always, you know, she's been really, when you coach football and everything, she actually raised JD and Coy so much of the time. You know, I'd come home. I was the fun guy. I had fun with them, and she's got a discipline and everything.

And I still remember they would get up in the morning. J.D. Akoy, and they would go, mom, I'd hear him yell and I'd go, what? They wouldn't answer. And they go, mom, I go, what? Wouldn't answer. Because they knew whatever I said, didn't count. And when they got mom, they go, I want to stay home a day. She'd go, no, get you ready enough. And get going. But she was kind of the boss. She and then Melissa on J.D. side. honestly Melissa's so strong and God made her I think for to go through that that was a long struggle that was five years of a lot of heartache and those four boys on that website the four boys read from JD's daily log you know in that service and those four boys are I think they're going to be

special and do special stuff or that'd be a part of his impact too isn't it amazing how you learn so much about people. And in this case, it sounds like, you know, with your own son, you learn so much about them in loss. Like these letters, like you wouldn't have predicted that. You wouldn't have known that you would have had that outpouring of not just support, but also stories and anecdotes. This is what JD did. And it's maybe unfortunate, but also I think it probably helps the healing a lot is when you get to hear things like that that you otherwise would have never known, maybe. Is that, did you glean perseverance from those moments? I think it gave me a different insight.

I didn't see a lot of that. We're roaring through life. I've got all this stuff going on and everything. He was touching people's lives. He would stop and touch people's lives, and that's what came back and all these letters and everything. And I'm trying to answer each one of them, but I think that, you know, he lived it.

And it made a big impression on me because, you know, I laughed because I got that Norm Miller, a friend of mine. I own his interstate barriers, and he's 80. I'm 78, and he goes, you know, we're playing in the fourth quarter on House money. I said, Norm, I'm in a two-minute offense. I'm not going back in the huddle. But for me, you know, I want to finish strong.

I'm really, I'm excited. I didn't used to think a lot about heaven. Yeah, I really didn't. I was having so much fun down here. You know, a new heaven was there, and you got it ready for me. when jd went to be with the lord i i really right now if he came and got me right now i'd be excited about seeing jd i can't i can't wait honestly and i know you with your dad can you imagine that first day when you get to see them again i i get emotional i think about it

but you know and your dad i used to kill kids you're dead i would go in there and he you know i'd say you could have been a linebacker from there he he got he got the biggest kick out of that. I get a kick out of it. That's awesome. You know what I use, our young drivers with your dad, I told him, I said, hey, listen, I want to tell you something right now, said the thing about Dale, everybody respected Dale. Now, I said, everybody didn't like him.

You know what I mean? They boo him, but they respected Dale. And I says, why did they do that? And I try and tell those young drivers, I said, it's the way he handled everything. did you ever see him pout about anything? Did you ever see him make an excuse about anything? I still remember here at Charlotte when he wrecked and got turned over and they turned him over. And he got out of the car.

Remember he walked over and he's kind of holding his head and he had his helmet, his hand. And everybody goes, oh my gosh, he's going to throw his helmet. You know what I mean? When they come back around through that, you know, like some guys would do. And when they came back around, all he did was this. I got you. Okay. I got you, boy.

That's that music song. He's got you. It ain't funny. I used to get so ticked off. He was starting the back of the field. And everybody would just part their ways. He's just coming. I'm going, hey, come on.

Give me a break. Somebody rush the guy. Race him, race him, yeah. And so anyway, so I use that a lot with our young guys. I said, look, if you want people to respect you, treat things the right way, don't pout, storm off. and all that kind of stuff. He never made excuse.

And I appreciated that so much about him. I think he was a stud. This is what your dad was. That's the way I feel. We talked about how you flew back from Michigan to be here today, and you're going back tonight to watch your teams run. You're an amazing man, and that says a lot about you. I could take a lot of lessons from the things you told us today.

And I know you're like JD, affecting a lot of people's lives in a positive way, and it's our pleasure to be able to sit down and talk to you, so thank you for coming. No, I appreciate it. I want to say to you, too, that you're really important to our sport, your family, your dad. I thought he was just – I had so much respect for him, and I could tell a couple of funny stories about him, but, you know, like – but I just really respect him and you, and you're important. Thank goodness when you stepped away from racing that you're –

you're doing what you're doing now because it means a lot to our sport. I just want you to know that. I appreciate it. You were talking about what matters in life, and it might be a defense mechanism because I didn't win any championships, but I knew a long time ago that if I couldn't win championships, I needed to matter some other way. I needed to be, you know, I needed to be important or important to someone

and affect someone's life some other way. If you can't be a champion on the racetrack, you can be a champion at home and a champion with your friends. Yep. So that's what I try to do. and I think that, you know, you reaffirm that with your comments and make me feel like I'm making good decisions, and I think anyone you speak to is going to have that same reaction. So I appreciate you.

We love you being a part of our sport, and, you know, I'm a huge fan of you, your life, what you're about. Why didn't you sign that contract? Let's get right down to it. It's a great question. No, let me say this. too. I appreciate you. I can say the same thing about you. They said about your dead. People respect you because you didn't wind around on stuff. And I think the way you relate to our fan base is awesome. I think they get it and you get it. Yeah. There's not a day he goes by that I don't

wonder what might have been. That would have been something. Yeah. Thank you, buddy. All right, man, thank you. Yes, sir. All right, guys. All right, let me tell you about our friends at Vavilene. As many As you probably know, I was sponsored by Vavilene for several years, and I even drove a Vavilene car at Darlington back in 2015. A lot of drivers are sponsored by motor oils, but Vavilene, they were different. They were more than just a logo on my suit or on the race car, Vavilene. They were a true partner. They always were hands-on in helping us make our engines perform better. They'd send teams over to Charlotte to work directly with our engine guys in the shop to squeeze out a few more horsepower out of our engines.

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head over to valvling.com slash Dell to find a product spec for your engine. That's valvine.com slash dell. There's a lot of stuff going on this week. I don't know if you guys caught up on much of the racing. Greg Biffle came back. Came back and won. Is that a big deal?

Heck yeah, man. Dude, I like it. Listen, Biffel came out and took his belt off and whipped all them pumps. I guess I'm not surprised. I know Greg Biffle and me and Greg are friends, but I wasn't surprised. I was like, all right, cool. I was surprised. You're not supposed to be able to do that.

You were surprised. Yeah, sure. How long has he been out of a car or truck or race or a? It doesn't matter. It does matter for most people. He's not been out of it that long? He hasn't retired. He was out, what, a year?

Yeah, I mean, the TV broadcast was putting a big thing on the fact that he's been out of a truck for so long, but it's only been like two years or so. been out of a race car. I would say the trucks are... You guys are saying he's only been out two years. I get it. But I'm saying is that you yourself have anxiety for that one race a year that you come back on. So I'm saying two years is a lot to go off and win a race.

I mean, I don't know what it says about the field of the truck series. No, but he survived it, and that was the biggest thing. I was impressed. Give the guy. Gosh, I am, I mean, I'm glad he won. Damn, Mike. I'm just saying I'm not surprised. I have more...

have lots of confidence in Greg Biffle. Yeah. I thought that he would get in the truck and do very, very well. I thought he was going to lose a lead there at the end of the race. I was real surprised at how much those trucks could draft up on each other down the front straightaway and so forth and get runs on each other. Like, the leader was vulnerable at times watching that race. Really exciting race.

Turn two with treacherous. Yeah. Oh, yeah. This is awesome. Holy. One of the best truck races have seen at that track in a long time. F1 controversy. So running us down for us, Matthew, what happened?

Okay, Sebastian Vettel is leading the race, and Hamilton, Lewis Hamilton's on his tail, and Vettel basically miffs up the chican and drives it through the grass. Leah, can you get something to watch here? Miss it through the grass. He missed the chican. Yeah, he misses it. He goes through the grass, man.

No harm, no foul, continues to lead, regains his position. You know, he didn't pass anybody. F1 in the closing last. right after that made a ruling, gave him a five-second penalty. So Lewis Hamilton all he had to do is kind of follow him and make sure he was within five seconds and he won the race. They doled out the penalty before the race was over. I thought it was right before the race was over.

Oh, right before the end, they said, hey, penalty for that. All I know is, like, Twitter was in an uproar. Yeah, everybody was in an uproar on Twitter. I saw all that. The bottom line is, I don't know, my opinion on it is too much politics. and it seemed to be the general consensus. If you can't drive through the grass, it's not like he used it to pass somebody for Christ's sakes.

I mean, he drove through the grass and he maintained his business. You can't drive through the grass. If I wanted to watch politics, I turn on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News. I don't want to watch freaking politics. I want to watch racing. I don't know if that's politics. That's just rules. There's rules.

Yeah, I don't understand the politics either. Rulings ruin racing. I know. What was the ruling? It's overruling. Wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on. What was exactly the ruling? Why did they give them him?

That he drove off course. Here we go. Surely that's not. Say a look here. Yeah, it's so ridiculous. I know he drove off course. Watch it. Open up your group here.

All right, I'm watching him. Oh, yeah, he missed the corner. Yeah, big deal. Well, I mean, there's a rule that you can't cut the track. That's sort of cutting the track. But he didn't gain any position. No, he didn't. But it's still against the rule to go through there.

Okay, that's what I'm asking. But is that against the spirit of racing? All this ruling stuff to me is against the spirit of racing. It definitely cost him a lot of speed. It wasn't an advantage. No. He did not do it deliberately. I think he just missed a corner.

Yeah, I'm kind of with you. I think that they shouldn't have penalized him. It's a judgment call by the stewards, and I think they made the wrong decision. Did you see what he did afterwards, by the way? I did. He took the number one, so he refused to go to the podium. So he didn't drive his car to where they take the top three and park them together. He refused to take his.

car there. From what I heard, Ferrari asked him to go, said, look, let's, let's, let's straighten up here and go. He goes, and he took the number one podium stand that's in front of Hamilton's car and put it where his car would have been and put number two, second place or whatever, in front of Hamilton. You know, it's frustrating. Hey man, passing the grass. Tough deal, yeah. I mean, come on. Penalize Earnhardt, five laps. Give it to Bill Elliott, I guess. I mean, come on. Yeah. They'll, you know, hopefully don't make that decision. You know how the F-1 is, man. political. I think it is.

It's not political. It's this opinion. They're just weird. Weirdly, oddly strict and deliberate by, they will read a rule book and without looking at the action on the track and looking at this and making a judgment decision, they'll read the rule book and dole out the penalty as the rule book states. I think NASCAR looks at the action on the track and goes, yeah, we've got a rule that says that's not right. but, you know, he doesn't, you know. You guys, this, him's shortcutting is not what they doled out the penalty for. What was the penalty for?

They said, this is what I was asking, what exactly were they penalizing? They said that he returned to the track in an unsafe manner and forced Lewis Hamilton off the track. That was why they penalized it. Now, you could make that case, that he came back on the track, and Lewis was trying to go to his outside and had to lift and not hit the wall and all that good stuff. So you got, you can't get sideways in front of somebody, and make somebody check up, that's against the rules, too.

Where's all these rules, man? Politics, politics. So rules and politics are not the same thing, Matthew. Rulings, I think it's just ridiculous. It's too much, it's big government. All right, so Diggin. Haley Diggin. Is she for somebody off the drive?

Yeah. I think that's in the group me already. All right, well, she, let's take a look at that. She's in this race, Canaan race, out west. She's in the lead on a restart. Her teammate. doors her. Her teammate, she left the inside.

Her teammate shoved her up to track, whatever. He gets under and makes a good racing pass. Used her up a little bit. She fights back to get herself back in position behind him and dove down in the corner. He left, man, she drove it in there. Yes, she does. No, okay.

Look, here's what I think. Now, I know this podcast, the one I'm about to speak of, hasn't actually dropped yet, but we had a chance to interview Gary Ballou this past week and it's going to air on Dirty Moe Media coming up in a few weeks. I've been Gary Ballude now after my conversation, which is to say I have no problems with a race car driver. If you want to call that acting dirty, driving dirty, whatever,

I think that Haley Degan went in and took hers, what she felt was rightfully hers, and it didn't even matter that it was her teammate, and she will then pay the repercussions down the road with the teammate or whatever comes with it. But eventually, I think that, you know, there's a lot of level. of hypocrisy where people get mad at people for doing what Haley Degan did.

And I say, go get what's yours. If you want to win the race, do what you got to do to win the race, and let bygones be bygones. She'll get one coming back. She's got one coming her way, and she'll be mad about it. But she got a trophy this week. Yeah. Her first race, I thought it was a dirty chicken, you know what, move the first time she won,

and she knocked into some guy and moved him out of the way. This one, I looked at a completely different. Her teammate went in and doored her. Oh, really? Doored her. Used her. On the Restar, he used her a little bit. So somebody doors me.

Well, guess what? I'm going to door you back or hit you back, and it is what is. That's a short track race. But don't you think she does this move even if he hadn't doored her? You think that wasn't retaliation, was it? Yeah. I mean, she said it. She said it.

In her interview afterwards, she said that. If you're going to race me that way, she said, I didn't expect it from my teammate. She's coming off of a situation over a couple weeks ago where she got spun out by a guy who wouldn't let, you know, she's trying, she's trying to pass this guy and he keeps cutting her off, keeps cutting her off and spun her out. She spun her out underneath him trying not to wreck him. And she was, she's posting on social media about how frustrated she was with the way she's being raced and she's going to, you know, she's going to stand up for herself. She's going to race hard, not taking any crap. I think that's what this is. Yeah. It's short track racing, you know.

If it, it's fine. I think it's good. She backed up her words, man. I mean, Joe Lugano, Martin Trex Jr., Martinsville, totally cool. That's racing. You got to win. Got to go for the win. Winds are hard to get. And to be clear, we're not saying that everybody ought to be cool with it. No, you're supposed to be upset about it.

You're supposed to not be okay with that. It's just part of it. Agree to disagree if you don't like it. Right. So a couple of other things that I saw out there on social media this week. Yeah, so Justin Bieber challenged Tom Cruise to a fight. Wait, what? In an octagon.

And there's no... I didn't see that. From what I could tell, nobody can find any reason why he might have challenged him. Send that to us. But, yeah, so Justin Bieber just went on Twitter and said, I want to challenge Tom Cruise to a fight in Octagon. Tom, if you don't take this fight, you're scared and you will never live it down. Of Justin Bieber? Who is willing to put on the fight?

Dana White, question mark. Connor comes out and says, if Tom Cruise is man enough to accept this challenge, McGregor Sports and Entertainment will host a bout. Does Cruz have the sprouts to fight like he does in the movies? Stay tuned to find out. There must be something there going on. This is some kind of publicity stuff to me. Yeah, this is some kind of publicity stuff.

Because there's no, nobody could really find any purpose for Justin to be able to post something like that. There's no beef? Yeah, it's just a bizarre. Some bizarre sort of thing going on is going to end up being a big production, a promotion or some kind of weird. Yeah, some kind of thing. They're saying that Cruz stands at 5-7 and weighs 170 pounds, and Bieber is 5-9. 145 pounds. Oh.

There you go. Here's your fight stats. Tell the tape already out. Goodness. Who you got? Maverick. The Tom Cruise, I think. Yes.

100%. He does his own stunts. He's taking martial arts. I've seen him jump on a couch before. He's pretty nimble. And he's nice. He jumped on your couch? No, not my couch.

He is 57 years old. This other thing I saw, because of Matthew, commented on it on social media. And Kelly Crandall. Oh, got in it. How you don't even know how you pronounce this?

John Leveck. John Leveck. Yeah, it's a buddy of mine. All right, who's John? John works for racing electronics. Yeah. I race RC cars with them. And Kelly's the NASCAR B-4-Media.

Yeah. And so, John, what are you good? Since you were following it on social media, give us your side of it. Oh. And be down the middle. I'm not going to, I'm not going to save my, you know, yeah. Well, set it up because I don't know what I'm on. Well, basically, for the fans listening, Kelly.

Crandall said something about, I believe it started where she said something about the rainout being a 5 o'clock race and this and that. And John said that it sucks for the whole industry and, you know, the people that have to work it have to unnecessarily stay late because of that. He wants the race to be taped, delayed, started at 10, 11 o'clock, tape delay the race, play it later tonight. I guess it's moved up because of what, World Cup soccer. Women's World Cup. So we're going to start to race at 5 o'clock this evening. I personally hate that, but this isn't about that. This is about Kelly said that and then John said that,

and then John threw some heat at her online saying, well, if you were actually here, are you here? And she said, no. If you were actually here, maybe you'd have a different opinion. And then said, a real journalist. Ooh. Would be here. Come on.

Which, John, that's a low blow. I love you, brother. I may agree with your opinions on certain things. Kelly then promptly tweeted a picture of all her sports writer trophies. Oh, wow. which I thought was great. That's a great response, yeah. You know, I wanted to bring up this interaction on social media

not to really get into that particular battle or pick a side. It's more to actually talk about the race being ran at 5 o'clock tonight. We got the World Cup soccer. There's a lot of World Cup soccer fans out there. They want to see their game. A bunch. And we don't tape delay on a major event in our sport. Our sports should be live on television.

This is just the frustrating part of things like this happening. I mean, that rain delay is going to put us in a difficult situation. But I remember, it's funny to hear all these people in the industry crying about having to be over there. And TJ Majors texted me, oh, what a waste of a day. Do you all remember when it rained and rained? We were in Michigan. Oh, God, we there until Tuesday. What was it Tuesday?

Yeah, yeah. And there was a, it was guaranteed to rain 100% all day. We knew Saturday, it was going to rain all day, all day Sunday, and all day Monday. Yep. And NASCAR did not turn anyone loose. I mean, we have the ability, we have the flexibility to leave and go home for a couple days. They could have said, look, you know, it's not going to happen today. Come back Monday night, let's do this Tuesday, or come back Sunday night, we'll do this Monday, whatever, you know.

They had us sitting around in those motor homes all day Sunday, pouring rain. Never let up. We didn't get a break, a window, nothing. No jet dryers hit the track. Same thing Monday, pouring rain. I mean, this was so frustrating. And I laugh about this situation that everybody's complaining about. Colerne, what did he see on Twitter?

His was the best response, I think, well, maybe not. But he was very explicit. I don't know, maybe he deleted it. Oh, come on. Oh, come on. You don't delete tweets. Oh, I think he did because he's, yeah, really need to. Really need a precursor anything on Twitter with, I'm joking, lighten up people.

So sarcasm. Yeah, it was something like he wanted to go to game five, I guess, or something of the NHL finals, which was either tonight or game five was, game six was last night. Yeah, well, he said game five in his tweet. He's like, I guess I'm not going to whatever game is for the NHF finals, but at least I know what it's like to be effed over by multiple women's soccer team. Oh, goodness. Yeah, so I guess he deleted that tweet, but that would have, he probably wouldn't

had to have delete the tweet if he was working, still working for Furniture Row, but now that he works for Joe Gibbs, I think the PR team might have contacted him about that. We should have asked him. I laugh about all these guys griping because I think about that weekend when we were there till Tuesday. Imagine if that was the case for these guys. I mean, listen, you were griping that week. I remember.

Heck, yeah. Of course. I think it's because it's over soccer. Let me add, is that really why? That's why, if I was there, that's why the only reason I'd be pissed is because it's over a soccer game. Come on. Isn't it?

You think Big Bill France would have changed his start times because there's a freaking water polo game or soccer's big, okay? Whether it's a soccer game or football game, no. But isn't it supposed to run a race at noon and find a way to televise it? I think he would. You think so? Yeah. I disagree.

I think he would. I think he would if he would have taken hundreds of millions of dollars. from that network. Isn't it supposed to rain to like 2 o'clock today there anyway? Which is good. Well, yeah, I mean, that's a different part. Listen, if any time T.J. Majors is complaining about something, I naturally take the opposite position.

What does he not? Right. I mean, listen, and I love him for it, but listen, if he's complaining about something, you know that it's usually self-indulge type, you know, that's where he's coming from. He's coming a place of selfishness, which I can easily then take the other side and say, oh, well, maybe it's in the best interest. for the sport and for everything else. It does.

I want to be honest. Now, rain delays and rainouts and postponements suck. We all have plans the next day. You have something you're looking forward to, whether it's getting home to your family. Sure. You have a podcast to do, whatever it is, right, that we all have plans to do. But that's such a common occurrence in our sport. We always make note when it doesn't, when we don't get rainouts for consecutive weeks.

We go, wow, how lucky are we to not have had a rainout in? five weeks, you know, or whatever, or a delay in the rare, and it always seems to happen at the same tracks. We always get rain, Michigan, Pocono this time of year. We get delays typically at the similar, same racetracks. You just have to go into Michigan or you have to go into Pocono, just kind of knowing that this is a real possibility. I shouldn't get too excited about my Monday because that's a chance I'm going to be spending

it in Pocono or in Michigan. When you're on the series, there's a circuit long enough, you sort of get to get the feeling that way at Dover and all these tracks, particularly this time of year. But I found that, I found it amusing. I want to see, I want more people to complain. He's so amused that he doesn't have to be there. I am, I'm not there.

Meanwhile, he'd be in the trailer pissed. I'm glad I'm retired. Yeah, he's so happy. I just rubbing it in. I know. I'm just rubbing it in. I'm just rubbing it in, trolling him. You earned that.

You earn that opportunity. You troll. All right. So, I think we're live, are we not? Yeah. All right. So, uh, let's go. Welcome to everybody who's watching on YouTube, dirty mood media, YouTube.

Make sure you follow all of our social media handles. I'm sure you do if you're on here. Yeah. This is the Ask Junior portion of the show presented by Nationwide. We're going to take some questions. Leah Vaughn's going to tee those up for it. Not Linda Vaughn. That's going to happen.

It's still. It's hard. Some time to time. Yeah. Should we check and see if our audio's working this week? I mean, did they hear us? Yeah. Can everybody hear us?

It's working. Trust me, that was as frustrating for us as it was for you guys last week when we had to cancel. But we're back. Good audio. Thank you, Randy. All right. First question. With the Triple Crown ending last week went to Belmont Stakes, Patrick Kinzer wants to know, Jr., what is your triple crown for NASCAR?

Like as the big three? The big three races? Oh, man. Well, you got to have the World 600 and Daytona 500 in there. Those are two races that have to be. in there and I think the third race is pretty interchangeable. I mean, it's going to be

you know, I can't even know, I don't know if I can't even pick one. I might put Bristol Night Race in there one year and then it might be homestead for the championship the next year. I don't even know. I wouldn't put Indy in there. I know the brickyard is a very, very magical

place. Love going there for the 500, but for what we do there and the way the race is, I just, it's not in my list. not in my top three. You know, it's an important race, but not in my top three. So I always, as a kid, I always wanted to go to the Bristol night race. I just wasn't, and anybody that's not ever been to a race, when I get people that say,

hey, man, I want to go to a race, where should I go? I tell them the Bristol night race. I don't tell them to Daytona 500. I would go to Daytona, you know, second, third race. But the Bristol night race, I know, is going to be exciting enough to hook that fan or hook that person for that first event. So I might have to say that's my three. All right, Skylar Fox.

As you are a huge collector, what is something you always wish you had as far as racing, memorabilia? Isn't it tough to say that? That's Mike Davis's word. I think Matthews is the only one left to not butcher that word. Finally did something right. Your time's coming. I don't know that there's something out there that I have my eyes on or wish I had. The stuff that I wish I had is a general bulk of items.

Like, I wish I had, I don't know, one or any of dad's driving uniforms from before his rookie year when he ran sportsman in 70s. I wish I had, you know, I don't know, any car that dad raced in, one in, you know, I'd love to have that stuff. You know, I think that the reason why I spent so much on the Nova was because I had a personal connection. I remember being around that car. I remember Dad building it,

Dad, and me going to Mammal Shop and walking around it. And so it has a personal, I would have spent more for that car than I would have paid for any car that Dad raced in the Black Three for Richard Childers because the connection to me personally was special. You know, I'd love to have any car that Dad raced in the 80s. Having that Monte Carlo to me is so special

because of it, you know, It raced in 79 and 80. David Pearson won Darlington in that car, and Dad won Atlanta and Charlotte in 1980 in that crisis. I mean, those things aren't, those things aren't laying around. Helmets are cool. Late model stuff? I love getting a hold of my stuff.

There's some stuff out there. There's a guy on eBay now that's got some noses and tail pieces from when I raced in 1994. It wants $2,500 for them. It's just too much. I can't justify paying that much money for my own stuff. But I love collecting sides and doors and anything from my career, my dad's career, my sister's career, brother, all that stuff. Any of that personal family-tied kind of stuff is cool.

You recently got that Wrangler Blazer and somebody wants to know, where did you get it? And how many of those are out there? Yeah, the Wrangler Blazer, there was a Dale and Hart Senior Signature Edition. Wrangler Blazer made around 1984. Dad had that and drove it. He actually drove it around. is his own personal vehicle. Not very long.

I think he had it for several months, maybe a year. And then he sold it to our neighbor across the street. Another guy that was a farmer that dad was friends with. And right across the street from DEI is where this family lived. That guy drove it. He's the only other person that drove this car. And he recently passed away. But that car's been on the street for multiple years.

It's been in a garage. And it's in good shape because it's been sitting in that garage. but this man recently passed. His family contacted us about obtaining ownership of the vehicle. It was a very fair price, and so I thought it would be cool to have. I don't know that there is another one like it. I don't know that I'll touch it, though. I think I'm going to leave it alone.

I don't have any desire to restore it at this particular time, but I am glad that I have it. Jonathan Herrett, he says he has no idea you did some drumming. He's a big fan of drummers. like Phil Collins, Nick Mason, goes on and on. Who are some of your favorite drummers? Phil Collins is awesome because he's actually coming around. We might try to get to see him in Charlotte this year when he comes through.

He's touring again. Dave Grohl was one of my favorite drummers of all time. And probably he's at the top of the list for me as a Nirvana fan. And his work in Queens of the Stone Age is pretty awesome. But, you know, I played the – I wasn't ever good at all. I was awful, but I love to try to play, and I loved music, and I quit drumming because people, I was bad, and people would say, when I go to a concert, people would go, come out here and play the drums. I'm like, I'm really bad.

You've never seen me play, and you would not be asking me to do this if you knew how bad I was on a set of drums. I'm awful. I was awful, and it's not like riding a bike. Once you quit, you don't know, you don't get it back. You can't jump on, I can't jump on the drums right now and carry a beat. I can't. And it's something you have to continue to do and practice that, like golf. You know, you don't play golf twice a year.

You would drive yourself insane if you did that. You have to play all the time to be good at it, even to be decent at it. You have to do it a lot. And that's the way drumming is. And so eventually I just quit drumming because I was never going to be great at it. I didn't have the time to put into it. It was a lot of fun. drum set takes up a lot of room though

I don't even know where I'd put one today but I've got a set somewhere I think you got rid of it yeah maybe I did Alex Acres logistics aside if NASCAR could have one international race anywhere in the world

where would you like it to be I mean if you're talking existing racetrack I think it'd be cool to go to Couga I don't even know let's name that place now oh man Giacasa yeah it's in Canada it's awesome it's an oval it's a track that was restored

recently, you just call it Kuuga. Yeah. I'd love to go, if we're going to go outside the United States and showcase our sport, we need to take Martinsville or Bristol to those people. We need to take short track racing, rubbing, beating and banging, night racing, Saturday night short track racing. Wherever we're going to go, that's what we need to take to showcase outside of the United States. Don't take

Daytona, plate racing. Don't take mile and a half. Road courses. I mean, road course would be great, exciting. But let's take them... They got that already. Yeah, let's take them our roots. Let's take them short track racing. So that's what I would do. And you'd have to probably...

You'd probably have to build racetracks if you were going over to Europe to do that right. I don't know that they have a lot of ovals over there, much less short track ovals that would work for us. but if they could build, you know, a Bristol or Martinsville in Europe somewhere, it would be amazing to see what those folks thought of that, you know. A little conversation came up on Twitter about Montreal, because Formula One is running there, and I'd love the one we ran there as a sport in the Xfinity series. Cool.

All right. We won there. So anyway. JRM won there. Yeah. Very cool. Ron Fellows. Montreal.

All right. Last question. That was a road course. Last question. This is a burning one. What was the last movie you watched? Oh, my God. See, it's burning.

Well, this is... I'm really wanting it to be like a laughing. I watch the Lion King. Lion King? Friday night. With your dog? My dog watched the entire thing. All right, so I can't remember the last movie I've watched from start to finish.

I'm a documentary guy, so I love watching documentaries. But I called Amy Sort of in the middle of crazy rich Asians And ended up watching the back half of that movie And actually better than I thought it would be What is it on? Is it? I don't know.

I mean, she's probably like... HBO or something? Netflix? It's probably out like on Amazon, like crime or something. But she was watching it and I came in in the middle of that. But it was good. I know the book series is like really popular. Yeah.

I've seen the... I'd heard about it, but never would have watched it. But Amy said, my friends were telling me to watch it. I watched it. She sat down and watch it, so I finished watching it. We got to end on a better one than that. Oh, okay. Give us just a...

I like that one. You don't like... Mike don't understand it. You can go to the well right here. Talk about something Mike doesn't understand. You want that one? Let's go to the well. Okay.

I think this was... Go to the well. What does that mean? Go to the well. I don't know. We're going to it. Hey, Del Jr., Mike Davis. Bentley says this, by the way.

I was just listening to the Thanksgiving podcast and was curious did model of the original track. That's funny. You remember that? The Thanksgiving episode, he went back and was listening to it and Homestead was going to send you the model of the original. Where is it, man? They're still in Homestead. They haven't sent it? No. What the heck, Homestead Motor Speedway? What's up, man? Where's that dang?

So, I mean, we talked about this, but, so I was working the Homestead race for NBC and down in the basement where we get on the elevator to go up to the booth is about the size of this table, an old model of the old homestead motor speedway. And it's just sitting there, not getting used. It's in a case. And it's really cool. I was like, that should be on the, so I reached out to the track president. And I said, that should be on display. He said it used to be in our lobby. We don't have it out there no more, obviously. I said, well, damn, I want to take it. I'll display it. I'd love to have it. We could put it in here. And he goes, all right, I'll figure out a way to do that. I got Mike Helton actually connected me to the, and I talked to Helton. And he's like, well,

figure out a way to get it to you, but I haven't gotten it yet. I don't know where it is. I mean, it's in homestead. It's not an easy trip. We've got to figure out somebody who's trailering something that way. You'd send Sonny to get it. If this was the 70s, we'd call Gary Balloon. Got any room for this thing in their haulers that's coming up this way. But I won't the damn thing. Bring it to me. That's a good. I mean, I'm paying me like, are you satisfied? That's exactly. I'm not going down there to get it. It's not. It's not that damn cool, but I will pay somebody to travel it up here to bring it. There you go.

Boy, now we're going to get calls from Joe's Trucking's going to call. Hey, man. It's got to be taking, you know, it's a delicate piece. Thanks, everybody. Thank you, y'all for tuning in. Yeah, Asch Jr., appreciate y'all to tune in. I'm glad at work this week. Matthew and Lee have been hard at it all week trying to work out the kinks and the bugs.

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That's $5 off your first order. order when you download the DoorDash app from the app store and enter the promo code Dale Jr. Again, the promo code is Dale Jr. for $5 off your first order from DoorDash. Don't worry about dinner. Let dinner come to you with DoorDash. All right, it's time for this week's Vivalene DIY question of the week. Dale Jr., we all know man likes his toolbox. You probably had a few over the years. So the question is, what in your mind is the single greatest tool in your toolbox? It's the claw, man. So let me tell you about the claw. Yeah, let me tell you about the He's like, the claw.

It's just like that. It's just like a hand shaped like a claw. So when I was working at the dealership changing oil, the tool man comes by once a week. Tool truck comes by once a week. Save up your money. You go in there and buy your new tool or replace a tool. That's cool. That's cool.

And I changed oil. Toughest thing about changing oil is getting the air filter off or the oil filter off. So the car comes in, motors hot, trying to get that oil filter off. you need particular tools and oil filters come in various sizes. So typically it would be a sleeve sort of cap that would go over the filter and loosen it up. But since they're all different sizes, you need multiple tools to that. Well, the claw was all in one. And I could put it at the bottom of a filter and it would clasp around any filter and it would do damage to that old filter.

Now, when you broke this thing free and backed it out and loosened it up, It would dent and scar the outside of this filter, so it was going to throw it away. You wouldn't want to really get too aggressive when you put the new filter on, and I usually did those by hand and tighten it just a little bit with the claw, which got to be careful. But anyways, I still had that tool. I bought that tool back in 1995 or six, and I still have it today in my toolbox. So that's my favorite tool.

Wow, I didn't even see that one coming. What do you got? I was trying to think, I mean, listen, I was trying to go just, you know, basic, generic, you know, got to be a hammer, but then I realized, you know, there's things you can hammer stuff with. I mean, you can get a rock and try to make it into a kind of a makeshift hammer. And then I was like, well, you've got to go screwdriver. But then I realized, you could take a screwdriver. You have a good rock in the toolbox.

Yeah, so my answer is a rock. No, I have to have something with a blade and just having a, and this is what I typically use. A utility knife. Yeah. That's your favorite tool, yeah. I mean, yeah, I use it the most. It does not sit in a toolbox unused for a long time. I have my blades, I keep those in the kitchen cabinet, in the kitchen drawer.

So, you know, for Amazon boxes and so forth, the knife that Stone Cole gave me, it's the new, all-in-one, open-anything kind of knife that's in our kitchen drawer that me and Amy use. Yeah. Well, that makes sense. I mean, like, yeah, you just end up need, you wish you had a knife or you, you wish you had a utility blade or something when you don't have it. Isn't that the truth, man? You go into that damn toolbox to get that. you took a blade out and it's so damn dull and then you take it all apart to flip it over and the back sides dull because you realize yeah you got no new blades so frustrating that's why i keep that

knife around that's my vote you got a vote anybody i like uh i got a i got a screw the screwdriver where you take the one the bits out yeah and but the not the one where you have to change bits the one where you just flip it over and it's the philip's head yeah i don't know why but i get geeked up over that there's a screwdriver now i don't know who makes it but uh in the handle the handle the handle opens up there's like 10 bits in there on the other sizes. So that's very convenient. Isn't it crazy? I mean, back when I was doing dealership work,

they didn't have stuff like that. Now everything's made so convenient. One of the best gifts I gave all my buddies, so I do a little shopping from my buddies for Christmas. And it was about 15 of them. I got them a little tiny small power drill or a screwdriver, electric screwdriver. And it's very small.

And they still email me or text me pictures of that thing, him using it around the house years later you got one lea no another favorite tool yeah no i mean i have my dad like when i moved out on my own my dad got me this little toolbox and a drill but the only time i get to use is when he's around ah so you don't ever have the need to use a tool i mean i have you like i use sometimes i use the hammer like put a nail on the wall hang a picture like i'm no i'm not really a tool person well from high mileage rides that need that thick anti-wear film the newer engines that have carbon buildup, head over to Valveline.com slash Dell

to find the product spec for your engine. That's valvine.com slash Dell. Keep talking about it. White flag right there, white flag. This is time sensitive, so I'm going to get to it first. Our friends at pristineauction.com have an online auction right now for a Dale Jr. themed VIP experience. It ends Tuesday night, June 11th.

So, Dillner, the quicker you get this out, the better they have. Oh, geez, that's tomorrow. That's tomorrow. As I said, it's time sensitive. So if you're listening to this podcast before Tuesday, night. It's like 11 o'clock Tuesday night. So you got some time. Get to pristine auction.com. Get a load of what they're offering in this. Okay. Three laps with Dell Jr. at Darlington Raceway. He's given right around there. One pair of skeleton gloves signed by Dale Jr., a private tour of junior

motorsports. Two tickets plus pit and garage passes to the NASCAR Xfinity race on August 31st 1st, Darlington, two tickets to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, four-night stay at Hampton Inn, plus a swag bag that includes buy sunglasses and other items. Just got to go to pristineauction.com and search Dale Jr. VIP experience with Right Along. This benefits the Dale Jr. Foundation. So that's that. It's been a few weeks since we've had some Apple podcast reviews. I know we love our reviews. So let me get to a few. Hot Rod Robinson writes, my wife and I love the John Forst podcast. Keep on doing what you're doing, Dale. You are making an impact on the sport that will live long after you and I are gone. Sean Boy Roberts writes, I never claim to be a Dale Jr. fan. Dale, yeah, I heard that. But man, I love or I look forward week to this dang show. Michael Waltrip's interview must have brought on my allergies because my

eyes kept watering up. I had a lot of feedback. I know. Hey, the Waltrip episode did good. Did good, didn't it? Did real good. J.B. from Louisiana writes, lifelong wrestling and NASCAR fan here. I thought it was a great deal that Dale Jr. sounded like a legit wrestling fan. I was like he's kind of like giving you. He's like he sounded like a legit wrestling fan. Maybe he is a legit wrestling fan. But he showed mad respect to Stone Cold Steve Austin, genuine interest for his story.

I thought that was well done. And then Max 79 FXC writes, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for the produced piece on Petty Officer John Tomlson. Being a 10-year veteran of the Navy myself, I had the honor and privilege of being a support technician with the SEAL teams. Bringing John's story to the forefront was a gift to us all, so thank you. And speaking of which, you know, the military, we got a gift. And you know we like our gifts, Dale, a buddy of mine from high school.

A good friend of mine, Mark Stevens is in the U.S. Air Force, and he sent us an American flag that flew, this certificate says this flag was proudly flown in an F-15E strike eagle on a combat mission over Syria and Iraq in support of Operation Inherent Resolve. And so we have this flag that we can display here in our studio. I think that's pretty awesome. Yes, that's awesome. And also, Dale, I don't know, let me go get it because I want you to tell us our new acquisition here in the studio. Oh, uh-oh. I don't even know this. Mike's on a field trip.

Here he comes. He's coming back. Okay, I'm back. Tell us the story here. Okay. I mean, you're putting me on the spot. I believe, let me look here. Well, where we got it?

I know you don't know the details of everything, but here. So, yeah, so Sam Bass recently passed away. His wife is going through his estate and his collection of items that he's been attaining over his career. Obviously, he has a lot of Dale Earnhardt stuff. and this helmet was in his collection. And I believe it was from 1996 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. He ran a red, red and white and blue, obviously. Like a patriotic paint scheme for the All-Star race.

And this was the helmet. So this is legit Dale Earnhardt helmet. You know, it's one of those things where, you know, it's not often. It seems like it's happening a good amount over the last several. months, but it's not often that I get legit Dale Earnhardt used items, but we've gotten a suit from 1984 in the last several months. We've gotten a couple of race cars over the last several months. We've gotten this helmet that was dads that he used. The stuff's just really kind of trickling in. It's nice to know that it's going to be taken care of, and it's here. I appreciate

Sam, and Dad's relationship with Sam was a great one. They were great friends. So we appreciate his wife and their connection to us and her wanting us to have this. It meant a lot to me. Kelly actually gave it, had it, and gave it to me. We're going to just display it here. It's really either, it's really no ones. It doesn't belong to me. It doesn't belong to Kelly.

It's kind of ours, and we're just going to keep it here in the showroom. And we're going to add, as we see fit, I think, as things come in. And we thought about having that uniform over there changed in and out over time, but that was stuck around for a while. Austin Dillon actually ran that paint scheme this past week. A version of it for sure. Yeah, that's cool. And then the last thing I've got is just don't forget to check us out on NBC Sports Network Tuesday night.

It's 5 p.m. Eastern. We'll be doing this one. It'll be good. Oh, we got something else here. Something just came up on social here. Something just came up some guy named Spotter Brett on Twitter. We might know him. He is tweeting, missing my post shoulder surgery appointment today, an x-ray of my ass, recording of DBC and taking my kids to the pool.

but at least there's soccer on TV. Oh, God. Fred Griffithickeye. They're so warm. I just want to leave that out there. Listen, I guess this is my point. Let me just respond to it. It's like they net.

I want to let you respond because I know you're going to do it. He's going to ramp. I just want to say, they act like that they are, they never had a rain out before. He acts like that, what is this? Rain? What? What? I mean, this is like,

he has been in the sport a long time. This has this like, he's like, act like you've been there. This reminds me of, you know, back in our days, we were at the racetrack. And I remember, you know, one of the biggest places that people complain the most is the motorhome lot. And I'm not even talking about the drivers. I'm talking about the motor coach drivers themselves, the motor coach guys. And they would complain and they'd be like, I can't believe they're keeping us here till Monday. And I'm like, it ain't about y'all.

Never was. I know it's a problem. I know I get it. You're going to have to drive a little faster. I don't know, whatever you do. Take one less P break. I don't know what you do. But I'm just saying, you know what?

It has nothing to do with you guys. And I sometimes want to just say that to the, you know, our industry. I know it sucks. All right. Well, you have the opportunity right now to go on Twitter and troll Brett. So it's at Sputter Brett. Everybody trolled Brett. We encourage trolling Brett.

He'll block you. It'll be the last time you troll him. But anyways, all right. Well, look, they get a chance. I think they're going to tape Wednesday now. I think they're taping Wednesday. So we'll get to hear all about it. That'll be a big podcast of complaining.

I'm waiting on you to trolling. It's not about you. Hashtag, don't block me. Don't block me. Well, anyways, there you go. NBCSN. That's when we're rolling on TV. Follow us on social media.

And that's it. Dale, what you got for odd history? Odd history. This one's just sort of random, right? Pretty weird. But things were different back in the day. This was 1950. NASCAR was in its second season.

Gas prices were about 18 cents. A gallon. You could obviously buy a basic t-shirt, easy, for under a dollar. A lot of drivers raced in just t-shirts and pants and a helmet. unsafe. But, hey, that's what they did back then in 1950. Cleveland, Ohio driver. Jimmy Florian, he was 27 years old and was a construction company mechanic.

He came onto the NASCAR scene, winning in only his fourth start. The win came in June in his home estate at Dayton Speedway. It was Ford Motor Company's first win in the Grand National Division, so they should be very proud. They should be promoting this event and the win by Jimmy Florian. They might not want to. You know why? No, tell me. Well, he did it without a shirt on.

Obviously, it's hot, so Florian decided that white pants and a helmet, and the goggles were good enough. He drove his red and cream, 1954 at an average speed of 75 miles per hour to victory. That's pretty quick, actually. That's an average speed. Then climbed out and took a Victory Lane photo, no shirt, a moderate amount of chest here. Looking at this photo.

he's with his race team and there y'all have shirts on i don't know man this is uh he is pretty proud of himself sure i'll say that that's a win for the skins i like what you did there reminds me of that photo your dad on that horse when he's just not wearing he's wearing jeans and no shirt like it's awful don't remind people that oh god awful awful it's awesome oh please jeffrey jephyr had a helmet just recently that had that painted on the back of this me and kelly bow both text each other and we're like, that's just the worst photo. That was like that this is what you want to put on a helmet?

Yes. Of all the other. That's like guy on a buffalo level of badass. Well, I have a different opinion and nothing you say is going to change it. That's all right. Guys, that's the show. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks Joe Gibbs for coming on.

Absolutely. Just awesome stuff. Hero of mine and great friends. Enjoy it. We'll see you next week. This bit of badassery was made by Dirtymo Media. Dirty Mo Dirty Moe

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