The Dale Jr. Download - 265 - Dale Jarrett: Betting On Myself

Episode Date: July 16, 2019

Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets Dale Jarrett to open up about his unlikely journey from high school athlete to NASCAR Hall of Famer.  Jarrett's years of grinding it out before he made it, the ups and downs along the way, horrific crashes, juggling opportunities, beating Davey Allison to the line and a memorable first battle with The Intimidator.  The DJD gang goes off on Twitter whiners, Mike reveals a jaw dropping vacation moment, Dale Jr's French Toast trick and a double-dose of Odd History.  Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. for the Dell Jr. Download. We are back again. Do you like that? That was great, Dale. Yeah. Fantastic. You kind of looked around.

I'm always looking around, seeing squirrels. I love that. By the way, when I was on vacation, I'm listening to the download, and I hear Dale Jr., I mean, I'm listening to it, having no idea how it's going to sound or whatever. And Dale Jr. comes in, welcome to the Dell Jr. Download. Matthew doesn't like my intros. I hope you like that one, Matthew. And I'm like, it is no telling what led into that.

We got a great show today. Dale Jarrett is our guest. And I'm excited about that. He's a great friend of mine. Somebody I'll look up to. So let's get started. All right, guys, we got, before we get to Dale Jarrett, we've got to just kind of talk about what's going on on everybody's life.

Mike, you've been out of town forever. I didn't know if you were coming. back. Why would you think that? I would say out of week. Because usually when people are out of town on vacation, they still sort of communicate and you hear from them. I could.

I could. You know, you kind of, hey, things are going great. How's going? How's work? How's things back in Carolina? He didn't give a crap. Nope. I loved it.

He had a little service. You know, there was some social media posts and jokes. I had this. frequent, frequent social media jokes and... That's not even true. It was funny, though. I was out of service and no Wi-Fi had a lot of the time when I was out. But when I came out of the canyons that I was in for dinner or something,

there was one night when I just walked into 65 text messages in like 63 of them were you and Tony wrapping back and forth about stuff. And I'm like, what is going on right now? Like it's just, you know, your phone lights up. There's smoke coming out of it. But it was just text conversations and stuff like that. But no, I didn't have a whole lot of service. But I knew you guys were taking care of things.

I enjoyed listening to the download and the door bumper clear while I was gone. Y'all did a great job. Kelly did fantastic. Haley Deegan was good. Yeah. So, yeah. I thought Mike was going to come back and say, guys, I had a life-changing experience. I'm moving to West Coast.

I'm going to live in a national park. He's going to just camp out of the base at El Capp. Me and my family, we're going off the grid. He's wearing only Patagonia. I want to start climbing. Do I look like a climber? No. Thank you, Leah.

I don't even know what I mean. You were really quick at that. No, it was fun, though. I mean, I'm telling you, it was nice to kind of get out there and, you know. I got to try that. Detach. Did you miss me? Is that what you're saying?

I think it is. Come on. Of course. Yes. You lie. Mike, this is the way it is. So if I go out, if I go. radio silent for four days.

You've done. And I come back, Mike goes, are we still doing all that stuff you talked about before you left? Because I haven't heard anything about it in four days. I didn't think, or when I come back and I'm like, hey, man, how's this moving along? Oh, you're serious about that? You haven't said anything about it in four days.

Oh, so this is a same. This is a thing that's going on. I thought he was just doing casual conversation. Were you upset at me because I wasn't responsive of something? I don't know. I mean, we've got a... He is. What?

I didn't know this. Yes, we have this big thing going, this amazing podcast. Yes. Our media company, Dirtymo, media, your vision, your dream. I was gone like five days. And nothing. You, that's not even true. I did.

He tapped into me to have a phone conversation and then disappeared again. Lucky you. You were a part of it. You were in the group message. You responded. You did. You responded to me. What are you talking about? And then it went away. It was fleeting. I was in California and it was 9 o'clock their time and I was looking for the podcast. It was fleeting. I was looking for the podcast and it wasn't out yet.

I'm like, man, it's midnight. Matthew's sitting there probably still editing this thing. And so I jump in the next morning. I was talking to all of you guys. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. I missed you. Ha! Yeah. I did. I missed you. That's good.

Just you not. I miss you all. I think he's just saying that. No, I did. I miss you guys. I was proud. I loved the content. How was your trip? Oh, amazing. So you said it was the best trip ever. Yeah, I think it was up there, and it was the best trip ever because I had low expectations on it.

This is something my wife wanted to do. Hold on a second. You go to national parks, but the best part of the trip happened to be the fact that he had a hell of a time with blowing out a tire and you being stuck on the side road. I did have logistics problems. So it was like a, you know, Clark Griswold vacation. I was a I haven't even told you guys the craziest part of this trip. It wasn't the tire blowing you? No, no, no. And I'm trying to decide how I can even say this.

But listen, we were in San Francisco, and we had a friend that took us around that day. And I got pictures, all right? So look, so we take my kids, my daughters. I got a 10-and-a-old. Take a door park. Now, in San Francisco, they don't give a damn, all right? and there was this guy who was sun tanning in the park with just like a thong on and a toboggan. Wait, a thong?

A toboggan on his head and a white thong. And my daughter sees it. She's like, that man's in his underwear. And I'm like, hey, it's all good, whatever. All right, so how do I do this? He developed an erection. Oh, my goodness. First time erection's been so.

So he developed an erection. and everybody He developed it How close were y'all to this man? Do you want to see? No. Wait. I got

Listen, listen. I'm video on my daughter because she was doing these little things where she's like, okay, right now we're in San Francisco, we're at the park and stuff and then she goes, and she's talking about this dog

that's in the park and she thinks the dog's cute and then I catch this scene here with the guy and I'm like, and I start laughing and then Gracie says she goes, that man has something. sticking out of his underwear.

I got it on video. I would have put it on social, but I don't even know what's appropriate at that point. Yeah, that's probably not. Yeah, I mean, like, you know, especially if you think, like, he ain't talking to me and all this stuff, and now he's going to post these inappropriate things on social media. So my wife and her friend are laughing.

They're like, go get in the car. Get the girls in the car. Get the girls in the car. It was funny. It was hysterical. And we just, so that was like, that was a moment of our vacation.

But, you know, our girls, you know, it was an experience. $50 that never makes the NBC show. Brian, I was going to. Brian, do you need that picture? I was going to ask about the rest of the trip, but I won't. The rest of the trip. Listen, we went to, we left San Francisco. You know what?

Just experiencing new stuff. Like he went to San Francisco. He went to the forest, right? It's a big giant. The forest. I mean, it's a forest. Big giant, tall, wreck trees. The most, hey, the most erect trees there are in the world.

Like, these are the most erect trees out there. Oh, yeah. Big trees. These are big trees. We went to Yosemite and then we went to L.A. And it was a fun, fun trip. That was L.A. That was like, you've been to L.A. before.

We had, and we were winding her own down at that point, but we went to Universal Hollywood. You know what's funny? I need to send you this picture. You're right. We haven't talked a lot. So, like, do you remember when me, you and Tony snuck onto that, that jaw set and watched that tour? We were on that tour. Oh, you took the tour. And I took pictures, that backlock tour. And so we were, like, I knew where the fire was going to come out and the big shark was going to come out. It scared my daughter had to death. But I said, yeah, that's where we were standing. We went all through that. We did that back a lot to her. That was a lot of fun.

Then we came back. And then you were in Key West then at that point. So I didn't want to bother you then. Yeah. Yeah, I tried to text Mike a couple times to Key West. No, you didn't. Yeah. I would message you and, yeah, I'd think I'd text you.

Are you looking? Are you checking right now? I made this, I asked Mike if I could have Wednesdays to be, like, off the grid. And so now when I text him on Wednesdays, he doesn't reply. I think it's just out of spite. Like, you asked for it. It's true. Did not even go there in my mind, but that's funny that you'd say that because, yeah, I don't want to mess with your Wednesdays.

I forget that you have a wife and two kids, and that's probably... You do do that, don't you? Yeah. That's probably what's going on in your life. Probably, yeah, maybe. Right. Having to explain to my daughter what, you know, what was going on in San Francisco, she has nightmares now. Yeah.

I think I'm going to have nightmares. Oh, my goodness. So we had a Kentucky, we had an amazing race Did you get to see the last lap, Mike? It's funny. It was, I didn't watch the race, but then I fell asleep

and then I woke up and I was like, I want to see who won the race. And so I go to Twitter and then I saw the NASCAR and NBC Twitter handle said, get to the TV now. Yeah. We're coming up with our last restart. So all I saw was that last restart

and my gosh. Incredible. What a race. Most pressure-packed sort of pace laps building up to a restart that I can remember in some time. And it delivered. What a wild final few laps.

But honestly, the entire race for me was extremely entertaining. And, you know, obviously compared to the product that we've had at Kentucky over the last couple years, it was a big improvement, a much more exciting race. We had some battles for the lead that I wasn't anticipating having, right? I mean, last year, TREX led every single lap, won by 13 some seconds. It wasn't even, there was no battle for the lead. And Sunday or Saturday night, we had, you know, we had battles for the lead multiple times throughout the race. Even leading up to that final, the final few laps, we had an amazing couple of laps with Joe Ligano and Kyle Busch chasing each other all over the racetrack, down the apron on the front straightaway and all the way down the back straightaway on the apron of the racetrack.

Clint Boyer and Kurt Busch had an amazing battle for the lead. Eric Almerola, I mean, there was all kinds of moments in that race where the front was interesting, right? and man you know at the end of the race you get on social media and I know it's a small chirp it's not the entire pie it's only a very small sliver of people on social media and Twitter's not a big Twitter's there's a lot of users on Twitter but it's small compared to the general population yeah but man people still had a way of going yeah well you know those last two laps saved it for me that was a boring race till the end I'm like What in the hell are you all watching?

It's Twitter, man. Oh, God. It's got to be just specific to Twitter. It is specific to Twitter. It happened with that. Okay, NASCAR and NBC has that initiative, My Track, My Roots. And Pam Serbaugh put out this incredible... Awesome video.

Awesome video. And there was one line in there that bothered, and it was a buddy of mine, too, called it out about... They're $50 jalopies, you know, that Ken Squire said. It was written to the script. He had a beef about it, and that's all. all he whined about on Twitter. I'm like, why don't you look at the fact that it's like this awesome thing they did for grassroots racing instead of selecting that small sliver to complain about, but that's

Twitter. Every time that I open my Twitter app, I am compelled to find something that's going to make me write some snarky reply. That seems like everybody. Maybe it's just a platform brings it out in. brings it out in humanity. Ricky Jervais has a funny bit about what

Twitter really is, and he says it's like if you go into the town square and obviously I'm trying to emulate what Ricky Jervase, the presentation is not nearly as good here, but he says, you see a sign, it says guitar lessons. Twitter's like, but I don't want guitar lessons. And he says, oh, did I pop there?

Holy crap. Did I pop? You did. And then he goes, there's a number on it. And he goes, hey, you got guitar lessons. I don't want them. I don't want guitar lessons. He's like, they're not for you. Just keep going on about your day, right? And he goes, that's Twitter.

And I'm like, that is Twitter. It's like, you know, people that you don't have relationships with and you just put something out about your own life or I thought that race was good. And then they were like, but it wasn't good. It was, you're wrong. You're wrong. Laps 40 to 45 were very boring. Right, right, right.

Do better. Right. And shame on you for thinking that. I can't wait for Gluck's Twitter polls so I can say no, it wasn't a good race. The guy that won, I didn't like him, so the race sucked. It sucked. I hate Kyle Bush and Kurt Bush. Oh, God.

So when Twitter went down last week, it was like, you got a couple hours of like pure happiness. Was there any part of you hoping that it would never come back? So in the last two weeks, Facebook and Instagram happened down and Twitter went down. And I'm not kidding you. It was like, oh, this is great. Wait a second. Who do we celebrate for doing this? Should we be bothered?

Should we be bothered that our social media person here is excited that Twitter was found? It was like, you know, you get like two hours of like just, you know, peace. You know, I've always wondered. I always wondered. I forgot what my life was like before Twitter. And here it is. Here's a two hour window into what life used to be like. But I was like constantly like refreshing.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You know, it's like, it's down 30 seconds later. Is it still down? It's still down. Well, look. I was thinking in my mind, like, I bet you're just some hacker, you know, group, some kind of spider hacker group is responsible for this.

And, man, I really think they're cool if I knew their name. Right, right. Given the Nobel Peace Prize. Well, that said. The race was good. It was a good race, and I do love Twitter. You know what it, but can I just say, though, you know what it did for me when I saw that? It reminded me that was an epic finish, wasn't it?

We were so close to like an epic moment where I forgot that how close we are at any time for the volatile Bush brothers to develop their hatred and rivalry for each other. In front, yeah. In public. Listen, I know that they say things that they, you know, where they are supportive and they, I think they love each of. other and stuff, but at no point do I think that's real. I think that they are just waiting for that ticking time bomb to go off for them to let their true colors about each other go out. And we were close to it. If they weren't so great drivers, and if they erect each other, which they were capable of doing, my gosh, the sport is resurrected back to its place in the ecosystem because

the Bush brothers are the rivalry that we all wanted and needed. And my gosh, man, if that could develop. You know, I think that looking back, not all brothers are this way, but Jeff Bedin, Brett Bedine, they had their falling out. It fell, it spilled out onto the racetrack. Maybe it even started there, I don't know, but that was rather public with those guys running over each other a little bit at Indy and so forth back in the 90s. I could see, you know, had Kerry and me been put in that position,

boxed, put in a boxed, and things didn't go well, how that would, that could easily be. blow up bigger than any kind of disagreement you might have with just a stranger you're racing, right? Yeah. If your brother fenced you. Yeah. Like, dang, you're my brother.

Right. Yeah. You let, you know. Yeah, it's a very public display of a family situation. Usually those are private. Because you could be more real with your brother than you can be anybody else, too. I think that adds to it. Yeah.

I don't want to guess where each of those guys are and how they feel about each other, but it seemed to me that Kurt really enjoyed being able to get one over on him, on Kyle because Kyle's had so much success, so many wins, so celebrated for his, you know, his abilities. I really think Kurt appreciated getting one shot to, to, on a big stage, you know, to showcase, hey man, I can do this. I can get it done. The thing about it is, is like, they're very competitive with each other, and you can be competitive with anybody you're out there racing, but rarely are you pitted with one of those guys. I, you know, I, you know, I raced with dad a couple years and hardly saw him.

I raced, you know, me and Matt Kenseth were great friends, but really we only had about a dozen one-on-ones, right? And we raced for 20 years together. So Kurt and Kyle, they've raced around each other for over a decade and probably only have a handful of battles they can really recall one-on-one battles. And this was definitely one for the ages. Greatest thing I saw was the guy. riding on the car.

Yes. I knew you'd love that. As soon as I saw him do it, I'm like, oh, I bet Dale Jr.'s loving this. And then they panted that shot of you guys of the booth. And you glowed up there. You were just, you're beaming up there. I knew what? I might have been like that guy you saw in San Francisco.

I, I'm telling you. Oh, Lordy. So back in the 80s, back in the late 80s, NASCAR started to fine teams a hundred bucks a crewman. And Dad's team won at Charlotte in 87, and they found them $900 for the nine guys that rode on the car down pit road. So I think that back then that was quite a bit of money for a team to shell out for no reason.

And it just kind of went away. I don't know if the fine was raised or if NASCAR put a squash to it and said, stop doing it completely. But I'll tell you this. When I saw it happen, I thought, I don't give a dang what that fine is. That's amazing. I hope that they do it. I hope they keep doing it.

And when they pulled the car toward Pitt Road, I could see it on the monitor we had. I don't know if it was on national television, but there was an official there, and he was pointing for them each all to get off the car, like pointing each official to the asphalt. You get down, you get down, you get down. And immediately I text Steve O'Donnell,

who's in the booth next to me in the NASCAR booth, and I said, let them ride the car. And he said, hell yeah. And I was like, all right, you know, I'm hoping, I don't think. think NASCAR is going to do anything. If anything NASCAR is going to say in the next driver's meeting,

let's not, or they'll put out an email to the crew chiefs, let's not have them riding the cars, guys. That's fine. Which is fine. But hopefully they don't do anything. And riding the car becomes a thing again. Hey, as long as the car passes tech, that's the damn risky take as a crewman. I think it's a liability.

If a guy on the front falls off and gets run over. You think? Yeah, that can be tough. Oh, as far as that goes, as soon as they showed that shot of them riding, I could point to the one that was going to fall off. Right front fender, check your flag. You could see the one. I'm like, yeah, that's the guy who doesn't have it.

First of all, he's not holding on to a B-Po. He doesn't look like he has a whole lot of coordination. It's going to be the biggest impact when he falls. I mean, yeah, that's the guy that's falling. So, yeah, it's a liability. Yeah, absolutely. And those cars are paper thin. The sheet metal, back then in the 70s and 80s, those were tanks.

You couldn't even dent the hood when you sat on it This ain't a hayride here Ain't no way Ain't no way that thing's going through the Oculus or whatever the hell that thing's called Octokon Oculus Prime Ain't no way it's going through the room of doom All I know is if I'm a crew chief man

After they sit on it If I'm a crew chief I'm like Put your helmet on boys, we're getting on that car That'd be my reason I knew you loved it though I did I'm glad they did It was old school And thought the night couldn't get any better

And it did All right, we had the gloves program for Nationwide Children's Hospital this weekend. We had a lot of drivers wearing them. Over 50 drivers wearing the gloves. Nationwide Children's Hospital is a great place. We love supporting it. We love helping raise money. And me and my wife have a fun there that's for research.

And the gloves are worn by the drivers in the race Friday night and Saturday night. And they get auctioned off after the driver and myself signed them. The auctions are going now. NASCAR Foundation.org slash Dale Jr., I believe, is the NASCAR Foundation. dot org slash Dale Jr. is where you go to bid on these gloves. And they started at 30 bucks. So there should be, hopefully, maybe some affordable ones out there for you folks,

but there's also going to be some that are going to go up there and get jacked up. And rightfully so, some of these should go high. I mean, that's the whole point. We're trying to raise money for charity. I love that last year and this year you had first wins of the year. It was Chase's first win in his career, but you got Kurt Busch's first win of the year. The scary part is that hopefully no, you know, the big worry, and you don't even think about it. You're excited about the program.

You get to the track. You see the drivers wearing the gloves. You're pumped up and they're tweeting and everybody's supporting and pushing out information and driving people to the auction. And there's been months of lead up to this, getting the driver's sizes, getting their gloves printed, getting them comfortable and happy and getting the gloves in their hands. and getting them to the racetrack. And then the race is happening, and you're like, hopefully nobody loses their gloves.

Hopefully nobody's gloves end up missing or in the wrong place. Yeah, that is the big fear. That absolutely could happen. Because, you know, somebody grabs them or they go getting wrong hands or something or disappear. Hopefully it doesn't this year. We've been pretty good over the last couple of years. But anyways, NASCARFoundation.org slash Dale Jr., go bid on some gloves, at least see what they're going for.

talk about it, celebrate it. Help us raise some money. Hey, before we bring out our guest, I want to talk about my relationship with Balvelin. It's always been a great one, but it's a little bit unique. We do a lot of custom stuff, a lot of personal stuff. Being the only motor oil brand with a dedicated engine lab, makes them a great partner in under the hood, but we also do some pretty neat builds. We built the 1974 Chevy Cheyenne shortbed truck. I was born in 1974.

I love that body style. They helped me build a custom orange version of that truck. We took it out, had a lot of fun with it, thanks to Valvling. We've had a good time working together. Not short on some funny moments, two years after the truck build, they made me into a bobblehead for their pit pal's promotion. I still remember doing that production and didn't really know that the commercials were going to turn out as good as they did. You know when you're doing that stuff, it just hardly, you don't know whether it's going to be good or not.

No, no, and as a matter of fact, when they say, hey, guess what? We got this good idea. You're going to be a bobblehead and we're going to do commercials. You're literally working. There's a bobblehead. I was working with a bobblehead. You know, I got it. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. The bobblehead was his own guy. What me? Yeah. No, I got it. Yeah. So, it was weird.

But it turned out very, very funny. And something I was actually were proud of. So no other motor oil brand goes the extra mile to build a relationship like Vavilene does, which is why I trust them in my engines. And you should, too, from high mileage rides. that need that thick anti-wear film to new engines that have carbon buildup. Check out vaveline.com slash Dale to find the right product for your engine. That's fabling.com slash Dale.

All right, so here we are. Dale Jarrett in the house. How's it going? Fantastic. Thanks for having me. I watch this all the time. I listen to this and I always wondered what this place really looked like. I know.

Yeah, so we're pretty proud of it. I'm glad to have you in here. and one of the things that I think I'm most interested about for you is your start, right? So I lived your, you know, I say I lived it, you lived it, but I was around watching your, you know, your career with Yates and even before then. So what I'm curious, I've become really good friends with you, and I don't know as much as I'd like about your start. Yeah. And, you know, so we'll go all the way back, you know, how old was your dad when you were born? Let's see, my dad was born in 32, so he would have been 24 years old.

Really? Yeah. And how much of his career do you remember? Quite a bit. Really? Yes, I do. There are bits and pieces of it, but that was such an important time in my life to me because it was about getting that time.

Any time we can spend with our dad is great. and most of mine came either at the garage going with him during the week as he ran the business and worked on the cars to go into the racetrack with him. And, you know, we traveled as a family a lot of times. And then there were other times I just, you know, rode with my dad and because I love to go there and be a part of that. So, you know, I remember going to so many short tracks, whether they were dirt tracks or if it was Asheville, Weaverville, just, you know, all across up and down the East Coast

and having that time to spend around and being around. To me, I just thought everybody kind of did this. I didn't know that there was something different. I knew that everybody's dads did things a little differently, but not knowing that what my dad did was something that was totally different than what most went through. So, you know, I just enjoyed and embraced the time. So you've got to experience a lot of his career as a driver,

and your sons are athletes play a lot of sports. One of them's hoping to be a major league baseball player is doing really well. And Jason's the spotter. I raced against Jason a little bit. We were great friends hanging around the track. Were you playing sports in high school? Did that take a bit of your time away from being at the racetrack? Yeah, yeah.

Racing was something that I loved and I was around. And that time with my dad was great. But my dad retired in 1966. I mean, that was his last year. I hadn't even turned 10 years old when he ran that last race in Rockingham. Wow. And so I talk about a lot of his career. You know, he started it, but the majority of his career, as far as being a professional

race driver, I do remember because most of that came from basically 59 to through 66. And so, you know, we got a lot in a short amount of time. But yes, the answer is, that my time that I loved at the racetrack, but then when dad retired, my brother started me playing baseball when I was five years old. And I looked at myself, have always looked at myself as a competitor. Can you call me an athlete? But we won't get into that debate about race drivers being athletes.

But I was an athlete that I played. When I got to the high school level, I played four sports, baseball, football, basketball, and golf. And actually, they changed the rules in the state of North Carolina to allow me to play two sports at the same time, which wasn't allowed in the early 70s. I wanted to play golf and baseball in the spring, and you really were only allowed to play one sport. And so in my junior year, they allowed me to play baseball and golf at the same time of year. And so as long as it didn't happen on the same day, I couldn't. couldn't play a baseball game and then go play a golf match too.

They changed the rules for you? Because of you? I say that it was because of the athletic director at Newton Conover High School that contacted the North Carolina Athletic Association about me being able to do that because the rules were that you could only play in one sport during each season. And so in me wanting to do that. So they changed it. It was just a temporary thing that they said,

okay, we'll allow this in my junior year. Come back, my senior year, they changed, they had an update on it. And actually, the first year I said they wouldn't let me play on the same day. It just never happened to where I had to play, because we didn't play baseball games on Mondays, and that's usually when our golf match was. But my senior year, they amended it to the point that I couldn't compete on the same day because we got to where we played baseball games.

We started playing more golf matches. And so, yeah, they changed the rules so that I could do that. That's what I love to do. I love to compete. I probably shouldn't say this, but as much of it was that I love to compete, even though I made good grades, I wasn't a great student because I didn't want to be in class. I wanted to be on a field somewhere playing and competing. So racing wasn't something that I thought I was going to do.

I really thought I was going to be a football player or play golf. And so I literally didn't ever drive a race car. I drove go-carts and things, and it wasn't in a competing level, but I didn't drive a race car until I was 20 years old. Wow. Yeah. So completely different paths. I mean, think of the drivers now how much success they've had, yeah,

and how much success a lot of them have had at the highest level by the time they're 20. Jeez. When your dad retired when you were 10. Yeah, I was just getting ready to turn 10. So nothing during that time made you go, man, this is what I want to do. I mean, like, was there not? not a fascination of racing at all because I know we retired early and you were already on the sports but was there just even a little bit of a seed planted? Oh yeah. Yes. Okay. Yes. I mean, I would sit in

the family car in the driveway and, you know, act like I was driving in the Daytona 500. So yes, I wanted, there was something in my mind, but I didn't. It was so totally different. I could go, my parents could take me to the golf course and drop me off there and pick me up when it got dark. Or I could go to a, I could ride my bicycle and con over to the. baseball field and practice and play games so I could do all of that. You know, then when I got to the junior high level and stuff, you know, the sports teams were there. So all of that was there.

It didn't cost me a penny to do any of that, really. I mean, it caused my parents to belong to a golf course, but, you know, it didn't cost anything. And so knowing the racing side of it, it, somewhere along the way, I don't care who you are and where you get started, it's going to cost somebody money. And, you know, my dad came along at a time that even though he had to be. had two championships in the late model sportsman division and then two more in the cup level, you know, it didn't pay a lot of money.

And so he didn't have money to see if I could drive a race car or not. So trying to figure out that later. But I always wanted and thought that that would be so cool. How am I going to go about doing that? Because I looked at racing as high level of competition, driver and car versus the next driver in car. How was the retirement handled in the house? He did retire a little bit early.

Was that sad? Better sweet, was Ned? Like, this is what I got to plan. I'm going in this new direction. It was tough. It was hard on my dad, even though my dad has always been very goal-oriented. And he had a plan to that point. And I guess one of the mistakes we kind of laugh about is that he told my mom that

because, I mean, it was as dangerous as the sport always is, going to be because of speed. You know, during those times when your grandfather, Ralph, and my dad, when they were racing, I mean, those cars, and, you know, it was a dangerous sport because they were still running most of the time well over 150 miles an hour at most places. And a purely stocked car. Yes, purely stocked cars. So there wasn't a lot around them. So it was very dangerous. So he told my mom that he said, when he got into the cup level, we moved to Camden, South Carolina. He was driving for Bondi Long. And he said, look, if I can win two championships, I'll retire.

And not thinking that it would come in a five-year stand. And so there he was. And he wins the second championship in 1965. And she was like, okay, you're done, right? And, I mean, my dad was a young man. Yeah. You know? Exactly.

How old was he? 34 years old when he retired. So your mom was like, hey, you said. Yeah. You said, and I want you to, and I don't want you to go back. Yeah, it's dangerous. I mean, she had seen friends of theirs. through the years, you know, lose their life, driving race cars. And so, you know, she was concerned.

Here we have this family. You know, my brother Glenn, my sister Patty and myself. And, you know, she wanted, she sees people around in the neighborhood that we live in that had this stable family life. And, you know, they're there all the time. And she was like, can't you do something? So my dad lived up to his word. And we went from Camden to Greenville, South Carolina, and he got into a coffee business, which is crazy, because as I think... That was the next thing? Yeah, that was the next thing. Coffee.

Yeah, coffee business. Did he tell her that years ago? And she goes, you said you were going to open up a coffee shop. No, no, no, no. He didn't. That part of it as much as my dad has planned out life and done so many things. Right. He didn't really know what he was going to do right then.

Wow. But he never, I'll give my dad credit. As many opportunities and some good opportunities came along to him to get back in a race car. He never got back in a race car at any level at anything. Did you guys ever try to talk him into it? Dad, come on, look. You're really good. Yes, he would talk to us about opportunities that were there.

What are some of them? We might even recognize. I mean, yeah, his whole deal was with Home and Moody. I mean, he was a Ford guy, and when he was with Bondi Long, said they kept giving him opportunities that would come up, you know, and they knew who they had and what they had and the talent that my dad. had. So that was probably the biggest thing. And those, those happened for probably three and four years. So up all the way to, to 1969, 1979, 1970, I would say that those opportunities continue to

come. And he held them off. We moved back home. Coffee business didn't last very long. That was with a friend and a good friend that he had for a lot of years. Was it a, was it a shop or no, no. Making coffee coffee? Yeah, it was actually the, the, kind of the early starts of delivering coffee to businesses and things like that and actually coffee machines. And so it was kind of something on the cutting edge at that time in 1966, if you will. He was running coffees, what you're saying. Yeah, pretty much. Those people running moonshine.

Yeah, he was running coffee. Yes. So totally different. But then the opportunity came to come back home to Conover, North Carolina, and to get in business at Hickory Motor Speedway. And he was going to be a part owner and promoter at Hickory, and that's when the track was still dirt. So that's when things turned around, and he was in that. And then he started, he would do the announcing at the track.

Then the opportunity came along to work with the MRN as they came along. And so things just started going from there as far as his broadcasting group. Okay. That connects all the dots. So I collect a lot of photos of my family and in a lot of Ralph's photos is Ned Jarrett, Ed and Ralph together. and there's pictures of them hanging out. Like, it's not them, you know, beside race cars or battling on the track. And they spent, I didn't know this, that they had a pretty good friendship.

Yeah. And you know, you. And they had a fallen out. But how was their, yeah, yeah. They raced each other a lot. Now, and you said that Ned won a couple sportsmen championships, and that's, you know, Ralph had one as well. And is that where their friendship? grew from the sports and ranks?

Yes, did. Once they started competing, Ralph was already racing some when my dad kind of started his career and started moving it from Hickory and making more of a career of it. And so they became good friends. They were great competitors.

My dad and I was just talking to him last night about a little more of this just to refresh my memory because they're just bits and pieces that I remembered along the way. And he talked about how that Ralph Earnhardt was probably the hardest racer that he ever raced against. He said he would not give you an inch at any point in time.

It didn't matter how good of friends they were off the track. He said he still raced you just as hard. And then he said he'd be completely fine. He's a different person off the racetrack. But one thing that I always remembered, and I didn't remember all the details. So that's why I kind of went to my dad and my mom and said, hey, refresh my memory as to how this happened. So it was 1956.

and they were racing against each other. They were running, gosh, three, four, maybe even five times every week. And so they ran a race in Gaffney, South. So this is 1956. I wasn't even born at this time. And they were running in Gaffney, South Carolina. My dad was leading the race. They took the white flag, went down into turn one,

and Ralph hit my dad and wrecked him, tore his car, all to pieces. And so to back up a little bit, bit. So my mom was pregnant with me. And so my mom is Martha. Your grandmother is Martha. And so, and we'll get into that with all the names within our two families. There's so much that connects this. It's unbelievable when you think about it. But so there was, so that was Thursday night. There was a baby shower that was planned by your grandmother, Martha, for my mom. Really? Yes, who was pregnant with me. So that was to be Friday night in Charlotte. And then they were racing Saturday night, maybe at Hickory, I believe. So had this plan. Well, Ralph wrecked my dad,

Ralph wins the race. My dad is not happy about this. So he said, told my mom, he said, so it was at this little diner deal in Charlotte that they all used to go eat at after races and things. And he said, I'm going to take you, but I'm not going in there because Ralph was going to be in there. And he said, I'm not going in. So my dad dropped my mom off for this baby shower for which that was me. And, and, but sat in the parking lot in the car the whole time. Oh, no. And wouldn't go in there. Yes. Wow. I said it strained the relationship because my, my mom and your grandmother were, they were just the best of friends. And he said it went on for quite a while between he and

Ralph. My mom and your grandmother, they kind of, you know, said, hey, boys are going to be boys. but we're not going to let it ruin our friendship. How long did they ever get over it? Yes, they did, but my dad said that it was literally into the next year before he forgot about that one, that that one lasted a while. So you said the names are, there's, talk about that. Okay, so we have, so your dad was Dale. So it was Ralph and Martha and Dale, and then it was Ned, Martha, and then I came along as Dale.

And so then you think there's a, there's some sort of a reason. and why you're Dale because of that friendship that two Martha's had. Yeah, I've asked my parents that and they said that it was a name that they liked. Yeah, yeah, and said it just happened

that it was that, that your dad was there. And so then we went on, so then you and Kelly, which is spelled K-E-L-E-Y, and then my wife, that Nick Kelly and I got married in 1984, and her name was spelled K-E-L-E-Y. And then we have a dog,

daughter, our second daughter, Kelly, and I, it's named Carson. And so we spelled her name K-A-R-S-Y-N. And I remember that your sister and Jimmy L, that they liked the spelling of that name. They were going to name her Carson, but they liked the spelling of that. And so they spelled it the same way as my daughter. Wow. So a lot of crazy things there between the two families. Yeah.

So you talked about Ned entering as a broadcaster. You mentioned Glenn, your brother. And I've always kind of been curious about his driving career. Is Glenn playing sports as well with you? Yeah. How does Glenn get into racing? Yeah. So Glenn was, Glenn, very smart person, graduated at the top of his class out of high school,

was nominated for the Moorhead Scholarship at the University of North Carolina. So he gets there on a partial baseball scholarship. Also, Glenn was a really good baseball player. played a lot of American Legion ball around. And so he goes to, as a catcher, goes to the University of North Carolina. And he'd really never, Glenn had never really thought that much about racing, I don't think. He enjoyed being around. So Glenn is six years older than me.

He's right at your dad's age. And so he goes and does that. But Glenn's just so smart and retains a lot of knowledge, some of it very useless, but still he's smart. So when he gets, when he finishes, just before he finishes college, he's kind of coming back and forth from Chapel Hill. He gets the bug to want to drive a car at Hickory. So my dad is running the track and managing the track and part owner at Hickory Speedway. And Glenn gets the chance to drive a car and with some buddies that he is that they had. And so he just decided he tries it.

And he's actually pretty good. Glenn's a big guy. And he's like 6'4, 225. and so fitting in these cars is not the easiest thing for him. But you could tell that he had a really, he had a huge desire to do it, but he had a lot of talent also to get it done. And so he continued to want to. Once he got out of school, he kind of got into our family lumber business that we had,

that my grandfather had for years. My dad worked at, I worked at the whole family. It took everybody to get it done. So he started racing on a more regular basis, got hooked up with some guys, Glenn Hoke and some people from Hickory Speedway that were legends there and as far as building cars and maybe cheating cars a little bit better than others along the way. But Glenn got hooked up there. And actually, the first race, and I should have called Glenn,

but his first race, early 1970s, is one of the first races that your dad came to run on asphalt, came to Hickory. But anyway, Glenn's first win at Hickory in the Lake Mall Sportsman Division was passing your dad and beating him. So it was a pretty cool night to have all that to happen. I actually remember the first time your dad came to Hickory. I don't know if it was his first asphalt race, but I can remember him coming. It was one of the first few that he ever ran in coming to Hickory.

And my dad, you know, it was great to have him there. And my dad had given him a little deal money. He had pretty good. I think he ran the top five. But I can remember I was in my dad's office. Just a little trailer. As a matter of fact, the trailer's still there to this day. That's where, you know, my dad did business at Hickory Motorsports.

Speedway. But I was in the trailer that night when Del Earnhardt comes in after it and said, look, you know, I spent money on the tires and all of this and he didn't have any money and to really to make the next week work. And so my dad said, I'm going to give you a loan here. So I saw him handing the cash, but he said, you have to come back sometime, you know, within the next few weeks and race for me again and let me know you're coming so I can promote it. Right. And he said, but I'm going to advance you this. And he did. And your dad lived up to his word. came back and raced so he wanted to promote it because of ralph right dad dad being ralph's son dad had no real fame but ralph did i was about to ask why would he be promoting d'all earner

but that makes sense yeah yeah yeah i mean ralph was a legend yeah you know in the carolinas and and all around as far as you know his driving skills and and what he had done so yeah the name you know took him right there and people loved i mean they flocked around your dad like he was the superstar already uh that he was to become yeah so glen get why Watching Glenn or seeing Glenn, when I kind of research and watch old races and stuff, it seemed like Glenn had a lot of opportunities. And you and him kind of came up around maybe the same time. He maybe had some sportsman races and opportunities in the sportsman series before.

How was he putting those deals together? Was his success at Hickory so good that people were, you know, was those his cars that he put out on track, like the Ford, the Blue and, like 24? No. No, he, Glenn never owned. Glenn was smart enough not to get into the ownership business. I'll give him this. We're too, as close as we are, and he's been my best friend forever,

and he was always putting deals together and drove for other people. So he made those things work. Was his success at Hickory great? No, but it was good enough that people realized that he could drive, and where could he take that next? So he was always willing and dealing, trying to put deals together, get a little money here, you know, take it there. Marvin and Rhett Thaxton out of South Carolina.

He made a late model sportsman deal with those guys, and they had been running cars forever and ever, and so he drove for them for a while. I can remember him getting an opportunity to drive for Richard Childress at Charlotte in a cup race, and myself and Andy Petrie were down there. This is when my racing career was just getting started, so this is like 1976, I believe,

and so Glenn was getting this chance. But Richard had, you know, let him, had the car or drive the car but he didn't have the people to work on it because richard was still driving his car then too and uh so andy and i were were helping to work on i didn't know much about the cars but you know it wasn't until once i started getting my career going was really when i first started learning about cars and how to work on them and things so you know glan was just putting these deals together and and you know having some you know some success along just enough success along the way but he never really got that opportunity so as i said we're so completely different my

life has been about competing and willing to take huge risk betting on myself because I felt like that whether I was on a baseball field or a golf course or a football field that put me in the position, let me have the ball or let me have the steering wheel. I'll make things happen. And so I was willing to leverage a lot on myself. And so as I got my racing career started, that's what I did. I mean, I was the one that said, okay, got to go to the bank and somebody has to borrow the money. Jimmy Newsom, who helped me tremendously, my buddy that went to school with me and Andy Petrie, they were building a car, and they didn't have the money to finish it. I didn't have any money. My dad wasn't going to give me the money, but he helped us get a loan and talk to a few people, and that's kind of how mine started.

So that's where mine and Glenn's careers are completely different. Glenn wasn't going to do that. He had to have the monies from, you know, wherever he could come up with. that to make it work. I was willing to bet on myself enough that to go out. I mean, it took years and years and, you know, people go get college loans and it takes them a lot of time, a lot of years to pay it off. My loans were, it was for the knowledge and going to college in the world of NASCAR and figuring out how I was going to do it. It took me a lot of years to pay it off too. I can't help but wonder. I mean, this is interesting because you've got this family, a racing

family. But it's also right, you and Glenn are sons of parents who, I mean, your mom wanted your dad out. And you and Glenn also seem like you had opportunities in other, I mean, you guys are excessively good at athletes. You're excessively good athletes. You've got sports. Did your mom not try to talk you guys out of this? Because you and Glenn are both now developing racing careers. But y'all very specifically, your dad got out of it because I'm a of the danger. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

And she was not happy whatsoever that this was a path that we decided on. I mean, there were so many things, you know, as my dad had Hickory Speedway, you know, she was hoping that there was something there besides the driving side of it that we might could get involved in, that this might be a family business. Because then he expanded from there to come down to Metrolina Speedway in Charlotte and through some friendships that he had developed some people that bought that speedway. So he managed that. So he literally ran races on back-to-back nights.

We'd be in Charlotte on Friday night for Metrolina and then Hickory on Saturday night for the race there. And, I mean, he did the announcement. I mean, he ran everything. And so he incorporated the whole family. I mean, we did this as a family. My mom sold tickets. She worked in the office. You know, I did everything from selling tickets to handing out programs to selling Coca-Cola.

and popcorn, you name it, and I did it. And my dad did the announcing at the races, and Glenn helped facilitate and run everything there, too. So, you know, it was family. And the sport was still in our blood, but she was hoping that it wasn't going to be the path of driving cars because it was tough on her. What was the first race car you drove to competition?

Chevrolet Nova. It was a limited sportsman. That's what Jimmy Newsom and Andy Petrie were. Andy's two to three years younger than me. So we knew each other. Our families knew each other growing up. I mean, a little town of Conover and Newton, and Jimmy and I played sports together. But they were building this car, and it took forever for us to finish it.

And my dad, I remember the first time I was going to finally get to the track and drive it. And so that was 1977. My dad actually sold his interest and quit promoting after the 1976 season. Why? And was doing more because of his radio work. with MRN and then TV stuff that was coming along with CBS at that time. So he was seeing another opportunity there to stay in the sport, but to expand and something that he thought might be a little easier path than what he was doing

because, I mean, promoting and managing and running a racetrack, especially a little track like Hickory and Metroline, that was tough business. So they were building that car and I finally got the bug. I had done things. I had got out of high school. I got married. Jason was born. So, you know, I'm having to work.

I'm doing all, I'm working at boat, building boats. I'm working at a printing company. You build boats? Oh, yeah, yeah. In Newton, there's a, gosh, I can't even remember the name of it. Now it's been so long. But, yeah, they literally built boats there. And Andy Petrie and I work there.

And we'd do that during the day and we'd go work on a race car at night. And so I literally learned how to work on race cars. Andy taught me so much because he just brilliant. mind and had that. So we're building this car and getting it ready. And finally in May of 1977, we get enough stuff done to get the engine. Andy had originally, he was going to be the driver. And so by getting enough money built up between bar in it and getting a little sponsorship, they said, okay, you can be the driver. And so I'd never done it. Never competed. We went to test practice, I'll call it, a couple of times in 1970.

and then finally we got everything together enough to get to the racetrack and we couldn't even get there on time and that's the one thing that I hate more than anything because my dad always taught me if you're not early you're late and so that's the one thing that I've always done and here we show up late it's on a Saturday and and of course Jimmy had the tire shop Newsom tire which he still has in in Newton and uh but had to do that until noon on Saturdays and so we Andy and I helped him so that because he did so much for us So we just couldn't get everything together. So I got no practice, didn't qualify.

There were 24 cars there in a limited sportsman race. And so this, I think, is 67 Chevrolet Nova. And I started 24th in a 24-car field, 25-lap race. And somehow, some way, I finished ninth in that race. Wow. And had no idea what I was doing, none whatsoever. That's amazing. And so Bobby Isaac was a good family friend.

And we played a lot of golf together and did things. And, of course, him being from Catawba County. But anyway, he went to my dad, who was up in the press box, even though he wasn't managing or anything anymore. And he said, I thought you said Dale was going to drive that 32 car tonight. And he said, well, he did. He said, there's no way that was somebody's never driven a race car before. I was all over the place.

Sure. I was passing. I was in the dirt on the front stretch doing things. It was crazy. But it was the biggest thrill. I mean, and not to brag, but I'd been a good enough athlete between being with other good athletes to win football championships, to win golf tournaments and do a lot of things. There was nothing that gave me the thrill of finishing night that night. And collecting that envelope that was a $35, $35 in there that we promptly took to pop a pizza pauler and Newton and ordered pizza and drank beer.

And that's how money. Why did Andy not drive? I thought you said Andy was going to drive. He wanted to, but he, because I came up, they, they would have never, it would have been years before they ever finished the car because they just didn't have any money. So I, by being able to talk some people into giving us some money to help us buy an engine and things. And as I said, we started a company. It's called, and so my dad had the idea when I would decide I wanted to borrow this money to help us get the engine. That was the last component that we, the big thing that we had to, to.

buy and he said let's start a company and so he said my initials are d a jay jay dal arnold jaret and so he said we can use this in the way that if you go on so we called it d a j racing but it was also dale andy and jimmy and so it worked for it for that time and that's how d a j racing started and we kept it until the early 2000s whenever we sold everything but that's that's how everything got started to hickory that night and i said i told my dad that night I said, I have no idea how I'm going to do this, but now at 20 years old, I know this is what I want to do, and we'll figure it out. So you started running every week? Or what was the? Oh, pretty much every week.

As much as we could, you know, the money would let us. And so then we got to the point that I was like, okay, I didn't, hadn't wanted Hickory yet in the lim of the sportsman. But I said, I wanted, let's go try Asheville. So I went up there thinking, gosh, what an eye-opening experience that was running that. because, you know, at least Hickory had somewhat of a straightaway, and Asheville had no straightaway whatsoever, and that was hard on your car. As a matter of fact, our car broke because it wasn't even ready to do that.

How would you characterize your dad's reaction in response to your driving? I mean, was he, was impressed? Did he give you confidence? Yes. What was he saying? He was impressed, and he was so excited that, because, I mean, he loved the idea that, So to back up a little bit, as I threw my sports in high school, I got some offers to play football at some small colleges, but the biggest scholarship offer. What's the position you played?

Quarterback and defensive back, of course. Wherever they put him. Put old Dale Jared out there. He'll do good. So I'd love to do that. So that's what, but my biggest offer came from the University of South Carolina to play golf. I had a golf scholarship there. and I he's the kind of guy that pisses you off in it because everything he does is just perfect he's the bow jackson before

just does everything perfect put him in a race car not to that level that's the bad thing is it just wasn't to that but seriously you know put him in a he's never run a race car he finishes night in that car i mean didn't even need practice put him on a golf course he's going to whoop you that was just what do you suck at anything oh plenty yeah okay and golf right now so that's it unfortunately. No, there's plenty of things. I can't. So I don't fish and I don't hunt.

I can't sing. I would love to be able to sing, but I can't whatsoever. So I don't even try. I'm that person that doesn't even sing in the shower. Right down the road in the car, I can't. So I know I can't do those things.

Okay, we got off course there. You were actually telling a good story, but we couldn't help but just try to find something you suck at. But like, you were talking. I mean, so you're racing, your dad's, your dad's supportive. Now where does that? go. Yeah, so I mean, supportive in the way that a dad supports a son, but you, he didn't have the money to

throw in it. It wasn't going to throw it in. If he had had the money, he wasn't just going to say, hey, you know, here it is, go do it, you know, figure out how to do it. And I mean, your dad's the same way, you know, whenever you wanted to start running. There's some things that are offered, but he was supportive and helping in any way that he could and helping me to understand the pitfalls more than anything else. I don't know that. I'm drawing, I'm not drawing too many similarities. with your situation, to be honest with you. This is what's funny because, like, we've had plenty of stories where his dad, I think he was supportive.

I just don't think he knew it. Yeah, yeah. In that way, yes, that my dad was in that he knew that my mother didn't want this. You know, this wasn't. But he was like, you can do this. Even though you've done very little of it, he said, I know because just the sheer competitor that you are. And in my way of thinking, and what my dad always taught me, no matter what I was doing, if you're going to do something, do it the very best that you can.

And so if you're not the most talented person out there, and I wasn't, I mean, there were teams that I was on that I wasn't even close to being the best athlete, but none of them worked harder than what I did. And I thought things through. I was always thinking, you know, I can't say that in the early 1970s, you're sitting around watching game film or anything like that. that, but we had a little bit of it, but I was always more prepared than anyone else. And then that carried on into my racing career in that I wasn't going to be the natural talent that Del Earnhardt, Sr. and Jeff Gordon, and you could, the list goes on and on of people that I think about that are so very talented that understood that from the time that they knew that's what they wanted to do. I wasn't going to meet, but there were other ways of

working around that. And that started early. on. I mean, I knew nothing about building race cars, but by the time that I'd been in at five or six years, I understood every component of it. I mean, to the point that, you know, I could, I'm not going to say I was an engine builder, but I could assemble them setting and in the floor. I could put them together and we'd put them in the race car. So, you know, I was always going to work harder than anybody else. I felt like in, you know, going to a wind tunnel at midnight and sitting there watching air blow across car. There's nothing very exciting about that. But when they allowed me to say, okay, show me what this does whenever we make this change or when the car does

this, when it gets in this position, then I could see what the air could do. So there were things that I thought that as other people were sleeping from midnight to 8 a.m., I was learning what the air was doing on the race car as I got myself in that situation. And mainly because I saw things that your dad did in his driving career that didn't make sense to most drivers, but there was a reason behind it. And I don't think he was doing it at a wind tunnel. I think he was just exceptionally brilliant in that side of it of understanding air and what it could do. And so I wanted to learn more about that. So you're racing weekly at Hickory in a limited sportsman and probably moved up in the top class. Late model. Yeah, light models. And that was a struggle. Yeah.

And so talk about, you know, battling through that and trying to, you know, because your dad's doing his thing doesn't have a big you know doesn't have a lot of money or a big cushion to be funneling into your career like you know like a lot of dads but how do you get from grinding through late models and putting together sportsmen deals getting yourself out on the racetrack in front of you know which i think that was kind of a connection for you to be able to land a cup ride or cup opportunities was to be racing on Saturday at Charlotte yeah yeah how did you get there yeah it was it was tough Ed, you know, in there in trying to do the late model sportsman side of it, to move to that next level to race against Tommy Houston and Jack Ingram when he came and Sam Ard, you know, these guys were in the late model sportsmen. They would come to Hickory and race as they were chasing points all around.

And so there was a guy named Carlos Johnson in Newton that had fielded late model cars for a long time. And, you know, my dad helped me put some sponsorship deals together. They were, you know, we're talking very little money, but it was enough to make this happen. So that's what I started doing. There was an opportunity to drive what was the Baby Grand Series. And I got that chance to run. I think I ran like 12 races and never won one of them, but I had some good runs, but had a couple of major crashes in it too and running good.

Because, man, when those things would blow an engine, I mean, they would blow up and you'd wreck big time. I mean, all go everywhere. So I had a couple of those. moments with that. So it wasn't a situation that I didn't come from that background of Daryl Waltrip of winning championship after championship and things like that. So just trying to put deals together to make it happen, do what I could. The first opportunity, we would go run some different tracks in the Carolinas and Virginia

in Tennessee, go to Kingsport, just do what we could. the Bush series wasn't, it didn't come along to 82. And so, you know, this is 7980. 80, I ran a lot of races around and got my first chance to go to a big track. And that was in Charlotte. And, you know, I was so thrilled to do that. You know, I'd helped my brother on cars that he had run and, you know, racing there. And so I'd get this opportunity to go there.

And we basically took a car that we were racing at Hickory and modified it a little bit as far as the body. Nothing as far as the safety aspect of it or anything like that. And so Carlos Johnson on this, and we took it to Charlotte, and we qualified for the race. And you had to run qualifying races and things during that time. And, yeah, I was having a blast. And so we get into the race, and it was going okay. And then we had an issue. We had two things that happened.

We had an electrical issue that we fixed. Then I had a break issue, and I come in, so I lost a couple of laps, but we got it fixed. So we go back out and everything is fine, and we're within the last, I think five last, certainly within the last 10 laps of finishing the race. And that's all I wanted to do was go finish. And I'd run pretty decent. I'd learned a lot. And as I went into turn one, Gene Glover was driving as number 71 car.

I still see it. And anyway, he blows an engine going into turn one. and as he I'm probably 20 car links behind him and so you know it's you're running 150 some miles an hour at that time and anyway the things that I'd been told about when things happen that you know if if something happens to a car going into the corn into turns one or three they're generally going up the racetrack and so make your move to the bottom so that's what I did but there was all on the track but then the worst thing was as he hit the wall and comes back down, well, as I see him coming back down, I hit the brakes, and the brake pedal goes to the floor. And so that, what we thought we had fixed, it didn't really.

So I have one move to try to miss Gene Glover's car that has come right back down in front of me, and I haven't slowed down at all. And so I turned hard to the right, and when I did, I catch the back of his car with the left front of my, this was a Chevrolet Nova. and so it sends him flipping. Right. And so it just crushes the left front. Well, at that time, I still, I learned to drive with one foot.

You know, you use the gas and the brake pedal with my right foot, my left foot. You know, the clutch was the only thing I used it for. So anyway, I had it on the floorboard. And so I guess as I braced, anyway, this, again, this is a short track car with just, you know, aluminum floorboards. or the steel, the metal there, but very thin. And so it wasn't much there. Anyway, the impact took, and as it came back in the left front, and it got my left foot caught in that floorboard,

and as it crushed that, it crushed my left foot and ankle to the point that I got out of my car because I could see smoke and I needed to get out. But as I lay on the ground, it busted my lip. And so I'm literally laying on the ground. but they're attending to Gene Glover who's been flipping. And I understand, I'm not thinking about that. Anyway, I crawled away because I knew, as I looked down at my foot,

it didn't really have a lot of pain, but I knew that this wasn't a good situation. Point the wrong way or something? Yes, it's pointing the wrong way. So it literally, by the time when they finally got to me, literally the story is, and this happened that, so I get away from my car, finally someone, a guy comes over from the medical team and asks me,

he said, are you okay? He sees the blood from my mouth. them a lip and he said is that your only injury and so i point i said no my foot and he sees my foot and it makes him sick he he walks away so here i am laying on the grass uh down in the middle of turn one and two uh with nobody around your only help has just got sick yeah so he goes away anyway they put me on the gurney so i'm laying on the gurney and on my back and my right foot is up like it's supposed to be and my left foot is pointed down and so they take me to the infill care center and then obviously know that I have to go to Cabarris Hospital.

And so it was, you know, that was your first big track. That was my first big, big track experience. Wow. Was that in sportsmen? Yeah, late model sports. So I've seen that wreck over and over, and it's awful wreck. I've never seen it. Oh, it's awful.

Oh, you pull it up. It's pretty common. But I couldn't believe that the, it looks like it wreaked so hard, the dash came back and stood the windshield up. Oh, really? Yeah. It was bad. Yeah.

I mean, as I said, when I hit the brake pedal, I mean, I thought that I was just going to be able to drive down. But when Gene Glover's car hit the top, it came back so fast that, you know, I didn't. And then when I hit the brake, I don't know if I would, if the brake pedal would have worked, how much difference it would have made. Sure. Because, you know, it wasn't going to slow it down a lot. But, you know, you think, it slowed down zero from the time. So, you know, I'm still running 150 miles an hour when I hit him. Yeah.

You know, it's... How big of a setback was that physically and professionally? You know, I think there were a couple of things. The physical side of it, you know, I was in, supposed to be in a cast for, they said, somewhere between eight and 12 months. So this happened in October. And, you know, I was already thinking about 1981, you know, where was I going? What was I going to do?

You know, how was I advanced in my racing career and trying to put deals together. And so the surgery that was done, you know, they had, you know, they had. to insert a plate in my left ankle and screws and all this stuff. And they said, you know, you're going to be in this cast for a while. I'm thinking, you know, I'm starting to add up the months. I'm thinking, well, that gets into the start of racing season. You know, what am I going to do? And I didn't stay in the cast that long.

Fortunately, I healed up a little better. Plus, I didn't want to be. I literally cut the cast off in March and said, I've got to figure out how to walk around and be without this thing. And, you know, it's getting racing time. And so they told me that I may never play golf again because of being a right-handed golfer and the way that you swing a golf club and use your left side. And so that was the disappointing side because here, you know, I still, you know, I wasn't,

you know, I wasn't that very old and had this to happen. He told you might not play golf again. I'm like, wow, this, you know, that's a double-edged sword here. And so anyway, you know, they eventually took the plate and screws out after a year or so. and it was painful. It's still painful to this day. But it's something I learned to deal with. But the setback was that I couldn't start the season,

like racing for a championship at Hickory or something like that. And so it took me longer to get that. And I didn't know where that was going to take me with my career then. I just watched the crash. Wow. Wow. And he climbed out. It was your left ankle?

Left ankle. Yeah, because you climbed out and you actually climbed out. And there you are climbing out. And you can see you're just like, oh, forget about this. It was kind of then. Wow. Yeah, I think you can see the worker come over and then walk away. Oh, really?

Yeah. Oh, wow. That was a wreck. That was a wreck, yes. It's pretty bad. And you're sitting here laying on the ground. Here comes the worker. Yeah, he don't want to part of this.

Not when he saw. He was okay with what he saw with. He looks. My gosh. So here's the other side of that, too. So then I get to the hospital over there, and they're thinking about, because it's going to take some stitches in my upper lip.

So they were like, so I had a mustache from the time that I could literally start growing this mustache in high school. And they were like, okay, we need to shave your mustache so we can put. I'm like, oh, hell no. No, since I could start growing this mustache, it's been there. It's never, I'd never shaved it. And I'm like, no, you're not shaving the mustache. They said, well, we've got to at least shave a little part.

I said, you shaved the minimum of what you need to shave. And it wasn't like I had this image or anything I had to uphold it this time. It was just like, this is a part of me that's been here. And so they shaved just enough to get the stitches in there. And then once they took the stitches out, it grew back. So it all worked out. All right. So you get, I imagine you put some deals together and get you a car.

Yeah, yeah. So I still drove for Carlos Johnson in 81. And then they built a new car. Yeah, yeah, had to have a new car for sure with that. And so did some things. We raced more, deciding that once that this happened so late, that it wasn't just going to be for a championship. So we raced a lot of different tracks then in 81,

put some deals together, ran a couple of more bigger tracks and things. So that's when they announced in 81 that the Bush series was being formed and was going to start in 1982. And so it was taken where all of these great drivers from around the kind of Tommy Ellis and Jack Ingram and Samard and L.D. Audinger and you know the list goes on and on of these people I'd competed against and watching that were so good you know now they're bringing them all to they're going to run the same races instead of chasing points up and down the east coast at all these different tracks and you know

you have points that paid double points because they were a little longer and things now it's all being incorporated into the Bush series and so I'm trying to figure out how I can do this I can't I don't have enough money to talk someone into giving me a ride so I decide that I'm starting my own Bush team. Oh! Yes. 182. Remember when Glenn was the smart guy and he very specifically didn't go get into ownership?

Did he? Okay, keep going. What was this car? I've seen all your cars. How much car this was? So this would have been, so we started out with a sponsorship from Bush Beer in 1982. And that was helped from my dad because he was doing work for Anheuser-Busch. It had a poll award and all of that.

So this would have been Pontiac that we had. How much money did Bush have for you? Did they have for me that year? So that year I think I put together somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000 to run the whole series. This was maybe one truck race at a starting part. That's crazy. So that's what we had for you. So I didn't get a car built for Daytona.

So my brother being a good brother that he was, he was driving for Marvin Rett Thackson, who had a Ford number 24. So he qualifies his car at Daytona, which I'd never been, you know, never really had the chance to race one of these cars there. And he says, I'll let you start my car for the point. So I drive the first part of that race. What a thrill.

I mean, gosh, these things were fast. And I kept it on the lead lap and everything. And then when the first caution came along, Glenn got in it and finished the race and did a good job. So that's how things got started. And so what I had built, were basically short track cars. So we had Richmond coming up, Rockingham, and these tracks.

So I had cars. I didn't even, I mean, this was to the point, you have to understand that I didn't, I didn't even have a truck. Right. I went and bought a trailer that wasn't a trailer to haul race cars on, but it was the cheapest thing I could find. There were people that I knew that I was barring truck to pick up trucks, sometimes basically a box van. that somebody might have that I could do this. So Morgan Shepherd had a garage behind his house up in Hickory that he tingling. You know, he was driving, you know, cup cars and things at this time.

But anyway, he rented this to me at a very small amount. But he had all the tools and everything that I needed a garage because I didn't have any of this stuff. Wow. He actually had somebody by the name of Rick Bowman that we called Biscuit. And he actually kind of loaned him to me and he knew race cars and helped. help me. And so I had people that helped along the way. We did all of that. And I think we ended up finishing sixth in the points that year, something like that. And so my first big sponsorship deal, you talk about sponsorship, came two years later in 84 was my big year that I got sponsorship

from Pet Dairy. And that I was all the way up to $75,000. What a pretty race car. Yeah, that was, yeah, that blue and white. That was so much fun. And that is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was. That's it. Oh, yeah. Just a beautiful race car. And, you know, we built these cars, and so I was learning along the way. And that's kind of where it all got started. I was accumulating more things.

I actually got my own garage along the way and people to work for you. Actually, a pretty cool story is that it was a guy named John Irvin who worked for my dad. He's from Newton, where we were from. So he worked for my dad in Newton. John Irvin literally moved to Camden, South Carolina, and lived with us in our home in Camden so he could work for Bondi Long and work for my dad and was the crew chief on the car down there. And so when my dad retired,

John came back to Newton, came back home and had a service station and detailing car business, and I actually worked for him there for a while in doing that. But anyway, I talked him into closing that down and come to work for me, and he was my crew chief. Why he did that, I have no idea. Right. Yeah, didn't pay hard.

anything, but we kind of read a lot more fun than running a dealer or running a gas stations. Yes, I've worked a gas station. Not really good. So what did you do in, I guess, what was the Bush series that got you your first phone call for a cup opportunity? Do you remember that call? I think there was a couple of, and so I ran, I think I finished second nine times in the,

in the Bush series before I ever won. And that first win came at Orange County Speedway in Roosemont. And so... Are you driving a pet car? No. Before that? This would have been, I think, now this was after... The crunch.

This was 1986. So actually, I had worked a deal. Mike Kerr would actually bought into my team and actually moved things down to Canapolis to his race shop down there. And so it was an auto parts deal that we had. I remember the auto lose. or something. Well, that was Portaloupe.

Porta Lou. Yeah, this is even before that. Oh, okay. Yeah. So he was part owner of that. We were running it out of there. Mike, the Portalube celebrity was a pretty car. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, that was, we had, we had, yeah, those are red, white, and blue. I always liked those, yeah, that was, I kind of had my best years and a lot of good things happened with red, white, and blue cars. Yeah. You did okay. Yeah. You did okay. So Mike Beam was actually working for Mike Kerb down, and Ron Bouchard was, was, was

driving for them. Yep. And so he kind of helped put the deal together because Mike always helped me along the way. Even when he was working for Harry Gant and I was running my limited sportsman stuff, he would get us tires from Firestone at that time because they'd like to basically the tires at that time were they need to scuff an end for them. So we would actually take tires and scuff them, maybe run them a 25 lap race.

And so I had better tires and then give them back to them. So Mike was always helping me. So that's kind of where that started. And then I had a couple of races at Charlotte that I ran really well and Darlington that I ran well. I think one was that got a little bit of attention that was Darlington. I ran third to Harry Gann and somebody in the sports or in the Bush race there. And so I think that that helped. But it was, you know, my first cup race was in 1984 just for Manuel Cervacus,

who had Butch Lennley to drive sometimes. way put this together it was at martinsville uh was my first cup race that i ever ran and um i'd actually had run a race in nashville a bush race in nashville on the saturday night flew back with darrell walterp and ran that cup race and actually one of the coolest things that happened was late in the race probably the last 20 laps of the race uh i was a lap down uh but i was running 14th or 15th uh but i caught your dad who was on the lead lap and so here i was going to pass That's Dale Earnhardt at Martinsville. And I thought, how good, if I can pass him, this, how good is this?

So I get underneath him off a turn two and drive down into turn three and thinking, okay, I got to get in here hard. So I get in there, well, him being Del Earnhardt, he backs out, sees what I'm going to do and lets me go on and wash up the track. He drives back underneath me. We did this for five laps. I would get him. My car was better than his was at that time. He'd kind of wore the tires out, I guess. Anyway, we did this for five.

And he was just playing with me. I can remember looking over. You know, we had open-faced help. I'm looking over, and he's just grinning at me. Really? Yeah, because he's having fun teaching me these lessons that just was. So it was a great time something I never, ever forgot in my entire life. So what kind of getting him?

I actually ended up finally passing. It took me, as I said, I'm not the quickest learner, but eventually I figured things out. So I figured out that if I just don't drive down into this corner, corner so hard that he's not going to go anywhere on the top of this racetrack. And so I finally passed it. So you get a, what was the first stable cup ride? Was it the Fleet Freelander? Freelander, yeah, 1987.

How did that come about? Yeah, that was a tough situation. So I was still running my Bush team. And so running all the races, committed. That was actually Port-a-Lube that was the sponsorship of the car at that time. And this was a franchise operation that my dad had some money, invested then, but it was trying to get up and going. But they had some investors that wanted to put money into car. And so that's where the Port-Lube was. But then, so Eric Friedlander had Tommy Ellis

was driving the car for him and had driven it the previous year. And so they started out the season in 87 and they had some words and things didn't go well. And Tommy Ellis was a friend. He was, yeah. And he was a friend. He was somebody that Tommy didn't have a lot of friends in there because he didn't, as what, kind of like Ross Chastain said the other week, you know, Tommy Ellis brought his friends to the track. He didn't come there to make friends and he was a hard racer. But I was one that he was a friend to. And so I enjoyed that.

He helped me a lot, understanding cars, short tracks and short track racing. Anyway, so I get a call from Eric Freelander about the possibility that he's replacing Tommy Ellis. Would I do it? And so I was torn here because I knew how much that. meant to Tommy Ellis to have a cup ride and he's such a tremendous driver and I was torn whether I wanted to do it or not. I mean, they were going to put somebody in the car. And so I decided, and Tommy was not happy with me about doing it because he, he had been told that I kind of undermined him, which I did not. I got a call. I would never do that to him. And so,

so our friendship was strained for a while with that. And I understood that. You know, you don't want to get in that situation. I had a situation come along with a couple of years later that was kind of like that and I was on that side of it. But so I got that opportunity. And but I had this commitment to run the Bush series with my team. And so Eric Freelander knew that. So I literally was the first person to try to start doing double duty running all of the Bush races and the cup races. And so Eric Freelander had a couple of airplanes. And he, so I was flying around the country in different things. And so this all goes to a story in 19. 87, my first time at Talladega, going to run the cup race there.

And so, gosh, I'd never, I'd tested there in a bush car, but had not been 200 miles an hour. And so I get down there. And so I qualify, I think, at like, 201, something like that, which is just, you know, insane. But the pole's 211 or 212, Bill Elliott running there. So I get out in the draft and I'm running 212, which is just great. But I have a race in Hickory. And so there's two things about this. So I have to fly back to Hick's.

So I practice on Saturday morning. Eric Freelander sets up a, it wasn't his big plane that I'd gotten accustomed a few weeks of flying in. So he has somebody that he has talked to. They rent this small plane. So Kelly is with me. We're in Talladega. Going to go back to Hickory. So back up a little bit, I tore up my short track car the week before and didn't have,

I was building a brand new short track car, but it wasn't ready. So I needed a car. So I called Del Earnhardt. And I said, do you have a car that I can rent for Hickory? And he said, yeah, yeah. He said, I got a car I gave you. And so we get this car on like Tuesday before I go to Talladega. The seat that he, that your dad drove, I mean, they literally was not much to them.

It was an old banjo. Yeah, bold banjo seat, yep. And so I made a couple of adjustments to it, left it. It wasn't going to change that part of it. And he told me, he said, here's the springs I wrote. ran last time I ran at Hickory and stuff. And we kind of had a setup that we liked. But anyway, we put our setup in it.

And so I was going to run your dad's car. We put a couple of decals, put my number on it, and number 32. And so I come back from Talladega. So the story is, so we practiced Saturday morning at Talladega. And so Kelly and I are going over to the airport that's right there, which is fortunate, going to fly back to Hickory and race and then fly back to Talladega the next day. And so as we're walking over to the hangar that they told us where the airplane was, we see this older gentleman pulling out this little single engine plane.

And we just kind of laugh. I told Kelly, I said, well, there's our plane. And she's like, Kelly is not a good flyer. And she was like, no, no, no, I'm not flying on that. Well, that was the plane that they had set up to flies. And she was not happy. And anyway, we fly to Hickory land, get there, go straight to the race. track at Hickory. I practice, qualify, and my first Bush win at Hickory is in a car that

Del Earnhardt loans me. Wow. Wow. Yeah, that's the first race that I won there. What was the body? Was it a celebrity? A Malibu? Yes. And what were you typically running? I was running Pontiacs. Yeah. You're wanting to celebrate, but I've got a race that Talladega the next day. And so we do that. But anyway, that night, everybody kind of come to our small house and they said, Kelly come and she said, I hope you'll understand. She said, I hate to send you to Talladega, but I'm not getting back on that airplane. And I said, well, I got it. So I flew back and raced at Talladega. And that was the day then that Bobby Allison blew the tire. That was the last unrestricted race at Talladega or Daytona.

And so that happened 15 cars in front of me. I saw that happen. So quite an eventful weekend. How'd you doing that race in the Talladega? I don't remember. I finished the race, but I don't remember exactly where. But that was eye-opening to see that car flying what I thought was going to be into the grandstand. Sure. So you're running every single weekend. Yes.

Freelander car. Yep. And you're running your bush car. How do you go from the Freelander car to Kale stuff? Yeah. So I'm driving the Freelander car, and Kale had announced that he was getting ready to retire with his. stuff with Hardee's. It was his team. And so we've had some decent runs along the way in the Freelander car here and there, you know, places that, you know, I like to run. I mean, this wasn't a

highly funded team or anything. But, you know, it had done enough there. And then I had a little bit more success with my Bush car and stuff. And so Cal started talking to me, just asking me what, you know, was I, would I be interested in a partial schedule in his car? And so I didn't know about the partial because this Freelander deal, you know, every week was going to be every week. And, but anyway, so the fall Rockingham race, I'm driving the Freelander car and Sakel's driving his car and running somewhere in the top 10. And up in front of me is Cal Yardboro. And so I'm catching him. I love Rockingham. I love racing at that place. And, So anyway, I catch kale, but catching kale and passing him with two different things.

And so we literally battled for like 12, 15 laps. Never touched each other, but it was a battle. And so I finally passed him and drove on. And I actually finished ahead of him, I believe, that day. And so I get a call from him on Monday. And he said, look, yeah, I was impressed with what I saw. And he said, I want to offer you this deal and told me how many races, a Hardy sponsorship. and so I started trying to put, so I put together a deal with Hoss Ellington,

partly with this Port-a-Lube company with sponsorship from them, and so I was going to cut back my Bush series. I wasn't going to try to run the full schedule with that, so I could take some money over to there. So I put together, Cal offered me what I thought was a good enough deal to take and the opportunity to drive, which was going to be then. So 88 would be a partial schedule, and then 1989 could run the full schedule. in the Hardy's car.

And the opportunity, the equipment and, yeah, yeah, that's, that was the lure. Yeah, yeah. And Kale had to deal with Osmobile there and then running. And so, you know, it's just, it was better equipment and the opportunity to move. And, of course, you know, at Daytona and Tallade and stuff, I was driving for Hoss Ellington, whose cars, you know, he had runt Pittman, turning the wrenches and doing the things that Rump Pittman did under the hood were pretty amazing. So, you know, it gave me a great opportunity.

You say that with a grin and you say that with a laugh. I mean, I got to ask. He just found, he found holes in the intake that weren't there. Yes. This is right after the restrictor plates came, especially Daytona and Talladega. Gotcha. He could do things a little bit, as a lot of people did. Not that he did this, but you could take a, where you bolt the valve cover on,

the two top posts that you would put the valve cover on, you'd haul them out, and that goes by, that kind of goes by or near the intake, and you could get air in there that way. and what you do is you can put anything in there that might melt. So you can put something in there to seal it. So when it goes through tech, it's not breathing, but it goes on the track. It's hot. It melts out. And then, yeah, you're pulling air and you're no longer restricted.

That's awesome. Oh, yeah. It's smart. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I would love to know all the different ways and methods that engine builders pull there. Oh, yeah. Right?

Yes. I would love to. Would they tell drivers what they were doing? I mean, like, or do you just go, you're on a need-to-know basis? Need-to-know basis. Yeah, I mean, the less people that knew, the better. Yeah, right. A lot of times drivers, you might be pulling there and not even know it.

You know, telling what kind of stuff's been on the cars I've raced all my life. Right, yeah, right, yeah. Would you guys ever ask? Or do you just not even ask? The only time I think that, you can answer for yourself, but the only time I ever knew anything about what was going on is when they needed to know what I felt. Oh, yes. So if like we were back, like we were moving the rear end housing and trying to figure out whether moving the left rear forward and back or moving the housing right to left, which was better, then they would have to explain to me.

Like, hey, we're building it this way and we're moving this part. Tell us whether this rolls the center better. Yeah. I got you. Yeah. Yeah. And as far as the engine went, yeah. As a driver, I mean, you would test stuff and I wouldn't even ask them what they were doing.

You know, just try to give them a little bit of feedback as far as what you may feel. something doing. And, yeah, I mean, gosh, I tell us, though, when I went to work for Robert Yates in 95, it was like six months of going down. And I was going down there almost there because I was so excited to have this ride at Robert Yates, you know. But it was like six months before they let me end to where they worked on the intake manifold to the cylinder heads.

I wasn't even allowed in that room. Yeah. Not that I was going to see anything that I could tell anybody. I wouldn't know what they were doing. You wouldn't even recognize it if it was sitting there in front of you. Exactly. Wow. Oh, that's interesting.

That guy, Rutt Pittman, I mean, he had, yes, he always had great speedway stuff. Oh, it's unbelievable. I mean, they lived to, you know, they didn't run all the races, so they had extra time, you know, they ran about half the races. So they had, you know, when everybody else is racing every single week, you know, you're just trying to keep up and run. Well, they had time that they could sit and engineer.

He had such a great mind for these things. And he just loved it. Part of his thrill of him, he wanted to go fast, and he wanted to have the fast car, but he also liked to see what he could get by with, you know. And they got called with stuff, and, you know, that was just part of their game, was seeing what, you know, what can we do that we might slide by? Yeah. We always had to, had the, I always liked the method of having something glaring

so that they didn't see the stuff you really wanted to keep. They were so good. Because if you could draw their attention to this area of the car, then they never really caught the stuff that you were really worried about morning. And, and Hunt and Hall said, Ellington and that whole crew, of course, they were from the eastern part of North Carolina. So they were kind of away from the mainstream. But something that they never lost at was the drinking game.

So when the garage closed, they started immediately and they won, yeah, they won most of those nights. Yes. And so, and a lot of their good friends were people that were officials in the garage area. So, you know, they supplies. So they were good friends. They were closed. Things were different, you know, in that time. And that's, you know, that goes all the way back to the, you know, when this sport was started, you know, making friends there and getting by what you could.

And they were really good at those relationships. See, little jar goes a long way. That's exactly. Yeah. That's an interesting component to the whole competitive advantage game that people don't often think about. And that is getting the officials drunk enough to where they're not going to see what's going to do. Not that. And it's like, well, yeah, he, yeah, I got a couple extra drinks from.

him. That's right. Let him go. Right. Yeah. And it wasn't something happened all the time, but you know, occasionally it would. When it counts. So you're driving for Kale. I remember you having some really good

runs in his car. Martinsville and Bristol, I think, were the two tracks that you always stood out at early in your career. It was, I mean, obviously short track racing is what you grew up on. What was your, would you agree with that as far as Martinsville and Bristol

being the two tracks where you thought, man, I'm going to go here and I can run with anybody. Yeah. I don't care what car I'm in. Yeah. And was it because of your history in the sportsmen's in late-mile cars? Was it because maybe that was your first race, your first cup race was at Martinsville? Did that mean? Because that's, the funny thing to me is when you watch, for me in my career or anyone else, all through the 80s, 90s, even today, the one place you go to and run your very first race in the Xfinity or Cup becomes this.

track that's just magical or better or special or easier. And like when I won at Texas, I won my Xfinity race there, then I won the cup race there. And every time I went there, I'm like, I'm going to run good. I just know him. You know, even though maybe we always didn't, but I just felt like I would always run good there. So you, you know, explain to me, I guess, or share with us some of those memories of running it, you know, going to Martinsville and Kale's car and being a top 10, top five car all day long going to Bristol with the Wood Brothers and running up front leading races.

Yeah, those, gosh, that brings back good memories. Yeah, probably the race and the one that you're talking about at Martinsville in particular was 89. And it was the year that we'd had the hurricane in North Carolina and had come through. And if I'm not mistaken, maybe your dad might have sat. Actually, Jimmy Hensley qualified your dad's car and sat on the pole there. And so, anyway, we were raised. We didn't qualify so good.

In Kale's car, so we were pitted on the backstretch. That's when they still had the two, you know, the front stretch pits, the backstretched. So we were pitted on the backstretched, which was a total disadvantage, but, you know, that you should qualify better if you don't want to be back there. And but we had such a fast car, and I got up into the top five, and we ran the top five, led a good portion of the race, but we had a caution late. And so we had to pit, knowing that I was probably going to come out fifth, but just as I was exiting my pit, somebody was coming in just in front of me, and I called them with the right front fender.

Now, I'd beat this car up pretty good driving through traffic all day, but it was so good. It didn't matter what I did to it. It still ran fast. And, I mean, I was running your dad down at times, Rusty Wallace and passing them. And this was such a fun day. And unfortunately, when I hit with the right front, knocked the toe out just a little bit on it. And it didn't drive quite as good after that. But we still had a top five run. And so that opened a lot of it, and that was so much fun in leading that.

And I think about the other place with Bristol, two totally different ways that you attack the racetracks. But I like that challenge that, you know, if you overdrove the car at Martinsville, then you were only hurting yourself. And so I felt like that I had learned what it took to, I can never remember in my career running out of breaks at Martinsville when a lot of people did. Now, you know, the brake systems you have now is no problems. you don't have to take care of them. But back in the 80s and 90s, you had to take care of your breaks. I mean, the stuff wasn't that good.

And so I prided myself in learning how to drive that way. And talking and racing against a lot of people along the way, from Morgan Shepherd to Tommy Houston to Sam Art and these people, it taught me a lot about how to get around that place. And so that helped. Bristol was a totally different. In those times, you had to, you just attack Bristol as hard as you possibly could. And I love that aspect. I mean, throw it down into that banking and then just slam the gas and go as hard as you could.

To me at that time, that was the most thrilling racetrack that we had. I mean, you could feel the speed, even though you're averaging not even 120 miles an hour around there at that time. You could feel the speed and just what it would do to you're getting slammed down into the banking. And I came along at a time that, you know, the track, there was still asphalt on the track. And so you had to move around and you'd be on the bottom, then up against the wall. and so it was just so cool to race out of a place like that. Yeah. Would you get your first win for the Wood Brothers at Michigan

against Davy Allison? For me, I don't know how to put this into words, but for me watching your career, it felt like it felt like it was hard for you to get traction and it was hard for you to get opportunities. And here you are driving for the Wood Brothers. They're a great team, but there are other teams that are coming to the top.

There are other teams that are developing into winters. And I don't even know if the Wood Brothers were in the full scheduled in. They probably, they did. Yeah, yeah, they did at that time. Yeah.

But they had fallen from maybe a top tier team to maybe a B team. And, but you guys went to Michigan a track that's all power, all motor, and beat the team that was all power, all motor. Robert Yates Ford. Battling, you know, side-by-side,

door banging all the way down to frustration. Yeah. You know, how, I guess, how rewarding. was that after all the grind and all the... Yeah. Yeah, so the grind even was to that point of... So we went back, so I said, you know, so I drove for kale there in 89,

but the Hardy sponsorship went away. So in 1990, I was left. I was out of the Cup series again. I had nothing. My Bush team, I was still running, so I'd set up again to run the full schedule in 1990 and was doing that until... In the Bush car. Yes, in my Bush car. And this is the

crunch car. Yes, that's right. Yeah, Nestle Crunch, yes, which was a favorite because we always had candy and ice cream and everybody. Everybody came by. There was a crowd around our truck. I went over there plenty. I would think that's where you knew you made it in this sport was when you get the Nestle Crunch. Yeah. Yeah, that was pretty cool to have that. And so that was fun. We had good sponsorship. And so, you know, what a little success I'd had had kind of helped bring those sponsorships to my team. And so that was nice. Then Neil Bonnet gets injured in the Woodbrother's car in 1990 at Darlington. Yep. Uh, it.

late in the race, they have an accident. And he gets a concussion. And so they don't know how long he's going to be out or anything. There's Eddie Wood, good friends obviously grew up with that family, with Eddie and Lynn around the racetrack. And so the next race was going to be Bristol. And he said, look, we don't know if this is a one race deal, maybe two and maybe five.

You know, we expect Neil to be back sometime, but don't know how long it may be. Are you up? I'm not, yeah, sure. And so the first race at Bristol, I mean, I got to, You're talking about a favorite place and to be able to drive their car. And, you know, they ran something a little different. They ran double shock on the right front there, something I'd never done. So I incorporated that into my Bush Grand National car.

And I actually ended up going back in the fall and winning the fall race. And I put it all on that, that they taught me that. And it wasn't just the double shock. It was that other shock, what it was, that something that it did. and, you know, they explained it to me. But anyway, that was cool. So I get to drive. So as it turns out, this turns into a full-time deal.

Neil Bonnet's not able to come back. And Larry Britton was Sitco. I can never forget when he came to me at Talladega. It used to race there for the second race in July. And so he literally brings a contract out to me. And this was the biggest contract I'd ever seen to sign for, to drive for Citco and keep driving for the Wood Brothers to drive for the next year. And they were going to pay me $100.

thousand dollars and i'd not seen a hundred thousand dollar contract you know and so i obviously i said yes and so then we move on to to 91 and this race with michigan the week before we had run at polkano and you know leonard wood was so good but we were down on power and i'd pass cars through the tunnel turn and third turn and they'd blow back by me going down the front straight away and we had such a good handling car but but we were getting these new cylinder heads that robert yates had designed for Ford Motor Company, we were going to have them at Michigan for the first time the next week. And so Davey was just whipping everybody with this horsepower everywhere. I mean, it was just unbelievable.

And so we put this. We had qualified good. We ran good in the race. But then late in the race, we'd put on a set of tires, and it was the best my car had been. But Davey was still the class of the field. So I'm coming down pit road, and Eddie Wood is still talking to me. And he's like, look, I think we need to just get gas. and get up front and see what we might can do.

We can maybe get a top two or three finish out of this because we had less than 10 laps to go. And so I said, yeah, sure. And so we just, where others put tires on, we just put gas in the Citgo Ford and motored back out. And I was the leader of the race. And even though I spun my tires, getting up to speed, still had enough to get out front and then race Davy. And we had a great battle for the last two laps side by side. My car is sideways off a two. I thought I was going to wreck both of us, which would have been a really bad,

thing, but to beat Davey Allison, I won by like eight, 12 inches, something like that. And, you know, to do the things that I'd watch your dad and others do coming off a turn four, I'd stay with him. I got over close to him, slowed him down just enough, and then drove down the hill and got away just enough to win the race. But to beat Davey, for the first time to have those cylinder heads, which were Robert Yates, and to win the race there. You talk about becoming a favorite place.

Michigan was somewhere then after I won that race. I'd always liked it, but then it became a favorite of mine and won a number of races after that there. Right. So how did that change your life when in your first cup race? Oh, gosh. I mean, it's a different feel when you walk into the garage area then. You've beat these guys. You've finally shown, you know, all I'd heard was the word potential, you know, and you have that.

And you have that in your mind. And you know as a driver you think that you can win. but until you do, you know, then everybody else doesn't know. And so to win in that fashion that it shows a couple of things to me. When I see people now that win in difficult situations, you know, when somebody takes a car that maybe shouldn't win a race and you go win a race because the driver does his job, then that's somebody that I want to pay attention to. And I felt like I had done that and people respected that.

And then that's when conversations then came, had actually started about three weeks before. I won that race with Joe Gibbs coming along. But I was very happy at the Wood Brothers. But so these conversations were happening from other teams. And then so I win that, then conversations start to ramp up. And so opportunities start coming my way instead of me having to go try to find sponsorship to take somewhere and being there when someone gets injured. Now all of a sudden people are willing to either start a race team and use me to start that.

or opportunities with good race teams that are there to go do that. I was really young back when this all was going on, so my vision or my perception of it might be skewed. But for me, I was thinking, why is Del Jarrett going to drive for this new team that has no foundation and no history? And he's just won, and he's leaving a team with all the history. And you talk about taking risks and betting on yourself.

What did you see in the? that opportunity with Joe Gibbs that made you convinced that this was the move for you. Well, there were a couple of things there. And that was, as far as making a decision, certainly one of the two hardest decisions in my professional career to make, to leave the Wood brothers, who had given me this, I mean, without the Wood brothers, without Eddie Wood making that call in 1990 to put me in that car, I don't know where my career would have gone. you know, how it would evolve. I was going to keep trying, but without out, so I, if you look back and say we all owe

someone for something along the way, the Wood Brothers are those people for me. I mean, I fought and I battled along the way in a lot of different ways, but without that chance, that second chance of getting back into the Cup series, you know, we wouldn't be, I don't know that we'd be sitting there, you know, and I'm fortunate enough to have won a championship and then so very blessed and fortunate to be nominated and elected into the Hall of Fame without that. So how do you, how am I thinking that I might even go with a football coach that's starting a race team for the first time? And he's going to get all of this equipment from Rick Hendrick. So somebody you're going to be competing against, you know you're not getting the best stuff that they have.

Why would you do this? but Joe Gibbs is a very persuasive person. And, you know, he's successful at whatever he does. And I've told people this. I knew from my first meeting and talk with him. I remember the first time that he called was after the Dover race in June. And I laughed because I thought it was one of my friends playing a joke on me. It's because I'd gotten home from Dover, and he said it was Joe Gibbs.

And so I started laughing. And he said, no, I'd met him in Talladega earlier that year. And anyway, we had these meetings and started talking about it. And so he had this sponsorship from Interstate Battery, so I met Norman, Tommy Miller from there. They seemed to have a great plan. And I remember in talking to my wife Kelly and talking to my dad, they were like, you know, and Kelly becomes such good friends with everyone within the Wood Brothers organization, that entire family, Carol and Nancy and everybody there.

And they were such special friends and still are to this day. And she was probably having a harder time with the decision I was about to make than even I was. But I told her, I said, these were my words. I said, I see this. And it goes back to what you had talked about. The Woodbrose, we won this race, and we ran good in a number of other races. But it wasn't what I considered, you know, that they weren't, the Wood Brothers of old, that top A team.

And even though this is a brand new team that was going to start out, I said this is my chance to win the Daytona 500 because of the Hendrick stuff and stuff like that. And so I said, I'm going to make the move. And once again, it was more money once again. So, you know, that factored in here while I was getting a contract that was, you know, double of what I was making. And so it just seemed like the right thing to do at that time. And I was willing.

My life has been, I still look at every day. My life has been chance and a gamble and, you know, taking chances on myself. And I felt like that I had done everything to say, this is my best opportunity to move forward. But what did he say? What did he say? You said he was persuasive. Yeah. Did he say, you're going to win the Daytona 500 if you come here?

No, no. Here's what he said. He said, here's what we have. He said, I have a sponsor. He said, and I have a deal with Rick Hendrick. And so we're going to get cars and engines from them. He said, I'm going to allow you to pick your crew chief, who you want to run and start this organization. And so I was immediately, once they got to that point, yet Jimmy Maycar, my brother-in-law is who I wanted to do that.

He was working for Rusty Wallace and Blue Max racing at the time. But he said, you know, you're going to get, he said, we're going to do this in a different way. But so it wasn't anything reassuring because he said, he said, I've gone and basically this is, I'm not just throwing these numbers out. I think Joe has told this story a number of times, but he had $850,000 they had borrowed to do this. Now, we didn't have, you know, didn't have an engine shop or any of that because getting all of that from Hendrick. But, you know, he said, he said, I promise, he said, I know people. He said, we're going to get the best people here.

He said, it may take us a little while to build this insurance. the winning organization you want. He said, but I'm going to do that. He said, but he said, I'm not borrowing more than this $850,000. If things happen and things don't go our way and we run through that, he said, I'm not borrowing more money than that. So was that reassuring? No.

No. No, it wasn't. But he, you know, obviously Joe is a very religious man and in his beliefs. and he's very persuasive in that manner. He helped change my life in a very positive way and the way that I went about life and looking at things for myself and my entire family. And I just believed that Joe Gibbs was going to be successful,

and I wanted to be a part of that. I mean, he was a winning football coach, not because he was better at X's and O's than everybody else out there, is because he was better at recognizing talent and getting the best people around him, from the players to the coaches and the people that understood his program. And that's what he's done at Joe Gibbs Racing. And it's one of the most successful in that now.

Yeah. So we're into Daytona 500. How does that change your life? Everybody says it changes your life. How did it change Del Jarrett's life? It does change your life. I mean, you're a Daytona 500 champion, as you well know, and that's how you're known the rest of your life.

But at the immediate time, so this was our second year. I know. The first Daytona 500 didn't go so well. It was going great. We qualified well, so I'm back in 92 here before I get to the Daytona 5. We qualify well. So this kind of goes to that $850,000. He wasn't going to barry more money.

So I spent out, I'm racing up front in the qualifying race, but I get loose to help a car, so we have to go to a backup car and start last in the field, but we had qualified good enough so we could start, even though we had no points or anything that we're on, go to the back of the field. drive all the way up into the front, and I'm battling Sterling Marlin, Davy Allison, Ernie Irvin for the lead.

And Ernie actually, I was running forth, and Ernie makes a move, and it creates an accident. Yeah, on the back straightway. He got, he got, yeah, he got ran over for that one. Yeah. And I got, so I got turned, I thought I was through it, and I got clipped in the right rear. And so it sent me head on into the wall in the backstretch,

and I just kind of slid down the track and thinking everything was kind of going to be okay but obviously there's smoke and you can't yeah anyway Ken Schrader I find then things were almost to a quiet thing and then all of a sudden I got hit in the right door I mean it pushed the frame rail over to the

transmission that got hit so hard and it wasn't Strader's fault he just thought he had an opening too he didn't realize there was a car on the other side of that smoke that he couldn't see through there so we tore up two cars I'm thinking hmm it's 850,000 might not go too far this might have been a bad decision but we had run really good and then we had some better we had some good races in 92 uh battled alan colwicki at bristol uh for for a race win second to him there so you know a lot of good things happened so but 93

we went had a great test uh everything we pull into uh or when i get to the garage area for the dayton 5 i told my wife kelly that um i came back from our we used to test twice at Daytona you know and and I came back from the one in January and I said we've got a really good car I said I'm going to win the Daytona 500 and this what that's I'm not I'm I'm pretty I've always been pretty confident in my ability and myself and I might be really really cocky on the inside but I don't generally show that on the outside but didn't tell it to a lot of people but I told her and I told my dad I said I'm going to win this race and we anyway we get to the garage area and we happen to be in garage stall 11. And obviously 11 was my dad's number. That's always a good number for me. I'm like, oh, yeah, this is lining up. Good.

So qualify on the front row with Kyle Petty sat on the pole. And we had a fast car all day. And it was just unbelievable. But get down to the end. And there was this rookie that was in my way named Jeff Gordon that I was trying to get by to get to your dad who was leading the race. But he had taken two tires, I believe. And I took four, Jimmy Maycock.

called four tires and I knew my car had outhandled everybody all day and so I finally put a move on Gordon and get by him and I knew your dad's car was so loose I said if I can just get to the back bumper I can get him loose enough I don't know what I'm going to do when I get there but anyway fortunately I'd only had to worry about that for a lap so you got by Gordon with how many to go three to go I believe okay yeah three to go and so then I got behind Dale and so then we as as we're coming to get the white flag go in to turn three I'd got a good enough run to get really close to Dale going into three. And he just had his hands full.

I mean, he was turning right going into the corner. But nobody else could have driven that car and finished 20th with it. They had to tore it up before then. But he's leading the race deal driving this thing. Of course, at this time, he hadn't won the day to go on a 500. Right. He had, you know, things had happened and it had kept him from winning. But anyway, get there, and he can't, he literally can't turn.

So I got close enough to push him into the corner a little faster and he had been. and he went up the track and I went underneath and then Jeff Bodine followed me. I think he was driving the 15 car at that time and then he followed me and pushed me by. And so I literally led that last lap. And I think I'd led before then earlier in the race,

but got by and then just blocked. And, you know, he's just a good call, good pit call and having the best handling car. And then, yes, it changes your life. I mean, opportunities. I mean, we knew that some things might come away, but, you know, personal services still, started coming along and more sponsorship for Joe Gibbs racing.

And it just changes, you know. And we went on to finish fourth that year in the points. I think your dad won the championship that year. But, you know, here's a second year team that we ran in the top five in the points and didn't win another race that year, but we battled hard. So the deal with – and so the team's coming along, things are working out, and then y'all sort of hit a rough patch. Yeah.

You all had a down year. how does how to talk me through that and the opportunity to work with Robert and I know there's a little bit of a cool story there about how y'all agreed to the relationship down in darling to south carolina yeah so um so yeah so as good as 93 was 94 started out and wasn't uh that good and i'd actually signed an extension uh with joe gibbs racing um joe wanted to go on because my my original deal was for three years so 94 was going to be the last year he wanted to get that out of the way so i signed a couple years extension, which was nice. I'd never had this kind of security in my life. And here I am about to mess all of that up or turn it around anyway as far as job security. And so we, 94, we just couldn't do anything. There were a number of things that I look at in some things that we were

doing, other things that we weren't doing and following along with some things that shockwise that people were doing. And so we just weren't performing. We actually missed the race in North Wilkesboro in the fall. And so, yeah, it was that bad. I missed it by a thousandth of a second. But still, it shouldn't even be in that position when you talk about, you know. But you, so you missed the race. And so we were, it was so down to, I mean, to sit home on that Sunday and watch, you know,

it was the first time, the only time it ever happened for me until, you know, the very end of my career. And so it was just a terrible film. We come back and win Charlotte the next week. Whoa. When Charlotte. You miss the race. Miss the race at Wilmsboro. And come back.

and win Charlotte, the fall race. And I can remember Joe Gibbs being, but by this time, the decision had been made as to what I was going to do. So Ernie Irvin gets injured in August of 1994 in practice crash. And so I had gotten a call from Robert Yates. I didn't even, you know, I knew Robert and stuff going through everything. but he just was asking about, you know, contracts at that time, everybody didn't know. I don't even know that we, you know, it may have been talked about that I'd signed an extension with Joe Gibbs, but, you know, it wasn't a huge story and everything.

You didn't have a press conference. Yes, no. And so Robert didn't even know what my deal was. So he was just inquiring as they were looking because they knew Ernie wasn't going to be back for 1995. And so they were looking for something. So at this time, still got my Bush team that I'm running. I'm running a lot of races with that. and we've got sponsorships and things,

things are lining up well there. But Robert talked to me and gosh, you know, when you get a, I've always believed that things come along at times for you to make decisions in your life and opportunities are there. And they come along for a reason. And there were plenty of other drivers out there for Robert Yates to look at and talk to, but here he was calling me to see what my thoughts might be. So our discussions, at first it was just, you know, it was intriguing and it was nice that I'd done that.

And, and Dale, I'm sure you had conversations with Robert. You can have a 45-minute conversation and you go back and think about it. There were only about two and a half minutes of that because you've talked about everything from 1960 all the way to the present time with Robert. And so trying to get out of exactly what he was looking for. So the gist of it was that he needed a driver for 1995. There was nothing beyond 1999. Oh, no. Whatsoever.

Really? Yes. There was nothing. There were no guarantee. But here was the thing as we sat at Darlington and talked about what we might do is that I had always had in my mind that starting my own moving, taking my Bush Grand National team and making it a cup team and me owning it. Because I can do things better than everybody else in my mind. And so this might be my chance. So Robert is like, look, I can.

I'll supply your engines. I'll help you get sponsorship. If this is just a one-year deal, they didn't know, you know, if Ernie's not able to come back, then it could go on and be for a couple more years. This is the Texco-Havlin days. And, you know, Robert Yates racing had been through

a lot of difficult times there with Davy. And, you know, they just missed out on the championship in 92. And then Davy's helicopter crash and losing him. And then they have this happen, you know, they're having success with Ernie. And then all of a sudden this happens. with Ernie. So, you know, they, I mean, they're an emotional wreck over there.

And it's tough and it's understandable why they're even still going sometimes. You didn't even know why that was. But anyway, he's willing to offer me this. And I'm thinking, you know, why is this being put in front of me? I've got a stable situation. I've got my brother-in-law that I've brought over here to Joe Gibbs Racing. And Jimmy has done a phenomenal job of putting Joe Gibbs racing together and making everything work. We've had moderate success.

and, you know, I know that if I make this move, that I'm even considering that things around Thanksgiving and Christmas at the Jared household might not be too good, you know, I'm getting ready to upset my family in a lot of ways. And, but this, once again, I look at this as a chance to, for things to happen in big ways. And so Robert and I came to an agreement, but before we could make that happen. There had to be a buyout of my contract at Joe Gibbs Racing. Ford Motor Company stepped up and helped make that happen. I mean, I can remember the day that I got the call from Edsel Ford and saying that they were going to make this happen. I was in a hotel room and for the next race and they were saying, you know, we're going to step up, we're going to make

this happen. And so they, you know, put it and made it all happen. And yes, indeed, Thanksgiving in 1994. Christmas was a lot more quiet other than, you know, we allowed our kids. But we generally are racing family, and we talk racing a lot. And, but, you know, there wasn't a lot said about racing that year about that. But so I decided to make this move. I looked at it as this is the opportunity. Whatever happens, I've got to make the most of it. And, uh, who, this almost totally backfired on me.

Uh, because we did not have, I sat on the pole for the Daytona 500, which I had never won a poll for, in 19. 95 with Robert Yates Racing, but things didn't go well. Robert Yates Racing was still a top tier team, but they were going through a lot of things in trying to figure things out. We didn't run well in a lot of races. And you suffered a lot of the blunt of that in the media and took it personal. Yeah. It frustrated you.

It did. Yeah, yeah. Because I knew I was doing everything that I could do as a driver. Well, because they had had success with Davey. And so then Ernie steps in, and Ernie has success. And Erwin's a phenomenal race driver, you know. But there were things that were starting to change. And because of the success they had,

Larry McReynolds had notes from all the way back to when he started there, and they were still running a lot of that. And a lot of people that started to change. And, you know, I'm not just saying this to cover my tail as a driver, but, you know, we had to start moving forward with some things. And here we are still trying to run things. that Davey had won with and things that Ernie had won with, and I'm a different driver, and we needed to make changes.

They were slow to react to things that I would tell them about the car. And to the point that they put Hutt Strickland in the car at a practice session for the Coca-Cola 600. I agreed to it. I said, go ahead. I've got nothing to lose. He's not going to go run faster than what I'm running in this car. And he came back in and said, I don't know how he hasn't wrecked this car. Really? Yes. Oh, so you were looking for somebody to validate your points there.

I said, hey, if he does then, I realize that if he goes and does run better and says, hey, there's nothing wrong with this car, then I've got to work on myself. Okay. I've got enough confidence to think that even though I've been beat down to this point pretty hard, I'm still saying I know how to drive these race cars. And I'm winning some races in my bush car. So it's not like that I can't drive a car. And so finally we start making some changes and then we go to Pocono and win Pocono. And that helped tremendously. And even that morning, that race morning, we did something they had really never done. We put a rear sway bar on the car at Pocono. We had practiced with it a couple of times, but Larry McReynolds wasn't really in favor,

but decided to do it. And we outhandled everybody that day. And so finally something that I wanted to do because I'd done it with not with my Bush car, but I'd done it at other places. And so this was something I had been experimenting with, familiar with. Then we go to the brickyard and have a great rest of the year your dad won the brickyard. But I ran, he and Rusty Wallace down, but running those two down and pass them is a different thing. So I finished third there.

So things started to turn around and got a little bit better. And then it was, you know, from that point, it was like, okay, Ernie's coming back. You know, what's going to happen? And even to that point of that very Brickyard 400, Robert Yates is driving because Robert always had to drive when we went somewhere. But he's driving myself and Kelly to, we're going to a Texco-Havlin function, and he's telling me, Ford's wanting Robert to start a second team, and me to be the driver of this second team,

but Robert's not, he, and his words that night in that car were, look, this is hard enough, and when they build two victory lanes, because my car is finished one and two, I want both of them out of victory lane. he said, but they're not going to do that, obviously. He's making a joke. But he said, when Victory Lane's big enough for two cars, then I'll consider this. So even at that time, he was dead set against starting that second team. But fortunately, he changed his tune within the next couple of weeks after that.

And things came around. So I was already to the point, though, that I was talking, thinking that Ernie's coming back. Robert's not going to start a second team. My Bush team is now going to be my team. going to provide the motors for me for X number of years. There was also some financial deal. So I literally, I go to Bristol in August with a contract. I had sat down on Wednesday before that with the people from Hooters and had a three-year

contract and in my hand. Really? Yes. So I'm going to switch my team over to my race team, my cup team, and I have this three-year deal. Now, the downside of it is that here we are Kelly and I, and we have this family, and two little girls because Jason's grown up and so we've got these two little girls and then Zach has just been born and here I'm going to be making 30 appearances at Hooters.

It's not exactly the family type sponsorship she was looking for but she understood, you know, what I had talked about doing what I wanted to do and you know, this was my opportunity to live about my dream of having my cup team. It's what you wanted. Yeah, yeah. And then that all changed in a matter of walking across. the track in Bristol was before they had the tunnel there, but walked across, and they said Robert wants to see you.

And I'm like, okay, I'll see him at a little. And they said, no, no, he needs to see you right now. So little did I know. I knew that Ford had put some pressure on Robert, and he agreed with them to start this second team, which would become the 88 team. But his next thing was, is getting me to back off of starting of moving my team and this sponsorship.

And I had the contract in my hand when he called me into the trailer to talk about that. That's interesting because wasn't that part of the original promise, or not promise, but wasn't that originally what he said to you to lure you over to Yates from Gibbs? Was it your opportunity to go up with your team? So now he's wanting me to put that on hold because he wants to start this second team, because he needs to start this second team. What was the reason for the pressure to start a second team? Do you recall?

Well, Ford needed that. This was starting to become more prevalent. that clearly Chevroar teams Yeah yeah so they so and financially

it would make more sense you know because Robert Yates Racing when I went there there were 36 employees counting the ladies that worked in the front office and so he was wanting

as he's had more success and wanting to grow you know and get more people and better people the way to do that is with two teams to where you can grow this but financially

you know it looked even better on the books too because Ford was behind this You know, Ford was, you know, this was a total Ford team with Ford credit and Ford Quality Care. So, you know, that was their deal to make happen. And so they finally convinced him that that was the thing. And the next thing was for him to convince me that I would be the driver and that I would put, you know, my thoughts. And I mean, I showed him the contract.

I mean, could we have taken that Hooters and done it with it? But Ford didn't want that. They had their whole deal that they wanted already. So here I had another decision. decision to make. Yeah. The Hooters deal went to, where did the Hooters deal go? Ah.

Good question. Did it go? Oh, well, what year was this? That was 95 and that was. So that was after Lee Allen and all that. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe it didn't go anywhere.

I don't know. I don't think it really did go anywhere within the top three series. I don't think anybody. Yeah, I think it was a couple of years later before they decided because I think when I went back and said, you know, I appreciate this, but no, they kind of had their mindset that this was what was going to happen because, I mean, we left my race shop that day thinking that there was nothing. I needed a little bit more money, but I had a couple of other associate sponsors that were there and, you know, with the deal that I had with Robert for

providing the engines, you know, this was going to work. This was going to be a really good deal to start a cup team. And, you know, that was my whole mindset. And then, gosh, then making that decision was I going to start because everybody, then the whole talk was, okay, so, they're going to start this second team where they're going to be getting all the hand-me-down stuff because Ernie's still going to get, you know, the 28 car, that was Robert Yates racing. Right, yeah. From day one to the end of it, the 28 was that. You know, that's where it was started, formed, everything.

And so then we announced Todd Parrott was going to be the crew chief, which he had never been in that position. And they was like, well, you know, that's just going to be the hand-me-down stuff. And we did get hand-me-down stuff. But Todd Parrott made that hand-me-down stuff pretty good. But, you know, we immediately went 90s. So I make that decision that's what I'm going to do. And we go win the bush clash, which I've never been in before. But I had this rocket ship of a car.

And it's crazy. I mean, I passed like 15 cars in the first lap. So it went on and won that. And then we turn around next week and win the Daytona 500 with this brand new race team. Right. So off and running. Y'all are so good in that race. Or that whole week, right?

Oh, that was amazing. Anytime they went, any time the 88 went to. date on. I don't remember what year it was, but I mean, didn't you guys have like a practice crash or something? And I remember that they opened, you know, the team's 2000. Was that 2000? Yeah.

And they go in there and was that a backup car that you? No, no. They just went and repaired whatever it was. It was very end of practice. Yeah. We made a change and we wanted to get back out in the pack. So I was literally getting ready to come in was going to run and then get a plug check down the back stretch. And so I was

behind Gordon. We'd sat on the pole. So this is a year after we win the championship and we come back we'd sat on the pole at another rocket ship uh and this thing was so fast but anyway go down into turn one somebody in front of gordon runs off the track gets their left front off the track and gordon checks up i check up but i get hit in the back which knocks me into gordon and then i slide down off i never spun out but i just when i went off the banking on the apron it tore up the left front fender that's right and so we called we got our guys they had made templates off of all of this car all the especially the front of the car, and they flew them down and they let them work a little bit at night,

and then they came in at like 4.30 the next morning and repaired that car so I can start on the pole with it. Not just because just starting on the pole, but because it was the baddest car around. And yeah, then we went on and won that race. So it was, you're talking about as a competitor, a driver, I mean, you win the championship and you come back and you sit on the pole for the Daytona 500, and you win the Daytona 500, it's like, oh, God, could this get any easier? You don't want to think that, but it seemed like things were so good that it almost seemed easy. Yeah. Well, that's a great, I think that's a great place for us to end the conversation.

There's a lot more about mine and your relationship. There's a lot there with the broadcasting, and there's some experiences that we went through. We'd love to have you back on the show to talk about. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's fascinating to me as you talk about this, and I've thought about this meantime. It's just all the things, through the history for 70 years of our families being there and just incredible story in my mind.

But I wanted to know a lot more about sort of the part of your life that I didn't get to experience or witness and how it all started. I know you had a real hard grind to get your opportunities. And thanks for coming out here. Absolutely. Sharing it with us. Love working with you. Love seeing you every weekend. And you've been a great friend.

So thank you. Thank you. Appreciate the opportunity. Yeah, fun to relive. Absolutely. Hiring is a challenge, but there's one place you can go where hiring is simple, fast, and smart, a place where growing businesses connect to qualified candidates. That place is ziprecruiter.com slash Dale Jr.

With their powerful matching technology, zip recruiter scans thousands of resumes to find people with the right experience and invites them to apply to your job. That's nice. Yeah, as long as it's your specific job. Don't be applying for my job. I mean, we need other jobs. It seems like this is the way to go. As applicants come in, ZipRecruiter analyzes each one and spotlights the top candidates

and you never miss a great match. ZipRecruiter is so effective that four out of five of employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate through the site within the first day. Hey, get load. That's quick. And now my listeners can try ZipRecruiter for free at this exclusive web address. ZipRecruiter.com slash Dell Jr. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash Dell Jr., D-A-L-E-J-R.

ZipRecruiter.com slash Dell Jr. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. It is time for the Valveline DIY question of the week, Dale Jr. Nothing more DIY, especially in your case. and you know what, cooking. I know that you become, you get into this stuff. So what is your go-to dish or meal or whatever it is that you cook when you're on your own or when you're doing it yourself?

Well, I mean, I've always enjoyed cooking. I can't cook a ton of stuff. But so, you know, when me and Amy first started dating, I was like, you wait until I make some French toast because I like making French toast. And there's a bit of an art to it. to keeping it from getting soggy in the middle. And there's a lot of ways to do it. I would, back when we raced in South Carolina,

we would always go to the huddle house instead of the Waffle House. Oh, really? Interesting decision. I know because I love Waffle House, and that's my go-to. There's not even any huddle houses around here in North Carolina, but there were in South Carolina, and the huddlehouse had the French toast. They do. Waffle House doesn't.

I know about that. And so I would go to the huddle house after the race and eat there. There was a car on the racetrack. too sponsored by Huddle House, which made you want to go to support that. But anyway, I kind of half-heartedly hate admitting that because I'm... You did. You were, you just eased on end up. But anyway, so I loved making French toast, and I love eating it.

I don't eat a ton of it these days, but still think I could probably cook a pretty decent French toast. Livermush. Oh, I know I'm going to catch hell for that. My wife hates it. Ricky Stenhouse, big Livermush fan. me and him talk about livermush. You were a big livermush guy.

I like it. I never even heard of it until you brought it up. Slice it thin, crispy. Burn it. Put it on mustard and bread. Sandwich. Liverer much sandwich. Must sandwich.

Muster. Okay. Or I just eat it on a plate by itself with lots of mustard and skip the bread. Sounds awful. What's the secret? I know. Come on. Oh, it's just when you, well, when you mix the eggs and milk, you don't put it in there a lot.

It just needs to go, it just needs to sort of coat the outside. If you leave it in there, even for a second too long, it soaks into the bread and then the bread doesn't cook all the way through. You get a little bit of soginess in the center. Got it. Don't dunk it. No. It's just to go, it just needs to coat the outside because you want it to still be a bread, you know, not a mush in the middle. Do you like your French toast?

You look like somebody that dunks your French toast. I leave it in there a little extra. I use hollab bread. That's my secret right there. Gotcha. Yeah, there's different breads. Oh, yeah. Make a big difference.

Yeah. And other things I cook. You know, obviously on my Twitter bio and Instagram bio, I talk about barbecue. Over the last probably five years or maybe even more than that, I got in interest in trying to smoke barbecue. And I think I liked it. I wanted to do it because it's such a time-consuming and the preparation takes days. Like you got to get where you buy the meat to kind of. kind of meat you by and then spending a day or two sort of preparing the meat and brining it

and, you know, marinating it, injecting it and all the things that you do, can do, making your own rubs and sauces and all that stuff, building and preparing and setting up the grill, setting this temperature and, you know, all of it really reminded me of preparing my car during the week to go to the racetrack. When I race late models, you know, you spent all week tinkering and playing, cleaning up the hauler, getting the truck service full of gas and cleaning out the trash and cleaning up the interior of the truck and then reorganizing the hauler and the trailer and all your stuff and getting your driver suit ready and all that. It's just, you know, you're just playing, piddling.

But that's what barbecue is. And then you get to feed a bunch of people with it. And then when you have leftovers, you get to take leftovers up and down the road to your friends and relatives, which is fun. They love it. You walk in with it, hey, man, I got a bunch of brisket leftover here. Eat on this for a couple days. and especially when they eat it and they like it. And then you got, it's not just biscuit, it's ribs and pork butt and there's all kinds of

different types of ribs, you know, and there's just so many different variations and ways to do it and you play and tinker and twist on things and tweak this and that and the other and cook at different temperatures for different reasons. I just kind of like that technology side of it, you know, the mechanics of it. And so that's kind of what I'm into now when I, I say cooking. That's what I thought you was going to say. Yeah.

Yeah. But I mean, I'm going to tell you what now, man. I can take a basic cup can of soup and I can turn that thing into something a little special. That's what I like to do. Huh? Yeah. So, well, I grill chicken breasts and then dice it all up and I keep it for a couple of days. And I put that in soups.

Salads and yeah. Well, if you take just a normal can of soup, like vegetable soup or anything, then you can put any meat in it and you can put any seasoning and stuff in it. You can put, you can take homemade salsa and put that in there. If you do a vegetable suit and put homemade sauce in it. Never tried that. And add chicken, grilled chicken. Got more of a fiesta soup.

Yes. Yeah. So I like the, I don't, that's not really cooking. No. Because you're not making, cooking. It's doctoring. Cooking's kind of making things from scratch. My wife is an amazing cook.

I mean amazing. She's, she can look on Pinterest and get her. recipe make it that night and it's great and we do she knows I love buffalo so she incorporates that into a lot of stuff that we eat she is good I remember when she cooked for us all in Pocono remember that you remember when we all stayed in that house and she just man we came home from the track and man she had that meal I mean she had everything there's all kinds of stuff it was awesome yeah that smoking thing is my bucket list that's my bucket list like one of my biggest things well you know I'm no pro I'm actually maybe the guy to give you the give you the

knowledge you need because I'm a novice as well get a trekker that's what you told pellet grill start there the hardest part about smoking is controlling the temperature and especially on a windy day or anything like that and if you're out there and that thing's smoking for eight hours and it loses you know temperature it kills it you're game over and so or it goes too high whatever you know you could ruin it could be ruined and then you're like why did that happen I don't even know why that happened, you know, because there's, you know, if you're doing this by yourself, get a pellet grill that controls a tent for you. That way you don't have to worry about that part, and you can just, you understand how to cook the meat, you know, you've got a reliable temperature.

That's, you can take that out of the equation, and then you just cook the meat, and then you can play with your recipe. You can try different injections, and you can see what tastes good, right? And then once you get that down and you really want to make it hard, get a grill that you have to control the temperature and then you're become a freaking professional barbecue. There you go. Which I don't want to go that for it. I mean, I love to have a trailer with all that crap on it like those guys have.

Those guys are in a league of there. It's just a little bit. Yeah, you've got to have to have a guy. You know, that all he does is the temp on the grill. Holy crap. I got kids, man. We can't get time for that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, nobody got time for that. Yeah. All right. Listen, thank you to Valvling for the segment from high mileage rides that need that

thick anti-wear film to newer engines that have carbon buildup, head over to Valvaline.com slash Dale. That's Valvaline.com slash Dale to find the product spec for your engine. Keep talking about white flag, boat. White flag right there. White flag. White flag. We'll start off with a few Apple podcast ratings and reviews. Dallin J. wrote, Dale, I love listening to your podcast. I can't help but wonder, though, why is the pitch in your voice much higher on the broadcast than when you're talking on the podcast? Why is your pitch? I have noticed. this.

Have you know, and Leah is nodding her head too. So when you're doing a broadcast for NBC sports, Oh, at the race. Look at them going to the car. Oh my God, they're going like, man, they're driving their wheels off.

And in the podcast, we're just, we're on the level. So it's just got to be the excitement, right? Yeah. Yeah. But it is the adrenaline. Yeah.

Glad somebody's been excited watching a race. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. Hey, that's the way I'm going to do that. That's the way I'm going to do my broadcasting. If I don't, I broadcast because it's fun and I want to watch the race. And I'm excited about what I'm going to see. I'm going to see some of the best guys in this business do it.

And if that's not the case, then I don't want to do the broadcast. So if I go up there and I can't be me. I don't want to hear you, be like, oh, whoa. Well, I mean, if I ever lost that, then I'd be like, man, this is boring. I don't want to do this job. There you go. So, I mean, I'm only doing it. I don't need the money.

I'm good there. I'm only doing it because it's a fun job. And I love racing. And I'm excited. So that's a genuine experience for me. There you go. And if that goes away, then I don't know what I do. Peewee 72.

You guys might think this is interesting. Peewee 72, after listening to this story about Gary Ballou, there are a lot of things he left out. Gary didn't run Cruz, and he wasn't a boss. He made a deal for a lesser charge. His story should have been about racing. There's so many things that I... Did that guy read the book? Well, first of all, it's Pee Wee 72. I didn't know if that was just a coincidence or not, but he must be a big fan.

Well, you know Peewee, his car was number 72. Yeah, no, no, right. So like, uh, that super speedway modified he ran was, uh, had owned was one of the coolest looking cars. Right. So this guy may be a big fan. There's plenty of racing for Gary Ballou. He didn't leave that part out. Here's another one. I've been, I have been hooked to this podcast since day one, easily the best racing show out there. Keep it up. By the way, Dale, I've even quit smoking since listening to hashtag 30 days. Nice. I thought that was cool. Yeah. I've seen in my social timeline that a lot of folks are getting that job done, getting, I say getting a job done because it's tough. It's hard to quit. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Dirty MoMod Media has another podcast. It's called Doorbumber Clear,

hosted by Brett Griffin and T.J. Majors, if you're looking for some hot takes, this ought to be a good week. I keep saying that, but these two guys end up in the mix of these races a lot. And then TJ in this case, you had Joey Lugano restarting on the front row there to that last restart. I think TJ has something to say about it. So looking forward to that. I like you. You see Spider Brett's tweet? He had a pretty good one. You have to be more specific. Which one? Hold on. I mean, he's currently drinking with Freddie and them right now on vacation. So the Dirtymo Media puts out the tweet about the final caution, you know, when that final caution came out as Joey Ligano was leading.

T.J. Majors will discuss today on door bumper clear as he is joined by Kevin Harvick spotter, Tim Fidoa. And so Brett says, ask Tim Fidoa why he raced me like a beep. And cost me three seconds and how the best plate spotter ever lost the lead on that final restart. Protect the top, dumb s. Oh, my heavens, Brett. Well, listen, this is what these guys bring. I love it.

I love it. It's raw. Yeah, I love it. Honest. Yeah, right there. Let's it play out. So everybody that loves the Dale Jr. download, you also would love door bumper clear if you're not listening already.

And then also, they'll record a day and they'll come out tonight as well. This podcast can be watched on the telebox each week. It's on NBC Sports Network at 5 p.m. Eastern on Tuesdays. That's 2 p.m. Pacific. All my people out in the Pacific Coast on Pacific Time. With your big trees and your erections. Right, right. Big trees.

directions. And also you got the Wendell Junior's Ride promotion. That's the thing we do. The Dell Junior Foundation is raffling off Dale Junior's 2019 Corvette Coupe Z-O-6 with a 2LZ package. Tickets are going fast. It's just $25 for a raffle ticket. So go to win DaleJuersride.com. And also, Leah, give us that URL for the gloves program one more time. It is NASCARFoundation.org slash Dale Jr. There you go. And that's if you want to bid on any of those gloves. That's an awesome promotion that we do. the Dale Jr. Foundation for Nationwide Children's Hospital. And that's it, Dale Jr.

All right, let's get to some odd history. And we got two this week. All right. Doubted one. Yeah. One of them, interestingly enough, is about a racetrack. Islip. Ice slip.

Ice slip. And that's in Long Island. And it's where the Dielner family got their start in racing. Is that right? Wait, it's funny because you can tell he's not. He's not, you can tell you're not from Long Island. Well, the thing I... Because you said in Long Island.

You can obviously tell him. Not on Long Island. Long before that. I did. Honestead didn't know until just then that you're not from a Long Island. I almost had you fooled. You had to be fooled. Well, he's not for a fucking Long Island.

This feels like... It could be a Long Island. Yeah. This feels like a thing that's important to him. And so it's in the show. It's a good little fun thing. Well, read on. Let's see.

Well, this is the stuff I want to put it in the show. Doesn't get this kind of preference. differential treatment. Oh, hold up. See, I usually don't read these things along with you. I want to react, but I see that it is also where the Dillner family got their start is in the script. I'll be like, hey, man. I'm proud of my roots, baby. I'll be like, hey, man, I want to try such a such for the show. No, that's not going to work. We can't do it that way. I'm going to slip. I'm going to slip. I'm going to slip. This better be the best delivery ever. All right, let's go back to July 15, 1971. There was a cup race at Islip, and it's only two-tenths of a mile. It's the shortest racetrack. The Cup series has ever raced on it. If I'm wrong, y'all can call Matthew.

It's his race track. Yeah, yeah, two-tenths. Well, I'm just saying if it's not the shortest, if there's been shorter. It is. All right, I'm just saying. If Twitter comes after me, come after Matthew, this is his, this is all in here because of him. All right, on that particular night, because of a scoring problem, NASCAR, track of the laps being run, accidentally through the caution, or through the checkered, I'm

sorry, 20 laps early. And Richard Petty beat Friday Hassler, one of my favorite racing names in the history of NASCAR, Friday Hassler. That's pretty good. By two laps and he won his 131st Career Cup race. I'm sure this one probably didn't count on the Jeff Gluck scale, being a two-tenths, too small. Don't tell nobody about them 20 laps they forgot to run, said Petty.

You sure he's quoted as saying that? Yep, but sourced it from an old article. Okay. It seemed like they ran 500 laps out there. I'm a terrible Richard Petty. This is your Richard Petty. You being from a Long Island, it would be hard to. Then he comes to say, this has to be the smallest track in the country.

So, hey, maybe it is. You relax for one moment and you run over three cars, he said. Incredibly odd. That is odd. You know what? I've heard some odd stories. I've heard odd history. Boy, that story about Isles.

You ain't going to get more odd than that right there. That was some odd shit right there. All right, we got some more odd history from New Hampshire. At the Bush race in New Hampshire in 2000, driver Mike Borkowski had one of the worst days imaginable. After an already tough season, Borkowski's race at Loudoun included spinning both Lennon Amick and Jason Jarrett and also crashing on the final lap of the race. Afterwards, he was fired from the Bill Davis team he drove for and his sponsor AT&T suiting seeking a refund of their sponsorship money for the time he drove for them. The lawsuit asserted that the incidents were roundly criticized by race officials, television commentators, and fellow drivers. And they

claimed AT&T claim that the race at New Hampshire was criticized so much by the median drivers that it actually damaged the brand. It's incredible. The lawsuit was settled out of court on January 2001. That's a bad day at the racetrack. Good grief. Thanks NASCAR man for teeing us up on some of this stuff. Go follow him on Twitter. He's an awesome. Some Fowler. Yeah. Fowler. Foller.

You're definitely not from Long Island. He's an awesome fowler. Foller him on Twitter. Foller him on Twitter. You guys. Man, I hope you guys enjoy the show. Having Dale Jarrett. Yeah.

Oh, and was great. I've always kind of wanted to have him on the show. Be able to talk about that part of his career, the one that doesn't get too much publicity. Yeah. But before we go, let me share you guys a little something about a partner that's been on the show for a long time pristine auction pristine is well pristine is authentic memorabilia website where you can bid and win without going to the auction house nailed it you can bid and win anywhere anywhere anytime from the comfort of your own home car while jogging i don't know if anybody's really doing it while that is happening but if you're at work you can bid there you know if you don't want to get five Yeah, maybe tried at home.

Yeah, you know, last time after you said nobody listens to the podcast on their couch, on their TV, we had a few weirdos that said they, you know, like me, that said they listened to the podcast on TV. Yeah, I was a little taken aback by that that somebody takes their smart TV and listens to the podcast that way because of television. But anyways, give Pristine's daily auctions a try. Plus, don't forget about the 10-minute auctions. They're fun. It's like running a qualifying lap. All bids start at just one buck.

The biggest thing we can tell everyone about pristine auction is the authenticity of these items. I know it because I've signed for pristine. So all the stuff that you see there is signed by the real person. There's no fakes and no phonies. I think that's important because I think that there are a lot of fakes and phonies out there. But you can trust Pristine. You can trust them. Well, you know, before the show, we spotted a black and white 8 by 10 photo because there ain't no other size of photo than an 8 by 10 if you ask me.

8 by 10 photos signed by Junior Johnson. and Richard Petty. They were good. You know, those guys made it okay in their career. The photo has them standing feet on the bumper of an old car in front of a barn. I mean, come on. There's nothing that says badass and putting the old foot on a bumper. Does Dillner pick these items?

Of course he does. I got to find, like, if there's a cool that Elvis die cast or something cool like this, why put it? Oh, here's a diecast of Carl Larson again. No. All right. No. There's unique crap on here.

It's awesome. Find me a dang photo with a foot on. a bumper and by God make me read it please that's what I'm trying to do there's a eight by 10 photo junior Johnson Richard petty okay so what what's uh was what's the price on this 14 dollars uh I looked right before what's the price on that Larson diecast Larson diecast I think they had one for like six bucks right now no way when I was on there there's all sorts of diecast stuff that starts at a dollar yeah you know it might not end there but, you know, it starts pretty cheap.

There are some really, really inexpensive things on Christine, for sure. Well, let's try to find the least expensive, the most inexpensive. There's a Dale Earnhardt Jr. 8 by 10, I believe it is right now. That's starting at a dollar, and nobody's bid on it yet. It's a dollar. Really? So maybe I should start driving the price up for you. No.

Why did you want to do? That goes against everything that Christine's about. You could bid on it, Dale. So if you could have photos of yourself. Loser. Don't bid on your own stuff. Go check out pristineauction.com. Now, it's free to register, free to bid,

and of course you only pay for the items you win. That's pristine auction, spelled P-R-I-S-T-I-N-E auction.com. And when you register, please select Dell Junior Download Podcast from the drop-down menu in the How Did You Hear About Us section? We want Junior Nation to let them know that we sent you there. Happy birthday, every do. Happy birthday, everyone.

Happy bidding. Happy bidding, everyone. And see you next week on the Del. Jr. Download. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo.