The Dale Jr. Download - 269 - Harry Gant: The Bandit

Episode Date: August 13, 2019

Dale Earnhardt Jr. gets to know the racer they called "The Bandit," Harry Gant.  They discuss the legend's many nicknames, his long path to the NASCAR Cup ranks, racing with Ralph Earnhardt, blowing off Burt Reynolds and the first time he quit racing.  The DJD gang has fun talking about the Racing Wives reality TV show, Dale's prized possessions and how Bobby Isaac heard voices telling him to get out of his car. . 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. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download. Today, our guest, Harry Gant, let's get this show started. All right, guys, so Mike Davis, Leah, Matthew, everybody's here. Let's see, what happened. I got back into cycling. That's kind of new. Oh, did you do that?

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Me and so I hadn't been riding, all right? Just give you a little background. Remember everybody making a big deal out of that, me riding bikes, right? I rode 2,400 miles in 2017 with Jimmy Johnson and a bunch of the guys. And each year after that, 18 and 19, this year I haven't rode hardly at all. But I got back after it for whatever reason.

I had logged, let's see about 50 miles this week. Who'd you ride with? Well, I rode 20 of those Saturday with LaTart. Oh, so LaTard's back on it. Yeah, LaTart. Me and I took LaTardt, I took mine and his bike to Michigan. He rode Saturday. I rode Friday 20 miles and then Saturday 20 miles beautiful.

Michigan is beautiful. Yeah, is it? Yes. I mean, I think you'd have to get on a bicycle to really appreciate all the beauty around the track. There's all these little lakes in Michigan. You gotcha. Yeah. Little tiny lakes.

We rode a loop around this one lake called Round Lake, shape, circle. And the roads right on the shore and they got all these houses. It kind of reminds me a little bit of dirty dancing. Remember that little place wherever? went and hung out. Yeah. And sort of like this place where all the people vacationed. It kind of has that feel, that vibe of all those families, right?

Where your mind goes sometimes is, it's just fascinating to me. So you went dirty dancing. So I got you. No, I'm tracking with you still. Keep going. And, yeah, I was just kind of, you know, you ride around there and you just imagine yourself spending time there where your family had. And one of the best things about it is.

So the road is right on the shore. The houses are on one side of the road. Obviously, the lake is on the other side and the docks. And so everybody will walk out of their house across the street onto the dock. And they sit on the dock. They have their boats on the dock. So sometimes they're sitting on their boat. Sometimes they're sitting on the dock.

But that's a thing. Dock sitting all day. Yeah, dude, it sounds awesome. I know it. I know. So did you see these people? And did you wave? I saw them and wished I was doing what they were doing.

Every time I've seen you. I remember we used to leave the. track in Michigan. It was a very specific memory where you were like, I wish I was them. I would be doing exactly what they're doing. We would leave the track. They'd be out in their front yards, drinking beer, having a good time. So Michigan is good for that, like people watching.

And then I imagined that it's frozen solid in the wintertime and snow and all that. So I can't imagine that beautiful lake with that scenic sort of dirty dancing vacation-esque atmosphere going on and then it just being this cold, freezing, windy, frozen tundra. Yeah, you ain't going to find my ass out there in the winter. Man, what a, what a, you know, extreme. Okay, so wait a second. Did you still have it? I mean, like, was it just like, just get back on that bike?

Just still. Oh, no, I'm just so slow. So, yeah, way slow. So I think my best average, if I'm, you know, we get all the data when we ride. We get miles an hour and watts, which is the force. of you peddling through the crank. I got all this data, right? So I can understand what I was doing in 2017 when I was at my peak.

I think the best, fastest ride I had was about a 19.5 average miles an hour in Phoenix. At the end of 2017, been riding all year, getting stronger and stronger, faster and faster. And I'm down to like 16 and a half, 16 mile an hour average way down. Yeah. So got a ways to go to get back. Look, I'm proud of you. Got out there. Got after do a little riding?

I spent so much money on bikes. I know. I can't not ride more. I got to ride more miles. You know, the other thing I heard that was weird, I was hoping we'd get more information on this, but did you know that I don't even remember where I saw this? I can't even remember where I saw it.

Maybe it was social media, but Vince Neal, all right? The singer. Yes, the lead singer. Vince Neal raced in the Indy Lights. Wow. That's like just a step above. Not just once. Like four races?

Yeah. Man. I think he was in the say no to drugs car, which is even more ironic. That's ironic. That is very ironic. He ran four Indy Lights races and you got more of their mat. Yeah, four Indy Light races. His best finish was 10th in a 13 car field at the Milwaukee Mile,

raised at Phoenix, Long Beach, Portland, and the PIG, PIG, number 69. Of course it was number 69. Personal investment group was Pig. So basically it was just some funded deal. Goodness gracious. Pig number 69, say no to drugs, supposedly he kept clean during this because he was really serious about wanting to get to IndyCar.

His dream was to run the Indy 500. And during this process, it was rumored that when Motley Crew broke up, which was about the same time, right? It was about the same time that this interest in racing took away from his interest in music, and the team, excuse me, the team, the group fired him. That's right. In an interview, Vince Neal once said that that was not the case, that it was that musically they were going in different ways, and it was amicable.

But his career and the race car went, and then Motley crew got back together and happily ever after. Incredible. You know what? Vince Neal strikes me as the kind of guy that wakes up every morning and bases every decision on whether or not he will get laid by this decision. I didn't know this is where that was going. Well, I'm saying is that I think that, you know, why would Vince Neal be into racing? And I think that everything goes back to probably answering that question. Better chance, you know, in that time, you know, Motley Cruz, hey, if he got fired from his band, you got to find another reason, you know, get maybe a racetrack will give you know who knows i just he strikes me as that kind of guy

otherwise you you go there was certainly no passion everybody wants to be an indy 500 but where why else would vince neil go do that well he said that i mean he did do those program races at long beach and all that oh yeah i guess the guy loved doing and he still did those pro rams for a while celebrity race celebrity races like get some get some celebrities every time they have celebrity races hey celebrities that are running the celebrity races don't get tricked and believing that they think they can do it. You know, you have a

celebrities that go try to do 24 hours of Daytona, like the dude in 90210. What's his name? Jason Priestley. Jason Priestley. You raised a lot of indie lights. It did. Right, yeah. Bad injury, bad crash. That's right. That's right. But I bet you're, I think those celebrity races are the ones where they get the bug. I bet it is. Yeah, got Vince Neal.

Patrick Dempsey? Patrick Dempsey. Who put the work in? Patrick put the work in. He was probably of all the celebrities. He might have been the most legit, right? No, Paul Newman. All right, yeah.

Steve McQueen, Paul Newell. They're in their own category. Got it. And I'll say Paul Newman, what was cool about him is he sucked at first. Yeah. But he hung out in the pits with the guys, you know, with the racers. And they all grew, any racer you talk about, you know, Newman, and he literally became a damn racer.

He wasn't just going there for the glitz and the glam. He wanted to race cars. Yep. Yeah. Well, I am only saying that, as, you know, for the celebrities that are doing celebrity races, don't get the bug, only trying to save them a little heartbreak and a lot of money. That's true. You know what I mean?

It's expensive. It is very expensive. Yeah. Well, there you go. Vince Neal, four race career, Indie Lights. I ain't no joke. That ain't no weekend. match race at the short track.

Indy Lights is legit. Four more races than I drove it in Indy Lights. Good for him. Hey, I got a question, guys. You can cut this out. We've never talked about it. And maybe there's a reason, Dale.

But the Racing Wives show. Oh, God. How have we not talked about this? I know, we should. Let's talk about it. I've watched the second episode last night. I have to. I have to.

Look at his face. Zoom in on that one. So here's my honest, honest, honest opinion. Yeah, just honest to hear. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, so there was a point in the show last night where I was entertained and it was Muriel and Whitney. They're great. I agree. I am, they are fun, real, authentic. I agree. It is who they are. So that's, I enjoy. enjoy that when they're on.

Kurt's wife is real, authentic. Yeah. I mean, she's, I'm curious, you know, as to what the storyline's going to be with her and how that's going to develop. And there's that little, obviously, in the second episode last night, with a little bit of a riff between Muriel and her

and don't know where that's going to end up going. They left us hanging on the edge of the cliff. Yeah, they did. That was hysterical. The dinner party? Yes. Oh, my. All right.

So you were entertained. It was good. Yeah. I'm, yeah. You know, I'd be honest, like, I'm not quite hooked on Samantha's sort of position and what she's got going on. I'm not that curious about the female driver and what's going to happen to her. More Whitney and Merrill and what they're, they just seem to be the, I don't know how to explain it, but. Well, I'm going to.

tell you something, you did explain it. Listen, and I don't know any of these people to be honest with you, and I certainly didn't know. Mariel is the one I like on this. I like her a lot. I mean, I felt like she was genuine. The rest of them, including

Whitney, is that her name? Yeah, Whitney Dylan. Yeah. I'm not really sold on the fact that that's who they are generally. Maybe I'm wrong on that. But I knew for a fact that Mariel's really her. The rest of it, I felt like it probably was too made for

TV. Yeah. And that dinner party fight, that dinner party fight, did that feel like that was a natural? I don't know what's scripted and what's not. And I don't, and maybe the, maybe there is no real riff, beef or confusion. But I think Muriel to put herself out there and say, hey, man, you know, I don't feel like I fit in, is a real emotion. It is real because honestly, like, we, I feel that when we go to these events and stuff

like that and Dale like you know you and I go to you know Japan I mean not Japan South Korea or when we go to the country music awards and stuff and it's like God this is awkward as hell you know because you know even you might feel awkward that you don't fit into something um that was that's for real I I sense her pain on that yeah I think you know Kurt's wife is fascinating for her background and and how they got together yeah I'm just curious you know as to as to who who she is and curious to learn more about her as the show goes on. But yeah, Whitney and Muriel are a trip. Why is that driver on there?

Who? The driver of the girl? What is that? Why is she even own it? I don't know. And Noah kind of got her in trouble. That was hysterical, by the way. That was the most Noah Grexon.

I talked to Noah about this this morning. It's real. He was in here this morning and he said that they told him to tell her to set down. Oh, they staged it. They told it, like the producers? Yeah. Oh, but do you think that Samantha's reaction was staged? I don't know about that, but I just know that Noah said that he was told.

It's an honest question. Oh, it's an honest question. Is milk go good with cereal? Oh, stop. Look, stop. Do you think, so you think Samantha was completely, because you know what? That driver reminded me somebody we once knew. What are you talking about?

That's what I'm going to say. Anyhow. Yeah. So Noah, Noah wasn't here this morning. Because I was texting Dillner watching the show Friday night, and I saw Noah on there, and I was like, oh, no, what's going to happen? And, you know, he would. I'll say if the show, if the show makes it, it'll be because of Muriel and Whitney.

Yes. Whitney especially, yeah. And so I think more Muriel. She's more relatable. I agree, man. Yeah. So, but yeah, if it works or it goes beyond this season. and it'll be because of those two there.

They're made for it. I'm not a freaking professional. I'm not a professional watching the housewife shows and all that. I don't know. I've seen my share. And, you know, it's obvious what works out there in that sort of demographic in that field and what doesn't. And we've seen the shows that make it and the shows that fail.

They've tried housewives shows everywhere. And some last and some don't. But yeah, it's, them trying to spray tan thing and her going in there and watching it off and all that. That was pretty funny. It was pretty funny. You know what it is? The thing about Samantha that I have a problem with is that in the show that they are making her out to be sort of like this, you know, I don't know, the powerful, the power queen of NASCAR wives and everything else.

And I'm thinking that's, that's, that's, that's, there's a lot, even Delana or whatever. Like Samantha, they were talking about Samantha has a lot. lot of power in NASCAR and she's not scared to use it and I was just kind of like not buying all that I think those are just fed lines they're sitting there doing these little uh these interviews and you know and just they're just trying to get sound bites for particular particular things that take that stuff kind of with a grain of salt when when they're doing those interview styles you know when that when the interview style part of the show comes on where it's them in a in front of a green screen or whatever I'm not that interested in that.

But what's fascinating to me, I'd like to see more of the drivers, like Austin and the interaction they have with each other. Right. Like when Kyle compared himself to Pee Wee Herman on the first, that was great. That was great. Yeah, that was great.

That was pretty good. I'm going to tell you, I would think that they need some additional wives and drivers because, man, there ain't nobody in this planet more awkward than the Bush brothers, especially when they're together. I mean, the conversation with Kurt Bush and his wife was so weird, man. Like, oh, it's not, that was a stage conversation. Of course it was, but I have a feeling that's what any conversation with Kurt Bush is like.

Dale, would you like to putt? Yeah, right, right. Would you like to go putt right now? Would you like to lose? I'm going to beat you, Dale. They had a conversation as if they had just met each other, like literally had just met each other. That's not a big fan of the show. No, I'll watch it.

It's like driving by a car wreck, you're going to look. That's true. That shows like that would drive him crazy, wouldn't it? Yeah. I enjoy it. It's a good, you know, good way to unwind on a Friday night. Well, all right. I just wanted to ask Dale.

I didn't know. So I think the reason why I like Muriel is because we've seen so much more of her relationship. Right. Right. And we don't see enough of Austin or Kurt and Kyle, I think, in the show. I'd like to see more of that. And not the sort of planned, scripted parts, but more real, like, what's going on? What's their lives like?

Yeah. 10-4. All right. Listen, we ought to have a weekly segment of review of racing-wise. Well, we will. If that's what the fans want. That's right. Let us know.

I've been a partner with PepsiCo for more than a decade, man. But I've been a Mountain Dew Drinker my whole life. In partnership with Mountain Dew, I'm going to give some employees DTO, which is due time off. And to make it even more special, I'm also throwing in $1,000 so they can pursue their passion. I'm Jeff Melton. I've worked at JR Ameri Sports over 10 years. I'm Dale's Director of Flight Operations, just another way of saying his pilot. I would say that we're away from home over 100 days out of the year.

Okay, Jeff Melton, he's my pilot. and he's coming in here to Junior Motorsports for what he thinks is meeting with Kelly. But we just called him down to the Dirty Mode Media Studio. He has no idea what's going on. We're going to surprise him with some DTO. Come here for a second. Hey, Jeff. How's it going?

It's good. How you doing? Do you know why you're here? I have no clue why I'm here. When you get that kind of relationship with somebody, there's a lot of things that kind of come and go and change in life. But when you get that kind of comfort and trust and safety and all that, professionalism, you do everything you can to retain it and keep it and take care of it,

nurture it. Are you nervous? Yes. Have you ever been on a podcast before? Never. Never? Well, I'm doing an interview for the download. And I want you to describe your employment at Junior Motorsports.

So how long have you worked for us? This October will be 14 years. How long have you been a pilot? You're ex-military? So I actually sat in the back of the airplane in the Navy. It was a P3-O-R-ROM. It was a big 400-Torpo prop, too big going an aircraft carrier. We did surface surveillance, Santa Claus.

Did you know how to fly it at that time? No. I mean, they would let you, when you transit, they would let you go up there and sit in the seat and just fly it some. But then I got out and used the GI Bill and went to a flight school in Greensboro. I was in the Navy from 89 to 94. Yeah.

And finished all my pilot training in 96. started flying as a flight instructor just to build time. Then I got hired with a company called Mountain Hour Cargo. Went to Krishther Cream Donuts in Woodson, Salem. Flew there for four years. So then I came here after that. Yeah. Crisp Cream Donuts.

Yes, yes. Did you have a lot of donuts on the plane? We would go by and pick up donuts at the store in Winston and take it to where we were going. You'd take it to the airport you'd go to, so the line guys were always happy to see you because we bring cream free donuts. Left engine fire. Right engine fire.

Our pilot's schedule is sort of all over the place. And even though we have a plan as far as what I might be doing that year, there's still a lot of things that drop in last minute. There's a lot of last minute changes. There's time changes. So those guys have to be flexible, willing to fly. So give me an understanding. So I'm trying to help people understand how wacko our schedule is.

So maybe you can explain it better than I can. You know, now that you've retired, the first, you know, almost 13 years I flew for, you. It was every race, every weekend. Of course, not Charlotte or Martinsville, those close ones, but it was a routine. You kind of knew you were leaving on Thursday or Friday morning and coming back Sunday after the race. When you retired, we still have a schedule, but the first half of the year is not routine, you know, but now that when you announce, it becomes routine. Just the kind of guy that no matter where we fly to, he wants the plane to be there, I'll say, look, man, you can take us down there and go home, be with your family.

And his intention and his preference is that the plane is there. So he will want to stay and have the plane there in case we should decide or have an emergency or any reason to leave. You always tell people that to do, to be a pilot for a private individual, you have to live your life through their schedule. So I live my life through your schedule. You know, so I plan my life around what you do. Yeah. You know, I enjoy, thoroughly enjoy what I do. I love to be able to tell him every opportunity I can how awesome it is to have him as an employee and how amazing he is.

The only problem is I'm nervous he won't take the day off. But he doesn't want to take advantage or he doesn't want to take liberty. And so it'll be interesting, I guess, to see if he actually takes me up on this. You're one of the most dedicated guys. I've told you a hundred times how much of a dedicated employee you are and how thankful I am for, the job you do. Mountain Dew goes around and wants to help people that have a passion for something, enjoy that passion, and by giving them some time off.

And so they've came to us, and they are allowing me to choose individuals that work for us that I believe are deserving to be part of this campaign. So you're here today sharing your story about your employment, and I want to be able to give you some DTOs, due time off. So you're going to get a day off of work. Okay. And I know that you probably won't take it. You also get $1,000.

Wow. Well, thank you. Yes. And there's $1,000 in this envelope. Okay. And the reason why $1,000 is here, because I was wondering whether you would take the day off. Well, thanks. So now that you know what you're here for, what are you going to do with that day off?

It's funny, though. You know, I tell people, if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. So I feel like every day's a day off. You know, I thoroughly enjoy what I do. But yeah, probably take the wife off. What are some of your passions outside of your work? Other than my family, I really enjoy riding my road bike.

You know, it's just a good way to stay in shape. And just mentally you can just zone out when you're doing that. I know that everywhere we go, you have your bike. Yes. And typically, so if we're vacation and even out of country, you'll take your bike. And I'm kind of envious somewhat on those vacations. Yes.

Because even though I'm having a great time, I'm on vacation, I know what riding the roads is like. It's pretty enjoying. It is. It's a great way to see the country. Exactly. Yes. Well, thank you, buddy.

Well, thank you. I appreciate it. I appreciate you coming all the way over here and sit down with us. Well, thank you. I appreciate you. Yes, sir. In partnership with Mountain Dew, I'm going to give some of my employees DTO. That's due time off.

Oh, and I'm also throwing in $1,000 so they can pursue their passion. It'll be fun. Stay tuned and do the do. Before we bring in our guest who has a great history in our sport, I want to talk about something that I'm very interested in. My ancestry, my history. When you guys told me a while back that we had a new partner, I immediately text back with my excitement. Why? Because I love it.

I've been working on my ancestry, my genealogy, for I don't even know how long now. Years. Years. Yeah. You know? Sometimes things just get so many years, you just stop counting. Yeah.

Right? And so recently, though, I paired it with my ancestry DNA, Mike. That's a lava. All right. So you send in, you know, you get this kit and you spit into this tube and mail it right back in. The thing comes basically already printed for the mail, and it's real easy. You just spin in the tube, wrap it back up, put it back in the mailbox. They do all the work for you.

When you tie that, when you connect your ancestry DNA kit to the tree that you've built, it really kind of makes your whole experience three-dimensional. You start to see a lot of, you know, you learn a lot more about your ancestors and geographically where they came from, where they, you know, where they traveled to. It's sort of, I don't know, before I had the ancestry, DNA when I was just using the tree itself online, it was a, it was very one-dimensional in your, you know, right there in front of you. But when you do the DNA, it sort of, it really makes it, brings it to life, really makes it real. The other thing that this does is it connects you to

other people in the service, right, that have used this product. It connects you to them, like I'm learning about second, third, fourth cousins that I have around here that aren't in my tree. They aren't in the tree. I haven't, I haven't added them to my tree or connected them to to my family tree, but it'll tell me like, hey, man, this guy Bob lives over here in Canapolis is your third cousin. And Bob will say, hey, Dale, we're cousins. I need some tickets. No, he doesn't do that.

That would not be pleasant. Bob says, you know what, I haven't made the connection of how we're cousins. And I haven't either. And then we start to do that work. And you figure out, wow, man, it really is an eye-opener about how many people are involved in, you know, and how connected this world is. Just how complex, you know, being related to somebody, your genealogy, how complex it is. It's so impressive.

Ancestry helps you discover more about your ancestors telling you about their story. Within days, they're going to mail you a kit. It'll include the full instructions. You mail it back. It goes to their lab. It takes a couple weeks. But, man, it's a hell of a ride. Ancestry, DNA gives you so much more than just the places you're from.

They connect you to the places in the world where your story started by using precise geographic detail and clear-cut historical insight. They have over 100 million family trees and billions of historic family records, billions. That's right. And that's going to help you look deeper into your own genealogy. It amplifies your results. For a limited time now, through August 20th, go to Ancestry.com slash Dale Jr. today to get your ancestry DNA kit for $59. That's ancestry.com slash Dale Jr. It's $59.

Ancestry.com slash Dale Jr. Oh, it's Harry. Harry's here. Harry drives the skull bandit on the Grand National Racing Circuit, and he's one of the most popular and successful competitors in stock car racing. Stock car racing. Did you look fresh in the daisy? Well, I feel good.

You know, I figured that's all the way I'm going to beat up today to wear them out. They might be younger, but I can wear them out. By the time you cross the finish line with Harry, you'll be a winner too. Take care and remember, every time you get behind. the wheel drive to win drive to win all right here again in the studio i'm excited about this harry i've known of you and and admired you all my life never really had a chance to sit down and talk to you too much um so thank you for coming all this way glad to be here yes sir um i got a lot of questions for you what a career that you've had the great thing i think about not only do we get to interview

uh legends like yourself man but we we we get to study about you on preparing for this show and you know we learned so much more than we than we thought we knew about you i didn't know that you raced dirt at hickory i thought when when you went to run at hickory it was a paved racetrack but you you and some friends built a hobbystock car and shared the car like alternated on who drove it and that's how you got started in racing yeah it's uh i built a car a year a year or so before that took to go run hickory and uh they had open house practice and I got over there with it and it blowed a head gasket so I just put it on the table for a while but anyway some people I went to school with Stoney Point and they were building

race cars so I'd go down and help them and I could share the ride yeah and then eventually you ended up being the best driver out of the group well I wouldn't say that they uh what had done you know we shared back and forth and we didn't get over to mid season anyway and so the next season in the 65, I was to drive it all away because he bought a late model. Oh, he moved up. Yeah, face-backed 63 Ford. Nice. So, anyway, I drove it that year and won the championship, and you move you up to the late model

division, so that's how I ended up, you know. How did you guys decide who got to drive when you guys were starting out? Was it just alternating it, or did you draw straws? I mean, what did you do? Well, I tell you the truth, when we got it done, the first race, I never raced on a and Benny, the boy with Benny Curley, he hadn't either. He said, so we pulled in the racetrack. They were out there throwing mud everywhere, you know, Tilly and boys up there.

And so we get in there and he said, you want to drive? I said, no, you go ahead and drive. I want you drive. They couldn't find a driver. Yeah, so anyway, Benny drove it, you know, then I drove it. Benny Curley, I've heard that name many times. Yeah. Yeah.

He's, what, tell me about Benny Curley. was his deal? Benny Curley's, I tell you truth, we were like factory-backed. His daddy had a big junkyard there in Stoney Point. And anything you need was out there in the junkyard. Yeah. And his daddy, you know, worked on cars and everything in there, and Benny did too. Benny always did.

Benny always had a fast car on the road and thing. I've heard that name at time and time again. I think there were several generations of that family raced. Yeah, John, his son, raised some over at Nash around. Yeah, I think I might have ran into a few of those guys a few times. Not on the track, but you want to track championship on dirt, and then Ned Jarrett comes into Hickory as a promoter and pave the track. Were you excited about them paving the track?

I was. See, what it was, when they moved me up to the Lake Model, I had to either quit or get a car, you know. So a friend of mine over our Elmer, Keynes, Keynes Hardware Meal, he had a car, and they had changed the rule of where you could go up to the late model cars, you know, like 63, Pontiacs, and he, He had built a 60 Pontiac, and then he was building the second one.

But he had a 57 Chevrolet, a good car. And so anyway, I was, I'd see him a lot, and I'd build in house there all the time, too, so I'd go out and then there. And anyway, I got to do something. I was hoping I'd get to drive one in Pontiacs, but it was already laid out to the guy to drive it. So I said, well, you want to sell that 57? And he said, yeah, sold to him it for $500.

Really? I mean, the race ready. Really? Yeah. And a whole truck load of parts and cause everything cleaning out of that. And he had in the basement of his house at the time, that car. Then he had a big garage out back. But anyway, yeah, we started on dirt.

And the first time I drove the car, I tell you, it was okay. The first time I drove it, Hickory was closing and finishing up. And so we went to Antioch Speedway, which is up about Lenore. And it's in the mountain. The backstretched is, they cut it off and put the track down here and took that dirt and put over here in the turns into the creek. Yeah. But anyway, it didn't up there and run it,

then I think I, that's the first time I drove a V8. And the V8 rule that was Hickory Speedway, 2.92 cubic inch. Because the promoter at the time wanted to be sure and have 12 to 14 cars there on Friday night. So you really couldn't, if you went to race somewhere else, you get a handicap. You can run 327s.

Yeah. So anyway, we go up there, and then I know you can probably remember a Speedway here. Starlight Speedway. Monroe and so they're going to have a big race down there so I'd load that thing up and dump truck and that's the second race I was going to go and I went down there to Starlight Speedway Pete Keller was the announcer you know the mouth of the south there and we put I pull in there and Ralph was there Ralph Erin Hart really oh Ralph Earnhardt tiny Lund Tompiston

Leroyeroyardt man all they all up here you know 200 left 200 lap race. Yeah. And I just hadn't hardly got used to that dirt. I mean, I got used to dirt a long time ago, but still in a race car at a racetrack, that's my second track I was on. And so, you know, we went out there and run, seemed like, forever. And so the race is over.

The first race I run in up there at the Antioca won $75. And then I went to Monroe, and I finished fifth or night, and I got about $100. about $175. Yeah. Well, I'm getting that 500 back pretty quick, you know. But anyway, getting on the door out here, and then the 66 we run, and then 67 started off on dirt,

4th of July, Ned Jarrett was a promoter, and he paved the track. So you would have, you ran Ralph at Monroe that night, or that day, did you see him at the track or race against him on a regular basis?

Yeah, yeah, a lot. I had no idea that you had any lapse with Ralph Earnhardt. Well, whenever they started off the new season there, even with Ned, it was still dirt, I say, okay, the last race that they were going to run before they paid it,

about a 250 lapar. Well, I still had the 292 cubic kinks motor. Well, he put up a deal with a few of the first finisher with the local track engine, 292, you get a thousand dollar bonus.

Yeah. Well, your daddy won the race. Ralph and he was in a cheval and I think it was it was not a 57 I had about the only 57 running and I finished second so I get like $1,200 for a second and a thousand dollars. Nice. Oh wow. That's nice. You can buy two cars for that back to it. Yeah. What did you think I mean Ralph was highly respected as a dirt track driver in that in that time? I mean do you look back on it now and I know you raised a lot of you know a lot of great Tiny Lund and all kinds of guys But do you look back and

Fondley about racing Ralph those times? Yeah, you know, especially Starlight You know, they were all ganged up over here Ralph had the floor And I'm just walking around looking to me And I didn't see that many drivers in my life Out of Winston Cup coming down here When the Grand National then

Yeah, he was telling about being wrecked Some or another And, you know, they were all telling that but but the day the truth I was down there you know to race and make a little money and really they were there except for Ralph they were tiny and then was there

from fun they were running in Grand National they were more slides than you ever seen your life out there that night you know it's three wide yeah is that the race you said you finished fifth in though yeah you finished fifth in that race yeah oh man so Ned Jarrett paved the track in 67 and the rumor or the story is that you won the first sports race on the new asphalt

guess so I don't ever remember you know it you took the asphalt pretty good yeah because I didn't do dirt that long so yeah it a lot of the boys have been there a long time I was rich piles went over you know and man it done good I just took me a while to remember you can't go fast spinning wheels right that's what you dirt you know you do and but asphalt it uh we were running asphalt and I first run there I run uh Jack Ingham Roy Tratham come down there they were winning all the asphalt races and Jack had a brother named Tom and Jack won't run

to one race down there one night and Tom run second and I run third and I'd spin the wheels because you'd come back next week same deal and so Tom comes over to him and he said if you didn't spin the wheels you could probably finish second when he first started

see it was our local drivers but then once it got asphalt you had more folks coming Speedway. Yeah, a lot of asphalt tracks. I didn't know Jack had a brother that raced. Yeah. He got into, Winston Cup a little bit on the big Dodge deal,

Brooks, Dick Brooks, come here from California. And at this time, they were building my motors up there at Asheville. He and Tom and Ben Barnes. And so I go up there one day and here's this big hauler truck with a Dodge Charger on the back at that day. At Dick Brooks, and I said, man, what a deal. I climbed up there and I looked down in that car there and he had a little bag there with his uniform I assume

and he had two helmets. I never seen a race car driver. It had two helmets. This big deal. Yeah. How important, I guess, was Ned Jarrett to your career getting started? He was very important. See, we ran over and won and I guess it was

Colleen Martin. It was, I can't think of long, about, okay, it was 73. And I won a state championship and a track championship and a whole bunch of stuff that a banquet we had. Yeah. And it was in October. So when I was leaving, he caused me over to sign.

He said, you want to drive a Winston Cup car at Charlotte? And I never was that much interested in. How come? Well, I tell you the truth, you didn't make any money. Really? Driving them cars. I mean, you look in the, you used to get, you a book with how much people had won you know in a career there and uh i was doing really good

and running the sportsman car i mean you know went on to be the infinity series you know but uh it was a whole lot of not as much travel even though it was he just wasn't gone that much at a rate one racetrack you know we go to national and oxford all that's just sort of way it's set with me i had a good business you know i was building houses and all and i could still do that and it that good though you know you go to Columbia Thursday night and get home the time to go to work then Friday you go to ice from and get home time and go to work then Hickory then Sunday big races you know but uh it uh that's kind of the way it got going and they called me over and and I said okay now go down to Charlotte he said you come down first before I answered the question

I had to think was any place I could run that weekend that would be oh be better and that seemed to be the best deal so I went down and and practiced junior brought it up our Trino trucks more he brought that car up yeah and he said I'd seen Jenny not much around I went to all the races I could oh you did you went to cup races just watching yeah yeah and uh

so anyway we was uh out there and he said told me go out there and shake it down and give me a hot lap and cut it clean so I'm the only car there at speedway and you know I never had been on that speedway I'd seen the very first race there but I and so anyway I go out there

I'm used to turning 8,000, you know. So I'm out there purring around that big old 429 motor, and I run about six, eight laps around there, you know. So I'm going to give them that hard lap. They had to sign up, you know, one more lap. It didn't have radio. So I said, damn me, I'm turning there at 72. That's all it would turn, you know.

That's what it turned down big motors, you know. So I was going to flop faster than I thought I was going. I was almost flat out nearly. Really? So I come in, and the boy helps him. Junie used to cut these crook cigars and hay and chew them in the mouth. I mean, so anyway, this boy comes over there and he said, well, Harry, I'll tell you one thing.

When you shake it down, you shake it down. No, he told me, he said, the big guy, he said, Junie, a little upset. Wow. You know, and he said, you could have wrecked a car out there, and we like to see before you hold it wide open. I said, I didn't know. I was honing it wide open.

I'd let off in the turns, you know, but it wasn't hardly on the floor. It didn't seem like. So Junie comes down and squats down and looks in there at the tack. Looked at me chewing that cigar. Well, say one thing, hurry. When you shake it down, you shake it down. I thought I'd done getting knocked out of that ride, you know. So let me ask you this.

You drove car, so the best, so 1985 or 89, any of those years, what did this car drive like compared to, some of the newer, more modern cup cars that you drove? What was, I'm most curious myself about what the 1970s were like, what the cars drove like, how they felt compared to what I'm used to today. So what did that car drive like? You say you could almost hold it flatfoot around there. It turned 7,200 RPMs.

How did it handle the drive? Was it floating across the racetrack? Because his things was way off the ground. Well, no, it wasn't, but I tell you the reason why. the speed was not as great. You know, as... It's pretty comfortable. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it was... Really? Yeah. But I found out a lot different when out there were 43 race cars. Yeah. Drive different. Yeah. But still is about like when I finished racing.

It's all about the same in there. Really? Yeah. That's crazy. I'll tell you one little old short thing here, though, we... Junie, we finished them. 11th. Was it?

Yeah, good. Finish 11th. And so anyway, I liked it. So he called me back. He said we're going to run North Wilkesburg. So we got to North Wilkesburg. And, you know, Jenny would use tires, you know. So we went to Wilkesburg and run really good.

I run real high. They had guardrails in. You know, you can get up our high. Right on the fence. Without the junk, you know. And so anyway, we finished. So let me ask you the question real quick. You said that they had guard rails there.

And was the reason you could get high is because the marbles went through the guardrail? Yeah. and the track Clayton. I never thought about that. That's interesting. I watched this race at North Wiltsboro where Richard Petty's racing with Bobby Isaac, and it's 71 or so they recorded this race, and they are running the wall in the corners. High.

And I never wondered, like, how did they do it on a short track, right? How did they not stay dirty up there? But I never thought about the guardrail and the dirt flying through it. There's holes. It goes right through. Holy crap. There's one more track that Dover. Dover used to have boilerplate.

Yeah. But it was up about 10 inches. So there's a hole under. Yeah. That's crazy. And you could ride right again. But you was running at Wiltsboro. Yeah.

We run Wiltsboro. I finished the ninth. Yep. And so then I'm going to win this race. Hickory's going to run. You know, so he comes to Hickory. And I got it in the bag, you know, Hickory. So anyway, he brings a mercury marauda.

I steal that truck's smart. That thing was 25 feet long. I said, where's the forward, the little and forward? He said, this is our short, this is our short track car here. No, Junie says that, you know, so anyway, we qualified outside pole. And I believe Buddy Baker driving the K&K Dodge was on the pole. But Buddy didn't run short tracks, you know, much. But Hickory's our home track, so you know where the sweet spots was at, you know, where you want to sit.

And so we think they throw the greener. But Hickre always had a problem when it rained. The bike stretch would come across. Water would run across. And so if we were going to test over there, we would take a sack, you know, and dry that off. And we could test. And so it rained and that was running.

It didn't get all dry. And so we were running out there. And we'd run on a five, eight, ten laps maybe. And buddy's leading a race, and I'm running a second. And he's about going anywhere where you go, but the right place and the turns. but here but we got these big old monster cars. And I was sort of getting a good place.

And so I'd drop on him up the bike stretch, and I crossed that water in the same way. He had big block 429. The wheel was spinning every time you crossed it. And that thing broke, thought the drive shaft and everything, that gear lever flew around hit me in his leg. Really?

Yeah. So, you know, who we're going to get to win a race? You know, the third race you won, run. And it didn't happen. It broke the all the, broke the drive shaft and the drive line out of it. Let me ask you something. Go back to his question about Ned Jarrett being influential.

Maybe I missed it. Why did he pick you? And what was the situation that opened up that car for you in the first place? And what was Ned's role in that? Well, what it was, we had our banquet. And I'd won like five trophies there that night. And so I was just walking out and he just called me over to the side and asked me I want to do that.

At the time, that car was available. You know, Junie's for different drivers. Junie ran a lot of different guys in his cars, and a lot of times it was the guys like Bill Dennis and Harry and people that were really, really succeeding on the short track level. I got you. So Ned would have been, you know, hey, Junie probably would go to Ned even maybe and say, who should I put in here.

Right. And also the Humpy Wheeler and guys like that would put a little money behind Jimmy's deals and to get a local star. Humpy at Sharp Murray Speedway would off. and look around the region for a local star like Harry and put a little money into the car for Junior to put that driver in there. So you won over 300 races with car builder Kenneth Sigman.

Yeah. And the Orange 77. Three national championships in the sportsman division from 72 to 74. Just tell me about that time of your career. Driving that Orange 77, it was an iconic car. I walked over to Ray Everingham shop the other day. He's got one sitting there in the garage painted up.

it seemed like that car couldn't be beat. You ran that paint scheme all through the 70s in all the late model sports and races you ran. Yeah, I did. I run it all those years. We started in a 57 Chevrolet, then we moved up to the, when they said, you know, we moved to the downsized cars,

Cheveille, GTO, stuff like that. And so we, all I've done is cut the body off the 57, put a Cheval body, because the 57 was out of the factory, probably the best race car for racing. There was. And so we've done that. And then we built,

Chavell. We raced it just constantly all through the years there, but then we moved up to the Novas, shivore novas. Yep. Yeah. And I sold Dale that's Cheveil. You did? Yeah, I don't. What money I made, I just kept it in the race, and so we had good years, and so I'd build a car.

So we built another chival. We had two 64 chavails. But Dad, call you up or what? Yeah. That car? Him or his brother, one, called me up. Yeah, Randy? Yeah, they come up our, your mother and the brothers.

You know, they all come up there together, all three of them out of where else. But we had a really, really fast cars, the Cheveil. I'd won 45 races in that Cheveil. And I built this new one. And so what we'd do, we'd run the new one at Columbia on Thursday night and the other shovel on Friday night.

And then Hickory and the other than on Sunday with them. One of So, Earnhardt, Well, over in Asheville, Tennessee, they run four or five hundred laps, you know, Marty Robbins, five, one and all that stuff there. So, yeah, we'd want to race over in that car, but I hadn't run it long when they had 45 wins in it, and they had the new one we had, like, at the time we had nine in a row at Hickory. And so I'm up at Asheville picking up an engine, and they're going to run a regular weekly race. When they'd put bounty, you know.

I was going to ask you if you got a back. bounty after nine and broke. I'd say you have to, right? Well, what it was, I kind of approached him with the idea. If they don't come and, if they don't beat me, I should get this up to $300 man. That's the same thing Dave Marcus said last week. Just last week. We just had him in here, and he was talking about a bounty that had on him in Wisconsin, and he was mad because the promoter wouldn't give him the money if he won the race. He said, well, you're going to pay these guys, give it to me. That's what we used to be kind of the deal, you know, so I wasn't get no money, but still I wanted to, Roy Tram had nine in a row over there. And so anyway, I was

picking up an engine and get a phone call, and a guy from, we called it Lawson Pinespeed way, then up 81 up there. And he said, listen, I need you come up here and run Saturday night. Jack Ingraham has killed my crowd up here. And I missed him. I didn't know where he'd been in the last few weeks, you know. So anyway, you know, he offered me some money to come up right to run.

And I said, no, I'm going to run here. I'll try to win another race here. And so he's back and forth. So I counter offered him. He said, well, if he don't beat him, I said, I'll make a deal with you. If I don't beat him, you don't owe me nothing. If I beat him, you've got to double what you get me there.

Wow, man. No problem, you know. So I go up there and win the race. You know, I kept, I went back next week and won. And so now I'm up to ten races in a row with that car. Right. And so, Boch was there, and Jack and so, and I'm probably not going to win that.

And I was running third, and they go down the corner, we're all packed up. They bump into each other and bounced up and to get the wall, and the springs flew out of one of his cars, so it was one of the two lapsed to go, so I'm in, you know. And so then the next week I go up there, and me and Butch's dog-dog, we both run firestones.

Bush, Linley? Yeah. And we're side and side and side and side, and we're side and side and side, and they stayed the white flag, and we go down the corner, and there's one car in front of us, going in that can turn.

And I think he saw me first, and just give me enough for him to get on him, and Butch would come around the outside, and he didn't know Butch there. He moves over, and so he hit Butch and he bounced off and got me a little bit sideways with Butch comes flying

across off the wall and hit me in the front end and went up on my hood. Now we're going on the end of the fourth turn for the check and flag. And so he's up on the hood of my car so I slanted brakes on it. Slid off and the car barely would run around to the start finish line. It mised

air cleaner right down again the carburetor. Good grief. And you win? Yeah, I ended up getting 14 a row before. But that was on 20 some different racetracks. We run 28 racetracks, what we run every year, different tracks. Who was your toughest competition? You were throwing out some names that you're racing against right here. My gosh, these weren't there some pushovers?

I mean, and you're winning 14 in a row. Who threatened that streak the most? Well, back then, you know, Red Farmer, he raced a lot of races. And one reason we kept what we've done, we started really traveling that, jumping a little forward here. In July, we got the only thing we have to speed sports, you know, Trist Connor Mackey's.

And so we get one of them in July there. And here it said that we're second in the National Point Standards. Oh. And on down through here, it says if you run Firestone Tires, you get a $10,000 bonus if you're the first finisher. Well, Red was the way of hit. He'd run Daytona and all. So he was way ahead of us.

But we could beat the other guy and get $10,000. And so we needed to go to Talladega. And so Talada Vega, they boycott it, you know. Oh, yeah. So they had to, but anyway, I'm running Richmond, Virginia on Wednesday night. And this guy had a car for sale. Ray Hendrick drove it that night, a 66 year vail.

So he runs out of it. He finished third in it. And so that guy puts a sign for sale on it. And so I asked him what he wanted for it and five grand for it. So I come back home and I tell him, Sigmund he said well why didn't you get it I said they didn't have five thousand dollars to get it he said called him get back up there we take off back up our Monday night and we got that car and had a 427 engine in it we had a 350 but a 427 with it

now this like on Monday and we got to get to Talladega that weekend coming up you know so we take it off down the house then he had two gears 300310 and he had I think he had about 12 wheels And so we take about down and hustle around here and get her tires and everything all fixed. And we take off down to Talladega put the 427 in. While we're there, though, they're going to run an Arka race to fill out the field. Yeah. So I go out and turn the racetrack.

This is the first time on anything bigger than anything then, you know, it's for even shooting. It's 69, 1969. And so I went around that racetrack. I said, man, I've run 140, 50 down the highways, you know. But that racetrack wasn't like to high. highway doctor boy and we didn't know how to set a car up what that's just the way we bought it just like it was and it just got through running Richmond so anyway we I run around there and I come in and I fast ago 145 y'all and Martin it's going to spend out all the time that track was

rough you know through the turns yeah and uh not knowing how to set it up didn't help nothing either yeah so anyway we messed with it a little bit and uh went back out one more practice session you know go back out, running 165. I come in, and Sonny Hutchins, he's an old driver way back in Richmond, Virginia. I meet him through the pits. He's walking up through our chun-chung gumby.

Hey, how are you doing? Okay. How are you running? He said, I ain't running worth nothing. I said, I'm running 192, and Tony Lund's running 195. Hallman Moody Car, Starliners. And I'm running a hundred and ninety, he's running a hundred ninety-five. I said, my grandma could do that.

He said, I faced you going. I said, 165. He said, Gene, holding it wide open. I said, no, I can't. I'm about spending it out like it is. So anyway, it's over with quality. We've got to go qualify. Man, alive, I got in that car, qualified.

I just thinking about it. I went out on the pitch, you know. Talladega, he knows the start lines way down there. Yeah. And I hadn't paid a lot of attention to where it was at really out there running. I asked to coming in, wouldn't run with two laps and coming in. So anyway, I'm going down. there and thinking about my going wrong wide open or not

around there. And I first thing I know, I done a shot in that corner of the face, my foot leg was shaking like that, you know. Now I've got to leave it down or I am going to spin out. They went to bouncing, bouncing around through there. So anyway, I come in and then I qualified 186. That's pretty good. Yeah.

Nice improvement. It was fifth. Fifth in the sportsman, 300 miles sportsman race. Well, anyway, they announced on the system where the first qualifiers for sportsmen could fill out the field. And Arka race. So that put us,

our speed was good. And so that way, we're on 300 miles sportsman race and a finish fifth. And when you come in and change to ours, it took forever with that old lugger and stuff. We had, but we always could come back up, but I used to draft a lot on motorcycles, and I knew what a draft was.

And so we got the end of the 500, or the Arka race. And right off the start I got behind Buck Baker, and I know Buck always run good. and he had this jacked-up Dodge. I don't know what it was. It looked like a wagon or something,

but it was a 64 or something or a Dodge or what it was. And I just fought him all day. All day. We put the 350 engine in it, and so I fired Buck all day, and he'd pit, and I'd pit, and then he'd be way ahead, and I'd catch back up and get motion for me to push him.

And I didn't dare push him, you know, and I run. Anyhow, he ended up finishing sixth in the arque race. And went into the gas pumps there, and Buck, he comes. walking back towards me. I figured he's mad. He walked by it and he says,

you drive back car and I said, yeah. He just stared at me. He said, you know if my old horse would have stumbled with, they both went. I just get right to him all day long. Man, that's crazy. Sounds scary.

I mean, that's like a scary weekend when your first time at Talibaget. That gave me anxiety just hearing the story. Right. Going back to racing in the sportsman series in the 70s, there's a name. wanted to ask you about. What do you think when I say the name Gary Hargett? Yeah, Gary,

he got your cars out at Myrtle Beach. What was Gary Hargett to you? Well, see, I had a car we built for Daytona for the sportsman race of 70 Cheval. And we almost got to run a Winston Cup race at Hickory. And we run

Firestone tires. So Farstone people sent enough tires and two tractor trailers to do the field. That was the rule, yeah. And so myself and Tommy Houston was only two, had Firestone Towers, and we both had Joe Hale. And we was out there past them like hobby cars, those those are those in Firestone Tires. Yeah.

And so they wasn't going to run. So, Ned, he tried like everything. And so they called us up there. And they finally agreed to race the drivers did if we would put good years on. Oh, all the other drivers were boycotting because of your tires being so good. And they said, all race, if you all put your firestones in the hauler. Yeah. So he put the good gears, which was 88 and a half inches versus 82 inches.

So we didn't have no gears, you know, so here we're geared wrong. But we run. Bobby Allison was driving a junior's car, Coca-Cola, Monte Carlo. And but Benny Parsons sat on a pole. And I was on the outside pole. A headboat come out. Nope. and I thought it blew it up, so I pull in.

But Tommy went on in Finney's second to Bobby, Allison. You know, Tommy, the sports driver, too. Yep. But Gary, though, I sold him that car. Okay. And so anyway, I'm quitting. I'm quit racing. You were going to quit racing?

Yeah. Why? Well, my wife was getting tired of me being gone all the time. What year was this? When Gary come, I see, it was in the 70s area. So bang, you was going to quit racing? Yeah, yeah, I sold the other Shevela hand to a boy in Tennessee and then Gary that one there.

Okay, we go to Myrtle Beach and had two kids. We go down there and I was not happy at all. And so I just so happened, I put my uniform in my helmet. You and your wife and your kids went to Myrtle Beach. Yeah. You moved there. No, no. Oh, you went to vacation.

Yeah. And you're done racing. I'm done racing. down there and we'd been there about two days and it's Saturday and I said man I'm sick of this place and she said well go home you're not having no phone down here so we're glorious we get the uh a metrolida speedway yeah okay I said I got to pull in here what fours I went in I pull right in the garage area there where Gary was parked and so anyway I get out and old Gary he's standing there

See, I met him when he came up here to get that car. And he was talking there. And so he said, you got your uniform and a helmet. And I said, yeah, you're going to drive this car tonight. Well, really, it was a heavy car. It was a speedway car. And really heavy. And so anyway, I said, okay.

And believe it or not, I won the race. But wait a second. Your wife? I mean, you got to, did you talk it over with your wife? I mean, you kind of retired, didn't you? You quit. She was not. talking that night.

Oh, I understand that. I feel, it's icy, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but things kept happening like that, you know, the little deal. And Gary, he comes up, you know, and he comes in there

and we went to working and he had Tom, the Pistone, built that Nova. And we built it, but he'd give us all the pieces, you know. That was a super core. I think we won about 200 races

and that thing. You and Gary? Yeah, Gary, he stayed all the way till the guy, he talked so fondly of you. Is that right? He'd drive from Marshville all the way up to my house to go to work at 7 o'clock in the morning. That's a long drive. And just to clarify, Gary was what to you.

So Gary spent a ton of time with Harry. They won a lot of races and a race together for a while. Then Gary and Dad hooked up for a little bit. I think it probably had been that car that Daddy bought from you. So Gary helped Dad with that. Gary had a racing parts business. He sold little parts along the way. But then when I ran one year of street stock and dad said,

I want you to drive down to this address in Marshville and meet this guy, Gary, you're going to go race his car. He's got a late model. I was like, okay. And so I drove down there and it was Gary, Hargett. And his old shop had a dirt floor in it. And he had this old late model primored up. And we raced to Myrtle Beach for three years.

and I heard all sorts of, you know, I heard about how great of a driver Harry Gant was. And, you know, he thought a lot of daddy too, but Harry Gant was Gary's man. Wow, that's cool. Gary was a farmer. He was, pig farmer. Yeah.

Yeah. And he's still around, right? Oh, yeah. Because I know that you had your retirement party a couple years ago, and he came. Yeah. He came to it. Yeah. Yeah, pretty cool.

I mean, I love that. I've got that connection with it. That's cool. Yeah. What do you remember about racing dad in those days in the sportsman cart? Well, to tell you the truth, we didn't race too much together. I was more traveling. Yep.

Other places. You'll find out right quick when you get, and we did, got help from companies, you know, build up racing stuff, you know, and especially Firestone. Yeah. Gene White and Firestone Company, you know. Perk Brown was one of the dealers at the racetrack. When Perk Brown, he won about 500 races. out of modified

Winston-Salem. And so anyway, he was a dealer. If I went in the race, he'd give me a free tar. You buy three and pay and get a free one. So anyway, that carried on,

carried on. So, Perky told me one day said, you need to call Gene White. And see if he won't help you out a little bit. I can't call Gene White. He said, yeah, call him.

So he took me about two days to get up and up to everyone I called him up. And he said, what do you need? I'm sitting there at the table on the telephone there. I said,

four tires are racing. I know he's on a hollow bike on the telephone. You braced yourself. He said good. Where you want them sent to? Wow. So he sent them down to me, you know. And then, so I was running

like four races a week, you know. Dang. So he sent you four sets a week? Yeah, he sent him like four at one time on a tractor trailer. Yeah. They'd come in there. Well, that just fixed everything. Really what gives you such an edge

over other drivers. I mean, you go practice and put four newons on, you know, run the heat race and put four newons on a feature. We went to, Minzeart Gary, all of us, went to St. Paul, Minnesota, run the fair ground, and stopped in

Indiana, pick up their tires. They come in out there with a hauler. This hauler, Pistone had a car sets on the back, this big hauler. It was built way back on a long John Guy and Taylor for built it way back there for a drag car, and it ended up to be the one at, you probably don't go back that far, but Jim Pascal drove that Dodge at Bill Ellis,

and they had that truck, and it was built there in Taylor'sville, all the toolboxes, all that stuff in. So Tom ended up with it, and Gary took it out to Minnesota at the State Fair, and he picked them tires up, and he'd come in with all you could put in the car, and it had a double tire rack on top, and something hanging on there that tied on about 20-something towers to run that race out there. Gary was a good man and everybody helped him. But like I say, you win races, you know, and you win money.

And then people, companies help you the winners. Right. You know, it don't be fair for somebody that really, you know, kind of, you know, need the stuff, you know. All right, let's take a quick break from talking to Harry. tell you about a real special partner, Dale. Sounds good. All right. Wait, oh, that was your call to action?

That was. I was waiting on you to talk about thick anti-wear film and carbon buildup. All right, Mike. Get a spec for your engine. Let's remind Junior Nation about Vivalene. You know what I'm talking about. Everything Vivalene has done with me has been custom on a personal level. Being the only motor oil brand with a dedicated engine lab makes them a great partner outside and under the hood.

In 2014, they let me do a build. of one of my all-time favorite vehicles. It was a 1974, Chevy Cheyenne, shortbed truck. That's a year I was born. Awesome body on that pickup truck, and it was orange. Of course, my favorite color. Of course it is. Yeah.

We had a good time working together, man. It was not short on with some funny moments. They, you know, funny for them. Maybe not so funny for any of the pit pals promotion they did in 2016 where they made me into a bobblehead. It was pretty fun. No other motor oil goes that 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 any engine. That's pavoline.com slash Dale. So in 1975, getting into your Cups career, you ran Neil Castle's 06 at Charlotte.

In 76, you ran a race for Joe Frasant. He was a character. So Joe missed the race one time at Charlotte. I think it was Charlotte, didn't qualify, got out, and took a jack handle and beat the car, beat the hood off his old Dodge in front of everybody in the garage. And you laugh as soon as he mentioned the name. So this must be a character that's, I mean, obviously that story right there is going to prove it. But what was this guy like?

Well, you know, he was just outgold. one really really loud talking you know i went down to drive it i walked in a speedway down and he's sitting out there and a chair with an umbrella laying on he said here's your ride yeah but you know we had i tell you what we did i've done a lot of races at charlotte through humphie wheeler and bruton and um Howard Richard Howard yeah richard i had a big chance special fans voted you know and i won that thing and uh one time and it was a car is a hope he had over a castle. Yep.

I won it. So I went out and I run that car. Then I'd run Doc Faustina's Dodge. And it was a every week, ever big race. And Dale, too, they'll come down. And Humphie, he'd always get me and Dale to come down there, you know, and run them. Who was Doc Faustina? I read that you drove for him coming up.

What was his deal? He was a dentist in Las Vegas. Yeah. As most car owners are, right? Dennis in Las Vegas. Did he drive from time to time and just? Well, I guess he had it. The long as I even sell that car, he didn't drive.

He's always at Charlotte. They asked me, you know, they didn't want to make a deal to run it, but, you know, I'd do a lot better running three races or so. Running your sportsman car. So I'd heard that about Ralph Earnhardt. He, I didn't, I was, I didn't know whether they believe this story or not, but he didn't, he wasn't thrilled about trying to pursue an opportunity in the Grand National Series. which is a Cup series today.

Because he's making a great living. Racing short tracks, winning at Concord, and building other guys' cars, helping other people, building motors, running his little, you know, being a mechanic for street cars out of his little shop. Back then, it wasn't like this pursuit that you have all these kids going after now.

Like, I want to be in Cup one day. Yeah. And I always wondered whether Ralph, that was a story about Ralph, because, well, because he probably wasn't ever going to make it. Like that was some sort of like the sour grapes kind of thing. I didn't want to make it. You know, I got a good thing going on, but it was real.

Like apparently. It sounds like that was the same situation for you, right? Yeah, it was. You know, when I started driving, first started driving, you know, like for Jack Beebe. But for that, though, the coal miner, I drove a few races. Kenny Chilters. Yeah. If you fell out of the race, you just got $500, you know, if you wasn't on the plans.

But your dad drove a couple, I think, Winston's Cup. know I heard him in the conversation with some more people there he was telling him. But also he won Charlotte first sportsman race and come apart to race. He didn't, he, what it was, I think somebody won it, Zamodafide, they called it. And he's driving a preacher's car. They call it down at Columbia, South Carolina. Yeah. And so he finished second, so he won the race.

Yeah, Macon Cox. Yeah, so that, you're talking about Ralph. Yeah. So, yeah, Leroy Yarborough won the race. Ralph run second. Leroy got protested on his wheels. His wheels was too big. And this is that video of Ralph Earnhardt where he says,

well, they told us in the driver's meeting, we wasn't supposed to run them, so I guess he was illegal. Chris McConaughey entered. Everything was more fun back then, things like that. So you ran Kenny Childers cars. You mentioned that name, drove four races for him.

In 1978, you were seventh at Atlanta. I think that was kind of the moment. You might not have been looking for a cup ride, but I think that's when everybody in the Cup series started looking at you is, hey, man, this guy might have the chops to get in here and be a regular and be a winner. Yeah, well, you know, I was asked them, you know, probably four or five different.

But the car's the only one I really cared about to start with with Junie Dunnillet. And I always, every time I had a chance to see him and all, I'd always say, man, I waited all them years and you heard, Jody Ridley. Right. Yeah. And he was funny.

But anyway, yeah. Kenny's cars were pretty good, though. Yeah, it was. What it was, he got, first I racer went to Riverside. Yeah. And so I'd never been there either. So they take off to Riverside. And so I was talking to Caldard, Burr.

Kail said, you can go up through these asses wide open. And so I took his word forward to you like. So I go out there and I around track, and so I went through there, you know, pretty fast, you know, in third gear. you're in high gear. You hit third right when you get there, but you don't wound out in high gear. And so go up through there and I come down the back stretch down to you there. I come in and around the corner and pull it up around high, pull it back in high gear right there,

popped it back in third and left it to the floor. I made about the first two that around, around up that desert I went through there. This backer jitter, you know, bumped in the wall. Come down there and you had to, they had a machine shop there then. Had to put it on it and straighten it back up. I lost that practice session. most of that day and next day I'll go out there, same thing again. But I didn't hit the wall the second time. And that's about the size of any, man, isn't it? And so then I was talking to another day.

He said, you can't do it up through there wide open. Said you can't even come closer to do it wide open. You've got to pitch that thing anyway. All right. So anyway, in the race started outside, I will not run off of this racetrack all day. So I just watched it all day. Stayed on the black top. Stayed on the black top and finished 12th, I think.

So, yeah, in 1981, you talked about it. Drove for Roger Hamby, Jack Beebe, James Hilton won the race, Kenny Childers. You eventually landed the ride you'd be known for the rest of your career to Skoll Bandit Ride with How Needham and Bert Reynolds in the middle of that season. You had multiple second place finishes, finished third and points. Stan Barrett, the old stuntman was the original driver. for that team. They originally, you know, figured that he was struggling to perform.

And I think they actually ran two cars, a couple races. He went to the 22. You were in the 33. But eventually you became the man. You were driving the 47 for Jack Beebe when Hal Needham took notice of your talents. How did that? Well, it was at Atlanta. Yeah.

And we'd been running a lot of seconds. I could run a bunch of seconds out here with Beebe. and so anyway we'd been running a couple of years there and said we were running Atlanta and we sat on the pole in Atlanta Caprice

you boys never to get a chance to do those stuff yeah and so anyway we out there we we led by I guess about the whole race and get down to the end

had good pit stops and everything and Cal Yardber and myself was only two cars in a lead left Atlanta you know and so we've come

and I had a good lead on kale yeah so anyway to cause you comes out. Same deal, 10 laps to go. Caution comes out. And so I'm riding along, you know, Mike then you went in the pits, horror, you know, there goes Cale down pit road. I told

on the radio, I said, Cail's pitting. I couldn't, could probably got in about quick, you know, when he ducked in the pit, and he said, stay out, stay out. I said, he put on four tires, you know, heck, he's done, had them tied before I even got down on the caution car down through. He's done ready to come

back out, but he had to wait, you know. But he got to go right back up because he was on in one the lead left. And so anyway, I told him we need the pit. And they said, no, you can beat him on what you got, which I could, or probably, you know, but anyway, to throw the green, I got on the first term, flat, right rear tire. Oh, man. And I go down the back stretch, you know, best of can, come around, come in, get in the pit, and change that one tire and took off out. Kiel went flying by, this as I went out of the pits, you know, so I'll run hard as I could, but he didn't, I gained a lot, but he definitely was not trying them last, so it wasn't about eight laps to go when I come

back out. So I finished second and they had to let the winter circle and so I had to wait. They done the kale and then he stepped down and we've done the deal for the pole and the leading the left. We had a big old check there, you know, made pictures with that thing and I see these people out there motioned for me come over there and so I went over there and it was Houndeim and Johnny Hayes who I didn't know Johnny Heath. So they, they, they, they was wanting me to, you know, for the, you know, film the movie down there, the sharkish machine was Burt,

and to come over at the hotel and see Burt and make a deal. Well, I wouldn't have been, I just quit in a car here that I. Yeah, you just run second. Yeah. And so I just didn't put, and they kept on on. I said that I have got four people with me, my crew, you know, from the, my old sport, That's who worked with Beebe.

Yeah. And everybody I'd race for nearly except to finally at the school win. So I said, I got to go to take them home. I've got to go to work in the morning. They got to go to work in the morning. We just drove right out of there. So you didn't go? No.

You didn't go meet with them. No. I didn't go meet. They said, we've got Bert Reynolds over at this hotel. We want to go over there and have a meeting and talk about Bill, you know, getting you in our car. And you're like, you know, whatever. I'm going on. I mean, Bert Riddles was the biggest star back then, right?

Yeah, he was. I can't imagine anybody bigger. the top of box office draw for five years there. So how did that, how did you eventually ever get set down to see them? You won't believe this. I had to go over first to my truck. My clothes was in,

the baby's truck. And so anyway, I had to get my clothes out of the truck and it was locked up. So I had to take this boy next door. He was cutting his car up some stuff to get in the trailer and so I borrowed the torch and I cut the lock off. Holy crowd.

So there was a guy cutting his race car up that he'd wrecked trying to get it up. on the hauler and you barred the torch. To get your clothes. My bill phone and everything's in there. Yeah. Well, you got to get it. Yeah, you got to get it.

So I got my clothes and I left. And they'll see, they're based in Connecticut. Beebe? Oh, yeah. Okay. So see, you could never get there. I mean, they couldn't get there to the, used to be qualified the first 20, you know, the first day qualified.

They couldn't never get there in time to qualify. Oh, wow. Really? Yeah. And like one time at Martinsville, they, couldn't get there. They're going to come second day. Okay.

So I'm standing around there. So Travis Carter comes down to him and he said, Kales goes airplane and he can't get in. It's foggy. And we need to practice. Would I take his car a few laps? And I said, okay, there's a bush. Oh, yeah.

So anyway, I go out there in the room. That car really felt good. Yeah. Really good. I guess so. Yeah. It's iconic. So I come in, you know, and a little bit later then,

junior come down there. and he says, Cal's not going to make it, and everybody's qualified, or starting qualify now. So you start his car, you qualify that car for him, and he'll qualify yours,

and at the time you could switch your car. Yeah. It wouldn't like you'd go to the rear. I was, okay. And I'm next to last qualify. Well, cars in front of me was Darrell, the Diagard car. Anyway, Darrell, he goes out,

and he didn't, I already qualified. He didn't beat my time. I got it made. Ain't one car left, Buddy Baker. He don't even run short track. Had that gray goose. Oh, the great ghost?

Oh, yeah. Man, he beat me one, one hundred thousand. I cannot believe that. He couldn't either. But, uh, Kiel, he had to qualify mine the next day then, you know, so he didn't do too good. He'd come in. He said, I'll tell you one thing. Did you got enough leading that car?

He had to hold it to the right down straightaway pretty hard, you know. But I liked it like that. It worked good. a lot of things happened over the years of the stuff you had. But anyway, when I ended up in the back to the school car, like I say, after I left there, I went home and Humpy Wheeler called me. He said, need to go talk to them people. And Ned, he called me.

Yeah, they're all calling you. Yeah. Trying to talk you into it. So I'm going to call BB. I can't get in touch with them. I call Connecticut. Connecticut. They called the shop.

So Pistone calls me. And they're up there up our testing at Bristol with Bouchard. The 33 car? Yeah. Really? No, no. Oh, the Bibi. Bibi car, 47.

Wow. Yeah, so. Was he driving it then? Yeah. No, no. He wasn't driving it yet. No, no. I figured I was replaced, you know.

Yeah, I guess so. I guess so. So that's how that got to come back. Why did they put Bouchard in it? Well, you know, I was like I was building houses too. It's kind of not a whole lot then. I slacked off earning it in 78 and 70, and 79 on to build a couple houses.

But anyway, I guess I took it wrong, but they didn't call me, you know. They didn't call you to tell you about it. Maybe he just got him, he used to drive their car, modified. He used to drive it. Oh, okay. And just maybe practice it, but my phone kept a ring in there, you know, so I had, I went down, going to go down to the shop, and I went over to Harry Hyde. The guy that was from Ohio on the car, and so he, he, he, he, he,

somebody told me he needed a driver, so I went over there. And I talked to him, and everybody was really pumped up and nice, you know, and I, if he wanted me tell him, and I said, well, as far as I know, you know, I could probably, I just need to tie up a few loose ends, you know. That's the only one that was available, you know. So anyway, it didn't run much, you know. They wanted, they needed a driver. Joe Rupman, I think Joe Rupman might, I might be running.

I think he might have drove it off a normal bit. I just paid attention to number anyway. I hit it back up the road, and I stopped at the Skoll office up there. I told them I'd come by, but I had to go down there first. I was just going to satisfy them from calling it. Went back there, and they wanted to harm me, you know, and I kept on, and I said, well, I don't know. I just don't know. It just kept standing in my mind about Harry Hyde.

He always had good cars and all. Wasn't you a little nervous, though? He was kind of quirky. Oh, Harry got it. Yeah. You know, going way back, I almost got a ride there. Harry Hyde's the only person that I think I ever asked to drive a race car for, and Bobby Isaac drove it, the Dodge, K&K.

Yes. Okay. Whenever Bobby left, and I guess he went to Ford him, but more, but anyway, that car, Ned Jarrett called me. And Ed Jarrett called me. He done a lot really for getting in Winston-South. Sounds like it. There's several.

Yeah. So, Ned, he calls me up and said that your name has been flashed across the desk down there as a new driver for the K&K Dodge. And this was way back, you know, 70. About the time I drove Harry High, Jr. Dunley's his car right in there. And so I go over there. And up at the good year place, top the hill, over the racetrack. Yeah. That's what K&K Dodge was there in.

So you can't go in here, that guy said, and I need to speak to Harry Hyden. He'd come out there. He'd always, you know, clean his phone, the other than the knife all the time. And I told him, he said, you're arrested? I said, yeah. He said, well, said, I kind of done made a deal with Dave Marcus to drive the car, you know. So, you know, the end of that right quick, you know. Right.

But later on, years later, I went by a school office. I studied on a good bit and I went home. And I really hated to leave baby in them, you know. It was a good team. Yeah. But you sort of felt like that they, I mean, did they ever have an explanation on why they were testing with Bouchard? Or were you really out of that job? Well, later on down the road, doing an interview like this, and I figured I was fired, you know.

Yeah. And then Bibi, he called me up, you know, real quick. He said, you wasn't fired. They didn't far me, you know. But I never did talk much about it after that, you know, but I assumed that's what it was maybe. Yeah. Because we were on a virgin win, and, you know, it was to get so close. anyway maybe that car was on by john rebeham yeah number 77 yeah the one from harry hide the

hair hide was working ony had gotten hurt in that car or something uh charlotte may i don't know um so working with how need them in those guys you got to go do a lot of movie stuff you got to see you're connected to hollywood now um just like anybody from taylor's bill right yeah and one of the coolest things i still it's my second favorite racing movie ever next to the Last American Hero Stroke race comes out, right? Big deal. Bert Reynolds is going to put

NASCAR on the map. Lonnie Anderson. All the drivers are in it. You're in it. Dad's in it. It was awesome. It was a big, big time for the sport. And you had a couple scenes where you're in the middle of a three-wide with Aubrey James.

And you had a line in the movie? Well, it was, oh, hell, here we go again. So how much fun was that? You know, you're racing cars, you're in this grind, running in a cup series, working your tail off,

and being able to do something like that, that had been a lot of fun to be able to portray yourself. Because portraying yourself's easy. You just got to be yourself. You don't have to act. That's what I always said, Bert. He always said, you know, he always wanted to win an Oscar, you know,

and, of course, every movie star does. anyway, and after meeting and being around him a whole lot, I said, he's his self. I mean, he's not acting when he does what he does. Oh, really? Is that right? So to win an Oscar, you know, you've got to do some specials, but you're not. Right. You know, you portray you somebody. Actual acting.

Yeah, yeah. He was just so jolly all the time, you know. He'd say, what kind of music is like? I'll say country music. Me too. You know, who's your favorite? Merrill Haggard and Johnny Kay, me too. Yeah.

He was just this down there as you'd be. But, yeah, we'd say, yeah. we filmed that movie and that it was really a lot of fun. You're going back again to racetrack, down the day, and start to finish line is way down here. It's in the shadow late in the day. So they're going to do a spin-out deal. See, he had all these cars around here.

They were show cars. Yeah, they were tearing them up. Oh, yeah, yeah. So anyway, another of them didn't handle good, you know. Right. But they stunt guys, you've got to be a member of the other thing to get into, to drive one. Remember of SAG, I think, or the stunt union. Yeah, so anyway, they want to race.

Oh. So how he's telling him all this stuff on the racetrack? I'm standing right there. He'll do this, does this, do this, and you bump him down here, because they had other footage that tie in with it, you know. You bought probably six eight cars, maybe nine out there, down the back street. Yeah, yeah, okay.

So anyway, they go out through there. We get up on the flag stand, me and him. We're up on the flag stand. They come around, they take off, you know, down through there, they go down and they just, I mean, really going after. They're trying to win. Yeah. And half of them don't even have the right shocks and stuff.

Right. You know, load them, jack them up. But anyway, going down the bike stretch, and they've done the spin out. But one car spun, the rest of them still going. Oh, dang, I said, here you're coming off before he goes down the ladder. You know, like in that dark section. Oh, Lord. No.

He's out of here they come. Oh, no. Yeah, I'll tell you, here they come up. They're doing about 140 probably around there. He's standing, he just throws right there in the car, zoom, zinc, zing, zing, zing, zing. But it, Hal really was involved in racing just to real depths of racing. He was just really into it. He'd like to have been a race car driver, really.

Yeah. Y'all were the first team to birth the telemetry in a stock car. y'all had basically the first software hardware to be able to draw data and howell talks about that in interviews he was heavily involved in and prideful about being able to bring that kind of technology to the sport thought it was cutting edge and you talked about how i've watched videos of you talking about how man this thing's you know it's a big computer it's big giant box standing over in the refrigerator right look like a refrigerator you said and they're taking they're getting live to out of that thing as the car goes around the racetrack how need them said what were you guys learning that information yeah it's a basically i guess maybe what they got later or either got now i don't really know but uh it was a state of art thing you're standing out there in the in the pits with the this big big huge thing and the guy run it was from hewlett packer hewlett furnished the thing but it takes you a couple days to get your car all hooked up to all that you got to

cut all the cylinders, you know, put sensors and all the exhaust head when they come out of the head. You got to do shocks, seat, everything. And it took a long time to do all that. And, you know, we didn't have 20 cars back then. You know, we had one. Yeah. Two with Stan, you know, whenever he was in our Hickson.

They put it in when we went to Daytona with Stan. It was in the car. And so I'm standing there watching, and it shows you the G-Force and the turns and how much travel the shocks are going. The best part of all with the engineer, engine people really like this here and what's the one like they got it now, but big old screen, big screen.

And here's a dummy engine. You can turn it this way or this way. You know, the pistons working slow. Yeah. Okay, here's the sensor. These front pistons up here, you know, are yowling green-like, and you go back to the yowla, then it get red. Yeah.

You ought to say, I mean, it was so slow motion. Red can't get, yeah, can't be good. Yeah. And so, you know, you need to get more gas to the back part of the carburetors, you know. Fronts get air, and it tested all the air and everything. But anyway. So they helped tune the motor air with it. Stan, he spun that car out.

I practiced in it. Every morning I'd take it out on the track, you know, and it looks damp, but it really not as damp as it looks. You know, they didn't have the white lines on it. And so, and Stan, he'd go out. And I just, I was waiting on BB damn to come down. So I just went down. They called me when we go. down there with staying practicing. So I go down there and, you know, being used to it, I mean,

you had a cup of coffee, you know, it's okay. Let's go. And so I'd take it out there, and I'd whip off four or five laps there, about 192, I think so it would run. And so then Stan would take it out, but he never could hold it wide up, you know. If you didn't ever, everything looks easy on television with the camera in the car. It's not like if you was in the car. And so anyway, he was in about 180 right in there, you know. So Benny Parsons come down there the next day, and I take it around the track, you know, we'll walk off about four or five laps, get it going to come in. And Stan says, how can you drink a cup of coffee and go out there and run 192 mile?

I said, that's what we do. Yeah. What kind of driver was Stan? Stan could do a lot of stuff. You know, a stuntman is really more dangerous than what we do. They're crazy. They're born crazy. But if you hadn't done it and get the feel, you'd have no feel.

Yeah. That's what it was. You know, you've got a feel of the train. I've come friends with his son standing over the years. On that telemetry thing, did you think they were nuts when they first told you what they were going to be doing with these computers and putting them in your race car? Or did you really feel like it was going to be a cutting edge advantage that this is where the sport was going? No. I'll tell you, I was, well, okay, when I first saw it, I put it in a floorboard over here.

And it's big. 45 pounds. 45 pounds. All the stuff's 45 pound on the right hand side, mainly. You know, some temperatures didn't weigh much. But, you know, I was eager to see it. And I watched Stan go around the racetrack, you know, how them shocks were moving in the cylinders.

And you could see everything that you really liked to see. So you thought it was cool. Yeah. Yeah. You didn't be like, no, this is just going to mess up my race car. Get your computer. Like these Hollywood elites are trying to come in here with their telemetry in their computers and trying to.

but you felt like this was this is where we were going yeah because Hewlett-Packard they sent a guy here with them and we were supposed to run that thing as far as we know it all the time and he was going to move here everything is all set

I mean that's got to feel like a big culture shock when you got the guy from Hewlett-Packard I would be like thinking hell yeah we're going to win every freaking race we're about to lap the field nobody has this right well yeah no one now in hindsight Yeah, but I didn't know if that would be the way it was then in the moment.

Then and now is a lot different. What it was, we put it in the car. I can't think exactly the first race track I went to, but it was in the car I'm going to race. You know, everything's, I mean, the only thing I didn't like was that 45 pounds, you know. We had a lot of lines. You had a lot of little clearer lines, but like a straw. A lot of them all through there. So we thought we was in real shape, you know, in the great.

Roger. So, Gazzaway. Yeah, the NASCAR Fish, a lead NASCAR fish from Bill Gassaway. He came over and he said, he tried to trace them lines and we couldn't. You know, all the car and the cylinders, the cooperator at the back of the vent, the intake, all

that stuff, you know. You can't blame them, really, you know, and he didn't know who everything, what it was. And you've got something you come in like that and they don't know what it is, you know, you might have an electric engine. Oh, yeah. They're suspicious. Something like it.

But anyway, he's a, he's a little bit. He said, you can run it today, but don't think you're going to be able to run it because it's not available for everybody. Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. So they made you take it off. Yeah. But you still probably used it at tests, right?

Probably took it to a test. No, we didn't even test if you couldn't use it, Joe. Back in our day, the driver was about the only computer you needed. Who was the crew chief for you? Travis Carr. Championship winning crew chief. Part of me was hoping Harry Hyde was somehow involved. the Hewlett Packer guy shows up and Harry Hyde.

You finished second in the Winston in 1985, Darrowe walked across the finish line, and suddenly it blows his motor. Oh, yeah. Did you think, Dale, DW blew that motor up on purpose? I do. I never did. I'll tell you what, I was so aggravated at myself that I really didn't even think much about that because the plan, don't never have a plan racing, you know.

So we had a plan. You got a pit between 40 and, like, 10 or 15 laps, you know. Well, we picked the first one. Let's pit right in and be fast. You know, and so we go to race, and I'm leading, Terry the body leading the race, you know. So I'm coming, come and coming.

Way out front. So Travis says, pit next time. I said, it feels good. I'm going to pass Terry and pit, you know. No, pit this time. Well, I did. I come in, pit in, you know, changed target and went back out. And it just like the hire being, like you go in the first turn,

over the hump you could go over the hump lift it and this you had lift on for the hump or on top yeah it this wouldn't turn if you didn't and i'd know that i was going to be in trouble on way ahead but they changed tires you know later on so they they don't had fresh cars yeah but i still i couldn't get in the corner of a towel like i wanted to and so i was i was really mad that i didn't run one more lap i should have run 10 more on them tires you know they're so quicker than everybody But that's the way it always goes, y'all with hindsight 2020. You won the IROC title in 1985. Does that mean a lot to you?

Yeah, it did. I was really thrilled to be in the race, you know, to be accepted in the time. Yeah. And then again, it luck played away. I had a test car. You know, you run an IROC, and you got turned a test car, you know, and you turn to 7,000 RPM, something like that. They got them geared up and tight, real tight cars.

So anyway, we run in Michigan there. and up to that point, I was tied. I wasn't tied, Darryl was leading the points. I'd finished the other race, like the top three. So anyway, we go up there and make the green take off. Man, my car's turning to 72 and a half, way above what that test car was. And so I said, I don't want things tied. I don't want to abuse it.

If you lead half the race, you know, and you get the points in the thing. So I lead the halfway. a little bit later, and I just moving Terry by, you know, and he went by. I'm going to save this thing. Well, I kept running and running. What, no big deal tall, you know. But we got down then right there, I think I need to

pass him right here. And I went and drove with Dad, and he met in the low where I was going to go low, and you had let up, you know, and it had a little bit of push to it. I'd save that right front tower all this time, you know, and then all of a sudden they waving a white flag. And we were kind of said, boy, I messed up. I should have stayed in front, you know.

And so we go down the backstretch. I'm not going to win the race here. I start to go under him. I got to figure something, so I went back to outside. And then the way I'm going to win and just leave it down, you know, three and four. And what track is this? Michigan. So this was the last race.

Yeah. I'm on the outside. Yeah. You know, I know that wall was going to be coming up in a hurry. You ain't going to be able to turn it no more. But it just got right over, and I think, and Terry dropped down low, you know, when I beat him there then. But the big deal was after it's over. Darrell and myself tied.

Yeah, y'all were tied. Yeah, points. Oh, okay. Yeah, and points. And so they go for the man that finished the highest, break the tie. And I won the race, you know, and Darrell finished, I think fourth or fifth right behind Kale.

And Daryl told him and said, well, if I know I need to pass kale, I could have passed it. Cale didn't take it to much. So he ended up in a tie, he could have just passed Kale and then would have had the most points. Yeah. Yeah.

So we have a, We did a poll on social media, Leah, about you. Your best nickname. You had a lot of nicknames, Harry. A lot of good ones. You have a lot of nicknames. I didn't like that handsome Harry. I didn't like that.

Let's see what the fan said. Let's see what the fan said, Leah. So we gave him four options. We gave him the Bandit, High Groove Harry, Handsome Harry, and Mr. September. And 46% of people said that your best nickname was Handsome Harry. The one you didn't like. Yeah, they give me that at Martinsville. You know, the known announcer used to be way back there.

He'd come out there, and I said, you introduced me like that for the Winston Cup race. I'm not going to come out. So he said, I won't. And so then he called my name out and waited I got on the stage, you know. And then said it. Oh, wow.

So anyway, but, you know, like a little nicknames up at Ashwell, I was Shook Thompson was a DJ, and he's a announcer up there. Yeah. He had something. forever driver, you know. He'd say, open that bike gaiting that bending Benny Curley's through here.

That aran man, Jack, you know, he called me Harry the Hare. It was funny. I'm names. Is that where handsome Harry came from? Like, from that? No, that came from Martinsville.

Martinsville. The guy just blurted it out? Yeah, he was a big, big now, sir. Oh, big. Oh, man. In 1989, in 1989, you teamed up with Leo and Richard Jackson, crew chief Andy Petrie, 1991, five wins.

Four in a row in September. And that's when you got the nickname Mr. September. What was it about that car, man, you guys were flying? I remember at Martinsville you had the right front fender missing. You won your first race at Martinsville in 1982. Yeah. And in that iconic photo in Victor Lane in 1982, the fender is ripped up and missing.

And I remember when I ran some of my best racing, at Martinsville, it was when the fender was gone. Yeah, that's true. Keep having front tires cool. That thing turns all day long. But again, going back to that string of four in a row, I mean, you're 52 years old around that time. Yeah.

And people made a big deal out of that. And so tell us about that. I mean, four in a row pretty good. Yeah, we was just getting better and better all along. And a lot of people that started at, what it was, the whole thing was the Hosemobile body. The body was flat in front about four inches of it. It didn't have any slope.

It didn't have any slope up around there. The deck lid was a little longer than a Chevrolet, I think Andy says, about three or four inches higher. That's a bowler in it. It was a perfect bounce car. It was a rearstere car. So you had no problem ever pushing, you know, with a rear steer car.

So anyway, what we would do when we were in the car, not necessarily before that ever come out. It was such a good bounce car. If you, like, you go to a racetrack and, like, Darlington, we're on good at Darlington and all the tracks that you need to get rid of the wheel span. Your front end is going to be okay. It's going to turn. So what we do, we just take a right rear, you'll put equal up the rear spring.

And if that didn't do it, put the softening right and put the other end over here. Yeah, yeah, and just turn it and floorboard it, you know, and then spin. That's the way it worked. That car, that car, but it did not work when we changed the body, put the Luna. Yeah. Everything was different. We had a lot of great success with Andy and the Jackson brothers in the final couple of years of your career.

You drove a lot of races in the Xfinity series for a guy named Ed Whitaker, who I had the pleasure of racing for a couple of times and getting to know really well. And Ed Whitaker told me this about Harry Gant. He said, I never had to work on the car too much. When Harry'd get in the car and I'd ask him how it was and you'd say, it's going to be fine. It's got a little tight, but it'll be good.

It's a little loose, but it'll be good. And never really was too worried about the balance on the car. Said you just always just jumped in and wheeled it. Yeah, sometimes you can get carried away on moving stuff around.

See, Ed always had a good car. Actually, I'd race it again. Ed's cars a lot in the sports, but I didn't really know that's who owned that car. In Charlotte, it ran really good, and Bill A had drove it. And then Morgan's

Chapper drove it. He won. Bill would have won something happened there at Charlotte. It seemed like some, uh, uh, might have been Allison, might have drove it there. But anyway, he calls me up. Well, I didn't even know him, you know. And I wasn't going to run. See, your daddy is the reason I run that car. Yeah. And when I got into Winston Cup,

I'm not going to mess with this now anymore. And especially when I went to school. I kept using it, Brian Bebe. We didn't run all the race. So give me a weekend I can go run it. So anyway, Dale, he was at a good wrench, and he was this kicking butt right there, you know, in that sportsman car. Man, I wish I had my car in the head called,

and I said, what number is your car? And he told me, you know, I said, oh, yeah, yeah, okay, I drive it. And so, yeah, I ended up, I just wanted to race Dale. Really? Yeah, kind of on even basis, you know. Yeah. Not big factories involved, nothing like that. And I'd just go to the racetrack,

and here I got a car, it's a lofton, you know, run-steer car, I never run a front steer car. And it was real good. And I just got out there and practice a few laps and caught it one of, I need to get Winston Cup was my main thing. I'd run back at Darlington, all them things. Back and forth. Back for them.

And so I'd run over there and I'd run two, three laps and get a plug champ. I'd just say how fast we go and he'd tell me. And I said, who went real fast? Mark Martin or Dale, you know, how fast day, okay. Just get it ready. And I'd go on. I didn't practice hardly any. That's crazy.

Man, wow. Because if you sat around long enough, somebody's going to want to change. Yeah, that's the truth. And I didn't know the boys that good, you know, and so anyway, Ed was great, and all I ever done to it, all I ever said was, we won, I think it was Darlington, we won the race, and Bobby Lubbani was really, my car pick up a push, you know, but I didn't say anything about it much. It wasn't that bad, Jim.

That's what I'm saying. That's what Ed would say. So the car bit tight and be like, ah. And for the first time ever, and I've done the road rail race, I said, how you got the front end sitting here? Well, you know, it was positive if you had to left front, you know, about a half a degree and about three over here. And I said, pull this thing back out of the wheelbase afar,

but bring it back to about two to half degrees, just see what it turns to like a rear steer car. Right. And it's harder to drive that way, but it turns, you know. the way was a real soft steering. Going back there in a little ways, talking about steering out, I know everybody's different

now, but what we've done, I went to Dayton and run Thomas Brothers car, country ham, in a sportsman race. I'd come out, I'd say, that thing just don't seem to want to turn. And I'd run there a couple of times in my short track car. And they'd do a little work, and I'd go out, and I'd come in, I said

well, it's the same way. And what it was, they had an easy to 21 steering box and I always used 16 there and ever wore. God, a 20 to one? Yeah. You know,

and what made it funny is, I know Petty and them used to heat, he used to work at him, he says, maybe you're not turning the steering wheel enough. He didn't, I didn't ask him about what it was or anything. I said,

well, it seemed like I am. He said, go out and try it. And just, when it starts, I feel like he's going to, please turn it more.

Sure enough. Turned his right. The Cup guys these days run an 8 to 1 or 10 to 1 box. I started in a cup series with about a 14. And I mean, over the years, they've gotten quicker and quicker and quicker. I can't imagine a 21 rock. So you drove race cars all your life, but you're quoted as saying, I never consider myself to be a great race car driver,

but I always figured myself a good carpenter. And a lot of people love to talk to you about that, and we want to as well. You'd set it over and over throughout the interview of building houses. You built houses all your life, and that was your job. That was your trade. Yeah. But you enjoy it.

You enjoy roofing, and even after you retired, you continued to do that. Yeah, I build stuff. I really, really hate it. That's one reason it's hard to go to Winston Cup, really. You know, I had a crew, and I'd worked my dad for a lot of years, and then I had my own crew, and I just love building houses. But then when I got into it, into racing pretty heavy in the short track.

I'd love to build them race cars. It's like building a house. You know, you got a level. You know, that jazz, you know, plumb, you know. Yeah. And it was, it come easy to do that, too, you know. And that, that was worked good. And, but I could build about anything I wanted, you know,

without any trouble, you know, blueprint, something. It just come in natural all of them years I spent doing it, and built cabinets. I built my house, 65. And, you know, I was 25. I was still live right now. And I built the cabinets and all, you know. know all the houses.

You still live there now. Yeah. Well, man, what do you, what, what, what does Harry Gant go and do today? What's, what are you spending your time doing? Well, you know, we got a farm over 300 acres and I got some overland out there. We can create hay and all that. And at my house, I mow eight, six acres. And I got 14 acres.

But I helped my grandson, know a couple solar farms. And we're going, when I leave here, I'm going to, when I leave here, I'm going to go he's taking tractors down there so I told him I'd be back up out of the scene so we'll start mowing one that's really close to my house there's only about about a mile and a half away you're to be on a mower today yeah and then I go every morning over the farm I go walk two miles every morning you do yeah right now you know you got to keep up a lot of stuff it's not so much work as it was I know you don't remember this year I told Rick Allen about it but never I was supposed quit in 92. My contract with Skull ran out in 92, and I was going to hang it up.

You know, so then they'd come down and give us a big talk, Leo Jackson and myself, and we left there and Leo called me up. Well, if you want to go a little bit more, I will too. Okay, so we signed in through 94. Well, in 91, when I figured in September here, what I was going to do, Mike, the pilot, he was, Ernard's pilot. Mike Collier, yeah. Yeah, Mike Collier. He worked, we worked together. for a long time. He's the first airplane and the first pilot

and I got the farm then about that time and Mike, you know, he was an old rodeo guy and all and everything. But I asked Alan to tell you, you didn't remember it, but we would go eat together.

My wife and Mike and you was there at the table one day. I love these stories because you never know where they're going to go. You never know what the impression was. And I asked Mike,

I said, you have to babysit him now. You was about 13 maybe some along there. And so my wife, in junior, he didn't say much. Of course.

That's what everybody says when they went to eat until junior in 13. When they went to bring him to the racetrack, you know. He didn't say much. No,

uh-uh. So he's just sitting there and eight side of word. And my wife asked him, why did you go to the military school in Virginia? He said, not because we were bad kids.

He said, they're busy and didn't have the time, you know, but I always remember that you sitting there, you know. Yeah, racing now is totally different. Oh, yeah. I'm surprised at really how it went, watching Richard Childers yesterday being interviewed, you know, technology and all,

how the curve took off and then, you know, leveled down, it changed. And I don't really know why, but I watched race yesterday. Did you? Do you watch a lot of races? No, I did. I did. I'll tell you I worked for a U.S. tobacco company, you know, until 07, after I quit racing in 94, 07. And then Mannheim auction, the same thing, from 94 to 2009.

And I'm at racetracks, conventions, you know, sales, all that stuff. And that really helped to get, I know, you probably have to think about it a little bit. you know, you're racing, you know. Yeah, when you get out of the car. And you get out of the car. And that really helped a whole lot, being around and doing this stuff. It really helped. Because, you know, like, used to just being around.

But then again, I watched and watched and watched it. And all they'd make me want to do was which I was out there driving. Oh, yeah. You got a little bit of that feeling right now. Yeah, when I'm standing there, I never miss it until I'm watching it. Right. Is that right? Yeah.

So I made my mind up. I'm not going to watch this thing every Sunday. Oh, it's not been long ago either. Yeah. I said, I'm going to do, I got some antique cars and other things. I'm going to do something different on Sunday, you know. But yesterday I watched most of it, but the night races, I cannot keep awake to watch. Oh, I imagine, yeah.

That was another thing, too. One of the things I want to ask you about is, like, in 1996, you ran some truck races, and you just mentioned it how you miss it even today when you're, watch. How hard was it to turn it off? Like, you were 54 years old when you retired. Seems like that you could walk away at 54 and not want anything else to do with it. Well, I'll tell you nothing we've done, too.

We run short races. Yeah. You know, through the week weekends, Bruce Patrum, you know. Oh, yeah. That's right. Yeah. Like match races. Local track.

Yeah. Local. And I ran about 20 a year for a long time. Oh, really? Yeah. I won four in a row of our at National Fairground. Everything you did was in the streets. 61, 62, you know.

That's right. But, uh, Kail went there, one, too. And Buddy Baker went some of them and, you know, different people. Yeah. Your daddy, uh, and Rusty did on the go, you know. I tell you, just a little, we, we go to, I think I run Columbia, like Thursday night before the Darlington race. And so anyway, I run Columbia Thursday night, then come back up to Darlington race.

and then the Friday night I went some track right there. I can't think the name of dirt track race. Well, then Saturday I went to Bush race. Ed Whitaker's car. Well, then Saturday night, I'm in a freighter. We fly away down to South Florida and race tractor-trailer, you know, not the trailer hook, but the big track. Yeah.

Yeah. And so we run and run and run. And we have, and them things are hard to drive. I'm telling you, you're setting up in the air so high, and you don't know if you're going to blow a tire out. But anyway, we raced around her. You know how it is you're supposed to put on the show? Well, you get, you do.

Yeah, I didn't say so. And you ain't calling back nothing. No, I'd imagine. Yeah. We were running and I couldn't get, I'd get ahead and here he'd come, and he'd get ahead back and forth. So he'd coming off to last turn, I beat him about two foot. Well, we get back to Darlington, you know, it was time to go to the racetrack.

And so we go to the racetrack. Our plane wasn't jets. You know, they didn't go up fast. Sure. Go to the racetrack. It had I won the Southern 500 in, you know. Dang. That's a good.

weekend. But that's what we're done. And we had a really good time of doing it. And up until I was, you know, about, I guess probably about 65. I didn't race much. Then, you know, they want you to go race with the, but a lot of boys didn't do that. Everybody killed him pretty much was quitting. And they don't, they want you to race with a local, you know.

Yeah. And you go to a race track and you got some boys really want to beat you. Yeah. And so, you know, it's fun racing with people we know, but you go to the local. So I didn't, I said, I'll go. You got out of that. Yeah. Yeah.

I can imagine that being the case. Yeah. Well, man, I appreciate you coming out here today. It's been a lot of fun talking to you. We'll love to get you back out here. We didn't dive into some of the Skull Band of Years like we got a ton more notes that I want to go through with you sometimes. So we'd love to have you come back to the show. Even talk about the charity ride with Kyle that you do every year and all those things.

So love to have you back. Thanks for coming out here. We've got a lot of people listening to this podcast that are huge, Hary Gant fans that are thrilled that you're on and that are going to enjoy this. So we appreciate you. Well, thanks for having me on the show. Yes, sir. Thank you.

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Just go to stamps.com. Click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and type in Dale Jr., D-A-L-E-J-R. That's Stamps.com. Enter Dale Jr. All right, Ash Jr. presented by Nationwide. We went old school this week, and the fans kind of stuck with that theme. And the first question from Amber Bitten, if you could put on a race with all the old school drivers you've had on the podcast, where would it be and how would you set up the race? You know, I think our 1987 Winston format was pretty good. Something like 50 laps, 20 laps, 10 laps, three segments. I think you would want to have all the legends in there. Cal Yarborough, even put Richard Childers in a car.

We, Harry Gann, obviously, on the show today. All the legends are welcome. The best, I love to watch this race. If you go back and look it up on YouTube, they had a Legends race. I think it was 94 at Charlotte, Nurse Speedway, on the quarter mile asphalt track on the front stretch. They got Kellyerboro. Man, maybe it wasn't in 94, but I can't remember. Cali Yarborough.

Who won? Buddy Baker? No, number 64, a green car. Was it Elmo Langley? Elmo Langley won the race. But they had a lot of legends, and they put them in real cup cars, and they destroyed these cars. It was awesome.

They were turning. I mean, I think Elmo finished without a nose on his car and won the race. But it was an old legends race. John Duncan wants to know. Is there an old school racing rule that you wish NASCAR would bring back? I don't know. What rule, what old school racing rule has gone? way that we miss.

I think it'd be cool if they took the plates off. Yeah. Yeah. Now that you don't have to race it. Yeah. Turn them loose. I don't know. Maybe they'd go a little faster.

2.10. Go with that one. All right. He also asked, who are your top three old school drivers, not named Earnhardt, and which current drivers remind you of each? So top three. That's tough. That is tough.

I don't know. You know, I don't sit around thinking, man, I got three legends that I love. I just, you know, I. And here's who looks just like him. And this guy reminds me. My guy, Kyle Larson is definitely. Rich Bickle. Yeah.

Jesus. I, you know, I was always a big Cali Yarborough fan. I love Cali Yarborough. And besides my dad, I think. like, man, you know, Pascal Yarbrough, Buddy Baker, Jimmy Means, you know, was a guy that always pulled for, but I don't know. How do you answer that question, Mike?

No, I would go, Brad Means reminds me a Jimmy Means. Kale Yarbrose's son reminds me, no, I don't know. No, I got you. I don't really look at the young drivers today and think legends. In fact, you actually make it a point to go opposite, to not do comparisons. You don't like comparisons. Yeah, you know, when people go, you know,

Somebody reminds him but Dale Earnhardt. You hate that. I hate that. I don't like anybody to remind them with my dad. My dad's one of the kind. But when I look at like the young drivers today, nobody, it doesn't trigger like this, you know, oh man, that guy's like Kill Yarborough, you know. Right.

Because I never saw them. I guess I didn't see killing them guys running. I don't know. That's tough. That's tough. I'm going to, I sucked at this answer. I'm sorry, but it's a hard question. We found a lot of hard questions lately.

Billy Harris writes in, and he wants. wants to know who was secretly your biggest adversary on and off the track during your career? Secretly? Yeah. Well, I mean, me and Kyle were added there for a while, but that wasn't no secret. I don't know that there, you know, what is it? Do you know what? I don't know what Dale Jr.'s ever kept a secret.

I mean, to be honest with you, I mean, he pretty much wears it on his sleeves. If he has a feeling about something, he was going to say it. So I don't think that there would have been anything he had, except his concussions. I think kept that hidden I don't know yeah I don't know there's no secrets I'm gonna keep thinking on that one because maybe I don't make one up I mean I would have to I'd be going out on a limb and stretching a little bit of the truth

if I was to say anybody's name there is somebody out there that you said you still it was somebody back from the Bush series days Jason Jason Keller but we weren't adversaries no I know you still like 10 years later said he still got one coming even though he wasn't racing anymore Then I saw a video a couple weeks ago where I wrecked him and I didn't remember that I wrecked him. You did get him back.

I must have got him back. He doesn't have one coming, everybody. They're even. Jason Keller can rest easy. I forgot. I got him back. Poor guy. Got back.

Dad. All right. There's go. My dad. There you go. All right. Me and him got into it in Japan in 99. And then again at Bristol after he wrecked me and Elliot Sallor on the first lap.

So me and dad had a couple, even in the short period of time we raced each other, we weren't good at each other on the track. I know one. Okay, good. Jimmy Spencer. Yeah. Listen, I had no idea you harbored so many feelings about Jimmy. Dude, he said that.

No, I mean, I knew what he said. I didn't know that you were still carrying that around until. That was rude as hell. It was rude. Well, yeah, and wrong. Yeah. Like, inaccurate. Jimmy Spencer claimed as soon as he was.

he got out of the car that there was something fishy about my 2000, Daytona win. 2001? 2001. The one that, you know, not a dry eye in the place, you know, one of the greatest moments in NASCAR history. Certainly the greatest moment in my career and great night for

our company, our team, everybody's out there celebrating and he's standing in the garage with a microphone on his face going, it's fishy. He's cheating. That car too good. What a asshole? Steel is a asshole. I don't care. He ain't ever coming on the show. What I tell you?

I found me one. I wasn't wrong, was I? To be continued. See, I mean, I knew he wasn't a fan of it, but I didn't see. He's still got some, he's still got some feelings about it. Yeah. If I don't, you know, as a broadcaster in the booth, I play no favorites. And if I don't like a guy, I'm still going to call it straight if he does something great.

But when it comes to this show, it goes down. He's not playing. Some people will never be on it. There you go. Well, I can't think of a better way to Endash Jr., presented by Nationwide. Babylon, DIY, question of the week. Dale Jr., Alex from Arizona is wondering, what car or artifact is the most prized in your possession?

What is one that would be in the ultimate of your collection? All right, the most prized artifact car, I mean, it'd have to be this Nova that we're in the middle of restoring. Okay, yeah. Mainly because I spent so much money to get it, but also the fact that I, how I figured out that it was the legitimate car, looking at it, seeing some character flaws and issues with it.

I know for a fact what car it is, and I discovered that doing that work myself, which was fun and have somebody tell that to me. So that added some meaning to it. And just this week. Oh. Well, yesterday, when I got home from the race, laying on the kitchen table,

his dad's uniform that he used when he won in that car, in Daytona. Wait, wait, 1998? That day? Way before that. No, no. You know the car I'm talking about? It's the Nova Bush car.

Oh, you're talking about this car? Yes. This car uniform. The car that I'm, the car that's my biggest prize possession. I got you, I got you. The Nova getting restored in the back over here that we've been talking about forever. And I just got the suit that he wore in that Nova.

Wow. So now I have a suit tied to the car. That's cool. Where did you get it? How'd you get it? Did you pay as much for the suit? as you did the car. Well, I've talked about it on social media a couple months ago that it was on eBay for an

extreme amount of money. And I got in touch with a guy and worked a deal. We did a little bartering, a little trading of some hardware. And he is a proud owner of a new golf cart. And I got... What a boy. I just want my golf cart so bad. I have the suit.

It's a golf cart and a little cash. but anyways I've got this suit that goes with the car now that car with the suit yeah it was worth even more yeah no that's pretty neat well good for you

freaking neat ain't even the word for it what is the word for it what a deal maker anyhow the um I'll give you a golf cart if you give me that suit I just couldn't justify giving him that much money so we worked a deal and it was very gracious

and a guy was a complete professional and extremely nice about the whole conversation what is one that would be the ultimate for my own collection that I don't have? Yeah, he asked that too. Is that really what we're going? I mean, we don't have to. We can end it right there. Let's end it right there.

No, I want to answer it. So I have dads, I have dads Monte Carlo from 1979 and 80. What would be cool, I think, is to have the Osmobile 442 from that same year, which we have the die cast right here on the table to be like the partner or the sister car to, you know, because he always ran the 442 at Daytona and Talladega. Yeah. And I'd love to have that car. I think Curb has it. But that'd be cool. Have to pair it up together. That is cool.

Well, listen. From high mileage rides that need that thick anti-ware film to newer engines that have carbon buildup, head over to valvline.com slash Dale to find the product spec for your engine. Keep coming, bud. White flag, right there. White flag. Let's do some white flag. White flag.

I've got some Apple podcast ratings reviews going mow through these. Good Boy, Hunter, says I look forward to the podcast every week. I think I even got my husband hooked on it now. Shout out to all of the wives or girlfriends or females that have their men listening to this show because we all know that they're going to listen to whatever you tell them to listen to or watch whatever you tell them to watch. So shout out to the women of the Dell Jr. Download. Thin blue 851 says, Loved Hearing Dave Marks the stories about being an independent racer.

I'll listen to you guys every Tuesday while I drive my patrol car around. So shout out to the patrolers. To the patrol car drives. The patrol car drivers, also called officers. That's nice for them. McGiggs 84. I was an open wheel fan and came to this podcast to hear the wheelpower episode. Now I can't get enough start car racing.

Because of the Dale General Download, we were expanding my son's racing garage and to include a Bandolero. And we are visiting the Houston short track every chance we get. So thank you, McGigs 84, Jeff P1966. I want to thank y'all for all the hard work you do. I want to admit I got into drag racing and put NASCAR on the back burner.

Because Mike Davis. Oh, wait. No, that's not what it said. Not what it says. I heard about your podcast when you had John Force on and loved it. Haven't missed a show or a NASCAR race. So thank you. So we are literally turning this Ford around right here, guys.

I don't know if y'all. That's what I'm getting out of these. We're bringing NASCAR right back. Last one, J.K. Ton 7. Love this podcast. All the information that I ever want is on this show and racing wives. Ladies and gentlemen, no better place to put us than with racing wise. And that's your white flag.

Let's do some odd history. All right, guys, I got some odd history. This is one that's probably the first odd history I've ever heard in my life about racing. I mean, this story goes way back. Oh, you remember. I see what you're saying. Yeah, I remember this from a long, long time ago. Now, you got to remember the history of Talladega Motor Speedway.

I mean, the history is, obviously, is built on an old military airbase. Is that right? I thought it was like a burial ground. That was what it was before it was a military air base. If you look at it from the air, you can see the landing strips, right? So I think it was a World War II military air base. Before that, it was an Indian burial ground. And it's always sort of, they've always, I don't know if it's been played on a little bit,

But in the last several decades, it's been a bit of a propaganda thing for us, you know, it's cursed. Yeah. But in the 60s, in the 70s, when they first went there throughout the 70s, throughout that decade, it was a real concern. Like, the drivers really thought, man, this place is cursed. Gotcha. And that since turned into like a fairy, sort of a fairy teller story, if you will. But going back to August 12, 1973.

So this is like the fourth or so year that they've raced at Talladega. The drivers didn't like it from the start. Too fast. Too fast, tires couldn't handle it, da-da-da-da. So they boycott it and all that. So the drivers aren't very comfortable with the places it is, and if it's in the history with it being a barrel ground and all that, made them all nervous.

The Cup Series was racing there. On lap 90, Bobby Isaac pulled into the pits, and he got out of the car. They got Kuku-Marlin as a relief driver. I didn't know that. I just thought he got out of the car and quit. But Kuku-Marling gets in the car and finishes the race. Isaac suddenly announces that he's retiring.

It's crazy. All right. The reason was surprising to most. The story is that Isaac heard a voice that told him to quit. The 1970 NASCAR champion was quoted as saying, something told me to quit. I don't know anything else but to abide by it. So he's out there going around the racetrack and heard voices to get out of the car.

Larry Smith was killed in a lap 14 crash that day. Isaac said that accident didn't have any bearing on that decision to quit. He had no thoughts of quitting before or during the race. And a day later, he told a news reporter that, quote, if I've lost anything in racing, I lost it in the last four or five laps yesterday. And that quote really kind of still is a mystery as to what that means. Yeah, what does that mean? Goodness.

He also went on to say, I don't have anything to prove to myself or anybody else. I know how it feels to win and lose. I know how it feels to be a champion, and now I know how it feels to quit. Isaac was always known for being an impulsive guy. If he decided to do something, he did it. I mean, a lot of people are like that, but he's kind of a, you know, very impulsive. I think he gets the award on impulsiveness. The retirement, the retirement wasn't permanent, though.

He was convinced to return to a part-time schedule the following year, and he did drive, you know, multiple races beyond that. but he swears that he heard voices. I believe him. Yeah. I mean, you don't do that without hearing voices. And I believe it. I believe there was something to it.

Now, I don't know who it was. I don't know who it was. I want to believe that he may have been leading the race. What? Yeah. By laps. Like, he had the race in hand. We need to.

He was. He was, yeah. He was leading the race and he heard voices. Right? Absolutely. Crazy. Wow. Yeah, I mean, that, again, going back to what I was saying,

to start. That's the, that's kind of the first weird, wicked story I've ever heard in racing. And I've heard that story when I was a little kid and always can't get enough of it. It always comes back. There are these, there's been a couple, though. Like, he's hearing voices. I remember when Jeff Bodine had that bad accident in Daytona and he said that he saw or maybe even had a conversation with his deceased father at the time. What? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Do you all remember that crash? Was it in a truck? Who is, yeah? Jeffrey Bodine. It was in Billy's truck. Yeah. Oh, day 15. And Dayton?

And down the front straight. And it ripped up the bad crash. And he said that he saw and had a conversation with his deceased father. And I'm going to tell you something. I believed it. I still believe it. I have never heard that. Yeah.

I remember that happening. Because he shouldn't have survived that crash. It was horrific. But anyways, I believe that that stuff happens. I think Bobby Isaac heard it. And it's crazy, though, that he actually retired. Yeah. It is odd.

It is odd. That's history and it's odd. Oh, man. How about that show, Mike? Good show. Having Harry again on here is pretty special. Always looked up to him. Amazing guy. But before we put a period on the end of the show,

let's talk about winning again. Winning cool autographed items, that is. Yeah, that's right. Pristine auction. It's an online sports memorabilia website where you can bid and win some of the most amazing authentic items. There are all types of auctions. Two that are really cool are the daily ones.

It's like putting down a one-lap qualifying run. the 10-minute auctions are action-packed, and you can snag some sick deals. So, Matthew, you think the dailies are like the qualifying runs, or the 10 minutes? No, I think the 10-minute ones are more qualifying, yeah. I'd say so. Yeah, dailies are more like practice.

Yeah, dailies are maybe more like a Expendity race. Or like a Jimmy Spencer qualifying run. What would that be a furrington? Slow one. Okay. Wow, dog and your man. Or Berwick. All right.

Well, they have these 10-minute hours. auctions. They're a lot of fun. I feel like that those are the most exciting that happen fast, and sometimes you kind of sneak in there and get you something on the cheap. Dillner picked out a real cool item. Rick Flair-Limmo die cast, but we let him bid

on it and darn it'd be lost. Damn it. I was really looking forward to it. I was thinking that's going to come in here today and he's going to be on the table. I suck. I tried. I'm sort of broken-hearted. I am! I literally two minutes to go, I placed a bid, and then somebody trumped me. Is that the only one?

Or? Yeah, but there's no other one on there right now. I literally was on there with two minutes to go. Man, good job, Matthew. This week, he found a Jimmy Johnson SpongeBob SquarePants car signed, and the bid is only up to $23. That's a die cast signed by Jimmy Johnson with SpongeBob's face on it, 23 bucks.

Pretty cheap. 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. Remember, with Pristine, the authenticity is guaranteed. pristine auction spelled pr i shti-n eauction.com. Listen up, Junior Nation. When you register, be sure to select our Dale Jr.

Download podcast from the drop-down menu in the How Did You Hear About Us? That's real important. I can't stress how important that is. This is funny because you got to be, I mean, I guess you haven't been upbeat. Upbeat sign off. This is what got me thrown off. Here's why, because after this pristine read, sometimes it's like, all right, bye. What does the X mean?

Example. Oh. Who would a fucking guess that? Upte sign off X. Who would have guessed that? Not me. I didn't know what it meant. I was reading it.

We should have tested everyone in here. All right, here we go. Hi, guys. That's the end of the show. Thank you to Harry Gant. Appreciate all our listeners. Be sure to follow us on social media. Dirty Mo Media.

Our YouTube channel, DirtyO Media. We'll see you next week on the Dale Jr. download. Yes. That was good, upbeat. That was a good example. That was a good ex. That was a great example. That's a great, it's a good ex of upbeat.