The Dale Jr. Download - 274 - Ron Hornaday: Not Over It

Episode Date: September 17, 2019

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits down with a racer's racer, NASCAR Hall-of-Famer Ron Hornaday.  The former teammates talk about Ron's rough beginnings, hanging up on Dale Earnhardt and the good, bad and ugly of the DEI days.  Also, they delve into the aftermath of being wrecked under caution by Kyle Busch, the guilt of taking out Bubba Wallace, and the life debt Ron feels he owes Kevin Harvick. The DJD gang discusses Kyle Busch's controversial post-race comments, a quest to clean up North Wilkesboro, the honor of interviewing Marshawn Lynch, and how Curtis Turner once escaped rifle fire from an angry husband to get to Rockingham.  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 Dirtymo Media. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dell Jr. download. We are sleepy. But don't let us put you to sleep. Co-host, Mike Davis, producer Matthew Dillner, Leah not in the studio today. Guest is Ron Hornaday. I'm excited about that. Ron drove for Dad.

You'd think I know everything about Ron, but I don't. We're all going to learn a little bit together today. Let's get started. All right, guys, as I mentioned, I am tired. I'm telling you what, for somebody tired, you're doing good, though. I know what I'm like when I'm tired. This is pretty good. Yeah, we flew home with Brad Caslowski.

Thank you, Brad. He had a good run. Didn't sleep much on the plane, maybe 30 minutes. He got a milkshake. We had to stop to get gas, and he brought on milkshakes. So it was like, there's a lot going on there. Had to eat that, of course. then we got to the house and got into bed

What time? I don't, 5 o'clock. 5 a.m. Yeah. Wow. Actually, we touched down around 4. So I probably got in the house around 4.30. But I've been real sore in my neck and my shoulder over the last couple months.

And I've been having a hard time getting comfortable. By right, my left shoulder is so messed up after that plane crash. And it's just taking a while for it to stop hurting. Yeah. So, like, laying on it on, I can't lay it on. I can't lay on it. Well, if that makes any sense. No, it makes sense.

Yeah. And so, anyhow, it took me a while to get to sleep. And then Isla gets up and I'm thinking, well, I got a few minutes to hang out with her for I have to come over here. So here we are. I mean, this is, we're taping this about four hours after you landed. Yeah. That's how you got home. So you've slept, got up with Ila.

Well, and I've already seen a text from T.J. Majors and a friend chat of ours with some other. buddies and he's he's like man there's nothing great about coming home at six o'clock in the morning he got home a little later but will he come in today to tape door bumper clear that's a big question what do you think yeah you don't think he will he'll he's just in hell he'll be here he skipped out last minute last week so he might just go for two and around yeah he's definitely not showing do you think though if he skips out do you think he'll give the actual reason or will he come up with a BS reason he's going to say I'm tired he's going to say he's babysitting baby babysitting yeah he's going to say something

well we'll see this will be interesting we'll give him a lot of we'll give him a hard time if don't make it in. We had such an interesting race. It was fun. I loved calling it and had a fun time. And at the end, boy, did Kyle Busch come through with another great Kyle Busch interview. You know, I didn't articulate that well at the end of the race. What I meant to say was, I said I don't wish any bad luck on anybody.

What I meant to say, I guess, was Kyle Busch is a national treasure. Yeah. And even though he finished bad, I don't know. What was I trying to say? I don't hope that he runs bad. I don't really, I guess what I want to say is like, don't change. Yeah, that. So, okay, a friend of mine, after the race, we were, I was on the plane and Brad had Wi-Fi,

so I was texting with some buddies of mine. And one of them was so angry, or just, he was just angry. I was like, man, that was entertaining. Kyle, that was entertaining with Kyle. He's on Twitter. He's still rattling off tweets, and it was entertaining. Yeah. Right?

And another friend of mine is like, the guy, I don't like him. I'm mad. He's got no class, da-da-da-da-da. And I'm like, wait. So in this moment, he's had a bad, Kyle had a bad run. He ran in the back of the car and lap car, gets out and says all he says and puts on entertaining, you know, puts on entertaining post race.

I was like, for a guy that hates him, you should be enjoying this. Yeah, right. Because, right, if we're calling a spade of spade, I mean, yeah, this played well for you. Yeah. If you hate Kyle Bush. God, even the Kyle Bush haters don't know when to enjoy. Right, right. So it puzzles me.

But I, you know, I. I don't, I learn to, you know, appreciate, we don't have a lot of personality in a sport, right? Well, that's a wrong thing to say. There's some great personalities in a sport. There's a lot of guys, though, that don't quite show their personality, and there's not a lot of, there's not a lot of guys willing to, I guess. Well, that's more it. I think that there's a lot of personalities, some better than others, but there's very few people who are willing to put themselves. out there with

and not care about the repercussions that come and Kyle has won. And if you watch, and what we mean by that, if you watch Kyle's interview post race, he's trying to tow the line, he's trying to hang in there, he's trying to keep it on the black top.

And you know it's kind of, yeah, you know he's not going to be able to. And that's what we all try to do. That's, that's what all the other drivers try to do, but that interview got a little longer and a little longer. And finally Kyle's just dropped a hammer.

Yep. He's like, you know what? He's like, you know what? I'm just going to be honest. Yeah. And he was like, I'm going to say what I feel. And, you know, we need so much more of that. Whether you like Kyle, whether you don't, whether you like any of these guys or don't like them,

we got to get that honest opinion. You know, I sent out a tweet earlier in a day about how I had a great time at Cosmopolitan Hotel. And my tweet was a little too vanilla, a little too perfect. A little too. Advertising. And people were like, man, talk in your real voice. What's this crap? And some people thought cosmopolitan had made the tweet.

Some people thought that because Michael Waltrip, coincidentally, no connection at all, puts out a very similar tweet. About the same time. About the same time. He did. The only difference is it. You know what? Kyle, I mean, Michael saw my tweet and went, you know what?

I have stayed there too. And I agree with this. So I'm going to do the same thing. I saw him. I said same picture. Only Michael Waltrip's a few levels down. Like he's not. High up in the penthouse.

And it didn't dawn on anyone that maybe he saw my tweet and thought, yeah, I agree with this. I'm going to do the same. I had a great time. So you're saying Cosmopolitan did not put you up to that. No. There you go. And then, you know, so a lot of people are like, ad. Come on, man.

Quit putting this bull-h-h-h-de-on us. And I'm like, it's not an ad. I really feel this way. I've been staying here a few times. Dale Jared actually hooked me up. and but we we enjoyed staying there. Coincidentally, this year we had Cospolitan on the car, but that's because Zane Smith has a connection with him that he brought.

Yes, I can see where people could draw on the neck and dots. Anyway, so then I said in a tweet, man, it's the truth. It was this one guy. He's like, man, it's a freaking ad. I was like, hey, man, I actually like the Cromwell, too. It's a small boutique hotel. in Vegas, and there's giant hotels everywhere. And it's kind of fun to go some of the small boutique hotels.

And the crime wheel is right in the middle of the strip, but you'd never know it. And it's got a small casino. It's really clean. It's got themed rooms. It's a lot of fun. It's only about four stories. And I like staying there, too.

You know, when I'm wanting that kind of experience. But they didn't pay you this weekend, so therefore the cosmopolitan got your tweet. I'm kidding. Shut up, Mike. But anyways, that was sort of similar to Kyle's. interview. Started out pretty basic

and then he went into honest mode we need more of it. What would have been disappointing is if he hadn't done it because when he got when he made that contact

if you're watching that race and he got taken out the way he did if you didn't think that was coming if you didn't think that's taken out though like well you know what I mean he's right his race his race sort of ended that way

don't I mean like don't you think he wasn't going to what's that? He heard his car. That's what I'm saying. He wasn't going to win anymore. I wouldn't have been disappointed if he hadn't done what he did in his interview. You ought to have been surprised.

Because I expect Kyle to tell it like it is. That's my point. I wouldn't say he told it like it is. I think he just said his honest opinion. And that's what I want from Kyle. Hey, he gave you guys way more than he gave the rest of the media because he went Marshaun Lynch on him in the in the, uh... You know, that was entertaining too.

Of course it is. Yeah. I can hear, I can see in my mind Kyle doing that. And then he went on social media and doubled down, you know. He wasn't backing down. And whether you like it or not, hey, it was entertaining. I was entertained. I don't look at it anymore is I'm gotten away from deciding whether I like or don't like something.

As a broadcaster, when you're in that position, you look at things whether it's entertaining or not. Yeah, you're for, you're for. I'm all for the show. The show. The entertainment value. Yes. And when I would hear that as a driver, I didn't like that. Because I'm like, man, I'm a purist.

I'm a racer. It's all about the racing, the competition. And that's still important. But it's got to be entertaining. It better be freaking entertaining. It better be fun to see. And it better be funny or captivating. dramatic, whatever.

And he added a nice little finishing touch to the day. So thank you, Kyle Busch, your national treasure. And I don't, you know, even the haters won't admit it. They probably enjoyed it too. I loved your face, by the way, when they came back from his soundbite. You know, I was sitting there thinking, you know, should I, it was going to be obviously if I tried to hide that. And I don't know what, I don't know what the etiquette is as a broad.

castor if you're not supposed to have emotions up there but i didn't see any harm in laughing i thought it was funny i couldn't i mean i just saw it it was funny yeah i think everybody else instead of seeing kyle react that way and going i hate that guy he's glassless that makes me mad instead of doing that laugh man it's funny it's funny when he did the thing it uh and he he wrecked her somewhere at bristol he had something something took him out of the race and And he did an interview and we got that gift where he rolls his eyes and bobs his head and walks away because he doesn't like the question. Yeah. It's awesome.

It's great. Yes. And I've told Kyle that. I'm like, man, I know you don't like it in those moments, but man, is it gold for us? Right. Watching, everybody watching. That's what I'm saying. I wanted, as soon as that contact happened, I wanted, I was pulling for that at the end of the race.

I wanted the Kyle Busch interview to deliver like I know he can. And he did. Yeah. I'm not saying like Kyle Bush. If you don't want to like him, don't like him. I'm saying, don't waste your energy getting angry about him in his moments like that. That's to be in, that's something to be enjoyed, I guess. Look, it goes back to the argument.

It makes sense. It goes back to the argument that we want these guys. You know, we said it to Bradigowski. Just please don't change being you. Same thing for Bubba Wallace. Like, you know, I'll worry about these guys that people are going to beat them down so much that they're just going to have to, just going to close up and just say, you know, it ain't worth it. And they do, right.

Yeah. You know, I'm worried about that for you even. Oh, yeah. So what typically I think happens with drivers is when they get fed up with the treatment they get from either people on social media or whether they perceive it to be the media, they box themselves in. And they'll do that for a few months. They'll sort of have a, they'll have a chip on their shoulder or turn a cold. shoulder to whatever it is they think that's antagonize them or making their life tougher and they'll cut it out and they'll do that for a while now they come back they open back up but um you don't want to

you don't want to shut off yeah you don't want to make them regret sharing their true feelings their opinions that's true in that in that situation all right man another thing we've got talking about on social media and this is something i was pretty happy uh that came about um i mean you know i'm a huge huge fan of irasin. All right? They don't, yeah. And I'm, and so much so that people would might accuse me of, again, just like Carlos Mopolitan, being a paid spokesman, which I'm not.

But I just love the service. I want to champion it. I want people to know about it. I want iracing to succeed. You know why? Because if it's around, I get to enjoy it too. So, its success is good for me. I was, I'm bumming plane rides, which I'm lucky to be able to do that for the time being

until I decide what I'm going to do for the future. And I call Marcus Smith to ask him if I could ride with him. Marcus Smith, if you don't know, they own Charlotte Murray Speedway and a bunch of other racetracks. Vegas, Bristol, his father, Bruton, started the company that, what's the name of? SMI. Smeath. Speedway Motorsport, whatever. They also own North Walesboro.

And we, I don't know what got us on. Actually, we were talking about eye racing. And I was asking him if he had a simulator. and he said no and I said you should have one you should especially as a track owner and you know for example if you know they built the roval he could he could play on the roval and drive around it and think about things that he did and he liked and he liked and what he might change and it's just be a good tool for him if he owns if he owns a track to have his simulated perfect yeah example of that track or version of that track right in the basement of his own home

uh he could put the damn thing on the roof if you wants to but he would have it as at his fingertips at any moment. He could show people what he's got, what's going on, give a virtual experience. So I was like, hey man, we should scan North Wiltsboro. So you're saying this to him on the plane right out there. You guys are sitting there talking about it. And I was like, hey, iraicin should scan North Wiltsboro before it falls down.

And we should immortalize it in the software and the simulation. and he was like, you know, they've kind of, they've reached out before, maybe about doing that, and he hauled around. And they don't, you know, they weren't, they're not as adamant or serious about it as I am. So it's not a, it's not a priority of theirs. They've got other things going on in their lives in, in the racing industry to deal with. But I was like, oh, man. So I started texting Steve Myers while I'm on the plane, who is vice president or something like that over there at I racing.

and great friend of mine. I've known him a long time. He's worked there for a long time. And he can pull and push, he can pull the triggers and push the buttons. And so I said, hey, man, I'm talking to Marcus Smith about getting North Wilsonboro scanned for the service. And he's like, oh, man, you'd have to go over there and do a bunch of landscaping. And we couldn't scan it without, with the weeds on the track. We got to be able to map the surface so perfectly. And any kind of weeds would make that impossible for us to do. I was like, shoot, if that's the only. only hurdle.

I know some people with a weed wacker. I'll do the damn weed and eat. I can get people to help me. I'll have that son of a gun ready in 12 hours. You can scan it. I go weed it and you scan it the next day. I'm like, that's all that's holding us up from having North Worthboro available to thousands and thousands of people that are on this service.

And he said pretty much. And so I took that nugget for a few days and hung on to it and then started texting Steve again before the race and I said hey man Marcus Smith says no problem we can scan this racetrack I'm gonna go over and get some people to help me do it and he's like have you seen the track are you sure and I'm like how bad can it be

but there's an answer to that it could be bad I so Steve Myers attained a picture somebody had went and visited it just a few weeks ago and sent it to me and I said that's nothing man we can fix that so I put out a tweet and I said because this is what I like to do to get the content that I want on I I just back Steve into a corner.

I usually use Twitter to do that. And I'll go, hey man, hey everybody. Steve Myers will come scan North Willsboro. He says all we got to do is clean the service up. If Marcus Smith gives me the keys of the gate, which I think he will. We'll get in there and do it. And there's like, you know, everybody's like, oh, sign me up. I'll be there.

People that aren't even on the service or don't even, they're like, I'll come help, whatever you need. Yeah. Yeah, everybody. I mean, Dale goes, hey, I got this idea. He texts me Sunday morning. I'm like, oh, no, no, I know your idea already because I got just random people texting me. Hey, dude, I got a buddy up there near Wilkesboro.

It's got a mower, man. They'll knock that thing out. We've got two weed eaters. And I'm like, what are y'all talking about? And then they tell me, oh, Dale's been tweeting. Yeah. So that's in the works, man. And we're going to keep you up to date on that and what the progress is of that.

I think the thing that I've got to do just so everybody kind of knows what the steps are is we've got to schedule a scan date. So basically we've got to set it up to where I-Racing knows, okay, we can come in and scan this date. And then I'm going to look on the calendar for the Mo date or the weed eating date. And it needs to be shortly before the scan date, right? So we'll get all that lined up and we'll start calling folks and seeing who can come out there and help us.

Can I ask a dumb question? What's a dumb question? Okay, look, explain to me again the scanning part because I know the scanning is so meticulous. The scanning is so meticulous that every little nook and cranny is scanned. So if you're just weeding a track, there's still, the track surface is still going to have cracks and craziness in it. So how does the scanning over compensate for that? It won't.

Oh, it won't. You're going to have those cracks and you have those imperfections in there. Okay. That's what, that's that's what it is. I got you. You're going to get, you're going to basically get the track as it is today. It won't be a It won't be a theory of its former self

It'll be what it is today But it won't have weeds on the surface I got you okay Okay Maybe we could get them to make sure the faded paint and stuff stays on there because that looks so cool right now I think what they're going to do What they'll do is they'll come in and they'll use

They use this scanner and it basically takes the image A physical image In a in a circular sort of cloud, right? So it's about, I don't even know how big the diameter of the image that it takes, but it takes a 3D image of everything around it within a certain diameter of 20 or 40 feet. And you keep moving this camera around the racetrack, and it takes these big bubble shots of what it sees,

and you connect that together in the software, and it draws the track. I mean, there it is. There's the, it'll build the track itself. Then they take a, a ton of aerial shots and photos, drone shots, camera shots of all of the structures so that they can put them in the proper places that they need to be and know what color of paint they are and what the graphics might be on a sign and so forth. So they can really dial in the track to what it looks like.

Now, it's too early in the run to decide whether we go with what it looks like now, sort of the Lost Speedway look or the ghost track look. actually prefer to paint it much like it looked at last race it ran which is easy to find a lot of photos of that to see exactly what the signage would look like yeah i think so i mean you want to when you when you if you're in a sim race you want the track to look like it's you know it's active like that last race they ran though with the late models and the modified stuff it was so cool to see like late models going through the turn two three wide and you got like this old faded holly farm chicken and Winston Raises in series.

It was awesome. For a show or two, that's cool. But I would assume even if the track were successful, they wouldn't leave it that way. They would eventually want to paint it up and clean it up. So I think in the Sim, for it to live forever, you would probably dial her right in like it was in 1995 or something like that. Anyhow, that's all to be decided later once we get to,

I actually told them, I said, you don't even have to build the track. You know, you could just get the data. You had the data. If you ever did want to build it, you could build it. You don't have to fire away and build the track right away, but they just need to come scan it before it gets too far gone. Before it gets too dilapidated. Yeah.

Well, there you go. Good for you. Yeah, I mean, if you're an eye racing fan, it's pretty cool. Matthew, have your camera ready. We may have to be making the truck of a lot of work on. I don't know if I could camera and weed eat at the same time, but I might try it. You don't have to weed eat? I would love to go up to.

We need someone to capture the content. Listen, there's a lot of us that have never even been inside those gates, and man, that would be an incredible experience just to go inside Wiltsboro. Here's just a handful of names in the industry that chimed in that potentially could or would come help us out. Rodney Chilters, Chris Buescher, Parker Klingerman, Eric Jones. I think he said he might bring him a flamethrower. Ty Majesky, Christopher Bell, Ray Everingham, Steve LaTart, John Hunter, Nemichek, Doug Hubert. Tab Boyd, Landon, Castle, Noah Gregson, Matt Weaver, who is a journalist.

Marcus Smith said he was even going to come out there. I imagine Regan Smith would come out there as well. But that's just a few people that I've made note of that would want to, I'd probably text and let know. Does it be fun? Frank Mathalia, who's a longtime RCR crew member, now owns a mower company down Horry County in South Carolina, said he'd bring a bunch of equipment.

Yeah, a bunch of equipment. Well, whatever it takes. I think it's basically we don't have to, we don't have to clear anything outside the walls. There's shrubs, almost what you call small trees growing up in between the grandstands and the actual racetrack. I mean, it's right there. That stuff's okay.

It can be removed in post when they're building the track if they ever build it in the sim. What we need to do, and all we need to do is to clean the surface. Get the weeds off the surface of the track, off pit road, out of the cracks in between the track and the wall and all that so that they can just get the surface and understand exactly where all the, you know, what elevation changes there are, bumps.

Because this software, and what's great about iraicing, and this is the only simulation that has this, is the tracks are scanned to like the 1,000th of an inch. It's the bumps, everything about the transitions of all these tracks that they build in iraicing are perfect. Yeah. Just like the real thing. There is no other software that does that and has that ability or even puts that much work into it.

To build a track for them is over $100,000, one single track. Oh, wow. That's how much it costs? Yes. Wow. Yeah. Okay. So no wonder Steve Myers might have had a little hesitation in not succumb to the Twitter peer pressure.

You know, you have to purchase that content individually. So if it become available on the server, service, they would sell it to you at a small fee individually. So, I mean, they have to find a way to recoup that cost. But to build that perfect sim, it takes a lot of money. And they don't spare any expense, man. I mean, they're, it's first class. It's the best damn simulation out there. That's awesome. I mean, I told you. I champion. Anyways, that's why I'm getting a rig, man. My rig is going to be delivered here soon. I've had to delay it because of some things. things I've got going on and I can't get it right in my calendar.

So when you say rig? A rig is basically a, you sat in it. And it's like, it's for Sim racing, strictly pretty much for Sim racing. And it's triple monitors. You kind of got a racing seat. You got a shifter steering wheel and all that. And it's a rig made for Sim racing. Yeah.

Yeah. Pretty high quality. We talked about it in the last program. SimWorks is. guys I went with. There's a lot of people out there building a lot of great Sims. Chad Wheeler, Dirtracer out in the Midwest, builds great Sims. You can find him on Twitter, Chad Wheeler.

And that Chad Wheeler, who builds Sims, he built one for Kyle Larson. He's actually going to build two that we're going to use in the foundation this year at the event, driven to give. We're going to have those for live auction. Two simulations from Chad. So pretty awesome. excited to have that out here. So if you were watching the pre-race,

got to go down on the driver intro stage and interview Marshawn Lynch, Bice Mode, came to the racetrack. I know, so I was a little nervous, right? Because you've seen his interviews. Sometimes he's not so too thrilled to be doing interviews. So I was a little bit nervous because, you know,

I don't know if I've ever really seen him outside of the football bubble and outside of the work element or the work environment, man, was he awesome? So I walk over there. I saw him come walking up and I was over at the intro strade before any of the drivers had gotten there. And I called in to the producer and I said, Marshawn's here, the camera's here, I'm here, you want to shoot this, we can tape it now.

It was just a few more. It was only a few minutes before we were going to shoot it live. They're like, yeah, we can tape it. Let's do it. So I walked over there and I introduced myself. I said, hey, I'm Dale Jr. And he goes, oh, my God, man, that's awesome. This is awesome.

You're awesome. I was like, dang, that's cool. Okay. He's excited. I said, well, I'm going to interview you in a minute. Is that all right? And he goes, yeah. Yeah, and he stood up.

I'm like, well, hold on. It's going to be a few seconds, man. If you want to sit back down, I'll let you know when this is going to fire off. And I thanked him for being there. I always like to do that. I think that anytime anybody takes time out of their schedule to come help us and promote our sport. I mean, having Marshaw on there promotes our sport, introduces our sport to his fans. We love that crossover, whether it be actors, singers, whatever it is.

So that's why we bring those people in is to sort of, you know, showcase our sport to a new audience. And so I thanked him for being there and providing his time. but he had chosen to be at the racetrack and driving the pace car out in front of the field because it was a bucket list item for him. Apparently he's a motorsports fan and knows quite a bit about NASCAR and knows a handful of the drivers and this was something that. So the story that I got was the track called the Raiders to see if one of the players would be available or who might be available to,

to drive the pace car, and they said, well, you know, he's not a current player, but Marshawn Lynch has told us in the past that he wanted to be in a NASCAR race at some point. And so they reached out, and in 24 hours, Marshawn said, yeah. So, I mean, it was like no trouble at all. And he was all about it. So it was hot. I felt bad for anybody that was there, especially Marshawn. But he didn't seem to mind.

Man, had some long sleeves on. I was going to say he didn't help himself in the situation. You know, I think that a lot of people were wearing. sleeves. A lot of the spiders had sleeves because the sun was going to be so bad. So, I mean, if I was going to be outside all day, I would have probably had sleeves on too. But

because the sun would blister you out there in no time. But, you know, it was just awesome that he was so accommodating. He was great to me. We had a lot of fun in our interview. He said, before the interview, he's like, man, I named myself after you. I was like,

what are you talking about? And he's like, I named myself, Dale Shine Earnhardt. What? Or Dale I heard that I didn't understand it. Dale Shineheart Jr.'s, way, say I think. And I was like,

say that for the interview. And he goes, no, no, no, no, that's just me and you. That's personal man. I don't want to talk about it. And I was like, all right,

don't talk about it. And then so he ended up pulling it out there at the end of the interview because he got comfortable, I guess. Oh, look at that. That's a nod for you then.

So he named himself. Yeah, what does this mean? He just said, you know, if I'm behind the wheel, I want to be known as Dale Shine Hart Jr. And I was like, sounds great. Everybody gets says his moniker, nickname or whatever if he's a driving.

High racing. He's downshun, aren't you? So that's cool. Yeah, dude, he was genuinely a great guy and genuinely happy to be there and good with his time. When I saw you interviewed Marshawn, I instantly went into the anxiety that you would have had. And that's like eventually when you do these enough, you're going to come across. somebody that's going to be short. I don't think anybody will be a jerk to you.

I know. I think they'll just be obvious that they're ready to do some else. I don't assume that. They say don't meet your heroes, so I'm always apprehensive about meeting some of the celebrities that we get the opportunity to meet. This past week before we went to the race Thursday, I went to a concert Wednesday night. Oh, that's right. Angels and Airwaves.

All right. One of my favorite bands in my top three for sure. And so we're rocking out, me and my wife, some other friends. I'm going to watch the show and leave. And the show's over. I'm like, all, great, let's go. I got to get up in the morning and fly out. Let's head on back.

Amy's like, no, you're going back there to meet the lead singer Tom DeLong. He's the lead singer. And I'm like, no, let's not do that. I don't, he don't, he can got time for me, let's go. We got a hustle out early morning. Nope. When you're leaving, you're going back there. Amy's grabbing people, staff members that worked a venue, and she's like, I want to, can you, can we, can we see the tour manager?

You can see a tour manager. And Amy's like, you know, Dale's big fan. Tom sent some stuff over the house in the past couple years, some autographed stuff. and a lot of shirts and stuff and albums. The guy's like, oh, yeah, come on back. So we walked back there, and I thought there would be fans and like some stuff, some, you know, some meet and greets or whatever still to do

before they would check out. Nobody back there, just the band. And the roadies loading out. And he comes walking out of the studio, and I was like, hey, he's like, hey. And I was like, man, this is awesome, great show. and Amy goes right into so tell me about them aliens

because Tom DeLong is he started this company called To the Stars and he is into uncovering a lot of what the government and military know about UFOs

that's his passion it really is the music is sort of the only the music is basically just a part of his whole thing he wants to write books which he has He's wrote books and he wants to make movies and all kinds of stuff about the unknown and UFOs and what the government is hiding and so forth and classified information, which becomes available.

And he's meeting with all. I could go on and on. I know too much about this, but he, I mean, he went to D.C. the next day to meet with some government officials and so forth. He's legit. And he's got government officials from the past that have worked with the Pentagon and so forth working in his company now. So, I mean, the guy's really into it. but Amy dove right into that and he was more than happy

to tell us his views and opinions on it and so we ended up sitting there talking for 15 minutes with Tom DeLong about UFOs and then we went home man it was awesome you know what I'm so I guess how to wrap that back around to Marshawn

and all that is met two cool famous people and both of them were cool yeah right yeah and it's encouraging I guess So when they say don't meet your heroes, maybe don't listen. Maybe go meet your heroes. Meet them right on.

Right on. Good for Amy, too, by the way. I love that. We have a new partner, Mike. All right. Love those. We try to keep you all on your toes and keep our podcast fresh with ads. Keep them super entertaining.

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All right. So, let's bring him in and getting to sit down. Ron Horton is here. Hey, bud. Look at him. Yeah, barely. I got about two hours. I figured this ain't be very good.

Hey, Ron. My father-in-law is got a place in Wickeberger, and she's our neighbor. 98 NASCAR Bush Series. This is when you and I went to the White House. I figured if we ain't got nothing to talk about, we can bring her up because she's one of... Filarious. She's going to dress us both because we all look like Slavs and shit. Here, get on this mic here and tell us about what you just gave Dale.

This will be good. Pop on those headphones. Inuit invitation or something. Yeah. You're like business. We're not going to have fun. We're going to have fun? You're not drinking a beer or anything?

No. I'd fall asleep. If I drank a beer right now, I would go right to sleep in this chair. Seriously. So Ron, now that we got you on Mike, you came in and you handed Dale this invitation, it looks like, from a banquet. Tell us about that. I think this is Dale Jr.'s first championship and my second for your dad. And Teresa Underdown, what probably took care of us when we made us spruce ourselves up and clothed us so we didn't look like a bunch of bums.

She showed me a bunch of pictures from the White House. And I've never seen these pictures because my PR person never saved them all. and she's just a good friend and a good PR person and kept Julianineer and I afloat I guess because he was out of trouble she was awesome Teresa underdown first PR person I really remember having and she was she was amazing I was young and stupid and in trouble

and didn't know how to act talk do an interview and she was sharp we both I think were real lucky yeah yep yep four time truck series champion Yes. 2018 inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, man. And you wore a hat during your speech.

I thought that was pretty cool. Well, I have to. Nobody had recognized me. I doubt that. Yeah. I've watched a few interviews and read a lot of stories over the last couple of weeks. And won it. So when we get people on this show,

a lot of times I like to go way back into the very beginning of their first sort of experience in motorsports. because I know about you racing for dad. I know about your career beyond that with Harvick and the success that you've had in the truck series. I know very little about your Southwest Tour racing, your Winston West Racing, your dad's Winston West Racing. So tell me about really the first time you remember seeing a race car,

being around a race car. Well, I know getting in trouble, I think I was nine years old, getting in trouble. My dad finally brought his race car home, him and his partner had fallen out, He moved the boat out of the garage and brought his race car home. Oh, wow. So I got to get down there in the next couple of nights and tinkering with him, pull the tire off,

and he was packing the wheel bearings. And it's time to go in to eat, and we packed the bearings. And I'm sitting there, and I guess back in the day they put grease on the hub, you know, on the spindle and all that stuff. And my dad come out after I was still eating. My dad came out and come back in there and said, hey, I told you not to wipe the grease off the spindle. I said, I didn't, Dad. He went to the other side.

He'd come back over and the grease is gone. again. So he says, quit doing it. So he sent me to my room, basically, after about three or four times. He came up there about 20 minutes later. He said, man, I'm sorry, Ronnie. He said, come on down and help me out. He said, I found out with a Wilberry agree. He said, the dog's been licking a willberry tree. So that's the first time I really got into doing that. But I mean, when I grew up, I've always wanted this guy's motorcycle around the corner. So I did a lot of lawn mowing, a lot of picking up dog poop and everything you can name of the, to make money to buy this motorcycle. When my dad helped me out for the last... What kind of motorcycle was it? It was a Rickman.

It was black with a nickel-plated frame. It was bad ass. And I raced it. It wasn't one of those things. It was more kind of like a show bike. And when I got running decent, my dad bought me a K&M. K&M. K&M.

K&M. Des came out. Oh. And I actually got pretty good and started going on in the Pro Series. It's got to start getting paid. I think my third ride, I hurt my leg real bad. What did you do? A start, you know, how they kind of,

go to the right hand corner and I was on the inside, and I got my leg pinched between the tire and the fender, and kind of turn gangrene going every day, and they scrubbed it out with a wire brush and a whole deal. Oh, my God. My motorcycle career. That was it? Short-lived and went into the go-karts,

one and two championships of go-karts. So when you got a go-kart, your own four tires, and, you know, was this road course, oval? What kind of go-kart track were you racing on? It was at the dirt track where I ran, my motorcycle at and they had a little three-eighth, no, I wouldn't even three-eighth mile, it was about an oval. It was an oval.

Wow. Yeah. So it was still beating and banging. Yeah, yeah. So, because the thing about the West Coast for me is, you know, when I grew up in North Carolina, I thought, you know, man, racing's popular. I thought that, right? Because everywhere I went, there was a race car.

Maybe it wasn't. Because obviously when I went to school and a lot of the kids that I was going, going to school with them to give crap about it. But in my mind, like, man, NASCAR or stock car racing is this big industry. And when I would think about it outside of North Carolina, I'm like, the further we get outside of that bubble, the less I think people know about it. So I learned, I've learned obviously that that's incorrect. I mean, looking back over the history with the Winston West series, Ray Elder and all those

guys that ran in the 70s. Ray Elder. Right. I became a huge fan of his. Ray Elder ran in the West and West Series and came to Daytona and won a qualifying race, ran and ran forth, I think, in the Daytona 500 one time. Like, he could come here and compete. It was amazing.

And I have postcards to him. And anyways, I learned that NASCAR, stock car racing, actually has a pretty rich history out in California. It does. I mean, a lot of people's come from there now if you look back at it. But, yeah, I mean, everybody's, I think what really changed everything out there was the winter heat when they started televising it and show them because, you know, Cup racing, Winston back then, they got to show all the races on TV. But when we did ours down there, that's when I came in, Biffel came in, Harwich came in, everybody, when they started getting noticed out there, there are races up there. Was that on TNN? Was that that TN series? Oh, yeah.

I remember that. That was a big deal. Yeah. So your dad raced in the Winston West series. Yep, right? Yep, 62 and 63 champion. Really? Yeah. And so, do you remember any of that?

I mean, you were young. I was the kid what got scolded and had the police officer bring me back to my mom and the grandstand. You were out caused trouble. I was doing the figure eights, and we had big guys, you know, with the tow trucks, and we did figure eight around the trees and just running. And I remember the old ascot. Aggie used to just carry me by my hair and carry me down the stairs and say, Helen, take care of yourself.

He's sliding down my heel again on that cardboard. He's staring up my track. A lot of good times. So while your dad was winning championships, you were out causing trouble? Is that what I're saying? He's just running around the track. I was the kid that, oh, Doc, here comes home one of the day's kid, you know. I was a hell raise.

No different junior. We got stories of junior, too, so. Hey, listen. Well, this is where we tell them. It is. So, you know, you're at the racetrack of your dad's, Rob, Robin, at a young, at that age, are you, you know, are you thinking, man, I got to get in a car. I want to race.

I want, this is what I want to do. I've always been hands-on. My dad, when I first started anything, if I rode my motorcycle or raced it, we had this little stand where the front tires came off, the tire hung over the front, and you put a stand on the back and I'd have to tear my motorcycle down completely. And I've done it with my son with his racing. If anything you touch, you've got to pull it apart and learn how to put it back together. And that's where I've learned with a young age

And I just started getting my small toolbox Got into a bigger toolbox And then started working at, you know Different people's shops and stuff like that So racing was in was what you wanted to do You never had any other No I mean When I just got on a motorcycle, the go-car to anything

I've always wanted to race I didn't know of the jobs have you ever worked I've been fortunate if I haven't I haven't had too many jobs I've been really fortunate enough to work for a transmission shop when I was 14 years old. Okay. And I thought I had a lot of money when Lindy and I got married, but my mom kind of spent it all.

I started working and making $700 a week. Yeah. And I was back in. That's pretty good. Yeah, that was really good money. Back then, yeah. And Joe's Transmission for 12 years, went into working for Mr. Transmission for five years,

and then worked for my dad over at Goulping Ford forever. And I was probably the best job, and I shouldn't say this because when my motor would break or something like that, I'd get a wiring problem on a, a car and let Ford pay me to go work on my motor. I put it on straight time. Oh, wow. Wow.

That's smart, man. Well, yeah. I mean, I still got paid, but I still got to work on my race motor. That's interesting. I'll probably get called back up from Ford back in the day. I just seen that the other day. Did anybody ever catch on to that? Didn't.

My dad signed off on it. He was the boss. So you race go carts and you said you won track, you won, was that WCA? I don't even know what it was. It's funny now as you see all these kids racing and they're all laid down. I mean, when I got it, you can see from my belly all the way up, and the steering was down here, and you're driving like this.

You have pictures? I got pictures. They're in the shop, just like everybody else's got. When did you start building cars? That takes off way after my career of racing. So you didn't build cars, so before you came working for dad and the trucks, you didn't build cars then? Yes, I did. You did?

That, yep, I did. But before then, whoever does the inductee or the checking of the Hall of Fame, the facts, they got the wrong person in there. They need to put my wife in there, Lindy. Okay. She's the one. I was working on everybody's race car, Donnell's race car, Hans Westies, and I always go. When you say you're working on the car, like, what's your responsibility?

I learned how to weld from Donnell. I've learned how to pull motors out. I've learned all that stuff. And I was just a kid who just got in there and did it. Everybody else had a big, big time job. I got off at 3 o'clock, and I was over there getting a lot of stuff done before they got off work. And when I turned 16, I got to drive us hauler to the racetrack, and I say, man, that's the coolest thing. Big F-600, flip over cab, and you're driving at 16 years old.

And, you know, after you go to Bob's Big Boy and fire a race car up on the trailer and just thought you were cool. But it got to the point where we got married, rented a house, never rented anything in our life. And I think it's our first year in marriage. She says, why are you working everybody's race car? I said, because I love it. She said, why don't you just build your own? I said, yeah. Yeah. A wife has told you to build your own race car. What more?

So I went down old Rudy Prince, a little used car lot. It's 64, four-door mercury, and we're racing at Antel Valley Fairgrounds. John Christensen, I bought a cage from him. God, I don't know you're yours. So you bought a cage? For five bucks. And well-was in. Oh, they kind of had another car. We just stood in there. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. What was the first car? 64, four-door mercury.

Oh, my God. The only four I ever drove him my whole career. Really? Yep. My dad's work for forgotten four. for 43 years. I worked from 12 years. How did that thing drive a four door? Good, the next year. I didn't win a race, but front tire kept falling off.

It's so funny at the Animal Valley Fairgrounds is you've got to have a muffler rule because you're around. It's a fairgrounds. So you've got houses around you and stuff. And if you go over the berm, you're out of the race, all four tires. If you only got two, they pull you back on. A lot of people just push you over there to try to get you out the track. So that's how I learned how to beat and bang

and move people out of the way. Well, two times in a row, I got black flags. Lindy's dad owns a muffler shop, Bill's muffler. And he goes, bring that thing up here. You'll never get black flagged again. He goes up there and he takes some exhaust and brings it right through the floorboard, puts the muffler on the drop passenger seat and puts the exhaust pipe through the back window. I never got black flagged.

Well, now it's starting getting carbon dioxide. So the next year we go racing, I can't afford a race car. We just got married. We got, you know, Ronnie, my son. We cut the roof off of it. We got somebody who sponsors tires, cut all the fender wells up. We probably saved 500 pounds in the car and go out there, and I put Mike Barnett in the car. And he still claimed that he taught me how to drive,

but he won the first race of getting the castor and Camber right. And that's where I started learning about chassis of that big old heavy boat. And everybody got him forward once we won the first race, he showed him a trophy. They got into taking the motor out of his old 351, Cleveland, and they started building the motor and bigger carburetor. And I started winning races. How old were you when you got married?

20. 20. Okay. Yep. Been married 40 years. Can you do the map? Well, I mean, I can do somewhat math. Your wife is a special woman.

She is. Yeah, tell me about her. No, you tell me about her. Who, who, who co-signed for your first cell phone? What? She must have been her. Is that right? Yeah.

So, why? She was the mom for a lot of us. Was she? Yeah. I was really hoping Junior started this out as, well, what do you have been doing lately? I said, I'm resting up on my sleep now since you're. your dad called every morning because you're Ronnie and my son or Ronny and Jr. You just hang out together a lot.

And every morning, 5, 36 o'clock. Nanny, junior there, tell them to come home. We've got to start working on these cars. Oh, wow. Every morning. So. Trying to find out where you're at. Yeah.

Yeah. He couldn't get very far from Dale. Everybody that we've had that's worked at D.E.I. Always has those stories about those early morning wake-up calls from Dale Earnhardt. They said. When Ron and you, when, it's so long ago, I hardly remember it. But when y'all first came to North Carolina, Carolina, y'all lived on Irvin Road in a house near where I grew up.

Right around the court. When I first came here, I came in 94. That was still out there, right? That was still living on the lakehouse, right? Just got the house and the deerhead shop. So they're half a mile from where I'd been living in Irvin Road. Right. Right.

And so I'm like, I'll just hang out over here. This is fun. Ronnie, me and him had the same interests. We're playing video games. and hanging out all the time. And Ron had everybody hanging out on his couch. Your couch is like the most famous couch in racing. We're going to talk about that.

But his wife was, his wife is just so, she's like a perfect mom. Like she takes care of everybody that walks through the door. Yep. And your Christmases, your heart of gold. Halloweens, your Easter's, it's all about the kids. Yeah. And it's funny, it's like, junior, this is my son, talk of junior. just mire my mom, just let her go, let her do her deal, you know, just play along with their

little game. Yeah. Yeah. I love, love hanging out over there. And, yeah, me and Ronnie were pretty close. So it snowed the first time, and I remember, I think the second year, I finally got a Chevrolet pickup truck. It was a four-wheel drive.

And it finally snowed out here. The junior calls Ronnie up, says, come get me, man, we'll go play out in the snow. He couldn't drive because his little S-10 wouldn't go make. I'm not matter of fact, he had his Dodge Charger, 66 Charter. didn't go in it. So I pick him up. I remember coming down that little back road

from your dad's house. He said, yelling at me, stop, stop, stop. And it's like, all of a sudden the door flies open and junior jumping this guy's fence

and grabbing the intertube. Remember me? We borrowed it. Yes. It's like, Jr., you can't steal that off from him? I don't worry about it. We'll bring it back.

I tell you what, we play down that hill all day long of these kids did. And on the way back, he said, well, man, we can't leave, I got to get the intertube. He took him back to the guy's house

and took him back over there I took him home. I remember if I was yesterday. That's hilarious. But it definitely sounds like something you would have done, right? For sure. I guess. Did Ronnie and Dale get in trouble at all?

I don't know it, but you know it's so funny. The older I get, and the more beer I drink with my son, the stories come out. It's amazing. You're still learning. I'm still learning. Maybe we've got to get Ronnie on here. Oh, yeah. Get the real stuff.

That's cool. Yeah. So when you moved here in 94 is what you're saying, right? My wife still, and that's where we're getting to the, the old McCart. I had an artery, Paris. store, a two bay, three bay, basically, two lifts, a repair store. Auto repair store. You owned it. I owned it. My phone lot, bought it. I was working it. I was paying it back. And I had a race car shop. And I had seven guys at the time. And the time I left

that we had 12 guys working for us. And our biggest deal in our, it was a Vickery Circle race cars. And our biggest. I remember the name. Our biggest race was the Copper Classic. It's just before the cup race. And we run on Friday afternoon. 36 cars started the field and 27 were the cars came out of Victory Circle we built. Wow. Started the field. Yeah. So we were pretty big back then and I ended up moving back.

Somebody didn't know what sponsorship mean when the kid worked for me and gave a lot of parts away and it's like, we're a little upside down. You know, I had 10 grand and 10 grounds a lot of money back then. Yeah. So we actually, Craig Rodman took it over and then somebody bought it and is still running out in Bakersen. Really? So tell me some of the Nate.

So you run a Southwest car. Yep. I remember seeing that car. You brought it out here to run at Bristol. Yep. Funny thing is, he brings this southwest car out there, beautiful race car. I ain't never seen anything like it, left-handed chassis, lightweight. And we looked at the lower control arms and the spindles, and Dad's like, man, you better beef that stuff up going to Bristol.

That little stuff right there's just snap right off. It's funny. I said, I said, no, I want to be all right. And we get there, and we thought we were. Y'all were flying. Yeah. And we get back and it bent the upper air and plate and everything. They'll got the out in front of the shop where we used to put bodies on your guys'

his car and he says, get out of the way, horn. He grabbed that old cutting torch, cut everything off. We got that. We welded all not long. And we almost kicked their ass. We were up there. We lapped all with the third place. Five laps ago, we broke an oil wine.

Yeah. Ran over somebody's hood. Yeah. Wow. That was pretty cool. So I want to step back, though. You ran in the Winston Rest series. You had your own cars.

How was that working out? I mean, Winston West is basically the Cup series out there in the West Coast. Yeah, we'd buy old cup cars from. Where did you buy your cars from? Well, actually, I was fortunate enough to get Hutchin and Pagan to help me out. Really? I actually built my first own car. Oh, really?

But it all started back where, you know, driving at the fairgrounds. And then it got to where I finally won my first race, and a kind of wanted me to drive his car at Saga. Well, there's a street stock, sportsman, and late model, whatever you want to call it. Right. Well, never being at one of them racetracks, and there are a hundred cars are, I get in the wrong division. I take a street stock in a sportsman class, and I finish third with it. And the guy just gets excited and starts to say, hey, you know. So I finally won my first race at Saga Speedwayway back.

Gosh, it had been back into 79 or something like that. My dad finds out about it. Hey, I'm doing pretty good. So now he wants to build a race car we called Speedway Engineering, Frank Danny. Everybody knows Frank Dany where ends. Back of the day, you had one in your car and the whole deal. Gold Track? What was the name? Yeah, Dan Press, Gold Track.

Yeah. Yep. Yep, friction deal. And just a family race car. My brother-in-owned the car hauler. My brother helped with the motor. I built all the cars and all the bodies, and nobody can work. It's funny as I get to the shop at my dad's house.

We drive an hour all the way to see me, Valley, from where we worked? And I was like, Dad, where's everybody had? He said, I didn't think you're coming. I sent him home. Nobody's going to work on your race car unless you work on it with them to know what's all about. And that's how I learned how to work on them. Yeah. So, long story short, we did that, ran good.

I mean, we finished in the points a couple times, and we never really ran. We just went to the big races, and I finally got good enough where I was beating Jim Thurkech, Cettle, Jimmy Insolo, and all them guys. And they're the big-name guy. Jim Hensolo, yeah? Yeah, those are, well, Jimmy race out here. You did. I drove John Covan's dad's car, Pop Covan, and 79, and won, no, 87, and won my first championship.

and I was the first NASCAR championship. So I am a seven-time NASCAR champion. NASCAR champion. Yeah. And then went on from there. Bob Fisher come along. I did a little ride hopping, you know, helping people out, working on their stuff because I had a welder, I had a break and did that, and I'd drive their cars.

And then Southwest Tour came along. That's when Victory Circle started with Dan Press. Lenny and I were running out of money. And she'd do fingernails at night and just get enough money to go racing. And we'd had to depend on our winnings to go racing. We weren't going. Yeah. And Bob Fisher from Palmdale

Parapactor, and they made my name with the yellow and orange number 97, and he'd come along. And I, about the third year or second year, I asked him, I said, why are you helping me out? I mean, you're not getting nothing. You're a local Palmdale chiropractor,

and we're going to Eureka, we're going to Bakersfield, we're going everywhere. It's not going to help you out. He goes, someday, kid, you make it big, I want two tickets to Daytona. Wow. And your dad told me I was going to Daytona.

I called Ballfisher up. I said, you got two tickets coming, fully paid, bud. Wow. That's awesome. And to this day, we're still good, good friends. He believed in you. He believed that his son actually lived with me for a year and a half, two years. And went to every race. He was my good luck charm back in the day.

Wow. We were winning races. Hey, quick question from my own knowledge. Winston West I was familiar with, but the Southwest, what was the difference between the Winston West and the South West? It was a late model like he ran. Okay. Local, but we got to tour with it. But we had a 9-1 compression.

We got more chiseled nose. Moes. Winston West is basically a cup car. I remember that. The Southwest Tour is a left-handed super late model. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

And when you're saying that, when I pulled up there into the garage area and they were tech in my car, they said, you brought a knife till gunfight. I said, why is that? He said, you've got a perimeter car, everybody's got straight rails. Your frame's going to drag. I said, well, I think it would be all right. You had a perimeter car, which is basically a straight, a regular chassis like a cup car would be. Right.

We could run road course and everything. with it. And that's what's so good is we didn't have the money to build two cars to go road course racing. So we just made one perimeter car. If they measured it, it was still three inches offset. They just didn't have to measure it, right? Because I made a thicker frame roll on the left side. So they measured the inside and it was perimeter. Oh, wow. And you did okay with it? Two championships, 92, 93, first back to back. Okay. He did all right. You did fair. I remember, I mean, we were done. We were done racing. I mean, we were, well, you remember the race, I think it was 92.

That big crash coming off the back. Rick Cirelli, remember Rick Crellley? He blew a tire. I was leading to points. My brother-in-law needed some work done on the exhaust. I said, dude, I'm busy. I mean, I've been working on my customer's car. I even got my car done.

We'll leave him tonight to go to Phoenix. Well, we get down there, first 10 laps of the race here comes an exhaust pipe flying. It comes to my windshield, breaks my little femur bone. And it's fiberglass roof, plastic windshield and the whole deal. It knocked everything out. So we in and out of the pits. We're taping it up. Taping it up.

Well, we're only three points out of championship. Rick Curley's leading and Doug George is right there. Three of us are battling out tight. You know, going in with a little five-inch clutches, I ended up burning the clutch out of the thing. It thing wouldn't move, so we pulled behind the pits. And going in now, the pit's taping. It's got a picture of the whole thing.

I mean, it's this. Sure. Yeah, so now we're crying. Every pity we've ever had, Lennie and I ever saved is in this last race. And, you know, it's like, oh, we're done. We just lost it. So I'm in there. They've got the car jacked up trying to change transmission.

They've got the old slope downsides and could get into transit. out. Finally got it out. Ten laps ago we get back on the track and the clutch is like, well, they didn't put a shifter. They put it in high gear, so I burned that one up going out of the pits. Doug George blows a motor with 15 to go, so that gives us a chance with Curelli. So we're three points out with Curelli.

White flag lap, we're cruising around half pace. Creley blows a tire off a four. Wow. A 17 car pile up. Oh, wow. Shrader come through, Daryl helped him come through. Walter up one at Trader was second. and I finally creep through there.

I mean, 17 cars are wrecked on a French fraydo at Phoenix. You don't have been there. You can't go nowhere. I get there and I've stopped five feet from there. And on my whole cruise on the thing, push it across the line, push it. Or start it up. Go across the line.

Well, it won't go. The clutch is burned out of it. Stuck in gear. It's like, ooh, ooh. So he went to get out, push it across the line. And I said, we won the championship by one point. I said, you kid me? What?

It wasn't pushed it across the line. It was so they didn't have a DNF all year. Are you kidding me? So with that thing in gear, them guys push that car all around the whole one-mile track and pushed it back in there. They wouldn't go down pit road. They pushed it all. They were so proud of that.

And that's the next year. It's like, we can't do this again. I'm done. I mean, we're just going to go to the next couple races and do that. Yeah, we won three in a row, and then we paid for that. And we won four in a row and then first back-to-back. But to go for your first championship and your own money and your own card, that's the hardest thing on your family. Anything you never do.

I mean, you're crying in tears. Like everything I ever worked for It just went downhill right there But it worked out good You were living race to race almost then I mean like all we were This wasn't a You weren't thinking career mode

You were just trying to get to the next race We lived in the nine Our first house we ever bought It was up in Palmdale And that's why everybody thinks I'm from Palmdale But I'm not I grew up in Seamy Valley

My car was in the garage And we lived right by the train tracks The main Sierra Highway And 980 square foot house One car garage And my wife was inside doing fingernails every night. She'd get home from work, do fingernails from six to like three in the morning,

and I work on a race car after work. And that's how we did it. And then she was her fingernail money, I mean, somebody stole my fire suit and helmet. She had money to pay for that. So I blew a motor. She had money to pay for that. So she's the one that's the one. She'd be in a Hall of Fame.

There's so many stories. No, I'm believing it now. I'm hearing all these stories about her. Yeah. I mean, man, what amazing woman. We got to do this about 10 more times. Junior and I, we got so many stories about his dad. and what he's done.

Oh, yeah. First time he's picked me up from the airport. Well, we're going to get to that. Let's get to it, man. Talk about, like, when you think about dad and you think about memories, what are some of those fond memories? You know, everybody asked me to tell me a story about that, and I never have, I never will.

I've always wanted to sit down, and I told you, I want to come home and have a beer with you. And I just, if you remember your dad's gathering, your memorial or whatever, I was going to crying in there. he who has a dad to me he taught me get life insurance get health insurance

how to do things quit buying this go buy property go do this and we're not set for life lindy and i we're not hurting i'm only a trucker everybody thinks that i got money because i came from nascar well truck racers didn't make the money dale jr made more money in his first year and i made the whole my whole thing i believe

you know what i'm saying because you know i got i got hired from dale earner for sixty thousand dollars a year but the first time he called me up You want to hear the whole story? Sure. Yes. I don't know if I can. I might have to cry.

You won't be the first one that's cried at that chair. No. Last race, Tucson. No, not the last race. Second last race. Penny Parsons said you're going to be getting a phone call after this race. I mean. He said that?

Oh, yeah. He knew. Well, the truck series was starting. Nobody knew it out there. Oh, oh. Yeah, nobody knew what the super trucks and all that stuff are coming. And people were looking for drivers. So I guess

I think it was seven weeks or eight weeks in a row we race out there and it's all televised and I was fortunate enough to drive Wayne Spears's truck Southwest Tour Winston West and some IMCA modified stuff

Well I MCA ran every week And I got to drive this guy's car And the first time I drove it It's like man this thing's too loose I took the right rear tire I put on the right rear left rear left rear And it's reverse diagonal And the guy had such a motor

It just kicked everybody's butt But long story short, I want a lot of races out there, very fortunate. And Benny said you're going to get a phone call. Well, long story short, every time I race, you remember Larry Nasten. He passed away. He was with Mechanics Work. Yeah, yeah, he was with Mechanic. He was an announcer.

Radio type deal. Every Monday more. Ron Hornay, this is Richard Petty. How'd you do this, like it? You know, it just sounded like he was, you know, like Richard Petty. Well, driving home, you know, we didn't have cell phones back then. We stopped to get fuel. We'd call up the shop.

And I said, we got a phone call. He said, yeah, Larry Nassie keeps calling and detainees Dale Earnhardt, and we kept hanging up on him. We said, we're so busy trying to get this car done before you get back to the shop. I said, well, I heard Dale's supposed to be calling. He said, well, he called three times. I hung up on. I'm sorry. So they always thought it was Larry Nasson.

So we finally get home. It's an eight hour drive from Phoenix to where our shop was. And I pulled in there and say, Dale's on the phone down. I said, give me a favor, tell him to hold on. I go to the bathroom really, really bad. We just drove eight hours, so I put Dale on hold again. And he says, Hornady, this is Dale Earnhardt. I said, yes, sir, what can I do for you?

He said, you want to drive my super truck next year? I said, I'd love to. He said, I'll see you tomorrow. I said, you're coming out here? He goes, no, you've got to fly out here. I said, I can. I said, I got one more race. I mean, there's only me and my brother along working on my car.

He says, well, if you want a job, you're going to be out here. I'll have you a ticket overnight. Wow. Tuesday morning, or Tuesday morning, we got a plane ticket, and I was flying out Tuesday night, and he picked me up at the airport. I've raced against Dale. I got to race Winston West at Phoenix. And lap down, guess who loses me out of the way?

That old black number three moving up and I wiggled all the way up there. I drove down a turn tree and I could drive into three. I was pretty good. I drove along that little apron and went up like that, slitted it out. Hey, guys, look, look at her in her car. That's my tire walk. That's awesome. But back in the day, I mean, I raced against Waltrip and Schrader and all that stuff

when they came out and run the software's tour at Sears Point and all that. So they kind of knew where I was. And I always thought I'd be driving for Walter. And it ended up where your dad called me. It's like, cool. So long story short, remember your dad's poster, the good year tire in his tuxedo with his seven championship trophies? Your dad had that black truck, a cab and a half sitting there with his foot up on the dashboard with his trophies in the back, three in the back and four in the bed of the truck. because he went and did the photo shoot for that with his tuxedo.

Oh, really? Wait, when he picked you up? At 9 o'clock in the morning. This is what he was dressed like with a tuxedo and his chit's trope? You knew where he was because there's 30 people in line waiting for his autograph. With his foot up there, just signing everybody. And the first time Earnhardt picked me up. I know him because I talked to him with track, shook his hand, not knowing, you know,

how you know Mr. Hurdardt, you're shaking like that. But wow. What are you doing with those? Showing them off? Yeah. You know, that's what I'm thinking. But, you know, I was just driving in there. I got my little backpack because I'm only staying for a couple days,

and I've got to go back to, you know, Tucson. And he started driving up the road. And instead of going to the interstate, he takes the old back roads. Going by Schrader's shop, show me this, show me that. You know, your dad is. He likes to show you this around me. But we're not going 45 with the speed limit. We're going 70-80, so he's passing cars.

And so he'd going up at the time. I didn't know where three was. He gets out of Shraders And yeah, Schrader He should have a lot bigger He's gonna get bigger than that He needs a bigger shop You know, yeah

Going up that thing This black dully pulls in front Your dad Gets another run Goes around it About the third time Your dad goes up there And runs in the back

And his black dully I'm like, oh my God And this is a brand new Chevy truck Your dad's driving Guy turns in the street And we go up Two blocks

Turns back in there And look at What was that all about? He said, what was that all about? He said, That guy's statement my daughter, I don't like him. Whoa.

It was your dad's other truck on the ranch. I didn't know. So there's the first time I got with Erdardt. So we drive in a little, that wasn't even a gate that, yeah, was that sliding gate with the deer head shop? He had the haybell barn over there. So he drives there and drives out of you.

There's a race car shop right there. It's like, wow, my shop's bigger than that. You know, he drives in the back. He showed me all his deer. He showed me everything. Never got out of the truck. He just drove around this whole ranch. Pulls back up.

There's, hey, your cruchies in there, Doug Richie's, go see him oh that was it I didn't see your dad all day long he went signed autographs you know get up to those little room and stuff like that wow that was your introduction that was my introduction was set up like that yep that's the most Dale earn heart story ever really everything we've heard about we got to remember we're going to Phoenix in three months I think and and and I'm looking at we got a bare chassis sitting there not painted nothing and I got in there with Doug Richard and started we're starting putting the truck together and it was when I got back a month

later and that's when I came out to help put the truck together that Liddy stayed home ran both businesses in 90 middle of 95 she moved out selling the auto repair store and victory circle so the um the shop that the truck was in was was a storage was was you know where all they kept all the oil and parts and pieces and all the pit boxes first it was a haybell deal and they added the front onto it yeah it was a haybell building and they they closed it in and they closed it in and then started putting stuff in there. There was a paint booth in there, and the truck was behind the paint booth.

So they pulled the truck in the shop and then park it in a bay that was right behind the paint booth. They sat there and built that truck for weeks, getting it ready for the first race of the year. They were cutting the tunnel out of the truck directly across from them about 12 feet away. I had my late model car, and I was doing the same thing with my late model.

I was getting it ready for the first race of the season. I'd go over to that truck and watch them cut on the, the interior of that thing. My late model shifter tunnel was banged up and beat on and hammered and messed up. And I'm looking at that and I'm like, I'm not a fabricator. I don't know if I can tack in an interior, but I'm going to try. So I basically watched them build the tunnel of that truck and the shifter box and everything

for it and mimic everything they did to build the same sort of shifter tunnel in my late model car and I ended up building a real good looking race car because I stood there and watched him build that truck and then we went down to Myrtle Beach Speedway to I took my car to Myrtle Beach before the season started to shake it down and Ron went with me. You remember that? Yep. I wasn't here with a crowd a few times. I'll pop my follow-al-law and grandma. So I got pictures of me and you with that late model, no decals on it yet. Just me and Ron at the racetrack. I think Ronnie was there and maybe one other guy. Yep. But it was me and him, and we tuned on that thing all day long getting it ready.

I also had this, I ran another car, an older car, on Friday nights at I-95 Speedway. This is one of the coolest things that Ron Hornard ever did for me. We had big springs in this chassis, and the front clip was too narrow. So the springs were two, the big springs buckets were too close together, and the car just didn't drive well at all. and I needed to get the springs out, outboard. And the best way to do that is to cut those bucket springs out and put coalovers on it. But dad was not a big coalover fan.

He felt like if you're going to grace in the Cup Series on big springs, you should learn to drive on big springs and late models and everything else. And I always felt that was a bit of a disadvantage because at the time... Nobody else was doing that. Everybody had coalovers. That's since changed a little bit. But Ron came into the shop and helped me cut all the buckets out of that car and weld coilovers on this car for nothing.

He came in there. He has other stuff to do. He's trying to establish himself as a truck racer, and he's got other responsibilities and all that going on. But he spent a couple days. Torching the clip up on this thing and boxing the clip in and then building it, you know, welding coalovers on it. And I'm thinking, this thing's going to be amazing.

And we ended up going down there. We ran 14 races with that car that year at 995 Speedway. We won one and finished second and 14 others. We wrecked out of the last race. But we ended up running 16 race. but I mean we that car was awesome who was a short who was a short guy always grumpy worked on the cars his name nickname was Fats yeah Fats I think is a well he was loading your car up and then he was getting a trainer to load Kelly's car up and I said what are you gonna do

it where you're going he said we're gonna we got a new updated body Dale wants to put new bodies on these cars said now no no no unload them your dad we ordered bodies from five star and you and I and made your brother and your son sister drill all the bodies off and you and I hung the bodies on them cars. I remember that sitting right outside by where we used to wash by the deer head shop. Yeah. It was a lot of fun back then. And I loved being around Ron because when I mean, I knew as soon as I saw his own personal Southwest tour car, I was like, I need to watch this guy because the crafts of ship and the clean and the clean, you know, how they built things on that car was just so smart.

and I knew he knew a lot about coalovers and getting those cars to work. I didn't know nothing about, you know, when we had our Winston-West car, like we first started, we had 435 pounds of lead in it. Me doing body work was a piece of aluminum fabricated with a brake.

Me to do English wheels? No. We sold that car four years later. It was 35 pounds heavy. I sold the car for $5,200 with every, wheel, every transmission, every motor I ever got, because I didn't want to do once or much. It was too much. I didn't know how to do body work, and I just kept putting Bondo on it and Bonda on it.

435 pounds of lead to 52 pounds overweight. Oh, wow. Yeah, so I've just beat it out and bonded it and make it look good. Yeah. And we didn't have wraps back then. No, you didn't. Yeah, you always spray painted. Yeah.

That was so much fun, though, working in that shop and having run around back then. And, I mean, things picked up pretty quickly after that. I mean, I ended up getting in the Xfinity stuff, and he was, winning championships and we all got very busy and the late model stuff went away. Those late model days, I wish I knew the fun I was having. I certainly would. I mean, I've always got the phone call from Dell. Get up here and see me Monday.

How the kids do? Because I'd go with him or if I didn't go with him, I'd go with Kelly. What was with your brother a couple times? Yeah. But he was on his own agenda. But I always thought Kelly was better than he was. Because he knew he had to work on it. She had facts to do all her stuff.

So she can go out there and if you move around away, you better look out because he's going to take the whole right side off the past. you back. He knew he had to work on his stuff. She just had fast to do hers. Wow. Yeah. Why were you going to all these late model races? I enjoy racing. I mean, I'm a racer.

So, I mean, Dale's right. I would assume you'd have other things going on and things to do tend into your trucks and whatnot. He did, but he made time. You know, that speaks to his character and. Well, we worked until, I mean, Dale made everybody leave at five. They got a family. Dale, I beat everybody. You be here early?

I don't care. But you're going home at five and have dinner with your family, Dale. That was always that way. And then we'd start working on his stuff. He'd work on his all day long, and then we'd go over there and reinvent the wheel sometimes make it work, and sometimes we didn't make it work. But we tried different stuff. So you're talking about stories with Dad?

Y'all had a lot of success together, won a couple championships, and you got an opportunity to get into the Xfinity car. And what was the difference, I guess, for you getting out of the truck and into the Xfinity car? I think you took pretty much most of the same guys from that truck team. into that deal. How was that transition for you? Well, the biggest transition was how the shopper's growing,

trying to keep building teams. Nobody knew what your dad plans were building a cup team. The division, yeah, you know. And then he put our trucks down at the other end by the chicken coop, and working out of that. So you think you can get away with things. But nobody, I swear Dale,

and every deerhead he had laying around the shop, it had a camera in it because he knew it was wrong. But he'd get up at 4 o'clock in the morning Listen to Steve parking. I mean, he'd get four o'clock in the morning and go see what everybody's done and checking everything out and looking at cars. And speaking of tunnels, I remember when we first won our first championship in Banjo, Graham was in there cutting the tunnel out and doing some arrow. He cut four trucks apart, did all this stuff, and they'll load them trucks buck up and take them to Hutchinson Pagan.

They were fast last year, put them back the same way. So he had mine spending the money, but you ain't going to do nothing unless you tell them. Yeah. So, I mean, that was so cool about it. So, I mean, just everything changing. And then when I got the opportunity to go to Daytona in the A.C. Delco. What was it? Napa. Napa.

The Xenity call it. Yep. That's when I called Bob Fisher from Palmdale Chiropractor. Hey, we're going to Daytona, buddy. You know, and it was the coolest thing. I still have my fire suit and my stitches. You know what you ever seen when Michael drove the following year in Cup or later down the road? And they showed the big wreck down there, the Napa.

That was me in the nationwide at the time or Xfinity. and had it saved and flowed up and somebody runs in the back and you're now just sliding through the grass and somebody's there and I tee-boned him and it's like sliding, slide and slide. Had my seatbelt's too high. Had to wear a full face helmet.

Come down and I cut my chin that's what I got the scar from. My wife, you've seen my trophy room. You haven't seen it lately, but I mean it's smaller now because I sold the big house. But she kept all the confetti if you want, she's kept everything.

Well, she's kept these stitches with my fire suit stapled in plastic bag with the little drips of blood on I've got my first race to Daytona. So this would have been 2000, because this would have been you had gone to Cup. You had been running the trucks for DEI for four years, right? And then he goes to Cup, is a rookie,

and now you're in that Xfinity car with Napa. My question is, what was your ambitions at this time? I mean, did you go to DEI in 95 or 96 whenever it was when wanting to get to Cup, wanting to get to Xfinity, or were you just along for the ride? Sort of like your whole history in racing. is that you were just going to race and didn't really think much about the future.

Where were you at mentally in that state? I never thought of anything. I just wanted a race, and this guy's paying me $60,000 a year to drive his truck. Oh, yeah, I'm going. I mean, I just loved racing. Yeah. It didn't matter what it took. I mean, I drove people's race cars what I shouldn't of because they were scary.

But, I mean, you learn. You learn by driving, we call them boxes or good cars or bad cars. You learn something every time you get in something. So, I mean, I just wanted to race. And then when I got the opportunity, I did. And so you would have brought your truck team to that deal because you basically took your Xfinity team or your Bush series team and took them to cup, right? That's Pops, you know, the Uri's and everything else, right?

So what was that year like running Bush? It was cool. I mean, big shoes to fill. I mean. Yeah, coming off two championships. Yeah, Jeff Green ran good. And Napa was pretty excited. We had big expectations.

We won a couple races, but nothing, never set it on fire. And I don't know if it was, at the time, the trucks before, the trucks had more down for us now. Before we had lift in the trucks, we were 1,1,100 pound right front spring, and now we're down to 300, 400-pound springs. It's going down on the earth. So the car does drive different. It did, error-wise,

that, you know, and first time going to Daytona, I think we ran pretty good. I didn't have the Dale Jr. Carbiter they called it. I couldn't set up. What is that? Nothing. They always say the junior cheats when he did, so he learned from his dad, he soaked everything in there. I always said he cheated. You didn't have the carburetor Jr. It's like,

really? But, Maybe they're just good at that place, right? You hear the same thing when you win races. It'll matter. We're building dirt cars now and you hear the same thing. So how did the split end up happening? You don't want to hear about that. Why not?

I thought I was going to kill Thai North, but... You don't have to throw anybody under the bus. Oh, yeah, I do. Oh, yes, I do. All right. It was a... I don't have to throw nobody on the bus. It was resigning.

about going back up there Napa's pretty happy You know, a lot of guys Napa guys hang out Not the two bigwigs You've been talking about here. You've had one year in the Xfinity series

You won two races Mm-hmm And so We probably should have won three or four More than that Yeah I think so But

Right Didn't know what the expectations Was I had to go Resign my new contract I thought So I got called up To Dell owner

I said yeah Yeah Get me an extension on there And Ty grabs me And he says Del wants to talk to you And sit down in the chair Right across street

got across from your dad's office and he says you might have to look at your options. He said, what's that? He said, you might have to look at your options. And so I don't have no options. What are we talking about? He says, well, Mapper wants to go a different direction and you're not going to be the driver. And this time the phone rings. Hello.

Hold on one second. I've got to take this phone call. Can you step out? I said, Ty said, you're firing me and you're taking a phone call? And Ty says, come on, honey, come on, come on. And I did the old pissed off at Ty. You knew what was going on. You didn't tell me the whole deal.

And I took out down the, I didn't walk down the elevator. I ran down the stairs, jumped to that truck, and I did a big old burn out. And got halfway and started to stop and looked at the shop. I said, hey, honey, I called my wife. I said, I think I got fired. I got Dale's truck. Do I take the truck back or do I go home? He's going to go home and cool off.

Well, Tom, I got home. Your dad called and said, hey, that was Mike Elton. I didn't mean to blow you off that way. Just calm down. Come see me tomorrow morning. So he wasn't seen him in the next morning. He says, hey, I'll help you out doing anything got to do. This is not my decision.

This is, you know, corporate decisions of everybody we got to do to make our business better. I totally understand. But it threw me off guard because you took the phone call. And it really made me mad. And that was part of it. But we've become good friends after that. I mean, we never got to the point of Mondays. Monday night thunder.

If Teresa didn't call, oh, God, we had a hell of a time. Oh, hanging out at the farm? If you don't. Oh, in the dairy shop talking right? He wants to divert away from this sad conversation. No, it was sad. No, it was actually, and then he got me to ride with AJ Foyt and I got them cup racing. How did that happen?

Oh, he helped you? Oh, he helped me. Yeah, he's one of those things that's like, you can am after me, you can do anything you want to do, but he said, I can help you or hurt you in the series wrong, you know, in NASCAR. I mean, he's a big influence in racing. And he's definitely helped me along and always took me. He treated me like a kid, and he said he got me into AJ stuff. without knowing any better

I would say that is it true the situation was that Napa wanted to go Cup racing he was starting to cup the new cup team did he put Michael in and that was the situation Exactly exactly

Did he continue the Bush team or no Was that it? That was it I got you Yeah so they took that sponsorship And you know Got enough money where he can go to it And then I see what they wanted to do

Is And I didn't help myself When Penn's oil car came out The one car I don't know Steve got hurt something I had to drive it at Darlington. And we were decent in practice, and I drove it off in there, qualified, and I got flat-footed.

I mean, I never drove anything flat-footed at Darlington. And a truck or nothing ran down there. I ran a two. Yeah, Darlington is a nationwide race to go to for the first time. I got down one and two, got down the back straight. I got in there, and just that little hump down there, and I lifted in the sheet backed in the fence. An old Dale come and he said, that would have been a track record. You'd have had five seconds over everybody, if you would have stuck.

Yeah. You got the one and two really good. So you don't realize how fast you get through that corner. That might have been, you know, the game breaker because we needed to make the race. You know, pins are old and everybody needed to make that race. Yeah. Well, that, you ended up getting in Foyt's car and ran in the Cup Series. That's all you can say, I ran in the Cup Series. Well, I mean, you got in the Cup Series and you ran that season with Foyt, not one of the most competitive race cars.

But in 2003 and 2004, you, you. you got a nice break to get in the Xfinity car with RCR. And you had your third in points one year with that car, third and fourth in points in those two seasons. And you compliment Harvick quite often for resurrecting your career. But would you say that this opportunity with RCR is kind of what catapulted that truck success later on? First off, I feel like that that was a turning point for you coming out of the 14 car on the Cup series. How did that conversation start with Richard?

How did you get that opportunity? Well, I think in between there, I believe I didn't have a job. Right. You got let go from the 14-hour late in the year. I didn't get let go. It was kind of mutual. We had a two-year deal, and he was going to say, you know, whatever. You don't want to get into politics or that.

But, I mean, he ended up paying me out of my contract, and I went on. And there was nothing available. So I went over there like everybody else does and said, Mr. Hendricks, how are you doing today? And he goes, well, what do you need, Ron? and what do you want to race? I said, well, I'd like to go back to trucks and all that stuff. And he says, go down and get Ricky's truck.

I'd have to throw him up there and just tell him we're going to run Daytona and what we did. Well, meantime, Ricky got hurt after that, after that, and I got to drive Ricky's car. Bush car, Exfinity car for four or five races and should have won a couple, but Lance McGrue had pitted us late, trying to get the pit crew ready for the cup race and all that stuff, just get in practice. Long story short, didn't have a job. Richard, seeing how good I ran on Ricky stuff, then I got that deal up there. Really?

So it was really Rick Hendrick that helped out. I'll be damn, I did not know that. I mean, if you look at my career, look who I got to race for from Dale Earnhardt, Rick Hendricks, Richard Childress. I mean, I'm AJ Ford. I've been really fortunate up to drive. And everybody says, how was it like?

Well, good thing about it, you didn't have to have excuses. They've raced. They're racers. You can't go in there and say, well, you know, this guy, no, that guy didn't do that. You did this. There were two people that knows what happens. Guys are pushing the pedals and turning the wheels.

everybody can watch what they want to watch. There's only two people who got on the gas, who lifted, and who got sideways. So when I went to build my Xfinity team here at Junior Motorsports, I went to Kevin Harvick and I asked him advice as a car owner on what I should be doing

if you had any advice. He told me two things. He said, don't have an open account on the radio truck at the racetrack because your guys will run the money up. And he said, keep the parts room locked. And you better have your damn good parts guy. Your dad taught me that and I think I put it on to Kevin. Yeah. This kid came in and I remember sitting down and

he asked for a job and your dad says well what do you want to do in life? He said well I want to drive someday. He says you have your own team now. He says yeah he said I can't hire you then. He's why I got my own team like why not he says if you needed a quarter inch bowl or a half inch bolt and you took it out of my bin and I got 300 employees how much money does that cost me and everybody took one bolt and one nut. It's three cents or seven cents for a bolt and three cents or that. He said, I'm broke. And one can of paint, you know.

So that's how they looked at it. And that's kind of, I don't know if I told Kevin that, but that's how I always looked at things. I mean, you know what nuts and bolts and washers cost. And then you get one employee just taking a bolt in the washer. It's three cents there and 10 cents there. By the time, you're all adds up. That's $8, $10 a day.

And do that times $3.65, you're broke. Yeah. You're out of a race team. So that's cool, Kevin did that. Yeah. So what was, I say that because, you know, you had a lot of success driving for him. And I wanted to know what he was like as a car owner. Cool.

Yeah. Yeah, he was always cool. Yeah. As you're speaking of Mr. Childress, everyone I've ever done for is cool. Yeah. I mean, AJ Floyd, he's like my dad, he's grumpy and tells me how to drive. It's like, AJ, if you were skinny, you'd be in the car yourself. So I know, but you've got to be humble.

And I think out of all the years, I've never burned bridges, there's only a couple of people I dislike in this whole two people out of this whole thing I can't mention names but I mean I come through your shop right now Junior a lot of these guys I worked with your dad a lot of guys I worked with at Kevin's at Childers is that

you name it I mean it's cool so if you don't bring your bridges I mean you're liked and I've got released from teams before and they've called me you know six months later and say their driver got hurt where you drive for them so that's telling me I've done something right in my career of not burning bridges and helping people out and and stuff like that.

So, been very fortunate. Yeah. You end up winning a couple more truck series championships driving for Kevin. But when I was telling a lot of the fans on social media about you coming out here, one of the things they wanted me to ask you about is the 2011 truck series season, which was really a great story. It ended poorly for you, but you won your 50th career win of your 51 truck races. and you clawed back from like ninth in points at one point in the season

to be 15 points out of the championship battle, winning races. Y'all made some great adjustments mid-season at Kevin's to make your truck more competitive. You're 15 points out going into Texas. And you and Kyle got together. Kyle's, you got loose trying to get around a lap car. Kyle was right on your door.

Y'all get together, go up into the wall. Everybody's seen the footage. He goes down in the corner and wreck you. Under caution. Under caution. Everybody's dying for me to ask you about that experience. Took you out of the opportunity to win the truck series titled. Austin, Illinois goes on to win the truck series that season.

But amazing year up to that point. I mean, how did you handle that being wrecked intentionally under caution? How did you're a veteran? Like, what are your emotions when you think about that? You're trying to calm me down while you keep talking, or you want me to take the fifth or go to a commercial break and I walk out. So you're not over it? No, no.

I mean, I'm not over it the way it was handled afterwards. You know, NASCAR did what they had to do. And I wanted to say my piece with Kyle at the time, and NASCAR pushed me away like I always do. And I got into the trailer, and I started changing my clothes, and I listened to his arrogance on TV about, because he's mad at everybody else, he wrecked me. And I got so mad, I started running over there,

and I got all the way to Australia, and I got grabbed. And they said, well, if you do anything about it, we can't do nothing about it. Long story short, NASCAR made him call me. And like anybody else, you're the greatest there ever was. You could be the Dale Earnhardt. You could be the Richard Petty. You've got to just calm down and quit talking about other drivers. Talk about what you've done.

That's what Joe, Kyle? Yeah, and that's what I told him. I mean, we talked 15, 20 minutes. I don't know if he grasped it other than the yeah, yeah, yeah, and I don't know. And like 20 minutes later, I got a phone call from now. Well, Kyle called me, and I said, well, yeah, but, I mean, what did that do? I mean, they don't do nothing other than, you know, he knew what happened. I just done passing down straight, when he got a draft back and got up on the outside and got me loose.

And that's the long story. End of the story. And we weren't hurt that bad. Our trucks just scraped the fence. We could have went on and still finish first and say, we're two fastest trucks out there. And I think third was gone. And it kind of ruined. I mean, after that, I mean, my season was done if it wasn't for Turner.

I mean, my career was done if it wasn't for Steve Turner. Yeah. So, I mean, it was tough. So that still bothers you. I had a lot of. Well, it bothers me because I see him today. He can't look up in the eyes. He won't congratulate him when he beat my record, you know, of the most wins.

And, you know, he was talking to Mr. Hendricks, and I shook his hand and said, man, it's a great accomplishment. At least races that you run that they taught to beat me. And he said, well, thank you. I appreciate that. And that's all we've ever talked about. We go to the racetrack now. He can't look to me.

I mean, he's not, I don't know how you call it. It's over with it. It's done. You want to become buds or you want to become enemies. We can say enemies and I'll see you at a bar from day and kick your ass. I don't know. Sounds to me like, you're seeking, you were trying to seek closure, but you weren't able to get it. I don't know if that.

I mean, the kid's great. I mean, he's unbelievable. Now he's got a family hoping he'd calm down a little bit more. But, I mean, if you're watching, every time he got out of a car, he badmouthed his crew. the car. It was never his fault. I mean, you've got to take common sense. I mean, damn, I screwed up sometime. Yeah. And just don't talk about it. I mean, you're a

Cheryl. People are watching you. And I mean, he's doing great things. I'm glad to see him growing up a ton of helping a lot of kids, a lot of people with having babies now and stuff like that. I mean, great things are doing that. I think his wife really pushed him to do that stuff. And look what he's doing with his race team like you. You're helping young kids out

and getting an opportunity to go racing. So he's got a great heart. But he's got to understand. There's kids watching him with the M&M's logo and all that stuff. He's got to watch what he says off the faith. Second place is not wrong with second. You can be humble sometimes. You start you started.

I'm sorry. Well, I'm glad. The people listen to this show wanted me to ask you about that. Because they still harbor resentment. I mean, the fact is that there are a lot of people that harbor resentment over that situation. I mean, people remember it like it was yesterday. I'll tell you what. I'm no better than Cowbush right now.

If you guys remember Rockingham, I'm not in the best. equipment there was and I got wrapped up by Bubba Wallace. And I got the old, you know, I went up to him and run the back of his car, you know, the yellow flag and he did a whole different scenario because we're only going 35, 40. Tires are slick and that. And I went up to do it and then he swerved down and he spun out and hit the fence. So there's no better, no different. I think right there, and I tell Bubba this, to this day, that probably put a tattoo on my, my career of saying, you've had the best career of your life and then you just blew it by taking above

battle of the old flag yeah but you apologize to him i hug him every time i see him i feel like and naskar didn't make you do it well i mean and that's the difference right and he come walking down or come running down after the race after i got out because i got to finish the race because it was a whole different scenario and the guys the cruised around me i said get away i deserve to get him out, get away. I mean, I wrecked him. I'm the big idiot, so let him punch me. I deserve whatever I get. And he just said some words and all that stuff. And every time I see him, I was like, bud, you don't know how bad it kills me that I've done that. Yeah. I mean, you don't want to do that. You get mad at people. Yeah. He gets mad at me. I've wrecked, yeah.

I know. I've wrecked a few guys, and it's still still in the back of your mind. Yeah. Because you, you know, you thought at the moment that you needed to do it or wanted to do it or whatever. But what, you know, what? What year did Kevin close the truck team now? I don't remember. Is that how that ended? I mean, did you? I'll tell you what. I don't know who decided to do that, but they've seen where the changes were being made with NASCAR. They've seen. He sold the truck series. Sold. Sold every team, every hauler, nationwide team, every car, everything, and the building. Who can say you can do that? I know. Go out there when championships, when races, be established owner, and then turn around and sell everything. And I don't know if he

lost money or whatever, but it's done, sold. And there ain't many people out there walking around buying entire race teams. Right. But a lot, he got a lot of people their jobs before. I mean, he knew it was coming and he let everybody know that and got an opportunity. He just didn't close it down and say, you're out of work. Yeah, right. I mean, him and Delane had done it right, and Fred, I mean, I owe a lot to him. You know, he feels that he owes me. I feel that I owe him. It just, I mean, a lot of people don't know Kevin saved my life. How so? When I was racing for him, I was starting to getting skinny.

I mean, I was always racing for your dad. I was 200 to 205. Don't do kids nowadays. We don't work out. We used to, how many beers you can drink is, how many laughs are you going to go sweat it out, basically. Not kind of exaggeration. Yeah, right.

But I got down to 134 pounds racing for Kevin. What? And I started getting the shakes. So, I mean, I drink my three, four beers a night. I thought, okay, I quit drinking. Every morning I was taking a milkshake. I went to the doctors. They did the whole prod up every orphanage you ever had.

And the meantime, I got my appendix out, racing for Kevin. And this happened probably maybe a year and a half later that, you know, start losing weight. And then I started getting shakes. And Kevin thought California throttle sticking in it. I was driving the last five laps with an off switch. And he called in the office, and so what happened? I told him. Long story short, Rick Crowley calls me up and says,

Kevin wants to talk to Monday morning, 8 o'clock. Well, great. Here we go. Get up there, and Kevin's not there. Rick Shirley's getting the truck. He said, what for? He said, I'm taking the doctors. I said, well, what for?

I just got back. I mean, I've been, I've been, every test. I've been every cat scan. It's been everything. They can't find nothing. And he said, I said, I can't afford it. I said, I'm not going to pay for the, don't worry about it. We got to handle it with his doctor.

I didn't walk, no more walking the door. His doctor comes around the corner and shook his hand. He said, take your hat off. Looked at my eyes, grabbed my hair, and says, you've got grave disease. I said, what? I said, what's grave disease? He says, it's your thyroid. You've got a hyperthyroid that's eating your body inside.

So I call my wife up, and she talks to the doctor and says, well, can't wait until after the season and says, your husband will be dead by then. Jesus. He's a lot, you know, I'm down 134 pounds from 205. And so basically that's how Kevin saved me. So they ended up nuking it out, and now I'm on a thyroid pill the rest of the rest of my life. And the one for Kevin taking initiative to make me go to the doctor, his doctor, to do that. So I called my doctor up and said, how come you couldn't find it?

He said, you were 50 years old. I was looking for cancer. So he just overlooked it. Wow. So, I mean, that's so. Wow. That's why that's why I feel I owe Kevin more. than he owes me.

Yeah, for sure. That's fair. Because you go to your doctor and you believe in your doctor. You got everything checked. Yeah. I don't think Kevin knows you anything. I mean, you won a couple championships. He gave you an awesome opportunity to drive some really fast race trucks.

Unbelievable. So good. Those trucks were so good. I understand you're feeling about Owen Hill, especially after hearing that story. What was the, what was, what was, so I just recently retired and I like, I always wondered, still even wonder even after retiring how drivers make that decision for themselves. A lot of guys have different stories, different reasons. What was the deciding factor for you in retirement?

I better think about it and say that's right. No. Well, I mean, that kind of ruined my deal with Kyle's deal. I mean, that's another championship. And then that's when Kevin was selling everything. And Bob Newberry ended up buying some of Kevin's – well, I don't know Joe Dennett, about some of his trucks and everything. and then Bob Newberry came in about Joe Dennett stuff.

But that time we had different body hangers or everything, and I was out there riding around, and I was getting tired of just riding around and riding around. And Bob's son was racing, and I guess I didn't give enough room on a racetracks, so he fired me with a race to go. And I got going down to Homestead, and it's like, wow, that's cool. I mean, I got fired from Earnhard, got fired from children,

so I said, that's what you want. I'm glad with it. I'm just here to help your team out and try to help your son, you'll get up to speed, and that's cool. Long story short, what I was telling you about, earlier treating people that way. He ended up calling me back to drive his truck later on down the road. But Mr. Turner, seeing that was happening, and he said, we've got to get you the truck.

So he put me in a truck for Homestead. And we ran, I think we ran second or third. I don't know where we ended up. We ran pretty damn good, and we had a chance to win it. And following year, we started running, started running, and that's when he was in partners. And they got into a lawsuit with each other. Yep. And they thought, you know, Ream was paying for that truck out of their own pocket,

not going through the books and the whole deal, and then it was Steve's truck. And I think we are second points, five out of the championship, and going to Canada, and they pull the plug and send the truck back. And that's when Mr. Turner walked away, and that's how my career ended. So I wasn't ready for my career to end. A lot of people want to, and the bad part about it now in racing, and I hate to bring it up. But, hey, well, you drive Martinville for me. I said, I'd love to.

He said, I got this truck. I got this motor. I got this. How much money can you bring? I need $25, yeah. Yeah. I mean, can you bring a sponsor? It's like, well, I guess, you know, how much money are you going to pay me?

You know, it's not about talent. It is about talent because there's a lot of great talent out there. But, I mean, it's a stepping zone. And I think I heard the best we're at Darlington. My son's a go-card racer. How do we get him to go to the next level? And I think Bobby, who, I got to remember who said this. It's not about how you talk to sponsors and stuff like that.

He went on to saying, make him learn everything about his race car. Make him learn exactly what you did. You had to work on your own stuff to learn about that. So he can take knowledge of driving. He can be the best. He had the most money and not drive and drive. But if he don't know nothing about a race car, he don't know what in the, if we're at raise the track bar.

Well, that's, yeah, it's going to make it looser, but then make it front end stick, stuff like that. If you can get your kid to learn more about his car, let him know what a half-inch wrench is, let him know what a 716. And the way he explained it was, unbelievable, and now it's probably the only way I can do it, too. I mean, money will buy you right, but they can buy you talent and they ain't going to buy you to learn about these things.

Yeah. So what are you doing today? You building cars, dirt cars. How did you get into building dirt cars? I'm bitter about it. I built a lot of cars, and they all complained thinking, my car's cheated up. So you take your shocks off, you take your, you know. Yeah, I mean, of all the, you didn't grow up around dirt. You didn't grow up around dirt modified. I did. If you listened. Seven, I had Animal Valley Fairgrounds and street stocks and stuff. But, so how did you get into those type of cars, that specific type of car? Oh, my grandson got one and he ended up wrecking it and I fixed it, you know, and it just got into that. That's all it took.

That's all it took. I mean, you got 11-year-old kid who's running good and, you know, 12 years old winning races and, you know, it's unbelievable. Is this Ronnie's son? No, it's Kansas. Okay. Okay. Yep. And so you're building dirt cars?

I'm only going to do a handful. you and there help some people out somebody. It's so hard because I try to keep the cars under $20,000. Bring me a motor trans. I turn KM, go to the racetrack with their whole deal. And they'll still complain. It's like, don't complain.

Just bring it over. If you've got a better idea, let's cut it apart and do that. And, you know, I'm 61 years old. I want to do it and have fun. Right. Let's go out. You know, don't even drink beer at the track. Let's just go out and have a blast.

It's through racing. And you're playing in the mud. I mean, when you're kids, and it's just everybody whines. And now they get to claim. this, claim that, you know, and that in the series wanted to tear it, we win the race just Friday night, and they want to tear my motor down.

I said, well, it's the IMCA sealed motor. I don't own it. Speedway Motors owns it. And they said, well, we got to tear it down. I said, I want $1,200. It's going to cost me $1,500 to put it back together. If somebody claims, you know, saying, protest me, I'd be more than glad to. At least I get the money out of it. Right, right.

And I said, so, the way I MCA does it, if you're legal, they pay for it, to put it back together. And this, this series wouldn't do it. I said, don't give me the money. Keep the money. I'm not going to tear my motor down to to prove a point.

Yeah, to prove a point to you. So I think they understood it. And talking, I am, you know, with Speedway doing the motors and IMC and all the whole deal, I think that's the way to go because they can't afford, if they got a IMCA stag on it, IMCA is one of the biggest dirt all over the world that they can't afford to lose their customers and their name

and everything else with them doing it for the last 30 years with IMCA. So you're spending your time going to the, the dirt tracks these days? No, not all the time. What are you doing? Well, Lindy's dad passed. You heard that, and it's so cool. It's his, still got his toolbox.

He's always been on our shop. Back in the day, working on Ronnie's car with you. He's still got the picture of you signing to him and your little mom and pops. Number three, white, down at Myrtle Beach, because he used to go down there with you. And he still got on his toolbox. And I was going to take a picture and sent it to you, to Pop and Graham, Jr. That's neat. Wow.

That's neat. He's touched a lot of people's heart. He was a punk little kid back there, but he raced, and they wanted her down there. He had the roughest time. So, Lindy takes her mom to the racetrack to go, watch the junior race at Myrtle Beach, and she goes,

when he goes, Mom, whatever you do, don't root for Dale Jr. Clap your hands. They hate him down here at Myrtle Beach. The first couple of times. Is that right? Well, they always thought Daddy gave him and everything he wanted. In the first couple of years,

he drove pretty tough, and he wrecked a lot of guys to get him out of their way. Am I lying? Am I lying? No. You got booed quite a bit. Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So whatever you do, you're going to get a beer can throwing that if you clap for Dale Jr. So I don't know the whole stories because Wendy always went there. I always went with your sister. Where did we race that pair? Tri County. Tri County. We went up there quite a bit.

He'd race on Friday night and then he'd go down there. So that's about all I'm doing it. Going out to Wickenburg, see in Teresa, she's got some beautiful horses. Oh, they're like a, you've got to see them. They look like a gray, but when they hit the sun, it's like a blue gray. And I've been there for three hours. She's showing me a ranch. Not one fly.

Whatever she does, keep the flies down. It's got 25 horses. You go to a horse farm and a cow is. You're a cow. You just got flies. Not one fly. I've never seen one fly. Crazy.

So we're just going there. We go there, you know, Arizona every other month. Arizona? Yeah. What's out there? That's, Lindsay's house. Yeah. Before he passed, we got the house done.

He got to enjoy it. Built it like his ranch. Right around. Yeah. So what we're going to do. We don't think about it. You can pick up chicks there. They're all over their age and they're walkers.

They don't run very fast. That's awesome. Oh, we're kidding. Well, man. All right. Well, we're going to have you back. We've got a lot more stories to tell. We didn't get into, too deep into the D-E-I stuff.

So we'd love to have you come back and talk about those years and tell us some stories, more stories about Dad. But appreciate you coming out here today. Well, I mean, everything, just looking at you, and I wanted to tell my whole story, how it all started. But we've been jumping back and forth because just the memory. coming back at how much fun we've had and watching you go up with Ronnie and what you guys done, it's amazing. And look at you and Kelly's got here. It's amazing.

I don't know how it happened. Just kind of ride. I'm just kind of riding along with it. The bad part of an hour is you're busier now when we're racing. I know. I need to fix that. Trust me. He recognizes that.

So, Lindy and I've been married 40 years. You know, I've been married 40 years. She goes to work and I go to work. We see each other when you get home. Yeah. Give your wife a kiss every morning before you go because you never know. I know when it's going to end. I know that.

I do that, buddy. All right. I love you guys. Thanks for having me. Yeah, of course. Love you too, man. Thank you. Thank you.

In partnership with Mountain Dew, I've been given some of my employees DTO. That's due time off. On top of that, I've been giving them $1,000. They get to pursue their passions. This is the latest episode of this series, and it's one that is very special to me. It's about a guy who works hard and deserves DTO. But, man, the story goes so much deeper than that. This is a story about friendship.

It's a story about service and sacrifice. It's a story about perseverance and loyalty. Most importantly, it's about a bond that will last forever. Hey, my name is Lee Langley. I've worked at Junior Motorsports for five years, and I'm the Parsonage. I met a lot of people that work at Junior Motorsports through Sim Racing, and Lee was in that group. We had a lot of them.

I invited about 20 of those sim racers, maybe 25 of them, with their parents. Some of them were very young. Over to my property, and we had a big party or a big get-together for a long weekend. It was like Friday through Sunday, and we hung out at my Whiskey River playing horseshoes and hanging out and playing music and talking sim race. Lee was there. You know, our relationship grew out of just a mutual interest that we had. While we were there at that get-together that weekend, some 20 years ago,

Lee told us he was going to join the military. And then when he found out I was going into the military, I guess, because he went to military school. He kind of felt connected with me there because he went to military school when he was young. So he joins the military, and we remained friends, and he went overseas on several tours in Iraq and eventually Afghanistan. And I would send him boxes of sunglasses. I'd buy new iPod.

and just fill them up with all kinds of music and for him to give out to his buddies. And then we just stayed in touch after that. And, you know, he's been a special friend to me and my family. And I kept telling him, you know, because the military was getting him in amazing shape. When I first met him, we were all skinny

and, you know, he doesn't have any muscle on arms. But the military had turned him into a machine. And I said, you know what, man, when you get out of the military, I'm going to put you in. the program to train you to be a tire carrier or maybe even a guy that changes tires, who knows. But some way, somehow, I'm going to try my hardest to get you an opportunity to become

a guy that works on the crew. He's over there fighting a war. But I'm thinking, man, when you get home, we're going to figure out something. And he ended up going to Iraq, and a roadside bomb blew up the truck he was in. it was a bad deal and so i got a call or a text from a buddy that was we're all in this sort of sim racing circle and said lee's been hurt and he's been flown somewhere to germany some hospital and they didn't really have any kind of idea of just how bad it was but i started making a bunch of phone calls and i ended up getting information from where he was in germany about his injuries

and then the plans that they had for him flying home and when that would happen and but i wanted to see Lee. I said, you know, I was, I had some connections to Walter Reed and they were going, you know, I was going to be able to know exactly when he got there and all those things. And so me, I called my boss Rick Hendrick. And I said, Rick, I got a buddy of mine. He's been hurt. I said, I want to go to Walter Reed. Didn't know if you want to go with me. I don't know why I bothered Rick with that. I just for some reason didn't want to go by myself. I was really kind of scared actually to go alone. And so Lee's banged up real. bad, but he's all right. You know, he can, I can see me and we can talk. You know, I don't know.

I just was so glad that he was okay. I was so glad that he was home. He was back in the United States, and he had this really, really, really long journey. You know, I just wanted him to, you know, be okay and not, you know, not, you know, not only the physical side of it, but the mental side of it. And that, you know, those injuries that he had were terrible. He had lost a lot of bone in his leg. They let his leg heal to an extent, and then they would re-break it and reset it a quarter inch or so apart. For it to grow that quarter inch and create that quarter inch, and they'd break it again and reset it a quarter inch apart. And they kept breaking his leg over and over every few months to sort of lengthen and let this leg develop this bone length.

Seven days prior to that. I was, you know, I was a healthy person. I was in the best shape of my life. You know, I had no worries in the world. And then seven days later, I can't even do anything for my family. So at that point, I couldn't help my family at all. I had to rely on other people and it was tough. We went back up there a couple more times.

It was a tough time, but it was also very comforting to know that if your mom needed to go here, your dad, or your brother, they could help. And that was really special. To know I had a long road ahead of me, but that was just one thing off my plate died and I have to worry about it. You know, and that was really important for me getting better, because that was my next mission was to get better. And they preached that to you up there. You know, your previous mission is over.

You can't do what you were doing. You have to focus on your health and get better. your health and get better and with your family taking care of, that's really a big burden off of you. I still think about that to this day. That was a big impact on my life. My man went through some tough stuff. It's been a long friendship and relationship, and I'm just glad he's good and glad he's healthy. So I could, you know, with his injuries, opportunity to be a pit crew guy was was gone. I said, you know, I got a, I got, I got, I might have a

chance to be able to plug you into the parts room. And we had no opportunity to have another guy in the parts room. And so Lee became the parts guy. And he's awesome. I still think about that to this day. You know, that was that was a big impact on my life. You know, I owe him so much. And I owe, you know, Kelly and them, they were, they've been. all so great to me. And that's kind of the whole backstory. A lot of people don't know about me being here. As that, you know, I owe this family a lot,

and I care about them. And that's part of the story that a lot of people don't know. Lee Langley, please report to the studio. Lee Langley, please report to the studio. Hey, Lee. Come have a seat, man. Put on some headphones real quick. Got to ask you some questions.

Do you know why you're here? No. How long have you worked at Junior Motorsports League? Five years. Really? Yeah. God, it seems like it's longer. How did we meet?

Online racing, about 2003, 2004. What year was it that we had our get-together? 2006. And so we were friends hanging out, talking pretty much every night on the computer. And you told us that day that you were going to join the military. So you go into the military, and we go in the military, and we were going to. We stayed in touch, right? Mm-hmm.

And then you got deployed. Yeah. In Iraq. You did two tours there? No, I did. I did one in Iraq and then one in Afghanistan. Yeah. How would you describe your employment at Junior Motors Sports?

And you can tell us what your job is, what your responsibilities are. Yeah, well, my responsibilities, I'm the parts manager, so basically anything anybody needs every week to get to the track, that's basically what I do. If you need a part, you need what. Whatever, I do it. I get it here. The reason why you're in this room is because Mountain Dew, long-time partner of mine, has a program called DTO. It's due time off.

I get to choose a couple individuals within our company that I think are deserving of an opportunity to have a day off. Really? Not to worry about anything. It's a day to do whatever you want. With that, comes $1,000. Nice. I'll slide that over to you. My wife will probably get this.

Yeah. what do you think what is some of your passions and and I know you got two boys and so you spend a lot of time with me on my dog yeah yeah four-year-old and a six-year-old they're wide open all the time it's it's not about you anymore it's about the family so but it's a pleasure to work here you know this is a great family environment is it is a family and uh it's I love it you know well I'm glad you feel that way well man have fun take that day and enjoy it and thank you for coming in here and giving us a little bit of time talking to us. Yeah, thanks to Mountain Dew. It's great program. It's been an honor and something I'm very proud of and our friendship, and I'm also proud of you. I was pretty nervous when he slid the money across. The whole deal was nervous. I was nervous. It was a real surprise. There's a lot of people in there, you know. All the bright lights, not used to that. So I was a little. a little shaking, to be honest.

I tell you, there's some great people in this world, and Dale's one of them. That's a difficult time, and that's when you know who's really there for you. Thank you, Lee. Thank you, Mountain Dew. Our partners with Mountain Dew have enabled us to give out this due time off to let people pursue their passions. We are thankful for that. It has also been a great opportunity to tell some amazing stories about these people. Remember, to live your passions.

And do the dude. This ain't your average race, I'm gonna. Unfiltered commentary and an abundance of opinion. Mr. Nascot or Mr. G-Bosk got in my way. Like Johnny Cash, we ain't afraid to walk the line.

Listen to door bumper clear. Available on major podcast platforms. Door bumper clear. All right, everybody, thank you for tuning in. We are live on YouTube. Thank you for following Dirty Mode. Media on YouTube. Make sure you follow all the social media handles,

Twitter, Instagram. Leah's not in today. Matthew's going to handle her responsibilities and throw the questions at us, so let's see what you got, Matthew. All right, buddy. First person chiming in here once in new. Chris Belcher, did you get a chance to congratulate Martin Truex Jr.

in Winter Circle, or did you have to wait to get in touch with him or text him on the way home? Man, I haven't talked to him. I had to catch a ride with Keselowski home, and his pilot is a spotter. Well, Joey, everybody knows Joey Meyer. And so Joey's on the top of the spotter stand, which is right above me in the booth. As soon as I was done, Joey was waiting out the door.

We walked down through the grandstands through this tunnel underneath the front stretch into the neon garage, right near Victor Lane. So I guess I could have went over there. But I was telling Joey and Joey was headed to the car. We jumped in the car. We drove the airport, fired up the plane, and Brad hopped on, and we left. But usually when Truex wins, I wait a few days. And I imagine I didn't know if he was even home yet. So he's probably not awake if he is.

I'll talk to him soon enough. We get some people chiming in saying, We love you in Texas, which reminds me on Twitter when we put out this tweet about doing this. Somebody chimed in right away and said, what's your favorite thing about Luchenbach, Texas? Willie, well, into the boys. I mean, that's the right answer, right? That's a real strange one.

You know, Luka and Boc, Texas, have you ever been there, Mike? Nope. So I'm going to do this. I'm going to do a terrible job here to anyone who's been to Lukan Bok, especially people that are in and around that area very fond of that. So I don't want to do it a disservice, but it's awesome. And, you know, they sing about it in the country songs and you go there. And it's this small sort of country story. beer

joint and it's got a little amphitheater outside for some small intimate concerts but every time you go inside the building which is a it is half country store gift shop

bar they have people and they're playing all it seems like every time I've been in there in your mind you just imagine like if I go in here there's going to be some people sitting down picking on the guitar or playing songs and they are And they're not recognizable names, but they're very good. And they all, I think, play there because of the lure and the history of that town or that building and that location and how people have been either discovered there or hone their craft there as players and singers and so forth. but they've got another sort of uncovered building that's kind of like a dance hall

dance hall is a real popular down in Texas and they're a lot of fun if you ever get a chance to go out to a dance hall in Texas please it is a great time and which I'd never been to one until me and Amy got together but look and back man it's it's worth a stop on the tour if you're in and around the area, go in there and have a cold beer and listen to some music, and it's chill, you just chill, just hang out. Stratus D-S-Y-R wants to know.

What's your favorite Nirvana song? That's a... I mean, Teen Spirit was the one that I heard first, and I remember exactly where I was at when I heard that song for the first time. It is hard to pick a favorite. It really is hard to pick a favorite. You don't have a favorite, do you?

I mean, it's, yeah, the Teen Spirit song. I mean, like, it's a plato song. You know, almost hate to pick Teen Spirit because it's popular. Well, it got to where they almost, I read that they weren't even that great, crazy about playing it anymore. Really? On tour because they had, they'd been asked, it was like the only, you know. I'm sure. Yeah, it gotten.

But it's such a good song. Yeah, it'd gotten old. Territorial Pissing. One's, really, one song that, that I liked, I think it was on the Beavis and Butthead soundtrack, was I hate myself and I want to die. I think that's the name. It was a good soundtrack. Yeah, that was a good soundtrack.

And I want to go ahead and pop up the, go ahead and throw another question at me. I'll see if I can find another song. All right. Becky Etheridge here on the YouTube live chat. Good morning. Any chance you guys could ever ask Michael Rooker to be a guest. Routy Burns would be a great guest.

Yeah. I mean, that would kind of be cool to have Routy Burns here, get his perspective on. Yeah, I figured that was why you asked this question because you have an agenda. Never. Yeah. I'm sure you could tell us some pretty cool stories about Days of Thunder in the movie and the experience of making that. So that's not a bad idea and one that hadn't crossed my mind.

So I appreciate that question. These are interesting questions, man. I wonder if these are in there all the time. And Leah just doesn't pull them out. Because she gets me like, you know, best barb- She may be better on choosing than me. Q dive in Charlotte. Man, some people chime in in right now.

Somebody just said, will John C. Riley ever be a guest on DJD? That's a pretty good one. Why don't we just get the whole cast in here? Beavis and Butthead. No, that's impossible. John C. Riley, I'm a huge fan of his. Heck, yeah. Dr. Steve Bruill, everybody, I think that's why that brought up.

Leeland Reynolds, they know you're a fan of corn. Yeah. Have you listened to the new album? And are you a fan of it yet? I haven't listened to the new album. So I will. Bob Jenkins is a suggestion? Wow, these are some good suggestions coming in.

We need to go to this more often, man, for that. You like these. I mean, it's helping me out. You like these. Like, you might be the only one in the room that likes a few of these. Thanks a lot. Kyle Changian saying, kept hearing a lot during that first stage from you guys on NBC about the cars,

especially Stuart Haascar is being trimmed out. I saw this tweet. Yeah. What does it mean? when a team's trim out a car? Basically, it just means that they strip away a little bit of the downforce and drag trying to go for straight line speed.

They're hoping that the track's going to have a lot of grip and it's not going to be slick, so they won't depend as much on the downforce to give the car a good handle in the corner. And they're hoping that they're going to take gamble that they can keep that car out front. Obviously, if you're out front, you have the most downforce,

the most, you have the best error. Your air is not dirty. Obviously, you know, when you lap cars, it will get dirty. But what they're going to do is gamble that they can keep the car at the front of the pack, keep it in clean air. They won't need quite as much downforce and drag as these guys that are mired back in 10th or 15th place, trying to claw their way through the field. And sometimes that gamble works.

I mean, I can't, I don't know the setup on the four car from Indy, but he qualified on the pole. and he won the race. So I would assume that maybe he had less down force, less drag than most guys with his qualifying effort. And then he was able to deliver in the race with a great handling car. So there was a perfect sort of balance between straight line speed and handle. And there's a lot of flexibility, I think, within the rules today and how they trim the car out. They can drop the back of the car down to get the spoiler out of the air.

The only the downside to that is if you get in traffic If you have a car that is low on down force and drag And you get in traffic then you're really in trouble You really got your one arm tied behind your back in that dirty air And you'll have a harder time I think trying to get back around cars or past cars than other people You saw the 22 this weekend drive from the back of the pack to the front Well I would assume with his qualifying effort. He has the same

Ford Mustang that the Stuart Hoss cars had. He has the same engine that the Stewart Hoss cars had, but he qualified 22nd. And then he drove through the field really quickly. I would assume he had a good amount of downforce on that race car to be able to do that. They went in that direction

thinking that would be best. And it was playing out pretty well for him. But so when you see somebody qualified good, It doesn't always mean they're low down force, but it typically does. When you see somebody that you think should qualify well, qualify in the 20th place or 22nd, you would hope or assume that they've got a lot of downforce on that car, and they're sacrificing that good qualifying run for hopefully a better handling car once they're in the race. Does that make sense to you, Mike?

Yeah, I mean, it's as best as I can. If Mike says yes, then we have succeeded. You've done it. I've got a Nirvana song. Oh, all right. My favorite Nirvana song, I didn't think about this, but it's school, and it's the live version of that song from the muddy banks of, I don't know the rest of the title. Somebody's going to tell you on YouTube. Somebody probably tell us.

One last question here. You cook with butts. They must, or you cook with butter. Oh, interesting spelling. They like butter. Have you ever, do you have anything new in the room? Haven't seen the camera pan around yet. Have we had any new additions to the studio?

Yeah. Right behind. me is a it's a pillow a car pillow it's this Winston car pillow right here Mike you want to get it

yeah can you see it in the shot he's looking at it right now yeah he's gotten a shot Mike you don't have to get yeah they made these back in the 70s and they had Kell Yarborough David Pearson Richard Petty

Bobby Allison I think were the four different drivers that had those made as well as the Winston Showcar pillow. And they're fun to collect. I've been on eBay, and I bought buying all those on eBay and collecting them to, one day there was a Richard Petty one that was in really, really freaking good shape, and I lost it to Matt Yocham on eBay.

He outbid me. I was winning the bid, and I drove into a parking deck and lost service. He won the damn thing. I was so mad. Because Matt Yolkin, me and him sort of seemed to be the way. looking at the same things on eBay as far as vintage NASCAR. And you bought me that and you showed up one day and gave it to me as a gift of Richard Petty 1.

Yeah. I always appreciate that. Oh, yeah. All right, that's it for Asr Jr. presented by Nationwide. It's a great time of the year, Mike. I love the Redskins, and despite them being 0 and 2, I'm still extremely happy that the NFL season is back. Our friends at Cadence 13 have a great podcast out now called GM's Shuffle.

Mm-hmm. If you're a football fan, you've got to check it out. Here's more from the host. Hi, I'm Michael Lombardi. I'm Adnan-Virk. And Mike, we have a blast here on the GM Shuffle. Certainly when it comes to football, we're passionate. But what's the key here with GM Shuffle is we're not only taking inside the game. And of course, Mike, you've been in the trenches, you've won Super Bowls,

you've written a best selling book, Red Iron Genius. But we're having fun as well. And you're going to tell it like it is. We owe it to the fans. We owe it to you, to be honest. I mean, if you want just a normal, hey, everything's great, you know, lions are going to be spict. Then this is not the podcast to listen to.

But if you want to talk about football, and you want to learn about the game what goes on inside the game. I've often said football is the most popular sport, but it's the one that fans know the least about. And I think that's our job here at the GM Shuffle, AD and I, is to educate you and give you a perspective that's a little bit different than perhaps you're hearing. We also talk to three S's here on GM Shuffle.

That would be Sopranos, Springsteen, and Salinger. So come get some. New episodes every Monday and Thursday. Subscribe for free on radio.com, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your shows. White flag, bud. White flag right there. White flag. First, I want to start out the white flag. Just saying thoughts and prayers to Leah. Leah's not in the studio today. She had some family that, you know, suffered some loss over the weekend. And so we're thinking about her and also the family of Mike Stefantic guys. I mean, you know, tragic news that came across during the race Sunday night

that Mike Stefanik lost his life. Certainly a major, major racer up north and was on the ballot for the NASCAR Hall of Fame. We'll get there. He'll get there. It's just so unfortunate that he's not going to be able to give his speech. So listen, our thoughts and pressure with those guys. Moving on. Listen, this week, the season, hold on, let me start that over.

This week, Dale Jr., the episode of Straight Up Steve Austin is going to air. Tuesday at 10 p.m. 10 p.m. Eastern, 9 p.m. Central, right after WWE Smackdown. Wow. The straight up Steve Austin episode with Dale Jr. I cannot wait to watch that. That's going to be fun. And the promos and stuff for that.

Steve's starting to put stuff out. So I'm pretty excited about that. Thankful for being on his show. He was an amazing guy. Nice enough to come on to the podcast and do that as well. Yeah. One of our favorite podcasts. That was really cool.

Speaking of TV, I looked at producer Brian. It looks like that we will be back on for that three episode airing on Tuesday. That's going to be 5 p.m. This is the Dale Jenner Downwood TV show I'm speaking of, actually. It's on NBC Sports Network 5 p.m., 9 p.m. And again, midnight. So something must have worked. last week when we did that. We're going to do it again.

So 5 p.m., 9 p.m. and midnight, Eastern Time on Tuesday. That's the Dale Jr. Download TV show. Apple podcast rating and reviews, guys. Kyle Jose May wrote Dale Jr., Mike, and David Dillner do a great job of milking interesting stories out of every guest. I listen to this podcast every week during my three-hour drive to and from my girlfriend's house. Holy crap. Wow.

That's commitment. I mean, dang, man. And love. That's love right there. That's love. I'm glad you all notice. I appreciate the comments, but man, three-hour drive back and forth. I hope she's worth it.

I guess she is. Good for him. Good for Kyle. Stephen Fresno says, here's how great this podcast is. It starts with Dale Jr. talking about going to a party and peeing in a closet. And it ends with the talk of baby shark and Elmo. The best part is Del Jr. talks about both with equal enthusiasm. And I agree.

Thank you, Steve and Fresno. And listen, we've got websites. I say it every week. You can buy your socket to childhood cancer socks on socket2CC.com. That's still going on. And that's it, guys. Let's hear some odd history. All right, guys, odd history.

Thank you to NASCAR Man on Twitter for giving us this information, supporting this podcast. Go support him on Twitter. Follow NASCAR Man. You're going to get a lot of awesome stories. I promise you won't be disappointed. So here's our odd history today. One of the first superstars of NASCAR from Virginia.

Obviously, we've heard the name Curtis Turner. Oh, yeah. He won the 1956 Southern 500, and he was known for his Devil May Careers driving style and wild parties. Away from the track, I didn't know he had wild parties. I didn't know they caught Devil May Careers. Ralph Moody, driver and co-owner of the Holman Moody team, once said that after a race, he wanted to be sure to collect the purse

and give Turner his share because if he got the money, he would spend it all partying. You'd go party with him. In October 1965, Turner almost missed a race at Rockingham when a party got out of hand, so much so that he had to call Moody to get some help.

Turner said he needed to get picked up on a side street near his party pat. Moody said that he asked, Does your airplane not run? And Turner's response was, I can't get to it. Well, there was a reason for that. Turner was parting with a woman that happened to be married. The woman's husband found out and showed up to Turner's place with a rifle.

He fired shots at Curtis when Curtis tried to leave the house. Damn! Turner was stuck in the house and asked Moody to meet him down a side street. Curtis made a run for it and the two flew the Rockingham together. Hours after avoiding the guns, shots of an angry husband Turner won the race and the 17th and final win of his cup career. He'd been up all night and partying before that.

Good Lord, I'd never heard that story. Man. So, shots fired. Hey, man, come pick me up on the side street. Your plane don't run? That's like, right. That's the obvious question that you ask. Okay.

Guys, I appreciate everybody for tuning in. It's a great show. Sorry for being a little tired and rambling like a mad, man in some parts of the show but i hope you enjoyed it ron hornaday thank you for coming out and uh we'll see you next week this bit of bad assery was made by dirty mo media dirty mo I don't know.