The Dale Jr. Download - 282 - Kenny Wallace: Therapy

Episode Date: November 12, 2019

A colorful and candid sit down between Dale Earnhardt Jr and Kenny Wallace takes you on a journey from being dirt poor in Missouri to NASCAR fame. Kenny opens up about his brother Rusty, getting his first ride from Dale Earnhardt, getting fired from his Cup ride, his passion for dirt racing and why the nine-time Xfinity Series winner says thinks he’s an overachiever. Wallace tells us about being blocked on Twitter by Michael Waltrip, and how people assume he was "shot in the ass with diamonds." Dale and Co-host Mike Davis get real about what needs to happen with the Phoenix package and NASCAR fining Bubba Wallace. We also learn about Dale Jr's morning blunder and why the DJD gang resists the I-Phone updates that have Dale Jr buzzing. Earnhardt pours some Sugar on Odd History and wraps with a tease about our upcoming final episode of the season. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Our guest. Kenny Wallace. Dirty Moe. The Dale Jr. Download. Dirty Mover. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr.

Download with my co-host, Mike Davis. Matthew Dillner, and Leah Vaughn. What's up, guys? Hi, man. How's it going? So, yeah, let's get right to it. We had a Phoenix race. this weekend. Denny Hamlin had to go in there and win the race to advance into the final four at

Homestead. He goes out there and he does it. Convincing fashion. They put down this traction compound. I know you love talking about that, Mike. You know, if it matters. It matters. It definitely does. And I know that you don't like to go, and this is a new phrase I hear a ton, but I know you don't like to go to insider baseball with your racing. You like it pretty straightforward. This guy took the lead. Okay, this is what, you know, oh, there's a crash. Okay, awesome restart. There's a pass. You don't want to really get it to the details and the weeds of really the technical stuff. But I understand. Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that. And at times I sort of go back and forth between that as well. But man, you know, the race, wasn't that great?

There were moments. There were moments. It wasn't really for the lead. I'm going to tell you, man, I'm looking at Jeff Gluck's, was it a good race poll? Over 80% said no. Oh, really? Yes, sir. And so let's talk about that now. This isn't a bash. It's in a bash the sport kind of conversation. But let's say we have to, you know, it's obvious.

We've got to talk about it. Okay. All right. The cars just don't race well with this package on the short tracks. The spoiler is way too big, all right? And on a short, short course with a big giant spoiler on the car, basically taking all of the air off of the car behind, it's impossible to pass.

It's impossible to get runs. A faster car has to be exponentially faster by more than three-tenths to half a second to be able to pass another car. It's really, if you sit there, if you were tasked to stand on top of the roof and watch all of the short track races today with a keen eye and focus on what you're seeing, you would understand that I think that there needs to be a different package for the short track. If NASCAR wants to go with this high-down force, low horsepower, at the mile and a halfs, and so forth, it seems to work at a lot of tracks. It does very well.

We've had some amazing racing this year. It's been a lot of good, exciting racing. I will say, though, the short tracks have not been that great. And I feel like that they should really look into making an adjustment, some sort of a change to the aerodynamics. I don't care about the power. Leave the power. If you want, $450, $5.50, whatever it is everywhere, keep it. All right.

But we need to be able to allow the drivers to have some sort of ability to catch, get to, pass, and, you know, race around each other a little bit easier at the smaller tracks. Anything, I guess, a mile and shorter has been affected adversely, I think, by this package that we had this year. Don't you think they will make a change? I'm afraid they might not. You know, I'm afraid. What makes you think that? Well, they've been pretty stern and, and, and, and, you know,

I would say hard-headed or focused about trying to go in this direction, that high downforce, low horsepower. And they will also say that the teams don't want a lot of variations in the packages because it's expensive to have to science out each one individually, right? If I have, if you came today and said, you know what, guys, you're going to go run the next race without a spoiler. Now we've got to go to work and figure out how to make that fast, right, with the technology that we have here in the shop or in the wind tunnel.

We're going to spend any available funds we have trying to science that out before we ever get to the racetrack. So I understand the team's frustrations with having multiple arrow packages, even multiple different types of horsepower and so forth. It is a bit more of an expense for the teams. But I believe that, you know, it's an upfront cost. If you just stripped off the rear spoiler completely and take all the, take the front splitter off in the pan. All right. So you're basically removing down force from both ends of the car. It's a upfront cost for the teams to science that out quickly.

And they're limiting the wind tunnel time that these teams can spend. So they're going to science that out on a simulator with Chevrolet, the manufacturer simulators. They can science it out there. They can use their SIM programs and so forth as well in their in-house SIM programs to help understand how to balance the car. But I really think that it's short tracks. they should strip every bit of downforce off of the cars.

All right. Anything that's going to create downforce and drag just needs to come off the race car entirely. So they'd go around Martinsville, Bristol, Richmond, maybe even Dover, some of the tracks like Phoenix, for sure. We cannot go back to Phoenix for the finale next year and have the race that we had this weekend. We can't. Okay. So now that they've had, like how long have we had? got more than a sample size now, but I think up until now, anything, any changes would have been

rash. Sure. Now, though, they've got a bigger product to look at, and I think it's pretty easily, don't they ultimately, at the end of the day, make decisions on what's a better racing product for the fans? Don't they typically, I mean, that's certainly what we've been experiencing since, you know, Phelps and Jim France, and they haven't had a whole lot of time to really make ultimate big, wide sweeping changes. So, um, uh, I, I just feel. feel like that they'll see this overall body of work and then make adjustments on that. I would think that they would do that maybe in the offseason because, yeah, you're right. The short tracks took hit.

The mile and a halfs made great progress. That's what needed help, frankly. So I think it takes a little bit of time to get to where we want to be. But yeah, I think that I would expect them to make some changes. I get what you're saying about the expense of the teams. And as a team owner, I would expect you to care more about that. But ultimately, I think the race fan and the entertainment, product wins out. And so I would think that they would be open to making some concessions in

areas and maybe something like what you're suggesting based off the fact that they're going to have to get the short tracks back to racing better. Yeah. I think I have a, we have a budget here at junior motor sports that we work within. And if they came to us and said, we're going to change the package for the short tracks, it would cost us money. But we'd figure out a way to make it work. We would. All the teams would. Always. And I feel the same way about the cup side. Now, they don't want to have to do that, but if they're forced into that box, they're going to adjust and adapt. They're very versatile and creative. I long for the days of back when before the RTA, before they had any track agreements or anything like that, where Bill French

Jr. or senior just said, this is what's happening. Everybody conform, right? I feel like that, you know, NASCAR needs to wield that authority at some point here in the near future to be able to make the decisions they need to make, you know, regardless of other people's opinions in the sport. That's a good point is that the RTA does add a different dynamic to this because the expense of the race teams will absolutely matter a lot more than Bill France coming in and just wielding his power. Sure. Yeah.

So, well, I think that it's important to speak about it now. I know the drivers have all had opinions about, you know, this package and how it's raced at certain tracks, mostly some. favorable opinions, some not so favorable opinions. And I think at the short tracks, you know, you wait out to the end of the year. You know, we didn't sit on this. I've seen this and kind of felt this.

It's some of the short tracks that we've raced at. But you wait it out. You know, it's the end of the year. We've seen the whole thing. We're, it's time to talk about it. It's time to think about whether there's alternatives or changes that can be made to give us a better season next year. And we always should be that way. We always should be trying to improve, get better.

And I think that, you know, especially the fact, I guess it's even more critical because we just came out of Phoenix. That is going to be where we crown the champion. And we really got to give. It's going to need to be better. It has to be better. It cannot be what we just had. Right. And it will be.

It will be what you just saw if nothing's changed. All right. Yeah. Also, we changed our, when did we change our clocks? This is funny. We changed it last weekend. Last week. So it was Texas.

So Texas, what was last week? Hey, all run together to me. Was that Texas, Matthew? Was it, Leah, shaking. Yes. Yeah, so, yeah, I'm spun out. Listen to this. This is funny, because Dale Jr. shows up.

I got here this morning, and I walked over to the door. It's locked. Couldn't get in. To his own building. I'm like, why are they late? Who's not here on time, right? Almost nine o'clock. And I can't get in.

Well, it wasn't nine o'clock. It was eight o'clock. And so, yeah, so we changed the clocks in ten. Texas. I've been running and gunning, wide open since then, and went out to Phoenix and all that, and I came home and got home late, and I just haven't had time to set the clock. I got a clock in my bedroom, and I look at the clock on the microwave, all right? Let's see a show of hands. Does anybody else use anything other than their phone to understand what time it is in their own home?

Do you use a clock? Everybody else? Leah, just your, you don't look at any clock in your house at all ever to go. okay, it's that time. No. Wow. I don't either. Yeah, I've switched.

I'm the only phone now. Only phone. So you don't set the clock on your microwave ever? My wife does. My wife takes care of all that crap. Do you look at it? Not the microwave. My microwave to bed.

So now it's my alarm clock by my bed maybe. So you use the clock by your bed. I don't really look at it. Well, you've got an alarm. I think it's point. No, no, no. I got a clock by my bed. I look at it when I go to bed.

I look at it when I wake up. And mainly because, it's easier than rolling over and tapping on the screen of my phone and seeing what the hell it says, because I can just open my eyes and see that clock. All right, we're all about efficiency. We have the monitor in the bedroom where I was, you know, we can hear Ila. And if she goes, if I hear her talking, I look at the clock.

And typically I'm going to go in there and get her at eight. All right. She now only wakes up around 7.30, but she'll play in her crib for a little bit. And so we're all about being on a schedule. That's why I don't get up at 7.30. or 745 or 715 whenever I first hear it, I get up at 8, we go get her at 8, all right? And so I heard her this morning, and I'm like,

I'm going to get her now. I ain't seen her all weekend. I'm going to run. I can't wait. I run in there, get her out of bed, to go through the hold motions, right? Get her a bottle downstairs. Amy comes down.

And I'm thinking, I got to go, man. It's time because the clock on the microwave said 815, 830, 845. I'm like, all right, I got to get out of here. be late. So I ran over here, but none of my clocks are set. And Amy didn't think anything of it either. I don't think it registered with her. She still trying to wake up, I think, but she's laughing now. Well, she's not alone. Yeah. We all are. But in fairness, isn't Phoenix the one that doesn't recognize daylight savings time? Yeah. That always confuses me too, which by the way, kudos to Phoenix for not recognized. But you're coming from a place. I'm blaming on that. You're coming from a place. Not only have you

not had time to set your clocks, but you're coming from a place that sometimes they change, sometimes they don't, I guess, right? I'm going to sound like a real moron, but what are, what is the point of recognizing it? I hate it. What are we doing? I hate it. Oh, man. What's it for? What does it serve? I could be wrong. I'm sure people will correct me if I'm wrong. For sure. But I believe, I believe that it was a energy saver is, uh, that it's more, but you know, when it comes to your heating your house and all that. It's trying to put you to sleep more so that you're not using up your lights.

It's like, I believe that's what it was. That's why it was instituted. And I'm here to tell you, I use up more regardless in the winter. I use up more. Yeah, there's a couple different reasons. According to some sources, it saves energy. But the main source is to make better use of daylight. We change our clocks during the summer months to move.

an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. Yeah, I don't need people to help me how to use my day. I don't need their help. You don't use your daylight properly. Properly. Here, let me do something. I'm going to change your clock for you. I need to help.

I'm going to make it dark by the time you leave work. Thanks government. Right. That's the thing. My day is spent inside anyway. So, you know, unfortunately, I've got no different way of using my day. Okay. Well, let's turn into something else.

Let's raise hands in here who all has iPhones. Okay. I have an iPhone. Everyone who has an iPhone, raise your hand. Oh, Kevin did. We have two. We have a droid here and a droid, two droids, okay, out of how many we got in the room? We've got, let's see, 6, 7, 8, 9.

No, I think we got 9. 9 or 11. Yeah, I can't count. Nine or 11. So it's a lot of, there's a majority iPhone, right? They got an update. It's really throwing everybody for a loop. A lot of things have changed.

A lot of the same. features that you think are missing are actually still there, okay? They just change the way we use the phone. Very frustrating, okay? Tell them when you realize this. Well, there's been a few things.

So I was deleting emails because they moved the they changed and moved the delete button to where the reply button was. What? Yeah, something like that. So it's taken me a while for the muscle memory, right? You get muscle memory of how to go and read your phone,

read emails and so forth, and they moved the delete button to a commonly used space on the screen where I think you would hit reply. And so a lot of people were deleting emails unintentionally before their muscle memory changed as to how you use the email features now. There's a lot more clicks to get to certain things, such as replying for an email and so forth. And there's now, one of the more frustrating updates is editing a word, right? If you're writing a tweet or anything and you misspell something, he used to just be able to hold your finger down on the screen and move it over to where you want to change the spelling

that you would sound incorrectly. The cursor would just jump to where you're putting. Right. And it would have this little magnify sort of effect to help you sort of see better as to what you're trying to be more specific about to where you're going with the change the spelling. And they take to took that out All right. And so now for so long, I'm trying to change the mistake I've made and can't quite get the cursor exactly where I wanted to go. And I tweeted about it. I said, hey, they've taken away this feature. Now I can't. It's really hard. I almost had to rewrite the entire tweet. But somebody said, you actually hold down the space bar. And that actually then move your thumb around. So you can do it. You can try it right now. I didn't do the update. type something, hold down the space bar, and you can move the cursor around really easy.

I haven't done the update yet. I can't do it. You didn't update your clock. We didn't update our phone. Disappointing, right? So annoying. Right, right. I will tell you that when you came over and did this in my office right before we came down here,

it did look amazingly easy and almost felt guilty for being so mad at Apple. I know. For taking the, doing the update. I was angry, and now I like this better. Yeah. This is much easier. It is sporty. So some of the features that feel like maybe they're gone are just different.

All right. And for those of you that haven't updated, just because, I mean, why haven't you all updated? I mean, it takes seconds. Yeah, I just, I wait. You hate to update. Yeah. You hate the active updating. No, I don't like the changes, so I wait as long as possible to, like, I'm forced to do it.

And I also. Do you research the changes beforehand? Yeah, like, I see it all people talking about on social on Twitter. So, like, I see people like you are frustrated. So I'm just like, well, I'm going to hold off. And then I still have, like, the old phone because I don't want to get rid of my button. Like, I'm scared to change. Yeah, I'm scared to change.

I like, because I'm like, I rely on that button so much. And I don't, the swipe, you swipe to get to the home screen? It's very easy. It scares me. I don't like change. You're in social media. I know. Yeah.

But I Yeah. Like I'm old. I have an excuse. I'm an old school, you know, social media person. Well. Myspace, Dirty Mo Media. Coming up next.

To be someone who lives in constant fear of certain things like buttons and swiping up, the updates are actually for your own benefit because your phone has security issues and people could hack into your identity and still. all your money. You work for Apple right now? I know. I'm just saying, like, the consequences of not updating your phone are just as scary. I just hate how it tries to force you to update too. I hate that.

Who forces you? They do. They just alert you. They just say, hey, there's an update. I'll update when I want to update. Yeah, but how do you even know if they don't tell you? They're just telling you, Jesus. At any time Apple is capable of just saying, all right,

We got this old fart that won't update. This update it foreign-wise. Matt wants his phone to go, Hey, there's an update. Matt, I'm sorry I don't mean to bug you. Right. All right. We're watching you.

Matt, I'm sorry, I don't mean to bother you, but your phone's out of date. Hey. The security issue is another whole, that's something that I could go a long time about. There was some new information that I had learned recently about just how. We got zero privacy. I mean, like, we really don't have privacy. And Apple and Google really don't aim to help us in that issue. They've got it wrapped up.

Yeah. It's a... But we need our phones, right? I think we should go to Ask Junior. Oh, okay. What do you think? I don't know. He doesn't like this conversation.

I don't guess he does. What do you think, Dale? I want to drag it out as long as... I do, especially now. Yeah, I didn't... But we have Kenny Wallace coming. Oh. What?

Guess what we're going to talk with Kenny Wallace about? Your updates. Your, no, you. First question with Kenny's going to be, hey, why is Matthew not updated his phone? Yeah. All right. Yeah, that's so true, man. Like, we'll read these ads for Avalene and Ancestry Health, and then I'll start seeing those ads in the activities on my phone.

Freaks me out. No. Yeah. I turned off some features. You have a conversation with somebody about something, and then you see later an ad for that very product. you might have been discussing. That's right. Yeah.

Weird. Freaks me out. Hey, can I ask a quick question without elongating this segment? I wanted to ask Dell this. Please don't drag this out. No, no, it's not about this. But if you give me the short answer.

That's the voice in that is. Give me the short answer here. NASCAR finding Bubba Wallace $50,000 after admitting that he did intentionally spend. You had a big opinion about this, how drivers should police themselves and yada yada yada on the last episode. Have you changed on that? And do you have a quick opinion on this? All right. So, I, you know, I don't really care whether a driver gets fined.

I mean, the points are probably pretty critical because now he has done something that's affected his team, right? If you find me, that's on me. I'm going to pay that. And my tire guy doesn't mind one bit. You're right? My mechanic, my car chief, they're not paying that fine. So it hasn't bothered them. It doesn't change their data.

today. But if I get points taken away, now I've bothered the entire team. Now I have done, I have taken away something that they've earned or worked for, right? Those points are just as important to everybody on the team as they are to the driver, right? You know, the fines and the points don't send the entire, that doesn't fix the whole thing for me, right? And it's not as important to me as getting a driver in the hauler in front of the NASCAR officials and getting his asked you. That to me is the way you send a message. When I was a rookie or in the first handful of years that I drove in the Cup series, I was terrified to go into the NASCAR hauler, even on a Friday to say hello. Now, you damn sure didn't want to get called in there after a race,

but I wouldn't even, that was off limits. I wasn't allowed to go in there unless I was asked to go in there, right? Now, there are some drivers, my dad, Jeff Burton, that walk, walked in there because they had safety concerns or advice or they were that was there was a couple drivers that took it upon themselves to be that sort of voice but for the majority of us like we didn't want to go in there we didn't need we didn't we didn't want to be asked to go in there we didn't we didn't go over there to say hello that was you stayed away right from the hauler and because you but the holler was synonymous with getting your ass to you right and getting a message of, hey, you've disappointed us. You've embarrassed us or you've made a mistake or you've

done something that we can't have you doing anymore. And that's sort of not the same anymore. We don't have that anymore. I don't think that there's that same level of respect or or fear or whatever it needs to be. But you wouldn't know if he got, maybe he did get his ass chewed. Well, it's not like they would put a press release out to say that they, we chewed his ass. Everything's fine. I mean, you won't, you won't ever. know if Bubba Wall. He might have. I don't know who would have been the chewer. Yeah. I don't know who that is. Is it O'Donnell? Who it is? But I mean, I'm just saying we don't have it. I guess my point was, did you have a problem with NASCAR fining him, finding him $50,000 after a week?

Well, I want to make sure that I'm clear. I don't care if he gets fined. Okay. All right? I don't care if he gets fined. I don't care about points. What I want O'Donnell or Phelps or or or or whoever it may be to do is to take that driver into a private conversation and help them understand why they don't need to do that anymore. I don't care what they've done, but it needs to be a one-on-one with that individual, and that man walks out of there smarter, and he can mentor the next young crop that comes in

that thinks that they can pull that kind of stuff, right? And that's how you police the garage as a driver, all right? So if that driver hasn't been in that conversation, doesn't have that information of why it truly is a bad decision, why it genuinely was a mistake to do that, then he cannot police the garage and he cannot help the younger drivers. If you just find him and take his points away, you've really just pissed him off.

You really haven't gotten the message through. I don't think that that driver walks away and goes, wow, I really learned something. about my mistake. He just goes, well, now publicly I've been shamed and I'm pissed, right? Now I'm embarrassed and pissed, and I really probably haven't learned anything.

But if you take them in there on the carpet and you say, hey, you sit down and you have a 30-minute conversation about really why that's a bad thing to do because there's some great points that NASCAR could probably tell this driver that he's not going to hear through a fine or a mailed penalty,

Um, that's how you get the message through, man. And that's how that driver can share that information with the next kid and the next kid and the next driver and his, and his friends that he races with. That message gets out after that conversation. That's what I want to have. Okay. Happen. And it, and it more than likely did happen. Yeah.

Wow, that's interesting. I like how you, you, I thought for sure that this was NASCAR policing itself. You've, you were a driver policing themselves, uh, advocate, a strong advocate last week. And I thought that this would be NASCAR policing, which I feel like they must do. Yeah. Frankly, I think you and I differ on that. But that's interesting. You bring up a point where this does help the drivers police themselves, as long as they know the message and not the discipline.

The disciplinary action has to come with the message. And that's true for any disciplinary in action, even as you're a parent. Yeah. You know, if you're just discipline or punish your kid, but don't tell them why. You're grounded. But don't give them the benefit of knowing what they could have done better, then it's really kind of, you know, futile. Right, exactly. So if you just take away my, you know, my Xbox, I'm just pissed because I don't have my Xbox. Right.

But if you tell me what I did and why I'm being, why I'm in trouble and if I get a real good ass chewing, I'm going to remember that, right? I'm going to understand that that's wrong to do and what I should have done differently. That's good. I was curious. When I heard the news, I was just curious if Dale Jr.'s take on this had changed it all or if he had one because you were so adamant last week. basically the spinning yourself out. Yeah. All right. Let's move on. We're up.

We're live. We're streaming. This is Dell Jr. For the Dell Jr. Download. This is our last ass junior of the year. If you're here, congratulations,

because this is it. Follow all of our social media handles at Dirtymo Media. Don't, not just, I'm not going to be the one giving you the information from my personal handles. Follow Dirty Mo Media to be able to stay on top of what we are doing and what we have planned. And thank you for following or subscribing to Dirty Mo Media on YouTube.

So we've got some questions coming in. Leah is going to help you guys get those things through. Let's go. Yeah, our first question from T. Brown staying on theme with our guest today. Do you have a favorite Kenny Wallace story? Do I have a favorite Kenny Wallace story? Yeah, you know, I mean, that's the point of having him on the show. Yeah, like we've probably, I've been around Kenny Wallace.

a long time and some of the stories that, I don't know, damn, my favorite Kenny Wallace story. We'll think about it and we'll have them in here soon, actually. So we'll take care of it. Good one to come back to. Mysterious 623. Who's your championship favorite? Damn. These questions are tough.

Sorry. He didn't come to ask you to answer questions? It's not mad. I was expecting softballs. What's your favorite pizza? I got that one easy. That's an easy one. So, damn.

What was the question, Leah? You're buying them since I? Championship favorite. Oh, who the championship favorite is. I'm going to tell you, man, you're going to have a hard time sort of picking a guy that stands out. And that's even made more difficult after what happened last year. Joe Ligano came in there and sort of surprised everybody. He was not really factored in as the favorite, and there were three guys.

that had dominated the season between Harvick and Truex and Kyle Bush. So when he won, it was, I thought, a bit of an upset and a surprise for everyone. And we don't have a dominant team. Martin Trex Jr. wins at Martinsville and had a pretty good start to the playoffs. And then now, you know, the 11 cars won this weekend. And Harvick dominated Texas. It just seems like any week, it's either one of these guys stepping up. And just like this past weekend, so there was eight guys in play on Sunday to try to get themselves into this final four.

And at one point in the race, all eight were in the top eight. It was just like, you know, all the teams that need to win are all there in the top eight. Right. So at this race in Homestead, I will be shocked, I guess, if anybody in the top four is not running in the top four, right? I think that when they go there, you're going to see all four of these guys. qualify up front and race up front in the top four top five top six if they if if one of these guys runs in the back side of top ten i will be shocked that they're not running better than that i don't you know it just and that's why it's so hard to determine what driver i think has the advantage the

other problem is is that we haven't ran this track this year with this package it's not a typical mile and a half. It's certainly, you know, with the varro banking and the war out surface, super slick racetrack. We had the low horsepower, high down force. Typically, you see guys run right on the fence. Talking to Truex this weekend, he said the car doesn't really run the fence as well with this particular package. He doesn't know whether they're going to run the third groove, whether the bottom's going to be more of an opportunity. He thought he had the championship one running the bottom last year before that late yellow came out. So you just don't know where you're going to need to run and we also see guys even this far into the season missing the boat or missing the setup on

just how much down force and drag to have in the car right there's sort of this guess work that the crew chiefs make and even now over the last even through the playoffs they've all said like I really don't know exactly what I need to do and how I need to prepare this car before I loaded on the trailer and so when they show up to the racetrack some of them don't have quite as much down forces they hoped or thought they needed. Some have too much and can't run, you know, can't have, don't have short run speed. And so it just depends whether the crew chiefs make the proper decisions on how much drag and down forces in the car. And then on top of that, that's going to determine your long run speed, your short run speed. How does the race play out?

Do you get that late yellow that's going to favor that short run car? Do you not get that late yellow that's going to favor that long run car, it just really is hard to guess on who's going to be good. All four teams are amazing. There's no underdog that snuck into this final four. All four of these teams are stout, and they've all won multiple races this year. So one of the most competitive final four I think we've ever had in the series. Next question. What has surprised you or made you the most proud about your junior motorsported strivers this season that question from andrew on youtube obviously the win this past weekend uh by the seven team and just now guy or jason burdette and that crew just stepping up when they had to getting a job done taking advantage of some

issues with christopher bell who's been dominant all year long uh going out there and winning when they needed to win and we haven't won all year long we had a great year last year with a lot of wins no wins this year very frustrating it was weighing on justin and it was frustrating those guys So to be able to get a win, going into Homestead, creates a lot of good morale, positivity. That goes a long way this week as these guys work on this race car and get ready to go to Homestead. And so also Michael Annette, a lot of people, everybody pretty much, but only a few people know exactly how much work Michael's put into this year and how much change that he's had in his own life, his personal life,

and how he takes care of himself physically, how he's helped himself emotionally, and how he's really refocused his energy on his racing. I know what Michael's capable of, and I've seen that. When he was driving for Richard Petty Motorsports back in the Xfinity Series many, many years ago, he had a really, really solid year, top 10 in points, many top tens and top five finishes, and I feel like we're a better company that should be able to provide him with better cars and give him a better opportunity to exceed those results and have a career year if he would actually take the time to focus and study and train and put in the work needed.

He did this year. He put in the work needed. He's got a great team and a great crew chief around him to motivate him, and the results were there. You know, there's times when I want to shake him, grab him by the shoulders and go, come on, man. You know, seize this moment. Here you are. This is your year. You know, your best opportunity.

I felt like at Kansas I was just a little frustrated they had the opportunity to get tires late in the race and they had 20 lap better tires than everybody else and I'm thinking drive up and win this race

this is the moment lock yourself into the final four he ended up finishing in the top five and not really being able to get the win and so I was like damn that was it that was a net's chance right and but he had another good race this weekend

after that Kansas race I came in the garage and I said, you know, you guys need to challenge Michael to sort of step out of his comfort zone on a restart. Any moment in the rest of these playoffs, I want him to do something that's uncharacteristic of Michael Annette. And I think I saw that on a restart in Phoenix. He took the high side and worked his way into the top five. And it was really fun to see him do that. And you could tell that he has a lot more confidence in himself in the car as well. And so he's looking forward to next year with Michael. I think they can make a lot more progression even to get even better. And so And I'm happy for him too because he took a lot of heat for his performance over the last several years.

And this year he was able to have some fun and go out there and enjoy himself. Getting a lot of questions about your offseason plans. Anything big planned for this winter? Just, you know, I'm going to spend some time with my family. We have, you know, we've been working a lot. This year felt like I worked more. We went to, you know, the N.5-Hunter in Kentucky Derby and a couple other things early in the year before we ever started to broadcast the NASCAR. So I felt like I was gone, gone, gone a lot.

So I'm looking forward to December. We're going to go to the banquet in Nashville. You got to go to the banquet first year, first time in Nashville. I was going to skip it, to be honest with you. But Amy said, no, I like to wear a dress. We're going. She doesn't get many opportunities to get dressed up and go do something fun. So we're going to Nashville for the banquet.

Should be good. And, yeah, we'll visit her family in Texas for Christmas. We're going to host our family, Kelly, and our tight little family at my house this year for Christmas. That's the first. So I'm excited and nervous about that. It's going to be busy in our house that day. But then January is pretty wide open for now.

We'll see if I can keep it that way. All right. That is all the questions. All right, guys. Everybody, I appreciate y'all tuning in. It's been an awesome year. We really appreciate it. We've had a lot of growth this year.

We want to thank Nationwide for sponsoring the Ask Junior segment in the show all year. It's been a lot of fun bringing that to you guys. Okay, Mike, before we bring in our guests, let's talk about one of my passions, all right, my ancestry. Yeah. Now, it is so much more than being about where the Earnhardt family came from. It's about the future of the Earnhardt family.

And your family too, Mike. That's right. Introducing Ancestry Health from Ancestry. With Ancestry Health, you can discover how your DNA might influence certain health conditions and the steps you can take with a health care provider to chart a healthier path forward. Okay, it's an old fact that some health conditions can be influenced by genetics. That's right. Ancestry Health looks at a carefully selected set and gives you insight about how they could impact you and your family.

Years ago, I probably wouldn't have cared much about this, but now as a dad, I'm interested. That's right. Ancestry Health gives you so much. They provide personalized health reports. These things are easy to understand. You get access to genetic counseling resources, and they even give you a family health history tool to track generations of health. Hey, you know what else, Dale? You'll also receive ancestry DNA ethnicity results that reveal your origins.

What do you guys think? I love it. I've been hearing about it all year, and guess what? I'm taking the journey. I just signed up. There you go. He signed up. I was talking to some family.

I visited family in Alabama this weekend and was telling them exactly about this. Yeah. Very cool. You're so inspiring. A lady gave me a big envelope about how our, apparently some of her relatives are in hearts and she wants me to read this information about how we're connected. That happened this weekend. Oh, really?

In Phoenix, huh? Yeah. Those old Earnhardt's out in Phoenix. Phoenix Earnharts. The old Phoenix Earnhardt. Learn from your genes and take action for your family. Go to Ancestry.com slash Dale Jr. to learn more and get your Ancestry Health Kit today. That's ancestry.com slash Dale Jr.

Ancestry Health includes laboratory tests developed and performed by an independent CLIA certified laboratory partner and with oversight from an independent clinician network of board certified physicians and genetic counselors. Ancestry Health is not currently available in New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island. Ladies and gentlemen, our guest, Kenny Wallace. Are we ready? Ready? Ready, ready? Ready?

Ready? Are we ready? Are we ready? Okay, here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Okay, ready?

Okay, here we go. Kenny Wallace. Herman! Yep, yep. Uh-huh, uh-huh. I'm gonna tell you something. Kenny, Kenny Wallace. Homer.

Oh, uh-oh. Yes, what do you want? What? I'm going to tell you something. Why do you run that old dirt car? Dirt corn. Me, uh. Me poop, me pants.

I'm going to tell you something. I'm a diesel tanker driver. Yep, yep, yep. I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a. Diesel taker right now Yeah Gonna go drive my

Come on I'm a lover I mean no harm I'm a lover Happy happy joy, boy Sweet daddy got a little coffee with hazelnut creamer come on Ho Oh

Come on Come on Come on Come on Come on Don't let your meat lobe Got to get up on the cushion. Elbows up.

Come on. You run El Dorse, you got to be. Elbows up. Why do you run that old dirt car? It's fun. Oh, huh. I love it. You all are crazy.

Hey, come on in here. Uh-oh. Uh-oh, look at him. Now, I have my coffee. Well, come sit down. I bet you've already had like five cups of coffee. This third. Okay.

Third cup. Third cup. I stayed at Britney's house last night. Yeah. She goes, dad, I have coffee. coffee for you, but I don't have any normal creamer. So it was, I don't know, some pumpkin spice. That's what the kids have nowadays. Yeah, kids. You liked it, though, didn't you? I did. Well, you know, years ago, they started those NASCAR physicals, which made me

pay attention to my health a little bit. Yeah. Well, I was using all that hazelnut creamer. Well, I read up on it, they say it's really bad for you. So I went to normal cream. So she knows that. She goes, Dad, I'm sorry, I got pumpkin spice. I said, it's all right. So it was like ice cream. How much coffee do you drink? You don't need coffee. 2012, I was trying to find ways to get rid of all the sugar.

So I had to get off of Coke, Pepsi, sweet tea, and I was like this. Yeah. And so I found coffee. And I just like it. Yeah. Do you drink all day or just in the mornings? No, no, just in the mornings. Yeah.

Get up. My mother-in-law lives with us, so she's got the coffee maker. made. I go in there and probably about two cups. Your mother-in-law lives with you? Yes. You know, wow. Okay. Now listen, you would... Put that mic a little closer to you so we can make sure we're here and everything.

Testing one, two, three. There you got it. See, if I was in the race car, be like this right here. You know, right? As close as you can get it. All my ADD's kicking in right now. Now I'm thinking about I'm thinking about Rusty telling me when I first started racing, Herman, when you drive that race car now, you've got to make sure you push that

you only want right here One finger with. See how the way my brain works? If your microphone wasn't, if you couldn't push your lips out and touch it, something was wrong. You're freaking out. You're like, yeah. And people do that.

Now I'm willing to embarrass myself. What Junior's telling you is you got to do like this. And people do that. I see crew chiefs will do that. They can't talk to their driver without kissing the mic. Well, if you do that and you don't touch the microphone, you're too far. We've got to stop.

We've got to get this right. It appearances it for you. So I did, and go, and then there it is. Because you don't want it touching. That's annoying. What was the question? About your mother-in-law. D.

Living with you. So her husband died, and it was catastrophic. And it just seemed when we were leaving, you know, it was catastrophic for me to leave here and move back to St. Louis, but I really wanted to. So when we, she's a good lady, first of all. So when we left here, I thought, you know what? I hear these things called sweets in homes. So we have her door. She opens the door to her bedroom.

She got everything in there, her, you know, her bathroom and all that. And she's easy, spezy, man. And she's good to me. And we got this little, we got this little posting note on the coffee machine. And it just says coffee ready. And I get up sometimes too early and I take it off and I pushed a button. And there's my coffee. Yeah.

Yeah. It's pretty awesome. So you're a coffee drinker. You don't ever drink. You won't drink when you're driving to those millions of tracks that you drive every year. So water is hard for me to drink, but I know I have to drink it. I had Jennifer Marshall. She's priority aviation.

Jennifer is a very, her husband, Richard, they're great people. If you look at my race card says priority aviation, she's into health. And she goes, Kenny Wallace, you need drink more water. I'm like, why are you saying that? Am I shriveled up? You know, do I look like Richard, Betty? Oh, my God. Well, he's the king, but, you know,

and maybe he needs to drink more water, too. I think water lubricates your skin is what she was trying to tell me. So I try to drink water because I think it's good. When did you drive your first race car? 1982. First race car? No. No, thanks.

See, I knew this would be therapy, and I appreciate you. I do, because you're making me think now. Yeah. drove my very first race car probably when I was, and there's pictures out there. It was my brother Mike's car at Lake Hill Speedway, Valley Park, Missouri, and I was scared to death. I thought, oh my gosh, this is way different than I thought. How car was it?

It was a, what was that thing? Is it street stock? No, it was a real, it was actually a dirt car that Mike had there, and we ran it on asphalt. I don't know, Camaro, something like that. Isn't that crazy back then in the late 70s? there, well, I mean, it's not as crazy, I guess, in the 60s, in the 70s, early 70s, but then in the late 70s, guys would run dirt cars on asphalt, asphalt cars on dirt. Yeah.

It really didn't matter. Like nowadays, God, you would never run a dirt car on asphalt, right? Everything specialized, and you bring up great memories. So, Dad, my dad, Russ, was another, you know, Dale Earnhardt or Ralph. You know, dad would race his dirt car everywhere anytime. But my job was when we were done racing the dirt track, I'd change the gears and I'd take the drum brakes off with a wire brush. And I'd wire brush the brakes and then we'd run the asphalt race. But you always had a windshield, see?

I can't imagine those guys running with winches, but they did. In dirt. Dad ran a windshield on dirt. Dang. Gosh, up into the mid-sad. How do they see? One night he didn't. Dad, come off and turn for it.

Tri-City Speedway, Granite City, Illinois. Stuck the telephone poles, not far on the ground, and they had mounds of dirt around them. And Dad would always be low. Now I realize why he was so low because he was trying to get those left sides and some good dirt, some stick them. And his left front popped that thing in it.

Come way up, I flip over, and the crowd would go, ha. Anyway, early in the night, I'll never forget dad flipped because he did that. and Rusty and Mike got the car ready to go for the A-maintook, but couldn't put the hood on, had to take the hood off, started overheating, couldn't see. And I remember watching his little kid, Dad's driving with his head out the window, climbs the wall, takes the whole fence down, and later they have to cancel the event.

Dad's okay. Dad's the one that wrecked real bad tore the fence down. Dad's okay. My mom, Judy, she'll be here in a little bit. She comes flying out of the grandstands. Now remember, in the 70s, we fought because Dad would win too much, so they hated us. My mom comes flying out of the grandstands, okay, now the fence is down. She's climbing over the fence.

The electric lines are on the fence. She electrocutes yourself. Oh, my God. My mom is the one that ends up going to the hospital. Dad's fine. Whoa. Because of the windshield. Yeah.

Because he's looking out, you know, because the hood was off and the water's all over the windshield. Wow. And your mom's coming here, by the way. Did you just say that? Yeah, because I'm a vagabond. I left Phoenix, Yuma. So if you get in the car and drive past the racetrack at Phoenix, go three hours, agriculture capital of the United States, Yuma, all the lettuce. Anyway, I'm race, I was racing out there Friday and Saturday night. Wow. And so I landed here. So excited to be here day. And my CPA account, he celebrated 30 years in business yesterday. So Brittany, my daughter drops me off. And you got like 500 fans out there. And I'm embarrassed a little bit of gone. I got all my luggage. And I'm like, hi. So then my mom's going to come in a little bit. And when we're

done here, take me to the airport. Okay. Where are you going now? Crazy. I'm going crazy. You're going home? So I'm going to go home, go home tonight. everything's done at the shop. I'm thinking about right now what I got to do. We're going on a cruise on Thursday. I'm about a five-day cruiser, but my wife goes, no, you're 10.

I'm like, Mommy, please help me. I may have this wrong. You're going on a 10-day cruise. Seven, but she's taking me to Miami two days early. Didn't you guys have a crazy cruise experience? Didn't you get screwed somehow by airlines recently? So is this like a makeup cruise? You never ended up going on a cruise, did you?

Your sister Kelly made me so happy. She roughed up an airlines on Twitter the other day. Is that right? And it was the same airlines. So here's what I'm shaking her head. Yeah, she ruffed her up hard. Yeah, she did a good job. I love your sister and I love you too.

So what happens is my brother Rusty, his daughter, Katie, is getting married in Cabo, San Lucas, Mexico. Yeah. My wife, I love my wife to death. And I'm watching her from a distance over like a five-day period. She starts packing five days early, right? She gets her nails done, gets all her hot clothes ready, you know, for like Cabo. And they get all ready. And they're going to the wedding because Rusty's daughters get married in Cabo.

They get to the airport and they can't just cancel the flight. Say it's going to leave tomorrow. They get there the next day. They canceled it again. Okay. Yeah. By the time the plane took off three days later, I said, you got to, what kind of airline can do that. So, yeah, well. That's what it was. It wasn't a cruise. It was you were going to,

they were going to the wedding. Yeah. So I think Mikey Walter blocked me because Mikey comes in behind me and goes, the name of the airlines. Oh, it's a great airline. I said until they, you know, you know, I guess I pissed Mikey off. So he blocked me. Blocked you on Twitter. Yeah. Michael? Yeah, but that's okay. Well, why does Michael have such an affinity for airlines? No, no, no. Because Mikey's more messed up than me. And he, you know, me, I got thick skin. So every once I'll argue with people on Twitter. We're missing something of that story. Mike's looking for positive mental attitude all the time.

So, but yeah, their lines piss me off. Who's more positive than you? I think the bigger point here is that Michael Watcher blocked you on Twitter. I can't believe you two guys should get along great. And it's weird too because last time I seen him, we hugged each other. It was like three days ago at Toyota get together. I think the reason he blocked me was because he's looking for PMA, positive mental attitude. And that day, I didn't have one.

announce a positive attitude. That's what you promote. Well, maybe he just blocked you for a day. He doesn't still have you blocked, has he? There's no way. Michael, Michael, you got to unblock Kenny for God's sake. Watching go, hell, now I know why you weren't showing up on her. He thought you left Twitter. You know what's funny about promoting positive mental attitude? You know, I remember you growing up as a kid, right? We race slot cars together. And so I know you before you were Dale Jr. My whole life, people would look at me and go, man, you're crazy, Wallace. I'm like, I am.

It took me forever to figure out that I was different. You know, I thought happy was real. Like, hey, I'm, you know, hey, let's go party, woo. And, you know, races over. Let's drink some beer. And at 56 years old, I've learned that happy is not normal. And that's sad. That is sad.

Yeah, it just everybody told me I'm messed up. I was my whole life. But I'm not. But people told me that. So I promote PMA, juniors, because everybody should work hard to be happy. Yeah. Well, that's what makes this Michael Washington thing so ironic. It is.

The one that promotes PMA got his ass blocked. Watch me get on my phone right now and he unblocked me. Well, he better. We're going to put out a social media campaign for this. One of the things that I wanted to ask you about is you just told me you started driving in 82 or sometime around 1982, right? Drove a car in 82. Right.

Well, how did you become a crew member? Yeah. In the Cup series. I'm glad you're asking me all this. I want to, I want to know how you went from wherever you were to crew member

on the 98 Levi-Garrett car. I'm assuming that was the first cup car you worked on. And then to crew chief, why that happened, how long were you in charge of that role, and then where you went from there? Because I see pictures of you. You talk about it on social media and Twitter, crew chief in the 98, Levi Garrett, Joe Rutman-driven car at Daytona and so forth. And I'm like, well, wait, wait, wait. That's awesome.

What's the story that got you there? Yeah, thanks. And the reason, you know, I put stuff like that out there is I want people to know there's more to me. So I do it on purpose. For sure. It's not that I'm seeking attention. which I don't seek attention. But, you know, look, hey, there's more to me than just, you know, TV guy, you know.

So in 1982, my brother, Mike, felt bad for me that I had not been a race car driver yet. The first thing that needs to be said about my career is I got caught early in my career being a mechanic and fabricator. Rusty and Mike, you know, and it kind of suppressed me. You get your ass to work, work on that race car, you know. So Rusty and Mike liked it that I could work on the race car, you know. So Mike in 82 got me a street stock ride at the Springfield, Illinois, Fairgrounds. I won the damn race. Oh, wow.

82. Yeah. 84, Joe Rutman calls me up because Joe Rutman remembered me changing tires on Rusty's USAC car. We'd race up in Milwaukee, you know, all the USAC stock car races. Joe racing that. Joe Rutman, right. So Joe Rutman at the time's driving the Levi Garrett car in comes. And lo and behold, I remember the moment. I'm in Jefferson, Georgia, and me and Rusty, we're going into a McDonald's, and it was at that moment. I mean, Joe Rutman just flat-assed me, hey, would you come work on this cup car? I'm like, oh my God, my heart's pounded. I said, hold on. I go back to St. Louis, and I'm literally repairing vacuum cleaners at my uncle's store. And the whole time I'm working on those vacuum cleaners, I'm like, oh my God, I can't. I literally snuck away from the bench.

Went to one of those portable offices, had the phone number, called him up, like, hid in a corner and said, Joe, I'm going to do it. So here me and Kim, we're not even married. And at the same time, we drive down, and Rusty's coming down south to drive that Gatorade car. We came down together like the clampets, man. You know what I'm here? I'm in my old 76 GMC pickup truck. That truck was so bad I'd pull in, and I'd say, I'd say, check the, check the oil, you know, because it was so bad.

And I just ended up working down here. And then my dad called me up and said, hey, I want you to come back home. Man, there's a whole long story there. Moved back, 1986. Wait, wait, wait. You skipped over how you became crew chief. Oh, yeah. So you got hired.

Joe called you. Yep. Come work on his car. You go down there and now, you're working in the shop, right? Yep. Buddy Parrott was a crew chief? Nope. Who was a crew chief?

suitcase Jake. Jake Elder. Of course he was. That's how he became. I skipped that area on, I skipped that on purpose. So I'll be the one that says it. Jake was a brilliant mind. Yeah. But mean, man. Really? I'm, oh, buddy. Your dad could imitate him. So if you cocked suitcase Jake wrong at all, he'd grabbed me by the collar and said, boy, listen what I'm trying to tell you in that southern accent. And buddy, you'd listen. Oh, yeah. You'd like that.

So the reason he's, you know, he'd be like that. So the reason. was called suitcase Jake is because he had just always had enough. Yeah. Just always had a little bit, just something a little bit. But man, he was a brilliant mind. I mean, he literally could take it, and this is true, this is no exaggeration. He could take and sit as an ass on a spring and go up and go, put this one in. What? Oh, he would. I'm telling you, anybody that in that era would. This has the perfect rebound. They know. Well, back then you'd get a big spring, right? Called be a BP 900, BP 200, and you'd take a torch and you'd cut it every inch, and then you'd rate it to get it to where he wanted it. Okay? So he left, or they fired him. I don't remember.

They looked to me and said, hey, you're going to be the crew chief. I went, me? Oh, my. So here I am. How old were you? 17, 18 years old? Oh, my God. Here I am on the pit box in NASCAR. Right. You hadn't been working for Rutman. No. year, right? No, months. Just months. And he leaves. Suitcase shake leaves.

Hey, I'm going to tell you what. Dale Inman to tell you the truth. Because, you know, I only went one through 12. I mean, to this day, I'm like 6, 7, 8, 99. I'm not, you know, I'm an overachiever. I'm not real smart. I'm street smart. You know the way I knew how to call pit stops in 84?

How? I'd go to Dale Inman before the race or any great crew chief. And I would say, hey, when are you all going to pit? swear to God I mean I've slided into a bit because I mean I'm brand new in NASCAR

Oh my God You're brand new at everything We're going to Pocono man Hold on what to that's what I'm I live in sorry of God That's what I do I'd literally overachever man Pocono

I'm thinking to myself And when I said man I think oh my God Rusty does that Anytime I act like Rusty Make sure you tell me Okay It's fine But I just want to know

So I go to Pocono and we're running good. And I could always set a chassis up pretty good. Rusty taught me. So there we are. And I go up to him and I said, Edmont, I said, Dale, he was always good to him. I said, when are you going to pit, lap 30 or something like that? I said, okay, sure enough, lap 30 come down. Anyway, to this day, one situation that haunts me in my NASCAR crew chief career,

we lead this whole damn race 1984 so look it up we're leading the whole race and just a little bit of smoke the whole race just a little now we're not getting black flag so that tells you it's a whisper run the damn thing out of oil leading the race

and I literally I literally walk back it's my fault I should have just pitting him and put some oiling but I wasn't thinking I wasn't thinking hell I'm running this thing out of oil you know dry some tanks in the back of the car back in days or maybe we hadn't left front corner could you just stop and put some oil in it but that

that's the way you would have lost the race but you didn't want to i mean you were leading yeah well you know the cook you're too hard on yourself this is a hard one how many races did you crew chief all of them what till till the very end uh why did you stop i stopped because they they fired joe and uh put an ld yodd jordan what a name right yeah elda he also he also he also he He would never chop. Why did they fire? Joe was so good. What was it about him that was, was, didn't allow him to attain something very long term.

You're, you are a brilliant mind because, no, you ask really good questions. And I, and the reason I'm saying this is because I agree with you. Joe would not just drive the race car. And if Joe's watching us, he knows that I care for him. Joe wouldn't just drive the race car. He wanted to run the damn team. Right. And when you try to run the damn team,

car owner can fire you right away. Who was the owner? Who's the owner? Benfield, Dr. Benfield, but I forgot his first name. Do you know? And not Henry. Henry Benfield. My God, what a man.

All right, so they put LD in the car and you were like, you're like, you know, I'm going to do something else. L.D. was a pretty good little racer. You know, I think the years started, I can't exactly remember. I know my dad was calling me up. What he wants you to do? I think my dad missed me. I really do. He wanted me to come back to St.

Lewis and offered me something like $25,000 a year to come back. Which was a lot of money. Hey, it's like Schrader says, Herm, we do what we got to do. I mean, you know, it's crazy because back then I didn't care about money. It's like, what do we need money for? I just did what the hell I wanted to do. You know, when you love something enough and you're going and doing, money's like secondary. But it's going to be hard for people listening to go, wait, you're in Cup.

Now you're going back home? Why are you moving back to St. Louis? you made it. You're in the cup. You're a crew chief. It's the same reason I quit a lucrative TV job. You know, it wasn't no fun anymore. So, you know what?

Wow, this is good stuff. So Harry Hyde calls me up and he's wanting me to come to work for him and be the crew chief the next year. But Rusty had done wrecked Jeff Bodine

at the Southern 500 and it flipped Bodine flipped him over. So Jeff, see, Harry Hyde knew that I was a good crew chief, and he had that little guy there and helped put the card together. My eyes are going around right now because I'm trying to, I remember everything perfectly. So then Jeff Bodine puts a squash to that

because him and Rusty hate each other. I have paid a bad price in NASCAR early because a lot of people didn't like Rusty. you know, they didn't like Rusty, so they, you know, I was his brother. Oh, yeah. So, so that was it. And then, you know, I didn't go to work there. My dad called me up, come back.

And, but it was a good timing, Jr., because when I went back, that's when I became a race car driver. It all worked out. It worked out. It worked out. Hey, but did that cause, I got to ask, if Rusty was preventing you from going to work at Hendrick Motorsports. No, not prevent you. I'm sorry. I misspoke.

If, if that was hindering. you, the reputation that Rusty was developing as a racer was hindering your, did you develop any animosity or was it ever any friction between you and Rusty? Never. And that needs to be told, and a lot of people think it's corny because I tell my mom, I tell somebody I love my mom, you know, she's pretty, pretty tough. Quit saying you love people. I'm like, well, no, you don't love people. But I love Rusty and I love Mike to death. They were good for me. They, you know, spoiled me. That's right now. Rusty pissed me off a lot. crushed me. I mean, Rusty would be so damn mean to me, but later on, I realized, you know,

he meant good for me. I mean, if it weren't for Rusty, I would have never made it to NASCAR. I agree with that. No, I was never mad at Rusty. Yeah. Because one thing I learned it early life is that Rusty was so, you know, great athletes are so damn laser focused. They see nothing around them except what they want to do. But I tell you, I realize that only about five years ago. Oh. It's not too, I got in my 50s where I realized, hey, that's why he was a prick, because he knew, you know what I mean? So, so a lot of people, a lot of people don't like my brother, you know, because he's very forthright. It took me to be 50-something years, you know, because I watched his interview here. You know, it's not that Rusty, now don't let me change here, but it's not

that Rusty didn't like Jeff Gordon, it's just that, you know, Rusty's the man. How dare you think you're going to, you know, I'm the man, not you. I thought he was very honest about that point. Rusty admitted, he's like, look, it was all, it was, it was ego. It was him and Earnhardt's time. Yes. He wanted to be Earnhardt, and this kid shows up and messes up what he had in mind. You got it.

Yeah, he admitted that, though. I thought I was pretty big. And one thing I want to put in Rusty's mouth for him is that he, your dad, you know, Dale Sr. was Rusty's God. If there was a picture being taken, Rusty made sure he was by your dad. You know, and there's an old saying, you know, every man, you know, your dad was a man. Everybody wanted, everybody wanted to be Dale Sr.

Well, so did Rusty. So, you know, that's the only time I've ever seen my brother. I always say there's only a couple people that Rusty'd listen to. Roger Penske, well, probably Patty first, his wife. Patty, Roger Penske, and Dale Sr. Yeah. You know. But I never had any animosity towards Rusty.

There's times I wanted to, you know, he currently. rushed to me, hurt my feelings. I think the biggest thing that hurt me was that great drivers, and I put this on Twitter, and I said it to you, great drivers just don't understand why you're not great. You know, Rusty wanted me to be good, so bad. And damn, I was trying. I just, that's all I had, you know. I never had any animosity towards any of my brothers. Now, they pissed me off, and I wanted to kill them, but later on I got older. His brothers. Yeah. You moved home, and when you moved back home to St. Louis after your little st. Yep.

The Cup Series. You said you moved back and became a race car driver. Yeah. And I've seen pictures of you driving Rusty's ASA car, the yellow and red 66. Is that the car you went home to drive? No. And I can see how that's a little wrong. Help me.

No, you're close. What I did is I stole Rusty's exact paint job and put 36 on it. And put it on someone else's car. Put it on my car. You had your own car. So I moved, the reason, one of the reasons I moved back to St. Louis is because a guy named John Childs, I literally called him up and said, John, I want to be a race car driver. Will you help me?

Child's on the side of the car. Child's tire. Child's tire was a group of brothers that owned some tire stores. And that group, they helped Rusty. Rusty, you tell you right now, we would not be where we're at without John Child's, Child's tire. So I'll never forget it. I go out to Johns, I said, man, you know, I need help, da-da-da. He says he's going to help me.

I mean, I'm euphoric. I'm over the top. I'm going to be a race car driver. I leave and I stop at this Waffle House and there's a pay phone there. And I call Kim up at the time and I said, Kim, I'm going to be a race car driver. Oh, my God. It was the most exciting thing in my life because I thought up until then, how do you become a race car driver? I mean, how in the hell am I going to pay $20,000 for a motor?

I can't even fan these numbers at the time. I mean, I won't be a race car driver. car driver and I have nothing. I'm living in an apartment. You know what I mean? So yeah, it was John Child's, Child's Tire. My dad put up a $10,000 CD that he saved up his whole life, put it up for collateral. I borrowed money to buy an old newspaper truck. And so I bought the newspaper truck, turning into a hauler. My wife, Kim, bought my very first Dillon trailer. So borrowed money to buy the truck. Kim bought the trailer. She's working at a cafeteria. John Childs helps

move to car, and we're off and running. What kind of car? Was it a used car? A Dillon. Brand new Dylan. Brand new Dylan. Brand new Dylan. Cart, yeah. And that was where John came in, John Childs. And so you got this car. Yeah. And now you're going to go race. Yeah. Right. What did you run? Ran, 1986 ASA, American Speed Association. And ASA was

the NASCAR. That was, that was legit. Yeah, yeah. Super legit. I mean, that's where you started. There's some deep waters. Yeah, I moved up to. It's kind of funny because when I look back, I went, oh, my gosh, I went, I went big time right away. You did. And I think that, you know, Rusty gave me some shortcuts.

There gave me some great setups. You know, I'd wait. I mean, stop think about it. I don't start racing until I got in my first real race car. Now, in 82, I ran that old hobby car. Right. 82. I don't start racing until I'm 22 years old.

my very first time in a race car. So, you know, and I went right to ASA. One rookie of the year against Gary St. Amont wasn't good. You know, I would say there's a difference between being good and great. You know, you're a great talent. I don't have the talent you have. You got great talent. You could tell that right away.

I followed you in a practice session at Gateway. And you come off the corner feeding it out to the wall loose. And you probably didn't know you were loose. But I had to learn that. I asked my brother Rusty one time, I said, how you drive a car loose? He says, well, and he said, you feed it out to the wall, you know, because it starts coming around. And you did that off a turn four. You don't even remember it.

But you're a good talent. Thank you. You're a good race car driver. Thank you. Yep. So you run an ASA series when we're a year. Yep. All right.

How long did you just run an ASA series? 86, 87, and 88. And so what were those other two years like for you? Good. learning how to drive a race car. I mean, I'm not defending myself. You guys said it. Stop and think about it.

I don't drive anything. I don't drive a hobby car, nothing. I get into the highest form of racing, ASA. I mean, we're talking Mark Martin, Dick Trickle, you know, Bob Seneca, Mike Eddy, these are the greatest drivers of all time. And I go in and now I'm competitive because I knew the setups. Because I'm with Rusty helping him.

So I could build a good car, you know. I knew all these little idiosyncrasies. One rookie of the year, I remember Howie Leto telling me that 87 was my best year. We lost Howie. But 87, 88, just learn to be a race car. What were you doing during the week? Still working on vacuums at all? Still working on vacuum cleaners.

That was the family business. Uncle Gary. Uncle Gary. Let it be known. Wherever the damn cameras is. Cameras. Well, there was plural. we had no money.

Doesn't it piss you off when people think you're shot in ass with diamonds and growing up as a kid? I mean, it's like if you only damn knew. You know, like Kelly posting that damn picture, that single-wide mobile. I'm like, you don't get it. You know, Rusty says something perfect. You like that, didn't you?

Because they think since you're Dale's boy that you just got all this money in the world, you've got to remind them how broke ass you were. People need to have knowledge. Rusty told me one day, he says, Herm, it's sad to say you've got to remind people because they remember what they want to. So mind you, I mean, we're broke ass growing up, you know, as kids. And hell, I remember I had an amical credit card. And they took it from me because I.

An amical? Amico. Amico gas card. Amico gas card. Yeah. So they took it from me because I couldn't pay it. I never do business with them again. They should have known I didn't have any money.

What's their problem? Did you win in ASA? That AMICO white, 93, was some good stuff. Amico, Dale, Dave Blaney. Yes, that freaking fuel was amazing. Pure, pretty car. You hit a nerve just now. I asked you if you won in ASA and he said no.

Two things I'll go to my grave with. Got close. Never won in ASA and never won in the Cup series. Just devastate me to this day. Really? Oh gosh. Run second three times in Cup. Yeah.

And all three of those, a hell of a story, you know. Yeah. Well, I don't even remember the damn question asked me. Well, we were just talking. We were talking about ASA. I mean, because this is fascinating how you... Broke. Well, yeah, but your climb through the ranks was rapid.

You get an opportunity to run in your first Xfinity or Bush or National Race for the purists. They like to be called Bush. They don't want you to call Xfinity race in Xfinity when it's not Xfinity back then. What is the deal? Can we talk about this for a moment? People are very particular. What is... I'm going to ask you.

Because you know history. you're better than anybody. What is the difference between Bush, nationwide, and Xfinity? Well, there's a lot of, there's some differences, but Xfinity, I say Xfinity when I'm talking about, you know, 1989 for the new people. I do the same thing. To me, there's no difference. So that the new people know that this was Xfinity back then, right?

Well, you know it was Xfinity today. Thank you. This was the Xfinity. Because if I say to a new fan that's only been watching the sport for a couple years, If I go, man, back in the Sportsman series, they're like, what is that? Well, is that good, bad? Sportsman, what is that? Streetstock?

You know, they don't know. That's a fair point. So I always say, I'm the same as you, Jr. I say when I was in the Xfinity series, and they're like, you was in the Bush series, I'm like, it's the same thing. Yeah, they get it. They get frustrated. So how did you get this opportunity to drive Dad's car at Martinsville? You're racing ASA, you're living up in St. Louis.

Obviously, Rusty's racing in Cup. Dad and Rusty are becoming friends. But how does dad know you? How does dad, did Rusty go, hey, check out my buddy. Great story. So Rusty, deep down, really wants to help me. Yeah, of course. And now he's making a little bit of money, right?

I mean, remember, we come from St. Louis down south as the clampets. I mean, we're bringing our furniture and everything. Rusty starts making money, becomes really good friends with your dad. Your dad recognizes that Rusty's got talent. And my brother Rusty tells your dad, man, I wish I could help Herman. He's back there in St. Louis working on vacuum cleaners, you know, running that ASA car. And so Rusty got hooked up with Cox-treated lumber, okay? And, I mean, stop and think about it.

This is where I owe my brother Rusty my life, really. Rusty and Patty think to have the brain that, hey, I'm going to call Herman up, and we're going to start an Xfinity team. I mean, stop think about that. build a building for me and everything. But at the time, NASCAR would not allow any driver to go to Daytona and just show up. Right. So I had never in my life drove anything in NASCAR.

The only way I could go to Daytona. Now remember, Rusty's going to build this team, okay? And the only way I'm going to be able to go to Daytona and run for a rookie of the year or a championship is NASCAR's got to see me. Your dad tells Rusty, let's put Herman in my number. 8, GM Goodrich Chevrolet. Wow. Talk about freaked out, man. Right.

So, I come down to V8 Road in Canapolis, North Carolina. The Uri's are there, you know, Tony Seniors there. Yeah. And I come in and I mean... This is shop next to Mammau's house. That's right. There I am. Before DEI. That's right.

And what, I mean, you know this. I would never think I don't... But I mean, I go in there, right? And I'm like, I mean, this shop is, I'm already saying what you know, I'm just telling the people. Sure. This shop is stuck in time. Yeah. It's like, okay, we're running up-to-date cars, but this steering wheel from 1956 is hanging in the rafters. Yeah.

And I'm like, it was like, you looked up and it was a time warp. You looked down and we're in modern era. Am I right? Oh, yeah. Because this was Ralph Fernhardt's garage. Yes. Yeah. And I think that's cool because I like, because you got a lot of your daddy in you where he like, right?

would never take the steering wall off the race car forever. He wanted to climb in to simulate old days. And I like that, you know, you're rebuilding that car here. And so I go to V8 Road, and here I am putting my ASA seat in the number eight, GM Goodron Chevrolet. Ronnie Hopkins builds this car. It's got it's got different type trailing arms underneath. Anyway, we go to Martinsville. We test. And it, fast forward and I go to Martinsville, drive hard. I don't know where I finished. It was okay. 12th maybe. And NASCAR watched me. They still wouldn't approve me. So Rusty starts the team. Robert Black, the fly in my ear. So Robert Black is the leader of the Bush Series back. Yeah, technical director. Yeah, he, for some reason, he taunted me. He taunted Daddy, too.

Sounds like a real peach of a guy. Hickory, North Carolina. Well, there was that group. up there. So anyway, he'd come down to David Iff shop, so we couldn't build a shop right away. So my brother Rusty talked to David Ifth, and David Ifth was a wonderful for me, Lake Wiley, South Carolina. Robert Black would come into that shop, and I'm testing. And he'd literally say, well, this car ain't running Daytona in that southern twang, and I wanted to knock him out. You know, and I come from St. Louis where we cuss like sailors, and we're ready to fight at any time. and I'm working on the car. I'm a fabricator slash race car driver.

And Robert Black comes down and looks at that car and he goes, this car, he runs Daytona. I mean, just destroys me. Sure. Why? Well, what happened? I mean, not why did he destroy you. No, but what did he say was wrong with it?

No. He didn't think I was ready. Oh, he didn't think you were ready. Yeah, but I'm glad you asked it that way. So he didn't think I was ready. Okay. So I call up Les Richter. God, I can't believe I'm remembering these names.

Yeah. So Les Richter was the Mac Daddy back then. He was the Mike Helton, sort of speak. Absolutely. I think of a car. So listen to me pop my knuckles. It's all right. Wow.

Sorry. Good popping there. So I go down there and this car is hauling ass. We got this thing cheated up so bad. We lengthened the ass of this Pontiac. We suck it in two inches. We nicknamed the two plus two plus two. I remember that.

Oh, two can. Two can was a great fabricator. and that thing looked like a football. And I sat on the poll 192.7. I'll never forget it, 46. something. And anyway, they finally approved me. They made us spend all that money. Had to keep going Daytona.

Keep going Daytona. I got practice and practice. Come down Perry Road. And they finally approved me to run Daytona. What was it about the guys like Robert Black and other people back then that would walk? They knew to walk in that shop and say that. because they knew how much of a dagger that was going to be into your soul.

It's a, you ain't running Daytona. Like, why even walk in there and do that in the middle of the damn day in the middle of the off season when you're in there working your ass off? It seemed like that was common back then. In the 90s, Tony Sr., my dad even. Wanted to rough you up. Oh, man, they would rough you up. They'd come in there and look at your car and say some shit about it.

You'd be like, why you got to say that? Exactly. Just messing with you. Mr. Junior, listen, I would never want to be a crew member again. These guys that in the Cup Series, man, have at it. Meeting in the lobby at 4, 35 in the morning. And I did that. And I wanted to do it, right?

So I'd get to these Cup garage areas. I mean, you're going in, it's dark. It's like, I'm not a farmer. What the hell are we doing? You know what I mean? I'm not a farmer. So we'd get in there at 6 in the morning, and what was those two brothers named, Gazaways?

one of them had a big belly, the other one was kind of skinny. Well, the one they had to build, was it, no, Bill was the, I forgot, anyway, this is accurate and true. He looked at me, and I had the car on jack stands, you know, the cup car, you know, Joe Rutman driving, and I'm the crew chief, and he'd look at me, and he said, boy, get my car up higher so I can get underneath of it, and I'm like, I'm like, can you say, hey, Kenny, can you get the car up higher? My belly's too big. No. Boy, get my car up higher. And, you know, I just hate Crow, man.

He called it your car, his car. My car. Yes. Every car in NASCAR was Gasways. He had pissed people off knowing every car back in the 70 was his car. I'm like, dude, I built this son, bitch, is not your car. You know? Yeah.

I got a question. Are we talking, I mean, if you're talking about in 1986, he ran that number eight good wrench car, are we talking about the same car that's in the back here? No. Different car. Yeah, the year, the next car after the car, the car, I'm restoring Zenova. The first one. The first one.

The next one. Got it. The money car, though. For God who it was, because it got brain fade right now. By the word brain fade, I steal that from Mark Martin. Yeah. A couple people told me to tell you, and I'm talking good people, like people, they love what you're doing. They love what you're doing.

They love what you're doing. Thank you. Good job. Yeah, appreciate it. You go run the race at Martinsville. You go run your first rookie of the year in the Xfinity series. In 89. So how are the cars driving?

How did you enjoy driving in Exfinity? Loose. Loose. 10-degree spoiler. And, I mean, just take your eyeballs and look left and you're turning. I mean, literally, I can still feel it. Do like this and go into the corner. I never forget, sit on the pole, and Rusty was so much fun back then.

He was proud of me, and he said to me, Russ said, how'd you learn that line? Because like Dale Jarrett, he'd take that Nestle car, and he'd go to the bottom. He'd stay right around that line. My, quit cussing case. No, you're fine. I was so loose that I couldn't keep it down there. It would spin out, so I'd just go down there, and I'd go up with it. And then once I'd get up, it'd come back down.

I'm wide open the whole time. But Rusty says, where'd you learn that line? Why are you running that line? I said, when I was a kid, I'd watch Wilder Sports, and that's where Kail Yarbrough ran. True story. I always tell people, I say, Dale Earnhardt Jr. And Chase Selle, the reason they're naturally good,

I said, I totally believe when you're a kid and you spend your time around sport, you know, like you watched. I mean, you're a study the sport. You and Chase, I think you sucked it in. Observing. Observing. That's true. I believe that.

Like your favorite baseball player, you try to do their batting stance and their swing. I remember Andre Dawson. That was somebody you tried to emulate and you do it in a game and it wouldn't work like Andre Dawson did. I agree. But yeah, I believe that's probably true. You're emulating those that you look up to. Right.

Their style. And for some reason, you know, in St. Louis, you get wild world. You couldn't watch NASCAR, but you could watch a Daytona 500. Yeah. So I run that line because I was afraid to turn left. and I'll watch kale do it and I just, you know what? It's like asking a great driver

how do you drive? It's like, I don't know how I drive. You know, I just... Do you look at those years driving that Cox-treated lumber car is your favorite years in racing? What are your favorite years? Ben?

Absolutely glory years for my life. Yeah. Absolutely. Why? $89, 90, 91, because it was innocent. And, you know, we'd... It wasn't that we ran all the short tracks. It was that we were innocent.

We just went racing. and we beat the crap out of each other. And, you know, you'd get your, you'd get one foot up to his left rear, and you had to stay there, knowing that he was going to come down. And like, oh, here we go. And Merle Beach was here, we lost. You know, you come down that dog lake front straightaway, and you'd work for 10 laps to just get one foot on his left rear.

And when you got there, say, buddy, you're going to come down, and I'm here. He'd come down. And you just destroy your feet. and you'd go back to the shop. And it was the glory years because even NASCAR was so innocent. You know, we'd all go to the sandwich construction company. And, you know, the reason those truly were the glory years is because even the crew members, you know, you'd go to the hotel and, you know, you'd take your cool.

I mean, we're talking up to 89. In the 90s, you would take a cooler beer back to the hotel. Yeah. Just hang out at the hotel with all the teams. And all the teams would come out of the rooms. Now, this is not olden days. I mean, this is up into the 90s. Yeah.

And chocolate and, you know, a whole bunch. We just start drinking beer, you know, and it was fun. And then the rest of my NASCAR career is, I need therapy for. Where did it turn? What was the turning point? When did it become not so innocent? Now, I mean this. I appreciate Felix Sabatis.

I love him because he's that in my. So I was good. I was winning. And Felix wanted to hire me because I was winning. And I went and drove his Xfinity car and won right away. And then when we went to Cup in 93, it was, and we've made up since, it was me against Jeff Hammond. And you know the way it is, it's doggie doggy dog sport. I wasn't running good, and it was either me or Jeff.

And Jeff convinced Felix it was me, and maybe it was me. But me and Jeff Hammond and Felix were all lovers now. But it destroyed me. So he fired me. I mean, fired me. Stop and think about that. You don't fire Kenny Wallace, and so much just fired me. Crushed me.

And, you know, and when he fired me, I feel like, you know, that, that put that cloud on me, you know, that, oh, he's damaged goods, he doesn't have talent. Right. You know, thank God for Philbert Martasi in Nashville, Tennessee. Yep. Because the next year, I go drive a bush car and win again, three, you know, went all the big races. Now, who is this? Phil. Philbert Martasi, so there was a group out of Nashville, Tennessee, Gil Martin, Newt Moore,

these the guys are talented. And I'll never forget it when the Philbert, or, when Felix Sabatis fired me, I was completely distraught, devastated. And me and Rusty get on the airplane. We got to go to Nashville. And I said, Rusty, can I fly with you? He had to go there for something. It was funny because I never forget it.

They thought I was so talented. They thought I was coming there to try to get a job for my brother. Mike is what Gil told me. But no, I went there because I wanted to drive their car because Jeff Burton drove that car. That's right. And that thing was fast. Broke all the time, but it was fast. So I just stay digging, and I tried to resurrect my career.

So, you know, that's probably one reason I moved back to St. Louis. As much as I love you and your sister in North Carolina, you know, and I'm very conflicted because I love NASCAR, because it put a lot of money in my pocket. I'm good at saving money. I saved a lot of money, hating it the whole damn time. Hating it. I understand that. hated it. I know what you mean. I know because money doesn't bring happiness.

I had to get out of here, man. You, you, this very toxic area. You just want to be happy. Yeah, I want to be like him. I want to hang out with my buddies. I go back to St. Louis, somebody and them guys don't give a crap. They just want to, my buddies, they'd come to Bristol and they'd go, man, be careful. This looks dangerous. Yeah.

My crew member's like, I don't care if you kill yourself. Truly. Get another damn driver. My buddies, they cared about me. There are similarities between you guys on that because, you know, with him having the concussions, he wasn't telling anybody. really but uh you know it became unfun and if you guys are going to sit there you got two choices you can you know keep making money but that is you know it's gonna it's gonna end up just you know sucking the joy right out of anything oh yeah a lot of people try to live that make sure we don't stop because this is really good for me right now i want to ask you about

something um when you lived in north carolina had a dirt go-car truck track behind your house i heard a lot i heard so many good stories about that that. Oh, so much fun. Yeah, it might have been an inspiration for me making my home dirt track in my house. Yeah. I got goosebumps right now. Yeah. Because you're reminding me of the glory days. True, innocently happy. So, me and my cousin, Timmy, I had some bricks left over. So I had this double-wide mobile home, and we tried to make it look like a house. So we pinned it and brick. So I had these bricks

left over. I said, Timmy, let's go out back, make us a go-car track. So we took bricks. and went around and we'd run around those bricks. And then, you know, we started trying to get it better and better. Where your dad, remember, you were a kid, do you remember Gene Dease? Yes. So your dad, and I'll let that way, it was funny. They'd get in that, I learned in an early age that the dirt is not expensive. It's the dump truck.

Yes, the water truck. Your dad and Gene Dease would fill up that damn thing with dirt and bring me dirt, and keep bringing me dirt, and keep bringing me dirt. Well, Tony Erie Jr. and senior, and they know. Charlie Springer, Springs, they called him Springer. Springer worked on your dad's car back in the old days, I learned. Springer had a tractor. I started carving out this dirt track, and your dad kept bringing me dirt.

Now, I think I can tell it because it's kind of funny. They're drinking the whole time. Your dad and Dean D's, they'd show up in that dump truck, and I just thought it's funny as hell. And, Herbert, we got you some more dirt. And this is the time that Dale Seniors demand them black. And I'm thinking, holy crap. Dale Senior's bringing me dirt.

And so, and then we got serious. And then come to Tillots and carburetors and boards. Yeah. I started putting the boards along them because we started jumping wheels and flipping. Yeah. And then it got out of hand. Had to shut her down. Steve Byrd, wonderful crew chief.

Birdie made me a winner. We're at Hickory and we're running a bush race. Big deal. I have to go to the bathroom. I go to the bathroom. And Bertie, on his own, takes these flyers, go cart race at Kenny Wallace's house. I'm like, Bertie. So we have Brooks and Dunn, Donne, Don the Snake Perdome.

I mean, Jr., I'm serious, thousands of people. Showed up to your house. I got a ticket from the city of Concord, North Carolina, the next day because I never had a permit. Permit. Right, you're holding an event. These people are lined up down Odell School Road. up 73. It's like Woodstock.

Bobby Labani's there. Jeff Gordon's there. Everybody's there. And I'm like, uh-oh. Well, guy flips. I think it was Bob Wall. I think it was Daryl's brother, but maybe not. But the next day, now we're back to being serious.

Now we're back at the Charlotte Motor Speed and where we're focused. Kid comes up in me. True and accurate story. Kid comes up to me. He says, hey, he's a man, I hurt my back. You got any insurance? Oh. My ball's got that big.

I'm thinking, my brain's calculating. I'm like, no, no, no. We're having fun at a go-car track. You get hurt. That's your deal. I had the smarts. I literally called Ronald Overcash. Ronald was the guy around here back then.

I said, Ronald bring a bulldozer and mow my go-car track down. What? Kenny Wals, that's the most famous thing in Concord. I said, mow it down. I was getting ready to get sued because people were coming to my damn go-car track and hurting themselves. And I had to grow up hurry. And that was a sad day where you have to grow up.

That track was legendary. It was fast. Did you ever go there? No, but I mean, I was young. I'd heard about it, though. Yeah. So I built me a go-car track and the same thing. We raised and flipped and had a couple scares and people should have gotten hurt but didn't.

Yeah, you got lucky. Then I had to throw some seed on that son of gun and let her eat and let it grow up. Is it that sad? Well, you know, and you bring up a good point. grow up. That's sad. Yeah. And that's life. That's the way it is. What a bummer. Yeah. Damn.

Well, and then we went Slot car racing. Yes. Dave Mader the third. Still racing. Still racing. Is he? Yeah, he's wherever he's at. Where's Dave Mader at? Where's Dave Mader at? He's racing right now. In Alabama? Yeah, Dave Mader still run some super late model races. You're right. Alabama. He's down there racing and winning.

But at one point, he lived in Moresville, and he owned a little building on Main Street. or Broad Street across the main street, and he had a slot car track in there, and I go in there and me, I mean, I'm, I was racing street stocks, probably 1994, and Kenny would be in there. Serious, man, I was focused. We're winning.

It was hard freaking, I still got my box with all my shit in it. I do. My tires are hard now. Oh, yeah. But I got mine. None of it works, but I still got all that crap. Me too. I love that time, and I'm going to be honest with you.

I told you, this is therapy for me. what's cool about me and you is we're distant friends, but we're real friends. Yeah. I just leave you alone. But I care about you a lot. Back then is what I remember. And here's what I remember. And it's okay to tell.

You quit coming. And I looked at you and I said, why aren't you racing slot cars anymore? And you says, Daddy thinks that's child's play. Oh, man. And I went, yeah. Bummer. He gave me a hard time about it. Why?

Because he didn't want me to do anything. Because you had just started racing. Is that what you're saying? I just started. Just started, yeah. Yeah. And he just was like, you know, if you're working on your car or your... I went the same thing with Rusty.

Yeah. Anytime I try to laugh, Rusty'd say, I don't like that damn laugh. Quit laughing. I'm like, ah, okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah, but that was fun. That's a lot of fun. Waterburger ride across the street.

Yes. Yeah. It was perfect. Too bad. That was kind of sad. Too bad. Too bad. Well, if y'all still have all your,

you guys have your slot car stuff. I put some, I spent my own damn money on that. You didn't have right. I'm going to keep it. You do you start to say it, then not. No, if he, he'll say it.

He doesn't check himself in here. I mean, I spent my own money. Right. You know, then I was working. I was working at Allison Brothers, building legends cars or whatever, you know. Yeah, I'm going to keep that. That was a good time.

I have my slot car box. Me too. and I looked through it maybe two, three years ago, and I noticed that the tires are dry-rotted. But, boy, I was focused back then. You could get a controller to, you know, make the car go quick or ease in. Like a digressive throttle. Yeah, and Dave Mader, who's, I mean, literally a great race car driver,

should probably be in some type of Hall of Fame. Mater is really good. Oh, yeah. But he made it to where, I mean, you could win, like, if you won the A-Main, you get like $15. He wouldn't give you money. He'd give you credit on part. So you'd go up there and race.

And, you know, to me, I was so focused on being a NASCAR driver. That was my getaway. It's a hobby, yeah. I'd go up there on Tuesday nights, and it'd clear my mind. And I'd race all night long. It was fun. It was good. You know how these kids nowadays, you know.

It's like playing video games, hand-eye coordination? Yeah, thank you. That's what always, you know, had to do it right, yeah. See, that's all you had to do is explain to your dad the benefits to it. Yeah. He would understand, right? So tell us about getting into dirt racing with Kenny Schrader. Yeah.

Well, obviously he's like, hey, man, you should try to try this. You should try my car. Come drive my car. Come have some fun. No. No. He never did. What it was is I was like you where I loved history.

And when I grew up in 19, I was born in 63, my gods were A.J. Foyt. You know, of course, then you'd hear about Mario And Reddy. So I would fly with Schrader. I didn't have any money. Schrader had the big airplane, and I started flying with Kenny Schrader. This has nothing to do with it, but I'll never forget it. Shrader, you know, back then, if he had a briefcase,

he was a big-time NASCAR driver. I remember me, I've carried a briefcase one time, just trying to be big-time. It ain't nothing else to the story, but, you know, monkey-see monkey-do, you don't. I carry me a suitcase, or briefcase. Yeah, you know what? A couple pins in there.

Yeah, yeah. anything, then. Dick Trinkle one time he opened up his briefcase, I swear to God, true story. Had like candy in there. Yeah, Reese's Cucks. And underwear. So, Schrader, I'm on Schrader's airplane. I'm on Schrader's airplane.

And let me be clear about this. Kenny Schrader is one of the greatest race car drivers of all time in dirt racing. He's won everything there is to win. He should be completely, when Schrader pulls into a dirt track these days, they should stop everything. can go, ladies and gentlemen, Kenny Schrader. Dude, he's won it all.

And what's cool is when Schrader, yeah, and I watch and I learn, when Schrader goes around a lot of these legendary dirt racers nowadays, they know it, and they give him a lot of respect. You know, like Schaefer that builds motors, these guys, I just, I watch and I learn,

and, you know, Schrader's the best. So I'm flying with Schrader, and he opens up his briefcase, and I'm looking, and he goes, I have 63. licensed vehicles. I'm like, what? Him and your dad would go around Wisconsin,

just buying vehicles. Well, so we're talking and everything, and he's got that briefcase open, and I see a little bit to do with dirt racing, and I looked at him, I said, teach me how to drive a dirt car. And he says, I'll never forget it. It was like yesterday.

He goes, why do you want to run dirt when you're in the highest form of motorsports in the world, mass car? And I kind of forgot I was, you know, I was so engrossed in NASCAR that I forgot it was the best. You know, I mean, I mean, you can say Formula One is, but that's the way over there. Sure. So go race, get back on the airplane again. I said, Schrader, teach me how to drive a dirt car. He finally looked at me and he, why do you want to learn to drive dirt car? And I'm thinking to myself, why? and I said, because I don't want to end my career one-dimensional.

I want to be like A.J. Foyt and Mary Andretty. When my years are over, I want to be able to, you know, learn how to drive a dirt car. So Kenny Strader finally buckled and got me a car. It was a dirtworks modified, great family, and off and running. And then no different than a video machine, I had to keep trying to get higher score. And, you know, and this is what I wished I could have done with you. You know, you're too famous. I was, you know, I was popular, but there was a, there was a,

I had to go through a lot of embarrassing times. And I wouldn't want that on you either. It's your butt-whooped, yeah. People would run up to the fence and go, man, let's watch Wallace wreck, you know, because I was horrible at the start. What year was this? 06, 0-7. Okay, so, okay, so, yeah, you were, you, everybody knew Kenny Wallace.

Everybody knew Kenny Wallace. I started dirt racing at 40. years old. Yeah, okay. I got you. Okay. So, and we, and we, I wanted, I wanted Dale Jr. to run dirt, but I knew he couldn't because he would have to go through this learning period.

And you can't, you can't do that, you know. It's like, you're like Elvis Presley. You try to have fun and people popping fun at you the whole time. Me, I could handle it because, you know, I'm like, you know, you can't do that, you know. Is that why you never wanted to try to run dirt? Is it just because of the learning curve and the way you would just take heat? It would be tough. It'd be hard to do.

And I think you'd be good at it because you're really good at driving a cup car loose at 200 mile an hour. You don't realize how neutral you drive a car. When you guys would go do those pay-for appearances. Like when you goes, you know, we'd go on those appearances to like, what was the track in Kentucky that you guys? Paduca. Is that why you would never run those? It's just because, like, people would just sit there. Yes, because you would embarrass yourself?

Yes, because I would be bad, and then people would go, damn, he's bad. Yeah. Because people would think, well, he's a race car driver. He's a cup guy. Surely he can get in this thing and just do great, right? Yeah, and you don't. Biggest misconception in all of auto racing. Because people see you on TV, they think you're a God.

I'm like, no. But, you know, I just got to go back to this because this is the way I am. Me and you were at Carroway, and we had our DEI Cup cars. Yeah, we were tested. testing and you can drive a car really neutral. I have to have a car tighter. You would be a good dirt racer, you know. Of course, you can't do it now,

but you would be a really good dirt racer. Does anybody ever compliment you like I do? No. Well, I'm sure they do. Yes, they do. But I mean, to your face. Not as much and as genuinely as you do. Well, because I give specific moments.

He's believable. He loves me like he means it. This is true. Kenny, you're believable. Everybody else, you just have to wonder if they're kissing your ass. Listen. No, I know he really loves me. Well, no, that's what I'm saying.

So when he's telling me something, I know he's not bullshit me. That's exactly right. But I, listen, when I say something, God, I got something I want to say, but there's no way I could say it. You know, you just, when I say things, I've always learned years ago that you better back it up because people will keep you honest. You know what I mean? So I can give you specific moments why. he has talent. You know, I mean,

you know, a lot of people don't realize when you go down into turn one at Atlanta over that hump at 218, 220, and that that bitch lands, it takes your breath away. Yeah.

You know, he, you talk about me coming up quick. I mean, he ran some late model stocks, you know, and then won Bush Series championships. And that's why I said, I think,

I think you sucked all your talent through your eyeballs. I think you watched. I think you're a, well, it's like, it's like electronics. I mean, you're incredible at it. You don't realize, you know, me, I, I got to turn a wheel like this. You, you, you turn a wheel like this. You know, that's my opinion. You're really good. Yeah, if it doesn't turn, if I got to turn more than that, I need to, it's tight. Yeah. Pushing. Right, exactly. Wait, wait, I could, oh, no, it's not tight. That's an astute observation I need a smaller steer box. And this is not to embarrassdale Jr., but the observation you have is that he learned what he knew from racing through his eyeballs by basically watching.

Because the truth of the matter is is that Dale Earnhardt never watched him race at late model. He didn't go to the track and give him instruction. So another misconception is that a lot of the people or a lot of the people think that Dale Earnhardt would have taught him everything he knows. I don't know that that's to be the case, you know. I think he was maybe pouring dirt in your backyard or something. I want to tell you something about that. So Rusty, my brother Rusty, one of the greatest race car drivers, because Rusty's even good on dirt.

Rusty's just damn good. So at Martinsville, one of the reasons I was so successful at Martinsville, I finally looked at Rusty one day, and I don't think I looked at him. I think he looked at me. And he said, Herman, I said, yeah, brother. He says, make the car stay on the damn bottom. Make the left front run on the curb. I was like, oh, because back then I would just go in and go with it.

Yeah. If I couldn't stand the bottom, I just went up the track. Rusty taught me so much about that particular track. And he said, make the left front see the curb. So I started, people say, Herman, why are you so good at Richmond? I said, because I'm making the left front follow the yellow line as fast as I can go. Yeah. And so, yeah, I mean, but, yeah, I mean, it's like I told you.

on Twitter, when people are really good, how do they teach it? So that's why I say, you know, I think you observed it through your eyes. Have you ever asked Rusty to drive your dirt car? No, because he always made fun of me. Well, why don't you ask him? Because Rusty acts like, you know,

and Rusty said this on the show. He's like, you know, I felt like I retired too soon. They told me I should probably retire, and I was like, okay, maybe I retire. And then I got retired and I was like, I ain't ready to fucking retire. I want to race some more, right? And he even goes and tells Jimmy Johnson,

don't retire until you ready to retire. All this retirement taught, you do them drive as long as you won't. Make sure you get it out of your system because of his own experience, right? He probably had a couple more years that he needed to run and he didn't run, right? And so it's interesting to me that you race dirt, you enjoy it. Rusty, I see him around. He could get in a race car and drive today, right?

Right. He's got his wits about him and everything. He's sharp. And as much fun as you have in dirt, and as much as he's done for you, you say he's done a lot for you and even started a race team right you think you might bring it full circle and show him the enjoyment that you get from dirt and so hey rusty come out to the track let's have a play day yeah me and you share a lot in common your dad and my brother or hard on us so you know the deal with rusty first i want to back up and i feel bad about this

to this day rusty out of nowhere never asked me for my opinion but when he was 49 and your father passed away he looked at me me mike and rusty we were down somewhere in florida doing an appearance and he was really mulling that uh retirement around i could tell he wanted to retire it's like he wanted somebody i looked at him and i said brother i said you just might as well retire because when you get over 50 everybody thinks it's you're not serious anyway you just it's funny yeah he goes on david letterman show and says that says my brother My brother, Kenny says, you know, once you get over 50, anybody starts making fun of you. And then Mark Martin came along and was winning at 52, and I'm like, oh, God, you know.

So this is the first time I've ever admitted that. I feel bad that I told Rusty that. But the only reason I said it is because I was wanting to make him feel good about it. Sure. He wanted to retire. You wanted to support him. I wanted to support him. So I just, I dreamed that up.

And it was true at the time. It's like, brother, just retire once you start. you know, if you're over 50, people make fun of you anyway, you just might as well quit. So I would love to have Rusty. I would love, you know, and I don't want this to come across wrong. I would love to hang out with my brother Rusty. But I tell him, and, you know, I don't want him to take this wrong. I tell Rusty, brother, you're too busy being famous for me.

Yeah. I'm back in the shop welding because I love welding. I'm back in, I'm working. Me and my buddies are redneck as hell. We eat lunch. detours in a local house. I go in there, they don't care that I'm dirty. I don't got to get dressed up.

You know, and I look at, there's two people that I think are afraid. I think Jeff Gordon and Rusty need to simmer down a little bit and just have a blast. Yeah. I beg Jeff Gordon. I was so happy to see Jeff Gordon out at the dirt track and supporting Brad Sweet on that chamber. You know, those two could do like you. I think it's absolutely wonderful that you're supporting racing still. It's big.

And I wish Rusty and I wish Jeff Gordon. I beg Jeff Gordon to come to Terre Haute. And hey, Jeff, come out to Terre Haute. Yeah, I remember one time, I'm like, Jeff, you're the greatest, the Terre Haute. But I can't get Rusty. You know, to remember that time? Me and you talked about you just want to jump in your hauler, a truck with your buddies and just go. You know, and then you realize once you get on the road, damn, that's a lot of work.

But I wish, I mean, how cool would that be if Russie? Rusty and Jeff Gordon just jumped in a pickup truck and showed up at making one night. Dude, them people would go nuts. They'd go nuts for just one of them. I mean, like, Siri, if it was just Rusty. Well, my curiosity is if you just said, hey, Rusty, I've got to start track on Wednesday, and it's just going to be me and you, and you want to take you out there and let you drive and modify and see if you like it and see if you have fun.

It's a good advice. I think I'll take you up on it. And he might enjoy it. Yeah, he might. Because I think that Rusty has an itch to scratch. I agree. I know that every retired race car driver would love nothing more than to get behind the wheel every once in a while, just play. Yeah, I agree.

No responsibility, no pressure to perform or nothing. And he may be too proud to admit it or whatever, so scratch it for him. 100% too proud to. Don't take no for an answer. Way too proud to call him and say, hey, can I? Right. He would much rather you call him and go, hey, he confide. You're needed.

We need you, Rusty. He has some fun. I don't know what to do with this car. I need you to come shake it down for me. Rusty, come tell me how to set this thing up. Wank, wink, wink. Yeah, here's what I think. Here's the reason I don't think.

Rusty demands to be the best. You know what I mean? He's the greatest. Yeah. I mean, he spent his whole cup career, I'm the best, nobody better than me. Seriously now. I know, but I get it. If 56 years old, how are you 56?

I'm 56. You sure? I mean, you're at the age where you can call them up and go, hey, asshole, let's go play. I should do that. I mean, they just got done racing over. at the short track in Charlotte. You can even make it easy on him and say, hey, I'll bring the shit down here.

Let's do it. Let's just play on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Nobody around. I have to admit, I'm still a little afraid of my brother. You're 56. Yeah, I know. And you might do something for him that he didn't even know he needed.

Yeah, I agree. And you know, and me, the reason I'm a little silent right now is because I need to do more with Rusty. You know, it's like I say, and I am dead serious. I do love my brothers. You know, Rusty's got this place in Cabo, and I'm like, what the hell are you doing in Cabo?

That is not you. You know, in this golfing, I mean, I mean, not Rusty? You know, if you would have told me Rusty Wallace would have a place in Cabo, San Lucas, Mexico, and he'd be going down there all the time, and Rusty Wallace would be golfing, I'd say, you're not talking about my brother.

Yeah. You know, but it's all good. Hell yeah. I'm just too redneck. I'm way over here, and he's way over here. You know, it's like this shirt. This shirt ain't even me. It's a shirt I stole from Fox Sports when I left.

And I thought I'll wear this. I'm taking this. I'm taking this. You knew it would come in handy. Yeah, right. Sunday. Right. All right, man.

We're out of time. So we're going to have a... Darn it. I know, we're going to wrap it. But the thing about it is is that we're, you know, we hope to have this show for a long time. And we got half the shit. I didn't even get it.

to talk to you about. And so we're going to get you back on here. When we were talking about guests, you know, people started soliciting their ideas on who we should have on the show. Your name is very popular. So there's going to be a lot of people very excited that you were on, that we got you on before the end of the season. We got one more show after this one and then we're done for a while.

So I didn't get Schrader on this year. I was hoping I could. We'd have to get him on next year. Same thing with Mark Martin. But we were lucky to snag you before the end this year. but we would love to have you come back because there's a lot more to it that we didn't get to and we get to talk about and I know you're

you enjoy being on the show so I appreciate you both very much I'm big fan of your guys you man this this deal's big now I'm excited for it well you get more content for the sport that's why I say you're really good for NASCAR thank you they should be paying you and you Mike well you talk to him

now I'm kidding that listen he's everything he said is right what we got to do is look at your race schedule next year. And whenever you're nearby, that's when we book Kenny Wallace. Because you and a shreder. Y'all race so much. And so anything you do is extracurricular, and it's around the race schedule. So that's what we got to do.

We'll start working on you next year because you've got to be a once a year for sure a guest on the show. I'm honored to be on this. We need to get out there and watch him race. That would be big. Bigger than big. We have to get security guards. Earnhard's here What's the track

What's that one track with the board walls That you next to the fairgrounds We were talking about it this year Oh gosh You won there But you also said you had a little rough time there I don't know Fairberry

Fairberry Fairberry Oh fairberry It's got the wooden grandstands Wooden Walls Fairberry Farmer City Yes Yes

And there's a fair There's a fair out Oh, no, Tara Hote. No, not Terahawk. Not tarot. This is a very tiny, tiny little racetrack. And I remember walking out, we were there with Schrader that week, and I remember walking outside and watching these two guys fight,

and I was eating a kebab. And I have been dying for one of those damn beef kebabs ever since. I mean, this shit was back when I was 15, and I wanted one of these kebabs ever since. So if I go watch a dirt race, I want to go there, so I can also get the kebob. I've often, I've often daydreamed thinking how I can, like, cover you up and like have you come with me yeah you know it's like how can i make it to where he comes and everybody doesn't know he's with me i've you know daydreamed about that me too yeah let's make

it happen y'all gonna make it happen all right buddy all right thank you god have a fun that's good oh that's better and good this ain't your average street cat like and hi unfiltered commentary and an abundance of opinion mr nice guy or mr good out of my wife. Like Johnny Cash, we ain't afraid to walk the lie. I'll walk the line. Listen to door bumper clear. Available on all major podcast platform.

It burns, burns, burns, ring of fire. Door bumper, clear. All right, odd history. The year was 1983. Bobby Allison entered the final race of the 1983 season at Riverside, with a 63-point lead over Darrell Waltrip. He was looking to win his first time. title, while Waltrip was going for his third straight.

Needing only a 13th place finished to win the championship, Allison's car began to run poorly around halfway through the race. The team pitted several times trying to fix a fuel pickup problem. Despite the issue, Allison would go on to finish ninth and win the championship. The story wasn't over, though. The team was curious as to why the Miller High Live 22 wasn't running up to snuff. Once back at the shop, the Dygard team discovered the problem with Allison's car. car.

Someone had poured sugar in his gas tank before the race. What? The car's fuel filter and lines were so gummed up with sugar that crew chief Gary Nelson said it wouldn't have lasted another 20 miles. The vandal was never caught. Allison thought it was a fan, not a competitor. Luckily, it didn't derail his championship effort. Holy shoot.

Wow. I think it was a competitor, and his name rhymes with Daryl Waltrip. White flag it. Keep talking, bud. White flag, bud. White flag right there, white flag. White flag. Hey, by the way, guys, we just got a text from the company says the beard toast for Justin Algarz today at 3. That's going to be fun. Congratulations to him and the 17 for winning. I want to point out that the Dale Jr. download fantasy car is available for pre-order. You can go to shop junior nation.com or you can check out the dirty-mo media social media feeds. Leah does a good job showing where you can get. That's going to be good. A special programming note.

Next week will be our final official show of the season. It's a special one. Dell will have the champion from Homestead, Miami, on our show. And we'll also have some fun afterwards talking about our favorite moments on the Dell Ginger Download this season, so you'll want to hear that. Our TV show this week, the normal air time is Tuesday at 5 p.m. Eastern on NBC Sports Network, but I also see that we have a midnight airing, and then a 7.30 a.m. on Saturday airing.

Three airings this week. Tuesday at 5 p.m. Eastern, then midnight, Tuesday, and then 7.30 a.m. Saturday. That's good. That's all on NBC Sports Network. Follow our dirty mo media social handles. That's at Dirtymo Media. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube page. It's very good. Some Apple ratings and reviews this week. J.H.R. 87 writes, I love your podcast, Dale. The show is great way for millennials to learn the history of the sport. This most recent podcast just helped me get through my first half marathon. So there you go. Millennials and Marathon Run is exactly why we do this. There you go. Penfold 75 writes, last week was the best odd history ever. If Junior stops reading the odd history segments like he did last week, I will be bitter. And I may stop listening to the podcast altogether.

Jesus. But he added that he's kidding. So I also want to say, someone out there, I don't know their name. They didn't leave their name. They wrote an extremely heartfelt message to us. It's long, so I'm not going to read it here. But this person has just lost their dad, right? and they gave this backstory to us in the reviews.

And basically, this show gave them a lot to talk about because they're connective, they had a lot of big bond with NASCAR. And this show was certainly supported that. And so they were extremely grateful. I read the message. I wanted to share it. I didn't want to read this whole thing. I don't even know the name, but we read it and our thoughts and pressure with you and your loss.

And really, I just want to thank you guys again. I know we're winding down. We've got one more show after this, but this cruise. crew is awesome. This show has been fun. This is our last official taping of the year, but we'll have the show after Homestead. So I want to thank Matthew, Leah, the whole crew in here, Micah, James. We've got Kevin Dennis. We've got Brian over there with the NBC producer. We're just really grateful for it. So that's that. And Mike Davis. I heard you. You're not going to thank yourself, but we're going to do it. Well, I appreciate that. And that's it, Dale.

That's right, man. Great show. Appreciate Kenny Wallace coming in to talk to us today. trying to get him on here all dang year. Next week's show is going to be a big one, man. We got a special guest coming on that one. That's right. That's right. That's right. All right.

Awesome. What you said, little E. Awesome. That's right, E. Good job, E. You said it, E. You tell them. That's from Tiny Elvis, Saturday Night Live skit.

Best Saturday Night Live skit ever. This bit of badassery was made by D. Dirtymoe media. Dirtymo!