The Dale Jr. Download - 288 - Ken Schrader: The Best Week Ever!

Episode Date: March 11, 2020

The episode you've been waiting for! Dale Earnhardt Jr. welcomes racing legend Ken Schrader to the table of truth. For the first time publicly, they share the real story of the week long trip with Schrader that changed Dale Jr.'s life and got Dale Earnhardt hot under the collar. Schrader tells us about his start in racing, an attempt at the Indy 500, and shares stories of some cheat tips. The two discuss beer drinking, partying and racing... need we say more? Well, it gets better! They also chat about Ken's worst crash, the day he lost his thumb, and plans of school bus Figure-8 racing for his birthday. It's Schrader, so expect the unexpected..Dale Jr. along with co-host Mike Davis and the DJD crew discuss Phoenix, Cole Pearn's tweet that fired up the web, Noah's no-no and more. We learn from Dale Jr how Valvoline is like Madonna and about the Atlanta tow-truck blunder in Odd History. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey everybody, it's Dill Jr. This is Adil Jr. Download. You guys have been asking for it. Finally, Kenny Schrader comes on the show. That's going to be a lot of fun. Mike. You're here.

Mike Davis co-host. Nobody's been asking for that. Leah. I'm here, too. Leah's here, Matthew. Everybody's here. So what more can I say? You've been waiting on Schrader.

I can't wait. Let's just get right to it. First off, though. Oh, we're going to make. We're going to right into open segment. All right, so let's get the show started here. Phoenix. Great race.

Wouldn't everybody agree? Incredible race. And it's so funny. Everybody on social media. Thank you, NASCAR. Okay, NASCAR. I know. Pay attention, NASCAR.

NASCAR, this is what you should have been doing a long time ago. All right, NASCAR, you learned your lesson. NASCAR takes the blunt of all the responsibility. Colpern comes on to social media and. saves the day. All right. Co-Pern, crew chief from Martin Trex Jr. last year and threw out the last several years. Interest. Now a ski resort owner or something? Yeah. He is retired to owning a ski resort in Western Canada. And he says, interesting everybody loving this rule package. This is what NASCAR basically wanted for the last year until the RTA cocked it up. Oh.

All right. So fighting words. And that's, I think, what I take away from that, And what everyone else should take away from that is that you don't know the whole story. All right. And so, in anything, right, in anything. We all sit there and watch the race. I watch it on TV just like everybody else. And I don't even know the whole story. All right.

And so, it should just go easier on NASCAR. I've always felt that way. I never felt that way as a driver because I was like, everything's NASCAR's fault. If it's bad, that's on NASCAR. If it's good, somebody else is probably responsible. But now that I've gotten out of the car And I see the sport from a higher perch So I can see I see a lot more of the things that are

Responsible for the show the networks I see what the owners are responsible for the drivers what their role is The fans I see I see it from a different perspective now And I really got to say it's changed the way I look at NASCAR and how they are or are not Responsible for some of the things that happen in the sport Now I always And it also goes back to another conversation. So my first point, I guess, is go easy on NASCAR.

The second point is there's way too much collaboration. We talked about it before on this show, and I've talked about it, and I don't agree with it. We've held, you know, we've pressed the point with Steve Phelps in the chair here, that there's too much collaboration, all right? I just don't, I mean, I'm going to, I may, I got owners in the Cup series that are, friends of mine. Maybe they don't love this,

they don't love to hear this, but I just don't like anyone. Drivers, RTA, I don't care who it is, me. I don't like anybody having any influence over what happens with NASCAR. If I want to go to walk in a holler and give

advice, if I want to go in there and say, you know what, NASCAR, I think this would be best, that's fine. But really to be able to roadblock a decision, I don't like that. I won't, because I always felt like the sport was really successful when Big Bill or Bill Jr. basically said, you know, when it came down to it, they were the final decision. They leaned on the network for sure. The network

had influence, but they weren't, you know, and Bill and Bill Jr., I know there's times when they had to do what they had to do because of the network, right? Or because of what was best for the owners. You know, they weren't just ignoring, you know, what's best for those folks. But man, with the with the contracts, the, the legal, the legality that they have to allow the RTA or, or anyone to affect the schedule, the way the cars work, what spoilers on the car, I mean, all that stuff just drives me crazy. You know, it reminds me that there's, there's too much collaboration, there's too many agreements that that sort of handcuffed NASCAR's ability to do what they feel like they should be doing in the moment.

They have to go a year through negotiation and working through this and that and the other. And, okay, we can't have that rule package because it's too expensive for the owners and we're going to do. We're going to incorporate it in 2022 or whatever. All that stuff's pretty annoying. But anyhow, very interesting for Colpern to chime in and bring that to light. What do you think it meant? Would RTA cocked it up mean basically because of the, expense. I know we're sitting here trying to guess what

Colpern means. I mean, I'm not trying to speak for him, but I mean, what did that even... We can only assume that we can only assume as we do with a lot of things that the RTA didn't want that package at the short track and then another package at the bigger tracks. What's best financially is to have more continuity, more things the same. They don't have to just have a cost. It basically challenges the teams

to be engineering in two different directions, right? You have to engineer and work extremely hard and spend a lot of money to understand how to set the car up with this spoiler at this track,

and then you have to totally reinvent how the car is going to work with a giant spoiler at a different track. I mean, it's expensive. Yeah. All right. And I have opinions about that.

But, you know, I feel like that if I were in charge and I'm NASCAR, I'm going to make the rules. And you got the budget, you got the team, you figure out how to fit in the box, all right? That's it. So we went skiing. How'd that go?

I hadn't been skiing in two years. Me and Amy took a trip to Utah, thanks to Cessna, Textron, Aviation. They brought us out there, and Amy hadn't skied since she was 12. I hadn't skiing two years. I came back, both knees intact. Good for you. Success. More than what I could say.

when we went skiing two years ago. I was super nervous. I saw one crash that they, I saw, so I'm down at the lift. I'd ski it a few times, and I'm down at the lift. Here comes the four-wheeler, dragging some guy.

Oh, wow. All right, he'd had trouble. He had a smile on his face of those, so it must not been too serious. I'm like, oh, man, okay, that's a good reminder. Just don't even, you know, this ain't a race. It's just chill, go at your own pace.

Later on, I'm coming down the mountain, and it was busy. where we were at. There's a lot of folks skiing. You have to be pretty careful. A lot of different speeds, a lot of different skill sets. I'm a beginner. I'm a green.

All right. I can go down some blues, but I probably shouldn't. I saw a crash. It looked bad. And the next time I'm coming down, they were still sort of bundling that person up to drag them out of there. And then, yeah, I heard of another injury that happened to someone who was in our group, who had maybe mess their knee up.

So it really made me nervous, especially as I get older. I'm not as daredevil as I used to be. As I get older, I want to do less things that are risky and dangerous. I don't like that. You know, when you're young... I know I don't like it, though.

When you're young, you just go. You're like, that looks fun. I want to do it. My friends are doing it. I'm trying it. I don't care about the dangers. I don't even think about it. Now, I'm like,

I can't blow my knee out. What if I break my leg? What if I do something that's permanent? Yeah. Repercussions. Yeah, you're thinking about that stuff before you go. You shouldn't. There's a million people out there skiing.

They're not, you know, they probably aren't worrying about that. Why am I worried about that? Why am I such a wuss? You know what I'm saying? That's all going through my brain. Little last spoiler came back. We talked about it. Phoenix was a great race.

Little last spoiler. Got to give it up for a little last spoiler. I think that needs its own Twitter account now. Big-ass spoilers. Big ass spoiler still in the building. He's going to be back this weekend. I'm not a fan of that guy. Big ass spoiler.

He's coming back. Yeah. Big ass spoiler's got his place. I'd like no ass spoiler. Yeah. I don't think it's, I think it's at the dirt track. Big ass spoiler. Little ass spoiler.

Did a good job. Congratulations, a little ass spoiler. True X. True X. His woes continue. I can't finish a race. Yeah. That sucks.

Yeah. You know what, though, in this day and age, or like with the way the rules are, where all you've got to do is win a race. I mean, like, he's going to win his race at some point. And all this is going to be an afterthought. He's fine. No reason to worry about.

I'm not worried. True X. You know, when I see the, when I see Martin, get out of the car. Or when I heard him over the radio, all right, at Fontanaic, carrying on. And it seemed like it was every other lap it wasn't. But it seemed like, you know, there was a string where he was just, you know, cussing everybody. I'm a wreck that guy. You tell him next time.

you know, we all have done it. I've done it. And I'm telling you, I can't count the times that I've gotten out of the car at the end of a race and went, what in the hell was I thinking saying all that shit on the radio? Just being stupid. You know, you're in that car and you start mowling off. And even your own team looks at you like, what the hell are you doing? Like, what are you saying?

Like, who cares? Get drive, right? So, you know, I can't be. too hypocritical about what Martin Trix was doing last week. I made a little fun of it on social media. This weekend had a little trouble. Yeah, I'm with you. I think he gets it going.

Yeah. They're fast. Yeah, that's the thing. As long as you're fast, you know, he got wrecked this past weekend, right? So, like, I mean, hey. But when it rains, it pours. Right. And there was a year where I remember, like, you got,

I can't remember what year it was, but, you know, we got wrecked at Daytona. And then you went to the second race, which I thought was Fontaine or something. And, man, it stunk. And next thing you know, you're like three or four races in and we're 20th or something in points. And it's like, oh, okay, so now it's starting to feel like a hole. But see, that doesn't apply anymore. No, it doesn't. You just win a race.

Noah Gragson. I had him in the office here last week. I said, hey, dude. Actually, I texted him. I was like, I don't even remember what I said, but I was like, get your shit together. Quit, quit being a crazy man. Let's buckle down. Get back to work.

You've been kind of, you know, a little careless. spun out Maya Snyder for no damn reason on a straightaway made himself and everything else looked like a soul fool there caught red-handed right, all that

got another accident at Fontana right NASCAR called him in to the hauler I guess to have a little talk to him said hey Noah you're young

this is how things work need you to use your head get back you know get back in line I thought that like that's another when it rains at porous kind of thing

but hopefully Noah It'll be interesting to see how he responds. You're saying so he got called to the NASCAR hauler during practice at Phoenix. It was on Twitter. They called him to the hauler during his practice so that he would say, so they could talk to him about the last couple of weeks. He's been a little careless. I got you. And they were going to say, hey, look, you know, not only we're going to discuss you doing a better job out there,

but you're going to miss a little practice while we discuss it. That's old school. I liked it. That's interesting. I did. I liked it. Hey, got to get the point across. Those are, I don't like the kid gloves. I hear you.

Really? That's old school mask car. Hey guys, before we bring in Ken Schrader, let's first talk about a loyal partner. Look at this guy. Wow. Ken Schrader comes with an armful. Look at this guy. Wow.

You'll like this story. 190 something. Someone came to me, wanted to make that. So, you know, it's Kodiak on the side. Yeah, which is, they didn't make stuff with. No, but it was adult collectible. It was one of the first ones. So the guy gives me a check.

So I go to the boss, Mr. Rick, and said, what do I do with this check? And he said, just keep it. We're not in the toy business. Stuff changed, didn't it? Yes, it did. Yes, it did. It changed a bunch. So you talk to Mast?

Yes. So that makes me imagine that all the old guard are all on the text message together. Is that right? I want to imagine that there's probably 20, 30 retired race car drivers all chatting it up every day. Hey, man, where are you headed today? I don't have any of the new numbers. I got some of the new numbers. And whenever I need a new number, I can call Kenny Wallace.

But I talk to Rick every now and then. You know, he's one of them guys you talk to and you instantly feel smarter. I agree. That was something about Rick. He's savvy, man. He's savvy. Rick was great, you know, a lot of fun. So did you reach out to him? Did he reach out to you? What did y'all talk about? He literally said you need to go bring them something. They're that kind of people. We won't talk to you unless you bring us gifts. No, he didn't. He didn't say that. But he said it wouldn't hurt none. But we got new shirts,

kind of a big year for. Why is this year big? Look at it. It says it. 50 years. You've been racing 50 years. Yeah. Well, if I ever get started this year, I had my shoulder operator on, so I'm good to go in two more weeks, and then we got them lined up. What did you do to your shoulder? A rotator cuff. Yeah. Man, you kind of put that off for a while. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I couldn't put it a lot of stuff off. Yeah, but it got it done, and, oh, boy, is it?

Better? Oh, it's great. Really? Yeah, it's fantastic. Nice. But it wasn't so good for a while. Yeah. After your surgery, you're saying. Because you were in a sling.

My brother, and all LWs had both of them done. Yeah. So I don't know much about a podcast, right? You don't? No. Okay. I just learning about that face space like the king says. Face face face.

Yeah. So I listened to a bunch. I was driving to Georgetown Delaware last week. I listened to a bunch. Grilled hot dogs with mayonnaise. Oh my gosh. Grilled hot dogs with mayonnaise. Yes.

That's what I need eat. Yeah, well, you need to try one. Okay. I'm all about the mustard, too, but the grilled hot dogs with mayonnaise. Okay. Yeah, and six-pack. It's, of course. The movie?

Yeah. Is your favorite racing movie? It's right up there. I mean, I like, as far as real ones, I like with the one with, oh, the two-hero Formula One guys. Rush. Rush. So, all right, yeah, I don't even differentiate between real and, like, I love them all together. Just a racing movie.

Yeah. To please a lady. You've seen that one? Long time. No. To please a lady. Clark Gable. Yep.

I think Mickey Rooney. Hot wheels to please a lady or something like, yep. Yeah, to please the lady. I mean, indie car stuff and dirt track midgets. Man. Had to be in the late 40s, early 50s. It's neat. Yeah.

Real stuff. I always liked, I thought Strucker race was great because Burt was such a huge star at that time with the Banda movies. and him to do a racing movie. It really shined a light on us. And it incorporated a lot of the drivers. They got to be in the movie. Which I thought they didn't do too bad of a job.

Like Dad and Kyle and all them racing the car. It was a decent scene. What did? They race something down the hallway. It was room service carts. Room service carts. Yeah. Yeah, I remember that racing down the hallway.

Yeah. So I always thought that was great. Yeah. We've had a couple people on the show that were in that movie, Hobbs, David Hobbs was, you know, hearing him talk about how the actual taping of that, his scene was funny. Harry Gant, was Harry Gant in it? Yeah.

Yeah, that's right. Oh, here we go again. Yeah. Oh, hell, here you. I got to look at all this stuff in here. Take a time. Yeah, man. Look at it.

Take a W. That's off, is that off grandpa's camaro? That's off of the Camero that I built for a friend of mine. We raced it at Concord in a street stock series, but yeah, it looks pretty similar to. Yeah to the old car I would Man it would be awesome

to have a door off of one of those cars Oh one of Smuts Helmets that's cool Yeah I got a couple Smut helmets I got one from

his Alka Seltra days And I also got Jimmy Means His helmet From when he won the I think he won Tennessee You remember back in the 70s When they were giving away

Those Winston Racing Series Championship helmets To like the state chip Jimmy won one in 74 Yeah And I got that helmet Guys wore them and it always aggravated me.

You're not supposed to wear that thing. It's like a trophy. It's a trophy. It's supposed to be sitting on his shelf. I know it. Yeah. Tommy Ellis used to wear his. Is that right? Yeah.

He's learning a lot about Tommy Ellis in the last couple weeks. I have been. Yeah. Yeah. Tommy Ellis was sitting in Junie's office when I got hired an 85. I mean, Junie called up and I flew up there and somebody picked me up at the airport and walked in Junie's office and Tommy Ellis was never. very happy with me after that moment because he was trying to get it too. I didn't know that.

Wow, that's, was that just odd timing that just happened by coincidence? Just happened to be that. Well, Tommy lived in right around Richmond, I think, right there. So it just, yeah. He was wanting a job, but Junie hired you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't like you either. Yeah. It was Tom's, times that I don't. I'd get over it, of course. Yeah. Yeah, Tommy was a wild one. So you are talking about that movie. movie with the old sprint cars, you came from racing non-wing sprint cars. I mean, dangerous. Talk about dangerous racing.

I've seen some of it. I've seen races that you were in in old videos from the... Yeah. Well, that one die cast that brought you is one of the first gambler cars. My partner Ray and Sue Marler at I-55, I drove for him. First night out, Farmington, Missouri. It's pretty cool. It was really quick in hot laps.

But I said, it's a little tippy, you know. It wants to get upside down. Jeez. And so we went out to qualify, a new track record, first lap, upside down, second lap. One heat race, upside down in trophy dash, one feature. So you just wingless or with the wing? That was with the wing. It was still tippy.

Look at that. But, yeah, but I started out in stock cars, though, Dale. You did? Yeah. Arka, right? No, no, just... What was that called up there? No, it was a little track where Rusty started. Oh, no, no, no, okay. Lake Hill Speedway, just a, it's a hobby call.

They called it a sportsman, but it was a frigging 64 Impala, you know? It was a hobby car. Was it your car? Did you... It's dad. Yeah, I mean, it was the family car. Gotcha. So your dad owned race cars?

Daddy raced. He raced. He raced? Yes, a bunch. And did anybody else in a family race? race before that. No. So it's just... Daddy did. And then I turned 16.

They let me drive a car. And hell, he'd already won a couple races in it that year. So it's a good car. Good car. Yes. It handled. It was nothing special. It was just an old car, but it handled. And that was Daddy's experience, you know.

Yeah. So how'd you do? We won first night. No, you sit up there. And you know how some of them kids are? I mean, it sat up there as long as I could remember. And I turned 16 on Saturday. They did let us go over Saturday afternoon. It was a pavement.

Got to make 20 laps. Then went back over Sunday, and we won. But it was like taking a knife to a gunfight. You know, it was a good little race car. Yeah. Yeah. It was fancier ones, but none that went around to turn better. Yeah.

Well, then how did you end up in like dirt sprint cars with wings? and how did you progress into that? One night, there was a guy I met, you know, leave school at lunchtime when I was, I guess, a junior, and go to the Dairy Queen. There's a guy there that I knew owned a midget. And I kept beating on him to let me, because they ran midgets that are a little track every now and then.

I kept beating on him to let me drive one. Yeah. And he let me hot lap his one night. He told me just locked the brakes up. Then let them off. The oil pressure comes on, comes up, hit the switch, go. Oil pressure never came up. So they pushed me all right on track.

I pulled it out of gear, coasted in, told him oil pressure never came up. He's like, you dumb friggin' kid, you know, give me your helmet. He gets in there. Well, he goes right out, fires it up, comes in. This is just the hot lap, and it doesn't have any oil pressure. I look over his shoulder, you know, when he pulls in. And so he shuts it off. I said, didn't have any oil pressure.

He said, oh, it's got it. Something's just wrong. Well, it had a little piece of silicone. And remember them old neoprene oil gauge lines, you know. So anyway, let me make a couple hot laps. We start in the back of the feature and run the sixth. And after the race, he came up and gave me $40. And I said, what's that for?

He said, well, I paid $100 to run six. Do you get $40 of it? Wow. And I said, no. I said, he said, yeah. I said, I can go faster. But next week we run second. We started winning some midget races, and the marlers asked me to run their sprint car.

And we won a knit first night out. And I ran some old cars, and then we started running wing cars. And then I got an unbelievable biggest day in my career to drive a Silver Crown car at Terre Haute, Indiana. And all of a sudden, people were calling. but I was still running the stock car also. Right. So what was the car that I see every once in a while that was the yellow, what is that? Yeah.

It was a forward? A sprint. Oh, that stock car. Yeah. What was that? It's a little Mustang. We had people, real good friends. It was Don Hank Seva King in Fenton, Missouri that owned race cars.

And my buddy, Jerry Sifford drove it, and he got hurt. So they let me at the rest of it. racetrack but got run over by a car. So they asked me to drive it, and I drove for them for until I started, that was 79, drove for them until I started a couple years after I started cup racing, and then they just bought their stuff. But it was just a dirt car, and then we ran some. You race for them, continue to race for them even as you entered the Cup Series?

Yeah, I'd go home. And then you bought their stuff? Yeah, I'd go home on the weekends. And race that stock car? Run for them. Yeah. And we'd still run the midget quite a bit. Didn't run the sprint car a whole lot, but still run the midget and just ran whatever.

Yeah. So midget racers, dirt, sprint car racers typically don't become stock car racers, all right? And a lot of those guys would go to Indy. Even when Jeff came and Tony came, it was sort of, there was a bit of a moment where the public's sitting there going, what are they going to choose? Right? Are they going to come to NASCAR? Are they going to go to Indy? Was that...

So were you even thinking, like, beyond sprint car racing, beyond what you were doing? I was... I was, you know, I was a kid. I just wanted to race, you know, whatever. But did you want to... Did you have, like, my goal is NASCAR. My goal is Indy. Like...

My goal is a little simpler. It was, like, to make enough money and not have to get a job, you know. And I got no problem with working, you know, because you wind up working harder. doing this stuff, but just to keep racing. But I did get to go to Indy. I went to Indy in 83. We won the USAC Silver Crown deal in 82,

and Yassona and Hilda Purcell asked me to go up there. And I went up there for rookie orientation, March or April. It had an old eagle copy with a small block Chevy in it. We ran like 186, 182. Well, Yassoni asked me come up to his house a couple weeks later, and there was... Well, wait a minute. You go around Indy, even at 182. Like, what was...

That's the first time you've ever done that, right? Yeah, it only took 186 to get in a race then. But I'm just saying, that's like unlike anything you'd ever experienced in your life. Are you sitting there going, I made it? Right. What was your feeling? My feeling was... got no clue what I'm doing, but this is kind of fun, right?

You know, and he got all excited and bought an 81 or two March with Cosworth. This is a real car. What's the difference? One was a eagle. Okay, one was an e-I, I didn't have a clue either. One was an eagle copy. It was narrower. Yeah.

Nower and a small-block Chevy in the back. This was a march. It was wider. I guess they had more down force. Okay. And I had Cosworth Ford, and that's what other guys had. Yeah. And we kept blowing engines, and we missed first week qualifying.

And the second week, maybe Monday something, we cut a tire and I killed it. We were running 192. And you only had to run 186 to get in. Yeah. So y'all were flying. Wait a minute. And you're at Indy. In the garage.

Yeah. With a race car trying to compete and make the Indy 500. Were you overwhelmed, intimidated? Were you seeing people that familiar faces? Was it, what was that like for you? I mean, I remember, I can imagine going in there. I had Dad's last name, right? So when I walked into Daytona, it wasn't like I was, I didn't feel like it felt comfortable.

It felt familiar. I've been going there all my life. But here you are at Indie, Kenny Schrader, trying to make the Indy 500 for the first time in your life, I imagine you had to have been really overwhelmed. Yeah, and it didn't Terry Hope. It seemed like a pretty big deal. Right.

But, you know, we didn't get to impress you about that. We didn't get to qualify on the first weekend because we'd blown up. Right. And we weren't going to get another engine until Monday. So I went running a dirt car all weekend. You were doing stuff. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I had a good, you know, when you go to Indy, when you get there,

Now, this is then. Yeah. You got to take physical when you get there, which is, you know, can you see and stuff. And you got to show them your helmet and stuff. Well, the night before I was running Grant City, Illinois in a midget, and the throttle stuck. So I was running it with the kill switch, you know, just right. It was a big half mile then. I was racing it with the kill switch.

And I said, man, this is stupid. You know, I maybe make, maybe make a hundred. hours here, but it could get bad. So I pulled in, and I went to, took my helmet bag into the doctor's office at the Speedway, and you open it up, take your helmet down, you set it down, and dirt falls all that stuff. That probably wasn't, you know, didn't impress them too much, but yeah, I mean, it just, you were just doing it, you know.

So you cut a tire and hit the wall. Yeah, and that's when everybody was breaking their legs. Yeah. So we were running decent, and we had, we were kind of on some people's radars just because we were doing good in the USAC sprints and the silver crown cars. So people come by and it's like, you know, what do you got? And I said, I got this brand new helmet that Bell gave me, and I got this uniform that, you know, when the lower control arms came through, they didn't break my legs and or cut the uniform or get, you know, get everything all bloody. I'm good to go, and they're like, no, what do you got for sponsors? And I say, if I had a sponsor, you think I'd be doing this stuff, you know?

I mean, if I had any money, you think I'd be doing this? Just kind of got, I mean, just kind of saw right then what was happening. And that's probably the first time made up any business decisions and said, I was really going to work on going down south. Really? Yeah. And like when I did, I talked to Poncho about it, you know, because he was. Carter?

Yeah. He'd been racing a cup car a little bit. Yeah, but not then. Oh? He was one of the guy, you know, the India. He's like, you know, down there and run them damned old taxi cabs. You know, I said, man. I don't know, it looks like a pretty good deal, you know, and stuff.

And through that old yellow dirt car, it had roush engines in it. And I'd met Michael Cranfus and Lee Morris. And they help me. How'd they help you? Hook me up with Elmo. All right. Elmo Langley? Elmo Langley.

Five races in 84. I'm so glad you bring up Elmo Langley because I had so many questions. We never actually talked about Elmo Langley. Did you know him? I don't know of him for sure. I got you. Describe Elmo. Elmo had a three-car shop down off of 29,

south of Harris Boulevard, on the right behind some restaurant. I mean, it's just, you know, had an old box truck. open trailer and I got to drive for a head rent the rent a car you rented the car yes uh now Ford helped me Michael and and Lee helped me a bunch uh but still it cost three thousand dollars in his tires wait a say so you weren't driving for Elmo you were renting Elmo's car is what you're saying yeah yeah yeah so I got to drive for him but yes first three races so you're

paying for the ride yeah first three races so you're paying for the ride yeah first three races and then my friend that was helping with the $3,000 race it Elma let me drive the last two without paying. Oh. And we're

at Charlotte testing and you know I mean and I'm not running fast enough. Yeah. And Morgan Shepard doesn't have a ride. Oh no. Yes. So he puts Morgan in it because I don't know what to tell him. You know I mean it's just it does I

It's just slow. It's going pretty fast. I mean, you know, if you're sitting in it and you've never been there, it's going pretty fast, but the stopwatch isn't good enough. Oh, no. Some Oregon run about six-tenths quicker. Oh, that's a lot. No, I mean, that's, but I mean, that's, you know, that's what I need to see because I went back out and run six-tenths quicker.

Did you really? We were at Michigan with it first year, one of them first races. And, you know, Michigan used to be just Saturday, Sunday show. we'd get there and unload Friday and everybody'd talk and go through tech and then Saturday morning you practice you qualified you had another little practice they ran IROC race then they had second round practice we were running fast enough and it kept getting slower and slower

and they found it and it had a lobe on the cam going flat so they readjusted on it and talked to James Hilton and I don't know if it was one or two gallons of propylene oxide, but we got her in the show. Propylene oxide. Yeah. It really helped it. That stuff works. Yeah.

Look at your face when you say it, too. Oh, it was neat. I mean, it was neat. You know, it was just like an emergency, you know, you knew who had it in case. Between D.K. and Elmo and Jimmy and, you know, whoever, Hilton, whoever, needed it. It's like, okay, if you're in big trouble, here. I tried to, um, I tried to run that stuff a couple of times. I don't know if it helped me or not. Really? You couldn't tell a difference, though? We, me and Wesley bought a can of it comes in to the shop, you know, like a, uh, military

style box. And I had to hide it because dad, if dad would have found out, he'd have been real upset. But we poured it in our fuel, shook it up and put it in the car and never bought any more. Real, back in the day when there was a ton of expinity cars, you know, during the Bush series. Exfinity car, yeah, yeah, there'd be 60 cars show up for Charlotte and stuff. Yeah, and this was at Daytona. And my engine builder walked in, and we had a brand new G-Jr Jr. car body on a Loughlin car with a new trick V6 in it. The engine builder walked in and said, you got a shot? I said, oh, we're right there.

He said, you want it? I said, yeah, I want it. So a gallon. A purpleane oxide? Yeah. The first lap was quick time, you know, which shouldn't be. Yeah. The second lap was just a shade, just a shade faster because they told me on the radio that we were quick and we were late to qualify and just you kind of knew who was left.

And my crew chief was like, I thought they'd run a lot faster second lap. I said, if I'd have run it flat out second lap, they'd have been waving to block. They'd have been waving the black flag. Yeah. Not the checker flag when I came around. So you were concerned that y'all are too fast, too quick on the first lap because it was going to be an indicator. And then the fuel samples came back Thursday or Friday. But Robert G. took the fall for that because it's like, man, we saw that your dry brake and everything was polished and stuff.

And got to be real careful when you polish that stuff because some of that residue, one from that compound. I said, okay, we'll be more careful next time. Wow. And that worked. We ran second at a big race in Florence, South Carolina with that propylene oxide in the tank. Florence, South Carolina.

I-95 Speedway right next to Darlington. Oh, Florence. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was a big race, and NASCAR sent one of their better officials over there. And before the race, I think before we ever all walked out, To qualify, he comes by my car, and we had to screw in cap on top of the deck lid for the fuel intake. He unscrews that cap, opens, pulls it off, stands there second looking at me, puts the cap back on, screws back in. I was like, well, you doing?

He goes, at proponino oxide, don't like oxygen. I was like, oh, okay. It's like, okay. And he walked on. I'm like, all right, he gets the next car and keeps doing it. everybody right and so we qualified and raced and I ran into top three second or third and they said you got to go over to the you got to bring you got to go over to the inspection shed all right they had us all there with our hoods off doing the typical tear down we go into the shed and there's

that guy standing there with three test tubes with all the top three guys fuel in it and it's all like a blue color and it's not supposed to be blue because they stuck something in there and it's blue, right? And he's like, all three of y'all are wrong. He's like, I ain't going to throw anybody out, but he said next week, if any of you, test bad. Yeah. Henry Benfield, uh, peed in our fuel sample thing one time. Really? Yeah, Dick Beatty was not amused. I bet. Yeah. No, you just can't throw that way. I was going to say why would he do that, but then you already answered. It was Henry Benfield. Yeah. Of course it was. Oh, I never cared about numbers or Kellers. Whoever was on the car, but I was listening to you, and the number's got to be now because all those

different, I never thought about that. Talking about moving the number around. Yeah, the number's important. That's the only link left. Oh, I didn't know what you're talking about. You agree with it. Yeah, I didn't. I mean, I wouldn't, I would never say, ah, it doesn't mean anything. We got transponders. We don't even need numbers, but you don't know who it is, especially in our deal. Quick piece of context in case you missed our show that, that he's talking about when Dale Jr. went on his soapbox about the fan survey on Reddit that he found that NASCAR

should out on potentially relocating the numbers. And there was some on the rear quarter panel or on the window or whatnot. And Dale Jr. took an emphatic stance to keep it on the door panel. Right? That's what Ken's talking about. We've got to get back to the Pian.

Wait, you never fully explain this. That's just a Henry Benfield story. They didn't need to know. They get a fuel sample. You know, NASCAR wanted a fuel sample and the official wasn't right there. You usually just take the line off the carburetor. But Henry just went and peed in the little jug

and gave it back to them. They weren't amused. Well, you know what? You bring up a point. When I think about people that you don't want having a grudge again, like Henry Benfield doesn't play by normal rules. And he used to do that. Henry, we've talked about it on the show.

you know, his, the, uh, the, the X-lax that he would go put into food and the stuff and handed out to NASCAR officials or spotters or something. Not all of. Not all of them. The ones he didn't like. Yeah. Well, the ones that didn't, didn't play the game right. That's what I'm saying. He did, he just, it was ruthless in his retaliations. Yeah. So, I mean, actually peeing in the test, he was awesome. He was one of the nicer things. He got to be, he was my truck driver for a long time. And you were glad that he was your truck driver. Yeah. So you didn't have to put up with none of his. Yeah. Pranks. Wackens, Glenn, 6 o'clock in the morning, leaving the motel.

You know, trucks Friday morning. Truck's not in there yet. Harry Hyde, if you're leaving at 6, that means it rolls at 6. You know, you don't meet in the lobby at 6. It rolls at 6 or 5 till. So it's 5 till, and Henry's not there. So Harry's got the truck start, and here comes a car flying up, and Henry gets out in his white slacks and his white shoes.

Old Spice. Yeah. Where you been? Henry? He said, jogging. It's okay. Let's go. That's funny.

Henry, I can't remember if I've told this story, but he ran an Arka race at Pocono back in 2002. A sportsman race. Is that what it was? I told him up. But he's the only one. He runs fifth or six. Yeah. Yeah.

But he's the only one, and I've never heard this, and I will never hear it again. He's the only one that he called. for a three-tire pit stop. And they're like, three, and he goes, I can't afford for. Yeah, I took him up with my Shark Trek hauler. We hauled him up there. And, you know, he ran Charlotte.

Darrell was a spotter. But Darrell spotted from his house. Yeah. He didn't watch the race. He spotted for him. He just listened to NASCAR radio. And someone spun off turn four. And he said, yellow,

Yellow, Henry, they're spinning off four. And he said, yeah, it's me, Darrell. It's me. He was the yellow. Damn, Darrell, you should watch the race. Yeah, you're a good spot. In the same race, Henry says on the radio, I'm going to need a fire suit on that stop.

Why, Henry? I sh-h-h-h-myself. We'll get back to Ken in a minute, but first, this important message. Well, Kenny, I think we need to talk about the week. The week. The week. What are we talking about when we say the week? Does anybody not know?

I figure it's going to take a lot of our time, a lot of our time, so we might as well get to the week. Did you think we were going to talk about the week? I figured it had to come up. Yeah. I got some pictures show you. But, no, good. I got a picture of the following week. Oh.

Of Ron Pigram. your dad and I all arms around each other praying for the start of race I didn't know he was praying for my safety because he was going to dump me but the week was good we didn't do anything stupid

I'm honored that I've heard you say it was still one of the best weeks ever it was a right of passage so it was so for me we've talked about it on the show we had Sharon Redina on here my dad's guys didn't talk to me much. You know, they allowed me to be around, you know, hang out in the pits,

and I would try to stay close with dad or whatever, run off with my friends or whatever. Not many of the guys from his time or his generation interacted with me. And so when you asked me to go on this trip, I'm like, this was extremely way out of character for me. for anybody in dad's generation. And, I mean, I wasn't going on trips. I was just trying to get to the racetrack when I could with dad. And I was going to school and staying in trouble, right?

Yeah. At home. So for Schrader to reach out and go, you know, I don't know how it all went down, but I'm going to go on a trip. All I know is I'm going to get on a King Air to leave Statesville Regional Airport and I'm flying somewhere to meet up with Kenny Schrader and I'm going to be with him for a week. We started out in St. Louis.

I was 15 years old. Is this 16? 16. Yeah, that's right. You drove a truck up there. I promise you. For whatever reason, I have no clue why. Like I said, I was always in trouble.

I'd started reading the Bible. And literally, like, a day or two before. And God led you to Kinshraider. A day or two before I got on this plane to leave, I had been reading the Bible. And I got on the plane, and I'm reading the Bible. All right. in this king air flying to meet

Kenny. And if I remember right because I was already... That's important. I was already knowing how we know this trip burned. Yeah. You were on a plane by yourself and then had to turn around and go back what? Because, and we had pick up Tim. Tim Chris

the banker. Yeah, because we took off without him. Oh, shoot. Wait, whose king air was this? It was mine. So you sent a plane to... Well, it was already here. And it was coming up. I heard it stays full. And so you're telling Dale, get on the plane, come with us. Yeah. Well, we weren't on it.

It was like him and Tim, I think. Meet up with us. I got you. Is it true that you asked Dad to take Kelly? No. The next year. No, the next year. Okay. So what did you do?

Did Dad come to you and say, take that damn boy with you somewhere? No. No. We were just talking. And I said, we'd take Junior on a trip with us. We'd just go racing all week. And he just looked at me. And I said racing.

And he knew, you know, and I also heard. He knew what? He knew what was going to happen, which nothing bad happened. Nothing happened that no one's going to jail for. No. But it was life-altering. But he knew what was going to happen. So you've talked to Dale Earnhardt about taking Dale Jr. on the trip. You've got him on the king air with the banker.

And you guys fly in. St. Louis. And you're probably excited. You're excited because you're on a trip. Nobody's ever invited you stuff like this. I met a lot of people on this trip, but me and Tim the banker would end up sort of being in lockstep for the rest of the trip. I didn't know Tim. Right.

But he became sort of my guardian in a sense because Traders in and out of cars over here running some laps and climbing in this car. Well, we had a cast. Yeah, we had like four, five, six people. Tom Grady, lawyer Tom and Walter Hanna, the tile contractor. So you're on this plane. It's just you and Tim. You're reading the Bible. You brought your own Bible because it's not sitting in the plane.

We couldn't find one that was in the plane. And the Bible disappeared. And then where do you meet up with Ken? I don't know. St. Louis. St. Louis. We ran Grant City, Illinois, the first night. Because we got pictures of us because we won that race.

I remember. The only thing I remember about that, I remember watching from outside. Couldn't really see great. But I remember watching, y'all were running around. You had a little bit of a match race maybe. I don't know, but we wanted to feature. Yeah.

And the hauler, nobody, they didn't really start loading up or hustling to get out of there. Everybody else is kind of leaving a little bit of time. And before you know it, it's just Kenny in his truck. And 30 people, maybe is a lot of freaking people it seemed like. Just still as a big cooler. Yeah, standing around drinking beer. Yeah. And I was standing there with Ann, and I said...

Kenny's wife. Yeah. I went up in, maybe I went into the RV for either pee or to get a drink or something. We were geared up. We had to haul her in a motorhome. Yeah. And she says, you want a beer? And I was like, oh, I can't drink a beer.

And she goes, yeah, you can. And I said, well, I don't want anybody to know I'm drinking a beer. She goes, well, you can just pour it in this cup. And so she poured me a beer in a Dixiego. She was the bad influence. And so then I drank a bunch of beer. And then I walked over to the racetrack, climbed up in the flag stand, and just looking around, checking the track out. I mean, it's like 12 o'clock at night.

It's midnight. They'd still left the lights on. I mean, it was pretty cool. It was really a unique, I'm standing there, you know, with Schrader, and I ain't no danger. And we are just grassroots and drinking a beer. Yeah. We still do that every week, Dale. Yeah.

Every week. And then about 2 o'clock in the morning, Schrader goes, all right, we should start heading on to the next place. And I don't know where we went from there. I think we went to Mowberley, Missouri. And race the next night. Yeah. And then we went to Topeka to practice on Friday. Okay.

And then Friday night we went to Belleville, Illinois. Yeah. That little. So Belleville, that's how you said? Belleville, Bell Clare Speedway. Bell Clare, right. So we go to Belclair. This is when I remember specifically because we, by this time, I mean, drinking beer every day all day, it seemed like.

I wasn't. Yeah, he wasn't. I was racing. Yeah, he was racing. But now I'm taking, now I'm getting my own beers after a few days, right? And me and the bank. We don't have to ask anymore. I'm comfortable.

I know where the cooler is. Real comfortable. Yeah, real comfortable. Right, right. Now, I got a couple of nudie magazines. The Bible's long gone. Your dad stuck his head in the camper at Topeka. During his practice.

Yeah, and he says, Junior up there, he's fine. And he's like, you know, he's got a magazine and beer cans besides the couch. I'm good, dad. Yeah. He didn't see that? He didn't take notice of anything awry at that moment. I didn't even know he did that. I don't remember that.

Wow. So I remember Belclair. We go to Belclair. I walked into the infield and the tiny racetrack, Mike. And I walked over to the rail in turn three. And I'm literally standing in the infield. And what I feel like was only a 4x4 or a 2x4 wooden rail in between me and the racetrack. No, yeah.

It was probably 2x6. Yeah. And so on the outside around the grandstands, And I think it's pretty much still the same today. I mean, it's like wooden. It feels like this is an historic track out of the past, man, that really, I mean, it's a great place. Kenny still, you still go there. Yeah, we go there.

Wallace still goes there. But I just remember how old school awesome it felt. Outside of the track is an old kind of a fair. Fairgrounds. Right in the middle of town. Yeah. And I remember we were, there's heat races going on and everything. And I'm hanging out with the crew, four or five of us.

And you met Nick Gomrick. He was explaining a lot of stuff too. We were like, y'all hungry? I was like, yeah, I'm hungry. Let's go outside. So we went outside and we had kebabs. The best freaking beef kebob I've ever ate in my life. And then we saw these two hippies and two wheelchairs fighting.

Yeah, I don't know. I just sticks in my mind. I missed someone. He was in the car driving. But I remember two guys in wheelchairs toppled over and both of them had a hole to each other's hair. Not one was wanting to let go of the other. And they were upset with each other. Oh, my God.

But, and I remember we were into King Air a little bit, flying to a couple things. Well, we qualified Saturday. We flew to Topeka. And then we had King Air back to the dirt stuff. Yeah, we went to watch the races at Belleville, Kansas. The Midget races at that real, real. And I met Sleepy Trip. Slipp, met Sleepy trip.

Yes. You were quite impressed with Sleepy. Well, he has an amazing name, but also, you know, you told me he's like the best ever. Hero, hero, hero. Usec midget racer I don't know how me He's all time winning us to me He's just he's the guy

And this track too Had a fair It's like the tracks Plopped down in the middle of the fair Huge Massack It's like 5 eighth mile dirt track What's it called again?

Belleville Highbanks A Belleville okay Giant Circle Belleville Kansas Yeah Giant Circle We go inside and I'm watching I walk in

I literally set my eyes on On the car going around the track And I'm waiting on him To go into the turn and he never did. And I'm waiting on him to lift, and he never did. And he's just a big circle, and they're just like, what? Front straightway is maybe 80 feet long.

There's a place where the wall is straight for 80 feet. Yeah. But I was pretty buzzed up when I met Sleepy. That was my only regret, because I don't know if he noticed. Noticed or not. Oh, no. He was, he said, that's really Dale's son? Yeah, he was.

is that that's the trip where we when we got to bell-veau we didn't have no way to get to racetrack right i don't know yeah it is i know it is well that's the one time went to bell-dell yeah uh that flew in there yeah uh because we had to uh we flagged down a pickup and we all climbed down pickup and then i gave the guy like 20 bucks and nick gave him 20 bucks and you know it was like maybe six miles and we had our beer cooler yeah and we didn't But we didn't have a way to get back after the race. I said, oh, we got, I got, I didn't know all kinds of guys at the racetrack.

We'll get a ride back. Well, they were loading up. We'd go back and run Topeka next day. They were loading up, and they were going to have a beer. So we went out in the parking lot and flagged down another couple of pickups and got back to the airport. To get to the track, I mean, are you like a step away from hitchhiking? That was exactly. That's what we were.

We were hitchhiking. You know, like Dale's anger at the end of the week. starting to make a little bit of sense. Oh, no, no, we were not at all angry about the hitchhiking. No, no, I got it, I got it. But I'm saying, is it like, in the totality of the week, like, it's starting to make sense to me. So you're hitchhiking to the track because you don't have a ride. Where were we when we went to the Gentleman's Club?

Well, we flew back from, we flew back from Belleville, Kansas, and we had to run Topeka, where your daddy was coming in, and we were all going to rate, Rick Hendrick was there, and we were all going to race Sunday. So that's a Saturday night? Saturday night. We flew back to Topeka. I thought that was in the middle of the week for some reason. No, the Pika was Saturday night.

We didn't race Saturday night. We just went and watched Topeka. And Saturday night, you were in... Tuned up. You were tuned up. Yeah. So Saturday night, Strader and them all organized a trip to the gentlemen's club. Well, it was between the airport and...

I mean, it was a stop away. All the way home. It was on the way home. You wouldn't dare go out of your way to the gentlemen's club. No, we had a van. I mean, yeah, we're in a van. We pull up and Schrader is like, all of them are sort of talking. Now, I'm sitting there and we're in this van pulling in.

And a couple people were like, they ain't going to let him in. Shraer's like, oh, they'll let him in. No, no, they're not going to let him in. It ain't no way. So Schrader's like, all right, we're going to form a circle. Junior, you get in the middle. Just don't even, just eyes forward. Don't say a word.

We're just going to go in. they're never even going to see you. It didn't work. It didn't work. So we get to the door and we tried to go on in and the guy goes, hey, you can't come in. A little bit of conversation. Sorry. Just can't let him in.

So Schrader, I said, y'all, go in. I'm going to go back out to the van. Well, I went back out to the van. And another guy follows me. And he's like, and I'm, he had hung out with us a little bit, but he hadn't been on the whole trip. So he can, this, but I, so I know this guy. I'm not, it's not some stranger. So he's like, let's sit in the bed of this pickup truck next to the van.

There's a truck next to the van. Me and him sit in the bed. We don't know who's truck in it is. So me and him get the beer cooler. We sat in the bed of the pickup truck and we're drinking beer. And we're just watching people come in and out of the parking lot. I'm hanging out with this guy. I know him because we've seen him.

I've seen him a couple times this week. But he hasn't been on every single thing with us as we've traits across the Midwest. So I'm sitting there talking to this guy, having a great, you know, we're having a great conversation. I watched a gun deal go down. So, yeah, I watched a guy selling guns at the trunk of his car. He's like an old 78 Ford Mercury or something, big old clunker wagon. And me and this guy are sitting in the bed of this pickup truck, and two guys are standing at the back of this mercury with the trunk open,

just talking and looking in there and talking and looking in there. I imagine it was guns. I don't know. I'm going to assume it was guns. Who knows what could have been in there. But anyways, we didn't say a word. We just sat there. It was amazing.

Time goes by, right? An hour or two, whatever it was. I don't know how long was. Oh, I'm sure it wasn't near that long. Well, I don't know. We wouldn't have been in there very long. I don't know how long it was, but it was, I wasn't worried. Finally, they all come barreling on out of there.

Yeah, man, that was a great time. You know, everybody get back in the van, and we get in the van and drive off, right? And probably about five years ago, I was sitting in the lounge for the driver's meeting for the Daytona 500. Either Daytona, maybe it was a Bush race, I don't know exactly what it was. But I'm sitting in, I got there a little early, nobody really filtered in yet.

Carl Lidberts is sitting there with his dad. And I sit down next to Carl. Carl weighs me over. He's like, hey, come here. He's like, you know my dad? And I was like, no, I don't think so, man, how are you doing? He goes, nah, you know him. He says y'all and him hung out.

I was like, what? He's like, yeah. In the back of a pickup truck in a band part of a lot of a shrimp club in in the speaking of Kansas. I was like, that was you? Carl Edwards' dad. Back in 1991.

What a small world. Yeah, right. No doubt. So you're back there. That to me is the best part of the whole trip. Well, yeah. I mean, so, but I always thought you made it into the club. No.

Was there another club? Well, you're leaving out part. What? We finally negotiated with the bouncer. Oh! Oh, that's true. How could I forget? Yeah, how could you forget?

There's a new best part to this story. Well, this is the better part. This is the best part. So, yeah. Well, it's midnight, one o'clock in the morning, right? Pitched black, they come out, right? Well, who comes out with them? All the girls that are in the club?

Yeah. I mean, how many? There had to be four or five. Yeah, I remember it a little bit different, but yeah. Okay. Well, in my mind today, as I'm remembering it. All the strippers ever. We're out there in the parking lot.

In my mind today is I'm remembering it. But in about two minutes, they're like, hey, you couldn't get in there. So we brought the party out here. And there's, it's getting real now. There's strippers standing on the hoods of the cars around. Bind guns. There's guys carrying AKs around.

And there's firing them in the air. We don't do that stuff anymore. No. No, no. I don't do that stuff anymore. So they were, they're like, they're all just dancing on the roofs So the cars are all around. It wasn't really like that, but that's how I imagine it in my mind.

I imagine it was, right. Yeah. Wow. So the party, the strip club basically just emptied out into the parking lot for, I don't know how long. We didn't want you not to be included. Isn't that nice of them? That's a good friend. That's a good friend.

We were looking out of it. I'm sure your dad would agree. I thought that they were sitting in there just having a great time going, oh, he's fine. Right. They were working the whole time. Right. What's it going to take to get them off this? stage and out there to the parking lot.

So Sunday morning rolls around. I haven't really had a hangover this entire trip until Sunday morning. Well, you would have to quit drinking to get a hangover. So I did. We quit drinking. Why do we quit drinking because dad was there? Dad's going to, dad had flew in to run the race.

Is this back at Topeka? We're in Topeka. Sunday morning, race day. Mr. Rick's there. Rick Hendr's there. I'm feeling pretty rough, and I'm trying to avoid dad. I'm at the RV. I gave you strict instructions to don't talk to him. Yes.

Don't breathe on him. This is where the napkin story happened. We're at the RV, probably 9 o'clock in the morning, 10 o'clock in the morning, everybody's kind of showing up. Rick shows up. And he's like, hey, I think that was really the first time I'd met Rick. So he's like, I'm Dale Jr., he's like, I'm Rick Hendrick. He's like, hey, I think it'd be funny if I signed you to a lifetime contract right here.

And then it'd be funny to take that contract on a napkin over to your dad and say, look, I got your boy under contract, nothing you can do about it. And I said, you got it, pal. I'm 100% down with that. I'm hammered and I'm ready. I was not hammered. He was hung over. But I'm like, in my mind, I'm like, this is a real damn contract.

Now, for Rick, it was a joke. But I'm thinking, man, if I need to really lean on that one day, I'm going to do it. I'm going to try. Should have kept it. Yeah, no kidding. So we wrote a contract on a napkin. Me and him both signed it. He takes it over to Dad and plays around with it.

We tell that story still even today. But that's wherein that happened. Okay. After that, shortly after that, dad is roaming around, right? And I went over to the pit road and sat down in our, in Schrader's pit stall, and they're glue and lug nuts. And I'm just sitting there hanging out talking to the guys a little bit as they're gluing lugnucks for the race. and I seen Daddy's boots coming across the floor and I mean I got my head down

and under the bill of my cap I can see Daddy walking up and he looked down at me and he goes hey and I looked up at him and he just turned around and walked off I didn't have to say anything and I didn't see him the rest of the day well his day was sharp yeah until after the race he started in the back because he misqualified he wasn't there to qualify right so he starts in the back

you qualified you're running up front. He drives all the way to second place. And he gets the second and then misturn one and back the car into a barrier. Great little race car. Mark Reno built it.

And Tommy Kendall, I think, raced it in Sonoma. But anyhow, awesome, awesome car. Did you know, this is totally off out of, the back of that car, the crush panels.

Did you ever see that car how they had the crush panels were some kind of weird? fabric or something. It was crazy. That turn one. Yeah. We're out there testing a couple weeks before, but like I'm not going to haul my stuff cross-country to test,

but Rick's going to test. Yeah. So I go with them. And we were a little quicker in the car, but, you know, just, I mean, Rick, good racer. Yeah. But, you know, we just, in the car more. Well, he's having trouble with turn one, so I hopped in with him. Oh, wow. I got helmet, uniform gloves, no seat, I'm holding on.

And he went into one and wheel hopped. Oh, fuck. We spun through that grass forever. And it kept spinning around. We'd spin around, we'd see them jersey barriers. Then we'd look at one another. Then it'd spin around, we'd see them jersey barriers again. We'd look at each other.

It stopped about 10 feet sharp. And I was like, raised my helmet up, visor up. I'm here for your partner, but it was big. I bet. It was big. Oh, man. So, Bellerhart wrecked in the race. Yeah, so he wrecks real early in the race.

Trying to kill me, I think. Trying to get to me so he could kill me. Yeah. We get, I remember we got on the plane and went home. I don't remember having a conversation with him about it. I don't remember, I think it was, I knew I was caught. I knew he was mad, and he didn't want to talk to me, and I didn't damn sure want to, you know.

It opened my mouth and start anything, you know. So it was just silent treatment? It was silent. Yeah. And he never said a word to me. Week goes by. They go to Pocono. This is where you take over.

Well, he just... Right. Did he say a word to you? No. No. He did. He said anything to you in Topeka? No.

Not that I remember. But, you know, it took a pretty hard hit to the head there. Pocono. But, no, he... I don't think he was, he knew. So did he wreck you on purpose in Pocono? He never wrecks anybody on purpose. No, you can tell it.

No, he, he ran right over you. Oh, he ran right over me. I mean, he had to drive in three car links farther to get me, but he got me in, going in three of Pocono, bounced my head off the B-post, broke the air ducts, air ducts running left side, broke the air duct off the left side, get out of the infield care center, and Steve Burns, I'm holding my helmets, broke off.

Steve Burns looked at me. Did you do that in Iraq? No, Steve, I was cutting grass the other day. A neighbor was cutting the grass. Threw a rock up. Hit me. He said, dumb question. I said, you know.

Yeah, but I said, Dale said he was sorry. So, well, that's what he's always says. He dumped me probably three times. Ever. Oh, like all after that? One year. No, I don't remember if they were all after that. Okay.

But one time he dumped me at Phoenix, two Phoenix deals. He dumped me at Phoenix. I don't remember what far, or why, or, you know, might have been an accident. Doubt it, because, you know, he could make a car do about whatever he wanted. And when we get to Atlanta, Andy Petrie's in the lounge in my trailer. Because one of the years he was racing for a championship. He said, I know you should kill him. You should kill him.

I don't blame me if you do. but can you just do it at the start of next year and don't do it this weekend, you know? Yeah. You know what? Did we hear a story like that with Rick Mask? Like his crew cheese. Different race, different race. Completely different situations.

Right. He was in the hauler. One time we got to Sonoma. He was in the holler in the lounge, your daddy. And he said, I didn't wreck here on purpose. And, you know, I said, bull, you know. No, I didn't. But he was, you know, if he is there to apologize,

you know it was on purpose. Yeah. You know? But text Tony Stewart. He did something. You know how Tony, I mean, he does so many good things for people that you don't, you know, and everybody doesn't know about. I texted him a couple years ago.

I said, man, you remind me so much of A.J. Foyt and Dale Sr. Why is that? I said, because you're a very sweet, you know. What's your daddy was. But it's just something about, you know, the car. He was just rough. Let me ask this. If that wasn't the only time he'd ever dumped you, and if he never actually said a conversation to you, how do we actually know that he was mad about

the Kansas Week? Well, I don't think he was, I don't think he was terrible. The next year I called him. I said, hey, we're going to take that trip again. He said, well, Dale Jr.'s not going. I said, okay. That's when I said, how about Kelly? He said, well, I think she'd understand more about what was going to happen. Wow. Wow. I don't matter if I got wrecked again or not. Yeah. So your friendship with him, though, it was all intact. There was no long-standing type of feud over this whole situation. It was just kind of a fun thing. And if there was, I don't. You wouldn't have known. No. I, a couple things about your daddy. Yeah. Let's hear it. I wrote that stuff. I mean, when I moved down here. I moved down in

86. In fall of 86, Bristol week, when it looked like maybe they weren't going to send us home, you know, we might get to stay for a while. Your daddy rode me around places. This is punchies. This is where you buy your tires. This is this place. This is where you do this. And he's just such a help.

We built our place out on Wendy Road there. He says, you get a boy. bulldozer and dam up that stream and put a pipe there and put this other pipe in and make a nice pond. He said, you get the pond done. I'll get you fish for it. I'll get you fish. So I call him up and said, hey, this pond, this looking good and it's probably, you know, a couple more days, it's going to be full. He said, okay, no problem. We're going to put a hundred catfish and 200 bluegill in there. And he said, I'll take care of it. So okay. And he did. And two weeks later, or they called.

Want to make sure we were there? And said, yeah. So they came out. They were COD, but they came out. We had to pay for the fish. He took care of ordering them. And then one time, when he was building the deerhead shop, you know, he was going to get it done before ours. And I said, no, mine will be done first.

And he pulled in our driveway and shot. All done. It's got a gravel driveway. And I said, I told you it'd be done. He said, I had to drive on gravel to get here. I said, call up whoever does the pavement. Just call them up and tell them to come do it. So he called them right there, and they came out and paved it.

Damn. I knew I was going to pay for that. Now, I might have got wrecked one time because we were in Deerhead shop, and daughter was really little. Taylor? No, my daughter. Your daughter? Yeah.

which she went with Dale and Teresa and Taylor on the boat one time for a week. But my daughter was really little, and we walked in there, and she was Bambi. And I said, Dale Earnhardt shot Bambi and the whole family. Yeah, he didn't think that was so funny. I bet he didn't. No. There's a lot of those stories, though, where Dale Earnhardt's taking care of a lot of people, as far as giving them, you know, advice on, I think Michael Waldrop had sort of the same story

when he bought his place out here in Carolina. This is what you're going to do. You're going to buy this and you're going to do this. And this is what. Yeah. I had him driving a car one time. And then there was another GM test car that we both drove. I really liked it.

He didn't. But at one time, you know how it is when you get somebody drive your car. It's like, you know. But it's not, I was lost. I didn't, you know, I didn't care, you know. If you go a second fast, you know. go a second faster. I just get,

and we drove it, he drove it and came in and said, you're going to kill him, you know, you got to fix this thing. You're like, yes, thank you. Yeah.

Yeah. So how did you lose your thumb? Pardon the thumb. I'm just, I'm a lot more careful where I stick it now. I can get it closer. Yeah. But we were in Monroe,

Washington, evergreen, with the truck series. And, you know, back in the day, you ran the Aldiner Belt, old GM Alderator, and the belt came off the lower pulley, went all the way up to the alternator, so that belt sit there and go like that, you know. So they just fired the truck up. I'm in my uniform.

Going to warm it up, practice 15 minutes. It died. I reached down there, the belt looked loose. And when I reached down there, they fired it back up because the hood was up. And I went around between the belt. belt and the pulley to the ear on the alternator there was a hymn joint right there so it was only like that far from the belt and it stopped there then it came out my god yeah so i told timmy the crew chief i said i mean i grabbed shop towel to put over it because it was only bleeding in one place because it was

all melded together and uh i put shop towel over it star walking toward the ambulance and uh I told Timmy, I said, get my thumb, put it in a cup, come over to the ambulance. So I go over to the ambulance. And I just been uniform, there's no blood in any place. I got a shop tower out. And I said, where's the ambulance driver? And I said, I don't know. We got a problem?

I said, yeah. I said, what's wrong? And I showed him. We said, oh, my gosh. So they had this big 53-foot Tony Lama medical center there. We walked up in there. The guy put my thumb under Fawcett. What?

Yeah, it hurt. So then he said, okay, sit down here and lay back, and I pushed him out of the way. I said, no, I'm not laying back. I know what's wrong. Find the guy that drives the ambulance, send him over to the 52 truck. You know, him and I on my thumb will all go to the hospital. That's what's wrong. I got back that night. Ryan Esau ran our truck.

I think he ran 8th. So you went to the hospital and they tuned it up? Tuned it up. I told them, I said, make sure you cut a little extra out. I've heard about people that, you know, cut a little extra bone out, so there's enough of me during the end that when you hit it. Oh. Oh.

Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Never knew this. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You drilled a hole in your finger one time at a test at Charlotte and drove the rest of the test after running a bit through your finger.

Yeah. Didn't you? You don't remember. You don't remember that. The fact you don't remember drilling a hole in your finger talks about speaks to the life you've lived. No. I've been pretty lucky. Shoulders, collar bones, shoulder, blade, sternum, thumb, that's it. High.

You know how you reckon you get to red eyes. I turned over sprint cart man's nita one time, Phoenix. It stopped. And I'm like, wow. And I remember paramedics being there. And something was wrong. Just something was not right. And I reached up to my shoulder and, ooh, something's broken on that side.

And I reached up, something was broken on that side. And then I asked them, I said, my eyes open? And they said, yeah. Like, oh, man, I freaked. I said, I can't see nothing. It's pitch black. And Leland McSpadden was there. He said, ah, don't worry about that.

Kenny said, I've had that happen a couple times. So I'd seen stuff happen to Leland that I never wanted to happen to me. And anyway, he got in the ambulance with me and we're going out through the parking lot. And it's just like an old, old, old TV came on. And I asked the guy, said, hey, you got a beard? And he said, yeah. And Leland said, stop damn. Stop.

And he said, what's wrong? Hell, I'm going to get out and watch the feature. I'll come up and see it afterwards. You're okay. but yeah I've been pretty lucky yeah hey you know

the way you even handled the ambulance guy and about you know the fact that you're missing a thumb is even better than what most people would do and it makes me think and I maybe I'm wrong

maybe you can tell me because we love to talk about times you know on the show people have lost their temper got no fight and this that and the other but you don't seem to have any like altercations or fight stories or stuff like that

are you just that even killed. I mean, because you race enough to where you should, you can be, like, you can be a one a week. But you, you always just seem to let things roll off your back and don't take it. It's, it's already been a bad day at that point. I don't really need to make it any worse. David Gillen's first, no, David Reagan's first race. Yeah. He, he destroyed us. That was the Tony Stewart, Dart with No Feathers. Martinsville? Yeah. Or, no, it was. I wouldn't Martin'sville. Yeah, Martin'sville.

It was. Okay. He destroyed us. I wiggled him like everybody was because he wouldn't get out of the way. So the Wood Brothers car destroyed. I get out. I pick up the rear bumper. It's laying there.

I was like, ooh. When he comes by, I could chuck this rear bumper, you know, just the straight part. Through the right window and maybe get him. What? You know? And I thought, okay, I'm going to have to wait until the race is over, you know. Oh, yeah. It's going to be even...

NASCAR is going to hold you there. Even then it's going to be 20 grand for something kind of serious. I said, I bet Kenny Jones was my guy. Oh, that's right. You're a former bus driver and Dale's current bus driver. Yeah. And I said, I guarantee you, I mean, Kenny Jones knows we're distrable. destroyed. So my son Sheldon was up there. I said he's got my motorcycle and Sheldon at the end of the tunnel because Martin Zville had a tunnel then.

That's right. So I said, I'm not doing it. So go out, Sheldon and I ride home. Walk in the garage next week, Mike Hilton's like, thanks. Yeah. No problem. I said, I figured, you know, it was going to be a big fine. I was going to have stay till the end of the race. I figured, heck with it. I'll crash him later. He said, see, that's a veteran. You know what?

You know, the difference is that you actually took time to think about the consequences. That's what race car drivers never seem to do. Well, the consequences. Well, I don't always, but a lot of times. Guys, let's take a quick break from this conversation and have Dale Jr. tell us about a partner on the download. You mentioned Kenny Jones. So he's awesome. Yeah.

One of the lucky things for me is that I guess, you know, when I, I, you know, when I, I, After dad passed away, there was a couple drivers that gave me some great advice and helped me out in a few situations. And one of them was Kenny. And he came to me, I guess you were getting out of full-time cup racing, and I was in between bus drivers. Yeah, I remember this. Right? And Kenny come to me and he goes, stop looking, got you guy. Yep.

I was like, all right, you said it. that's happened a couple of times with other drivers when I needed to, you know. You needed somebody that sets you straight. And, man, Kenny Jones. He's awesome. Yeah. So he drove Schrader's bus for how many years? Oh, wow.

Yeah. Long time. Yeah. Loves, and y'all are like brothers, even today. So the great thing about the best thing that, one of the best things about hiring Kenny Jones is that I get to see Schrader because Schrader will come see Kenny. Sometimes Dale's there Sometimes I'm there And I get to see Kenny Strider too

He's good Yeah he is And I appreciate you doing that He's just good people I know Loyal to the ball I called Kelly and said Hey I got a guy for you

And I said I've already got six interviews I can't do any more I said well this will be simple Don't interview them people It's hire Kenny I remember this and no offense to them But we were about to hire something

that was significantly less to a lesser standard than what Kenny Jones brought to the table. And, you know, I think about that when Schrader kind of like stopped us in our tracks and said, I got your job. Yeah, you can't put a price on the value and somebody that will do that for you to say, look, you know, this is exactly what you need. Kenny knew me. Kenny Schrader knew me, knew Kenny Jones, knew it would be good, and saw that opportunity and got in there and made it happen. And that's important.

You know the greatest thing you can say about Kenny Jones is, as soon as we hired them, we were like, give us some Schrader stories. Yeah. And he said, nope. I mean, will not tell us a Schrader story. He wouldn't have any. I'll tell you this, too. If Ann Schrader's ever at the racetrack that I'm at, I'm going to see Ann Schrader. Yeah, she's coming.

Yeah. Door locked or not. She's coming. She'll get in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's a rare quality in people. Even some of the best friends might not go out of their way if you're on the same property.

She can't find you. Yeah, she will find you. Yep. I love it. And she always asks the right questions. Like what? Just about family. How's Ila?

Yeah. She always gives you some advice before you leave, before she leaves. Can you confirm or dispel myths that we've always heard about you? And that is like nothing, just basic things that I've always just been curious. Is it true? I've always heard this, that you know exactly to the dollar what the purse is

and what to take it. That's not true? Well, I drove for Mr. Don Levy. Yeah. If you run 14th, 15th would be a little better. Because every dime you could get. When 15th used to have, you know,

15th had contingency money, 14th didn't. 20th had contingency money. 18th didn't. Really? Oh, yeah. I don't understand. I mean, we were running,

races that, you know, paid $800 to start. So, I mean, 20th might pay, I mean, I don't remember, $1,400 or something. $1,400, and 18th pay $1,500, but they'd be $300 worth of contingency money for 20th, you know. Bob Johnson gets so mad in 87. We hired Bob, and our program went, too, I mean, got a lot better. So he thought you'd get the poll everywhere. We got one. Your daddy and I rode down together to Darlington the day we got our first poll.

But we go to Pocono. It paid, I think, maybe $2,500 for a quick time then, $500 for second round fastest everywhere. But Pocono paid $2,000 for second round fastest. Well, we didn't have no telemetry or anything. and I you know and nothing on TV so you just drive down and turn one you know you get down there about you go about three-quarter throttle and you start standing on the brake so it sounds like you drove down into yesterday or to tomorrow you know and then you just go down the back straightway and just jack around there in over the tunnel and stuff so you wind up 25th and then you come in and tell them you

got loose on the tunnel, well, they don't know. You can't stand on the truck and tell if someone got loose over there or not unless they wreck. And then we go get that two grand, you know, or in second round. Qualifying. You know, Mr. Don Levy, you're like, good job, good job. That's very awesome. Yeah. But, I mean, it was just different.

That 500 for second round fastest, you know, like Jimmy Means and all that whole group, we tell somebody I said, okay, we won't requal. qualify, but we want 200 to the 500 if you get it. Otherwise, we'll go ahead and re-qualify. So all that was going on in the back of the garage. Oh, yeah. That's funny. Yeah, it was great.

Okay, another myth that I want to know. Is it true that you, I mean, because you used to race with Budweiser as a sponsor, but have they, do you have a personal deal with them even to today? Or they just give you beer? No, we don't have a personal deal. We have a local distributor. Uh-huh. Well, and the brewery, too.

because of the racetrack at I-55 that work with us. So we got a lot of problems. A-B products aren't one of them. Now, they've caused some problems, but yeah. Yeah, that's, I think that maybe that's why, that might be why I'm such a loyal customer's deal is because of, so I went in, I kind of came in behind Kenny on the Budweiser deal. It's exactly right.

And so his, in a way he continued to be an ambassador for them was an example for me, right? Right. And because I like free beer and they had great product. Well, your daddy, when I first hung out of his shop, it was a, come on over, we'll have a coal beer. Yeah. Coal bear. I'm like, how else you drink them, Dale? Right.

But it was a cold beer, you know. Yeah. And he had the beer room. Yeah. He did? In the Deerhead shop or something? Cases and cases, man. God, dang.

I mean, it probably was only about 30 cases max at one time. But, man, look big when you were younger. When you were 16, 18, 20 years old, you were like, this is, this should be under, Jesus, lock a key, man. You know what I mean? This should be in a safe. Do you keep, and this would be probably a Kenny Jones source. You know, he said that when it comes to record keeping, you know, when it comes to your vehicles and stuff, that you have immaculate record-keeping of anything you own just to the, like, date, like, you have logs, you're methodical and that. Is that true?

I ride a lot of junk down. Yeah. So that's true, then. Yeah, I got, I got. That's commendable. Not so much on the cars. I mean, I got a book on the cars, but not so much on the cars, but aren't the races big time. Yeah.

And it used to be, you know, probably 81, 82. and stuff, you drive 30 different cars throughout the course of the year, you know, you just go somewhere and drive something and just what it paid, you know, who, what association and stuff. So 19, 2000, 2001, maybe 2002, I'm sitting in my motor coach at Watkins Glen Friday night. Damn, Terry Labani. Knock on my door. I think it's Schrader.

Hey, come here. All right? I mean, I didn't leave my bus for nothing. Right. And I didn't think anyone else was in anybody else's buses. Like, I imagine that I'm sitting in the motorcoach lot with all the other drivers all sitting in their buses, right? Watch a TV, do whatever. I go with Schrader.

I mean, literally next door, and walk into a motor home, and it's him, Terry Labani. Rick Mass. Rick Mast. There was six or so of you in there. Drink a beer. Yeah. Hanging out. Yeah. And y'all had been hanging out for a while. There was police tape around my motorhome, around the Bonnie's motorhome the next day when I got up said I couldn't enter. It was all the way around her. Yeah, that was a big night. And you know, when you drive out tunnel, I'm in the Watkins Glen forever, but drive out tunnel, there was people in hang signs over there. And people had a big old, sheet up there. It said, Dale Jarrett crying tall. Well, we'd been drinking for a little bit

when I told Dale Jarrett. I said, hey, get your ass on a golf cart. We're going over there. Yeah. And it didn't have that up the next day. They were Dale Jarrett fans. Really? Oh, yeah. Yeah, they changed. But we had to, you know, we took

cooler and then we, you know, drank theirs too, but, and all them people up there, like, I mean, at all the racetracks. They are, but, yeah. They're great. So imagine that. Walkins, Glenn, also is a... Four or five veteran cut drivers, cruising around on Friday night and the infielders,

going from campsite to campsite and having a beer or two. In that, I'd never... So in that moment, when we went and sat down at that motor coach, I learned at Terry the Bonney talks. I'd never heard a word out of that man. We had him at Michigan one time, and there's four or five of us having a drink, and he got up. We were by his motor home, and when he came down, he had trouble getting in a chair. And we didn't say anything because he was two-time champion, you know, a certain amount of respect there. And then when he went back into his bus the second time and he had trouble getting up to steps,

I said, okay, we don't care how many championships you won, your ass going to bed. That's good. Yeah. We had James Fentcher last week, and he wouldn't tell us a story. I wonder if you remember, but when we told him that you were coming, He said, ask Schrader if he's ever had a car end up in his flower bed. Do you know what he's talking about? Yeah.

La Joy wrecked me at Atlanta in the bush car. I mean, Atlanta, you know, it's kind of big. And I told Petrie, it was in Petrie's car. I said, I'll wreck him next chance I get. He said, no, you won't. You'll talk about it. You won't do it. I said, $100.

And he said, okay. So that was in the same. spring, Atlanta. And we were only running some bush races, but went into three at Richmond. And I'm underneath Randy, and he's, we're going around another car and he's dumped him. I went up to Reno the next week. And they cut the back half of it off and took it over to house, put it in the front yard. No kidding. Oh, that's what they did. Yeah. And they put it in your front yard. Yeah.

And I asked, yeah, I asked. That makes sense. I saw Reno the next week. I said, man, I felt bad about that. I said, I was up underneath him and that lap car kind of runs out of room. And he said, I, I thought it was the first good shot you got since Atlanta. And I said, that could have been it, too. I bought two cars and two engines and a trailer from Finch after the Arka race one time.

Why? Red cups were involved. I'm sorry, I didn't think so my name. But I had to call home and say, hey, we need to bring like a $110,000 check down when you come next week because I bought some stuff from Finch. Good Lord. And it was like $110,05 because the five dollars was a non-compete clause to not run the Arka Race next year. That's funny. That's hilarious.

Well, man. We got anything else we want to throw? Do you got it? Yeah. Did you get to all your stories? Well, your daddy. I know I pissed him off one time. It was great at Dover.

So would you let right guard halfway deal? Yeah. You had to lead a lap, lead halfway lap, 10 grand. But you had to be a victory lane after the race to get the check. Otherwise you didn't get it. I was undream and undreamer him. I mean, you know how Dover was, and you under him. This was biased by tires, I'm sure, and he's making life miserable.

Finally, you know, lap 247, wiggling him a little bit and goodbye. And it might have been Richard Broom, or maybe Ken Howells. He said, ooh, he's going to be very mad. I said, you think he's mad now, watch this. And we led lap 250, and I just stuck my hand out to net, and went like that and went into one and drove all the way up the top and let him go, then just followed him. He was mad.

He drove my bush car one time at Hickory. Dad? Yeah. Yeah. The 15. Yeah. And I think it had mom and pops on it. And we went up there and I said, hey, we put Dale Earnhardt's Chevrolet on.

He said, you won't make a show. And I said, we'll make show. We'll be okay. because he got in a point where they were struggling there for a while with the on the bull rings you know hauled ass everywhere but not and we went up there and we qualified second but it got rained out and whenever they reschedule it I couldn't go back and he called me up and said hey they said you can't go back I said no he said I want to drive a car said okay he said I don't come over and get it I'll put my seat in it and I got to put

decals on it. And I said, no. Uh-uh, because I know how he was. He said, what do you mean? I said, it's got a seat in it. You just drive that seat, send your decals over, and we'll put them on. Oh, no, I said, you'll just screw it up. You'll screw it up. It's ready to go. Don't touch it. Just drive it. So we didn't let them pick it up until Saturday morning. Early, early Saturday morning, they came and got it. Went up there. He beat the hell out of it, run nice. But he kept going to the back, having problems and stuff. Destroyed the body. Yeah.

And then he got home. We cut the body off it when we got it back. And I ripped the frigging decals off. I wasn't even thinking. Now you wish you had them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It'd have been cool. You got a, oh, you got that modified still, a street legal modified? No. Don't have it anymore. Don't have any more. That was fun. He loaned it to me for a day. Yeah.

Then your daddy and I had that amphibus car together. The amphibious car. that would go into the lake. I know I got wrecked over that. What? We were in Detroit, and I saw it. We were driving down the road, and I said, we should buy that. He said, I don't wonder what they want for it.

And I said, I don't know, if we bought it together, we could pay too much for it. So we got it. I sent, he gave the guy $500 down. It was like $10.5. He gave the guy $500 down, and, I sent a rollback and a $10,000 cashier's check up there. It showed up at Charlotte on Thursday. We rode it around the infield.

My brother was there, and he said, do not put it in the water until I'm with you. I said, yes, sir. So we took it to the house and drove her in the pond. He should have been there. And then later, the next year, Bill Jr. and Gary Nelson had bought one and get called to a trail or your daddy's in there. And he says, Bill Jr. is like, hey, we're going to put a boat ramp from both ends of Lake Lloyd. We're going to start, start, finish line, drive around, race around, run in Lake Lloyd, run length Lake Lloyd, come out, finish lap. We're going to better in that race.

And he's like, he said, what kind of shape is our car in? I said, you're about five grand away from being our car. That's right. I got wrecked again for that, you know. Jesus. Yeah. Most people just have a conversation or, you know, maybe a little fight. Man, he just went to the jugular.

He just wrecks your car. Man. Goodness. What a treat you's been. You know, you're the most requested guest we've ever had. It's been happening for a year and a half. We just couldn't ever get you because of your race schedule, which is insane. I know that you're aware that a lot of people.

follow your career and love the fact that you're still out there racing, but there's so many fans that still appreciate you. I just couldn't make it because I'm not retired like everybody else. I'm still salaried, man. It's hard to get away. So you're going to run how many races this year? Well, we're getting a little late start. Sheldon Creed drove our dirt car down Florida.

Did an awesome job. But I'll still get in, I'll get in, and 65, 70, and then we'll do 45 of those play days for Federate, where we take cars out to the trip. 45 playdays. Yeah, last year we did 60. Jeez. It's going to be down to about 45 this year.

And so, what is that? The Play-Dade Auto. Federated aisle parts, which is our- Your sponsor forever. Yeah, this is our 21st year, and they've been great. So, play days, we take cars to the racetrack, we sit people down, we talk to them, we send them out two at a time, so they have a chance to be in a multi-car accident.

And then they run 8, 10 laps. Then they come in and they said, oh, man, if I'd have had a couple more laps, I was really starting to get it. And then we put them in two-seater and run them three or four laps. Yeah. And then we feed them and go somewhere else and do it the next day. We'll do it five or ten days in a row.

It's great. What is this bus thing? I mean, if that's a play day, what is this bus thing you're going to do? It's a pretty cool way to spend your 65th birthday. On your birthday you're going to do? What are you doing? It's a school bus figure eight race.

Of course it is. The weekend before we got 500 laps sprint car race at Little Anderson, Anderson, Indiana, you know, real sprint car, 500 laps. It's pretty cool. But the next week is school bus figure eight because we've got a play day. We've got to be up there the next day or the day before something for a federated play day. So big Ron Drager, Arka fan, and we're looking schedule and a school bus race that night. And he pays 100, you know, he gets his local guys to drive the school buses.

It pays 100 hours to run school bus. You get an extra 100 if you turn it over. I said, how do you turn over school bus? He said, oh, you don't even have to worry about it. You just got to tell your buddies it's okay. They'll turn you over for you. So, I called him the other night. He said, now this is, he said, really be ready for this.

We've clocked these buses in excess of 22 mile an hour. So, yeah, pretty excited about Toledo or May 29th. That's going to happen to Toledo. My God, 65-year-old birthday party, figure eight school bus. Yeah, it'll be fun. Yeah. I knew he's going to be on this show at some point. And when we.

figured out we had you booked I wrote some small notes and I try not to really I mean the big elephant in the room is that on the day my dad was killed that you were a part of that accident and I wanted to say something about it I can't we can't do this podcast we can't have this conversation and not and ignore it right so I wrote something and I wanted to read it to you if I could don't mess me up here I'm not going to mess you up you don't have to say a word all right but I just wanted I've known you a long time and we've a lot of time has passed since that happened and you've been a great friend to me you're one of only a few to see the darkest moment for my dad that you have intimate knowledge

of those moments you are a keeper of that delicate information it makes me feel close to you Kenny i feel pain for you to have to carry that memory but you carry it for me you carry it for kelly dad's family you carry it for anyone who's ever cheered for him it's a secret that you'll keep to your last breath. Kenny, I know you might sometimes wish you weren't the one, but I'm glad it was you. And I really appreciate you for who you are and a friend you've been to me. Just that little gesture to give me the nod on Kenny Jones. There was a couple drivers in the last couple of decades that gave me some great advice,

really, really good advice in particular times. And just to do some, that small thing, you knew it was a big thing to put Kenny with me. You knew how good a person Kenny was. You knew how important he was in your life and how important he would become in mine. He means the world to me and Amy. And I just appreciate it. Well, I love you guys, but the best advice I ever gave you you didn't listen to. Don't look at your dad and don't breathe on him.

You screwed that up. I swear I didn't breathe on him. I didn't say a word to him. He just knew. He knew. It's been fun. Going to have more. Yes, sir.

Good luck to you this year. Have fun. Taring up the dirt tracks. Everything else you do. We love you. Tell Ann, we said, hey, and we miss her, and we're sorry we didn't get to see her today. All right, guys.

Thanks, Heather. Yes, sir. Time for some odd of history. All right. But if you're, Matthew Dillner. Time to tow some odd history into the studio today. You can imagine this is going to have something to do with towing. I bet. What gave it away?

In July of 1961, the Grand National Race at Atlanta was marred by a six-car crash on the first lap. After starting second, David Pearson spun, trying to take the lead in turn three. He collected some other cars in the process. The wreck eliminated the cars of Roscoe Thompson, incredible racing name. Roscoe. I mean, look, is anybody naming their kids Roscoe anymore? The Coltrane did. When the hell was that a thing?

The Coltrane. Because there was a, there's a few Roscoes out there. Is your name Roscoe? No. He's the only one that got my joke. What? Roscoe. He said, who would name their kid Roscoe?

That's the Coltrades. Oh, my God. Well, that was Boscoe, Lo. Not quite Rosco Bosco Right Is Asheville right Well that was his nickname

So Roscoe must have been Pretty prevalent And they were like You know what We're not going I like Rosco But we're going to change it up A little bit

And go with Bosco He was named after The chocolate drink Yeah Roscoe was taken You know what we're going to That's a lot of Roscoe Hold on

Oh no Bosco Feels right I don't know man Roscoe is next If we have another one. I just said there's some names out there from the, you know, when you look at, you know, the history and think back.

Yeah. We had to do an all names episode, like, you know, just the best racing names. That'd be fun. There's still some people out there naming their marriage and kids and silly names. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Like, tree.

Sprout. Willow. Rosco. Man, I'm going to name him Roscoe. Who you going to name Roscoe? Just I'm trying to imagine. I'm trying to put myself in that. I'm trying to put myself in the in the moment.

In the moment, right. And trying to make sense of it. Yeah, I got good news. It's a boy. What are you going to call him? Roscoe. I always wanted a son named Roscoe. Also in the crash, Mooresville, North Carolina is Herbie Killman.

That's another first name. Let's unpack Herbie. Let's do that for a few minutes. It's like a love bug, baby. Let's dissect this one. God, the names. Oh, Herbie, he would end up finishing dead last. in the 42 car field.

And if that wasn't bad enough, his day actually got worse. How could it possibly get worse, you ask? Well, it's because the wrecking wasn't quite over for Herbie. While the scene was being cleared, a tow truck hooked up to the front of Tillman's... Uh-oh. Joe Lee Johnson on to 1961 Chevrolet.

I give up. This is just the name's odd history. Joe Lee Johnson. I like it. You know, I can't decide. Jolie. I can't decide between Joe. I can't decide between naming them Joe or Lee.

So you know what we're going to do? We're going to call him Joe Lee. Joe Lee. Joe Lee. Well, the tow truck flipped over as it drove up the banking in turn four. All right. Here's your picture. You've got a picture of it right in front of it.

You can see it's on its side, Mike. Good grief. The tow truck is on its side. It's not a good situation. No. Good grief. Didn't we have a tow truck. situation recently?

Dillner wrote in... He wrote in good grief. He wrote in good grief. Right. Into the read. If I don't write anything. We just, we're acting naturally. We're going to cover good grief.

We're covering good grief. We're not with and without that in there. This is called up front transparency reactions. It's a little like the H&R script. The tow truck driver was from Atlanta. His name is Robert. But what was his last name? Higginbottom

Robert Higginbottom At least he survived the first name Blues Joe Lee and Herbie Roscoe He was strapped with Higginbottom for life They weren't going to do Give him the double

He was only slightly shaking up I'm sure he was extremely embarrassed by the situation Yeah Damn Bob Higginbottom See now his name should be Herbie Herbie Higginbottom

I know. He's just old Robert. Yeah. This is Phoenix race winner, TJ. Majors. And when you're ready to listen to a podcast with unparalleled insight from the racetrack and the NASCAR industry, check us out on Door Bumper Clear. Yo, it's Brett. This week we talk about TJ's win, the major improvement in racing at Phoenix AI technology and NASCAR, and much, much more. Listen and subscribe to DoorBumper Clear on all major podcast platforms. All right. You guys already know that the new DirtyMode Media merchandise is available. dirty mode media.com. I am actually wearing one of the sweatshirts. Oh, look, I didn't even realize

me. What? Yesterday I had on the t-shirt. Oh, you did? Yeah, all good. Brand new. Love it. What you don't know, though, is that I'm offering all this stuff at a 10% discount with a code. All right. All right. Just for these listeners of this podcast. All right. If you're not listening to this podcast, the code will not work for you. Yeah. You won't hear it. Well, you might get it from a friend. Secondhand news. A big good friend. You still won't work. You have to listen to the podcast. We'll know. The code is DJD 10. DJD 1-0. Got it.

Type that code in at the checkout and get 10% off your purchase. You guys know I'm also racing in the Xfinity race at Homestead next week. That's right. Homestead is partnered up with my longtime sponsor Helmans and is offering a ticket package that includes a ticket to both the Xfinity race on Saturday, March to 21st, and the Cup race on March the 22nd. Right. These tickets are in the...

the front stretch grandstands halfway up, their great seats, access to the pre-race Q&A session with me on Saturday morning. All this for $149 bucks. The ticket package available only at Homestead, Miami Speedway.com. I noticed upstairs a big shipment of my sister's book just arrived. That's right. Boxes everywhere.

I know she's excited about that. Kelly's book is called Drive. Nine Lessons to Win in Business and in Life. That's Drive. lessons to win in business and in life. I've read it. Great book. I'm very, very proud of Kelly.

Yeah. You're going to learn things about her and our childhood. Yes. That I really want people to read. I didn't have the balls to write it in my book. No, you didn't. No, you did. All right.

Pre-order it now at Kelly Earnhardt Drive.com. Hey, guys, just remember every Wednesday, the show is on NBCSN at 5 p.m. But this week, we are at 6 p.m. Okay. All right, they're moving us to 6. 6 p.m. This week. Got it. All right, there's no excuse.

We know it. All right, well, that was a great show. I hope everybody enjoyed it. Kenny Schrader, man, he's awesome. Finally got him on the show. Everybody was asking for him, and there you have it. Next week, we got another great guess. I think everybody's going to be excited about it.

Can't wait to tell you about that. Yeah. Stay tuned. This bit of badassery was bad assery was made by Dirty Mo Media. Dirty Mo!