The Dale Jr. Download - 289 - Kyle Petty: No Regrets

Episode Date: March 17, 2020

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kyle Petty sit down to discuss navigating life with famous fathers and the expectations that helped shape their road to stardom. The NBC Sports broadcast colleagues talk about growing up wanting to be racers, taking a 193mph tutorial lap around Daytona with the King and Kyle's unlikely and wildly successful first race. Petty opens up about bending the rules, his gory leg-break at Talladega, Felix Sabates' naïve start in racing, the moments that ignited his temper the most and much more. Kyle sticks around for Dale's special edition of Odd History that involves Darlington and streaking. Also, this week's ad reads proved to be both efficient and hilarious. So, join Dale, Co-host Mike Davis, Kyle and the DJD gang for this coronavirus-free edition of the Dale Jr. Download. 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. What's up, everybody? This is Mike Davis, co-host of the Dale Jr. Download. So full disclosure, the episode you're about to hear, we pre-recorded it last Monday because we had a hunch that a pandemic was going to sweep across the country and just shut everything down. I'm kidding, of course. Really, this was supposed to be a super busy week. Dale Jr. was supposed to be racing in the Xfinity Series race at Homestead, Miami. So it just seemed like a good idea to get an episode in the camp.

But obviously, as you guys know, that homestead race has been postponed. A lot of other significant things have happened since we recorded this episode so much so that if you didn't know any better, you think it's weird that we're not even acknowledging it. Well, now you know why we pre-recorded this. So on behalf of everyone here at Dirty Mo Media, just stay safe, be smart. And listen, if you've got a little extra time on your hands that you didn't otherwise have, take advantage of it. You can read a book. you can, you know, reintroduce yourself to your spouse, hang out with the kids, or you can listen to the Dale Jr. Download, which, by the way, I have always said when it comes

to pandemics, colds, flus, illnesses, bee stings, ant bites, shultz, any of those things that you typically have. Whatever is troubling you, there's no better cure than a healthy dose of Kyle Petty. He is life's elixir, and he's coming at you right now. Enjoy the download. It's time. It's time. The Dell Jr. Download. It's time. It's time for the Dell Jr. download. It's time.

All right, everybody. It's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dell Jr. download. Got Mike Davis here. Hello. All right. Back from being sick as hell. Who? Who was sick?

Leah? Both of y'all. I didn't have nothing. I don't know what you talking about? Yeah, right. What did you have? You got virus? No, I had something away.

Actually, it was like two weeks ago. Wait, you had something worse than the coronavirus? What? She actually did. E. coli. Oh, my God, you did have that. I lost eight pounds. We're glad you were feeling well.

Yeah, much better. I was shocked that you were even here that day. I was too. Birmingham's finest. You've already done the intro. I know. No, I'm not done. Birmingham's finest is here.

Mike Davis. Birmingham's finest. Nobody's ever said that. Birmingham has way finer. And, you know, he ain't Birmingham's finest, but he's back from a lost speaker. Matthew Dillner. Whoa. Lost Speedways.

We're filming a show, a TV show called Lost Speedways. Me and Matthew and a whole bunch of other great people are putting together something for you guys to see on Peacock TV later this year. Can't wait to show it to you. We got a great odd history. I am bringing the odd history to the table today. Usually we use NASCAR man. Great guy to follow on social media, Twitter. But I found odd history in a book written by Jim Hunter.

And it is pretty awesome. I can't wait to read it. But before that, we've got to get to our interview with Kyle Petty. We got a lot to ask him. He's coming out here. Let's go ahead and roll into the show. Open segment. Open segment.

I hate it when you say open segment. Open segment. I swear if I wrote on the sheet, open segment. All right. Popsicle stick. He would read it. Hey, to our listeners, two our listeners. This is our open segment.

All right. But we want to call it something else. Mike Davis, It's dearly wants to name it something else. So help us figure out what to call this. We have obviously we start to show with the kickstart. Then we have open segment. And then we have our guest.

So what should we call it? Let us know. Mike, they're going to help you out. You don't like that either. Let's just start the show. Come on, man. This is the open segment. It is open.

We're talking about the open segment. Oh, we're on the open segment. Yes, this is the open segment. We'll talk about packages. Look at Mike. I love it. Let's talk about packages. Let's talk about packages in an open segment.

I knew when Michael tweeted that, that you would definitely see that. Fingernails down a chalkboard is all out here to my earphones. Right. Well, this is... This is, Mike, this is open segment. This is very open. All right. And it's part of the segment.

And it's the end of it. Talk to you later. Close segment. Hey, I got an idea. before we open the next segment with Kyle Petty, because this one's going to go a little while, let's take care of some business. What do you all say?

Yeah. It's a book bag. Here he comes. What the heck? Did you just go on a hike? No, man. He's taken a couple classes over to NASCAR Tech Institute. Hold on.

Hold on. Before you do that, put on a mic and a headset, Kyle, and we're going to... We like gifts. We like gifts. We like gifts, but we want to hear you, too. All right. How's that? What is this?

I come bearing gifts, man. So you've been to the King's Museum? I haven't. Oh, you have not? No. What the crowd? We've been waiting on an invite. It's an open invitation.

You kidding me, man? Always. So, I'm up there the other day, and we get all, I mean, Petty fans are like Earnhardt fans. They're everywhere. And anything that has petty on it, they have bought at some point in time. Okay. And so we get people that, in their will, they leave. they leave their collection to the museum.

Oh, wow, yeah. So we get all kinds of really cool stuff. So I got this thing the other day. My sister's there. Somebody sent a bunch of stuff, and they sent a box of every car that was made like this. So there's... And here's the dreaded number three, AC Delco.

Look at that. Get her done. What are you smelling it for? If it was in a cigarette house. Yeah, that's it. You have to. You have to. Because some stuff we have to put the warehouse out back

and just let it air out. Remember I sent you a picture of that. He said to you picture this, and I've been wanting to give it to Allah. Yeah. Oh, but so that's why you're smelling. Sounds good. It just seemed like an odd first thing to do.

All right. That's an experienced eBayer. Yes. Oh, okay. Is that what that is? Once you receive a product. Got it. How you like those?

It's awesome. They're going to stay on the table. I'm telling you, man, they're like, that's like classic. That's just classic stuff. I don't know. Well, that was going home. We'll put them right there for the show.

Oh, these are for Ila, really. You just came bearing gifts for I did. He did. I guess that's that. Good. Hey, listen. I guess that's good. Welcome, Kyle.

Oh, my gosh. I'm sitting at the table. Stop. Are you kidding me? I hadn't slept all weekend. I've been a nervous wreck. You're crazy. I can't.

I don't know. This is going to be intense. I think he's messing with us. No, I'm not. No, I'm not. I said when you sent the invitation, when you asked me, I said, I'm excited. Why? What I say?

Yes. But why? because I, because I watch this. and I listen to it, and there's really good stuff. So the standard is up there. Oh, it's way up there, do you? I mean, I may have to pull out some magic stuff, but I don't have any magic stuff.

You got magic all the time. I hang out with you all the time, and you're all the time telling these funny stories. I know you got some magic in there. Yeah, but, yeah, okay. I thought that's what's in the bag. This is the type of show where half of those stories can be told. Half, yeah.

The problem is 90% of mine can't be told. Oh, shows like that. That's not true. That's my problem. Good. Welcome. I want to ask this question. You don't have to answer it right now, but I want to put it in your head so you can think about it. So if something pops up, and we'd like to ask this of all the guys that have a lot of history, a lot of years of racing.

Think about what is the most creative thing you ever did to a race car, even outside the rules. Oh, yeah. So you may, that might pop into your brain over the next hour. I'm sure. I already know. Oh, go ahead. Oh, then let's hear it. I already know.

Most creative thing. You know, I don't know what would be the most creative. So, a guy named John Talley and I built a car when I was driving for Felix, and we built it in my barn, in the barn at my house. What kind of car? Like a cup car? Cup car? Now listen.

Whoa, whoa. You are, this is out. You're going outside. I'm driving for Felix. I'm driving for Felix. I'm driving for Felix. I'm driving for Felix. And John and I had this idea.

And it's like, wonder if it'll work. So we talked to, I think Robin was there then. Talked to Robin and the Felix and him and they said, no, not going to happen. So we said, can we have a car? You know what I mean? So they gave us an old car, and we took it to my barn. Went to Roush and picked up a surface plate, okay? Move this surface plate into my barn.

And John and I would work there. And our theory. Who is John? John. John worked at, John Talley worked at Rouch forever. I don't know where he's at right now. But he worked down at Ravis when Roush was in Liberty. General mechanic? Yeah. Fabricator.

Fabricator. So we built this car. Didn't have a dash in it. You know, we just put the gauges. We just mounted a couple of gauges on it. Got an engine. And they wouldn't give us, at the time, the pie systems that you had, you know. But the cheaper version of that at the time, and now it's a really good system, was the Motech system.

So we put a Motech system in it. And our theory was that we had come up with was, because if you get the back of the car down, it'll run a lot faster. Everywhere? Yeah, no, Daytona. We're talking Daytona. Now, this would have been 92, 91, 929.

Before everybody figured to get the next thing. So we got a company to make us some springs that were about this tall. I mean, they were 24, at least, maybe taller than that. But the problem was when you put them in, they would pinch and shoot out. You know what I mean? Like that spring in an ink pen.

Yeah, like a screen in them. Exactly. That's the perfect example, the spring and the ink pen. That's right. When you hold it between your feet. Every kid's taking apart the ink pin. So, and the spring is shot across the room. So what we had to do, we had to figure that out.

So we finally got the right angle that we felt like was the right angle and we would jack this thing up. So we loaded this thing and an enclosed motorcycle trailer and hauled it to Daytona. And we parked, got the big truck. You know, you got the big cup trucks and all that stuff, you know, and all this. engineers and all their junk. So John and I parked right across from them so I could go drive their car. So I'd say, let me, I need to go run this car. No, we can't run that car. You know, you need to be over here riding, driving Robin's car and doing this. So finally, we went out and made a lap or two. And we run with our regular stuff, we run, I mean, at the end of the back

stretch, you'd be running about 186, 85, 86, something at the time. You know what I mean, with our regular stuff. That car. And John and I's car, John and mine's car. So anyhow, so then we got it all laid out. So we're no idea what this thing's going to do. No flipping idea. So go out and I run down the front stretch and get up to speed. Or I run down the front stretch real easy.

You know, that's when you had to go out and warm things up. So I get on it in three or coming out of four, down the front stretch. When I get to turn three, I'm running 194 miles an hour in this thing. And it threw both rear springs out of it. Of course. Going into the corner. Oh, my gosh. Both rear springs.

One ended up outside the racetrack. And the other one, we picked up off the apron. We had to go out and find it. And it was on the apron. We found one on the service road outside turn three. And one, but what it did, it was already so low. And since it was an old-style car, when it sat down, the tires just set up in a wheel tub. You know what I mean? So it just sat down on the fuel sale and just squatted.

Drove that baby right back in the garage area. And they would not let us go out again. But it was ungodly fast. I mean, it was from just that car, it had picked up almost six and a half, seven miles an hour, just in a straight line, only running, not running a full lap wide open yet. You know what I mean? Just running one and two and down the backstretch wide open. What's some of the things that you might have seen happen in the shop in the 70s,

like with the charger or what are some of the creative? Because being creative is harder, right? Because, I mean, they've sealed off pretty much. Harder now. Yeah. They sealed off every avenue, right? But back then, people were coming up with things all the time. Harry Hyde and all kinds of guys were doing crazy stuff.

Yeah. They did a lot of stuff. You know what I mean? And what I mean by that, it wasn't Dale and those guys, Dale and my dad, and Wade and Richie and all those guys, they were, they won a lot of races. And I will say, and this is where people, this is where it's a little bit different,

especially when you go to the 60s and 70s. They won a lot of races just by outlasting people. It was, don't beat yourself. Yeah. Don't let your wheelbarians come out. You know, don't tear gear out. Don't do this stuff. Because that was the whole deal.

You know, we go to Martinsville, even when I started racing in Martinsville, When your dad started racing at Martinsville in the 70s, the trick was to get to 75 laps to go. Yeah, I mean, it was a miracle to get to 75 laps to go. And then when you get to 75 laps to go, have something left that you could run 80% for the next 40 or 50 laps, and then go 100% for about 10 or 15 laps. You know what I mean? I mean, it was an endurance race for all that stuff.

So, you know, when I was there, we didn't have a lot of cars. and I think that's what people lose sight up too and you know it growing up. What was a lot? What cars did you have? A lot of cars were two cars. A lot of cars was two cars. You had a speedway car

and then you had your other car. You know what I mean? And that was it. And you got to go back and remember too, this body style that sets right here, you could run it for three years. You know what I mean? You could run that same car.

Same car. You could run that same body style. It wasn't a brand new body every year. It wasn't a brand new chassis every year. It wasn't a brand new stuff every year. You didn't get a brand new helmet every year. You know what I mean? I mean, you just didn't. If that uniform is not faded, we can get another year out of that one. You know what I mean? That kind of thing. So, I mean, they would take and bend and break rules, but they'd bend a lot of rules.

Yeah. You know what I mean? And the trick was to bend the rule. And, you know, it was like they go to Daytona and have six things wrong with the car. And they'd let you catch two of them, but they got by with four, you know? But everybody did it. Every, it was, it was. It was, it was. It was, it was, was not, the funny part is when when people talk about the old days and talk about cheating or talking about changing or exploring the rule book and the gray area was everybody did it. It wasn't just one team. And the other thing that happened then, and we've talked about before, is it's never been true or there were honor among thieves. You wouldn't, if I saw you doing something. If I saw, if I saw Dale doing something, I wouldn't turn him in. Yeah.

I would just go try to do it better. I would see he got by with it. Well, if he can get by with it, I can figure out a way to get by with it. And I'll go do that. Did that code ever get broken over the years? It started to get broken. But in 2000, for example, in 2012, when everybody was moving the rear in houses, using these funky bushings and stuff to get the left rear to slide forward, everybody in the garage was looking at it. Instead of running and telling, they all tried to figure it out, make it better in which ended up. up being Brad Kislazowski and those guys. They fit right around the right time of the season, right at there in the playoffs.

They figured out how to make it even better and ended up winning championship. I ain't you saying that's why he won a championship, but they certainly found what we were. Listen, if you can take that advantage, and I just did a coffee with Kyle with Penske, and he talked about some of it that didn't make air, but if you can take that advantage and then maximize that advantage, you know, that's a deal. You know, if we have the same thing, and I take what you're doing, and I maximize it, then I'm going to be better than you and then better than everybody else. So that's...

Wait, you're saying Roger Penske told you on a coffee with how things they were doing to the car that didn't make air, but that they were making go faster? That Donahue did. He never said he personally did. He said Donahue. He was on the Donahue stuff. And remember, I mean, if you go back to Donahue, he was the first guy to acid dip a car to make it lighter.

You know what I mean? And do stuff. So, I mean, they were way ahead of the curve. We acid dip cars. Acid dip? Yeah, you'd take the whole car and you would dip it in a huge. huge vat of acid and it would eat into the metal and it would take weight out of the car. But also would take metal out of it.

Yeah, that's the point. That's the point. Listen, you know how you've built race cars. You've built race cars. It is incredibly hard to save weight on a race car. I mean, incredibly hard because, you know, this bolt sticks out an eighth of an inch too much. Well, you do that times a thousand. That's a lot of weight.

You don't think about it that way, but it ends up being a lot of weight. We had to dip the car and went somewhere and ran it, and all the acid hadn't come out of the frame rails and stuff, and just ate the paint off the side. Just ate the pain. It was crazy. I think that would have been an indicator that something was a miss. That was an indicator. That reminds me, you know, we had fined on the show while back in. Oh, you're kidding.

And he said, oh, you heard. And I remember, you know, they were so good at Richmond, and I remember a race at Richmond where they had hollowed out the U-bolts. Yeah. And right, right. And so they came in for a pit stop and then the whole. whole undercarriage of the car just dropped, like when they, when they dropped the jack, the whole car just fell, like nuts and bolts went everywhere. I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the hardest part about, the hardest part about, and I will never forget this,

I think Tony Furrow went to Daytona one time with somebody and pushed their front fenders in, and qualified, like, incredibly fast, but they wouldn't come back out. So the trick to, the trick to getting something, getting something by is to be able to do it and use the advantage. But then when you roll back through the room at that point in time or you went back to you, that it was right again. Everything good. Nothing to see here. But if you just want to blatantly just do it, anybody can do that.

That doesn't take a lot of imagination to do that. You know, it's figuring how to do it and then get away with it. What's your earliest childhood memory of racing? Man, that's tough. Because I'm kind of like you, where you, just went all the time. You know, you just went all the time. I remember when I was in second grade going to Greenville Pickens. Notice I call it Greenville Pickens. I went to Greenville Pickens and it was a dirt race. And Greenville Pickens may have been an eye-opener for me because

it was probably the first time that I realized that everybody's dad didn't have a race car. You know what I mean? I mean, I took a couple kids that took a kid with me that I went to elementary school with and he was just fascinated. I'm like, it's just a race car, dude. You know what I mean? It's just, we're getting, we're waxing Jade Thomas's car. We're going to make Gabe's car run fast. That's a huge Jake Thomas. Really? Oh, shoot, man. Are you kidding me? Jade would let me wax his car. Yeah. You know what I mean? He would let me roll tires for him and wax his car when I was like eight, nine, ten years old. My dad, and they wouldn't let me touch at their car. You know what I mean? I mean, I couldn't. This is like your version of

Jimmy Meen. I lived the same experience with Jimmy Means. Jake Thomas for me, man. Dad and his guys wouldn't talk to me. No. We can give you the time of day, man. And I'd go over to Jimmy's and wax his car and go up and wax everybody else's car. Yeah. Anybody that would let you touch a race car, man, you just wanted to touch a race car. That's all there was, too. But it's funny. I remember, I know it's crazy. It's seven. I remember going to Riverside in 68, 69. I was about 8 or 9 years old. And Dan Gurney, watching Dan Gurney drive for the Wood Brothers. And what was fascinating, his number was 121. Yeah.

He had three numbers on a stock car, and I was like, oh, my God, there's three numbers on the side of the car. No, I've never seen that before in my life, you know what I mean? And I'm in second, I'm in the third grade, maybe third grade. We went Michigan. I rode in the truck from home to Michigan, Michigan to Riverside, Riverside to Texas, then back home, and we picked up the Speedway car and went to Daytona. What a field trip. Oh, that was it. That was summer.

That was summertime. Summertime. Summertime travel, man. That's the way summertime is work. So when I look at, you know, everybody talks about your first race is at arc race at 20 years old, I believe, in Daytona in 1979. But, well, I want to talk about that in a bit. When I look at pictures of your dad and see all the time on social media from the 70s, you were there. You were in the victory.

You were there. You were working. You were part of the deal. You were doing whatever you did, you know, whatever you could do. So help me understand in the day, like I didn't drive until I was 15 or 16. and that seemed normal. Now, everybody's five, eight, ten years old, their kids are racing. Yeah, you hadn't started Alla yet?

You're behind. I know. I don't have a suit or anything yet. I know, that fascinates. This is going to be our first race car right here. And so I know probably felt completely normal for you to get in a car for the first time at 20 years old and go to Daytona and Arka race. Well, I was 18. Or 18?

Which is a whole other issue. Which is a whole, so here's what I happen. Okay. This is what I happen. I guess what I want to know is all through the 70s when you were a teenager, where you badgered your dad about racing? All the time. All the time.

What was he saying? 21. 21. 21. His dad didn't let him race until 21. Yeah. His dad didn't let him drive a car until he was 21 years old. And he had badgered his dad.

You know what I mean? But 21. 21. 21's going to be the date. 21. That's it. 21. Go 21.

Yeah. You know? So from the time I was. So I got my, this is. This is crazy. I got my first motorcycle when I was like, first grade, first grade, got a motorcycle. And, but never had a go-kart, okay? My dad would not let us have a go-kart.

And because he said a go-kart will not teach you respect for speed. And a motorcycle will teach you respect because when you think you know everything, it'll put your butt on the ground. You know what I mean? And he's exactly right. I mean, anytime I thought that I got too brave. was too fast, boom, I'm headed to the hospital. I got a broke ankle, I got broke wrist, I got disoaked shoulder, you know, that, but

so from the time I was little, and I mean, really riding that motorcycle, I'd ride that motorcycle and pretend like I was Bobby Allison, you know what I mean? Charlie Glott'sback was my man. I'm going to tell you, man, that purple wing car in the 70s, oh my God, man, purple, and I mean, it's crazy. When 1970, I will say the sidebar here, 1971, my dad was a day. had one, one a road, one daytona, one a roadrunner. Purple, purple. I mean, metallic purple, half white vinyl top, white leather interior, 71 roadrunner.

And that thing was bad to the bone. We'd drive it, I was 10, we'd drive it to the end of the driveway and set in it, wait for the bus to come, and the bus would pick us up in the morning. And then in the afternoon we'd get off and get to drive it back down the driveway, so we just drove it all the time. But so when I was 10, I wanted to be Evil Caneval too, because I saw Evil Caneval in when they opened up Ontario. Oh. So I wanted to be, this was pre-opening up Ontario.

So I jumped this, I jumped over from the left side to the right side of this 71 Roadrunner. Set the doghouse up and put a piece of plywood on it, my little Yamaha adieu, sail it over the roof of that thing. And so I was going to be a daredevil, man. I was going to be Evil Caneval. But I just grew up wanting to drive a race car. And here's what my dad told me, is if you want to drive, and if you really, someday, and he told me this when I was 11 or 12, then you need to know how to work on cars. So from the time I would go and I'd sweep the shop, and then they let me start sandblasting stuff. And I'd stand at a sandblaster with my arms and those big rubber gloves and sandblast all day long, man.

And then they let me start painting it. I'd get sandblasted. it, and then I could paint certain parts. And then they taught me how to magniflux. So I had magniflux it, make sure there's no cracks in it. Man, I'd circle them, I'd say, Dale, is there a crack right here? This looks like crack. He'd wipe that magniflux fluid off and say, no, that's not a crack.

Don't worry about it. You can paint that one. So you do that. So that's what I'd do every day after school. I'd go to the shop, and I'd sandblasts and magnaflux, and understand that they would do this. They would bring this car in on a Monday morning, and they would put it up on jackstands,

and they would take it apart, engine would go back to the engine room, they'd take the front end out from under it, the rear end out from under it, and we run torsion bars. These were dodges and stuff, so you'd run torsion bars and stuff, leaf springs.

All that stuff had to be sandblasted, magnifluxed, and repainted, so it could go back on the car by Wednesday to go to the next race because you only had a couple sets of spindles and maybe two rear-in-housing. So they would turn a car around in a couple of days

and take that same car back to the racetrack. While we were doing all that, then it would be in the body shop, and then he would not go to the racetrack without it being touched up and painted and looking good. You know what I mean? He's a Del Inman or my dad? My dad. I should know the answer to this. If you wanted, when they ran a leaf spring cars in the 70s, did you change a leaf spring at the racetrack? Yeah. But it was hard. It was hard to change the leaf. Most of the time, Dale would just take a leaf out. And, you know, you had 16s, 15, 17, and they were rated. to different numbers. It's a different rate than what a coal spring is. Yeah. But you could take,

you'd just jack it up, take the weight off of it and pull a leaf out, whether it was a long leaf or a middle leaf, you know, you just pull a leaf out of it. I never ever asked, I never even thought about that. You can, if you go back and look at some pictures of my dad, especially in the roadrunner, in the 68 roadrunner, and really in the early 70s and the charger, coming off of turn two at at Martinsville, that car will be rolled over so much you can see between over the left front tire and see the air cleaner on top of the engine. I mean, that's how soft or right rear they would run when they go to Martinsville. But I always wanted to be a race car driver.

And so I went to work and for he made me, I had to work one year everywhere. So I worked a year as a mechanic. I worked a year in the engine shop. I worked a year in the body shop. And once I got out of the body shop, I swore I would never go back and do bodywork. I coughed up petty blue blood for a, or phlegm for a year. but I worked a year everywhere. So by the time that had cycled through, I was about 17.

And the next step for me was to drive. But that wasn't going to happen, according to my dad. So my mom wanted me to go to night school. And she wanted me to be a pharmacist. My mom had this dream that I was going to be a pharmacist. I can see that. Can you? With those glasses?

I can see drug dealer, but I can't see pharmacist. Okay. With those glasses and that. hair and a white coat. Yeah. Pharmacists. She wanted me to be a pharmacist. So I went to night school.

True story. I went to night school for three weeks. And the dean of the night school, the dean of the school I went to, I won't mention what it is, called my parents and told them they could have all my money back not to send me back anymore. Dang. Why? I come in and I'd have Bondo dust all over me or I'd smell like lacquer thinner, because

I was working in the body shop at that point, you know what I mean? And I just didn't have time to clean up and go. You just went to school. I didn't go. It wasn't a beauty contest, man. I just went to learn. So we were going through at the race shop. We were going through, my dad was winning races some, but not a lot.

Things began to change. We were switching to Chevy. So we had a Dodge sitting there. An old Magnum. An old Magnum, man. Look it up. Twice as big as what the Magnum Station wagon that Dodge made in later years.

It's an ugly car. So my dad. dad, Steve Mill, you know Steve, Steve, you know Steve, so my dad was like, you guys can, if y'all can get that ready, we'll go, we'll go test. So we worked that was it. Yeah, so we got it ready. How? Well, yeah, we'd have to work on it.

We'd have to work on it. We'd have to work on it when it, when we weren't, when you were working. When your dad walked up and said that to you, what was your feeling? I got a warm feeling of my socks because I peed in my paper. Okay, I can tell you that. Because it was like, yeah, this is it, dude. You're going to get to go get in a race car. He would not let me, A true story. Dale and those guys,

they wouldn't let me get in a race car and back it out and just set there. Nothing. Nothing. You couldn't, I'd never, they wouldn't let me. Now, when I was in elementary school, backtrack a little bit. When I was in elementary school and stuff, I'd ride the bus home. And if you rode the bus home and got off the bus and you heard the race car running, boom, straight across my granddad's front yard, across that big field out there, straight to the race shop.

Because you knew, at some point in time, before they went home from work, Dale was going to get in that thing or my dad was going to get in that thing, and we were going to drive it out the end of the driveway, and we were going to head about three and a half miles over to the county line and turn around in, I can't remember the farmer's name,

turn around in his driveway and drive it back and then jack it up and make sure nothing leaked. You know, make sure that all the lines were sealed, and then we'd load it up on the truck and they had head off to the next race. So there were folks driving around and ramble them every once in a while. They might see the dot,

The Dodge Carge. Carge. Coming at. Coming at. It must have been the most beautiful thing. Coming at them. It had to be beautiful. Think about being, and I laugh about it because I think about living out there where we live

and looking up and seeing that wing super bird coming down the highway at you. You know what I mean? Think, oh my gosh, man. Aliens have laid out there. Level cross. So we got that thing ready and we had an old truck named Clyde. Clyde was a double cab, roll back, you rolled up on it. and the wheels were over the...

Did the Magnum have a name? No, Magnum didn't have a name. No, no, we never named it. Clyde always had a name. I don't know why that truck was called Clyde. That's just what they called it. That's been a good truck. Yeah, it was a good truck, man.

It was a good truck. So we loaded Clyde up and put that car on it. My dad said, well, go to Daytona and test. And I'm like, oh, man, we're going to Daytona. I'm 18 years old. Never been in a race car in my life. They had a bet I wouldn't run... I think they had a bet I wouldn't run 140 miles.

an hour the first time around. I think I ran 152, my first lap. You know what I mean? I'm like, man, I am flying. This is crazy. But we went, this is when you could go to Daytona and you could rent the racetrack for three days and you could rent the racetrack for three days. So teams would rent it and then you would have to call somebody up.

And we ended up going with a crazy story. We ended up going with Goodyear Tire. And they were testing tires with Kenny Robbins. for motorcycles. So they were testing motorcycle tires while we were there testing the Magnum. This is your Disneyland right here. Yeah, it was, man. It was crazy. I'm here with Kenny Roberts. I'm here with Kenny Roberts, and he's doing all this stuff, man. I go out and watch him run. Then I go out and try to make a lap or two. And your dad, was he running to his car? No. No. Just about yourself. Yeah, just kind of by myself. He run my car. He took it out first. Well, here's what I did.

All right. I don't know if you ever got into this. So, He's like, let's go out, I'm going to show you around Daytona. Okay. So we take a car cover and we throw it in the right side. He gets in, puts his helmet on, straps in, tells me to climb in. I should have known at that point in time this is, and we went out and ran like... This is the first Richard Petty driving experience ever. This is very far.

We went out in like the second or third lap. We run like 193. And he's like... You're sitting in there. And I'm just sitting here on the roll bars like this. And he's like this. Okay, there's a big bump right here. So you don't want to hit this bump.

You want to be down, but don't come down this load. This is before they run low. Yeah. You know, nobody run. Nobody run around the bottom, man. You run middle and top. That's where you run. And we'd be right up next the wall, and he'd just be digging, just wheeling this magnum.

And talking the whole time. And it never, I never thought about it until years later almost because it was like, it was just like, okay, my dad. He's telling me what to do, and this is how you're supposed to do it. I'm trying to visualize this. Yeah. You particularly. Yeah. You're in the car.

Yes. He's going 193? Yeah. What are you hanging on to? Roll bars. Just hanging on. Sitting on a car come. Sitting on a car come.

As you do when you're riding passenger at a run-dry. It's all you had there. There's no seat. There's no seat. No seat. Hard-ass floor. So that's what we did. And we tested and then we went back in the race.

How did that race go? So when there's not, I haven't ever seen any footage of the race. I'm not sure there is. All right. Thank goodness. And you won the race. You look good. But you qualified well, right?

Yeah, it was... How did your... What do you remember? Okay, this is what I remember. Billy Hagan, who owned Terry Labani's car at the time. Ron Hutchison, okay, he had a car. Bob Rezac? Breivak?

I don't know if it was Breivak or Reefack? But anyhow, and a guy named Phil Finney, and Phil's nephew, I think his nephew, was a NASCAR official for a number of years. Anyhow, so there were about five or six pretty good cars that didn't run the ARCA schedule. You know, typical Daytona, let's go run an ARCA race. And then you had Moose Myers and a bunch of these other guys that run the regular schedule, that were the guys running for the championship. So we went down there, and I think I qualified, that qualifies second or third? I don't know, something like that.

And I think Hagen may have been on the pole. I don't know. So my dad said, okay, they were like just kind of fall in line and figure this out. And I think the first time by I was like six car lengths ahead when I came by the first time because I was, I don't want to follow these guys. You know what I mean? I'm going to follow these guys. So anyhow, we run along there and we run pretty decent.

We run probably second, third, fourth, a lot a bunch. I mean, off and on, just all over. Because we were all. Small little group of it. Yeah, small little. And little by little, somebody would have some. shoes or something. And the guy that, that I do remember this, John Markham ran at the time ran Arka, and he told us in the RACA race, or told us in the driver's meeting, never forget it.

He said, we're here for one reason and one reason only. It's to put on a show for these fans who have come to see the Cup Stars qualify right after we race. So we have a limited amount of time. We need to get in here. We need to do this. If you stink up my show and pull away, and we get too big a gap, there's going to be a caution. We're not going to let somebody get away. That's great. We're not going to let somebody.

So I come down pit road, first pit stop, and I got my dad's guys. I leave. I'm like 18 seconds ahead. Boom, caution. I mean, I'm way ahead. I don't know what it is exactly, but I'm way ahead.

Caution comes out. I have an idea why you read. Caution comes out. So we had one green flag stop. I remember we had a green flag stop. I came down. and I'd never left the pits. I pop that baby in gear and drop the clutch.

And, man, I look like a pro stock car. It just stands up like this. And I don't go anywhere. You know what I mean? I don't go. Tires as hard as his table back then. And I was, my Uncle Marsh was so mad. He threw his stopwatches at me,

and they ricocheted off the back and went over the hood while I'm still sitting here, kind of, you know what I mean? The guy that should have won the race is a guy, is Phil Finney. Phil Finney should have won that race. he was the best car he was put them they put themselves in position and they just outrun everybody when it when it came down to time but if not but four he hit a seagull in the middle of the backstretch and his windshield c-wheel c-gall in the middle of the backstretching oh and his windshield and that's when you run glass windshields everybody run glass windshield you used to hit

when people used to hit seagulls all the time and practice and stuff they'd kind of get away once the racing started and everybody but every now and then you'd have that dumb see you'd have a one dumb one that one with a death wish and he would come flying back to check out and see what was happening. And it's windshield came down. We ended up, so I ended up winning a race, I think. And I went into turn three, and I can't remember who was, but he got to my outside. And because where the start finish line is, it was just, I mean, I ended up beating him back.

Wow, so you had a battle on your hands on to the finish. Down to the finish. That was it. That's crazy. What does Richard Petty say to you after you win that race? If he's, and this will be a test. Never, I don't ever remember him telling me the things I did right, but he told me everything I did wrong.

Really? Everything I did wrong. Everything. And my granddad was the same way. I saw my granddad tell my dad one time they went to Dover and they won by like six or seven laps. And my granddad asked him why he didn't win by eight because he was convinced he could have won by two more laps if he had really drove. Oh my God. You know what I mean?

I mean, never, I didn't grow up in a family where people told you. Good job. Good job, good job, let's go do it again. No, you were expected to do a good job. I mean, that was your expectations. You were expected to go. That's amazing.

Yeah, this is what you... You had a cup crew. You had a cup pit crew. You had a cup car. You had a cup car. And that was a deal. So my career from there went from... I went there, and then I came to Charlotte and crashed like twice testing.

The Magnum. The Magnum. Put it back together. Went to Daytona, crashed qualifying at Daytona all by myself. Man, we had that thing hung out because that's when you couldn't have much of it. And I didn't know any better. Listen, so I go, I go Daytona, come to Charlotte, practice, tear everything up, go to Daytona in July, and wrecked by myself qualifying, and that's my racing career.

So guess what my next race is? Talladega Let's go to Taladega Let's take his kid to Talega He's got it going on So as hard as your dad was on You're not going to race to your 21 You're going to work a year

And all the departments As hard as he was on you But then you go through that Were you ever nervous You were going to go home From Charlotte From Daytona And he's going to go

We ain't going to fix that one Yeah but here's the thing Pharmacy Yeah that's right But here's the thing Is as long as you were willing to show up and put it back together, you can go again. Yeah, you can go again. And that was the deal. Yeah, it's not, you know, and so you just grew up,

like you, just grew up working on cars. I mean, I'm sorry. That just, and I love to work on. If I, and I always said, if I could not be, if I was not a drive, if I'd never become a driver, I would have been a fabricator. Yeah. Because I love the fabricator. I mean, and that's when you still used English wheels and, I mean, you could make magic. You could still skirt things around and make some stuff so I think that's the best advice you could give anybody a young kid especially if they want to become a race car drivers when they do tear it up to be there the next day that's right the next morning because I wrecked at Charlotte in an Xfinity car in 97 I had ran a race or two but nothing really crazy and I thought that that was it I was like that's the end of my career right there I've I'm done

and I went home and was feeling sorry for myself and dad came in there and he goes what the hell you doing? I was like, it's over. He's like, they're over there cutting the back off that car right now. That's right. I ain't your ass over there helping them. That's right. You tore it up, dummy. Yeah, you tore it up. You go help and mix it. And I mean, and that's the way, when I went to drive for the Wood Brothers in the mid-80s and we would wreck in practice or I'd wreck something, I'd just show up at shop and try to help, you know what I mean? Because that's just, that was my life. My life was working. That's, I will say this to you. The hardest, the This thing for me, making the transition from being around race cars to doing TV, was not having a shop to go to and not working on something.

At the end of the day, you could look at it and say, I helped put that together. Yeah. I made that, you know, because you just set and talk, you know, and there's no end product that there didn't feel like you didn't make anything, you know. I got a 66 Nova wagon that's going to be my next project. We'll get back to Kyle in a second, but first Dale, you got something for us. Kyle, hold on, I got to ask you something, because this is a perfect segue. This is the perfect moment to ask you about this. All of that stuff you just said, I couldn't help but notice when I looked at your first

couple cup seasons. Yeah. Okay? Did I see this right? I mean, 18 of 31 races in 1981 were DNFs. Yeah. 15 of 29 races in 82 were DNFs, but it wasn't because of crashing. No.

Listen to this. Total, 50 races in his first two cup seasons, 33 DNFs, 19 engine failures, and 10 other part failures, whether it was a transmission or a thing like that, right? Yeah. Which I couldn't help but think of that when you were talking about how the petty, the early days was getting to, so I will explain. So I will explain. So I will explain.

So I will explain. I will explain. Okay. And this is where, so everything about my career, especially the early part of my career, is all about business. It's all business. And I didn't have a late model car,

and I didn't have a Bush car at the time because we weren't in the Bush business. We weren't in the late model business. We had cup cars, we had cup wheels, We had cup engines, we had cup transmissions, and that's what we did. We were cup racers, you know what I mean? So it was cheaper for me to go cup racing, all right?

It was also cheaper for my dad to run the motor this week and just power wash it and put it in this car for the next week. You know what I mean? So you weren't going to get a thousand miles out of these engines. And we knew that going in. I mean, and I knew that. But I didn't have the experience either. You know what I mean?

Here's a kid that as you look at 80, going into 80, I had, or going at 79, I run five races. Okay? So going into 80, I have a total of six races under my belt, counting the arc of race. Ever. You see what I'm saying? So, I mean, you're looking at, you look at, and I ran Ontario, I ran Michigan, I ran, I think I ran Atlanta, ran, ran Talladega. I mean, I had run six races

and never ran anything under a mile and a half in my whole life. That's amazing. Had never driven anything but had never been on a racetrack smaller other than a mile and a half. So when you look at it,

no learning curve whatsoever. No, there was no, no. It was like, hey, you want to be a swimmer? Let's go to the limits. Throw him in the pool. But the point was, it was just cheaper for us. It was more economical for us to go and do this.

And I'll go back, and this is, I'm going to say this, this would be a tough to run two cars with what we had at Petty Enterprises and what we were doing. We had a winning team with my dad and stuff and with my Uncle Maurice and with Dale and those guys. But remember, they run cast iron heads. They had to be hand-ground. You know what I mean? I mean, you would hand-grind these heads, put them on a flow bench and flow them. So you're asking the engine department all of a sudden to double down and double down and do. do double the work. So we'll just take care of, you take care of the engine on Sunday. We'll try to

cool it down when the race is open. Make sure the heads don't crack. We'll change your head gaskets. You know what I mean? Put a new manifold on it because we're going to a different way. Maybe we'll degree the cam a little bit different. You know what I mean? Change a pushrod or a rocker if they look like they're beating the seats out of them or something. You know what I mean? Go. You know what mean? Go. Your turn. That kind of thing. That explains it. So it was, I mean, it was not, I never looked at it as a bad thing because the whole time I'm getting experience. You're getting seat time.

Look, and you know it. And I'm out there in 79 and 80 and 81. I'm on the same racetrack with your dad, with Richard Petty, with Kell Yarborough, with Bobby Allison, with Buddy Baker, with David Pearson. I mean, the guys that I grew up in the 60s, worshiping. You mean, I mean, I just thought these guys, even though I was a Richard Petty fan, I mean, I just thought these guys, this group of guys were the greatest group of guys in the world. Bobby Isaac, man, I loved Bobby Isaac.

But those guys were just always nice to me and Davy or to Larry and Ricky, to us. I mean, we'd sneak in the garage area with Gazeway, and if Gazzaway would see us, he'd try to throw us out, but they'd hide you. You know what I mean? They'd protect you, too. It wasn't just your dad protecting you. It was, yeah, come and jump up in the cab of my truck and stay here for 30 minutes. They'll be gone. They won't come back.

You know, that kind of thing. Wow. It was just a different. And, you know, because you came along then and started hanging with your dad and stuff at the race track, it was different in the early 80s and 90s. You know what I mean? It's just different, man. You had a friendship with Michael Walter. Throughout the majority of your racing career.

I knew this would go downhill. So how did that, I guess, I guess. that, you know, there had to be some... I don't know how we got... You know how I got up with Michael? I will tell you exactly how I got. Michael was dating Beth Wood, Leonard's daughter, and I was driving for the Wood Brothers,

and that's how I got up with Michael. Seems like, though, that y'all were closer before that because Michael came... Moved over to house. He came and moved in, but that was all the same time. Early 80s. Oh. Early 80s.

He built a baby grand car. Yeah. Up in Lovell Cross and went to Daytona and won with the thing. He and Richie Bars worked on the... that thing and build it. But you know what? He just, he came down and didn't have, he was with Quisnbury then. Remember Quisnbury had some stuff. So he was with, when Quisnbury and those guys, but he was just, Michael, even, even then, Michael was still 12 years old. You know what I mean? I mean, I know he's 12 years old today, but he was, he was 12 years, he was the same then.

He was, he's never, he left my dad's house one day, pulled out of my dad's driveway, or pulled out of my dad's garage. carport and started up the driveway and it's probably from here it may be from here to your outer office okay and went to sleep and ran out through the woods in his car i mean he went to sleep in like 75 feet you know what i mean i mean that's how you know what i mean yeah it's like oh here i am then just runs his mona carlo out there's it's hilarious man my dad was hot i just remember in the 90s y'all were just so close yeah we just hung out but i mean it was like you you You almost have to go back where I don't know if we were, especially when he first started coming around.

We were, I mean, we were the only two guys that were younger, period, even that was doing really anything. And because like your dad started in 79, I ran for a rookie of the year in 79, but he was 29, 28, 29, right along in there. And I was 18. Yeah. You know, I was 10 or 11 years younger than him. So that everybody was, that's the way the gap was. He was the norm. Yeah.

And I was abnormal. Now, then the Jeff Gordon effect came along and it shifted, it's skewed it back 10 years. But at that time, it just, there was nobody around, but Michael. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of success with Felix, particularly with Gary Nelson. We're trying to get Gary to come on the show. Oh, you need him. He's very nervous about coming on here because he knows that I'm going to ask him about, you know, how he made cars go fast.

You were going to ask him about his creativity. He's one of the most creative guys that we may have. Yes, he has. We may have had in our garage area. Yes. So, I mean, that had to been, you know, had had success, won races. Yeah. But now, like, you're competitive every single week.

Yes. Gary is like a master. I like the thing that was. Is this when he's driving for Felix or the Wood? Felix. Okay. Yeah. Here's what, okay.

So I will put it in one of the, in one of the prettiest race cars, I know everybody loves the Meli-Y car. Yeah. But the peak cars. Peek car was jamming. The peak car was jamming. The peak car was jamming. The peak car was a play on what the Hornets were at that time. Really? Yeah, that was Felix's big deal. He wanted something that kind of, remember the purple and teal and they had the pink pinstripes and they had all that stuff. I always thought when I saw your cars that you helped design them. No, no. This was. They seemed like they matched your personality. He loves his purple. Yeah, that's what he said. Yeah, that's exactly right. And we had input, but Felix decided that's the direction he wanted to go. You know, he had. He had. He, and Rick and a couple of those guys were minority partners. That's right. When they first came in, when the Hornets first came.

This is the way I look at, and this was my, Felix was, in hindsight, I'm going to say in hindsight, Felix was my one and only opportunity in my career to really win races. And this is why I say this. When I drove for my dad's team, we were on the backside. And you talk about 80 and 81. when I'm just trying to learn how to drive a race car and you're braking. And then my dad leaves and goes to drive for Mike Kerb. And then I run a single year out of petty enterprises by myself, you know, with a Ford.

We switch over and I run a Ford. And then I go to the Wood Brothers, who have never run a full season, who have never run a full season. I didn't realize that. So they, it took us almost two years to get in the swing. of running a full season. You know what I mean? So by the time we got in that swing, then I left them.

Funny story. I told Eddie and then when I went up there, I said, hey, I look around the shop. I'm the only guy here that's the last name's not Wood. So I know when you make a change, it's going to be me. All you got to do is call me. I understand how racing works. You know what I mean?

I understand how it works. I mean, and that's the way it works. So he called me one day and he said, hey, we're going to make a change. I'm like, I'm good. You know what I mean? So I ended up. with Felix and Felix had nothing, nothing. He bought a team from Rick and he bought it and it

would be like walking in your shop and looking around and Felix is like, yeah, man, I bought this team. And then coming in about week later and there's nothing in here and Felix is like, well, Rick, where'd that go? Well, I didn't own that car and that was Chevy's car and those motors, they belong to somebody else. So you got those four wheels over there. You know what I mean? It was so funny, man. Oh, man. But we started, and we didn't, we didn't have a team, and then we were going to run 15, 18 races in 89, and then ease into it. So that's the only team that I ever was part of building something and then sticking it out for a little while. And then, and I'll get back to your question.

But then one day, I decided that my granddad had to give my dad a place to race, and my dad gave me a place to race, and I needed a place for Adam to race. and I didn't have a place for Adam to race. So I started my own team. And then I built it for a couple years, and then I just went back home to end my career there. So I never stayed. I was always building, never established. Felix was the most established thing,

but I'd won a couple of races for the Wood Brothers. One at Richmond, when somebody crashed. Oh, I think it was your dad. Yes. Yeah. I think it was your dad. Big crash, man. And I weave through the,

and I weave through the, through the carnage there. And I told this story not long ago. There was a pool. We used to put money in a pool. Everybody had money in a pool. It was a big pool, big money pool. Yeah.

Okay. Not, okay. It's not $50 pool. Yeah. It's a big money pool. And Elliott was winning all the races. Bill Elliott was winning all the races. So we got to a point in the pool where you would, I was with Lynn and Eddie, and we got to a point in the pool where what you would do,

is you would take your own car, so we would have the 21 car, and you would just draw a peel. They would draw a pill out of the box and say, okay, whoever finishes fifth the day, wins the money. Because you knew if you drew the nine car at Talladega, Bill Elliott's going to win Talladega. Dayton, Bill Ellie's going to win Dayton. I mean, he was kicking butt and taking names. So, Richmond, we drew, we had our thing. We were running fifth with about 10 laps ago.

Eddie comes on the radio. He's like, we got this one. We're going to win the pool. We got this one. We are in the pool. He's like, they can't catch you and don't catch them. Don't catch them and they can't catch you. We got this, baby.

We got the pool. That's awesome. And so, boom, all of a sudden they crash. Eddie, like, no. Eddie keys up the mic. And I mean, he is mad. I'm mad. Everybody, everybody, everybody, everybody, everybody,

involved in this is mad because we're losing some cash here. You know what I mean? And we talk about it. We talk about it for a lap. Maybe more than a lap. I mean, we're just on the radio. On the radio. Just back and forth. Just yak, yak, yak, yak.

You think some of these guys yak now, we were yaking on this radio. And all of a sudden he's like, hey, wait a minute. Silence. He's like, I think we're leading. I think we might win this race. I'm like, you're kidding me. He's like, no, did you see what? Rupman when you come through there and I said I didn't see anybody dude yeah I didn't see anybody down

there and they were crashed on both sides I mean it was they that they got in the wall here and then there were people in the inside wall over here and I mean we just weaved our way through it wasn't just like ended that way it ended that way yeah so you didn't have to go back right so okay so you guys yeah there was no such thing as green white checkered not knowing you were leading not knowing we were upset not in understanding that we were leading that's an upset because we were The pile of cash just moved to another player. You know what I mean? We just lost.

Come to find out. I don't believe anybody won the cash that day. I think it rolled over to another week because nobody had anybody. I was texting Landon Cassidy. Then he's like, did you ever gambling racing? I was like, I only bet on myself a few times. I was like, I said one time we had a, we bet on ourselves to win at Vegas in 1998 in the Xfinity series and we taped the ticket to the dash.

Oh, did you really? Yeah, and I read second to Spencer. No way. Right on his. bumper. If I had to look, and Tony Jr. said, did you not look? I said, I forgot about it. Yeah. He's like, damn, if you were reminded me, I might have moved Spencer, but I was afraid to touch Spencer. Did they, did they go on the radio and say anything about that? Okay, so that was after the race. It was, I never knew it was there until after the race. That's hysterical, man.

You guys. So driving from Felix, yeah, we won some, we went some, we went, we, we, we, that was my first opportunity and only opportunity, really, to. just go to the racetrack every week and know you had a shot. I mean, I don't think any driver ever goes and says, I got a snowball's chance. You always feel like, man, they might wreck going in turn three again like they did at Richmond my first race, you know what I mean? But you felt like every time you went with Gary,

and then later with Robin, every time I went with John Wilson building engines and Sutton and Jim Long and that group, man, he just felt like you could win races. And that's a good feeling, man. Guys, let's take a quick break from the conversation. Dale Jr., let's talk about an important partner on the Dale Jr. Download. You ended up breaking your leg at Talladega.

Oh, yeah. Driving the Meli-Yel car. Yep. And it's funny because Dale Jarrett works at NBC. Kyle, obviously, we're all around each other and to hear them to tell the story because DJ was involved in the crash as well. Yep. Tell me about it.

Tell me the story again. It was just a wreck. It's typical Talladega wreck. Where it starts, how it starts. God only knows. I was on the inside I was against the outside while I do remember being along the outside wall

sliding backwards along the outside wall in a straight line down the backstretch and then I guess I had the way I had the wheels cut as it got to a certain speed it just opened up

you know it just opened up away from the wall and when I opened up away from the wall then it opened up in front of Ernie and Ernie hit me in the door and it broke my leg and, you know what, it's a crazy thing, man. Didn't have a clue that it was broken until I landed over into the grass, in the grass, and I looked down and I had a white uniform on.

Only time I ever wore a white uniform driving the mellow yellow color, honestly gosh, all my uniforms were black. They were black melloyal yellow uniforms. And for some reason, they were like, man, you got to get a white one. It's going to be hot a towel day. You got, you got, it's gonna be hot. I would not wear black uniforms. You don't not, you do not need a black uniform.

And I looked down and it was red. It was bad. And it was, it was, you could see that the bone was protruding up through the, up to the cloth, you know what I mean? Oh. And my leg was turned a goofy way. Oh no. And Dale, Dale came over and took the wind of that down because he, you know,

because I never thought about taking a wind in that down. We didn't have those things for you. Take the window net down if you're okay. We didn't have any of that then. And so he took the wind of net down, and I think he might have got sick. But when he took the wind of net down, he said, are you okay? And I said, I think my leg's broken. He looked straight at it and just turning around.

He threw up. He was gone, man. He was gone. He was gone. That's the last time I saw him. And again, he had a glass windshield. Okay. And this is funny.

I've got this video. I will search for it and bring it sometime. So the guys that cut me out of the car, they're making a video of it. Man, we're pumped. We're using the jaws of light. We've got to get this guy out of here. You know how that is. You know what I mean?

We're pumped up. We're going to cut the C post right here. Let's cut this C post. So I'm sitting in the car, you know, and kind of talking to them. And I don't, I don't, I never, and this is going to sound bad, and this is not a slam at NASCAR and not a slam at anybody. I never remember a doctor or a paramedic being anywhere close by. It was just the record guys. Just me and the record guys.

You look fine. Me and the record guys. We're just having a good time. That's not true. I'm sure they were there. I'm sure they're probably well. I just don't remember. So they put the jaws of life in this thing right here above me.

And the guy said, turn your head. I turned my head. And he, boom, pop. And when it popped, glass went everywhere. So I got my leg here, and my bone's sticking out, and there's glass everywhere. And the guy turns around, straight face. And he says, make a note, take windshield out next time we're going. And you hear it on the tape.

Just as clear as a bell. Make a note. Take the windshield out next time, people. And so anyhow, they get me out and they take me to the, they take me to the infill carriage center, and then they airlift me, this is a Monday, and they airlift me to Caraway Medical Center. And I had a doctor, Dr. Bromberg. And I remember laying there, I remember laying there, man, and I'm laying on this table. He's like, you okay?

You okay? You're okay? You're okay? You know, he's touching you, and you know how that he is. Yeah, and you know, and you don't want to be, you know, it's like when you get out of a car and the rescue guy wants to help you to the car. Don't touch me, dude. I can walk to, I'm not, I'm okay, you know.

Oh, that reminds me as something else I want to ask you about. So he's held, so my, I'm strapped down. I'm strapped on this table because they don't know what, they just know there's a bone sticking out of my leg, you know, and they've still not put it back in because he can't pull it. They don't want to pull it back in because they don't know what dirt and glass and stuff's in it. So I'm just laying there all but buck, buck, bucket. ass naked with a bone sticking out through my leg here. So finally he gets to a place and I'm like, it's my arm. I think my arm's hurt. So he unstraps me and I grab him. And I'm like,

it's my effing leg. And make sure you get it back the right length. That's all I care about. Just make sure you get it the right length, man. And he's like, we'll do the best we can. And next thing I know, I'm passed out. And it's a day later and two nurses are getting me up to go to rehab. And I said, excuse me? And these two nurses are like, come on, Mr. Betty, it's time to go down to rehab. I said, you know what, I'm going to lay here on my ass, and I'm going to feel sorry for myself for a little bit longer. And they said, you know what? You're going to get up off your ass, and you're going down to rehab with us right now.

Yeah. And they snatched my butt up. And 24 hours later, I was up walking up steps, trying to walk up steps. Holy cow. With a rod in my leg and a pin in my hip and all this other stuff. And that was it. That's physical therapy for everyone who's just been to a surgery. I mean, nobody wants to go the next day.

And yet they're like, no, you better go. You got to go. It was the most fascinating thing. This just reminded me of something. And it's one of my favorite Kyle Petty moments. And I remember vividly watching it. And it was at Daytona, 1993, when you and Bobby Hill and a friend. Yes.

And it's favorite only because people are trying to come up to help you. And you're literally like a pissed off girlfriend. Do not help me. Who is just swatting people away. Bobby's wanting to talk. to you about something and you're going. Yes. And you just don't want to hear none of it.

And when he finally forces you to have the conversation, you were literally grabbing him and doing things like this. And the next thing you know, you go on your walk about like, it looked like to the infield. It's the fact you were going to go to the fans or something. But now, so that's funny to me just because we know you. Yeah. I always wondered though, Bobby really didn't do anything on purpose of right?

I mean, like, I don't even know what you were mad about. Yeah, here's what he did. Here's what he did. that pissed me off that day. Always wanted to know this. And I'm still pissed off about it. Wow, okay. I will forever be pissed off about it.

Okay. Is we were, we were behind the wreck. We were not. We were behind. Way behind it. We were behind because we had had a bad pit stop. So we were behind. So we're just easing our way through.

And he lets, as we get to him, he takes his foot off the brake and rolls down the bank. Okay? All he had to do was set there until every car goes by, until every car goes by and then you can roll down. Okay? Because there was nobody coming through at speed.

Nobody was coming through at speed. I mean, we were running 60, 70 miles an hour. Don't get me wrong. You know, I mean, it's not like we were running 25 miles an hour. But we had slowed down enough because you saw the cars up against the outside wall and you saw the cars in the infill and stuff.

So to me, to me, it's always been that he just let his foot off the break. That was it. So when you climbed up on the car, where did you yell? Probably something that, There's no telling. Listen, I slammed these visor down and walked off.

You know what I mean? When he just kept talking, shut up. You know what I mean? When somebody doesn't want to talk, just be quiet. You know what I mean? And it was nothing. Look, to this day, Bobby Hillen is one the nicest guys you will ever meet. And we have talked about it a million times.

And, you know, I've seen him when we go to Texas, and he's just a good guy. I really like Bobby. You didn't want it. But that day, I don't want anything to say. I didn't want to talk to him. To the emergency workers. I didn't want to talk about it. You didn't have to go to the hospital then.

We didn't go to the hospital. We just got out and left. You had a few incidents like that. You slapped Denny's visor down. Oh, that's right. Denny. Dover. Dover, I slapped Denny.

Listen, this is my best one with Denny, and I love Denny. But I went over to him. I was trying to get out of his way, and he spied me, which pissed me off, which he was in it, too. He was in it too. Yeah. And so I go down and just say, if you'd give me 15 more foot, you know, coming up out of the corner at Dover, just give me 50, just give me a little bit. I'm here, and you've got plenty of room. It's done.

So, you know, he just sits there and he's staring. And he's not even, he won't say anything. And I said, you got anything to say? And he's like, just staring. So I just reached in and slammed his visor down. You know what I mean? Because he's still strapped in the car. So I go back down to my car, and I'm.

working on my car trying to get my stuff ready again. It's five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen, I don't know what it is. And he comes down to my car. And this was a better footage because I looked straight at him and I said, there's a five minute rule on comebacks and you missed it. Turn your ass around and head back to your car. You know what I mean? I mean, if you don't have a comeback right now, don't come back tomorrow.

You don't get to think about what you're going to say. You don't get to think about what your comeback is. You know what I mean? Don't come down. This is an irrational sport with irrational reactions. We don't have time for logic here. Exactly, exactly. It's not.

It's just react and move on down the road. But yeah, I slammed his visor too. And listen, and it was not, I was in his way. That was 100% Kyle Petty's fault, and I will take the blame for that way. Driving for Wood Brothers at Talladega one time, something happened, and you ended up spinning out down the front straightaway and ended up in grass down in turn one and two, and he had an in-car camera, and that was a real funny one, too. Oh, what happened?

Well, I saw it on social. media probably about two months ago. I follow all these guys that post a bunch of old stuff, and he is sitting in the car trying to get out of the mud, and he is tearing a new one. And all these guys that are coming to the car to, like, I don't know whether they're like, we can't get you out of the mud, Kyle, or what do you want us to do, Kyle? And it's all the, like, what does he say? Listen, I don't know. He, I mean, there is no telling. Hand signals were epic. Listen, yes. And look, I, I, I put. I, I put. I, I put. I, I, I, I, I

I put a NASCAR official on the hood at North Wilkesboro one day. The guy that was the stop sign, I put him on the hood. I was teed off at him one day. I don't remember. Man, I had a temper. You did. I had a temper. Did you have that temper when you started?

Yeah, I think so. Because, man, when you see... I don't have a temper now. I don't have a temper now. When I see pictures of you, your dad was the same way, when I see pictures of Richard Petty or Kyle Petty, in the 70s particularly, y'all look like the nicest people that you could possibly meet.

And then when you see Kyle in the, I guess some of the 80s, apparently, in the 90s, he's like hot and short, you know, short tempered and hot head. This is why I don't think pharmacy school called the pennies and said he smells like sawdust. I think Kyle Petty said something to the teachers. That could have been too. Listen, I had bad temper. And here's the thing. and and I will I say this and this is I am not like if you want to play checkers or you want to play chess or you want to play game I'm not competitive I'm the most non-competitive guy in the world okay but you put me in a race car and my brain goes crazy because I am the most competitive guy in my head you know what I mean I mean I am I just want to beat everybody I didn't do too good a job at it but I just want to beat people and be the best that day with those people.

Or win the pool. Yeah, or win the pool. But when things go bad, it just, it's so freaking frustrating when you go that, when you go that way. Yeah. But then, and that's why I've never allowed myself like LaTart and all those guys playing golf. I'm just not. Hey, if I hit six in the pond, good for me, dude. Yeah.

You know what I got it in a big hole out there. I got six hole in one. I got it in the big hole. You know what I mean? I got it in a mud hole. I'm good. I'm just not competitive like that. And once I got out of a car, I don't have a temper.

I just don't, I mean, it's crazy how things change. Whether it's driving or on TV, do you have one thing that you regret doing or saying? No. You have no regrets on anything that you've ever done or said. No. When you watch a race today, do you see anything you miss? Okay, let me go back to him one minute. here's why I don't regret things.

Okay, I think there was a time in my life I regretted things before Adam, before Adam. But now I don't regret anything because I think everything you do, good, bad, or indifferent, lead you to something different that is good, bad, or indifferent. You know what I mean? So it's not, if I take back and I say, I should have never said that, then if I had never said that, maybe I would have never gone off. You know what I mean? So everything, I'm, I just think everything happens for a reason.

So, I mean, I've hurt feelings and people have hurt my feelings, and I've said things that I probably shouldn't have said, but I never say anything I don't believe. You mean, I'm not going to sing, I'm not going to sing the company line, and I'm not going to sing for my supper. I may go hungry, but that's just the way I'm going to be. I'm going to be hard-headed about that. I'm sorry, what was your-

When you watch racing today, do you see anything you miss about it? I miss one thing and one thing only, and that's hanging on to a steering wheel. You know what I mean? Just driving. That's the only thing. I tell people this, and I've said this a million times, and we talk about, you know, and we started, and we're talking about five-year-olds and ten-year-olds. When I was five or six years old, and I dreamed about being Bobby Allison,

or I dreamed about being Richard Petty, or I dreamed about being David Pearson and racing against those guys. In my dream, I was sitting in a seat, and I had a steering wheel on my hand. And I'm looking out that windshield. And I see that 21 car, or I see that 12 Coca-Cola car, whatever it may be.

You know what I mean? And you got to get in front of that thing, man. You got to beat that car. I didn't dream about doing commercials. You know, I didn't dream about being interviewed on TV. I didn't interview about doing your podcast. That's not my dream. It was never my dream.

My dream was to set in a seat and hang on to a steering wheel. And that's the part of the dream that you have to give up. You know what I mean? It's like if you're a fisherman, I can go out in the boat, but I can't fish. You know what I mean? They won't let me fish. But I still get to go out in the boat. So going to the racetrack and being able to go to the racetrack,

you get to talk to everybody and you get to see everybody. and you get to look at the cars, but you don't get to get inside one and hang on to a steering wheel. So that's the part for me that the part of the dream, and that's the part that I miss. You ran some sports car stuff in your time. I mean, there's avenues for you to grab a steering wheel and go, go. I do it once a year. Let's team up. Let's team up.

I do it once a year just for that very reason, just to hold the wheel one time. And just remember what it feels like. So how come you don't go grab a steering wheel somewhere? You know what? One is, you know, I don't know. I think of this, okay? I have a, and this may be bad timing with Tony coming out of retirement to run the- He's running an Xfinity race.

But this is why I say. And I can be brutally honest with myself, I couldn't beat those guys when I was in my prime. What makes me think I can beat them when I'm 60 years old? Yeah. And for pure enjoyment, yeah, I would go do it. And I hope Tony's doing it for pure enjoyment. But I've seen so many guys through the years, retire, and then come back. And it's almost, it's like seeing your gods brought down the human level.

You know what I mean? And I just never, I always made up my mind that once I quit, that I was just going to quit. and that was it, you know, I'd be, I just quit. Yeah. And that was it. And I thought about it. You know, I thought about sports cars and I thought about different things and, you know, I just. What did you get at it running the 24 hours of Daytona?

You ran it a couple times, right? Yeah, ran it a couple times. Did you enjoy that? I just enjoyed it. You know, it was, it was, to me, especially the 24-hour stuff, to me, it was a little bit of a, throwback to what racing was in the 70s and then the 80s. You mean, it was like, it was competition and it was, the intensity was there when you were in the car and all that stuff, but there was a lot of camaraderie and a lot of everybody just

being with each other and everybody wanting to be a part of the show. And the experience. That was it was, I enjoyed, I enjoyed just that part of it. Yeah, I did enjoy that. Well, man, we got a lot more, I had a lot more notes. I wanted to get to. Oh, no way. This was our introductory questions. We didn't even get to the interview yet. So now we're going to start the interview. Okay, let's do it. Let's start the interview now. I appreciate you coming out here. No, listen, you don't know how much I appreciate you guys having me.

Seriously, man, and I love this show. Tell me about coffee with Kyle. So what do you get out of coffee with that you enjoy so much? Okay. And maybe it's the same thing that you get here. When I sat down with, Tony Stewart was the first guy I sat down with, and then the last guy I sit down with it was Roger, but in between them, you've got my dad and Dale Landman and Mike Helton. I mean, how does this guy in Bristol, Tennessee, go to accounting school and become the sports editor at a local radio state and then run NASCAR, you know? And so what I get out of it is I ask questions that I want to know. You dang straight. I don't care whether you want to know.

I don't care whether you want to know. That's just what I want to know. You know what I want to know. And you and I are the same. A lot of these guys I talk to from the standpoint is, your granddad raced, your dad raced, you're raised, you're raised. You know what I mean? But in 19, when I talked to Bobby and Donnie and those guys,

those older guys, there wasn't stock car drivers when they came along when they were born. They didn't look up to, I mean, that's like saying I was born in 1937, I'm going to be an astronaut. What's an astronaut? You know what I mean? What's a stock car driver? You know what I mean? It's just like they weren't there.

So how did that, what clicked in your head to make you a race car driver in 1944, that that's what you decided you wanted to be? So that part fascinates me because for me, I just always wanted to be one because I was always around it and that's the way it was. But I just ask questions that I want to know the answers to. And if you enjoy it, I'm glad you all enjoy it. If you don't enjoy it, I'm sorry you don't enjoy it because I'm going to be asking the questions that I want to know. That's similar to why we do this, isn't it? Yeah. We don't have people on here that we don't have questions for.

No. You know. All right, buddy. We appreciate you coming around, hanging out this week. Thanks for having me. Yes, sir. All right, so we got out of history here. Kyle's going to stick around for this because I know he loves history as much as I do.

I found this one myself. Usually we use NASCAR man, who's a great follow on social media. But I got this book given to me by a fan, The History of the Darlington Raceway by Jim Hunter. I like that. Wow. And I think this book was written in the 70s. And so it's old. And the information in here is old.

There's no modern history or anything like that. So imagine Jim Hunter writing this in the 70s about Darlington Motor Speedway, and he's telling a few stories about the infield. Okay. And this one is by far the best infield story that I've ever heard. Okay. This is good. All right. Perhaps the most amusing legend pertaining to the infield at Darlington is this one.

A man and his wife came to the infield the night before the race. The race was ran on Monday. Labor Day. All right. All right. So everybody would come in on Sunday and spend the night, party all day, Sunday, and spend the night. A man and his wife came into the infield the night before the race. He slipped off to meet a girlfriend, and his wife called him.

To embarrass him, she stripped off her clothes. She stole it a motorcycle and rode up and down the paths of the infield in the nude. All right. A lady got a Vita on motorcycle. What? It created quite a commotion. Her husband was chasing her. The policemen were chasing her.

Hundreds of wide-eyed admirers were chasing her. She was having a ball zipping up and down, up and down the infield. paths on the motorcycle with nothing but her hair blowing in the breeze, and somehow she zoomed past the gate guards, roared up onto the racetrack, and made one hot laugh, much to the delight of the mob in the infield. She streaked out the gate on the highway 34 and was never seen again at Darlington. Neither was her husband. How about that?

That is a good story, man. That's a Jim Hunter. That is a good story. I have to believe it to be true. Oh, yeah. I mean, back then, they didn't know how to tell a lot. Oh, man. Everything in there had to be true.

Wow. You can't make that one up if you tried. I told you I had a good one. That's a good one. That is. That's our odd history. You ever see anything crazy like that at Darlington? Probably not that crazy.

Who me? Yeah. I've seen some crazy stuff and nothing that crazy. You know, I don't remember. I remember when the jail used to be there. Yeah. It was still there when I was going there. Where was the jail located?

Do you know where you come across, well, golly, they changed the whole race track around. Yeah. You know how you come through the, the tunnel that was down and turn, I guess it's turn one. Turn one. Turn one. Yeah. If you go straight across and turn left down the center, it was down, it was kind of, there's a

concession stand. You would turn beside the concession. It's set over there. Like outside the track? No, inside the track. Inside the track. Everything was inside the track. And they would do it all there, right?

They would book you and put you in. But it was just like one sale. It was one big sale. Oh, wow. So it was like, it's like being at Mardi Gras. You ever been to Mardi Gras? when they set up bicycle racks and then they just handcuffed you to the rack. Yeah, man, it's cool.

Martigrari, they take bicycle racks, you know, with the things and they just put them in a square. And when they arrest you, they just take you inside and hook you. So they might be four or five people laying there on the floor all hooked to the same. Oh, wow. Come on, man, it's Marty garage. That's good. Hey, what's up, Brett Griffin here? When you're ready to listen to a show that doesn't hold any opinions or how it takes back,

come listen to us on the best podcast, door bumper clear. This is T.J. Majors, and we're not. taking a week off and we have plenty of discuss including the coronavirus impact on NASCAR the replacement's 100 iRacing race a questionable Steve O'Donnell tweet and plenty more plus it's me fredd this is my first show as a full-time co-host listen and subscribe to door bumper clear on all major podcast platforms after that story you told about Megan is probably your last last one yeah do you have any nickn names me yeah effin f and Freddie not like big fredd right guys last call

I'm going to wrap this show up. It's been a great one with Kyle on here. Odd History. Yeah. I thought it was pretty good. We told you about last week for the Dale Jr. download listeners only, I'm sharing a discount code if you want to buy any new Dirty Mo Media merchandise. We've got some new stuff out.

You'll receive 10% off your order. Go to DirtyMowmedia.com to check it out. It's all new. I like it. It's clean stuff. Stuff you can wear anywhere. Click the Dirtymo gear tab. Type in DJD.

10. DJD 10. That's DJD 10 at checkout. Yeah. The number 10, 10. Somebody's going to go T-E-N. 10. Number 10.

Auburn James. All right. We got the ride with Dale Jr. Raffle. Every year, I offer rides to raise money for our foundation. This year, I'm doing it at drum roll. Drum roll. Bristol, Motor Spears.

way, I'm telling you, man, we're going to give ride-alongs at Bristol. Usually these things happen at Charlotte. Charlotte's probably the most used place. Last year we did at Darlington, which was so fun. Yeah. They asked me this year, where you want to give ride-alongs? I'm thinking, well, if I'm a fan, I always tell them to go buy tickets at Bristol, you know, to hook somebody new, either Bristol to the night race or Daytona 500.

If I'm getting a ride-along, Bristol's a track. Has anybody ever had a ride-along of Bristol? No. Yeah, I won. You have? No, they're really cool. I just wish I drove it. Oh, my God.

I want to ride. If you want to take laps with me at Bristol, you want to ride them to car, all right, past your seat, I'm going to be strapped in, you're going to be strapped in, helmet on, suit on, race car, rocking around there, probably going, I don't know, high 15s. Nice. And what is that equate? Because some of us mile per hour. We're going to run.

Some of us mile per hour guys, I know. It speeds relative. We will be. running fast enough, fast as they probably go at some point in the race. So these won't be easy laps. But make sure you go to ride withdalejr.com, right? Ride with Dale Jr.com. And purchase a raffle ticket. For only $8.88. I mean, that's really, you know, obviously you're gambling on winning, right, through the raffle. Yeah. Right? You're looking at your odds. But this money is for the foundation. It helps us do a lot of great things. So it's not

just, you're not just tossing it away. You're donating to the foundation, donating to some great causes, and you're also putting yourself in the passenger seat possibly to go for a few laps at Bristol Motor Speedway for $8.88. Ride with Dale Jr.com.

I have to say, the race car. The good humor Chevrolet. Yeah, it's a good-looking car, and yeah, it's wrapped in vinyl with the good humor ice cream bar. sponsorship.

One of my, I mean, I've been a good humor fan all my life. Is that right? I've been eating things. I remember I'd go to, when I was a bachelor before I ever met Amy, I'd go buy the whole, buy a box and eat them all. No kidding. Try to get away with that these days, right? Can't do it.

Not having it. I'd eat pizza and good humor bars. That was my daily nutrition. Yeah, yeah. So good. I'm surprised you're here to talk about that. Follow dirty moe media on social media. It's at Dirtymoe.

media, obviously. So follow us. Totally obvious. Well, it's pretty obvious. It's not like it's going to be dirty moe media. Follow dirty moe media. Follow it. Follow it.

Follow it. Follow it. Follow it. Why do you want to follow dirty moe media? Well, obviously you're going to know when this podcast launches, but you're also going to see a lot of great YouTube clips of some of the podcasts that we're doing, some little inserts, some teases to show to show. Also, we interact a little bit. Yeah, we interact a little bit with what's going on in the sport.

Yeah. And we're going to be ramping that up, hopefully. Speaking of that, we didn't have an Ask Junior live on YouTube today. That's right. All right, but we will most weeks. So make sure you subscribe to the Dirty Mo Media YouTube page or channel. New sponsor coming on that. We got a new sponsor for our YouTube or Asked Junior.

Asked Jr. I knew it. See, I said so today. The other week I said, we got a sponsor coming. You guys are like, hey, whoa. Oh, you know why? Don't be talking so much. You know why?

Now it's okay, because Mike's doing it. No. You're going to announce it. No. It's real simple. This is how it works. We hadn't had them signed at that point, and today we do. I knew that.

They weren't a sponsor of the segment, and today they are. I know, but I was foreshadowing and law of attraction. Sometimes it happens that way. I was wheeling it into our lives. You can thank me. I can't thank you. Thank you so much, Dale, for all the work you've done on that. All right.

And that's my final word. That's a good one. If you want something to happen, will it to exist? Just like I did for the sponsorship of the Ask Junior Live segment of our show. That's good, good, well done. What else are you going to wheel into stuff? I'm going to wheel in the end of this show. There you go.

Willing that end existence. We'll see y'all later. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo.