The Dale Jr. Download - 303 - Dale Jarrett & Red Farmer: Elite Company

Episode Date: June 24, 2020

Dale Earnhardt Jr. checks in with two very intriguing guests, NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett and fellow 2021 Inductee Red Farmer, on the Download. Jarrett discusses his recent bout with COVID-19, the symptoms that made him get tested and why he went public with his diagnosis. He also admits his biggest fear while having the Coronavirus. Dale Jr. gets some good advice from DJ on what the Hall of Fame journey will be like. Dale and co-host Mike Davis have a fun discussion with legendary racer Red Farmer. The 87-year old talks about why he still races after 73-years and how he's never paid someone to work on his team full-time. The leader of the Alabama gang raced with three generations of Earnhardts and shares about the time he put an end to the Intimidator's winning ways. Farmer shares what it was like to to get the Hall of Fame nod and what the honor means.The DJD gang has fun singing tunes and talking about texting with emoticons. Ask Jr get Dale Jr. puzzled about where to send fans for racing technology research. We also learn some interesting history about the first race ever held in America. 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.

Can you turn me down a little bit in my ears? Yes, of course. Very loud. Yep. Check, check, check, check, check, check, check. That's much better. Turn me down. Can you hear them good?

I can hear them just fine. If you do need today, it's going to be turn a song into anything day. Red Farmer. Turn me down. Turn me down. Down, down, down, down, down, down. We'll sound like a credence, or not Credits, but the Oak Ridge Boys. Who was that?

Was that REO Speedwagon? No? I think that was Told you before That's when I got off the phone No I think it's Yellow Electric Light Orchestra

Was that electric light? Electric Like orchestra You would know Is that it? Yeah Nice Name that too

They're great They're one of the most iconic classic Such a unique sound Oh yeah Iconic though Well yeah Unique yeah

To me I thought they were great They had a lot of hits Hey everybody It's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. download with me as usual, Mike Davis, my co-host, Matthew Dillner, Leavon, everybody's in the house. We've got Dale Jared on the show, Red Farmer. Hall of Fame inductee is going to come on here and talk to us.

He's still racing. We're going to ask him why. It'll be awesome to hear from Red. And we've got a lot more in this show, too. A lot going on in the sport. So let's get started. The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. I got a lot of friends, you know.

I don't really have no problems. You've pretty much grown up in a sport. Do you like racing? Would you like to have a career in racing? And if so, what would you like to do, Dale? Well, you know, I want to be a race car driver someday. It's a great sport. I love it in death, you know.

Just being here is, you know, exciting. What a day in history. Dale Lohenheim Jr. keeps the bright red nose of the Budweiser machine glued right to the white line on the bottom of the racetrack. He's behind Ken Schrader and Mike. Michael Walter, but nobody really to contend with on his way to the checker. Dale Earnhardt Jr. at the bottom of the racetrack.

At the tender age of 25, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will lay claim to his first NASCAR Winston Cup victory at the Texas Motor Speedway. Across the line, he comes. Right with you, you're clear. Check the flag. You're win. Oh, yeah. Has won the Daytona 500 for the second time.

Today, here in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Sports Hall of Fame grows by three. comes. And it's now time to reveal the third and final member of the 2021 class. Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be inducted, Steve. Yay! Oh! Yes? Yes! Yes! Yes! He's in! He's in! Woo! Hey! Dale Earnhardt Jr. is in the Hall of Fame.

Dude, you're going into the hall. The hall. Oh, my gosh. Amy's crying. Ila's just wanting more race cars. And that is the proper reaction. That's, you know, it's all I've ever known. You're racing.

You're so hard on yourself, Mike. I can see you over there. Cringing at all the noises. Dude, you're going into the hall. The hall. The Giants were the pennant. I just hit puberty. Can you replay the

What is it? Oh! Yes! Yes! Yes! The Giants win the pennant. They're the first noise that Mike's made. Well, that's why at first I was confused.

I'm like, did you make it in? I was like, did he? I won't let you know! I will drown out the sound. It sounded like Kermit the Frog celebrating. I don't know. You know, you don't plan for that stuff. It's just emotion.

Well, you just go remove everyone's natural reaction and then just magnified? Is that the plan here? Okay, got it. It was so embarrassing. This is really embarrassing. We sounded great as a group. You didn't need to sing us out. It was really cool because what I was listening to, like, Mike's reaction, when you listen to it isolated or you listen to Leah's, you know, you really actually.

see the individual excitement people have for you. Let's do that. Let's do that. Let's do it right now. Well, that's what we did. Let's play their tracks individually. I think we got it. We're good. We're good.

People don't hear it, man. Let's do it. All right. We're going to play Mike's track individually. Did you isolate yours? I kind of isolated them in that open. I didn't give it the treatment that gave me, though. No, I mean, you were like the.

You got special treatment. Bob Wolf, you know, Amici scores. Hey, if I'm going to embarrass myself, do it on a day like that, right? Yeah. God, it feels like a month ago. It does? Yeah. A lot's happened since then, right?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know, we got a long time until the ceremony. I don't even know when it is, I guess, January. It's usually in January, but who knows these days? Well, yeah. So I'm assuming if everything goes as according to plan, that there will be a ceremony, right? Yeah, I hope so.

There better be. Right. So. It's the party we're planning on. For sure. And if it is, it's a ways off. So, and there's a lot of, I guess, you know, I'm recalling when in the past, when other, you know, classes would get inducted, you would see them from this point

till the ceremony in January doing little things, you know, doing media and being here and there, going to races and showing up and sort of going on this little mini tour, I guess. So, yeah, my phone line is open and my email is checked, and so I'm kind of waiting on what's next, you know? What's next? I'm sure it's coming. Right? Imagine yourself, getting inducted into anything like that and sitting idle and waiting

on what happens next. I wonder if red, I wonder if we are Red Farmers' first Hall of fame obligation. I doubt it, but we are one, right? And so, you know, I'm waiting on somebody to holler at me to come on their podcast. You know, any day now. Nobody ever thinks Adele Jr. I'm just kidding.

Anyway, it does seem like a while ago, but it was just a week ago as we taped this right now and still good memories. I had a lot of text messages, a lot of great comments from friends. personally people reaching out on social media and so forth just so much good support made me feel great that's one of the cool things about winning a race or anything good like that happening to somebody is the the reaction and support you get from your friends and people that are part of your life at various stages I mean I'm getting emails and calls from people that were you know part of the DEI days or even beyond that you know that I haven't

heard from or talked to and some really, really personal, you know, messages that are, that are, that they took real good time to write. I heard one, and can you, you don't have to, you know, go here. I mean, I know it's sort of private information, but I heard a rumor. Did Charles Barkley reach out to you? Yeah. That's cool. Yeah, Charles has actually been texting me a little bit through the last couple weeks.

Oh, I imagine. Oh, I bet that's good. Is today we got a segment called Reed Charles Barkley's text. text messages. Yeah, I did a hit on ESPN Scott Van Pelt's show, and it came on, I think, 1 o'clock in the morning, and he texts me. Oh, that's cool. Yeah.

He's a good guy, and he always been very supportive. And, man, that was, I was, I remember when we had that, you set that thing up in Vegas. What was it? Yeah, the appreciation event after your retirement year. Him coming to that. That was fine. The world to me.

And he was hammered. Well, he's having fun. He was in Vegas. He was in Vegas. I would say hammered was not really a good... Oh, not a good way to introduce this part. Yeah, the meaningful part of it does not need to... No, I wouldn't say he was hammered. Oh, he was sloshed. Are you kidding? Mike, dude, we had to help him up the stairs. Oh, no. That's not true. Well, here's the thing. Mike, it's not his fault. It's not his fault. Listen, uh...

This is not... I saw him even after the show. He was fine. Okay. You're going to throw him under the bus like that. We remember that differently. Here's the thing, though, we were about an hour longer than what we were supposed to be. So he had been backstage for an hour longer than he was supposed to be. And by the time we finally got to it, I mean, he was feeling good. You're right. He was having fun.

He was having fun. He was being Charles maybe. Who knows? I mean, in Vegas, I mean, what are he going to do? Sit there and drink, you know, lemon waters? I mean, come on now. But the fact is, is he was fantastic is what he was when he came up there. And he's given Dale Jr.

Broadcast advice live there in that little, what was that thing? The Cosmopolitan or something theater? I don't know what it was. But Charles, that was a lot of fun. And he flew there from Atlanta or wherever just to be there for that event. Yeah. But he also enjoys Vegas gambling. And Dale Jarrett was there.

Their pals, they gamble quite a bit together. They gamble. Yeah. They're in another level. What was it the other thing? Oh, I remember when you and I went to an NBA finals game in Cleveland, Cleveland versus Golden State, and we showed up. And that T&T crew, which is Charles and Shaq, you know, we were walking in. And, man, as soon as Charles saw Dale Jr., he sprung up, came over just so, so friendly.

And so he's just a big supporter of Dale. And anyways, when I heard that he had texted Dale after the Hall of Fame thing, I just, I thought that was neat. Yeah, I got a few other text messages that meant a lot to me. And he surprised you? No. Like that you're like, oh, wow, that's kind of cool. Wait, how did he get my number? Nope.

I got a few text messages from some numbers that weren't saved in my phone, and then they'll not say who they are. Right. I actually got the same thing, and you don't ever know. What is the protocol there? What is the protocol? I don't know. Do you ask who is this?

I mean, that feels like such a jerk move. That's it. That's what you do. No, no. You say, I don't have this number saved. Who is this? Yeah, just, yeah. Sorry, I don't have this number saved.

The funny thing about, you know, we, the funny thing about social media, particularly Twitter, texting and all of those things is that we have said it for years. You can't read tone and text. Mm-hmm. But we don't, still don't apply it to our, you know what I mean? like we still get we'll still take things maybe the wrong way or read things

out of contact or try to read tone in our text messages I do it with my sister my life me oh my God remember when we started

putting our mood at the top of our emails just so we knew yes yeah no way no I literally would send an email

to Dale Jr and I would put at the top of the email I put mood happy jovial just so he knew I'm happy

we never had to do we never got to the point we were doing that with our text messages, but in some cases it would have been helpful and saved us a lot of trouble. Are you listening to Apple and iPhone? That's why emojis exist.

That's exactly right. So I will text with Kelly. And look, I'm sensitive. We're not overly sensitive. If this hasn't happened to you, it will. But we'll be texting back and forth and we'll get off on the wrong.

we'll take something the wrong way or somehow take something out of context and we'll start down this path of debating or arguing over something and it'll come down to the end where she'll, she said it one time, she goes, if you'd have used to write emojis, this would have never happened.

Right. She says, she's like, hey, look at my text messages. See the emojis, those are helpful. Try to use them. Okay. That's a lot of pressure. So, not really.

It works. So now when I text text, I try to accommodate her with some emojis to let her know that I'm laughing or whatever, you know. That's what they're for, guys. That's what they're for. That's right. I can't tell you, I mean, there was a part of my relationship with Amy years ago where I, we, it was just better to call her. It was, instead of texting, we were different, we couldn't send a couple texts without getting off on the right, on the wrong.

Going in the wrong direction. Right, right, right. It was just automatic. You're describing text message. That's not exclusive to you and Amy. That's just about everybody. That's why, listen, not a fan of text messaging if you're trying to convey tone or something important. It's better to pick up the phone.

I don't think there's an emoji out there that can make a husband and wife not get off on the wrong rabbit hole. What? Oh, God. Are you kidding? Oh, man, the thumbs up. Oh, stop. Smiley face? Smiley, laughing guy.

Goofy, smiling. Crying laughing? The crying laughing. Even sideways crying laughing. I reserve that sideways from something real funny though. Mike just needs to give emojis a chance. He hates emojis.

I hate that. I hate emojis. But I'm saying, but who volunteered this into the conversation? Who said emojis exist because of tone, right? Because there are emoticons, emotion, right? Is that what a modicons? Here we go.

Go ahead. Take off, Matthew. Ammodicom. I'm curious. It's an icon for emotion. Give us the history. Come on. Give us that.

Well, like in 1983. I'm a donkey. I'm not going to, yeah. Yeah. I'll send you a donkey emoji. Right. There he is. Morning.

Good to see, buddy. Hey, there he is. All right, just as promised on the show, Dale Jarrett. What's happening, buddy? Doing great, guys. Appreciate you having me on, and a lot's been happening in my world and in the world in general. But I'm doing well. and glad to be talking to you.

So I guess last week you told us all that you had COVID-19. Yeah. I got some questions for it. You mind answering them for me? Glad too. Well, so when you find out that you have this, how do you decide to share that with the world? You know, that was a question that I had.

And was it something that you want to put out there? And there's a couple of different ways of looking at it as I thought this. You know, it's not like that there's not millions of people that don't have this. It's something that I decided that if I share this and show that, you know, you see all the terrible things that are going on and things that people are going through. But there is that huge percentage of people that contract this virus and don't have, first of all, many symptoms and don't have many problems. And, you know, I've had the flu that's much worse than this. Matter of fact, the only thing that I had, the only symptom that made me talk to my doctor was a slight cough. And it never was bad. I just, I have allergies and I'm allergic to grass.

And pretty much every day, I was either throwing a baseball to my son, Zach, up at Hickory High School, or I was on the golf course playing golf. And so in grass. And so I just took this, that my allergies had kicked up a little bit. And after it persisted a little bit, he wanted to check my lungs and things. So we did that. And then he said, look, let's just, since you're here, let's just do this test. So then the fact is that we, NBC sports had put it out that, hey, we're going to have this Hall of Fame show.

We're going to have Krista Kyle and DJ back in the studio for the first time. So it was kind of out there. So how do we tell? why do we say then whenever I come on the show and I'm not there in the studio? And then also in talking, it was an opportunity to let other people know that, hey, you can have this and get through it. All right. So for the first, I guess, I'm roughly three months of the virus and all the things going on with that in the country,

I never knew anyone that had it. Never knew a person. and in the last probably two or three weeks, I've learned of many people just recently in my circle that have got this. So what would you tell me? What would you tell me or what would you tell your son about this going forward? Is it changed the way you kind of view it or what is any new advice that you might have for somebody that? it's trying not to get this virus. Yeah, the new advice is kind of the old advice.

And even though, you know, washing your hands, being as careful as you can, wearing a mask, and, you know, where I can kind of trace it back to contracting this was at a grocery store. And, you know, I had my mask on. Many others didn't. And it was very crowded and I told myself I should leave. But if I stay out of crowds, you know, the main way that you get, get this by what I've been told and looking at all this.

And of course, being quarantined for 14 days, which just ended, I have listened and watched a lot of the people that know much more about this. You know, just do as much as you possibly can, but there are no guarantees. But the main way you're going to get this is being around people and it's in the air. And so just, you know, stay as safe as you can. go, you know, go to the grocery store. And I had been going early in the morning when there were very few people there. And I just happened to stop by this particular afternoon.

And it was crowded, not many people wearing masks. So just, you know, be smart about this. Unfortunately, my belief is that, you know, there's going to be a lot more people that are going to get this. And not that you're doing anything wrong in doing that. I had continued to play golf, but we, you know, we're socially distanced. We stayed away from each other. You don't touch the flag sticks. There's no rakes in the sand traps.

So just be smart about what you're doing. And I think you can stay away from it. But it's going to be so hard to do that because we as people, we naturally, you know, want to interact with others and our friends and do things. And, you know, just try to put yourself in the safest spots going for. forward with this. And that's what I've told my kids, all of them, because, you know, I was around them. And I can tell you this, 100% that, again, I had a very mild case of this, and I was very fortunate. But the worst, worst feeling in the world was the thought that I might have possibly

infected my son, my daughter. I had even right before the symptoms started, I had been out to my parents. And to think that that that was a possibility that they could get this from me, you know, I sat around for a week and really not a good place because just the thought of that possibly happening was on my mind. And then when we got past that period of time that they could have, any of them could have gotten it from me, then I started to feel better about it. But that's the worst feeling about the whole thing. DJ, you just have brought up. so many things that I would love to ask you about. One was the psychological aspect of it, which you just alluded to.

Did I hear you also say, though, that you're out of quarantine now? So are you on the back end of this? Are you? All right. So you don't have COVID anymore. Is that correct? No, no. I've gone through from the time that I was tested.

Once I even got tested, I did not go anywhere else. I stayed at home. I've been at home for actually 15 days. and they require you to be there or ask you to be there for 14 days from the time that your test started. My test came in a couple of days or the positive result came a couple of days after. But since I had started to quarantine from the time that I took the test, then it was 14 days from that point. So yes, I'm totally on the backside of this. I have no symptoms whatsoever now.

And, you know, but I still am being very careful about, you know, where I go and what I do at this point in time. Was the cough the extent of your symptoms or did you actually end up having more? Well, you know, someone asked me, he said, you know, you didn't have anything. I probably at one point, just feeling a little run down. But as I said, I'd been doing so much. I was outside in the heat and I just felt a little bit run down. So I slept a little bit more. But that was only for like two days.

But the cough was the one. And it never was. The thing that I didn't think because all you heard was this is a. dry cough that's associated with that and mine wasn't that that's why i associated it with my allergies more than anything else they said what did you have body aches and things like you get with the flu i said hey 63 years old uh i've crashed a lot my body hurts every single day when i wake up so how is i supposed to differentiate between what that might have been and what i feel every single day my goodness i know it's hard to argue that though right it's hard to argue that yeah

Yeah. Well, just recently, you know, you talked about it. We had the Hall of Fame announcement on NBCSN last week. So what's it like? So now that the announcements happened, the ceremonies, possibly in January, if everything goes well, what happens between now and then? Oh, gosh. Well, first of all, let me say, I talked to you that day,

But congratulations, man. This is so well deserved for you and for your family. I'm just so happy for you. And especially that you got in on that first time on the ballot, just tremendous. But for everyone involved. But I'm going to speak to you about it. You know, you have the buildup of the fact that, hey, I'm on the ballot. And, you know, this could possibly happen.

And so that's exciting when you start thinking about that and those possibilities. but you kind of put it on the back burner. I don't know how you did, but I did just kind of put it aside because I really wasn't expecting to get in that first time. But then when that day comes and you hear your name announced, I know that you were thrilled,

I saw your reaction and stuff. You know, it's not a relief. It's a feeling of accomplishment. You know, after you get past that first part, that, hey, people have taken notice as to what I do. And the wonderful thing about, you know, being inducted into the national, National Hall of Fame is people that you were around and have been around your entire life,

those are the people that voted you in. And so that's what makes it even more special to me. The other thing that we have in common is that our dads were already inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Your dad in that first class, my dad was in the second class. And that's just such a huge thrill to think that as we try to please our parents and for all the hard work and efforts that they put. forth, that we're able to give them a little something back.

And I know in your case, unfortunately, your dad isn't here anymore, but he's looking down and he's smiling on that, that you were able to accomplish all this. But I'm going to get right to the ceremony part. So you do a lot of stuff leading up to it, and that's fun and exciting. You've been doing those kind of things all your life. And then you'll go to rehearsal, and you've got this big, huge room, and you'll read your speech, you'll rehearse, and, you know, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll, either do it, you know, with the teleprompter or without it. I was using it. But you get up there

and you practice, you run through it a couple of times. And, you know, that's all, it's all good. And then that room fills up on that night. You have this and you start looking at these banners down both sides of the people that have gone into the Hall of Fame before you. And it's like, oh, my gosh, you know, you've been doing TV. You've been doing. interviews and talking of pretty much all your life in these type situations, but it takes on a whole new meaning. And there's a feeling that comes over you because you look out in that crowd and you see the people that mattered the most to you in your life. And you say, can I, can I do this? And if you can do it without getting choked up, you're a better man than me.

I know I'm looking forward to that but extremely nervous about it because you know you get a bit of a taste of that when you go to the banquets at the end of the year and you have to get up there and talk and we do the rehearsal before with the empty room and then when you get up there to do it with everybody watching it's a little bit nervous but this will be one of the you'll be you'll be you know accepting one of the most prestigious honors in the sport so it'll be uh I can't even I can't wait I can't wait. Yeah. I'm going to take it easy. I'm going to, all the things that happen in between now and the end, I'm going to soak it up. DJ, when did you start working on your speech? You know, I really started so that that announcement came and made, but I really started writing things down.

I think I gave it like two months. And then I realized that, hey, that January seemed like a long time off. And we had a lot of things going on. My son, Zach, was graduating from high school. and of course I had my daughters at college and stuff. So there was a lot going on at that time. But I said, you know, I better start making some notes here because you have things that go through your head,

people that you want to mention, you know, things that you would like to share with others that, you know, maybe you haven't shared before and do that. So I just started jotting down notes. And that was in like September because I said, you know, before you know what time gets away from you. And of course, obviously, Dale Jr., you're going to have a lot going on between now and then.

Also, and so I just said it's better for me to start making those notes, but actually putting it together, I'm going to say that it was the first part of January. After the first of the year, I started. And gosh, I might have used a couple of legal pads before I actually got it down on paper. Like I kind of wanted it. My goodness. Yeah, I think that's kind of what I do too. I will, you know, I'm not afraid to admit that I think about that speech, and I think about it because I want to make sure I don't forget something.

It's a fear that you're going to leave something out, right? And so anytime anything pops in my head, I'll jot it down in my notes and my phone to make sure that, you know, and then you just sort of, you know, you piece it all together at some point to create your speech. You talked to, you mentioned Ned. How's Ned doing? Doing pretty well. You know, my dad is 87, will be 88 in October. His birthday is around the same time yours is and my son, Jason. But he's doing pretty well, obviously facing some challenges now as he's gotten

older and different things. But we've been so fortunate. He and my mom have been, you know, for, gosh, you know, pretty much the majority over until the last three years or so. there have been nothing. You know, they were still driving and everything. And they don't do that much anymore. So they rely on my sister Patty and my brother,

glaned myself a little bit more. But, you know, we're so thankful that we still have them around and that they're doing well. They live in their own house, you know. It's not like they've had to go to an assisted living place or anything like that. So even though they both have, you know, some issues that you're going to have when you're 87 and my mom just turned 89, But they're doing well, but, you know, dad was, you know, he was eager to vote on the Hall of Fame and stuff because he really said that he missed that part of being in that room, which I've never done before because this was my first year. And to do it, you know, kind of like we're doing here now, it was a little bit different. But I look forward to when we can get back and do that.

But, you know, he gets excited about that. And he still watches the races. He watches the shows that I'm on and still critiques me and tells me. and tells me what I'm right or wrong. Oh, man. I love that. I do, too. All right, DJ, man, I appreciate your time today.

Great to hear that you're doing well and you're feeling better. And great to hear everything's going well in your life and your family's life. So appreciate your time. I can't wait to see you. Looking forward to it, buddy. Hey, y'all have a great day. Same to you. All right, Fred Farmer has made it to the show, the Hall of Famer.

Fred, it's Dale Jr. Mike Davis. Man, it's so good to see you. Well, it only took me 73 years to get there. So let me ask you, man. Were you watching the shows on TV when you saw yourself nominated? Yes, I was watching it. I kind of lost my breath there for a minute. You know, it's like all the football players watching the draft

to see if their name is called. So I felt the same way you were sitting around watching for it. When it came on, it was just, well, you know, I've been on a lot. it for two years. This is in my third year. So you never know, never know. So it was quite a shock, but a great shock

anyway. Is it rank up there as the number one proudest accomplishment in your racing career? Well, I would say so, yes. In other words, this is an iceing on a cake, you know, this is my 73rd year racing and I've been in NASCAR for

68 years. So I guess this is at my age, you know, you're not going to have them any more, so this and here, I think, on the top of them all. Red, where were you when you were watching the broadcast last week, and who was with you? Well, my wife was with me, and Maddox was with me, and Tracy and Chris, all of them down at their CRM car lot.

I was watching down on the showroom floor. They had to keep down there, had everything set up down there at the store just in case. Man, that's awesome. That's a party right there. Yeah. Yeah. What has been the emotions or the thoughts about it over the last week?

Okay, you've had, you've been inducted or you, you know, you're to be inducted, so you know you're in the Hall of Fame, going in the Hall of Fame, you had a week to think about it. What's the thoughts? I mean, you're getting a lot of, you know, text messages or communication with old friends, and how's all that made you feel? Oh, yeah, you know, a lot of people kept calling me and calling me, and then, of course, the local TV stations all coming out. I had three different TV station trucks in my driveway at the same time yesterday.

But I was trying to get one of my dirt cars ready to run Talladega Saturday night, and I had some other work to do in the garage. I told them, I said, look, I said, I don't need to spread out all day long. Let's set everybody up at one time. So Tracy set them up for me where I had one at one o'clock, one in one, 30, one at two, then I could go back out in the garage and go to work again. Yeah, you mentioned it, man, that you are still driving today. Tell people why you still love to race.

You know, it's hard to explain something like that unless you're doing it. In other words, you know, it's people like they play golf. They love to play golf. And they're going to go out every Saturday to play golf with their buddies and stuff. And it's just gets in your blood and that's what you want to do. So everybody's got different things that fishing or hunting or something that they want to do. Every weekend if they get a chance to after they get off of work. And I want to go racing.

Like I said, I've been racing since 1948. I started the same year in NASCAR, Bill France started NASCAR in 48. I didn't join NASCAR to 53. But it just gets in your blood, and I still enjoy it. I still love it. I do 90% of the work on my cars myself. I've got three dirt cars out in my shop in the backyard. And I enjoyed going out there every morning.

and working on 8 o'clock and I worked until about five coming and have supper. You know, I just enjoy working on them, getting them ready, and then I enjoy going out and competing on the weekend and racing with the youngsters, you know what I mean? Who's going with you? Who's working on your car and going with you on the weekends? Well, I've got a boy named Mike. I got two Mike to work with me, and my son worked with me for quite a while.

And then I got David Culver and, you know, different guys that come and help me every week. David used to be my cruise chief, and he said I was having so much fun. He started a racing about a year and a half ago. He's got his own car now, but he still helped me when I need it. So I've got one thing I've got ever, it's hard to explain, but in 73 years of racing, I'll probably say this when I come to the Hall of Fame deal, but in my 73 years of racing, I've never had a man on a payroll. Wow.

Wow. Everybody I've had, even through all my championships, where we traveled all over the country, it was all volunteer health. And I think the reason everybody said, well, why is that? I said, well, there's two reasons for it. When we was racing back in the days, we couldn't really afford to pay salaries.

We had to, you know, I bought pit passes and paid for the motel room with the meals and stuff, but I didn't have the money to pay for salaries. But I found out one thing. When you've got a volunteer crew, you've got the best crew for this reason. If you're paying them, they've got to show up. And you're not paying them.

They want to show up. So it makes a difference. They come because they want to be there, not because they're being paid. So I've always had a great crew all my career. Where are you doing most of your racing these days? I've run Tallisigger short track. I stay close to home.

It's only about 60 miles down the road. The dirt track right across street from the Super Speedway. And we run there every Saturday night. And last weekend we were on Friday and Saturday night during Talladega weekend. Then we have an annual race. In January, it's called the Ice Bowl. It's similar to like the Snowball Derby in Pensacola on the asphalt. This is called the Ice Bowl.

I think it's been running at 27 and 28 years. They've been running every January. We had 320 cars in the pits for the Ice Bowl last year. Wow. So you talked about racing in motorsports. you've been in for 73 years. So I'm a historian, love artifacts and old uniforms, trophies, or anything like that. What's, I mean, do you have a lot of that stuff from even went back when you started racing?

Do you have any kind of old trophies or old suits or anything in storage? Yeah, I've got a trophy room with all my trophies back through there. And one thing that I've got is a jacket that hangs up in my trophy. room. It says a 1956 national modified champion in NASCAR. And I'm going to take it this. Well, that particular year in 56 meant a lot to me. When it was there, Buck Baker was the Cup champion. I was the modified champion.

And your grandpa, Ralph Earnhardt, was a sportsman champion. That's neat. I got a picture of y'all three, excepting y'all's trophies together. Yep. I still got that picture too, and I got that jacket hanging up in my trophy room. And I've got all of them collected. You know, I've got several hundred. I've been two different trophy rooms.

And I've got a lot of old trophies from years when we first started. They don't get out many trophies anymore. Red, this is Mike. So I've got to, you're here, and I've got to ask you a question because I'm an Alabama guy myself. I'm from Birmingham. And we're working on a show called Lost Speedways, and you're going to love it because a lot of these speedways that we highlight you raced at, like Middle Georgia Raceway, and, you know, just a bunch of tracks. But I've got one I want to ask you about.

Give me your favorite moments or something that you remember from Birmingham International Raceway, which was my home track, which is where I went to my first race, and you were so prominent there. BIR, it's no longer there, but that's a place you guys used to just get after it. Yeah, that was, BIR was a flat 5 eighth mile track. Actually, I ran that track when it was dirt before they, Tom Glor tried to pave it. It was dirt when I first came up from Florida. And I raced the last 10 races on that track before they paved it. And I won eight of the last ones on the dirt track.

And then they paved, Gloria coming and put some kind of gravel stuff on it and called it asphalt. We tried to race on that for years, but then they repaid it. but that that track was a five or five eighth mile flat track and if you could drive b i r and get around that track right you could go anywhere in the country and race because it was real tricky track flat fast and then back in those days you know we didn't have the technology you got now and uh if you learn to drive that track it's good but we you know we ran huntful on thursday night Birmingham Friday night, Montgomery on Saturday night. Then we'd find somewhere to run sometime on Sunday.

So we race three nights a week. We're all doing the 60s and 70 days, Bobby, Donnie and myself. And there were some great drivers come out through Birmingham. We had Freddie Friar and Friday Hassler and a whole bunch of the guys that were great drivers that could make it tough to win down there. But that was one of my favorite tracks. I love it. And the other thing I wanted to ask you is that

you know the gentleman sitting here at the table with me you guys are going to be sort of like fraternity brothers because you're going into the Hall of Fame with the same class and so you guys will forever be linked with Mike Stefanik and I wonder if both of you guys I mean what does that mean to each of you I mean you're going in with Red Farmerdale and that's such an honor I would imagine and Red you're going in with you and Dale Jr and you're the one that's still racing so what does that mean to both of you guys well it means a lot to me to go in with Jr. You know, like I said, I've raced against his grandpa and I race against his dad. And in fact, in 1990, I think it was, the way we're, he, they won the 500 at Talladega.

He won the sportsman race on Saturday. And he won the IROC race that weekend. It won all three races at the Super Speedway that weekend. And he come over and run a match race with me at the dirt track. and I won that one. And Dale said, I won everything at Talladeggin. And went over there,

that old man outrun me. So I've got the trophy from that from there. And it was something special to be able to do that. But then I race with Ralph and Hart, and the last race in 1956 was a 200-left race on a half-mile dirt in Concord. And we had it was the last race for the championship and he was running in the sportsman division and I was running in the modified. The only difference between the cars in those days was sportsmen ran one carburetor.

If you had two carburetors, you were modified. And it was quite, I had two guys that was battling me for the championship was there. And back in those days, we ran a little quick change rearinged into with six flying quick changes. And they tear up those ringiered pinions. I probably tell about six a year. racing that thing and I went to Concord and somewhere around 130 something lap I tore the rearing up and I said well there goes the championship because the guy of second place is only quite a few points close and five laps later he broke so I still won the championship but if he had finished the race he'd have won the championship so like I said I've raised he gets all Earnhardt three generations of the Earnhardt so it's quite an honor to be going and we're just during you. Yeah, I remember, I remember that race at the short track that weekend back in the mid-80s when dad went over there to match race you and I was there in the pits. I've seen some

video of that here recently being over there at the dirt track. But, so I remember that. But, you know, I remember going to Talladega and seeing Red Farmer race in the Arca race. And I learned that who Red Farmer was by going to the Hall of Fame at Talladega. As a kid, I loved going over the Hall of Fame and climbing all over that place. And then to learn about his connection to the Alabama gang and his history and racing and how long he'd been racing and to see him still racing today, it's a real honor. You've always been incredibly nice to me. Every time I've had the opportunity to spend a moment with you, you're one of the good guys.

you treat everybody the same. People are going to remember that about you more than anything, Red, and I'm so lucky to be able to share this honor with you, and I look forward to joining you and all of the media and things that we're going to do leading up to the ceremony, and then obviously sharing that night with you will be very special, and I'm excited as well to learn more and more about the Therapeutic family and what Mike meant to motor sports and what his career was all about.

So it's going to be a great time, and I can't wait. It just means that I get to spend more time with you. You know, every time I'm around you, I've always enjoyed it. And this means I'll get to see you a little more often over the next several months. So I'm looking forward to it. And congratulations to a well-deserved honor. And I hope you know how much you mean to this sport and how much people appreciate and love you.

And thank you, Red, for giving us just a little bit of your time today for this podcast. We really appreciate it. Thank you very much. I enjoyed being on with you, Jr. Yes, sir. I know you're ready to get back to work on your old car. So we'll let you. That's right.

We'll let you go, buddy, and have fun and good luck. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, guys. Let's talk to Talladega. Did anything go on down there? We had a great race.

I have never I was sitting there super freaking nervous I have never been that nervous watching a race Oh well welcome to our life For the past 20 years Of watching Talladega races

Yeah I mean you're driving it and just Wheeh And we're sitting there freaking out Well It's nerve racket I usually don't get that nervous You know I just don't have much reason

To get real nervous Watching a race But man I don't know why That was one of the most exciting Talladega races that I'd seen in a long long time I don't know whether it was the weather or whatever, but those guys, you know, usually they kind of ride around and just try to save what they can and put themselves in reasonable safe positions to get to the end. But they raced hard the whole race.

A lot of aggressive pushing, lots of aggressive pushing, even coming to the stage ends and so forth. But, you know, it is a memorable day for me in the sport. We got to see an incredible race. I don't know why that race felt different, felt better, felt more. exciting. Man, typically we go into Talladega and you just kind of don't know what you're going to get. We didn't even have any big spectacular crashes.

Which is amazing because it looked like that could have happened any laps. Oh yeah. I mean, think about the saves. I mean, did you see Blaney's save? I mean, my God, that guy was sideways. Multiple times. Yeah. I mean, just amazing driving on display. NASCAR, and I'm going to transition

just slightly. NASCAR has, you know, eliminated practice qualifying and all things, I'm waiting on that to be a problem, but it hasn't been, right? I'm waiting on that to, you know, it's been a good thing. We've seen some great races and some un, the unknown going into the event raises sort of the anxiety and the apprehension and, and it really adds some energy intrigue into the race for me, all right? I'm speaking for myself. So that's a great thing. all right i'm waiting

week after week on this no practice no qualifying no time on the track to to show me something wrong with it right be a problem and it hasn't and man i know that nass car is taking note i know the drivers are i know the drivers probably are just fine with it they might you know every once in a while hit the track at a race and be really far off maybe the splitter's on the ground maybe they just you know got us apart that's loose that they need to fix and So, okay, if you want 10 laps, 30 minutes or something on race day morning to go out there and warm up, I'd give you that.

But I'm hoping that NASCAR really understands that they've kind of accidentally stumbled onto something positive, a real positive, for the sport going forward. And that's to limit that practice time before the race. It's one of the things that we can all agree on. We said it last week that COVID has given us unexpectedly. One was an all-star race at Bristol. another one is, you know, this fantastic racing that we're seeing that didn't need practice. Yeah. Or qualifying even.

Yeah. Anyhow, man, let's get to this ASS Jr. Let's do it. We are alive. Yeah, there we are. We are alive. Hey, hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. with the Dell Jr. download. This is the Ask Junior portion of the show.

It's brought to you by Xfinity. They're the premier partner of NASCAR, and they're a great partner of this podcast. They're your partner for Fast Internet. And, yeah, so we got some great questions. I'm assuming. Thanks for tuning in. Leah is going to handle the questions, so let's get going, Leah. All right. First question. During the Xfinity race, the announcers kept talking about spotters that have driving experience being a big asset. Considering your success at plate tracks, how do you think you would do as a spotter for one of your drivers? That question coming from Sam. All right. So I had some experience spotting before. I went to Tri-County Motor Speedways,

a little short track up the road past Hickory, North Carolina. And was spotting from a friend of mine, who is racing a limited late model stock car. And so, you know, those limited late model teams or any late model team, they're on a tight budget. They got enough money to race and they don't budget for a bunch of wrecking. So Brad started on the pole, I believe, leading the race. And coming down the front straightaway, he's clear by half a car length. And I'm telling him, hey, you're clear. and as soon as I said the word, you're clear,

the guy in second place dives down into the bottom of the corner into turn one and hits him in the left for a quarter panel and spun him around and a couple of cars pile in and tear the whole front of the car up. And so I felt entirely 100% responsible for what happened to Brad in that moment. All right. So I learned early, not...

That maybe spotting wasn't what I wanted to do. Clear don't mean clear. You know, so think about that, all right. Think about that. Say you're working for a single car, not even, you know, even if you worked for Hendrick Motorsports, there's probably 100 to 150 employees that are, that have the hands on that car.

You are at the racetrack on top of the grandstands, clearing and spotting for a drive. there's the driver in the car, the crew chief, all the mechanics, engineers, over the wall guys, there's probably 40 people at the racetrack that are directly involved in what happens to that race car. Think about that as a spotter, the responsibility that you have on your shoulders. It's not an easy job. It takes a very tough individual to be able to manage that and to be able to be able to to make those calls and know to tell the driver, hey, I really can't help you in this situation.

T.J. would do that. We'd start the race and he'd say, hey, okay, I got a bad vantage point off of turn four. When I look at turn four, you're coming at me, so I can't really see whether you're exactly clear or not, and I'm not going to be able to do what you need me to do in that part of the racetrack. And there were other times when we'd be coming off the corner. I'm in the gas. I'm underneath the guy. He's on my right rear quarter panel, and I'm in the gas, and I can't commit fully to the gas because I need to open the wheel up and use the rest of the racetrack

and come out to the wall. Well, that guy's there. And if T.J. would clear me, I can go. I can mash the gas wide open and get down the straightaway. But he won't. He's not telling me I'm clear and I'm looking in the mirror and I'm like, man, I really think I am clear.

But I ain't heard from T.G. So, you know, I'd say to T.J., maybe the caution comes out a few laps later. I go, T.J., why don't you clear me off turn two? I need to open the gas, I need to mash the gas, be able to get full throttle and open the wheel up and get out to the fence. And if you're, you know, if you're not clearing me, I've got to sit on the bottom of the racetrack, half throttle.

And he's like, because I don't know if you are clear. And I'm like, well, I felt like I was clear. And he's like, I'm not willing to take that risk. So it's a tough job. It's not an easy job to do. It's, it's not, you're not just up there. trying to call Rex or, you know, telling your driver what kind of lap time he's running or where the faster cars are running on the racetrack.

That's easy. Spotting gets real hard when it comes to trying to, you know, help your driver race around other cars. And there's a big responsibility, particularly at the plate tracks. You know, at the plate racetracks is where really most of the spotters, a good spotter shine, and that's where they make their money, I like to say. So yeah, that's when they have driving experience, like the broadcast was talking about, that really helps because even if it doesn't, even if you don't have dialogue about it,

you just know that this is good too when the crew chief or anybody on your team has driving experience. So when you're talking about the car or going through something difficult on the racetrack, you feel like that they sympathize with your situation. Whether you talk about it or whether they really do, it doesn't matter. It's just kind of comforting as a driver to know, man, that guy knows what I'm going through and why I'm frustrated or why I couldn't get that to happen or why we succeeded or didn't succeed. Yeah, it really helps when those crew chiefs or spotters have actually been behind the wheel themselves.

One more question about Talladee before we move on. this one coming from Samuel Olish. When drafting those flaps on the back of the hood start popping up and down, is it startling or can you ignore it? Well, I think the hood flaps are real startling. When the hood flaps are flying up, that's obviously right in front of you. And you get nervous that one's going to rip off. You've seen them come off. We've seen them get ripped off in just a regular draft.

So I get nervous about that, even when it's. It's not my car because I know that that's going to have to get replaced and, yeah, all that. So that's just a pain in the butt and kind of a roadblock to a hurdle to get to what you're trying to do. And that's when the race. The roof flaps now, if you're behind the car and that roof flaps kind of popping up, you kind of get curious as to how it might be helping that car. And if somehow they understand how to use the pressure inside the car versus outside the car to make. make that roof flap come up because if that roof flap goes up, it's blocking or knocking air over the spoiler, which is going to make that car faster.

And this is a, this is a sort of a method that has been used for many years. Once we understood that there was a way for us to change the pressure inside that roof flap compartment to where it would lift up around the racetrack at Daytona and Talladega, we wanted that to happen. We wanted to find out how to make that happen. happen more how to get that to get higher. And so when we go out on the racetrack in practice, I would talk to my crew chief and say,

the car in front of me, his is an inch high. It looks like the Gibbs cars. You got theirs higher. The Penske guys, there's not as high. You know, you try to tell your crew chief everything you could about what you were seeing on the racetrack from the other cars. Not that he could look at their cars and understand how they were creating that, you know, that issue.

but maybe to motivate, to get yours to get higher. And because as that roof flap comes up, the air goes over it and less air goes on to the spoiler, creating less drag. And so, you know, you're trying to, you're always watching that, even in the race, you know, if you see something unique like a roof flap that's extremely high or much different than everybody else's, or, you know, they've somehow got the deck lid to sink down into the, into the trunk of the car to lower the rear spoil. You point that out to your crew chief. And, you know, hey, keep an eye out.

Look at this guy. Next time you see his car, watch him go through inspection at Dayton or Talladega, you know, take a look around at this area because it seems like they've got that thing, you know, manipulated. And you want to figure out how to do it yourself. You don't, you know, the one thing you don't do is go to NASCAR and say what you see. You want to tell your crew chief so he can find out a way to, you know, innovate. and create that same advantage. So you wouldn't do it on the radio then.

You would wait until after the race. I'll do it on the radio. Well, then you don't, but you don't want NASCAR to know. I don't care if they know, but I'm not going to go into the holler and tell. Interesting. Yeah. We have a new fan on YouTube watching on YouTube. Grant Harts.

He wants to know where is the best place to find technical content on NASCAR. As a new fan, I'm fascinated by the Aero Packages Impact on Close Racing and other pieces, but struggling to find more answers. That's a good question. Yeah, I don't see that. I want to seek that stuff out. Matthew, you got any idea? I mean, back when we were kids, that was the difference between subscribing to Stockcar and Circle Track. Yeah.

You would go subscribe to Circle Track. That's a good question. It may be something that I need to dig in on because I wouldn't know where you would go to get that technical feedback. Yeah. Nothing jumps out anymore. It's a great question. Yeah. There's not, we need a, I'm sure somebody knows.

Somebody's probably telling you right now on YouTube of where that is. You know, we typically, I appreciate that question. I think that some information may be available on Jayski. It's possible that they link you to articles that discuss some of the rule changes and so forth to help you better understand what they're trying to accomplish with those rule changes. But there's no real catalog of information. Is there a technical savvy Twitter follow? Right.

Yeah, we have a couple people chiming in. Higgie says NASCAR Nation Twitter handle. You know, another guy that has shared some more technical racing information is Brian Kiselowski. Oh. Brad's brother, from time to time, we'll discuss some of the things that he's seeing on the racetrack and give you a sort of a crew chief or engineer viewpoint of what's going on and why they're doing what they're doing. And yeah, I mean, I guess we need something like that. But, you know, we typically, Mike especially, I feel like I can speak for you on this.

We've sort of shied away from the nuts and bolts because of the big debate on rule changes and rule packages. And, you know, we've sort of tried to block all of that out to just enjoy the, the basic goodness of a race, no matter what the cars look like or what the rules are, just enjoy the cars racing because the debate about the rules has been pretty heated over the last, seems like five, ten years. So we've sort of intentionally blocked out a lot of that, you know, technical cheater chatter because I don't know getting in the weeds sometimes. Well, it's just usually we try to follow what our audience wants.

So, you know, the term people use is inside baseball. Do you want to be inside baseball? Do you want to be able to speak the language? But this brings up a really good point is that if we're not, that, who is? Like, it does need to exist. Sure. And maybe we dedicate a show one time just to talk about, you know, the technical aspects of cars. I got questions myself.

Del and I were talking over the weekend about, you know, about sim racing and all this stuff and the prospects of me getting into eye racing and that kind of thing. Shut up. Hold on. Hold on. We don't want to get side track here. But the thing that would make me do it is to understand cars better. It's the same reason I used to build models, race car models.

I used to build them, you know, just buy the monogram, the monogram models. And it's just so I could see what these things look like, you know. And, yeah, we're lacking. We're lacking that now. And maybe there's a follow we just don't know about that's, you know, just dedicated to rules and technical things and almost racing 101. It's going to be necessary now if we're getting new fans. I think the one thing, you know, if fans would enjoy this,

this is stuff I'd love to do. I saw a graphic during the Fox broadcast about side drafting, and we use it as well in the NBC booth. And the idea used in the broadcast to promote, or the information given to the fans or shown to the fans is that as a car side-drafts another car, it dumps a bunch of air on the spoiler of the lead car, and he slows down.

And that's why side-drafting works. It's basically when you're sid-drafting somebody, you're slowing that car down, not speeding yourself up. I'm not sure I buy into that. I'm not sure I buy into that entirely. Now, there may be some truth to the fact that it does put some air on the spoiler with the league card, It does slow him down.

I know that car slows down. I've done it enough to know that I slowed him down, created a gap in between him and the car in front of him. But I believe it does speed my car up. I believe it does make my car faster. And when I side draft somebody, why does that happen? So I'd love to debate across the table with somebody or agree, whatever. I'd love to have a conversation about that, side drafting, how it works, what it's really doing. But, yeah, I didn't know if our listeners would really enjoy that kind of stuff.

We really ought to dedicate a show to do that, though. We should. We ought to get a crew chief and engineer. I was going to say a crew chief, yeah. And an engineer. Yeah, that would be awesome. All right. There we appreciate that question, man.

You've given us some great ideas for the shows coming up. All right, guys, that's enough for Ask Junior. Appreciate you guys tuning in to our YouTube channel and listening and watching along. Hey, Mike, we all know that you have to be fast in our sport. And Xfinity knows a thing you're too. about that. Xfinity. Get blazing Wi-Fi without any pit stops. X-FINITY X-Fi delivers the speed, coverage, security, and control you need to stay connected to NASCAR and stay connected to Dirtymo Media all season long. Mike, this is beyond Wi-Fi. This is X-Fi. Keep your questions rolling into

at Xfinity Racing and at DirtyMoModity on Twitter using the hashtag Ask Junior for a chance to have your questions answered by Dale Jr. himself. We are so proud to partner with Xfinity, keeping us connected to the sport all season long. Shout out to Xfinity, premier partner of NASCAR. What's up everybody listening to the second best podcast on the Dirty Moe platform. Dales, you know down there, Freddie Craft here, Spotter for Bubba Wallace. Brett T.J. and I have a lot to talk about this week on our podcast, Door Bumper Clear, which is the best. Yo, what's up, Brett Griffin, Spotter for Clint Boyer. We'll cover Bubba Wallace's emotional day Taladega, Ryan Blaney's move to win the race and the new car number placement for the all-star race.

Hey, T.J. Majors here. Make sure you're listening to Door Pumper Clear this week and every week on all major podcasting platforms. All right, guys, we're less than a month away from the peacock launching of our TV show Lost Speedways. July the 15th, Lost Speedways is coming out a show that we all have been working really hard on. I can't wait for people to see this and react. Tell us what they think. One of the proudest things that I think dirty mode media has ever done. I agree. All right, guys. So July 15th, please, please mark your calendars. And go to Peacock, the streaming network for NBC. And watch Law Speedways. Please, let us know what you think. We can't wait. Great show. Enjoyed it. Thanks for listening. We're out.

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