The Dale Jr. Download - 306 - Mark Martin (Part Two): Respect & Integrity

Episode Date: July 14, 2020

Part-two of Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s in-depth interview with Mark Martin is just the tip of the iceberg of this action packed episode. Dale Jr, co-host Mike Davis and producer Matthew Dillner drop the gloves debating the underglow lights being placed on NASCAR Cup Series cars for the All-Star Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Paint scheme advocate Dale Jr. analyzes the All-Star schemes with the slid back number placement. In Ask Jr. Presented by Xfinity, Dale Jr. shares his take on the Noah Gragson and Harrison Burton scuffle after Kentucky's Xfinity Series race from the unique perspective as a team owner. Plus, reaction to the announcement of the Superstar Racing Experience series. Dale Jr also reveals his inner thoughts on the Washington Redskins name change and the future of his fandom of the NFL franchise. In Odd History, how one Lost Speedway was buried under water.Then, Dale and Mark Martin discuss the latter years of his career. Mark details his time racing for Jack Roush and what turned their relationship around. Dale Jr. opens up about lessons learned from the NASCAR Hall of Fame driver and labels him the most approachable driver in the garage. Mark explains why setting fast laps early in practice made him feel like a bad ass. Dale Jr. brings up Mark Martin's keen eye for young racing talent, and how he convinced Jack Roush to sign Matt Kenseth. Also, Mark talks about the discovery of Joey Logano years before he became a Cup Series champion. Mike Davis inquires about Mark's time racing for Dale Earnhardt Inc. after Dale Jr's departure from the team. Near retirement, Martin tells the DJD gang how Rick Hendrick lured him back into full-time competition for Hendrick Motorsports in the Cup Series. 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.

The following is a production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey, everybody, back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. And if you're a first time listener, we have a lot of other people on this show besides me. Mike Davis, co-host. Helie, Mike. How you doing? Doing what I'm. That's Mike's voice. Okay, so when you hear that voice, that's Mike.

Matthew Dillner is our producer. That cackles. And that's his voice. So when you hear that voice, that's Matthew. And then Leah. Leavon is our social media expert. And she's a whole lot more than that. But she gets us through to Ask Juniors as well, helping us with the questions and so forth.

Just such a great crew. Hello, this is my voice. There's Leah. So, you know, obviously she sounds much different than the rest of us. And so pretty easy to distinguish between the four guests on the show. There you go. And, again, if you're a first-time listener, I'm introducing you to, everyone and I hope you can keep track all that.

This week, we got part two of the Mark Martin interview. Usually we try to think, you know, hey, man, we're going to bring these people in and we're not going to do it all. We're just going to get a little bit of their life and then bring them back again in the future because, you know, we won't this show to be around for a long time. We don't want to use up all the great content of a guest like Mark Martin, but we laid him run. And we got a lot of great stuff. We cut the show in two parts.

part two coming up. So that's what you're going to hear today, but so much more, we're going to drop the gloves on some NASCAR topics. And some of the things we've been texting back and forth about communicating in our chat. We're going to talk about all that stuff. We've got a great ass junior life coming up. So, man, let's get started. Dirty Mo Media.

Dale Jr. Download. There are a lot of topics that we want to talk about today. We're going to talk about some of those in this open segment. We're also going to talk about. A lot more of those. They were very popular questions for the Ask Junior segment, so we're going to wait on that. They're moving the numbers for the All-Star cars.

For the All-Star race, they're moving the numbers back. That was a popular question for Asch Jr. We're going to save that conversation. But they're also doing something else. There's Underglow. Yeah. Yeah. So that's been around for decades when I was cruising around as a kid in Canapolis,

cord around the mall and so forth. You saw a little underglow on some cars. And so... On yours? No, I never did install that on anything that I owned. I never owned a car that it would have worked. You know, I never had a car that, you know, I had pickup trucks or a six, you know, a 67 Camaro or something like that.

And Underglow just, Underglow's more of a modern sporty sort of... Right. it's not for every car. Right. So anyhow, I haven't really dove into, I haven't really called up anybody to ask him exactly how this all went down. All right. I'm just using rumors, hearsay, and social media.

So very toxic combination. Well, consistent with the way everybody disseminates information everywhere else. So that's how I'm going to approach this conversation. And we'll see if it's not a train wreck. It will be, but let's try. All right. So the movement of the numbers, we'll talk about that later, but they're also going to have underglow,

and the cars are going to be lit, obviously. And we saw this, not for the first time, but we saw this done really well, most recently, during the burnout on the boulevard in Nashville. Let's take Kurt Bush, for example. And Kyle Larson's car was also done like this. They look really good. I think the bottoms were lit.

Also, the interior might have been lit up a little bit as well. What I loved about that was, you know, they were different than the other cars. All right. Not every car was like this. And they used the colors that, you know, match the car. Kurt had, you know, the green monster color coming out from under his car. That neon green. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And, you know, if you're going to do a burnout, there's going to be a lot of smoke. That light really hits that smoke. really well. It was just a really cool additional effect, perfectly done. Well, that has, that's what has steamrolled into this idea here to use it in a race. And now, it might not look quite as good as it looked during the burnout because there won't be a continuous burnout during the race for that, you know, light to hit that smoke. But when the winner wins the race, If his car is underlit, you're going to see some smoke and some neon and all that good stuff. So that, that'll be pretty cool.

I guess the one thing that I don't know that I'm a little curious about is the colors, all right, that they're going to use. I've heard, and I don't know if you guys have any other knowledge, that they're using specific colors to the manufacturers. So the Ford's will be blue, and the Chevys will be amber. And the Toyota's, I'm assuming maybe yellow. I don't know. I have not heard. Maybe red. About the Toyotas.

But do we know for sure that they are doing the manufacturer-specific colors? That's what we have heard. That's what we've heard. And so let's, if that's the case, and maybe I don't even know if all of them are doing it. We haven't really seen any content on social media with any of these cars kind of lit up, maybe outside their shop or in the shop at night or, you know, just something, you know, fun that, you know, some of these race teams might think would be cool content. They haven't put that out.

So we don't know what any of this looks like, right? right now. We don't know what the forwards of, you know, Penske or, or Stuart Hawes look like if they all have that blue underglow. This is the only sort of problem I have, and we debated this pretty good this week amongst ourselves. All right. Remember when, you know, you made the playoffs back in the Sprint days. Yeah. And Sprint would put this yellow stripe on the bottom of the front of your car and then put a yellow spoiler on the back of your car. Yes. To all the playoff or chase drivers, if you were in the hunt for it, you had a yellow spoiler.

Yes. I remember that, yeah. And then when Monster came, it was green. Yep. I hated that. Didn't like it. I agree with that. And why is that?

Well, I, you know, I put a lot of input into my own paint schemes. And when I design a car, whether it's me if I design the car I don't care if I'm the driver the sponsor I've I've that's the design that I have uh you know that's the design that I've created and it really pissed me off when the you know the governing body the ruling body would cater to uh you know that title sponsor and allow them to do things with that car mess with your paint scheme more or less you know they put the yellow splitter on or big paint you know big strike you know big strike you know big wipe of yellow across the nose and the yellow spoiler. I think the roof number might have been yellow at one time. I can't really remember all the different things they did. That always annoyed the hell out of me because, yeah, you know, if you had yellow in your scheme, it might work.

It might not be too much of a, you know, it might not mess up your scheme too bad. But sometimes it really ruined the paint scheme. It just kind of looked bad. It didn't look good. Like on a Budweiser car, for instance. Yeah, it might not look that good. great. Yeah, when there's no yellow. So that always annoyed the hell out of me. And it was like this, it was another one of the things like you didn't, you had no control over it. You felt like that there

was only a few things that you can control and that was okay, I could, I could, I could have some input on the design of my car. I can set it up. I can, I can decide, you know, how well it runs or whatever. But otherwise, there's, you know, there's a giant rule book in front of me that I have to adhere to and, you know, you can't get too creative outside of that. And then they would kind of infringe. into the into your paint scheme which is sort of your your creative input i don't think you're you're giving yourself enough gravity into how important you consider paint i can there's like there's there's there's your kid your wife and your paint scheme in dale junior's world in his list of priorities right uh because the things that i used to just i used to entertain us how

Dale Jr's priorities were always paint scheme first and then like contract second or something like that, you know, whatever. That's what's important to him. And so while I'm just trying to help the listeners, especially you first time listeners, and this is Mike talking, that you've got to understand where Dale's coming from. Like paint scheme, even the thing you don't even notice, like the pinstripe, that little bitty pinstripe, Dale Jr. would sit there and move heaven and earth. to get that changed if it wasn't exactly right.

So that's absolutely right. And I don't know why that's not as important to more people. I really don't. You're driving a race car. And look at this table. Look at all the different designs on this table. It was important to somebody because they all probably put a lot of thought and effort into the way those cars all looked, right?

How come it's not as, I mean, maybe it is, but I don't understand if it's not as important to the driver. You know, when a guy walks up to get in a car to race it and he's going to race this car all year or he's going to try to accomplish something extremely important and incredible in his life, the way this car looks, I feel should be important to the driver. Some don't care and that's okay. You know, it's not a right or wrong kind of thing. I just never understood how come the paint scheme and the way your car looked

and how it's designed is not as important to some as it is others. Yeah, the paint scheme to me was everything. I grew up idolizing, racing NASCAR, and paint schemes are right into the middle of that mix with the personality of the driver. So, well, that's it. I always was annoyed, you know, when they would twist my, do something to the paint scheme that ruined it.

And so with this underglow, I guess I'm worried or curious, not worried. I don't care if it's screwing. screws up somebody's paint scheme, whatever. It's not going to affect my life. But when I hear that, you know, the manufacturers are going to use this particular color for all their cars,

it might not look great under some of these cars because the color doesn't match the scheme or it's completely contradictory to the scheme. And that's unfortunate, you know? So maybe I'm making a big deal out of nothing.

more than likely, that's a good chance. But I'm going to be paying close attention to it. So you're leaving yourself room to be okay with it, then it sounds like. If it doesn't, you're going to watch it. I'm a little worried that this is another one of them things like that yellow spoiler or like that, you know, that sprint yellow stripe across the nose or those. I'm worried that this is another episode of that or another example of that where maybe that Ford blue glow doesn't work under every Ford. Maybe it would be cool if NASCAR does this in the future if they just let the teams choose the color that they want to run, right? But you're good with the experiment?

You think the neon lights, like, I know you're going. Oh, I'm completely clear and good with the experiment. Really? Well, this is why. And you're about to get into the debate. This is what I want to know. Yeah. It's the all-star race.

I'm not, they're not doing this in the Daytona 500. They're not doing, the all-star race to me is it's lost, its identity. it's become stale. We've talked about moving it forever. We're going to finally see it at Bristol. We should be thanking our lucky stars. Thank you. And be totally okay with a little underglow

under the race cars. Really? Yes. Yes. Yeah. And let me tell you what it feels like to me. If you've been dying for that Christmas present all your life and you finally get it and then you complain about the wrapping paper,

that's what this. We got a All-Star race at Bristol. Yes, so why muddy it up with damn neon? Because the All-Star Race is a carnival ride already. It's not a tradition. The All-Star Race, to me, is not a tradition. Okay, that's fine. It used to be, but the format has changed to where so many format changes.

Every year, they tried to come up with a new way to make this race better. and they've only made it worse, all right? Trying to make it better at the same track. They just fixed. The format that is the best format is the only format, and that's 1987. All right? And it has more to do with the cars and the personalities and what was on the line and their determination to go out there and get it.

That all plays a big part into why that race was so fantastic. But what my point is, is that no format is going to save that race. no amount of laps for segment there's no magic number all right go back to the original format stop fooling around with that yes and just have the race and well you're proving my point then well no i'm not proving your point so there we with everything going on in the world this thing got to you know this thing gets finally taken to bristol which everybody was was wanting or asking for go somewhere anywhere bristol hell yes um that's a great place probably at the top of most everybody's list if they were going to move the All-Star Race.

It doesn't bother me that they're going to put a little underglow under the cars. I just wish they would allow the teams to choose the color so that it would look as good as it did at the burnout on the boulevard. When Kurt Busch had green, okay, that was pretty cool. Now, will that monster car look as good with amber glow underneath it? Probably not. I could probably be confident in saying that it's not going to look as good. Is it going to look as good in a well-lit concrete racetrack on that surface? I don't know.

I don't know how that's going to show up. Probably not as good. Not as good as down on the boulevard in the dimly lit streets of Nashville. So I like the effort. They're trying. They've got to evolve. They've got to change. This doesn't bother me because it's not a Daytona 500 race.

It's not throughout the entire playoffs. we should be thankful that this is not a next. Yeah, let's be hopeful that this is something that comes into every single playoffs. It's going to be on a fan survey. Matthew, why don't you, we ought to give you your chance to explain in detail what it is you have a problem with. I don't like it. I mean, I just don't like it.

And hey, I can be wrong, and I appreciate the fact that you're good with change, and I'm good with some changes too. I was wrong about the playoffs when it first came out. They're awesome. But we talk so much out of this side. of our mouth that we've changed too much maybe in the sport over the years. And the first thing we do when we get what we want, like going to Bristol or whatever, and trying something, let's do something that's completely out of our identity with these lights.

To me, it's like the glowing puck when they experimented with it in the NHL. I mean, if I want to see frigging neon lights under cars, I'll sit down with Hudson, who's four, and watch Jackson Storm on cars. Yeah. It's not, to me, it's like we're stock car racing. Let's not neon it all up. Let's just have a badass race. I love it.

I think your argument is well intended and you got some great points there. But like you just, you talk about your son and watching the Cars movie. You know, that's our future audience. If he likes Underglow and he sees this race on TV and goes, oh, just like the Cars movie, dad, I love it. You know, that's engaged him. And, and that's what we really need. I mean, we got to, we can create new fans. It's really hard to create, I think, a fan that's already, you know, 20, 25 years old and hasn't been a fan of motorsports. It's hard to reel them in. But you want to get that four or five-year-old kid who's super impressionable tuned in to

racing when he sees the real thing that he's been watching in a cartoon in real life. He's put some eyes on the cars then. All right. Well, yeah, but you know what he said. I get what you're saying. I think Hudson would think it's cool. I do. I think your son would think it's cool.

I don't have a problem with it. I just wish they would have let the teams choose the color. Jimmy Johnson's car, for example. Purple underglow, under that 48 with the purple accents on the body. That would look the best. Amber, man. I don't know. I don't know how it's going to look.

look on purple, black and all that going on. See, I'm sort of also on the flip side. Well, look, I'm on the side of, listen, we got the All-Star Race at Bristol. These are the things that we're talking about right now aren't affecting my day. Like, when I saw it, I'm like, well, that's cool. It's for the All-Star race. Awesome. I haven't.

I've got to be honest with you. Call me what you want. But all of the changes I've seen that NASCAR's made in the past several weeks on these things, like, you know, even the numbers. Like, as we looked at the paint schemes, I was like, I think I kind of like it. I think I like it. I mean like I haven't had a bad feeling yet about things. Now by the way, I haven't been on social media because like, you know, I've been away and I didn't have much service. I have no idea what the popular opinion is. Nobody really has one yet because there's no content out there to see it. Oh yeah, I got you. I got you. But we have seen paint schemes. Yes. Yeah. And we're going to talk about those and ask you. But like I think I want to give it a shot. And rather than worry about things that might be wrong with it, I think that we've got to either we've got to embrace a new vision for. NASCAR and be willing to make mistakes and this

Underglow could be a mistake. But we're not going to know until it's been on a racetrack and I don't think there's a better race out there than the All-Star race to do this stuff. And I think that's what they've said in it. They're like, look, we're going to experiment with the numbers and we're going to experiment with this. There's a choose comb. I like that. For the restarts where the choose cone is a new.

Yeah, there's going to be a choose cone for the restarts for the first time in Cup series where, you know, as you're coming up to double up for the the restart, you know, you can choose inside or outside line. So maybe the first eight cars choose the inside line. Well, the guy in ninth gets to drive all the way up to the outside of the front road. That's cool. Awesome. I didn't know that. That is so cool. Now, that to me, so if, you know, those kind of things I'm excited about, I want that to work. I want that to be a positive. And so, you know, it's with, with that kind of goodness possible, I'm okay with this underglow and this test. I really don't want to see the underglow at all. I don't know. I don't, I don't, I don't want to see it every week, maybe.

It just depends on how easy it is to see the cars when you're watching the race. Does it underglow sort of make it harder to see the car itself, who it is? I don't know. Well, just going to have to play this out. I've got one question for both of you on that topic. How important is it to you to get manufacturer identity? We talk so much about identity in these paint schemes. this is an attempt to kind of re-instill that manufacturer pride, and if so, is that not important to you guys? That is. That is.

And a fan, I think the fan would say, well, you know, the Carambine and the studio, a showroom floor doesn't have underglow. But I think your point, Mike, is that we need to bring back in that sort of rivalry distinction between manufacturers, the blue oval versus the Chevy bowtie. So to that, this is a positive, possible way to do that. And so the great point, great point. It's a good point. I remember what the Toyota guy said recently after, who was it the one, Martinsville?

Was it Denny? There's a switch on the dash, too. Let me be sure. Let you know, there's a switch on the dash to control this light. There is? Oh, man. Wow. I'd have to go strobe on that ass.

Yeah. So it's my knowledge from a photo that I've seen of a car with the dash that the drivers control this light. Huh. And that's probably in everyone's best interest that it's not, you know, what if they turn them all on and we start to race? And everybody's like, I can't see a thing. Oh, this guy's blinding me. Turn off your bright, so cold. Yeah.

Well, you know, maybe it's a disaster. In all seriousness, maybe it's a disaster, and they need to end the experiment before it begins. Expend the in the experiment before it begins. That's a good, I've never heard that. That's awesome. And we are live. Hey, everybody's Dale Jr. Here for the Ask Junior portion of the Dale Jr.

Download podcast presented to you by Xfinity. They are a premier partner of NASCAR and your partner for fast internet. I'm a customer. I'm pretty happy about that. Leah is here today, as she is every week, to help us with our questions. We got a lot of good ones, so I'm excited to get this started. So let's go ahead. All right.

First question coming in from Jeff Robinson. He wants to know what your thoughts on the paint schemes for the All-Star Race that we've seen so far. And I do believe I have a graphic up on your screen of all of them that are out. Okay. Yeah, the paint schemes are changing for the All-Star race this week. And the race is Wednesday. I've got a couple of sheets right here. They move the numbers back.

If you've been under a rock, let me explain. They're taking the numbers from the center of the door. They're sliding them back closer to the rear tires. They're going to open up a lot of space on the door for sponsors to go there. This is nothing new. This has been going on in our sport as far back as I can remember, even in the 70s with different cars in the Xfinity series. what was the sportsman series back then.

So you don't typically see this in the Cup series or haven't seen it in the Cup series, but this is also very prominent in super late model stuff as far as dirt late model cars. So this isn't like that hard to wrap your brain around. If it's done well. So, you know, looking at some of these cars, I've got the Hendrick cars right here.

I would say that the Exalted Decalter. on the door of William Byron's car is way too big. I'd make that a little bit smaller. Those are some of the things that I'm going to nitpick. I'm particular about designs, and always have been about paint schemes and so forth. So I'm just going to kind of nitpick these things. The Chevy Goods decal on Alex Bowman's car is a little too small.

And I think they did that intentionally because there's a sort of graphic, weird stripe thing happening on his fender. that I don't even know what that is. Yeah, I don't know what that little stripe is. I just get rid of that and make that Chevy goods a little bigger. The number size is also been something I've been critical about in some of these cars. Let's take a look at the Chase Sailing car. Now, this one, to me, is really well done.

Just really well done. I love everything about it. Also, the Pinsky cars, to me, they're well. done as well. Now the numbers are a little small. They look a little small. I need to see this on the racetrack to be sure. But the numbers are a little puny. And those are hard

brand logos to fit in on that because discount tires so wide. And then on Luganos they're trying to fit in shell and Penzole. On Luganos, I would have had to went with one or the other. Not both. The Shell logo or the Penzo logo. Maybe you could do pinsall on one side shell on the other.

Here is another great car that I think they did a really good job with, and that's the number six, Ryan Newman, Oscar Meyer. The six looks a little high to me. Yeah, it does. But again, I got to see it on the racetrack. These are renders. These are in no way an exact replica of what we're going to actually see on the racetrack, and sometimes these renders, they get them wrong. I think that that six probably will not be that high. But that's a pretty good job. Also, we had the Stuart Haas cars. Again, their renders are a little bad as far as number placement. I don't believe that the numbers are going to be that high on those cars.

And I've seen this. These are the renders that they use most of the time. These renders are coming from the die cast manufacturers. So they basically try to design the car. They give it to the die cast manufacturers because they've got to make these things way ahead of time. And the die cast manufacturer schemes always kind of screw or skew the numbers in the wrong locations a little bit. But here's an actual race car. All right. In the shop, This is Bubba Wallace, and this little logo right here is his main sponsor, which is that worldwide technology. The 43 looks low, but that's because there's no side skirt on the car. I think once they install the side skirt that that number placement was going to look really good.

I think the number, again, could be a little bigger. I don't know that the number size has changed. Oh, yeah, not on that car. Well, I don't know that it has on any of the cars. I think they've just slid them back. And as they have slid them back, yeah, it's made them appear smaller. But I don't think they've actually made the numbers smaller, which is interesting. Here is two really, really good.

This is really good. Both of them, actually. I agree. Christopher Bell, Matt Kenseth, well done. Well done. Christopher's number size looks really good. Great sponsor placement. Matt's car is really cool.

Numbers a little small for me, but that's because it has a white outline. As far as I know, I think NASCAR might have a rule on the size of the number. And that white outline around that 42 on the door is probably a good size, but since it's white, we don't see it. We don't see a large portion of it,

so it makes the number look smaller because all we see is the black 42. But those two are really well done. two more cars I think are well done and this is a render where I believe the number placement's incorrect but the fast and all car for Chris Busher that 17 looks really good really high but hopefully as we see the car on the track

they've got that in the right location the 37 here Energizer car Ryan Priest's really well done I like that one and here's two more well we got all the Gibbs cars I'm just going to say the Gibbs guys did a great job

except for, again, the numbers look small. I don't know that they're smaller than they originally were when they're in the door location, but to me they look small, particularly the 20. And Daniel Suarez is down here, and I've seen his car in the shop. This is the actual car. Daniel's car looks great, and his number looks really big. But there's the Gibbs cars. You see those, another great job.

I'm particular about paint schemes. That's why we're making such a big deal out of this. Hold on. Look at this. There's something interesting about Kyle Bush. His does not have an actual logo. It's just the M&M's. So if there was something that might look weird or just off,

it's because the number just looks back, but there's nothing. You know, I'm not seeing that. I'm not seeing, I know what you're saying, Mike, but I'm not seeing that. I think that since he has the M&M's car, they are able to do this sort of creative, obvious, you know, it's obvious what his car is,

and the sponsorship is. I love that. And actually, his number doesn't look as bad is maybe the 20 of Eric Jones. This is a render again. I don't know if this is the actual car may look a little different as far as the number size and so forth.

But Daniel Suarez, his number's big. I saw this car getting wrapped on a tweet from the team itself. And I was like, oh, yes, they can make the numbers bigger. So there you go. There's going to be a lot more of these on the racetrack on Wednesday to look at to talk about.

Let's talk about it. Why can't we do? debate it. Let's debate. There's nothing wrong with a good, good, healthy debate. NASCAR may be going in that direction in the future, so let's try to get it right. And everybody giving some input. All right, Leah, what's the next question? Next question. Coming from Mandy, what was your take from this past Friday night altercation after the race between Noah Glaxen and Harrison Burton? And have you got a chance to talk to Noah about it? Well, I told Noah that I didn't have a problem with anything he did on the racetrack or off the racetrack.

Noah races hard. He's going to make mistakes. And he got into the side of the 20 car. It hurt them both. Noah was able to recover and was racing around there trying to get a top five late in the race. You know, it's just these young kids are going to make mistakes and they're going to, you know, they're not always going to do everything you want them to do on the racetrack. And you have to as an owner sort of season yourself for that. So when something like that happens or, you know, when Noah goes down in the corner and gets loose underneath somebody and collects him and the next guy, they go up in the fence, you're going to have to be ready for that to happen as an owner.

And there's races where your drivers are going to make mistakes. There's races where all four cars are going to crash and have bad runs. So you sort of got to be ready for that and not let it really get under your skin. If you let that get under your skin, you're going to be busy every week trying to diffuse and have somebody at the table telling them what they should have done differently. As far as the fight itself, now, I don't know what was said, all right? I don't know what they're saying. But what I see is Harrison didn't give him much choice.

You know, he put his hands on him twice. At some point, you know, everybody's got their breaking point to where, you know, they got to say, hey, I got to stand up for myself enough's enough. I can't let you continue to put your hands on me. So I didn't have a problem with anything that happened there either. I'm glad it didn't blow up into anything big. Obviously, I'm glad that, you know, the crew guys all didn't get thrown around and get into a big fight and get, get us into a big mess with NASCAR as far as suspensions and fines and so forth.

NASCAR seems to not have a problem with anything else that went on. You know, so here's what it is. I think at some point, you know, we all kind of, as drivers, I think, have to, you know, imagine what we would do in those situations. All right, a guy comes up to you and puts his hands on you. How far are you going to let that go, you know, before you have to, you know, react physically to defend yourself or, if you let a guy do that, that bleeds over onto the racetrack, okay? If you let him take advantage of you in the heat of the moment in a physical confrontation, he's going to do much more on the racetrack.

He's going to use you up. Every time he's around you, he's going to take your line, he's going to force you offline, he's not going to care because he knows you're going to roll over. So Noah had to stand up for himself there. I think he did a pretty good job of doing that. All right, Leah. We're getting a ton of questions asking your thoughts on Tony Stewart and Ray Evernham's new racing series SRX.

What do you know about it? Will you be racing in it? I got no plans. And I don't know who they've, I don't know that they've reached out to a lot of people to get real concrete confirmation on, you know, who wants to do it, who can do it. I don't know that there's a lot of information from the series as well is what their cars look like and where they're going to race and what the schedule is.

So drivers aren't probably going to, you know, Tony might. Tony might make that commitment. He's part of the program. A lot of drivers are going to wait for a little more information, I think, before they could ever make a decision to do something like that. You know, they all have their own schedules as well as things they have going on. I'm a broadcaster and whatnot. So I would say my interest is not very high until I learned a lot more about it. But what was your reaction as soon as you saw it, like learned of, oh, there's a new series coming to Tony?

I'll be honestly, I Rock series is something that I've always thought was a great series. and unfortunately the financials for that didn't work out and they had to close that series. If this is anything like that, I love it. So I don't know whether it's all going to be past legends, retired drivers, whether they may incorporate some of the guys that are currently racing. I don't know. I don't know what that looks like. But the IROC series to me was something that I think had it been able to sustain itself.

It was a pretty impressive series because, the guys all would come down there, you know, stock car guys, IndyCar guys, all types of different race car drivers would come into that series, and their egos would force, the egos would sort of manifest this real, real competitive atmosphere, so competitive. And, you know, it was, that was really unique to the IROC series. You didn't see that in other forms of motorsports where, you know, that competitiveness sort of spilled out on the racetrack and,

and we had some really dramatic moments in the IROC series. So I think fans love the IROC series. I see them still talking about it today. So if this is any sort of similar series to the IROC, I think it would be a good thing. All right. Last question. Coming from Michael Fitzgerald,

I would like to know how Junior feels about his NFL team changing their name. Yeah, I'm all for it. You know, this conversation has been going on for a really, really long time. And if you're a Redskins fan, like I am, you certainly are aware of the debate over the nickname. And I have learned in that conversation that this goes way back into the 70s as far as when the media started sort of writing articles about it. So this isn't nothing new.

And it's certainly been more frequent over the last several years, much more frequent. You used to crop up every five years. Now it seems like every year now. as a fan of the team i'm excited about i'm excited about the change and it's it's it's something that only redskins fans i think will know this we haven't won a super bowl since 1991 the state of the franchise and its it's it's success all those things sort of they all play a role in this in in the emotion over this change and this decision and i think for me personally i'm ready for a new chapter

and I'm ready for this conversation to no longer be part of my experience as a fan of the team and the debate over this and the frustration over it and how it affects the franchise. It's a dark cloud over it all the time, you know, and it's not going away, and it's hard to continue to support the franchise when this is part of the conversation. So I'm great to sort of break completely clean and start an entirely new identity and future. I think it would be great for the organization, the people that work in that company, the players that play for that team, anybody that plays for that team in the future. So I'm good with it. You know, I'm going to, I don't really, and there's been a lot of ideas that have been tossed around as far as names.

and I got friends of mine that are that are fans of the team that want to, you know, wrap the brain around one load, one, one or the other. And, but I'm going to keep my, I'm not going to sort of fall in love with one. And I'm just going to wait because nobody really knows what the name is going to be. And I don't want to, I don't want to really like one and find out that it's the other, you know. So I'm just going to kind, you know, if I'm, I've been. invested in this franchise for for decades and I want to continue that relationship and so I'm going to be open minded as to whatever it becomes and whatever it becomes I'm going to like that

and that's what it's going to be. So it's a it's going to be, you know, it's going to be a big, big change and it'll be interesting to see, you know, how all that continues to play out. But I think everybody's eager to know what the name is and it looks like that they're, you know, we're going to have to be patient on that part. But yeah, they've been talking about this for quite a while, Mike. So finally good that it's happening and we can move on. Yeah, I'm sure it's exhausting. It is.

I can appreciate that. I'm also glad to hear that you're not jumping ship that you're, because, you know, nothing is more annoying than people that said, I'm not going to be a fan of that team anymore because they didn't get their way on something. Yeah. All right. So that's how you're going to live, you know, oh well. Yeah.

Good love. I'm, you know, I don't, it's not that I, I think leaving a team like that is one thing, but then you've got to find another team, right? It's not just as easy as just, you know, walking out the door and saying, all right, I'm done with this. But then you got to find another team. I don't, I don't have that. There's no, nothing out there really has that appeal to me. And I know the history of this team so well have, you know, players for this team have been idols for me, Art Monk, Daryl Green. And that doesn't have to change at all.

And it won't, you know. So it's a pretty big deal, you know, and I'm kind of excited about it. I'm looking forward to the new artwork, looking forward to how the fans sort of appreciate that and make it their own. For example, you know, there's been red wolves is one of the ideas, and fans are talking about the wolf pack and the wolf den and all this stuff, you know, sort of encompassing wolves. So it's going to be fun to watch the core fan base, the die-hards, sort of make this their own, you know, program.

You know, the team, the teams had sort of this, like they had the hogs, right? This is an offensive line that was very dominant. And franchises do that. They give their arena a name. They name, we had this wide receiver core that were called like the funky bunch or something. So it'll be fun to watch them take this sort of change and get creative with it and give it a real identity and some real personality. The other thing, too, is I think for players, I'm just, I hate to speak for anybody, but I can imagine as a player how exhausting this must be.

If you're on this team year in and year out, you really want to have some passion, right? And you want to invest some passion and some emotion into who you're playing for and that logo and the colors and everything that the fan base represents. And it's hard to do under the circumstances. So that'll no longer be sort of a hindrance for the players of the team, any future, you know, trying to get a free agent to come play, right, for this team. That has to be a hindrance, you know.

So I think it really opens us up to a better future as a franchise, and I'm glad that it's happening. All right, guys, that's all we offer for today. You have to be fast in our sport and Expendity. They know a thing or two about that. With Exfinity, get blazing fast. fast Wi-Fi without any pit stops. X-FINITY delivers the speed and the coverage and the security and the control that you

need to stay connected to NASCAR all season long. This is beyond Wi-Fi. This is X-Fi. Keep your questions rolling in to add X-Finity Racing on Twitter using hashtag Ask Junior for a chance to have your questions answered by Dale Jr. himself. Mike, we are extremely proud to partner with Xfinity, the premier partner of NASCAR. Last week our guest was NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin. The interview was so damn good, we didn't want to cut it down.

Not at all. We wanted to share the entire thing. Mark opened up so much and we got a peek inside his life and career from childhood to tough times and second chances. Before we get going to part two, let's get caught up on where we left off with NASCAR Hall of Famer, Mark Martin. Mark Martin has suddenly exploded into the top floor. Martin had a great tip of I race. That's what I do.

You know, I won the, you know, ASA three championships in a row. I've had, I race, man. I'm not going to, that's what I do. Previously on the Dale Jr. download. I actually had a Chevy Blazer, and I drove to school at 14 and 15. That's crazy.

My dad was, I mean, they should do a movie about my dad. There are so many insane stories about him. What was the family business? Trucking company. And before I started racing, you know, I learned to drive a truck really early age. I'm going to say I was 12. He let me drive at night.

He finally got brave enough to get out of the seats. And so I'm driving this thing and it's nighttime and I'm passing trucks. And he reaches over and flips on the dome light so that the other driver can see that he's getting passed by a little kid. You always seem to be the guy that didn't mind telling people what your setups were and helping with others. Have you ever told somebody or have you ever misled them? No, Rusty did, though. I was standing right with Resty. Well, my cup car had 600 pounds of lead.

Oh. Jake Elder, and I didn't know who he was. And he looks over in the car. You only got two gauges? I said, yeah, that's all you need. water temperature and oil pressure says you ain't got no tack and I said no you don't need one

how much lead you got in this car so I lied and set 400 pounds and he almost fell out you know Jake go oh yeah 82 and 83 were devastating career losers and demolished and took me from riding high to completely

on my knees I didn't have any sponsorship and my crew chief at Daytona got knee-braided the night before the 500 and didn't show up at the racetrack Sunday morning. So I was broke and I owed

I owed Hutchison Pagan I think 50 grand so we had to have an auction and sell everything I owned. I picked up my stuff and moved back to Wisconsin and started my career all over again. It was a very tough time in my career. Humbling, Dale, I would not be the person I am today had I not failed because I was on such a role before that, that 82 season. I was pretty full of myself. I was in my shop was a pole bar without insulation in Indiana, northern Indiana. The phone rang. It was a slim line phone on the dial phones. I'm standing there. Answer the phone. Hello. Mark.

This is White L. Wilson. I'd like to see if you'd be interested in driving the 28 car. And I said, no, I'd rather do my own deal. That was it. That was it. So I could have been in the 28 car at the Daytona 500 in 1982. Wow. But I come downstairs and Dad and Teresa and Mark Martin are in the basement.

dad had a pool table down there and the TV and y'all were watching your races, your ASA races. Yes, that was January 1982 is when that was. And I was in the Bush clash and Dale wasn't. So when we

finished washing my races, he said, let me show you how to win the Bush clash. He put his race in and we watched him. But Finally, Jack Roush called.

He said, I'd like to talk to you about driving. And Jack said, I've got $4 million. I'm going to run two years on my money. And we're going to have Steve Mill, Robin Pemberton. Here's the deal. And he didn't say anything. And I didn't ask about what he was going to pay me when he finished telling me all that stuff. I said, well, I want to do it.

We stood up, shook hands. And I about fell out. I mean, I honestly got dizzy. Most people don't get their first chance, much less a second chance. My relationship with Jack was very, very difficult. He was very cold for years, and he didn't treat me with respect.

He intimidated me and kept me down, you know, and I was scared of him. and it took it took years for that relationship you know to really develop now we're blood brothers now when did that change then about the time when did that flip it started getting better in 93 because i decided i wanted to leave he never they were smart they never let me get closer to the end of contract of three years they did five year contracts and at the end of two years they'd come back and tear that contract up and give me a new contract and give me a little bit more money. And I wasn't cold, cold-blooded like Matt Kinsis was cold-blooded.

He didn't re-up. He didn't take. But if they offered me, they would, it would always be after we won a few races. And I'd be feeling good. They'd come in and say, hey, we want to give you a new contract. It will give you more money. I said, hell, yeah, I'll take a race. You know, so I always did it.

So I never had the option to leave because I have too much integrity to just break a contract. Well, I say that. I went to him in 93 and I said, I want, I want out. I want to leave. I went out of my contract. And we went round and round about it. And I hired a bad to the bone lawyer because I was serious. I wasn't playing.

I didn't want a race. I wanted to leave. I wanted more input on the cars than I had. And I just wasn't happy. And Jack fought to keep me. And that was my first indication that he wanted me to drive his cars. And Steve Meal came to me and said, hey, I can get you a little raise. Won't you just stay?

We're running good. We can win races. What you just stay? And I'm like, hell, yeah, that's what. what I really want to do. I don't have the boss to leave anyway because, you know, I had a program where I could win races. I didn't know if I could recreate that or not anywhere else. The 28 came available two different times, but I couldn't leave. I had contracts. And everybody's like, why don't you go drive that car? And it's like, dude, I signed a piece of paper that said I would

drive this car and they sold sponsorships based on that. I'm not, I can't just walk off. And so, anyway, things got better. That kind of leads us into the 93 thing. After they decided that everybody decided they wanted me to stay, I'm like, well, we got to hang these bodies like I want them. The quarter panel height rule was 35, 36 max. And we had that, but the roof height, minimum roof height, was 50 and a half inches.

And our roof heights were like 51 and a quarter because Stephen Robin thought that Jack wanted a carburetor spacer on the thing. And the hood would hit you. You couldn't fit an air cleaner on it if you drop the roof anymore. Well, we're throwing away all that downforce, all that down force. All that down force. And I'm like sick of it. Like you hang the body first. Then you put the motor in the car.

That's how you do race. that's how you race. Well, come and find out once I told Jack that he said, heck, yeah, that's what you do. Yeah, I'm about horsepower, but you hang the bodies first. You're throwing that down for them. So we started building cars at 50 and a half inch,

50 and a half inch roof height. Well, we won four races in a row. So that's the story on the four races in a row. You know, when I first started racing against Mark in 1998 on a regular basis he was driving the wind dixie car oh good grief you y'all were all running for second at that point then right oh yeah um he beat me i got a time or two but uh the only reason is is because i was able to follow you so much but um you probably gave you set up one of the things that stands out about me about mark martin is every morning typically when we go to the infinity race

the cup cars ain't been on the track yet, but it's Friday morning or something like that, eight o'clock or whatever, and they put us out on the racetrack, and it's, you know, you're still stretching. And Mark Martin could go, we'd pull out on the racetrack, and I'd always try to get behind Mark

and try to follow him for a couple laps. And we would go down straightaway, you know, getting yourself up to speed, and by time you're going into one, you're going fast, and the tires are good, and everything's good. The track's cool. Mark would arc into the corner,

probably about twice as much as he was going to do it in the race. And in those times, you carried the throttle down in the corner, for example, like Charlotte, you know, you were in the gas all the way down into the bottom of the corner. Okay. And, you know, it was, he was going to put a lap down, and that was going to be the lap that everybody else we could use as the standard for the day. You know, where does that come from? So I'm a guy that has to work, I got to work my way up to it.

I go out there and I'm going to run maybe, I don't know, 80, 90 percent. And in the next two or three or four laps, I'll finally find that edge. And there's a lot of drivers that are like that. I think true X is like that. But you can go out there in lap one and run as fast as the car is capable of running. You know, where does that come from? Where is that? You've always had that ability and it's a rear of real quality.

And I've always wanted to ask you about that. So in 77, the first year started racing on pavement. After I came home from New Smyrna and we got into the summer, I went to Wisconsin because you could race Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night and Sunday night. So you could race five nights a week, you know, five or six nights a week. and so you practice on old tires and you put stickers on to qualify and you'd race your qualifying tires. And I'm talking about quarter, third, and half mile racetracks. And sticker tires were real slippery the first corner, first couple of corners.

And so you'd leave the pits and you'd qualify on stickers so you'd have to go. and so you'd leave the pits and go down to backstretch and going to three and four and you would have to be super in tune so that you didn't crash and the car would slip around and all that stuff but you would gauge and measure your your grip level right then and there come and take the green flag and then start laying a lap down measuring how much grip that you had and predicting your grip and I just developed I developed my skill for maxing out based off of leaving,

going down the back stretch and going into three and four. You know, just the first time. Yeah. And I just was really good at cinching quickly where the edge would be. And I was never good at anything other than driving race cars. And listen, you know, Dale,

there's no better feeling than feeling like a badass. Yeah. And if you can roll out on the racetrack cold and lay down a lack, with roost or tail behind you of dust because nobody's been on the racetrack and lay down a lap that makes everybody's head spin you're pretty much a badass yeah that's for sure i think that's what dale was saying yeah pretty much yeah that was the most impressive thing he did it every single time yeah you knew it you know that when i would show up to the racetrack you know when mark wouldn't run you know we go and do our thing and and we lived in this culture in the xfinity series and then

Mark would come to the Charlotte or some of the bigger races. And you knew immediately, got to get out on pit road, got to be ready when Mark goes, got to go out there and follow him off into the corner and see what he does and, you know, try to learn whatever you could. And I learned, we learned so much. Would you ever go talk to him? Yeah. Okay.

I mean, I was pretty shy. Yeah, that's why I'm asking. But there was such an introvert. There was nobody more approachable in the garage when it comes to drivers than Mark Martin. And I learned that real early in my career. And he would tell you, he's like, anything you need to know. Any question you got, come see me, come ask me. He would always end the conversation with that.

You ever need anything. You know, I think I was going to say an underrated quality. I mean, like, you are obviously a willman, but man, did you have, everything I'm hearing is about how everything you got was from relationships. And you don't seem to have any enemies. And that's kind of rare for people that we've talked to on this show. They have a career full of enemies and a career full of confrontations. And they had to fight for everything.

You were talking. I mean, how many times we've heard? Well, I got that free and I got this free. And then I had nothing. So I called this guy and he gave me everything and built me a race car here. Mark, I mean, I think that your legacy made just as well from a racing standpoint, be that you're a relationship guy. Well, you know, it's true.

You know, but I just really respect integrity, were really king with me. I learned respect. I learned to race with respect in 77 when I started racing with Dick Trickle and Bob Seneca and those guys. And they taught me, you know, a driving code, you know, a code of ethics that you drove with. And they were also friendly and would answer your questions.

And I was always honored when people would ask me questions. I was always happy to help anybody that asked for help. I would set up competitions, cars, and then race against them because I felt like my car was always going to be better anyway because it had so much more love. But yeah, I mean, I race people the way I wanted to be raced. And I enjoyed doing things, doing something that a lot of people couldn't do. because I wasn't any good at anything else. And it was kind of cool that like putting up that lap, first lap of practice. Not everybody could do that.

So that was my thing. I loved doing that. I loved qualifying. I was a better qualifier than I was a racer. I loved qualifying because I loved not knowing for sure if I was going to make it or not, pushing that hard, you know, and shaking. and having the shakes after the lap. You did have shakes?

Oh, yeah, I had this shake. He was human. I had confirmed. Yes. I would be, you know, the exhilaration of going out there and not knowing if you were going to make it or not was just the coolest thing ever. Yeah. Another thing that I think he's remembered for,

and what I appreciated and tried to emulate a little bit, was his ability to scout and also tutor young drivers. You know, you were always always. outspoken about talent when you thought you saw it in some of the younger drivers in in the Xfinity or the truck series and often complimenting some of the younger drivers from those series more so than you know anyone else in the Cup series and you were a tutor for a lot of guys you know you're a mentor you know for guys like myself Matt Kenseth you talk about, you know, wanting Jamie over to, over at Rouse.

I mean, you know, you were the first guy to really get everybody to pay more attention to Ligano. And there's just a list goes on and on about, you know, when Martin would say that guy can do it. And everybody's like, all right, Mark. He must, he must can do it because Mark, Mark would know what he's looking at. You really enjoyed being a mentor, though, being a tutor or, you know, seeing some of these younger guys learn from some of the, information you give them. Like you, Dale, I'm a huge fan of the sport. And I'm, you know, I really enjoyed trying to help and promote young talent. It was exciting to see him come up. You know, I, the deal with Matt Kinseth is I didn't know him and never met him. I knew who he was

because I knew he was winning races in Wisconsin, and I also knew he was winning races in multiple cars, not just the car one car, not just for Jerry Gunderman or whatever, but this car, that car, that car, that told me he knew how to set up cars. He knew cars. He didn't have a great crew chief that was doing everything,

and he was just a great wheelman. He was cut from the same kind of fabric that I was. I knew this, because I read it in the papers, that, you know, this guy, Matt Kinses was winning all these races and different cars up there. So when I met him at Talladega at the driver's meeting, that was it. I went straight to Jack and pulled him out of the trailer at Talladega. I said, you got hired this guy. I know you don't have any place for him, but you have to hire now because if you don't, he'll get away.

My claim to fame on that deal is Matt brought Jack his first cup championship. Yeah. something I wasn't able to deliver for you. So I'm proud of that. I just liked Matt. Matt was so much like me. You know, he was a humble guy. I knew he knew cars and he just was, he said the right things.

And I knew it was, you know, I just knew it was right. I saw Joey Legano at 11 years old. He was a little boy driving a legend car, racing in the pro series against all men, grown men and winning. And I knew right then he was going to be a cup champion. I mean, I knew it. And I beat his drum as hard as I could. You know, all through, I had press conferences and stuff for, you know,

everything I could do. I remember that. Try to get him hooked with Jack Roush. And they blew it. Jeff Smith and Jack treated, treated him with disrespect. and eventually blew that deal. And they went and saw Joe Gibbs

and Joe treated them with respect and that's history. But I knew Joey was going to be a cup champion when he was 11 years old. I really want to ask about that. Mark calls it like he's easy. You know, I've always wanted to ask you a question. I didn't know if I were to have the nerve to do it

because I don't know if it's awkward. or not. But I'm going to do it, Mark. You don't have to answer, I guess. 2008, you were at DEI when Dale Jr. had left for Hendrick, and you were at DEI because of the merger with Ginn Racing. Is that right? I've got that right. Okay. Yes. I always remember, like, it was such a kind of a slippery time for us, being that, for the obvious reasons, we're leaving the family-owned company, right? And I remember Dale Jr. is tactful and as appropriate as he could be, like it still would get portrayed in the media, his relationship with Teresa would be precarious.

We'll call it that, right? Okay. See, your face is starting to answer my question already, is that you were sort of, I remember that time as you sort of being stuck in the middle of it because you came to DEI, and I believe you were driving the eight car, were you not? Well, what happened was there was a merger.

Right. And the O1 car was awesome. I mean, we hauled the mail. in that car and Ryan Pemberton was the crew chief and so the merger, it was still going to be the O.1 car, it was going to be a D.E.I. And Ryan Pemberton was going to be

the crew chief. Well, over, you know, like in January, Ryan leaves. And when he leaves, I'm like, oh, dang, I don't, that changes everything. You know, can I drive the A car? And they let me.

You know, they let me go over and drive the eight car with Tony Gibson and them. And that pissed Regan off because Regan was slated for that. And I understand. But my seniority and my success, you know, I had a bigger hammer, I guess. And so I got the A car because of Tony Gibson and all that. That's why I wanted to eight. I didn't initially, wasn't interested in the eight. I was interested in staying with the team I was with.

right so yes i was kind of shoved in the middle of that um and you know there was a lot of controversy over the number and you know yeah i had to say it's the practice the number stays with the owner i i don't know you know i i understand that dale juniors numbers eight i understand in that, but it's Teresa's number and if she don't want him to have it, how are you going to take it away from her? It's NASCAR history. That's how it goes in the history

books. She would have, she would have to be okay. So yeah, I didn't ever feel like Junior was ill at me. No, no, no, no. But I was a little caught in the middle of it. It was uncomfortable, awkward.

Me and you were put in those situations. That's how I remember it. But what I was always curious and this was ultimately what I wanted to ask is what you know when he left DEI that was sort of the end of any you know you know insider information or you know feelings going on with inside that those walls I was always curious what was the conversation I remember he had max Siegel you know kind of in an ownership not an ownership but in a managerial place he's kind of of running the company you had some other Siegel people that were there but what was the general feeling like after Dale had left and has now gone to Hendrick Motorsports,

you are in morale. Like, I imagine it was complicated. It wasn't as complicated as you think. Now, help me with this because I'm having a senior moment. It was Max Siegel and was there a story, it was his last name, Story. John Story. John Story. So those were the two people that I dealt with on a day-to-day basis.

and they were fantastic, absolutely fantastic to work with. And I never talked to, I ran the whole season, or drove the whole year, Eric and I shared the car. And I talked to Teresa two times the whole season. So Teresa wasn't there, didn't have a presence there. she came to the Charlotte race one time she was out at that race we saw her there and I think I talked to her once on the phone and that was it.

A hundred percent of my dealings were with Story and Max Siegel and they were incredible and the morale seemed to be really good you know Tony Sto Tony Gibson oh Tony is so fantastic and he was so positive

and the team was excited to have me drive their car, the guys, you know, they were really excited to have me. And it was an energy field, really charged up atmosphere. And that car hauled the mail. I mean, it was ridiculous how fast it was so pitiful we didn't win a race. I run half throttle at Phoenix. We should have won Phoenix. We had, I was so far gone and had them beat and we're like 10 laps short, according to Tony Gibson.

And I'm telling Tony, I can make it. I've saved you so much gas. It's pitiful. I never went past half throttle. I can lead it. And he pitted me because he wanted to make the owner's championship. He was, you know, he was worried about making the owner's championship. And I wanted to win the race.

I'm positive that I had enough fuel to make. it and we couldn't do it. And then, you know, we were so fast set on, I don't know, a whole bunch of poles or front rows. And I was at the second time, the first time was Charlotte in May. Rick Hendrick called me. And he's asking me all these goofy questions about, well, how many, you know, what's this Army thing, you know, sponsorship?

Not telling about the Army. But how many races you run in that eight car? I'm not, you know, friends. We're acquaintances. I'm not buddies with Rick. Finally, I said, what is it? Rick? What do you ask?

All these cars. What? He said, why I just put you in that five car? Wow. And I'm like, I'm like, dude, I'll drive that car 24 race schedule, but I ain't run full time. So that was the end of that conversation. The next time, we had hauled. At Pocono, I think, something incredible, led to race and all that stuff.

Had a bad pit stop or something and didn't win the race. And my phone ring. I'm at DEI for the competition meeting or whatever, hanging out. And my phone rings. And it's Rick Hendrick again. I want to drive a car. And I'm like, I stepped down the hall. And I'm talking to Rick.

And I'm like, Rick, I'll run it for 24 races next year. But I won't drive full time. and then the third time, I could see the handwriting on the wall with the, you know, this isn't going to continue. My super deal I have is not going to be able to go forward. That was two years that I got to drive winning caliber race cars and teams

and got to run 24 races. And Regan or Eric would could drive the other races. and I could see that was going to dry up for me. And so the third time Rick calls, I just think, I'd just like to win one more time. You know, I didn't give one flip anymore about a championship.

I did not care. I was the happiest man on earth. I'd been miserable for 10 years in the sixth car the last 10 years because I was worried about points and trying to win a championship and frustrated. Finally, I was just racing for, wins and for the joy of racing and working with a great team.

And I didn't want to run full time, but I got to think and daydreaming about what it'd be like to win one more time. And so I was in a good negotiating spot because it's the third time he called. So I made him a deal that I'd run full time one year if he'd give me the 24 races the next two years. And, well, he, he, he, he, he, he, right on it. And so that's how that's how 09 came up. Then he figured out how to talk you into running full-time the rest of the contract. I just assumed it was because like, all right, I'll run full-time if you

could let me run that one race at Vegas for junior motorsports and get them their first win. Is that not how the conversation went? That's funny. You know, the picture that flashes in my head was, is yeah, but Keselowski got taken out. I didn't draw the first blood on that. Carl drew the first blood that wound up taking Kesleski out. But Brad was really pissed about that.

He was mad. And I didn't, I don't feel like I hit him. I got hit. You know, I got hit and turned into him. Yeah. This is a lot about you.

We're here talking about the win, and you're still, you hung up on what happened to Brad. You won that. Well, you brought up the race. And anyway, yeah, I got them the first win, but Brad was going to get them the first win, had this accident not happen where, you know, Carl and I. I was plenty okay with it because we were, it was Mark Martin.

Right. And it was at Vegas. Right. You know, it was all the great things. And you knew that of all his Exfinity wins, this was his most important. You know what? Brad was learning a very valuable lesson. That was really a good lesson.

Yeah, here's a lesson. This won't be your last run in with Carl. Yeah. But to finish off how Rick got me to do the other two years full time instead of part-time was we went to Phoenix right away, whatever. That's early in the season, about five races in. And we sat on the pole and won the race. And we were really feeling good.

And just a few weeks later, we go to Darlington and win that race. And I'm like, hey, Rick, like to sit down and meet with you. And we sit down and I said, you know, you said you want me here as long as I'll drive. And I'm willing to do those other two years. You know, I'm willing. Yeah, we won two races. It ain't even half season yet. All I wanted to do is win one.

Yeah. And so I was living a dream at that point. I would come home from the shop every time I'd go to the shop. I'd come home and Arlene would say, geez, you're smiling so big. And I said, it's just like going to NASA. I mean, you won't believe it. I'd never been to a place, an organization,

like Hendrick Motorsports in 2009. It was just like a dream for me. And I could go in and I say, you know, I'm having this little hot spot on my leg. And rouches, I would have to engineer the fix for it. I'd have to come up with the fix and get the fix done myself. Dude, you could go in there and tell them, I'm having this little issue.

Their engineers had figured out and come with the fix for it and fix it for you. I mean, they did every. I mean, it was like heaven. And I know your experience was the same way there, Jr. It was like heaven. And I was 50 years old. But, dude, I was winning. I done one two races.

So it was, I was good with signing up. And I stayed too long. I shouldn't have, I should have, you know, I should have probably just stayed in 2009. Ten, we ran pretty good, but not real good. And then, you know, my performance just really seemed to drop off after that. Well, man, it was an awesome opportunity for me to be able to be in the same build with you and keep learning. I mean, it would, like my career had come full circle in a sense to be able to learn from you so much in the Xfinity series in 9899.

I mean, we were going to me and Matt and all. all those guys are going to school every week that we got to race with you, and then to be able to be in the same shop with you and even see more about what makes you tick. It was a blast for me. You'd been awesome to me my whole life. I've been so supportive of me through my whole career. And so that was a real pleasure for me to be in the shop with you, sharing the shop. It was good times, and you're such a respectable guy.

You've done so much for the sport on the racetrack and off the racetrack. your respect for the history of NASCAR racing and racing itself is incredible and we need that so much. And you're the guy that carries that banner for us and, you know, keeping the history alive of our racing and NASCAR sports. So thank you. Well, tell me just real quick before we let you go. What are you doing these days? I know you got a new bus and you and your wife are riding around. Just what do you enjoy and what do you spend your time doing?

I'm lifting six days a week still. What? Oh, yeah. I'll weigh in 125 pounds and I'm 61 years old. And the other day I did four sets of four reps of deadlifts with 240 pounds. So I'm a little old man, but I'm still lifting hard. Mark, just real quick, I remember at Pocono, we were leaving after the race and we're getting, and you guys parked next to each other in Pocono for a while.

and we're trying to get on a golf cart and we're going to go to the helipater wherever we're going. And Mark Martin is changing. He takes his shirt off and I swear to God, it was Hercules. I was like, my God, look at Mark Martin. I couldn't stop staring. I mean, you just said, dude, you were ripped. I lift, man. I lift hard.

I love it. It's my addiction. And then I spend time in the shop like that's where I'm at right now, the shop. We've been out on a motorhome trip and I'm doing all the polishing and detail. and cleaning and organizing, and I've got a couple of maintenance details to do. I keep all our cars clean and stuff like that, and I just, I keep up with you guys. I watch the races on TV and enjoy seeing the incredible job you guys are doing on the telecasts and all that stuff, and I'm a big race fan, and I'm just loving life.

I really love not having a schedule to meet, and I love not having a job because I work hard at the things that I love me. You still have businesses, though, going on back in Arkansas? I do. My partner, Lance Landers, is hands-on partner and runs the dealerships and takes care of all that stuff. And so, you know, it's worry-free from my end, you know, for those dealerships. We still have the museum there in baseball. You know, I had three, one million dollar paydays in my career, which were pretty special. All three of those cars are on display there.

I think that's pretty cool. That is pretty cool, buddy. That is neat. Still the go-to social media follow. He's a great social media follow. Who would have thought that? Sure. You're still the guy.

Well, man, I hope we'll run into you sometime. It'd be nice to see you. And until then, we'll be keeping up with you and hope you take care of yourself. I really, really appreciate you making time to come on this show. I mean, me and Mike are obviously excited to be able to listen to you, learn from you, but our listeners are just going to eat this up. Remember, everybody who's listening, Mark's got his own podcast. He does his podcast by year throughout his career.

If you want to know anything about his career, pretty simple to understand where you need to go to learn what you want to learn. I suggest listening to all of it. Like he said, he's been up and down the ladder quite a few times. and there's a lot to learn there. But thank you, Mark Martin. We appreciate you, buddy. Thank you. It's an honor to be on your show.

Yes, sir. With the Lost Speedways launch on Peacock TV this week, we've got an odd history about a Lost Speedway that we figured we'd share with you all. Some tracks are lost to build housing developments. Some, they've become shopping centers or strip malls. But Gainesville Speedway in North Georgia, it closed for a very different reason.

It was closed to build a lake. The Half Mile Dirt Track, which was originally known as Looper Speedway, it opened in 1949, held weekly sportsmen and modified races, Max Looper, who the track was named for, Frank Perkle, and former Georgia racing star Gober Sozby. Number 51. They operated the track. Sozby actually won the first feature there. Drivers like the famous flock brothers, Charlie Minst,

and Jack Smith all race there. Sarah Christian, the first woman to finish in the top five in a cup race, won some races at Luper. The track held its final race in November of 1956. At that point, construction was completed on the Beaufort Dam that stretched across the Chattahoochee River and completely flooded the track with the newly created Lake Lanier. From time to time during the summer months,

The remains of the top rows of concrete bleachers are exposed and can be seen on the shoreline. Most of Looper Speedway sits under the lake beneath the muddy red clay service. Lost to Lake Lanier. All right, boys, let's get your scuba gear ready. Get you under water cameras. That's awesome. I'm looking at Micah right now, and his eyes were lit up. They're like, he could already, we're adding looper speedway to the list.

All right, guys. That's awesome. Y'all ready for some last call or no? Come on. Last call. All right, last call. Happy 90th birthday to Martha Earnhardt. All right.

Happy birthday, Martha. Happy birthday. Lost Speedways, our Peacock TV special. It launches this Wednesday, July the 15th. We've been doing a lot of media lately. and trying to promote Lost Speedways. I've been showing a lot of stuff on social media. I'm absolutely going to probably re-watch every episode.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I'll be just kind of combing social media to get reaction, you know, and seeing what people will think about the show. Certainly probably calling my bosses at NBC for their feedback and what fans are telling them. Door bumper clear. Guest Bernard Puck. Pollard, NFL player, and new NASCAR fan.

I heard he was pretty good, Mike. Yeah, I did too. That's awesome. The guys really seem to enjoy having them on. The guys go off on Kentucky. And about the lights under the cars for the All-Star. I wonder what their debate sounded like compared to ours. When are we ever going to do a show together?

We ought to. Jesus. And just really just debate. I mean, I think that's what they do. I love that. I want to debate. Right. We'll work on that.

Matthew, we've got to do that. All right, the TV show this week, the Dale Jr. Download is a re-air of the Mark Martin episode. Mark was extremely thrilled to be on the show. He seemed to enjoy the reaction that he got from it, and it was one of the best shows, best guests we've had in a long time. The show is on Wednesdays at 6 p.m. NBCSN. Yeah. And yeah, hope you guys enjoyed the Dale Jr. Download episode 306. Hold on. We got one more thing for you. You know how we like getting gifts. That's close out strong. I know. We got gifts. We got a gift this way. You got a gift. this week. I don't know if you're still

collecting football helmets, but we got another one. Holy cow. My buddy Stuart Carter, who is the equipment manager at Penn State, sent you a Penn State football helmet, and I'm going to tell you that. Take a look at this thing. The thing is right. I know. And I hope that Penn State and all the other college football teams get to play

this year. Yeah. But anyways, you know we like our gifts, and Dale Jr., there you go. There's another helmet for the collection. Well, that is a good one. Yeah, thank you, Stuart. Thank you, Stuart. We appreciate it. We are all, we're still collecting helmets. I have probably about 100 helmets, probably 80 college and 20 NFL.

Wow. And of the 20 NFL 19 of Redskins. Well, I have. I guess we shouldn't say that, should we? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know when we have to stop saying that. I don't know.

Do you have to take your helmets now? What do you do anymore? I don't know. That is a great question. I've been sort of boxing up a lot of stuff. Yeah. And I'm just eager for the new, you know that when that new jersey and helmet comes out, it's going to fall off the shell.

Yeah. Yeah. You'll be getting that. I'm definitely getting that. So I'll put all those stuff away and put it in storage and that's that. There you go. New chapter. Maybe we put that, I don't know, maybe that's a new studio, Pete.

Oh, you're taking it home? Yeah. I have a collection, Mike. You do. I know, but some of them are in here already. That is not true. There's no, that's yours. Yeah, that's your helmet, Mike.

That's your helmet out of your. Mike's like, oh, wait. That's my helmet. Oh, I'll take it, though. I'll take it home. No, no, no. Stay away from my helmet. Good point.

All right. Take it easy. Have a good week. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo.