The Dale Jr. Download - 312 - Chocolate Myers: Tough Customers

Episode Date: August 26, 2020

Dale Earnhardt Jr and co-host Mike Davis are joined by legendary NASCAR crew member, the great Danny “Chocolate” Myers, for a colorful and candid conversation.  Chocolate was a longtime gasman for Dale Earnhardt Sr., Richard Childress Racing and the famed number-three; so boy does he have stories! Choc talks about his family racing heritage and how tragedy almost drove him away from the Motorsports. He and Dale talk about suffering and persevering through loss and how they view their mortality.Then, it's story time! From biker bar fights to $99 racecars, Chocolate has our ears perked. He reveals how Dale Earnhardt could dish out a joke but wasn’t very good at taking one. And by not taking it well, I mean, he used a hammer for revenge. Now that is a story.Chocolate rates the rivals of the three-car and talks about how he and the Junkyard Dogs had Dale’s back through thick and thin. They go into detail about how Junior Johnson convinced him to go to Richard Childress, the North Wilkesboro incident with Ricky Rudd and the hidden tears of their first NASCAR Championship at RCR. A tale about Chocolate’s 1986 Champion belt buckle has an unexpected twist that has the gang in stitches. We also learn how thin soled shoes were a passed-down tradition that saved an engine one day. Leah Vaughn is back in the a very chilly studio but brings the heat on AskJr presented by Xfinity. Plus, a double dose of Odd History and a Last Call that makes you wish they cut you off a few drinks early.  A memorable interview and some good times during this episode of the Dale Jr. Download.  Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I am rolling here. James came back with his A-game, boys. And marker two. You see that four and that technique. Did you see that? Hey, everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. We got a great show for you today.

Chocolate Myers is our guest. He's going to tell us all about his life. How he got into racing. He's got some great stories. I mean, this guy, he's been through it all. And obviously, we're going to talk about his years working with Dale Earnhard and RCR. We got a great ass junior as well coming up. Let's get started.

This is going to be great. This is a production of Dirtymo Media. Quincy Yeastrolls. Your heart racing. No, I felt my heart racing. That's just your heart racing. I like tacos, and she's probably going to like tacos, so this is a good thing, right?

So we're rolling with it. And I ran around. Oh, when's the last time you ran around? Buttery soft. He's been to run up a hill. I'm willing to die on that heel, but I'll fight on. it for a while. Buttery salt.

Like those Quincey yeast rolls. Oh, they're yeastere's the best ever. I have no life. Yeah. Dang. Just ever. Man, it's a shame we don't have an open.

That's an opening for you. Quissy yeast rolls. I think Quincy's still around. I think there's one in Monroe. Really? I wonder how the good yeast rolls are these days. I haven't had one in a decade, I should go scout for you.

Yeah. Oh, Okay, Leah almost. Leah's in the house. Leah almost missed a chair. Do you see that? Lee's got a blanket? I need an explanation.

It's much warmer in my office. I did like that aspect of it. Yeah, I didn't know, but if I'd have known that you were going to come down with a blanket, I might have just said, you know what? We've got to keep her upstairs. It's a bunch of crap. You too? It's always cold in here.

It's cold. Just eat a cheeseburger. Raise your hand if it's a little chilly. Just a little bit. Okay, come on now. I mean, that's maybe two degrees, you know what I think? My house is like this sometimes. It's like sleeping in the cold.

Well, when the last couple days when it's getting overcast, the house gets cold because I was trying, you know, it's, I don't know. It just happens like that. Well, the whole attic and everything changes, and so the whole interior of the house feels out. May have something to do with the seasons. Well, it was super hot, and then it's been overcast the last couple days,

and the attic temperature changes, and it changes the whole house. Because my house, I had the baseboard sealed up. Okay. To make sure my HVAC was more productive. productive, not wasting air and pushing, you know, not losing air. Good efficiency. It's efficiency is important.

Mine sucks. You got a few, you got a few extra A-Cs. Oh, goodness. And I'm serious. I mean, I'm serious. That would be, I mean, that could, there's a lot of opportunity to lose your heat in that. You know what I'm saying? There's a lot of heat loss.

Yeah. For real. They measure it. They'll, they come and pressure your house and see where you're losing heat. Oh, like where it's a scale. Also, one of the other things, too, I did this, I did this at my Key West house because it's old as hell. You can just get a temperature gauge. Like you read the tire temps.

I bought one, and you just kind of shoot the threshold of your doors, all the seal jams and all that. Some of your door seals, maybe old, allow it a little bit of heat in or air conditioner out. and also it's great to check pool temp if you want a relatively cheap way to do that if you got a pool when you're heating it let me get this straight you use a tire temperature gauge

it's basically a temperature gauge you know the tire temperature gauge wasn't made but the water though I don't understand it with the air but shoot it right there boom tell you what temperature of the water is really why wouldn't it I thought it would have to be like in it like submerged

now. This week in Redneck lifestyle. Yeah, checking your room temperature with a tire gauge. Let me be clear. When they made this gauge, it was not made for NASCAR and tire guys. They would never make it. They would never make it as a company if they made a tire temp strict tool. It's just a temperature gauge to measure anything,

and tire guys happen to use it to measure tire temps. But you know what they've invented since then is a thermometer. Explain to me which the moment You're talking about The one you hang on your wall And that way you can look at it and it says Okay this room is 70 degrees That doesn't help you understand if you get lost

If you got heat loss or air conditioning loss Around your door jams True but don't you lose heat Mostly in the ceilins Mike if your door is up Yeah Then you need to know it Your temperature gauge on the wall

Isn't going to tell you this That's true okay So you go I got you so you go to the door jams Go the door jam I got you And if you got, if it spikes, like if you got a seal across the bottom of the door or around the door, if it spikes in a corner or something like that, yet it's not sealing. How often do you do this? If you've never done it, you need to do it.

And then once you've done it, repaired issues or fixed any problems and save your ass a little bit on your bill, power bill, whatever. then you're probably good for a couple years. You can just check it again later. God, man, see. This should be an asked junior question. I found our guy because we got to seal up the barn that we're renovating into an apartment. Dude. That's our, I'm hiring him down.

Just tell him to borrow the temperature gauge, take it down. You know, you can do all your sealing up and then check everything. Using race parts. You would be surprised, I think, if it's not a race part. All right. You're just so. don't be so sensitive about the day. I'm not. I'm just trying to educate you that they didn't make the temperature gauge strictly for tire guys.

It's just the temperature gaze that measures temperature of anything. I'm not defensive. So, baseboards will leak if you don't, if not. It's good to know. I learned something today. You lose a little bit. You do have some heat loss and HVACs running a little harder and it has to if your baseboards aren't sealed. Can we do this damn show, please?

Oh, I thought this was the open. That was a great open. You just got your next two weeks' worth of opens right there, boys. All right. So, open segment. We have Chocolate Myers coming on later. We mentioned that. We got a great-ass junior,

presuming about Xfinity coming up too. I've posted a few more pictures of the Nova Update. We're B-Cowls are here. Today, as soon as I'm done with this podcast, I'm going to go and mess with some decals. So we're starting to decal this thing. Somebody said on the internet that I should paint the decals on. Hand letter the car.

And I was like, man, I don't think that they realize it wasn't hand-lettered. I wanted to clear that misconception up. I didn't know how many people out there thought that the hand-lettered car. That was the exact same way with the Austerling car. I was like, why are they putting decals on it? And I didn't know. Yeah, decals were around in 1980. Yeah.

Just not wraps. They just didn't wrap them. They painted the car. Yeah. Now, hand lettering, but I hand-lettered my first late model stock car in 1994. So, I mean, it was still prevalent. And probably, there's probably still a few people that hand-letter their cars today, especially in the modified and so forth a bit.

Don't you think? That would seem nerve-wracking. Yeah, local tracks. There's still guys out there hand-letter. With that little wagon with paints. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, we're working on the Nova, getting closer and closer.

Me and Carrie Dale Earnhardt were looking at that thing out of my office window yesterday. Just peering at it, just looking at it. It was nice. Oh, man. And then his wife Renee was with us too. And we were just looking at that. Well, Renee had a lot of questions. So Carrie was answering those.

But we went through the whole story of your anxiety over getting the verification that it was, in fact, your dad's car. And so we started talking about the hammer marks. which is, you know, if anybody wants to hear that, I don't know that we'll go all the way through it again right now, but we've certainly talked enough about it on this podcast. But yeah, it is Dale Earnhardt's car, and we went through, or you went through a methodical process to get that confirmed.

And it was pretty fascinating. So, yeah, Carrie and I, just sitting there peering at it. Man, just looking at it. Sometimes you just kind of get caught off in a gazing at it, you know what I'm saying? It's like you see a plate of food go by at the restaurant. You just, but things parked out right underneath my office window.

It's right there, so it's like you can't help but look at it. Yeah. I can't wait till it's littered and we're rocking and rolling. I think my goal is to take it to Darlington for a throwback weekend, either this year or next year. But I need to get it running, get it decowed, and get the profile of the car right.

It's a little high on the left front right now. Just an inch or so. And take it to Sharpeer Speedway and just tool around the race. track a little bit with it. Really? That's kind of neat. Why not? Well, Mike, all right.

I'm going to put you on the spot here. Mike, we're going to fix this car, and we're going to, we took it outside and cranked it. It runs. Okay. Okay? All right. All right. Now park it in front of the field at the Xfinity race at Darlington, and now you're

going to drive a pace lap or two. Oh, no, no. I got you. I think I know what you're trying to get out of here. You're just saying you need to test it out to run a race track. I got it. But I just, I had processed it. Where would you go?

You wouldn't take it just down to Charlotte? It's just right there. I go to work there anyways. That'd be cool. Yeah. No, I look, I guess I just had not mentally processed all that yet. Now I have. Well, I work at Charlotte because we broadcast the races from the booth there, so maybe I'll just have them take it on there.

Drive it to work. Drive it to work one day. Put some plates on it. I'll go early and have it there and just run a couple laps just before I go upstairs. He's going to be late. He's not going to be late. They're all going to be late. I really?

You think sl like a tarts just. going to be able to be in his A game for the broadcast? I just need to go around a little bit and make sure nothing leaks, nothing falls off, nothing breaks, nothing rattles and fall. I mean, we don't want any problems for those guys. They're trying to run a race, and they don't, you know, that'd be embarrassing. Yep. They have to, you know, clean the track up for some mess we made.

If it's leaked, it's going on the trailer and we're taking home. Yeah, but who would go with you? Who would you take out there? I haven't thought about that. Okay. I mean, it's COVID. It's got to be Robert. We live, we're in a world of COVID.

You can't just take anybody you want to the racetrack. You can't just load up the van and drive them down there. You're not driving it. I'm not? What? There's no way you're driving it over there. What? Why would not?

Me physically drive it down there in a duly? How else am I going to get there? Okay. If he's going to go over there to go test it out. Yes. And there is a problem with it. My question was simply, who is out there that he would collaborate with, address the problem? I don't know.

He's saying, I'm going out there by myself. I'm not being his NBC suit like his sport coat and he'll be under the car putting a diaper on I know you're kidding but I'm saying I was curious who is his point person. Is this at Charlotte or Donington? Oh both

Well I imagine one of the I take one of the guys in the shop that helped put the car together. Isn't that Robert G Robert G kind of stood back and said okay this is wrong this is right put that over there do this that cut that off that ain't right You know, Robert G oversaw it and made sure that everything we were doing was period correct

and exactly how they would have done it. He didn't, I don't think, physically, you know, put his hands on the car a bunch. But now, you know, I'll take one of the guys that cares to go that's messed with the car, as far as a drive-line guy. We'll go over to Charlotte. We'll run around a little bit. Make sure there's no problems. Bring it back here.

Nothing bold, everything. Look and see and check, see if there's any other leaks or any issues. and then, you know, just check all the boxes so that, because if we go take it to Darlington and parade it around, even just for a lap on the apron in front of that Xfinity field, Exfinity field, we can't have anything fall off. That would be mortifying, wouldn't it? Well, I don't, you know, I just don't want to bother the process, right?

I don't want the process of their weekend, the Xfinity guys, they got a job, do, there's more on the line. It's a playoff race, all that crazy stuff. So if I'm going to go in there and introduce. object my thing, my car, and my moment. I don't want to ruin anything for what's really happening there. I get it. Something bigger than the Nova.

But I'm sorry, who are you kidding when you said an apron? You ain't going to be on a damn apron. God, that's such a deep, minor detail. That's such a minor detail. You're going to be up on that track. I don't know. Maybe not. I ride the apron, buddy, just to get under your skin.

Just get under there. Yeah, well, but if he does that, then he runs a risk of it working great on an apron, but not on the track. When I get in there and I'll be terrified that it doesn't start, and then when it does start, that it doesn't leak something. Listen, that's legit, because we actually have a bit of a moment that that almost happened to us, and that was when we were having to, when Dale was having to drive a car out onto the football field at the tax slayer bowl. And we weren't in love with this idea to begin with because, you know, this is January, like, second. It's freezing. And now he's cranking a car that he's not even been in.

And it wouldn't start. And you're timing it with what? Like, you know, oh, he's having to deliver the coin. So it's part of the progression of a football game, a bowl game. And he's like, and it's like, oh, geez. It was nerve-wracking. Yeah. For about 45 seconds, I think.

went to start 50 seconds feels like an eternity yeah i had to drive out on the middle of football field during all the players are out there for the coin toss that's right it's like they even go and now direct your attention to the tunnel over in the south end zone where dale learnhart junior is driving delivering the coin that that is not what happened it is that you're exaggerating no i'm not you are i'm not i'm not i'm not i'm not exaggerating What was different about that? They didn't, the part where they announced your name? This, how long did it go?

How long did it go? They didn't have a mic over there by the motor, by the starter, going, hey. I didn't say they had a mic on the starter. Well, you're going, ah. That's what it was. Like this is echoing out of the speakers of the whole stage. No, no, nobody said that. Nobody said that, did they?

I didn't say that. I'm saying this is what the car was doing. And I'm not wrong. It was exactly that. How does a car sound when it was started? It was way back in the tunnel. Nobody could hear that. that. But you could. I wasn't, I didn't insinuate that everybody in the grandstands could hear it. I'm

literally saying that they announced your name and then when you go flip the switch, what did it do? It turned over and turned over and started. Oh, good grief. And wait. It's not what happened. It's not what happened. One second, you're like, oh, there's anxiety and stuff. And then Mike's like, yeah, there is anxiety. And you're like, no, there wasn't. Of course there wasn't. What I remember was it went smooth. The other three times you did it. The first time you didn't do it. If I would have said, hey, you remember that time when you went out there and drove a tax layer car and it went flawless, you would have said, no, it didn't. I couldn't start that car. No, you don't remember right. It's just a matter of which position I took. We did it three times? Yeah. Yeah. I listen, you could probably find this on YouTube. Oh yeah, I'm sure. It wouldn't start. Nope. All right, all right. It was terrifying. I don't really remember.

Apparently I was the one that had more of the, uh, the, uh, I got over it, I guess. You got it. I'm moving. on. That's the thing. Speaking and moving on. This is why it all makes sense what you're saying about this Nova. The problem is, is that when you haven't had a chance to even sit in the car before you're supposed to drive it in a moment, there's expectations, there is some anxiety. So that's why it makes sense that you would go take it over.

It'd be like saying, hey, man, drink some liquor out of one of these. Right. Right. Nobody's touched in 1975. Nobody's drinking here. You'd be the first. Yeah. I mean, it is out of a Kelly Arboro car.

I found it on YouTube, but the car's already running. Oh! Didn't that ain't the same year? No. Again, we did it three or four years in a row. First ever coin toss for Tax Slaer Dale Junior Bowl, flawless. Yeah. Like I said, it's the name of the YouTube video.

It actually says in the description, zero anxiety. No. Hey, would you know of Jeff? Matthew. Did you see the first comment? What you know of Dale Jr. If the situation I just described, what do you think he did? Did you see the first comment in that YouTube video?

No, he wasn't super chill. No. You think? No. It says cranked right up. Awesome. First comment. Does it say what year that is, Leah, that you were looking at?

No. The guest is here. Oh. Oh, okay. We've got Chocolate Myers is in the house. So let's get him on screen. here for y'all. I can get it congratulated here by the crew and telling them what a great job they did.

Delt a tremendous race. Well, that was something else. You know, build a fun at night five car out and caused a big mass, and then he come up there and try to spin me out twice. I didn't take it. With a fine run for the driver from Canapolis, North Carolina. Dale Earnhardt wins the good French 500, excepting the checkered flag from Harold Kinder, and there is a celebration down in the Dale Earnhardt, Pitt area.

Well, Dale Earnhard takes victory here. Rockingham has threw those nuts. These guys had about worn out their shoe leather in the last few laps. They've been walking all over the pit road, just trying to contain themselves. Arthard has done it. The crew is delighted they were a big part of his victory. All right, let's get him in here. Come on.

Chocolate Myers is in there. Out here. There he is. Dang right. Oh, handsome fellow. He's looking good, too. Shock. All right, everybody.

Great guest today. Chocolate Myers is on the show. Chocolate has been a big part of RCR and Dad's Pit Crew. He's done a lot of things we're going to talk about as well with RCR, but I've known him for a long time. But there's not, I don't know everything about you. So I'm excited to have you on the show today, Chocolate. Thanks for taking some time to come see us.

Yeah, man, I'm glad to be here, and I absolutely enjoy your show. I catch it a lot and love what you're doing. And, man, I just love to do stuff like this. And because so many people don't know the backstory. I think sometimes the backstory is the most important story. Yeah, I know. So that's what we want to get into. Tell me about, you know, your family's been involved in racing for a long, long time.

So tell me about that. Tell me your connection to racing from the early days. Yeah, so I was born kind of like you into a racing family. you know, I guess the first time I went to Bowman Gray Stadium, my mom was pregnant with me, right? And so I grew up at a time that my dad was a racer, right? He raced at Balman Gray Stadium. He raced all over the southeast.

Pretty doggone good. Raced with your granddad, raced with Ralph Earnhardt, you know, back in those days. But raced anywhere and everywhere, and to be a part of that, to grow up as a kid, and everybody asks you, and I know they ask you the same thing, Are you going to grow up and be a race car driver like your dad, right?

Well, my dad finally had the opportunity of a lifetime, 1957. He sits on the front road there in Darlington and gets involved in a crash and loses his life. So that's when my dad, I was eight years old when my dad passed away, but I still love this sport and I would still go to Bowman Gray Stadium every Saturday night. You know, for a while my mom would carry me. then I'd ride the bike, and then finally I had an opportunity to drive. And then they had a division there, believe it or not, called the $99 claimant division, and you could buy a race car for $99. Wow.

That's actually my first experience in racing was a race car that costs $99. That sounds fun, man. That's awesome. Yeah, I want to hear about that car in a minute. But you know, so you're talking about. about your family's history, your dad, Bobby, yeah, raced, your uncle Billy raced, and you mentioned your dad losing his life in the crash at Darlington.

You were eight years old. You remember anything about that time of your life or that day? Yeah, I do. You know, and my grandmother lived in Winston-Salem, and it's kind of where we grew up as well. But I remember being there, and believe it or not, this was 1957, listening. to that race on the radio as a kid.

And then hearing the crash and all of a sudden, you know, they were upset. They were, they were in tears. And I remember saying something like, ah, heck, dad's been wrecked. He's been in plenty of wrecks. He's going to be okay, you know, but that day wasn't okay. And, you know, and that was one of the toughest days, right, when you go through that. but almost being so young, you don't really realize what the impact's going to be on your life. But, you know, finding out later.

And, you know, throughout my history, people have always talked to me about how do I get involved in racing. And I tell them, you know, my dad was one of the early pioneers in NASCAR. And it was way late in life that my mom was still alive at the time. And my mom was getting ready to retire from her job. and I said, mom, how long have you actually worked there? And she said, well, the day that your dad died, I promised you boys that I was going to raise you to you got out of school. And I was supposed to start to work on a Wednesday.

But your graduation was that night so I couldn't start to the Thursday. So my point is I always gave my dad credit for the reason I'm in racing. But my mom was more than likely the reason. reason because she raised us and by herself and that was just one of those things that you just don't think about too much. Yeah, I was wondering how that affects you today, you know, that early loss of your dad and, you know, I mean, you worked through it and you became something special in your own right and surge forward and pave this awesome career for yourself, but then you look back on it now, how does it affect you?

Well, you know, I'm really proud of what my dad was able to do. I'm really proud that I look at a sport that has changed. It changed when my dad lost his life. It changed when your dad lost his life. And it's made it better. And I look and no different than you. I look at it and I go, this is what we do. This is what we love.

and my dad and your dad both had choices, right? And this is what they chose to do. But for me, it was, you know, I was so young. And then I did not have that father figure. And you know exactly what I'm talking about because we both had to, you know, the way that this business is deal with that. For me, it was a young age for you. when you were as young as I was in, when you were eight years old, he was gone too.

He was out racing. So we had to kind of grow up and do our own thing. You know, for me, that's even today because I remember all those things. I took those magazines, those programs, and I went through on page after page after page. And I understood, and, you know, for you, it was probably looking at video. For me, it was looking at those old programs, but just absolutely absorbing all of it. getting those names and those places and just absolutely loving it. And to be a part of it today, it's really been special.

Well, Chocolate, he still reads those programs. Don't kid yourself. This guy still eats those things up. Yeah. Well, look, I'm going to tell you, my mother saved everything that my dad did in his life. And I can open these closets here and I can go in and I can pull those programs out from 1952 and 53 and 54. And behind me, right here behind me, those are all of my dad's trophies.

There's like 30-some odd trophies there behind me from all over, from some of those great places that, heck, some of those places that you talk about as well. That's pretty awesome that she did that and you can sort of, like you say, absorb that history and learn so much about your dad having tangible items like that, like those trophies and photographs. and, you know, documentation of finishing orders and so forth and all those programs. It really brings it to life.

So how, was there ever a point, I guess, in your young life where, I guess, you know, losing your dad and him being such a prominent figure in racing, but obviously your family was involved in racing with your uncle and so forth, and you lived in the local area to go to a local track, like Bowman Gray. Was there a moment?

or a point maybe in your teenage career or teenage life where maybe you almost lost that connection with racing? I imagine when I think so when I think about and I asked this question because when I did my genealogy I understood how delicate our lives are and how easily they can kind of get derailed and what is today could easily have not happened, you know, and you might not have stayed in racing. Was there a moment where maybe you were in a star athlete in college or high school? school where there was a time where you had to make a decision, a fork in the road, if you will.

Yeah, and for me it was a little bit different. And, you know, I go back to what you're talking about after my dad. Then we still had my uncle, my uncle Billy. It was the Myers brothers. It was Bobby and Billy. And then less than a year later, my uncle Billy passes away driving a race car. At Bowman Gray Stadium had a massive heart attack. So that was really devastating because now we had nobody, right?

But then life moves on and we go on and, you know, I'm in school probably could have been a star athlete, probably. But I decided to go to the racetrack instead of going to the practice field. And then later on in life, you know, kind of got away from it a little bit. And, you know, my buddies were all building motorcycles and that seemed to be the craze back then. And the next thing, you know, oh, man, I was, heck, I was, at that time, just 20-something, right? And kind of got away from the sport, quit really caring, and, you know, started doing that. And, you know, things were kind of crazy right then.

What were you mean things are crazy? Like you just were running around being a biker? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You know what? It was one of those things. It was just, you know, and look, at that time, this is. And look, I've got some age on me, man.

So I go back at a time when when you wanted to build a motorcycle, you wanted to build you an old Harley, you had to go out and find those parts. You couldn't pick up the phone or get on the Internet and order stuff. You had to go find them. So we were running all over the country, buying motorcycle parts and putting these old Harleys together and riding and having a good time and just not caring about anything much at all.

And, you know, it was fun. Look, I don't think I'd change a lot of things. I probably wouldn't change that. But I'm one of the fortunate ones that, you know, I didn't get in any trouble. Yeah. Why I do not know. Lucky more than anything else. I just, there kind of time that I wanted to change my life.

And that happened because of racing. And it happened because they had a race on TV. And it was not even live. It was a recorded race. on TV and I'm sitting there watching it and I see some of the guys that I used to know. Really? Right? I'm going to like, man, that's what I want

to do. Interesting. So I'm trying, I'm just going to imagine that you were decked out in leather sitting in some juke joint bar. That's the picture I have. Your bike's parked outside and you look up on this tiny 12, 13 inch television and go, hey,

I don't know that guy. You know what? It's kind of like Forrest Gump just gets up walks out, gets on his Harley and rides back in North Carolina. Doesn't say a word of his buddies. Do we got that right? Is that exactly how it happens? That's pretty close.

Actually, I wasn't in a bar. I was my grandmother's house. But yeah, that's pretty dang close. Is any biker? It would be in their grandmother's house. Yeah. So did you get in any, you don't have to get in descriptive on this if you don't choose to, but did you get in any bar fights as a biker?

did I get in any? Oh yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You get thrown out of any bars? I don't, I don't, well, yeah, there were a lot of places. It's kind of funny because now, you know, later in life, doing a lot of things different and ride the bicycle is one of them, you know. I enjoy that. I love that. And one of the bicycle shop that I go to is up in Winston, Salem. And that used to be a. bar. And I was in the other day and I told him, I said, dude, you don't have any ideas how many times I've been thrown out of this place. Oh, man. Man. Every cyclist goes to a cycle shop and goes, I've been thrown out of this when it was a bar, right? Are you riding the road bike? Yeah, that's what it sounds like. No, I'm a look and remember, see, because you young guys are

going to laugh at me, but I'm an e-bike guy. I've been building these e-bikes and it lets me go ride maybe as much as you do. I don't know. I get to ride a lot through. Yeah, those things are awesome. I mean, you know, you can still get, you can still burn quite a few calories on those things if you, if that's what you want to do, but you can go.

That's what I'm trying to do. Yeah, they'll go 20, 40 miles on a bar on a side on a charge. Do you e-bikes just get you up a hill a little better? Yeah. If you come up on steep hill and you don't feel like climbing it, you don't have to climb it. I got you. Well, you can climb it easier.

Yeah. An e-bike, an e-bike will make you 12 again, is what it's, less. Yeah, that's for sure. Hey, Chocolate, like, I'm trying to get out. I mean, like, you've always been perceived, at least for, you know, our generation of watching racing and being race fans is just a lovable, always jovial, happy guy. And I'm hearing this, you know, childhood and then your upbringing and everything. I mean, did you ever go through phases in which, I mean, you lost your dad at eight,

you lost your uncle a year later? I can't imagine that didn't have a toll on you at. some psychological level and then like and how you might have if that is true how you got out of it. Yeah, I think all of that credit would go to my mom. You know, when I was young, I had a wonderful mother that that like guys, I don't remember ever having a bad Christmas or a bad birthday because she made that commitment in her life that she was going to look after us. You know, I got a brother.

It's only 15 months younger than I am, but he passed away several years. years ago. But my mother is the reason that we were able to do that. And I want to go back a little bit because after my dad and my uncle died, they're at Bowman Gray Stadium. You remember, they used to run cup races there. They had two or three cup races there a year. And one of those races was the Myers Brothers Memorial race. So we were always there as a family, you know, my family, my uncle Billy's family and we were always there as kids to present the trophy so i was always there and i'm you know i'm around richard petty and david pearson and junior johnson and all of the heroes of the sport all of the hall of famers you know bill frant senior bill france junior i knew all of those guys

you know i look at it now and i look at that nascar hall of fame and i go i've had a personal conversation with everybody in here with everybody in here how cool is that that is pretty awesome I didn't even look at it like that. So, you know, I want to get into that transition of how you got out of, you know, being some mid-20s biker into NASCAR. But I want to ask you before that. So, you know, losing your dad so young and your uncle and then your brother passing away, how does that make you feel about your own mortality?

You know, and I kind of think about that, too, with, you know, when dad died, it didn't bother me as much. I didn't consider my own mortality or how short life is because it happened so quick. It was sudden. It was, it wasn't, he didn't die of old age. You know, it was a, it was a odd occurrence. And then when I watched my mom pass away from cancer, now that was an awful experience that was a long. you know, long, tough thing. And it really made me,

uh, really made me think like, God, I ain't got much left. I ain't got a lot. I ain't on here. I ain't on this earth for much, much longer, right?

Um, and I imagine maybe you, you have been thinking the same thing, you know, about yourself and, or maybe you already thought that before your brother passed away. But when those kind of things happen in your life, it really,

um, makes you, uh, take a little stock in, and what you've done and what you want to do. Do you got that going on? Yeah, you know, I think about it. Not a lot, but I think about how fortunate that I've been,

how I have been healthy. But I do look at, and every day, you know, every day you're going to, you're one day closer, right? Yeah. And we know, we know that we're not going to live forever. And so, you know, for me, I try to do the right things and be a good family guy. I try to, you know, I try to think about what life will be like without me. And, you know, I kind of joked about it before.

And I've said, hey, when I die on my headstone, you can put, he wasn't here for a long time, but he was here for a good time. And, you know, I have really, you know, look, I've been blessed, man. I've been blessed. I've been at the right place at the right time, whether it is in my entire life, right? You know, I've made, I've made most of my own choices. I've not been forced into anything. And, you know, it's, I just have been blessed with all the things that have come along.

And they've all been at the right place. threat crime you know it's it's it's one of those things where you were just this close to disaster and all of a sudden somebody throws you the lifesaver right yeah well that lifesaver has come to me in a lot of different ways at a lot of different times i would imagine primarily through racing though right well it has and and i can i can go back you know the lifesaver one of them when uh i went to i decided i wanted to go back into racing i wanted to be a part of racing. I wanted to make a living in racing, right?

That's one of them. You know, when my wife came along, well, that was a huge lifesaver, right? How so? Oh, well, because at that time, oh, man, well, I'll, I love to share this story. Because, you know, look, and you've been there, and you know exactly what I'm talking about,

when you're winning races and you're winning champions, and you're the best in the business, you don't have to buy any drinks at the bar ever, right? You walk in, hey, come on over. Set them up around, you know, and we were there. We were just absolutely the best in the business. Everybody loved your dad. Everybody loved the flying aces or whatever they wanted to call us at the time.

It didn't really matter. And, you know, so you'd go to the racetrack. all day, you'd go to the bar all night. You'd get up the next day and go to the racetrack. That night, go to the bar. And then when I would come home, right, I'd come home from the racetrack. And I was living in an apartment. I had a Harley.

I had a Corvette. But I didn't have anything else. But I never went out. I never party. Didn't do anything at home. But when I'd go back to the racetrack, there it was again, right? So I'm in Daytona, Speedweeks. And by the way, speed.

Weeks used to be speed weeks. You were there for two weeks. You were on the racetrack. Every day you were always doing something. It was busy. But it was at a time when things had started getting pretty good, right? And Children's had got a place there at Spruce Creek. And he said, hey, let's have a party tonight.

Let's cook out. Maybe not a party, but let's cook out. Let's invite some friends over. Okay. Well, about that time, I see these two girls walking through the girls. Roger area. And I go over and I go, and by the way, one of them had a, had a cell phone. Well, actually at that time it was a bag phone.

It looked like a suitcase. I said, hey, we're having a, having a cookout tonight. Would you like to come? And she said, where's it at? And I said, it's over at Spruce Creek where John Travolta lives. Right. Dude, how do you turn that down? Right.

You're going to Trolta's neighborhood. And she came with me. And then we had a nice afternoon there, sociable afternoon, and then ask her out again. And so we went out again and we went to a place there in Daytona Billy Bob's back in the day. That was the place, right? So we go to Billy Bob's, but I had forgot that I'm, well, I'll say this the easiest way that I was overbooked. I might have asked somebody else to be there as well. So we're there.

And, you know, the best friend I guess I had to get me through those situations was old Jack Daniels, was a good buddy of mine at that time. And so I hammer some of those Jacks back and feeling pretty good. And then Karen comes over and she says, hey, look, you know, if this is your lifestyle, that's fine. It's not mine. And we can just be friends. and, you know, we're going about our business, and I think I took one more sip. Maybe, or maybe not. We've got one last one in.

I sit it down and I said, this is the last one that I'll ever have. And so we've been together ever since. And once again, that was just another one of those things that changed my life and came along at the right place at the right time. That's an awesome story, buddy. I appreciate you sharing that one. Oh, yeah. Those are tough decisions to make things you have to sacrifice,

but if you want something bad enough, you'll give up there anything for it. So let me go, let's go back to that decision to get back into racing. How does that start? Like you get your, you're at your grandma's house, you see racing on TV. Yeah. What do you call somebody?

What do you do? How do you get back in racing? And give us an idea about what you're? I know everybody, right? you got all these relationships at this point, so it probably wasn't hard to start that conversation, but how did you get back in it? Okay, so, and I appreciate it.

Because when I see the race on TV, I see children of course, and I see Tim Brewer, a couple local guys, and I'll share some more children's stuff with you here in a minute. But I decide this is what I want to do, but I don't really know how to go about doing it, but I do have those relationships.

I get in a car the next day, and I drive up to the same. the Junior Johnson's place, right? Wow. Because it's 1983, and he's going to have two teams in 1984. It's going to have the 11 and the 12. Yep. So I drive up to see Junior and, you know, you just walk in, right?

You pull up, you get out of you. Nobody's there to go, can I help you, right? They don't have a receptionist. They don't have anything, a bunch of guys working on race cars. So walk in the shop, Junior is in the engine shop back there working on. on an engine or shop and I walked up to him and I said, I don't know whether you remember me or not. And he went, oh, you want him Myers boys? I went, yes, sir.

And he said, what can I do for you? And I said, man, I'm, I want to get back in racing. I know you're starting an extra team. And he said, well, let me tell you. He said, I've got everybody I need right now. He said, but you ought to go down there and talk to children. I think he's going to make something at that operation he's got. I think he's going to do something with that and go talk to Richard.

And, you know, so what already had known Richard because we had raced together, I went to, I went to Daytona with Richard Childress with a grand American car in 1969. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So 51 years ago, I actually went to Daytona with Richard Childress. But anyway, I go down to see Childress and I walk in. I tell Richard, you know, hey, I'm looking for a job. And this is right after they had won their first race. Ricky Rudd won at Riverside earlier in the summer.

Yep. And Richard told me, he said, look, I don't need anybody. I've got everybody I need. Hey, but look, I just bought a bunch of old equipment that I bought it at a sale. And I'm going to fix it up and sell it. Now, I've got it over to another building. would you be interested in helping me with it? And I said, heck yeah, I'll do anything, right?

So he had bought actually an old diesel machine shop that had burnout or something, and they had all these machines that were practically new, but man, they had been in a fire. They were bad burned, and he wanted to fix them and sell them. So I'd go over and start working on them. And I start thinking, right? And I'm going like, what is the best thing you could use to get burnt, grease off of something, right? And I thought about it a little bit, and I'm going like, well, wait a minute, oven cleaner. The oven is always full of burnt grease. So I go get oven cleaner and stuff like that. And I cleaned this equipment. And I would clean the equipment during the day. And in the afternoon, I'd go over to the race shop. And of course, they never had enough help. So I'd go to the race shop. And what do you guys need? And whatever it was, I would help them. So I did that for about three months.

and it was the end of the season, and your dad was coming the next year, or coming back the next year, and I had an opportunity. Richard came to me, he said, look, I need somebody to go and ride in the truck,

and I need somebody to take care of the equipment and make sure everything is there. And so that's when I actually, and that's kind of a crazy story too, right? Because I actually went to work there, full time in 83. But my hire date is later in 84 because for the first six months, the company I don't think had enough money to pay me.

And Richard paid me out of his pocket. And the rest, you know, I've been there ever since. You know, I mentioned the lifelines. The other lifeline for me was when I got the opportunity to do serious radio. You know, my wife talked to Daniel Norwood and said, hey, if you ever have an opportunity to need somebody, he's got some great stories. And, you know, I had an opportunity to do that.

So that was another one of those things through racing that I got a lifeline. And I don't read, the things had changed. I was getting a little bit older. I was off the road, right? And like, what am I going to do now? I'm not going to the race every week and started doing serious. So that was another one of those lifelines. So how did the equipment turn out that you were cleaning?

Oh, the equipment turned out great. You know, Richard sold it, made some money, gave me a little bit of a bonus. And when I'm talking about a bonus then, you're talking about, you're not talking thousands. You're talking about maybe 100, right? That was a big deal back then. And, you know, we got the equipment sold, yeah. So that's funny because I was talking to Mike last night about this show and about you. And I said, you know, I really want to dive into how he got involved in NASCAR, got involved in racing.

Because when I was a kid, obviously, I mean, all this stuff for me is kind of spotty back then on my memory. But, you know, it was like in 1984, when dad went back to RCR, there you were, right? And I have been in and around the garage a little bit, but I didn't really recall seeing, you know, you're pretty memorable, right? So I didn't recall seeing you. And I thought, man, where did he come from? Because it was almost like you just popped up in 1984 and there you were.

But it was like you'd been there forever. So that kind of makes sense because you had those relationships from the past. And another thing, too, is we're trying to describe your role. Dad was the intimidator, but before he got in, you know, that was when he, you know, y'all painted the car blacks when he became the intimidator, but he was kind of just the wild man out there starting all kinds of mess in that yellow and blue car. And you guys were, when we've had Richard or Shelmerding.

Shemard in on the show, they all would say, you know, whatever your dad started on that track, we were ready to finish. We were behind him, even if, you know, no matter what he chose to do, we were behind it. And we always, Mike said, the enforcer. All right, he used that word. And I feel like that that probably best describes you in a yellow and blue, in a yellow and blue, Wrangler uniform. Do you feel, because y'all were used to, they called you the junkyard dogs, they called you

the flying aces. You had that poster with chocolate and the chain around his neck. You looked like a pro wrestler. Were you the enforcer coming now? I didn't know about your biker background. I think it's probably more so. Well, you know, I think yes and no. And here's what I mean by that.

I don't think a lot of people messed with us just because they were afraid to mess. with us. We didn't have to do anything, right? I had that reputation, probably a pretty bad reputation at the time. I think we scared some of them. You know, I have trimmed up a little bit, but the old beard used to be a lot bigger, a lot busier. And you know what? I laugh about this now because I see the guys go to the racetrack and they go there. And when they leave, if they wanted to, they could wear the same clothes back the next day. Dude, we had to change clothes during the day. We went there, we were dirty, we were greasy. These old cars were rough, right? And so I think that when people saw us then, they thought we were probably a little bit, a little bit

meaner than we actually were. But that being said, I'm telling you, it was like, you know, I laughed about it, thought about it last night, you know, when your dad won there at the at the All-Star race, the Winston back in the day, if you will. And it was the pass in the grass. Well, then after Victory Lane, he had to walk across the pit road, across the grass, across the racetrack, and up through the stands, right, to get to the press box. Richard said, go with him.

Make sure nobody gets him. Make sure nobody gets him. So I remember walking across that racetrack. And going up through the stands with your dad, a lot of people cheering, some people booing. But I remember getting to the press box and looking back and seeing just how far he was in the grass. You know, when you're on pit roads, you don't know, look like he just barely ran off the racetrack. And you look back and you see those tire tracks that are way in the grass, man. So I guess that we all were that guy, right?

We loved him so much. And I think he loved us. Whether he was right or wrong, he was never wrong in our eyes. You know what? This reminds me of something. I can't remember if it was Kirk or if it was R.C. himself. But I wondered, because we hear of all of these altercations or all of these dust-ups, whatever you want to call him, that Dale Earnhardt would find himself in all the time.

And I said, surely there's one incident where even you guys thought, that's a little screwed up. I mean, like, that was a little over the line. I'm going to admit it. But emphatically, R.C. said, nope. He was never wrong. We all, like, in our eyes. Is that, is that how you saw it too?

There's nothing he could do to anybody else or did any other situation at any time make you go, oh, come on, Dale. That was a little unnecessary. Probably not. You know, look, we had a lot of friends out there that we raced against, but they knew how he raced. And he raced hard. Look, he run hard.

He played. I mean, there's some of them, right, that you know that you're going to have to apologize to your friends with, right? Yeah. It's like, look, and they're mad at you. They come over, right? But I think they all respected him. It was even like the All-Star race, the one I'm talking about.

You know, we were good friends or as good as you could be with that bunch on the nine bunch. And they were mad for a minute, right? Yeah. I mean, they got over, most of them, maybe some of them, I don't know if they ever got over or not, but some of them were mad for a minute. But, you know, I've shared this story with you

because your dad and my hero, he could dish it out, but he couldn't take it. Now, I'm just, I love him to death, that he could, you could, he could beat on you and pick on you and do things to you, but if you tried it with him, it got mad. So I've shared this quick story with you about that. We were in Daytona, testing, testing.

And, you know, this is a time him and Rusty are pretty good friends, and they're teasing back and forth and they're doing something. So Rusty decides, for whatever reason, I don't remember whether it was coming down pit road or whatever, he decides to come up there and put a big old donut on the side of the car, right, at a test. Playing, right? Going to have a good time. I'm going to tease your dad a little bit.

So they come into the garage yard and they stop. Your dad gets out of the car. He walks over to the toolbox. He opens a drawer and he gets a hammer out. He walks over to Rusty's car and takes that hammer and just starts beating the hell out of the side of the car. Really? And like Barry and Todd and all those guys are sitting there looking and he said, hey, you can do something to me. all you want to.

Don't mess this car up. These boys worked too hard on this car. So, you know, it was, you know, he was getting even with him. Wow. Wow. I've never heard that story. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Did you guys ever prank him? Did y'all ever mess with him? Oh, no. But you couldn't because, you know, like I said, he couldn't take it. He's going to come back so hard. I know, look. So he, we're at, we're at, we're at, and all. of these things happened at a test, right?

Most of them happen to test. Because it's the only time he had time to play, right? So I've got to share about three stories with you here real quick. Yeah, take time. Dale, you remember the way the old transporters used to be. The engines were all stored up at the front. Yep, there was no lounge. And what, yeah, where the lounge is at now.

We didn't have a lounge. We had that motor room. And then when the race was over, the test was over, we didn't have a wheel service. So we stacked all those tires up in that room. right? We were at Talladega testing. And Dale says, hey, I'm going to run one more lap. Let's get loaded up and get out of here. So your dad goes out. He's on the racetrack running. And we go over and we start loading up all the tires back up into the front of that hauler. I'm up in there because they're going to throw them up to me and I'm going to stack them up. Bobby Hutchins is on the ground handing them up to me. Your dad pulls in and like always, he jumps out of the car and he comes walking over to towards the truck and he's he's 20 yards or 30 yards away from the truck, but he sees me. He takes his helmet off and he's got it by the strap and he's winding it up and he's going to throw it at me and I see him and I'm going to like, Dale, don't, don't, don't, because he's

going to throw that helmet and he throws that helmet underhanded by the strap as hard as he can and right before it got to me, old Bobby raised up to hand me a tire and he's, and It hit Bobby in the back of the head. Oh, man. We thought that we weren't going to be able to fly at home. We thought he had a concussion. I bet he did. He had a knot on the back of his head so big.

It was unbelievable. And your dad came over and almost laughed at all. Of course. You know, it was like, you know, okay, you're going to be all right. Let's go. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. And then one of the other times, we were testing at Bristol.

and, you know, we'd go to do a Goodyear test back then, and I don't know how it is now, but we spent the first day trying to figure out what tire we were going to actually run, and then Goodyear would always make a fuel run on whatever your choice. The last tire, the tire that they thought they were going to race, they'd say, okay, we're going to go out here and do a fuel run. Well, that meant we were going to be out there. We're going to be down for a while. Dale's going to go out there and run 100-some laps.

So myself and Wheel Lynn, we decided that, we're going to cross over the track and go watch a little bit of the test for the flag stand. So your dad goes out on the track. We go up into flag stand. He comes by the first time. He's just putting around like idling around. And he looks up and go like, what hell's he doing? And he comes around again and he looks up and he's kind of like holding his hands up.

Like he wants something. And Will said, he wants us to throw in the flag. That's right. right. We take a shirt off and he comes around again and we wave their shirt like it's a and he takes off and runs a hundred and some laps, man. And then there was another time up there. This was special because you'll know what I'm talking about. Because your dad used to tell stories about his dad and what Ralph made him do. Yeah. And how he got to be as good as he was, right? And we were up there tested and out in the middle of a run and all of a sudden. And all of a

sudden he shuts it down. He coasted around the racetrack. He comes in the pits and he went, it blew up. What? What? It blew up. Hey, really? Yeah. Pull the Oberg off of it. Nothing. Clean as it can be. And for anybody that don't know that, that's a filter that we can look inside of. And there's no metal or anything in it. He said, dude, I'm telling you, blew up. I know what I'm talking about. And he goes over to the toolbox because he could work on these things as well. and he gets a big pry bar out and he goes over and he sticks that pry bar down at the front of the engine and the front of the crank had broken off.

But he caught it. He caught it so quick. It didn't do any damage. It was still there. And went, dude, how do you do this? And he said, my daddy used to make me race with a thin sole shoes so I could feel these cars. So I'd know what I'm talking about.

So I'd get that feeling. But, man, it was pretty amazing that he could catch some things like that. Yeah. That is really incredible. That is an awesome story. Grace with thin, sold cheese. Oh, yeah. We love hearing about how Ralph's influence.

I mean, because, you know, Dale Jr. never got to know him. And, you know, we did this Lost Speedway show, and there were a couple tracks where Ralph, you know, we get to hear people talk about Ralph. Man, I don't think I've heard one yet that didn't just give me chills because, you know, he's an extraordinary person that, you know, was lost too soon. So that's a great story. Well, let me share this with you because here in this room somewhere behind me, there's a fish carburetor. And if you're not an old school NASCAR guy, you have no idea what I'm talking about. But a fish carburetor was the thing. And I found an article the other day or somewhere around here.

I've got it. And it said, and I think it was 1956. It says Billy Myers wins the 1956 National Sportsman Championship running a fish carburetor finishing, I forgot how many hundred points ahead of second place, Ralph Earnhardt, who was also running a fish carburetor. So, you know, I look back at those days and see what those guys did. And I love those stories. You know, Karen and I've got two old race cars that we take today. tone every year.

We do the beach parade. I'm often towing them down the road and I've got one has a tow bar so we flat to it and thinking what it was like for those guys. My dad, my uncle, Ralph Earnhardt, all those guys that went up and down the East Coast. And by the way, the interstates were not there. They were going through every small town to get there. And those pioneers of this sport, man, they did a heck of a job.

I got to ask you something, chocolate. Okay, if we get back to some of these Dale Earnhardt moments, the other thing that I remember being captivated by was, and I think you're sort of alluding to it, is that there were a lot of times when the team would have to almost go play the political side with people to sort of find resolution in which, you know, and it's usually because Dale was in the hunt for a championship. And so when we had Ricky Rudd on, you know, Dale and Ricky had that, you know,

well-publicized, you know, dispute, we'll call it. And there was another occasion where the crew chief or Richard or whoever would have to go to them like, listen, I know you owe him now, you owe him, but we're in the championship. And so we're going to ask that, you know, don't get him back, get him back later if you have to, but just, you know, whatever. Is that how you remember it too? Because what we're thinking is that these guys are scrappy, man, they're going to fight. It sounded like you guys were better at the politics. and you guys could honestly be diplomatic about situations. Is that right?

I don't remember any of the diplomacy, to be honest with you. Here's what I remember. Here's what I remember. If you got him back, you were in serious trouble. He was the intimidator because he didn't care. You hear these guys talking about, hey, we're going to Martinsville. That'll be a lot of people get paid back. if you wronged him and the next race was at Daytona,

you're getting paid back. He didn't care. It didn't matter. It didn't matter where it was at. Look, Dale Earnhardt, he didn't, Dale did not do as much as a lot of people thought he did. He didn't have to. After he'd done it a few times,

he would just get behind, you know, you watch the race today and you're trying to figure out whether they actually touched them or the air spun them, right? Did he really, you know, we just watched it a couple of weeks ago, and you guys in the booth up there talking about it, well, I think just the air is what turned him. Well, those guys looking in the mirrors what turned them when Earnhardt was driving because they saw him coming and they, you know, how much you got to focus?

Well, they started focusing on what was behind them, not was what was in front of him. And, you know, he wrecked a lot of people. and never touched them and didn't need the air to do it, right? Psychological. Yeah, for sure. Of those disputes, if I were to say, okay, Jeff Bodine, Ricky Rudd, and Rusty, which of those sticks out to you? And do you have any moments that really have impressions of any of those altercations?

Because you would have probably been part of all. I'll give them to you in order. Let's hear it. It would have been Bodine and then Rudd and then Rusty, okay? That Bodine deal was a real deal. Oh, yeah. Those guys did not like each other on or off the racetrack, on or off the racetrack, right? I think the Ricky Rudd deal was really, I got to give them both a little bit of credit for it.

Both of those guys were pretty hardheaded on the racetrack. They weren't going to take anything, and I'm not saying anything wrong with that. That's just the way they are. You got some guys out there that will and some it won't. Neither one of those guys would take anything. So I guess an adult number. this for a fact. Ricky Rudd is a friend. I like the guy, but your dad took his job. Yeah, he was automatically. You know, he's probably not liking your dad too good. And then when

they go out there and race, you know, race in your dad, he's, he's, if he can catch you, he's going to move you if he needs to. And they had that relationship. But Bodine, it was one of those things with Bodine, even later on your dad, he was going like, man, Old Bowdoin's going through such a struggle. I start to feel a little bit sorry for him, right? But he still raised him like he did not know him. Whatever capacity he had. I'll share this one to you because if you got,

and I'm sorry, I can't remember what year it was, but it was the year that Ricky and your dad got into it up at North Wilkesboro. I was 89.90? Yeah, and there's a big, almost a fight. Oh, yeah. Almost to fight out on pit road. I'm right in the middle of it. It's like you see one good rich shirt and you see about 15 of those Quaker State shirts, right?

Larry Mack, too. Oh, yeah. So the next week, I get called into the NASCAR trailer. One of the only times that I had to go to the NASCAR trailer. So I go in there and Dick Beatty, which I love Dick Beatty. He was the, he ran the garage for many years. He was a great guy, ex-racer. ex-biker, right, motorcycle race.

There was nobody in the garage area and he's tougher than Dick Beatty, but old Beatty calls me in the garage area, and he said, man, he said, I want to know what you were doing. He said, France called me from out of the state, said, we've worked so hard to make this sport better, and here you are in the middle of the,

here you are in the middle of pit road out there, getting in a fight. And I said, that's not what happened. He said, well, you tell me what happened. And I said, well, it was getting ready to be a fight. And I was out there trying to break it up. He said, what do you mean? I said, well, all of them pushing and shoving,

and it takes one guy out to give another guy the finger. And then here we go. And I said, I'm out there to make sure we don't have a fight. And he said, well, I'm going to tell you something. He said, I appreciate that. I said, by the way, if the same thing happened to you, you would have been in a fight. and he went oh no i wouldn't either no i wouldn't i said baby you almost got to fight with a record

driver at barnsville last week he said best thing you can do is get out of this trailer right now yeah yeah the um that was so interesting when we had ricky red on the show uh earlier and he told us about he told us he he was so honest about how pissed off he was about dad taking making his job. He's like, man, I went to Richards, and we had built something really great. And Dad, Ricky Rudd said, you know, I'd go over to your dad's house on the lake, and Dale would ask me all these questions about, man, y'all got it going pretty good over there. What are y'all doing? And he's sitting there pouring his guts out to dad about all the great things, and then dad turned around and rooted him out, shoehorned him out of the deal, and stepped in there

and won all them championships. And he said that that really, ruined their relationship. They were really good friends because I remember Ricky would come over to the house all the time, skiing and carrying on on the lake, and then it just abruptly quit. And then the next thing I know, they run over each other everywhere they go. Yeah, well, I'll say this for me, and I go back to that lifeline again, I was working for children about three weeks, and we were able to win a race with Ricky there at Martinsville, the first time that I got to go to Victory Lane.

but that relationship with Ricky was was strained like you said but I think even when your dad came to work at our or came back to RCR it's one of the things that that we talk about a lot on the channel right on serious and we talk about the greatest drivers ever of course you know you've got you've got Richard petty you've got Jimmy Johnson and you got your dad and and you can choose whatever you want to choose, whoever you think they are. But I'll tell them this. Jimmy Johnson came along and stepped into a championship car and a championship team. We were still building that race team or Richard was still building that race during team when your dad got there. If I told you some of the things that they did or we did or we didn't have, it was unbelievable. And to be able to go out there and make a championship team out of, of what we had was was was crazy and I don't think it would have happened with anybody other than

your dad because they were good for each other yeah and I'm a friend I like Ricky Rudd but I don't I don't think that success would have been there with Ricky you know it had to be what it was and that was your dad and look your dad and Richard had had one thing in common right they both grew up pretty tough and neither one of those guys finished school. And that was the one thing that they had in common that they, they had talked about it every once in a while. The regrets in life not been able to finish school. So they had that in common and they were going to be successful and whatever it took

and they were able to do that. So your race day job was gas in the car for many, many years. Yeah. Dangerous job carrying 11 gallons of gas on your shoulder. Y'all, have you ever had any, I can't remember you ever been in any real serious issues or having any close calls, but maybe you had some that I don't know about them. No, not really. You know, we had a couple of things that could have been disasters, but the caution came out where we, for whatever reason, you know, one time I'm stepping over the wall at Daytona and somebody throws another tire under my feet and I fall down but still get some gas in it. But as far as getting hurt, not really, but I will share this because this is another one that we did that a lot of people don't know about.

NASCAR decided at Talladega years ago we could run a smaller fuel cell and it would make the racing better because we're going to have to make more fit stuff. So the geniuses there that are crew chiefs decide, well, wait a minute, we'll ask NASCAR being the fuel sales bigger if we can run a bigger gas can. that way we can fill it up with one stop. So they decide to make like a 15 gallon gas can for me, right? And I said, guys, let me explain something to you. A weight lifter, the greatest weight lifter in the world may be able to pick up 500 pounds, but he may not be able to pick up 501 pounds. Every pound, you know, and they make these gas cans to,

go to Talladega with. They must have been 135, 40 pounds. They take two people to get them up on your shoulder. And I'm going to like, guys, you're trying to kill me here. That is hysterical.

Hey, by the way, I meant to ask you this early on. When did you actually start gassing it? I mean, because was it that 84 season? No, so so it's funny that when I went to work there, It was just like, do, okay, this week, clean the windshield. Right.

Next week, clean the next week, hold the stop sign. And then it finally got, hey, you're one of the biggest guys out here. Hold that second can. So our buddy, Barney, Barney was the fuel man back then, and I was the second guy, and I would hand him the can. And then we did that for a couple of years. And then when we made some big changes there, we moved into the new building. And then it was my job to be the, the,

the fuel guy. And I did it the whole time. But Dale Jr., it was something kind of crazy. Somebody gave you one of the stop signs here a while back. And I saw it, and that is the real deal. And I remember when it got gone. But here's what happened. They made those things at Piedmont Airlines back in the day. That's what it was made out of, some, you know, some netting material and some stuff like that, but I do remember that. Yeah, so 2017 or 18, I think we were at Darlington for the throwback race. Before I got there, a guy reached out to me and said, hey, I got this pit sign that your dad and his team used in 1984.

Y'all used that pit sign. I think it got stole either in 84-85, but y'all won at Darlington. You won the Darlington race. y'all went down to victory lane and while y'all were doing whatever y'all were doing as far as going through the celebration of that somebody walked off with this sign and way back in 84 or 85 i can't remember what year it was the um the pit sign it does look unusual as far as the materials that it was used and that makes a lot of sense you'd say in that pemott airlines people made it because it has this the font of the three is the original 1984 and 1983 piedmont airlines people made it because it has this the font of the three is the original 1984 and 1983 piedmont airlines line number three car. It's that font. And so this guy shows up outside the racetrack and kindly gave me this pit sign wanted nothing in return. It had been taken from the pit stall in 1985 and had stayed in that location, that area, all those years. And the guy's like, hey, I got this. I think it belongs to you. I'm going to give it to you. And so I got it. And I sent a couple

pictures out of chocolate and a couple of other people. And I was like, this thing's real. And he's like, yes, it's real. And I got some pictures on the internet of when they were actually using it. And just really cool. Something like that floats around. So you were probably holding a pit sign back then. Yeah.

So let me ask you this question because I, and once again, I know what it means to me, but how cool is it when people come to you? And look, we can go out there and buy whatever we want to buy, but there's certain things out there that you can't buy. that are a part of your past. You know, that stop sign is a great example. I know that some people reach out to you every once in a while and have something else that belong to your dad.

How cool is that? It's the greatest thing because, you know, when dad passed away, you know, Teresa locked up the, there was this building that was his. It was, and we called it the deerhead shop, full of deerheads up on the wall. And he had a, he kept a lot of things in there. And a lot of personal items.

There's a warehouse that he had full of stuff. All those skiing altiques he won from winning those at races at Atlanta. They're all stacked up in this warehouse with all kinds of other cars and things that he owned. And so when he passed away, it's kind of like the door got shut to all that stuff. And Tristan wanted to seal it up and let nobody have any access to it. to protect it, right? And I totally understand that. And I don't, and it's not that I haven't, it's not that I don't have access to it.

I've not reached out to Trisa to say, hey, could I look at it? She may, she may be more than happy to let me go take a look at that stuff. So it's not like she shut me out of it. But the access isn't right there to my fingertips. And so I don't have a lot of items or years ago. I didn't have anything. I had a pair of boots that dad had. And he'd get his boots and get him comfortable and broke in and just keep re-souling them.

And so I got a pair of boots, but since then, yeah, people have brought up things to me, just like that pit sign, uniforms. I got another pair of boots, just different little things. Personal items, you know, that I know that he used and he, you know, that really, is pretty interesting and it's hard to come by some of that stuff you know some of the things that people give you so let me tell you a little bit about the skiing of tics and this may or may not have been a mistake that your dad made a couple of times right yeah the schenotique so we go down and we win that race in Atlanta right and and we win that race not only do we win the race and I don't

know what you remember about it but the flywheel broke in the car like I don't know 30 40 50 left to go the flywheel breaks in the car and it cuts a hole in the oil pan. Oil is leaking out of the car, smoking and leaking. Well, we're racing Bill Elliott, right? We're racing Bill for that win. And anyway, we go on and they never throw the flag, the caution flag, and we win that race.

And Bill, and get his interview after the race, he says, well, you can't pass what you can't see, right? But anyway, we get to Victory Lane. and part of the win is that skein of teak. And then your dad says, Richard, we win this thing again. You have the next one. I think, and I don't know how many is there.

I don't know how many he got, but I think Richard ended up with two or three of those skein of teak. Oh, yeah. And then the other thing was when we won that first championship, when we won that first championship, and they brought that good year. trophy, that car, that unbelievable gold car. Your dad told Richard, we win this thing again, you can have the next one. Well, I know where there's two of them. Those are the two that your

dad gave Richard. And I don't know how many people do that anymore, right? Because that is a prize possession. And that should tell everybody kind of what their relationship was like. They were that close that your dad and Richard would do things like that for each other. Was the first championship 86? Yes. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah.

You guys, did you not also get belt buckles at the end? Yeah. Well, man, that's one of my greatest stories that I share here because it's a couple parts to this, right? Because we raced all year long against Darrell Walter. We're battling back and forth and back and forth. And up until that time, we had not won a championship. So we're in Atlanta, and this is another story about your dad and the way he looked at things and thought about things.

So we're in Atlanta and we're out there racing. And here's the deal. This could have gone either way. We had a little bit of a points lead, but not enough to be comfortable. So early in the race, early in the race, we're all standing in. there watching the cars go by early in the race darrell comes down the front stretch smoke's rolling out behind that car and we know what just happened we know that darrell just blew up and we knew that we were getting ready to win a championship and you could look at a lot of

grown men standing there trying to get their sunglasses on or their hat pulled down or something because you didn't want anybody to see the tears that were getting ready to come down your face. Because that's what happened. That's what happened. Richard comes on the radio and he said, Dale, Darrell just blew up. And your dad's something like, Richard, don't tell me that. Don't tell me that.

Don't tell me that. Don't tell me that. They might fix it. And Richard said, no, I believe they blew up. And a few minutes later, Jeff Hammond. with crew chief, Jeff Hammond walked up there to congratulate Richard. And Richard got on the radio,

and he went, Dale. Jeff just came by and congratulated us. They're out of this race. And your dad said, the only reason he'd come up there is because he's probably going to be on TV. Hollywood, Jeff. Oh, yeah.

But the best part of the story, remember, got to go back. We race that 11 car all year long. So we got to New York. I don't know if anybody in our group had ever been to New York City before, right? I mean, it was on, we're not only in New York. We're in the Waldorf historian. It is the most unbelievable thing ever.

The after party was, you know, phenomenal. But while we're there, the only people that gets recognized, right? They got the crew chief, the driver, and the owner. And then they go, and up in the balcony, the rest of the crew for Richie. So we were there. That was great. But they gave all three of those guys their belt buckle, man. Think about this.

We're Wrangler. We're cowboy boots. We're blue jeans. And now I want my belt buckle. I want my championship. That is my trophy. That is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me. But we don't get them.

So we're waiting on them. And we get to Daytona, and here comes, I don't know whether it was Dennis Dawson or Randy Chappell or one of the guys there from sports marketing. They come around the corner and they got a box in their hand. And in that box is all of those little jewelry boxes with that belt buckle in it. He went, we got them. And I'm going to like, man, I'm going to be in Daytona. I'm going to be going out to party and I'm going to have a championship belt buckle.

And he opens that box up. And by the way, I'll hold this up here before you say mine's about wore out. Because I wore it every day. I didn't put it back and save it. I wore it. But anyway, I opened the box up and I looked at it and I went, okay. And it says Danny Myers, 1996 Winston Cup champion. And I'm looking at it and I'm kind of trying to adjust my eyes to it a little bit.

and I continue to look. And I go, hey, dude, have you looked at these? He said, no, is there something wrong? And I went, look at it. And he looked at it. He went, oh, my God. So what we had was this belt buckle, right? Yep.

Every one of those belt buckles had a Budweiser number 11 car. Oh, no. We did not get our belt buckles that day. They took them all back, they took them all back and had them redone. Now, I should have saved them. Now, let me follow up that. Yeah, oh, yes, let me follow up a little bit about that because we won it again in 87. We got another belt buckle.

Well, I've already got one, right? So I decided to give my brother my championship belt buckle because he was a fan, man. He watched everything we did. He was a big fan. So I give my brother my championship belt buckle. And then my mother says, did you get your brother anything for Christmas? And I said, yes, ma'am, I did. She said, what did you get him?

I said, Mom, I gave him my 1987 championship belt buckle. And my mom says, well, it looks like you would have at least bought him something. This is a year of hard labor. right so man we had we had so much fun but yeah those those belt buckles and look been blessed got a box full of rings here that that that that all came because of what we were able to do and you know Richard Childress a guy that that started with little of nothing and made it happen it's it's unbelievable what we were able to do yes sir without a doubt.

Man, we appreciate you coming out today and being a part of our show. The stories have been great. We didn't hear them all, I know. We'd love to get you back on. We like to get you back on to hear some more, talk more about your life. And it's been a great one. You've been a great friend, a very big friend to me and a great supporter of mine and a lot of, and you've been a lifeline.

You've been that lifeline to me from time to time, too, buddy. Well, I appreciate it because you mean the world to me. Your entire family does and been a big part of my life. And look, my cool thing is I'm still doing radio. I'm still on serious. Every day we'll go do radio here in a little bit. It keeps me connected with the race fans. And with no race fans, we have no racing.

And I love them all. whether you like what I talk about, whether you don't, I try to keep you informed because I still think that we've got one of the greatest things in the world and racing today is as good as it's ever been. Yeah, I agree with you. We're glad you're a part of it. We're glad you're still part of it out there spreading the word and talking. Fans love you, buddy.

So thank you. All right, brother. All right. Take care. You too. Awesome. You guys see this sign. Right?

New sign to the table. Yeah. Xfinity. Well, because they sponsor this segment of the show. And we're happy they have. Xfinity is your partner for Fast Internet. They're the premier partner of NASCAR. I am a happy customer.

That's not part of the read. But I bought Xfinity before they became a partner on the show, just the Internet. Fast. It's good. It's stable. I can't say that for the other Internet I've been using. But where I have Xfinity, it's work. and it's been dependable and reliable.

That's pretty important, too, when you have kids. You got those cams, you know, over the bed, over the crib. I just put the crib together for the second one. Oh, man. Yeah. That's cool. And when the internet's down and you can't see the crib, I mean, I know parents did this for hundreds of years without, you know.

Cameras. Technology and Internet. We're pretty spoiled. All right. So, anyways, this is the Asch Jr. portion of the show. we are extremely thankful for you guys to support our show to just be watching this is supporting us and supporting the Dale Jr. Download and we appreciate it. Thank you, Xfinity, for also supporting the show. Leah is ready to get your guys questions going, so let's go. I am. Our first question is

coming from Jeremy Jones. He says he was watching Lost Speedways and he was wondering, how did Okaneechee Speedway get its name? It was named after the Okanichi Indians, a tribe of Indians that lived in the Piedmont region of North Carolina and Southern Virginia prior to European settlement. The grounds where the racetrack is located as widely considers once being the land of the Okanichi Indians. So that's what we've learned. The track itself is a one-mile dirt oval NASCAR's original schedule back in 1948. Is that the... I mean, we've done some of the episodes and everything, and I don't know. Is that number one?

No, that was episode number. It was later in the thing. I don't know either. Good, you stopped me, man. I know an order we shot them in. Richard Petty won the last race there in 1968. Okanichi Speedway is episode one of Lost Speedway. It's Metralana.

No, it's Metrola. I made a mistake. It says episode one. I think I've made a mistake on you, Dale. Well, anyways. Look, I screwed you up. It's an episode. Watch them all speedway.

One of eight episodes, just like it was one of eight on the original NASCAR schedule. It's one of the episodes on Lost Speedways, which is on Peacock. Peacock is a streaming service on NBC for NBC customers for Xfinity customers. If you have Xfinity, you get it free, all of it. So if you want to watch Lost Speedways, you have a tablet, an iPhone, smart TV, you can download the Peacock app. And it's free to watch our show, right? Nothing costs nothing to watch all. all eight episodes of the show.

So we've gotten a great response, and I'm sure that most of you probably already gotten it and watched it. So if you haven't, check it out, Lost Speedways. We put, everybody that's in this room right now has worked on that show, and we're all very proud of it. Good question.

It's now in the National Register of Historic Places. It's beautiful, too. If you want to... I was just going to say that. If you want to go, it's a walking trail now. So if you wanted to visit the Piedmont area, North Carolina, and go to Okanichi, you can go there and burn a few calories. And also see the banking, and they have a little bit of the front straightaway grandstands and flag stand and a couple of race cars laying in the woods. And pretty neat little space to just go, you know, get out in the woods a little bit.

We're getting a lot of questions about Daytona this weekend. So Matt Gunjack wants to know what would be the strategy for the bubble guys going into Daytona? try to get stage points early, then ride in the back and make it the whole race or try to be aggressive and go for as many stage points as possible. Okay, so let's just spell out how the race is more than likely to go. The first segment will be, all right, so the day, if you're a race car driver, all of you guys that are paying attention right now and watching us, y'all are drivers, okay? You're bubble drivers, all right?

So, and I'm going to tell you as maybe your spotter, your crew chief, I'm kind of all of those things. The third segment is going to be the one where you're most likely going to crash. The first segment is pretty intense, but then the second segment gets a little more intense. And the third segment's definitely the one where most of the wrecks are going to happen. And if the field gets cleaned out, you know, half of it, you know, when the race is over, let's assume that maybe only half of the cars are going to be on the lead lap, maybe less than that. 15, 17 cars will be on the lead lap. A few of those will be damaged from prior wrecks.

So you've got a real good shot if you can get to the end of just finishing in the top 12, top 10. So if there's more danger then, I think that I would want you to be the most conservative and careful. And maybe if you did want to kind of ride in the back a little bit, do that in that third segment. do that at the first half of that third segment and see if that's the way the race plays out if some guys are eliminated maybe some guys that you're even battling for that bubble position get eliminated damage but in the first segment i want you to maybe go hard because that's when it's less that's when the dangers minimum at the minimal of of of there being a multi-car crash a lot of guys are taking care of their stuff a lot of guys that are already locked in aren't going to be taking the risk

So in that first stage, let's try to get some stage points. So let's race hard. Let's take some gambles and be a little more aggressive in the draft to put ourselves in that top 10 to grab a couple points. Because I think that's where they'll be easiest to get in that first stage. Second stage, keep that same mentality. But know that the aggression and so forth may ramp up just slightly. But let's steal some more stage points, all right, and see where we kind of net out after two stages. If we don't get them, we don't get them. That's okay.

But I think when stage three begins, there's still a lot of racing left, a lot of opportunity for guys to crash. Lots of crashing. So let's go in complete protect mode. We have to finish this race. If we crash, we're out. Out of the playoffs. All right. So let's really protect ourselves the most, I think, in the beginning or the first half of stage three.

That'd be my approach to it, you know. Now, that's one way of looking at it. The other way looking at it is is the safest place to be is out front, and you try to lead every lap. That's kind of, you know, it's not literally possible to lead every lap, but that's your mentality. Every single foot of the racetrack is, I want to be in the lead. So you're doing everything you can at all times,

with every run you get, with every bit of momentum you get, to try to make a move, to try to pass the car in front of you. to try to get closer to the lead. So you're striving all the time to be there, all right? And that is probably the safest place to be. We've seen the leaders wreck. We've seen the leaders crashing these races. But when it comes to winning the race,

I think trying to be in the lead every single lap, every single foot, every single inch of the track, having that mentality of, I need to lead, I need to lead, that's the one. But if you're trying to make the playoffs, there's a little more, you've got to be more tactical and realistic about your goal. Maybe your goal isn't to win the race, just accumulate all the points you can throughout the event. Next question coming from David Fielden watching with us on YouTube.

He's asking about the double-header race weekends. Do you think we'll see more in the future? I hope so. That's a great question. And I hope so. I think that Dover, for example, the Sunday 400 miles, they used to run 500 miles there. I prefer the shorter double race. I like more, it's more racing.

I'm getting more racing spread out over a little bit more time. I think the track's got to love that. If you're a fan, you'd rather have a bunch of sprint races with more urgency than one really long endurance race. We have long endurance races throughout the year if you want to go see them, go to Charlotte, 600, go to Daytona 500. but if you're going to Dover I think you'd maybe rather have those quick races the urgency, okay? I enjoyed that

and it's more racing we got two full days that was awesome we called the Xfinity race on Saturday Cup race on Saturday then we went back and did it all again the next day, that was great I love that

I think also for the tracks for the vendors at the racetrack people trying to make money It's their livelihood, selling hot dogs or t-shirts, whatever it may be. They're all out in the concourse on the frustrated ways of these racetracks like Dover. You know, when we go to Vegas, they invite third-party vendors to come in. Barbecue families that sell barbecue out of the back of a truck or have this big old, you know, elaborate spread of selling different types of foods. You can walk down the concourse at Vegas, and it's like there's everything.

Anything you can think of as far as food and things to enjoy. Well, if those people are going to be able to validate going there and the tracks are going to be able to make the money they want to make and be profitable, we have to have the fans at the racetrack more than one day, right? We can't just show up and race on Sunday and everybody go home and everybody's happy. Tracks aren't happy, vendors aren't happy. They need fans to make a weekend out of it

And so if there's more racing on Friday trucks Saturday doubleheader Sunday That's going to be great for the tracks And the locations All the vendors and people that come out there That depend on those races to have successful businesses So I love the doubleheaders I love the short races

I love you know the I love like the series For example like Xfinity coming in for one day Cup coming in for one day. But I think we need a full weekend of activity, all right, whether that be bring in K&N, bring in late models or super late models, bring in trucks and Exfinity and Cup and all that, bring all the racing you can bring

so that fans know, okay, if I get there Friday, I got something to watch. I got something to do. I'm not just going to, you know, there's not just cup racing on Sunday. So, you know, there's a lot of moving parts. there, but back to the original question, I got off the track there a little bit of it.

I love the double headers. Fun for me. I think the drivers like them. I think it's a good challenge. One more question from YouTube from Jason M. Why does NASCAR allow teams to view other teams' SMT data? Why do they?

I don't know. That's a good question. SMT data basically is live information from all of the cars that comes that it's available to everybody. All the crew chiefs, engineers, and everybody has that information as the guys are racing around the track during the race.

You hear it on the radio. The drivers are getting information from their crew chiefs or spotters. Hey, well, not their spotters, but their spotters don't have it. But the crew chief will be like, you know what? You're driving into the corner deeper than this guy. I'm watching his laps, his throttle, his steering, and he's doing this and this differently. I don't like that. I wouldn't like that as a driver.

even if it's helpful. Man, drivers are are pretty open-minded. They want to learn from other drivers on their own terms, right? Not hearing it from somebody else. I don't want Mike Davis to tell me how to drive. I don't want, you know, my spotter, TJ used to annoy the hell out of me,

but telling me how to drive. Tell me where guys are if they're faster. Like, hey, John's running the top. He's making speed off the top. Don't tell me you need to go in the, corner like John. Here's how to drive the car. Yeah.

You need to wider entry like John is. Man, you know, drivers, we're ego maniacs, man. We don't like people telling us how to do what we're doing. And we think that we're all the best at it. And so the SM, but, you know, I think if a driver, if you said, hey, here's all SMT data take it and study it now a driver's going to go and you you bet you he's going to open that up and look at all of Denny Hamlin and Harvick's inputs and what they're doing how they're driving a track oh yeah they're going to eat it up if anybody wants to hear a good argument over that same

data go to last week's door bumper clear between t j majors and freddy craft it's created some great dialogue in in our sport but i don't know why we uh we allow we allow that Basically, you can see how every driver drives the racetrack. It used to be, man, when you didn't have that information, boy, you wanted to know so bad. You wanted to know what set up that guy had, how he was using the throttle and all those things. You go ask them.

Well, they wouldn't get, I mean. Some people wouldn't tell you, but you'd go ask them. Still, even then, you couldn't get a good, I mean, getting a description is way different than actually seeing the data on paper. Anyhow, I don't know why they do that. I don't know. I guess they should, you know, see where it goes, I guess. I don't know if it's good or bad. All right, that's it for today.

It's a good question. You stumped me on that last one, man. I wish I had a better answer. But again, thanks for tuning in. Thanks for supporting us. Thanks for Xfinity for supporting us. They're your partner for Fast Internet and their premier partner, NASCAR. They support our series, the Xfinity series.

They support our sport. They're a critical partner, and we appreciate them for supporting this podcast. I can't say enough how much I appreciate all you guys for tuning in and supporting our show, supporting Mike and everybody in this room. And we love to talk to you guys. We love it every week. This is my favorite part of the shows when we get a live interaction with you guys. Mike, you know speed always wins.

Yeah, it's good to have. That's why X-Finity X-Fi keeps me connect. that I honestly can't think of a better way to stay up to speed with NASCAR and Dirtymo Media. You heard of here, folks. Don't forget. Dale's here every week to answer your question, so hit us up at Xfinity Racing

on Twitter using the hashtag Ask Junior for a chance to hear from Del Jr. himself. One more things before we wrap up. Thanks to Xfinity for being a premier partner of NASCAR. Odd history. We have two short odd histories for you heading into Daytona. 1960, Firecracker 250.

There's a lot of tension on all the different things. Teams had in their race cars. Fireball Roberts had power steering on his Pontiac. Lee Petty's Plymouth had an air conditioning at the World 600. But he decided he wouldn't use it at Daytona. The AZ system took about six horsepower away from the engine. But it was comfortable. Tiger Tom Pistone had an oxygen tank in his car

because he was afraid of crashing into Lake Lloyd. He wanted some oxygen in case he. he went underwater. Scuba gear. He also had a pump in the car that would adjust the weight balanced on the right front so he could actually adjust the balance of the car as he was driving. Well, the opposite of all that comfort and adjustability, that was Cotton Owens. The Spartanburg, South Carolina driver didn't want an AC unit in his number six Pontiac.

Heck, he even refused to drink water during the race. He was quoted as saying, if I want a drink of water, it's just more of an incentive for me to finish faster. He must have been pretty hot that day because he was second. The other quick one in the 1970 Firecracker 400 at Daytona, Don Tar became the first driver to broadcast a race from inside the car. Tar was also a physician from Miami, Florida, who raced in 48 cup races between 1967 and 72. Now, Dale, hearing from a driver during the race is a lot easier today,

but in 1970, Tar was only given a one-way radio by ABC that he carried. inside his 1970 Plymouth. So, when they wanted him to talk, a sign was held up in the pits that read, talk. Just talk. And yes, it was up to him to glance over and read a pit board on pit road to cue him to hit the radio and talk on TV. So that's some serious multitasking going on there if you're racing and then also looking for times to queue up your broadcast.

While talking to viewers at home, Tard drove his best career finish of sixth place in the Richard Brown owned number 36 machine. Richard Brown. Richard Brown owned 36 machine. He was a popular owner back in that. Is that right? Dillenhart drove his car at Metroline. The first ever Grand National race, even though it wasn't a NASCAR race.

There you go. What else does Richard Brown have in common? One of my favorite race car drivers of all time. It was number 36. He gave Bugsie Stevens, I believe, one of his first Grand National starts. Fantastic. So Dale Earnhardt, Richard Brown, and Don Tar. We've got to thank NASCAR Man for teeing us up.

Some great stories, NASCAR Man. Follow him on social media to hear it more. Dude's always turning out some great stuff, great content. Last call! Dell Jr. Download on TV this week's show with Chocolate Myers will be for the late night owl. Saturday night after the 400 at Daytona. NBCSN is the place to watch the Dell Jr. Download. Saturday night after the race.

Should get a lot of folks tuning in for that. Yeah. Yeah. Apple Podcasts Review. The Cheese says it's like a cupcake. Mm, really? Awesome show, man. Loved learning the behind-the-scenes stuff

and learning more about the sport I thought I knew a lot about already. And for the cupcake thing, Jr. is the frosting. Mike Davis is the cake. Lee, of course, is the sprinkles. And Matthew is what holds the cupcake together. He's the liner. The liner.

The sprinkles. Constructive criticism. What's the good and bad way to give constructive criticism? I'm not good at it. I would be the worst person to ask. Are you good at taking it? What way do you like getting it? Give us inside here, Dale Jr.

Speak, Mike. No, no, I'm going to watch. Mike is like, I'm going to enjoy this because, hey, after we get through this one, I see Confucius below it. I can't wait to see what you've got to say about that one. I guess what this boils down to is Matthew Dillner just wants your constructive criticism on the show. Keep going. This is riveting.

Confucius, this is a read. I'm not making this up. This ain't going out of my brain. Confucius says, he who cannot describe the problem will never find a solution to that problem. Okay. Now, tell us what that means to you. He can't describe the problem. can't, if you don't understand the problem, you can't fix it.

There you go. There you go. So, I guess if we got, if there's anything you like about, if there's anything you don't like about the show, Matthew would love to know what it is so that we can do it better or not do that part. Constructively, though. Like Confucius? But that's, uh, or birthdays? Yeah.

What did you tell? I mean, come on, it's either Confucius or birthdays. If you're looking for constructive criticism. I got one. It's hard to find these days. Well, here's some constructive. criticism, if I may speak for you.

Don't put Confucius in the last call. I agree with that. No, I'm playing. I'm missing. Yeah. Good show, everybody. Thank you so much to Chocolate Myers. That was, Dale, you and I talked last night,

and that was every bit of what we had hoped for. And, boy, does that man have some stories about Dale Earnhardt. He really did. I think the fun part about chocolate is how he, He buttoned his stories down to this kind of neat little package. Told us some good stuff. And we'd love to have him back on the show as soon as we can. It's been a long time coming to get a guy like him out here.

He's such a personality. And like I said, he's memorable guy. You cannot forget him. That's exactly right. So I'm glad we got him on here. Nice job. Thank you guys for listening. I hope you enjoyed it.

Hope you have a great week. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty mode.