The Dale Jr. Download - 326 - Larry McReynolds: '98 Daytona 500

Episode Date: February 10, 2021

Larry McReynolds returns for the highly anticipated part two of his conversation with Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the season premiere of The Dale Jr. Download.They dive into more of McReynold’s storied racing career as a crew chief and cover his time working with Dale Earnhardt. With the 2021 Daytona 500 just days away, they relive the Intimidator’s 1998 victory in the Great American Race.McReynolds offers candid commentary on what fueled his decision to leave Robert Yates Racing and join Richard Childress Racing for the 1997 season. He discusses the move, vast culture differences between the two organizations, and the initial expectations.Along with co-host Mike Davis, Earnhardt Jr. learns intricate details about what it was like to work with his dad. He also finds out about how the Intimidator approached trying new things behind the wheel and why it frustrated McReynolds.McReynolds details why the pairing never achieved the success they dreamed of and what Dale Sr. revealed to him years later about their time together.Find out what Dale Sr. did in the 1997 Daytona 500 that put McReynolds at a loss of words.From the process of building the car to testing it in preparation for the big race, America’s Crew Chief details everything the team went through leading up to the 1998 Daytona 500.What did Earnhardt Sr. admit to McReynolds after winning his duel race that changed their approach just days before the event? And what happened as the No. 3 car pulled onto the track for happy hour that made the team nervous heading into the race the next day?Plus, hear the story of the infamous lucky penny and what was happening as Earnhardt received it.Who dialed the No. 3 car’s radio during the race that nearly made McReynolds lose it? You’ll be surprised. Then, find out why the team held their breath as Earnhardt completed the final few laps under caution. Lastly, McReynolds reflects on the scene in victory lane and compares it to watching kids open presents on Christmas morning.In Ask Jr., fans inquire about the many new things in NASCAR for 2021 and get Earnhardt Jr.’s perspective on the charter system.Then, Earnhardt Jr. surprises everyone with details on Pablo Escobar’s racing career.  Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. The Dale Jr. Download. Hey, everybody, it's Dellenhart Jr. Back again for a new season of the Dale Jr. Download with my co-host, Mike Davis. You doing good, Mike? I'm doing well. Made it back.

Ready for this year? Yeah. Dude, I'm pumped. Aren't you? I am excited. Yeah, dude. Yeah, it's good to see you. It's good as to you.

Yeah, man. And we got Leiavonne is back. Hello. Yay. We got her back. She stayed with us over the off season. You never know. They may leave.

You never know. Nah, I like it here. Good. It's good to have you back. Matthew Dillner is working on a project. You know, they tell us we can't talk about the project. Let's not talk about it. So it's the project.

We'll just call it the project. But Jason Schultz, who everybody knows is the producer for Door Bumper Clear. He's also producing for us for the time being. Finally, get some work on a real show. Yeah, exactly. What's like to work for professionals? Oh, yeah. It's much different.

It's a crazy experience. Well, we're excited to get this season started. We're going to start it off big right out of the gate. We're bringing back a guest from last season, Larry McReynolds. And Larry's going to come back to talk about the 1998 Daytona 500 win with my dad. We're going to talk a little bit about their relationship, and he has some insane insight. This is a story that's important to me, Mike,

because I have my own opinion of their relationship and how all that went down, how they got together. and how they split up. And I believe that I'm going to learn a lot of new things. And I think I have the wrong impression of that relationship. Obviously, I haven't talked to Larry about it ever. I haven't had a conversation with my father about it. So we're all going to learn something today.

And I'm excited about that. Well, it's going to be a great show. So let's get started. So we're going to get Larry in here in a bit. But man, you know, we got Daytona right around the corner, new season, new schedule. We had a season preview show on NBC the other day that I thought was really good.

You did well. Yeah, thank you, man. We talked about it. New teams starting up, driver, swatch, switching rides. There's a lot of interest or a lot of curiosity, I'll say, going in this year for me about how these teams are going to perform. Obviously, Danny Hamlin and Michael Jordan's new team with driver Bubba Wallace, how are they going to perform?

What will their car, what will the sports? be like for their cars. I'm very curious about that. Not so much the results, you know, those will come over time, I think, is that team builds and jails. But right out of the gate, you know, they're replacing the 95 car in my mind.

That's how I'm thinking about it. Right. So will they be on par with the pace that that car had? Will it be better, right? Will they struggle trying to, you know, get this new team off the ground? All that's something I'm curious about. There's Kyle Larson coming back

with HMS. Hendrick Motorsports there. I think that it'll be interesting. I'm extremely curious to see his level of a performance and how to compare it to his years at Gannasi, right? Yeah. We've talked over, you know, there's just, there's been a lot of conversation about Kyle

just how good he is behind the wheel of a car. And I think that we'll know even more about that talent when we can see his results and performance in HMS car versus his years at Ganesi. So a lot of questions or a lot of things are going to be answered throughout the year. What are some of the things I guess that you're excited about my life? Well, I got to ask you this because we're not going to spend a lot of time talking about the Bush Clash because by the time this podcast comes out, the Bush Clash will be actually going. But are you going into this race with an open mind being the traditionalist that you are?

Can I be completely honest? Yeah. I can. Yeah. That's your show. I don't care. I can't get up for it, man. That's what I was wondering.

I was wondering, you know, because they're on the road course. But there was some, you know, Shultz actually had an interesting tweet. It's like, like he tweeted yesterday how we used to do those big Budweiser shootout shows, the qualifying shows. And it was like this big fun event, a lot of personality. You know, Kenny Wallace would be hosting it and whatever. It's just like, man, there's just not even build up anymore. Well, you know, it's, it's, it's. pretty this it's a big bummer for me because I feel like that for some reason somebody wants

to beat this thing you know beat this thing to a bloody pulp I mean it's just like there should be some sort of a pre-event that selects you know has the drivers there so you can introduce the drivers that are in the race like we used to do I don't know if it needs to be that kind of a a hokey show that they've had at some times. But yeah, anything to sort of introduce the race, introduce the guys that are eligible for the race. My argument is all the same, man.

You just want your 20 laps. 20 laps, on the Oval, poll winners only. Let them, cut them loose. Not Daytona 500 winners, not playoff drivers, not, you know, pass this, past that. Just poll winners from last year. That was... If there's only eight, there's only eight.

If there's 12, there's 12, I don't care. It's a poll. It's a race for poll winners, and it lasts 20 laps, and it's over. You have it every year. You don't, it doesn't have, why does every race, like, why do we always feel like we've got to build every race up to be the biggest race? It is what it is. It's the poll winners. It's a clash.

It lives in its little space, and that's where it belongs. And so. So he hasn't changed in the off season is what we're trying to get at. I haven't changed. You know, when we talk about our off season, one of the things, I really appreciate. I think running it on this road course is a terrible idea. I just do.

I'm excited about the beginning of season. I'm excited about the Daytona 500 without a doubt and all the new drivers and all the things. But it's kind of like, okay, you go over to your momaw's house for family reunion. You'd be going all these years, right? You kind of know what's going to be there. Everybody brings the same plate, right? You know what plates are good. You know what plates are bad.

And you don't dig into that bad plate. Right. You just don't. You know what to stay away from. You don't put the shit on your plate. Right. You don't eat it. Right.

We know what old Aunt Betty does with those devil to eggs. We just stay away from the devil to eggs. I don't want that. Yeah. So, all right. But you're excited about the Daytona 500. Hey, here's one. I didn't even realize this until Schultz reminded us.

You know, JRM has won three of these dang Daytona races in a row going for number four this weekend. Look, I'm not trying to add pressure to you because I know that you experiencing that race as an owner, completely different experience and all of us that don't have stake in the game. But steak. And it's the Beef 300. Oh, see, Taylor's excited. Yeah, this is a big deal in our house. Being the farmers that you and Taylor are.

This is the big deal in our house. He's like, he's been nervous. Like, not nervous. He's been anxious. Like, he, ever since they said it was the Beef 300, he's like, let's go right now. We're talking about Taylor, who is Leah's boyfriend and also crew chief of the number eight. Driven by Josh Barry. Josh Barry.

Sponsored by filter time. Man, it's all coming together. It is. It's like we never left. We just picked up right where we left off. No, that'll be fun. So you're going to go to the race, right? The Xfinity race, yes.

Good. I am. I'm coming in that morning, and I'm going to go watch your race, and then I'm leaving. I'm back home. The bubbles for the racetrack as far as COVID and all that are pretty strict. That's fine. I'm going to go fitting my little bubble and go just a race and go.

I want to say one more thing about this is that we do have a new change in our studio, and this was curated by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Since that's what we say in the museum business. But the one at the bottom is in particular from what car this sheet metal behind us? The one on the bottom is from my first Xfinity race at Myrtle Beach in a car that I borrowed from Dad's team, Tony Sr. and them. And the tire mark is from Jason Keller. He came down on me exiting turn four and spun me out.

But I ended up 14th. Had a lot of fun, very fast car. The top one is from the 2001 July 400 at Daytona. And the tire marks are post-race after going down the back straightaway. Matt Kenseth came up and we high-fived each other with our cars. So just to be clear, good tire mark on the top, bad tire mark on the bottom from Keller. Yeah, damn it, Keller. Yeah.

Yeah, I qualified seventh, I think, in that race at Myrtle Beach. Oh, you're your first one? Yeah, and I was right behind my teammate or right behind my team car, Jeff Green, who was driving for dad at the time. Jeff going down in the turn three on like lap five or ten, Jeff runs, bumps Keller up the track, and Jason goes way up the track, and he's coming back. down the track with a head of steam like red-faced pissed off and he's coming back after Jeff and I'm in the I filled the gap and we hit and it spun me out and I'm like you son of I got lapped on pit road changing tires ended up running a whole race a lap down they did you ever pay

rounds and did you ever pay yellow back I mean did you ever get him I had it on my list never got him well I guess there's still Tom they're gonna happen you go get him in here maybe we'll have a little A little spat with him. Put a new dimple on that chin. All right, it's time to bring in Larry Mac. Field coming off, turn number four now, down for the start of the 1998. Daytona 500. Dan Marino will drop the green flag, and we are underway in the Daytona 500.

As Dale Earnhardt wins please this race today, everybody wonders, can he finally win it? Earnhardt has lost this race every which way you can, and usually in the closing laps. Larry McReynolds' crew chief for Dale Earnhardt. How nerve-wracking is this? It's all out of our hands now, you know. I feel like we've got the best driver that's ever been at Daytona leading his pack right now. Closing in on the finish of the 40th, Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt, out front. We've seen this movie before.

And in trouble coming off a turn-tooth. This could be the Daytona 500. 20 years of trying, 20 years of frustration. Dale Earnhardt will come to the caution flag to win the Daytona 5th. 500. Yes, guys, yes! Yes! You're the greatest, buddy.

You're the greatest. Look out on Pit Road. Every man on every crew has come out to the edge of Pit Lane to congratulate the man who has dominated everything there is to win in this sport. Except this race until today. The Daytona 500 is ours. We've won it, we've won it, we've won it. There he is.

Hey. Y'all didn't have enough for me the first time. I will say this is like the quickest turnaround for a return guest we've ever had. Have we even had a return guest? You might be the first. You might be. It might be. I'm flattered.

Very flattered. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we are too. We're glad that you're excited to come back. And one of the things, you know, we talked a lot about your career from the start and told and really learned a bunch about you. There was so much that we didn't get into, and honestly, I'm going to go ahead and say it for we even get started. We're going to have to have you come back for a third or fourth time, probably, to be able to dig into it.

I'm like a cat. I've had nine lives. You have a lot of layers, you know, to your career. It's amazing when you sit down and really look at it. But one of the things, you know, we're coming in at Daytona 500, and one of the things that we reached out to you and you said you'd be glad to come talk to us about is the 1998 Daytona 500 win. But bigger than that, really, that whole relationship with dad. So let's just start with where were you in your career, personally, when you got either the phone call or the conversation started happening about you coming to RCR?

Yeah, you know, I never saw myself leaving Robert Yates racing. You know, Robert was my best friend. But as the end of the 96th season was closing out, I was mentally. and physically beat to death. Why so? Just think of everything that we went through with the 28 car, Dale. You know, I go there,

no question, going to the 28 car with Robert Yates and Davey Allison put Larry McRennels on a NASCAR map. And the success that we started having, and it started almost immediately when I went there in 91. And then Davy Allison became my best friend.

You know, my relationship with him, as a driver and a crew chief was small compared to our friendship. I mean, we even had our sons baptized together, and Linda and I are Robbie Allison's godparents, and Davy and Liz are Brandon's godparents. That's just the relationship that we had. And then, you know, you get a phone call on July 13th of 1993

that not only the race car driver that you were enjoying all the success with, but your best friend has... crashed in a helicopter. And we overcame that as a race team. You know, I still think about Davy Allison every single day. There's not a day that goes by that I don't

think about him in some capacity. Again, my best friend. But we rebuilt, and Ernie Irvin comes and drives that 28 car, and we start winning race his hand over fist. And battling your dad and them in 1994

for the championship, looked like No question. Three and 28th is what it was going to come down to. Once again, you least expect it. A practice on a Saturday morning at Michigan. Just a practice. And you blow a right front tire. And the driver that you have rebuilt with again,

not only maybe his career is over, but at that point, we didn't know if he was even going to survive this crash. Should have died. No question. So he comes back in 96, but the other thing that happened, Robert started the second team in 96. And one of my biggest faults is I don't know how to say, no, I can't do that.

And Robert came to me as 95 was closing out and said, you're still going to be the crew chief of the 28 car, but I need you to oversee and put this 88 team together. And I need you to make you, I need you to be the glue that keeps them, I guess that's another way of saying competition director. Yeah. And, you know, we had a lot of success in 96. You know, Ernie Irving comes back.

We went a couple of races. Tell Jarrett jumps out there and wins the Bush Clash and the Daytona 500, the first weekend as a brand new race team. The success was off the chart. But I felt all the time like trying to make those two teams work together like Robert wanted them. I felt like a guy that had two extension cords that just wouldn't quite reach. and I had to hold them together all the time, plus be the crew chief of the 28 car. I just mentally, physically, just spent.

And so how did the conversation begin with Richard or dad? The weirdest thing on earth. I think Gary Nelson, who was the series director then, long-time crew chief, and he works in the Rolex series now, he almost kind of sensed something was going on with me. You know, he would, Gary was in that garage year, and he talked to crew chiefs, and I think he kind of sent something going on with me. And, of course, Andy Petrie had left the three car at the end of 95 to go do his own deal, and they kind of had an interim crew chief or crew chiefs for the three and 96th. It was between David Smith and Bobby Hutchins. We were at Rockingham, three or four races from the end of the 96th season.

And Gary come wandering by on Saturday afternoon. about the time the garage was closing. He said, what's up with you? And I said, I don't know, Gary. I'm just war out, mentally and physically. He said, what are you going to do next year? And I said, well, I mean, I'm assuming I'm going to stay right where I'm at. I'm, you know, I'm not really looking for anything.

He said, there's a team out here that's really interested in you. I said, who is that? He said, I don't need to get involved in this stuff. I said, whoa, whoa. Because he's working for NASCAR. Yeah, you've already thrown this out there. He said, well, I know that three bunch would love to have you come over there. I don't remember who actually reached out to me first.

I want to say it may have been Bobby Hutchins that talked to me. And I remember going to Richards Motor Home in Atlanta, the last race of the year, and we met about midway through Saturday. We all were on the same plane going to Japan, the whole three team, the whole Robert Yates. And Linda and I were sitting up in first class. and the three team was rotating coming up there and talking to me. You know, you're going to come over and work with us next year? And then your dad started working on me.

I remember when we were in Japan, I'm down talking to Ernie about the run we just made, and your dad comes by and spins me around and says, you're going to take this damn deal or not? I don't know. We've got to wait until we get through what we're doing right now. So he was pretty persistent about this deal. Was the Yates bunch aware of this at this point? I don't know that they were.

You know, your dad was probably a little more subtle than that, but he came right over there to the 28 car and kind of waited that I finished my business and spun me around and asked me, see, you're going to do this damn deal or not? How do you start a conversation with Robert when you make decision on what you're going to do? Yeah, you know, I went and met with Richard. We met over at his condo at the Speedway. it was actually the Friday after Thanksgiving.

We went ahead and said, you know, I never even went to Welcome North Carolina. You know, I talked to your dad's. Never went to the shop or anything. Talked to your dad several times, you know, talked to Richard, went and met with him over at his condo the Friday after Thanksgiving, and that's when we put all this together. And I went in and talked to Robert O. Monday, and that was, it was tough, you know, because Robert Yates was a close friend of mine. Just a great guy.

And I laid it all out, almost just like I just laid it to him. you. I'm just mentally and physically wore out. I just need a clean start. Just a fresh start. Well, is it, okay, so that's interesting to me. You know, you're a crew chief and crew chiefs are particular about their workplace

and how things are laid out and you hadn't even seen it and you took the job. So, your impressions when you walk into the shop at Welcome, had you ever, had you have any idea what it was going to look like structurally, how it was laid out? I guess this is an interesting.

to me because I'm at DEI and just like anyone else in the garage, we are, we all think, man, I just want to look inside HMS one day. I just want to go in there once and just see what they're doing. And you think this is all kinds of cool, awesome stuff's happening in there. Streets of gold. You go in there, it's the same car, same type of people, same parts and pieces. It's just a different culture. Yeah. Right. And that's what you kind of learn is like the Hendrick way is what really makes them successful. But, but man, forever, you just wanted to look behind the curtain. I don't think it was quite the same scenario for you.

You're in a pretty good place with Yates. They've got an amazing program. But when you see the shop and the culture and all that, what was your impression? After a few days, it was a little bit overwhelming. In what way? Just different culture. You know, I remember the first day I was there, well, first when I walked in there and I looked on a wall over by the men's room

and there was a time clock on us. What the hell's a time clock? I've seen a time clock in a race shop before. And sure enough, about 4.30, that first day there, man, they mow over you if you were standing there that time clock. Day gone. So it's a little bit hard for me because at Robert Yates, we didn't have time clocks. We didn't even have set hours.

We worked from Till to Kent. And it just everything, and I'm not saying it was bad. I'm not saying it was good. I'm just saying it was very, very different. You know, just the whole way you went about things, even though, you know, my first year there, they had migrated to a second team, the 31 team with Mike Skinner.

And that was even very different from Yates. At Yates, when we were at that shop, we were Robert Yates racing. You know, nobody had different uniform zone, and you might have 2,28 cars sitting beside each other, and an 88 cars sitting beside that. It was one team filled in two, cars. But up there, even from the beginning, the three car was at the top of the hill,

the 31 car was at the bottom of the hill. Literally. It was almost like skins and shirts within one organization. And you know, Roberts, if we went to the wind tunnel on Wednesday night, and we found 15 or 20 pounds of front down for us with a front fender configuration, by God, we went back to Dwell Street and we cut a fender off and got it on there before we loaded that truck to go wherever we were going. A little different car. culture at Richard Childers Racing. You had to almost go through channels to get that done because mainly cause that damn time clock over there on the wall. Don't you think that's because of you though? I mean, you would have helped establish that multi-team culture at Yates. And if you

were, if you had your hands in both buckets from the beginning, that was kind of what he asked you to do is help get that second team. You're basically right in the culture as it's happening, aren't you? Yeah. But, you know, I just think that the people were very different. You know, Todd Parrott, who was the crew chief that we hired to do the 88, him and I had a lot of the same mentality, and that's whatever it takes. We're not worried about what time we're leaving the shop, and that's kind of how he had acclimated his guys,

and I was kind of the same way with the 28 guys from the time I went there in 91, which was a very small group, but when I walked into Richard Childers Racing, that group was already established, and they already had ways of doing things, and I don't think one guy no matter who you were was going to walk in there and change that culture. That's interesting. Do you think that did you try, like to infuse a little bit of different attitude or what were you trying to do personally and emotionally to improve things? Trying to do exactly what you just said.

You know, guys, we just went to the wind tunnel and we just found 15 pounds of front down force. Let's get it in this car that we're taking to Charlotte this week or to Darlington. wherever and that just was not the mentality there the mentality as well this car is done but we've got this car that we can still get it done on for the next week or the week after it just it was a different thinking structure but back to your point about me never going to the shop dale i look back and was that maybe a little bit of a mistake maybe maybe i should have went up there and spend a little bit of time talking to some guys, but all I know is I was war out and tired. I didn't want to change what I did for a living. And in my book, the greatest race car driver ever to grip a steering wheel

on a race car was want me to come to work with him. That's really all I needed was the name above that door. Now, I got to ask, though, if you had gone up to that shop, would you think it would have spooked you just the difference is enough to not go? I probably would have had deeper conversations with Richard about what can we do to get things. I'm not saying I want to come in here and suck the walls clean and start from scratch. You guys have been winning races. It's not like y'all been at the bottom of the barrel, but what can we do to maybe change the culture just a little bit here and kind of take more of a whatever it takes type attitude? Maybe both you guys could answer this. Give me some context behind what your dad's season was like before. Like, why are we switching

crew chiefs. What was his 97 like? Well, 96, I think he won a couple races. Was he struggling? Yeah, things weren't. Things had really been that great since 91, I think. Like, after. Well, they had pretty good success with Petrie.

They did. They won a couple championships. They were very good with Petrie. I remember going to that banquet here and then learning about Petrie leaving. That was a big. Oh, because he was starting his own team. Yeah. That was disappointing.

I think Dad was not in. entirely in favor with that. Oh. I mean, Petrie was really good. Yeah. You know, he won all them races with Harry before he came to RCR and just Petri really fit that A, RCR kind of mentality. And so it was like, damn, we found our guy because Shelmerdine had done it for so long.

That's right. Then Shelmerdine sort of got to the end of his rope and that deal was, you know, they decided to all go a different way after 92, I think. Now they found Petrie that seemed to be like the right. This was the answer, right? And so I think the guys that they put in there, they put David Smith and kind of Bobby, kind of doing it together. David was a jack man forever on the team through the late 80s, and Bobby had been there a long time. And I just don't know that they were crew chief material or they were cut out to handle that much more responsibility and all of the things you deal with.

The crew chief job had changed quite a bit, I think you could say, over the decade in that particular time. but it just wasn't working. It just wasn't working. And they were looking for that, you know, that magic switch again. Somebody like, you know, they were trying to find the next petri or somebody that could come in there. And when they said his name, and, I mean, with the success that he had had, we thought that they were going to light the world on fire. Yeah.

I mean, nobody's expectations were any higher. I don't think then your dad's in mind. You know, if we can take all the success I'd had at Robert Yates Racing and marry that, with Dale Earnhardt, holy smoly. It's not a question about an eighth championship. It's can we maybe win nine to ten? You know, just the expectations not on other people's part, but Dale and mine, they were off the chart.

So do you remember the first time y'all actually go to work together, whether it's at a test or any kind of thing? What, it was the first thing y'all did where you got his full attention and you got you got your car in front of you and y'all are going to the racetrack to work on it yeah i mean the first time we went and tested which is is obviously right up your dad's wheelhouse was was detona you know in in early january of 97 and you know we we were fast right out of the box and car drove good but my first true encounter after i officially had my name on the door as crew chief was your dad came up there and he came in my office because I had talked to him I talked to him about every day on the phone

I said when you're going to come up here where we can sit down and sort through some stuff and he said I'm coming up there Thursday or whatever so he flew up there in the helicopter came in my office this was maybe in December I hadn't been there probably a week wow came in my office and I said we need to talk about you know our testing plan you said what the hell we're going to test I said well you're going to test I said well you're you know, we've got some, we need to look at some tracks that we need to, that you maybe think you guys need to be better at and we need to go test at. I said, you know, we got to come up with a testing plan. And I knew that day right then, boy, this testing thing is going to be a vertical

mountain. Yes. This, he is not, he is not big on testing. So he laid, he laid the law down to me. He said, I don't test leading into an off weekend. I don't test leading out of an off weekend. if it's a long weekend we're there four or five days I'm not going to test those few days in between I said well I got I got an idea why don't you tell me when we can test yeah I remember going to

I remember him he had Mike Dylan testing his car at Talladega Daytona anytime there was like a plate race test he would have Dylan or Dave Marcus or somebody else testing his car for him he never even went and he might show up up for a half day or a couple hours to jump in it, but most times he wasn't even there.

I never actually understood why other drivers test cars when it seems to me like it could only at best be half beneficial. Dayton and Talladega, you're just, you're looking at the stopwatch. That's it. Yeah. And I mean, whether it's, it was Dale Earnhardt or whether it was Dave Marcus or Mike Dillon, you're just, you're trying to A, B stuff and look at that stopwatch. I remember the first time we actually went and tested at a non-super Speedway. We went up to Richmond. I had this index card in my pocket. And I had it every race weekend, whether it's a test or race weekend. And I had a little what if situation. What if the car's loose? What if the car's tight? And then I had just a list of stuff I wanted to try. And he saw that index card hanging out

my pocket. And he grabbed it and said, what's this? I said, well, that's some things I want to try. He looked at it. He says, hmm, I've tried that before. Tried that before. That didn't work. I ain't that, we're just about done. I helped you out. That's so frustrating. Because, you know, it's frustrating to hear. You can't make this stuff up. Is it?

Because some of it sounds a little similar to the way you would have been in testing. Yeah, that's true. So that's like the problem in, not to hijack the direction we're going, but dad was struggling. Like dad was trying to find the answer. This is like the golden ticket. You don't have opportunities to get crew chiefs that are so successful. Anytime you get a new crew chief, he's going to set his front end up differently. He's going to bump the car differently. He's got a whole different approach. And you can't wait to drive that car through the middle of the corner because in your mind, it just might be what you're looking for. And when you get older, I'm just as guilty as dad or any

other veteran driver, when you get older, you think you have all the answers. You think you know better. You think you don't, you know what you need to do and don't need to do and what's worth putting time in and what's not worth putting time in. You're lazy. You don't want to test. You don't want to go to Phoenix and test. You don't want to go to Richmond and test. You don't want to do that extra work that's really necessary that that 25-year-old is doing. And that 25-year-old's doing that work and he's open-minded to what the crew she's telling him and he's soaking all that in and that team's getting better by the

second while the old man isn't even at the racetrack and it's just frustrating because when this was all going on I'm dad's biggest fan and I'm privy to this information I would see Mike Dillon testing his car and I would go

you're the man at these places why aren't you testing your car you know you're even though Mike can go out there and run the same laps. It's just not the same. You know, dad's in there. He can see there and all those things. That's my point.

If he can, if he's that, you know, magician on the racetrack, why is he in the car, hearing what's going on, you know, and taking it all in and trying to figure out how to make things faster. And the fact that he was hardheaded about going with this guy who's got some new answers, got some new ideas, and he's not even open to, like, just let this guy have the reins. And I'm not saying that because you're here. I really wanted Daddy to win, right? I haven't started my career yet.

I ain't got into just worrying about me. You know, I'm still like, oh, on dad, every weekend. Let's go win. What's it going to do? Let's get better. And he, it's just frustrating to hear. So, and I always kind of felt like without ever hearing your side of the story, and I definitely haven't had conversations with dad about it,

but I've always, I always kind of felt like that. and you're here to sort of answer these questions. Sure. I feel like that throughout the relationship with you and him, that he didn't give it the benefit of the doubt, or he didn't give it a fair shake, or he was too hard-headed. He had his opinion about how things needed to be,

and I felt like that that was why things didn't result in the successes that y'all had dreamed about. In his defense, Dale, I don't want to get too far out in front of our skis here, in our story. But, you know, all the time of going with your dad to the racetrack in 97, it didn't matter what track we went to, maybe with exception of Dayton Taladega. The phrase he would use to describe the car to me was, I'm just not comfortable. Right.

I was like, I don't know how to fix that, Dale. You got to give me more than I'm not comfortable. And that's what we fought a lot, and that's what kept me awake at night, is I just, I would guess it's stuff. I'd go down and stand in the corner and try to watch the front tires. I'd try to make him wear white gloves where I could see his hands, just trying to see what I could pick up on. It was almost like throwing darts.

But he wasn't feeling good. He still was hurting from that wreck at Talladega, 96. You know, Richard split him and I up, not quite halfway through 98. I'm going to spin it all away to May of 2000. Our two girls went to school together at Cannon, Taylor and Brooke. And, you know, finally between Teresa, Dr. Branch and Richard, they finally had him have that surgery. He had that surgery on the back of his neck. The girls had been on a field trip, and it was the Friday of Charlotte when the track was dark.

I went to pick Brooke up. I had no idea he was sitting over there in his pickup truck, but Dale was there to pick Taylor up. Well, I got a call from Linda said we just got a call from Kansas. and the bus is running about two hours late. So I went, okay, I'm here now. And I just happened to be, I don't know, daydreaming. And I looked over there, and there was your dad sitting in the pickup truck. And he looked at me, and I looked at him, and waved me over there.

I went over and sat in his truck, and we talked for an hour and a half. After the conversation, it didn't make me feel any better about the lack of success that him and I had. But it almost brought closure. He looked at me and he said, Larry, you and I never had a fair shot at our race cars. He said, you know, I told you week in and week out, I wasn't comfortable. He says, damn it, I wasn't comfortable. I couldn't feel my race car. And he said, finally, I had that surgery.

He said, I can feel my race car again. And honestly, I think his performance in 2000 showed that. and that's why I go back to that it just breaks my heart. Him and I had a great conversation the day the track opened for inspection in 2001 at Daytona just had come off running the Rolex race. Man, he was had bouncing his step. And I told a lot of people, I said, I'm telling you, he's going to be the man this year. He is going to be the man.

He is back. He's back to where we all remember Dale Earnhardt. And again, that conversation, I'll always treasure that conversation, not that it made me feel any better, that I couldn't take the greatest race car driver ever grip a steering wheel and get him to victory lane but one time, but at least gave me a little bit of understanding maybe what, that the man wasn't lying to me.

He wasn't comfortable in that race car. Well, the one thing y'all did deliver to each other was a win in Daytona, and Dadan's been looking for a Daytona 500 win for his whole career, right? And I think for the most part, we all, I say we, the family, uncles and brothers and sisters and Mamma all and everybody, was just thinking, well, maybe it ain't to be. You know, you can't have everything. You know, he had won almost everything, but maybe that's just something that just he ain't going to get. But y'all got it. Y'all had it.

Y'all made it happen. So one of the things I wanted you to do and ask you if you could when you came is to help us sort of. to go through that process, you all had a year together that you were not competitive as you wanted to be frustrated. Every offseason, if you don't have a good year, you go into that off season, you spend all those months physically and mentally sort of turning your attitude around, right? Getting your hopes back up and talking to that driver and talking that crew chief and getting all the reasons why this year is going to be better. So kind of run us through that. I mean, what was the interaction like leading into 1998 between you and dad, where was his attitude, where was your

attitude? How was y'all's communication? Yeah, I mean, we talked quite a bit during the off-season. Even though I think we were down, I don't think either one of us had really lost our confidence. I don't think we'd lost our confidence in each other. You know, so much was said and so much was written about your dad, and not getting along. And that really was untrue. Really? Yeah, we had some spirited conversations. Don't get me wrong. But I looked at your dad as my friend. And, you know, even after Richard split us up, you know, your dad and I still had many conversations. You know, it just, I think our personalities were so different. You talked about the relationship that him and Kurt had and him and Andy had. They were similar. They were kind of laid back. They kind of just took, went with the flow of. of things, you know. And old Larry Mac is the high-strung guy that's on the 9,000 chip non-stop. And it's like Richard told me when he made the decision to swap crew cheese, which I'm very thankful, you know, he didn't just come in and fire me, which he probably had every right to.

He said, best thing I can tell you, Larry, you intimidated the damn intimidator. That's all I can tell you. But over the off-season, we still had some energy. We still had some energy. We should. still were optimistic. And I think a lot, what was giving us a lot of optimism, maybe we were hanging our hat on one thing too many, was this car that was built to go to Speed Weeks in 1998. We built that car during the summer of 1997. That car had been in the wind tunnel, and it'd been to Talladega and tested with Marcus and Mike Dillon probably been to the wind tunnel three or four times and been tested at Talladega two or three times before your dad ever even laid eyes on it. I mean, I remember leaving Michigan in August of 97 and going straight to Detroit, we had that car in the wind tunnel.

Wind tunnels were only in Detroit. Detroit. They didn't have them down here. No, Detroit or Atlanta. That was your only choice. We almost cut the body off that car after the first trip to the wind tunnel, which I'm very glad we didn't because it was mysterious. The drag on the car was not that good. but when you yod the car in the wind tunnel, the drag didn't go up.

And that backed up exactly what Marcus told us the first time he tested it. He said he's going to love this car. He said, when you go off in the corner and the data backed it up and you turn the steering wheel, the damn thing don't lose RPM. We don't know why. We couldn't duplicate cars. You know, back then we put quarter panels and fenders on by, that's good right there. nail it.

As long as it fits a template, nail it. And when we went to Daytona and tested that thing in January, I can still see that Chessor Cat grin the first time he drove it. He said, this thing's good. How come y'all didn't try to race that car in the end of 97? We only had one other race left, and of course that was Talladega. And because that was still back when we ran the Fourth of July race in the summertime. So we only had to one more race.

And the car that we had run at Talladega in the spring, we ran second to Mark Martin. He'd have worked with me a little more. I think when we got to Talladega in the fall, we maybe could have won that race because the race we ran second to Mark at Talladega in the spring, it was a caution-free race. We had figured out the six had those real aggressive pull-down shocks on. Well, I unloaded at Talladega in the fall with those pull-down shock zone. I don't even know if he got the high gear going down the backstretch. Came in, get them damn things off.

I said, Dale, that's what beat us in the spring. I don't care. I can't drive at. Wow. I remember running those. They were on our Xfinity cars in 98, maybe 99, before they ever got rid of them. But, Mike, they would tie down the car. Literally, the shock, the rear shock had just as much rebound as you could get in.

it. So when the car got out on the racetrack, the shocks would compress and it would hold, the shock would hold the car down. When the rear tires would leave the ground, shocks wouldn't come out. So the car would bounce. Yeah. That's a huge difference. A bucking horse. It was. I bet. It was painful in your lower back, kidneys in your guts, bouncing in the seat like that. And every corner exit was the worst as far as I remember, but it was every lap. And we qualified and raced them. And you just, that was just what you had to do. Like, that's the, that's going back to what I was talking about. Forty-five-year-old goes out there, makes half a lap, comes in and says, take them off. I ain't driving it. Twenty-five-year-old goes out there and goes, I can do this.

If this is what you'd say I need to do, I got it. And say, are you sure this is faster? Oh, yeah, it's faster. I guarantee it's faster. I'm wondering how those are faster. It sounds like it would slow you down being as bumpy as a right. Well, the rear spoiler is like an inch lower or something like, you know. Oh, we're around the race. You're getting that old sport out of the air. So fast. Yeah.

So interesting. Back to the car for, back to the car you built for Daytona. You got a good, you know, attitudes are still reasonable going into the season. He goes and tests the car or is, did you all have January tests? He drives the car to test. We did. Yeah. That's the first time he ever even saw the car.

was, and he was tickled to death. So what was testing like with him when he was actually in the car? You know, I think at Daytona, because he loved that place, it wasn't bad. You know, and it was kind of a laid-back atmosphere. You know, yeah, you're trying, you know, we still had our box of cardboard box full of cow configurations that we'd go through this, you know, all these different matrices of cows and stuff. And, you know, he's kind of laid back.

I think he always kind of enjoyed going to Daytona. testing. Yeah, I think so too. I really loved those, you know, that January test at Daytona because everything was new. Everybody's got their new cars. He wasn't real high on sitting in line out there waiting on this morning. Nobody was. That was so miserable. I started, I started taking my MP3 player. Yeah, iPods and all that stuff. Sit out there and I'd be listening to some music. Yeah. That's the only way to get through that. But y'all are, y'all are optimistic. I mean, we were. He was happy with the car. Did you think you have? had him you think this is going to be his best shot you know probably no more than i did 97 i mean

my first time there you know i remember we'd had a very up and down day on pit road and uh i look up with 20 laps to go we're leading the darn thing and uh car wasn't handling quite like it should that's when you talked a lot about handling at Daytona what do you mean car just would pick that push up off the corner especially on into a run when the fuel load would burn off, tires would lose grip. The thing would, especially off a turn, too. It just wanted to pick that push-up, but we're sitting there leading the thing with 20 laps to go and fighting with Elliot and Gordon and that bunch, Dale Jarrett, Ernie Irvin.

I looked at Richard. I remember with about 17 or 18 to go, and I said, what do you think? He said, been here way too many times before. With about 11 to go, when that damn thing was barrel rolling down the back straightaway, I totally understood what he was talking about. So, you know, I thought we were in a position to win that. thing our first time to the racetrack together in 97 so that was the time where he rolled the car got out got an amy lance got back out of the amy lance cranked it up drove it around when that happened

now people love to you know talk about his fans love to talk about that um was that a bit was what did you think about that i was lost for words because i'm i'm watching you know we we all we had was the cbs broadcast on a tv in our pit box yeah i watched the man get out of the car i had talked to him on the radio. I watched it get in the ambulance. And so I'm walking down pit road to make that turn in the garage area there by the old good year building down near the entrance of pit road. And you know how you'll something will catch your eye and you'll go, no, no, uh-uh. So I saw this black car go by and I went, can't be. I saw him get out of the car. And then I looked down pit road, he was sitting in the pits and there went a damn soul around him because everybody

went to the garage area. So, but that was just, you know, he said I looked out that window and he said, I looked and he said, all the tires were up on that thing. And he said, that's when I got back out of that amlets and that, and that poor guy was inside. He said, hit that switch. Fire that thing up. He said, that thing cranked up.

Get the hell out of my race car. That's funny. But the thing I love about that, Dale, something I've always prided myself in, regardless if we were winning races or struggling to running the top 20, hated DNFs. Even though 97 was an atrocious year for fine and victory lane, by finishing that race right there and not listed as a DNF, we went the entire season and had zero DNFs. That was something I was very proud.

Is that right? That is something that I think me and Tony Sr., Tony Jr., we all sort of had that attitude too about no matter what you need to try to get back out there and finish and I mean there's races where you would love to just load the thing up and go home

but you know as soon as you do and you see those results and you know that you could have got back out there and finished there's a weird it's hard to explain to somebody I think

that's never went to a race and competed but there is a massive amount of depression and guilt that you carry with you if you don't finish a race you could have finished

yeah so you crash right you miss some carts and fenders and the car's junk, you're going to go out there and ride around in the way a second off the pace or whatever for the rest of the day. Nobody wants to do that. But if you don't do that, right, knowing you could have, it's such an awful feeling, dirty awful feeling. Yeah.

That car really shouldn't have finished that race. I mean, there was more stuff missing off that car, and we were taping and bell wire with bell wire, anything we could do to, and I'm thinking they ain't never going to let this and go back out there. And then on my NASCAR scanner, I said, I heard the words three car clear to go. Hey, you know, I'm curious, even on the years where he wasn't winning the Daytona 500, it seemed like he was winning everything else during Speed Weeks, right? And I was curious, did he enjoy the shootout or the clash?

Did he enjoy the duels? Did he enjoy all those things? I think that man enjoyed practicing at Daytona. Really? Yeah. I mean, he just loved to go out there. And I remember with this person. particular car, you know, we practiced every day three times a day. And I remember somewhere between

Sunday of qualifying and the dual race, you know, your dad was notorious for leaving that garage air and going out there and being the first in line and then leading a group of cars around there for 20 laps. This one practice, he just led to pack, led to pack and led to pack. And finally, I said, Dale, why don't you get back in the pack and let's see what that thing to do at the pack? You know what his response was? Don't plan on being there. Yeah. Okay. I'd heard that. I'm going to tell you, that's the most badass response I think I've ever heard. I mean, how was I going to argue with that? Don't argue with him.

Was that in 98? That was 98. This was practice on maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. That car, it's almost like the slicker that track got, the better that car got. It just didn't deteriorate. It didn't go away. It just kept getting better. Well, I have to think that even after all those years are coming close, I'd have to look around and going, this might actually be our year there. I mean, like, he don't plan on being in the back. Well, you ding. I know.

I know. But that's a level of confidence right there. He liked the car. He definitely had some bouncing his step the entire speed weeks from the time we unloaded, no question. Interesting. All right. Hold up.

I got one more question, though, about this leading into the race. That was also the year you crashed in Daytona. And so you were, like, how plugged in were you with all of the stuff going on at the time leading into the race? None. None. Yeah. Okay.

Like I had like up my eyeballs in with racing that expedity car. I mean, I'd never race, you know, anything like that. You didn't know you're getting that ride until like a month earlier. That cup garage didn't even exist. I had no clue that. I had no clue that Daytona 500 was even happening. I don't even remember the duels or any of that. But I was overwhelmed.

Yeah. We flipped and I had. I hit my head and got a concussion, and so I was on the couch at home. Well, I knew that. I just didn't know if you were. Watching the 500. I was so mad because I wasn't, I was feeling sick, but I wasn't sick enough that I couldn't have been there. If I'd known he's going to win, I'd have probably stayed.

Sure. Because I'd love to have been in that victory lane. Well, all right. Anything unusual about race morning? Not really. Well, it all kind of started, started to unravel. I thought it was unraveling on us on Friday. Your dad started feeling a little under the weather about Wednesday.

He was almost like he had a stomach bug or something. And I knew even the day of the dual race, he didn't feel good. We won the dual race pretty handedly. I saw him in Victory Lane. He just didn't look good. Was he telling you? He had said something about he didn't feel good. His stomach was bothering and what have you.

So after kind of Victory Lane, the pictures or whatever, I don't even remember if it was the first duel. the second duel. So I looked at him, I said, you don't feel very good. He said, Larry, I feel horrible. I said, okay, here, let's do this. What do you think about this? I said, you're happy with this car. He said, car's good. I said, there's two practices tomorrow, Friday. I said, let's skip the morning practice. You sleep in, maybe go, maybe go infield care center, go see a doctor, whatever. If you'll come out here tomorrow afternoon, we'll go ahead and get our 500 race engine in. and if you'll just run a few laps tomorrow afternoon,

let's just make sure nothing leaks, everything's good, and then we'll get serious in happy hour on Saturday. Back then, of course, happy hour still after the Xfinity Series race. He said, man, that sounds like the best plan I've heard in a while. So sure enough, we change that engine, take our time Friday morning, you know. Crew chief, still nervous because it's like, damn, they're out there practicing, and we're sitting in here changing engines, you know, it's just typical personality of a crew chief.

So we got that engine changed. So this plan's right on track until about 10 minutes before that Friday afternoon practice. One of those old afternoon thunderstorms rolled in there and washed it out. Okay, we're still good. You know, we still got a full hour tomorrow and he's still happy with this car. You know, we'll dot some eyes and cross some T's tomorrow and we'll be ready to run happy hour. So we're ready and classic your dad, man, he's in that car. He's buckled in.

he's ready to drive out to garage gate. I don't even think he got to third gear going off pit road down to turn one. Something's wrong with this engine. So he came in, Danny Lawrence and them raised the hood. They looked at spark plug wires, making sure they were all on. He pulled the spark plug wires, plugs out, put new ones in, looked a few things, sent it back out. He didn't even get the high gear down the back stretch. Damn it, I'm telling y'all something's wrong with this engine.

So he comes back in. they pull the valve covers off and I'm looking now we've already missed 20 minutes to this practice we've not turned a lap since the checkered flag on Thursday so I'm definitely starting to get a little uptight nervous so he pulled the valve covers off and sure enough on one cylinder there was a rock arm that was broke and a pushrod that was bent dang pushrod was still there but it was bent so Danny very meticulously pulled that rock arm off all the pieces were there pulled that push rod out, put new ones on, ran the vows on both sides, put it back together, cranked it up, ran fine. He left pit road. We're down to 20 minutes to go in his practice, but he made a 20-lap run. He said, man, it's good. It's golden. I was like, okay. I'm a big why person. We've got to make a decision collectively. Richard, Danny, got to get Spiny Clinton on the phone or engine builder. I want your dad involved. We got to go to the lounge. Get on the phone. Why did that happen to that engine. Do we need to change this engine before we race tomorrow? So your dad had this habit of

final practice the last run. He'd pull up and get the Goodyear tire sheet. He'd get out of the car. The guys would push the car around to the fuel pumps and your dad would guide it. And then they'd push it to the garage area and your dad would guide the car standing outside the car. So here comes the three car. No Dale. Where's Dale? I don't know. I don't know. So they're pushing it in there and I'm trying to get Danny's attention. Here comes J.R. Rhodes, and I said, J.R., where's Dale? Well, he's out there with some fans. He picked a hell of a time to mix and mingle with fans.

I need to talk to that, man. We've got a decision to make here about this engine. So finally, he comes by me, and he walked by me like I wouldn't even stand in there, and he's got something in his hand, and he's on a mission. So I see him over at the toolbox, and he's got some. something in his hand. He's got a tube of something in his hand, yellow glue, and he's trying to put yellow glue on a penny. And he's got it running down the arm of the sleeve of his Dern Driver's uniform. I said, what are you trying to do, Dale? He said, I got this penny,

lucky penny. I'll put it on the dash of my car. I said, okay, if I help you put that penny on the dash of the car, can we go over as a group and make a decision on this engine? Well, after I got the whole story, I felt about that tall, about being ill at him, about he really wasn't mixing in Mingling with fans. He was out there with a make-a-wish child, Wesse Miller, just still remember today. Her wish was to come to Daytona and meet Dale Earnhardt, and he was out

there having some time with her. And she gave him that penny and said that was her lucky penny she wanted him to have. Good news is we did change the engine. The good news is we did win the race. Did you find out why the motor's been through it? I don't know if I ever really got the reason.

I just, you know, when I think Spinney and Danny, they would have been okay but i think they were second guessing you know god forbid we leave that thing in there as good as this race car is and we that's why we have spare engines and we feel like our spare and the backup to the spares just as good as the primary let's put it in there and be done with it yeah i remember that story about the uh the girl make-a-wish kid and gives him the penalty he glues the penny to the dash he brought it up in victory lane he genuinely fell of the yeah and he believed in that penny He had enough glue on that penny to glue 100 pennies on the back.

It wasn't going anywhere. That is so neat. And it's so cool to hear that story. There's no other way we would ever hear that. But that was a prevalent part of his whole celebration was that penny. I remember as a fan just when he won, that was something that really stuck out, was that the girl, she was handicapped, the penny. He brought her into Victory Lane.

And that was a story. And, man. To hear you say that, now I'm curious, where were you guys going to start before you changed the engines? Well, I think on the second row, because we had won the dual race. Because you won the dual. Yeah, won the dual. So now you're in the back. Yep.

Well, back then, no, you didn't have to go to the rear for changing engines. Oh, is that right? We changed engines like we changed tires. They did. So you could still start. All right. So, yeah. So the decision to change the engines was much easier than I would have thought.

It was just the fact of having an engine that had not turned a single lap. That was the only little thing you're nervous about. out, but I was a lot less nervous about that engine than I was one that had had an issue on Saturday, even though it ran fine for those 20 or so laps on Saturday. What about the race itself? Like, what do you take away of before you even get to the end, did things happen in the race that stand out to you today? It was almost as flawless as the whole week was.

Pit stops were good, car drove good. I don't know if we made any adjustments on that thing throughout. the day it was minimal it may have been a little bit of air pressure it may have been a little bit of wedge or a little bit of track bar here or there it was it was just bare minimum when i went to work at rcr before we went to daytona richard told me said i just need to pre-warn you about something as you know dale and bill france junior are really tight bill france junior has a radio and every once in a while it's it's rare every once in a while he'll talk to dale on radio under caution.

So the whole 97 season, I never heard Bill France Jr. I guess there wouldn't really a lot to talk to us about in 97. So the last caution comes out, I don't know, 20 or so laps to go. And I call for two tires. We come in leading, we leave leading. Everybody else did two tires. So it wasn't like we were rolling the dice or anything. I felt like a lot of people was going to go with two,

and I didn't want to put him in the back with 15 or so laps to go. So make the pit stop. got the lead behind the pace car waiting on the one to go, and man, I was as uptight. If you'd have thumped me, I'd have probably crumbled. So all of a sudden, on the radio, I hear this voice that says, hey, Sunday money, this is Captain Jack. And I'm thinking, who the hell is Captain Jack? Who is on our radio? And Richard saw me, and he knew I was about to have me a cum apart.

Captain's Jack is about to get cussed out, whoever had Captain Jack. And Richard about tackled me. And he kept pointing to, I went, oh, Captain Jack. And he just said, hey, Sunday money, this is Captain Jack. Why don't you go snag that big one today? And of course, your dad knew who it was. He said 10-4. We're going to do it.

Wow. I was about the, my NASCAR career was about to come to a close right there. Cussing Captain Jack. So that was the name of the boats. You know, I got it. I don't know if anybody listed. Of course not. Especially the guy that's about to come on the round.

I totally forgot about Bill France Jr. and Captain Jack having the radio. The president of the sport going on, jumping on the radio. Man. He's about to get cussed out if Richard hadn't stopped. Oh, my gosh. But I'm going to tell you, unless something happened, the confidence I had in Dale Earnhardt, when you put a car out on a racetrack, especially Dayton and Talladega,

I knew unless something weird happened, which had happened many times, as we know, that it was ours to lose. There's just no question that we were not going to get beat. You know, a lot of people look at me today and say, you're our guy. You got the man, the Daytona 500. And I stop them. I go, look, that's a flattering comment. I just happened to be the guy that was his crew chief when he didn't have a flat tire going off. Turn three on lap.

Didn't hit a seagull on the back straight away. Didn't blow an engine leading the race. I just happened to be the guy when it all finally came together, and none of those things happened to that three car. I know you're humble, but the feeling that people have, that feeling that you are the guy, you're the guy that delivered that elusive win that was so important to dad. He did not want to end his career without something like that.

That feeling is legit. Like, it's real. He had some great cars. He had some great opportunities. There's some weird things that went on and reasons why he didn't win that race. But that feeling that you played a big role in helping him succeed and win that race, I mean, it's real. And whether you can play it down all you won't. And that's just who you are.

Well, I felt like the weight of the world that was lifted off my shoulders. I wanted to ask you, like, that race, the caution comes out, right? There was a wreck on the back straightway. John Andretti and somebody else spins down the back straightaway and they throw the yellow. So instead of the traditional biting your nails to the very bitter end off a turn four coming to the checkered, who's going to get a run. Instead of that going, instead of living through that, you know, y'all are racing back to the yellow across the finish line. You know the race isn't going to get restarted, right? Right.

No overtime. Right. So you have almost this uncharacteristic or unusual lap to let it sink. again, right? Looking around and what are you doing again? Well, I still was not taking it for granted, Dale. You just, you weren't going to do the thing. I was not going to say this is done until I saw him truly come underneath that checkered

flag. And, you know, Danny Culler, our spotter, when the wreck happened over there coming off turn two on the backstretch, it was really not a bad wreck, but it was enough to bring the caution out. And Danny knew the deal. And I made sure and stayed off the radio, let Danny talk him back. You know, you got to bring, and of course I can remember Danny, you got to bring it back to the line, champ. You got to bring it back to the line.

And then the minute that happened, I said, you've got to make sure maintain caution lap speed. We got to get back around here one more time. I didn't want that to be the next freak thing that happened is we don't maintain caution lap speed and cars pass us or something freak happens. And so, yeah, until I saw that car truly take that checkered flag, mainly. mainly, I guess, because of what we had been through in 97 and what I knew the three car had been through for 20 years trying to win this thing. I wasn't going to count those chickens until that thing was absolutely underneath that checkered flag. What happened then? It's all a blur.

Is it? Yeah. Honestly, I mean, I remember Victory Lane. I remember, you know, going to the Unicow suite with your dad and Richard and having a toast and going to Bill Jr.'s Captain Jack's suite. He gave us all a cigar going through the media car wash down on pit road, Richard and your dad, myself. And then the guys had taken the car and tore it apart for inspection. And then you have to put it back together. And honestly, I remember all those things, but it didn't sink into me.

It was pouring down rain when they finally loaded that thing back in that little trailer to be able to put it into the Daytona experience the next morning. none of my family was down there they were all home sick with the flu i remember walking in the pouring down rain from the garage to my motor coach and it was about 1130 quarter to 12 and when i sat down to take my shoes off that's when i think it finally hit me i went damn just one the daytona 500 with dale earnhardt i don't think even though i remember everything that went on but there's one other one other moment dale and mike that i'll never forget as long as long as I live. It was in Victory Lane. I've told this story a lot. It was in Victory Lane.

And things were kind of settling down a little bit, you know, but there's still pictures, pictures after pictures after pictures. And the crew was still there and the car was still there. But I remember kind of taking a step back and in watching your dad and Teresa and quite honestly watching Richard and Judy. It's their first time too. And I was fortunate enough six years prior to experience it with Davey, but it's still just as special. There's not that it's, I'm sure if you win a third one, it's just a special too. But to watch, especially your dad and Richard, it's almost like watching your kids unwrapped their presents on Christmas. That's what it meant to me to just take that step back and just kind of take it in and watch their smiles and their actions and how much it

truly, I'll never forget that as long as I live. That's such a great analogy because that's kind of how feels it's like unwrapping a present for Christmas morning. Then you go to Rockingham next, right? And use the provisional. Let's not talk about that. Damn, Mike. Well, reality came back in at some point, right? Yep, like about five days later, man.

That's the way the sport works, man. You are a hero. It's a humbling sport. Oh, it is. And you know, the thing about when in the 500 you talked about, you know, what it did mean to me, trust me, I felt like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders, and I am not kidding, I'm not exaggerating, is the 97 season was closing out and we had not found Victory Lane. I was getting hate mail. I was getting mail that said Ford sent

you over here to sabotage Del Earnhardt Senior's career. They sent you over here to sabotage Chevrolet. So I went through all of that. But trust me, after winning that 500, I probably could have run for president and maybe got a few votes. My goodness. Larry, I think, I don't think he's kidding. We've got to just keep having you back. I mean, we never really talked about. This is the Dale Jr. download, not the Larry Mac download.

I know. But you know what? I've said this a lot of times. When people ask me about our show, when I really kind of, I think when we're all done and we look at the overall body of work of what we've done. Like years, when it's been done for years and we look back, it's going to be us getting to really understand, really Dale Jr., getting to understand who Dale Earnhardt was.

You've just opened up so much insight into Dale Earnhardt that I don't think Dale knew, and I certainly, and I'm just tell you, it just feels like a privilege to be able to understand that week and that year and all that you went in. I'm just honored to hear it. Yeah, my opinion of y'all's relationship. The split, the two years y'all worked together, year and a half you all worked together. All of that was quite different than the way you explain it.

So I appreciate that because I had a lot of respect for you. And I always, you know, you did, you were the guy that Dad won his 500 with. And I know that they brought you over there with all these great intentions and expectations. and I know that dad's bullheadedness and hardheadedness certainly had you one hand tied behind your back whether you'll admit that or not. But, you know, but anyways, I had formed this opinion of how things were and how you even felt about it, right? So to hear a bit of a different skew on that is really refreshing.

Never had, yeah, I'd be some mad at him at times. I could just pinch his head off, but had all the respect and admiration in the world. And even though we didn't bear a lot of fruit, I wouldn't trade that year and a half for nothing in the world. You know, just one little quick story on the testing, and you'll appreciate this. You know, again, he'd already told me I don't test before and off weekend. I don't test after. And he gave me all these stipulations on testing. Well, 97, my first year with him, was our first year to go to Texas Motor Speedway.

And everybody was going there testing. And Bobby Hutchins had worked for a week. And he finally came to, he said, Larry, this is not good. The only days I can get is the Thursday and Friday before Easter. And I said, you want to call him or you want me to call him? Well, I knew he was going down to the Durham Bahamas for Easter. So I said, I'll call him. So I called him.

I said, Dale, I know this is not what you want to hear. But I said, the only time we can get Texas to test, and we really need to go there and test is the Thursday and Friday before Easter. And there was a silence on the phone. And how all of a sudden he said, well, I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm not happy about it, but I'm going to fly back Thursday morning. He's already been down there.

He said, we'll start testing whenever I get there. We'll test Thursday. We'll test Friday, but at noon, I'm out of there. The damn airport and the Bahamas don't have lights, and I'm going back on Friday. Okay, that's a lot better than I expected. Dale so helped me. We made the last run about five minutes to 12 on Friday. by the time that I was up on the hauler and I made a few notes and I wanted to come down to debrief with him,

the helmet was swinging into the three car and the rental car was headed out the gate. I had to call him on the cell phone to see what the last run did. That's hilarious. Wow. Man, man, listen. Yeah. We got to end it there, right? Yeah.

We got to end it with a win. Larry, we appreciate you for coming. We got a lot more to get to. we have all these notes that we put. We have a shared note system here, and we have a lot of notes that we did not get to from your last, from your first interview with us. So we definitely got to get you to come back.

There's so many other people's careers that you were a part of, so many other stories that we really need to get from you. So we'd love to have you back sometime this year. But thanks for helping us kick our season off. This is a great way to start the year. One, I'm flattered just to come do this show with you. I've been a big fan of the show that you guys watch it faithfully and to be the first show for 2021.

That's even very flattering. And, you know, just the fans that reached out after the first show that said, you got to go back and do it again. You got to go back and do again. That was very flattering and overwhelming. Well, thanks. We appreciate it. And people are going to be glad to hear what you got to tell them.

And we start our show at the stint. You know how this is doing TV. You start the season and things start out. and then they just kind of build from there, your audience builds and everything else. So I don't think that we've ever started the season stronger than this. Well, that's flattering. You're going to help us have just an incredible year and get a lot of other people's stories out there too. So have a great week, man.

Enjoy the Daytona 500. Hard to believe. You're going to be working again this year and doing what you do as the people's crew chief. America's crew chief. He's the people's crew chief. New name. You just got to, you came to the download. left with a new name. I just had T-shirts

made that said America's true chief. Now my thought I was made. Go straight to the trademark office and get people's true chief done. I know T-Rex's shop, they make T-shirts. Yeah, that's who makes mine. That's who makes mine. Yeah, I think Brandon's the one making money off of it, though. He's got a heck of a deal going over there. Yeah. He's a businessman. Very smart.

All right, buddy. Thank you. Thank you all. All right. We're live. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. This is the Ask Junior portion of the show for the Dale Jr. Download. Thanks for tuning in. This is our first show of the season, and we're excited to be back in the studio. And looking forward to an awesome, awesome year. We got a great guest for our first show.

Larry Mack comes back to the desk to tell us a little bit about the 1998 Daytona 500. Please, you'll want to hear what he has to say. It's pretty awesome stuff. But let's get right to it. You guys got some great questions. Leah is going to tee them all up. Yep, our first question is coming in from Tim Pendergrass. He wants to know who gets their first win this year and who might surprise everyone with a breakout year.

Who gets their first win this year? That's hard to say. I wouldn't be surprised if Tyler Reddick pulls one off. RCR had some speed at the end of last year, a shocking speed, really, to be honest with you, with Austin Dillon when they were going in the playoffs. So maybe Reddick, and I don't know if it would surprise anybody if Larson has this incredible year and makes it all the way into the final four, but he's, a guy that I would not really be surprised if he has just, it might be a little lukewarm to start

the season because he's got to get his legs again. I don't care what sport you're in. This is the elite level, right? So if you take a year off and come right back in, there's a bit of a period where you just got to get yourself back in shape and getting mentally conditioned for what's happening on the racetrack. But I think once he does that, whether that takes a week, a month, whatever, I think that he can position himself into a great run into the playoffs and be a guy that would be hard to beat. Plus, with the success that the nine car had, Chase Elliott, to lean on his teammate, their ability to be a championship team. I think Larson will be pretty tough this year. Jared Rector wants to know, what are your thoughts on the state of the charter system?

I don't really, I mean, it's working as designed. The state of the charter system. I hope they don't add more. I know that there's growing demand for charters, which I think is great. There's teams that are still out there positioning to buy them, and that's good. You want that. That's going to increase the value of the charters over time. I don't mind the charter system. The only thing that I wish we could get back to is having a little bit more of a battle in the Dutonah 500 over who's going to race their way in.

Right now, there's four spots available to the open cars going into Daytona. Two, I think, are taking on time. and the other two are taking on the results of their finish in the duel, right? Even if all, even if those four alone, if there's only four open spots and they have to race their way through the duel, that's still not very compelling. I loved it when the duel had a little bit more impact on who was going to make the race and how they were going to, you know, who was going to make it and who was going to miss it. With the charters, there's so many people guaranteed that the open spots, there's so few,

and that that is a less compelling sort of. It's interesting. Yeah. So I wish that, if anything, there were maybe less charters in the sport. I think that the charter system is a good system, and I think that it's good to have some value in your team. Because when, before charters were here, you know, if I wanted to sell my race team, how do you put a value on it?

You can't. Obviously, there's parts and pieces, but that stuff's going for pennies on the dollar. What NASCAR did was create a value for an owner, tangible value over what it means to be in the sport and have a guaranteed position in the sport and locked in spot to start these races. And so those things immediately gave millions of dollars to value to the team's position in the sport. So that's a good thing for owners. But they certainly, you know, there's plenty of charters of anything. They could take a few away and have a few more guys racing in to each of these races.

qualifying into each of these races and create a little more compelling of a story for these new these newer teams coming in and some of these other teams that are struggling to survive we have a fan alan yoder he's going to attend his first uh nascar race during the polkano doubleheader weekend and he also got a NASCAR ride along for christmas at polka no so he wants to know what is it like going around there what can he expect what track pocano uh very long straightaways obviously uh the longest front straight away in the series on the front straightaway at polka no uh very longest straightaway at polka no uh very flat corners, and it's going to be scary and exciting. The eternal turn is one of the most terrifying experiences as a driver. Drivers are kind of macho, and, oh, man, nothing's, I'm not scared of nothing. And I drive cars fast, and I'm just made for this. But the tunnel turn gets everybody's attention, whether you live in a minute or not, they're white-knuckled through there, just about every time you go through it. You never go through, you never come up on the tunnel turn and go, I know exactly what to do.

That's interesting. You never go through there and say that was perfect, and I'm going to go and repeat that the next time by. It's not possible. It's one of them kind of corners where you just never end up where you wanted to. You never do it exactly the way it seems to play out in your mind. It's a very hairy experience to drive through. So hopefully you feel that when you're out there and going through your experience.

Our next question coming from Rob watching live on YouTube. what's the best new paint scheme for 2021 that you've seen anything stick out to you um yeah there were one or two i don't know i need to see them on the racetrack i you know you get them in you get pictures of cars and you see them in photos shoots and all that stuff and i've experienced this myself you get it on paper it looks great you even if you have a virtual model of it in 3d on a computer screen you're like man that's cool this is going to people are going to love this it still has to pass the grade when it's on the racetrack if you're watching it from the grand stands or you're watching it from the tv screen a lot of times the color and and position the color

position lettering of the sponsor the number all that looks great on paper but can get lost and disappear on the racetrack or be hard to read your car can be hard to pick out of a crowd you know I've had fans red fans comments about that pertaining to our different paint schemes we have of the years. So I kind of like to see them in action, but I haven't really seen one that I don't like, I guess, so far. We have people chiming in saying the track house cars look good, Christopher Bells and William Byron's Exulte. Yeah. That's a good looking car. I liked Bowman's car. They made some minor adjustments to that design, and I thought it was pretty cool, some of the graphic on Bowman's car. I don't think I liked that 24.

I did everybody else. You did? Yeah, I liked it. I don't think I did. I remember, I think it was the 24. It was loud, right? That was one with all the... Well, yeah, but that's why he wouldn't like it. I like them clean. Yeah. Yeah. But I've been, I've had a few that were pretty crazy. Billy D. With Denny being an owner now as well, will that give him any distractions or can drivers turn off that switch? Yeah, I mean, when he's in the car, it's not going to bother him. When he's out there on the racetrack, it's not going to be a distraction at all. The only thing that it's, he's absolutely going to have more stuff on his plate, he's absolutely going to have, it's tough.

I'm not going to sugarcoat it and say that, man, it's going to be a breeze. It's going to be tough. Like being an owner is a difficult job on its own. Yeah, you couple that with also being a driver for a different car and different company. I know there's a relationship there between Gibbs and his team, but he's got to worry about the performance of his team and his his performance as a driver and have all those same exact concerns for a whole other race car as the owner right and people are going to all those people in the company are going to look to him as like hey man you know where are we headed what are we doing

what's the next step he's going to have to answer to those people and and and direct and steer the organization throughout the years but also you know continue the success he wants to have as a driver it will be a big challenge for anybody in that position. I can't imagine trying to tackle that, but I think he can do it and be successful at it. He is going to be a busy boy. And is there anybody else in that ownership group other than he and Michael Jordan? Probably is.

But he's legitimately running the – Now, I feel like that Denny's going to really have some people who can trust that are in the day-to-day, much like, you know, Kelly is hands-on day-to-day at Junior Motorsports. can literally not touch a dial or touch a switch here for weeks and not have a negative effect, right? Mm-hmm. And I think Denny can put himself in that same situation to where if he really had to dig into

the driving side of it in that 11 car and spend real time there for, you know, for days at a time that he's going to have the right people in place to help him run his race team. I'm just saying he is going to his mind. Oh man, he is going to, his mind's going to be running a hundred mile an hour. It probably already has been him trying to win his championship and all those things. But man, he is not going to have a minute to rest. I mean, like, even if you're not doing the day to day, you still have the pressure of being responsible for X number of employees.

You have basically incurred all their problems. I mean, like, legitimately, if Kelly, even though Kelly runs the day to day, if somebody fails a drug test, then you know what? She's got to tell you about it. Or if somebody, not that we've had that. I'm just saying, hypothetically. Or if there's a social media post that all of a sudden we're catching grief on and it's affecting our brand, you got to know about it. These things, I mean, like, yeah, you don't have to run the day to day to have to feel the pressure and the responsibility.

All right. All right. Last question from Patrick. Did you pick up any new hobbies or revisit any old ones during the off season? I sim raced a lot and still enjoy that. Started playing a first-person shooter, which usually I just stick right to. to plan, you know, to iraicing and racing online, but I started playing another video game. That, to me, was, that's different for me.

I usually don't do that. I kind of felt like how you get away with it. You just got a new kid. Well, how do you do that? All right, here's my, it's great question. Mike, here's my schedule. Yeah, I want to know my schedule? Yeah.

All right, we all get up when, when it's time to get up, 730, 8 o'clock. I'm kind of responsible for Ila, for the most part. Amy is responsible for Nicole. Ila naps around 2 to 4. I usually won't jump on the computer then because Nicole might be up and down and I just feel bad if I go in there and play video games while Amy's dealing with that.

So I just kind of make myself, I just kind of hang around and support emotionally while Alah's napping. And then Alla goes to sleep around 8.30. So I'll get her teeth brushed, make sure she uses the restroom, and then put her down, read her book. And when she goes to bed, Amy's already put Nicole to bed around eight,

and Amy goes to bed when Nicole goes to bed. Absolutely. So I'm left to do whatever I want. That's how it works. I got it. So I get on the computer around 8, 30, 9 o'clock, and race until around midnight and go to bed, repeat every day. That's what I've been doing for the last, like literally month.

I got you. Every day that's been the... You're taking Isle to school now? I took Isle to school this morning. Yeah. I just was texting. Amy if I needed to go pick her up. I got you.

Was that difficult the first time? I need to be in the line in one hour. You and I talked about this. Was it difficult the first time you had to drop her off? Yeah. So, of course, she didn't like it, didn't want to go, was scared. Like, what is this? Where we, I don't know, who are these people?

Literally two days at school and she was over it. She was fine. She was, like, excited to go. She's happy to get out of the car, jumps out of the car and runs right on in there. That's nice. That's the first day. The first drop off, I remember. It was awful.

Good question. Speaking of Viola, I had a great one, I had the first meet me at the door coming home from a trip yesterday. Oh, all right, because we were on our project. Me and you went and worked on a project yesterday. And when I got home, she was standing at the door like, Daddy! That's nice. That's the first time that she's ever done that. Now, when you and I showed up to your house a week ago, she came running to you, she did.

But she wasn't right at the door, though. This one was standing at the door. That's nice. It's awesome. Major Day, didn't it? I thought you'd probably hanging out with me, Major David. It actually got better, didn't it? All right, everybody.

I appreciate you guys sending in those questions. Again, we're kicking the season off. Looking forward to bringing you guys a lot of great content here at DirtyModea. We appreciate y'all's support. We'll see you next week. All right, before we close the show, I found something on Reddit, I think you guys need to know about it. Apparently, y'all know Pablo Escobar. Oh, the crime lord?

From Columbia. Yeah. He used to race. What? Yeah. So Pablo Escobar raced in the 1970s. He participated in the Copa Renault 4 series. He legitimately was like in the point standing type of racer?

On Reddit, it said in this information that after six races in the season, he was ranked second in the championship points. All right, so I would have to let him win. Well, he raced against his cousin and other cartel brothers. Yeah. Oh, so the cartel has their own series? And other racers. I got it.

I guess they were like, hey, y'all, I feel like racing. Let's go get some cars. We're going to join this series. The Copa Renault 4 was the car. It's high-selling car in Columbia, comparable, I guess, to the Volkswagen in the U.S. had 24 horsepower. 24 horsepower.

I don't seem like a lawnmower. I know. Well, yeah, he raced. Yeah. 1979 was the inaugural Copo Renalt 4 championship at the Autodromo Ricardo circuit in Bogota is a spec car series

Pablo's cars were more spec than the rest Wait, wait, what does that mean? More spec than the rest. Well, I bet if he was cheating at all. I'm not saying he's a cheater, but if he was cheated... I don't want to call the man that's responsible for an estimated 6,000 deaths, a cheater.

Hey, when asked to be... When asked about racing with him, a competitor said that Pablo's car was a little faster than the rest. Mm-hmm. That's brave. Did he live to see that accusation? Did he live to see the next day? Right? He had to go into hiding after saying that.

Others would catch Pablo in the corners, but Pablo, he'd pull away on the straightways. Rummer has it that Pablo would pay off police to pull over faster drivers on the way to the racetrack before the race. No way. Of course. Dude, we're talking about, like, one of the biggest. criminal, murderous people of all times. Apparently he used the local police to make sure that his main rival in the series, Alvaro, how you pronounce that?

You probably can say it's, oh, Alvaro. I mean, you nailed all the other stuff. I'm sure you'll get this one right. He paid the local police to make sure that his rival didn't get to the track until three minutes before the start of the first nationally televised race. When asked about what he did for a living, Pablo told the press that he sold bicycles. Of course.

He showed up to the track with support trucks, food, champagne, girls, his own helicopter. He later raced a Porsche 9-11 SRS. This was the same type of car that Emerson Field of Pottie raced in the 1974 Iraq season. He challenged Columbia's most famous driver, Ricardo Londonoh, in a hill-climb event in Medellan, driving the Porsche 9-11, wagered, he wagered that he could come within 15 seconds of Londono's time and came within 8 seconds. Yeah, because he lifted.

No, he beat. No, because the other guy lifted. I understand. Right before Pablo pushed him off the top of the mountain. While racing these Porsches, he eventually decided he needed to stop because it was too much in the public eye. Oh, because, yeah, publicity was something that he'd. getting like, right? He's getting too good.

Yeah, he's winning too much. He also tried to sponsor an F1 car, but then they caught wind of where the money was coming from and decided to not allow that driver to use his sponsorship. Nobody's ever had any shady money in motorsports. No. Right. There's never been any kind of, you know, funny stuff going on. Maybe you don't take the money directly out of the bag of cocaine and put it onto the sponsorship

of the F1 for, you know, be okay. Maybe you don't do that. This, I mean, we're talking about a ruthless dude, right? I mean, didn't he get, how did he die? When did he die, Schultz? I think. I looked it up. It was in a gunfight, wasn't it?

After a race. Please be after a race. Oh, my gosh. On the podium. On the podium. Yeah, he died of a gunshot wound to the head. Yeah, that'll do it. 1993.

Oh, my. Well, he, um, he raced. I had no idea. Pablo Escobar. Raced. Now we've got two. drug smugglers that we know for fact have been in racing. Do we know the other one? Do we want to say it?

Gary. Gary Ballute. Yeah, that's what I was saying. Like, there's never been any shady money in racing. Right, right, you're right, you're right. I wonder if we can get a Pablo Escobar die cast for our table. I'm serious. I have a picture of the car right here.

You do? Yeah, take it out. I mean, we can get a diecast made. We can somewhat... Look at this car. Yeah, we can somewhat get a reasonable replication. made of that. Yes, we can.

Yes, we can. All right. Well, I thought everybody would be interested to know that. That is interesting. Look at you on Reddit just pulling out all these lives on.

Redd's great. I'm enjoying my time on Reddit. You know what I go on there? I go on there and sort of help if I can. Like answer curiosities and questions people have because there's a lot of people on there

just asking genuine questions. Like, hey, why does this happen? Or what is going on in this? When a driver talks about X or whatever. The NASCAR Reddit, I don't know how that works, but the NASCAR Reddit is actually a good follow in social media. I mean, the news is always really current. That's actually why I went to Reddit is because it's a great way to stay kind of up to date on what going on.

And it's crowdsourced. They go a little, you're right, Mike. They go a little deeper into, like, I'm going to get what Bob Pockers tweeted, but I'm also going to get what, you know, everything else below that is going on in all the series. Even ARCA, anything that's happening in the sport. It's a pretty good place to find that information out. And get people's take on it. You kind of get, you not only learn some news,

but you also can read people's reactions. This is not an ad. All right, everybody, last call. It's been a great show. Don't forget to watch it on NBCSN. The Dell Jr. download will be on Wednesday at 5 p.m. Eastern on NBCSN. Door bumper clears. premiere episode is out now. Freddy talks about

2311 racing's goals with Bubba Wallace. Brett talks about himself. T.J. talks about trying to win the 500 with Joe Legano. Plus, they are bringing back reaction theater. I was a little jealous about this because I've wanted it and you said no for all these years. Is that what I did? Door bumper clears. Bringing back Reaction Theater. The fans get to have their own voice.

Yeah. That should be a lot of fun to listen to. Dirtymoe Media in 2021. We got a lot more guests coming to you for the download. Entertaining Race Banner and Reaction on Door Bumper Clear. Some new top secret podcast that we're working on. Excited about that. And Lost Speedways?

Is that coming back? Is it coming back? We're excited for Daytona. We're going to see if Junior Motorsports can win the season opening Xfinity Series race for the fourth. consecutive year. I cannot believe that we're sitting in position to have an opportunity to do that. So tune in.

Guys, I'm just so, I'm so happy to finally be back at the desk, back making podcast shows the Dell Jr. Download. I couldn't be happier that this is going on. I've really missed it. So I hope you guys can feel that. We'll talk to you next week. This bit of bad assery was made by Dirtymoe media

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