The Dale Jr. Download - 330 - Todd Parrott: Being Honest

Episode Date: March 10, 2021

Dale Earnhardt Jr. is joined by two-time Daytona 500 and 1999 NASCAR Cup Series championship crew chief Todd Parrott for an emotional and heart-felt conversation about Parrott’s triumphs and struggles.Ahead of this interview, Dale Jr. fills us in on the latest developments for Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. He details what he learned traveling to Nashville last week with Marcus Smith and meeting with both Tennessee's Governor and the Mayor of Nashville. Hear how the project took a major step closer to bringing NASCAR back to the short track.Todd Parrott’s career fascinates Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis. They dive deep into his 50 years in the sport, covering both the good times and challenging circumstances Parrott faced.Idolizing his father Buddy Parrott, Todd knew he was destined for a career in racing. Hear how he landed a job on Richard Petty’s team early in his career and helped The King win his final two races.Starting with Petty, Parrott worked for some of racing’s greatest talents including Tim Richmond, Rusty Wallace, and Dale Jarrett. He details his career path that ascended him from a mechanic and tire guy to championship-winning crew chief.Dale Jr. loves hearing the ‘speed secrets’ from back in the day that crew chiefs used to get an advantage over the field. Parrott shares some of the best innovation stories from the garage we’ve heard yet including how he altered a NASCAR inspection template.Parrott formed a special relationship with Rusty Wallace while working on his team. Learn what it was like working for that group and where the saying “Rusty is God” came from.Before departing Wallace’s team for Robert Yates Racing, Parrott recalls the emotional decision to tell Rusty about the new opportunity. You won’t believe what Wallace handed Parrott as the two pondered Todd’s future.Parrott’s greatest successes as a crew chief came during his days at Robert Yates Racing. He explains what happened on his first day on the job, working with Ernie Irvan and then Dale Jarrett starting the next season.Parrott tells us what his relationship with Jarrett was like, growing close with each other and winning their first race together. That was followed up with a Daytona 500 victory, where Jarrett held off Dale Earnhardt. He explains the hard work and long hours it required to achieve the amount of success the No. 88 team did in the late 1990s.On the night before the 1998 Daytona 500, Parrott shares a special story about a conversation he had with the Intimidator. Plus, find out why Parrott was singled out in Dale Sr.’s victory lane interview. He shares what their relationship was like and what they did for fun on the lake.Learn how one comment led to the breakup with Jarrett and the fallout afterward. Following a couple of seasons with Elliott Sadler, Jarrett and Parrott reunited and delivered on a promise they made Robert Yates.Parrott’s career then experienced a lot of change in the following years, working with a variety of teams and drivers. It came to a head in 2013 when personal struggles led to a failed drug test.The North Carolina native gets personal about the low point in his life and how he was determined to turn it around. He shares about his road to recovery and his next opportunities with Tommy Baldwin and Richard Childress Racing.Before leaving, Parrott says he’s ready for another shot to crew chief again and explains why. Plus, he fills us in on why he gave Dale Jr. the nickname “powder.”In Ask Jr., fans inquire about Dale’s Nova hitting the streets, his thoughts on Kyle Larson’s victory and Hendrick Motorsports’ rise, and why he sometimes goes by the name Anna. 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. All right, everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download. Mike Davis, my co-host is here. Hello, Mike. Hey, Dale. How are you? Leah, Schultz, they're all in the house. We got a good show. Todd Parrott is going to come on the show.

Todd, obviously, for a lot of you that know, was a crew chief for Dale Jarrett, when Dale won his championship. for Robert Yates. But Todd was around long before, and I really want to get into all of that. His dad, Buddy Parrott, was a Hall of Fame worthy crew chief and has an amazing story himself. So we'll learn a little bit about Buddy along the way, I'm sure. I'm really excited about this. So looking forward to that interview. And we got a lot of things going on out there.

Oh, Mike. Hey, what's up? So we went to Nashville Fairgrounds. I noticed. Right? Great news. So for a lot of you folks out there, I've been pushing real hard over the years, especially since we moved the banquet to Nashville, where we celebrate the champion, that we would go back to Nashville and race trucks, Xfinity Cup.

Obviously, my choice is the Fairgrounds. NASCAR is going to Nashville this year. We're going to Nashville Super Speedway, and the closer we get to that event, the more excited about that, I get. Good. I am. I'm looking forward to it. That is actually the first race that NBC is going to broadcast this year. We'll come out of the gate with a track that the Cup Series has never really been to.

So it should be a lot of excitement and energy for that race, and I'm looking forward to it. But, you know, my hope is that the idea of racing at the fairgrounds is still alive and well. It's been something that's sort of been in conversation. There's been some movement, some effort, mainly led by Marcus Smith and his team with Bristol Motor Speedway. They've been sort of exploring that avenue of the real possibilities of racing at the fairgrounds. And you'll hear from different people over time that, oh, the deal's dead. Oh, this is never going to happen. Well, still alive.

Oh, still some movement. Never going to have. You know, just kind of people are going back and forth. And everybody's got an opinion about what the realistic situation is about racing there. So I have been in contact with Marcus for years about this, telling him over and over, like anything I can do to help, please, anything I can do to help. Well, a good friend of mine, Teddy Phillips, is a partner in the Nashville Grand Prix for the IndyCar series. They're going to come to Nashville and race in the city.

It's going to be amazing. an opportunity came up for me to become a small part of that group and a sort of it's just a really cool opportunity for me to learn to do something with my friend Teddy and yeah just see what that side of the world's like you know we got a you know I don't know much about any car outside of the Indy 500 and a lot of people speculated on what is Dale Jr. doing why is he doing that but really that's it you just were curious and wanted to do it and get involved in the city yeah good opportunity came on came across the table and and and and I know a friend that's involved that I really enjoy being around so anyhow when not when the I guess the news of that sort of got released uh Marcus called me or text me and said hey what are you doing you're you're promoting uh without me and I said well man I've been telling you for years to to take me along with you no strings attached I want nothing in return but other than to help you achieve the goal of getting NASCAR back to the fairgrounds. And I said, listen, I'll drop anything, whatever I'm doing any day to go with

you wherever you need me to go to help you. And sure enough, a couple days later, he called me and said, hey, we're going to meet the mayor. Can you go? Absolutely. I'm going. So we went. It was a great experience for me. Well, hold up. Did he give you any insight into what your role was in this trip? So not really. We got on the plane and I said, you know, just tell me what you need me to do. So we went to meet the governor first. Okay. And we sat down with him for a little while.

The governor of Tennessee. Yeah. And so we sat down with him for a little while. And I just, when I got the opportunity, I just said my feelings about racing at the fairgrounds, how much it means to me. that connection that connection that makes so much sense to me that we want to be in Nashville it's a great fit for us to celebrate our champion that's our banquet i think that's a marquee event in our season very important day for our sport is when we acknowledge everything

that we just did this whole year right we celebrate not only the champion but other people within our sport that have a you know rookie of the year and all the things right myers brothers that's an important moment in the season, an important moment in NASCAR's sort of history to document everything that has been going on in the year. So where we celebrate that is important. So if we're going to do that in Nashville, which is a great fit, we should,

there's some racetracks here. We should showcase the product. You know, this product should be alive and well in this city. Yeah. And so, you know, the Super Speedway is a great place to go do that in the short term and right now and here. But the Fairgrounds is an opportunity in the future once there's some renovations and so forth. Anyhow, when I got the opportunity to say that, I shared that emotion. And, you know, Weeleybrood live some memories of my racing at the fairgrounds back in the mid-90s and late-model stocks

and an Xfinity series in 9899. We went to the racetrack and visited the track, drove around it. A little, you know, preliminary conversation about things that might need to be improved or changed or worked on, you know, kind of just, you know, exploring what Marcus's vision for the property is

or that racetrack and what it could become. And then we went and sat with the mayor for hours, which was a great experience for me just to sit there and listen to, okay, this is the obstacles for the mayor and the city officials, the fair board, and this is every, you know, I kind of got a sense by being in that meeting of what everybody, what everybody's hope and wish is

and what everybody's kind of vision is for the future of that property. not just the racetrack but the soccer stadium that's being built right now in Nashville and there's other things that are going to be part of that property that are going to serve the community and which are really exciting for the surrounding neighborhoods in that area and it and it was great to see the you know the mayor in the city neatly fit the racetrack's future into that property, right, and how that could work. So did you feel it was an uphill climb in convincing these guys, or did you think that they were sort of already on board if they could just make financial sense about it?

Everybody loves the idea. Okay, that's awesome. Loves the idea, but it has to make financial sense. Sure. It has to work for the city financially. Like it cannot, it can't fall short at least a little bit. And so that was definitely something that was voiced. moment many many times in the conversation was that this you know the the number one result has to be

financial success for the city and for the mayor and the office there to see this as a as a you know as a as a possibility they almost need that guarantee and so that's fair yeah yeah so marcus and his team man they are they are motivated they are so motivated to to make it work I think that they might be the only people that could make it work. I just don't know that just sitting in there with Marcus and sensing the passion that he has for this and the motivation that he has, he really is into it, man.

That's interesting. So are you suggesting that without that passion, it's too much to do for, you would fizzle out. Your enthusiasm would fizzle out. But if you had the passion that Marcus has, that's the kind of thing that's going to be required to see this thing through. Yeah. I just think that with their background track record, the ability, you know, what they've done in the past around the country with their racetracks and their knowledge of how to, you know, how to, if they're given this budget, how to make that work and get everything out of it they need. I just feel like that they're, they're on to something really special.

and I just really kind of sit there and absorb the whole thing. And again, when I got the opportunity to speak on, you know, why I feel like it's important for us to be there and race there at some point in the future, I did. But it was really a great learning experience. I'm so thankful for Marcus to be able to take me along so I can understand really where this project sits. And I really wanted to know, like, okay, you know, like I said, What are the hurdles for the city?

What are the hurdles for Marcus, the track, the fair board, the property, everything, all of it has to work in unison. It's like an engine and all the parts have to fit together. Are you able to share any of the hurdles? Like, is it like, is the track in dire need of repairs? I went to the racetrack and it's in great shape. Okay. It is. It really is.

I mean, they're going to have racing there this year. The track is still functional. and working as it sits today and you can race there tomorrow. You know, there's a lot of things that absolutely need to be upgraded and it's all, you know, nitpicky little things. And they'll have to, you know, make some changes to pit road entry and so forth to make, you know, make it workable for NASCAR and live stops. Oh, yeah, gotcha.

You know, if you saw it, you'd understand what I'm trying to say. No, I get you. Talking to Marcus, you know, there's not, you know, there's not any, they're going to maintain the profile and the look and feel of this Speedway as is. You know, you don't want to, we're not trying, they're not trying to go in there and reinvent Nashville Fairgrounds. It is what it needs to be right now. They just need to make it where it's, you know, they've got to install some. soft walls, that type of technology has to be thought out and done the right way.

You just don't want to plug the walls in and narrow up the racing groove and that changes the entire feel and profile of the racetrack when you do that. So they have an opportunity at this point to, you know, do those type of things the right way for the long term without really affecting what kind of racetrack you have there today. It's just an amazing place. They've got a great plan, and they're already far along into what they want to do to the racetrack and the facility to make it work. To be able to get people in and out of there and make it a great experience and make it fit. It's got to be this puzzle piece that fits perfectly with the rest of the property and the soccer stadium and all the people.

They have a vision, right? They have a vision of success in their mind. and the racetracks got to fit into that perfectly. And so it's really interesting. Well, you guys ended up, the mayor signs a letter of intent. What does that mean? What are we supposed to make of that? You know, I think that there was, you know, I can just assume that Marcus needs that

commitment from the city before he can go spend more money on designs and ideas. and they've spent, Marcus and his teams invested in the property to get to this point, but to continue to make that type of investment and really bring those type of plans forward to show to the mayor and the city and the fair board and everybody else. They need a bit more of a commitment than they've gotten. And so that was a real key moment. that triggers what that letter of intent does is it triggers Marcus in Bristol Motor Speedway to go back and start planning next steps I mean like yeah start really showing so they need to go

back and and they'll get down and at the drawing board and start designing this property and this the racetrack start you know making the upgrades and improvements to the racetrack and bring forward that and the budget for that, right? So that the city can understand that NASCAR can fit inside this, this idea of a budget. That costs money to have those people draw up those type of plans and really do that kind of crunch those numbers. So that's when, that was, it was great.

It was when we, I'll just say this. So Marcus and we went into that meeting. we had a great conversation everything in that meeting was positive the mayor was positive but he was very straightforward and honest about look this is how this has to work

or it doesn't work Marcus was completely understanding of the box that he needs to fit into to make this happen and when we walked out of that meeting after that letter of intent was signed Marcus was doing

cartwheels as happy as I've seen him, I believe, ever. Okay. Because I think, you know, he's been working on this, and he's had many, many trips up to Nashville to sit down with the mayor for three years. You know, when he was on our show, you asked him about the fairground's progress, and it was like he didn't want to get too deep in the weeds, but you could tell there was a lot going on in his head,

and it seemed like he'd been working on this a long time. Yeah. It seemed like that. Yeah. He's a really interesting guy, and I really enjoy being around him and just watching and trying to figure out what he's thinking. You know, his family's been in his business a long time. He's going to take the reins and already kind of has taken the reins over their business from his father Bruton. he's going to be a major part of this sport going forward

and it's just interesting to be around those type of people and try to understand how they think and try to learn you know and try to try to it really you know I can sit here and just be a massive fan of going to the fairgrounds and racing but I really it's really cool to get down in there and get under the hood you know and see how the nuts and bolts of this thing are going to come together if it ever happens. I want to ask you this one last question,

and that is, you know, I've never been to Nashville, and a lot of fans, I assume, that are listening to this podcast, have never been there. Why Nashville, why are you so passionate about this particular track and not like others, like, you know, Rockingham or other tracks that have had cup dates or had potential to be cut? What is it about Nashville Fairgrounds? I race there, so that, yeah, that definitely makes it close to my heart,

but we caught lightning in a bottle with Bristol Motor Speedway back in the 70s into the 80s and 90s. I mean, that was our packed sold out, couldn't get a ticket type of racetrack. And we didn't, we don't, you know, that, it was larger than life. Bristol Motor Speedway was. And, you know, we had this big explosion of mile and a half tracks being built. We moved away from short tracks and chased after an idea and a new vision, right? We chased after, you know, these big grand mile and a half complexes that hold all these people and put on these magnificent races, right?

And we miss some short track racing. We need a little bit of that back. We need some of that ingredients back into the meal. and here's a race track that I think is very similar to Bristol in profile, in history, and the ability to put on an exciting race. If you wanted to try to create a very exciting, popular short track, it has a lot of the ingredients that you would use if you were going to start from scratch,

but it's there, it's ready. I mean, it just needs a facelift, right? Got it. And so Nashville is such a great city. Man, is that place just grown and really sort of come into its own over the last decade? And when we go, so we've been out there in Vegas with our banquet. I've had a great time in Vegas. The banquet's a great fit for Vegas.

And we certainly everybody enjoys hanging out in the casinos for a week and then celebrating the champion. But if we're going to move it, we're going to move it closer to. the home base, if you will, where we have our Hall of Fame, Charlton, North Carolina, all that. Basically, moving it to Nashville, that's like walking into your backyard. Yeah. Right? Right. It's a great fit.

It's a great town that loves to, loves the party, loves to have a good time. That's what the banquet's about. It's a week-long celebration or a few-day celebration of the sport. You celebrate the champion, but you also celebrate the champion, but you also celebrate. celebrate what NASCAR is all about, right? And it's superstars. And so we got a great little racetrack right there that's just perfect to be able to go to maybe once a year and, you know, and really show Nashville what NASCAR is all about. And let that community really kind of embrace us the way that we want to embrace them.

You know, it's a, it's, I just think it makes a lot of sense. So hopefully the progress keeps going in the right direction. but the letter of intent was a great sign that the city is is really warming up to the idea of having Marcus and Bristol Motor Speedway. And when fans, there's a couple things that I've seen on social media. Obviously, there's a community around that racetrack. I mean, there's housing and everything right around it. I talked to Marcus multiple times during that trip about noise control, things that he would want to do, things that could be done, discussions that could be had with NASCAR to really make this a fit.

for the community. Another thing, too, is if Marcus and his team do get this contract and lease, then the community will have a better understanding of the calendar year of which they will hear racing. There won't be these, you know, right now, you know, if I have a late model and I wanted to go to Nashville, I could probably go rent a track sometime next week and just show up and run all day, right? And bug the hell out of the neighbors. All that stuff will be a little bit more controlled. There's a lot of good things in the conversations that I had with Marcus just during that day about that, how to make this work for the community so that it's not going to be bigger, louder, more obnoxious.

It'll be actually more controlled, less days with real track activity. And they're still going to be that weekly racing component. Nashville is still going to be a racetrack where you can go watch short track racing with late models, pro late models, super late models, and so forth. the big marquee events that are well known to run at Nashville, year after year will still happen. That's not going away. And the other thing, too, was when people hear Bristol Motor Speedway involved in this, they think that that means that Bristol would be a track that might give up a date for this to happen.

No. I hope that's not it. No. So when you hear Bristol Motor Speedway, that's an entity. That's an organization. That's a business. That's not necessarily Bristol going to. Nashville and saying, hey, we could give up a date if you'll let us have a race at Nashville.

Bristol will give up a date. That's not what's happening. That's just, that's a, that's a business and Bristol Motor Speedway and its staff are kind of the ones being tasked by Marcus to manage this whole project. Right. Wow. That's so the people that are, you know, so if you look at Bristol, that whole staff and all the people that are, that are responsible for that track and it, and, and, and, what, what it is today, will be the same people that would manage the fairgrounds in the future. Hey, thanks for explaining all that. Because, you know, when you guys put it on social media, everyone got interested all of a sudden, what does it mean?

What is Dale doing? You know, what is it? We're trying to process all this. So you just gave a really thorough explanation of what you guys were doing up there and put it into context of exactly what that meant from a letter of intent standpoint. It doesn't guarantee anything. It guarantees that they can go to the next step and invest a little bit more money. into establishing what that vision is.

That's where we're at. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's got some, it's got some great possibilities. Man, you know, to our long time listeners, they're going to, they're going to, they're going to, uh, remember this conversation. They're going to remember our, our, our, our back and forth. They are. Yeah, they are. That's good.

Of the time. Dentists. I had another, uh, great dental experience. Well, my all means. This is what I, this is why listeners come to the Delgent download. I want to hear about it. Yeah. So I've been trying to get Mike to go to my dentist.

I did go to him once. Yeah. They don't take our insurance. Well, they change. Now they do. Oh, good heavens. He called, well, this happened months ago, but White and Haynes advanced dentistry in Cornelius, North Carolina. I've been going there a long time.

Brad Haynes is my dentist. And I've been trying to get Mike to go there because he's got such an awesome set of teeth. and I know Brad would be like, awesome, I can't wait to work on these bad boys. If they're awesome, he doesn't have to work on. Well, he's a dentist, and he likes, imagine he loves to work on teeth. Imagine some of the bad teeth he has to work on. You got some.

I got some good ones. Good ones in there. Thank you, Dale. So, you know, and I'm just trying to do my guy solid. He's been great to me. And here's an example. Yesterday, I was, I woke up and I was eating my breakfast, and I broke a crown.

Yeah, so, okay, crown. If anybody's ever done this, even chipped a tooth, right? Did Brad put in your crown and it chipped? Long time ago. So, wait, so. Okay. So. My crown hasn't chipped. Has anybody in the room chipped a tooth?

I mean, not a crown. Never? No, just seems to be something that happens out of your dentist. Just me? Oh. Well, I'm sure our listeners have probably chipped on a little. A feeling fallout or anything, nothing? No.

No dental emergency whatsoever. Sounds like there's a lot of problems over there. You're into the... What were you eating? Yeah, what were you eating? Nothing crazy. Just, um, nothing crazy. It's like a protein bar.

Oh. I ate the same protein bar every morning. I know. It's just so easy to go in there and grab it. But anyways... That's another conversation. Yeah, that is another conversation. So you go chip...

You go in. Yeah, I chip my... I chipped this crown that he made and I called him up and I was like, Hey, man, I chipped his crown. I can come in there as soon as possible, and he got me in. Same day, yesterday, fixed the crown, made a new one, and I'm off and running. And so it made me think about you, man, and I called you. And they just expanded their building, too, to be able to have people in there.

Square footage is something I definitely look for out of a dentist. Well, when you go to some, most dentists, man, they've got a lot of clients, and they don't really need new clients, right? Most offices are pretty packed. So you're saying go to your dentist where it's nice and roomy. They just, yeah, they just expanded their office, and I'm just trying again one more time to encourage you to go there and give a shot. Is your recruiting pitch here to again insinuate that your ability to call up,

to your dentist and have an appointment that day is something that would therefore transfer to me as well. See, I have made the argument for all these years that you're able to do that because your name is Dale Earnhardt Jr. Yep. And Steve LaTartre's like, I can do that too. And I'm like, well, your name is Steve LaTart. But you know what they don't do it for? Mike Davis is. I think they do.

There's a lot of us out there. I think, you know how I, would it be fair to say that I don't recognize my own celebrity? I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't tell, I don't tell, I don't tell, how you told Marcus, anything I can do. And you got taken to Nashville to persuade the mayor and after years and years of Marcus trying to do it, you go one day and you walk out with a letter of intent. All right. But yeah, you, they'll book you on the same day at the dentist. I know. I'm just saying, you, you, you and me, have had this conversation before where I have a hard time quantifying that the level of notoriety. Yeah. You also don't know how to quantify your own notoriety, Mike Davis. I don't have any notoriety. You got a blue checkmark on Twitter.

You're a big deal. You're a co-host on this podcast. You're on a television show. Star. Shut it. Superstar. He's a superstar. Yeah.

Like, is there an F-level star? I know there's A and B and C, D. What's the F minus level? That's me. I'm on the same level of stardom as like the, you know, the local butcher. All right. With that, Shultz is like, yep, I know exactly what that means. You bring that level of stardom and those pearly whites.

And Brad's going to take your call and he's going to get you in any minute. So what changed? The insurance? That's the vision. Because I went to him. I know. I went to, I just had a dentist appointment. And you said it went miserable.

I didn't say it went miserable. I like my dentist. It took a while to get me in. Again, F-level star. We'll have that problem at White and Haynes advanced dentistry in Cornelius, North Carolina. Newly expanded whites and Haynes. Hey, Superstar Racing Experience unveiled their car. Did you see that?

So Ray Evanham, Tony Stewart, They've got this superstar racing experience. They unveiled the car the other day. They're going to have all these racing greats, superstars. Let's see, Marco Andretti, I think Michael Waltrip. Michael, yeah. Helio. Yeah, so there's a long list of all these awesome dudes that are going to run in this series.

People have been waiting on this car to get unveiled. They unveiled it yesterday. Kenny Schrader was testing it at Carraway Speedway. I thought it looked really cool. I really liked it. I didn't see this. All right, Mike, take a look. Anybody else see it?

I saw it. Shultz, what's your thoughts? Very excited. It looks really cool. I thought the car looked great. Does it have some valence? I saw people talk about that on Twitter. There's no splitter.

That's amazing. Yeah, there's this giant wing that's kind of, it doesn't look bad. But the great thing about it is, is there's no blade knocking air off the following car. So all the air goes over the top and goes right on to the nose of the car. that's following. So I'm interested, really, to watch these cars on the racetrack, interacting with each other and see how the arrow works. And if there's anything to be learned by watching these cars race and compete.

So pretty exciting. They basically got to create a race car from a blank sheet of paper. And it's not going to be a home run grand slam, but it does look like they've got on base here. Yeah. Wouldn't you guys agree? What do you think? I think it looks great. Yeah.

A lot of people. Got the late model feel. It was some hot and cold response to the visual. I bet the wing is what throws some people off. I don't think, I mean, just overall, I think some people were like, ah, I don't know. I really love the way it looks. But I'm a stock card guy. This looks a lot like, you know, a late model stock sort of, you know, it's got a lot of late model stock vibes.

Yep. It's got some super late model vibes. It does. They're going to run on a lot of short tracks. You know, that's why they tested it Carraway. So it's a short track car. It's got to withstand a little beating and banging. So I understand kind of a lot of the approach here as to what the body looks like.

I see where Superstar Racing Experience just said, you would look so good in this, Dale Jr. Yeah. They want me to run, I think. I think that's what that means. Yeah. Nothing. I mean, I like to make money.

Listen, can we talk about... Money? Yeah. Like, I like to... Can I make money doing this? You want me to respond to him and say, hey, he wants to make money. Well, I don't know. Is there any type of monetary award?

You know what I mean? Like, can we make money? Is there sponsorships involved? What are they paying the other guys? Yeah, I wonder. That's interesting. So we got questions. Yeah.

But, hey, Dale didn't say no. He didn't say no. He didn't say no. Well, my wife is going to be. going to say no. But that's another conversation. Dale didn't say no. Well, you know, it's really interesting

and honestly, if you want to know my honest emotions about this whole thing, I absolutely am paying attention to it. I absolutely am curious as to what this becomes, what it turns into, and what if,

what if, is there any way that I fit into that future? But yeah, I It looks good. Yeah. Yeah. Well done by those guys. Hey.

What's happening, bud? Look at that. He's coming, he's got gifts. I like it. Look at it. Good to see you. That says 2,000 Daytona 500 on the back.

That was a big one. Y'all had them covered that week. Dude, he came with the gifts. Thank you for the hats. Yeah. Yeah. Brought some treasures. Let's see these.

Some treasures. Oh, yeah. Let's see them. I know. I'm going to hand him to you first. Is that you? Yeah. So that's a, very.

Richard Lane, 1971, Daytona, Bobby Isaac, winning the race, Harry Hyde, crew chief. That's my dad, Harlem Cox. That's me in the blue shirt with my hand on the fender with my dad. And that's my little brother, Brad. I think he's somewhere right there behind me, and my mom's in the background. That's amazing, dude. I was only six years old. Yeah.

It reminds me a lot of your history and the pictures I've seen of you. Do you remember that time of your life? I do not. Yeah. Isn't that suck? Yeah. Because you're sitting there looking at it. I have that same, well, I have that same experience.

I got pictures of me. I'm like, damn, I was there. And then that's the 88 car that Robert G. built with the Volkswagen front fenders. And that was me looking at the left front tire. I think that was 1977. You did. He was around. That is a beautiful race car.

It is. That's up there. Yeah, and then the other one is the car that, same car with the fenders cut out. Yeah. And we went to Charlotte. Yeah. We went to Talladega to sit the World closed course. With this car.

Yeah, I didn't know that. See it? One of the pictures. It's got the, so it's actually got wheel covers of it. Oh, I see. Damn, dude, I've never seen that. Number 71. Yeah.

That's weird. Yeah. So Farrell Harris drove the car. Okay. And my dad, Robert G. Y'all went to Talladega and set a closed course record with this car. How fast did it go? You remember?

I do not remember. But I know there was a lot of tricks involved. If you can only imagine Robert G. and my dad. Well, yeah, for real. Get those two together and there's going to be some trickeration, huh? Yeah. I didn't know that Buddy Pairt was a crew chief for dad at Atlanta. That car right there.

Yeah. Okay. Johnny Ray's car. Yes. I printed out the records. Right. My dad was crew chief in 1976 for your dad. Now, hold up.

You're saying the 77 right there, like the throwback paint scheme that we ran last year? Yes. Yes. Your dad was the crew chief of that car? Yes. Yeah. The original sponsor was High Game. Yeah.

Yeah, that's right. There's a die cast of that, you know, in a few places. So me and you go way back. I'd be damn. That's probably four years born. I was two. My mom, Brenda, was scoring that race for dad. Dick Brooks blew a motor or somebody blew a motor or Dick Brooks blew a motor,

but anyway, that hit Dick and flipped his car. And that was that? Yeah, damn, dude. So I like to start from the beginning. I like to, you know, I was around you in the 90s, and I even remember being around. I remember being, I think the first memory I have of you is you glue and tires up for Richard Petty at Martinsville in the 80s. Me and Kelly were at that race, and I just remember.

Her talk, y'all, you were there and talking to her and she was like, she told me, that's Brad, or that's Todd Todd. Yeah. And that's my first memory. And then I learned you had a brother. Brad. Then I learned who your dad was and have come to know your dad quite well as far as, you know, I didn't know he did that for my father in 76, but I mean, he was crew chief for Darrell Walchap on the Gatorade car. 1978 and 79 i mean he went he went to a lot of different teams but he had a lot of success everywhere he went you become a crew chief in your own right but let's start at the beginning let's

start back at those pictures right there so what's your first memory of going to track when do you know you were at a racetrack i would say my first memory was probably um in 77 yeah you know at charlotte with uh that car that robert g built and my dad was um you know a part of it Gatorade, Darryl Walchardt driving. And, you know, then my dad obviously became crew chief for Darrell. Yep. You know, right after that. And they finished second in the points, I think, 79, and missed the championship by two points.

Yep. You remember going to the races with him and... Dude, yes. I remember the days sitting in the paddock, which now is, you know, the old late model sportsman garage next to the cup garage. You know, down toward the infield care center. It's Charlotte. Yeah, Charlotte.

Still there. Yeah, it's still there. And my mom would back our station wagon, and we had a nice panel fan station wagon. Sure. But, you know, we'd back it up, and, you know, we would eat chicken and hang out. And the only way I could get in the pits back then was to crawl underneath the fence. I wasn't scared. Yeah.

So you went under the fence to get in the garage. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I've done that myself, find holes in the fence to get to crawl under it or hole in it somewhere to get into the access you're looking for. So what was your first job? My first job was actually working with my dad at Benfield Racing, the 98 car with Joe Rutman. Yes. Actually, Morgan Shepherd. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so actually I worked in, I was still in high school, met Northwest Cabarras. and I was the engine It actually started out cleaning bathrooms and mopping floors So that really happens Everybody says that but that's really what Well I mean if If you make it all the way to the top

Like I was lucky to do You start at the bottom and work your way up And I started as far down at the bottom As I could I was an engine tear down guy for Ray Fox Really? Yes So I worked in the engine room

It was him, one other guy, and I tore engines down and cleaned parts. On the 98? Yes. So your dad was with that car, and then where did he go from there? He left that team. Went to the king. Okay, so he goes to work for Richard Petty at Curb? Yep, at Curb.

Did you go with him? Yep. Immediately. Well, I graduated high school in 1983. Never forget when I graduated. My dad gave me 200. He said, here's $200. Go do what you want to do this summer.

And I'm like, really? Wow, $200. And he said, I want you to take this $200. I want you to go to the beach, go with all your friends, you know, do all of the things that normal high school kids do. Because when you come back from the beach and your summer vacation, when you start work, you'll never experience another day like that. You will never experience another time like that Because when you start racing, if that's what you want to do Then it's head down and digging.

There's no time off. No. Yeah. Well, damn. Did you get everything out at $200? Yeah, I think so. I learned some bad habits for my dad. Growing up, you know, my dad, he was in high school.

He was the swim team. Okay. He was a diving champion. He was actually in a... Really? Yes. My dad was a, you know, like North Carolina State Diving. That's awesome.

Buddy paired as a diver. Oh, yeah. So my dad, I'll never forget, we're in Darlington at the old down there in Florence. I can't remember. It was an old holiday inn or something. Thunderbird? Yeah. You have a history.

That's for another story. It was during one right down from the street. And my dad and Donnie Allison were best friends. I grew up with all the Allison, you know, Davy, Ronald, Donald, that whole bun. Used to go down in Birmingham, hanging out with them down there, Hueytown. So anyway, my dad and Donnie were really, really professional divers. Donnie? Whoa, whoa, whoa.

What? Yeah. Donnie. Donnie. Yeah. Donnie Allison, in a bathing suit's just scary enough to get me out of the pool. Well, on this day, they weren't in a bathing suit. Oh, God.

There's a nothing. What are you talking about? No, no, no. My dad and Donnie had on shorts, and my dad had cut off bib overalls, like a farmer's, flew it overalls, and he jumped off the second story of the hotel. Into the pool.

With a broom. Of course he did. Because he was going to fly. And he flew off the top of the hotel into the pool. When he landed in the pool, Donnie came off the diving board, and same gimmick. I mean

What in the hell were they doing? You know, actually, you know, I really didn't have a good chance going up. You were done. Yeah. This is early memories. Yeah. Was that kind of a, you know, was that kind of the, see, I remember when I started going to races as a little kid, there wasn't a motor coach a lot. Everybody stayed in the hotels.

And when you would, you know, you'd get to the racetrack, where when you'd get to the hotel. on a Thursday or whatever, made you to immediately start seeing people you recognize, right? And not everybody stayed at the same hotel. One hotel would have a bunch of people, another hotel had a bunch of people. After the end of the day, if it was a reasonable afternoon,

most people ended up at the pool. Yep, right? Yes, absolutely. At the pool hotel. Just hanging out. What's your brother doing during all, back when you started petis and all that? What's your brother doing?

Going to school? My brother, yeah, he's going to school. Yeah, he's not into it yet. Yeah, he wasn't into it. But like I said, when I graduated high school after the, after summer of 83, you know, I'd come back, find a job. My dad obviously got the job with Richard Petty. I've got, that's when actually my memory starts about racing. The most, yeah.

So your dad is going to be the king's crew chief. Yes. All right. Is, are you all, like, flipping out? Are you like, damn, this is awesome? Are you more like, this is how I supposed to be? Dad's just, dad's an amazing crew chief. Well, my dad was crew chief of Darry Walter.

Yeah. At Degard. So he's already established. He's established. In your mind, this is just the next step. This is the logical next opportunity. Yeah, yeah, it is. And we moved down to Randleman because I think that's the team that Butchmock and Bobber

Hilly had sold to the king to start out. So we started it out down at Petty Enterprise down at Levecross. We moved from our house, you know, we were living in, we moved in with my grandmother. So my grandmother and my aunt were next door neighbors to the king. So Richard and Linda, when you go down the road where they live, that big house, back here in the back, the next house you come to was my aunt and uncle's house, Jackie and Harold, man.

And then my grandmother had a trailer on the same land. Me and my dad, that's where we lived because that, you know, we were just working right down the street. from. That's all he needed. Yeah. So we stayed there five days a week, you know, went back home and see Mom and the kids and stuff. So let me ask you this.

So you're working at Randleman, North Carolina, in Petty's shop with your dad. When you went, you know, when you go in there, are you aware of the history of that building? Are you looking around in there going, man, this is, I can't believe all the, you know, Lee Petty, Richard, all the history and wins. Are you, is that stuff soaking in?

Oh yeah, absolutely. You know, as a kid growing up in a sport. I've never been there. I've never been to that shop. You've never been there. Yeah, Richard's not real happy with him either. He's invited him a couple times and he's not been there. You've got to go.

This is one of the most incredible places you'll ever go. So, you know, they've got, it's like a museum now. You know, he builds all those hot rod cars and, I think the fords, the Mustangs and all that type stuff. But the physical buildings and all are. Yeah, the physical buildings, they're all still there. Like, if you go back in the back where Maris Petty, where the engine shop was, that's all still together. It's all still together.

So I had two stints there, the first that, you know, actually in 84. And then they bought the building in Canapolis, you know, downtown Canapolis, at the top of the hill, and we move there. How was that? Because I drive by that building going to Mamaw's house, and there's Richard Petty's car in there, Dad's championship car in there, the number two car that's sitting on the desk here. What was working in that building like? It looks kind of small by today's standards, but was that a big deal?

So that wasn't the actual shop we were in. Oh. Okay. So that little museum there, if you go down the road and up to the top of the hill, right where you turn left to go on Highway 3, right before you turn left to go on Highway 3, there was a, I think it's a shopping center now right on that corner. Yep. That was actually our race shop.

Shoot. And we took it. It was an old mill building. And, you know, we went in there and did the floors, put bays in there, put a paint booth, all that stuff. And that was where we won the races, the $199,200, you know, with the king. Wow. From that shop. Yeah.

Refresh my memory. Why did the king go race at curb records, or for Mike Curb? He didn't race for Curb records. You can have your opinion. I got mine. Oh, is there a story behind that? No, we'll see. Let's see.

Well, all right, go first. Well, I think he was looking for somebody to help him. Yeah, get him. The money man, you know, and Curb came in to help with that. So like the family business was starting to... Well, he's down at Petty Enterprise, okay? You know, and I mean, Maris down there, I mean, you know, sometimes you hear stories about that whole thing, a lot of friction between some of them.

And I think Richard just wanted to, you know, maybe move out and, you know, go on his own and Mike Kerb came in and offered the deal to him and that's where it started. Yeah, because Dale Enman goes, the crew chief for dad at the two car in 81. So all that kind of was, they were all kind of like going on in their own directions. Richard, Maurice, Dale Enman. Now they ended up kind of all come back together, at least Dale and Richard did. But Richard was just saw an opportunity. He still thought he could win races and this was going to be a chance to do it.

And he did. He did. Yeah. And dad led the team. And I came in as a mechanic doing tires, you know, started carrying tires. I was only 19 years old going over the wall. I mean, I was living a dream. Now, that's when I ran into you.

Yeah. So what all teams did you work for from that moment at Richard Petty until you got to Yates? What were the team, fill the gaps? So to fill the gaps, so in 1985, at the end, actually, the mid-year-old, point or the latest part of 84 the king had a better idea got rid of dad and how come you know there was probably a you know you know how different you know drivers and crew chiefs are yeah definitely got to match up i mean like it's definitely got to work and that can always change too so oh yeah it's like a marriage i mean right you know i mean i've been to a lot of marriages other than

And the two that I currently have, you know, drivers, crew chiefs, things like that. But so they got rid of my dad. And I went up to the front office and saw the general manager. And I said, hey, do I still have a job? Well, I'm sorry, but you're probably going to have to go to. I'm like, okay. Damn. I guess we're a package deal.

Yeah. You know, which I was okay with. So in 19, over the winter of 1984, I remember. reached out to Barry Dodson and Harold Elliott and about going to work at Blue Max because they were looking for a guy that could take care of tires, do all that type of stuff. So in 1985, I worked with Tim Richmond, you know, they'll be a walkie car, Barry Dodson, Harry L. Elliott, John Dodson, Red Dog, I mean, what was that experience like? Yeah.

It was fun. Yeah. I mean, Tim Richmond, you know, I mean, you've seen the battles, you know, with your dad and Tim. I mean, if that guy would have stayed around and would have lived, there's no telling how many championships he would have won. Yeah, he had was incredible. But just a fun guy to be around. I always had a good time.

Love the party. Yep. And he raced like none other. He raced and he partied the same. Yeah, very hard. WFO, yeah. Yeah, very hard. So in 1980, let's see, so that was 85.

So at the end of 85 is when Rick Hendrick, you know, we saw Tim's talent. He hired Tim to come drive the Folgers car in 86, and Rusty Wallace came in, and we had an Alugard car. So 86, 86 was an Alugard car, 87. We had Codiac, 88, still with Codiac car, 89, won championship with Rusty. What's your job? What's your role throughout all this?

Is it staying pretty much the same? Yeah. Control of tires. Yeah, well, I was a mechanic. Yeah. You get moved around? No, not really. Because back then, I mean, you had Barry Dawson was crew chief.

Jimmy Maycar was the chassis specialist in today's world, car chief. Yeah. And, yeah, me, Red Dogg drove the truck, Buddy Barnes, and. Buddy Barnes. Buddy, Buddy, Buddy Red Dog Barnes. He's a character. Oh, yeah, so much. And then I did, actually, they moved me in to build.

and suspension and, you know, and learning mechanics. But in the meantime, I took care of all the tires. I was the tire guy. I mean, tire guys back then, when you got home from race, you had whatever, 40 tires you had to pull. That's back when Goodyear won the Interliners two days after the race. So I had to pull all, I had to dismount all those tires because you couldn't send them champion.

We had to put them in our truck, in the lounge, bring them home. You know, we built the thing on the fence out by, by the tire room and I had to pull the liners out by myself because I didn't have no help so I pretty much did that the whole time when that when um Tim left to go to Rick's but that team's identity stayed the same rusty comes in now Rusty's not or hellraiser by any means but he he was brash I think every other word in his vocabulary is an F-bomb and uh you know he he he he he he He's a hard racer. It kind of fit pretty good into y'all's little program.

Fit perfect. Yeah. And y'all go on to win a championship. I'll never forget. I mean, this is, you know, told you to tell these stories. I'll never forget. The first time we took Rusty to test at Daytona, 1986, went Daytona. I think we tested twice back then.

I think we tested in December and January, a couple tests. So we get this hot rod ready, you know, miss crazy. tricked up. Go down there and test him really fast. Rusty goes out on a racetrack, comes in, puts the wind of net down, and he says, put the wind net down, pulls his helmet off, just real calm. You know, Rusty. He looks out the window. We looked up, and Barry said, what do you think? He said, what did I think? I think that I want to make every one of you make me rich and famous. I can't imagine Rusty. He didn't say the car was tight, loose. Dragon, anything.

He said, I want every single one of you to make me rich and famous. Yeah. What was some of the things that y'all did to the cars back then to find speed out of them? We like to share some of those secrets on the show. Oh, you do? Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, back then we had a long template.

There wasn't many templates back then. You had one template. You had one template, you know, and the Chevroletes had pretty good hot rod. I had some friends that, you know, worked RCR and knew a couple things they were doing. But Barry was really smart. Barry was, I mean, because, you know, he worked with MC Anderson, Kelly Arborough, you know, in those days before he came to Blue Max. Harold Kinder was the truck driver for NASCAR.

Right. Flagman. You flagman. And they kept the truck down in Charlotte in this old garage. And that's where the templates, all templates, everything stayed in there. They're like hound dogs. I mean, there's guard dogs down there. Barry said, I need you in Red Dog.

Go down and check the table. I'm like, we said, what you mean? Well, I want y'all to go down there and fix the template, and he showed us what he wanted us to do. We go to Charlotte. Hey, Harold, you know, Harold, he's a lucky go. You know, he's just happy and you're lucky. We need to look at this long template.

We get the long template out, pulls it in that building. And Red Dog, because Red Dog was truck driver, him and Harold, you know, Harold's got all these fancy chrome things on his truck. Yep. So while Red Dog had Harold Kinderer out looking at a truck, You fixed the template. Yeah, I had snips in my pocket. God.

And so the Pontiac had a, the long template had a little thing on the end of it. It kept the nose intact. Right. So I went down there and cut the end of it off so we could extend our nose about an inch and a half. Wow. That's awesome. Yeah. Hey, did they figure it out?

No, no. No. No. How? How can you? So I cut the template. And when I cut it, it snapped. I'm like, oh, I'm looking around.

God, I'm going to go to jail. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to, I'm never going to be around anymore. But back then, it was like, that's fun. Yeah. And that's pretty damn, that's pretty damn badass. So then I took the template and I drug it on the ground, you know, you know, because they took those templates out of truck and he stole my ground. Drug them all over the place.

Yeah. You scuffed up the place to make it look like it had been that way. Exactly. That's awesome. Look, for anybody that knows Red Dog, do you know Red Dog Buddy Barnes? Okay, like, I can only imagine the conversations he's using to get people away from that template. Like, I can hear him right now. I mean, I wish.

He's so full of shit. Yeah, exactly. Sorry. Exactly. No, no, he is. But in a very endearing kind of way, right? Like, everybody loves him. But, God, that is hilarious that that was all part of his strategy.

Oh, yeah. So he took him to the, you know. to the other side of the trailer to talk to him about it. Yeah. So he couldn't even see where I was at inside the building. Because Harold brought that template out and put it in that building. That's awesome. And when he brought it in the building, the dogs were all outside.

This is good. What else did y'all do? What else did y'all do? So the other thing, I think of 1980, 89, we won tons of races with that, you know, the new Pontiac. Yeah. It wasn't the one with the squared off back window. I think I saw a car in here. Yeah.

Like that one over there. the three car yeah yeah and then we got the new car so the long template on it when they built it you know it didn't have that little thing on the end of it because they went off the template that they had which had been cut by you no had been fixed yeah and so we added uh two inches so back then it didn't have a hook on the back of decklet like they do now so you know now you know they got the long template and it went over the back. Yeah. But before then, it just went, you know, right there on the deck lid.

And stopped. And stopped. So we added two inches to the back of the deck lid. So we took and moved this whole corner of the deck lid, the whole deck lid, about two inches. Wow. And it laid, you know, late, what would that do? More down force. Okay.

But that would still be obvious, wouldn't it? I mean, even though the template ends, now of a sudden the car's growing. I mean, like. They didn't pay that much attention to it. They really didn't. Wow. No. That's pretty awesome.

It was like open season. I learned a lot of stuff in my early days that I was able to transfer. Yeah. Was your dad that way? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, is that what makes the great great? Yeah.

It's not cheating until you get caught. That's right. It's innovation. Yeah, exactly. Just taking that rule book and interpret it. The way you want to. Yeah. Who's the greatest innovator?

Who? Of all time. Of all time. The greatest. I'd say Ray. Ray was pretty good He was. Yeah, Ray was really, really good.

He told us a few. And, you know, and I learned a lot, you know, in my days working with Yates. Racing against him. You know, racing next to a 24 car. I mean, I used to wear those guys out because I'd sit there and spend more time staring at their cars. And I'd go home next week and come back to next week and Ray go, car looks like mine. Yeah, that's what I'm supposed to do.

But, yeah, he probably was. I mean, he learned a lot, really smart, very smart. So you're moving through different jobs and you're working with, you win the championship with Rusty. You don't get to Yates until what year? 1995. 95. So what happened in early 90s?

In 1991, Raymond Beetle sold out to Roger Penske. So basically our whole team went from the 27 to the two. Yeah. I think everybody went except for Barry. Jimmy Maycar took over his crew chief. Why didn't Barry go? Yeah. I'm not sure.

It's one of the things that really, you know, never asked about, never, you know, but pretty much we all went there. Worked with Rusty, 91, you know, 92, 93, 94, 92, the end of... So you have been a tire guy and mechanic for 10 years, right? Pretty much. From 84 till 19. I started setting up cars for Rusty in 1992 at the end of 92 when my dad came. Yeah.

And so at what point is there a point, I guess, where you're thinking this is my next step? This is where I want to end up. That was probably 1992. Like I said, Jimmy Maycar was crew cheap. And then when Joe Gibbs started his team up, I mean, all the success we were having over there for Rusty's, I mean, smart guy.

Yeah. He won Super Bowls and everything else. And so he hired Jimmy Maycar. because he had Dale Jarrett, you know, and Jimmy went over to Gibbs, started that team up, and then they hired my dad to crew chief. Who? Pinsky. Okay. Yeah, so dad, crew chief, started in 92.

I was doing tires, been doing tires. You know, I'd learn that part of it. You knew it. Yeah, I knew that part, like the back of my hand. I mean, I could stretch the tires back when you had biospilers, and I knew exactly how much air put in a tire to make it one inch to stagger, inch an eighth stagger, seven-eight. It's whatever it was.

Yeah. You know, I just, I learned that because when I was that blew my axe with Rusty, I mean, Barry was crew chief, but I made all the decisions on air pressure and tire staggered based on when the tires came off the car and I measured them and got the buildups and stuff like that. And I'd give it to Barry. And I'd say, and I'd write on a piece of paper, hey, that's what I think we need to do because listening to Rusty is comments.

So I learned that part of it. So in 1992, my dad says, hey, listen, I want you to start setting up race cars. I'm like, okay, cool. I've been watching, you know, I've been helping, yeah. I've been helping Jimmy and, you know, Barry, set up cars and all that stuff. So, started setting up race cars. And I think we won a couple races in 92, but 1993, man, the gate,

the floodgate open, you know, when we got the, I think we won eight races in 1993. And then in 1994, 93, we still have. the Pontiac and then we switched to Ford over the, uh, at the end of 93 to the T-bird. And I spent a lot of time in the fab shop, watching guys build cars, setting up cars, and rusty. I mean, hey man, he'd come in the shop and we'd get ready to go to the race. Hey, that fender's too big. Dad walk up. What are you talking about? It's too big. That's, that, that knot on the right front fender is about a quarter inch too big.

My dad, look at him, say, you're crazy as hell. he'd go nope take it back up fab shop have him cut it off fix it rusty'd have that kind of jurisdiction or he'd have that kind of like rustic he'd overrule your dad i don't know if you've ever heard this this approach from rusty rusty is god you've heard that oh yeah i haven't heard russie i haven't heard it but i imagine i can hear rusty saying it i'm sure i'm sure he has yeah but rusty was uh rusty wallace was amazing one of the things that i think was most incredible about Rusty was that he called his own adjustments. You know, it's something that not many drivers will do today,

and I don't know how many of them did it back then, maybe half of them. Mark Martin. Yeah. But he would, I would go to a, I'd go to a test, or I remember going to a test and Rusty testing at Bristol and basically just calling every, he'd go run laps, come in, either say it on the radio or after he got on the pit road, move the track bar down, do this, put this left first spring in there.

And all day long, just rusty, there wasn't a list that they were going to. There wasn't a note card. There wasn't a note card or a list to go over. You're just going to, Russ is going to drive and say what he wants. That was fascinating to me because he won't, you know, he was successful.

I don't know if he was that way when he started in 87. No. He kind of learned. He actually knew a lot of that. He grew up, you know, building his own race cars and all that stuff. I guess he got a little more authority and comfort. Sure.

When he got to Pinsky. Ask some more questions, yeah. Yeah, I guess when he got hired by Pinsky, he was kind of anointed. Yeah, he was Rogers, Rogers Boy. Rogers guy, yeah. Yeah. So in 93, you guys go set the world on fire. Back to his question.

Are you starting to think, I mean, Maycar's gone. Are you starting to think I'm ready to level up to a crew chief role yet? No. You're not even thinking about that? No, I was having so much fun. So my dad was crew chief, okay? So I had moved away from tire guy. I think it's my brother Brad.

He came in to be the tire guy. And Bill Wilburn, your car chief. I was in the shop. Bill Wilbram was a tire changer and mechanic in the shop. Yep. You know, so, I mean, got a lot of history with guys here in your shop as well. On the Rusty and his attention to detail and all that stuff. I mean, I was his guy.

I mean, I was his, it was me and Jeffrey Thousand, who it grew up, with Rusty back in St. Louis. His name's what? Jeffrey Thousen. His last name's Thousin? Thousand, yeah. That's a badass last name. Jeffrey Thousand.

I mean, Perit and Thousand. I mean, they got the last names covered right there. I've just never heard that last name before. Yeah, it's Jeff Thousin. He still works out of today. No. Yeah, still works there. Goes on the road.

I think he works with Cinderick and those guys, Xenity stuff. Oh, he still works at Penske? Yeah. That's a, that's Bob Thousand's old. That's one of the old thousand boys. You know he's good. That was 93 and 94, and then into 95.

Oh, you started 95 still with Penske? Because I know 95's when you went to 8th, right? Yeah, started out 95 was Rusty. We were at Charlotte. It was October, I'll never forget, October 1995. Larry and Robert had mentioned something to me. Larry McReynolds, right? Robert Hates.

They mentioned something to me a few weeks earlier that they were looking to start up a new town. team and they're interested in me being the crew chief. And I'm, you know, I'm happy. We're winning races. I mean, hand over fist and just having so much fun. I mean, having fun. Yeah.

You know, I mean, winning is fun. And I'm like, I don't know if I'm ready to do this. And so Rusty caught wind that I was looking to do something different. I mean, it was raining on Friday. We're over there working on the car. He pulls up in his Cadillac. Marstown, Tennessee. That's why I was Cadillac.

Throw that in there for him. He rolls his window down. I look out the wind, and he said, come here. I go over, he said, get in the car. Oh, Lord. What's this? This is how people get whacked.

Yeah. So we drove down, turn three and four, Charlotte and our speedway. When we talked, he said, you know, I heard they want you to come crew chief, the 88 car. And I said, yeah, I've got the opportunity. I mean, it's actually a great,

opportunity. You know, and I think I'm ready for it, but I'm not sure. He said, well, I, I can't let you leave. I'm like, okay. Good heavens. Yeah, and he reaches in the back seat and probably, I don't know if I should tell this or not, but I told you, I'm going to be honest. Be honest, yeah. Be honest. He hands me a envelope and then that envelope is full of $100 bills, and he says, I don't want you to leave. I took the envelope, went back to the garage. I put it in my briefcase, went home. Um, that was a tough decision. I called Jimmy Maycar that night and told him, you know, about the opportunity to add. He goes, man, that's a great one. And I said, you think I'm ready? He said, hell yeah, you're ready. She said, I know you are. He said, watched you. I trained you. You know,

you grew up with me. And so I had to go in next day. Actually, I waited until, I think it was Monday or Tuesday after the race, after a Charlotte race. And we're at shop up there in here in Morrisville. Rusty walked by sitting a car up for the next week. And I said, hey man, you got a minute? He talked to you. And he goes, yeah, sure, come on. Then we went into engineering office, dad's office, something like that.

And I said, hey, listen, I'm going to take this opportunity. He said, really? I handed an envelope. And I said, I am so grateful for this opportunity. that you give me and the things I learned. I said, but I got to move on.

I got to do it. I got to try. Man, the rest is history. Man, that's emotional for you. Yeah. That's how much rusty means to you. Oh. Yeah.

I mean, that guy taught me more about race cars, and I was able to transfer everything that I learned from that man and my dad to my success starting out in 1996 with Dale Jared to this day. Man. I didn't know that that was as difficult of a decision.

Yeah. You know, so. Sorry. You're good, buddy. You ended up crew chief in 1995. So you make that decision in the middle of the year. Yeah. Or during the year.

Right. Yeah, late in the year. You said October. It's October. Ernie runs three races. You crew chief those races. Yeah. So let me ask you.

Okay. So your, this is obviously a really hard. decision. You have emotions about it. Even today, at any point, I mean, you go and you run these three races. You had to prepare. You're in the shop. You're crew chief from the shop floor, which is a little bit different than men at the racetrack.

You go to the racetrack, and you go through these three races with Ernie. At any point, in this experience in 1995, are you thinking, I made the wrong decision? Absolutely not. Never. Never. So from the moment you hit the shop floor at Yates, I never looked back. It was the right choice. Yeah.

You knew it. Yeah. So when I made that decision, after me and Rusty talked, I think it was an off weekend, actually. And Ernie was testing at Rockingham. Your car. It wasn't my car. Your car yet. James Inns was actually the crew chief.

He knew nothing about this. And me and Robert got in his link. Lincoln Town car and we drove down to Rockingham and we talked the whole way down there about all this stuff like man we're gonna do this we're gonna do that you're pumped oh yeah you're like he was he was so he was so excited because I was too you know I was just telling all the stuff that learned the things that I felt like that I could bring to the table and you know how old I'm a I'm a nervous it's 1995 let's say 30 years old 30 years old yeah 30 years old that's young yeah I'll never forget.

These are the type of memories. You just things, you know, some things growing up, you go through as a blur. I'll never forget pulling up in the garage. We pulled it up in that Lincoln Town car and pulled up next to the truck. Robert gets out. I opened the door and I stand up and the guys in the garage looked and then went, holy shit, what's he doing here? You were the enemy?

They didn't know I was coming. Yeah. Did they know you were? the crew chief are going to be uh well they figured it out i'm sure real quick i'm sure yeah so um you know we had a really good test you know i just was watching kind of overlooking you know i told you know james i mean really great guy really smart guy you know he worked with mart martin i mean he kind of grew up the same way i did you know and robert had him you know and larry you know doing kind of things that that i was going to do till i made this decision i actually had him as uh car chief there for a little bit

you know working on the 88 car is there's 88 texico car with ernie went to rocky ham uh was really good and then uh practice right before qualifying you know ernie's still got the patch over the eye you know that's right because he's coming back yes he's coming back still got the patch over the eye and i think he ran the week before at wilksburg and truck really well yeah really well yeah and um went off and turn three you know how driving off turn three early in the morning at rockyham the sun coming up The way the sun comes up? Sure. You can't see.

And there's a car down on the bottom. He didn't see it and plowed into the back of it. So it was right before qualifying. So we were trying to repair the car, get it ready. So it went out qualifying and just didn't get very many laps and practice. So it didn't make the race. So next year, 1996, your crew chiefing for Dale Jarrett. What was, we've had Dale on the show, we've had Ernie on the show.

There was a awkwardness. I'll say between Dale and his position at Yates, what this might become, not become. Ernie's coming back. They don't know what Ernie's going to be post-injury, and they're not 100% bowled in on Dale just yet. Right. Right.

And so did you know in 1995, hey, did they say to you, All right, Ernie's going to run these races. When he comes back, though, he's going back to... Yeah, 28. To 28. You knew that. With Larry Mack. And you knew Dale was going to be your guy in 96th.

Sure. When you took the job, you knew Dale was... That was the whole reason, you know, the whole plan, though. Yeah. The whole plan for this. Already in place. Already in place. And he was leaving Gibbs, right?

No, he was already at Yates. Oh, he was already at... He was already... He was in 1995. He was a car. That's right. All right. And, and, and, you were...

DJ had some frustrations out of the gate. Once they got his, you know, sitting the car up for him, he started running better. And you and him have four wins your first year. So what was that relationship right like from the start with Bill Jarrett? You know, what kind of, you know, I know what y'all become down the road in a few years. What was it like out of the gate? Out of the gate was just like me and him been together our lives. Had you, I grew up with him.

You grew up around him. Yeah, I grew up around him. So I knew him. We hung out. You know what I'm saying? go to restaurants and hang out at the local tavern, you know, whatever. But, you know, I knew him. We always talked, even in 1995, you know, I was working with Rusty.

He's on 28 car. I mean, we're working side by side. Charlotte in October was what was so awkward is the two car was right beside the 28 car. And I could see the frustration in Dale's eyes because their car wasn't nearly as fast and driving as good as ours. You know, I could just, I could sense it, you know, and I'm like, you know what? This might be a good new challenge for me.

Yeah. You know, but I knew that going into it, that me and him had to have a relationship, just like me and Rusty had. You know, I wasn't a crew chief, but I was his, I was his wingman. And so in 1996, going there, I mean, we went and tested Talladega a couple times

and, you know, just like testing all these things, airboxes. I mean, you had cardboard box full of airboxes and stuff. I mean, just crazy stuff. You know, went to the wind tunnel several times. Guys built a really fast race car. Went to the Bush Clash. We qualified first, you know.

I think qualified third for the Daytona 500. And then we won the Bush Clash. You know, first race actually. Yeah, that's always the first one. Yeah. First race actually crew chief in for Del Jarrett and the 88 car. won the Bush Clash. I think we finished second in the duels,

and then the rest is history. We won Daytona 500 and beat your dad. What do you remember? I think you just answered the question. What do you remember? I mean, is beating his dad? I mean, that was no easy thing. During the offseason of 19, between 95 and 96,

I mean, they did all these big press conferences and press releases. We went to, we went up to Detroit. you know at Ford Motor Company and you know for the unveiling of this car and this team i mean i mean this is the this is the Ford car right against the GM goodrichs the Chevrolet car that's right it was the Dale and Dell shows net says you know and so you know like said it's it was cool it was you know it's something i'll never forget um never forget the interview Winston Kelly did the post-race interview with me, which he's done several, you know, with my wins through the years.

But it came down to that point where I think your dad and them, they put on two tires, and as soon as he put on two tires, me and dad, we put four tires on in last practice. You know, track was slick. That's back when track was slick, bumpy, and you had to handle. Yes. And we put on tires in practice on Saturday. And me and him were on the motor home on Saturday night talking.

And then it says like, tires are going to be important tomorrow. And I said, yeah, I know, I saw that. And they put on two tires and we put on four. And, you know, Dale come on radio. He said he's getting loose. Old black car is getting hard drive. Yeah. Old black car is getting hard drive.

Yeah. Dale Jarrett saying that to you. Oh, yeah. But our car was fast, and I think, like I said, Dale was taking care of it at the end. You know, he said he could have probably drove away from him. But if caution come out, save a little. Yeah, it'd save a little. So from 96 to 2002, four wins, seven wins, three wins, four wins, two wins, four wins, two wins.

So y'all are winning, you win a championship, two Daytona 500. Did you think it was going to be that easy? Was it easy? Did it feel easy? Junior, I have so much confidence. Just like you, I grew up in this sport and I have confidence in myself and my beliefs and who I am, what I can do. If I have my blinders on and give the opportunity, I didn't think it would be easy, but you know what, I was given the opportunity with unlimited resources. I mean, we went to the wind tunnel two times a week down in Marietta, Georgia.

I mean, it was crazy. I actually got, my wife at one time said, you got an apartment down there. And I'm like, no, why? She goes, you're going down there twice a week. And we'd get on the King Air, we'd load up, we'd go down there. You know, so we worked hard. Yeah. You know, and working hard in the hours that we needed to work, it didn't matter.

You know, it wasn't nothing for us to work all night long, you know, me and the guys. in the fab shop. It was crazy. It was like, no, we were just, we were so, oh, what's the word? We're just so after it and wanted it so bad. All of us. The guys that I put around me, they all warned it just as bad as I did. So it was like, never give up, never quit. There's a, there's a moment in 1998. Dale Earnhardt hasn't won the Daytona 500 all these years, and there's a moment that everyone remembers, and that's in his Victory Lane, his Victory Lane interview.

And, you know, here's this emotion coming out of the Intimidator. And he mentions two names, Bill France and Todd Parrott. Give us some context behind that. Oh, man. So, 1998, our car was okay. Your dad had a, it was stupid fast, like crazy fast.

So his car in 1998 reminded me of that car that we had in 1988 with Rusty Wallace with all the tricks and bells and whistles. Obviously we were like side beside each other because we were always, you know, it was the 24 of the three and the 88 in the garage and the six, Mark Martin, those guys,

all the time, every week, right beside each other. And I was looking at that car and I'm like, hmm, okay. Me and Dale, we went to the motorhome that night and Saturday night after practice and he's like, what are we going to do? We don't have the speed. I said, I'll tell you something, bud. you're not going to have the speed, not this year.

And he said, what do you mean? I said, you're not going to outrun that car. There's no way, okay? They brought a bona fide hot ride Daytona. Okay, so we're in the motorhome. I think it was 10 o'clock, 1030, you know, it's just me and him. Kelly wasn't there. I walked out the motorhome, literally opened the door on the motorhome,

step down the step. And when I step down to the bottom step, your dad was making a beeline between I can't remember it was Rusty's mother in home, whose it was. You know, it's like and your dad was coming and I like when I stepped out onto the ground I'm like almost like just tackled him, ran into him.

He said, hey, what are you doing boy? I said, just trying to figure out how we're going to beat you tomorrow. He says, do what? So you guys smart, y'all know how to do it? I say, bud, tomorrow, if everything goes right for you and you do your deal, And the good Lord's looking after you. I said, tomorrow is your day.

He said, what do you mean? Tomorrow is the day that you're going to win the Daytona 500. And he said, do you think so? I said, Dale, I know so. And so he goes and wins it. And now he's thanking the good Lord. And he's saying, this is for everybody that said this year. Everybody's been saying, I can do it.

This is my year. I'm going to do it. And he says, everybody from Mr. France to Todd Parrott. He says it. All the way at the top from Bill French Jr. All the way down to the bottom. He did say that. Yeah, he did.

All the way down to the bottom and top parrot and all the guys on team. But I think it maybe it brought back the, so when he was coming down to Parr Road, I mean, everybody lined up. I mean, it was, that was probably one of the most spectacular moments in our sports history. Did you go out there? Oh, yeah. Were you at, you guys? I stopped him. Did you really?

Oh, yeah. He was shaking hands, clapping. I stood in front of the car. and he had to stop or he's going to run over me. And I stuck my head in there. And I said, I told you so. He said, you did. So I think he was probably when he got there, he's still thinking about what me and him talked about.

Yeah. Damn. You know what's interesting about you. I mean, you're so honest and emotional. And, you know, the Dale versus Dale and the Chevy versus Ford was a real thing. And so we've had people on this show that have talked about that. That wasn't just marketing. I mean, people...

It was real. It was real. It was real life. But it seems like Dale Earnhardt still evokes this type of emotion out of you. Oh, yeah. So I'm only to assume that y'all were close of some... I mean, or what was the relationship like? I mean, my dad was a crew chief in 1976.

And that's still in your mind? Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I grew up around his dad. I mean, I'll never forget the summers that you get down 150 now down past the QT in front of the shooting range down there, his house. house was on the lake right down the street. Well, in the summertime, me and Red Dog, we'd go down to his house on the lake.

And an old, I'm sure you've seen pictures of the old Gold Glastron boat with the, what you call them now, on the outward engine on the back. And your dad would take us to water skiing, me and Red Dog and Doug Richard. No kid, yeah. I've got pictures somewhere. I couldn't find him. But I have pictures of me and him sitting on the back of the boat, and your dad's sitting up in the seat, you know, turn around.

So I've got a lot of history, a lot of memories. And just, like I said, just I grew up in that era. Pretty awesome. You know, everybody that remembers you is obviously aware of your success with Dale Jarrett. After 2002, you went to crew chief for L.A. Sadler. So, yeah, the end of, toward the end of 2002, we were at Texas. I made a snide comment.

Like what? Like maybe this guy just can't get it done no more. You said something about DJ. Yeah, yeah. So why, after all those years and all that success, would you and DJ get crossed? I was frustrated because, you know, we just couldn't figure things out. Yeah. You know, we just didn't have the speed that we needed to have.

I was frustrated. I mean, just like all crew chiefs had their personalities and get aggravated at race car drivers. And like I said, it was like a marriage, you know. I mean, husband. and wife. You said something. He took it personal? He wasn't there to hear it.

But there was somebody in the trailer that was a sponsor. You were in there, your hauler and said it? Yeah. And somebody overheard it. I was in my holler and said it to another person on our team. Damn. And sponsor people were up at front of the holl. If I was DJ, my feels would be hurt.

Yeah, I'm sure they were. Yeah. Yeah. So it got back to Robert, actually. Uh-oh. Which led to my sabbatical. company to break. Yeah, my company break.

I was still getting paid, fortunately. And things weren't going good, you know, for Robert. And called me up and say, hey, listen, I want you come crew chief, the 38 car for Elliot. He said, you ready? Come back. He says, you got all your anger out? I'm like, yeah, I had it out. I'm just, yeah, I made the wrong comment at the wrong time.

I didn't mean, I love this guy. I mean, he's like my brother. You know, but somebody else heard it, and it's just, it's the way it is. It's the way the sport is, you know. You crew chief of Elliot for a year and a half, and then you end up back with DJ. So, yeah. So how's that happen? How'd the hell the DJ even say, yeah, sure, this sounds like a good idea.

It's like a marriage, and then, you know, you get married, you have a divorce, and then, okay, well, they're going to get back together. Realize how good you had it. Yeah, exactly, yeah. So, I mean, me and Elliot, I mean, we had a very successful 2004. I was fortunate up to be with him when he won his two cup races. He won it with the Woods brothers. We won at Texas in a duel with Casey Kane and the nine car at California.

And then the same thing happened at Texas. And I think we made the chase 2004. Things won great. 2005 come around. Things aren't really going that great. And Robert comes up to me and says, hey, listen, I need to make a change. So I'm okay, what you want to do? He said, well, I'm going to put you back with DJ.

I think it was right before the chase started. And I'm going to put Kevin Buzzkirk, who was my engineer at the time, I'm going to put him with Elliot. I'm like, okay, is that what you want to do? He said, yep. I'm like, you're the boss? I'll do whatever. I looked at him straight in eyes.

I said, I'm going to promise you, and I'm going to tell you that I'm going to win a race with Del Jarrett before the end of this year. Oh, he said. really he said the team's not having a whole lot of luck i said i promise you okay i will win and we did we won tallow daga 2005 had that happen how did you guys win him at tallowdada how did that happen we had a guy up there spotting for us who one of the most incredible spotters that i've ever heard on a radio spotting for us and i think came down to the end i'm dale behind Tony Stewart

racing and they come through the trial and they're kind of moving all around and Eddie DeHont who's Chase Elliott's spotter today at Hendon Motorsports called him and like just somehow miraculously just worked him

through the field. Oh so Eddie DeHont was the spotter. Eddie DeHont was the spotter. He's still spotting. Yeah, yeah he is. I checked the results of that. You crashed Dale so I don't know what happened to you. I don't either. Just so you know. Yeah. So that was 2005.

And then in 2010, your crew chief, Matt Kenseth. So they get to midpoint in 2000. I don't know. It's crew chief in 2009. Yeah. So it was after Daytona 500. And we have a big sit down. And it's Robbie Reiser, Jack Rauch, Matt Kenseth, all the head honchos at Roush Fenway.

And like I said, Jimmy Finney. in, um, in riser. And we sit down and, you know, because I'm a speedway program, I didn't know what was going on. And they're like, hey, we've got to make a change on this, uh, 17 car. And I'm like, what are you talking about? And we're going to make a crew chief change. Immediately I look over at Junie Finney. I said, that's your guy right there.

Because I'm enjoying him doing what I'm doing. And him and Riser both pointed and go, nope, you're going to do it. so I got the call to be Kansas crew chief. How'd you enjoy that? I loved it. Matt Kansas is probably one of the most underrated race car drivers. Yeah. I mean, in the sport.

He's quiet, but he's like, kind of like David Pearson. Yeah. You know, he'll just sneak up on you and, you know, and there he is. Why did you leave Yates the first time? After 2005, you just want to race with DJ. Why did you leave to go to Petty? It was a decision made by somebody. So you, it wasn't your decision.

No, it wasn't my decision. I got you. It was kind of the new regime, people running a place, and, you know, Robert's trying to change things up. He's, you know, got all these sponsors, driver talks, you know, and all this stuff. Okay. So with all, there's a lot of change, right? Yeah.

In that particular, I mean, it's, we're talking from, you know, from 2005 to, you know, probably around 2013, there's a lot of movement. But even up to 2013, you put fast cars on the racetrack. Right. You know, you and I have had conversations. You know, 2013 started a lot of change for you. The ensuing years that happens, probably the toughest part of your life. Is that accurate to say?

Oh, yeah. You know, from a personal standpoint. Absolutely. Tell me where, walk me through this 2013 and from a personal level managing things and how you were able to deal with it. Obviously, it was well documented. You know, you were suspended by NASCAR. What happens?

And where's your mind at that point? Well, 2012, you know, they moved me over with Eric Amarola. And we had Smithfield, you know, and it was 43 car, 2012. And then 2013, NASCAR took away, you know, changed some rules about some truck arm bushing, stuff like that. We had some pretty good tricks going on. Rear bar, you know, being able to set the timing on the rear bar. and yeah. So you're still being innovative.

Very, very innovative. Yes, and taking a 400-pound spring and making it think it's 15,500 pound spring with just having a rear bar in it. You know, so 2013, we struggled a little bit. As we struggled as a team, I just got to a point where, I don't know, I was just struggling personally.

You know, I had some things going on in the background, you know, and just got caught up at the wrong place, wrong time, and like I said, just filled the drug, test and went on to the, it was a day after that that happened. I remember the date, October 17th, 2013. It was 10 o'clock in the morning. I was at nail salon with my wife and got the phone call.

The number comes up. It's 866 number. When there's numbers that you don't normally see. You don't see it unless it's a bill collector or something like that. Right. So that number you don't answer these days. No, but I knew, I knew that it was. was going to happen. I knew what happened.

Really? Yeah. I knew it was, yeah, I knew that that I wasn't going to pass. And when I saw that number come up, I told my wife, I said, listen, I got to go out and park a lot and get this number. She said, who is it? I said, I just didn't go get it. Damn. And, uh, that was it. It was hard. And that they called me, told me, I had to go back inside and tell her she's getting her toenails feet done. And, you know, she's like,

it wasn't pretty. Yeah. Yeah. I, I can imagine. You know, and then the phone calls after that I made, you know, first phone call I made was to HR lady. They began at Richard Pade Motorsports. And Sammy Johns was the competition director. And they'd already known about it because NASCAR already called them. I called my mom.

So right after that, the next phone call on me was to my mother. You know, I remember all this and it was documented. I mean, you were one of the top crew chiefs in the whole sport, and now you're going to this, so it obviously made news. One of the things I remember, though, Todd, was that you seemed pretty determined right away to get back. I mean, like, you weren't... Is that an accurate way of saying it?

Yeah, I mean, I knew I made a mistake, okay? I got called up in the wrong thing. I was doing the wrong, you know. That's it. Just doing a bad thing. People make mistakes. You know, they get caught doing stuff. Sure.

You know, they aren't what you need to be doing. And just unfortunately, I was that guy that got the, you know, I was spinning the, the ball, you know, for qualifying draw. And, you know, I got that call. But when I went down to the shop, I was down there. That was 10 o'clock. I was down at the shop at 1130, you know, down Concord.

And I went in and saw Libby, saw Sammy. You know, they explained to me what they needed to do, you know, turn my hard card in and all that stuff. And as soon as I walked out that door, as soon as I walked out the door, I called John Bobo. was in charge of a NASCAR substance abuse program and told him and said, listen, I missed up, I know, but you tell me what I have to do to get back. Right. Because I'm better than this. You know, so. So how did that experience go? How was that, you know, getting back? Was it, was it smooth? Was

it successful? Was it? Yeah. Yeah, it's very successful. Did it, did it stick? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. You know, it was something that, I mean, I mean, I just embarrassed my whole family. Me as a person, this is a success that I'd had, you know, talking about all the stuff. It wasn't me, you know. And I knew I had to do it, you know. And, you know, like I said, I had classes and, you know, taking random drug tests and things like that. I mean, it was just, you never knew whenever you were going to have to go do it. And I think that lasted from, let's say, 17, so probably the middle of the middle of the,

October, all of November, all of December, and I think it was January 7th right before Daytona testing that I got reinstated. What's that feeling like? Good. Yeah, real good. Yeah. So actually the night I got the phone call from John Bobo, you know, that everything was good. I was reinstated. the next day, me and my dad got in the car and drove to Daytona and went to the January test at Daytona. And, you know, I wasn't going to hide. Walked around the garage, talked to Ed, Lenny Wood, all my friends, you know. And they're like, man, really?

Yep, happens the best of us. Yeah. And I saw Tommy Baldwin and he said, hey, listen, when you get home, give me a call. And you went to Baldwin's. Yeah. That's where you spent 2014. Yeah, 2014, I was there and working with Reed Sorensen, you know, back the whole full season. And in the 2014, it was right before Thanksgiving.

Tommy called me up to shop. We were Thanksgiving in holidays. And Tommy says, I don't think I'm going to be able to race next year. I'm like, really? And he says, no. He said, but I got some people that are really, really interested in you. And I said, who's that? He said, Richard Childers, Mike Dillon, Eric Warren.

I'm like at RCR? He said, yeah. Because we were getting cars and stuff from them. And I'll never forget that night that I got home. It was right for Thanksgiving. Richard called, because Tommy gave me his number. And he called and said, hey, listen, I want you to come run this Xfinity program for me. I'm like, we mean run the Xfinity program?

So I want me, crew chief said, no, I want you to come be the competition director for these four teams. And I'm like, wow, okay. That's got to be an amazing feeling. I mean, it's got to be this, if not more than even the reinstatement. I mean, now you've got legit guy at the top Richard Chiltern. This is Richard Chilters. This is Richard Chilters. This is his Xfinity program.

And you know, because you've driven his affinity cars, and I heard you talking about that Oreo car and all that stuff, his Xfinity program, the way he looks at it, means as much to him or more than his cup program. Yeah. You know, so I knew that and went down there, like I said, and talked to Mike Dillon, Eric Warren, and they put me in charge running, you know, with all those different crew chiefs. And, you know, now I'm working with four different personalities, you know, at Shane, Mike Hillman Jr., Danny Stockman, Dick Harrison.

Four totally different, four guys with totally different personalities and four totally different thoughts about how to make cars go fast and what they were. want to do. So I was there 2015, 16, and then, like I said, Mike went down. Okay, so you get this opportunity at Richards to sort of oversee this Xfinity program. You talked about how important that program is to Richard, and this is a really great opportunity for you to sort of establish yourself back into the fold in the industry. What was the, what did that opportunity go away? or what was the draw to make you leave and go to Levine family racing with McDowell? What was that draw?

Well, in 2015, things were going so good with the Xfinity program. I mean, we were winning races and sitting on poles. Cars were all like all four of them in the top six or seven in points. Brian Scott come along and he wanted to go cup racing. I think that's at the time Richard had taken and moved Gil Martin out of the three car and brought Slugger in. And so Brian Scott wanted to go cup racing, bring Shore Lodge on as a sponsor and all that stuff.

So he had to come on board. And Richard says, I want you to come crew chief, this car for Brian Scott. I'm like, well, what about this other guy? Been here forever. Yeah. He said, no, Brian wants you because your relationship

that you built with him with the Accentity program and just feels like your background, the way you talk about things, where you do things will really benefit it. And actually, I think I ran, so that was 15. I actually went in crew chief for AJ, at JTG at the end of 2015, a few races. And then with Brian still driving,

like six or seven races with him. And then 2016 ran Daytona 500 with Todd Allen. So basically I was kind of out of the Xfinity side of it. And he brought Gil. Yeah, you were just feeling a roll here and there. Yeah, kind of doing the R&D stuff. Yeah, pretty much for the Cup, you know, the fifth cup car, whatever you want to call it. Crew Chief Ty Dillon, Brian Scott, different things like that.

And then I went in crew chief for McDowell, Bob Levine called, said, you know, told Richard, you know, because we had a relationship. So basically 2016, they made me, they gave me a title as the RCR competition, liaison, whatever, for the Alliance. teams. Yeah. So, basically I was in charge of that. And then, like I said, end of 2016,

Bob Lyon called Richards. Hey, listen, I don't just got to come crew chief for me. Well, he actually wanted me to come just crew chief the last few races. And things went so well. You know,

he said, I like to have you full time in 2017. So you did. Yep. How'd that go? Great. My time with Michael McDow reminded me a lot of the time

with DJ. How so? Because it's like me and him built a relationship. Like here's the guy that's struggling. He might be at the end of his career if he don't start doing well. I'm coming in kind of from a bad part of my career. I want to make this whole program better, which we did. I mean, we ran fast in 2017.

I can't help. I ask you then, seeing Michael McDowell, fast forward to this year, I mean, seeing Michael McDowell's success in winning the Daytona 500. Now you're an emotional guy. Yeah. When he crossed that finish line, what was your feeling? Oh, it was big. It was big.

Oh, yeah. Did you have a big cry? Oh, yeah. I was very happy for him. Yeah. I don't even know if he had got around to Victory Lane yet before I'd send him a message. I was at home watching it and told him how proud I was. He sent me a message back.

He said, man, I appreciate it. Appreciate everything you did for me. Yeah. You know, because he left there in 2017. It's when, you know, Bob was going to bring in. Casey, Casey Kane, and they were going to bring in a crew chief from Hendrick to work with Casey, which was Travis Mack, which we had time with here. So I was the odd man out again.

Yeah. You know, so from there, kind of like been, it's been hit and miss. Yeah. But I'm still good. I'm still passionate. I can still make race cars go fast. Yeah. I wanted to ask you, how are you today?

How are you doing? I'm good. Good. Yeah. Still emotional. Yeah. But that's, look, I think that's an endearing quality about you, man. I really do.

And you know another thing? I think when it comes to people's legacies, you know, for the most part, I can't speak for everyone. But for the most part, I think everyone's always looking for opportunities to forgive and show grace. I think that's a human instinct for the most part. And all people require is just, you know, own your flaws, man. And don't sit there and try to be perfect and sit there and deny and, you know, make excuses.

Dude, you've owned everything. part of you. The goods and the bad. I made mistakes. I know that. Yeah. I think that that's an, you know, a lot of people ask Dale Jr. and I at times, but you know, you got a lot of these young drivers and a lot of the, you know, seeking advice or whatever it is. Dale and I've gone and talked to, you know, a couple rookie classes at a time or two. And I just wish I could tell them, listen, you guys are just going, you are going to screw up and you are going to do things that may be embarrassed. Just own it. It's so much easier. Man, everybody wants to forgive. Just give them the reason to.

I mean, you've got one here now that's passion and heart and the wheel to win and just drive a fast race car, you know, in the last few weeks. Got a lot of criticism. You must be talking about Noah. Yeah. Noah. You don't want to take a guy with that much talent and just raw talent to go fast. You know, you just don't want to put the reins on them and just pull him back.

You don't want to do that. but you have to talk to him, you know, and you're... That's the hardest thing to try to figure out how to do is to try to tell a guy like that how to do things differently without doing it slower, right? Yeah. Don't, because he has that fire and that tenacity in him, and I'm just kind of letting him run this year.

It might be the wrong decision, but it might be the wrong decision, right? It might be the wrong choice to make, but I'm, for right now, I'm just letting him keep going. The kids will, man. He can drive. I think he's got a lot of talent. But he's young. He's got a bunch more mistakes to make.

Sure. And nobody's going to be able to tell him anything to avoid those mistakes. He's got to go make them. But back to you, man. You want to make it clear. Like you still got some left in. You got something in the tank. Yep, I do.

Yeah. Yeah. I know I can go somewhere and bring a lot of knowledge. I still haven't forgot how to make race cars go fast. I still watch practices when I'm not working down the street here at my new home at Lowe's Home Improvement, which I've really enjoyed working there. My hearts. For sure. Right here.

Yeah. You want to be in that garage. Yeah. I want to be in that garage. I think that that's what I see when I look at this piece of paper. And I know, you know, this sheet of paper doesn't tell someone who you are as a crew chief and your impact on this sport. But I see the changes that have been made in your career, whether you've been made. made them or someone else made those changes. But the one thing that I see is you're,

you take every opportunity you can to get back into the garage. Like you've been put in positions of overseeing this department or overseeing these few teams or or handling this. But right. If you got an opportunity to get back on top of a pit box, you took it. Yeah. Um, no matter what. So, um, you know, that's always, that's, that's, that's pretty interesting to me. Yeah, even if it was a shop guy, you know, just, I mean, just, I mean, somebody to help all the young kids coming around in the sport. But I think it's, you know, I think that's exactly what that says to me is that you want to be on that box.

You want to be, you need to be. A voice that needs to be heard. You need to be on that box, calling a race for a car. You want to be figuring the strategy. You want to be making the calls. You want to be setting up preparing the team for the week ahead. You want to be communicating with the driver and all those things. And that's just ingrained in you.

It's all I know. Yeah. 36 years. Boy, you got it, man. You've got some experience. Yeah, I mean, it's crazy. If you look at that picture of, you know, 1971, you know, me and Victor Lane, Daytona. Oh, the early one.

Yeah, the early one. That's 50 years ago. Yeah. You know, so I've been doing this, been a part of it for 50 years. Yeah. Well, man, I don't know. I hope you get that opportunity. I appreciate it.

I hope that them opportunities are still out there for you. And I know you're happy where you are and happy doing what you are today. and a great family would be yeah you got you put yourself in a pretty good position but uh it'd be interesting to see you get another shot at it i appreciate it thanks i'm ready yeah thanks for thanks for spending some time of us today we got more stories to tell yeah uh we got it we never did get to tell tell everybody where the powder nickname pain from yeah i guess we could is there a quick is there a quick version of that i mean like so i never wore shorts all right let's just start with that that's all you had to say I never wore shorts ever

And I was either in a driver's uniform Or wearing jeans to get down on my knees And work on a car You don't wear shorts Working on a race car Wrangle jeans at that You just never wore shorts Working on a race car

You weren't going to do that And so we went to Jamaica There was a NASCAR Sort of package trip thing That Air Jamaica Vacations put together They brought him along and me And a few other drivers and crew chiefs and other people in the industry.

And we basically got to hang out in a hotel, an amazing experience for a week. So much fun. Yeah, it was a blast. Crazy fun. Yeah. And they brought in a bunch of race fans and sold these vacation packages to the fans.

And we would, you know, we'd play volleyball or drink and hang out with the fans and do whatever during the whole week, right? Yeah, of course, I come out on the beach with my shorts and the movie, you remember the movie powder. The guy that could bend spoons. Yeah. And he goes, powder! And so from that moment on,

every time we saw each other at the track, he would holler that. And I'm looking around. He'd be on the other side of the garage. And I'd say, hey, powder! Because of my pale, pasty completion. Can we get away with calling you that today at this, inside this shop? Oh, really?

Look at it. He's amazing. He's amazing dude. I say this, man. Like, when you're that pale, you have to have to have. embrace it. Hey, this is a show about people owning it. I can't.

There's a new argument to be made. Right. I can't hide it either. I mean, like, I wear, I'm always in work pants. Yeah. First of all, yeah, you come off as a guy that really just, like, wears everything on your sleeve. You're not going to be able to keep a secret or anything. And yeah, and you're just pasty.

I mean, what are you going to do? Or deny it? There's no, you're saying there was no time you're like, I wonder if Todd's overreacting a little bit. Never. Never. I appreciate it. You know what? Because, so, you know, Buddy Parrots, this amazing crew chief, this, I love history, right?

You know that I can't get enough of that. He's an icon. I knew Todd when, you know, I was a little boy watching Todd in the pits, glue tires, and work on Rusty's car and all that throughout the 80s and the 90s. And wanted him, I wanted to be their friend, right? Him, Brad, all that, those younger guys that were sort of the grump mechanic. working on those teams, I wanted them to know who I was. You wanted to be like us.

I want to be like them. Yeah. And so when they would talk to me or, you know, acknowledge me, that was pretty cool. And so I grew up under him all that. So when he's crew chief in Del Jarrett and I come on to the scene and I'm racing, he started, he would encourage me. We'd be in the pits or the garage if we ever crossed past. Todd Parrott would always say something encouraging.

I always say something nice. I always say something that made you feel like you were important. or he valued you, and that was always a great trade of yours. Thank you. And so, you know, and he goes on wins a championship, becomes a championship, crew chief, and all that, but just always been great to me. I always appreciate that about him.

And I always felt that. Yeah, absolutely. I always felt we had a great friendship. I hope that he appreciated my appreciation for the history, and maybe that's why he. And talk about stories, stuff like that. I'll never forget the Winston. You remember the Winston, right?

Yeah. The year. Oh, that's right. He passed Del Jones. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You won the Winston.

Man, I just knew that we were going to win that thing. Yeah. And our car started handling bad. Y'all had a smoking rear issue or something too. Is that what happened? Yeah. Yeah. We had it, like, covered.

I mean, we were like half a straightaway or something like that. Yeah. You know, started like, here comes powder. Look out. Here comes. You're hooked up. Yeah, here it comes. Did y'all put on tires at the end?

Because I remember they went and got four tires on. What happened? I probably stayed out. I made a stupid mistake. Half of people stayed out. Yeah. But that was one of them deals. That was one of them races where you did everything you could to win it

because running second, it didn't matter. It didn't matter. You just did whatever you could to win it. It didn't matter. And seeing the pictures that you've posted, I think, on Twitter, stuff like that, you know, of your dad and you and the picture, The thing that sticks out to me is the picture of him up on top of the truck. And at Richmond?

Yeah, on top of the truck. Watch it, yeah, watching his dad, you know, it reminds me of me when I was a kid, you know, back then on top of the truck. And so many memories of him and his family. Yeah, I think that's it. I think the relationship that we've had is that respect and similarities between how you add, you adore your daddy. You and Brad both, like, he is the man.

Yeah. Right. And so, yeah, but you know how I feel about my daddy. And I think that there's that similarity. You grew up in the sport sort of following him, just like I followed my dad. Yep. And so there's a lot of similarities there, too, I think that sort of connect us. Our families, like I said, it started in 1976, so my dad got the opportunity to the crew chief for him, you know.

And my dad was working on the dirt cars. You've talked about, you know, missing the days when your dad drove the dirt car at Metroline, Concord and all that stuff. Well, my dad was mechanic with Robert G on that 17 car when he used to race at Concord and Metrolina against Billy Scott, Haywood Plyer, and all those guys. So, I mean, I was that kid standing on that truck watching your dad, because my dad was working on the car. That's awesome.

You know, so, I mean, it's like, it gives me goosebumps. I bet. Well, man, we appreciate you coming to tell your story. Yeah, I appreciate you having me. People are going to love to hear from you. You know, we have a lot of legends come in this door and sit down to this table. You're one of them. They love hearing from you guys.

Yeah. We hope you, you know, we hope you get another opportunity and get to see you back up on top of the pit box, calling some races for somebody one day, helping somebody to make it. And until then, man, we'll see you around, buddy. Thank you. Thank you, Powder. You got it. Thanks, Mike.

I appreciate you guys having me. It's been really special to me. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. For the Dale Jr. Download. This is the Ask Junior part of the show. Thanks for tuning in.

We've had a great conversation already. But we've got some questions from Leah. So, Leah, let's get started. Yeah, we got a lot of questions. You had some fun on Friday, taking the Nova out. So tell us a little bit about that. Yeah, the Nova. has been ready for a while. It's been sitting right here on the side of the studio for a couple

months, several months. And my plan, I've been in touch with Kerry Tharp at Darlington Motor Speedway for over about about a year probably about taking the car and leading the field during the pace laps in the Xfinity race. This is a Bush car, which is the Xfinity Series now. It should probably lead that field if it's ever going to do anything like that. So I told him when the car was ready, I'd bring it up there. I'm going to take it up there on a gooseneck trailer, pull into the track, unload it, put it up there in front of the field, do the pace slaps, pull it back into the pits and up on the trailer and probably take it home. So that's going to be the deal as far as I know right now. And we needed to make sure that the car was set up, meaning that the rear and

Housing was in it straight and it has the right castor and camber and the toe settings and everything. So just that it drives in the right direction and looks good doing it. So we put it on the surface plate over here and got to work on it last Friday. And it came to, it was really surprising to me, actually, how quickly it was to set up. So the rear end doesn't have any adjustments in the trailing arms. They bolt right in. There's no, you know, shimming them one way or the other, which is what a lot of cars have today.

So that's fixed. You just bolt that right in. So the rear-enhausen is either too far to the left or too far through the right. And you just adjust the track bar to get the rear-enhausen straight. We squared up the rear-enhousing in the back of the car. We set the track bar at 9 and 3-quarter on both sides just to leave it even and flat. And then we went to the front, and the caster and the camber, We had to make two little shim changes to get that right.

We set the toe and measured the tread width of the car. You wanted a little bit longer on the left side because you want the left front tire to get to the corner first. And so it's about a half inch or a quarter inch longer on the left side like it's supposed to be. All that was automatic. Just fell right into place. We had tightened up all of the suspension components and hem joints and everything to make sure nothing follows all. I'm going to take it to Charlotte Merge Speedway in a couple of days just to roll around there at about 50 or 60 miles an hour, four or five laps,

make sure nothing funky happens, no leaks, nothing breaks, the car doesn't run hot or anything crazy like that because we don't want to have any problems that would affect the race itself in Darlington. So, yeah, I'm really nervous. Nervous only because I don't want to have a problem that affects the race, right? You don't want to do anything that's going to mess with the show. So, but hopefully it's going to look beautiful on the racetrack. It looked great in the videos of us driving around here in the industrial parking lot. And the complex here at Junior Motorsports, it looked great in those videos.

So I know it's going to be awesome on the track. Our next question coming from Meree. Racing. Hey, Dale, how do you feel about Kyle Larson's win at Vegas? Is Hendrick Motorsports the top dog this year? Well, if you watch the NBC's season preview show, I thought that, I said that I think Kyle will be a final four championship contender, run deep into the playoffs.

And that really, that really is looking like a pretty good bet. And they haven't even got to the dirt race at Bristol, and he's already got a win under his belt. So I think that the confidence and all those things, after a win like that, a stage win, just he's going to start accumulating these important playoff points and those things that are going to help carry you deep into the playoffs and get you that opportunity to be in that final four at the final race of the year.

So I think it's just going to naturally be a pretty solid season for the five car, which is, it'll be interesting to see how that affects the rest of the company. All the cars kind of feed off of each other, and it really is shocking to me. not shocking, but it's really surprising how all these teams sort of ebb and flow from the top to not too good back to the top. I mean, there was a moment when Chevy wasn't good. No Chevy team was doing well. They get a new car.

Things get a little bit better. But still, you have the Fords and the Toyota's more dominant than, then the Chevroletes, and then last year, Chase wins the championship, and now everybody's looking at Hendrik and Chevrolet as maybe the top team, you know, the best performing team organization overall. So they're in the debate. They weren't. But now they are.

And there are other teams that were at the top or now maybe struggling a little bit. Like I was shocked at how Harvick ran this past weekend. I had him in my fantasy lineup. I had to pull him before the end of stage two, which you never did last year or the year before. Harvick was automatic. If you put him in there, you were sticking with that. So it's just like Junior Motorsports this year.

Like we are struggling, but we've had these years. You know, we'll, we just come out of the gate and can't get anything going, can't find any speed, and then it just happens. You start running well again for whatever reason. changes in the organization, things get better. But that's shocking to me, you know, you sit, you hang around in the sport long enough and you see those teams rise and fall. And we're sitting in a building of one of those teams that does that very thing.

And right now, Hendricks on the rise. I don't think we've even seen the best of them yet. Our next question coming from, Jessna Woods. We all know that you love racing history, but is there an era or subject in history that you enjoy? Oh, yeah. So I've been playing this game on Steam on the PC. Hell Let Loose is the name of it.

And it's basically a World War II shooter. And when I get into something like that, I want to learn more about, you know, the real history of the war itself. And I kind of always have been interested in, you know, I'm interested in abandoned racetracks. I'm interested in there's some. some accounts on on uh there's a there's some accounts on instagram that'll do these you know this here's new here's time square in in 1920 and here's time square today this very same picture right and you can that to me just is really interesting to see the growth and change uh or what is the same right some of the architecture and some of the buildings literally have not changed at all and have been

around over at a hundred years right i don't know why that that that That's cool to me, but I can have that same experience when I'm thinking about World War II and some of those battlegrounds, some of those places where the war took place, what they look like today. People actually go and explore those sites. You can watch those videos on YouTube, and I spend some time doing that. So it's really interesting to kind of watch historic footage of some of those locations and then see people explore those locations today, I don't know why I find that fascinating,

but I always have, and I have that exact, exact same experience when I go to a Lost Speedway. You know, we've talked about, me and Mike have kind of, we still, we started Lost Speedways, what? How long ago? I mean, last year was the conversations.

Oh, two years ago. Right. And we still, I think today, I think Mike is still today learning, like, what lost speedways is to me. Like, what do I get out of lost speedways? What am I there to achieve or accomplish? What's the enjoyment factor for me?

And it's really that explorer. And so I do, I find that sort of fascination in a lot of World War II stuff. Yeah, so there. Cool. One more question coming from Michael Erickson. What's your favorite kid show that Isla watches? Yeah, she loves Peppa Pig. And she's got a few others that she watches.

She loves Frozen and Elsa and Anna. And she wants one of us to be Anna. She wants to be Elsa. So she gets the dolls or she's either wearing the dress and she's physically Elsa, but she's like, you're Anna and you're going to be Anna right now. And I'm going to talk to you and you talk back, your honor. right and if you say if you don't fall in line right and if you step out of line and say but ila she goes not ila i'm elsa you'll you'll you'll you'll you'll call me else so uh it's weird um i feel weird

you know when i sit down and and and we play it's a it's a unique experience new experience for me Mike, I mean, you're a dad, when the first time your daughter handed you a doll and said, let's play. Yeah, yeah, that's a change. It's adjust, and it's adjustment. Or the time they want to paint your toenails and fingernails, has that happened to you yet? That part, I'm not too worried about as much. Yeah, because. I'm not worried.

I'm worried it wouldn't be the right word, but like. I guess worried ain't the right word, but that part, I'm not, I don't want if I want to dress up entirely, you know, but if she wants to mark on my face or paint my nails a fun color, I could get into that because I can go wipe that off. I had a blast play with Ila in our office the other day. I think we went in a solid hour. I'm telling you, man, I'm not saying this just because you're sitting here, but like you, T.J, I learned so much watching y'all sort of dad.

Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. Because, I mean, I have no playbook. Oh, okay. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I got to watch you, I got to watch TJ and other people and go, I like that. I like that move.

That's a good one. The old golf, magic golf ball showing up in her ear. Oh. Yeah. I found a lot of golf balls in Isir. I bet. And she turned, find another one. Find another one.

You know, she says she got a lot of golf balls in her ear. So I just keep pulling them out. He's good at it. He's good. I mean, you know, I can entertain her that way or I'm not as creative mentally to entertain her. in a moment and he can just turn it on and she's just she's she's she's loving it she sit there all day and talk to mike i was proud of that one because she was in a bad mood when she showed up and we got that change quick we did thanks a lot for supporting our youtube channel supporting all

our other social media handles and supporting this podcast we really appreciate you guys especially y'all diehards that tune in for the ass junior you're the you're the you're kind of the core group that we do this for. So thanks a lot. And have a great week. All right, last call. It's been a great show. Thanks to Todd Parrott for coming in.

A great Ask Junior session. Thank you, Leah. Some good work there by our listeners, some great questions. Good open segment, good conversation. The Dale Jr. download is going to be on NBCSN Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern this week. That's Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern. So make sure you tune in. A new episode of Door Bumper Clear after Las Vegas is out now, T.J. Brett and Freddie, talk about Kyle Bush's suspicious spin in the truck race. I think we can all

agree that that was a purposeful spin. And Kyle can't admit to doing it or he'll get fined. Mike Joy, he tweeted about drivers with funding and, yeah, I think we know who he was talking about. And a spotter's radio battery, dang, on a restart of all times. Man, what bad luck that was. And it was unfortunate for our man, Ty Dillon. His spotter had that issue. They talk about all those things. It'd be interesting to see what their take on Mike Joy's tweet is,

because I found that to be compelling. Go listen now on all major podcast platforms. Doorbubber Clear. All right, man. Good show, Mike. Yeah, man. Enjoyed it. Enjoyed it.

And thanks to everybody listening to this show. We don't take it for granted. We try to come every week with it. And so we appreciate you. All right. Shultz, Leah, any parting thoughts? No. No, Leah.

Lee says no. This is great. Wow. Feeling it, aren't you? We're feeling the love. Wow. All right, everybody. Hey, have a great week.

All right. I'm excited. Excited about this weekend. Weather's starting to turn. Things are getting nice outside. That's right. Finally. Yes. We're not living in Seattle anymore.

Goodness. I know, right. Awesome. Have a good week, man. See all. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo.