The Dale Jr. Download - 339 – Andy Petree (Part 1): Key to Cheating

Episode Date: May 12, 2021

Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits down with long-time crew chief, car owner, and broadcaster Andy Petree for part one of a conversation filled with epic tales about Petree’s rich history and innovative practices in the sport.Before Petree joins them at the table, Dale Jr. and co-host Mike Davis relive a busy weekend for Dale. First, he tells all about his trip to Darlington Raceway to pace the field with his restored Chevrolet Nova that his dad once raced. He talks about the whole experience including telling old racing stories with family during the car ride down, seeing the industry’s reaction in the garage, and what it was like getting on track. Both Dale and Mike then address the disappointment of NASCAR on FOX not showing the Nova on track.Dale Jr. fills everyone in about his trip to the Nashville Fairgrounds last Friday. He clears some things up about his future racing plans there and Speedway Motorsports’ efforts to bring NASCAR back. Hear what the Nashville community needs to know about Marcus Smith’s plans.Next, Andy Petree enters and the stories about his career in racing start rolling. He shares what initially interested him about racing and his plans to drive a car he built with a friend before a NASCAR Hall of Famer walked in and took the seat. Hear what happened next and how it set Petree’s career path.Another NASCAR Hall of Famer helped Andy get his first job in NASCAR, performing a role he had no experience in. Find out what happened and how that team ultimately won the Cup championship that year.Petree’s path then paired him with Benny and Phil Parsons. Hear what tricks he had up his sleeve when he won his first Cup race as a crew chief with Phil in 1988.Crew chiefs often search for physical advantages on the cars but mental advantages prove just as important. Listen for the stories about mind games he played with his drivers to make them believe they had an upper hand. You won’t believe the results.Andy was Harry Gant’s crew chief when he won four races in a row in 1991. Find out how the car was built differently than most. Hear what competitive advantages Gant had and the rulebook loopholes Petree attacked.Then, the story of how one ‘competitive advantage’ ultimately led Petree to take it off the car after qualifying during race weekend for fear of being caught.Part 2 of Dale Jr.’s conversation with Petree continues next week as they dive into his years working with Dale Sr. for Richard Childress Racing.In Ask Jr. Presented by Xfinity, Dale details the ride-a-longs he gave the I AM ATHLETE crew last month and their reactions. He and Mike then discuss the changes expected with the Next Gen cars. Finally, hear what Dale thinks about the potential for street course races in NASCAR.  Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is a production of Dirty Mo Media. The Dale Jr. Download. Hey, everybody. It's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of the Dale Jr. Download with me as my co-host, Mike Davis. What's up, Mike? Man, how you doing? Shelts is here. Lea's here. I'm doing great. Should be a lot of fun.

We have been waiting on this guest for a long time. Man, he was kind of hesitant to come on to the show. But he has a long, rich history. Andy Petrie. crew chief owner, broadcaster, I mean, whatever,

he's done it all. Innovator. Yeah. He's going to tell us some cool innovation stories. Cheating. That's what we,

it's a code. Yeah. Let's get the show started. All right, we're going to get to Andy Petrie here later, but, yeah, open segment time,

man, a lot to talk about. You had a busy weekend. I did. I did. We took the Nova to Darlington. This was a very important trip. Yeah.

This Nova can't overstate it. It means a lot to me. and it sits right here. It's like my buddy. It's like my pillow over here. You're close. You're close.

So it's always right here when we're doing this show. Take a look over my shoulder and there she is. You feel better about yourself. Sure. Anyways, man, we worked really hard over two years. The guys would take a lot of time off and breaks in between because we were trying to run a race team as well. But we got two years of time invested in this.

My uncle Robert G. Jr., who worked on the car originally in the 80s when it was built, he put the body on it back then and done a lot of work on this car. He spearheaded the whole operation of the restoration. He wanted to go to Darlington. I also asked my uncle Danny to go, being dad's brother. I thought it'd be important to him. And LW went with us as well. LW was my lead mechanic, making sure this thing started up and we had no problems to be able to pace the field.

You need somebody to blame if it doesn't start. Well, he took the lead when we're out here warming it up, firing it up, getting the battery ready and everything, getting the thing going. He just seemed to, when I took it over to Charlotte and drove it a couple weeks ago, he just was extremely supportive and helpful. That's good. And so I'm like, you've got to go. We drove into Suburban down there some amazing stories from Robert G. Jr. and Uncle Danny talking about racing with dad, a little bit about this car, but more about dirt racing with that in the 70s and just things, right? So, had a lot of fun.

That's exactly what I was hoping would happen was we drive down there. It'd feel like it was a 10-minute drive because of all the great stories that we talked about, all the things that I learned. Had a GoPro in the car, thanks to you guys at Dirtymo Media. So we captured it all. You captured one hour and 45 minutes worth before the batteries died on the GoPro's. They were supposed to last five hours. Uh-oh.

That's what Micah told me. So Micah sent me a video clip of him putting the GoPro's in the suburban. Okay. And he's telling me how to turn them on. And he's like, these are last five hours. Just let them run. doing they'll die on their own good five-hour battery they all died exactly at the same moment like one after the other like in in unit they're like then da-da-t-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-er all of them powered down right there in front of us as we were just about

15 minutes waving the racetrack oh man we had a couple good stories that we didn't get no yeah really and in the whole ride home oh because yeah your reaction to the day was probably you guys kind of decompressing and digesting the day and we didn't get any no no no no but there was some pretty good stories on the way up there. I think you guys will appreciate. Anyways, so we get there, the car is sitting in the garage, the Xfinity garage, on the backstretch. Now, when this car raced at that track, that was the cup garage.

Mm-hmm. All right, this car would have been over on the front straightaway where the current cup garage is, right? So the track's been flipped since this car raced there. But anyhow, the car is sitting in the Xfinity garage, And when we're walking, when we walk in, first off, Darlington Speedways protocols and access to the infield and all the things that you go through to get there, seamless. We drove in just like everybody else,

went through the check-in and coming there and park, and everything was easy. Good. Good job by them. So, because I'm not going to the racetrack a lot right now. And every time that I've went to a cup racer of racetrack over the last couple of years, year and a half, I guess. It's been really easy. And the intimidation factors there as you're leading

into the trip thinking, man, it's just getting in there and getting parks going to be tough. You know, they got all these bubbles and places you can go, can't go, and all that. But anyways, it was great. Walked into the garage area. The visual immediately when I saw a car parked in the garage and everybody's around it. Oh, as you walked up. I'm standing hundreds of yards away. And you could see them. And I'm like, oh, man, they're all standing around just talking to each other and looking, pointing and like the car had been sitting there all morning and the whole garage got to check it out right walk up look at it hang staying with their buddy and chit-chat about some stories and relive some some memories of their own their own memories right maybe nothing even related to

that car but throwback weekend that's what throwback weekend's about right sort of firing off those hidden lost memories in your mind and all these great stories and telling them and sharing them And so certainly a lot were had and enjoyed around that car being in the garage. Before I walked up, I took a few pictures just at that moment of all these racers, right, standing around that car just. So other race teams, crew members, drivers, all that stuff? Mix of everybody. Wow, that's cool.

It was neat. It was really, really cool. Yeah. So right out of the gate, I'm like, yes, this car is accomplishing what I would hope, right, with bringing it here. I want people to see it, enjoy it. I let a couple, you know, of course I walk up and Noah's sitting in it. Are you kidding?

Oh, yeah. He's sitting in it. Yeah. So I was like, yeah, part for the course there. Get out. Yeah. Did you tell me get out? No, I didn't.

Get out of my car. A couple of the guys walked up, David Starr, Timmy Hill, Harris and Burton. And I'm like, y'all jump in, man. See what it feels like. Because it is completely nothing like the way the car is feeling sit today. And they all jump in and they're just like, it's insane. you know they're looking around i can't believe the interior and what it looks like and what how it compares to what they race um so i was happy to you know let people climb in and out of it it's

fine but uh they were like hey pull it over to the front straight away whenever you're ready so i drive it over and park it on the pit road uh on the front stretch and they were like you're going to follow this you know when you're you're going to go out and do a couple laps after the anthem so we waited on the anthem to end then we climbed in ran went out there and rode a couple laps we're looking up in the grandstand, seeing fans holding their beers up or waving or whatever, really. That's what that moment was for, man.

The car is the star. That's what the day's about. So glad people appreciated to see it and got to see it. And looking at pictures of the car going around the track afterwards, it reminds, it looks, it's like,

it really reminds me of what it looked like when it raced there. It looks legit. Schultz, you were in the grandstands, right? I was. And what was the reaction? Oh, it was going crazy. Really like they were freaking out.

Everyone hands up in the air just like as if you were racing. That's so awesome. That's neat. It was really cool. When I saw, I remember, you know, I've looked at a lot of pictures of this car when it raced throughout the restoration process, getting the car right. And when you see the pictures of it today or this past weekend at Darlington, they really let overlap.

Oh, man. Right. It looks. You got it right. Real, right? Yeah. The car just looks so close to the real thing. It is.

And, um, I sent a picture to, Tony Jr. and Tony Sr. Those were two guys that I really wished that were there. Tony Sr. remarked that it was better than the original. Whoa. That's high remark right there. But anyways, I really want them to see it. I don't know that either one of them's been next to it yet. Anyhow, it was, we paced the field. They had me following a car, and then the pace car was behind me, and then the field was behind me. And I'd already got to run them two laps, but pacing the field was pretty fun. I think it would have been neat for any of the guys that were close to the front,

especially the front row to look out their windshield and see that car. And maybe in a moment for a split second, imagine, like, you know, racing around the track with that car. Because you were a little, you were ways ahead of them. I don't know. I couldn't, my mirror, I couldn't really tell in the mirror how far back they were. I was told to follow the car I was following. Gotcha. That was my job.

You should do in your rules. Yeah. Yeah. And so. Were you nervous? Not as bad, I guess, as I thought I was. I was really nervous about the car maybe not starting, the battery going dead or having a leak of some sort.

I just didn't want anything to happen that would bother the track or NASCAR. I was their guests, right? They were allowing me to do this. They didn't have to let me come in there and do that. So I didn't want to mess up anything. But that was the only thing I was worried about. The car drives great. It fires right up.

It runs good. It worked out great. But then we parked the car. back in the garage area. And I was standing there and I was like, we watched a couple laps over in turn two and watched the cars go by. And LW is needing to get home.

Oh. Yeah. Oh, so you didn't stay? No. I thought you did. I wanted to. Me and Danny, my uncle, we wanted to stay. And Danny didn't tell me this,

but we had a ride home with his son, Danny Jr., who works on the eight car or we would have stayed. Oh, man. But L.W. was racing with Wyatt at the dirt track at Millbridge, and he had to get home. Like we were rushing to get home. I wanted to stop at a corner store or this general store on the way back, and he's like, man, we've got time for ice cream.

But anyway, and then we got to get some ice cream. On the way home, we're listening to the race. And we're, you know, obviously how the race turned out, it was very regrettable that we didn't stay. Oh, man. Very, very regrettable. So you didn't even get back. Did you get back in time to see the end? No.

I'm glad because I don't. Oh, yeah. You're glad. I don't like watching my cars. It was terrifying to watch those two. And I can't imagine what it had been like to be there in person. Oh, yeah. Listen into it over the radio has saved me a lot of...

You would have had a coronary. I mean, especially on that restart. I mean, they get so sideways and the terror of them both wadding it up superseded any of the elation. I don't even want to talk about it. It's raising the anxiety level right now, just thinking about it. But it's fun. It's great. It went off good.

I think we'll have the car here coming up. We've got a Charlotte race weekend with a lot of folks coming to town and they're going to come through the gift shop and there'll be tours going on in here for folks, I guess, throughout that week. So we'll probably have it here. Yeah. But I text the Hall of Fame and told them, you know, hey, the car's here. I don't, you know, any, if you guys ever need it or want it for the, for the floor over there

in the Hall of Fame, just tell me. And it can go over there and sit. So I do want people to be able to see it and let it go out there and people to see it. But, you know, obviously, I'm not, you know, just can't go anywhere. but I want to make sure it's taken care of and in good shape and doesn't get banged up. Oh, the Hall of Fame will take you up on that. Hey, before we move on, can we just address something about this? I'm curious if you were aware of the situation that was happening with the TV broadcast.

So Kelly Earnhardt, your sister, jumped on Twitter, and she brought it up first, and I know that she called me that she was upset that the race broadcast from Fox, who I consider colleagues of ours. I don't consider them competitors, so we can raise. that, you know, put that aside. But she was upset that they, she turned on the broadcast of the race and she did not see the Nova. Yeah. I didn't know what was going on with the broadcast, obviously, at the moment. And when I heard about it, I was getting some text messages about people, my friends. They're like, my wife was like, have you done the deal? Or are they going to show it? I didn't see it. Friends texting me. And it didn't really bother me. I, like, if it bothered her, Kelly, friends, my wife, you...

Yeah, I jumped in. Good. Yeah. You know, let it... I'm not minimizing your feelings about that, but it didn't bother me. I wasn't... You know, I never went into that day or going, man, I'm... I'm doing this for TV.

Doing this for TV or... Now, I'm disappointed that the people at home did not get to see it. I am disappointed that they didn't get to experience, I guess, the television version of whatever, you know, Shultz and everybody in the grandstands got to see. But my, my, I checked all the boxes for you, for me. Yeah. Right. Everything that I wanted to do about that day, I did.

And, but, you know, anyways, yeah, I saw that conversation. I chose not to jump in the middle. Oh, I'm glad you didn't. I jumped in because Xfinity put out on their Twitter handle, they put this thing, you know, don't miss this. And I'm like, man, it's like a carrot in front of a baby. I got to take a bite. And so I jumped in and, you know, with my.

sarcasm, but also I was pretty adamant about it, too, not just because Kelly was upset, but a lot of people, I go in there with a tweet, it gets attention. There was even a couple articles written about how Dale Jr.'s business partner is, you know, chiming in. And I want to clarify one thing. A few people would say to me, well, why would you expect Fox to do it? Dale Jr.'s an NBC broadcaster. And I want to say, my reason for that had nothing to do with the fact that you were in the car.

It had everything to do with the original. owner. It's a Dale Earnhardt car out there. I don't care who's driving it. I felt Dale Earnhardt needed to get the attention or deserve the attention on the actual race broadcast. Now Fox, absolutely, as I learned later, it did a piece on it during their pre-race coverage. And I appreciate that. Barry Landis, who's a great friend of ours, text me and he's like, hey, just so you know this is what happened. And I said, I appreciate that. It doesn't really change my opinion on this. I feel Dale Earnhardt's car, which was in the Xfinity series, which won and at Darlington earns the right to be in the actual race broadcast and not the pre-race show.

I didn't see the pre-race show. Kelly clearly didn't see the pre-race show. Amy didn't see the pre-race show. You just turn on the TV knowing that you're out there pacing it, but also knowing that this is a Dale Earnhardt car. That was my only point. And so it had nothing to do with who was driving it or who the driver actually works for, you know, in his broadcast career. It had everything to do with just, Dale Earnhardt deserved to be, get glanced. And our expectations weren't even that high. It just, I didn't expect him to, you know, stop all of their race coverage to talk about this car. I just wanted to see it in a shot.

Yeah. That's it. So I took a, you're right about the car being the star. I took one of dad's uniforms that he raced in, in that car. He won, he won Daytona with this car, and I had the suit from that race. And Amy was like, you should wear it. My uncle's like, you should wear it. I tried it on it and it fit, and I took it.

It was in the suburban, but I didn't wear it because I didn't want to draw any attention away from the car, right? And I tried to be as anonymous as I possibly could because the car is the thing, right? And it's all about throwback weekend. It's the Xfinity Series race. This car ran in this race. This car won here. So it was about the car.

We'd put so much work into the car. It was time to show it off. But it, you know, it's fine. There was a bunch of, you know, content on social media about it, NASCAR themselves, posted some, you know, footage of that car racing. And even Fox. Yeah. Even Fox did, to their credit, for sure. Barry is a good friend.

Barry was our producer, editor, pretty much our everything for back in the day. Remember that TV show we did for Speed? Loved it. Bud Lindeman. So him and his wife would write those bubbles, the pop-ups? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of fun.

Barry's a good guy. Listen, I appreciated them. I kind of stand behind what we said. And I love the fact that you got your boxes. checked from that weekend and that it started and it didn't look well. I would say on the Fox thing that there was, I can absolutely say for fact that it was nothing intentional and that if they could go back and do it over again, they probably would do it differently.

But knowing what it's like to be on the broadcast at the kickoff of the show, they come in right at the back of the anthem. I mean, there's Pace Laps Green Flag, right? And knowing everything that's got to get accomplished, there's a bunch of ads. and buy-ins that have to happen. And they have to get those things done, right? You've got to talk to the driver. You're going to go in car and talk to a driver.

You can't do that while they're pacing down straight away, going through the pits to get their pit road speed. There's just a lot of things that have to fall in line like a bunch of dominoes before the cars get the green, and we didn't get plugged in there. And that's okay. Cars still here. It ain't going anywhere. It probably might end up at another racetrack somewhere.

I don't know what the plan is for it, but no big deal. Went to Nashville. When did I do that? Friday. Friday, the day before. Yeah, you had a busy week. So I wanted to clear something up about Nashville. Yeah, I went to the fairgrounds.

Obviously, everybody knows about the conversation that we're having there trying to figure out how we can possibly get NASCAR back to the fairgrounds. That conversation has been going on for seems like a decade now. But it's real momentum over the last year or so. And most of that's been pretty well documented. But Mike Hilton asked me if I'd shoot over there during the weekend that the Arc Series was there. Bob Sargent's out there promoting the race. And they had the pro-late models and super late models there as well,

had a lot of cars turn out for those races. And so I was in town doing some other business and went by the racetrack. They had a big platform press conference setup. And they had me and Stephen Nassie and a couple of the drivers up there. to talk about Nashville. So it was a great opportunity to just kind of keep the momentum up, right? During the conversation, there were only a few media there. One of them was the Tennessean and a couple local TV stations and so forth.

Matt Weaver and a couple of those guys were not there, but they picked up a lot of the story in the aftermath. During the conversation, I believe the Tennessean asked me, if Xfinity Series came back to Nashville, would you run it? and I said I race in the Xfinity series once a year. If they bring it back to Nashville, I'm definitely going to put that race on my calendar. I'll be here and I'll race in it.

And so that would be the track that I would choose that year to run at. Just like you're doing Richmond this year. You did Darlington last year. Nashville would be your one a year. I believe Matt was the first one to take those comments and say, Dale's going to race every year at Nashville when it comes back. He's going to be here every year. It's not what I said.

And I thought, I could text him or shoot him a message and straighten him out, which I probably should have done. Because it got picked up by more and more people, and that's the story that's kind of going around is, hey, if y'all come back to Nashville, Dale's going to run every year. For the rest of time. Yeah.

It's not really what I meant. But if they do go back there with the Xfinity series, I'm going to talk to Helmonds or whoever our partner is that I'm running this one race for and say, hey, I'd love to go race Nashville this year. That's absolutely, I want to do it. I want to race. I can't be on this campaign and be part of the conversation and not race there when they go back, right? So I'm definitely going to go.

But I don't know if I'll run every single year for the rest of time. But anyways. So you're clarifying because I'm glad you're doing this because I'm going through a Facebook timeline and I see a headline. I didn't read the article. I saw the headline that said something along the lines of as long as they're racing at Nashville Fairgrounds, Dale Jr. is going to race there. I mean, the headline literally suggested it and I'm like, well, that's a development. I'm sure we need to talk about this one because, I mean, holy crap. And I mean, it's a heck of a commitment.

You're just saying, look, you're not going to race forever. Yeah. But as long as you do, if Fairgrounds comes back and that's your one race. Yeah. That'll be your pick. There's another thing. And so the reason why I would go there on a Friday and sit down and talk to the folks at the track is because the campaign to get NASCAR back to the fairgrounds has a bunch of message points in it, right? And a bunch of bullet points in it.

And there's some people that aren't in favor of this happening, right? Not in favor of NASCAR coming back to the fairgrounds. Most of these people are going to be local residents that are in that area. I don't know that it's 100% of them against it. I'm just, there are some in the area that are like, I don't want NASCAR coming back here. Too noisy, too many cars already on the track as it is and it's already a nuisance to me. And I don't want it to get worse. And I think that what I, what's important for me, I guess, is to go and continue to spread the message of the,

there's some incorrect information out there. right, that bringing NASCAR back to the fairgrounds means more noise. And bringing NASCAR to the fairgrounds means more days when there's racing. It's actually going to mean less days of cars on track. It's going to mean less noise. So this is what I think is important. If I'm a resident at the track, right, and I live half a block away, absolutely, I mean, I understand, like if I'm saying,

sitting at home trying to watch a movie with my girl or hanging out in the yard with my kid, hearing race cars all day long is absolutely not a preference. Right. I get it. Yeah. It's a legitimate complaint. Yes. All right.

So the thing is is that this track was voted as historical landmark and so it's not going anywhere. And as long as it's there, people like Bob Sharjan and so forth are going to work with the fair board to continue racing super late models, pro late models are. K&N, all of those races to All American 400 and all those things that are happening now are going to continue to happen. And as it sits,

without an agreement with Marcus, I can go over there with a race car and make all the noise I want any day of the year. The track's open, free to rent, you know, go in there and just any Friday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, it doesn't matter. And there's no sound barrier.

There's nobody going to build a sound barrier. There's nobody going to try to do anything to mitigate any of the complaints. If you have Marcus in the picture, and he does have this control that he's looking for to bring NASCAR back, he is basically going to spend millions of dollars to build sound barriers, do everything he can from a physical standpoint to mitigate the sound that's reaching your house. That's not there and it's not going to be there without Marcus. So do you want sound barriers? Would you like somebody, would you like somebody to start to build you a soundberry tomorrow?

Yes, of course you would. All right, he's the only guy that's got the money to do that. It's the only pathway to the sound barriers is this way. The other thing that he wants to do is have less track time, less cars running, less days of the year where there's cars running. And this is how he's going to do that. Instead of saying it's a free-for-all, I got a car, I want to come run and I need to practice, he's going to really narrow it down to only select days of the year

where if you've got a pro-late model, super late model, whatever street stock, I don't care, these are the only days of the year that you're available, that are available to come test your car. All right? The short track programs will continue as far as those big races, All-American 400, Arcan, all those things. But all that stuff gets narrowed up.

into specific moments where there'll be a schedule you'll understand when those days are and it'll be less physical days of the year that cars are going to be out there making all that noise why would you not want that right it's going to reduce the number of days it's going to have some uniform it's going to bring some uniform to to the schedule and and all that is stuff that if I was a resident I would won't okay if the track's going to be there and there's going to be noise okay give me a schedule and less days where there's noise and give me big sound barriers where the noise is even less bothersome. Sounds like to me it's just a matter of hearing Marcus out, getting those message points out and not jumping to conclusions because it's a fair conclusion to jump to if you hear this

or see this in the newspapers or see it on news. Oh, they're coming and hell comes with them. But that's not the case. You're saying they're coming with a lot of things that you've been fighting for and give these guys a chance and hear them out. Yeah. And there's interesting. Yeah. And I think, too, if you look at Charlotte Merge Speedway, they do a lot of things that benefit the local community as far as their Christmas lights program. There's a few days in the year where all of a sudden, Charlotte Merge Speedway is this thing everybody wants to go to and take their kids and see the lights and all those things. He wants to have that same sort of impact with the fairgrounds and provide the community with these sort of attractions that they will enjoy, right? and their families will enjoy. That's not there unless you have Marcus, right?

So I really understand their concerns, and I can put myself in their shoes and totally see where they're coming from, but I'm telling you, if you're a resident, you want this deal. You really do, because without it, it stays as is, which is not really your preference. And so I guess that answers the question

as to why you'd spend a Friday and shoot over to Nashville, and answer some media questions and talk to local media and then go back home. And if you're one of those guys in the community that hated the idea of Dale Jr. racing there for the rest of time, that ain't happening either. This is all good news. Hey, Andy Petrie's here. Let's get him into the show and at the table. Terry Gant wins the Southern 500. Well, a very happy Andy Petrie getting correct. Congratulations.

Motor Amperfect. Car am perfect. And Harry was first. Checkers about to be thrown, and it's very good. Flying to victory, two in a row. Andy Petrie is going to head to victory lane. He won three in a row. McGant and his fourth consecutive Winston Cup win. Man, I was thinking.

What about that? It's very again, huh? The first year, Andy Petrie, taking over as crew chief for Dale Earnhardt, the first win. Earnhardt has won the 1993 NASCAR Winston Cup Championship. Andy Petrie came in to do a terrific job. Hurdhart holds them on. to win the race and knock down his seventh Winston Cup championship. Andy Petrie, champion crew chief.

That'll feel awfully good. Yeah, it sure does. Dale Earnhardt has won the second Rickardt 400. Well, Andy Petrie, all those last minute adjustments yesterday paid off. Yeah, greatest right-and-star driver in the world. What's your side? What's up, man? How you doing?

Welcome. You flew your helicopter here? Yeah. It's pretty cool. Thanks, man. We've been looking forward to you coming on the show. Yeah. I appreciate it.

I have to. I've been watching a lot of them. Have you? Yeah. You've got some characters on me. We've had some fun. Yeah. Throw that headset on so you can hear us.

And by the way, first guest we've ever had that flew a helicopter in, I guess. I think so. You and Rick Hendrick. Yeah, I guess you hadn't had chase on yet. Yeah, he would fly a helicopter here. Yeah, probably would. Andy Petrie is on the show. It's awesome to have you in here.

And I know that you got your hands. and you're busy working with RCR. What are you doing these days? What's your job title? Well, I'm just the, you know, the BP of competition over there. And kind of everything that's competition related falls under me. Got great people, you know, that handle all the things. You know, from engineering to operations.

You've got Sammy Johns and Eric Komenick and, you know, just a lot of good, good strong people over there. What made you want to go back and go back to work at RCR? You had your own deal. You kind of were doing some TV and you seem to be like you was settled into this sort of comfortable place. You didn't really want to work all the time. I was.

Now you're working hard again. It was great, right? I was working for ESPN. I was working in the booth. And life was great. I mean, it really was. And then ESPN lost the contract to NBC. And then you took my job.

And so here I sit. We're all thinking it. Yeah. Right. We'll go ahead and address the elephant in the room. No, just kidding. But after that ran out, I mean, I still do work for Fox. you know, on the race-sub show, which I really enjoy once a week or so during the season.

But that's it, you know, I was just, you know, piddling things in my shop. I was, you know, I'm obviously passionate about aviation. And, you know, I dabbled with, you know, I got my airframe powerplant license to be able to work on helicopters and airplanes. And I bought a runout in Robinson, kind of like the one I'm flying now and overhauled it. I thought, okay, that's a good way to, you know, make a little money. I can, you know, occupy my time. It was way too hard. Well, it was really hard work, and there wasn't a lot of money in it.

So I ended up selling that helicopter, making a little bit of money. And about that time, I was talking to Richard about some other things, and we had lunch at the winery. And he said it, he just wasn't happy with the direction of the team and wanted to know what I thought. And we talked about some things. And he, you know, what do you think about coming back over here? And it really piqued my interest. I mean, because I'm a super competitive guy. You know, I didn't quit being competitive just because I took on other things.

and you miss it a little bit. There's things about racing that I really love that you can lay awake at night thinking of how can I make this a little better, how can we beat them this week? And so I really kind of wanted to do it, you know. And so it's been fun. This is my fourth season there.

And I feel like that we've made some progress along the way. We won a few races. Oh, yeah. You know, won the X-India championship a couple years ago with Tyler and now moving him with his career along. I think it's interesting. And, you know, in Austin Dillon, and sitting in this really good spot in his career

where he's, you know, tons of experience, very talented, you know. I feel the pressure of being able to give him the equipment that he deserves right now. Yeah. And so it's been fun. The performance is getting better, that's for sure. Had some standout runs at the end of the season last year to kick off the playoffs, which surprised, I think, a lot of people. Probably not y'all, but the way you ran at, you know, Richmond, for example, was just outstanding.

Yeah, we're looking forward to going back there. Yeah. So, anyhow, man. Let's go way back, all right? You have to go way back now. We're going as far as we can. Probably further back than you can remember. That's the challenge to doing this show is seeing how much you guys can remember.

You know, you call yourself a car freak from way back since you could walk. But what was your family's involvement around automobiles? What connected you to racing or to the car? Well, it's a little different than your career, right? I mean, your dad was super famous all in racing when you grew up, but my dad was not. I mean, my family really wasn't interested in really had any connection to racing. And other than for cars, my grandfather was a car dealer,

Chevrolet dealer in Newton, North Carolina, and news them across Chevrolet. So that's one really, I would hang out in the dealership and, you know, aggravate the mechanics like crazy. You know, John Settlemeyer was one of the mechanics in there. And he was five times, ended up being a five times. track champion at Hickory Speedway and I got oh man that's really cool you know he got race cars and he took me you know out to shop a few times when I was a kid show me the cars and I just kind of

got the first real interest I got though my my uncle took me to Hickory Speedway when I was 11 12 years old and I got there and I heard those cars running from the parking lot and I'm like holy cow and I went running up that ramp you know that ramp in front just running I didn't pay ticket nothing I ran top of that and I looked down at those cars they were practicing and I was I knew right then that was it i was done i'm telling you that nothing else in the world mattered but right about how old were you i was 11 or 12 years old okay did you play any sports in school no but i built a race car when i was like in still in high school yeah yeah from that point on right yeah so you you go to your first race at hickory and hear that motor and and get all excited about that um how long where where did

you finally where were you able to get finally get your hands on a car and start tuning on one well it was kind of crazy it was like when i was still in high school and and and dale jaret and Jimmy Newsom were good friends of mine. Well, Jimmy, actually, Dale wasn't even in the picture yet, but Jimmy was actually running the tire store there in Newton, had graduated ahead of me a few years, and I was trying to anything I could. I was trying to con anybody to help me.

We didn't have any money. We were poor back then. But I was trying to find somebody to help me build a car, and I don't want to go up and race. What kind of car were you going to build? Well, we started out. We built this Nova, a 72 Nova out of a 64 Chival Frame. We go buy all this stuff,

and I don't like that. I don't have a clue about any of this, right? I want to do it. I got this want to, but I don't have any real skills. I started aggravating John Settlemeyer and Tommy Houston every, like I'd kind of lay off one for a while, and I'd go into the other guy, I'd wear him out to help me learn how to build this thing from the frame.

I mean, we started with this frame, and then we built this whole car up, and about the time we'd get it on wheels, Dale Jarrett walks in, and he, with his dad Ned. And if that's cool, it kind of checks out, you know? And I didn't know why because Dale was a jock. He was a golfer, played three sports or more in high school.

It didn't see him. Even his dad was a racer, I didn't see. Did y'all know him around town? Yeah, oh, we knew each other because we went to the same high school. Yeah, that's what it was. Y'all were the same high school at the same time. Oh, man. And so they basically the reason for their trip there was they wanted to drive that car.

He'd heard we were building a car and Dale wanted to drive it. And I'm like, no way, man. Right. No, I'm driving. How did that conversation start? Oh, yeah. That's right. Well, here's the deal.

I had a deal with Jimmy that we'd take it to the track, and whoever was the fastest would drive it, right? I mean, she already knew I was going to beat the faster. Yeah. I love that. So when Dale shows up, it's like, oh, man, this is not going to work out. You know, this is not what I want to do. But you're splitting sort of the responsibility and ownership of this car with Jimmy? It was 50-50, Jimmy Newsom and myself.

And so when Dale walks in. Well, this is what happened. We didn't have any more money. We'd already spend everybody. We had barred money and begged money from everybody. we were at kind of a dead in any way because we didn't have enough money to buy an engine for it. And so Jimmy, you know, kind of reminded me of that. It said, if we want to race this car, we've got to do this deal.

I said, okay, you know, I did want to race it because we put so much effort in. And so I reluctantly agreed, and that basically set my career path as well as deal jerrets, you know. And so now we're actually, you know, three-way partners in this deal before we ever go to the first race. We called it D-A-J racing, which was Dale Andy and Jimmy. How good did the car perform? You know what? Too bad. It was kind of weird.

I've told the story many times. We get the car ready to go to the first race. And I've got it sitting in this little garage we had Newton, and Ned comes by. And he says, all right, and I had it all kind of just sitting and making it look right. He said, how much wedge you got in that thing? And I'm like, holy cow, what is that? What is the wedge? Yeah.

I mean, really, I mean, I was 17 years. Sure. I'm like, I thought it meant how much tilt, you know, from left or right. I said inch and a half. He goes, perfect. We showed up the track. We ain't got a clue. I mean, you crossways have no idea, right?

Dale starts in the back of 24-car field and finish night. First time you ever said it won. It's amazing. Yeah. Nice. So what happens? Like how he runs a car a couple times? Yeah, we ran actually two seasons with that car.

With Dale driving it? Oh, yeah. And limited sportsmen is what it was. It was limited sportsman division at Hickory. And what about you driving? No, that was done. Like I said, once he came in, the deal was he wanted to drive it, and that was it. You know, so now my, like I said, it set my path as being a crew chie.

All right. Were you not upset? No, not really upset. I actually enjoyed that part of it, too. I always wanted to drive. You know, I always kind of, you know, I knew I always wanted to do it. But it just never, the opportunity just didn't come along for quite a few years. So y'all run, you're sort of, you know, learning the ends and outs,

mechanical side of a car and how it works. You can figure out what wedge is and all this. I figured it out like the third race. I'd gone to John Settlement. I'm like, man, you've got to help me with this. I don't know what it means. And he tried to explain it, man. He took like a box or something.

He's trying to tell me, you know, put a little shim, put it a little shim under the right front, put it up, you know, and now you see how all the weights on these two. And as soon as he did that, a light bulb went on in my mind. And I'm thinking, I got it. We're on our way to Asheville Speedway to run a race up there on Friday night. Yeah. And so he says, cars loose.

I got, I got it. I put a little wedge in. Bam, perfect. So now, now we're on the road. You're a wedge. Oh, yeah. You're a wizard. You're a wizard.

You have a wedge question. Here's your guy right here. Well, that's actually the core of all of the racing suspension, right? Once you understand what, then all the springs and shots, everything you do then kind of relates back to that. Great point. Yeah. It was the base of it.

So you're traveling around to Hickory, Asheville. Also now, we're not making any money doing this, right? So I'm working for Jimmy Newsom in the tire store, maybe $200 a week or something. So you still? After I graduated, so the first year I was still in high school, the next year I graduated, went to National Auto Diesel College for a little while

and realized I didn't want to be a diesel mechanic. I was watching those guys come out of that stuff. That's not for me. Plus, I wanted to race anyway, so. Did Ned kick you all a little money or something? He did a little, yeah, and I take that back. I mean, yes. If it wasn't for Ned, we wouldn't have been able to finance it,

But it was still thin, man. I'm telling you. We were so poor. Was there? Bush money? Well, a little, but it was just a little bit. What was the drinking age back then? Were y'all drinking little bush beer?

It's a statute of limitation right out. Yeah, it was 18. You're back to the atmosphere at Hickory Motor Speedway. You know, it was kind of, I mean, this was back in the 70s, late 70s. And, you know, you had in the sportsman division, which I had a big passion for still do it was you know butch linley and Tommy Houston Jack Ingram John Settlemyer those guys were running in that division

we're running the limited's and it was it was starting to get a little more polished you know everybody used to just show up in T-shirts and just you know it was just a redneck thing but you know one thing it did really instilled in us he was always this you know professional wanted us to you know show up

the racetrack and clean clothes don't you know so we had a you know consciousness about our image and it was starting to change then and And, but I, you know, 100 lap races for the, for the late models. We ran 25, or 35 lap races and limited. And it was fun, man. Y'all working in the tire store during the day, so you get out of work and run right over to the shop where, wherever the car is at?

You had a little shot. We just ended up renting a little place there in Newton and so, yeah, we'd work there all night. I mean, it was just, the only time you used to eat and sleep, work. Right. But you'd get out of work, go over to the shop. You and Jimmy, they'll show up. So yeah, they'll work on it quite a bit. As a matter of fact, you'd be surprised how, he didn't know anything.

He didn't know what a spark plug was when he started. And at the end of our end of that, and then his career as an owner, he can build a car. I mean, he really took on to it. He knows a lot about the race car. You run that car for two years, and then what happens? Well, like I said, we went broke doing it. And Tom Pistone, I've got to say this, because if it wasn't for Tom Pistone, we would have never been able to pull this off.

He had a parts store in Charlotte, and he let us have an open account. there to go buy our parts and what it and we weren't able to pay him like all year the first year nothing i mean we couldn't pay nothing why did he do that i don't know i think ned probably just because of the relationship or something and so at the end of the year we had to we sold that car and then paid tom dang yep and i've always sank pissed on for that i mean without him we never made it happen so i hear that and i'm thinking dang i'd be so bummed i got to sell my race but y'all what was the Well, then we ended up, after the first year, we sold that car, and then we ended up generating enough money, was sponsored, whatever, I don't even remember, to do another one. So we built another car for the next year. So that was the two years of limited sports.

What was different about this car? It was basically the same, but we had a little more professional help building it. Like Carlos Johnson was one of the guys that built cars back then. He helped us, and we kind of knew a little bit more about what we were doing. It came close a few times. We finished second. We never won with it, though. Who drove that car? Dale drove it both years. Okay. And then he went on to run for other people and sportsmen and, you know, baby grand and in his career.

Well, I was, you know, I was working in the tire store and got married young. I got an offer from a doctor in Newton to run a service station. Dale actually worked for me there. Pumping gas. I worked on cars in the base. Man. It was just me and Dale. But this was after our limited sportsman experience.

So you ran a gas station? Just for a short time. And this is, like I said, an eye doctor in town, he got a real estate opportunity to sell that to the county to build a community center. And so, boom, I'm out of work. I'm sitting there with a pregnant wife. I work a gas station. Yeah.

It's fun, yeah. Not making much money, but it's fun. What gas station do you work at? Exxon station up on Exxat 36 is still there. Really? Do you pump gas or did you work in the shop in the base? I pumped gas. So you and you need to compare notes with Del Jerry because he pumped gas.

Who did it better? which Dale did it better. They had a self-serve. It had a self-serve. Yeah. Again. It was a small, they had a self-serve and a full-serve. And I, so when they pulled them the full serve, go out there and do it.

We only had full-serve back there. But so now I'm out of work. And I've just bought a little house and, you know, I got my wife's pregnant with my first son. And I was like, what am I going to do, you know? And so I went to Ned Jarrett. And I said, Ned, I really wanted to be in racing. I wanted to work on, you know, in a cup team. That's where I wanted to wind up.

And he went out on a limb. me. He went out and talked to a good friend of his, Jr. Johnson and told Junior that I was this great tire changer. Right? He got, he, Jr. needed a rear tire changer. And so he put it in this, you know, big push for me. Keep in mind, I'd never changed the tire. Did you know he was doing that? No. Did you know he was saying that? I knew he was helping me get an opportunity. And I didn't know what he actually said. You didn't know what he was saying. But I know I showed up, met with Jr. Junior puts me in the hauler to go to Texas World Speedway. And then from, what year?

1981. Daryl Walter was a driver. And it was. They were winning and everything. They were winning. They were winning. They'd already won a handful of races and were leading the points. Okay, I show up at Texas World Speedway with, right with Henry Benfield.

That was a trip. That's another whole podcast. Sure. We talked about it on Eric Punch, yeah. Anyway, so we get there. We qualify, not so good, but we ended up taking the lead right off the bat. And then unscheduled, he comes down pit road. I don't have a radio.

I just kind of cue and. off the other guys and I think oh god we got a flat tire or whatever and I mean I'm so nervous you can't believe it comes down pit road and there's water running out the pipes on the left side so motor's fun I was like oh thank God I'll have changed that okay you know I mean that's kind of way I felt so we go from there in the truck to riverside California sit on the pole there and we're running junior's jacking the car Jeff Hammond was a jackman but he had that weekend had taken that off to go on his honeymoon he just got married And so junior's jacking.

Caution comes out. He goes, forward tire. Here it goes. I'm telling us. Here we go. So we went out there and changed those tires. It ended up working out. We won the race.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So you have, you changed tires the first stop, right? When you got around to the left side or you're kind of looking at the corner of your eye if you're ahead or keeping up on the front of the guy. I had enough going on with myself. I was just trying to get it. I just wanted to finish. I just want to get it out. Yeah.

You know, you know, Tim Brewer was the front tire changer. I was the rear. Like I said, Hammond would have been the jacked man, but it was Junior Johnson jacking the car. Damn. What a freaking experience. And Junior Johnson thinks that you've been jacking, or changing tires on. The expectations are high, right? Right.

And so at that first stop, does Junior Johnson still think you've got all this experience and you still haven't changed a single tire yet? I never told him. He never knew. I don't guess so. Yeah. Wow. They didn't figure it out either.

But, you know, I mean, I really owned it, Jared, because if without him doing that, I wouldn't have gotten that opportunity. How did you fit in with that group, though, man? Not good. Not good. That's a good point. They're established. You know, they're kind of been together a long time. They got their.

It was not good. And the reason is the guy that was changing the rear tire was one of those guys, one of the established guys. And he had left a couple of them loose at a couple of races. And that's why he wanted to change it. Ah. And so I got. He was still there. Oh, he was there in the shop.

Yeah. So it was kind of, it was a rough, real problem. You know, I toughed it out the first, you know, through the whole year we won the championship. Did you work in a shop, any? A little bit. But it was, like I said, they wouldn't let me work on the car. It wouldn't, you know, they were all, it was just like pushing me over in the corner. It was just not good.

So I went to talk to junior. I went in his office one day. And I said, look, man, I said, you don't need to be paying me to sit around here. They won't let me work on anything. What do you say? And so, he said, I got to have you changing tires. I said, all right, you just pay me on the weekends. I'll keep doing.

And so we finished the season out. And it won the championship, went to New York, first time we ever did that. And it was great. And then the next year they gave the other guy a chance back on the rear. So what happened to you? That's when I met Johnny Hayes and Phil Parsons. And the whole skull.

Who's Johnny Hayes? Johnny Hayes was a skull representative, but actually owned the team. You remember the 55 car that Benny drove, that Copenade. That was actually Johnny Hayes racing. But at the time, Phil was driving, number 28 Bush Series car.

It was awesome. It was. Yeah, he was good. man. And so I was working on that team with him. You know, I was actually selling batteries. When I left full time out of junior shop and still changing tires, I was selling batteries out of a battery truck for, I don't know, a better part of a year maybe. And then so I was doing that. And then I'd work on Phil's car at night at Harry Gant's shop in Taylorville. Really? That's where they raced out of. Yeah. And so we did that. And then we kind of took that little core group at the middle of 1982 and made that little, that team that went out with the 15. and Benny Parsons and ran like five races that year.

Yeah. And then the next year we ran all the, you know, like the half season, the big events. With Phil? No, with Benny. Oh, okay. Did you work on the car that Phil flipped at Dega? No, it was in our shop. I was actually on the team that Benny.

Benny was in that race, too. We were in that. And, boy, I really, Matt, missed Benny up. That wreck happened, you know, and he drove by it. He was, I mean, he was a mess. Really? Oh, yeah. Oh, you look at it.

I mean, you look at that car. I mean, good Lord. He thought it killed Phil. Yeah. And we were going to let him get out, you know. But then all of a sudden somebody comes, hey, feels all right, feels okay. And somehow we, you know, Benny pulled it back together.

And we end up finished in second, almost won in that race. What kind of working with Benny, what was that like? Oh, he was so, man, he was so cool. He was, everything you see about Benny is true. He says, everything, it's just who he is. He's such a gentleman. And I think he was one of the most underrated drivers ever. You know, he was really good, man.

I mean, he was, he drove our car that year, that 82, and then 83 full time. I think in 83, it might have been the last race of that year, 83, at Riverside. We went out there with him. And the big wreck happens off turn 9. It was Tim Richmond and Darrell. And it was coming to the caution for rain. Well, we were running third with Benny. And I thought, oh, man, we just won this race, you know.

And Leo said, hang on, it ain't over yet, you know, because I still had to run some caution laps well sure enough they go back green for half a lap it rains again and now it's at the very end and they're coming down down the backstretch to come to the caution and there's this red-headed guy kid that hadn't won a race yet running second and he drives in there and drives right by benny will end up bill elli yeah go back to step back to the 28 exfinity car that Phil parsons was driving he won at Bristol yep were you working on that oh yeah oh yeah so Phil wasn't, like his brother, Benny, you know, Benny, Benny's from North Wiltsboro, but a lot of people like to talk about his

taxi cab driving up in Detroit. Detroit. He was a, uh, ARCA standout before he came to the Cup Series in the early 70s, and then won a championship in just a couple years. Phil, what was his driving experience? Like, when he comes to drive that 28 Bush car, like you, what do you, when you look at, Phil, what kind of driver you look at? Right. So Phil and our great friends still are. Sure.

And we were back then. But he was so cocky. He really was. He thought he was just going to come in here, going to dominate everything. And so he had all his confidence. And he had driven what baby Grand before that and a handful of late mall sportsmen races before the Bush series started. And so he was taking on this thing. And then doing it right, you know, got scold back in it and had really good cars.

Like I said, had a ton of confidence. We ran good, a lot of place. We wrecked a lot. And, you know, had speed. Good speed. But had speed, but went to Bristol. Harry Gant set that car up. Really?

How? He just put his setup in it in the shop. I mean, he basically did it himself. Yeah. Would let anybody touch it? Is that the car? That is a sharp-looking car. Oh, yeah.

That was, uh, well, the one he at Bristol was actually a grand damn. That's the Ventura that we ran. That's at Darlington. I'll tell you a little secret about that picture right there. If you look close, you'll see Phil. If you can blow it up, you'll see Phil's got a little band-aid right there. I don't know if it shows in the picture. Well, we'd hit the wall at Darlington in practice.

that car and they're going to make a picture, you know, of the car to do that card. Well, he's jumping over there and we're beating the fender out, right front fender, trying to get back out and practice. And we were, I guess we weren't hitting it hard enough for him. He said, give me that hammer. He's like, wham! Missed? Oh, my gosh.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah, that's funny. My favorite, Phil Parsons' memory, he's driving the 17 car in the Cup Series. Yeah, for Hamby? Yeah, it has skull on it, and he broke. Bristol and he's mad, but he gets, he pulls down, he pulls them in the backstretched

pit, and he gets out of the car, he leaves a car sitting there. Somebody, I think Bobby Allison had a problem with his steering wheel. Oh, I remember something about this. Something. Yeah. And Phil runs over to his car and is going to get the steering wheel out of it and give it to Bobby,

who's over on the race. I think he did. Yeah, who's over on the race. But he didn't, he didn't disconnect the cord to the car. button and he grabs that wheel and he's hauling ass. It stopped. Around his car and he's like, what? And it's almost turning for a flip.

It's just really funny moment. Oh my God. I'll never forget. It's like 1985, I think. Phil's great. I won my first race as a crew chief with Phil in the Cup series at Talladega. So we got some good memories. About that race.

What year? That was 88. Yeah. What about that race? How did he win that? Like to go. The car was, go back. He had the fastest car.

He did. No, I know. But what was in that car? Okay. Statute limitations hadn't run out on that one. No, it's run out. No, I don't think so. It's going to tell you.

No, because listen, I'm going to tell you something. We had a few tricks back. Back then, it was, you know, it wasn't so much. If you built a car by the rule book, you want to know where they went. Oh, yeah. So the way you raced is how you race to the enforcement. Whatever the enforcement level was, you were always snuggling right up and next to it. And that's the good crew chiefs.

were the ones that knew where that was. Like you couldn't, like no new guy could come in there and figure it out. You have to just keep working. Hey, you don't have to explain it to us. We're all about it. We love this. We love this point. We had a little advantage.

We love the innovation. That's what we call it. We love innovation, right. We had Chad Gnows pulling out all his tricks and everything. Oh, I didn't put them all out. I even had DW in here and admitting some of his, because he's, you know, I heard that thing about the lid dropping out of the shit shot. You know how prideful he is. he won everything fair and square.

Oh, yeah. Right. You were a genius on the pit box and said, where did this come from? I mean, seriously, because you are telling us that you didn't even know, you didn't know what Wedge was, and now you're winning a race with Phil Parsons.

You are, let's say, applying some imagination to, maybe not imagination. You're applying some of you, you know, things that you can, you know, set yourself apart on this car. Where does this come from? Well, a lot of most of it's want to, right? I wanted to do this. I wanted to be successful so bad that I was willing to do whatever it took.

And like that, I didn't have an engineering degree. Back then, none of the critchies did. But, you know, I was at least smart enough to know what I didn't know. And I would always seek out people that I knew that had more, you know, either experience or knowledge. And I was never afraid to do that. I mean, I did that through my whole career. You know, like I told you about John Settlemire and Tommy Houston. I mean, I aggravated to no end.

I mean, they just got tired to see me coming because I just have a list of questions a mile long, you know, about everything. And I just, I wanted it so bad that I was willing to use every resource that I could to get me there. Do you tell drivers? Honestly, this could be a question for you. How much does a crew chief tell the driver what things they're doing or trying or in a car, the stuff that you don't want? Okay. So he knows a lot of things that were happening with this car. I'll go ahead and tell you that right now.

He might not admit it, but he knew about everything it was happening. You don't, you know, one reason you tell the driver that you got... Too much. One reason you tell him a little bit, though, and you want him to know is you want him to think he's got an advantage. That's good point. Because that is usually worth more. Just him thinking he's got an advantage, it's usually worth more than the actual advantage. I used to race late models with Gary Hargett, and I told him, I said,

I said, whatever you're going to tell me, lie to me. So that, just like you say, I think that, man, this thing's going to fly, right? And, you know, if you're going to take a little wedge out, if you're going to change the right in spring, don't tell me that. Don't even tell me. Just don't even tell me. Let me go out there and tell you how it drives. I don't want to predetermined idea in my head what it's going to drive like, right? Because I'm already going to screw it up.

But if you want to tell me, you put rocket fuel in there? By all means, tell me you put some rod fuel in this thing. Some people reacted to that different. Like your dad, it wouldn't really matter to him much. Really? You know why? Because he was getting 105 to 10% of that car every lap all the time. So you could, if you tell him that, it doesn't help any, right?

He's already giving you more than you should be getting. But other drivers would. It's a good story with Harry. So we built this car. It ended up being the car that we won the four in a row with in 91. We built it, and it built it super, super light. So we had a lot of ballast in the right-hand side to make the minimum weight, I think, was 1,600 pounds at the time.

And so we made this little deal, you know, exploiting some of the rules where Harry had a little ratchet, we would take in the right-side battery box, we didn't put a battery in it, we just put some lead at pieces over there. And then on the line, we were putting him in the car, you used to let the interior guy get in the car and help him, right? They would swap this over. Harry would stick it over in the seat.

So you'd make total weight, right? But they never really looked at the right-side weight. And so we put these pieces over there, make it left side hit. Well, shoot, man, Harry, you tell him, because he's doing it. He knows he's got this advantage. He's not going to let anybody beat. Well, by the time that four-in-a-road deal comes around, this car's been run, you know, quite a few times. And you know what happens?

They get heavier as you run them. Well, by the time we did it, the thing was already 1,600 pounds on the right with no weight. You know, so we didn't even have any ballast in the right side of this thing. And so the interior guy, Scott Robbinette, says, you know, we still need to be swapping that lead. Just so Harry did not lose that advantage. Right, right. The mental advantage? So we were going like 40 pounds or 50 pounds over on the right with that thing in there and just switch it over here.

What didn't even do illegal? Harry's like, I got more or less out of waiting you. I'm going to beat you. That's so awesome. Yep. That's perfect. I don't even know if Harry knows that and that, but he does now. Dude, these guys are playing mind games.

That was the advantage. And then he had in his mind that one certain car was better than the other one. So we just changed the stickers on the dash sometimes. so he didn't know which one it was. Yeah. That really happened? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

He was always usually smart enough to figure out that, yeah, this is not the car because the pedals or something, you know, y'all know. You're sort of confirming what I've always suspected. Drivers are sort of mental, right? Hello? They're headcases. They're head cases, right? They are head.

And you have to just to get them, sometimes just to shut them up, just drive the car, and you have to trick them into like Jedi mind tricks. Yeah, yeah. We used to have all, we used to party all the time down in the saloon. Everybody that came in there that wanted vodka, wanted gray goose. Got to have gray goose. So you just poured that one in there, yeah. So when the gray goose bottle was empty,

we just started taking the britts and poured that in there. They don't know. Y'all some great goose here. There you go. Man, you guys make careers out of lying to people is what y'all done. I tell you. You've just tricking people. Yeah, what's real anymore?

So, wow. Okay, do we want to talk about Harry Gant, 91? Because that's, that was an amazing stretch right there. It was. it was something special. I still think we just try to pry out what was so good about that 1988 Talladega. Okay, good. All right, listen.

Let's just say, listen, your statute of limitations may not be up. Ours passed a long time ago. So it is assumed. You don't have to say. I can't believe I'm going to do this, but I'm going to go ahead and tell you what it is. All right. Let's hear it. Okay.

So we run the Daytona 500 in 88. We did. Well, what happened was we were, you know, we were pitted around the 12, I think it was a 12 car, Bobby Allison was driving and anyway I suspected they were sucking air under the restrictor plate back then there was Bobby won the Daytona 500 that year I think over David yeah he sure did and I was suspecting

this I could hear the way it was idling I could hear all these things and you know then he obviously goes out there and wins the 500 we ended up finishing third with Phil and and we just even though we finished third we couldn't even compete with them I mean they were like in another league and so I went told Leo Jackson he's gonna be really mad

when he hears it but I went and talked to Leo about, you know, if we want to compete, then we got to do what they're doing. I said, we got to figure out a way. They're finding a way to get air around that restrictor plate. We have got to figure it out. And so he said, all right, he was very reluctant. He didn't want to do it. But I said, in matter of fact, we got an argument.

I said, okay, if you just want to go to the race, just show up, we'll do that too. So he got mad, went to work, fixed a manifold. It's one of the most amazing pieces of art you've ever seen. I mean, cut it in pieces, made it. put these holes in it and it was i still got it you still have oh yeah heck yeah i got it yeah i got on show like where do you keep i just keep it in my shop at shop somewhere yeah that's so awesome and uh i guess i few things too but so we put that thing on there and uh and leo did it right i mean it was worth a pretty good advantage yeah and uh we don't sit on the pole though

apparently everybody else is doing it too and uh so the last lap of the race bobby's trying bobby finished that cut and we ended up winning. I was wondering how Bobby was making that front end on that Buick run so good on plate track because that front end was what's so underneath the front end was making it run. The grill on the Buick at that time was backwards, right? It's like the opposite of what you won't. He was pretty good too. He was.

But that was after the race was over, we were tearing the engine down. I look around, there's no Leo Jackson. He went to me nowhere around it. But we got it through. He did a really good job with it. But I'll tell you what he did do. This is the best thing. He goes back to the shop and he makes this thing that will actually bolt on the engine, pull a vacuum on it, and check for that,

and takes it the next week to the garage and gives it to the series director. And he says, if I can't cheat, nobody can. This is what we need to be doing. So he showed them how to use it. That thing is still being used in the garage today. Wow. That similar thing. Yep.

That's why they detect them now. I know that I never heard that about Bobby's car. I know that I thought that that was the big rumor on the first. car when it was winning all the plate races. I think it's probably more than a rumor. Yeah. Like they had drilled the... It had gotten so hard by that time, though.

That's why you got to give, I guess as Runt Pittman was building the engines and Tony Glover, you got to give them a lot of credit because it was hard to get by with that back then. Yeah. I heard that they had, they were drilling the studs for the carburetor, the carburetor studs. They were drilling holes in those down in there and then routing into the... You need to get Glover in here. Yeah. Put him on a hot seat.

Make him come clean. Oh, yeah. It's fun. You've already got me. Give us some context about Leo Jackson. You've mentioned his name several times. So, like, who was he and what did he do? Okay.

Leo Jackson was, you know, back in the 70s, you know, Bob Presley drove and won all those races. A ton of races at Red Number 4. That was, that was Leo and Richard Jackson's car. That was? Oh, yeah. They built that. Well, I didn't know that. I thought that was their family car.

No, no, that was Leo and Richard Jackson. I got so many pictures of. that car on the phone. And they won over half the races all over the country. Yeah. I mean, crazy how good they were. They were ahead of their time. And so he ends up going cup racing with Dave Marcus a little bit.

And I was working for Johnny Hayes. And he went, you know, with that 55 team. We're just kind of getting that thing off the ground with Denny. And he goes and gets Leo to come over and kind of be the crew chief. And kind of abandoned what he was doing with his, because he was going crazy trying to do his own cup deal. He said, yeah, I'll let somebody else. for it. I'll go to do that. And that ended up becoming Leo Jackson Motorsports a few years later when Harry Gant came from Travis Carter over to drive our car, and we still had to 33.

Wow. So that's Leo Jackson Motorsports, and we called it Skull Bandit Racing back then. And that was the team that I ended up buying after I won the titles with your dad. That's right. That's right. All right. So are we satisfied with the Phil Parsons explanation? Okay. So then we go move on to the next trip. Decoration car. So I tried that. So I heard that y'all were doing that kind of stuff.

And when I ran my late model at Myrtle Beach, the Allen plugs in the intakes. Yeah. Yeah. I would drill a hole in the side of that Allen plug and then valley it into the intake. But then you could turn that Allen plug of, you know, a quarter of a turn and then seal it. Yeah. So nobody, you know, it wouldn't leak. Then you, when you get ready to go run, you clock that thing back a little bit.

and open it up. It was good for, it was big on two-borrow car, but it didn't help me win, but still had to go through the corner better. Harry Gant, so you talked about Harry setting up that car in his shop, and so you'd been around Harry for a while since the early 80s, right?

Actually, I'd, you know, I've been exposed to Harry Gant back in the 70s. You know, I first started going to Hickory, he was racing there, and he was, actually, he row mine. I mean, it was like, I mean, it just doesn't get much better from what he was doing.

He was, you know, his coolest guy on the track and winning races and, you know, from my home track. How did you end up crew chiefing for him? Like, how does, why did you move from Fields Deal? Like, how did all that happen? Well, like I said, I worked on Benny's Cup team, and Leo Jackson was, you know, the crew chief, then the owner of that car. And when we won in 88, Leo was the owner.

And then in 1989 is when we kind of split that up with a 55, but came Richard Jackson, team and then we formed this new team that was you know leo jackson motorsports in ashville for harry gant and he you know he leo had already made me the crew chief of the car that phil was driving but so he wouldn't know if i'd move up there and build this team and i didn't really want to move to ashville but i knew it was a really good opportunity for me so i took it and ashfield's awesome it is but it's just not where i'm from you know i don't i don't have any regrets but it just at that time i didn't really want to move up there but sure cold but wherever Wherever the work is, I'm going.

Build a team. Yep. So we built a team up there. Built a team. Yep. And we put it in the back of... Where'd you get cars from? Brand new?

Banjo. Yeah, banjo. Built brand new cars. And we ended up at that first year, we ended up designing our own front clip over the winter. Me and Leo and Scott Robinette was the fabricator that built it all for us. We locked ourselves in there during the Thanksgiving week we were shut down. We built this thing, basically. Why did you want to build the clip?

Because Harry Gantt liked these rear steer cars, right? He really liked, but rear steer cars were so out of favor because there's just so many things wrong with that. Yeah. And so we thought, again, we can maybe trick him a little bit. We can build the whole front suspension that looks just like a rear steer car, but put the steering box in front. And so that's what we did.

We just packaged the whole steering assembly in front of the axle. And so that's what we had. We had our own front clip. We just built out of that. And so what do the lower? A frame look like? Just like the banjo car. Strut?

It was strut rod. Wow. Had the Ford lower controller. All that was exactly like the rear steer car. And when did Harry finally transition fully to a traditional front steer? Well, it was after I left. Okay. Because we ran that suspension all the way until I came up to RCR.

And you were probably absolutely the last guy running any kind of lower A frame. With the strut rod. With rear steer stuff. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Wow. Yep. I know we had a rear steer late model from Robert Elliott.

we bought for Kelly and I'm I still to this day have no idea how to set that thing up set the front in it is a mess everything about it like you just said everything about it's wrong it is I mean it's just you find ways to crutch it to make it work but it was all wrong and once we moved the steering box in front it really it was it was a good car it really was and that's the suspension and snout that we ran when we won four in a row with Harry yes so I've watched the video Mike sent this video to me the other day of you showcasing that car in your shop. Yep.

And you talked, I always knew about the Cambered Housing. We want to talk about that a little bit, just the ingenuity and creativity there. But I didn't know any of the other things that you showed us about that car as far as that front suspension. So that's pretty incredible. You guys, I mean, that's a monumental change. It's not like, hey, man, we're going to trick up the, you know, the intake and we're going to try to camber this rear housing.

That's like a half of the race car that y'all really reinvented. We did, yeah. Yeah, it was, you know, and that's, Leo Jackson was super smart. And so he, you know, with his engineering and machining capabilities, like I said, he, he had a machine shop that was in front of our race shop to make everything we needed. And so, you know, we just built it. And it just, we didn't have any real engineering help, but we were able to make it work. That's what I was wondering, is that this is well before the, you know, engineering boom of NASCAR. And so, like, I'm just curious.

where do these ideas see to that, right? Like, and what is the flow of information? What, how drunk do you have to be to be able to say, hey, let's do this to a car, and everybody be like, that's a good idea, you know, and people not look at you like you're crazy? Yeah, that wasn't that far-fetched. I mean, like you said, the, you know, the rear-steer suspension as far as the geometry was pretty well established, right?

That's what most cup cars were up until, you know, the Mike Loughlin-type front your cars came along and all you're really doing is just moving the steering box ahead and it so it was kind of a logical thing even though it took a it took a complete rebuild to make it that way but it wasn't that big of a stretch you got that car in your collection that you won the four in a row with uh harry and you said in the video that you thought you might be letting it go well i'm moving out of the building that i have now and i've got that one and i've got jack ingram's car that late model a sportsman car that I'm going to have to find a home for. Why don't you want to keep them?

I don't have anywhere to put it. I'm going to downsize. I'm selling everything I've got in Hendersonville and moving to Lake Norman. I've got to just finished a smaller building over in Denver. They make lifts, you know, and racks and stuff. You can put them cars in the ceiling. I need to downsize my life. I've got too much stuff, man.

You can't get rid of those. Why don't you just give them to the Hall of Fame store? Actually, the Harry Gank car was in the Hall of Fame for a few time. But they got a building. They'll put them in there. Yeah, I'll figure out something. I'll end up probably sell. them though don't don't let them go to the private collectors yeah yeah they need to stay in the right

hands man yeah it's a cool car we took it to uh darlington do you see that video where you drove it right i did drive it yes i did see that that was about what three three years ago harry drove it too harry drove it fast he was 75 years old he was i got a video i'll show you he's still getting it done i know right yeah how long ago was that that was in 15 i think that's right okay i took the nova to charlotte the other day And I was scared to go over 90 or 100 mile an hour with it. Is that a rear steer? I don't think it is. It's not, okay.

I don't think it is. The last time of clips put on it in 88. Yeah. But I was scared to drive it fast because I know how hard it is to make it look the way it looks, right? Oh, I know. So I take this car out at Darley's. I've never driven Darley. Never lap, you know.

So I'm trying to get Harry to go out, how it says stickers that Goodyear gave us to put on it, you know, go out and try to run a lap. And he said, I don't know, man. He'd already run pretty quick. He said, if I go out there again, he said, I'm going to try to try. I'd hold it wide open through one and two. And I don't want to hit that wall again. He said, if you want to go fast, you drive it.

I said, all right. Just tell him that the weight distribution. Yeah, I thought, yeah, I'd just tell him, hey, let me move some weight and then go. So I get in that thing, and I pull off pit road, and I, you know, get it in high gear. I'm, you know, flat-footed, going down into three, you know, I'm not going to, you know, pull around here, just go. I turn in just a little bit too early and clip the apron getting into three. And they start sliding like this, and I'm like, you know,

you. I was like, oh, God, no. No, don't hit that wall. I thought I'd killed it. Somehow didn't hit it. But then I kind of gathered it back up and got my heart rate back down and ran about five laps. Yeah. That would have been terrifying. Yeah. Yeah, like 10 seconds later, he's like, now we're going into a lot. Wide open, holding it down. Drop it. No, I never did that. So how, so, you know, Cambered Housins, towed Housins, all that stuff is so common and everybody's doing everything they can to max max max even thousands of a degree right what was the again Mike kind of tapped into what my thought is here as to what how's the conversation start

okay so here's what happened with that so that was in the real early days of the radio tire right it was in 1990 is that the first time you ever thought in your mind I would love to have a little more camera yes that was the first time but here's what drove us to that because That radial tire, we were running kind of the same. We just put the tires on and go run the same setups. And we don't have any tire data like they have now. There's so much data that the crew chiefs and engineers have and it's generated. You know exactly where to put the toes into cambers.

We didn't have any of that. And so we're just kind of going from history, which was we run three and a half over here, three and a half, three here. On the front. On the front. This is front cambers. Well, then the engineers, the tire engineers were trying to give us a little bit of, you know, hey, man, y'all have a little more camber in those front tires.

It's their fault. Everybody started running more cambers. They're the first ones to say something about it. And so we tried, gosh, it really reacted to it. I mean, it really reacted to camber. It was crazy because the biospy tire was kind of numb to it. You could put a little more camera. It might be a little bit.

But this thing, you put a little bit, boom, it was good. You know, you knew it was there. And so we go to Richmond. We finally got the front cambers kind of figured out, but we come back from the Richmond race, and we used to have to dismount all of our tires that we ran in the race, unlike today where they just throw them in a hauler and somebody else does it all.

But I'd always go out there on Mondays and look at all the tires that came off the car to just see, you know, make sure we're trying to get the maximum out of the car. You know, if you're wearing the right rear's too much over the, you know, you're trying to look at all that. Well, I start looking. We're killing the outside edge of the right rear tire. I'm like, it's wearing twice as much as the inside. And it's kind of the same thing on the left. And so, dang, you know, that camber deal would work if we could get some camber in this rear end. And so I go to Leo, and I said, Leo Jackson, and I said, what do you think about this?

he said, I don't know how you get that axle to work, you know, all this stuff's designed to run straight. I said, I got an idea. I said, if you'll help me with it. I said, I'm going to crown this. I want to put that axle in the lathe, and I'm going to put like a little ball on it. And then, no, I said, why don't you do that?

Because I was going to do it myself, but I didn't have the right tooling. He didn't really know. He said, let me do that part. So he goes and does that, brings it back to me. But it still won't go in the drive plate because the root of the spline needed to be the same way. So I put it in the lathe, and I just took a ZI, I literally took a Ziz wheel on an air hose, and I went down in that route all the way around those lines of that axle and made it kind of ball shape, stuck and got it where it would actually fit in the car.

This is after we cambered. We actually bent the housing like a half a degree maybe the first time. No more than that. No more than about one anyway. Because that's all that really wanted to give up. You know, you're trying to bend this housing. Good. And then we try to make these axles fit.

We finally make them fit. and we take it to a couple of races. It didn't just start out. We didn't start winning right when we did it. Right. It was kind of an evolution. Then we ended up putting a little more and trying to get a little more, getting a little better at it, and we put grease,

make sure they could live, and we just kept sneaking up on it until the 91, four in a row, by that time, we'd gotten it pretty mature. So the problem initially with trying to camber the housing, you can torch the housing or cut it or do whatever you want to do to make the actual housing flange have camber but then you have a drive plate and an axle and all those things like you say that are made to run straight you had to shape the axle but then the valleys of the teeth yeah in the axle that's what i had to take that ziz wheel and go down in there that was the that's the key i wouldn't even thought about that i'd have been like oh ain't gonna work what we're gonna

give up who's got another idea nobody normal thinks about that right this is what makes them good But the combination of that, the front end and a few other things really gave that car a competitive advantage. The biggest thing is an engine. What about the motor? People don't really know much about the engine. At that time, like I said, we'd worked all these cambers out. We'd already got made a lot of headway on some things. And then we found out that we were behind on our engine stuff.

There was a loophole in the rules. There was a 22-degree angle or 23-degree angle rule for the cylinder heads. Well, they had teams that were welding up the heads. and then just basically rolling them. And it was kind of a loophole. And we were way behind the curve. We didn't realize it because we're up in Nashville and we're not kind of in the mainstream,

but somehow it gets to us that we're behind on it. Well, our guys go to work and, like I said, Leo Jackson is one of the best. And they do, I mean, they do it right. It took 200 hours of welding on those heads to make them. And then you remachine them, re-shopping them, re-heat-oried, all this stuff. Well, that engine, that race at Darlington was the first race we showed up with that motor. So to me, that's what sent us over the edge,

that it was the engine, along with all the other things. Sure. Incredible. I'm trying to process 200 hours of welding. One guy, it took him weeks and weeks. It took forever to weld these things. I mean, it was really, I mean, you were talking about welding three quarters of an inch or more on one side of the head, like on the base of the head.

When did you start to see around the garage everybody tuning in to the camber? It was, I don't know how that got out so easy. It shouldn't have. I guess we just weren't, you know, we weren't tight-lipped enough about it. And then, you know, all of a sudden, then we're playing catch-up because everybody else is going, instead of one degree or one-and-a-half, I think is where we wound up, they're going three and three-and-half. And then they're breaking axles and they're, you know, we never did break an axle or strip of spline doing that. That's amazing. But a lot of teams did. That's like the perfect example of how the garage works.

you know, the teams observing each other. I'd go to, and I know you're well in the throes of this and deep into what's happening, but my favorite part of the competition meeting was the part when Alan Gusterston would open up his laptop and connect to the whiteboard on the wall and show us all of the photos that they took all weekend of everybody else's stuff.

And, oh, man, look at how they've got that made. Look at how they've shaped this. and that was my favorite part is to see the ingenuity. It's crazy how detail these photos are that they get from the roof. You see a lot. I mean, it's hard to hide stuff on the outside of the car. It sure is. And the garages are, I mean, while you're in there working on your own car,

you know, especially back when we had practice, which we hopefully get back at some point, some shape or form, you're not only working on your own car, but you are looking at every opportunity when a wheel comes off of that car next to you and you get a shot at it. You'd get to look in there and see what they're doing. Yeah. Every opportunity to be able to see a different vantage point from your competitor's car,

because usually you only see it on the racetrack or sitting on the ground. Everybody's pretty protective of that stuff. I know when I was at ESPN and working with Fox, I could walk through the garage. And I wasn't a threat, right? I could look on people's hoods. I talked to, you know. Man, as soon as I walked in with this shirt on. Oh, yeah.

I just, you know, you kind of get. You kind of forget. So I walk in there. I'm looking. I think it was Joey Lagano's car, and I'm standing there looking at it. And I'm like, oh. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Listen, I know we're supposed to, I know we're supposed to talk about all your, you know, your days with Dale Earnhardt and rad and everything. But I still got one more I want to ask you about, okay? Because this stuff is fascinating. And I'm impressed. I was watching an interview that Ray Evertonham gave and where he was talking about this deck lid at Daytona. He's one giving that up? Well, I guess. I mean, it's on YouTube.

Really? All right. What did you say about it? Well, the deck pin, the pins, like somehow... Was it his? No, yours. Okay. He said this was yours.

Yeah. Where Earnhardt could lower... No? Wasn't Earnhardt. It was... It was Harry Gant. I've still got it. I've still got it.

Is this on the same shelf as the... It's close to it. He's got a trophy case of all his most stuff. When it comes to selling your stuff, I want all those things. I want all the... I want your little cheated up parts. So, listen, if Ray Everton... Ham's out there talking, he's on a PR tour to talk about all the stuff that's what the Hall of Fame

needs is, exhibit. That's right. They need an exhibit. So what can you tell us about this deck lid? Okay, so we go to, in Daytona, they came up with a spoiler angle rule. I guess it was 89 or 90. I can't remember what year it was. And we had always been good.

Like I said, we won in 88 at Talladega, finished third at 500. So we're always good at speedways and exploiting all the rules. Well, some of that spoiler angle was some of it, some of it was heights, a lot of things that But Gary Nelson came along and really tightened up every year. This is going to be his first season as a series director. And so we got to clean it all up now. We can't be cheating. They're going to check heights.

And so now all of a sudden we can't do our little things we were doing. And we weren't very fast. We were testing. We were really slow. Motors were off at that time. And I've never been on a plane coming back. I'm just kind of in my mind thinking, what are we going to do? I thought if I could figure out a way to get that spoiler to lay down and get it back up

because they're going to check it. post-race. And so I had in my mind, before I even landed, I had in my mind how we could make the hinge, you know, and conceal it and how all that would work. And I didn't have, what I didn't have was an actuator for it. And so I go, I mean, I go to work on it. As soon as we get back, me and a guy named Dean Jones worked in our shop in a little locked up room on this thing. Nobody knew. And we get this thing, all working the spoiler. Hinge is perfect. Everything's good. I've got the back plate of the spoiler. I do this little deal with silicone, but it was looks like it's welded, but it still has flexible, and it's, you know, it's all good.

But I don't have any way to move it. And I'm looking, back then, no internet, right? So you don't have a way to go just search this thing. And I've looked in catalogs. So one night I took my car that we drove as a automobile, Delta 88, they gave us to drive, you know. So I'm driving it to the store, and I get to the store, get some groceries, and I pop the decklet, it, boop pops up, you know, and I'm going to throw the groceries in the trunk. I shut the deck lid, and if you remember these cars, they would click, and then they would have

this thing, it just pulled them down tight, you know, and so as soon as that happened, like as soon as they went, click, and went, yeah, I was walking to the driver's door, and I went, whoa, wait a minute, I popped that deck lid up. I said, where is that thing? What's doing that? And so I take that thing right straight from the grocery store over to the shop, and I pop that thing out, and I find that little motor, and it is dead perfect. It's got this little thing going up and down. I'm thinking, man, this is perfect. And so I take it, I make this, I go in there and fast, This is like 8 o'clock at night. I fab up this little thing to like hold the deck lid down on this car, you know, and take that thing.

And then I had to buy another one, right, because I needed one on each side of the spoiler. Okay. So we start making all the little linkages and everything. But it has perfect. Had a little limit switch and we could set it and we got it. And it was nice. Again, Leo Jackson, not one that wants to cheat. And so.

How did you engage it? So, okay, that's, that's the key to it. So we get it on the car. I told Leo. So look, this one. I wasn't going to do it without telling us. on him. He said, he didn't want to do it. I said, let me let me put it on the car. If you can find it, if you can find it, we won't run it. And you know it's on that before. Okay. I said, if you can find it, we won't run it. I'll give you all the time you want.

I feel like we've heard, somebody had that same exact story. It was, it was the, the, the shot, the, the, the shot that would come out of the, uh, out of the frame rails. Yeah, but he was like, they couldn't, but they couldn't find the door. He's, they were saying the same thing. Like, if you can find it, we won't do it. Yeah. Somebody else was uncomfortable. Well, that's pretty good way of handling things. Because he knows it's in the car. You inspect it and see if you can find it. So we roll the car, ready to go Daytona. Roll it in there.

Where was it? Huh? Okay, so we had a radio box. Back then we had a different kind of radio system. It was an analog thing, and we put it in a box. Everybody kind of had them. There was a aluminum box that would keep out the interference. And it's set on the tunnel, the way we had ours right beside the driver.

And it had some switches on it and dials to turn the radio up and turn it on and off. So we just put it a little extra switch in. there, a little three-way, like middle and up and down. On the radio. On the radio box. I wired all the stuff through the roll bars. I mean, the key to cheat is you've got to do it right. You've got to really do the work.

And so we spend hours and hours doing this and concealed it up in the hinged part, you know, and all the stuff in the car. Everything's ready, put it on there, check. Okay, so Leo checks the angle. It's 45 or whatever the number was. And he goes in there, starts looking at switches, and he's raising the deck lid, and he's looking at this and he's looking at that and he's I mean he's all over this thing can't I find it he said I don't think it's on this car I reached in there at the radio box went

and the spoiler goes yeah oh that's cool that would have been so good I would be where did you so I would be I'd be my pants if I was you because I was I was the whole time I did it oh god I just knew they were going to catch us I was I mean I mean I I was, I guarantee I looked so guilty. I couldn't stand it. They were all over that thing. I'm like, good Lord. And we get ready to qualify.

Rolls out there. Gary Nelson is checking the spoiler angle. The first day on the job. Head of director. He is supposed to be stopping all cheating. He is doing it himself. Instead of having somebody, he's at the, right before you go on the track, he's one to put it on your car.

So I had it up a degree or so, just so I didn't have to mess with it. Well, he says, knock it down. I said, no, that's good. I was wrong. He said, no. He said, knock it down. down. I'm like, oh, God. My heart's one. You can see it beating through my shirt. I guarantee

you. I'm trying to get it. It won't move, man. It won't move, man. It won't move. It won't bend. I mean, I've got linkages and everything. Finally, it goes down a tenth or something, and he finally says, go. And I was like, oh, so he takes off, and at the end of pit road at Daytona, it's right close to the track.

And I'm standing there with my stopwatch. I'm going to clock area when it comes by. And, you know, Gary's standing right there in front of me, checking the next guy swallor. I look at that car coming by, and I think, and I'm like, go. Visually. Oh, yeah.

Oh, and Gary didn't even look over there. He had a seat. I mean, it was obvious. Yes. Damn. So after that, I said, we got to get that deck lid off the car. I can't stand it anymore. I just can't do it.

This is no way to live. Back then, they used to let you put the cars in the hauler. And so we had another deck lid, and I had them get in there and chop them wire and put the stock decklet on it. That way I could breathe for, you know, speed me. I couldn't do it for two weeks. Right. You only did it for Qualified. Yeah. Oh my gosh. You know what was bad with Qualified

third? Yeah. I found out years later, Junior's cars were on the front row. They were cheating more than we were. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. I'm sure. That wasn't a legal car in the lineup. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I think it's somewhat of a coincidence that I find that from Ray

Everingham because who did we? I don't know how even told him. How did he know that? That's something you got to sort out. But who did we have on here recently? And we said, like, who is the best, who is the most creative or whatever? And they're like Ray Evanham. Like Ray Evanham was. And you and Ray were good friends.

We were really close friends, yes. We still are, yeah. We're good friends. So maybe that's how he knows, right? I mean, y'all are close friends. Damn. What an incredible history that Andy Petre has in NASCAR. We have to end the show right here.

But we've got so much more coming from Andy Petrie next week. We dive into his history at RCR. and it's an incredible conversation, even better than the first part. It's finally time for the best part of the show. Ask Jr. brought to you by Xfinity. How about we get into the questions you sent to Add Exfinity Racing on Twitter? Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. live here on Dirty Mo Media YouTube channel for Ask Junior, presented by Xfinity on the Dale Jr. download.

You guys have sent in a bunch of questions to the handle at Xfinity Racing on Twitter, and we're going to answer those questions like we do every week, and it's probably my favorite part of the show. I know I say that every time, but I just want you guys to know how much I appreciate this. The opportunity to interact in real time is always a great part of this show because we do a lot of interviews and we do a lot of ad reads and all these other things that's more of a production that's going to get edited

and put out later, but this is a real one. one-on-one live sort of stuff that I like to do as well. So let's get started, Leah. First question coming from Joe Cunningham. Who yelled the most during the I am athlete ride-alongs? That's a good question. Mike Davis is with me and my co-hosts as usual. And I'm trying to, you know, everybody had a bit of different reaction.

Brandon was really genuinely not claustrophobic and didn't like the interior of the car that much. And it took a while to get him in there and get him comfortable. But he was fine. I think he, once he got going, he was like, well, this is wild. I'm glad I'm doing this. I'm glad I'm experiencing this. Fred and I think I think Joe Cinco, Chad, he was probably the more nervous out of all of them and his and I might be wrong. I don't spend a ton of time around him so I don't really truly know his personality. When he gets nervous, he starts to try to try to be funny. Right. And he's like, I'm going to do this without a helmet.

And knowing we're not going to go do it without a helmet. And he's like, can do it without a helmet y'all and he literally was sitting there getting in the car going i ain't wearing a helmet y'all don't worry about it i got it i'm okay i'm not going to wear a helmet and just sort of like dragging this out then he's uh like i don't want the wind of that up don't put the wind of up you can leave that down right you don't have to put that up it's not necessary and um so he's kind like dragging it out and prolonging us leaving pit road and the funny thing about him and i don't know if he did this on purpose or not but he kicked his shoes off he got in the car and he kicked his shoes off. And then when we're going around the track, he starts waving for me to stop.

At least I thought that's what he was doing. And we slow down. He's like, my foot got burnt. And we went in like three laps, but this was the fourth, this was the third or fourth run. So yes, the floorboard of the car had heat in it and all that. And so I think it could have burned his foot if he'd set it on there for long, you know, for the, for the whole time we were in the car. But he was like, I got to get out. It hurts. It burnt. And so it was just, his ride was a little quirky kind of weird, but I couldn't tell whether he really burned his foot or he just wanted to stop and didn't know how, you know, didn't want to say, I don't like this, I want out. I couldn't tell. So it was kind of, but we did all that right before we had to sit down

and what a great place to do it. It was a great experience. Me and my wife watched it again last night and just really, I would, I liked Fred a lot talking to him for some reason. I felt like a connection to Fred All of them are great, though, but yeah, I'd love to spend more time with them. I wish we would have, I couldn't tell what they wanted me to do when they're like, we're going partying tonight. I'm like, are they serious? They really want a party? Have you watched it, Mike?

Yeah, absolutely. Do you remember that part? I do remember that part. So I was wondering if they really wanted to go party or if that was just part of the show. I think they wanted to. Really? Because I totally missed out an opportunity to party with those guys, and we should have. I was like, man, do they want to go saloon?

Where do they with them? Are they trying to plant a seed with me that I'm supposed to hook this up or whatever they're doing? Yeah. We missed an opportunity for sure because I think they did end up going out, hanging out in Charlotte. Once everybody's done watching this, they can go to the I Am Athlete YouTube page and watch this. It's a great interview. Fantastic. Next question coming from, Robert.

How is the next gen car going to affect teams as far as jobs? Gosh, what a question. Yeah. Yeah. Anybody else want to take a step? Well, yeah, we could take a stab at this one. I mean, listen, NASCAR put out a whole list of vendors that they're going to be using that feels like a lot of the fabricators that are in shops, and I know that Brett Griffin had a big take on this on Doorbumber Clear.

But, yeah, there is some concern that a lot of the fabricating jobs and stuff is now being kind of shopped out to vendors. And, yeah, I think teams are going to start making reductions. I think that's a valid concern, frankly. Yeah, maybe the Cup teams are trying to find ways to do things. things cheaper. That's definitely going to affect some jobs in their in the shops. Some teams will do as much as they can to not lose people or not cut people. I know in the past working with Rick, he's always been against downsizing and cutting staff. But some teams will look at that opportunity to try to cut staff and cut down on how many employees they have. But there will be

opportunities, I think, outside of the teams to go to those vendors to be able to manufacture those parts. Look at that big list. Yeah, it's all those lists. And that's just for, you know, that's just the initial list. There's probably going to be more people added to that. And those companies there are going to be building all those parts. So there's more, there's jobs there.

There's opportunities there, I suppose. Next question coming from Mike Simpson. Thoughts on NASCAR tossing around the idea of street court race, street course races in Chicago, Denver, and Mexico City. Pick one. Yeah. pick one and then i mean chicago's probably the one that is moving forward has the most momentum i racing is going to run a version of this track that they scanned they so i racing and naskar together got

with chicago and said you know we're going to scan this and make a virtual track and and see how this looks on i racing software and they nascar is doing this with other tracks nascar is using i racing and their ability to build a track or a different version of a track and see how it looks and works and see how it feels and drives. Let drivers use it and comment on it whether they like it, how it might race. They're doing that as well. They've done that as well with the development of the Gen 6 car.

I think it's a great relationship that NASCAR now has with eye racing where they're using eye racing as an asset. And I say all that because if you are NASCAR and you're like, man, I want to do a street course. and this company could build you a virtual course by scanning the real thing, right? You'd do that. You'd try to use that software to get a good look at what this might look like before you went and put millions and millions and millions of dollars in developing and building this course.

So that's what they've done with Chicago. I think they're trying to move forward with the hope that they can run a street race there. And I think that they should just do that at Chicago and see how it works, man. let's not go ahead and book all these other locations and shoehorn them into the schedule without knowing whether street courses is really where we need to be. I don't really know the history of street courses in Open Wheel. Are they viewed in Open Wheel as successful? Are they viewed in Open Wheel as fun to watch?

I know that there's some legendary tracks out there that are street courses that people are very fond of, but we don't know whether they're going to be successful in our sport, in our series. So let's just do one in Chicago for probably the next three years, four years, and let it run and see how it works. And if it's successful, then, yeah, maybe go do somewhere else. Add to it, but not right out of the gate. Next question coming from Jake Wilson. How was it getting to meet Stephen Nassie finally?

I've made him before. Oh. Yeah, I've met Stephen Nassie before. I went to IRP a couple years ago and walked around in the infield and got to meet Bubba Pollard and Stephen. And I've always liked Stephen in his style. He's wild in the car. He's a little wild outside of the car. He ain't afraid to stand up for himself.

He ain't afraid of no – he can go back down from anybody outside of the car. He'll go after him. He also appreciates a good, hard race, a good, hard clean race. You know, he's – he's not just dirty. all the time. He's not just nasty, nasty all the time. He's kind of rough and hard when he needs to be, but he can also race you door to door and lean on you a little bit and have a good clean race, take care of the guys around him. So from what I've seen, I've liked his style. Our sport needs more personality in the cup level. We're always wanting more, right? That's not a dig at the cup level.

I'm just saying we want to funnel that awesome personality and talent all the way to the top. and he's one of the guys that I'm hoping eventually might get that opportunity to get into the truck series, get into the Xfinity series, and maybe the Cup series at some point because he is fun in and out of the car as a fan.

All right, guys, that's it for today. Wow, that's short. It was faster than normal. Unacceptable. Next week, we're going to have to take a couple extra questions to make up for this. We got a bunch of great guests coming down the pipe.

The show's got a ton of momentum and you guys are just going to love the summer as we crank these out. So thanks for supporting us and tuning in, and we'll see you next week. Why does my favorite part of the show always go so fast? Well, that's probably because you're trying to keep up with the speed of Xfinity X-Fi, Dale. Well, speed isn't everything, Mike. You know that. Xfinity X-Fi is also reliable, powerful, and secure. Oh, that it is.

With X-Finity X-Fi, you can do more of what you love with faster Internet. you and your crew can stay connected with Wi-Fi coverage that delivers a speed your devices need. Hey, and remember, everybody, send your Asked Junior questions to the at Xfinity Racing handle on Twitter. All right, thank you to Xfinity Proud, premier partner of NASCAR. Last call, the show is over.

Hope you enjoyed Andy Petrie, part one. We got part two coming up next week. I know you guys are going to tune in because part one was pretty amazing. Yep. I am athlete. I did that podcast with Brandon Marshall and Chad Johnson and all those guys. It was a lot of fun.

We had Brandon on the show a couple weeks ago. We teased the ride along that I was going to give to him and the guys. Well, you can see all that. Go to their YouTube page. I am athlete. Please go to that and watch our interview. We had a blast. A lot of laughs.

Things were serious. emotional at times, but some great conversation and a lot of fun taking those guys for a lap around the racetrack. We had a fast little two-seater for them to ride in. It was the real deal. Thursday, 6 p.m. Eastern, the Dale Jr. download on NBCSN. Another episode of Door Bumper Clear is out. Post Darlington, T.J. Brett and Freddie, they talk about the next gen car unveil. Marcus Limonis and Sheldon Creed's Twitter Exchange, which was pretty interesting. Yes, it was. And the future of the 750 horsepower package, all of that on door bumper clear,

available on all major podcast platforms. Remember, part one of Andy Petrie was amazing, so part two is going to be even better. Tune in next week to hear it on the Dale Jr. download. On YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mo.