The Dale Jr. Download - 353 - Dale Inman: Family Matters

Episode Date: August 17, 2021

One of the all-time greats, NASCAR Legend Dale Inman, walks into the studio to sit down with Dale Earnhardt Jr and talk about the shaping of the Petty racing dynasty. From humble beginnings in rural North Carolina grew local legends and a driver that would turn into an American icon. "The King" Richard Petty was the driver and the crew chief that led the way was Inman. The 8-time NASCAR Cup Series champion talks about growing up as a part of the Petty family and gives a unique insight into Lee Petty and the early days of Petty Enterprises. Inman tells the wild story of how he and Maurice Petty drove the racecar across the country to race in California. He was there for Richard Petty's first race at Columbia Speedway in 1958 and is still with Petty Motorsports to this day. From near tragedies to the greatest triumphs of all, winning seven titles and seven Daytona 500's, Inman has lived it all.The Petty family was a tight-knit group on the race track and off. They had each other's backs, including standing up to anyone who challenged their driver. Inman shares stories of incidents and fights, including he and Maurice standing up for The King. During one incident, a knife was pulled. Inman was there. The family matters also produced a split that surprised the racing world, with Dale Inman parting ways with the family team in 1981 shortly after winning the Great American Race. Why? It's a topic that Inman still struggles to talk about today.The split wasn't what Inman wanted, but the time away from Petty resulted in a few years of results and racing stories. From working with a young Dale Earnhardt and racing for a controversial coal miner, to winning the 1984 title with Texas Terry, it's a time where Inman was out on his own and showed the world he was one of the greatest of all time.Before Inman sat at the table, Dale Jr. and co-host Mike Davis broke down Indianapolis and the curb-chaos that dominated the headlines and Monday morning water-cooler conversation. In addition, Dale brings up some often used lingo, a Dale-ism, that piqued wife Amy Earnhardt's interest. Let's just say "Imawl" let y'all listen and laugh!In AskJr presented by Xfinity, Leah dishes out fan questions ranging from Dale's search for a square-body truck to if red-hot racer Kyle Larson should consider racing in the Indianapolis 500. Dale Jr. also reveals details about his father's "Deer Head Shop" on the grounds of Dale Earnhardt Inc.That and much more on this packed podcast! 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.

at the end of a grand national race. The car destined to run 500 miles to speed, well over 100 miles an hour, is a very special animal. The following is a production of Dirtymo Media. Hey, everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again. Another episode of the Dale Jr. download here. We got Dale Inman on the show today.

Dale Inman, 193 wins as a crew chief in the Cup series, 188 wins and seven titles with Richard Petty, Petty Enterprises, His eighth title came with Terry Labani in 1984 at Hagen Racing, and he's going to come in here and tell us about his life. It's going to be pretty awesome to hear from him. He's a character, man. Anyways, let's get rolling right into it, Mike. What else is going on?

We had an incredible race at Indy, a memorable one at least. It started great, ended bad. How else are you going to frame it up? So for context, if you're listening to this podcast and don't know what happened this race weekend, I don't know how that's possible, but maybe it is. All right, they're racing at Indy road course. They had a issue with one of the curbs at a particular part of the track. The splitters from the cup cars were going under it,

and it was ripping that splitter and the whole rack on the front of the car off. And once that started, it sort of raised up that curb. The curb is a metal fabricated curb that's bolted down to the racetrack. And so once it kind of got pried up, it just became, it got worse and worse and worse. and by the end of the race we had a restart with a few laps to go. And somebody came through there and ripped the splitter off of their car. And debris went everywhere. And then the field circled around and came back through a second time.

And then like three or four cars, you know, the front. So the cars just look like they explode when they go over it. And it rips the splitter off. So the 24, 22, a bunch of other guys, you know, come through there and destroyed their cars. It was really, I'd never seen anything like this. And then so we, you know, that was bad enough. We take the curb out, you know, and they left this one little curb still there that was actually a ramp kind of kind of thing. Anyways, more carnage, you know, more crashing.

And then on a final restart, Chase Briscoe gets into the grass on term one, on the outside of term one, cuts the track, comes back onto the track, side by side with the leader, falls kind of back in, falls in line behind Denny Hamelin. They go through, they go through a few corners, get down to turn nine, and Chase spun. Denny. At that point, NASCAR had ruled Chase Briscoe in a penalty because of his cutting the track in turn one, so he is now ineligible. He claims to not have gotten that information and thought he was still racing for the lead. He gets into Denny contact, his maid, and Denny goes spinning out the race, went. AJ Almondinger sitting in second or third place, however you want to look at it, its time, ends up winning the race. Pretty a credible win for that team. Just a really very controversial ending to the race. You know, when I was, I was sitting up on,

a scissor lift in turn 7 on the outside of turn 7. I was pretty frustrated with the curb situation. We'd been dealing with some issues with the curbs in that particular part of the track, so there's just a little kink in the back straight away, and it's kind of unnecessary, to be honest with you. I don't even know what it's there for and why it's in that position. It doesn't slow the cars down. They run through there wide open anyways.

What's it for? So they had a curb there on Saturday that destroyed some Xfinity cars. They took that out. These fabricated curves started to deteriorate throughout the cup race from the beating that they take, and then they just started destroying cup cars. So they finally took those out. And then there was one final curb there

that continued to create destruction and chaos. So that's a track thing. That's a track situation. It's not a NASCAR thing. I mean, NASCAR certainly bears some responsibility guilty by association, but very, very minimal. The curbs have been there all week.

The drivers know where they are. There's that side of the argument. But once things start to go bad, there's only, you know, in hindsight, I thought, okay, man, they're taking the curbs out. Man, I don't know if they should leave that one there, the one that ended up spinning Michael McDowell. And I thought, why not take them all the way out? And I think Kyle Petty and a couple of other people, we were all texting.

Oh, really? This moment. Yeah. Like, this is what they should do. Oh, man, this is what they should do. Because we're under red flag. And so we're all talking. You know, I, it's easy after the first.

fact to have an opinion. And I got one and everybody else does too. But in the moment, in the moment, it's like, let's just get this damn thing over with. I think that was the mentality of everyone on the property. Track, NASCAR, fans, drivers, mechanics, broadcasters. It's like, let's just get to the finish. Right. Let's see who wins this thing. What happened happened. I don't know that it's very productive to try to put somebody on the stand and cast judgment and lay blame the track understands their responsibility and they'll move forward and make changes right they love the crowd they had they had a much better crowd than they had at the oval races they're probably absolutely not going back to the oval they're going to come back there next year run the road course again

what changes will they make all right so that's where my mind is like what do we do to have a great race next year i like the layout i don't think we need to change it there is a little bit of a additional portion of the racetrack in that area that they could run that the formula one cars used to run. It's a little loop that goes around that kink, it's turn five and six. I don't want them to do that. I think just take all the curbs out of that space. No curbs, no inside curbs, no outside curbs. Let them just go, right? Allow the grass to be the deterrent, all right, to keep you on asphalt. And the reason why I say that now, think, hear me out on this. And if you can poke a hole in this, or if there's something wrong with it, by all means, I'm open-minded to change

my mind in my opinion, but when they come out of term four, especially on restarts. Now, the leader in the second place car have gotten to single file by this point in most cases, but they're still two, sometimes even three wide from third, fourth, and on back. The field's still racing side by side at this point. When they come into this little kink that is five and six with the layout that we had this weekend, that was a funnel, a natural funnel that would force a lot of the cars, a majority of them to go single file to get through there. A lot of them might not, you know, there were times when guys tried to run through their

side by side, and it ended badly. You know, it cost them both time. They would end up being pressured by guys from behind because they couldn't get through their full throttle because it's a wide open segment of the track. But anyways, that little kink of curbing and so forth acted like a natural funnel that made the cars go single file. And so by time they got to me in turn seven, there was rarely any passing. in the breaking zone of turn seven, which is designed to be a passing zone.

There was great action where Jeff Burton was at the last portion of the racetrack, turn 12, 13, 14. There was great action where Bagley was at for turn one through five. My God, yeah. Right? But once they got to that little funnel, that natural funnel of five and six, it thinned them out a little bit and the racing around my space wasn't as what I expected and what I would want.

If they take all the curbing away, right? the guys that are actually racing side by side and so forth on these restarts continue to run side by side out of turn four and down that long straightaway toward turn seven there'll be much more passing opportunities breaking you know side by side action that continues after a restart much further into the lap and so the restart continues to be exciting continues to have drama and development and passing all the way went to me and possibly they continue to race and battle and argue over position through through eight, nine, and ten, and over toward Burton. I just think that whatever that kink was there for, I don't know why they put it there.

It doesn't slow the cars down that much. They run through their wide open, so it's, so it didn't do that if that's what it's designed to do. If NASCAR and Indy looked at it and said, well, from four to seven, that's too long of a straightaway. We've got to do something to slow them down. To knock some speed out. Yeah. but it doesn't really do that. And otherwise, it's just a natural funnel that you don't want.

You don't want to funnel the cars into single file ever, right? That's against what you want. So I'd take it all away and just have them go through their four wide, five, whatever. It's a big wide piece of payment. Let them run wherever they won't, right? But at least they won't be forced to sort of have to get in line and then give away the opportunity to get back out of line in a passing zone at turn seven breaking zone. So I just, you know, that's what I do. I just take all the curbing away and just lose.

it like it is. I think, I mean, I can get along with that. I think I agree with you on everything. I think looking back, if there was any culpability with NASCAR, it was, for me, it was not the fact that the curbing came up. It was unfortunate, but that clearly is a track issue and whatever. Running the cars through a debris field, basically, because we saw debris flying, and I was interested to hear your perspective.

I know it would probably be hard to see debris from where you were at. So I have a, yeah, that's a great point. But like there was clearly stuff flying everywhere, and they didn't throw the yellow then. All right. So this, this is a whole other conversation for me personally. I'm on top of the, I'm on top of the seizure lift. So this is my problem with radio style. So I'm on top of the scissor lift and the sun is in the monitor.

I can't see very well what you're watching at home. I can't really, I can't really see that on the monitor. I can see cars, but I can't really tell who's who. I kind of have to look at the rundown to see who's second, third, fourth, fifth, and as they're coming at me, start calling that, I call the action live, because that I can see. I can't really see on monitor what you're seeing at home. Gotcha.

So when they did come through there, I never saw all that debris. Now, when I watch a replay today on my phone, it's clear. When Truex got spun because he lifted because of what was happening, you can see it. Now, if I'd have been in the booth watching program, watching what you're watching, I would have seen what you saw. And I would have said, oh, man, there's debris. There's somebody lost another splitter. You know, that would, I think little things like that steer this race or steal

the broadcast and everything else in a different direction and a better direction. When they came back through there the second time and the 24 ripped its splitter off and cars just started crashing, I couldn't see the 24 cars splitter get ripped off. Like I'm looking at the monitor. The racing isn't close enough for me to visually see it live. I'm looking at the monitor and I can't see what is happening. I just see cars spinning. Cars crashing into a wall.

I even said over the broadcast, there must be something on the track. Something causing it, yeah. It must be slowed down from the spin before. I don't know. You know, now if I'm in the broadcast booth, I'm looking at a very clear program and can absolutely, with my own eyes like everyone else at home, see that the 24 just had his splitter ripped off over the curb.

And that's the frustrating part, I think, for me, I love doing the radio style and the energy, but I can't see the program very well at all. And there's nothing you can really do about it. If you got outside TV, you know the struggles, right? Oh, yeah. It is what it is. You can't see it very well. You can't.

Right. If you're watching it even. You can't see detail like that. Sure. Like debris flying. It's too bright outside. Yeah. So there's nothing I can do really.

There's nothing NBC can do. that can make that situation better for me. So I can't see the detail that I love to look for and to be able to really give the broadcast that information, right? To bring that information up. I think Rick and Steve and the booth can see the detail, but the radio guys myself, badly we're all going. We're babbling, right?

And they jump in and correct and give that detail when they can, but I think it could come quicker. Anyways, that was the only frustration for me is all that was happening, I felt like I don't have all the information. I don't have all the, I don't know what's going on, right? That was so frustrating.

Yeah. But you did say something that, if you want to talk about the one thing that absolutely blew my mind and baffled me, you hit on it. What? Of all the events that happened in this race, the thing that I still cannot get past

is why Denny was so cool with Chase Briscoe after the race. Like, don't you have to deliver a message just on principle? That is unacceptable, that you cannot go bump me out without consequences. Don't you have to do that? Denny, maybe, I mean, gosh, bigger man than I am, but how is he so calm and cool about that? I don't know. Maybe he was thinking about Martinsville with Chase Elliott and how he was on the other end of that.

Now, you know, I mean, Denny's been around the sport for a long time. And, you know, I debated this with some friends after the race about his, you know, how he was pretty chill. and accepted. He was quick to hear the explanation, and he was cool with it. Yeah. Well, number one, I think Briscoe has quite a, even though he's young and he's a rookie, he has a lot of respect in the garage as a racer and not a dirty racer. And everybody knows he's hungry.

He's not had the year that he would love to have had. They're not very high in the points. And just wish, you know, he just generally wished that he would have had a better successful year. Nothing to get, nothing, you know, it's not been, it's not been the, the year that he hoped he'd have. So you've got to think about how hungry he is in that moment, thinking he might got a shot to win here at Indy. You know, he's local, right?

That's his track. Okay, yeah. I agree with that. Denny got to be equally as hungry as well. He didn't want to race all year, and he was that close to it. Yeah, I think maybe he was thinking about how he's been on, he's been on the other side of that. Like, he was in Chase's position and has done things that, you know,

he can't be too hypocritical about it. I hear you, man, I would have been mad. I would have probably not handled that the way he handled it. I would have been like, man, you know, out of hell is what I've done in my career. And if I ever did that to anyone, I'm still going to be mad, right? Yeah. I don't know, you know. I think, I don't know why he was so, so chill about it.

I'd be a good, good to hear. You caught it out, you're like, when they finally go back to you, you were like, Denny Hamlin, just going over there and just having a conversation. like you could have put a pot of tea in front of them and it would have fit because they had that cordial of a conversation. So when they were standing there, this is probably bad to admit, but when they were standing there and showing the conversation, we weren't talking. The radio style guys were just watching and the booth was covering this particular part of the show. But the 16, the race winner, AJ's driving around the track. And they put a camera, Denny had just gotten there, I guess.

They put a camera in and Denny was listening. And I was like, I would have, if you'd have stopped and said, okay, what happens next? I would have absolutely said, Denny's going to punch you. Right, just on principle. I just had that, I had a feeling that I could have predicted the future. We all did. But even before that, you're like, okay, when he got punted, I was like. No, no, no, no.

When they were standing there and they were, the first time they ever put him on camera post race, the look on Denny's face and that whole, the body language and everything, I was like, dang. It's coming. It sounds about it happens. There's a storm of brewing. Yeah. And then, you know, he took it a different turn. You know, he took a different direction.

But, you know, he'll be, you know, he'll, he'll, they'll be racing around each other again one day, I'm sure. Well, I guess that's my point. I guess did he give Chase Briscoe any reason to think about his next move when they're in that situation again? Like, don't you have to deliver a message to say, look, you're not going to push me around. I mean, I hear drivers say that all the time. Like, you know, I don't want to be pushed around. got to earn my respect all this stuff well chase brisk goes in that same situation next time i think he does the same thing he doesn't have he certainly didn't get a reason from denny to think about it

or to reconsider his thing so i don't know it was interesting that's the one thing that blew my mind the other thing that the the thing that probably if i was a driver would have gotten under my skin the most. I would have not. I mean, the curb would have been, the curb would have probably really turn me red with frustration and anger, but the next, I would have absolutely immediately forgot it after they started dumping all that speedy draw all over the racetrack. Because that was a bigger issue.

Yes. I mean, it looks like a beach. Totally. Kyle Busch was going off about that. I'm sure he was. Yes, he was. So when you take, you race on this racetrack all day long, all right? You have worked your entire day to put yourself in position late in the race for a finish,

for a good result. You've worked hard. Even the guy running 8th, 7th, 6th is sitting there thinking, man, I've got to close a deal. Here I am. Look at all the guys that have had trouble. Look at all the guys that didn't get to the finish. Here I am. I made it.

I got this green white checkered in front of me. And you're going to go dump a beach on the top. track. Now I got this unexpected obstacle in front of me that is all over the track in every corner and it drop, you know, it absolutely affects the grip of the car. Now you're going to go into the corner and you don't know how hard to break, how deep to break into the corner, how hard the car can roll through the corner without sliding, how hard you can get on the gas out of the corner. And this is every corner of the track for the next, the final two laps of the race. You already know, you already know that every driver on this restart is going to be a jerk.

And you're going to be put in some situations that are just going to be hard. You're going to get shoved off the track if you chase briscoe. You're going to get forced off the track if you're A.J. Almondinger. You're going to get spun out if you're Denny Hammond. Those things are just going to happen because of the competition. But now you're going to take the track and completely make it an unknown and change it. I know there was, you know, there was, you know, fluid, I guess, on the track from other cars. I just don't know if there's, if there's that much speedy drive needed for that application, right?

It was a bit over the top, and they kept going and going, and, I mean, they were putting it down on one end of track, and then they came and put it at my end. Then they went to Burton, and then they did it more, like, they come back and didn't like what, didn't like it. So they did more? I was like, golly, if I'm a driver. If I'm a broadcaster and a fan, yeah, I like, yeah, make it harder. But that would have been playing mental Armageddon in your head if you're driving. But then it got to a point where it's like, all right, enough, let's just get the race started.

Like these caution laps are ridiculous. This red flag, all of this, this delay was so ridiculous, so long. That reminds me, and this would be my last point, is the one thing NASCAR could have done that would have been terrible, they actually avoided. And that was, I know you wouldn't have seen this, but during the second red flag, there was highly credible media saying just in this race, like, just call it. Just call the race, end it just like this. We don't need to go back and do this again. And I thought that would have been the biggest mistake of any of this stuff.

Like to end the race the way it was under red flag without actually having an end. And thankfully, you know, there's smarter people in the room that know that we need to end the race the way fans see. And by the way, glorious racing, white knuckle, Godfear and spun out after that this is a story that, where the NASCAR ended a race, because the track came up and

fans revolted. Fans revolted. That's on this week's podcast. Yeah, the reaction to that wouldn't have been very good. No. So they thankfully didn't do that. I have to say too, all right, all of this is happening. So the wreck, I'm on a scissor lift.

All right. All day long, You know, LaTart needs to use a restroom. He walks out of the booth and goes and peas. And when our producer, Marv, needs to, you know, somebody takes his seat and he goes and uses a bathroom during a race and then he comes back. I can't go use the bathroom. I'm up on a scissors lift. There's no bathroom. That's in case somebody has a jellyfish thing up there.

I had to be so freaking bad. I had to go. I had to go bad. They don't let you? He ain't going to know where to go. He's on a scissor left. He can't lower you? in the middle of race?

I control the scissors lift but I can't leave my I'm... But they're leaving Yeah but I'm radio style Like me Burton and bags Can't leave the show Aren't they radio style too?

No But he's just said Steve La Tart's in the booth Marve is in the truck There are bathrooms Right next to me A little bit easier But Bagley is

Can he leave too? No He's on a perch He's outside There's no bathroom's on a city Hey man I'll be back in 20 minutes Guys y'all cover it It's scary by

Lower, lower, lower, lower, lower, lower, lower, takes two minutes. Then I go to the bathroom, doing my business. Come on back, cracker back up. Up, up, raise, raise. We go. All right, guys, ten minutes later, I had to go so, so bad. Oh, it's awful.

Otherwise, I wouldn't have cared. I'd be like, yeah, whatever, man, speedy drive, take your time, whatever, man. we'll get this thing over with. I got nowhere to be. But I'm sitting there holding it, and they're taking forever to get this race to finish. Yeah. And I'm like, God.

Then they had another green white checkered, because something happened. Somebody, something happened. I guess it was the, yeah, it was the McDowell. So the first one was, yeah, the first green white checkered. Then they wrecked. I'm like, no, no, another yellow. These no driving SOBs finish.

I got to go. I got to go. And so there's fans down there. And I'm like, I come down off to CISO. lift and I'm like they're like hey can we get a picture I'm like I got to go to the bathroom and it's it's about 15 feet away for me there was one close okay but I'm like I got to go to the bathroom I'll be right back and then I come back and I took a picture and I'm like there was a bunch more coming to site for for their die casts and stuff and I was like they were not done we still had to do

post race so I had to climb back up there but I didn't I did my post race with the seizure lift down yeah anyways that indie race yeah that was a mess but they'll figure it out I ain't too worried about it. I ain't up in a, I ain't all tore about it. Yeah. I'm not either. I just can't believe Danny Hamlet's so cool. The other thing I wanted to talk about today, my wife, Amy, was mentioning this.

And I asked you guys to think about what you guys might do in the same situation. So I want to play a clip. All right, Amy has a great topic, a rogan topic idea. And I went downstairs just a minute ago and found out of his birthday cake. It's an ice cream cake. It's been in a freezer. I'm going to throw it out. Hey.

Ammo? Amo. So what did you say? Dale has this sound he uses. Instead of saying, I'm going to, he says, Amo. Amo. Which, if you say it by itself,

literally sounds like absolutely nothing. But Dale uses it all the time in his common conversation. I'm going to go do this. Amo, Amo, Amo. So I'm going to come into the show tomorrow, and I'm going to talk about this. See you guys. I'm on.

So that's it. I didn't know. I guess I didn't really know that I did that. And so, yeah, I'm old. That's a, that's a new. A, or no, so it starts. I. Okay.

You're going to spell it. A-W-L. I-M-A-W-L. That's what it would look like in the dictionary. I am going to is what it replaces. Yeah. Amel. You just shortcut.

You just drove through the. grass and just came out on turn four like that with that word, right? Sure. Yeah. So I was like, all right. And she says I do other. Yeah, you do it. Other words.

Of course you do. You got your own Dale Junior Dictionary. Okay, whatever. You do. Don't people. Leo. Ambulins. We literally, I don't do this.

Taylor doesn't do this, but you know what we researched after you send that video was Jeff Foxworthy's redneck words. Right. And this would be one of them. Is it? Yes. He's updated. Wow.

Oh, you're saying he doesn't. say that word, but you're saying this would be one of those. Oh, I thought this would be one of those. No, no, no. He needs to update his list. You just gave him new material. Had my hopes up that I was actually on his list. No. No. His what, I can't remember all of them. The one that said out to me was, um, I can't remember. Good note. Good note. Brain fart. Well, I had it. Widget, widget, did you? You didn't, it was widget did you? Yeah. Wichidja. You didn't bring your truck. Widja did you? With you. With you. Did you? Yeah.

Yeah. So that's one of it. You could be. Do you have any of those, Leah? No. You thought about it? Yeah, we had it. We talked about it.

Yeah. Yeah. You say every word perfectly. That's what Taylor said. He doesn't combine words. He says things incorrectly. Like? He is guilty of the intensive purposes.

Instead of all intents and purposes, he says intensive. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's guilty of that. Yeah. So, Matthew, I hate to ask. Then don't. Which one did you, what did you bring to work?

What did your homework? My wife says that I say no with like an extended extra syllable in it. I knew it. Keep going, Matthew. Don't let us stop. No. That was it. That's it.

That's it. I don't want, no. I'm, well, I just, I'm not going to nod and I'm not going to go on more. But no, no. I get picked on by my friends about that one too. Yes, sir. You have to have something like this. Probably have a lot more than that.

Why don't you? Actually, you know what? The best person to ask would be you. You and Mike. Of what words you mess up? Of what idiosyncrasy that you find. I'm sure you guys have. You, I sent this video and I said,

I know. Ask your spouses. And you came up with the word no? I know. Yeah. I did. Now he's doing it on purpose. No, I know.

He's doing a purpose now. That's not, is that? So I get a, what grade do I get? Like a D then? I at least participated. Yeah. I just don't get a man. I'm just disappointed.

I thought he'd have a real good one. He didn't know. I tried to lay out. You were going to go critique his, no. Listen, I ask my wife. So if y'all have, if y'all have something bad to say, you say it to her. I asked my wife the same thing. I said, what is it?

I don't have an I'mel. I do have something that absolutely irritates the snot, not just that I heard, but also my daughters, that I say, and I'll say it till my grave. And that is, rather than saying all I'm saying, I say all's I'm saying. Oh. Yeah, like, and I've heard other people do that,

but I've literally tried to not say all's I'm saying is, but they, but I can't. That's a good one. I'm wired. I'm wired to say, look, all's I'm saying. Look, all I'm saying is, is that, and they're like, all's I'm saying is, all's I'm saying is, and they mocked me for the next five minutes for saying it. But I'm like, look, I don't even understand what the big deal is. All I'm saying is is that I just wanted to go, you know, to Outback and not Chili's.

Mike, you get an A. No, I don't. No. I give you an A. No. No. No, stop. No.

Actually, Amy gets an A. No. No. No. No. My friend Rob Constly picks on me on that one No

He doesn't No No Matthew You You're making that up Matt No Call him right now

Lifeline All day I'm gonna do it all day It's no chance I'm not gonna do this all day Hey Hey I think I'm gonna go get Our guest

Okay Is here? Tell him No No No A lot of mileage out of that one. A lot of high mileage.

150K. Yeah, a lot of 150K. I'm going to get out of that one. Bill Edmund. Once in a great while in every sport, a superstar emerges. Babe Ruth in baseball in boxing Jack Dempson. And during 1967, another superstar emerged, burning up the NASCAR stock racing circuit in America's southeast.

His name is Richard Petty. heavy blue flies under the checkered flag. Winters behind every driver. Richard Petty and his Big Blue number 43 made a shambles of the stock car record books in 1967. A man all responsible for so much of what makes this man run. One of them is the crew chief on this car. Preparing the potent Emmy engines to power that Petty Plumma. And he certainly appears to be unconscious.

The pit bull running out. This could be a very bad accident to one of the best known race drivers in the world. One of them is the crew chief on this car. A man named Dale Inman. The hour Terry spends in the driver's seat is equal by a week's labor for crew chief, Dale Inman. For over two decades, Inman has been preparing races. I don't know how he does it. He's about the only guy I've seen that can get 15 people to work together.

It is one of the things that Dale Inman does best. There he is. Nice. Good morning, everybody. How you doing, buddy? How are you? I guess I'm lucky to be here. I got up this morning, raring to go.

Yeah. Hope you all are. Yeah, we are. Okay, good to see y'all. Good to see you. What you've been up to? I'm up my yard sometime when it don't need it, just have something to do, but I stay pretty busy. I go to the race shop one day a week.

This was my day to go, so they're going to have to back up a day, and then I go to the museum quite a bit and level cross. What's a museum like? You need to come and see it. I know it. Tell us. Yeah, we got, I don't think Richard ever throwed anything away, and we got it in there, a lot of the old cars, and they were modern then, but, boy, they're crude now, you know,

and so we go back a long ways, and it shows where Lee started about, of course, he started racing, but not out of that area until about 1952. Where was he racing at before? Where was he running out? Well, he had a little. little place down the road from there that he had a little garage and uh sometime on when they'd go up north he'd go by himself you know yeah and uh and then in the summertime you know out of school miss petty and maurice and richard would go with them so it's hard to believe what it used to be

compared to today you know what i mean and you've seen a little bit of it and then what's your what's your earliest memory uh you know i think about that a lot i know is at darland in 1951. Well, how old were you? 15. Yeah. That's your earliest memory. On racing.

Of any kind. Oh, no, I got some early memories. Yeah, was there? Yeah, we, me and Richard and Maurice raced bicycles and had carts that go down the hill with a rope as a stairs, you know. But, yeah, we grew up together.

So I used to have this kind of a, It was, I had Richard sign. I got about three or four of them, but this big comic, you probably remember that when it came out around 1980. And it was like a big comic book about Richard. Oh, yeah. And, man, this thing is, I love that thing. I think I was in.

You're all in it. And it shows y'all where y'all built those little wooden carts and stuff with rope steering wheel and going down the hills. You know, STP done that book. Yep, they did. and I believe Harvey Duck was behind it maybe. But so that story, your youth, is kind of, you know, they touch on it in this comic book.

This comic is really a great piece of history, to be honest with you, because I remember them, when I was little in the early 80s, you know, I'd go to Joe Whitlocks and other people's houses, and they were everywhere, everywhere you went. Back then, one of them little comics was somewhere. But it's kind of a, you've seen it. Yeah, it was bigger than the normal. A big comic book, yeah.

But I came across a handful of them and took them and got Richard to sign them. Have you still got them? Oh, hell yeah. Never going to, yeah. Hold on to. They're tucked away. So the rope steering wheels was documented in the comic book? Yeah, it was basically talks about his childhood and you and Maurice and how y'all hung out

and played together and built those little yard carts and things like that. So you have memories of those. Oh, yeah. I certainly remember them. and our swimming hole was called Polkett Creek, you know, and it was no more than, much more than a mud hole, you know. And if you went in, they might be a copperhead or something to slide in right behind you, you know. And, of course, there's poison ivy all around.

And our mothers had to doctor that for us. And it was just the way of life back then. Yeah. What was Maurice and Richard and yourself? You know, what were you all like as kids? Like who was the ringleader? Who was the clown? What were all his personalities like?

You know, I don't know whether there was a ringleader or not, but Maris was the one you had to watch out for. Why? He didn't take no prisoners. He was rough. Yeah, if we were riding bicycle and he got mad at you, he'd just ride into the side of you, you know, on the highway and stuff.

And, you know, of course, our bicycles didn't have fenders and all that other stuff, and we worked on them. but and then he was rough and just showed no pain if you couldn't hurt him, you know. But, and then, of course, that carried on into the racing part of it, you know what I mean. What's the age gap with you three? Like who's the oldest and how did that, what was the gap? I'm 10 months older than Richard. Okay.

Maurice was, you know, Maurice has passed away, of course. And I guess he is four or five years younger than that. He was younger. Yeah. And he came down with polio, you know, but he didn't use that as a handicap. I mean, he went on. How did that change him? It just, his upper body was so strong you couldn't handle it, you know what I mean.

But he took on, and of course, Maurice drove a little bit, you know. And, you know, I tell the story we was over to Hillsborough and Sunday, and you've been over there. Yeah. Okinichy. Nine-tenths of a mile track, long straightaway, sharp corners. Richard sat on the pole, of course, and I think Maurice was about sixth or seventh qualifying, and they throwed the green flag, and they said dusty, they had a wreck before they got to the first turn. And, of course, Richard got through because he's on the pole, and he come by, and they stopped the race.

And Maurice somehow got through, and Richard said, go check on Maurice. I went running down there, and he said, they can't see. So I cleaned the windshield, still can't see. It cleaned inside of the windshield. They still can't see inside of his glass. is what's dusted. Yeah. But they'd water the track pretty good, but the exhaust made so much dust from where they didn't water

the track. It just stirred up. So, and of course, that's the conditions we used to race in. Of course, even today we see some bad conditions. We don't talk about it. So you said Maurice was tough and didn't feel no pain and that carried on in the racing part. What was, what were some examples of, of, of, you know, you know, that? of how Maurice was.

Well, if anybody roughed Richard up or anything, it was his duty to take charge, you know. What did he do? Tell us the story to do. What do you normally do? Tell us the story or two. Oh, well, was it Wilkesboro one Sunday, and the way I remember it the best,

we just had got pretty good radios. And I, of course, Richard had one, and the helmet had speakers in it instead of earplugs, and then, of course, it had the mic. and I had the radio only one radio in the pit. And Richard and Allison got into a pretty good bumping match and everything. And, of course, Richard went on to win the race. And he stopped no winter circle, so he stopped on the straightaway there.

And Maurice went, we all went down towards the car. And Maurice got there before I did. And somebody come up and put his hands on Richard. And Richard had got out of the car and I had Richard the helmet. And when he put his hands on Richard, Maurice hit him right in the face with a helmet, you know. And I think the man was just congratulating Richard. Really?

And he said, what did he for? I said, I don't know, but what I was worried about is tearing at the helmet. I didn't want to tear up her radios because you can imagine racing with, you know, blackboards and chalk and then having radios where I could talk to him, you know. Yeah. Of course, you know, and of course we got in a pretty good deal at, I slip one now. What happened?

I think we're getting ready to lap Bobby. No disrespect to Bobby because we're good friends now. But he kind of put us into the wall and after the race, Marais said, well, I'm just going to, he went on to win the race. And he said, well, after the race, I'm just going to do something. I said, okay. So it got pretty rowdy there. And finally got us separated.

I don't know. It was pretty big deal. And then we got, I think, Lee had to pay a $500 fine, you know, and Maurice's fine was more than mine. And I think Richard, I think Lee squared away with Bill France because I think France had owed him some money from a trip we'd made to Riverside in 1958 that he hadn't paid him. And Lee's response to it said, you know, like talking to us about it, he said, now, I thought he's going to scolders, you know, he said, no. I said, always be smiling when you throw the first lick because most time that decides to fight. And Lee was a fighter too, you know, after the race.

Really? Yeah, Jack Smith and Tiny Lund and some of them. They went at it. I didn't know that about Lee. Yeah. Yeah, so help us, you know, the only thing I know about Lee is his stats and images of him. Never was around him. Don't know his demeanor.

Don't know his cadence. Don't know what he was like, you know. So tell us what it would be like to be sitting here talking to Lee. He would be in charge if you'd ask him about. a fight, Joe Lewis and Walcott say, you'd ask him who's going to win, and he'd talk 15, 20 minutes, not tell you nothing. At the fight, he'd say, I told you he was going to win. And that was Lee, but, see, Lee didn't start driving until he was 35-year-old. I didn't know that.

And, of course, did you know Richard didn't drive until he was 21? Yeah. And, you know, that was the NASCAR rule then. and he turned 21 July the 2nd, 1958. We went to Columbia, South Carolina. That day? No, the 12th. That was the next race.

Did you have that on the calendar? Like, hey, man, you turned 21 this day? I didn't know it. Y'all were going racing. Yeah, but it was convertible. And Lee and Miss Petty and Maurice went to Icefield, McCormick Field, and run Thursday night. Me and Richard and Redmiler went to Colorado.

Columbia, South Carolina with a convertible. Yeah. Fireball, Bob Wilburn, Possum Jones. They were all there? Joe Weatherer was there without a car. And Richard had never drove nothing. And, you know, I'm more nervous than Richard is. And I said, Joe, now, and of course it was Richard around.

I said, now if Richard has trouble, can you help him out, you know? And the signal back then, you know, tap your head if you need relay. You remember them? You've heard that. Sure. So we're running along there and we wound up sixth. And Richard's going along, you know, and he's patting on his head. And I go get Joe, he gets his helmet and puts his little golf gloves on, no fingers, you know.

Does it a couple of times and I wear Joe out, you know. Going home, we're all in the pickup truck. But then we got a car on a trailer. Yeah. At one time we was telling him on the ground. but I said you was wanting relief what the heck was you doing

he said my head was itching I was trying to scratch my head and I tell people that's what I had to work with he didn't know he had a helmet on that's funny but it's true and I still tell it on him of course now he tells

and Mr. Hendrick calls know this he said he won 400 races hadn't been for me no why's that I'm holding him back oh my soldiers If I can't prove him wrong, you know.

You could also say you'd only win 100 races if it wasn't for me. Well, we have some different discussions on that you know, but it's all in fun, you know. So Lee, were you in Daytona when Lee crashed? Uncle Sam had me in France. Really? Really? Yeah. Whoa.

No kid. Yeah, I got drafted. Spent two years. So your, oh man, let's talk about that. So your, what? What are you doing before you got drafted? What is your day to day? Well, I was working at Western Elective, but I spent...

What is that? It was a government working facility. I think was building modulators for submarines or something, you know, and I was just a material handler. I just had a normal... In North Carolina? Greensboro. Yep.

So what did you do in the evenings? I went and helped on the race car a lot. Who's a race car? Lees. Okay. And, I mean, I've never worked. on I've never been around nothing but a cup car so to speak which was Grand National then you know so I never came through the go-karts and got you ever what they go

through now but did you know that they were there was a possibility you might get drafted yeah that always on your mind it didn't worry me no but I was 23 when I got drafted you know and and of course when I come home I was not married at the time of course me and mary been married going on 62 years now congratulations on that and uh we got married while i was in service you know but y'all were living together no no where were you living i was living at home my mother and i come home and mother was crying i said what's wrong she said you got ordered your draft and i said i'll knock this out nothing flat you know what i mean but it it was some long times in france but we um so wait hold it you're getting ahead of me okay so you come home and

your mom is upset and you're thinking this I'll go do this and I'll get it done yeah and so when did you have to leave the next day or no it how does that work it was pretty soon I mean I don't I don't remember exactly the days and everything but I went to Fort Jackson for basic and went Aberdeen how did that go it wasn't bad crawling through that infiltration course during the daytime when they throwing grenades and shooting machine gun over your head but when they done it at night and all them traces are coming out, you crawled a little bit closer. But I got through it pretty good. I was in shape and didn't get in no trouble.

And then they sent me to Aberdeen, Maryland for advanced training. What's the difference? What's the advanced training? It's kind of skilled of what you was going to be. What was you going to be? Well, they kindly put me in, with my background, a little bit of mechanical, you know, they put me in charge of a, when I got to France, They put me in charge of a garage taken care of with the jeeps and trucks and all that stuff in that area.

Yeah. And so what years is this? 59 and 60. Okay. They had a paper called Stars and Stripes. I don't know where they still have it or not. But Lee made the front page going out in 1960 at Daytona, him and Bochamp. And I told people, I said, I know him.

And of course, me and Ms. Petty were still writing each other. other than, you know, and she stayed in Daytona with Lee. Yeah. She had time to write me a lot and tell him about his conditions. But I seen the last race on the beach with Lee in 1958. We was down there with a 36 modified for Friday, a convertible for Saturday, and hardtop for Sunday, and he was 44 then, I guess, you know. And then the next year I got to go to the 500 with him, you know,

and then, of course, I went in the Army in September. So did Richard get drafted? Did Richard, I mean, you're only 10 months apart. How did he avoid that? You know, Richard has a hearing problem, I think. Got you. And a lot of it's blamed on race cars, but his channels in his ears are a little bit smaller than a normal person. No disrespect to what I'm saying.

But he learned to read Lyft probably when he was in high school to a certain degree. No kidding. Yeah. And he's got to deal where he gets his hearing aids, of course, I got mine in now, but I guess some of mine came from race cars, you know, and no headsets. And that really helped us when we got the radios. You know, I was talking about in 1972 when they first come with some pretty good radios. All right.

So you know, did you learn that you were going to France while you were in training or how did that? No, it just come up. My orders come. I got to come home. You got to go home after training. Yeah. And then Mary got married, and then they sent me to France, you know. So you got married after you training.

Yeah. And then you get told you're going to France. Now, what are you thinking? I'll knock this out. It won't be nothing. And it was some long days, you know, but, you know, it was an educational thing. What part of France? Orleans, just about 60 miles south of Paris.

And like I told you, we got to go to the Le Mans race one time. A bunch of us got in a boy had a car over there and we took her tents and camped out. That must have been pretty incredible, even though obviously you were wishing you were home With your family and working on racing cars, stuff, but still being in France and getting able, where had you been before, right? You probably hadn't been east, west of the Mississippi. No, now wait a minute. In 1958, Leys were running for the championship, okay, which he won.

So you went all over the country. And the schedule, they was a race in Trenton on Friday. And on Sunday they was racing Riverside, California. Whoa. And Lee was leading the points, and Jack Smith was second. And this is what Lee said. He said, I've asked Jack not to go, but he said he was going, so I've got to go. He said, you know, Jack, if you don't go, we're far enough ahead.

It won't affect the points. And Jack said, I'm going. You do what you want to. So we had Osmobiles in 57, 57, 58. So Richard and Marreese was going to drive the race car from Riverside, California, with enough stuff in it to race a road course. And I was going to Trenton with Red and Miss Petty and Lee probably. And at the last minute, now this is going to what Richard said.

He's out in the front yard trying to walk on his hands that he hurt his shoulder and couldn't go. Who? Richard. So I'm the next one up. So me and Maurice drive the race car to Riverside, California, drove the race car. Do you think Richard was fibbing? Yes. Well, I think he was putting on a little bit, okay.

Only Dale could say that and get away with it, right? That's what people tell me. What's Dale? Yeah, there's a lot of Dale. There's two here. Wait, did you say you drove the race car? You're not talking about on the back of a trailer. I'm not talking about nothing.

I'm talking about it. We got in a race car. And drove it to California. And there was enough stuff in it, like probably a couple of wheels, jack stands of jack. And it had a bench seat. We took the, of course, they weren't no foe back on the right side, you know. And no side windows, no windshield wipers, had two headlights, no dimmer switch.

How did the passenger ride? We had a piece of plywood and a mattress laying on it. Whoa! And we drove night and day. And Lisa, now you boys, and we had a chassis dino at that time, and he fixed us a chart just like roughly they do pit road speed now. And he said, now I've rebuilt the motor, and y'all drive to Shreveport, Louisiana,

stop at the service station, and barry the lift at a service station, change oil and filter, then you can run it. I think he gives us 60 or 65, we could run it. And said, maybe you can run it 70, you know, or 70. I don't know what numbers it was. But we left and come down, left Rundman, went to Ashburn, down 49 through Charlotte, going to Riverside, California. And what we didn't know, there was two men coming up from Charlotte to see Lee that day.

And Lee asked them, said, did y'all come up 49? And they said, yeah, I said, you might have met the boy. always on the way to California. He said, that's what that was, is running so fast. We couldn't get what it was. So, but we did stop and change oil, you know, and going across the desert, you know, out across Texas and all through there. We run 115, 20 miles of the car.

Yeah. And, you know, we climbed in and out, you know, climbed in and out the window. It's hilarious. It was hot. Lord, how much. No AC, yeah. No, nothing.

Yeah. But the radiator, you know, it had a big race and radiator and it's running about a 110, 115 water temperature, the air is hotter than that, you know. And when I tell the boys today, you know, my kind of theme is it ain't always been this easy. And I'm not talking about the mental strain that's in today's world and even when you come up to it. But I'm just, and when I tell these stories, they're true, you know. So we wound up getting out there and had about 50, maybe about, maybe about,

sixty, five cars maybe. And Marvin Porter, West Coast driver, he qualified his car 52nd, and he qualifies Lee Carr fourth. He qualifies two cars. And Lee flies in, and Ms.

Marvin Porter and his wife take us in their station wagon, picks up Lee, and kind of take up with us. And I think we run fourth. I think Jack Smith runs third. And on the way back, coming into Wilcox, Arizona,

run about 120-mile-hour Maurice driving the right rear hub blocks up. And he don't hit the brakes because he's scared to death. You know, you don't know what it is. And we finally blow the tire when it stops. And we'd free it up a little bit after it cools off to limp into Wilcox and order a rear-in-house and one axle. Because it just had a floater on the right side because that was only axle you would break on a circle track, you know.

And Lee, it was homemade that Lee had put on it from a tonne-half Chevrolet truck. And I ordered the axle and the housing, come in on a Greyhound bus, I think, from Phoenix. And left there with three-wheel brakes. Come back to level cross. Good heavens. And I can't remember putting my shoes on this morning. Did you do that once, and that's it? Yeah, but Richard had done it before, I think, him and his cousin.

and they drove it to Oakland. Goodness. So you had been around this country and in you. Well, you know, I've seen a lot, you know, and of course. So going to France wasn't it, wasn't a big shock? No, not really, you know, but I learn a lot from people coming to where getting in trouble. Had you been over, had you been over to Europe since, your time in the service? Well, just through racing and Richard looking out for me and Mary and,

Linda looking out for me and Mary on taking trips, places. We've been to Australia. Bob James, I believe, was that the name? It built a track over there for the track. We went over there for the opening. And I ain't telling you how much money spent just to get us over there. And of course, Richard let me and Mary tang along, you know, and it was unreal. Australia is awesome.

Have you ever been to Goodwood? No. You've been to Goodwood? I've been to Goodwood. And Linda planned a trip for us. I mean, just all over the United States and went on the Alaskan cruise. We've done that. And it's been rewarding.

And it's just amazing to travel with Richard and see how people respect him, I guess. And I said, I don't see what people see in you, you know. And I said, you know, take that hat on. They wouldn't recognize you, but they still do, you know. You talked about going to the beach race with Lee. before you went to the service. When y'all would go to the beach and race and Daytona, where'd you stay?

There was some little cottages down south on A1A. Yeah. And Lee and his pity had a little cottage, and me and Richard Maurice had a little cottage. Yeah. And that was before, you know, Richard was married and everything in 58, you know. What was Richard like when he was not married? You know, people don't believe it, but he was, when we played football together, I weighed 145, and he weighed like, he said the most every weighed was 2-11, but I thought it was a little bit more than that.

Wow. You know, it's hard for you to believe, but Lord, how mercy, he was a big old strong boy. And, of course, we played in a little high school league football, and we played offense and defense, you know, and we took up for each other on the football field, too, you know, yeah. Yeah. So I know that Kyle was an athlete in school, so Richard played sports, played organized sports? Just in high school, you know, and of course when he got out, he started racing.

What position did he play? He played on the line offense and defense. What did you play? I was running back and a defensive back. Did you get to score? Yeah, I scored. That's awesome. I had to.

I was scared. I had to run. I know. Yeah, that's, if I was Richard, I'd be jealous being an alignment and not getting a score. No, I don't know. But, uh, and, and to lead up to that, you know, I, when I tell people about Richard being that big, you know, and everything, and of course. Because he's so, he's a rail now. And he's a rail now, but I'm going to lead into that. But you know, Harry Hyde.

Yeah. Have you, was you ever around him? A little bit. Okay, okay. But, uh, he'd say, that damn skeleton beat us again. He wouldn't say it to Richard, but he'd say it to me, you know, and of course, Harry was quite a character anyway. But he still respected Richard, you know what I mean. Richard had some problems in the 70s with his stomach and his intestines. What was going on there?

Here's another story. He went and he had trouble with his stomach, but I didn't know to the extent that it was. And they put him in the hospital and they said he had two ulcers. And somehow it closed up one of the passage to one of the other stomachs. I'm not a doctor or nothing. he tells the story that they took two ulcers out of him. One of them had Linda on it and other than had Dale. Oh, wow.

Wow. That's something. But, you know, it's amazing how close we've been over the years, you know what I mean? Sounds like you are competitive, though. Like, are you always compete with them from? I think we still do. Still do? Going at each other?

Not necessarily that. Just trying to feed off of each other and member things. and try to stay alive, see who's going outlive who. Wow, y'all really do take it to the next level then. Well, you know, don't take it serious like that. It's not that competitive, but we're both getting up there pretty good. But we still enjoy the races and everything. So I know, so today the teams are bound to the manufacturer supports them.

So you're never going to see, you know, you're never going to see a team, you know, race a Chevrolet all year long and then bring a Toyota to the plate track. What about the Wood Boys, though? Well, I mean, they run forwards every week. I know, and they have forever, and that's paid off for them. Trust me, okay. But what I'm getting at is, I'm thinking back to the 70s, and particularly like the late 70s, like you guys would run a 442 at Aetton and Talladega,

but then you might run to Monte Carlo at the, you know, the rest of the tracks. In your shop, you know, you're hanging out in your shop. you got you more east and richer or y'all been loyal to you know dodge for years and had had chargers and all that and then when that went away how did that start where you guys were building whatever car you wanted to go to the racetrack you know you still had to be in the gm family you couldn't you couldn't you couldn't build a you know a forward of mercury or anything but um i imagine y'all y'all are having factory support from Chevrolet in 79 and 80 you know I never did get into a lot of that but I do know now I'm going back further than that 64 or 63 we had Plymouth not a good body what was wrong with it well it had a flat back window and a little 383 motor you know and that's

what it was and then in 64 so the back window being flat would make you handle bad i guess it was just drag we just didn't have no speed you know we could make them drive pretty good in fact on the short tracks was pretty good you know torsion bar torsion bars in the front you know and lead springs in the rear and then uh 64 Plymouth had a good body dodge had a good body but the Plymouth body was a little bit better than the dodge because the dodge had a round headlight and where the Plymouth headlights and left the front end a little bit narrow. And then they came with the 426 hammy.

That changed things. Oh, so we went to Daytona. And if you ever see any of the models of the picture of that car at Daytona, we got it from a dealership and took it all apart and painted all the interiors and done that. And still had a bench seat, took the back off the right side.

And we go down there. But we left the sticker price in the quarter window on the left side. So if you ever see a picture of that car, pick that out. And I always pointed out when I show it at pictures in the museum. But. Well, why did you do that? Just to show that it came out of the? I guess we thought we was kids or something.

I don't know. Okay. But we just left it in there. But so we get down there and, God, Lee, Richard goes out. And without him, he said, you know, we put kind of the same setup. had in the 63 Plymouth and he said we got to do something this thing I think we picked up ain't until how much faster and one of the things we done we took a two before and cut it cut it in pieces about eight inches long bolted together and right after with an army blanket

and bolted it to the seat back where he could lay his ribs again it just and stay under the steering wheel from the side but it's a true story wow and he said that was the biggest help we done but I know I'd work my butt off on springs and Castor and Camber and all that stuff to make it dry. But he said that was the big thing. And again, I can't prove him wrong. So we went on to win the race.

Go back. We tried to tell the story in our lost Speedway season when we go to Columbia about the big engine wars, the hemi and the 427 single overhead cam. What do you recall from that? Like, what do you recall from that whole, I don't know, It spanned over four or five years when Dodge put the hemi in there. I mean, I think that's even led to Richard,

and you guys going drag racing for a while, right? Well, I guess the Chrysler, Hemi got so dominant that they outlawed it. And here's NASCAR again. No disrespect to them. They outlawed it in the Belvedere body, but you could run it in the bigger Fury body, which was a bigger Plymouth. But Chrysler didn't want us to do that,

so they said, we'll boycott it and y'all go drag racing so that's what led up to that and it you know the factory's involvement today you know they're still there and everything but at one time they was more they was as much argument probably in the bars and beer joints and everything over the maker cars as it was over the drivers you know and i don't know we're still like that today or not but it's probably not to the extent that it was so you know leading up Another story is that we went forward in 1969, and Chrysler built Dodge, the Dodge Daytona with the wing in the nose,

and Richard said, what are you going to do for the Plymouth? And they said, well, you'll be okay with the Plymouth, Richard. So I can't run against that. And I don't know how the story goes, but he said, well, I'll just go with, I'll get me a Ford or something to that extent. They said, we'll do it. And so we did. And about halfway through the season, I think.

of course we was doing okay with the forbes you know we not as good as we should have been but uh i think the head man from plymouth going down and said what we got to do to get you back rich is to get me a wing in the nose and that's what they done so that's where that story goes you know so at that point in time i know the dealerships because a lot of times it's always going to go run a hundred mile race we'd go by the dealership and stay there a couple hours and then go on to the race track you know yeah how long did y'all drag race one year right Less than that. Less than that.

Yeah. Towards the end of the year, they let us come back with a hymn in the Belvedere, but only on a mile and under. What are you thinking when they come in there and tell you're not going to run any race, you know, you ain't going to run NASCAR, you're going to do something else. What are you thinking?

Well, you know, I didn't think that much of, you know, I had to leave it up to the petties to make this. I know, didn't you get Richard on the side or Maurice by the, you know, by the sandblast? and be like, hey, you know, is there some way around this? We really got to be doing it. Is this really what's happening? Well, me and Maurice, somehow we took a, somebody had put a he and me in a fury, big car.

And we did, me and Maurice took it, it might have been the 4th July, I raise. I don't know where's the 500 or not. I can't remember. Forgive me for that. But it took Nelson Stacy down there, I believe, and he drove it, you know. And that was, you know, it wasn't like. Not real good. I mean, he done okay.

I think we had motor. I think we burned a piston or something. So petty enterprises still sent a race car to the track? No, it wasn't our race car. I don't know how I got involved in that, you know. You went to help them? I went to help them, yeah. But, you know, I tell this story.

We went to Bristol one Friday, and it might have been 1960s, 1966 and we qualified in practice and me and richard got up Saturday morning and flew to mossport canada and bill ellis sent a Plymouth up there and we worked on it and run a 300 mile road course up there flew back home on sunday and run bristol yeah and i asked richard i said why do we do that he said i don't know somebody told us to golly i just wonder about that that period where y'all were drag racing if like like man I mean you know you see the pictures and oh he drawed a crowd yeah and he looks happy doing it but I can't imagine he was he wasn't we missed it don't get me wrong but it it kept us busy you know and and the first race they let us come back with the

himy and belvedere was Bristol and we had schedules to run Nashville Friday night Saturday night. So we practiced on Friday and they put us in a little plane and flew us to Nashville. Went and drag raced and then come back and went back Saturday night and drag raced and then come back. Of course

Kyle Larson's doing that now, you know, so. When he was drag racing, was he I read somewhere that he was drag racing and what amounted to kind of like match races. They were all match races, yeah. So it wasn't like y'all were

showing up to the drag race and perform and no it was all match race how did the match races get set up like who were they against it didn't matter who it was it's somebody probably equal to what we was but it was all through the promoters and everything you know what I mean he'd run that match

race and that'd be it yeah yeah and but it drawed the crowd right but in 19 well somewhere in that period in 1965 Chrysler wanted to go to Phoenix and I think we'd built a new car and you put another hem in a barracuda you know and drag race car drag race and uh blue tinted windows

you know and it was right pretty and uh painted petty blue and a man come down at night and 43 junior back then everybody had a name on their drag race car i can't remember all them a little red wagon you remember some of them names yeah so we got together and put outlawed on it because we've been outlawed from NASCAR, you know. So, Lee come down the next morning and just went off on us. Didn't like it. Lord have mercy, you can't believe how bad he was. Really?

I can't imagine that man. Well, he said, you know, they'll think we were a bunch of outlaws. So he went out there with us and it was a Chrysler show, you know, kind of. And they give us out jackets and hats and all that stuff. And Christher people just loved it. Yeah. He said, yeah, I thought it would be appropriate. thought he was really good. He did. And that was Lee, just like I was telling you about, you know,

you're asking about big football, it was Super Bowl, who's going to win the Super Bowl. He'd talk 15 minutes. On Monday, he'd say, I told you he was going to win. I hadn't told you nothing. But that was Lee, you know. Mike, let's take a minute to tell you something pretty cool. Speed sport. Oh, yeah. All right. They're a fantastic resource for our show lost Speedways. I mean, they've been in the sport a long time. Yeah, they have. Everyone knows it. I love learning about the history of our sport. And aside from having speed sport as a research tool for Lost Speedways,

it's just fun to dig deep in there and find great stories. And I have a huge passion for NASCAR and racing in general, and that's because, like many of you listening, I'm a race fan. That's right. I mean, I'm a fan first, right?

Yeah. Nobody covers all the forms of racing as well as speed sport does. Speed sport was founded by William K. The first one was published on August 16th, 19th, 34, man. I mean, they've been doing this a while.

So Chris Economacky, who would later be the publisher of the paper, was selling the newspaper. It tracks like, ho-ho-cuss speedway? Ho-hocus. Ho-hocus. Ho-ho-cocus. Ho-ho-cuss. Is that how they...

Did they spell it really with all these hyphens? I know. Well, I think they did, but I like it there. Ho-ho-cus. Ho-hocus. Oh, ho-ho-cuss. So I got it. So you went and changed it up so we could pronounce it.

but the way you did it makes it. No, that's actually the way it's written. It makes us mispronounce it. I'm what you, Mike. Hello, cuss. Nowadays, our buddy Ralph Shaheen and his group carries on the tradition. What an incredible history that this paper has of our sport. From Daytona to Indy, Monaco, to Knoxville, since 1934, speed sport has been telling the story of racing.

That's 87 years. They truly are America's motorsports authority. I trust SpeedSport to tell me the real story and you can too check them out at speedsport.com So drag once you got the word you could go back what was the response in the garage

I mean what did everybody else that didn't have a hemmy think about you guys I know you were only allowed to run a mile and under but it seemed like all through the late 60s and 70s the motors were a big deal

the motor argument between the small block, the hemie, the big block. It seemed like reading books and articles, you know, Junior was upset because of this, and K.L. was, you know, what was the temperature in the garage, I guess, when the hemmy was allowed to come back? You know, I don't send, I can't tell you yet an answer on that.

I don't, I can't remember that much about it. But then, but leading on into something else when they finally outlawed the big blocks and everything and went to the small blocks. We had to run a hemmy because we didn't have a small block for a few races. And they give us a plate that wasn't real, you know. I mean, it just way underpowered. And I know we is at Talladega, we're running probably 10 mile an hour slower than the cars. And I told Richard, I said, we're probably only running 100. 75. I don't know what the speed was, but I said, golly, remember, as easy as is, Richard,

don't remember it can still hurt you. So stay alert, you know, I remember telling him that. And then we had good guys mileage and could draft. And I think we wound up running third just through those, through that, you know. But, you know, I'm looking over your shoulder at you. Granddaddy, he raced our car before. I know that. Do you remember that? Yes, I did. Yeah, he was a white, big old white car. I thought we had one on the table. Well, at one time it was number 88. It was.

Yeah. And I know I was with him at Hickering and everything, and of course. What led to that? How did y'all get him in your car? There's a picture, if I might add. There's a picture of Ralph, Richard, Lee, and maybe Maurice on the porch. And I'm assuming. In level cross.

Might have been. Just like that. Maybe they just had lunch. You really need to come to level cross. I know. I need to go see y'all, and I have told the Woodbrothers a bunch of times I'd go up to there. I've been up there. You'd enjoy that.

I need to go to both those. But make arrangements, I'd like to. Richard can show you around good, but I'd like to be around and point out some stuff that he might miss. And, of course, he'd see some stuff that I'd miss. And then y'all'd fight about it. Yeah, I'm sure. So how did that work out with Ralph? I don't know.

I mean, I'm fairly young back then, you know what I mean? I'm not sure I was ever young, but I think I was at that time. And it was in, you know, 57, 58. We wound, Lee wound up with an Osmobile deal and had three hardtops and two convertibles. And Tiny Lund would come with us and that didn't last long. Of course, you've heard of Redmiler. He stayed with us a while, you know, and after Tiny left and had a convertible driver named Bill Lux and Lord how merciful

couldn't keep the brakes on the car from him so that didn't last long and Lee graded driver pretty pretty yeah and you know I don't know golly but winning the races wasn't nothing you know and I don't know how Ralph

made a living you know but it's pretty crude when it first started. Yeah you have that so let's talk about 79 Dayton 500 do you remember that race? Yes sir One of my favorite reasons, I think to me, the most important race in history of NASCAR, because the first flag-to-flag televised race, aside from this one race in Greenville-Pickens,

1971, that was actually the first flag-to-flag. Short track. Yes. Okay. So it's 1979. The whole world's watching. The whole East Coast is snowed in. Everybody's in their living rooms watching NASCAR.

Probably had three channels. Yeah. Nobody, yeah. So we had, we were, you know, our sport got introduced on a big level to a lot of people who've never seen it before. Richard goes out and wins the race. But to me, you know, the fight's wild and cool, and people talk about the fight down in turns three and four.

You know, the most popular, most well-like driver in the sport wins the race. What was it like to be around the sport at that time? What was it like? Because take us back to 1979 Daytona. and what it was like to go through that. Let's go back a little bit further than that, okay. We had a good year in 66, 67, 48 races. He wins 27 of them.

And 71, I'm just bringing up years. I had a good year in 70 with the Superbird. Gets heard at Darlington. Good year in 71 and goes on, you know, and he's won 16 years in a row. 78 we don't win a race. And the last race of the year, they flag us the winter at Atlanta

and later on they rescore and declare Donnie the winner so we don't win a race that year. So then we go to Daytona and 79 what you're leading up to. And car's not very fast, driving good. He comes down

gets the white flag and they've been a late caution. I don't know how late, maybe 15, 20 laps ago or something, I don't know. But Donnie and Kay will just run off and leave us you know, and he comes by, gets the white flag, and I said, remember that's the white flag because there's been some pulled in on the white flag, you know. Do you feel like you had to tell him that?

I did. I don't know where I had to or not, but I said, you know, we're running for third and Darrell's right behind you and Foyt's right behind Darrell. And I didn't tell him how far behind, but it was 17 seconds back. And then all of a sudden the grandstand goes wild, you know, and what the world's happened. Of course, the cameras have a hard time picking up him, you know, coming up. You know the story. Was you at home, or do you? I was, I don't, no clue where I was at.

I was four, four or five years old. I don't believe I was ever that young. But we went on and won the race, you know, and what a big deal it was for not winning. And so, you know, of course, I was, we had a while, you know, and that's, never won a race. We didn't win a race. We finished second a couple of times. and one of them, they had a caution that probably was staged where we would have won Riverside, but we didn't.

But stayed with him for about six months, and then Austin sold the place to stay, and, of course, he didn't like get along with that group. So let's talk about that. So you are going to leave Richard? In 81. Why? We'd gone to Daytona in 1981.

Maurice said I can get more power out of the Chrysler. And we're downsizing the bodies. You know that that year. And a lot of unknowns. And give credit to Bobby Allison and Waddell for bringing that Lamonts down. You know the story on that. They built a Lamar.

But we go down there with a, I don't even know what the name of the daggone crosser was. And we go down and go down for a test. And Richardson, now don't get too excited if I don't have a good speed, because we don't know what this thing's going to do. So I think the speed was like 175 or something. We were pretty excited.

He said, wait a minute, that's wide open. And who was the boy in South Carolina that built chassis? But he gave us three chassises, front stair, and we'd never mess with them before. Loughlands. Yeah. And it was driving good, and he went out, and we put a lower gear in it and didn't pick it up enough.

So he went out for a plug check, cut it off on the backstretch, and didn't even coast to come in. You know, he had to start it back up, so we put it on the trailer and come home and put a Buick body on it. Went back and Lamont, and then they come in without Lamonds,

and they has changed, I mean, during a practice, they'd change a rule on what spoiled. Anything you wanted to drive the cars, you know, and our car was driving good because we'd been through all the front-end stuff we'd learned from Larry Radcaf with a crosser, you know, the Castor and Camber Games

and all that stuff, and our car was driving good. we went along with her changes, but we kind of kept her mouth shut, and that Le Mans is trying to slow it down because they'd had everybody covered, and then we got lucky and won that race, too. Yeah.

But how did you end up getting split up with Richard? It was kind of a family thing. We didn't talk about it. It certainly wasn't the money, and it certainly wasn't Richard. It was just what was happening in a lot of families, I guess. Yeah. And Richard, we sat down and had a conversation about it.

And he wanted me to stay. And at the point in time, I just didn't figure I could. And we never lost our friendship or none of that stuff. And then it was a different experience. It would put me out on them by myself, you know what I mean. Were you kind of excited, though, to do something different? No, it was a sad time for both of us. So I imagine it was sad, you know, because you,

been with Richard for so long, but at the same time, like, you're going to go try something new. Man, you've been doing this deal with Richard forever, right? It's all you've done. You know, and you've had good success when you left. You know, you went a championship with Terry Labani, but that was later on. Yeah, not that much later on, just two or three years. So there was, you know, there wasn't any excitement, I guess, at all. Well, it was, it was certainly a challenge. It was a challenge for my family, you know, because our families was close. You know, I had kids, you know, and we all mingled all the time. Did you have to move?

No, I drove. I never, you know. And, you know, and then I went back, you know, and Richard wanted me to come back in 86. You're skipping over some stuff. Okay, let me have it. Yeah, so you worked with Dad in 81. Yeah. Or was it 81?

Yeah. Yeah. What was working with him like? It was okay. You can shoot me straight. Well, they had a pretty good team, and I had to go in and Osserl and wanted me to wedge my way in, and I had to be careful of him. You know, Doug Riker and.

Doug was a young kid, Roland. Roland Volatica, you know, he. He was the GM. Yeah. So Doug was credited as the crew chief when they won a championship in 1980. Yeah. But he's only 20 years old. Yeah, I know.

You know, he's just a kid. And I think he even knew then that he wasn't going to, you know, it wasn't his job going forward. Maybe, I don't know. You worked with him in 81. No, he's okay. He seemed okay with like sort of sliding over and letting, you know, almost like, yeah, somebody else needs to take over. This is a little bit too much for me right now. I can't even believe him and daddy won a damn championship with no more supervision than that.

Well, but, you know, it. But your daddy was a leadership. He was. He was the leader, you know, to a certain... I imagine he called shots. But... So you come in there. And, yeah, it was going okay.

And then when I don't know what kind of trouble Austerlund got in, but he sold to Stacy. Sold to Stacy. And your dad didn't accept some of the people that Stacy brought in at all, you know. So the thing I was thinking about, and maybe you could shed some light on this, um, dad, Neil Bonnet, were great friends. Yeah. Neil drove for Stacy some in the 70s before JD came. in and started putting his name on everybody's car.

So I think Neil might have got with Daddy and said, you don't want to deal with this dude. See, I was called. I didn't know. I mean, you know, but your dad, your dad would be on the wanted list for people to drive for him. You know, he drove for Budmore and he drove for a lot of people, you know. So how did you and Daddy get along? I think we got along, okay, you know, and still did after that. I'll tell you some funny stories on that if you want to hear it.

But he played hard. You know what I mean? You know that. You dad. I don't know that. What do you mean? Well, I'll tell you one that's kind of funny. You know, he'd come up to me one day, and he said,

Kyle was driving and he was driving, his sister Kelly was driving, son. He said, I've got trice of problems, Richard's God. I said, what's that? He said, I got two kids that can't drive. No disrespect to you. But that was your dad. And then, what year did he win the 500?

98. 98. Okay. The next race. was Rockingham. So we're down at Rockingham. And me and John Andretti's driving for us. Me and Richard and John, some more standing there.

And he come by and he, he was all famous for grabbing you on the cheek. Do you ever do you that? He probably. He probably grabbed me. And he said, I'd whip you now. I've won the 500. I said, son, you're six behind. Because Richard was 1-7.

And John And Reddy laughed. And John, I know John laughed longer to make you that. It didn't make him mad, but it caught him off guard, you know. So, and, you know, one time he called me over at Charlotte and he pulled his jacket off and showed me a big bruise on his arm, said, look what you done to me. I said, you shouldn't play with men, you know. Yeah, y'all, y'all was ruffled each other in the garage, pinching each other on the shoulder or stuff. Yeah, but you grabbed me a few times. Who did?

You. Okay. He grabbed you by the elbow, and he's got, he knows where all these pressure points are. And in about taking. That was survival points, then. Take your knees out. Okay. That's that Army training coming back out of it.

It was survival training. Survival training? He knew where it hurts. Yeah. But, no, it's been a long ride, you know. And, of course, it was a pretty good team there, but no disrespect to your dad or nothing. He just never accepted Stacy coming in.

He got out of there as fast as he could. So what did you do? You stayed? You finished? Yeah, I had to a while. And Stacy was as good as to me as he could be, you know. And he was in the coal business somehow, and it just took a doubt.

dump there and if it just stayed on i think we might have been okay i don't know but he he had big plans he did he had his name on about 10 different cars there at one time i know but the first time i met him was it i think it's daytona the fourth of july was our first race and uh him and his wife invited me and my wife mary out and they took us to one of the big places restaurants up in one of the big i don't know what hotel or something down there and we're sitting there and he's his wife sitting there and had a ring on about that big a round. Power-shaped diamonds, not all one stone. Poor old Mary.

That's the most beautiful ring I've ever seen. Is it real? I couldn't believe she said it. It was, you know, so at the time. But when, you know, it just. So you got, when you left the two car, did you go to Higgins, Billy Higgins? Who owned the 44? Billy Hagan.

Yeah. So did you go straight there from the two? Yeah. So they call you up. Billy had been working with me, you know what I mean. No. What have been doing? But we won a couple of races with Tim Richmond. In the two. In the two.

You know, that long drive to Charlotte was getting old. You know, when I lay down in level cross, I'm about 100 yards from where I was born. The house ain't there, but when I lay down at night. So you left the two car to get closer? Somewhat, but I was ready to get out of there, too. I mean. Where was Hagen's shop at? Right out a high point.

And it was about maybe 15 or 20 minutes away compared to about hour and half, you know. And they had a good team. Yeah, but see, Terry, the last race in Riverside, which Tim won, Terry got hurt real bad. He did, yeah. In 82. And then in 83, it's when I went with him. And they had a decent team. Dewey Live and Good, doing the motors and Bob LaBond.

Terry's daddy, one of the hardest working men I've ever been around, you know, Pete Wright. And, you know, a little bit later on, I brought on some people. And we picked up Budweiser where we were going to get their feet wet. And then we know there's only going to stay one year. And then they was going with Junior with two cars. And I got acquainted with some of them people, you know. And so they left us and went with Junior in 84, and we got lucky and got Pete Mott Airline and won the championship.

and I kind of laid it on the Budweiser people, you know what I mean. We weren't good enough for you. We only wanted to take the ship of that, you know. But it was a great year. But I think it took, I think it took Terry a little while to get over that wreck. And we finally started jelling in 83 about halfway through the season. And we didn't do great, but then, and we didn't do all that great far as winning races in 84, but we was awful consistent. Yeah.

Golly. Yeah. And so, because I remember I was going to the racetrack and just remember, y'all never had any problems. Well, we could have sewed it up in Atlanta and broke a darn crank, you know. And, of course, with Darrell, would junior eliminate their self. Your dad had eliminated theirself, you know, in points. And maybe Ricky Rudd two or three more and left us going to Riverside racing in Harry Gantt, you know.

and I didn't know we had the championship sewed up till the white flag, and that's when I knew it was. And that was big for me, don't get me wrong, you know, to win another championship. I mean, I would say, is it fair to say that there was even some, maybe a semblance of vindication because... No, I don't think I took it like yet, because everywhere you want, everywhere you went, you wanted to win, and the championship was the goal, you know. I understand that, but how difficult?

is it to compete against your family? Well, per se, you know, me and Richard's mother and my mother were first cousins, so people said, well, y'all cousins, I said, yeah, sometimes, you know. And I tell it in front of him, and of course, when he says he's won 400 races, that hadn't have been for me. That's still a big conversation, but that's, but we've all,

I don't know life without knowing Richard. But race, but so in 1984, you know, while you're winning the championship, while you're having all this success without Richard. You know, what was a dynamic like? Did y'all speak? Yeah. Did you talk?

All the time. So y'all were talking. Oh, yeah. I'm still sort of intrigued by the family relationship after you left. I can't tell. It feels like you were being intentional to not get into the details. Let me put it straight like this. It was not being Richard.

Okay. Does that clear up a little bit of it? Yeah, for sure. Well, certainly, that's intriguing. Yeah, okay. Yeah, but it was certainly not me and Richard. And it put us stress on our families, too, you know, to a certain degree, you know, because our kids are going to school, you know, and all of us.

We go to church together. But that explains why it would have been not as difficult to compete against Richard, because Richard and you guys are. I was still concerned about him, you know, and I watched. I know where he was at, and I'm pretty sure he knew what my situation was. You all kept tabs with each other. Yeah, yeah. Do you remember the 19.

1980 Martinsville race where dad dove down on the inside of Richard at the start and took him out. Yes, I do. First lap, wasn't it? Yeah, very first lap. Green flag. Oh, boy. Went across the god darn an infield. Yeah.

What idiot. Richard told me that was the first, that was the, Richard said that he came up to dad after the race and stuck his finger in his chest and said, you better, you better cut that out. yeah your dad was uh of course he's a quick learner but he he challenged it from the get go you know what i mean and uh but i played hard with him you know like he he showed me bruise on his arm you know and of course when i but uh he was he was something else and uh you know he drove him and him and tim richmond wrecked together at polkineau burke no going into one yeah he that's bad and uh but you know speaking of of other people, Bud Moore. I thought I could get on to an inspector

till I seen him get on to one. Lord have mercy, he was, but, you know, and I talk about it. And I don't want to leave nobody out, but Harry Hyde and Junior Johnson and Bud Moore and all them people. It was just, and, you know, was it at, uh,

visit Dover one, one Saturday, and Harry walking around with a pistol in his pocket, you know, shooting through his back pocket. What? What? And you hadn't heard that story? No. Yeah, he was up there and had on white pants, you know,

and he's walk up to you and shoot through his back pocket and leave a powder stain on the hole where it come out. Shoot a gun? A pistol. A real pistol. A real pistol. And then Stahl 6 at Dover, there was a bullet hole where he shot through the roof. What the hell was he doing that for?

Just to be an idiot? He was showing all of you had a pistol, I guess. Good, Lord. But when they redone the garages in Dover, if I'm not mistaken, the Hall of Fame in Charlotte's got the section where he's, because I'd always enjoy taking, you know, I know I should took Mike Hilton down there and showed a lot of people. There's a bullet hole where he shot up.

And we're coming from Riverside on the Red Eyes. And I don't know what year was. It had to be in somewhere in the 70s. And, of course, we were, you know, get on the plane at midnight, you know, and fly to Atlanta. Then come on home is all night flying. and he's sitting in, we're sitting in coach, and he's a high seat, and I'm three or four seats ahead of him. He said, hey, Enman, I thought they were supposed to check this and show the pistol.

God. But it was in the 70, and it was not a different time, yeah. I know. Speaking of weapons, I've got another story I want to ask you about. Let me have it. Asheville, there was a story that I've heard about where Richard and Ned, Jarrett get into it and then a knife was pulled afterwards. Yeah. And Richard sort of told us about it, but Richard kind of

laughs it off saying, yeah, I don't know, maybe somebody had a knife. You were there. What do you remember? Did somebody have a knife? Who pulled it? It was, it was an iceful, I think it was, well, it was a New Asheville Speedway. New Asheville Speedway, yeah. And it was late in the race and we pretty well had it under control and the car slowed down. And we didn't know it at the time, but the wheelbarron was seasoned up and slowed us down. And when Ned caught us late in the race, he kind of ran overs, you know, side swipters or, and like I said, Maurice was pretty aggressive and defensive of Richard.

And so after the race, I think Richard and kind of all of us gathered at Ned's car. And Maurice was there, and of course, I think Richard was talking to Ned. And that almond, you don't remember that name. I think that was Ned's crew chief then. And I think he pulled a Connelly Hawkville, Bill Knife. And I think Maurice looked around at him and said, I ain't scared of that LaMoleon knife. Napoleon knife. He didn't say Lenoleum knife.

But I think it scared him a little bit. But that really happened. That's funny. That's pretty clever. Instead of saying Lenolium, he said Napoleon. I got it. That's funny. So it was Ned Jarrett's crew that pulled the knife.

Nobody gets cut. No, no, no. And Maurice is certainly not intimidated. No, he wouldn't. He wouldn't scare that Napoleon knife. So literally, no, this was one of the few times when there was no fight. Nothing happened. Nothing after that, yeah.

Cooler heads prevailed. Boy, it's a different day back then, man. So let me ask you, you win a championship in 84 with Terry. What did you do in 85? Stay with Terry? Up until about, About five or six races ago, they fired me. Why?

I promised Richard I'd go back with him in 86. They found out? Yeah. And they didn't make no secrets about it because. Why wouldn't they let you finish the year? I don't know, but it was blessed because they helped me get started on 86. But isn't that kind of, you just won a championship for them? I don't know.

You got no feelings about it. No, not really. Me and Terry still friends and everything. I'm sure Terry didn't ask you to get fired, but with the five races to go, this is weird. Did they want to bring somebody in to give them? No, I don't think they replaced me.

I think he just fended out to year. But they had some pretty good people. You know, I think Steve Mills was still there in some of them. So why did you want to go back to work with Richard? STP and Pontiac won me pretty bad. Okay. To help keep Richard deal alive. Yep.

Did they make you an offer? or you can't refuse. Richard? No, no, it was just... Richard had went to race for curb, Mike Curb? Yeah. And so now y'all going back to level cross, right? Yeah.

What's there? So let me... Wasn't nothing there. Nothing there. So when Richard went to curb, Maurice run this white number one car with Dick Brooks a couple times, built a Ford. And it ran a couple races. It didn't do much.

And then so what's going on in the shop over the years? while Richard's at curb and you're at the 44, what's happening in the level cross? Nothing. The doors is locked. What's going on in there? Wasn't much happening. Building some motors for people and stuff like that?

Hot rods? I really don't know, but I do know when we went back, there was a lot of clean enough to do. Don't get me wrong, you know. And, of course, the shops back then wasn't as maculous as, you know, they are today, you understand. But I spent a lot of my time. Tuning it up.

Just cleaning the shop. you know and of course we're ready yeah and so and uh you know there's there's some stuff that'll never be told you know what i mean you know and so i don't what do you mean well it you know it was just uh there's some family matters that you'll probably never tell you know what i mean and uh also you and that's so that's still going on no no no no no that in 1986 when you went back to level cross and got the shop ready had the family issue that separated y'all in 81 gotten better? Yeah, it got some better, but when I went back,

Richard assured me that I would kindly be in charge, and I kind of held him to that. But at that point in time, to be honest, we didn't do that good from then on, but we survived. You understand what I'm saying? What you think the problem was? What was a struggle?

I don't know. Maybe the... The Pontiac? That didn't help none. oh really it wasn't a good car yeah and uh maybe maybe i'd got behind and maybe richard had got older i can't say you know it just uh it just didn't work out we still had to we just there were those moments though they're moments yeah i went to detona and run well in a 125 um almost let it took the league in a 125 i think it was 1988 88 89 but you know and you know but there was those

there was a couple races here and there where y'all had pace you know you know you know but there was a couple races here and there where y'all had pace, you know, and you could see. Yeah. I don't think he remembers it that way. He ain't buying it. He's like, no. But don't get me wrong. You know, and I'm not going to break my arm and pat myself on the back, but we had a

pretty long career there together, you know, through this late 60. Yeah, but I know when y'all got back together, though, in 86 from their own, I mean, it wasn't just bad. There was some good moments. Yeah, but when you used to win in ten in a row or something, it is, you know, if you want to set your gauge for that but uh tell you another story uh richard won his 200th race and buddy parrot was the crew chief and uh the boy's still working with us today said where was your pitcher when you won the 200th race i said i was busy winning my eighth championship and you know

i'm smart mouthed anyway on some of the stuff we all are to a certain degree you're not are you okay he has moments he has moments he has moments he has moments The king has his wreck of Daytona in 1988 down from straightaway with got turned around. I think Bobby Walwack turned him. No. Who was it? That wasn't the name.

No, who was it? 73 would be Walwax. I thought it was Bobby. And then Brett hit him. Barked all. That's who it was. That's who it was. So we got Hill Barkle from outside.

Yeah. Phil Bart. I thought it was Bobby Wallach. But he wouldn't, you know, and the thing of, you know, at, And he'd have been better off, but he wouldn't turn him loose, you know, he just stayed into him. But, you know, that's another story. Okay.

But he gets spun. He flips down the front straightaway, big bad crash. When's the first time? When's the first moment you got to see him? Did you go to the Info Care Center? Just about time they put him in the Amelance. Oh, to go to the hospital or at the Enfield Care Center? At the racetrack, at their car.

Okay. You were an out to the car? I went up the straightaway and was at the car. when they put him. And he was on the stretcher when I got there in the ambulance. And I reached and got a hold of his leg to pull myself in. He said, oh, you've hit my leg. Yeah.

Damn, you went out on the track. Yeah. Yeah. And Beatty, you know, and Beatty said. Did you get in there? Went to Amelance with him. You did? What did you say?

Are you hurt? But, you know, he broke his neck at Pocono. You know that story, too. Well, yeah. In 79. 78 78 or 79 I don't know but uh what happened to that what happened there broke a wheel wheel going into tunnel that was dad was in that race i think it was 79 okay but uh the boy that used from dover used to bring the fuel to dover took me and got in got in his passenger card and drove me

over and i jumped the fence and got over and richard still on the stretcher you know and i said how are you said neck's broke yeah so we take the car on home and uh they leave him up there and uh the doctor that put his shoulder back in place at darlington and 70 was up there and he said uh he said they got a new brace out said he'll be okay and i've never seen one before and you see them today you know they're foam and they've modified them and all that stuff from what they was then but uh he said i'll send one down be okay you know but heck his neck's neck's broke or fractured i don't know how bad it's broke but so uh my wife mary goes to greensboro and they bought a ticket from everywhere it come from on an eastern airline to make sure it wouldn't get lost in in uh yeah freight and brought it to richard but we took joe melican

to talladega the next race and uh we go down there with that uh get the car through inspection and joe hadn't been in the car in probably six months and we get through inspection and i said jess is what do you want me to do dale i said go out there and run it wide open he's he looked at me he said can't i wait till the second time but he did you know and so we practiced and everything i don't know i think the speed was like a 192 mile hour and we was probably seventh or eighth and richard shows up saturday and he didn't come home from polka with us and me and wade thorneberg brought rebecca because she must have been four or five years old home with us. So when Richard comes to Talladega on Saturday,

he looks like warmed over death. This brace on and sunglasses and cowboy hat and puts his uniform on. And Joe's in practice. And he says, I'm going out and practice this car, and I'm going to get in this car. Don't nobody touch me because I'm hurt all over. and he finally gets in, strapped in, first time by a 192 mile hour.

And we get to start to raise green in caution because it's sprinkling rain. And he gets out and Joe gets in. And we're running for the points. Let me back up for a second. Back to that Daytonaunt. That's got to be one of the most horrific crashes I think I've seen. There's been others that it were as horrific. Now, I question to you, by this time, you've seen some awful crashing, you've seen the worst.

that's your cousin do you from the time that you leave that I'm assuming you see that thing as it happens right the where he crashes I know it happened in that area and I went up there and then I seen it's fearing the worst that's what I'm wondering

I think you always do but you know I think he's I think he's crashed in 70 at Darlington was worse worse you feared the worst then well we're out on the racetrack and he's upside down

and Richie Barnes crawls in one side and I crawl in the other and he's hanging there with his hands laying on the roof, you know. And I mean, I think he's dead. Yeah. So me and Richie get a hold of him, we unhook him and he kind of hits the roof

and he says, oh! So we know he's alive and get him out and put him in the stretcher. Yeah. And, I mean, and they're still going by us on each side under caution, you know, and a fireman runs up, he's nervous, and he says off his fire extinguisher,

and I think Maurice about kills him because he's taking oxygen out. Can't nobody breathe or see. And then Richie, you know, later on I brought it up to Richie, I said, you know, me and you got him out of the car, and Richie said, you mean we, when we dropped him? Yeah. And, I mean, that's how crude it was, back then.

Yeah. So one of the things that I want to ask you about is what was it like getting Kyle started? So Kyle goes and runs. The unique thing about Kyle's career is he, his first race was an Archer race at Daytona. I know he ran some late mall sportsman stuff and short track stuff here and there. He talks about it with me going to Caraway in a car and doing things. But, I mean, he went right into the Cup series. Kyle tells me that Richard was like, you know, there ain't no reason to mess around, you know,

working a way up through the rank. You jump in here and get started and get going. Don't get used to nothing else. If you're going to do this, do it. You know, that's what you're trying to say. Okay, yeah. So was it, what was it like to be, you know, to be at level cross with Richard's cars? You'd been working there for decades with Richard's cars, and now you've got Kyle's car over there.

Kyle's in the shop building the car. I know Kyle's been around the shop for a while, but now Kyle's won't. a race and you got you know you're taking two cars to the racetrack how is that you've been around kyle you know kyle yes he's 18 year old right all the time and he knows everything yeah okay no disrespect to you kyle if you're watching this but uh so we we put him in the magnum which we didn't have no success with that dodge at dodge yeah okay and uh ralph salvino gets a Baville's sponsorship, we painted petty blue and white. And Wade Thornburg, you've heard that name, was working with us.

And he said, he won't run 120 mile an hour. So we go down there to test. And before we go down, I, you know, I'm trying to brief Kyle on some stuff. I said, now you get out there and run. And it's just like you running today on the highway at speed limit 70, 75 miles. hour then come into a 35 mile hour zone it's hard to slow down to that I said when you come down pit road now remember most of my racing was with no pit road speed you ain't right you ain't ever been through much of that but I said Kyle you'll not be able to conduct yourself to get stopped in the

pits because we had drum brakes and everything you know he looked at me like you know you don't know what you're talking about but we get down there and they you know they just had paid the track and they got the Talladega tire and it's got plenty of grip and everything and we had the car driving good and all that and he's out there running a 192 mile hour and everything and I bring up you know getting ready to pit

I said well let's go practice it and I said I said we'll go out and I'll count you down you know pit 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 you know got the radios I say pit 1 I'm holding a blackboard

he comes by me running somewhere around a hundred mile hour. So help me God. He goes right down the pit road, finally gets it stopped, gets out of the car, and pointing to him and said, you moved.

It was not his fault. It was mine. I moved. That's funny. It's true. And, you know, but I don't want to blow his head up, but he's talented.

I mean, he sings and writes songs and picks the guitar, and he could pick the guitar, and he could pick. pick up a welder and start welding and he just you just couldn't keep his attention to anything and you know we followed him in high school football he was a good quarterback I've seen him hit him 10 yards out of bound just because he was Richard Petty's son you know and and he had he had Rockingham down to a science you know

he did yeah he's good there and why he didn't but it was just hard to keep his attention on anything yeah but you still know him today and he ain't changed much He's a blast. Oh, he is. I love to be around him. Yeah. And he'll tell you what he thinks. In a heartbeat.

You might not want to hear it, but he'll tell you. So one of the things that we like to talk about on this show, especially we get some of you guys in here that have been around this sport for a while, and you're, you know, especially in your position as a cruechie. Creativity is what we'd like to call it. D.W. talked about, you know, how they, some of the things they did over at Junior's to trick their cars out and things I'd heard rumors of that never, never knew whether they were true or not.

Pemberton came in here, or not Pemberton, but Petrie. Andy, Pitcher came in here and talked about a lot of things he did with Harry's car when Harry won the four in a row. Okay. The Camberd Housing and all that stuff, how he came up with that and made that work. What is some of the creative things that you did in your career that you're proud of? This is why we want you right here. This is it.

We know you won 10 in a row. got all these wonderful cars, these fast cars, these streets. You can't tell us. You didn't. Like for Petrie, I look at the Camberd Housing and think, well, damn, everybody runs Camberton Housins now, right? It was just, he was the one to develop it and figure out how to get the axles to last and things like that.

And so it's really incredible what he was able to do and how he was able to make that work and go out there, and now everybody's got a Cammered Housing. So what are some of the things? Maybe it ain't, let's not say it's cheating, but maybe, because when you were, listen, Dale, when you were working on the cars back then, the innovation was like through the roof. The cars were changing so fast, you know, how y'all built the cars, what the suspension looked like, how things worked, what the new and, you know, the new trick stuff.

It was changing every three months, every month, every week. And so what are some of the things that you developed or that you, you know, you were on two first before anyone else that you're proud of? The big thing we had was Richard Petty. Sure. And when we built a car, everything was built around Richard Petty. Now, you see Richard, and like Harry said, a damn skeleton beat of skin. but we raced without power steering and those crossers still

those cars steered hard in fact we had a 24 to 1 for the speedways and the 20 to 1 for the half mile tracks and we finally got it 16 to 1 I think but for reference they're running like 8

10 to 1s now with power steering okay but the Chrysler you know when they was into it they built the they had idle arms and pitman arms and and the steering arms and all that and we shortened the pitman arms and lengthen the steering arms and it must have helped it 50% on steering and that was some of the big things but richard was in on that too but golly you want me tell me you won't mean tell them me for cheating no no no but we we don't call it cheating okay

And it wasn't at that point in time. It was survival, you know, just like to keep the car. You know, and Lee was like this too. The car had to run to the checkered flag to be successful, you know, and we worked hard on that. If you went to NASCAR and wanted them to change a rule or anything, the way you approached them was safety factor first, you know what I mean? And, of course, you know, the wind of net came on account of Richard's arm out to wind in 70.

and NASCAR, how successful are they? You know what I mean? And big, you know, I was around when Big Bill was around and the chances he must have took, you know. Yeah. I went and picked the cars for the Everett to Hall of Fame. I see you commercial on that, yeah. The Glory Road, whatever that is.

Glory Road. Glory Road. One of the cars is Richards. The seat in that car is, no bigger in a five-gallon bucket and it's turned sideways like it's pointed toward the doorbar that's what I said that we built we set him there and built the car around what he wanted he I guess I asked Kyle about that and he said that Richard broke didn't didn't like his something about his back or something about crashing into the wall and hitting backwards and he

wanted to kind of be turned a little bit he said that's the way he's going so go ahead and Aim me that way a little bit. Yeah. You know, but, you know, I just keep repeating myself, but the car was built just strictly around him, and we put the roll bars in the car to his advantage to see, you know, they're safe and everything. In fact, you see the story where the roof blowed up on the 68 Plymouth.

We went to Daytona, the vinyl tops was popular back then. So it wasn't a vinyl top. It was a painted vinyl. And we thought when those holes filled up with air, and ain't nothing slicker than air, so the air would slide over the air-filled holes quicker. But what we had done, we'd truck cut so much out of the roofing to get the roll bars up high where he could see around the corner,

and we didn't well, the roof back to the roll bar. It finally blew up. And we didn't have radios in, and God darn, he'd come down pit road, and my thing was to change the right front tire, and I look up and he's up on the roof of the car. I didn't even know it was blowed up, you know, at the time. Is that what happened where you see this picture of Richard standing on? Dick Beatty's up there with him.

On the hood of the car, hammering the roof down? Yeah. The roof flew open. It just bowed up. Just opened up. I guess the pressure inside or something. Unbelievable. Yeah, but like I said, we'd cut some much.

Well, I've seen that picture multiple times, but I didn't know what had happened to create that. Yeah. Dick Beatty was working on the car too No he was up there to see what the heck was wrong He was an official He was an official He was like what are you doing? Yeah

Wow Wow Okay so you're not going to tell us all your deep dark secrets That's fine We'll concede that What car are you most proud of You don't have to tell us why But you got that car in 67

That what did you call it old blue You won 10 in a row 67 What car sticks out to you over time That's like you're the most proud of you know, well, I like the Dodge Charger. But in 66 we built a new Plymouth. And we won, I think we won the 66 Daytona 500 with it.

Three or four races in the during season. He has his finger worked on misses two or three races. And I think we'd won the championship that way. Have you had done that? I ain't never understood that. But we broke his finger out in front yard playing football during lunch. And he got something worked on. We missed some races.

But had a good year and built a new car in 67 and went to Daytona with it and got in a wreck on the backstretch and never could do no good with it and brought the 66 out and won 27 races. Just had them covered. And what was it about that car? I don't know. It just kindly refused to lose. But a lot of them was 100-mile races.

And Darlington, I think, was one of them, and Martinsville was one of them. You know, that's tough races. And then Buddy finally beat us at Charlotte. But we'd done knocked the door from him off of it. I mean, the door's gone, and these pictures of Richard, have you seen that picture with just the roll bars? The door's gone. And that was a good car.

But then the charger came along, and we ran it. And, you know, three years is what you're supposed to run the cars, you know. And they, you know, I told you, I give them credit for bringing the Le Mans to Daytona, which was a three-year-old car. And didn't nobody see it, but Waddell and Bobby, and they give Davey credit for picking it out, you know, because it was in the eligible cars. And so at the end of the season, France would okay that car another year.

And then I think he okayed it three years in a row. Yeah. And we're up on the truck at Charlotte one. Saturday watching what was the sportsman race then. Me and Richard, Wade Thornburg, Bud Moore, and Bill France Jr. And during conversation, Bill Jr. says, Dale, how are you running? I said, we're not running too good. And he said, what's wrong?

I said, well, you're making us run this three-year-old car and everybody else has got new cars. And Bud Moore likes to swallow this tobacco. I never will forget that. And Bill Jr. held that up to me the rest of the rest of his days. He did. But then we got to Magnum, and it was a terrible car, too, and it kind of. Then that's when we had to go to Chevrolet, you know, and midway or about three-quarters of the way through 78.

Yeah. Y'all sold a bunch of cars and parts and pieces to teams. One one in particular, Buddy Arrington. Yeah. Y'all helped him out a bunch. And we sold Ray Elder cars. Yeah. And Herschel McGrift.

Herschel, yeah. Yeah. And Herschel would run. the same paint scheme on the west coast he'd paint i think he painted the he'd left the blue but he'd paint the rest the the pink or the red sdp gold or something yeah you know uh but you can watch you can look at some pictures of herssel's cars and still see the petty scheme is that right on the charger but you know uh i was in uh when we signed with s tp in 1972 we'd done sent the car to it was on the way to california and me and richard maurice was

was going to fly out. And he said, we're going through Chicago. Says, I've talked to Granite Telly. He said, we're going to talk to him again. And he said, I don't think we'd do anything, but says, we're going to go by and see. And so we get to Chicago and go in our office, biggest office I've ever seen. You're just a little short man about this big around. And they start talking.

And I know there's going to make a deal. It was just, and for the whole season, it wasn't much, money compared to the day, but it was big back then. And one of the big arguments was he wants to be solid dayglow. And Rich said, no, we're going to have some blue on it. And they finally got that settled. And then one of the other things was, I mean, he continues so we could run on the fenders, you know, because he just filled your fenders up with, and he finally gave us 10.

We had to have a good year, you know. Because those paid. Yeah, well, it was on a good year deal for sure. No, I'm saying the contingency money, the contingency decal paid money. Yeah, and he said, I'm not, you had to run into top three I to get it. And he said, I'm not paying for them to get a free ride, you know, which made sense. So we worked all that out. And then about the uniforms, and, you know, at that time, the Indie drive cars had those white coveralls with SDP all over them.

Maurice said, I ain't wearing them damn uniforms. So we worked out the red pants and blue shirts. So finally got everything prior to squired away and a snowstorm come in. They kept changing our flights because it was lasting longer. And finally got me and Maurice on a plane. We went on the Riverside and Granitelli

and Richard came the next day and we put a decal on the quarter panel and won the race for him out there. But late in the conversation, and I remember Granitelli telling Richard said, now you stick with me and you'll be as popular as I am. I mean, that sticks, you know, so. And of course, we get out there and the hunters and all that,

said, well, he'll ruin your race team, you know, because... They'd worked with him in the Indy, so. They had seen him at Indy, and he never bothered us with anything. And, of course, Ralph Salvino and all them, and, you know, of course, you brought up the comic book early, you know, and it was a marriage made in heaven, really. As it was. Well, man, it's been a great conversation.

Had a lot of fun talking to you. And it's good to see you. Yeah, it's good to see y'all, yeah. We hope you enjoyed coming over here, man. I did. I enjoy it. And you've got to come to level cross really and truly. And, of course, the wood boys, too.

You'll enjoy that. Just make a day of it. I know. I'd like to take my family and show them around. I'd be good. Yeah. It's about an hour and a half away, you know. Make sure me and Richards are.

Yeah, I will. I'll do it, man. Well, appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Dale Edmund on the Dale Jr. download. All right, folks, here we go. Leah Vaughn is in the booth, and she has your questions teed up for our favorite part of the show. Ask Junior, presented by Xfinity fans on YouTube live.

Some have sent questions to Xfinity Racing on Twitter throughout the week, so let's get started. All right, let's go. First question from Jake Youngblo, Did you find a good square body truck yet? And what are your plans for this one? I found the truck. I'm working on buying it and figuring out how to get it here. But sort of going through, I haven't paid for it.

So it's not bought yet. But I'm working on that. Are you trying to work on a deal? Are you trying to do a deal? No. We know how you do. You don't pay for anything. You don't want to do it.

There's a couple things about the truck that need to be addressed before I buy it. And we're working on that. But I'm pumped. I love this truck that I found. It's the one I won't. I love it. I love it inside and out, and I can't. I hope that the deal works out, and then I'll have a truck.

It's a 77 model, shortbed. It's got a mild suspension kit on it that's lowered it to the ground. It didn't want one on bags. But yeah, if this works out, it would be great. I'll be happy to show everybody what we ended up doing. but it won't need any work no ready to go need anything for me not another project no next question from darren simus i've heard you reference the deerhead shop at dei several times before can you expand on what this is actually all right so before when d uh where if you drive by DEI there's these giant

multiple giant buildings right and before all of those were there there was one only one shop and it was probably, I would say, about a 60 by 120 shop, kind of small. It had three garage bays, two on the front, and one on the side, so you could get three cars in there rather comfortably, and had a big long bench across the backside of it, one office with one desk, and that was dad's office, and it was a loft upstairs that was pretty big, a lot of shelving for parts and, you know, glass cleaner fluids, break clean, break fluid, gear, oil, all the things would be kept up there. A big old upstairs in the loft, there was a big flat counter of decals. It was all, you know, all the good wrench, the numbers, contingency stickers.

And then Dad had a cedar closet on the end of the loft. And inside that cedar closet where all the dad's use. uniforms. Every uniform that he had from the 70s all the way up, mine and Kelly's military school uniforms are in there, some other stuff that belongs to Kelly and I are in there, gun safes, just a bunch of stuff that dad, that was dad's little kind of room where he kept all those things. It's full of jackets, clothes, stuff he just accumulated other years that he, that was, for whatever reason, one or another important. There was a little bit, little room that was kind of small, but it had all of Ralph's, Lays, and all kinds of these machines that, and I

used them, even, Dad used them obviously, but I even used them. I raced my, I raced out of there with our late mall car a little bit. I also raced out of there with Exfinity car, the Sicken's bush car. We raced out of the deerhead shop. Anyhow, the deerhead shop is still there. DEI was built up around it. You cannot see the deerhead shop from the road. It is behind the main, when you drive by and you see these giant buildings, the deerhead shop's kind of behind those, but apparently the day dad died, they locked the doors,

and nobody's been in there since. And I believe that probably is true. I believe that no one has probably set foot in there, and Teresa's made absolute sure that that's the case. It's called the Deerhead Shop, because on the wall, the loft is enclosed. And when you walk in, and there's the two bays,

imagine two bays, race cars and the loft is enclosed and on that loft wall are it's got to be 40 or 50 deerhead and they're tight as you can get them and just all full and a couple elk and so that's why they call it the deerhead shop because there's like 40 at least 40 deerhead in there and all giants monsters 10-pointer 12-pointers big ones next question from kindle kemp do you think that Kyle larson should get a ride for the 2022 Indy 500. Yeah, why not? I mean, I think, you know, Larson should run the 24 hours of Daytona multiple times.

It'd be cool to see him in Indy 500. I don't think he needs to run any other indie races. I mean, he could if he wanted to, I guess. He could do whatever he wants. But I'd like to see him run to Indy 500 at least once and do it while he's in his prime. But I think it'd be cool, too, to see him do like 24 hours of Lamont or Day 2. or Daytona, some of the, like, marquee motorsport events in the, you know, in the world. But anytime, like, those guys go over there, like, we go, I go work to 24 hours of Daytona for NBC.

And so we had a bunch of the NASCAR guys sprinkled throughout the field in different types of cars and different classes. And that was fun because, you know, you had Kyle and Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch and Austin Dillon and Chase. It was just fun to kind of see how those guys did individually, and they were all in different classes. It's always great if we can get some more NASCAR guys into the 24-hour Daytona race. Next question from Lynn Otten. I remember a few years back you mentioned collecting the NASCAR yearbooks. Did you ever finish your collection? Yeah, I did.

So I have a library at my house, and I have multiple collections in that library. one is the yearbooks for NASCAR that they would give out at the banquet every year. I have the entire catalog of Stock Car Racing Magazine. I think it started in 1966, Circle Track Magazine that started shortly after that. I mean, all of them are in these little binders. But I've got tons of books, and the library is slam full of racing books and biographies and all kinds of stuff. I've been in there. That library is slam full.

I mean, it is slam full. One might actually say maybe could use a little organization. What? Like card cattle. I'd volunteer. You know, like if you were going to look for a specific issue, I don't know where you'd start. No, you're right. It'd be hard to find what you're looking for.

Get Marie Kondo in there. All right, one more question from Matthew Sisson. We know that Jeff Burton used to unofficially be called the mayor of NASCAR since he's retired. Who do you think has taken that role? He says he votes for Brad Kozlovsky. I don't know. I think that just, that's a good question. Denny?

Denny might be it. Yeah. I don't know, you know. I think once the mayor, always the mayor. So I think Burton's still the mayor. Thank you. I don't think there is a replacement. There's nobody out there that can match that.

And that's what, I mean, I made the point there, they could definitely use that. But nobody is. You don't just elect somebody. They got to earn it. No, I don't think there's anybody out there. in there. There's not a mayor in the bunch. There's no mayor material in there. Not a mayor in the bunch right now. It could have been Denny, but Denny also takes things like would Burton, would a mayor go to Twitter and just air out their grievances on Twitter? I don't

think that's what the mayor would do. Of course, some politicians do quite well doing that. Yeah, they do. I don't know. I kind of feel the same way. I mean, it hits, when things like that, those type of things, those unofficial titles are very organic and they just happen you know you don't I don't think you sit down and if you have to sit down and think about it then there's nobody there's nobody there's nobody there's nobody there right now that's

mere material I suppose it just happens naturally all right that's all for today guys all right man that's a fast segment Mike ends way too soon do you know what goes fast Dale I mean do you even know what goes fast you probably don't know besides this segment that's right Xfinity X-Fi. Yeah, well, it's more than just fast.

It's reliable and powerful, meaning that everyone can do more of what they love with this faster internet. You're darn right, bud. You and your crew can stay connected with Wi-Fi coverage that delivers a speed that all of your devices need. Hey, remember, everybody, keep those questions coming by sending them to Add Xfinity Racing on Twitter. darn to Tooting.

All right, let's give a big thanks to Xfinity. Man, they do so much for our sport and this podcast. They're proud Premier Partner. of NASCAR. Beautiful. Good job, you're darn right. Darn, darn right. All right,

all right, episode 353 is over. Last call. Before we go, thanks to our guest, Dale Inman. Yeah, it was fun. Trivia, guys. We got some trivia for you.

If you had to guess how many of Dale Inman's 193, 193 wins. Godly. All right, came on tracks that are now defunct,

abandoned, aka lost speedways. How many? How many are defunct now? 193. I'll say 100. 100 tracks? 100 different tracks.

Sure. That was a terrible guess, Mike. Anyone else want to give it just a little bit better effort? Anybody want to just try just a touch more than Mike? 17. All right. You're really close. Leah.

Good job, Leah. You don't mean. I was a historian. The answer is 18. Wow. Leah. She's so close. Los Speedways.

Season 2 has been. Been out for about a month and a half, so I'm sure you've watched it by now. Hopefully. If you haven't. Well, if you haven't, shame on you. Go to Peacock TV and watch it now. Door bumper clear is back. All right.

The guys are always creating a stir. So what's up this week? Stop what you're doing right now and come listen to us on the best podcast in NASCAR door bumper clear. I'm Brett Griffin, fresh off a cup win with AJ Almondinger, Kiss the Bricks. Man, we've got quite the show for you guys for this week. Hey, what's up, Freddie Craft here? After a big weekend in indie, we taught Curves Causing Chaos, Chase Griscoe, taking out Danny Hamlin, and questionable penalties. Super questionable, like real questionable.

Hey, this is TJ Majors. And no, I'm not on a boat, but you can join us this week and every week on Door Bumper Clear, available on all major podcast platforms. Now, come right now. Stop. You never know what you're going to get with those guys. That's true. That's true. Never go.

But this was going to be. This was the week. for them. I mean, like kind of stuff at Indy. They had a blast talking about that. The download is on the TV, as usual. You can watch the Dale Jr. download in television forms, NBC Sports Network. Yes, that's NBCSN. That's what you're going to tune into on Thursday at 5 p.m. this week.

That's 5 p.m. 5 p.m. The Dale Jr. download with guest Dale Edmund. Yeah. That's right. I got one more anything to add. We have a new glorious wife. white knuckle godfear and spun out and half turned over racing story podcast that came out this

past Friday and it's so good because it's about Richard Petty getting into a fight with a fan. All right. You've given away too much. Oh, no, no, that's plenty. That's perfect. I was talking to some friends last night and two guys that are far removed from our inner circle talking about this podcast. Really?

Yes. Awesome. They love it. Fantastic. Yeah. So we got a new podcast out. What's the name of it again? I'm never going to remember this.

Glorious white knuckle, Godfearing, spun out and half-turned-over racing stories podcast. And these stories are better than any story we could ever tell. They're incredible. I think it's really good. I mean, from the little grabs that I've got from it, the little things that I've seen here and there. Yeah. Pretty cool stuff. Got a new one coming out this week featuring David Pearson.

Some of the things that it's almost like, I know, you know, people talk about when they come into this studio and sit down, they're like, man, People really open up. How do y'all do it? And it's just like, well, we get in here and they get comfortable and we just have a conversation. But it's really a step beyond that. When I see some of the quotes and some of the content that you guys are capturing for these stories, it reminds me of the stories that we hear in this room. Right, doesn't it?

Yeah, it really does. So check it out. You're going to love it. A lot of great history, some untold stories and some great detail about some of the craziest times in this sport. So, all right, man. What else is going? We're going to Michigan this week.

I, oh, I'm chairing the booth for the Xfinity race. Remember when I did that at New Hampshire for the Cup race and the Xfinity race? I'm doing it again this week. So that'll be fun, a little more play-by-play for me. So I hope you'll tune in and give me your input. Yeah. You know where I like to go to get that input, Mike, here lately? Not Twitter.

Not Twitter. Reddit. Yeah, that's honest. Wow. Yes. I've been going to, yeah. I like that. Reddit.

Yeah. So, you know, I've been going to Reddit. And now, you know, there is the occasional, a little bit too honest opinion. But there's some great criticism in there that's really helpful. Yeah. You know, hey, man, I like this and that. I didn't like this. I thought you made a mistake here.

You screwed that. You got that wrong. Fair enough. I like it. Why do you think that is? Why is the criticism on one platform when they're very similar? Why is it so much more constructive? and good than toxic on another.

Well, I don't pretend, I mean, I'm new to Reddit. I've only been around for a couple years, but they kind of govern themselves. This is going to turn into a commercial for Reddit. But the cool thing about Reddit is, is you follow what you want, and what you follow is all you see, right? You don't get anything else in your timeline,

and so I follow I racing, NASCAR, and the Washington football team. That's it. Yeah. Maybe a couple of the video games. And so that's all I get to read about. And it's really kind of good because everybody on Reddit is so up to speed by the minute on everything that's happening in NASCAR, everything that's happening with my favorite football team, everything that's happening with my favorite video games. And there's some fun, you know, goofball stuff going on, funny clips, funny comments.

If somebody tweets something like Denny, he's been on fire on Twitter here lately, if it's newsworthy, important, I'll see it right there. Before I'd ever see it in my own Twitter handle timeline, right? I don't know. I just go there. And like I said, generally everybody behaves themselves. They're honest, no doubt, but, you know, there's some policies in place for each forum so that they, you know, have to behave. Anyways. There you go.

I go to Reddit for public freakouts. Getting in the weeds. That's a good one to follow on Reddit. Oh, I need to see that. Public freakouts. Why? What is that? Just what?

Okay. All right. You got my attention. It's so good. All right, guys. Well, anyways, we're going to have a great weekend in Michigan. Should be a lot of fun. Should be a lot of fun.

I'm looking forward to it. Who's our next guest? Do we have a... Can we announce? Nope. Do we know who it is? No. Do we have somebody booked?

Nope. Negatory. Oh, we don't? Nope. I know we got some people booked. We got some people booked. But next week, actually, we have a hole. So, hey, if you're listening and you want to be on the show.

All right. So, yeah. People ask. They're like, how do you all get? these guests. I'm like, well, sometimes it's like the night before. We're literally texting Ricky Rudd like two days before this. Can you come on? I haven't talked to you in five years. Yeah. I know who we're going after. You pull that one out of your butt. I know who we're going after. I don't want to say the name, but I know that we were, you know, going after this person. Man,

that would be fun. Yeah. Don't say. Give me some. Give me some. What do you? Oh, yeah, we'll beep it out. Oh. I like that, Mike. What do you think of that, Trana? Trina likes it. Yeah. Look at Trina in here. All right, well, looking forward to next week. Everybody, it's Tuesday night if you're listening to this when we'll release it. Maybe you're listening to it on Wednesday or Thursday, but whatever. Have a great day and have a good weekend. We'll see you next week on the Dale Junior Lownload.

The Lownload. The Lourne Miller Mirror. This bit of bad assery was made by Dirtymo Media. Dirty Mo!