The Dale Jr. Download - 354 - Buckshot Jones: Ole Country Boy

Episode Date: August 24, 2021

He came in like a flash of lightning and then was gone, but along the way a NASCAR racer named Buckshot Jones made quite the name for himself. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and co-host Mike Davis sit down with the mysterious and controversial racer. Buckshot wasn't always known by his colorful name, and his real name had a sense of toughness as well. From the farms of Georgia sprouted a teenager with the desire to race. His self-made father helped pave the way with a plan as unique as his son's brand. His first car may have been a dusty barn find, but soon Jones was at the pinnacle of the NASCAR ranks in the Cup Series. As you could guess with a name like Buckshot, he got a lot of attention along the way. The Georgia boy moved to South Carolina to take lessons from a successful crew chief and his legendary father. From Darlington tips to shooting quarters, David Pearson taught the young driver some valuable lessons. Souvenir sales and on-track success were often rivaled by controversy. Keeping up with the NASCAR rap-sheet of the aggressive Jones became a challenge for some. We find out the real story of what started his rivalry with Randy LaJoie. Let's just say it all started in a hotel parking lot. The headlines of their tangles in some ways defined the career of Jones, who wouldn't back down from even a seasoned Champion such as LaJoie. Dale Jr. and Buckshot even hash out the wreck at Daytona, that pissed off Dick Trickle and sent the young Earnhardt on his roof during his first race at Daytona. Speaking of Earnhardts, even Dale Sr. wasn't pleased with Jones. But this time, Buckshot was quick to point out that the Intimidation was real.After a few years, poof, it was over. No double-zero car. No six-shooter logo. Where did Buckshot go? The Download finds out...Before Buckshot's arrival to the studio, Dale comes clean about who America's Crew Chief really is and what caused the chatter between the NBC booth boys and some broadcasters at Fox. Once that is solved, we learn that Mike Davis has a problem that needed solving. It involved a wet carpet, an angry wife, and unwanted videotaping. Dale and the DJD gang offer their advice to getting back on the good side of Sarah Davis.The day before the podcast, Dale Jr.'s curiosity led him to ask fans about his Peacock TV show Lost Speedways. Hear what they have to say and his challenge for this week at Daytona.Speaking of fans... they bring the heat this week with questions for the two-time Daytona 500 Champion. Dale Jr. admits to a few cheat fails during his time racing Late Models in this week's AskJr presented by Xfinity. Dale addresses rumors of NASCAR at the Los Angeles Coliseum and talks about the resurgence of AJ Almendinger in the Xfinity Series.That and much more on the Dale Jr. Download. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DirtyMoMedia  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Can you turn my head set down a little bit? Yes, sir. Is it loud? Actually, wow, that's weird. There goes that ear, drum. Hey, you don't have the controls? Do you? Yeah, you do?

Yeah. Can we turn down Mike's one over there? Is it that loud, Mike? Oh, yeah, he's loud. Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike. And now you're making it worse. Just a little bit. It's okay.

Do your normal level now. Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike. That's my level today. Poor Mike's going to have to get spacers. He's on 11 today. He'll be deaf. We'll be death. Yeah.

You know some tissue? We can stick some tissue in there. I don't know. It's going to work. But it's okay. I get through this. Did I get turned down or not? Did I, did you, did anybody?

Yep. Okay, thank you. You know about the genetic makeup of human beings. that every human being is unique. The new type of group morality, group ethic. This is a production of Dirtymo Media. Production of Dirty Mo Media. Hey everybody, it's Dale Jr. back again for another episode of Dale Jr. download with me

as my co-host, Mike Davis, and then Matthew Gilner, Leah, everybody's in the house. We got Buckshot Jones coming up on the show here in a bit. Can't wait to talk to him. Haven't heard from him in forever. Don't know what he's been up to. and he has quite the reputation, quite the race in history. So it's going to be a lot of fun. Let's get right into it, though, man.

This weekend, I got to broadcast, I got to run the broadcast. I don't even know what you call it. Play-by-play. I got to do play-by-play. So play-by-play. I got to do that again. I did it at New Hampshire for the Xfinity race and a couple of rates. I got to do it for the Xfinity race this weekend.

Had a little fun at the expense of our buddy, the America's crew chief, Mike. Oh yeah, you took a shot, I felt. Not really. I thought it was a little bit of a shot. It was not a shot. Jab? Not a jab? Nope, not a poke in the ear.

I think that's a little bit too aggressive. Okay. We'll let the listeners decide. So Larry McReynolds is known as America's crew chief. That's right. And he works for Fox, right? We're competitive, but it's a good competition, right? We want them to do well because then we all do well.

If they're doing well, NASCAR's doing well, the numbers are up. that typically bleeds into our coverage. All that works together. So there's a friendly rivalry, competition, whatever. But I will say this. Like during when the season comes to an end, the Fox season comes in in, you are going to get a text from Larry

and several other people saying, all right, guys, it's all y'all's good luck, have fun, enjoy it. That's nice. They're super cool about it. Absolutely. So, but anyhow, Larry is America's crew chief. No denying that. Right.

And so I got to do the play-by-play, and I'm sitting there right before we're coming on air, and I'm thinking, man, I want to, I don't want to just say with me as Jeff Burton and Lattart. I want to, how do I let people know that I like these guys? These are my friends. And without just saying, these are my friends, right? Welcome to the show. These are my friends. What could I do? And so Jeff Burton's nickname is the mayor.

People call him the mayor of NASCAR. right? So that was easy. And then when I got to Steve, I was like, well, he's everybody's favorite crew chief. You said America's favorite. I know, but that's my thought. Oh, you're thinking everybody's favorite crew chiefs. He's everybody's favorite crew chief. So that's a great way to announce him. And what if I said he's America's favorite crew chief? I know that Larry Mack is America's crew chief. And that might be something that kind of triggers maybe Larry or somebody at Fox. So you did say it with the intent of giving, yeah.

Yeah. And so the next day on Sunday, on Sunday, I think we're standing there in the booth. And Rick says, hey, man, that was funny. You introduced him as America's favorite crew chief. I bet that really got somebody's attention. I'm like, yeah, I did it on purpose. I thought it was, you know, I wanted to introduce him. And then I thought, well, I'll do it that way.

And it's not worth. We're not going to keep doing it. But he did it. So I think Rick also announced him his America's favorite crew chief. So yeah, after Rick Allen said that on Sunday, then Danielle Trotta then tweeted at you guys. And it's like, no, no, no, no. And I think she's right. She's defending her guy.

So that was it. That was the win. You felt that was it? Yeah, I guess. Good grief. I mean, you kind of like threw a shot and then it was like, okay, we're over now. We're done. I think they owe you one.

Well, the truth is that I told Rick, I said, let's just keep this going for as long as we can till you know till somebody says something right and not just not just daniel so but he went on serious xm or monday and spilled the beans rick alland did yeah yeah somebody's tweeted that uh rick's on xm spilling the beans telling the telling the telling the dirty truth del jr jr you're in trouble come on rick yeah rick we should see what rick said come on we call him should we call rick call it yes call him all right i'll call rick while Fox is going to get Jeff Gordon off vacation and say, hey, and they're going to introduce him as, you know, most popular driver, Jeff Gordon. Yep, I'm calling him.

Hey, but, you know, America's favorite is different than America's. Legality. Here we go. I'll answer. How are you, my friend? Hey, Rick, you're on air, okay, so be careful what you say. Hey, I'm on my podcast, and I got a tweet this morning that you were spilling the dirt on XM. about our America's favorite crew chief?

So I will admit, hold on, I'm going to, I want to back up just a second once I'm on it, but I will admit that I got called out on Sirius XM as Daniel Trotta said that I said, Steve was America's favorite crew chief. Okay. And she was mad about it.

Oh, mo. I called in, and I said, Daniel, it's a form of flattery. Anytime you recognize somebody or something that someone else is, you know, maybe known for, I said, that's a form of flattery. So Larry, you should be flattered by it. And then I said, and by the way, I'm guessing that you guys didn't watch the expensity race. And they were kind of like, well, what do you mean?

I said, well, because it was actually Dale Jr. who said that during the expedity race. That's how he introduced him, and we had a little bit of fun with it. And so I did it during the cup race. and they started laughing. They're like, oh, we didn't know that, and then they backtracked. Because I thought it was me.

But when it was you, all of a sudden it wasn't bad. Well, she tweeted out that I need to get another nickname. So I told you in the booth before we got on air, I said, yeah, let's keep this going. Let's see how long we can keep it going for it, and it gets under everybody's skin. But I guess we're done. Well, it was fun for a whole half a show.

It was fun for a week. Thanks, buddy. Oh, I appreciate it. I look forward to this weekend. You should... Yeah, it should be life fun. We'll see you. Thank you.

That was classic. Yeah. So... Let's call Danielle Trotter now. That's not. That's not. I'm not... You know, we could show off all this technology

that we have here at DirtyMow Media, holding the phone up to the microphone. That's great. All right, y'all. So Lost Speedways has been out on Peacock for more than a month. Yes. All right.

And, you know, I love to get feedback. And we went on Twitter and I sent out a post about, you know, what folks have been thinking so far about Lost Speedway Season 2. So do we got some feedback from our fans? Yeah, we do. We got a lot of it from your tweet. Earl Friesinger said he's watching the entire season 2, but the one at Texas World Speedway is clearly his favorite to learn about its history.

Downfall. So many people chiming in about that episode in particular, I think, because it's the only Lost Super Speedway in America. One of my favorites was Larry Swift that said every episode. That's it. That's the perfect answer, I think. I also see Elaine Gaylor Swidell said her favorite episode was Daytona Beach. I loved it so much. I traveled there for summer vacation after seeing the show. Just to go to Racings North Turn. Wow. So, uh, and Daytona, man. Daytona's coming up this week. and I'm sure anybody who's watched Lost Speedways, they should go check out the path. There's an original piece of pavement there,

a strip of the original A1A that you and I saw. You know what would be cool is if you're in Daytona this weekend for the race and you've seen the show, Lost Speedways, especially the season two episode with Daytona, if you take a picture of yourself on that little strip of asphalt, make sure you tag Dirtymo Media. I love that. Great idea.

We'll try to retweet. We'll get Lee on top of that one. She's on it. I'm on it. Send out some retweets. But we'd love to see y'all's photo at that little strip. It's a very small, kind of difficult find, so it might be a fun little part of your trip.

Yeah. Trying to search up and discover. Yeah, that'd be fun. You'll get the sense of what it's like to do the show, you know, trying to hunt this little piece down. And then once you get there and you think about all the history and the car is speeding down that little strip of asphalt that's still laying there. And then the turn.

My gosh, when we were down on those turns and realized I'm trying to make that turn. I mean, a lot of them didn't make the turn, and you can see why. But yeah, you know, it's funny, if somebody had scheduled a vacation around that episode based off the Daytona. I wonder if anybody scheduled a vacation around Pinsborough, West Virginia. Anybody you think? Of course, Matthew's the only one. Matthew went to West Virginia. I'm going to West Virginia in a few weeks for a heritage festival.

Nice. Pensborough is my favorite episode. I love that. That was a great explorer. All right. Well, make sure, you know, you guys continue to send in that feedback and share with your friends about Lost Speedway season two. It's available on Peacock. Easily go to Peacock TV and sign up and watch season one and season two of Lost Speedways out now.

So, Mike, you had something going on. We've talked about some, you know, some things that happen in our household, some stupid things we do. You did put something really dumb this week. Well, you cause strife amongst the networks. I cause strife in my marriage. So we really want to talk about this. I do something dumb, and you're like, I can't wait to talk about this. After I admitted having, you know, helped my wife out of a situation that's quite embarrassing, yeah, I think it's time for you to...

Fair point. Yeah, jump into the pool. Okay, you guys can decide if this is really dumb. Leah, you decide. All right. Oh, she's done, decided. Okay. The context you need to know first is that we're all exhausted, right?

I mean, listen, our days are spent going to work, coming home and being parents. I hear excuses. No, no, no, it's just proper context because my wife also is getting her MBA done. Y'all will be tell the story or not? So it's the same for everybody. Stop talking. So here we go. Everyone's exhausted.

We're trying to get our kids to soccer practice, cross-country meets, all this stuff, all right? I'm sitting there finally with a moment of pause. I'm watching the race. I'm home just with my one daughter, Gracie, or my oldest daughter, Gracie. The dog apparently pees on the rug, or has peed on the rug. Our dog has done what Dale Jr. does to his wife.

Oh, my gosh. But the dog did it to the rug. Mike. There's no context. You can't just say that without context. That's true. Was there a jellyfish involved in the rug? Come on, you've got to get context there.

You can't just have me peeing on my wife at all times of the day. That's right. Well, you need to go back and listen to last week's episode or two weeks, whenever that was. Yeah. Okay. So our dog is peep. Now listen, I tend to it. I tended to it.

I said, hey, Gracie, get a towel. Get this thing dried up. And I felt like that was good enough. My wife gets home. She sees the towel. She has questions. This is during the race now. You know, I think every.

can agree. Matthew, you would agree with me on this. And during a race, you know, it's just sometimes your attention and your priorities are changed a little bit. To be fair. She starts asking. I said, yeah, I think the dog did this. I think, you know, we must have not let it out as like we thought we did in running around. And she said, okay, well, and she goes, what else did you do? And I said, well, you're looking at it. And she goes, this is it. I said, well, I mean, you know, we danced on the the towel a little bit, patted it down. And she goes, well, what about underneath the rug? And I said, I'm sorry this is what I've done

and she starts why would you not think about underneath the rug? And I'm like listen well no I'm thinking in my head I don't want to take any more questions do you know how I don't think you have that choice

I don't think you have a choice in that I don't want to take any more questions it's got to be all yeah in my head the press conference had ended and in my head the press conference was over So I did what I thought would be a natural thing for anybody to do. You know when you're trying to make a point but you don't want to do it with words,

you hold up your phone and start taping. Like you hit the video and you start recording. You hold it up. It's like, hey, I don't really want to talk, but I'm just going to video you. And because it's kind of like a conversation ender. So I started videoing her and her questions. A conversation ender and an argument starter. Oh, no, yeah.

It started. More than an argument. She got mad at me about that. She got mad at me about that. Can we watch it? Can we watch it? No. Did you not delete it?

No, I deleted it. No, I did. It's lying. It's still in your hesitations. It's on there. No, it's gone. You don't want to see it. Actually, that would cause another argument.

This conversation alone on the podcast will cause an argument. And we weren't exactly over this one that happened Sunday. Still cold. It's still a little. I feel icy. Yeah. So listen, I admit that that was not good. Like, I don't think wives want to be videoed.

No, they don't. No, why would you do that? I'm pretty sure they don't. It seemed like a good idea in my head. And I admit that it wasn't afterwards. She said it. She sent me and she said, listen, we were having a conversation in my head. I was like one-sided.

But then we were having a conversation and it was like, you're going to start videoing me. and that's pretty demeaning. And I think she's right about that. It was demeaning, and I wish I had not done that, but I did. So I need y'all to help me get, could you all call my wife now? I'm kidding. I don't think so.

I don't want to do that. No. I don't think she'll be as fun loving as Rick Allen would be in this situation. So was it, I mean, like, it was dumb. It's not the dumbest thing anybody's ever done, but it was dumb. Yeah. What can he do to fix it? What do the things live?

take the dog out when it needs to go out. No, no, no, no, no. My hunch of resolve. I, uh, what will thaw the ice. Time. Time. Time.

Yeah, there's nothing, like, there's nothing. Nope. There's nothing. I'm, like, super stubborn. I don't know about Sarah, but like, you know what I think would do it. Time. What? As if he either took her out to dinner to epic steakhouse.

Oh, downtown Warsville. for a night, just them too. Or he brought Epic onto the boat for just a, you know, dinner on the boat. Very romantic. There you go, Mike. But purposeful and say, hey, listen. During that dinner, yeah, you tell her, you say, hey, that was the dumbest thing.

I don't know what to hell out of singing. You're not really looking for this, are you? Are you really wanting to know how to fix it? I know how to fix it. How do you fix it? Give her some of that good love making. Oh, my God. T-M-I.

Oh. That don't fix it. It fixes it. Oh, God. Can't go wrong there. They're like Jimmy Spencer. They never forget. Why'd you bring Jimmy Spencer

in my good love-making story? Why would you do that? I just texted my wife about this conversation because I was nervous that Dale would call me out and I wouldn't have participated in a homework assignment. Oh, geez. So I'm telling you, just from her response, they never forget. They don't.

Are you wanting to tell a story? No. Are you wanting us to ask you to tell a story? No. No. No. No. So, I'm telling you, man, take her to dinner.

Tell her. I messed up, made a mistake. Here's what I want to do. I want to say, listen to the Dale Jr. download, my love. And I want you to hear my, you will find my feelings. Nope. In the open segment of the Dale Jr.

She should hear. I don't think that's a good idea. My feelings are, I'm sorry. Yeah. And see you tonight, baby. Oh, God. All right. I think we're done now.

Let's talk about this some more. The market and post. Hey, I gave you a good transition out. You said we were behind on time. You ended it perfectly for me. You can't wait to get to the next segment now. Let's just spree and buckshot. Where's Buckshot Jones?

Oh, look at it. He's alive! What is this? What are you got here? He was talking about a bowling ball. This is heavy. Oh, it's a bowling ball. Yeah.

Here you go. Open that up. This is a thing you did. Bowling balls was a thing. Y'all used to give these to media, right? Right. Back when we had Brunswick as an associate sponsor. Oh, my God.

Yeah, Brunswick did all of that. That's awesome, man. And it's got buckshot on the back of it. So this is a new studio. Oh, look at that. Is this yours? You're giving us to us or you're taking it back home? No, that's y'all's.

No. Yeah, Matt, he said something about bringing bowling ball and boys. That'd be cool to have one. So I have one downstairs. Matt, Matt, guilted you into bringing this to us? Yes. Good job, Matt.

Thank you. Thank you. Like, we, you know, we like that random, strange, weird, that's pretty cool. That fits right in here. Yeah, well, no, we ain't putting it a pie. That thing will roll right off on some of his head. I'm going to put it somewhere, but it's pretty cool.

So Buckshot Jones, man. I ain't seen you in forever. I know. What have you been doing? I got out of racing, got into land developing for the longest time, and the economy went bad. We kind of finished up some stuff afterwards, and now it's more just investments and kind of helping Dad out some.

He still does some cables, so just whatever's needed. What do you do for fun? Actually, go to our farm and work. What is on the farm? We got about 800 acres. Monticello, Georgia. It's down there near Hooper Trailers, which everybody in Georgia, they know where Hooper trailer is at.

But we've had it since like 1980, and my dad and uncle on it, and me and my uncle and cousins used to go to Texas and hunt. And, you know, by the time all that money you're spending, we're like, hey, why don't we high fence it in? So we did, and just go and doing food plots, stuff like that. Yeah, that's a good time. I got some land in Ohio about six or seven years ago, me and LW, my brother-in-law, and True X,

and we all partnered on it, And I ain't never owned hunting land before. And so just being involved, I don't really do as much physically, but being involved in managing and moving the plots around and understand what the herd's up to and what's going on with that and working with your neighbors and working with local farmers, all that stuff has really been a really fun experience. Yeah.

So what's better than just packing a bag and going some random place in the country to hunt on somebody else's property? Yeah, it is. I mean, like I said, we've had it since 9. 1980 and I've always loved that for them. You know, whether it's hunting, you know, riding motorcycles. In the beginning, my sister and I used to show Appaloosa horses, so we traveled all around. And my mom actually lives out there, my aunt and uncle, grandmother. So it's just a place, it's always fun. Because like New Year's Eve, you know, other like holidays, like all our family

comes down so everybody gets together. So it's just always a good time. So I always thought your name was buckshot, but it's not. No. I thought it was. I mean, hell, I didn't, nobody, nobody came up and told me, you know his name ain't buckshot. I mean, he's racing their car, says Buckshot Jones on it. I'm like, damn, his daddy name is Buckshot? But your name is Roy. Yes. When did you get the Buckshot nickname? I guess probably about two years old. Me and my cousins were running around on the house, and somehow I fell and hit my head against the table. My grandfather picked me up, and like a knot was already for him on my head. I wasn't crying and he just put me down,

took off running. He goes, that boy's tough as buckshot and the name stuck. The only time I'd really get called Roy is when I was in trouble by my mom. But in high school, always, never was called Roy. Nobody called you. All your friends except Randy. Who's Randy? Lejoy. Oh, okay. Oh, yeah. Randy calls.

We'll talk about that. So, we'll get there. You went to school and you wrote Buckshot on the paper. You signed everything. Buttshot. Teachers called me that. Your teachers called you Buckshot. What?

I mean, that's unique. I've never known anyone else named Buckshot. I mean, it's a pretty cool name. Did your friends, like, mess with you? Or did they think it was cool? Or was it just nothing? Just normal? Just normal.

Yeah. I mean, most of them, they don't even know my real names. Did you ever have anybody say, I know. So did you ever have it, when you introduce yourself, you know, as a teenager or whatever, and say, I'm Buckshot? people are, did anyone ever go? Yeah. Buckshot?

Right. Your name's Buckshot? I'm like, yes. Is it, did you ever get legally changed? No. No. Yeah. Interesting.

I won't because it's my dad's father. His first name was Roy. Well, yeah, but you just added in there. Yeah. What's your middle name? Norse. Norris. Where does that come from?

My grandmother's side of the family. Norris is pretty cool name too. Just, you know, but it ain't Buckshot cool. But, I mean, you got Roy Jones going on. On the one side, you got Norris is a middle name. You don't know many Norris. Well, I know one. Chuck Norris.

Well, yeah. Ain't going to beat that one. I mean, that's pretty good. That's pretty true. You got a badass name all the way across the board, actually. You didn't start racing until when? 20, what was it, 1990. And how old were you?

20. All right. So you didn't drive. Nothing. No. All right. Road motorcycles at our farm. All right.

So what were you doing? Were you in a sports? Some. I was actually in college at the time. A buddy of mine named Bob Maddox, we went to high school together, and we actually live in the same subdivision now. What did you go to college for? Business degree. Okay. What was you going to do?

I don't know. It was possibly going to get into the cable, because that's what my dad had always been in. So your dad, now let's talk about him. I'm going to interrupt your son. So your dad is a self-made man. Explain what he does now, what he made his living doing, and how he got there? Cable TV. That's what he was in. I mean, he started out basically sweeping floors and then ditch digging, climbing the lines,

and just kind of progressed up. And I forget what year it was that he ended up starting his own deal. So basically, he'll do work for, like, AT&T, you know, it could be, you know, charter. He just, hey, going and putting the cable in. And he did have one where he actually did the cable all himself, like people subscribed to him also. And then a company bought him out, I think it was around 1990, and he stayed on kind of more as a consultant.

And then he got more involved with the business. So he's always been in the cable. He's still messing around with it. You know, you know, some right now. I know they're running some line from like Augusta all the way to Savannah. So it's pretty cool because he's down there in the swamp And he needed a player stranger He goes, I need you to put a lift on it

All this, it did it He goes, this isn't going to work He goes, that thing won't even go through None of this stuff. So there's a machine called a shirt And they're coming out of the Ukraine And the tires on them are humongous But you can drive them straight off into a lake

They keep rocking and rolling And you know, he has to have it Because when they're doing locates, they can't get through there Yeah So even though that machine cost a pretty penny. I mean, he has to have.

It's like I taught him, like, you know, when you're done with all this job, you don't need the machine anymore, you wouldn't even take that out to our farm. No. But it seems like some of the different sheriff's office has bought some. I guess out in Utah, they do, wherever there's a lot of mountains, rock, but it's a pretty cool machine. Yeah. Your dad is in, is a self-made businessman and running cable

TV, you're going to school for a business degree, dabble a little bit in sports, but mainly just messing around motorcycles and hunting and carrying on being a country boy. Right. So when did you go, damn, racing, that looks cool. We went to Sanoa a couple times. What's Sanoa? Racetrack in Georgia. I think they turn it back into dirt now, but it was like the closest one out there at our farm.

Are we talking north Georgia, south Georgia? Give me an idea, because I don't know where Hooper Trailers is. It's Monticello, so. I would you say that. From Atlanta Motor Speedway, it's probably about 45 minutes away. South? I guess it'd be more a little bit. Would that be northeast?

Northeast. All right, from Atlanta, so you're not far from Atlanta. No. Okay. All right. You gave me contact. All right, keep going then.

So, you know, we went a couple races, but, you know, I was young back then. So I didn't really remember it. But a buddy of mine started racing like local motocross. And, you know, I told Dad, I said, I'm fixing to start doing that. How old are you then? I was 19, I think. You're at the University of Georgia.

Yeah. And he just said, no, if you're going to get in something, you ought to get in something that will protect you like a stock car. So I was like, yeah, cool. So, you know, we started looking around, you know, trying to find a car and ended up, got kind of in contact with a guy named Billy McGinnis. And he helped us find our first car. And it was the Cinner Brothers who had, you know, a late model car.

at Lanier Raceway, and we go to their place, and it's just an old wooden barn open the door, and it's an old Malibu, and it's got an inch thick of dust all over it, and made a deal with them, hey, get it running, bring it to the track, pay it, wreck it. And, man, I probably made eight laps, and it spun it out almost every lap, and come in, and it's like, this is what I want to do. So he said, well, you maintain a B average in college, you know, I'll handle this. So we ran our first race. How hard was it to make that be?

Was you doing good? Just a matter of going to class. Yeah. What kind of college student were you? Did you live at home? No, I lived up there. Okay. Did you raise hell?

Did you? Not too much, a little bit. Oh, please. I know University of Georgia. Don't even say that. Yeah. I know better than that. There's all kinds of opportunities to raise hell in Georgia.

Yeah, I guess I was there for about a year and then got into the race. So. So you left? No. I had to stay. No, but like, did you graduate? Yes. You did?

Oh, yeah. Well, you had to maintain a B average. Man, I don't know. I don't know his story. No, I know, but I'm saying, I'm just assuming that if you can maintain a B average. Well, you just said he was there for a year. So I thought, man, did you leave? No, I've been there right at a year, and that's when I got into the racing.

Got you. So, yeah, I went to the games and all that. You went to the games? Yeah. Rippin? Oh, yeah. Riven and Taryn. I hear you.

All right. Riven and Tair. I just trying to imagine Buckshot I mean it's quite fascinating I don't think we've ever had somebody that started racing in college I mean that's a late start and then meanwhile University of Georgia

there's all kinds of distractions he ain't thinking I'm going to cut he's just like I'm going to have some fun this is awesome I'm going to Lanier racing the car out of the barn yeah this is a good time Lanier's a great it was a great little speedway too

yes it was it was very good so you spin out every lap you run eight laps Is that really how your first race went on? What else happened? First race, the motor was just needed to rebuild it. It was backfired and so bad. They black flagged me.

So had a guy named Pat Chonzie, rebuilt the motor force, went to the next race. We won that race. And then they called it the Bud Bowl. It was like two weeks later. And we were leading that race, but we didn't have radios. And I'm like, racing's all brand new to me. And there was a wreck. got into it. So fix that car, and then they had the race at Peach State, which is, I guess,

Gresham now, and was running third. You know, you had those, the bumpers back then on those cars, and I passed the second place guy, and his front bumper, mine, like, hooked together, went straight into the guardrail, sailed out of that place, like, end over in, and I mean, just totaled the car. And me and Dad, I always remember right after that, we went to, like, a chick-fil-A. He's like, what do you think? I'm like, this is what I wanted to do. He said, I didn't bother you. Like, heck no. He goes, well, look, here's the deal then.

In five years, you need to get up, and you need to be in NASCAR. He goes, so whenever you get competitive in a class, we're moving. It doesn't matter if it's the middle of the season or win, it is. You're not going to stay in win races. This is the plan. And to get there, we just need to keep moving. So that's kind of what we did. That was exactly how it went.

Yeah. Like, so that's where that came from, that motivation to progress so quickly, but also like as soon as you would win a race and do anything remotely successful, you went to the next thing. Yeah. And I mean, I guess that didn't seem unusual. You guys, you didn't, y'all didn't really know much about racing to begin with. So you ran in late model cars, early 90s, mid-90s, pretty successful in all that,

all pro, super late models, left-hander chassis, all those, right? Never ran left-hander chassis. I think it was Port City in late models. And the gentleman that works for you, Tony Barclay, and Mike Garvey built the cars. And those are the ones basically ran. So you, I mean, you did well. You had success.

It was fast. Tony says you had speed all the time. He was really fast. Everything he set you in. Well, Tony was very good of setting those cars up and making them fast. This is actually what Tony says. You were fast, but you, and you, you just said it, you didn't know race cars.

Like, so he would say, he remembers a test. I can't remember where one of your first times being in it. And he's like, all right, so what's the car doing? And he said, you said, what do you mean? So when you say, y'all didn't know cars, like, you just know that you like to get in there, but you somehow are able to have natural speed. But you don't, it's almost like the Tom Cruise character in Days of Thunder. It's like, I don't know what I'm talking about.

Like, I really don't know, lose tight, all this stuff. Did you really have to, was that you? You had to learn it all? Yeah. I mean, I know in late models right before, I guess we maybe started in late models, Eddie Mercer had a tire guy, Lynn Boyette, that was like awesome. And dad ended up getting him to come up, teach me about tires. Because Stagger, you know, on late model tires was everything.

But, you know, he taught me, hey, this is how you measure the tires before you even mount them. And so I started understanding stuff along the way, but I mean, I didn't have a clue, you know, of being able to tell you this is what the car is doing or this is what I need. It was just each day you were learning something. You're a quick learner, I guess. Do a degree, I guess. Were you surprised at your success then? Yeah. I mean, I was.

But the thing has always had, like, you know, good people. And like I said, you know, when Tony, like, come along, I don't think you could have found anybody any better. model racing, you know, and he's very good with working with you. You know, he was also my spotter. So he helped me a ton when I'm out there on the track. You know, hey, you start lifting a little bit early. You're driving in too deep or you're doing this. So he was kind of not, he was teaching me while we were racing also. Right. And I'm assuming the number double zero. Are you double zero from the start? No, I believe we were trying to be zero one in the beginning. And because my dad raced a little bit of dirt back in the day and his number was, you know, one, but somebody else had it.

Ended up, they said, well, you know, you can be like zero zero. So just kind of took it for that race. Then we went to another race thing in Nashville. Some other guy had it and talked to him like, hey, you know, trading the numbers out. And it just kind of went from there. But it was never like that was zero zero was going to be my number. It would have been zero one or one. Really?

So when you say, but you just ran it for so long you decided to keep it. when you got into the Bush series and all that? Yeah. It had nothing to do with Buck Shop? At the time, no. Because it didn't. I think that car that I had when we first bought it was 12. Then I wanted to be one, couldn't, that Malibu,

and then we said, well, hey, we'll be zero to zero, because all the other numbers, you know, you wanted somebody else out. Sure. I can understand that. You was running a big late model races, and there'd be, you know, lots of cars there, and you'd get there, and there'd be multiple doubles, you know, doubles of 20, 21, and 3, and 80s. Put it like an A or something.

Yeah, he had to doctor it up. Right. Put some duct tape on there. Well, you never had to worry about that with a double O because there weren't many of them out there. When you were racing in the Xfinity series, you got a reputation for being a bit of a wild man. Randy LaJoy called you a dart without feathers.

I know you probably disagree with that. When you're racing late models, what kind of driver were you? I would say kind of the same. You have run-ins with some of those regulars? Like, I don't know who's racing in an All-Pro series back then, but... It was good. No, I mean, the only person, I guess, was when I was running Lanier, All-American. I'm trying to think, it was one of the Barrett brothers.

For whatever reason, I don't even know how it started. I mean, we did not get along at all at any race. And it just, I don't even remember why. So the thing that I always remembered about you is, like, I never had a problem with you, but if you did get something going with somebody, it would never end. Like, I mean, and it would, you know, the next time y'all got around each other, something's going to happen. Yeah. And I felt like, like, so you take some responsibility for that, like not being able to like, oh, yeah.

So like you're saying with this bearer fella, y'all just couldn't get along. Couldn't put, can't put your finger on it, but it just never was good. Right. And you, you were never one to sit down and say, hey, why don't we straighten this out? With him, no. Right. With anyone else? Did you ever sit down and like sort it out with somebody else?

Yeah, you know, there was a time, you know, like Jason Keller got into him, you know, it's flat out my fault and I knew he was pretty pissed and, you know, talked to him and he was still pissed. And then I think everything kind of calmed down. Mike McLaughlin, I think it was at Bristol. It's my fault. Got into him, hit him, called him. And I just said, hey, man, you know, I don't know what to tell you. I said, I'll pay for the car.

I said, you know, I don't know what else to say. It's my fault. And you had a good car, took you out. And I said, I'll talk to your owner, you know, whatever, you know, to clear it up. Sure. And ended up talking to, I don't think I talked to the owner, but talked to his crew guys. And they apologized to them and said, hey, it's just my fault. You know, it won't happen again.

So you was willing to go do that. It just depending if the guy was receptive enough or you just respected him enough. Right. You had tried to race in the Xfinity series a couple times in the early. 90s or mid-90s? Yeah, I think it was Martinsville? 94, maybe 95.

Where'd you get this car from? You know, I forget where our first car came from. I don't remember where that one comes from. Larry, Ricky Pearson. Yeah. All right. They are working with Dennis Setzer. Dennis Setzer in the 59 Alliance car. Right. Robert Presley drove that car, successful

team. They got a hell of a relationship. Ricky does. Their cars were fast. That team dissolved. Went away. Did your dad come to you? and go, we need to get these guys, we need to team up with these guys. How did that relationship start? You know, I forget exactly who it was. We had somebody back then.

Working with you? Yeah, like doing PR stuff. And, you know, being in Georgia, there's nobody really wanted to come to Georgia because, you know, late models. To work on your stuff. Yeah. Those were totally different. I mean, I had the hardest time getting used to radio tires over the buy supply. And, you know, we had one or two people come and, like, do one race deals.

but, you know, that wasn't enough. And ended up, I guess, found out that Ricky, that team was going to dissolve. So dad went and met with them, talked. Where were they based? Because you went to their shop. I'm trying to think where they were. I think they were up Asheville or something. In North Carolina?

It was in North Carolina. I was thinking high point, but you might be right with Asheville. So that's distance. That's not close. That's not home. You've been racing out of the, you know, you've been racing at home. Yeah. So now you're going to go race out of their school.

shop. This is David Pearson's shop. Well, we were actually going to try and get Ricky to come, like, Georgia. And it was more like, you know, as him and dad talked, it's like, no, hey, look, you know, when he's David's shop, Ricky walks out of his house and there's the shop right there. So we were in Myrtle Beach and actually, I think. For a late model race? Yeah. I don't know if we were driving back at that time, but dad called and he goes, well, you said,

you know, racing is what you wanted to do. and you said you'd pick up and move. And I'm like, yeah. He said, well, pack your bags. He goes, you're going to Spartanburg. So got home, packed it up. And we lived in hotels for probably three months because we were just finishing that year out with Ricky.

And then ended up, you know, everything was good. And ended up just hiring them and became the crew chief. And we all started getting apartments and whatever else. So you teamed up with Ricky. in the middle of the year or started a new year? You know, I was trying to remember, and I think it was, I don't know, like maybe mid-year. Mid-year, you started driving?

I think that was 95. Yeah. So you jumped in his car or started driving. Did they have cars? Where did the cars come from? We bought, I think, two of their cars. Did y'all buy part of the Alliance deal? Like those sets of cars?

We bought some of the cars. Yeah. I think we only bought two of them. And then we bought a car, Kenny Wallace. I forget who he was driving for. at the time, but bought one of their cars. Yeah. So we had, I guess, like, four cars, which you could really count it as three because

the first one we bought, I mean, it was, we ended up, I guess, later on, turned into a show car. Yeah. So you said you moved to Spartanburg, South Carolina. Yes. Why did you move there? That's where Ricky was. That's where Ricky was.

That's where the shop was. Yeah, and Ricky was not coming to Georgia. And so when you went up, did you know who David Pearson was? A little bit. Man, I mean, that's pretty badass. Was he around? Did he come walking around? Right?

He was there all the time. Is there a memory about this? Because if you go into an instant laugh, what was David Pearson being at the shop like? Oh, man, it was awesome. Me and him always aggravated each other. You know, there were times he'd be out there cutting the grass and he had a wall. So I'd go get a carton eggs, you know, hide down behind the wall and start chunking them out of them. And I can't say what he did to me when I come back from lunch, but a lot of us used to go eat lunch together and the guys.

Well, we used to play games like throwing a quarter. There'd be a crack, you know, in the concrete. And whoever lost had to pay. Doing it again, my quarter landed perfect on that crack. And I looked at it and I said, beat that you're flankety-blank. And I said, I'll look the crack of your ass. He took that quarter, flipped it, and it stood up in that crack. And I'm sitting there like, you've got to be kidding.

And I turned a look at him and he'd already had his pants down. Get to look at it. That's hilarious. He scared the heck out of me plenty of times. Like Darlington. I've never been there. So he takes me out when we go to the test in the van. In a van?

And I mean, I don't know how the mirror wasn't taking the fence down. I mean, I'm freaking out. And he runs like two lapses. He's all right, you got that? I'm like, hell no. I was like, you're scaring the hell out of me the whole time. He's, well, I told you what to do. So David helped me a ton.

When I'd go out and run, I'd come in and he goes, this is what you need to change. They kept doing it all day long. And then road course racing. You know, he was teaching me, I guess he had an S-10 truck. And we'd go way up the road and come down, and there'd be a stop sign. But, you know, you'd never stop. go through it. Well, he's flying down through there, and all of a sudden he goes to downshift.

And I'm thinking he's turning into the race shop, and I'm like holding on, and he didn't. You know, he went on up. I was, you're scared the hell out of me. But he was a great help. He was always fun, always cracking up, and me and him always playing jokes on each other. That is pretty incredible to be able to, you know, especially as young as your racing career was, and as late as you've got to start to be able to spend so much time with possibly, in a lot of people's minds, one of the best drivers to ever do it.

I mean, he's in that conversation with Richard and my dad and Jimmy Johnson, and a lot of people feel like David doesn't get his credit because he only ran partial schedules, you know, but if he would have won full, if he'd ran full seasons in those years, he would have likely won the championship. So you're getting to spend time with that guy every day, and you moved. You moved to Spartanburg. You're living in Spartanburg. Well, how was that for you? Was you, were you all right with that?

Yes. You're good being away from home? Yeah. I mean, Georgia, you know, always said I'd never leave Georgia. But with racing, that's what I love. That's where I wanted to do. So whatever it took, you know, that's what, you know, was going to do. Was your dad kind of in his mind out of the racing business at this point?

I mean, because, like, he had been kind of paying for that and y'all were buying cars and whatnot. But is this, like, I read an article where he was like, hey, as soon as you can get scooped up with a team, I'm going back to the cables. Right. Well, I mean, he was in the cable still, but he ran, there are his people like ran the business, like the buckshot racing. So, I mean, he was always involved with it. Got it. But I wouldn't say he's doing it like day to day.

Got it. But that's where it all had to come to me that purchase orders, like if we order stuff, it was purchase orders. So I knew every dime that was going out because he didn't want me, hey, just racing, he wanted you to learn business side of stuff. That's what did that whole time. It was a pretty incredible, when you think about it, it was a pretty incredible brand marketing strategy you guys had.

I don't think people will give that enough credit, to be honest with you. I know that people like, you know, LaJoy can sit there and take shots at you for it. But the buckshot, the double zero, the merchandise, the whole thing, I mean, it had to take somebody quite smart to make that all work. And you guys always did it. I mean, y'all did it well. So you're saying that even though that they're not like directly involved, in the setting up cars and this, that and the other,

they're very much involved in your brand business. Yes. And your management, so to speak. Yeah, in terms of that, the brand or, I was never involved with it. It was more like, hey, the business side, racing, and that was it. And this shop, by the way, is this the shop that Finch ended up buying? Well, originally we were at David's shop, and then I guess when we decided to go to Cups, like, hey, we've got to have a bigger shop.

Okay. So that's when we built the shop there. What is it? Off exit 78. And yeah, and then James ended up buying it afterwards. Okay. And then now there was a roofing company there. I think it was Guy roofing.

They ended up buying it. And, I mean, they've got like five buildings right down through there. So they're a huge company. You're racing in the Xfinity Series with Ricky. You were fast out of the gate. I mean, you just like burst on with the scene. and you're a contender. You know, you're running top 10.

And I remember people talking about your inexperience and it showed and but you still have, you know, people say, well, you know, he's fast. He's got speed. Once he figures it out, you know, that there's enough raw talent there to stick with it and see it through. You had Aqua Fresh as a sponsor. Where did that come from?

I think that comes through dad somehow or they contacted him on how all that starts. already. Yeah. They were a pretty good sponsor, pretty good partner. Yes, very good. What kind of appearances did you have to do for Acrefresh? You could brush your teeth. Oh yeah. You know, sometimes, you know, would go to the plant or just wherever I wanted. So I use AcreFresh today. What is going to the plant like where they marry all that together? It was pretty wild watching all that. Let me ask you a question. How do you put the toothpaste back in the tube? I got, I mean, they got machines to do that. They got machines to do that. But it can be done is what he's saying.

Most people think it can't be done. He's saying that it can be done. Did you enjoy that stuff? Let me just make an assumption here that an old Georgia boy who gets a late start really isn't going to be polished in the sponsorship game. Yet you had some pretty good sponsorships. So when you're going to appearance and stuff, a lot of drivers don't really embrace that kind of thing.

It's abnormal. It's uncomfortable. What was it like for you? In all honesty, I didn't like doing. appearances all the time. You know, I just wanted to race. But the one thing, you know, I knew is it's the fans

that are allowing you to do what you want to do. That's just part of the business. So it was easy going, you know, getting along, talking to people, you know, had fun and a lot of them. But, you know, sometimes it was just, it was too much. You wish you were racing.

Yes. Obviously. It was busy. Yeah. So I don't think you're alone in that as far as no not many drivers enjoy it not even alone at this table i'm afraid not many drivers enjoyed doing a lot of the personal service stuff so when i was telling i was given some clues to my friends my booth buddies letard and jeff burton on who was on the podcast and we were on the plane ride

home from from the race this weekend in michigan and i said he had to want he had the most interesting bus of anybody even still today i mean brad because last He had that one trailer with the eagle and the American flag and all that on there. It was pretty wild. But your bus had your name on it, and it lit up at night. Fibre optic. Fibre optic. Fibre optic.

Because that's what, you know, dad did fiber optic. Oh, really? So that's where that came from? Yeah. So where does tour bus? Where did you get that? Because that thing looks like it had some history. It looked like it belonged to like Merle Haggard or somebody.

It had to been a tour bus for. for a musician at some point. They all have a history. You know, I forget how dad ended up talking to the guy that drove our bus, Carl, and, you know, he had provost. Okay. So

dad ended up, you know, getting the bus, and it wasn't made for, like, me to sleep in. It was made for, like, the guys. Because back then... Had a bunch of bunks in it. Yep. Had bunk beds in it, everything. I never stayed in it. I mean, you go to the track. You never stayed in it? No. Wait. You never stayed in that

bus with your name all over it? Uh-uh. Who stayed in it? Uh, the bus driver. That's it? I stayed at the hotel and we were at Charlotte. What the hell was the bus there for? It was just, I don't know.

Somewhere to hang out. Yeah, that was about it. And then we were at Charlotte. I mean, I'm whole that whole time I'm sitting there looking at this thing all those years. I'm thinking you're in there. No, I guess the first, I didn't start staying at it until. You did stay. You did stay.

Okay. So when I'm there, you are in it in 98, 99. Yes. But whose idea was it to put the buck shot, you know, naming lights on the bus? Was it yours? No. I had, I never dealt with anything like branding. I know.

Damn it. You walk up and you see that. What do you say? Too much? Yeah. You thought it was too much? I just like, hey, you know, I don't deal with that side of stuff. So I didn't really say it.

Did your dad go, check this out. Look at what I did to the bus. Well, he showed me some. pictures of it of like how it's going to be decal and all that. And you said, no problem. Yeah. You're running the show. Yep.

Yeah. If you don't say no to that, what will you say no to it? I wonder. I mean, because it like, pretty much nothing. Nothing. That makes sense. I need to see a picture of this. I just Googled it.

It didn't. Well, I need to see. The Bowling Ball and Ball has the, has the Buckshot logo on it. It's, he had his name sort of in a logo form. And I saw that on the ball and I'm like, that's it. That's what's on the bus. Wow. So not, and I'll be honestly, like, Buckshot alone, just being named Buckshot was interesting enough. And the bus and all the things that came along with him, the, you know, the style of driving and the reputation and all that, it all made sense.

I mean, you know, I wouldn't, I wasn't having to go, I wasn't having to deal with what Randy was dealing with. Like, so maybe I wouldn't have liked it, but we raced fine together. Well, there was that one time. Daytona, yeah. But I was. Did you remember, do you know what we're talking about? Trickle. Yeah.

You clip trickle. Yep. So. And I remember going and talking to him because I thought he moved up on me. You did. And talked to him at the next race. What do he say? He just put his hand on my shoulder.

He said, I don't think that's the way it happened. And I said, well, if you say, that's not the way it happened. I trust what you say. I said, if it was my fault, I apologize. I said, I just felt like you moved up a little. But if I'm the one that moved, I apologize. And I always got along with trickle. Yeah, I did too.

He's cool. So I'm running my first Daytona race. Now, to be clear, I've publicly said on Twitter that that wreck was your doing. Now, and I will, I feel like it was. But I will say this to your defense. and Dick Trekles' defense as well. So I was out there many, many laps down. I broke the yoke on the transmission on pit stop

because, you know, you're going to break stuff the first time you go to Daytona with those gears trying to get off the pit road. But anyways, I tore up my car, come in, we changed the gear, go back out. I don't know how many laps down I was, 20, 30 laps down. And I'm out there, y'all running sixth or seventh.

Y'all were running pretty good. I think so. Yeah, y'all are in the top ten. And I'm just running in y'all's way, and y'all were trying to get by me for a lap. I thought you were still pretty fast at that time of that. Yes, I mean, it wasn't like you were in the way or anything. I'm just saying, like, for being that many laps down,

trickle finally gets beside me for, because those cars couldn't pass really easily. You'd get like a half a car link behind a guy, and you couldn't get any closer. You couldn't. I remember before I broke, Nemtick's leading, I think Finch's car is second, and I'm running third, and, I mean, we're all a car link apart, and nothing you can do. You're wide open and you're getting no runs, nothing. Those cars just didn't, they didn't race really well back in with the package. But so I'm sitting there in front of trickle just going.

Finally he got up beside me and we're going to have back straightaway and he's trying to side draft me and Buckshot closed in behind me. And I think Buckshot and him got together and it turned him into me and we went wrecking. But if I'd have known better, I probably wouldn't have been up in it. I will say this, 2010 me would have got out of the way. Rookie me was like, I'm running front of Dick Trinkle. Yeah. You know? Trickle, I got a funny one on him.

I think it was the race. We won Milwaukee. He was running first. I was running second. And caution was out. They give you one to go. We hit the backstretch. I see trickle throw something out the window.

We take off. We run maybe a laugh or two. Caution comes out. And I was like, man, right before that last restart, I swear, Dick threw a cigarette out the window. And Reggie's like, yeah, he lights one up. Run caution. You know, I never knew that.

You know that. No. Yeah. He was a character, man. He was fun to race with. Yeah. So we're going to talk about all the things with Randy and all that, but who did you enjoy racing?

Who was your buddy? Who did you, you know, me and tricks or pals, me and Elliot Saddle always got along. I could go down on the list. Who did you enjoy racing with? Who did you hang out with? I'd say I always got along with Elliot. He was always cracking you up about stuff.

But I don't know. I mean, I'd say that my only, biggest issue would be LaJoy. I wouldn't say there's like this person that, you know, like racing with. I mean, just a few people, you know, you had run-ins with. Yeah. So what was it about LaJoy? Was it just one of those guys, just like that guy at Lanier that you just, you know,

got off on the wrong foot and you never could, it never ended? Made a long story short. I would say back then, a bunch of the teams had someone that, you know, always booked your hotel rooms. Yeah. We go to Talladega. Something got messed up. So it was us, Elton Sawyer's team, LaJoy, someone else. So we always joked around with Elton's guys, and something happened with, like, fireworks.

Well, I had a bottle rocket, and I leaned over the rail, and I threw it in, you know, Elton's room. Bob's in there, too. That bottle rocket goes in, sets Bob's jacket on fire. Oh. So the next. Bob, who? Sutton. He owns the car.

Yeah, him and A. Elliot's car, yes. Yeah, Elton, Sawyer's car. Right. So that night, I had a Pontiac, you know, like car, and they kept setting the alarm off. Well, get up the next morning, and my car's on jack stands. Yeah. So I'm like, man, well, I go out there and look, there's a big dent inside of my car.

So I was talking to his guys, like, man, who put the dent in the car? They're like, well, Joy, you know, he was beating up against it. He was the one setting the alarm off a lot. So I was like, that side, you know, he can pay for it. So we go. Is that the first? Yeah. That's the first domino.

This is what started it? Well, that kind of, I wasn't really mad. I just like, hey, he's supposed to pay for it. Yeah. Well, we go to the driver's meeting. He gets up and talks and says, you know, hey, everybody needs to give and take. Where are you at? Talladega.

Okay. He goes, everybody needs to give and take at the beginning of the race. So it's like, good. Well, eight laps in. You know, he hits us, like, through the trial, and then Nimman Check hits us. Well, me and Nimichick were parked in there, and Dimmichick come over and said a couple of words, and it pissed me off even more.

Nimichick said what? That he knew something was fixing to happen. Oh. I guess what was going on. He said, he's like, I knew something was going to happen in the race. Like, I knew a record going to happen. No, he was saying at the very beginning of the way some guys were driving. Right.

He's like, I knew that's bound to happen. And did you feel like he put that on you? Why did that push you off? because Randy. Oh, I got you. So it's like, all right, the dent. So Nimichick fired you up even more. Yes, they did.

So we get out there and run, cars tore up, and, you know, end of the race comes, and I mean, I'm still pretty pissed about it. So we run out of gas, and I finally coast around, come in. I said, fill it back up. They're like, man, race, there's only like one lap left. I said, fill it back up.

So they filled it up. And I won't name the spotter, but he knew what I was fixing to do. And, you know, we took back off. And I guess we were in turn one. He goes turn four, start finish line, and Lejoy finally got up. You know, hit him. And you ran into his car? Yeah.

Race over? Yeah. Okay. So it was just more like the anger, I guess, at the time. And, you know, like when you get upset, you do things. well, we all go in the NASCAR trailer. Did NASCAR come over and say, hey, man, we saw that? You got to come to the trailer.

At the time, nobody really saw what happened. They knew something happened. But they didn't know what happened, but they knew something happened. Yep. How did you get called to the trailer? Oh, as soon as I pulled in, the officials come up, said, you and your crew chief. So we'd go in there and Randy's like, you know, man, I never touched you. I'm like, look, the back of my car is black.

There ain't no blue on my car, but there's blue all underneath it. And I said, your car is blue. I said, you hit us. He's like, I never touched you. And that, I've seen the replay. Like, he flat run over you. Yeah, so, you know, when we went in there, I was never directly asked, did you hit Randy? Yeah.

They just said kind of what happened. Well, I guess it was Tuesday or Wednesday. Mike Helton called, his buckshot. he goes, but he'd talk to you. Like, yes, sir, he goes, did you hit Randy? I said, if you're going to ask me a direct question, I'm going to give you a direct answer. I said, yes. I said, but you never asked me in that trailer, you know, did I hit him?

You just said, hey, what happened? And I told you. And I said, but, you know, he wrecked us. I said, he goes into that driver's meeting. So that kind of started right there between me and him. And I don't know that we had any other issues until Bristol. So this was in 97. Hold tight.

So what was the repercussions of that after Mike Hilton's calling you? Did you get fined? Did you get dock point? I think I got $5,000 fine, 50 points. Okay. So did you regret it? At the time, no. But, you know, looking back on, you know, things, you know, when that race is over, yeah, I mean, I don't believe in really hitting people.

Some guys take their seat belts off, you know, or whatever. but it was just you're in like the heat of the moment I guess and my last question about it hearing you tell this story was anybody trying to talk you out of it you said your spotter was knew about it knew what you were doing giving you giving you uh at least info about where LaJoy is right so there's nobody else just saying buckshot cool down or whatever crew chief nobody no okay I don't think

they really knew until it was kind of after the fact yep yeah okay but no regret Even after Helton, all that stuff, you're just like, look, he had it coming. Yeah. Okay. Then you go to Bristol. Bristol, you know, always look at it like this. You know, if you bump someone, you know, and you get on around him, if you've been on them, been on them, been on them.

And they're not losing other positions. You know, it's short tracks. That's just part of it to me. And that's what happened like with Randy. You barely bumped him. Past him. Yep. And that's it.

He didn't lose a. spot, he didn't lose anything, go down on the next corner, dumps me. But, you know, at that time after that race, what's so funny is, is he says, hey, you know, he got a run on me, you know, I'll let him go. We go down, turn one, and, you know, he checked up, you know, people checked up in front of us. I'm like, there ain't nobody in there in front of us. And, I mean, he lifted us upon us, and, yeah, I was fired up right then. Because I was like, you know, I've had it. You know, you wrecked us at Talladega.

Now you wreck us here. Why do you think that he was sort of had this agenda for you? Because Randy didn't wreck other people. But you and him seemed to, you and him seemed like y'all just couldn't wait to do it. We never had words like before. We never had any problems. I mean, nothing. Would y'all?

Would y'all talk to each other at the track? Say, hey, wave, nothing. No. So y'all, there was no communication between any of these incidents. Good or bad. No. Did you think it was over after Talladega, though? Like, did you suspect that it would carry on, even if you didn't like the guy?

No, I didn't. I thought, hey, it was just all right, it happened, it's over with. Okay, so you thought it was over? Then Bristol happens, and now it's not over, and now you've got these feelings are all back. Yeah. So you get dumped, you're mad, and then he's like, I'm not sorry, right? That's even worse, isn't it? I mean, when a guy does something like that and has zero remorse or it takes no responsibility.

Yeah. That makes it even worse, don't it? Yeah. So now you're like, in your mind are you thinking getting his ass back? Now I looked at it, you know, at Bristol, you know, hit him a little bit. That's over. I'm not, I wasn't looking at going, you know, wrecking him, you know, somewhere else. I think we got together at Nazareth and destroyed his car.

But it's like he said, you know, I think if I remember, we all went in to the one corner at Nazareth and it got bunched up. And he got in the back of Patty. I got in the back of him. You know, he hit the wall. We did not give each other an inch, I mean, ever. And I don't remember what race or what happened between me and him. I think we were at Charlotte.

We got called into the trailer. with crew chiefs and everything. It was told, if you wreck each other, we're going to park you, you're sitting in a race. If you're in the same accident, and neither one of you caused it, whatever, if you're both in it, we're parking you, and you're going to miss the next race. We're not going to have it, you know, anymore. And, yeah, you couldn't fit a piece of paper in between our car at times, but we didn't touch.

I mean, I don't remember, I think it was before that, we were at Loudoun. It was faster than him. And finally, you know, got a run on him, got beneath him, hit. You know, he hit the wall. Well, I looked at it. I'd ridden behind you. I was faster.

We've had problems. You should have let me go. And I think Jeff Green was behind us. And we were on a plane ride home. Me and him were talking. And I go, what did you think about it? I said, you were there. He said, I think you're both at fault.

He goes, I think Randy should have given you the room because you were there. He goes, but I look at it, you, if you had given it probably two more laps, you probably would have passed them. It wouldn't have been a problem. But you two guys have had so many problems together, neither one of you were given. And I think it was pretty much after NASCAR talked, everything kind of stopped between us. we may have bumped each other, but everything pretty much settled. And actually, I called him in 2009, I think, about doing my boy's quarter midget seats. He's like, yeah, come up, you know, no problem.

And I talked to him one other time, you know, kind of quick. I thought, you know, hey, over, and then he'd come on here. And he started saying stuff. I'm like, man. Oh, so you heard what he was saying on here? I ended up listening because I got phone calls like that. Well, Joey's like giving you hell. And I'm like listening to it.

And I'm like, dude, you're telling two separate stories. You say one thing after the Bristol race. You come on here and then you say something completely different. What do you say here that got you so upset? That he did it on purpose. Reck us. Admitted it. Yeah.

But I mean, it's just like, hey, what happened back then the way I look at it. Well, I mean, I think you already knew that, right? Yeah. You already knew it. And you're just hearing him admit it. Mm-hmm. Made it made an old room fresh. Maybe it's because, I don't know, was it, two years ago,

Nicole Custer, at Darlington did like a throwback scheme. And I had to do like a few, like, radio interviews. I didn't talk about it about Randy at all. I just say, hey, what happened back then? You know, hey, everybody, you know, has someone usually they don't get along with. But, hey, all that's kind of done, it's over with. So I just look at it, hey, what happened in the past, leave it. And then you come on, you're like bringing stuff.

stuff up. I'm like, all right. We're a bit, we're a bit sturs, I think. There's a little bit of that. I don't be a minute. Probably. And I do recognize that it sucks to have to explain Rex from 25 years ago. It probably does suck now that I think about it. But here we are. And I mean, this is what people remember. I remember it. I remember you going after Randy and missing. That was a Bristol too, wasn't it? No, I got him some. No, I know you got. Not in some, but didn't you try to wreck him once and missed? No, he thinks I missed, but if you watched the video, his rear quarter panels had ended in. Yeah.

But I guess he knew, but the car was so tore up, you know, backing in the wall. Plus, you know, I was down on the apron, pulled back up. So, you know, hit him a little bit. But, yeah, I mean, it was just flat out, you dumped me. Yeah. And, you know, I don't, and like I said, I don't think we had any. problems from Talladega to then but it was just like hey I mean that pass and it's Bristol there's nothing wrong with that I mean early in the race yeah you know it gets towards the end of the race if you

bump someone up a little bit and you're not causing them to lose a bunch of positions that's part of it yeah no I agree with that I mean yeah you had run-ins with Robert Presley I watched that one at Bristol Robert come down on you I think you must have been laughed or something and they were trying to get around you and get back to the bottom of the racetrack because the bottom was the preferred line but he'd come down across the nose during the broadcast broadcast booth you know covered it for you saying yeah he was you know nothing you could have done so i mean you've been in a lot of incidents that weren't your fault you know just just hard racing but you got that reputation i guess so it was easy i mean yeah like that deal there

no i mean we were running i think we were running up front of and we had a tire go down or something. So we ended up getting the lap down. So, you know, the lap cars were doing the inside, which I was lapped. But I'm racing the guys that are right behind me. But at the same time, I give you all the room. Yeah, they had. And you come down across and was like, I knew Robert more through Ricky.

Because I guess, you know, they'd worked together before. I'd always gotten along with Robert. But, you know, I can see sides of it. You know, you think it's the other person's fault. You were running up front. you're a lap car that yeah you know sometimes that heat of the moment you know you say things was your dad did your dad come up to you say hey we're going cup racing it's time what what was that all about you know i think me him and rickie had talked about you know moving up and you know i was kind of

both yeah it's crazy yeah and i mean it was kind of that time being a single car team man that's Not the way to go. No. And, you know, I guess because we'd had success, you know, had Ricky, hired new people in, you know, thought, hey, you know, we can probably do this. We'd even talked about, you know, starting a second car also. Not at that time. Yeah.

But, hey, you know, let's see how this year goes. You know, not the following year, maybe like third year, you know, second or third. And it just, you know, got behind. So early on, didn't have the cars, the shop, getting everybody in. So, you know, it's hard enough in, you know, the Expendity Series of your stuff isn't ready trying to play catch up. But our cars were like off. The cup car we had, I drove a car to Boler Brothers back then when he'd run all the weird shocks. So, I mean, I knew how the car would feel.

And when we went to test, I mean, that car was. It was horrible. And I was telling regularly, hey, man, there's something wrong with the car. We ended up getting Bobby Laboney to get in it because he was the only one, you know, maybe closer to my size. They could get in it. He didn't even make three lapses. I don't know what's wrong with this car. Hey, something is messed up.

Then we tested Rockingham. The car was good. We go back to race. Man, the car is just something happened with the brakes. And by the time we figured it out, we never even got to really do. do a qualify, like a clean run, missed the race. And then we tested somewhere else. And I just said, look, something's not right with these cars.

I said, I'm just telling you. And I think me and Ricky at that time, maybe, I wouldn't say we were splitting apart. But I think looking back now, there were times he was thinking, I was saying it's your fault. Yeah. You know, or something like that kind of happened. But it wasn't. It was like, hey, there's something wrong with these cars. It's not your fault.

The car, something's not right. Well, we ended up taking the car back, put it on the jig. It wouldn't even come close to fit a brand new car. Took another car. Wouldn't even fit the jig. So called Hopkins and said, hey, man, I said, I need some help. I said, I need a front clip. He's, man, I'm two weeks behind.

I was like, I got to have one now. And he said, where are you at? Told him. I said, man, I'll have every one of my cars. You'll do all of them. And he fit us in, and, you know, cars weren't that bad. But it's just we weren't progressing. I mean, things just weren't clicking there.

Yeah, it was a new team. I remember that. In 2001, you went to drive for Richard Petty in the 44. Did they call you? How did that happen? I think they did. It was a weird deal. I was running Bush.

We were at Atlanta, and I had to do a PR up in the condos. I did. My parents was coming out. I saw a guy. I used to know. And he was, hey, man, what's going on? We taught him. He was, hey, come in here.

We signed a couple autographs. I'm like, yeah. Well, it was the Georgia Pacific. So walked in, you know, stayed for probably 15 minutes, talked, signed autographs, come out. The guy, Georgia Pacific coming, he goes, do we sponsor you? I'm like, no, sir.

I said, I think they were an associate on Mike Skinner's car back then. Just talked a few minutes left. Dad called Monday. He goes, hey, he goes, you come into town. He goes, we got a meeting tomorrow. So go down to Georgia Pacific, talk to them. He's like, man, he goes, why did you come in there? I said, I knew this guy.

He worked there just said, hey, you come sign some autographies. When we go cup racing, he goes, we're coming to you. So did. And I think it may have got around that had the sponsor. I know we talked to a couple of teams. But then, you know, Petties, they came in, flew down and met with them. them and I liked everything that was going on. You know, they were going back to Dodge.

All the team were supposed to share information. All three of the cars were identical. I mean, you couldn't have different bodies and all this. So I'm like, you know what? If all those cars are identical, you know, if I'm off and like John Collar on, maybe I can put their set up. It seemed like a good deal. And, you know, just kind of like, you know, talking and then just kind of

went there and things didn't work out. Did you enjoy driving into Cup Series? I did if we had a good car. Yeah. You know, but when I knew that we were behind, you know, it was like, no. I didn't. Actually, when I drove D.E.I.'s car that time at Caledada. Man, that was, I forget what year.

In Cup? Yeah. What happened is with Michael Waltrip, I had a sponsor to do just like one race, Cup race at Atlanta. And I think it rained out qualifying. Something happened where it rained it out. So I guess it was the next week I called Michael. I said, hey, let me ask something.

What if I want to change races? He said, what do you mean? I said, well, we still got to run Atlanta. I said, but let's say I don't want to run there. I want to run Talladega. I said, but I want it to be DEI Corps. He said, let me make a call. So he called, called me back.

And he said it was X amount. $900 more to like go retest. So it's like, hey, I'm fine with that. So we did. So I tested one of the DEI cars that I was going to drive in Michael's car. And I think it was Jason Keller's testing yours and the one car. Well, Michael's car was a rocket. The car I was in was six-tenths of a second off.

And we did everything chassis. And, you know, days they were like, well, you know, we're done with the I'm like, what are you talking about? They said, the arrow guys are flying down tomorrow. Arrow guys come down, that car, when they were done with it, was six hundredths of a second. It's like they were putting like little

lock-type bottles up there on the nose. They'd watch how it blow back. And Michael's car drove like a Cadillac, the one I was driving, like, both hands on the wheel. Well, the problem was, we're done, and the guys

come in, like, hey, man, you're fixing to get. screwed. I'm like, what are you talking about? They're like, the one car is like really bad, and they're going to swap cars. And I was like, oh, hell no. So I grabbed a screwdriver, and they didn't know. I got in the car. And I called Michael. I was like, hey, man, I said, what's the deal? You took a screwdriver and marked the interior of the car so you could see the mark. Exactly. Yeah. So I called Michael. He was, look, man, I've already taught of them. You're keeping that car. They're just going to bring back something different. And I was like, cool. So,

come back for the race, and when I go walking in the garage, all the guys, you know, heads down. I'm like, what's going on? They're like, man, they screwed you, man, they screwed you. And I'm like, what are you talking about? They, they swap cars. So I jumped in the car. I looked. No, hell, no, it's the same car.

They're like, how do you know? I said, because I marked it. And they're like, well, we marked it too. And it was, like, funny back then. But that car, God, man, that car was incredible. Yeah. That was probably the most fun. I've had like on the super speedways.

But it was something I think they were using your sign, the eight, and I think they had it turned sideways because they didn't have mine. Well, I'm used to seeing zero zero. Well, I skidded through and we just changed

it was either lefts or rights and I guess flat spotted and blew the tire. And I told Michael, actually, I tested if you don't win this race, it's your own fault. And by God he won the race. Yeah. That's funny that they thought a sideways eight would look just like a do zero zero.

When do you think you had the most fun as a driver? Early on, you know, it was a lot of fun. And I kind of liked it more when, you know, you could borrow someone's gear or if you were off on your car, you know, people kind of help you out, set up. And then like each year, started getting away because it's a business. I mean, you're competing with this other guy. So I'd say probably 97, 98. probably the most fun for me.

In the Xfinity series, in the Bush series. Yeah. We haven't even talked about your wins. I mean, you win twice in the Xfinity series. Yeah. Well, I talked to Kyle a little bit this weekend, and Kyle told me that he thought you really never, and never wanted to be a cup racer.

You really enjoyed the super late model stuff and racing in the Bush series, and that you never, you felt, he felt like that maybe your dad and maybe other things around you steered you toward that direction. Like it was like you said, when you said when you sit down here, your dad told you when we get successful in this level, we're moving up. And you kept doing that all the way to the very top.

And maybe you and your heart weren't that obsessed with becoming a cup racer. You just wanted to have fun racing that. And maybe where you were having fun was not going to be in the cup series. It was more because the business side of it wasn't as enjoyable. No, I mean, cup is where I want. to be and I was used to you know maybe being like in the all-American division or late model stocks and you know if you got competitive you move up you don't stay and win races this is what the plan is so with the Xfinity series you know that's like a bigger leap to me going from

there and going into the cup so yeah you'd be disappointed at times but you knew hey there was going to be a setback when you jump up like that all right things Start from scratch. Yeah. And, you know, I guess when we went cup racing, you know, since I kind of understood a little bit of the business side of it and other things, it was like, hey, you know, we're behind. We've got to take a step back. Otherwise, we're going to have, like, the whole season like this. And we did, and then there were some issues.

You know, Ricky ended up leaving and went to the petties, you know. Did your relationship with Ricky stay sour? No. It was when he left. Right. How you sorted it? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

I'll talk to him a couple times a year. I don't like holding grudges against people or being mad at people like over time like that. And me and him always had good times, went hunting, did other stuff together. When did you stop racing? Stop racing full time in 2002. Why? Got to let go at Pettys. I know, but why did you quit?

Why didn't you keep racing? Actually, I was going to. I talked to some other teams. I just said, man, if I'm going back, I want to be in something that will be competitive. Where? Who? The other teams?

I forget exactly. Was it Cups, Finity? Both. But then ended up talking to James Finch. And flew down there and met with James, and he said, look, this is what we want to do. I'm going to run X amount of bush races, X amount of cup races. Well, I knew James, hey, he was going to have the best that he could have.

and you're going to give the best opportunity. Well, we had had, my wife at the time, we'd had our first child, and she was pregnant with our second one. And I guess I got let go in April, and this was probably, I don't know, around September or something, you know, talked to James, did like a handshake, and he said, you need a contract. I'm like, no. I said, handshake's good enough for me.

When I told her, she said, no, she's, you're done with racing. My wife. Your wife said that? And I'm like, this is what I do. She's, yeah, we've got a family now. And I'm like, I just thought, you know, hey, with her being pregnant or second child. Price a little less. A couple of days later, uh-uh.

It's like, neither if you're quitting, we're getting divorced. And probably another week went on. And to me, family was always, always first for me. And when my first son was born, you know, they take you out of the delivery room. They'll take the baby, clean it up. And you see them in there. Well, for some reason, maybe babies that were born premature, something was wrong. They had the curtain part open.

And, man, when I saw, like, tubes and things like that, I mean, like, tears come in my eyes. What was going on? I don't know what was wrong with the other kids, but it's just seeing the kids like that, you tore me up. And I told Dad, I'm like, when my son that was just born, I said, when he turns five or six, I'm done with racing. I said, I'm not going to, if he's going to play sports, you know, at five years old, I'm not missing it. I said, you know, it was just a weird moment at that time, you know, I guess seeing those other, you know, babies that way, like, I'm not going to miss this. And when did that happen? He was born November of 01.

All right. So you had no problems then. Stop it. No. I would have probably stopped like in, oh. Six or seven. All right. That was what your plan was.

You had a plan. Yeah. It just expedited it a bit. When you got, all right, so when the racing season starts in February of 03, I guess, and you, you know, you're not there and you're not doing it. Was it weird? Yeah. It was weird for a couple years. A couple years.

Yeah. Did you have a hard time with that or no? Yeah. Yeah. What were you doing? Actually, no. My dad was doing. some land developing with another guy.

The other guy kind of handled everything. He was a home builder in Georgia, which used to be Meridian home, now they're relying. And he's like, you like the outdoors. He goes, you know, go work with, you know, him, learn of the development. He goes, you make, you know, good money doing it. So I ended up getting involved in that probably mid-03, I think it was. and then just kind of.

So back to his question then, and now that we know what you're doing, did you hate it? Did you hate doing that because you weren't racing? You said you had a couple years where you struggled. Yeah, but it was sitting and not really doing anything made it worse. So if you got out there developing, you did like outdoors and all that stuff,

you kind of took your mind off of it. But, you know, missed it. And, you know, once a probably a year or two past, you know, it started getting easier because like you were, you were out of it in a way. So you're not used to doing it all the time. But regretting it, you know, no, I mean, like I said, family to me was always the most important. I wish I would have a race for several more years. But things, that's just not the way it happened.

You did have that 2003 DIG race with Michael in the DEI car, you mentioned. But after that, you never drove anything. Yeah, I drove trying to think a couple of Hoos races. Yeah. What did you think about that? I mean, I like getting back in the car. But, you know, that was probably two, I don't know, three years after I got out. Yeah, you can tell you're rusty. When you've not been in a car for a while and, you know, I didn't expect, hey, I'm going to jump in the Hooters car and go win and all this.

It's just like, hey, this will be fun. But I knew I would not get back into it, you know, full time. It was just more driving it for a couple of races. So, yeah, I had a good time doing it. Why did you stop? They, I think that team, they ended up into dissolving. Yeah. But, I mean, you've got enough of resources of your own to just pedal.

What you were saying, I looked at that. A guy used to race with that were near Wayne Willard, he was helping a, another team out and I went to the race at Lanier and just like seeing the cars and things that they're doing and got talking to them like hey man what does that cost and like this it's like man you start to my hair's a hundred grand here's 150 grand it's like you know what I think I'll just stick with what you're doing yeah I'm surprised though that you're not an owner of a car or anything like that even just just because once it's in your kind of it's in your blood you know. Yeah. But because you look healthy, you look great. You know, you look like you're doing

well physically. Yes. Like you could jump behind the wheel right now and go drive something. It'd be fine. How old are you? 51. 51. God. How old's your kids? 18 and 19. Wow. What's that like? How was it being dad? Like growing up, so I've got two little girls, three and three years old and 10 months. All right. So what was being a dad like? How did you enjoy that. Where are they? Being a father is like the best time of your life. Did you get to do all the things you wanted to do?

When you quit racing, you get to go all the games. You get to go do all the day at the time. Yes. I mean everything. Doctors appointments, teachers, you know, anything that involved them, they came first. No matter what, always. How much of the racer Buckshot Jones do they know or do they want to discuss or do they ask about? They did like years ago.

You know, and they'll still bring it up at times, you know, like their friends and stuff know, you know, used to race. But, no, I mean, it's not talked about a lot. Where do you live now? I guess it's called Houston, Georgia. What's your house looked like? Just a brick house. What's inside? If I walked into your house right now, would I see anything in there from your racing past?

Absolutely not. And the reason you wouldn't because the whole house is being remodeled. Well, if it wasn't being remodeled, do you save a shelf? Well, downstairs had like, you know, all the racing pictures, like down in the basement. And then. But those are getting, that's getting remodeled too? Oh, yeah. Will anything go back?

I don't know, because I may end up selling the house. So I'm debating whether I'm selling it. Where's your two trophies from your Xenity wins? One of them's in a building or a farm we call the toy box and the other ones at my mom's. Yeah, the toy box. Why do you call it that? I don't know a long time ago. Well, my dad, you know, my dad had a bunch of, like, older cars.

My uncle had a bunch of stuff. So it's kind of like toys. Yeah. So it's like, all right, we're going to call this the toy box. It's a warehouse. Mm. Oh. So you're going to the farm.

Yeah. All, I've never given a helmet away. I don't know why. Oh. A fire suit, you know, I have, but like, I'd say every helmet I got, every fire suit, you know, war. It's all in there. Yeah. It's on the shelf or boxed up?

Both. Gotcha. There were about 5 million Buckshot Jones T-shirts out in the merchandise line. Do you got any of them? No kidding. Yeah. There's still some that are boxed up. That's what I need.

That's one thing I ain't got in my collection. You don't have a Buckshot Jones. Oh, damn, no. I'll get you one. I need one. Oldest one, the better. All right. Like the most, yeah.

Yeah. Hey, can I ask you real quick about your win? When you won Milwaukee, that was your first win. Yes. I was looking at the statistic line. It said you started 32nd. I think that's right What happened in that race?

I mean, you won that race and you led 28 laps in this race So what do you remember of winning? Because that would be a big deal. One I remember got spun out And it put us off like the pitch sequence. Got it. So what it did, it ended up moving us up in the field.

But the track was coming apart. And I don't know. It just The way the track was, it could maybe fit kind of like my driving style. But we had a whole, older tires and the car, you know, wouldn't turn that good. But what was weird, if I'd drop it off the apron kind of coming off four, it'd make that car turn. But it'd mess up the guy behind you

because it throws stuff all over the track. And it's just, things kind of come together. That's when I saw Dick, you know, trickle that time throwing the cigarette out. He was running second. And he kept looking in the rearview mirror. He overdrew that corner. He just got up out of that groove a little bit. You know, all that track where it was getting tore up. It's like you right up out of the track. But, you know, right there at the end of the race, I guess we were kind of had enough of a lead that I started being too careful. Coming off turn four, Mike McLaughlin, I mean, got a run. And I mean, we beat him, I think maybe half a car link. But that was pretty exciting. Yeah. I mean, I'm looking at Buckshot Jones wins. Mike McLaughlin

second, Randy Ljoy, third. It's like all your buddies all right there for a second and third. And what was bad about it, too, I didn't. I thought there was one lap left in the race. I didn't know we were coming to the checker. Yeah. And so when Mike kind of got that run, I drove off in the term one. Well, I think he was pulling up to congratulate me. And I mean, I'm never, yeah, I've never let off.

And, you know, I come down and he ends up spinning out. Oh, geez. So, yeah, I mean, the windshield's dirty. You know, it's like your first win. You're all nervous. Everything's going through your mind. I thought we just had taken the white flag. Yeah.

Wow. I had to have been special. I mean, that was a family on team. Yeah. Your dad, all that you all that you all had invested. Was he there? No. Not there.

You remember talking to him? Did he get to see any of your wins? He wasn't there or no. Yeah. He was there at a lot of races, some of them, you know, with his business. I mean, sometimes. he was working Saturdays and Sundays. Well, where are you headed now?

Probably. I got to stop over in Spartanburg. Did you drive up? Yes, last night. From how long is it drive? How far are you from Charleston? Oh, man, I'm a good ways. You know, Lanier Raceway.

Yes, I do. All right, well, when you get off 85, you turn to the right to go to Lanier, turn to the left, and I'm like eight minutes. So you came up here, you're going to do our podcast? What else? Stopped up last night at Bill Cohns's Museum. That was interesting going through that place.

He has got some really cool stuff, really nice guy. Cool. Where's that at? Man, what exit. Shelby North Carolina, okay. He's in our Lost Speedways episode. It was funny because, you know, when he talked to him here a week ago, he said, man, I'd love you to stop at the museum.

I said, yeah, I'd love to see it. And I said, whenever figured out I'm going, I'll call you. So I was running all day yesterday. I left probably about 5, 15. And it was right about 715. I called him and said, hey, you know, going to the podcast. He said, you know, stop by tomorrow, you know, just whenever I get done. He was, where are you right now?

And I told him, he said, well, heck, you're only 15 minutes away from my place right now. I said, well, send me your address. And so went over there and hung out there, and he showed me a bunch of stuff. Yeah. Like I said, it's cool stuff. Yeah, I've never been into like a NASCAR museum being able to see that. But seeing that just was really neat. That's cool.

Who came with you? Just me. By yourself? Yeah. Where are you going next? I got to stop over in Spartanburg. I got to go check. We still have a piece of property over there.

Yeah. Because we did a lot of developing in Greenville and Spartanburg, but just going to check that piece out and probably see what Ricky's doing. Well, there's one, there's another stop you got before you leave. You got Tony Barclay and Jimmy Jam back there. Don't let him get out of here. I know. I talked to them a little bit while when I first got here.

Okay, good. Okay. But that's the first time I've seen Tony, man, a long time. I bet you. Man, you've got to stop being such a stranger. All right. It's weird how we'll spend all these years racing and not really talk. Like, I mean, I mean, you never really had much of a conversation.

No. That I can remember. Yeah, and I think the only two run-ins me and you had, I believe, was the daytime. Oh, we had another one? In Bristol. What? At Bristol, I believe, I qualified on the, poll, get to the media center, Rick Houston walks up, he's, dude, you're not on the pole.

I'm like, yeah, I am. No, you're not. He's junior is. I mean, no, he's not. He's second or he's third. But the scoring loops or something were messed up. You sat on the pole. I was outside pole. And I think either you or it was me put a donut in our door before the green flag. What the hell? And that's the only time that I remember having. That's so weird. What a D. D. Dale? He said he doesn't know who did what. Yeah. I know. did it. Oh, shit it.

Now, your dad does, man. We were at Richmond in a cup car. He had a run-in with him? To a degree. I had a few, yeah. We didn't touch or nothing. I had a bunch of run-ins with that guy. But, man, I talked to him maybe every once in a while.

It would be like something real quick. And we were sitting there at Richmond, and he was in front of me. We were going to make qualifying runs. And the spotter can see me. He goes, man, he goes, you need to go. He goes, when we got like five minutes. minutes left. I said, I got to wait the day goes. Well, there was plenty of times he could have went. He didn't. Well, I was probably three car links off from him. So, like, look, the next opening,

we're going to tell you fired up, you need to go. So I did. Fire it up, I go. So I already got speed built up. I'm starting to go around your dad, and he's going now. Well, he kind of swerved at me. He was pissed. Well, made the qualifying run come in, was in the garage. He pulls up. and I'd gotten out of the car and he stops. It gives me that right there. I was like, God name, man. He flipped you off. Yeah, so the next race, you know, you were a rookie, so you had to go to the rookie meet.

Well, I was avoiding him. I saw him a couple times. I was like, I'm going to go this way, go that way. Finally, I didn't see him. He'd come walking down in between the haulers and somebody grabbed me by the back of the neck. He was, come here, boy. I was like, hey, hey, it wasn't my fault. It was a spotter's fault.

I said, I didn't mean to cut you off. He just kind of looked at me. He was, don't worry about it. I was like, man, I knew he was pissed. And I was like, man, I'm dreading when I have to see him. Damn. I never got the bird. Oh, I got it.

You got the shoe. You got worse than the bird. He's doing the shoe at you at Japan. I forget who the spotter was, but I said, like, you're the one that's going to go apologize and tell him because it's your fault. You're the one that told me to go. I know. Man.

That's wild. Well, man, it's been good to talk to you. You too. You're catching up. Yes, sir. And I appreciate you coming up here all this way, and there's a lot of folks that are going to be thrilled to hear you on this podcast and catch up with you.

Good deal. We appreciate you, man. Always. And it's good to know you're doing so well and still kicking, even though we don't get to see you as much as we like to. Yep. I'm looking forward to two kids out of Georgia, though, that are going to be coming. Who's that?

Chandler Smith and Jake Garcia. All right. We'll keep an eye on them. Chandler Smith, Jake Garcia, they get to see a little of approval. from Buckshot Jones. You heard it first here. On the Dale Jr. Download. Wow, that sounded professional.

You almost think we'd rehearse that. Yeah, it's actual. It's live. All right. We're doing it live, Mike. Oh, Lord. All right. I'm going to start the stream.

Have you not started it? That sounded like that Bill O'Reilly clip. Exactly. Yeah. We're doing it live. We're doing live. That's what I was trying to mind. That was good.

I knew exactly what you were doing. We're definitely live. Oh, we're live. We're live. Hey, all right. So, this is the Ask Junior part of the show. Thanks for tuning in. I want to ask, I got an Ask Dillner.

Oh. Yeah. The same Asked Dillner. Where's our Kale Yarborough decal, man? How hard is to get decal made for our suit over here? Cale. All right. I'm putting it on the list, bro.

I knew if I did it in front of everybody. That's right. Finally do it. Call my butt out. He can't call you back. He can't talk back. No. It's live.

I love that. What else we want to give to them? So we have a uniform. Mike's learned that too. He'll call me out in front of down. It's like, yep. Somebody brought in a Cal Yarborough uniform and we hung it over there. Yes, it says Cal Yarborough on it, but it's at the distance you can't tell.

And if it's obviously getting caught by a camera, maybe you don't know whose it is. So I was thinking about getting a decal that says, Gail, or just anything that would really help people know who's suit that is. so, and I mentioned it a couple weeks ago, maybe two or three weeks ago. So I figured since everybody's here, you would just make it a point of rid of that. Yes. One, two, three. Now if you see me on the phone, you know why. All right.

So anyways, this is the Ask Junior part of the show. Thanks to Xfinity for supporting this part of the show. They're a proud premier partner of NASCAR. And I've been a customer for over a year. So I have a home, a vacation home, and I bought an Xfinity internet for it. And, you know, so it's good. Good. Does it have any outages?

Because I got a couple of security cameras and I got an app. And I've had a, I sold a vacation home to get this one. So I got rid of one and moved locations somewhere a little closer. But that old house had a different provider. and man, the line would go down every, you know, a couple of weeks. Can't have that. God, I hated that. So, why you're not there, you know, why is the internet out?

Anyways, not having that problem now. So anyways, they do support our show. They're a great partner for NASCAR, but I'm a customer, a paying customer, and it's been really, really solid. And it's, I got about, I got some of devices hooked up to it, and it's still going strong. You know it'd be cool, is if Xfinity could help you. with that rat problem you got? I do have a rat problem, and I don't think that that's...

That's not their business? Their business, yeah. Well, I mean, it's just a, it's not really a rat problem. I mean, it's just an island problem. So there's rats on the island. I'm just catching them. I'm eager to go back, catch some more. Anyways, I guess we should get around to the whole purpose of this segment.

Maybe. That might be a good idea. I was going to remind you we're alive. Yeah, I've sent some... You guys have sent in some questions to Xfinity Racing on Twitter, and they are always really good. We say this all the time. If you listen to the podcast about how this is my favorite part of the show,

I wish that we could have fan interaction throughout the entire show, but this is the only part where there's fan interaction, so to me it's the best part of the show. And let's get started. So let's some questions, Leah. Our first question is from Brian Blackford. Do you like the cutoff race? being at Daytona.

I do. You know, I miss Daytona being July 4th, you know, our sort of July 4th celebration. I will always prefer it to be that weekend. And we used to have an off weekend before that race. And I always went down to Daytona during the off weekend. So we'd go vacation, stay in Daytona, rent a house, whatever. I'd take, you know, as many friends as I could fit in my car, and we'd drive down to Daytona, and we'd, you know, just have fun all weekend, and then the next weekend I'd race, and we'd go home.

So it was such a great time. And the schedule changed to where the off weekend went away. I was pissed off. And then, you know, now the races, you know, the July 4th events, where is it now? it was at Indy, we tried it there. Then we, oh, road to America, which it was great there. Don't get me wrong. I mean, there was a lot of great energy.

They celebrate that holiday pretty well up there. I, you know, I'll always prefer to be on the July 4th weekend. But for what we're trying to accomplish in terms of elimination and drama and anybody can win, and if you want a race, the last race of the regular season, you either want, you know, if you want to have an anybody can win moment and the possibility of a real upset, having the race at Daytona is a no-brainer. So it kind of works for what we're trying to accomplish right now as a sport, but I miss the tradition a little bit of the July 4th weekend down there.

Next question from Nick Wallace. Do you think A.J. Almondinger catches Cendrick for the regular season Xfinity Championship. I don't know. He's 35 behind. Yeah, there's a few races left, so I think you could. Cendrick's kind of going to be tough. because he's good. Their cars are fast.

I think that he probably might not have been focusing so much on that points lead. And with a few races to go, I bet he's going to start taking a little bit more note and care of what's going on there to make sure that he does secure that. But more importantly, I guess, is that A.J's really become a contender to win the championship. You know, I don't know how many of us really thought that he could do that or would do that.

Now it seems like it could happen, like it really could happen. So that'd be pretty incredible for a guy for his career path, you know, to come in. And this is a series where the young guys are there. They try to, you know, names are made here kind of thing. And to have a veteran driver at 39 years old when the championship would be pretty interesting. Next question from Dan Wilkinson, Jr. I watched the race from the infield exit of turn two. I found the NBC channel on the scanner.

Tell everybody about the conversations that go on when you guys are not on air. Shout out to the director. He's on top of it. I love that. Yeah. I mean, we have a lot of fun. You know, it's a, you know, the booth, I don't, you know, the booth has always been interesting to me because there's broadcasters that you really appreciate and admire and everybody's got their favorite guy from the past and maybe you got a few. But I think what makes ours so special is that we all really do hang out away from work.

And so we have a group text that we're in there talking every day, and we know what's going on in each other's lives. Like I know what Burton's up to this week. I know where LaTart's at. I know what Rick's doing. When somebody has like a thing that they're like, man, I got this thing, it's bothering me, or I got something I got a fix or I got a choice to make that's difficult,

we bounce that off of each other. And so, you know, I don't, not that other booths aren't friendly or, or don't have that type of connection, but the guys that I work with at NBC with Steve and Jeff and Rick, I mean, we're pals. So it's, and we go to bat for each other. Like we, you know, if it, when it comes down to it sometimes, we'll be like, well, we're only doing this if we're all able to do it. or we definitely got each other's back. So it's pretty cool. And I was already friends with Steve.

This is, you know, working with Jeff Burton. We knew each other. We were, we knew each other. We were competitors, but we weren't pals. So we've really become really close in this experience. And getting to know Rick's been amazing because I had no clue who Rick was other than just his work in the booth and hearing him on TV, you know, watching the races.

So getting to know what makes him click. and what is important to him and what his hobbies and stuff are. It's pretty cool. He's really freaking good as a carpenter. Literally built. He has this new house. He built it. He built the house.

He built the cabinets for the house. He built anything involving wood. I mean, the man can do it. Yeah. He is so good. And he enjoys it. So we actually had some doors at my house. start sticking with the humidity. I painted my doors and that locked in this,

some moisture, I guess, that was in the wood. And now in temperature change in my house, the dang doors are swelling and jamming and getting stuck. And so, you know, Rick comes over and he brings all his tools and we worked on each door individually and fixed them all. And that's the kind of friend he is. Good guys. So, yeah, our commercial banter is always pretty unfiltered because we're so comfortable around each other. We're pretty honest.

Next question from Robin Morris. We talk about innovations a lot here. What's the best innovation that you've ever done? Well, you know, I don't really, it's hard to know when you cheat up your race car. It's really hard to know whether it worked. now when it doesn't work it's obvious so those are easier to talk about because I made this one time I had this

late mall stock car and I made the the top panel in the duckwork of the front going to the radiator I made it where it would hinge open and so the air would come into the nose and it was enough pressure in that box in front of the radiator the duct work that it would push that top pan open

And so basically I had a thought, I had three rivets on each side, riveting that top panel to the sides of the duckwork. The two front rivets were real, and then the next two rivets were fake. And so that thing would hinge open when you'd go down the straightaway. And so we took it to Myrtle Beach for the first week. I had lightened the car up a lot, so I cut off the hood pen posts and put lighter, material to hold the hood pins because I didn't think that was important. Well, when I went down the front straightaway for qualifying and or went out to practice for the first time, I mean, everybody's there, brand new year. Everybody's got their cars polished up and we hit the track with our car

and all that air coming through the grill and pop that radiator duck open. So now that air is going over the top of the radiator into the air cleaner. and because you weren't able to have a cow in those cars. So the air, you know, trying to force air into that air cleaner, you could run, you know, run more jets, get more fuel, more air, more oxygen, all that. So it should help power, right? Should help the motor run better.

It's a little two-barrele carburetor. So any time you can get more air in there, more fuel, and all that should be better. But all that air coming in there started putting pressure on the hood, and it broke the hoodpin braces. down the front straightaway. So I'm driving the car, and the whole hood, the back of the hood. It broke the hood pin braces. It broke them off the frame, off the front clip.

And so the hood flies up in the air, and the hood's like way up here flopping, just the back of the hood. The front still pinned. And so that was really embarrassing. So we had to go home and beef up the hood pin braces and all that, and they still didn't figure out, you know, they just thought it was just weak stuff. and they didn't really ever find our little duckwork trick. But, you know, I poured illegal fuel into my fuel tank before.

I got busted once at Florence, South Carolina, with a late model race there for having some trick fuel. I burnt a motor up one time, burnt a piston, melted the center of the piston out of the motor, trying to run some trick fuel one time. Really, it's the one, when you try to cheat up your car and it goes wrong, that's the ones that you really remember.

Those are the ones that are always kind of fresh on your mind. You know, one of the things that I think really works well, and it's still something that kind of crops up every few years, that still seems to work, and it's still, it's hard to find, it's hard to detect, and it takes a ton of effort from anybody like NASCAR or an inspection body to do, is the bleeder. Like, so if you can make a tire bleed air,

however you want to do it, however you can figure out how to do it, when you put air in a tire, let's say that you start with 20 pounds. As the air builds from temperature, so the tire gets hotter, the air inside the tire gets more and grows, you could grow 10 pounds or more. And the more air in that tire, the less grip the tire has because the tire contact patch on the ground gets smaller. you blow that tire up and it balloons, the actual amount of rubber on the road is less.

And so there have been times in the past where a series could run bleaters. And, you know, so that was nice. You could set the bleeder to bleed out the air and keep the tire at a certain pressure the entire run. And that, you know, everybody had that advantage because everybody could use them. But when a series doesn't have bleeders, if you can figure out a way to let that tire bleed a little bit of air, man, it's going to be. be a massive advantage, especially on the long run. So when everybody else's tires are really inflated from temperature, yours are still low, and you're going to fly. I mean, fly. And so we've had times when teams were caught bleeding tires or having tires leak. You'll have a red flag,

and all of a sudden a guy's got a flat tire sitting there on the racetrack. That's a guy, he's probably bleeding that tire, and he didn't anticipate having a red flag. So that's one that, you know, NASCAR clamp down, start trying to check for it. They'll dip tires in a barrel of water or a bucket of water and see if they're bleeding, bubbling or whatever. They'll start clamping down, everybody stops doing it. And then about five years later, ten years later, somebody goes, well, I'm going to sneak a little bleeder in there. I'm going to bleed this tire.

They'll take a 5,000th drill bit and drill a hole in the sidewall of the tire. They'll figure out how to trick out the valve stem to where it might bleed some air. there's all kinds of ways to do it so but nascar you know the rumors start flying and NASCAR has to clamp back down and it kind of comes and goes but that's one that's still out there today and kind of floating floating around we got one more question yes we got one more we got one more only because you just said speaking of rumors flying there's a lot of chatter in our YouTube live chat about the rumor of NASCAR potentially racing in the LA Coliseum Do you know anything about that?

I know nothing about that. I promise you, I'd tell you if I did. But I mean, I've heard basically anything, whatever everybody else has heard, that I think what NASCAR is doing right now is going anywhere and everywhere and saying, could we do this? Is this a possibility? First, you have to find out whether the city, the local officials and all that are down. And if they are, then is it really possible, right?

Is it physically possible? Then you have to go and get boots on their. the ground, try to map out a course. How could that happen? So there's a lot of things that have to happen before it actually, you know, the race can happen. Probably some impossible hurdles to cross for that to actually really become a reality. But I think NASCAR is going out there right now and saying, this would be cool. Let's go see if it can happen. Let's go talk to them. And that's probably where they're at right now. All right. Well, always fun doing NASS Jr. Sorry I got on a rant about the, some of my answers are long Mike

I know the one about the bleeders was too long I could sense the I could sense the mood you know what though in the room was changing it still goes by fast it still goes by fast it still goes by fast

it still goes by too fast it's nothing like X5 X5 XFinity X5 knows go faster that's true that's true yeah it's more than just fast though Mike it's reliable and that means

that everybody gets to do more what they love with faster internet we want to thank Xfinity for being a great support of this podcast, a proud premier partner of NASCAR. Anything else, Mike? Well, I would say that if you want more long answers from Dell, then send your questions to it.

At Expedity Racing on Twitter. All right. They'll give you long answers on NASCAR. Well, if you can't dive into the bleeder, if you don't really describe it, what's going on there. So we had to get there. All right, guys,

this last call, episode 354 is in the bank. One important note for this week as we close out this podcast. The show Chase debuts this week on Peacock. All right, what is Chase? So it's basically a documentary-style show about a trip I took to Dawsonville, Georgia to see Chase Elliott. Chase shows me around the pool room.

I talked a lot about his career. I sat down with his parents at their home and asked them a lot of questions. A lot of great information. I learned a ton about Chase. He's super guarded, man. He's really kind of quiet, not a guy that really likes to brag or boast or share. I think he's kind of modest and humble. Doesn't think that, you know, his life's all that cool, but it is.

It is. And, yeah, so we got a little peek in there that was a lot of fun for me, and I think people are really going to enjoy watching that documentary, whether you're a Chase fan or not. You get to learn about one of the greater personalities in our sport and obviously a little bit of Bill Elliott in there as well. Speaking of Peacock, while you're there, be sure to watch Lost Speedways.

Season two is out now. So two full seasons of Lost Speedways right there on Peacock for you guys. Good chatter about the show in recent weeks, especially from the dirt track community about our episode on Pensborough Speedway. Yeah. Yeah. So Dielner and Marcos,

they went to the National Dirt Lake Model Hall of Fame at Florence Speedway in Kentucky and tons of fans, drivers, past drivers, drivers. They were all talking about how much they love that episode. So anyways, Lost Speedway, season two on Peacock TV as well. You can watch the Dale Jr. download this week on NBC Sports Network. We're back to our normal time on Thursday at 6 p.m. That's Thursday 6 p.m. for Buckshot Jones on the Dale Jr. download this week. Door bumper clear. They got a pretty interesting conversation this week. Let's listen in.

What's up, Dale Jr. Download fans. We hope you enjoyed our opening act. Now it's time for the main event. I'm Freddie Craft, and you can stop right now and come listen to our podcast, Door Bumper Clear. That's right, Freddie. T.J. Major's here, and we're back after Michigan to discuss my new job, driver of COVID protocols, Brad Keselowski and Austin Dillon's Crash, Daytona Playoff, Cut Off Expectations, and lots more.

Yo, what's up, Brett Griffin's in the house, and you need to start listening to our show, Door Bumper Clear, right now, this week and every week. Available on all major podcast platforms. Oh, so interesting that they talked about the swap. All right, so TJ made a creature. And the holler meeting? Yeah. They finally come out and discuss it.

Yeah. They had to wait a week to get comfortable. They're too nervous to do that right out of the gate. Yeah. Because I thought we weren't going to talk about it, Mike, because I was in the meeting. Right, I was there. You didn't say that. Well, I was in the meeting, and we all kind of agreed not to discuss.

it, but now they're out there talking about a little door proper clear can't help themselves. Well, listen, they were proud of themselves because they went a whole week without getting called to the NASCAR hauler. So let's give them props for props as do. They've started a new streak. Yeah, the streak is won. Hey, one other thing about glorious racing stories podcast.

This week's episode is embarrassing moments, which includes stories like bull riding gone bad, buddy parrot streaking. there's an image for your head and a trip to Bill France Jr.'s office. So that's on the glorious racing stories this week. All right, guys. Well, hope you guys enjoyed Buckshot on the show.

Thanks for Buckshot for coming through and giving us some of his time telling us what he's been up to. Hope everybody has a great week. We'll see you in Daytona. Hopefully you're going to tune in. It's going to be some awesome racing this weekend. Looking forward to it. Check out Dirty Mo Media on YouTube.

Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Dirty Mode.